"a large chunk of butter in the sun"

"In the rain, which does not come, our laundry always stays on the line.  A river, already half-dead, had its source in the Black Forest.  The sun, El Comandante told me, spends the nights lying on a stretcher.  Gather, gather, gather.  Gather words, my friend, but no one will ever succeed in describing fire exhaustively.  From the radio all we hear are electrical whoosing sounds.  Our boats are meandering about on the Camisea.

Yesterday in the speedboat one of the boatmen had left a large chunk of butter in the sun on a flat glass saucer (late-Woolworth style), and had covered it with a page torn from a porno magazine.  Repulsive-looking men copulated with blowsy blondes, who strangely enough had kept their bikinis on.  I saw that the butter was melting and would soon turn to liquid, so I pushed the saucer into the shade up front in the bow, but on two stops I made later the boatman had pulled the saucer back into he blazing sun.  The butter is salted, and comes out of cans imported from Australia.  I did not ask why the boatman was putting the covered butter in the heat that way, but with silent determination we continued the duel all day and into the early evening to get the butter into the sun, then into the shade.  In the last rays of the sun an enormous tree suddenly burst into bloom with blossoms of glowing yellow, as dense and yellow as a hail of gold.  It happened so fast that from one second to the next the blossoms were there, as if a light had been switched on, and just as quickly they were extinguished again.

Huerequeque found a large piece of petrified wood and gave it to me.  We talked about tortoise dances, about fish dances.  The notion that fish dance preoccupies me."

-- Werner Herzog, Conquest of the Useless

Christmas Line Man

Daegu, South Korea.

My exercise bike gave up the ghost not long ago, so with only a month left in Korea I've been taking lots of long walks throughout the northern part of the city for exercise.  From Christmas Day, which is a national holiday in South Korea, it was interesting to see which businesses chose to close and which chose to stay open.  (Corona is also making something of a comeback, which is horrible.)

I don't thing this technically counts as graffiti (rare but not unknown here) but just a friendly reminder that this here restaurant is closed for now, but it misses you very much and hopes you come back soon.

"a new entertainment"

 

Candy Machine, "The People Mover"

D.C. area folks might get the Dulles Airport related joke here.

Merry Christmas everybody!  I hope Santa brought you nice, expensive things.  This here blog is in a lull as I prepare to move back to America.  I'm doing bank and pension office visits, and I just helped my boss hire my own replacement.  I'm still teaching adults for the rest of January as well.

Things are good.  I had a quiet, solo Christmas replete with Korean fried chicken -- just like Baby Jesus!

Found In Translation

My life is way too up in the air right now to do something as life-changing as buying a new video game console, but this is kind of cool -- the Hangul-ized logo for Cyberpunk 2077.  (I realize the release has been a shit-show.)

So roughly, we've got "SA-EEE-BUH-PUNG-KU."

Not easy to do, but very cool.

Ability Without Confidence or Enthusiasm?

There's a long-standing stereotype regarding the hard-working but tired, over-stressed Korean student.  According to a test of elementary school students in the country, it's partly true:

"Yet despite Korean students’ high average scores, their level of confidence and interest in their studies were among the lowest in the world.  

Fourth graders’ confidence level in mathematics and science came in second-to-last place, at 57th out of 58 countries, with Filipino students coming in last.  

Only 15 percent of Korean fourth graders answered that they are 'very' confident in mathematics, compared to the global average of 32 percent. Likewise, they also had a very low level of interest in the subjects, placing 57th out of 58 countries in mathematics and 53rd in science."

There's a lot to unpack here, but my first thought is that separating "ability" and "confidence" is probably easier with more objective subjects like math and science.  In the context of English learning, a student who never speaks up is unlikely to improve.  It's possible of course, and that they could excel on written testing.

At the very least, expressions like "lifelong learning" and "love of learning" are not things I hear too much teaching college-level students in Korea, but which were pretty common back in America.  (And frankly  they were often mere boilerplate / lip-service much of the time.)

Genocide Is Nothing To Celebrate, Even Indirectly

First, the egregiously named "Redskins," now the slightly less egregiously "Cleveland Indians" are making a break with their mascot and its dicey cultural history:

"In July, the team said they were considering changing their name in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, which sparked a widespread debate about racism in America. 'We are committed to making a positive impact in our community and embrace our responsibility to advance social justice and equality. Our organization fully recognizes our team name is among the most visible ways in which we connect with the community,' the team said in a July statement. The team’s manager, Terry Francona, has said he believes it is time to 'move forward' from the name. 

Cleveland were known as the Lake Shores, Bluebirds, Broncos and Naps before settling on their current nickname in 1915."

Let's face it -- if "Indian" had no connection to "Chief Wahoo" this might not have happened.  And I like "Shores" or "Lake Shores" or "Lakers" -- let's make the 2020's the decade of geographical and topographical sports mascots!

Farewell Transmission

Songs: Ohia, "Farewell Transmission"

Didn't start listening to Jason Molina until I landed in South Korea.  Go figure.

I just spoke with my boss and made it official -- I'll be leaving South Korea and my current job this February.

My dad is getting older and needs full-time care, whereas for the past five years or so he could get by with part-time care.  My sister has been doing more than her share of maintenance, and it's time for me to step up.

To say I have mixed feelings is an understatement.  I love Korea, and I really like my job here.

But it's also been 12 years (!) since I came here thinking I'd just do a year or two.

Timing is a feeling more than anything else.  Or maybe an instinct.

I'm just chuckling to myself in my office right now -- Obama wasn't even president yet when I started this little English-teaching adventure back in 2008.

And while moving back to America in the midst of the Trump Virus and Recession might seem daunting, I think it's going to work out.  I'll be living with my Dad in Bellingham, Washington, a beautiful and bizarro place closer to Vancouver than it is to Seattle.  (It's Twin Peaks with a shittier economy and more hippies and meth labs.)  I'll get to spend time with the old man, but also get to see my sister and nephew more than just once every summer.

I'm planning on buying a real bike for what it's worth once I touch down, and taking more pictures, and keeping up with my Korean language skills, and playing guitar again.  (My Fender Strat -- American made! -- sits unused for over a decade in my dad's garage.)

This blog shall remain in place.  I'm sure I'll still have some semi-intelligent things to say about Korea from time to time, but also incredibly fascinating insights into elder-care, or the fact that my 91 year-old dad still loves to talk about his sex life in fairly graphic terms, both past and present.

I'm sad.  I'm happy.  I'm moving on.

"faith in Americans crumbled"

In a "Letter From Korea," Catherine Kim asks if Koreans still look up to America, the "beautiful country."  The answer is mixed, but with a healthy portion of "no, not really":

"Korea’s admiration of the U.S. was always bound to drop somewhat as Korea grew from one of the poorest countries in the world into its 10th-largest economy, says Lee Hyun-song, a professor of interpretation and translation at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies who wrote a 2015 article about Koreans' changing perception of Americans up to the early 2000s. But, he says, Trump’s tenure, and really 2020 in particular, has accelerated that process, especially among younger generations of Koreans, who are expressing more pride for their country and less likely to turn to the U.S. for guidance.

'There was a strong belief that there was a lot to learn from the U.S., but then that faith in Americans crumbled after they voted for Trump,' he says. 'As we’ve watched the U.S. fail to contain Covid-19 and rebel against mask-wearing through the media, we’ve come to realize that the U.S. is no longer a more "developed" country than us.'”

Koreans aren't stupid.  They will, at decisive moments, be forced to choose between the growing might of China and the apparent decline of the U.S.  There is no middle ground available, when China can punish South Korea overnight merely by barring its citizens from visiting Jeju Island.

And they're correct to realize it isn't just Trump, who is a symptom of the cancer in the American body, not a cause.  It's the millions of people -- anti-science, anti-alliance, anti-common sense -- who voted for him.  (Let's be honest -- anti-reality, frankly.)

