Dream Beam

  *** spoilers for episode four of Loki ahead*** ***for my thoughts on episode three see previous post ***

Even though organizers at NYC Pride banned the NYPD from their celebrations , the bully cops showed up at peaceful gatherings to assert their egos and disrupt good times this weekend .

  *** spoilers for 'Lamentis' episode three of Loki ahead ***  ***for my thoughts on the first two, see the previous post ***

You know, when I think about time travel my mind often comes back to the fact that we humans have already built a time machine: the camera. Time travel is one of cinema's great powers. Filmmakers, whether via theater or home screens, assemble and present snippets of time to elicit emotions and evoke thought. It's less a glimpse of reality's past, more a representation of one's captured memory. It's not any less meaningful than actual time travel. As any art tends to do, storytelling through a screen expresses the feelings of its creators' in a more concise and true way than a mere visit in time ever could. Okay. That sounds lofty, but in service of the time travel genre, Marvel Studios is in a position to mine snippets from over a decade of their multi-billion dollar cinematic universe (the MCU ). We saw this used to great effect in Avenger's Endgame and now we're seeing it in their latest Disney+ series, Loki .  But will it prove to be worth the time...

The henchmen of capital, otherwise known as the police, have been at war with the people, typically eyeing those of color and the poor, for a damn long time. But last year during the George Floyd protests, it seemed like this awareness became mainstream. People took to the streets and those who didn't, perhaps because of privilege and a raging pandemic, witnessed countless videos of police brutality on their screens. "Defund the Police" is now an acceptable idea for a lot more people, yet progress is moving slowly. To keep the pressure on within my corner of the internet, I'm beginning a "Cop Watch" segment, where I spotlight recent awfulness the police enact on the people. In the latest: The Arkansas State Police is getting sued by a woman who's car was flipped over by a traffic cop. She was speeding 14 mph over the limit, apparently, and slowed down as the cop car approached. The shoulder was too narrow, so she turned on her emergency lights and wait...

When it comes to ignoring the human rights violations of the US and allies like Israel, a lot of the Democrat leadership are no different than conservative jingoist. We're seeing this now with House Democrats attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar for her tweet calling out the US and Israel, among Hamas and the Taliban, for committing unthinkable atrocities . She's simply calling for equal accountability.

After over a decade of organizing we've got some good news: the Keystone XL Pipeline has officially been cancelled . This pipeline has been a scourge to the environment and a violation of treaties with indigenous communities long enough for its full approval to ping pong between three U.S. presidents, all the while leading to countless oil spills and arrests of water protectors. 

It’s been about a year since I’ve started seriously watching Sailor Moon . When I say “seriously,” I mean watching the Viz dub of the original ’90s anime, in order, sometimes fully engaged, and with some episodes playing in the background as half my attention is elsewhere.