New York City's Progressive Galaxy

New York City's Progressive Galaxy

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of "Spiritus Mundi"
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

-- William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"

I forgave Dan Jacoby. He is a court clown. Lewis Cohen tries to be.

I am eager to give Heather Woodfield a fresh start to our political relationship as long as she agrees to sit on the Women's Revolution Committee. The only thing wrong about your trying to hook me up with an Asian is just like you can't imagine a dozen wise Indian men finding a man for you, my idea is two people hook up on their own or not, otherwise we Asians are all the rage. Heather knows a lot of nuts and bolts of politics, besides she is from Howard Dean's home state. Dean is all the rage.

Tracey Denton, social butterfly, tries to be extra respectful of people. I think because of her Republican family background she feels the need to be extra nice to the traditionally Democrats. I don't know if she lives in Europe these days or what, but if she does, she should never stop telecommuting into the NYC political scene. If I can telecommute from NYC to Nepal, she can telecommute from Brussels to NYC.

I am the other way round. I start with distrust for white guys. Some of them go on to earn my respect.

Abhishek Mistry is the smart Asian, it is not me. I disapprove of stereotypes.

Charles knows a ton about Indira Gandhi.

Leila Noor is like Barack, she is both. She has a great sense of empathy and a rather huge mailing list. She is more political than she makes out to be. She is friends with the next Mayor of the city, looks like. She is a focal point to many black politicians in the city, people like Hakeem and Karim.

Delilah Rothenberg is a white person absolutely, totally fascinated by Africa. How often does that happen?

Justin Krebs has extreme social intelligence: it is an extreme sport for him. He learns names like he were trying to acquire vocabulary for the SAT.

Negina Fersad is funny as hell, especially when she is talking about nuclear energy. She is Persian cute too. I told you, we Asians are all the rage. By the way, she also makes fun of her sex life.

Kristina Hoke is "one smart cookie." But I hear she retired. I hope she comes to sit on the Women's Revolution Committee, and brings Liz along. Ben needs a Jerry.

Lee Motayed is a cutie. I told you we Asians are all the rage.

Dan Berger has sharper emotional intelligence than Justin Krebs, but the dude is a Jihadi. He tries to invade your privacy with the passion of a Jihadi. Each attempt shrinks his space. And you don't get along with me by suggesting Rangel is a bigger deal than I am.

Mike Lupinachi has great killer instincts. He has good martial intelligence. He can shift through the terrain in a fight and come out intact.

David Pollak hovers over the entire scene like Santa, quietly understanding and appreciating everyone's impulses. People who fight each other all relate to him one on one. He takes in the unfolding scene like a Supreme Court Justice.

Me? I am ether. I am everywhere. It is called having a blog, it is called being a digital democrat. I am a Third World guy on a mission.

But ultimately it is the queen we all respond to. Things fall apart when the center can not hold. She is "clean. I frisked him." People are clay, she makes pots out of them.

Long live the progressive political religion. We are the New York Mafia, here to take over the world.


Trying To Become More Social

Naturally I am bubbley and excited socially. But the first two plus years into the city I did intense work for Nepal. It was urgent. The country was on fire. And the work ended up being amazing. Then I coasted along to do some good work for Obama.

All that 2.0 work cost me dearly socially. But now I am trying to become social. I am trying to meet and greet and get to know people. When you step out of the dark, you start with squinty eyes. Right now I got squinty eyes.

I don't ask for forgiveness. It is the other way round. I forgive you for not getting involved when I was doing urgent work for Nepal.