Good morning. Hello. How are you? #357
Various sorts of trauma, anxiety and PTSD, Biden's infrastructure plan, Brown gold, and Delta's weaksauce.
Good morning! Hello! How are you? I am good. Sun is shining. It is lovely. Really makes one’s morning. Yesterday was an absurdly busy day and I know I said that those were going to end by Wednesday, but it looks like today is pretty busy too, so I guess I lied. Gotta take my mother to an appointment this morning, right after Jane’s breakfast. Then a bunch more meetings today. It’s interesting, though. Add one or two meetings to my schedule and I get tired. Add ten meetings to my schedule, I get energetic. I don’t get happy about it, but I get energetic. I actually wrote a kind of interesting passage about it in my journal yesterday (yes, in addition to these GMHHAYs I write in my journal at 750 Words as well almost every day):
Just plowing through lots of stuff. It really does stress me out. I think, actually, it's probably PTSD from the Barbarian days, where I'd just be lead from one meeting to another, completely dazed and spent between them, grasping my 1-litre Diet Coke bottle, then get to the meeting and work myself up, summon all my energy to deliver in the meeting, get through it, having performed decently, then slump back down in exhaustion, like that weird symbiant being navigator in that sci-fi book I just read. It's not that bad these days, but I have this lingering memory from the Barbarian days, so it all seems like it's too much and I am constantly surprised I've gotten through it unscathed, even though I shouldn't be because it's NOT THAT HARD.
One programming note: Was talking to an old friend who reads these in email form rather than Facebook, and she didn’t realize that Substack has comments. So, yes, if you’re reading these in email form, you can go to the website version and comment. You can click on the headline to get there. I’m also supposed to add buttons to these that encourage you to do different things, but I usually can’t be bothered. But hey, here, let’s give it a shot:
There you go. Maybe I’ll add those like a good little self-marketer.
This friend also sent me an article from the Times about the trauma of touch some women feel, even when it’s consensual. This is what drives my belief that men should never hit on women, ever. There’s just too much history, too much societal pressure to make them say yes. I suspect it is something nearly every woman in America has felt. And, yeah, you can make some argument that consent is consent and if they say yes explicitly it’s not your problem, but it is your problem. They will forever associate it with you. Who wants that to be the basis of a “romantic” encounter? Not me. Maybe this is overly ambitious in today’s America but I would prefer it if people actually wanted to be hooking up when they are hooking up. And, to clarify, I’m not talking about reciprocal flirting, lead by the woman. She makes a flirty comment, go ahead and make a slightly less, safe flirty comment back. But let her lead. And don’t ever start anything, and assume you might be misinterpreting any signal that is not explicit. And just don’t start.
So Biden released his infrastructure plan and it looks pretty good, I gotta say. Maddow got very optimistic and said there is a “path towards getting it passed,” which I am… is there? I did read this very fascinating article about how Schumer is quietly working with the parliamentarian to get a rule that says they can use the reconciliation process as many times as they want, which… apparently is a possibility? I swear, these people are bonkers. If that’s the case, then maybe they can push this through reconciliation? Last night I told Emma I didn’t think they could, but actually, I do think this would qualify. It’ll certainly impact the budget. But it seems mostly discretionary, and that seems a challenge. I guess if you pump all the money through agencies that have mandatory funding, but you’re just pumping it up? Emma also tells me that Manchin has said he’d accept something up to $4 trillion, but i don’t have a link on that cuz I’m sick of that guy and I don’t believe him anyway because the Georgia law passed and he does not seem particularly sussed.
AOC said the bill should have been bigger, and, yeah. I mean, even Stephanie Kelton thinks there is an upper limit to MMT. We’re not there yet, but but it can’t go on forever, and Psaki has made implicit that this bill is not the end of it: They haven’t even touched personal taxation, for example. With this bill we’d be around… 7? 8? trillion in new spending in the last year? But I suppose if this bill is nominally paid for by the corporate tax rate, it wouldn’t count as MMT spending, so, sure, yeah, go bigger I guess. I am not complaining. Also Joe Manchin. Pramila Jayapal called the bill “a welcome first step” but said it was “imperative that we act on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to use our governing majorities.” I must live in a different world than Pramila Jayapal because I am not even that old and I vividly remember at least one other time where we barely controlled the Senate and Joe Manchin was a dick. I’m as pissed as anyone that Democrats can garner so many more votes than Republicans nationwide and still barely win, but here we are. If you want a simple definition of a politician, it’s essentially the same as a brand ambassador: keep saying the same shit even in the face of reality, because you are aspirational and inspirational, not paid to tell it like it is. Don’t get me wrong, I like how inspirational AOC is, it is a necessary role. Moving the Overton window on acceptable discussion on the size of federal spending is vital, and there is ample evidence that it works. It seems to be working here. But also, come on. Please don’t expect me to take your Overton widening at face value.
