D&F 01/08/23
Greetings from the drowned city of Oakland. The atmospheric river keeps’a’flowin’ and all my cycling routes are muddy and festooned with branches. This week sucked. It sucked for a lot of reasons I won’t get into related to work, and other stuff, but hopefully the remainder of January will pick back up. Fortunately, Snorri has no idea what is happening in the realm of people, and he’s chill as usual, which helps.
As I write this, we have no speaker of the house, and I can’t stop laughing about it. The scene on CSPAN reminds me of Jonah Ryan’s attempt to block votes on Veep with alleged sex criminal Gaetz standing in for Ryan. It’s frustrating to think that left of center democrats wouldn’t hold up the nomination to get concessions from conservative democrats if in the same position. The House of Representatives is a mess, gerrymandering ensures utterly bizarre districts can elect embarrassments like Boebert and company.
Links
- Fast bird: good (thanks Drl)
With the political talk above, you might be tempted to think “someone like AOC or Omar can save us!” but I would caution against looking for a hero. The only way forward is through collective action, that seeks to create change through consistent, often thankless work. Until large swaths of people in the US and other rich countries are willing to stand up for the global south, and protect the planet from our greed, we’re kinda fucked. It’s very much within our reach to resolve climate change right now, without any new technological intervention—we really just need to use what we have.
Ok, laugh break! I haven’t seen Kate yet, but Cinnamon in the Wind was a bizarre and funny show. I love this friendly interview style for comedians, since it goes to much cooler places than, “so, who are your influences?” Rehearsal season 2 and The Curse can’t come soon enough.
Dragon… bar?
Closing
It’s still pouring down, with no signs of stopping. This week is a test of whether or not California folks have a good rain coat or umbrella. Next week we should be back to drought conditions as usual, which means I’ll be back on my bike. Hopefully your winter is predictably whatever conditions it usually is, and you can enjoy the season. It still feels like 2020 to me, honestly, and at this rate, I wonder if any year will ever feel real again. Until they do, stay safe, and stay as sane as you can, space cowgirls~