It's his supporters who are the deep, intractable problem.  They're also loud and clear in their spite -- "America first" means, by definition, long-term allies and alliances get to go "last."

Bad Blood

I'm fairly agnostic when it comes to Taylor Swift -- her type of music isn't really my bag, but she's undeniably savvy and talented -- but the story of how she plans to re-record her entire back catalog to fuck over the shit-head who stole her rights is amazing:

"You'd think Swift's contract with Big Machine might prevent her from re-recording her old music, but she can legally do so for two reasons, according to Dina LaPolt, an entertainment attorney who represents Steven Tyler, 21 Savage, and several other high-profile artists. Firstly, while Shamrock Capital owns the master rights to Swift's first six albums—or in other words, the sound recordings on those albums—Swift owns the publishing rights. (Because she wrote her own songs, she retains the rights to the lyrics, melodies, and compositions that comprise them, and she doesn't have to ask permission from or pay anyone to use them how she sees fit.) Secondly, the 're-recording restriction' in her contract with Big Machine—a standard part of any record deal, which long prohibited her from recording new versions of the songs she released through the label—has reportedly expired. When Swift releases new versions of her old songs, she'll own both their master rights and their publishing rights, earning every penny they bring in and securing unilateral control over how they're used.

She's almost inevitably going to yield that power to license her music to advertising agencies and film and TV studios, according to Guillermo Page, a former record label executive who's worked for BMG, EMI, Sony, and Universal, and who now teaches in the University of Miami's music business program. To license (or 'synchronize') a song, you need permission from the record company who owns it and the songwriter who wrote it. Swift has always said no to licensing offers on the grounds that they would profit Braun—but now that she's cut him out of the equation, she can strike those deals herself, and take home 100 percent of the profits they reap."

I no speak lawyer, but it sounds like a double win -- her fanbase gets to support her by buying up the new recordings, and she can pretty much license her hefty opus to TV and film as needed / wanted.

It's not often artists get victories likes this.  Good for her.

Chicken LabNuggets

Has the future of lab-grown, "no kill" meat finally arrived?  Maybe!

"The cells for Eat Just’s product are grown in a 1,200-litre bioreactor and then combined with plant-based ingredients. Initial availability would be limited, the company said, and the bites would be sold in a restaurant in Singapore. The product would be significantly more expensive than conventional chicken until production was scaled up, but Eat Just said it would ultimately be cheaper.

The cells used to start the process came from a cell bank and did not require the slaughter of a chicken because cells can be taken from biopsies of live animals. The nutrients supplied to the growing cells were all from plants.

The growth medium for the Singapore production line includes foetal bovine serum, which is extracted from foetal blood, but this is largely removed before consumption. A plant-based serum would be used in the next production line, the company said, but was not available when the Singapore approval process began two years ago."

I'd be happy to try it.  I think I've done pretty well with upping my veggie and fruit intake recently, but I still struggle to avoid meat.  Then again, I do live in Korea. 

Living The Dream

True Fact:

If you put genuine home-made kimchi from adult students on top of convenience store-purchased, sad bachelor's doshirak, you _almost_ don't feel like such great big loser for about three minutes...#science#fact#lifestyle#winninglifestyle#singlelife

— Antifa #BLM James (@wetcasements) December 1, 2020

Shablime!

It's Korean style shabu-shabu!  Which is strange, because Koreans equate the dish with Vietnamese food instead of Japanese.

It's quite nummy all the same, and a great choice if you're looking for a light or vegetarian meal in South Korea.  (We ordered beef because we're dirty carnivores, but it's not mandatory.)

On the right you can spy the rice paper wraps.  You dip them into boiling water to soften them, then load them up however you like.

There was also a buffet for veggies and noodles as needed, and a fruit bar for dessert.

This here lunch special will run you about ten bucks total, in Daegu at least.

Shots Fired!

It's a bit opaque, but apparently the Chinese agriculture ministry is making a play to "claim" kimchi, Korea's beloved national dish, as having a Chinese origin.  The Korean reaction has been, at the very least, expected:

"'Its total nonsense, what a thief stealing our culture!' a South Korean netizen wrote on Naver, a widely popular web portal.

Seoul resident Kim Seol-ha said: 'I read a media story that China now says kimchi is theirs, and that they are making international standard for it. It’s absurd.'

Some South Korean media said China’s brazen coveting of kimchi was akin to a 'bid for world domination.'

The kimchi contretemps is the latest online spat between social media users in China and South Korea. In October, the leader of the K-pop phenomenon BTS faced a barrage of criticism in China after he cited his country’s solidarity with the US stemming from the Korean war – a conflict in which China fought alongside North Korea."

These kinds of "soft power" disputes can be bullshit, but are also endlessly fascinating to me.  As China seems to be setting itself up as the world's lone remaining superpower, it's interesting to see to what extent the dictatorship in Beijing cares about something as nominally unimportant as cultural hegemony.

At the very least, somebody in the Chinese agriculture ministry is having a big laugh for "pwning the Koreans."

Some Fall And Winter Perks

Another beautiful fall here in South Korea, epidemic be damned, and another cycle of gifts from my adult students.

October -- persimmons of all kinds, both soft and hard and dried!  The dried ones are my favorite, but I won't turn up my nose to fresh ones even though they are kind of messy to eat.  (At least the way I do it, like a starving dinosaur.)

November -- kimchi!  The homemade stuff which is, obviously, the best stuff.  Every family has their own recipe.  As I get older, I really enjoy it in the plainest fashion possible -- just on top of some rice.  Or maybe my very lazy version of a kimchi omelet, which is really more like kimchi on top of some scrambled eggs.

December -- roasted sweet potatoes!  Well, these don't excite me too much if only because by the time I get them home they are cold and really not fit for eating.  Re-heating is fine, but compared to persimmons and kimchi they are my least favorite of gifts.  Mind you, nothing goes to waste, but I tend to reheat and add some butter and salt.  (Those additions are very un-Korean of me, but it can't be helped.)

I'll Settle For OK

I'm officially "into" The Mandalorian.  It definitely has problems -- while I appreciate the Lone Wolf and Cub stuff, a good Spaghetti Western needs a proper foil.

I'm usually quick to dismiss "don't think too hard and it's good" TV or music but given the stress of The Plague, I'll make an exception.

Also, give Amy Sedaris a lightsaber.

City of Heroes

Congratulations to the NC Dinos, who just won their first Korean Baseball Championship.  (They've only been around since 2013, natch.)

"we will act as a meteorite and hit the outdated ways of the older generations"

It's hard to see beyond COVID, but with Cheeto Hitler finally on his way out and clearing up some of the air for things of actual importance, it's a good time to remind ourselves that Thailand has a really shitty military dictatorship and the people are fighting to dismantle it:

"'We will act as a meteorite and hit the outdated ways of the older generations in this country,' the protest organisers explained. 'We will talk about all the topics that the dinosaurs don’t want to hear.' Inflatable dinosaurs wobbled in the afternoon heat, representing the Thai government. The symbols are playful, but the message is clear: teenagers want change.

A student-led protest movement has shaken Thailand over the past five months. Young people have taken to the streets to call for a true democracy, and have risked jail to shatter a taboo that has long prevented frank, public discussion of the monarchy. Their protests, attended by tens of thousands, present one of the boldest challenges that the Thai royal family has faced in living memory.

Demonstrators say they are not calling for the monarchy to be abolished, but for it to be reformed, accountable to the people and not above the law. They have also called for the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army general who came to power in a 2014 coup, to stand down, and for changes to the constitution to make the political system more democratic."

Let's not pretend that a new Biden administration magically washes away the past four years of dictatorship-humping done by Mike Pompeo.  But at the very least it's a turn towards a time when we at least paid lip-service to the idea of promoting democracy.