(Also it is profoundly weird to me that the correct capitalization of Overton window only capitalizes one word. Though, then again, Wikipedia does not seem to be able to make up its mind on this.)
There’s a lot to love, though. I mean, look at this:
It also includes $100 billion for rural internet. In some ways, this seems like it might be a waste, might be unfortunately timed. Starlink is going to make broadband available nationwide, and not that lame-ass, fake “US” Broadband of, like 10 mb/s. BUT, who wants to leave their fate in the hands of Elon Musk, and also while the top level overview of the bill doesn’t come out and say it, it does seem to strongly imply they will end the evil Republican laws that exist in 20 states banning municipalities from making ISPs (because, obviously, freedom).
Anyway, I will watch with interest, even though I am dubious until someone gives me a real path to getting this thing passed.
Read this really fascinating article on North Carolina longleaf Pine Needles, and apparently they are “brown gold” and, like, the greatest mulch ever and my lot is just filled with the freakin things, so that is great. People farm them! They sell for, like, $1,200 an acre! Maybe I should become a pine needle farmer. There is a special law in North Carolina making it a felony to steal people’s pine needles. Anyway, this is just great because I am going to be doing some serious Pine Needle mulching in the coming weeks. Also it gave me a few good tips for getting the pine cones out of the needles - rake em up into a pile then load em into the mulcher with a pitchfork. Thank you, urban elite journalists at the Washington Post.
Also there was this great quote in that article where someone said “I don’t do Bojangles,” as a derogatory statement about other types of mulch. Like Bojangles is some cheap-ass biscuit. Which is hilarious because Bojangles is a) a North Carolina native son, and b) really good. So, like, can I get a biscuit from wherever that dude is getting his biscuits from?
Ed Beach and Delta have “reversed course” on staying silent about Georgia’s monstrous new Jim Crow election laws. But, I mean, so far the statement seems pretty hollow. It is just a memo to employees not, like, any realistic action. The least that Delta could do is pretend to stop donations to the Republicans who passed this monstrosity, only to start their donations up again in a month or two like every single corporate asshole company out there who’s ever pretended to stop political donations ever. But, nope, can’t even go that far. Plus, just like a week ago, Beach was saying that the bill was a work in progress and had some bad things in it but also had some good things in it. Like. Who are his advisors? Who was he even listening to about this bill as it worked through the Georgia congress? Does the dude have a television set? Does he watch anything but Fox? And Ed Beach is supposedly a good CEO! Fuck.
OK well, I have more to write today but we’re on a tight schedule, so we’ll leave it at that today. Let’s do a mix. A smooooth mix. This is a fun one. Lotta weirdos. Plus Paula Abdul. Who I guess, actually, is a giant wierdo, isn’t she? I never really watched American Idol or whatever show on which she was a judge, so I only ever caught a few glimpses of late-era Abdul. She is a girl in amber in my mind, forever your girl, as she sings. But from the few impressions I got, I sensed she might be a character these days. Perhaps one of you could fill me in. Anyway, if you’re looking for some smooth, chill, kinda sensual sounds today, this is the mix for you. Enjoy.
All right. Gotta go. Miss you! Drop a line!
Not for any noble reason, just how I am, I have never intentionally flirted with any woman and have definitively not hit on any woman. Of course, I got married when I was 27, so it was a brief window, but that wouldn’t have really made any difference.
I'm fairly certain I once sold an antique postcard from NC featuring an old woman weaving pine needle baskets. Extra long pine NC needles could explain why I found this craft far more frustrating than I had time for when I tried it. (Of course I tried it). Apparently, though you can sell your extra long pine needles on Etsy for those of like mind, if you want to test the market in a small scale way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfWoYF2Kfg8