Good Morning. Hello. How are you? #1617
Epstein files, MI Senate, HRT FDA, Iran is running out of water, Pluribus, House of Dynamite, Annie, give the Green bros a nobel prize.
Good morning, good morning. Hello. I just spent a half an hour fixing the numbering on these here issues of the esteemed daily newsletter Good Morning. Hello. How Are You? I was off by eleven digits. It was a pain in the ass to fix. Somewhere around issue 1540 I got off by eleven. Whoops. Morning brain fart. I am also seeing, just now, that around issue 1544 I am still off by one. But whatever. We will just have skipped issue 1544. The important thing is that — hopefully — the issue number at the top and the issue number in the footer now match. We are more-or-less correct. God. Through a combination of brain farts and a UX not conducive to such mass editing, that was a profoundly unpleasant experience.
Epstein files! Not even the ones we are trying to release! The ones that the lawyers for the victims told Lawrence O’Donnell to subpoena the estate over and some senators saw the interview and subpoenad the estate, because the estate is apparently not a bunch of stonewalling Republicans, and they turned them over. There is, in theory, another group of documents, the DOJ’s files, that are going to be forced to be released based on the discharge petition that Adelita Grijalva signed, after they kept her from being sworn in as a congressperson for seven weeks. She provided the last signature, this forces a vote, which will pass in the house.
In the senate? TBD.
I saw a tweet yesterday was like “this whole thing is so weird. We all know he did it, everyone knows he did it, he knows he did it, Republicans know he did it, the evidence all says he did it, but we keep pretending there is more evidence that’s needed, that there’s some reason to not take action yet.” Whole thing is real weird right? I think about consenting adult Gary Hart and those ultra scandalous photos of him… on a boat with a grown-ass consenting woman and how that torpedoed his campaign.
I wonder if Gary Hart would have made a good president.
Peter would know. I was too young.
Anyway yes, I do think this whole thing “can make a difference.” My time in advertising has told me that messaging changes the world’s mind slowly, and in increments. But when presidential races are won by margins of 1-2%, increments are enough. Let me ask you: can you tell when your brain changes its mind about something by 1%? And sure, if you are 80% pro-Trump, and now you’re 78% pro-Trump, this message isn’t going to work on you. But there are probably 4 million people in the US that are 50-52% pro Trump, and a 1-2% change in them is huge. Huge.
And, of course, there is probably more, right? I mean Trump is still, even after yesterday, expending significant effort trying to stop the discharge petition and commensurate votes. Which means you know there’s more.
Jesus.
Join the GMHHAY slack! Reply to this email and ask for an invite if you’re a human who likes chatting with other humans about topics such as these within!
We are listening to the very first ever release by Swans, an EP entitled, appropriately, Swans EP. It sounds a lot like early Swans, shockingly enough. More droney less terrifying than, say, Greet. Does have that creepy sax, though. There was a time the sax was an acceptable instrument in avant-garde no-wave noise rock. That time has passed. No sax allowed anymore. Though Jason Pierce hasn’t given up.
I let myself go a little bit in October on purchasing records from my Discogs want list, news resolution what now? Just listened to the Tindersticks’ Across Six Leap Years, which I saw this morning I had added to my Discogs want list eleven years ago. That is crazy. The world is a better place for having Discogs in it. It enshittifies, but very slowly. Independently owned, small team, in Portland (last I heard) and not Silicon Valley. Almost a paradigm, aside from the fact that its clientele seems to always be bitching about them for one thing or another. Mostly it is amazing.
Oh man. What do I want to talk about today. I am emotionally exhausted. It has been a lot. Nice hearing from so many people from my past, though. That has been great. I love staying in touch with people. Hence, this newsletter. It is lovely when people write back.
I might just take it easy this morning and write about Media or something.
Pluribus. As good as everyone says, I am hooked. I can’t wait for the next episode. I love shows like this, reminds me of The Leftovers a bit. But by Vince Gilligan. Which is great. Though I must confess I have never watched Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, much to my wife’s chagrin. It’s her fault, though, she worked on the marketing for the shows and was watching episodes in batches, in advance, under embargo and on a timeline I could not match, so I couldn’t watch them with her, so I just never got around to it. But I am so into Pluribus that we have, finally, started Breaking Bad. Don’t @ me.
