Parochial Predictions for 2020-2024

Parochial Predictions…

Amy Coney Barrett is and will be a disaster for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and basic human rights etc, etc. Democrats will fight hard and make speeches and angry denunciations and it will all make spectacular TV and, in the end, she will be confirmed on a party line vote thus tilting the Supreme Court to a 6-3 Conservative advantage. We might get lucky every once in a while, and get Roberts and one other for the occasional 5-4 victory, but don’t hold your breath…

But what I really want to say is how I see the bigger picture: all this leads to a true Blue Wave in 2020. Democrats win the Senate, retain the House, and win the Presidency. And with that power, Democrats will do some sensible stuff that no one will remember but then there will also be a push to counteract the Supreme Court balance by adding more Justices. There will be a bill which will make its way thru both houses of Congress, and land on President Biden’s desk…

Then…President Biden, pressured by the GOP and in an appeal for “unity” (for this will be very poorly received on the right) will veto this bill. There will not be enough of a majority in the Senate to override this, so the bill will fail. This will hurt Biden in his bid for re-election, but because he has been likable and a mostly calming voice for the past 4 years, he will win again, though at least one of the two houses will go back to the GOP by the midterm.

Oh, and the Orioles will make it to the World Series by…2023. And the Ravens will have won 2 more Super Bowls….

You heard it here first. Try to look surprised.

I am the Parochialist, and I approve the message.

Friday Thoughts and shades of gray over which we should not destroy ourselves....

Hey…

Let’s stop destroying each other over shades of gray. The Left is so much worse about this than the right. At least the MAGAs have each other, and they don’t seem to fight amongst themselves as much. We need to be the same about our guy. We need to put aside our differences for the next 60 days and vote for Biden. We will be in much better shape dealing with him than dealing with four more years of Trump.

The nicest thing I can muster about Dear Leader is that he just doesn’t care. He pushes crap like “Herd Mentality” which was a telling Freudian slip that only slightly distracts from the sheer insanity of herd immunity which dictates that some people should die (ok, a LOT of people should die) so that these other people can live. I said before, I’ll keep saying it: that is fucked up.

Also…How about rather than making excuses and trying to drag up articles about why you shouldn’t wear a mask (which are written by crackpots on sites that crash my computer) or trying to win the day with your rhetorical brilliance, maybe you should stop being selfish and just do your part? It’s really not all about you.

I don’t know about you…but I’m tired of stupid people making stupid decisions that fuck up my life.

Parochial News

Parochial News

Trump giving tips on preventing forest fires a la, exploding trees raking the forest floor, etc…he reminds me of those old commercials where the people mocked the guy who bought his salsa in New York City.

“New York City???”

In other words, I wouldn’t trust a man who comes from New York City to know anything about forests. People go to school for that shit. Listen to them…

So, we got wildfires, and involuntary hysterectomies given to illegal immigrants (some real American Nazi shit there…and I don’t use the word “Nazi” lightly.). This surely has to violate some law or mandate or constitute a Crime Against Humanity, right? Of course, those who support this shit don’t view illegal immigrants as humans, so I guess they got us there…

40 fucking people were shot in Baltimore last week. That’s got to be some kind of record.

And the South Dakota Attorney General killed a guy while driving drunk….

And in sports….

The Orioles have dug a hole, and the Ravens look as good as ever….

Renting the Libs

So apparently, according to the Angry White House Staffer, who is usually reliable, the Corona numbers are projected to go to 500K by January 1. It could be trimmed by 100K by wearing masks and washing hands but let’s not go crazy here. And anyway, what’s another 100K lives anyway? Herd immunity! Let the sick die so YOU can live! MAGA! MAGA! KAG! NAFTA! NAMBLA! “They’re just inflating the numbers to make Trump look bad!”

And other insanity….

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And speaking of Trump and insanity and since this is The Parochialist, I have to talk about Baltimore, and Jared “Slumlord” Kushner, the accomplished son-in-law of Dear Leader…who talks shit about the very city he rents to...well, technically, he rents out in the county. But even more troubling is the pattern of doing things simply to “trigger” people and “own the Libs.”

Hey…maybe it’s strategy and some silly form of rhetorical genius, distraction or whatever…but is it productive? Is it helping anything get better? Is it doing anything besides making people angry?

While I can’t speak to the quality of his properties, what I can speak to is his disregard for the very place where he owns property and does business.

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If you don’t live here, shut the fuck up. If you used to live here and then you moved away to “start your family” or some other bullshit, then you really need to shut the fuck up because you are definitely not helping anything.

Your privilege is to leave and then shit on those who remain…

It’s not rocket surgery…disinvestment, a government that is anti-public transportation…the cancellation of the Red Line was a mild disappointment for me but it was absolutely devastating to the Black Community, especially in West Baltimore. The Federal Government is supposed to be responsible for everyone, including people in cities that don’t vote for Republicans. But the 60 plus years of disinvestment and the proliferation of “slums” took people from both sides of the aisle to happen. The big difference is that other than to use us for a punching bag, Republicans don’t give a fuck about Baltimore, and it’s obvious.

