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pandemicperipatetics · 3 years

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Two Weeks in Missoula, MT

View from a bridge over the Clark Fork River

The Verdict

What a fun place to spend two weeks! Missoula prides itself on being weird, and we can see the charm. This tiny university town of 70-80K residents is surrounded by mountains and has the cute little Clark Fork River running through it. There are hardly any tall buildings and the downtown area is full of places to eat, drink, and buy random Montana-themed tchotchkes. We encountered very few chains or national brands (basically just some hotels downtown and the nearby Albertsons grocery).

From the quad at The University of Montana, Missoula

We also got a different kind of weird vibe, though. Missoula is gentrifying, and there’s an odd juxtaposition of it feeling a bit run-down -- the downtown area on the river isn’t terribly well-maintained; the local housing stock is pretty old; the university has lost a lot of funding and applicants in recent years -- and also designed for deep-pocketed tourists (food is more expensive than comparable options in NYC; the new downtown Mercantile building that houses the ~2 year old Marriott Residence Inn feels like an upscale shopping mall; it’s hard to believe how so many breweries could be supported by the size of the local population). As visitors unfamiliar with the area, we didn’t always feel totally welcome -- and we can only imagine what it must feel like for people from the area to experience it being transformed by yuppies and Silicon Valley money. Even the local shops already evoke AirSpace, and it’s a bit sad to think of Missoula losing its quirkiness more in the future.

Walking around downtown Missoula

What to Eat: Vegetarian Edition

For a town of its size, Missoula has a surprising number of places to eat out. It was exciting to discover lots of ethnic food and plenty of vegetarian-friendly options, but ultimately we found a lot of the food to be extremely overpriced for what it was. We also noticed that many of the places we visited were advertising for staff, some were closed due to lack of staff / inventory / ingredients, and a surprisingly high number of places experienced outages of menu items during our time there.

Note: All recommendations are in downtown or within walking distance. We’ve listed them in order of how much we liked them.

Five on Black [5/5]: Brazilian food that is surprisingly vegetarian-friendly and pretty reasonably priced ($12 for a large bowl). The tofu bowl with sweet potatoes and mango BBQ sauce was out of this world. Outdoor seating was available.

Masala [5/5]: Indian make-your-own bowl, Chipotle-style ($8). The coconut curry korma was delicious, and the paneer was pretty good too. This was the best value meal we had downtown. They had outdoor seating.

Basal [4.5/5]: Smoothies and salads. The Caesar salad with vegan dressing was pretty amazing, and the creamy smoothie (blue version) was obsession-inducingly good. Knocked off half a point because it is ridiculously expensive...yet we still went back a second time because it was delicious and healthy. Can’t remember if they had outdoor seating...

Market on Front [4.5/5]: Right by our hotel, and known for breakfast burritos. We tried picking up lunch there one day but it was a 25 minute wait. We tried again for an early dinner and voila...the Rawsome Vegan Wrap ($10.50) was very good The service was friendly, too.

Bernice’s Bakery [4.5/5]: This is a cute little bakery with great bread and vegetarian-friendly lunch options; we really liked their house-made Parker rolls ($0.60 each, or great as part of their sliders). They post their changing menu on Instagram daily. We didn’t try any of their sweets but they looked very enticing. This was also one of the few normally priced places we ate at. The shaded picnic table outside was very nice to eat at.

Zoo Thai [4/5]: This is an overpriced but pretty good Thai restaurant downtown. We really enjoyed the massaman curry ($17) and the coconut milk Thai iced tea ($3.5). There is one other vegetarian curry on the menu that was also decent. The service was exceptionally friendly although they are clearly understaffed (like lots of local places, it seems) and it took an unusually long time to get our food. Their outdoor patio was nice, and about a 30 minute wait on a Wednesday around 6p.m.

Conflux [4/5]: In a similar boat to Zoo Thai: the food was pretty good but it was one of the most expensive places we visited. We liked the vegetarian burger and the mushroom sandwich, and the beers were good too. The outdoor patio is extra cute and there was no wait when we went on a Thursday evening (when the wait was over an hour at The Camino).

The Union Club [4/5]: Our friend took us here, it’s a no-frills spot with a dive bar vibe, including pool tables and a few arcade games. As far as vegetarian options, they have a veggie burger (something like $6-$8) that was pretty decent and various fried items (breaded zucchini, jalapenos, etc). It was the most reasonably priced place we ate and we liked the relaxed atmosphere. There wasn’t any outdoor seating, but luckily it was nearly empty when we went.

Break Espresso [4/5]: Cafe. The lemon jam scone was decent, very sugary. We would totally go back here, but it didn’t seem like they had outdoor seating.

The Catalyst Cafe [3.5/5]: Good brunch options; the huevos rancheros were amazing, 5/5. However, the breakfast burrito with tofu and black beans was disappointing (maybe try the vegan brunch burrito with vegetables instead), and the service was particularly grumpy compared to anywhere else we went. They charge a gratuity on take-out orders, which they were upfront about but is still a bit odd. They have outdoor tables but due to the wait we took our food to go and ate on the lovely patio at our hotel.

Madeline’s Mediterranean (food truck) [3/5]: The falafel plate ($10) was tasty but unconscionably overpriced - 3 falafel balls, some lettuce, and a good heap of french fries.

Bahn Missoula (food truck) [3/5]: We tried the tofu bahn mi sandwich ($8). It wasn’t bad, but the bread wasn’t great, overall it had a bit of a sterile taste like airport food.

Le Petit [not rated]: This is a very popular local bakery that was recommended by a friend. We visited on a Sunday a little over an hour before closing and they literally had ZERO pastries left. We actually haven’t seen that anywhere before. Maybe it’s a small town thing? We didn’t see outdoor seating.

An area across the river from downtown, near the University. Close to Bernice’s and Le Petit. The reminder to “Believe women” brought us back to Jon Krakauer’s book Missoula.

