Category Archives: Cool Cold Reality

Where it is and what it came from. The end-all, be-all, and all-for-a-dollar.

When the Whip Comes Down

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Well yesterday seems to have been a better day than today. And the fiction I published yesterday seems to have struck quite a chord what with all the comments, all the ‘what the fuck was that?’. Really!

Last night was pretty much quiet, Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, with the Senate vote broadcast live during Rachel’s show. The bailout bill was passed 74-25, now it goes to the house.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were spot on, Colbert had James Taylor on his show, promoting his new album which is all cover versions of songs he really likes. I worked with James Taylor years ago, really nice guy, no star trip and the people around him were very nice too.

James was enjoyable, saw him sing (I’m A) Roadrunner, originally by Jr. Walker. There was another song following the commercial break, but the DVR didn’t catch it. Caught the news and then I snoozed.

Slept really well, woke up it was dark out. Bill kissing me goodbye, telling me he can’t wait for Sarah Palin to go down in flames.

I was wary even while lying in bed and told Bill, ‘Don’t be cocky’. Ran into Casey on the bus. Mr. Animated he is. We talked about the tonight’s debate, how gosh darned inept Sarah Palin is. Lucky Casey is going out of town with the missus this weekend. I’m staying put of course. He was off on his way to work via the subway, I walked through midtown, past the Tai Chi people in Bryant Park.

Stopped in Smilers on Fifth Avenue, West Indian Tony is still out. Been out a month I think. He’s got a bum knee and staying on his feet behind a grill all day is not the way for it to heal. Hopefully he has insurance, but being a short order cook in a deli, it doesn’t seem likely.

Heard from another old friend from my old neighborhood, Donna who has custody of her late sister’s son. Apparently Donna’s sister was married to an abusive guy, who abused her and their son. So now Donna has custody, but she and her husband are getting ready for a court battle over who the son should be with.

A family that loves the kid, or an abusive father who never really cared for the kid in the first place. I used to play with Donna until she got all girly.

Work was quiet and awfully slow. At one point this morning, Greg Stevens and Vivek sat me down to have a talk with me. It was about how things aren’t going so well, and if it continues to be this way, they may have to cut my hours, from a five day work week to a four day work week.

They wanted to keep me in the loop, and also said if I had any other offers I should seriously consider those offers. Unfortunately I have no other offers. That did my head in somewhat. I spent most of the day walking around in a daze.

It’s not necessarily the end, but the writing seems to be on the wall unless Greg and Vivek’s plans go through. If they don’t then the ship is going under. I left at 4:00 rather than 4:30. Nothing was going on and I had nothing to do. Didn’t feel like staying much longer.

Walked across town listening to Mambo’s from the 1940’s and 50’s and enjoying a Padron. Caught the bus and ran into Casey again, this time I was the animated one and he was not so much.

I walked over to the library and picked up The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Blurbs by Howard Zinn and Studs Turkel on the back cover, so she’s in good company. That’s it for now. Just anticipating the debate tonight and hoping it goes well for Joe Biden.

More Today Than Yesterday

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Hump day hump day hump day. That means it’s Wednesday. No one is impressed. Work was weird today. Caught a slight panic bug from the sole analyst, Esteban. He was one of the Three Stooges but now there is only Esteban. He’s getting married in a week or two. I’m thankfully not invited. Couldn’t afford a gift you see.

The stock market is not too well at all and that is bound to affect the company somehow. I’m staying until the end I think unless they decide to get rid of me too, but thanks to their ineptitude it doesn’t seem likely. So he was panicked and that got to me. You can see the fear and loathing n the faces of many business people in the area and it’s probably a lot worse downtown by Wall Street.

Whatever happens to the big players like AIG, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers (and soon Washington Mutual) will eventually have a ripple effect on my little five person firm. On top of that there is the election where McCrazy and Pallid and just tossing out lies, not really getting into the issues since they really have no leg to stand on in that regard.

I spent sometime with my sock puppet arguing with wrong wing sycophants on a Daily News discussion board which did not help my frame of mind. I knew it would be like this last year and despite my knowing, still I throw myself into the mess. Just now a commercial for McCrazy who claims he’ll be able to turn this economic crisis around, even though his ‘former’ advisor Phil Gramm is one of the architects of this fiasco and despite the fact that McCrazy stated himself that he really doesn’t know much about economics.

How anyone could listen to this idiot and take him seriously is definitely lost on me. Surprisingly a lot of people do. And then there are the ones who will never ever vote for a black man, no matter what. Juan reminded me of that. Living in the tri-state metropolitan area the majority of people I am in contact with are somewhat like minded and it’s easy to forget that there are a lot of people between coasts that do not think like me.

So there is the fear that November 4 might not be as good as I had hoped. I learned that lesson in the last presidential election. That awful sinking feeling as I watched the results come in. Now Obama is much more charismatic that Kerry and a hundred times as inspirational, but that might just fall by the wayside.

I know in my 46 years of being here I might not have seen much but in the past 8 years I think I have seen enough. Last night I was telling Brenda about how Bill and I took to the streets 5 years ago to protest the impending war. Millions around the world did the same that February day but we were ignored since Bush Co. was going to do whatever the hell it wanted to do, which killed whatever empathy and support existed following the attacks on September 11.

Now five years later things are even worse, making those days before the war seem somewhat golden in retrospect. McCrazy plans on bringing Pallid to the United Nations so the huntress could finally meet foreign heads of state. There are so many things piling up against Pallid, her lies, her drunken power etc, how can this be ignored? By the wrong wing attacking Obama’s character since they can’t go on issues. But I’ve already said that.

America- what a country!