Baltimore has a weird mix of what some of us call “good block/bad block” and is partly the result of people on the top not helping people on the bottom…and a slew of other crap…

The point is, I know this because I live here and I care. We have some wonderful amenities but I am afraid we are all out of time….

White Fragility: The Parochialist Review.

White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo.

I am trying to represent the ideas in this book in the best way I know how, but I encourage you to seek out this book. DiAngelo writes in a clear and easy to understand way.

Note: for clarity, when I say “us” or “we” I am referring to white people like myself.

All ideas are a synthesis of what’s in the book, which I highly recommend, and page numbers are given where appropriate.

Also note: Black is capitalized because in general (general, very fucking general), Black people have a shared history and culture; white people do not (you would capitalize things like Irish, Italian, French, which would be a specific group within the white) and besides, capitalizing “white” is what honest to God asshole white supremacist groups do.

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White Fragility by Robin Diangelo is about the difficulties we have when addressing white people in issues about race. Chapter by chapter, Diangelo takes her experience in diversity training to make the case that white people do not like talking about race issues precisely because talking about them damages the status quo that white people consciously or not are protecting at all costs.

She doesn’t mince words, and she doesn’t pull back from the premise that basically we live in a society that is comfortable for white people and uninviting to non-white people.

There is overwhelming white control of our major institutions: To that end, she lays out the following facts (which I have truncated just for convenience):

Ten richest Americans =100 percent white.

US Congress, US governors, US President and Vice President = 90, 96 and 100 percent white, respectively.

People who decide what tv shows we watch, books we read, news is covered, or music is produced = 93, 90, 85 and 95 percent white, respectively.

(There’s a lot more, I just did the top few. This is all on page 31.)

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“For many white people, the mere title of this book will cause resistance because I am breaking a cardinal rule of individualism—I am generalizing.” (P. 11)

Race is a social construct. There are no commonalities among Black people or white people that come about because of genetics or biology. It is entirely a product of societal conditioning.

This kind of blew my mind to realize it.

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“Whiteness” is belonging to a world that already accommodates you. There is no need to consciously assimilate. You already belong. Whiteness means freedom from having to think about how racism affects us. We can go wherever we want: race is not a factor. Example: going to a part of the country that is mostly white is something we don’t even think about.

I know the counterpoint: that there are parts of the city a white person can go to. Sure. Those are still isolated islands within an urban area. But there are no Black Majority states. (The closest you get is Mississippi at 37%. I looked it up. Number 2 is Lousiana.)

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Whiteness is assumed unless otherwise noted. When you tell a story about someone who is Black, do you note that in the story? What about when the person is white?

White Solidarity. Why speaking up about racism or speaking out about racist jokes or comments is shut down by other white people, thereby maintaining the status quo (white supremacy and control).

Personally…I see this every day. I am an introvert, and I don’t like spending a lot of time around people. I can’t say that I speak up about this much so I’m as guilty of this as anyone.

“Claiming that the past was socially better that the present is also a hallmark of white supremacy.” P 59.

A la peanut butter sandwiches. “Make America Great Again.” It’s the “again” part that makes it racist. It wasn’t so great for Black people, women, LBGTQ individuals, etc.…etc...

Other things from the book:

We are seen as “racially innocent.” We don’t have to take any risks to speak out about issues of race.

White people react negatively when you try to talk about racial experience as a white person. They will speak and try to discredit instead of listening and trying to learn.

“We are taught that we lose nothing of value through racial segregation.” –p. 68

We are conditioned to seek out the “better” (white) schools and tend to stick with our own kind…we don’t maintain or seek out friendships with people different from us. Remember, this is all very general.

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We believe racism is bad and racists are bad (they are! They really are!) and we think that we are good (Maybe!) so we cannot handle being called racist, even when the shoe fits. That assassinates our character. So, we focus more on defending ourselves than understanding how our attitude, opinion, action or spoken words may be seen as racist. We close our minds because in our heads, we are good people and can’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. Thus, the status quo (White supremacy and white control) is maintained.

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Racism is not a series of individual racist acts, but a system that is present in society, baked in to its fabric. The person who let’s something slip or looks around before making a racist joke may not be quite Nazi or Klan level, but they are also not that much different from the rest of us (remember, by “us” I mean white people).

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If I believe I am not racist, then I am not obligated to change my behavior. When you are unwilling to question your own racism, you support the status quo.

Having so-called “good” non-racist qualities that insulate you from charges of racism actually help to perpetuate white supremacy…

Racism is often unconscious. You are unaware of your bias, prejudice, and underlying feelings of racial superiority.

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Rather than ask: “AM I a racist?” how about asking “how am I helping to interrupt racism in this context? How do I know that I should?”

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Quotes from Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wrote the terrific We Were Eight Years in Power, a vital book for understanding the plight of Black Americans in the role of both building and then being subjugated by this country.

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Dissection of the movie The Blind Side Re: White Saviors of a Black man and many other flaws that are also listed in the book.

I remember hearing that Michael Oher was unhappy with being portrayed that way. I was always shocked that Bullock won an Oscar in such a mediocre movie. He does have a Super Bowl ring with the Ravens…

“The film is fundamentally and insidiously anti-Black.” (p. 98)

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This book throws cold water on white people. And to be honest, we really need that. Some people will fail to accept the premise that the US is still basically a white country, having been founded and forged on the backs of slaves and indigenous people.