Notable places we didn’t try:

The Camino (Mexican): We heard good things from friends but the vegetarian options looked sparse. Their happy hour could be a good option if you’re in the mood for margaritas -- we put our names down on a Wednesday around 5:45PM and an outdoor table wasn’t available for us until 7:10PM, after we had already sat down at Conflux. Notably, there was an open patio table for 40 minutes that they were saving for someone who was supposedly coming “soon.”

Tagliare Delicatessen: Our friend highly recommended, but the sandwiches were mostly meat- or cheese-oriented. Could be great for a tomato/basil/mozzarella lunch option.

What to Drink

There are so many great breweries! We only tried the most popular ones, but imagine there is much more to enjoy.

Draughtworks: Gorgeous and spacious outdoor patio; we easily got a table on a Saturday at 5p (though it filled up a bit later). They seem to be known for sour and fruity beers and have many unique flavors; the flight ($10 for 4) is a great way to try them out. The watermelon rhubarb kombucha was also amazing.

Dram Works: Has a good outdoor patio and exceptionally friendly service. They let you sample anything before ordering. We really loved their peanut butter beer. They also have multiple kombucha options on tap!

Big Sky Brewing: We didn’t actually go to this brewery, but tried their beers at a fun street festival (Roots Festival) that happened during our visit. We had to mention this because their beers were so delicious!

The Roots Festival was fun -- in addition to enjoying beer and food trucks, the 4-mile race through south Missoula was great!

Plonk: Cocktails place with an extremely cute outdoor patio upstairs. The cocktails were excellent -- especially loved the Pink Panther (it had watermelon in it, what’s not to love?)

Lake Missoula Tea Company: Not beer, but their array of loose leaf teas was incredibly interesting and expansive! They can brew a cup of any tea for purchase in store if you’d like. We heard the lychee black tea was exceptional, though didn’t try it. We did try the vegan ginger chai, which was good. Definitely a fun place to visit if you enjoy tea.

What to Do

As this was our stop between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, we didn’t do a ton apart from eating and drinking.

We did hear there is some decent hiking nearby. We walked the M Trail -- a short, straight uphill hike (1.2 miles each way) with a good view of Missoula -- it was perfect at around 8:30a.m. while still shady. Pattee Canyon was a longer hike recommended to us.

View from the M Trail

We heard hanging out on the river can also be fun. We did a chill ~2 hour tubing excursion on the Clark Fork River with Clark Fork Yacht Club. It was a lot of fun, we definitely recommend!

Where to Stay

We would have loved to stay in an Airbnb to get a feel for what it’s like to live in an actual neighborhood. Availability was sparse -- a local friend told us housing has been very difficult to find across the board as gentrification has accelerated, and we were also visiting for the 2 weeks before the fall semester started at the University.

We ended up staying at the Marriott Residence Inn Downtown (it was actually cheaper than the few Airbnb options we saw -- you can get a decent discount for staying 12+ nights). It felt more like a hip Manhattan high rise apartment than a Residence Inn -- it was swanky with a great gym and outdoor patio. The service wasn’t great and the staff were fairly unhelpful, but it otherwise worked out fine. The location was great: we were within walking distance of basically everything we wanted to do.

View from the Marriott Residence Inn Downtown Missoula patio

#missoula

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kidellis-blog · 4 years

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A Prelude to Waterworld: Coronavirus, Climate Crisis, Financial Oligarchy's Indifference, Community, and a Primer for the Actual Final Days of Humanity

Panic buying.

That could go down as the single biggest buzzword compound of the 2nd Century of American History, and we're barely a quarter of the way through it. This is a piece about everything I could manage to absorb from what's even been happening in our country around the time I took to research and write all of it (most of the latter half of March and all of April, then most of May to link all of the citations, God have mercy), an idea of how we've found ourselves here, and what our future is going to look like upon finding our takeaways. First, let's see how fast I can rattle out what's been going on in these past two or so months. Hang on.

A pandemic has spread to every single United State of America, contiguous and outlying. Consumers and retail workers have experienced the first-hand effects of a demand shock unlike anything our generation has ever seen. As I put it to a fellow cashier in my own tense haul of food one week: it was like four or five consecutive snowstorms, followed by an indeterminate future of Christmas shopping. Shelves have cleared themselves of toilet paper at an alarming pace, along with wet wipes and paper towels, hand sanitizer, canned goods, baking ingredients, pasta, thermometers, safety gloves, and the Lord only knows what else. Company-imposed item limits for shoppers have gone into wide effect. As if our overwhelming use of materials made to wipe our asses wasn't threatening enough, people promptly began to resort to clothes.

After 7 full days of packed-out shopping, customers at my own store began crowding less in the interest of their own health - but those crowds didn't appear to be slumping back to something I would call "normal," especially since our store has stopped being open late in the wake of the public health crisis and has installed plexiglass germ shields between customer and staff. Still, we're being dealt hours like blackjack cards, all of us working ourselves out of our minds to meet the demand, given a provisional $2/hr premium because - and only because - we have a union, and spending a half hour after we close now to clean and sanitize every perceivable object in the front end together. This isn't just happening in my store; the experience has appeared to be universal among every store of every grocery chain in the city, and quite likely in the metro area at large. I would venture to say most of them aren’t getting raises for this. At the time now published, it's been 73 days since The President Donald John Trump declared a National Emergency; our state has been officially ordered to stay at home, but we've still had to buy groceries; and it’s barely been a month since we began to restock enough paper products to start lifting item limits. We’re still selling out of our generic brands, due to the fact that they have the lowest price point. Very Big Words.

Before the state order even rolled out (no puns), Boise's mayor announced that all bar and dine-in restaurant space would be closed for 30 days in caution of public health. Drive-thrus and cafes have been able to stay above water; however, a bunch of fledgling upstart bars and restaurants in the city (Surprise! Gentrification.) were forced to close indefinitely and the staff were all laid off, likely without severance pay. I say "likely," because I haven't dared to ask any of the laid off customers who I've spoken to, but I know how jobs in Boise, like Idaho, tend to go. More than 30,000,000 people in America have filed for unemployment benefits since the shit hit the fan. They've been forced to wait for weeks, in certain cases to even get in touch with someone at their local office. Previously, the U.S. repo market began to collapse, and so the federal reserve was obligated to magic $1,500,000,000,000 in insurance payouts out of thin air. Remember, this is the repo market, which only affects the stock market competitively and for some reason also directly involves the institutions that keep our banks running. This has nothing to do with the failures of Capitalism or the reasons why American legislators keep telling us that "we can't afford" things like single-payer healthcare and mandatory sick leave. PLEASE get your FACTS straight. Your logic, according to Slate Senior Business Correspondent and the new champion of Well, Actually Jordan Weissmann, simply “doesn’t much sense.”

