What
with successive rounds of the Repugnant attempts to “repeal and replace” ACA,
plus just unbelievable nominations to the Kleptocrat’s administration, I’ve
made so many calls to my Senators and Representative that I’m now expecting
their staff members to start inviting me to weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.
The
latest was yesterday when I called yet again to urge the triad to vote the
Repugnant tax scam bill back under the rocks where it was spawned. And this
reminded me of an attempt by the ‘Pugs back in June to hawk up some support for
their ambush of fired FBI director James B. Comey. It was on Twitter, and it
did not go well. Viz:
It’ll
be interesting to see how one of Amazon’s new (well, ish) business models plays
out. I’m talking Amazon Locker, the ordering option that, instead of having
your purchases delivered to your front door, allows you to designate a secure
locker (well, I assume it’s secure) in some location that’s presumably
convenient, and you can go there to pick it up.
I
get it that there are issues around packages left on people’s doorsteps—big
enough issues that Amazon has another
delivery option for you: Amazon Key. With Amazon Key, if you’re a Prime
customer (and I don’t know why you’d order more than twice without being a
Prime customer), you can install an Amazon-provided digital lock on your front
door. When you have a delivery, the Amazon-authorized delivery person goes
through some sort of authentication process and then is able to open your door
and leave the package inside your house. You, of course, can follow all this
via an Amazon Key app on your mobile phone.
(I’m
seriously not wild about this, primarily because of the third-party delivery
services ranging from—at best—FedEx, to—at worse—USPS, who delivers the
last-mile for UPS in many cases, and does all Saturday/Sunday deliveries. Well,
I suppose there’s one possibility even worse than USPS; that would be DHL. But
I’m leaving them out of the equation. My point is, these are contractors or
sub-contractors, and I would not want them inside my house under any
circumstance. I also don’t see how Amazon can guarantee against theft in these
conditions. We’re basically talking a TSA-baggage handler finger pointing ring
of non-accountability. So, no.)
Well,
okay, back to Locker. I bring it up because for me the whole point of paying
for home delivery is, you know, home delivery. As in: delivery to my actual
home. Not some locker somewhere I have to drive, park, find, unlock, schlep to
my car, drive home and then again schlep from my car to my house. For me, it
ain’t “delivery” unless it’s delivered.
(I became a big Amazon consumer when I lived in a third-floor walk-up in the
Valley They Call Silicon. Other things being equal, I’d much rather the UPS guy
carry the laser printer, office chair and 40 pounds of bird seed up two flights
of stairs instead of me.)
This
is especially an issue in urban environments, like the Metro DC area. Just in
the Greater Reston-Herndon Metroplex in Fairfax County, going two miles can
take 15 to 30 minutes, depending on time of day, high school sporting events,
weather and other variables. I don’t see why I should do the work I’m paying
Amazon to do. (I also avoid the self-serve supermarket checkout lanes for the
same reason. You’re not giving me a discount for doing that, so I’m not doing
it.)
Case
in point: I saw this one at the Whole Foods store in Vienna, which is about 25
minutes away from me on a Saturday morning with no football games or Christmas fairs.
Let
me just say that there is absolutely no value proposition around making me
drive to Vienna at any time to pick up a package of cute socks, or an Italian
fountain pen, or 40 pounds of bird seed.
How
‘bout them elections, huh? Just one year after America’s psychotic break, the
fog appears to be lifting, and voters went to the polls in multiple states last
week to begin restoring the notion of government of the people, by the people
and for the people.
As
opposed to government of the greedy, by the corrupt and for the plutocrats.
Since
Tuesday I’ve been thinking a lot about that song we learned in elementary
school: “Jacob’s Ladder”, about keeping hope alive while putting one foot in
front of the other. It seems an apt reminder after the appalling events of the
past year, and I’m feeling that hope revive.