"Deference to intolerance feeds intolerance"

As always, Rebecca Solnit gets it when it comes to "playing nice" with Trump supporters, i.e., the current Republican Party:

"Appeasement didn’t work in the 1930s and it won’t work now. That doesn’t mean that people have to be angry or hate back or hostile, but it does mean they have to stand on principle and defend what’s under attack. There are situations in which there is no common ground worth standing on, let alone hiking over to. If Nazis wanted to reach out and find common ground and understand us, they probably would not have had that tiki-torch parade full of white men bellowing 'Jews will not replace us' and, also, they would not be Nazis. Being Nazis, white supremacists, misogynists, transphobes is all part of a project of refusing to understand as part of refusing to respect. It is a minority position but by granting it deference we give it, over and over, the power of a majority position.

In fact the whole Republican Party, since long before Trump, has committed itself to the antidemocratic project of trying to create a narrower electorate rather than win a wider vote. They have invested in voter suppression as a key tactic to win, and the votes they try to suppress are those of Black voters and other voters of color. That is a brutally corrupt refusal to allow those citizens the rights guaranteed to them by law. Having failed to prevent enough Black people from voting in the recent election, they are striving mightily to discard their votes after the fact. What do you do with people who think they matter more than other people? Catering to them reinforces that belief, that they are central to the nation’s life, they are more important, and their views must prevail. Deference to intolerance feeds intolerance."

The writing here is typically excellent, but basically a well-written formulation of "how do you run a Democracy when half the country hates Democracy?"

(Not a hypothetical!)

More 2024

Following up on my recent post about what happens in 2024, Paul Campos does a better job than me at explaining just how potentially fucked we are.  Some glimmers of hope in the comments at least re: my unproven belief only Trump himself can truly "master" the racist hydra that is Trumpism.  Your Cottons and Rubios will simply be swallowed whole and rejected by it, leading to some kind of party split.

Soft Power, Softer Service?

I've posted before about the ongoing debate over mandatory military service in South Korea (about two years, only for men) and whether or not "national treasures" like excellent athletes or performers or scientists should get special treatment.  With K-pop boy-band sensations BTS at the top of the Billboard charts, the arguments for and against continue apace:

"Current laws allow men to postpone their military service until the age of 28 for academic reasons such as studying abroad, or enrollment in graduate school or in the the Judicial Research and Training Institute after passing the bar exam. Additional exceptions are made for men enrolled in Ph.D. programs abroad, who can postpone their service until age 30. 

Current laws also allow athletes or artists of classical or traditional arts such as gugak (traditional Korean music) to substitute military service with volunteer work approved by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.  

Only athletes and artists who have won awards in international and national competitions designated by the Military Manpower Administration, such as the Olympic Games or the Asian Games, are allowed to apply for the substitution for their military service.  

Examples include famed footballer Son Heung-min, who gained an exemption after Korea's national football team won gold at the Asian Games in 2018, and pianist Cho Seong-jin, who won the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in 2009 and the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015."

It's complicated, obviously.  When K-pop groups "make money" for the Korean economy (as claimed by pro-exemption folks) just how much of it is going to public projects, and how much is lining the pockets of the managers and producers?  We all know Soft Power is An Important Thing, but how do you put an objective price on it?  And is 20 months really all that much to ask for performers who haven't reached 30 yet?  (I think the arguments for athletes are actually much stronger, in terms of "lost time.")

For what it's worth among my very small sample size of Korean students, the males definitely tend to oppose any and all exemptions, while the female students are more open to the idea.

Yes I Am Already Thinking About 2024

Between COVID ravaging the world and the utter betrayal of America by the GOP, there aren't many silver linings out there right now.  But regarding Trump, it seems to me he's bound to do a lot more damage to his party -- literally his party -- than many people seem to think.

Who knows that sort of legal trouble he'll land in once he loses the shield of the presidency, but no doubt he is going to at least try and run in 2024, which means he'll begin campaigning in earnest in 2022 at the latest.

There are ton of young-ish GOP "moderates" (LOL) who really want to be president -- Rubio, Hawley, and Cotton just for starters.  And their (highly) relative difference from Trump's obvious derangement will be lapped up by the DC media -- "the serious, thoughtful Republican Party is back!"  (The only difference being that when it comes to fucking over poor and non-white folks Trump is willing to say what these other guys think out loud.)

The larger point is that, barring jail or death, the 2024 Republican primary will be an utter shit-show.  It could mean that Trump winds up running as a third-party candidate and actually out-performing the actual GOP candidate.  It could mean Trump, still bigly popular with his base, i.e., actual Republican voters, gets to play some sort of a power-broker role, where Rubio is forced to pick Ivanka or Don Jr. (the less dumb, more evil son) as his running mate.

Obvious death-of-American-Democracy implications aside, it could be fucking hilarious above all else.

I mean, nobody knows.  Biden's health is going to be an issue as well, but I have a lot of faith in Kamala Harris.  At the very least, she doesn't take shit from anybody, and that terrifies many Republicans.

All of this is to say, your Rubio-Hawley-Cottons of the world are obviously much smarter and more polished than Cheeto Hitler.  (Yes, I am damning with faint praise.)  And that could be their downfall, because while any one of them will make David Brooks' heart flutter, they lack the sheer animal cunning and cruelty of Trump.  They lack the ability to channel the vicious, hateful spirit that a solid one-third of Americans, white Americans, harbor for the rest of their country.

Remember that in the last Republican primary, Trump didn't just win, he annihilated his opponents ("little Marco," Ted Cruz's ugly wife, etc.)

No amount of polish will give a pretender that unique Trumpian showman's ability to bring out the hateful id of American white nationalism, and to harness its dark energies into electoral success.

So this isn't a prediction as much as a reminder that Trump will never go quietly into that good night.  No small number of his former "friends" are going to die in jail because of him.

Who's to say the Republican Party can survive him either?

Our Grand Experiment

A two-party system where one party literally doesn't believe in the concept of representative Democracy isn't going to last very long, is it?

Isolation Drills

Ryuichi Sakamoto and friend, Playing Piano for the Isolated

Simply lovely.  Nothing much to say beyond that.

Also, I had no idea Mr. Sakamoto has his own Youtube channel.

Double-win.

The Moon and Antarctica

Life aboard the International Space Station ain't easy, but how about wintering at a science station at the South Pole for a sunless six months?  Challenge accepted:

"From April to September, the station plunges into total darkness, and temperatures regularly hover around minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That doesn’t stop White, who has been at the station since January, from getting out for his daily walk or run, always solo. In almost three years on the job, he’s never passed a day without venturing outside. White records every session, and so far has logged more than four thousand miles on the ice. 'I go in any kind of weather,” he says. “It doesn’t matter how bad it is.'

Before he heads out the door, he signs a dry-erase board (which features the handy notation 'If no return, look for frozen pile when sun returns in September') to let his crew know he’s out exercising. When getting dressed to go out, he chooses from utilitarian gear used by the military in extreme cold, a heavy canvas anorak like the one explorer Roald Amundsen wore when he was at the South Pole in 1911, or, on the most miserable days, an Inuit jacket made of Siberian wolf fur. He knows how to read the wind, stars, and snow to find his way back, even in utter darkness or whiteout conditions. 'One of the worst things you face here is the wind,' White says. 'The wind works its way in, and you get frostbite on your nose and face.'”

I think I could last about a week without sunlight and, even worse, no internet. 

My Oyster(s)

 Oyster soup (굴뚝배기) with side dishes.

One of the best things about Korean food is how seasonal it is.  And now that we're in the healthy mid-section between fall and winter, oysters are in season.  Down the street from my college is an amazing oyster soup joint that features variations on a theme -- a stone bowl of steaming hot soup filled with shelled oysters, fresh seaweed, and your choice of starch in the form of rice, rice cakes, or shredded dumplings.

The magic begins when, at the last moment before serving, a raw egg gets thrown in.  If the timing is right, you get to pop the yolk and watch the rich yellow fat mix into the brinish soup.  (The place was packed, so my egg was, alas, overcooked by the time it got to me).