On the note of healthcare: the American medical administration has been effectively disemboweled by our government's preparation for and handling of the virus. While we are still waiting for lab doctors to develop a vaccine, the “primers and probes” for testing were developed by virologists in Malaysia on January 11. Outside of China, countries across Asia, Europe, and Africa tested 10s to 100s of 1,000s of people throughout the ensuing weeks. Yet America - specifically, the American President - had some. How should I put this? Trouble. In a very handy timeline laid out by the Bulwark, we can behold the baffling weeks of inaction amid the global spread of the virus that Trump spent first ignoring and then reminding his Health and Human Services secretary about vaping in response to the imminent threat of widespread illness and death. He put a travel non-ban on China. Testing was extremely scarce without explanation. There came a medical equipment shortage that Trump failed to prevent, despite having years to prepare for literally anything like this. Hell, the National Security Council laid out a playbook on exactly what he should do to prepare for a pandemic during his first days in office.

Trump's apparent response to the NSC’s advice? We don't need that. We're a healthy country! We can just SAVE MONEY on ALL OF THIS.

In May of 2018, Trump heard from the CDC's Global Health Security team that America wasn't ready to handle the ripples of a global pandemic - so he You're Fired'ed the team's leader and disbanded its members. Budgeting! In January of 2019, the Director of National Intelligence issued a report from about a year prior asserting that the "increased frequency and diversity" of diseases worldwide signaled "the potential for a severe global health emergency that could lead to major economic and social disruption." This was listed as a threat to "Human Security" - while Trump was in the middle of forging his party through the longest partial government shutdown in our nation's history, in personal demand of funding for a southern border wall that could conceivably cost 10s of 1,000,000,000,000s of dollars to realize in its full scope. Deals! Fast forward to February of 2020, the virus began to waft over the Pacific coast, and suddenly America ran out of everything. Hand sanitizer. Gloves. Medical-grade masks. Testing kits. Kellyanne Conway got on the C-SPAN to insist that the virus was being contained despite all reports to the contrary, in response to the question of why testing kit production was only seeing a push as of the beginning of March. She told us to stop "politicizing" it and that it makes "no sense" to attack the President for his astonishingly willful ignorance and negligence. Chinese billionaire Jack Ma personally shipped 500,000 testing kits and 1,000,000 face masks to the U.S. via FedEx. Leadership!

Also, a democratic election kept happening this spring - or it didn't, depending on what you make of it. St. Patrick's Day 2020 happened upon a time that 4 states, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio, were scheduled to vote in the primary election for the Democratic Party's nominee for President. The CDC issued strategies for "social distancing" several days before Trump's Big Word Day, and yet the state leaders who were managing these typically socially crowded voting events didn't seem fazed. The 3 state secretaries and 1 board chairman released a joint statement proclaiming that they could still conduct their badly timed primaries in a "safe" way because they were "short." Primaries in which some millions of people would line up to each cast their ballot in a divider made of cardboard, which CV-19 has been reported to be able to live on for up to 24 hours. In states which were already closing a lot of the polling places in TOTALLY RANDOM XD precincts that may or may not have just been the ones with black people in them. Only Ohio chose to postpone their election day, at the last minute. The other 3 states were locked in. The DNC had nothing to say, and allowed March 17th to proceed as if they had nothing to consider. These three "elections" quickly became a mess, and a slap on the face to many of the voters in our country most vulnerable to suppression that was felt nationwide.

In Chicago, one of the youngest poll volunteers currently living livetweeted the morning in astonishment of the fact that their precinct's ballot materials just never arrived. They called their party leaders and election volunteers about it, and all of the consultants simply advised that they direct voters to polling places in which lines were 3 hours long. Voters in Arizona began to prep a lawsuit against their state for forcing through an election date when registered voters were physically prohibited from participating by the pandemic. Over 300,000 voters in Tampa Bay were impacted by poll closures after 300 or so poll workers suddenly dipped out of their commitments due to being very old people who were either ill or simply afraid of dying horribly. Somehow, someway, Democratic party leadership figured out how to make a balloted primary more dysfunctional than its caucuses. Did I say slap in the face of voters? Because I meant an open shit on the corpse of American "Democracy."

Oh, Joe Biden totally swept, by the way.

In the wake of all of this, Joe Biden himself was largely absent. Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, began addressing the public on a near daily basis via the YouTube, drew over $2,000,000 in donations to national aid organizations, and fought like hell to push provisions actually modeling proper relief into our relief legislation. Hashtag WhereIsJoe started trending, and his campaign insisted that he was planning stuff. He made his first visually recorded appearance since speaking on election night 4 Bernie YouTube conferences later: a 79-second speech on Twitter that contained precisely no specific proposals for the relief bill which eventually cleared the Senate with Bernie's active guidance. The speech took place in a very real domestic office space in Biden's very actual home. Tara Reade has been publicly disgraced for telling and re-telling the story of something terrible that a man who has his own hair sniffing compilation ALLEGEDLY did to her. News networks and publications and Viewers alike persistently begged to know when Bernie was going to drop out of the race until campaigning wore down his good conscience. On Monday, April 13th, he endorsed Joe Biden for President, and has gone on to say that choosing not to vote for Hot Joe is “irresponsible.” Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and the single wealthiest person on Earth, has set up a fund for customers to give from the kindness of their hearts to help him pay sick leave to Amazon's independent contractors. The President has goaded his followers into protesting the governers who have shut down much of the service industry in the interest of public health, as well as anyone who would dare to tell them that being out in a large crowd of protestors is going to get people infected. This is where we are.

