I've returned from vacation in another state. The conditions for the visit imposed by the health authorities there were that I either needed to document a clean bill of COVID-19 health taken within 72 hours of arrival or self-quarantine for 14-days. Plans A & B for testing both fell through. One site required a referral which we did not have, another was too costly. We learned of a reputedly "free" method for testing but between the distance from our base, the availability for an appointment and the prospects for receiving results, our window for certification disappeared. Fortunately we had access to private quarters so sheltering in place it was. There was no internet where we were, no cable, the telephone was not connected and cell-phone service was spotty at best, so we went cold-turkey on media saturation, news and our usual diet of information. Hard to believe but we survived.
Before I left, I'd helped a friend with setting up a transfer between an unemployment account and a bank. The magnetic strip on the card issued by the municipality through which they were receiving benefits had stopped working though they'd had it for a only a short while, their efforts to get a new card after months of working to get the first had not yet panned out and their straits were getting dire. I witnessed the completion of the transaction, went on vacation, on my return, they still had not received the money from the unemployment account in their regular bank account. Had they maybe not dotted some i on the transaction like missed a final ok button or something? There had to be a simple explanation for it. While I was speaking to them about it, they reminded me that I had told them while they were going through the process that the managers of the system would not have made the process easy. I had no memory of saying this. Sure enough the site left many steps unexplained that required either some knowledge of how online financial processes generally work or a degree of ESP in order to figure out. I had a bit of the former. The holdup in getting their funds moved to their usual bank account was in small print on the site: transactions take up to 30 days. Figures.
Why had I prior to my vacation correctly surmised that the process for accessing funds to which one was entitled would be difficult whereas post-vacation I was annoyed by the difficulty? Answer: because before the vacation I was adapted to the poverty of life under a capitalist online regime, whereas in the intervening weeks my acquiescence had worn off even for the brief time I had been in unconnected quarantine. In quarantine, time unfolded naturally, with the rhythm of the sun. moon and stars. Back in civilization everything happened once again in "real time": lightning fast for outgo, glacial for income.
While I was away, I learned through a notification delivered in the interstices of a shoddy 4G reception first that Joe Biden's VP pick was immanent, and second that it was Kamala Harris. I greeted both pieces of information with indifference. I felt I had made up my mind about the election. I knew what I was dealing with. No VP choice this turkey nominee could pick would disappoint me as much as his conquest of the nomination had. I had a small place reserved for shock should he have upset expectations by picking someone not already being bandied about but more to my liking. Biden has one speed so of course he picked among the non-entities already on the list. Who gives a shit? Apparently some people do because I was met more than once with an expectant, "Kamala Harris! Am I right?" from people, to which I had to hesitate long enough for the subject to change. From what I gather her gender and ethnicity are sufficient reason to be excited. I was hoping for a bit more in terms of a signal that she would be a concession to the Bernie wing of the party who actually voted in the primary.
The Democratic convention started. They're not pretending anymore. All the usual suspects are featured, plus 6 Republicans in as clear a sign of Democratic priorities as I've ever seen. AOC got 60 pre-recorded seconds. If I want to hear Republicans I'll wait til next week. If even democrats aren't pretending there's hope for you and me in this rotten, diseased, capitalistic shithole of a country, why should we?
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