Still, this is a definite "memory" food for me in South Korea as the gorgeous fall weather starts turning to winter.  My boss really likes this dish as well, so I've had it plenty of times.

I don't get tired of this one though.

Also, do yourself a favor and order an oyster pancake to share as well.

To The Stars!

Life aboard the International Space Station must be a futuristic dream!  Actually, no -- it's noisy, stinky, and kind of gross, but vital nonetheless --

"The ISS is smelly, noisy, messy, and awash in shed skin cells and crumbs. It’s like a terrible share house, except you can’t leave, you have to work all the time and no one gets a good night’s sleep.

There are some perks, however. The Cupola module offers perhaps the best view available to humans anywhere: a 180-degree panorama of Earth passing by below."

Sure, but still beats Earth ca. 2020. 

"You should see him move the masses"

Candy Machine, "Spotlight"

I know I say it all the time but these guys were really, really good.  Also, Baltimore was Portland before Portland was Portland.

It's a beautiful Monday afternoon here in Daegu.  I taught my adult students this morning, and they agreed the the American system of electing new presidents is pretty damn ass-backwards, thanks to the Electoral College (which makes no sense to anybody, including most Americans).

In the elevator down out of my apartment I noticed I had the hugest, most wrinkled eye bags ever.  Two cups of coffee this morning, and one more after lunch has made the day bearable.  I really need to get back on a normal sleep schedule, which at least should be possible now.

I ate absolute garbage last week as well.  One night for dinner I managed to combine some leftover fried chicken with a plate of home-made nachos.  Just grateful that bikini season is over.

I didn't get drunk on election night, for what it's worth, but early Sunday morning when the final result came in I did crack a Stella Artois tall-boy that I'd forgotten in the back of my fridge.

Exercise-wise, I've actually done pretty well with 90 minute to two hour anxiety walks through all parts of northern Daegu.  My exercise bike, which I've owned for about 10 years now, seems to be giving up the ghost -- one of the pedals is making a horrible grinding sound.  The weather really has been gorgeous though, so getting outside seems like the thing thing to do.

As for Trump, my hope of hopes is that he really is cuffed and dragged screaming from the White House by the Secret Service, but I'm sure the reality will be much more boring as he jets off to Mar-A-Lago in a cloud of spite and miserable failure.

As I mentioned, he'll never lose that particular loser stench.

Feeling Better -- Some Election Thoughts

Sugar, "Feeling Better"

Every masterpiece a la Copper Blue should have a mandatory outtake / angry, dark shit EP like Beaster.  It is known.

Some more salubrious thoughts than the ones that went before concerning the 2020 Election:

1)  Loser stink.  We all fail, but there's a particularly foul scent that goes with being a one-term US president.  It just doesn't happen that often.  Carter has rightfully been restored due to his incredible humanitarian work, but that took a long time.  George H.W. never recovered.  Gerald Ford?  A walking punchline.  Trump's whole brand is based on "winning" (he's a fraud of course) and this will stick to him forever.  Conversely, defeating an incumbent president is hard fucking work, and Biden pulled it off.

2)  As predicted, Biden is set to win the largest vote total in American history, with the largest participation in modern American history.  Only the Electoral College and the media's insatiable desire to get vote counts within a mere few hours is keeping this from looking like objectively what it is: a blow-out victory against a guy who, along with his Republican Party, pulled out every stop to make voting difficult, if not impossible.

3)  McConnell isn't going to let a single damn thing go through the Senate.  Biden and Pelosi need to message the hell of the fact that the House is trying to Get Stuff Done, and the Senate won't allow it.  Frankly, this is a long shot.  "Both Sides Do It" is pretty much the mantra of even left-of-center US media.

4)  If Trump isn't dead or in a New York State jail come 2022 he's going to run again, probably with his daughter or less dumb, more evil son in tow.  Honestly, I really hope he does -- he wrecked the Republican primary in 2015 and he can do it again, no problem.

5)  Everybody, including me, underestimated Biden's ability to rise to the occasion.  Let's see if he has some more magic to pull out of his Vintage Mustang.  And let's hope Kamala Harris will rise as well.  She was my second choice after Elizabeth Warren, and I think she will.  At the very least, a strong, smart black woman taking the reins of power is going to blow more than a few blood vessels among the GOP and FOX.

6)  Breathe.  We won.  We didn't shoot the moon, but we won.  Remember that Trump is not the sort to go quietly into the good night -- there will be casualties, as one of his favorite things is to reward loyalty with bitter spite and legal peril.

Not a Pyrrhic Victory So Much As a Sad and Underwhelming One

Obviously, it's not over but then again it's kind of over barring Complete and Total Ratfucking.  This election was much closer than it should have been, and yet not so close that John Roberts would show his hand just yet.  With the Senate out of reach for Dems he has two solid years of pretty much rewriting the post-1945 legal status quo for America.  Why blow it so early when Biden will most likely not be able to enlarge the court?  Or even get rid of the filibuster?

Goodbye Roe for starters.

So it sucks.  I stand by my opinion that large turnout is a generally good thing, even if it means there must have been a ton of first-time Trump voters out there.

It's looking like Biden bombed with Hispanic voters.  Another reason to take the incredibly smart and motivated AOC more seriously?

Silver linings?

The Senate map for 2022 is looking good for Democrats, but again Biden has to think big and strategically.  If he goes back to Washington thinking he'll just charm the pants off of McConnell to get the Democratic agenda through we really are screwed.

And fuck the Electoral College.

In a few hours I have to walk into my adult night class and explain a lot of this shit to them.

Good times.

"sudden death due to heart failure or a stroke as a result of extreme hard work"

The life of a delivery driver is never easy, especially in COVID-era South Korea:

"The fates of the 14 drivers can not be directly linked to overwork, but their families described the causes of death as 'kwarosa' - a Korean term used for sudden death due to heart failure or a stroke as a result of extreme hard work. Drivers in South Korea are struggling to cope with the sheer volume of online orders during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the packages have piled up, so has the pressure.

One of the drivers who died was 27-year-old Jang Deok-jin, a former Taekwondo enthusiast who had lost 15kg (33lbs) after doing 18 months of night shifts, according to his family. Deok-jin came home from a night shift earlier this month at around six in the morning and headed for a shower. His father found him dead face down in the bathtub an hour later.

'We loved that boy. When he said it was such hard work we told him it was ok to stop working, but he used to tell me that he had plans for his future,' his father said. 'I am to blame for not discouraging him from working so hard and exploiting himself.'"

It's almost as if Capitalism, by design, is a system that alienates us from our labor, our families, and ourselves.

How You Feeling, Teacher James?

I'm very confident that Biden is going to win the U.S. popular vote in record-breaking numbers -- both his overall tally and in seeing the largest voter turnout (Democratic and Republican) ever.  The early voting alone shows that people on both sides are motivated, and in particular younger folks who will guarantee a Biden popular victory.

But of course, it's 2020.  2000 (Gore vs. Bush) and 2016 demonstrated that Electoral College shit-sandwiches are only for Democrats, and never Republicans.  The Supreme Court is now packed with folks who literally worked for Bush in 2000 so he could rat-fuck his way to a contested election.  The same goes for the state-level.

So once again, for the fourth time (!) since I moved to Korea, I'm waiting until tomorrow morning my time to find out what happens.  If all goes well, we should know by nine or ten p.m. U.S. time, which will put me in my office at 11 a.m. or noon Wednesday.  (I'll be teaching an adult conversation course, actually).

I really doubt I'll get any decent sleep tonight.  (Not like I've been getting more than three or fours at best lately.)  My adult students continue to be flummoxed at how such a strong and rich nation like America can have such an unnecessarily complicated (and racist!) system like the Electoral College.

That said, as with early voting mentioned above, there are some real Biden advantages baked in already.  I think the number of Trump 2016 voters who either sit this one out or actually pull the lever for Biden will not be insignificant.

So there's my optimism.