No…no one wants to hear that. But it would be nice if they did…

Parochial Corona thoughts in no particular order

Parochial Corona thoughts in no particular order

September 3, 2020

The high price of Herd Immunity.

I had someone in my house fixing my AC early in the pandemic. He seemed all right but he didn’t wear a mask (at that point, neither did I, not in my house, not when someone was coming over for maintenance. This was before I realized that the value in masks was in protecting other people from you, not so much vice versa. It’s all been a learning process.) Sometime during the settling up, he commented on my baseball paraphernalia, posters, etc.…

“Too bad we can’t play.”

Yeah…. South Korea is having games.

“Yeah, why can’t we?”

(Lots of reasons. For one, they took this seriously and masked up and contained the breakout, but I digress.)

“People are so stupid, man.” And then he says the word that made me cringe. “Herd immunity! It’s so simple!”

I smacked myself in the forehead of my mind. He said it. The word that people who want a quick end to a long problem like to use.

Herd Immunity…

Ok. So, I’m not a scientist. But here are some facts I can glean from 20 minutes of internet research…

(Or I could just use one of my old writing tricks…)

DO 20 MINUTES OF RESEARCH ABOUT HERD IMMUNITY.

And we’re back…

Herd Immunity is not a solution because letting x number of people die while the rest of us develop an immunity is nuts.

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Lots of disingenuous claptrap from people who are anti-mask and like to point out supposed “hypocrisy” of people like Dr. Fauci and Joe Biden and now Nancy Pelosi and how there’s some picture somewhere of this time when they weren’t wearing a mask so why should we listen to them and blah, blah, blah.

Re: Dr. Fauci. He was at a Nats game, with friends? Family? And he lowered his mask. Big fucking deal.

Joe Biden is a mask wearer; he did pull it down to yell at someone last week. But I do that too.

I got a haircut from a friend who owns a salon. It was early in the pandemic, I didn’t know the protocol, I didn’t wear my mask because I thought I wasn’t supposed to while getting a haircut. It is a boring story. Which brings me to another boring story:

Nancy Pelosi gets a blowout.

I don’t even know what that is. Are you mad because she got a blowout or are you made because she wasn’t wearing a mask? I’m wondering about the Russian Bounties on American soldiers that we stopped talking about, I’m wondering about Russians tampering with our election, I’m wondering when the Coronavirus will be over, and I’m wondering why the fuck anyone cares about Nancy Pelosi’s blowout.

And that is all the time we have….

What I say to people who say "If you don't want trouble, don't break the law!"

I’ve tried to write about this but there are certain things I cannot speak to. I cannot speak to another person’s experience. I can only point out how mine is different, how mine reflects a whole different background and range of experience.

If I think back to any part of my life and say “that was the worst day of my life,” I’m sure it pales next to someone else, someone different than me of another race or a different gender or gender identity.

But I’m offering up my thoughts. My narrow, parochial thoughts about police based on my own experience.

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Shockingly, I have never been arrested, never done anything blatantly illegal.

I’ve lived a dull life.

But from time to time I’ve still dealt with cops.

My privilege is that I have always gotten off with a warning. I have never had handcuffs put on me. I was never looked at askance and asked invasive questions. I’ve never had my car searched.

My privilege is that I’ve always been able to walk away. I’ve never had a police officer’s gun turned on me.

Oh, I know what someone might say: you didn’t run, you were cordial, you did what you were supposed to do and that’s why the cops didn’t get rough with you.

Well, maybe. I’m not saying that it’s always a matter of race (again, I’m just speaking narrowly to my experience). But I have always gotten the benefit of the doubt.

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Benefit of the doubt is when someone looks at you and does not automatically assume that you are up to something bad. There is no need to find fault with you. You can go about your business…

These are the encounters that people like me have with the police. That is my privilege. I did not work to get this privilege, it’s just automatic. And that is part of the problem. Because while it works for me, it does not work for everyone.

It is a benefit that white people get all the time and don’t realize it. Instead, we bitch about being pulled over in the first place. We tell the story later and our white friends sympathize. It works out great…If you’re white. Other people…not so much.

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The point is: you do not have to be a bad person to attract the attention of the police. When people say “well, if you don’t want trouble, don’t break the law!” they really need to look at themselves and be honest about it.

I’ve probably been pulled over about fifteen times in my life. A great many of those times were in one of my old and crappy cars, which usually had some sort of noticeable mechanical issue. I’ve been stopped and frisked while putting up a flyer for one of my shows. I’ve been pulled over after leading a cop on a chase when I didn’t even realize I was being chased by a cop and I didn’t even realize I had been riding somewhere I wasn’t supposed to.

None of these things were really “bad” things, they were just things that happened.

I might not have been breaking the law, or known that I was breaking the law. But I got pulled over nonetheless.

It’s what happened after that that is the difference between my experience and the experience of Black People in America today.

Parochial Political Stew, Monday August 17th

Parochial Political Stew….

Just some shit I was thinking about. Take it however you want.

In the coming election, I prefer Joe Biden.

