Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1159
Jane is sick, ailments check, Supreme Court shit, colleges shit, shredding so much cardboard, I did an embarrassing thing at work.
What. Is. Up. Jane is sick. She is behind me coughing constantly. I will chalk up last night’s absolutely catastrophic bedtime to this cough. It was rough. But I was so good. She was throwing shit, breaking shit, and I was as Zen as a cucumber. Oh man what a great mixed metaphor. I am going to chant at my cucumber plants now. She is drawing something. We are listening to Adrianne Lenker’s new album, Bright Future, which I reiterate that I love love love which is so weird because I have not liked much Adrianne Lenker or Big Thief before this. But man I love this record.
Ailment check! Thumb: still hurts, going on four months. Foot: Still hurts, going on a month. Tennis elbow: Much improved, actually. I have figured out something that works to help make it better, which is a much more robust arm strap, not just a tennis elbow strap but a strap that covers the whole elbow and a lot of the arm in each direction. It seems to be really helping. Bicep: much improved. Weird stinging dot of pain on my back: the same. Shoulders and neck: crappy but I am getting my magic shots today! Trigger point injection. It is going to rule. Bring on the forty shots of muscle relaxer directly into my fused neck. Friggin rules.
Congratulations to my old friend Danielle Strle and her three compatriots, with whom they have purchased The Onion. This is ridiculously exciting. Did the New York Times only print the two men’s name in their article? Yes, yes they did. A+ reporting, Times. It probably did not occur to you that a woman could be an investor and not just an employee.
Man, I do not want to be a Times basher but it really is hard sometimes.
Top quality, A+ catastrophe going on at the Supreme Court where it is very clear a bunch of wackjobs including a sexual assaulter are going to make it so Trump doesn’t stand trial for anything before the election, because why would the populace want to make a fair and educated decision about the election, when, quelle surprise, the populace making a fair and educated decision about the election was so important to the same five white men when they said Trump had to be on the ballot in Colorado, when the same white guys earlier said that states had an absolute right to decide who was on their presidential ballots and that the federal government couldn’t interfere. Makes perfect sense. The brilliant Elie Mystal has a great, albeit hugely depressing, column about their strategy. Trump can’t win the case because his arguments are patently absurd. He can’t lose because there would be time for Jack Smith to try his case. So they will make up some weird new fake test — and take their time doing it, not issuing the decision till June — and remand it to the lower court, so this whole cycle can happen again, and it will be impossible to do the trial before the election.
(If you haven’t read Elie’s book about the constitution, I highly recommend it. There is no perfect, succinct, and undeniable retort to the Republican’s absurdist, fake-originalist approach out there).
But his court-packing solution really is right. And brilliant. And achievable were it not for Democratic wussery. They had their chance. Fuckin Manchin. And honestly, even Republicans should embrace it, because it wouldn’t lead to Democratic courts, it would lead to fair courts. Speaks volumes Republicans don’t want that.
Also, relatedly, my wife sent me this today and I feel seen:
At least Elie gets paid for his column.
Dude needs to stop using Twitter though.
And then we have this business with campus protests. Boy people are freaking out. I suppose some portion of it is people are freaking out because their kids go to college so they are naturally worried about them. And some people are freaking out because there are incidents of actual violence on behalf of the students — though incidents of actual violence seem to be pretty rare. But then some people are freaking out because some of the chants and signs feel like violence to them, are evidence of violence. And I don’t know, I’m not there, maybe some people are chanting about how much they love Hamas or something. But I’m pretty sure it’s still legal to say things other people don’t like in this country? Right? Right? I mean, I’m not like a free speech absolutist or anything like that, but I sure do find it mysterious how all of the sudden every college president decided that it was perfectly reasonable to call the cops in and sick them on their paying customers. And, as Chris Hayes pointed out, boy every college in America sure spends a lot of effort not calling the cops every time a rape happens on their campus.
I fail to see how deploying snipers or arresting little old lady philosophy professors is a good thing. Students are students. I find it heartening they care about things. I find it heartening there is a body politic in our colleges. I like to think that even were I the most hardcore Zionist I would find it within me to acknowledge that the bulk of these protestors are well-intentioned, and concerned about the well-being and safety of a population that is at risk right this second.
I like to think I could do that.
It took ‘em a while, but at this point the NYT is putting stories about the college “crisis” above the stories about, you know, mass burials or the Israeli’s preparations to invade a city with one million refugees in it.
All that being said, imagine being a college president right now. You are fucked, you are so fucked. You can try and side with the protesters, Elise Stefanik will wheel your ass into congress and berate you on national TV and you will lose your job. Or you can be a hardliner and end up where the Columbia lady is, and no one will like you, because the left will think you betrayed them and the right will have used you for their purposes and will not lift a finger to defend you. Imagine her quitting. Who in their right mind is going to replace Nemat Shafik. Imagine how psyched the right is that no one would take the job of being a College president right now.
College “crisis” is an obvious moral panic and were it not for the disgusting militarized response to the whole situation, it would not be worth a grown-ups time. I am annoyed to even think about it.
Ommmm. Zen as a cucumber. Oh, speaking of which. Sis, I took a better picture of the Serenity Walk. Here it is:
It will be a different color in two weeks. Very exciting.
Oh god that was a lot of politics I am sorry. What could I talk about that would reward my domestic pedistrianism brethren. Oh. I shredded a ton of cardboard yesterday. So much cardboard. I am ready to fill the next two Birdies Beds. Mostly. I have about three trash cans full of shredded cardboard, and that should be enough for the cardboard layer of the hugelkultur method of building the birdies beds. Oh! And my sink and trash cans came for my garden bench inside the greenhouse. Oh man, that place is exploding with green in there.
I think next week or two, it will be time for a holistic chore-house update. A lot has been done that I haven’t really gotten into yet. The solar roof is turned on. The pollinator beds are growing up fast. It is all very exciting.
Oh! This is a fun thing to end on: I made the stupidest, most embarrassing mistake this week at work. It involved not realizing someone was on CC on an email chain. Just gloriously, completely my fault, and then I went and accused someone else of it. I mean, I did accuse them succinctly and professionally, wasn’t rude or personal or anything, but still, I was very firm in insisting it was their doing. And it was mine! And they handled it so well! All class. Just amazing. And I apologized, quickly, completely, unreservedly and without excuse like an adult. And the whole issue went away! Because even though I made a completely stupid, mortifying mistake, everyone the whole time was a good actor and a human and professional and despite my utter mortification, I came away sort of having a bit of faith in humanity.
So that was nice.
Everyone learn to apologize!
I hope you have a lovely weekend. We have a birthday party and a concert to go to, and Jane’s first in-NC babysitter in yonks. We do not have a consistent babysitter down here anymore, since one of them had a kid and one of them, you know, disappeared on the Golden Gate Bridge. God. I still think about Sydney all the time. Such a sad story.
All right, keep the faith and we will talk Monday!
Today’s Media of the Day is a goth playlist, the 26th goth playlist of GMHHAY, 26 on 26. Mostly new stuff, save for Mistle Thrush (hi Todd). I cannot believe there is a new And Also the Trees album. Turns out there was another one like five years ago or so? How did I miss this why did none of my goth compatriots tell me. And Anja from XMal Deutschland has a new solo album and it is pretty solid I like it a lot. Ditto the new Neubauten. They really do just keep on giving what an amazing career. I like to think sometime in the future there will be a society that appreciates these things like we appreciate Van Gogh or Plath, but I suppose who knows.
You have a lovely weekend don’t let the bedbugs bite.
i want you to get a chore coat to wear at chore house 😁