Here's my pessimism -- a defeated Trump will still Tweet at us.  A solid 30-35% of America will remain deplorable at best, and violent at worst.  The Republican Party has abdicated any pretense about maintaining a functioning democracy.  Indeed, the sooner we collapse into a Putin-style kleptocracy, all the better for them.

Oh, and the economy is fucked due to COVID, which is only going to get worse.  There's no guarantee it won't last until 2022 or worse.

From day one Biden needs to think and act big.  I'm not sure he's up to it.  Obviously better than the fascist alternative, but still -- does even a big win tomorrow just delay the inevitable Tom Cotton "Use Tanks Against Peaceful Protesters" 2024 campaign?

"Lockdown was the trigger"

The Guardian with a surprisingly positive review of how folks are keeping up with their physical and mental health while under lockdown:

"Ludford spoke to a GP about his anxiety, who recommended exercise and referred him for counselling. So, he started walking: '2km became 5km became 10km,' he says. And he exercised to videos he found on YouTube. At first, he could not manage a single burpee, but after a few months, he was flinging himself on and off the floor with ease. 'The exercise was the only thing that really helped me to get a handle on my anxiety,' he says. 'Exercise kept the wheels on the bus.' Seven months on, Ludford has lost 34kg (5st 5lb) and is no longer severely obese. But the weight loss is secondary to his mental wellbeing – he feels like himself again. 'Everything came together at the same time,' he says. 'Lockdown was the trigger.'

While lockdown was a period of indulgence for many of us – who can blame anyone for looking at a world in freefall, with political leaders squabbling like children, and reaching for the biscuit tin? – the enforced stillness of 2020 gave some people the time and headspace to embrace a more active lifestyle. Freed from the shackles of the commute and the lure of late-night pub sessions, an overhaul was in reach. Fiona Gillison, a chartered psychologist and behaviour-change expert at the University of Bath, says: 'The pandemic reduced the barriers that many people have to leading healthier lifestyles – by giving them more time at home or dedicated time to exercise.'”

Of course, the interviews are with folks on decent furlough (80% salary is my understanding) and retired folks with pensions.  It's hard to imagine a full-time nurse or part-time clerk enjoying this sort of "indulgence" right now.

Still, if there's any silver-lining to COVID it's that we really should change our relationships to work, health, and family if we ever manage to beat this thing.

/Kirk Gibson gimpy fist pump

Whelp, the Dodgers deserved to win.

I'm just thankful that a COVID-era World Series proved to be as entertaining as this one, despite my skepticism.

And once again, the Orioles have rushed out to a solid 0-0, .500 season for 2021.

Dostoevsky Works Both Ways

Not long after Trump got elected I wrote "everything is now permitted."  Referring to an attempted murder by a Q-Anon supporter, I meant it in a very general sense, that of accepted norms and standards being destroyed.  I meant in in a scary-sad way, a "we're well and truly fucked" way.

With Supreme Court justice Amy Coney-Barrett taking less than a day between swearing in and then filming a literal Trump campaign video, I am -- surprisingly -- a little more sanguine and a little more focused on what could be positives moving into 2021.

After four years of this unending avalanche of Republican-enabled hatefulness and stupidity, of dire incompetence, I mean "Everything is now permitted" in a much more Congress-specific sense: fuck the filibuster, fuck the sacred norm of only nine justices, fuck the banal congeniality of the U.S. Senate, fuck the fakey bullshit hypocrisy of a "neutral and apolitical" Supreme Court forever.

You don't need to read Dostoevsky (you should, but you don't need to) to understand this attitude cuts both ways.  It honestly hurt for the past four years.  But now it's time to redirect the pain onto those who actually deserve it.

Biden's first act as president, Spaghetti-Monster willing we also win the Senate next week, is to put up Merrick Garland for the SCOTUS immediately.

And that's just for starters -- DC statehood, Puerto Rico statehood, automatic registration of all US citizens as voters, voting day as a national holiday all come next.

All of that by the end of 2021.  Then we really get down to work making the necessary structural changes to maintain our Democracy, without a damn drop more of counter-majoritarian compromise with a GOP that stands for nothing beyond tax-cuts for the rich and white identity politics.

Is Biden up to the task?  Maybe.  Harris could pull them there.  The outrageous actions of ACB could.  Pelosi certainly seems game.  But if not, he doesn't deserve a hypothetical second term.  Fuck cowardly hypothetical Biden and fuck David Brooks too.

Too Much and Almost Enough at the Same Time

It took over a year, but I finally managed to finish Jon Peterson's Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures from Chess to Role-Playing Games. And like the title itself, the book is simultaneously fascinating and yet maybe a bit much for its own good.

This thing is an absolute door-stopper of a tome -- 698 pages, with copious amounts of both footnotes and bibliographies.  It is dense and academic, in both the best and worst senses of those words.  It is incredibly well researched and easily makes the case for its own existence, i.e., the history of role-playing is worth this type of academic treatment.  The story itself stretches back to highly specific parts of 18th century military history, 19th and 20th century literary history (not just fantasy writers), 19th century applied statistics and probability, and more expectedly the rise of sci-fi fandom in the 1960's and 70's.

And yet, by the end of this virtual Everest of a history, I still felt like I knew less about the two main creators of Dungeons and Dragons -- Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson -- than I would have liked.  Sure, the story is there -- the various basements in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and Minneapolis, Minnesota  that birthed the hobby, the later falling out as the math- and business-minded Gary screwed the more wild-and-wooly creative genius Dave out of royalties -- but it also feels a bit more, well, academic than it should.  The personalities are there, but not brought to life as you'd hope in a history of role-playing itself.

What is of note is that Gygax was a devout Jehovah's Witness who was also a polymath of war, and specifically violence, who had a mind for charts and tables and rules, but Arneson was the guy who let you own and ride a dragon or swing a talking sword if you suggested it.  Their relationship was genuinely symbiotic for a while, but this account is more bloodless than I'd have liked.  (Interestingly, the idea of Gygax as proto-nerd also falls apart when you realize he was actually quite popular with the ladies throughout his younger and middle ages.  Dude liked to party, in fact, and had multiple affairs.) 

Also, it ends where it should more thoroughly culminate, with the rise of video games in the 80s and 90s.  (The MMORPG Ultima Online from 1997 is as late as we go, even though this book came out 2014.)  It's fine that Peterson didn't set out to chronicle the video game side of things, but also stunts some obvious momentum he has developed regarding the "gamification" of popular culture ca. 2020, and the future of virtual simulations using technology.

"replaced with a bullet casing, much too large"

"The enormous remaining boa constrictor will die in its cage.  I think it leans its ugly head against the wire and has a heartrending air such as you see only in the dying.  I thought it must be thirsty and carefully poured water on its mouth and head, but it merely stared at me from the depths of a loneliness that had little connection left with earthly things.  So we decided to release the boa.  Walter and I shook it out of the cage, because it did not want to budge.  The women watched from a safe distance, not looking happy.  The snake crawled right back into its enclosure, yet when I check later, it was gone, and there was a clear trail in the sand leading toward the jungle.  At night the place where the snake had disappeared was thronged with twinkling fireflies, and overhead a clear, starry night sky.  Andres, our mathematician, was playing chess with his girlfriend, losing most of the games, but he accepted that with mathematical decorum.  A white pawn is missing, and has been replaced with a bullet casing, much too large, which usually becomes the object of attacks early in the game.  For the first time in my life mosquitoes are leaving me completely indifferent, not that I have accepted the superior power of nature.  It is more of a dispassionate scorn with which I am leaving my skin and blood undefended.  God grant us one good day, a single one, amen."

-- Werner Herzog, The Conquest of the Useless

Spooky Daegu

Daegu, South Korea.

"You were chasing me through a dream / origami and gabardine"

 

Bob Mould, "Siberian Butterfly"

Yo La Tengo.  The Sea and Cake (plus side projects).  Bob Mould.