When I say I prefer Joe Biden, it’s not that I think he’s perfect. I actually like him because he’s not perfect, nor does he present himself to be. He fucks up a lot. He apologizes a lot. He steps in shit and goes, “oh, malarkey.”

I prefer all his goofball shit to the blowhard who can’t take criticism while trying to destroy the Post Office.

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Remember when we didn’t spend hours and days thinking about Coronavirus or if it was safe to vote in person or wondering if that medication we were getting through the mail was going to show up?

Good times.

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People rip on Biden for choosing Harris because (among other irrelevant arguments) she tore him up during the Democratic debates and how could a man let that happen and that would never happen to Trump because Trump is a man and he doesn’t let anyone disrespect him…blah blah MAGA KAG NAFTA SNFU….

In the issue about school busing in the 70’s which Biden had apparently opposed but in truth didn’t really affect him, Kamala Harris actually was affected by it and had her best moment of the whole campaign taking him down (but not out). And yet later on, he chose her. He liked what he saw. He liked what she could do for the country as his VP. Hell, he served in the shadow of Obama for 8 years. It’s called keeping your ego in check.

He overcame the humiliation. Because he is an adult. And that’s what adults do.

After almost 4 years I’m starting to realize the value of career politicians. It’s not a huge value, but it’s important. And in many ways, Biden’s value as a calming force as a competent if unremarkable politician is what many of us need right now.

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Kamala (COMMA-Lah.)

To review…

So far we’ve heard”

She’s not Black! (Which I guess is news to her.)

She’s not qualified because she’s not an American! (Because Oakland is apparently not in the United States. I don’t remember needing a passport when I went there but maybe that’s changed since 2013.)

She’s too liberal! (also, probably news to her.)

She’s too ambitious/opportunistic/pick your word. (Because voters are asking that of every candidate, right?).

Her support of an aggressive police force that targets Black and other minorities is troubling. (Yes, it is. I have no argument there. But I don’t think the people who support Trump would consider this disqualifying, so they focus on the other more racist and misogynistic shit).

But the VP is never really the deal breaker.

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I don’t expect to change minds. I just want to put things out there. I’m keeping my eye on the news without completely immersing myself in it. I don’t watch TV news at all. Not CNN, not FoxNews, not NBC. I sometimes wind up catching 5 minutes of the local news after Svengoolie on Saturdays but that might be it. I used to watch Meet The Press on NBC but my interest (and the quality) dropped off considerably since Tim Russert died in 2008.

I read the paper. The Baltimore Sun gets delivered to my house every day. I make a point of getting through it and then…I put it in the recycle bin. Just a once over of the news. That’s it. (Ok, maybe I go online and look at some stuff, or I read an article served up on Google news, but it’s not an all-day adventure.)

I appreciate the quiet. If I get pissed off, I have fodder for the blog. But it’s not all-consuming. That’s why I do it.

I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than to eliminate some noise in your life. And to do other things…

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Assuming bad intent with everybody may work for some people but it’s just so damn exhausting. Maybe if you’re in prison or something.

The Parochial Case Against Donald Trump's Parochialism.

I did the Parochial case for Joe Biden, so in the interest of fairness, let me also do the Parochial case against Donald Trump's Parochialism.

There are many things that factor into this: the many baffling soundbites; the demonization of the “other.” His unfortunate fixation with the operation of dishwashers and water pressure on the shower.

“Dishwashers, you didn’t have any water so the people that do the dishes, you press it and it goes again and you do it again and again…so you might as well give them the water because you will end up using less water.”—July 16, 2020

Ok…you give water so you have less water. But now they have more water? Oh, and BTW, Trump doesn’t make dishwashers and WTF are you talking about?

Then there is the lack of tact, courtesy and knowledge, and his pride in that lack of knowledge. Like when Trump claims teachers are teaching kids to hate America. That we used to teach 1492 and now it’s 1619 and “I don’t know what the hell that is.” (slavery. 1^st slaves brought to North America [literally 60 seconds of Googling]).”.

--this part synthesized from comments he made on or about July 19 ^th, 2020. Commentary is mine.

It’s that pride in the lack of knowledge where I pick this up…this is the one honest to God thing that I cannot stand about Trump because it strikes at the heart of me as thinking person who enjoys reading and the accumulation of knowledge. Because he is willfully ignorant. Meaning he chooses to be this way.

When you don’t know something and can’t be bothered to look it up. When you can’t be bothered and you’re proud not to know.

Oh, that really fucking burns me.

We live in the greatest age in human history in the way that we are literally at arm’s length from the answer to virtually any question at any time. Through a smart phone, you an access any piece of information, research any fact, clarify any misconception, settle any argument stemming from lack of personal knowledge (who played the lead role in some tv show from the 70’s, for example.) You can access virtually anything at any time. In my opinion, Google is the 2^nd most amazing thing ever invented, behind Bluetooth (which is crazy! I can play music from my phone with no wires???).

But Trump, who is a notorious Twitter user (hey, aren’t we all?) doesn’t care to use the same set of skills he uses to get online and spout off his bullshit to look things up. He prefers to listen to people who praise him, and to simply assume that he knows everything he needs to know.

(You never hear Trump recall a childhood or teenage memory where he says something like “man, I was so stupid back then” or “man, what a jerk I was.” Why is that?)