So much more than that even has been happening: I didn't get to the absolute hell on Earth of this pandemic in America's prisons, or the PLANDEMIC, or the myriad ways that people are trying to make literally everything that has transpired the results of China's failures and/or nefarious schemes. I don't even need to mention Bill Gates. All of this shit is enough to beg the question: How, exactly, did we end up here? What track were we riding on that was destined to lead us to such a buffoonish, negligent circus of political leadership? How did we find ourselves in a public health crisis as outright horrible as this? Well, I think that, maybe, I have some sort of idea. I'll try to make it short, I promise.

Let's scoot on back some 16 years to April of 2004, when MDs Steven Landers and Ashvini Sehgal published a study on health care lobbying in the American Journal of Medicine. Their findings for the year 2000 were that health care accounted for 15% of all federal lobbying expenditures in the country. Pharmaceutical companies lead the pack of spenders by a clear $50,000,000 that year, for a total of $96,000,000 that saw a 27% increase from 3 years prior. 20 years have passed.

But, of course, I'd be remiss if I pretended as if that was everything. No, we saw a lot more unfold around one Barack H. Obama. He won the Democratic nomination and the general election of 2008 due in large part to his promise that he would expand Medicaid to people living under or right around the poverty line. This manifested in a bill titled the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as THE OBAMACARE. It led to a government shutdown championed by House Republicans who would bury themselves alive before passing more funds for social welfare. This came months after the Supreme Court case brought against the Obamacare which concluded that a punitive tax on uninsured individuals is constitutional, but coercing state governments to comply with a federal expansion of Medicaid is not. The whole debacle ended with 1,000,000s of Americans left uninsured or underinsured. "Underinsured" means that incomprehensive health insurance policies have long been the standard for working Americans' coverage. Obama, who once promised to be "not-the-first-but-last" American President to have to reckon with our private health insurance system, simply shrugged his shoulders and moved on to managing the Forever War. About 11 years have passed.

But, of course, 20 Fucking 16. We could get into the abhorrent, unhinged circus that was and is Donald Trump's ongoing campaign for The Best President You've Ever Seen, but I'm trying to make this short. Let me tell you about what happened in America on our supposed “Left.” This was the first year that Mr. Bernard Sanders ran for President. He gave us absolutely no bullshit. He told us that our private market of health insurance is immoral. He promised he would do everything necessary to transition America into a fully, publicly accessible healthcare system. He wrote a bill to largely remove cannabis, America's Top Drug, that good good grass what our lawbooks apparently still acknowledge only as "marihuana" (sic), from our Controlled Substances Act. He told us that our environment, including much of our infrastructure, was crumbling and burning. He promised to actually plan for what our government needs to do to repair and sustain a habitat that is livable for a massive number of human beings. He drew historic crowds to rallies all throughout the country, spawning a new movement of American Socialism (i.e., humane welfare and criminal justice ideology) around his platform.

His eventual sole opponent in the Democratic Primary that year was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, and I can’t believe I still have to apologize for saying this, is full of bullshit. She responded to our cries for Medicare for All as if we were Veruca Salt demanding a Golden Goose. She framed an American single-payer healthcare system as "a better idea that will never, ever come to pass" while simultaneously reminding us that "people can't wait!" for accessible medical assistance. She promised she would find a way to make healthcare “affordable” for everyone (which would mean free, coming out of a layperson’s mouth). We watched as media networks made virtually no mention of Bernie’s rallies or stirring speeches, choosing to focus primarily on Hillary Clinton’s victories and Donald Trump’s utter spectacle. We voted, often in crowded and scarce polling places, and watched as Hillary was declared the winner before the polls even closed. We watched voter suppression and misinformation run rampant. In Boise, we broke the Idaho Caucus showing out for Bernie, and booed our then-Mayor when he drunkenly slurred into a podium that Hillary was “the most progressive” candidate we could vote for. Sure, Bernie took Idaho, as well as Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Michigan, Alaska, Hawaii, and 15 other states. But that didn’t count for anything in the end. Hillary was declared the nominee the night before primary polls opened in California, and Tim Kaine (?) was her running mate. Then, Donald Trump became our President. 3 years and 3 months have passed.

Was that short? I don’t know. Honestly, it all goes back even further than 16 years, and I’m gonna get to that. I wish history could be shorter. I wish all of this could just be over now.

But, to quote Dr. Manhattan, “Nothing ever ends.” So, here we are, still somehow alive in this shithole country that just so happens to militantly occupy and/or run half of this shithole planet. Things are looking pretty grim. So forget the future for a second and let me explore the answer to the question of, “What are we even doing right now?” It is, at least relatively, a bright spot in all of this.

In as few words as possible, the answer is that people are stepping up to serve their communities. Let me walk back to “panic buying” and talk more about the retailers that are staying open in spite of a highly contagious pandemic. The services that these retailers provide have been able to fit under the typically broad legal definition of “essential,” and their workers have been deemed the same. The federal definition can be expanded at liberty of each state, and the bottom line in most states has become that any consumer retail establishment that can keep up with recommended sanitary guidelines on top of a still-functioning business model can stay open for anything except sit-in service. The line between people’s needs and wants has become, predictably, blurred by the Money Machine (oh yeah), and so these establishments and services have panned out further than one might expect. These aren’t just grocery workers: they are liquor store workers, smoke shop and dispensary workers, kitchen staff, delivery drivers, phone store associates, sign spinners. Most major retailers and their workers aside from the GameStop are still on the clock, believe it or not. It doesn’t entirely matter to business what people objectively need; they’re still buying booze and weed and smokes and ice cream and new phones (personally guilty, my old external camera got fucking wrecked, folks) and - above and most imperatively of all else - Nintendo Switches. These are still essential goods to somebodys, and all the somebodys that must be there to assist them are holding their place, in gloves and masks behind transparent plastic germ shields. They’ve called us “rockstars” and “heroes” and a whole bunch of other bullshit. In reality, the double-edged miracle is that some fragment of our behemoth collective economy is still functioning through this crisis, and millions of people are still out here able and diligently willing to work at serving it for the sake of their customers and each other’s livelihood.

