Wait there's more

 Spent another three days trying to arrange a meeting with this gentleman...

Like pulling teeth

This is another painfully typical scenario...

Maybe I'm being a bitch, but on day THREE of trying to set up this meeting, this is all the effort he's willing to expend. I'm new in town - suggest a fucking restaurant, or at least answer my question. God forbid you show a little enthusiasm. Fuck this shit for real.

Still no luck

After pleasantly chatting with this guy for several days, I asked if he wanted to meet in person. This is where we ended up:

"Social democracy" critique

 When I want to raise my blood pressure, I listen to RealClear Politics on SiriusXM. Today, I heard Charles Lipson, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, talk about how the democrats have succeeded in all the major goals of the FDR vision. He said the Dems have created a "social democracy program," but now they can't afford to pay for it. [Of course the funding is problematic because of the Republican tax cut during the last Trump administration, and will be made harder by the next tax cut, which is expected next year.]

That observation seems so utterly out of touch with America today. The wealth gap exceeds the Gilded Age! Inflation is killing the middle class. Union membership is growing, but still faces too many obstacles. Childcare, healthcare, college loans, and especially housing costs are hugely problematic expenses for the working classes - growing faster than income and preventing people from maintaining, let alone improving, their financial situation.

People accuse Democrats of being elitist, but the attitude represented by this analysis really epitomizes priviledge...

Same shit, new location

 

24 hours after I gave this guy my number, he's asking me for a picture...sad to say, online dating has not improved just because I relocated.

Daniel Penny is a monster

 My fucking head is going to explode. I can't believe the way Daniel Penny is being lionized as a Good Samaritan. You can't just kill somebody. You can't take someone's life without any consequences. (Well, apparently you can, but it's WRONG.) Conservative commentators are saying the NY subways are chaos and when society breaks down, action must be taken. But killing someone without consequences is also a breakdown of society! When society allows anyone to be judge, jury, and EXECUTIONER, its going in the wrong direction.

I understand Jordan Neely was scaring people. He was obviously mentally ill. Holy shit, you don't deserve to die for being scary. How a jury could find Penny completely innocent after this is beyond me:

 

Prosecutors noted that the veteran [Penny] continued to grip Neely’s neck after the train stopped and anyone who wanted to get out could do so, after bystanders urged Penny to let go, and even after Neely had been still for nearly a minute.

What happened during the first 2 minutes and what happened during the last 2 minutes are completely different. People are responding to Penny's actions during the first 2 minutes (protecting people who were scared) and ignoring those last 2 minutes, when he ended a man's life. There is just no justifying those last 2 minutes.

I want to note that Jordan Neely was a slight person, known for doing Michael Jackson impersonations in Times Square:

Not that I think it matters, or makes it worse (choking someone to death is wrong, regardless of the victim's size, the killer's size, or anyone's race), but it should have contributed to the jury's assessment of Daniel Penny's judgement regarding excessive force - the charge was criminally negligent homicide (the more serious manslaughter charge was dropped). Holding a man smaller than yourself by the neck for 6 minutes (especially after the notorious Eric Garner case, also in NYC) is not justifiable (Eric Garner was choked for MUCH less time). I can't understand the jury's decision.

Puzzling CEO shoooter

I just cannot wrap my head around this shooter of the healthcare CEO: handsome, wealthy, Ivy League educated...

A person this bright, this engaged with so much privilege, so much access to education, travel, etc. He had so much potential, so many choices available to him, and what he chooses is to murder somebody...and so pointlessly! He must know there are a thousand soulless executives ready to step into the top spot at United Healthcare and continue business as usual.

A friend of mine says he's initiated a public conversation about how heinous the health insurance companies are, and she even thinks this will put pressure on the incoming Trump administration to address people's outrage. But c'mon, that's wishful thinking. Trump promised to reduce regulations, which his supporters seem to interpret as being something good, something that helps them, when, of course, it's exactly the opposite. Joy Reid started her program on Monday (the day they found the shooter) with a discussion of this exact issue - people are so upset about the way healthcare is run in this country, but they vote for people who will make things worse - Trump worships rich people as much as, if not more than, the average American. And many Americans want the country to be "run like a business" - this is exactly what that means (profits over the greater good).

Time for a major rant

I'm getting so mad about the Monday morning quarterbacking I'm hearing from Democratic strategists and consultants, many saying that the Dems need to recalibrate, move to the right, and/or refine their positions on issues. BULLSHIT. Those New Democrat, triangulation motherfuckers are either delusional, or just seizing the opportunity while we're all miserable to push their completely wrong-headed agenda.

Every opinion poll ever taken shows that the majority of Americans agree with the basic political platform of the Democrats. The same platform they've supported and promoted for my entire adult life. Democrats do not need new ideas and they certainly do not need to move to the right to meet Americans where they are.

The regret and disappointment Trump supporters will experience when he does not magically correct everything they perceive to be wrong is going to be epic to behold.