Here
in the Commonwealth of Virginia—once the capital of the Confederacy, and scene
only last August of willie-waving demonstrations by obese neo-Nazis and pimply
white supremacists in Thomas Jefferson’s home town—we made tremendous strides. In
the gubernatorial race, Democratic candidate Ralph Northam handily defeated
former RNC chief Ed Gillespie, who ran a campaign of vile, racist ads that took
many pages out of his idol, the Kleptocrat’s play book—screaming about MS-13
taking over the Old Dominion, even though crime is down here.
(As
late as Tuesday morning, the dotard was spewing tweets urging Virginians to
support Gillespie. As the returns came in in the evening, and it became evident
that Northam was leading, there was speculation on Twitter as to how long it
would take him to throw Gillespie under the bus. I may have won the pool with
my “in a New York minute”; the first NBC call for Northam had barely been made
before Klepto tweeted that it was Gillespie’s failure “to embrace me” that
caused the loss. I’m still trying to wash the mental polaroid of what that
embrace might have looked like out of my mind.)
In
addition to Northam, Virginians voted in Democrats for Lieutenant Governor and
Attorney General, which guards against infighting at the top of the state
government structure.
More
heartening were the races for the House of Delegates, where Democrats made huge
inroads into Republican control—which will have a salubrious effect on redrawing
gerrymandered Congressional districts down the road. At time of writing, Republicans
were down to 47 (from 66) seats, with votes still being counted in three
districts. (There’s some kerfuffle in Stafford County over absent ballots from active
duty military that hadn’t been opened, with the county registrar blocking
recounts. I hope to God the ACLU is on this.) Pulling to a 50-50 split in the
House would mean that newly-elected Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax (only the
second African American elected to statewide office in Virginia history) can
cast tie-breaking votes.
(There
were also reports—too many to be dismissed as a rumor—of calls made to
Democrats in different jurisdictions, announcing that their polling precincts
had changed and directing them to bogus locations. Other reports surfaced of
uniformed law enforcement officers standing outside polling places “directing” Latino-looking
voters how to vote. Repugnants do not change their spots.)
But
even more amazing was the fact that Democrat Danica Roem became the first
openly transgender person to be elected, and she defeated incumbent Robert G.
Marshall, arch-conservative and proudly self-proclaimed “chief homophobe”,
perhaps best known for proposing a law banning transgender people from using
public toilets in accordance with their gender identity.
I
purely loved the classy way she closed out the race: when asked about Marshall,
she replied, “I don’t attack my constituents. Bob is my constituent now.”
In
other races, Elizabeth Guzman and Hala Ayala both defeated Republican incumbents
to become the first-ever Latinas elected to the House of Delegates, and Cathy
Tran—who came to this country as a refugee from Vietnam as an infant—defeated another
‘Pub incumbent to join Guzman and Ayala. However the still-contested races turn
out, the House of Delegates is losing its pasty complexion and getting some
healthy color.
And—one
of my favorites—down Blacksburg way, former news anchor Chris Hurst, whose
girlfriend Alison Parker was shot dead on live TV two years ago by a former
colleague—defeated yet another Repugnant incumbent. The delicious kicker? Hurst’s
opponent, Joseph R. Yost, holds a “Grade A” stamp of approval from the NRA.
There
were other amazing stories around the country from last Tuesday’s election,
including more transgender wins in Palm Springs, Ca.; Minneapolis, Minn.; and
Erie, Penn. Charlotte, N.C., elected its first black mayor, and Hoboken, N.J.,
elected the first Sikh American mayor in the country—despite a vicious,
fear-mongering racist campaign waged by his opponent. Women and underrepresented
minorities made gains across the country, despite the perceived wisdom that
non-presidential elections are lackluster.
I
take real hope from these events—even though I well know that these wins were
the result of hard, slogging work by thousands of individuals, and we will need
to replicate this work in next year’s elections, where one third of the Senate
and all the House are up for grabs. Even so, I’m savoring this moment, and I am
grateful for all that work that got us this far.
Like
that old song says, every rung goes higher, higher.