Maybe that isn’t such an optimistic take. Maybe it’s not that even a little bit, so here’s something else that I’ve been able to observe: in the wake of our U.S. government’s objective failure to provide for its people, a proto-anarchist movement of mutual aid micro-collectives have surged immensely in the age of social media. “Micro-collectives” is a fancy word I prefer to use for the term “facebook groups.” An innumerable mass of these groups have been formed across the country in response to our crisis. Communities have been able to use these groups to request and provide critical assistance from and to each other, as well as for a predictably spotty source of information. Peers in my area didn’t really like the way that the general Idaho group was being run - so we split off and formed our own, aimed at sustaining mutual aid through this health crisis and beyond. We started off gathering tents and sleeping bags for the homeless. We’ve gone on to distribute donated supplies to community members in need on a weekly basis. We’ve set up an ongoing rent relief fund. We’ve spotted each other sewing supplies for mask making. We are present. We are alert.

So what can be learned from such immense calamity and personal resilience? Well, the first lesson I found from this is what actual anarchists in America have likely been trying to say for years: we do not need to organize the destabilization of government, for global capitalists will do so more efficiently and totally than we ever could. We are seeing it now with our very own eyes. The fact is, this American government has long been set up to fail us; it has failed us for generations; and its public authority will continue to fail and incrementally collapse until nothing of it is left. We the People will be the only institution left to protect and provide for ourselves, and each other. This is important, because things are going to get better for a while. But, and I hate to keep writing this, they will proceed to get worse. Much worse. You think this is bad, right now? Well, you’re definitely right, but the conditions of our planet are primed to make things exponentially worse. I’m talking about an all-out, fully apocalyptic shitshow.

Let’s back up again. It’s July 28, 1995. A movie titled “Waterworld” has premiered in theaters, which would begin to become relics less than 25 years later. It takes place on a future Earth in which the polar continents have completely melted. The world is water and vice versa, leaving global denizens afloat on their own devices. Kevin Costner plays our Hero, the Mariner, Captain of a badass mechanical trimaran, gills behind his ears. He sails around scavenging for floating sacks of dirt that he can trade. So goes the premise of this “post-apocalyptic” sci-fi fodder. Reviews are mixed. In his review, Roger Ebert says, “It could have been better.”

Time to go way, way back now. It’s July, the summer of 1977. Barracuda is climbing the Billboard Hot 100. James F. Black, leading scientist in the Exxon Corporation’s Research and Engineering division, is addressing a meeting of executives at headquarters with some rather alarming findings. He reports a “general scientific agreement” upon the evident fact that human consumption of fossil fuels has had a negative impact on our global climate. A year later, he makes a larger presentation of the department’s findings, which entails that increased concentration of Co2 in our atmosphere could cause global temperatures to rise by as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit. He writes, “present thinking [in this, the year of 1978] holds that man has a time window of five to ten years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical.” 9 years later, a researcher named James Hansen testifies before a U.S. Congressional Committee that “the global warming predicted in the next 20 years [starting now, in the year of 1987] will make the Earth warmer than it has been in the past 100,000 years.”

It’s the summer of 1991, and the Cold War ends. The George C. Marshall Institute, a right-wing think tank that has heretofore been occupied with making people pissy-pants terrified of the hypothetical nuclear powers of the USSR, now struggles to find a new political concern.

It’s the summer of 1995 again, and a record-cracking heat wave makes history in Chicago. Temperatures reach 106 degrees Fahrenheit. 778 people die, most of them in poor neighborhoods that lack air conditioning utilities and probably have a very low number of people interested in seeing Waterworld. This comes a year after the GCM Institute published a paper titled Global warming and ozone hole controversies: A challenge to scientific judgement. The paper sought to cast doubt on the scientific consensus around Co2’s effect on our atmosphere. It also claimed that there was no evidence to support the notion that secondhand smoke is harmful "under normal circumstances."

It’s the Fall of 2008. Barack Obama is running his first campaign for President with Joe F. Biden, and the Guardian posts an article about his opponent’s briefly famous VP pick, Sarah Palin. If you don’t remember her, just try to imagine Hillary Clinton as a Republican. Anyway, this article goes into detail about how Palin used bad science to keep polar bears from being protected as an endangered species in Alaska, where she was the governor. The article reports that one of the “scientists” involved in this “research” was a former senior official at the George C. Marshall Institute, and that the Institute has received $715,000 in funding from ExxonMobil in the previous decade.

It's the Spring of 2010. Gallup publishes the results of their annual poll on global climate change. They entail that 67% of Americans surveyed do not believe that the effects of it will seriously impact them in their lifetime. Only 52% of them are sure that it's happening at all. The institute has done outstanding work.

It’s the Summer of 2018, and Douglas Rushkoff has used Medium to publish a jarring glimpse of our ruling class as it truly is: callously, matter-of-factly psychotic. In a piece titled “Survival of the Richest,” the well-known tech lecturer details a event-for-hire on the “future of technology” that turns out to be more of an intimate seminar. Before Rushkoff can even think about getting into his spiel, his full audience is delivered in the form of 5 hedge fund tycoons who immediately begin to unload their questions about the future on him. Eventually, the question arises around what their options will be to protect their assets in consequence of what they call “the event” - which is to say, the absolute collapse of society. Rushkoff writes:

"This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from the angry mobs. But how would they pay the guards once money was worthless? What would stop the guards from choosing their own leader? The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers — if that technology could be developed in time."

This is what Ronald Reagan once referred to as “trickle-down economics.”