Nope. He knows what he knows, and even that’s questionable.

In a perfect world where you’re not struggling for survival and you have room to self-actualize, being human is a wonderful journey where a whole big world and an infinite universe is out there. It is impossible to know everything there is to know. Science gives us a guide, and provides a way to find answers, but we will always be learning. Like with outer space, for example. We have been sending probes to explore the solar system, Mars, Jupiter, the former planet Pluto…we will never chart it all. The ability to learn and grow and gain wisdom is one of the pleasures of getting older. Reading books, researching, going to museums, watching documentaries, passing along information, learning from others…it’s all part of the joy of life.

But Trump…cannot…be…bothered.

I would feel sad for him if he wasn’t such a miserable person.

Parochial thoughts on the 10 Day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

… in which 250 thousand people are expected to converge on a small South Dakota town…whose residents, by the way, were against this taking place this year https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/10/us/sturgis-motorcycle-rally-residents-decision/index.html

While I’d love to reside in a self-constructed bubble of Nihilism and meaningless existence, I still have to come out into the world and deal with the reality of its opposite.

Shit matters. Leadership matters.

To a great extent, I get it. I get that the boredom, the cabin fever, and the isolation is real and very crippling (ask anyone in solitary confinement). But this is an opportunity to get out in the fresh air and enjoy the company of other people.

But…

This is where leadership should kick in. Having someone above you setting an example, setting guidelines and enforcing the rules is very important. It matters.

Now…The Governor of South Dakota is a rabid Trump supporter who not only doesn’t advocate wearing masks but actually opposes them. So, 250 thousand people are free to come from out of state and infect people back in their home states.

• What if someone in leadership had said “sorry folks, come back next year”? (I get the feeling people would have shown up anyway.)
• What about enforcing a mask policy? (Enforcement only seems to go so far when the people outnumber the violators.)
• What about (at the very least) coming out to the rally in a mask and setting an example? (I know, I know. What am I, crazy?)

The genie is out the bottle. It’s happening. I think I know some people who are there.

I don’t blame the people for doing what people do. Failure of leadership on all levels has left people angry and defiant and if I’ve learned anything it’s that nobody learns anything until it happens to them. And even then, it’s not foolproof.

It’s why I’m not going anywhere but work or outdoor facilities within driving distance until at least 2021.

I will continue to be Parochial.

It is what it is...(a short but spirited defense )

It is What it is.

While dumb heartless pricks like “president” Donald J Trump use the phrase “it is what it is” to absolve himself of any responsibility for allowing the unfettered spread of Coronavirus to make people sick and cause 155 thousand American deaths, allow me to address a less angry and contentious side of all this.

Let me offer my spirited defense of… “It is what it is.”

I started a new job about ten years ago and honest to God, I had never heard this expression before then. And then suddenly, there it was: everywhere.

“It is what it is.”

Everyone said it. Everyone employed this expression when a day turned dark and horrible through no one’s fault.

I work outside with heavy equipment where there are probably about 200 people working at any given time. Rain or shine, snow or blazing sun, in all manner of things. Nothing stops us, with the exception of lightning or the occasional hurricane or bad storm. I work with real people who come from all kinds of backgrounds and prejudices and assumptions and wit and humor and idiosyncrasies that you may or may not get used to over the years. The people come and go, and sometimes people drop off and you forget about them.

But there are 2 constants:

1. The weather is the weather.

2. The job is the job.

You are working outside, doing the job, which will never change, in weather, which you can’t control. There is no point complaining about it because….

It Is What It Is!

It’s actually a beautiful expression when used correctly, and in context. It is working class unconscious Zen Buddhism, Stoicism, and Serenity Prayer, all wrapped up in one. The bottom line is that it advocates accepting your lot in life if that is what you have to do to survive. It is saying, “bitching won’t help me out of this.” Because sometimes that is the case. It is a lesson we all have to learn, just as surely as learning it’s opposite. Knowing what to do when is part of the game.

But you know…it is what it is….

A Parochial Case for Joe Biden, our next President.

A Parochial Case for Joe Biden, our next President.

The Parochialist is not in the business of telling you what to think, how to act, or what to do (other than wearing a mask to help stop the spread of Coronavirus). The Parochialist is all about telling you my opinions, how I think, how I act, and what I do. All I ever hope is that by the choices I make, I can influence others to do the same. That’s it. That is the sole purpose of this blog. I have the right to say what I say in my narrow perspective of the blog that was at one time my tool to bring down the Baltimore City Paper, which in retrospect, was an ill-conceived and nihilistic marketing ploy…

But it is within the scope of my mission as the Parochialist to offer up what I call The Parochial Case for Joe Biden…

First and foremost : D***** TR*** is a fucking disaster. If you do not accept this, then it is likely you will not be a fan of what I have to say. (I can offer up many examples on my JOMPT blog. https://jompt.blogspot.com/ )

But even if you argue with this point of view, I can still find some common ground with you. But read on…

Second and second-most: Joe Biden was not my first choice, nor my second, nor my third, not even my fourth. I Liked Yang, I liked Warren, I liked Harris, I was all in for Bernie (until he started winning those early states and I got buyer’s remorse). And then there was South Carolina, where old Stumblin’ Joe got his second wind…

Third: Third parties.