Much more importantly, many voters have been convinced by lies, especially regarding immigration. "Migrants" are not responsible for high taxes, for housing shortages, for gas prices, for inflation, or for that mysterious rash you can't get rid of. And certainly not for crime, which is not especially high now, despite perceptions otherwise. It's significantly down from the covid years. Crime, especially property crime (which is what Americans really care about), is strongly correlated to the economy, which is why it was so much higher when covid fucked the economy so thoroughly. When marginalized and struggling people have more economic opportunity, crime rates go down. Look it up.

I do think Democrats continue to have a messaging problem. Biden's adminstration did many positive things for middle and working class Americans (including supporting unions, lowering the cost of insulin, child care subsidies, and the truly historic infrastructure bill), but Harris spent no time talking about any of these accomplishments. She did make some very meaningful proposals, such as subsidies for home ownership, but it was inadequate to overcome the frustration over inflation and the Republican's deafening drumbeat on immigration.

I do think Democrats need to connect to male working class voters, but not by changing their basic positions. The working class benefits from Democratic leadership and has been royally FUCKED for decades by Republican policies. We need to get THAT message across, not pander to their misogyny or xenophobia.

Climbing down from soapbox now.

Neighbor drama

The neighbor drama continues. Because I couldn't find my bike lock the night I arrived, Jordan (the girl living in the bldg next door), put them in the kitchen of that building. Even though it has been weeks, I hadn't seen her (the painting she was going to do has never gotten done, and after many messages about when she was coming to do it, she hasn't even bothered to pretend for the last week or so). But, since the weather is supposed to be great this weekend, I wanted to get them, and also, I kinda don't trust her any more, and I just want them back in my place.

When I got home from work on Thursday, her car was there, so I texted her, "Can I get my bikes?" And she said "No, they are part of a police investigation." What? 

Meanwhile, my landlord (Andy) had asked me to copy the keys when he finally gave them to me. I took them to Lowes and Ace Hardware, and no one has the house key (it's a weird size). I had texted Andy that I couldn't get the key copied and he said to go to this key place, A to Z. I had time after work on Thursday to get there before they closed at 5 pm, so I went to the shop and, it turns out, it's a special "security" key for apartment buildings, and cannot be copied - the guy in the shop said Andy signed a paper when he got them, and he is the only person who is authorized to get a copy. Seems like something he would have known...and I wasted a BUNCH of time going to 3 places trying to get a copy of a key that I am not authorized to copy. Fucking annoying and weird as hell.

So I had told Andy he needed to get the copy made and he said he would come on Friday to pick up the key.

When I got Jordan's message a bit later Thursday night, I texted Andy that I wanted to get my bikes out of the building when he came on Friday.

In response, he called me to explain that Jordan is acting increasingly crazy. He said she insisted on seeing him that evening; he was at a birthday party, but she said if he didn't come immediately, she would set fire to the building. When he gets there, he claims she had a gun (maybe that's why she said the bikes were part of a police investigation). He asked if she is there now, and I replied that she just left (I had heard her get in the car and drive off right after her weird text message about the bikes). He says he "needs to get her out of there."

Andy texted me on Friday afternoon, saying he left the bikes in his building because he didn't want to leave them outside until I got home, and he would come back on Saturday so I could get them.

When I got home from work on Friday, Jordan's car is parked in her usual spot. I texted Andy, "Did you work things out?" He says yes, he talked to her and she's "good."

WTAF?

[I don't want to be gross, but I can only think of one reason why a man would let a woman act this crazy and not change the situation...she's very pretty and he's newly single.]

I texted Jordan and said "I want to get my bikes tonight." She sent me a couple of long weird messages about her only purpose in life is to use her voice to protect other people from what she had to go through [I have no idea what this means, and I don't know why she's telling me this, but see comment above.] Then awhile later, she texted me that she put the bikes outside. I was planning to go to services, but luckily hadn't left yet, so I was able to get the bikes and bring them inside my apt (she clearly didn't have the same concerns about just leaving the bikes outside that Andy had).

I guess copying the key is on permanent hold. I told Andy I would do the painting inside my apt (I don't want Jordan anywhere near where I live, though I didn't say this to him). He acted like this was completely natural, that Jordan was just not going to do the painting she had agreed to do a couple of months ago and that he had told me would be taken care of before I moved in. [See comment above.]

His willingness to tolerate her being so volatile is almost as unsettling as her volatility. Her behavior and communications are kinda triggering, if I'm being honest. She reminds me a LOT of my birth mom, who was hospitalized shortly after I was born, diagnosed with schizophrenia (though I don't think she actually was schizophrenic, I think it's much more likely that she had severe postpartum depression). I sent Jordan's text messages to my sister to confirm my impressions and she agreed. 

The whole situation is disturbing and uncomfortable. I don't want to be a part of her ongoing mental breakdown (or drug abuse, either and both are likely), and I especially don't want to be in the middle of whatever fucked up relationship is going on between her and my landlord. 

It also really bums me out because she was super nice to me when I arrived and I thought we might be friends.