It’s the Summer of 2019, and everything is literally on fucking fire. 259,523 acres of land, about 405.5 square miles, burn over the course of 6 months in the state of California. An unprecedented fire season in Alaska - yes, Alaska - burns over 2,400,000 acres. In Australia, fires rage from mid June for the following 8 or so months, spreading from shore to shore, burning about 46,000,000 acres of land and killing 1,000,000,000 animals. Several endangered species there may now be guaranteed to go extinct. The Amazon Rainforest, the Earth’s largest recycler of carbon dioxide into pure oxygen, starts lighting up in January and burns largely uncontained until October. While a lot of the fires are wild here, plenty more of them are started by slashing and burning for industrial development. These illegal fires happen because the government leaders that are in charge of preserving the forest - most notably one Jair M. Bolsonaro - aren’t particularly keen on enforcing deforestation laws. By the end of 2019, fires claim over 2,240,000 acres of the Amazon, which is somehow not as much as what burned in fucking Alaska, but is arguably more alarming in the bigger picture. Though honestly, that’s really hard to judge.

Finally, it’s May of 2020, the middle of the beginning of the end. The pandemic is popping all the way off, many of us have little choice but to stay in our homes and wait for it to end, many others are expected to work to keep society functioning at a minimal level, and we have a Republican President who has led his disciples into proudly defying public health recommendations in the name of “re-opening the country.” It’s become one of our citizens’ favorite past-times to dunk on Donald “Trump Steaks” Trump, but the point of me slaving over this history lesson is to recognize the full truth: America has been built up and maintained for a President exactly like him.

Let me, at last, get to my point here. Sometime in March while I was writing this, an Oakland nurse named John Pearson went on Chapo for an interview. He detailed the ways in which this pandemic is a “crisis on top of a crisis;” America can only flatten the curve so much to combat the deaths caused by lack of health insurance and the state of underfunded hospitals run by overworked staff. He said, “we need to make sure this never happens again.” However, now, in the scope of all of this, we can see that our future as it pertains to how well-prepared we can become for any number of impending crises does not look very promising at all. Every day that goes by, the powers that have locked us into utter societal decay become that much more unconquerable. We can all see what’s coming down the pipeline: There will be more fires. The oceans will rise. Untold 1,000,000s of humans will be forced to evacuate their homes. The animals and the ecosystems of our planet will relentlessly continue to die. We can see now, as clear as the afternoon sky in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, that every person with the means to actually stop it all and save humanity will sit and watch the rest of us suffer through binoculars.

Try to picture Waterworld II, in which Barron Trump is drifting aboard a destitute yacht, out on the ocean somewhere above what used to be New Jersey. Every other member of his family has been publicly executed by the workers’ mob. He meets a fellow Yachter and tries to trade some of the last $100 bills ever made, the ones with the blue stripe, for some of the last bottled water in existence. There’s probably a gunfight. Barron Trump probably wins, because he is probably the hero of America’s story. This is our future.

So, what? What the fuck are you supposed to do about all of this, I can hear you asking. You. Here’s the thing: if there were ever a good time to get into Doomsday Planning, that time is right now, at the end of the Spring of 2020. In my opinion, you, a reader, should start seeking answers for a lot of questions that you probably don’t like to think about. For example: What am I going to do to prepare myself for the worst, most apocalyptic conditions possible? What’s my plan to protect and provide for myself and the people I care about? What am I going to do for the people who will be the least secure in such chaos? These are hard questions, and that’s why you need to settle the answers for them as soon as you can.

Once you find the answers to what you’re going to do, you should think about when will be the best time to start putting those plans into action, because your answer will probably be immediately.

Now and forever, we are the only ones here who are going to take care of each other. There are only so many people doing the work right now, and they can only save so many of us without you. The going is rough, and it will only get rougher from here on out.

It’s time to get going.

Donate to:

Anarchist Black Cross

Center for Health Justice

The Community Justice Exchange's National Bail Fund Network

Feeding America

Food Not Bombs

The Movement for Black Lives

National Alliance to End Homelessness

United for Respect

Partners in Health

United Way

Volunteers of America

Your local shelter(s).

Relief funds in your city.

Find opportunities to volunteer at:

Many of the organizations listed above.

The Mutual Aid Hub

#politics #mostly u.s. history #wait4waterworld

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motorclit · 6 years

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As an anarchist, I can think of two major things that would be extremely beneficial to the town I grew up in. And I’m going to vent about that here and how I have no financial power or any social influence to be able to get such a thing started.

First off, I would like to state that I will not actually make any effort to try and do this as such a thing would take a while to see any hope of progress, which in turn would anchor me in this state. I cannot stand Ohio anymore, and want to move to the Cascade Mountains where one would have to fight 5 volcano bosses and twelve Ice Age beasts from the grave (ghost/ice type) just to get to my house.

Smithfield, Ohio is a fucked town. Those that rule it, be it politically or financially, have fucked the area over, while its residents suffer, especially the elderly.

Back in the early 90s, the blood-life that kept this and many other nearby towns alive was the fact that there were many steelworkers that lived in the area, with one of them being my dad. So there were a lot of businesses. But ever since the steel industry was outsourced, the area started to die.

The village of Smithfield had a doctor’s office, a dentist’s office, a salon, a co-op, a grocery store, and probably several other businesses I’m unaware of because I was too young to really know about them. We even had the Apple Festival every year, which was held on Main Street, with food stands in the parking lots of two churches, a stage in one of the said parking lots, and many small business vendors that sold lots of neat little knick-knacks. We even had a parade that started at the elementary school that traveled down that road towards Main Street, and then traveled down Main Street, and led down into its local park (I remember the route because for two years, our marching band marched in that parade). There was also a co-op that sold a LOT of produce from local farmers, supporting said farmers and contributing to a healthy local community.

Now it’s a run-down area that looks like everyone is starting their own junkyard.

The doctor and dentist offices are no more, the grocery store went out of business because of x, y, and z, the elementary school remains vacant and unused (that’s due to greedy assholes working the school board, which is another long story in and of itself), and there’s no more Apple Festival.

The Apple Festival ceased due to a few things, but the biggest one was because a cop (I WANNA say sheriff) of Smithfield bought the church whose parking lot held the stage for live performances and contests, and started to charge an outrages RENT price for anyone that wanted to use the parking lot, that originally charged NOTHING. On top of that, he drove out a group of women who did a Meals on Wheels and based their charity operations there, which delivered hot, healthy meals to the local elderly who are unable to travel for food. Then there’s the closing of the grocery store. The gas station doubles as a shabby truck stop convenient store, and is owned by a woman who bought out the co-op which sits vacant so she doesn’t have competition. The village is dead.

