To peri in df

to peri in df

So maybe on a night you just can't sleep you can read my ramblings...

Tuesday 11/8/16

Thinking about what to do, I found a hackathon I though I might join - Sat 11/12 all day to create a better city using arduino. (Remember that one about City of Boston bus routes - you were pissed at the amount of time I spent on it) Figured I'd go downtown for the preliminary meeting this afternoon and lo an behold I found my messenger computer bag in the back hall on a hanger with Noah's suit coats after not seeing it for a year. It was a good omen so I went.

The room was crowded (bad sign) nobody had a computer(bad sign). turns out it was a bunch of French kids from university of Lyon pitching their ideas on how to save the world. They were here to soak up the Boston/US startup culture and maybe work with software developers. I listened to a couple of hare-brained unoriginal ideas from these kids and then talked to one of the people who looked old enough to drive. He answered my immediate concerns not too satisfactorily and told me the kids were actually business school students. Then there was a break.

I went back out into the beautiful day on the harbor and thought I could stay .. or I could go to Zaigamites for dollar oysters.

The oysters were from the James River in Virginia and they were sweet and delicious and so was the beer something like Duck Island Pilsner from Maine. I was still a hungry so I asked for the menu - $20 burgers and $18 potstickers - so inspired, I came home walked Uli and steamed up some $2 potstickers.

Ran into Matt and __ and Noli on the road. Noli ended up attacking Tim and Penny, I knew it was going to happen but Matt and ___ had little anticipation of the the situation.

Stopped in to see Noah and Karen on that job on Biltmore. At least the damn rocks were out of the truck an roughly placed in the yard. They are still huge and making them level is a bitch, but the scary, hard part is finally over. Noah was a little touchy though so I left them to it.

After star trek the screen went back to photos and there was a picture of you sitting at a table at the Lobster place in Maine this summer. You looked so happy and beautiful. It was before we realized a storm was bearing down on us. I stared at the photo until it changed.

I am in delay mode not wanting to watch the election returns yet. Started watching a star trek like series called Dark Matter on netflix.

10p Oh shit Trump is winning.

Wednesday

I have a trump hangover. tired watching Democracy Now but that just made it worse. I think I'll go on radio silence for a few years. Hendrix came over to borrow the car and we talked how we were both trying to spin it with the '2 parties 1 con' line of reasoning but with mixed success. 'A fierce thirst for change' they are saying. The demand for 'change' or 'progress' or 'back to the old days' seems implanted in us somehow and is such a convenient lever to be used by the rich to mainipulate us at will.

My mom returned my call of last week. 'Stocks are doing fine today' she says 'just down about 40 points'. She admits to helping put him in office and can't wait till Colony and those democrats around her take down their signs. She suggested Shaun and Kathy were happy with the results.

She is planning to pack up and come down a couple of days before Thanksgiving, stay at Shauns for a couple of weeks, then with Coll for a week or so then on to Kelly's for Christmas and then to NC.

I was in the middle of making hot sauce and ended up having to pee while on the call and now have a burning sensation at my penis. The hot sauce is pretty good (I added some frozen pears), but it is pretty hot. Had 5 tall jelly jars worth so I did a half assed job of boiling water bath on them.

Leo wants to talk rent so he'll be over soon. I'm thinking on the one hand market rent was ~$1800 when he moved in and probably still is now but on the other hand we want him to stay. I'd be happy settling up $200 at $1550. I'll see what he thinks...oops that is up $300. We met and he is thinking about $1500 and we will talk again.

Uli ran off up the hill toward Robinwood today. It cost him ten minutes in the bathroom. Yesterday a dog + human came by and the human kept calling Uli to go on the walk with them. Ulysses resisted the human.

Noah came over this afternoon and hung out talking and reading votong statistics while we tried out the hot sauce, first on crackers with goat cheese, then with smoked salmon and mozzerella and capers. Hendrix arrived and demonstrated the doctors examination techniques on me.

Thursday

Finally went for a ride in the car, tried Uli in the front seat, he hated it. He was a bit disappointed at home depot as well, walking right into all the cashiers spaces looking for treats to no avail. But he liked Millennium park.

They chant 'he's not my president'. Tough shit. He is. We get what we deserve.

The New Yorker ran a piece last week: THE DEMOCRATS’ FIGHT OVER FINANCE speculating in Clinton's upcoming cabinet appointments. They wrote of the Wall Street elite, those rarefied breed given bonuses by their companies for their stints in government. It's the same club who ran Obama's economic policy: the bailout, weak regulations, Trans pacific partnership, Obamacare(1), drone wars, an explosion of immigrants in privatized prisons(3) and other gifts to wall street, insurance and global corporations.

On the other side it is hard to figure what could unleash the dark underbelly of American culture, the racism, xenophobia and misogyny. Where did the new superhero come from if not from ourselves. Who allowed the unabated increase in wealth and income inequality(2) over the entire course of the Obama presidency, the misplace of trust and power that continued to flow to those elites who could pay Hillary a quarter of a million dollars to talk for an hour and pay her that much in 50 separate appearances. These are the same people who contributed to the Clinton Foundation otherwise known as Bill Clinton Inc, Mr mandatory minimum sentences, 3 strikes you're out, whose neoliberalism fucked over Haiti and countless others. So smug and cynical. Why do we think we are better than Trump supporters? More liberal. More educated. More worldly. Why are we surprised that they would say fuck you?

What's next? New younger democratic leaders? Fucking Chuck Shumer?

We don't know shit about other people. We fantasize that Latinos would love the democrats, assume that minorities believe in our bullshit, feel good about ourselves since we tip the people who clean out houses $20. We hold on to this lofty view of ourselves as Democrats in spite of all evidence to the contrary. We have been conned yet we still think we are superior.

We KNOW they have been conned, fooled by the Koch Brothers. How can they be so stupid and gullible?

So as the saying goes from Noah's silk screen poster that has been in our TV room since Occupy: 'two sides, one con'

So don't feel bad about my mom or Shaun and Cathy or half the people in the country. Democrats have little to be proud of. Our political identity is bullshit anyway, just one small creepy part of our character, a lower state of evolution. Who we are is who we love, what we care about and immerse ourselves in, what we do to make the world better. That's who they are too.

notes

(1)'average individual market medical costs increased substantially between 2013 and 2015, up an estimated 69%'. An EKG that six years ago cost $550 and was covered 100% by insurance today costs $2200. We are expected to be grateful than Blue Cross 'negotiated' with BIDMC to cut that by $1200 and be happy to pay only a $1000, none of it covered by insurance.

(2)http://inequality.org/income-inequality/ In The average income for 90% of Americans was $33,068. For the top 0.1% it was $6,087,113. Since Obama came into office the top 1% have seen their incomes go up 15% while 90% of Americans saw an increase of 0.06%

(3) can't find the citation right now but when Obama came into office there were 50,000 people a year held in immigration detention. Now there are over 300,00 a year held in private prisons.

Friday

It has been a week of beautiful fall days. Leaves cover the street and the driveway. They are light and fluffy a make that unique sound when you walk through them. But tonight it goes below freezing and it can't be long before everyone becomes serious about cleaning away the leaves as they deteriorate from their glory.