121 the good future vs. the bad future
It is getting kind of sad, the emptiness of the streets. The limited amount of car traffic doesn't make up for the gaping holes where street life used to be. It's feeling like it might be time to recognize this new reality and adjust our lives so we have more space for outdoor activity, and less space for things that aren't happening, like driving around. The same is true for office and retail space. Why is this real estate empty when we have a housing crisis? Right, because we're waiting to go "back to normal."
The path we're on, unfortunately or not, leads us "forward to new."
Well, thank gosh, another permit to staple onto your boarded up cafe.
All the charm of Paris, plus some extra space. This, unfortunately, on the windiest corner in the city, 9th and Market.
Longstanding Zuni Cafe has opened for takeout. The real bummer for restaurants, of course, is that food is really only a small part of what they sell. Atmosphere, a scene, and service are hard to get in a takeout container.
Flowers on the other hand? I really can't see a reason this stand ever had to shut down, other than they were told to, and maybe they would have had no customers.
It's interesting that the city, when faced with a pandemic, relies on the same method as club promoters to get the word out. But, of course, they don't tear down their own posters.
There was a definite uptick in cyclists on my walk to the farmer's market yesterday.
And mask wearing continues to climb. It is now the norm, I'd say.
Meanwhile in cacacoocooland.
So, back in the 1980s, there was this guy named Michael Milken. He figured out that he could buy companies with leverage (by selling what was called "junk bonds"), suck all the cash and value out of these companies, restructure and rebrand them, then walk away with all their money as they fell apart. He got really rich doing this. (And eventually went to jail.)
Milken was the neighbor of a medium-time real estate developer and slumlord who fancied himself to be a big player. But that guy wasn't very good at buying or starting normal businesses, like a sports team, airline, or vodka, and making a profit, so he focused on proven money makers. Real estate and gambling. How can you lose money owning a casino?
Well, it turns out, it's plenty easy, especially when suddenly everyone has the same idea. So, no problem, the guy looked at Milken, and he said, "I can do that." Come up with a game plan to make money, no matter what.
And that's when dear leader settled upon his usual pattern of doing business. It is a four step plan.
1. Leverage. Use a little money to borrow a bunch of money to buy something you can't afford. (Example, spend a hundred million of your own money to unlock two hundred million in public campaign financing.)
2. Rebrand. Whatever the fuck it was called before doesn't matter, it's now "Grump." Grump casino. Grump hotel. Grump wine. Grump country.
3. Bankrupt. How? Well, each entity is different, but they all involve stripping a formerly robust and functional organization of anything that can be turned into cash to stuff into your New-York-billionaire-sized mattress. (A pandemic will do nicely.)
4. Walk with cash.
Grab all the cash you can.
Until it's a total wreck.
Then, walk with cash.
Oh well, we were never really the hot shit we pretended to be anyway.
Meanwhile, in good news...
If you look at the curve of human population over time, this really isn't a surprising headline at all.
What may be surprising is why. I always figured our population would crash because we simply ran out of resources.
But it turns out, maybe moms are pretty good at reading the writing on the wall.
And they see, you know, maybe one or two is enough?
Or maybe even none?
What will we do about this decline?
Who will make our stuff?
Who will take care of us?
And how will we pay for everyone to be retired at once?
Immigrants will be a hot commodity. (Really, they already are, if you look at the work immigrants do in the US, it's blatantly obvious. So many "essential" workers are immigrants, from healthcare to farmwork.)
Or maybe a Nigerian Prince will save us?
(For the record, my answer is : robots.)
(Well, either that or starvation.)
In which Tim Redmond lights into the NYT editor who resigned after letting a far-right nutcase (sorry, a US representative) run some sort of weird "let them die" opinion piece.
Apparently, the younger people in the newsroom have had enough of appeasing the powers that be.
Like supporting the "War on Terror" and the "War on Drugs" and the "War on Christmas." (Wait, what?)
And they're having a hard time swallowing the barf of their own stories.
It is really a very difficult line to walk, this finger pointing while simultaneously back-slapping.
Do you know what MSM means? Point proven.
How about BLM?
Comments
Post a Comment