If I’m not mistaken, this is gentrification. But in a village. A FUCKING VILLAGE.

If I had the power to effect change, I would start an anarcho-synicalist grocery store at the old co-op, selling food largely from local farmers. I’d turn the other grocery store, if the fucking freemasons can let it the fuck go, into another branch of our local library so that the locals had easier access to informational sources libraries can do a LOT of shit to help out a community), and even turn the old wicker store part of the place into a cafe. A nice cherry on top would be to turn the old elementary school into a rec center or something.

However, I have no power. I’m broke with a name that doesn’t appeal to anyone when they read it on paper because it’s too hard for them to pronounce or sounds too foreign (and many assumed I’m Russian, and we have a re-awakening of a Red Scare now). And if I somehow did manage to do all of this, it would anchor me, and delay my plans to get my bachelor’s up north and then move the fuck to Washington state. I’m pushing 30, I don’t wanna get my master’s when I’m 50. I don’t wanna be elderly by the time I can finally work my dream-job as a paleontologist or even as a zoologist. I’ve been fucked out of my childhood and my “best years.” I unfortunately need to focus on me for once and not have other people think for me now that I finally have figured out how to think for myself.

Capitalism sucks and needs to be abolished.

#semi-rant #fuck gentrification and capitalism

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instantdeerlover · 4 years

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Go Support Your Local Chinatown added to Google Docs

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Take me to 88 Lan Zhou Handmade Noodles | Devra Ferst

From the Editor: Everything you missed in food news last week

This post originally appeared on February 15, 2020 in Amanda Kludt’s newsletter “From the Editor,” a roundup of the most vital news and stories in the food world each week. Read the archives and subscribe now.

Last week, my husband and his friends had a group dinner in Queens’s Chinatown to celebrate a birthday. One of his friends opted out, because he was afraid of putting himself at risk of getting the new coronavirus (COVID-19).

He’s not alone. Chinatowns across the United States are suffering from a dramatic decline in business during the typically busy Lunar New Year celebrations and beyond, due to a drop in tourists from China, but also, unfounded fears from locals that they would be at increased risk of contracting the illness there.

Going to Chinatown does not increase our risk of contracting the coronavirus. That’s according to health officials, city officials, and common sense. We are all so much more likely to catch the flu this year, which kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and tens of thousands of Americans each year, than the coronavirus, which has affected a fraction of that number and a statiscally tiny number of Americans.

Chinatowns suffered similar declines in business during the SARS outbreak of 2003. Then, as now, some cities launched public service campaigns to help small businesses. The New York Post mocked New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio for struggling with chopsticks on a recent trip to Flushing’s Chinatown this week, but at least he’s trying to raise awareness.

”We need to fight stigma any way and anywhere we can,” texted my mother, an epidemiologist working in public health in Boston, when I asked her about the issue this week.

Even if the campaigns work, the drop in tourists from China alone will have a big negative impact on these small restaurants. So I’m taking a big group out to Flushing tonight. If you want some Chinatown recs, we’ve got you in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Vegas, Seattle, Houston, Boston, San Francisco, Philly, Montreal, London, Chicago, and Detroit.

(Hat tip to Adam Moussa, whose twitter thread inspired this newsletter topic.)

On Eater Dina Avila/EPDX Nasi lemak at Wajan

Intel: North Carolina’s Vivian Howard will open her first Charleston restaurants this summer; Philly chef Marc Vetri opened his pasta destination in the former home of an old, revered South Philly butcher shop earlier this week; Dan Barber is finally getting his chef-designed produce to the masses with a deal with grocery chain Wegman’s; one of my longtime favorite spots in New York, Aldea, will close February 22; a new company called Ipsa Provisions is trying to make upscale frozen food a thing; the team behind Oscar-winning Parasite partied it up at K-Town spot Soban after the awards; China Live, a wonderful complex of restaurants, bars, stores, and counters in SF’s Chinatown, will expand to Seattle’s Amazon HQ; workers at SF’s Tartine are unionizing, and the restaurant group has hired crisis PR; Aaron Franklin is opening a sandwich shop; the team behind Joe Beef opened a new seafood spot called Vinette; chef Sean Brock launched an app connecting restaurant workers with open shifts (the third of its kind to launch in the last year); and D.C. institution Horace and Dickie’s will close, and the owner is blaming gentrification.

Fans of California wine can expect the best value in 20 years due to an abundance of grapes and slowing demand.

A map I am personally bookmarking: <$80 omakases in LA.

Ryan Sutton, on New York icon JG Melon in our “Is It Still Good?” column: “JG Melon is the real-life version of a fictionalized rom-com New York, where someone takes a Greyhound to the big city and finds that everyone is an amoral businessperson or a mean cab driver in a cartoonish, ‘hey, move it pal’ kind of way.”

To watch: our newest season of meat-centric Prime Time takes place in New Orleans, and it doesn’t disappoint.

Where to get water glasses like you see in those incredibly soothing Korean home cafe videos.

Jenny Han on the role of food in her books and just-released movie P.S. I Still Love You.

Perhaps our only chance to catch up to Parisian wine bar culture in the States lies in smaller cities.

Why yes, I would fly to Portland just to try this restaurant.

The only pink Champagne you should be drinking.

This Week on the Podcast

This week on Eater’s Digest, Eater editors tell us about their first-date strategies, including bar selection, food choice, and weird deal-breakers. Then Existing Conditions bartender Jack Schramm offers the point of view of an observer of countless dates of varying success.