Guys: I was once like you. I really wanted to vote, but I didn’t want the responsibility of my choice mattering. I proudly cast my 2000 vote for Ralph Nader, because I hated both Bush and Gore and I lived in deep blue Maryland and I wanted to make a point. But…holy crap. All it took was some Nader votes in Florida and the relative unpopularity of Al Gore to make Bush the president who started the war in Iraq. (and to think, years later, we wax nostalgic over this guy because even he was better than the guy we got now.) Listen: if we eliminate the Electoral College, maybe we can talk. Until that happens, no. Just no.

Fourth: You are never, ever, ever, ever, ever going to find a candidate who completely gets you and gives you everything you could ever want. Just like you will never, ever, ever, ever, ever get anything under the current administration, who will work like hell in the next 4 years to dismantle everything you hold dear, like healthcare and personal freedom and Tik Tok and whatever...

Fifth: Judges, Federal and Supreme Court. Think Elections don’t matter? Think who the president is doesn’t matter? Ok. Do you freak out anytime RBG goes to the hospital? Do you ever notice that Clarence Thomas is almost always on the shitty side of every argument? These people are appointed by presidents. It fucking matters.

Sixth.

Ok…getting back to Biden…

There is nothing wrong with Biden’s mind. That’s just some bullshit certain disreputable media has been trying to use against him.

But it does bring me to an observation.

My background is in Communications, written and spoken.

T**** is what would be called a “hot” candidate. His messages are simple (not his speeches, which are incoherent): Build the Wall. Suburban Lifestyle Dream. Protesters are Anarchists who hate America. And other bullshit.

Biden is “cool.” You fill in a lot about him and you see what you want when you look at him. What he says and does don’t matter half as much as who he is.

In fact, both candidates have this in common. There is no getting through to a hardcore T**** fan, but there is also no getting through to a Biden supporter, either. While T**** could at one point correctly assume that shooting someone on 5^th Avenue won’t cost him any votes, he was basically giving an exaggerated version of his view. Conversely, Biden could drive a bus full of schoolchildren off a cliff and he’d just be crazy Uncle Joe. People will vote for him because they are tired of T****. Actions don’t matter. And that will work to Biden’s advantage.

What people say about Biden doesn’t matter. No one who is on his side will believe anything, but the narrative spun by the campaign.

And for once, I’m ok with that.

And once in office, Biden will continue to be roundly criticized by Fox news and your Trump loving relatives. But the rest of us will go back to tuning out and just being happy we survived……

And I will still be The Parochialist….

The Chaos in “Democrat-led” Cities.

The Chaos in “Democrat-led” Cities.

First thing I have to say is: fuck this Trump step-up of law enforcement/aka quick slide to Fascism. We are fine here. Nothing but the usual. Save our tax dollars for, oh I don't know, saving people's jobs during the Trump Virus shutdown. Ok.

The breakdown of mayoral political parties is 35 Democrats , 13 Republicans , and 2 Independents (both elected with state Democratic support). From Wikipedia.

Anytime there is a riot, shooting, civil disturbance, something fucked up, there are always those yahoos who are quick to point out “DEMOCRAT CITIES!!! THESE ARE HAPPENING IN CITIES CONTROLLED BY THE DEMOCRAT PARTY!!!”

Ok. First of all, it is not the “Democrat Party.” It is the “Democratic Party.” A member of that party is called a “Democrat.” When people say “Democrat Party” they are deliberately getting the name wrong to piss off Democrats, who as we’ve just learned, are members of the Democratic Party.

I know it seems like a petty thing to take issue with, but that is the whole point of the slur. It is meant to make Democrats seem petty. That was started by Bush 43 to throw shade at the Democrats. (I know he’s experiencing a rehabilitation of sorts, thanks to the god awfulness of the guy in charge right now, the “president” of the 38 percent…but Bush was a divider as well during his 8 years. He just wasn’t as obvious or disgusting about it.) Deliberately getting someone’s name wrong has always been a subtle way to take a jab at someone, and you know what? It’s really fucking immature.

Second: Civil unrest in the name of social change? Smart people tend to live in cities. People move from their Podunk towns because they can’t stand the smallness and the small-mindedness of the small town, so we move to big cities. It is these types of people that tend to be more liberal, more Democratic, and more inclined to speak out about injustices in the world. (calm down…this is a generalization. Yes, Conservative Republicans also live in cities. But in general, cities tend toward being Democratic for the reasons I listed above.) These Democrats tend to vote for Democrats, so much so that Republicans never mount a serious challenge. In my own city, Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to 1.

Third: Systemic racism ain’t called that for nothing. It is IN THE SYSTEM. Meaning, it has been around for years. It is insidious, it is baked into the fabric of cities in the form or redlining and disinvestment in poor communities, who unfortunately (and not at all coincidentally) tend to be Black.

Fourth: …Republicans and Republican supporters have the easy job when it comes to cities: they can criticize from afar and from outside.

In the 50 largest cities in the US, there are only 13 Republican Mayors, compared to let’s call it 37 Democrats... In sheer numbers, not even looking at policy of the individuals occupying the offices, there are three times as many Democratic Mayors as Republicans.