Siri -- name some musicians who are making albums into their 60's that are consistently good, if not sometimes great?

"proper 'worlds'"

"The virtual worlds hosted by Ultima Online [1997] and its many descendants are not real worlds, but they are worlds that can be experienced in a way that seems much more immersive than clambering through steam tunnels beneath a university.  Ultimately, computers largely resolved the dichotomy between realism and playability -- computers excel at the management of the enormous number of circumstantial modifiers that create a realistic game, but since the burden of calculating those factors falls on on human participant, the playability remains unaffected. . . .  This realistic playability does come at a cost -- a computer cannot improvise or innovate, traits that a human referee can leverage to craft a more engrossing world.  For many players, however, that trade-off is made happily.  In a multiplayer game environment, the computer can also fall back to the position of an intermediary, allowing humans to improvise and innovate with one another as players, which can approximate, and in some cases exceed, the imagination of a dedicated referee.  What makes these virtual environments proper 'worlds' is not so much their scenery as their inhabitants, the community that players join when they enter the game.  Like the real world, it is a place where individuals compete and collaborate as necessary to achieve their goals, and the interpersonal dynamics that this involves, as Chapter Four illustrated, lend a depth to the game that no system can model or simulate."

-- Jon Peterson, Playing at the World

"tucks them in with a duvet"

How is England handling the pandemic?  By growing huge vegetables!  To wit:

"But giant-vegetable-growing is about more than machismo; it requires the disciplined devotion of a medieval monk. 'There’s something therapeutic about it,' says Carre. 'You’re trying to keep the vegetable growing, and push it further, and wondering if you’ve done everything right. It’s like how I imagine nurturing a baby, almost.' Short spends two hours a day with his pumpkins, visiting them in the morning and again at night, when he tucks them in with a duvet, to alleviate any sudden temperature changes that might cause them to split."

I mean, why not?  ("I mean, why not?" has pretty much been my mantra since November 2016.)

Also news to me that summer county fairs along with plant- and livestock-contests are just not a thing in South Korea, according to my adult students.

Enter The G-Man

My World Series inclination is to root for the American League squad, but a few years back I adopted the Dodgers are my B-team.  However, Ryu Hyun-jin has moved on to Toronto, and I'm really intrigued by Tampa Bay's first baseman Choi Ji-man.

He's a total journeyman oddball.  Plays first as a rightie (which implies he's a natural rightie) but has until recently always batted as a leftie.  But now, he's also flirting with switch hitting.  (He's only 29, but that's way late to change an entire plate approach.)

Anyhow, I think I'm rooting for Tampa Bay now and hope Choi (known as "The G-Man") gets off at least one decent bat-flip.

Prosecute The Scooter Looter Freebooters

Last month  I was complaining about waves of rental scooters showing up and basically choking the street corners of Daegu.  Turns out I'm not alone in my distaste for these things:

"The number of complaints relating to the use of electric scooters this year reached 1,951 as of end of July, according to data from the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission. For full-year 2019, the number was 1,927, and in 2018, it was 511.

'We receive at least 10 complaints a day about electric scooters parked on sidewalks or at subway station exits where lots of people pass by,' an employee from Gangdong District Office’s transportation policy department said. 'When we actually visit the location, the electric scooter is no longer there as it has already been taken by another user. It’s really difficult for us to regulate them.'

Operators of scooter-sharing services are making efforts to tackle the backlash. Olulo, operator of Kickgoing, and PUMP, operator of Xing xing, established 24-hour-a-day hotlines for local district offices so that company employees can clear their scooters within two hours of a complaint.  

 Some critics argue that foreign companies have recklessly increased the number of scooters in pursuit of revenue, to the point that it has become nearly impossible for them to respond to problems."

If they are left on public streets or sidewalks, they are literally pieces of trash.  Treat them as such.

Fuck The Yankees, Fuck the Stros

The rabid hellscape of 2020 is the only possible timeline where I become a Tampa Bay Rays fan.

"just like it said in the encyclopedia"

Fried chicken is heaven, Korean friend chicken especially so.  But many Koreans are unaware of the fraught history of Soul Food in America:

"All this explained my discomfort in publicly asserting my affection for fried chicken. But it did not diminish it. I understood why some African American friends of Momofuku restaurateur David Chang refused to be seen eating fried chicken on camera, as he described in an episode dedicated to the southern delicacy on his Netflix series Ugly Delicious. They didn’t want to be perceived as a cliche.

But while the US was trying to unpick the racist issues surrounding fried chicken, the UK’s Conservative government was stoking the flames. The Home Office’s decision to put anti-knife crime messages on fried chicken boxes perpetuated yet more racist stereotypes about knife crime and chicken shop customers.

It all feeds into that same shame. During a recent podcast recording, I was asked what my final supper would be. As I said 'fried chicken', I couldn’t help hearing an imagined, knowing, 'Of course!' in response.

The US comedian Dave Chappelle got it. In one sketch, he mimics white people watching him as he eats some chicken. 'Look at him,' they say in amazement, 'he loves it just like it said in the encyclopedia.'"

Everything is political, even the crispiest and deliciousist of fried poultry.

Minor Thought

2020 is definitely the year we'll all look back and say, wow, thank God for capitalism.

For Your Enjoyment, Bro

Jakob Bro, "Red Hook" live

I've recently discovered this amazing Danish jazz guitarist named Jakob Bro.

I mean, it's 2020 -- I'm just going to roll with it.  The guys with him are all excellent as well.

America, Fuck No

I'm pretty certain I'll be leaving Korea and going home this February at the end of my current contract, for family reasons.

As I eyeball prices on a new car, health and car insurance, an apartment, and US-priced internet and phone, I'm kind of put off by the fact that I'm already losing money.

And I'll need to find a job in the middle of the Trump Virus.  Hell, I'll need to survive  the Trump Virus.

Good times.

"We're rich."

Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) was two weeks ago, but I still enjoyed this essay by Nina Yun on what it means to celebrate abundance in a time of the coronavirus in America:

"On Chuseok, as my mother and I cooked happily and divided all the food into containers (and then Ziploc bags when we ran out of containers), we’d make the same joke. 'We’re rich,' my mother said every time she poured more oil into the pan. 'We’re rich,' I said when I cracked more eggs. 'We’re rich,' we said in unison as we looked at all the food we packed to give away. After months of pandemic living, we still find it hard to enjoy our meals without feeling guilty, especially when faced with an excess of our own making. But this felt like relief, like a long exhale for a breath we didn’t know we were holding. It felt right. Chuseok, too, is a kind of new year for my mother and her emigration from Korea. I think for many Korean Americans, the tenor of Chuseok’s guide to remembrance expands to their or their family’s immigrant experiences. To account for the struggles it takes to make a life here, to account for what it means to survive here, is to remember a kind of body.

Before I left to deliver the food — face mask on the entire time — my mother poured us each a small serving of sujeonggwa [cinnamon fruit punch]. We toasted. After I drank mine, I studied the emptiness of my teacup and felt grateful."

This is, frankly, a horrible time to be alive.  Splurging on food for yourself, family, and your friends seems perfectly logical to me.

King Sejong Was A Pimp

And a happy Hangul Day to you.

The weather here in Daegu is autumn perfection.  Off to take a long walk around the north part of the city.

"ordinary days in between extraordinary bullshit, most of it happening to someone else"

When will America finally collapse under the weight of its leadership vacuum and systemic inequalities based on race and class?  Sri Lankan writer Indi Samarajiva says it already has:

"If you’re waiting for a moment where you’re like 'this is it,' I’m telling you, it never comes. Nobody comes on TV and says 'things are officially bad.' There’s no launch party for decay. It’s just a pileup of outrages and atrocities in between friendships and weddings and perhaps an unusual amount of alcohol.

Perhaps you’re waiting for some moment when the adrenaline kicks in and you’re fighting the virus or fascism all the time, but it’s not like that. Life is not a movie, and if it were, you’re certainly not the star. You’re just an extra. If something good or bad happens to you it’ll be random and no one will care. If you’re unlucky you’re a statistic. If you’re lucky, no one notices you at all.