Off Eater

Just a perennial reminder that Keith McNally has better taste and is a far better writer than you. Cannot wait to read his eventual memoir. [AD]

Where to live in 2020, according to the experts at Curbed. [Curbed]

Amazon is turning Whole Foods cafes into delivery staging areas, just one step toward our eventual future when all grocery stores are delivery warehouses. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

All hail Bon App’s Taco Nation package. [Bon Appetit]

Love these lunch instructions for famed fashion editor Diana Vreeland. [@hels]

via Eater - All https://www.eater.com/2020/2/18/21142215/editors-newsletter-dine-out-in-chinatown

Created February 19, 2020 at 12:56AM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

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worldfootprints · 5 years

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Although Denmark has a not entirely unfounded reputation for being on the expensive side, this doesn’t stop many travelers from heading to the capital, Copenhagen, every year. The reasons for this are simple: Copenhagen is a charming city with a host of attractions. There is great culinary and entertainment options, and a vibrant atmosphere that manages to embody the friendliness of a small town with all the thrills of a capital city. Plus, there’s the Danish concept of hygge, or coziness, which can be felt in all the cafes dotted around the city.

While most travelers spend a lot of their time in the city center, Copenhagen is made up of a number of districts, each with unique things to offer. If you are planning a trip to Copenhagen soon, here are some districts you should add to your itinerary.

Norrebro

Located in the north of the city, Norrebro has long been known as a multicultural neighborhood. Although many people think Norrebro is where all the artists and bohemians hang out, it attracts a mixed crowd. The main artery of the area is often referred to as ‘Little Arabia’ because of the many grocery, clothing and jewelry stores with Arabic signs as well as the traditional Middle Eastern eateries that are popular with locals and tourists alike. But there is so much more to Norrebro. Ravnsborggade is a street known for vintage and second-hand stores. Jaegerskorggade is filled with stylish cafes and restaurants. Those looking to party should head to the lively square, Sankt Hans Torv, with its cool bars and live music spots.

As well as being a fun place to hang out, there are a few interesting sights in Norrebro. Assistens Cemetery is probably the area’s most famous because it is the resting place of Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote fairy tales such as The Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Ugly Duckling. The cemetery also doubles as a park, so on sunny days, picnickers enjoy taking advantage of the weather. Other intriguing places in the district include the Barbie Doll Museum and the Politihistorisk Museum, which displays exhibitions on clever criminal cases.

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Freetown Christiania

Copenhagen’s self-governing district, Freetown Christiania was established in 1971 by a group of free spirits as an alternative to mainstream culture. Initially formed when the group took over a former military barracks, Christiania has grown in both citizens and buildings, which now include many higgledy-piggledy and unusual self-built homes. Christiania is currently home to about 900 inhabitants. Becoming a resident requires a lengthy process. The queue to be considered is extremely long and deliberations by the current inhabitants to decide who can join the commune can take between 300 and 400 hours.

Freetown Christiania once had a reputation for its cannabis trade, or ‘green light district’ as it was known, but it has been forced to clean up its act. Although it’s had problems in the past with police clashes, nowadays the area is a highlight for many tourists. Christiania is pedestrianized, making it a pleasant place to stroll around, and there are cool bakeries, vegetarian restaurants, jazz bars and live music venues to visit.

Vesterbro

Traditionally a working-class area known for its strip clubs, sex shops, and drug trade, Vesterbro, like other Copenhagen districts, has gone through gentrification in recent years. You may still find the odd sex shop, but the majority of the area, especially the main street of Istedgade, is now more likely to attracts hipsters, with its plethora of cafes, restaurants, and bars.

Kodbyen – the old meat-packing district – is located in Vesterbro but is classified as a district in its own right. Here you’ll find old slaughterhouses converted into trendy restaurants and bars as well as a number of cultural outlets, such as art studios, galleries, and underground nightclubs.

The Vesterbro District in Copenhagen

Refshaleoen

More of an island than a specific district, Refshaleoen once had one of the biggest shipyards in the world. Burmeister & Wain built ships for over 100 years before they closed in 1996. The island has since been put to good use as a location for some of the hippest bars, coolest food joints, and most thrilling activities, such as air and water sports, as well as creative office spaces and music festivals.

The interesting thing about Refshaleoen is that two of its eateries represent opposite ends of the culinary spectrum. At one end is the restaurant Noma, nominated best restaurant in the world four times and awarded two Michelin stars. Noma prides itself on combining traditional Scandinavian food with a contemporary twist and makes a point of only using produce which is in season. They split the year into three seasons: now is their “vegetable season,” which will be followed by their “game and forest menu” then their Scandinavian seafood selection. In all of the seasons, the restaurant serves a 20-course gourmet feast. Noma is highly recommended, so it’s advisable to book months in advance.

At the other end of the spectrum is Reffen, a super cool street food market with over 50 stalls featuring all kinds of world cuisine. But Reffen isn’t just a culinary venture. The space also houses creative workshops and start-ups, cultural events and innovative projects. Some of these include coffee workshops, a live music calendar and salsa classes, all with fantastic views over Copenhagen harbor.

Other things to enjoy on Refshaleoen include Copenhagen Cable Park, Bunjyjump Copenhagen, and the Copenhagen Distillery.

Nyhavn

Possibly the most touristy area of Copenhagen is Nyhavn, which is nevertheless one of the best and certainly the most picturesque areas of the city. Once the stomping ground of sailors as well as Hans Christian Andersen, now you’re more likely to share the space with dozens of tourists who are there to take selfies with the colorful houses that flank the harbor. A lot of river cruises depart from here, another activity that is highly recommended when in Copenhagen.

Nyhavn has plenty of pubs and restaurants to soak up the atmosphere of this lovely spot. However, they tend to be pricey due to the area’s popularity with tourists. To go cheaper, buy a couple of beers from one of the many kiosks in the city and enjoy them by the harbor. Don’t worry about being approached by the police, this is perfectly legal in Denmark.

Although the city center of Copenhagen is absolutely delightful, the outer districts also have much to offer travelers. Whether you’re looking for somewhere unique to shop, to sample world-class food, or just want somewhere to chill out, you can be sure there is a Copenhagen district for you.

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Five Copenhagen Districts You Should Visit Although Denmark has a not entirely unfounded reputation for being on the expensive side, this doesn’t stop many travelers from heading to the capital, Copenhagen, every year.

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