(I’ll be honest. Other than maybe San Diego, there are no Republican led cities on this list that I would ever want to live in.)

It STANDS TO REASON that when the breakdown is like that, there is a statistical probability that in a Nationwide wave of protests the Democratic run cities will experience more of the violence that is often on the fringes of otherwise peaceful protests… (hey, Baltimore’s protests have been a model of peace and civility, with a few notable exceptions…now if only we could extend that peace to the rest of the city…)

Speaking of which.

Fifth: The police are out of control, no matter what the stripe of politician running that city is. You mean to tell me that the “Democrat” mayors with the out of control cops are responsible for the behavior of those cops…so that means you are decrying Police brutality too? Or are you part of that whole “sit down shut up don’t get into trouble and there won’t be any hassle” crowd? Either way, the Police that you defend on your Facebook feeds are operating as equal opportunity pricks in cities both Republican and Democrat.

Ok, I think that’s it. I am the Parochialist.

On Work

The prevailing view about work in this society is pretty basic: you don’t work, you don’t eat. If you are able-bodied and capable, you are expected to have some sort of job, be productive, make a living, keep the world running….and if not, you are a lazy, good for nothing free-loading miscreant.

I’ve certainly felt this way at one or more points in my life. I don’t feel this way now. But I still hate working with lazy people. I still would rather do a job myself than count on someone who isn’t giving the job their full attention. But worrying whether or not someone has a job or is working hard the entire time?

I couldn’t care less.

When I think about my life and how I’ve spent it so far,( I’m 45) it breaks down into a series of relationships, places I’ve lived, people I’ve met, things I’ve done, schools I’ve attended, and whatever job I was doing at the time…when I remember something, it is usually connected to one of these factors. (conversely, as I’ve lived in the same house for 11 years, been at the same job for 10 and been with the same partner for 15 years, it becomes harder to use this method to remember things). But how many of these things define me? How many of them define you?

Let me put it this way: do you love your job? Or is it something that you just do because it’s easier than doing nothing? (then again, what could be easier than doing nothing?) Or do you fall in the dreaded category of actually hating your job?

“If you hate your job, quit!”

(Oh lord, how I hate when people say this. It’s usually some lucky person who has no memory of what it was like to do something you don’t like just to pay the bills.)

As if that were the only factor. As if nothing else mattered other than my happiness on the job. As if getting another job that may turn out to be just as bad or worse than the one you presently have isn’t a crushing heartbreak of a journey. As if getting another job wouldn’t come with its own set of problems. As if you weren’t simply blowing off steam when you said you hated your job and maybe just needed a few minutes to cool off…

But love…love, love your job…?

I guess I started thinking of this recently after watching the magnificent documentary film about soundtrack composers, called “Score.” At the end, in the wrap-up, composer Hans Zimmer (wearing his velvet jacket and sitting on a velvet chair looking like the happiest man on earth) says, with no irony or sarcasm “I love, love, love what I do.” These words inspire me as much as they depress me.

Can you say the same thing? Can anyone?

Is it the lack of effort? Lack of imagination? Lack of passion? Lack of funding? Lack of motivation? Lack of opportunity? Or a combination of all of these things, and more?

I don’t bemoan where I am in life. The bigger problem is why is it like this for anyone… I don’t want to suffer and go back to where I was 20 years ago, unable to do basic shit like buy carryout food or drink in bars or even worse, having to donate blood plasma to make rent….but I also don’t want to get rich and leave everyone behind and say “Fuck you. I made it, why can’t you?”

But the system is: get an education, get a job, work until you die. It’s a waste of life except for the very few who love what they do. We don’t all love what we do. Some of us just “do” what we have to.

It just shouldn’t be this way, period.

Death Penalty Blues

The Federal Govt. threw up quite a stinkbomb the other day, carrying out the first Federal execution in 17 years because the guy who they executed was a White Supremacist who killed in the name of White Supremacy. Putting people who oppose the Death Penalty (a-hem) in the awkward position of having to take the side of a fucking racist. The guy was white, so there are those on the side of killing people as punishment who say “see, the death penalty isn’t racist!” (even though it’s employed far more often against Black Americans, but like everything else, who cares about facts when I have this one measly example to claim that those overwhelming facts don’t matter.) It’s quite diabolical.

I am against the Death Penalty, just not in an impassioned “fight to the death with those that support it” kind of way. But to be sure, it’s yet another weapon that the Man uses against Black Americans and just for that reason, it is wrong enough.

Columbus was the line we shouldn't have crossed? Really?

Baltimore.

Hey…I do love it here, but somehow the Governor declaring that we need to “Regain control of our streets” because people threw Columbus into the water is the most asinine shit ever. That’s the line? That’s the line we shouldn’t have crossed? Not murder, not drugs, not poverty, systemic racism, failing schools, corruption in the police department (though to be fair, and to their credit, they haven’t been National news lately). No. But Christopher Columbus…how much money did we spend fishing him out of the water?

Shaking. My. Head.

