Bad Democrat

The state of California is suing the genetic testing company 23andMe over its failure to protect millions of users during a data breach. 23andMe allows people to learn about their ancestry, allergies, and potential genetic health risks by sending a swab of their DNA to a lab that sends the information back about 8 weeks later. During a 5-month period, the hackers accessed 7 million users’ profiles (containing their genetic data, lineage, and health information) and in one incident that 23andMe detected/was aware of, a single users’ genetic data had 1 million hacking attempts. The hackers then sold nearly one million users’ information on the dark web.

The one million users offered for sale, the hackers touted, were of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Jewish descent. Let me be clear: they got their allergy data, and sold it to god knows where.

The first time I drove through West Virginia, I stopped at a restaurant in Charleston that was one of those good medium places with big windows overlooking a city street and like, a spinach salad with raspberry vinaigrette as well as bar and grill food like a grilled chicken sandwich. It was normally priced. I noticed that I have a much harder time finding those types of places now, and by the way, that restaurant has been closed for a while. If you don’t have the mainstay not making a big statement or ultra specific places that don’t burn a hole in your pocket, then everywhere you are going is standing out in your mind and on your credit card. I noticed that some of those places closed in other cities as well and I think there may be malicious actors at play. Sorry to sound so conspiratorial, but I’m not. Those places are closing and they’re not not well frequented.

My relatives came to the United States through Ellis Island in the 1890s, heading for a better life and better things and things. Back then, you would get a piece of paper with your information stating that you were a new American citizen and that would be it. I would love to arrive to New York never having been there before and that would be it: I would be a citizen of New York. I don’t think things work like that anymore (they do for some people, but it’s not the same) but, why do we have so many things that don’t work that way anymore? Why don’t we allow boats of people to arrive to America scheduled but it’s not an every day, every year thing. That would be nice, and it would feel better.

We are halfway through the year and it feels like we are waiting to get it started. Maybe we are waiting for something. Or maybe we are wondering if something has happened. Either way, we are clueless when we look into the future what we will take with us, or what we will leave behind. Whatever way we look, we see a past that we can not take with us and a future that we can not wait to have.

Tulsi Gabbard resigned as the Director of National Intelligence the other day, citing her husband’s recent bone cancer diagnosis as the reason why. I think that a lot of people had contempt for her, or at least expressed this, and I didn’t as much but I saw a few problems here and there. I saw her give a briefing to Congress early last year and I thought it was specific, although I noticed that her answer to some question she got asked was not worded in the way it should have been worded. I also thought she could have focused more on domestic threats to our firewalls and things like that instead of the most international dark option for our national intelligence threats. No, I don’t think she was the worst, but that’s that.

Why do we trust FedEx to run logistics network, but we don’t trust Amazon? I don’t know that we should be asking that question. We don’t trust Amazon to run a logistics network, and nothing is going to change that. FedEx and UPS should run our logistics networks and Amazon shouldn’t. “But what about free market capitalism?” that knee-jerk question thing. To which I would say, oh my gosh, we’re being tortured and manipulated by a company. One more thing: I’m not sure I could put a pin in why we don’t trust Amazon to run an overall logistics network. We don’t know. But we think we’re wrong. This generation, we were challenged to constantly question ourselves on race, class, and income (race), and because of that we are in the habit of thinking that anything we see or feel can be explained, explained away, or it’s wrong and we’re biased. We became less racist, and it’s great, but I’m done doubting myself for the rest of my life and I’m also done with the challenge of last generation.

There are two things I get when I hear about Trump’s desire to revamp Washington D.C. The first is ew, a ballroom? But then I think about him making the waterproof liners he’s putting on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool “American flag blue” and I think, oh, that will be nice. One time I rode in the elevator in Trump Tower in Chicago on Thanksgiving and it was a giant gingerbread house inside with art candy. It was the best thing I had ever seen. Have you ever seen Scranton, Jan? That’s what I have to say.

I one time saw a portrait of the ocean when it was almost dark out lashing around with a wooden ship up and out. I have listened to “The Downeaster Alexa” when Billy Joel sings “So I could own my downeaster “Alexa”/And I go where the ocean is deep/There are giants out there in the canyons/And a good captain can’t fall asleep”. I think of a saltwater taffy store along the border wall of an ocean town. I see storms in the sky and fizzy water turning down by the dock.