Pessimistic about politics

I do not expect that even such a tragic shooting in Texas will prompt the enaction of any meaningful gun control measures. In that sphere and others, there are plenty of public policy choices that Congress could make, that would have broad support among the populace and be of far more benefit than cost, yet they do not happen. I do not know if we blame politicians stretching back to Newt Gingrich, if we blame the segmentation of news media markets, the public education system, or what, but it feels as if there is a systemic failure in American sociopolitics that is deep, persistent, and without obvious reason for expecting light at the end of that tunnel. I can't even blame gerrymandering: after all, many of these choices shouldn't be close enough for the disenfranchisement to be a factor.

It is not as if Britain is a lot better. Ever since Tony Blair, I have decreasingly trusted pronouncements from Her Majesty's Government. We now have Boris Johnson and company who are clearly unprincipled liars and I can't say that their opposition in the form of Labour or the Liberal Democrats inspires much hope or faith in me. Well, the main principles of the Conservative administrations appear to be those of being counterproductively mean to immigrants and to rain misery down on those already in poverty. They are transparently out of touch and, like American politicians, treat the electorate like idiots.

Whereas, in the Philippines, we just managed to elect another Ferdinand Marcos and it wasn't even close. Wow.

I want others to have hope, I want them to keep on trying. A close friend's sibling is running for Congress and I applaud them for that. So much political progress over the past century has been won only through many idealistic people working long, hard hours to chip away at the status quo. We owe them a great debt. It's just not easy right now for me to share in their hope.

Holiday weekend food

I plan some decent grass-fed beef for my burgers on Memorial Day, along with a glass of merlot. I have more wheat brioche buns than I need for them so I used a couple today for a pair of half-price fresh breaded salmon burgers that I found in Food City. They also had half-price donuts and, well, it's a holiday weekend.

Later this evening I start soaking some marrowfat peas so that they are ready for cooking with my Cornish pasty for tomorrow's lunch. After that, I may drive out to Clinton to meet a colleague.

This coming week is my last at work. There's a plan to get lunch together at Full Service BBQ in Farragut. They have covered outdoor seating, which makes for a good compromise between pandemic and weather.