A Parochial Take on Mask Wearing (take this shit seriously)

COVID-19

I don’t know why Americans are so hell-bent on destroying themselves. We’re not asking you to jump into a fireball or go fight in a war somewhere (unless you’re a fireman or a soldier). Comparatively speaking, staying inside or wearing a mask when you go out is pretty small potatoes. It’s just wearing a mask—as a courtesy to others, as a way to stop the spread. You can cry “fake news” all you want, but the consensus has become that if more of us were wearing masks (and had been doing it since the beginning) we could have stopped this spread. (South Korea, and New Zealand have stopped Covid-19 and if you can’t be bothered to research things then I can’t be bothered either, but I know there are more.). But we don’t. The “President” doesn’t want to lead so he leaves it to the Governors. The Governors don’t want to lead so they leave it to the local authorities. And more people get sick. And more people are going to die. People hate when I say we are going to lose 300 thousand Americans (we’re at 120 thousand now). I want to be wrong. I hope I’m wrong.

“But the economy,” or the assholes that cry “herd immunity” (this article is a few months old, but it gets the point across about why herd immunity is not the answer for this https://www.sciencealert.com/why-herd-immunity-will-not-save-us-from-the-covid-19-pandemic ) or “that mask won’t protect you.”

Yadda, yadda, yadda. Don’t believe me.

I’m just wearing my mask and trying to get through this whole thing alive without unknowingly transmitting the disease to anyone else. I wish other people felt the same.

I am the Parochialist.

Imagine...my take on the Shake Shack Incident...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/nyregion/shake-shack-police-nypd.html

Imagine…

Imagine being so hated that your mind jumps to “I’ve been poisoned!” anytime you get sick at a restaurant. Yeah, I’m talking about Shake Shack. I worked in food service for over 16 years, mostly in 2 small, family-owned facilities. Maybe my perspective is narrow, maybe it’s unique…but I think it’s a decent representation of the experience. And I worked with many people who’d worked in bigger, more professional places who talked about their past experience. I have reason to believe that the following observations apply to this situation.

In 16 years, I never fucked with anyone’s food. Not once. Never even crossed my mind.

I couldn’t.

Number one: it’s illegal.

A super quick Google search…

In California at least (where I don’t live), it is illegal. It most likely is illegal elsewhere, as well.

Under the food tampering law, it is illegal to willfully add poison or other harmful substance to a food, drink or medical product that will result in injury to another person. ... While spitting on someone's food may not seem like a serious crime, it could result in incarceration. Jan 13, 2017 (from https://vistacriminallaw.com/)

Number two: Karma. If I was doing it, I’d have to assume that somewhere, somehow, it was happening to me.

Number Three: if you are working around any responsible people and they see you doing something bad to someone’s food, they will not stand for it-restaurant owners, head chefs, supervisors, people who take the job wayyyyyyy too seriously…no one wants to see that.

At any rate, a person who came into the kitchen with that kind of attitude would find themselves out of a job quick.

Number four: Professionalism. I couldn’t look myself in the mirror if I knew I was that kind of person. I’d have to hope that other people feel the same way. But in my experience, many people I worked with took pride in their jobs: their job was part of their identity. They wouldn’t think of tampering with a customer’s food. Most wouldn’t, simply for the “karma” reason I listed above.

Number five: I have never, ever hated anyone enough to do that.

Number six: Oh, the humanity! Ethics? Morality? Belief in a higher power? All that stuff. We know it’s wrong.

I’m not saying it never happens (if it didn’t, why would there be a law?) but these are my immediate thoughts upon hearing about the Shake Shack incident.

Now. With that particular incident…. where cops got sick after drinking Shake Shack Milkshakes…

If you are such a retched human being that you just assume that your food making you sick is the result of a deliberate action, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate your life choices…

I am The Parochialist, and you are not.

The Rise of the Parochialist.

June 1, 2020 Baltimore, The Confounder. Violent Protests in other major cities but somehow Baltimore protests remained (for the most part) non-violent. Yet the murder rate just keeps on chugging. We’re at 125 on the year (124 at the same point last year.). This is such a strange place.

On the one hand, there aren’t mass shootings, not in the city. No one going postal at schools, church, or…at the post office. But we have shootings and murders every day, or every other day, or sometimes we double and triple or quadruple up on a day to make up for the few days where nothing happens. A little bit, every day, and pretty soon, more people die here in the daily shootings than in the mass shootings that get all the publicity.

It is so gradual and it doesn’t get the press (except for local press--The Baltimore Sun is good about logging every one of these killings) but it is more of a steady grind that just becomes part of the background noise of the city, along with jury duty, trash, and parking tickets…. Yet…sometimes we keep it together. Our team wins the Super Bowl and 200,000 people hit the streets and there is only one murder and it’s a “good day.” We have a protest that doesn’t turn deadly while other cities burn, and suddenly we feel a little better about ourselves…

But then we balance it all out with a violent weekend outside of the protests and then everything is back to normal. Hell, even Covid-19 doesn’t slow this down.

Hell, years ago the late City Paper did a piece about how a guy got murdered in a blizzard when the whole city was locked down. That took a commitment that I can’t fathom.

I don’t get it.

Baltimore. Sometimes I hate it with every fiber of my being, sometimes I can’t imagine being anywhere else…

I am the Parochialist. I took a break but now I’m back.