Collapse is just a series of ordinary days in between extraordinary bullshit, most of it happening to someone else. That’s all it is."

Over 200,000 Americans are dead because of Trump's anti-science incompetence regarding coronavirus.

Hong Kong is doomed and neither Trump nor Johnson is lifting a finger to stop it.

A world-wide depression is about to kick in.

I mean, is there even enough oxygen left within American political discourse to remember that a quack government "doctor" has been forcing hysterectomies on migrant women?

Yawn

Kamala did fine.  (Notice a pattern here?)  I might have missed it, but she didn't mention Merrick Garland's name when Pence asked about court packing, which stood out for me as a missed opportunity.  Then again, maybe that's too much inside baseball for most Americans.

Mike Pence is obviously not quite as deranged at his master.  I don't see that carrying much weight in late 2020.

Biden is well within his rights to cancel the last two debates with Typhoid Cheeto.  They won't move the scale one inch either way.

Good lord, let's get this over with.

RIP Johnny Nash, Eddie V.

 

Johnny Nash, "I Can See Clearly Now" live

This might be overshadowed by the equally sad death of Eddie Van Halen.  They both deserve to be remembered for their very different but very excellent contributions to music.  Also, Nash was apparently the first non-Jamaican to record records in Kingston.

Too soon, too soon.

Things Are Still Awful

You can't "go back to normal" as long as the coronavirus is still active.  Even in South Korea, the country with the most success in fighting the virus, things are still in a deep rut:

"A shortage of job opportunities is another unexpected problem. College students who need part-time jobs can’t find any.

 

Lee Joo-yeon, a 24-year-old Hanyang University student, says she's trying but having little luck.

 

'When I had a job interview with a cafe owner, he said he was looking for an experienced worker,' Lee said. 'According to him, he used to have two part-time workers but had to cut one as he can’t afford paying them amid the Covid-19 pandemic.'

 

Mr. Lee, a 28-year-old studying for the civil service exam, said he was recently laid off from his part-time job.

 

'While studying for the exam, I used to work at a pub in front of Hanyang University at night to earn money for monthly living expenses,' Lee said. 'After I lost the job, it’s been really tough for me to get another opportunity.'”

Have I mentioned that I'll probably be moving back to America next year, and that I'm terrified at the prospect of finding work?

"All In" Is A Weak Move, Not A Strong One

In poker terms, Trump has gone "all in."  In moving back to the White House he'll have his bully pulpit back, and some modicum of control over a narrative that is increasingly looking good for Joe Biden after an objectively disastrous debate performance.

Of course, "all in" means you've also played your last move.

Here, it also  means further risking the lives of the White House staffers around him, the Secret Service, White House janitorial and management, and of course, literally all of their family members.

Obviously, this shocks nobody.  There has always been a Jonestown quality to Trump's support, both officially (Republicans cowed into not wearing masks) and unofficially (crowds of supporters herded into indoor arenas).

It's still two or three days before we know just how severe a case of COVID-19 Trump has picked up.  If he goes straight back onto the campaign trail, only to flee back to Walter Reed with inflamed lungs and needing oxygen, he'll look even weaker than the overweight, under-exercised, 74 year-old he actually is.  Game over, figuratively at best.

Republicans are still going to try and do everything they can to steal this election, but Trump's "outs" are growing scarcer and more dangerous by the day.  (Hour?)  Gas-lighting a pusillanimous and easily-led US media is one thing.  Playing games with a goddamn killer virus is another.

Again, this is not at all a call for complacency.  I'm just pointing out that these are the final, desperate moves of someone who knows he's in trouble (politically and physically) and more importantly, knows he has no options left.

Anybody familiar with Texas Hold'em (even rank amateurs like me) knows that moving all your chips in is usually the desperate move, not the strong one.  Nine times out of ten, it signals "please don't realize how fucked I really am," not "recognize my status as a preternatural He-Man."

Staying put at Walter Reed and milking hourly empathy points from FOX, and probably even to a lesser extent CNN would have been the confident move.  "For any American suffering from the China Virus, I know how difficult it is!"

But alas, this is a lifelong loser making what might be his final loser move.

It's only a question of how many actual human lives he manages to take with him before it's over.

"genuinely afraid of where this could lead"

With a new, non-surgical, treatment for dwarfism advancing rapidly, who's to say whether or not it's a "disease" in the first place?  The Guardian takes a look at the medical, ethical, and social issues involved:

"There are, says Gillian Martin, a tutor and chair of the Restricted Growth Association, the British charity that supports people with dwarfism, 'people who are genuinely afraid of where this could lead'. Because about 80% of children with achondroplasia are born to parents without it, some 'adults with dwarfism in the community feel that average-height parents are being an advocate for a disability that doesn’t directly affect them. There is a fear – irrational in my view – that this research is leading the way to eradicate dwarfism.'

This view tends to be stronger in the US, where there is, says Joe Stramondo, a professor of philosophy at San Diego State University and a disability rights activist, 'a more robust dwarf culture and identity. With that kind of cultural context, you’re going to get a very different response to something like this than other areas of the world where people with dwarfism don’t associate with each other as often. We recognise our situation as being one of oppression, and of being subjected to stigma as being the main source of our difficulty in the world. When you have that community, that sounding board, you’re going to have more pushback to a drug like this.' But it’s far from the only view, he says. 'We have people who are very much against the use of the drug, and you have folks who are enthusiastic about it, and say: "Maybe it’s stigma, but it still makes my life harder. I don’t want that for my children." You have a lot of people who are somewhere in between, who are saying: "Let’s wait and see what the drug actually does. Let’s see if it has the capability of dealing with some of these co-morbidities such as sleep apnoea, or spinal stenosis." I think if it were shown to do some of that, there would be lots of people who would be pretty enthusiastic about it.'”

As medical science advances, it's interesting to think about "diseases" that really don't need to be cured.  (Autism as a sign of potential genius rather than an inability to function socially, for example.)  And of course, more conservative societies might even mandate these types of treatment rather than allowing parents and their children to decide if they want to be "fixed."

The future, if we make it past Trump, is going to be complicated as hell.

Thoughts And Prayers

I say we treat a sick and / or dying President Trump with the same respect and deference he has shown to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, or Hillary Clinton.

— Antifa #BLM James (@wetcasements) October 3, 2020

Monorail!

Daegu, South Korea.

It occurs to me that after ten years in lovely Daegu I really haven't taken more pictures of my more immediate neighborhood of Chilgok / North Daegu.

It's a perfectly nice area, but before COVID arrived I spent much more of my free time in other parts of the city, either downtown or way to the east at the ballpark.

What's cool here is that you can see a few things that have definitely improved the area recently.  The glass building on the left is Guam Station, on the Line Three Monorail (in addition to Lines One and Two, traditional subway lines).  Getting downtown is now a breeze compared to the bus lines.

Also, they've finished construction on a really nice foot and bike path along this stream.  When the weather is good (like it was today) people flock to the stream side.  I know it doesn't look amazing, but it's a big change from what used to be pretty much an overlooked drainage ditch.

Spam Spam Spam

 

Yes, Spam is a traditional (and expensive) gift here in South Korea for major holidays.

Daegu, South Korea.

Dalmatian Station

Daegu, South Korea.

Happy Chuseok!

It's Chuseok again, Korean Thanksgiving, and the city, or at least the northern suburb where I live, is totally quiet.  There's the occasional shriek of kids playing, but that's about it.  The weather is Platonically ideal at 75 with a few clouds, and I'm in the middle of a five-day weekend staycation.

I had pizza for dinner last night, which I haven't had in over a year if I'm remembering correctly.

For what it's worth, there is decent South Korean pizza out there but the place I ordered from on a bit of a whim was not it.

Insert bad pizza / sex jokes here.