I spent an entire night falling asleep thinking about the Pluribus situation and what would happen if I were one of the eleven. Couldn’t stop thinking about it. Then that lead, last night, to me thinking about another sort-of sci-fi conceit I used to think about all the time: the time-stopping one. The one from that Twilight Zone episode with the nukes, the one from Nicholson Baker’s majestic erotic romp The Fermata and the ill-conceived, derivative but not entirely without merit film, Cashback. I used to think about that all the time, having that time stopping power, what I would do with it, elaborate schemes for robbing banks and whatnot. But I hadn’t thought about it in years. And I know I am getting old because as I was falling asleep the only real use of that power that got me excited anymore was using it to sleep in.
A House of Dynamite. I kinda called the ending right at the beginning because within five minutes of watching that film I knew there was no way they could end it properly. There is no ending that will ‘work.’ There’s only one film that’s ever really got the nuke ending right and it was that Tom Clancy one — Sum of All Fears, was it? The one where they nuked a stadium in Baltimore with a small tactical nuke. Hugely shocking, but it only really worked because it was a terrorist act, without the use of ICBMs or the military being involved at all. Once you’re in that scenario, there is no real way to end the film because the only ending is utter horror. I mean I guess you could pull a Dr Strangelove but… that just illustrates the conundrum really. Essentially unfilmable.
I still liked it though. Even though they got Greeley all wrong, clearly didn’t film it in Interior Alaska clearly it’s Arizona or something the mountains are all wrong. Lotta fake Alaska in that film.
(Apple tells me “unfilmable” is not a word and offers no suggestions. “unfilmmable” doesn’t cut it either. Mysterious.)
I would like to nominate Hank and John Green for the Nobel Peace Prize please those two are amazing. After ten years and raising like $20 million, the first maternity hospital in Sierra Leonne has finally opened, thanks in large part to them and their supporters. He personally donated $6.5MM to the project. Let us compare and contrast the actions of these two best-selling authors with, oh, I don’t know, another best-selling author who is a TERFY terror these days. I have been watching their Vlog brothers weekly videos to each other of late, and they are so, so good. Like GMHHAY, only more emotionally moving and in video form. And there are two of them. Okay there are differences. But they are spiritual bretheren. I am just so in awe of their energy and their projects and their commitment to doing good. Since opening a maternal center of excellence in Sierra Leonne wasn’t enough, now John is trying to tackle tuberculosis. Just amazing. And a huge positive example for American men who stew on the internet too much. Far, far worse fandoms you could fall into. John’s recent video about fall depression was just… yeah. Hit home.
Oh and this was good too. Iran is running out of water. The time is coming soon, folks. World’s gonna start falling apart around us. Iran in the Taliban are in a water war shit is not going to be good. An entire country just running out of water.
Anyone know what is up with the Michigan US Senate race? I check the polls every day, not for that race, but this list of all new polls. Generally most polls go our way these days. I mean we’re not winning everything but we’re ahead everywhere we should be, and pleasingly close in places we don’t normally win like the Texas US Senate race. But Michigan? Senate? Not looking good. I can’t see how we’re going to take the senate if we don’t keep our Michigan seat. I know nothing about this race. But… yeah. Gulp.
Emma told me that the FDA is reclassifying Estrogen and HRT from their black-box warning to a less regulated category and that this is great news and soon many more women should have access to HRT and that is very exciting I am happy for you all. This is good, right? Sometimes the wackadoodles accidentally get it right? Stopped clock being right twice a day and all that?
All right maybe my heart is not in this today I am awake, that is nice, but still very sad about Annie. Found this amazing photo of Annie and I in front of the Crocodile in Seattle in 1996. We didn’t play the Croc on that tour, played the Off Ramp. Well, we didn’t. Band we were managing did. But I have since come to know and love the Crocodile. I wish I could read those calendars in the window I bet they are amazing.
Jane had a cough this morning, almost kept her home from school. But no fever and I asked her if she wanted to go or not and she said yes and the cough dissipated before we even got in the car and I sure hope I did the right thing I don’t want to get a bunch of kids sick. She didnt’ even eat her morning cheese, man. She did draw an adorable portrait of Emma and I, a “scribble portrait” she calls it, which seems to be a distinct, separate style of drawing that she has, my little artist girl has multiple styles of drawing. I look like fat scrawly Michelin man and she cruelly drew my beard in all white, not even a hint of black I am so old gah time boo time oh god oh god.
Today’s playlist is a long one — a 5-hour playlist Annie made with two high school friends for, I think, their reunion? They sent it to me in the comments of my Facebook post about Annie. I have been listening to it it is great. I mean my high school played some deep cuts at dances but imagining a bunch of kids dancing to Gil Scot Heron at a high school dance is next level.
Righty-o. Hope you have a lovely day.
—
Thanks for reading.
And hey! Maybe buy one of my books!
Good Morning, Hello, How Are You vol 1.