Desert Dormancy

Well, it’s been a pleasant monsoon season in Tucson. Since mid July, the storms here have been near-daily, with precipitation above average for a second year in a row. Predicting them is an impossibility, and even if my stretch of Tucson doesn’t get rain on a specific day, it’s been cool watching lightning strike the surrounding mountains or the telltale opacity of rain on the horizon somewhere afar. I’ve got the pleasure of watching everything transform green and grow rampantly; despite being in a hot desert climate, I actually have been enjoying a somewhat mild Summer versus what a lot of the Northern Hemisphere is dealing with. It’s a bit ironic, I’ll keep as a lucky break in my favor.

I’ve been pursuing a very routine life since returning, with fulltime web dev, and near daily climbing, yoga or juggling. I’ve even dipped my toes back into acro yoga for the first time in years after stumbling upon a meetup in the park. This level of fitness, without hitting any overuse injuries, has left me feeling pretty great physically. Financially, I’m banking money with good work and my fairly humble expenses. The only thing that’s getting my goat is a lingering sense that I could be doing more with pursuit of art, writing or web development skills, but now that I’m a jobman, it’s a bit challenging. That’s one of the catch-22s of life, I suppose. I feel a bit adrift despite things being mostly positive, like when I see the local photographers at work capturing beautiful lightning or astro shots here and thinking that I should be pushing myself to do more on that front and not let my photographic eye go dormant.

So, one thing I’m doing to invigorate myself is a moderately ambitious adventure! I’ve booked travel and accommodations next week to Mexico City for a month, where I’ll do digital nomad and experience life in a new culture. The Roma Sur neighborhood I’m visiting has a lot of options for vegan food, parks and there’s a fully functioning metro and bikeshare to play with! I can cram Duolingo only so much before conceding language will be a hurdle, but one I surmise won’t be insurmountable. From there, it’ll then be a month on the East Coast near NYC again for weddings and Fall vibes, before heading back here in time to vote.

I lament that I never got around to physical activism around my rage over Roe’s reversal. I don’t know how much holding a sign in conservative towns or causing extra red lights would really change things, but I said I would do something and haven’t really. I hope others have strived harder in my absence. One thing I know is that I need to work on targeting my anger better. I have gotten to and pulled back a bit from the brink of ending long friendships over disagreements about some of the jerks in the public eye and whether or not they’re completely irredeemable. I still think some things are right to end ties over (unrepentant support for Trump, confederate iconography, or anti-abortion), but I’ve had my impressions of some people warped just because they aren’t able to make a blanket condemnation of the controversial figures on the airwaves.

There, I’m talking about people like Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, or Jordan Peterson that each have unique accomplishments but also are unambiguously mired now in the right wing ecosystem and entertainment sphere with all the character problems associated with those spaces. I’ve had people I’ve cared about, who have aided me greatly over the years, bring them up casually now and again and I’ve just been left confused and seething over it. We have a deepening culture of celebrity worship and negative notoriety, and by the virtue of being online a lot, I’ve been wrapped up on the ANTI- side of things. If these characters come up, I want to push back against them without it being interwoven as a personal attack on people who might have enjoyed some aspects of their programming or be to some degree ignorant of their flaws. I also have a tendency of bottling things up and being passive aggressive, so if something bothers me I’m going to try and say something instead of internalizing it. In political discourse and in life, I can do better here and it doesn’t mean I’ve compromised on my values.

I do have to say that I am very heartened by results like the Kansas referendum that preserved abortion access in a critical area and lit the fire for Choice nationally, but I have mixed feelings about the continued march of conspiracists winning election in Republican primaries. Tactically, they would seem easier to defeat (as we all thought with Trump ’16), but these are still bad, bad vibes for the longterm health of the country. Here in Arizona we have a full slate of election denying psychos and fascist sympathizers wanting to run the state that need to be smacked down, hard. There’s enough bad stuff happening around the country generated by the Republicans, that even with Biden’s low approval and aggressive gerrymanders, I think these elections will be competitive. A red wave is no guarantee, and we all should be voting and helping more, if able, to ensure it fails.

As such, I want to go over my political donations for this cycle. I hope by being transparent about this it encourages others to get involved in their local races or national ones of import. Instead of buying a new Playstation, I’m putting 599 US Dollars into a slate of candidates I hope buoys the country through this rough stretch and keeps Dems in control of the federal government and some relevant states. I’m still really bearish about the future of the USA and continuing, but since my time has become more precious, at least I can donate and hopefully that, along with my vote, helps keep this ailing democracy away from hospice care.

$150 went to Katie Hobbs, Adrian Fontes and Kris Mayes for Arizona’s Governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General. I find these candidates competent, qualified and uncontroversial. That’s probably what politics in general should be instead of a popularity or shock and awe contest. As aforementioned, the Republican candidates here running statewide are a bloc of pure crazy and any of their victories are simply frightening for the future of this state. I likely won’t stay if election deniers are in charge for 2024. I didn’t donate to our senate candidate, Mark Kelly, as he has a fortune of high dollar fundraising; I still endorse him, am fairly confident of his victory as a uniquely appealing candidate, and has he not been objectionable in office (compared to our other senator).

$200 went to four congressional candidates. Kirsten Engel and Jevin Hodge are the most local Dem candidates I felt could use support, both running in R-favored districts. Unfortunately, I’ve been gerrymandered into a heavy blue district, so I don’t have the ability to vote for either. Jamie McLeod-Skinner over in Oregon earned a donation for unseating a troublesome, corporate Dem in a primary on a progressive platform, and deserves financial support to help keep that seat blue. Marie Perez in Washington has an authentic working class vibe and her opponent, who impeached Trump, just lost primary election to an acolyte of his, turning the race competitive. Both these spots are Pacific Crest Trail territory, so there’s a little extra tie-in to my travels last year.

On a bit of a lark, I gave $150 to the Dem Senate candidates in Kansas, Kentucky and Indiana. Charles Booker of KY is the only one with name recognition after his viral campaign in 2020 fell a bit short in the Dem primary. These races are likely not to attract much attention, but all have tie-ins to Roe v Wade in their respective states, with Kansas’s referendum, Kentucky having one in November, and Indianans in general likely unhappy with the near-total ban enacted by their legislature. I probably burned my money here, but it would be great if these seats had some degree of competition and if there ever was an election to not write red states off, it’s right now, while the pain of abortion healthcare being curtailed is fresh in voters minds and offers an exit ramp from extremism. Ten years ago, Republicans lost senate races in Indiana and Missouri based on stupid comments on rape and God, and now Pandora’s Box is wide open.

Lastly, a friend offered a suggestion when I asked about helping state legislative candidates and I got pointed to the States Project, which is an aggregator for political giving targeted at competitive races. I singled out Arizona to keep my support local, and pitched $100 spread across 11 legislators in close districts here. Arizona has a near even split in the statehouse, and it’s quite possible if fortunes turn and people are as upset as I am about abortion here (it’s still unclear if an 1800’s era ban will be enforced), that we can get a thin majority on the Democratic side along with Hobbs for governor and get those rights back. If we fall short though, the future of choice is still reasonably bright here with a likely ballot referendum in 2024.

That’s my donations for the year (in politics). I’ll probably be writing again to share my adventures in Mexico and to write a debrief of the election results. If things go well down there and I remain content and committed as a web dev, I’ll likely try even more ambitious things on that tack next year! The ideas are churning in the digital nomad world despite our national domestic troubles.