It's already October.  Three months left to ago in this hell-year.  I got an e-mail from Washington State to let me know my e-ballot has been received.

It's something, I guess.

Happy Chuseok to you and your family.

(To get technical, far too often Korean pizza cheese and toppings don't "meld" with the crust.  They sort glide on top and come off way too easily.  The flavors are there, but the marriage between crust and cheese and toppings never seems to come together like it should.  And I'm pretty sure this places makes their dough from scratch, so the problem is somehow in the cooking process, not the ingredients.)

Well, That Happened

Biden did fine.

Could you stand for 90 minutes feet away from Cheeto Hitler without literally smacking him across his fake-tanned face?

Also, Kamala will destroy Pence.

— Antifa #BLM James (@wetcasements) September 30, 2020

"no legitimate reason"

Bob Mould, "Next Generation"

He plays guitar harder than he ever has at the ripe old age of 59.  Anger makes you young.

We can't be complacent.  Donald Trump and the Republican Cult that supports him to the death are going to try and steal this election.

But frankly, it puts a spring in my step to realize that there's a more-than-zero chance that Cheeto Hitler and at least one or more of his horrible fail-children will go to jail in light of recent news:

"He pointed specifically to consultant fees paid by Donald Trump to Ivanka Trump. Since Ivanka Trump was already an employee of the Trump Organization, Akerman said, there was 'no legitimate reason' for those payments. 

He speculated the two could have been shifting the money around to avoid paying taxes on it.  

That, he said, could lead to an ominous development for the president should he leave office in January. 

'The only thing that’s saving him at this point is the Department of Justice’s guideline that says you can’t indict a sitting president,' Akerman said. 'Once he’s no longer a sitting president, he is subject to being indicted.'”

To quote a certain highly decorated starship captain, "Make it so." 

Electioneering

 I voted.

Washington State Ballot.

Same US address I've used for over a decade now (my last residence in America before moving to South Korea).

COVID changed things a bit though.  I usually send my ballots snail-mail, no insurance, because I've got pretty good faith in Korean and US mail.

But this year, and for months now, the Korean post office has warned that letters and packages can be delayed by over a month.

So I went to Daegu FedEx, and they told me they won't ship to PO Boxes.

Went to Korean post office, asked for "EMS" (express) service, and they said the same thing.

So, being that Washington State is primarily a Democratic one that actually wants folks to vote, I've done my first ever scan-and-e-mail ballot.

This is no shade on my Washington State county whatsoever -- they've been routinely excellent at letting me vote for over a decade now.

Anyhow, just thought it was worth sharing.  This election is not a normal one by any means.

Vote the bloated orange pussy-grabber out with enough vengeance that his inevitable cry of "illegal immigrants voting!" is drowned out by the joyful noise of a country that has an outside chance -- certainly not a definite one -- of making something of a comeback from the brink of tyranny and/or mediocrity.

Tediocraty?  Myranny?

This Wednesday is the beginning of Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) so I can get up and watch the first debate in the comfort of my boxer-shorts.  Lucky me.

I'm not expecting Ciceronian perfection from Biden, but I think he's got enough left in the tank and a sense of history to know that he needs to be sharp.

He can be.  He needs to be.

I'm Not Rooting For The Apocalypse, I'm Just Plague-Curious

Professor Kate Soper writes in The Guardian about how COVID-19 might teach us (the hard way) about better possible futures once (if) the pandemic dies down:

"Covid-19 may have caused us to re-examine this status quo. According to the ONS [Office for National Statistics], household spending decreased by a fifth during lockdown. For decades, economic liberalism has affirmed the idea of the self-interested consumer as an almost natural human state. But during the pandemic, a more public-oriented spirit seemed to emerge. People signed up to volunteer for the NHS in droves and mutual aid groups flourished. As commuting dropped off, people had more time to spend at home and in their communities.

Lockdown momentarily benefited our physical environments, too. Cities became less air-polluted and congested, and seasoned walkers and cyclists enjoyed the utopian experience of moving unmolested on roads usually dense with cars, while others took up cycling for the first time. For a brief period, wildlife reclaimed some of its former territory and roadkill fell dramatically. Many reported hearing more birdsong. Those living under flightpaths savoured the experience of plane-free silent skies. As people flocked to parks, it became clearer than ever why we need to defend our green public spaces."

I'm all for it, but we also can't take our eyes off of the folks who have no industry, or hollowed out ones at best, to return to -- restaurants, hotels, airlines, etc.

But by all means, let's stop pretending that anyone but the most fevered of capitalists enjoys living a life of stress and greed and mindless consumption of bullshit things and services.

"the average American disagrees with Republican orthodoxy on every major issue"

David Litt is more optimistic than I am after the death of Justice Ginsbug, but is concise in stating the obvious -- Republicans have been handed every structural advantage imaginable (Senate, Electoral College) and it's still never been enough:

"For one thing, America’s political institutions are currently biased – in many cases quite aggressively – in favor of conservatives. Restrictive voting laws make casting a ballot disproportionately difficult for lower-income, non-white and young Americans. Unprecedented gerrymandering gives Republicans a built-in advantage in the race for the House, and according to FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver, the Senate’s bias toward rural states makes the chamber about seven points redder than the nation as a whole. Thanks to the electoral college, two of the past five presidential elections have been won by Republicans who lost the popular vote – one reason why even before Justice Ginsburg’s death, 15 of the past 19 supreme court justices were appointed by GOP presidents.

The conservative movement, in other words, already had it pretty good. The average American disagrees with Republican orthodoxy on every major issue: healthcare, climate change, gun violence, immigration, taxes, Covid response. Yet thanks to the biases embedded in the American political process, Republicans have not just remained viable, but secured extraordinary amounts of power. We can’t know for certain who would benefit from upending the status quo that existed at the time of Justice Ginsburg’s passing – but we do know which party has the most to lose."

Biden doesn't just need to win, he needs to win big to avoid a major Constitutional crisis at best, and prolonged street violence -- cheered on by Trump -- at worst.

But as I've been saying, if we are looking at Civil War II scenarios, denying Merrick Garland a hearing was the proverbial shooting on Fort Sumter.

McConnell shot first.  Dems need to be certain to shoot last.  If Biden has to be dragged kicking and screaming to this realization, so be it.

Universal voting registration.  Statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico.  Pack the court.

"truth must be spoken of as it is"

South Korea has a reputation for being a sexually conservative society, but it's also one where secret cameras in women's bathrooms are a rampant social problem, and the drugging and gang-raping of women in a nightclub leads to very little consequence for the (famous, wealthy) perpetrators.  So it's a shame that small steps towards balanced, comprehensive sex education have once again been shot down by the government:

"Contrary to parents’ belief that sex education will lead to their children having more sex, earlier, a survey on the aftereffects that CSE [comprehensive sexuality education] demonstrated on sexual behaviors revealed that 37 percent of 87 countries that were surveyed said its students had delayed initiation of sex after education, 31 percent said the frequency of sex was reduced and the use of condoms increased in 40 percent of the countries. 

 

Rather than lingering on the ministry’s already-made decision, Nam Yoon-jeong, the president of Think Sing Together who led the Nadaum project, hoped that this incident could be turned into an opportunity to talk about sex education and how sex is dealt with in Korea.

 

'Korea had been lacking proper sex education and any discussion on sex or human rights has been shut down whenever it began,' said Nam. 'We are exposed to sexual consumption and imagery everyday and everywhere, but an ironic stoic sentiment forbids us from talking about it publicly or officially. The ambivalent culture leads to children wondering about something they are exposed to, but getting twisted ideas of it because they’re not taught properly about what it is exactly. The truth must be spoken of as it is.'”

Nothing good can come of a hyper-sexualized society that can't talk openly and plainly about sex, contraception, homosexuality, sexual violence, and gender equality.  And if you click through for pictures, you'll notice that these so called "controversial" books are about as tame as can be.