— पांच हजार छह सौ इकतालीस —
We live in extraordinary times.
Former President Fuckwit's polling continues to get better in the wake of an assassination attempt, just as expected. If that man wins a second term, it'll still be extraordinary. How can this country forget what an abjectly chaotic mess things were during his first term? It boggles the mind. The only comfort, and small comfort at that, I could get from enduring yet another four years of his idiocy, malice, and bigotry, is the fact that after two terms he can never, ever be President again. Not without a lot of legal changes that will take a huge amount of time and effort. Then again, his ascension lays the groundwork for the end of democracy either way.
If President Biden actually bows out of the race, only three and a half months before the General Election, it will be extraordinary. For the first time, we are getting chatter that this might actually happen. Who would replace him on the ticket is up in the air, and the whole idea of his running a second time instead of bowing out to begin as promised was because of the perception that he'd be the only one who could beat Former President Fuckwit. That said, if he bowed out, it would domimate the news cycle for some time, pull the focus away from Fuckwit, and I'm sure he'd be insensed by that. Which is a thought that brings me some joy.
If President Biden stays in the race and actually wins, which right now kind of looks like it would take a miracle—although it's still worth noting that stranger things have happened—it won't be extraordinary. I feel relatively neutral about that.
Here is something that is mostly unrelated: by next year, my total assets, when combining my 401(k) and my IRA and my savings account, will for the first time exceed $500,000. That's half a million dollars. A million dollars means far less now than it did a few decades ago (oh you're "a millionaire"?
ooooh!), but it's still an indicator of one thing. I think I'm doing fine.
That said, with the fate of democracy hanging in the balance, I can't help but think of all these apocalyptic scenarios that could result in the collapse of society, and by extension, the wiping out of my savings. And if that happens before I can do anything with that money—something Shobhit is persistently annoying about my not spending—I'm going to be very annoyed. Shobhit's idea, which is admittedly a smart one, is to prepare for the costs of our later years. My thing is having the ability to take advantage of what I can while it's still possible.
— पांच हजार छह सौ इकतालीस —
— पांच हजार छह सौ इकतालीस —
I rode my bike home from work yesterday, heated up my leftover lentils with a fried frozen "onion pancake" that is so tasty I've had one with dinner the past four days in a row, and then walked down to meet up with Laney so we could walk downtown to see a movie at Pacific Place at 6:15.
Laney and I have relatively frequent discussions about the current election cycle. The vibe is so much different than it had been in 2016 or 2020. 2016 was absolutely horrible, largely because it was such a shock: we all stupidly took for granted that Fuckwit had no chance of winning. So much for that! Our conversations are a lot more cautious and measured this year, because there's a very real chance of going right back to that awful man again. And we are both steeling ourselves for a forced perspective of acceptance. What else can we do?
Leave the country? I literally do think about this. I would much more seriously consider it if the Supreme Court rescinded the right to same-sex marriage, which is absolutely not out of the question. Shobhit's relatively reasonable response is, "Where would we go?" I mean, I don't know. Canada, probably? Australia? I know that these are difficult places to immigrate to, but we're talking about a scenario in which getting refugee status is a genuinely real possibility. These are bridges to cross when we get to them, although it is not lost on me that being without any pets right now would make things a lot simpler. I suppose at the very least I should wait until November to consider getting a kitten.
Anyway! Laney and I saw
Twisters, which paled in comparison to
Twister, which we watched a couple of weeks ago. Still, it was entertaining enough, and we both talked about how we were not sorry to have seen it. I had a great deal of nitpicks in my review but still gave it a solid B.
We walked back up Capitol Hill together and it was a lovely summer evening. Highs have remained in the eighties all week, highs today and tomorrow forecast to be 82°, 79° Sunday, 77° Monday. By next week we're supposed to be back to far more normal low- to mid-seventies, and I might just finally wear pants again. I have worn shorts every day for the past two weeks. I'm becoming a lot more fond of them, honestly; the drawstring waistbands are a kind of comfortable that I should clocked as high-value ages ago. I keep thinking of finding pants that are—gasp!—
not Levi's jeans and that fit similarly. My brand loyalty to Levi's 501 button fly jeans has not quite yet begun to wane, but I think it may be just about to.
— पांच हजार छह सौ इकतालीस —
[posted 12:31 pm]
