macheresin for the macherewin

I don’t really worry about… we’ll say most of you. Excepting some people who I have blocked, most people following me or who I follow have their eyes on the ball. But then I see the normies on Instagram who believe every single social media graphic that gets posted by some idiot about politics. I worry about the kind of people like my friend who was so upset that Joe Biden was the nominee, not because she didn’t like his policies, but because she believed that the DNC chose the president and “Why did they pick him if he’s too old?” I worry about those people. The ones too dumb to know how dumb they are, but just smart enough to vote.

I think things are bad enough that Democrats will do well in the midterms. But one thing that people have refused to accept is that all of their posts have an effect. They think they’re just one nobody online and that no one listens to them, plus they’re in a blue state, so it’s fine, they can say whatever they want and their “vote doesn’t matter” while not recognizing that their words do, and that what they’re engaging in is a years-long campaign to stifle enthusiasm for the exact political changes that they claim to want.

We can gain a lot of information from more precise break downs of how people voted, but just these raw numbers tell us something important. They tell us that about 3 million people who voted for Biden in 2020 decided to vote for Trump in 2024*, and they tell us that about 3 million people who voted for Biden in 2020 just didn't vote at all in 2024.

And it's very likely that at least some of those votes were from people living in states that went blue anyway, but it's even more likely that a lot of those votes were not. Yes, it's very rare that presidential elections are won by one or two votes and so it's easy to say that "my one vote doesn't matter," and that's true of any one individual person, but when you and your friend and 3 million other people all feel the same way - well, that's how elections are lost.

Yes, your one vote doesn't matter by itself. But in a democracy, you have to get rid of that hyperindividualist way of thinking for elections. Your vote is on a team - not in the fandomization of politics red vs blue sense, but in the you can't win a football game with just the QB sense. The team needs your vote to do its part so that their votes can do their part, and anyone who is telling you to not vote is doing so in an attempt to undermine your team. And if you're telling people not to vote, then you're actively working to undermine your team as well.

I get being disappointed with your party. I get being incredibly frustrated with the state of politics in the US right now. But it is still obvious that one party is significantly worse than the other, and as long as that's true, I need you to let your vote do its part, so that my vote can as well.

The heat’s been brutal this summer but we still gotta eat! If you’re like me, heat might suppress your appetite, and the last thing any of us want is to sweat over a hot stove and oven when it’s already boiling outside. Here are some of my favorite hot-weather recipes to keep hydrated and fed with when the weather is unbearable! (All recipes should be un-paywalled).

NYT’s best gazpacho (lives up to its name!!)

Persian cold cucumber soup (if you like tzatziki you will like this!)

Eric Kim’s cold noodles with tomato (infinitely riffable Korean flavor profile — for a creamier and less brothy take, try these cold sesame noodles too)

Vietnamese chicken and herb salad (this is an excellent time to get a rotisserie chicken so you don’t have to turn the oven on)

Radish sandwiches with butter and salt (and in a similar vein, if you dig this flavor combo you should try this Polish cottage cheese dip on some good rye bread or even crackers)

It’s still a little early in the season, but you can never go wrong with a BLT (or, if you don’t eat bacon, try this tomato furikake sandwich in its place)

Infinite iterations of pasta salad! You can use anything you got but here is a template I like.

Assorted dense bean salads. This back pocket canned salad is a weird combo of jarred ingredients but it slaps, this hoagie-inspired one is super satisfying, and cowboy caviar is a classic for a reason.

Poke bowls! Canned tuna mixed with some kewpie mayo and sriracha is a budget-friendly riff on the usual ahi and makes everything taste like a spicy tuna roll, but use whatever proteins you like, this is more of a loose template.

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

Veil status: normal

Tomorrow's veil: normal to thick

“They’re not smarter or faster they’re buying up others’ lifetimes to do their chores”

I see this reaction a lot, and I gotta say, it always makes me a little sad. Whenever the conversation of exploitation of labor comes up, inevitably someone finds themselves struggling with the guilt of “It is so important to me not to contribute to exploitation but I cannot do this thing myself and need someone else to do it for me, so how do I even approach that?”

Exploitation isn’t in the hiring of a service worker. Exploitation is in the respect you show them for their ability to perform the service you need from them.

I have been on a cleaning service staff before, and also been someone who hired a cleaning service, and I can tell you for sure that a lot of cleaning crews (especially worker owned ones) absolutely LOVE their clients and are genuinely happy to be able to make their lives better. The clients they don’t like? Those are the ones who disrespect the workers.

When I was involved with a cleaning service, we had everything from little old ladies living alone to McMasions with five cars as clients, and I can assure you that whenever there was someone who clearly hired us because they were overwhelmed or unable to keep their space clean, those were the households where you put a little more elbow grease in and did a deep clean even when it wasn’t paid for, because you could see how much these people were trying and struggling, and they were always so kind and generous and often embarrassed when talking to you about the job.

I only hired a service a couple if times in my life, but whenever I did, I worked with the same people as often as I could, tipped as well as I could afford, and tried to be the kind of client I would want to have, and that’s how I often ended up with my baseboards cleaned too, or my fridge scrubbed and organized or a restorative clean done in a high use room even when that wasn’t what I had scheduled or paid for.

I’ve heard the same thing from all manner of service workers over the years. Many of us like our jobs! We enjoy the work. It’s the customers that can do a number on you.

They’ve gotta eat too.

You are putting money in their pocket. That is not a bad thing.

Listen, let me tell you, okay?

Shortly before I got laid off, I went for a pedicure at my favorite place for the first time in over two years. I’d decided to switch places because it’s a 30-mile-round-trip drive and I wanted something closer to home, but I’d been deeply disappointed by local options, so back to my original spa I went.

Over two years.

I WALKED IN THE DOOR AND THE OWNER GREETED ME BY NAME.

This is a busy place. She sees several hundred people a week.

I didn’t ask, but I’m pretty sure I know why she remembers me, and do you know what I think it is?

1) I’m polite

2) I tip well

3) on the occasions when I’ve seen someone in there decide to get racist over most of the staff being Vietnamese, I give them hell because I know the staff can’t and also I’m white so, sadly, they’re more likely to actually be embarrassed if I do it.

Am I exploiting my pedicure tech? I guess that depends on your definition of exploitation. I have terrible feet (thanks, family) and I appreciate the work of someone trained to deal with the calluses from my weird gait and the toenail that likes to grow into my foot. I make sure they know I appreciate it, both verbally and financially. Is that exploitation?

.

also like. if you’re paying the cleaning service enough to cover a decent wage for the cleaning staff’s time plus a share of the cleaning supplies and admin staff pay and whatnot (which you probably are) and you’re treating the cleaning staff like people? it is still possible to likely that the cleaning staff are being exploited. by the cleaning service.

that’s not on you. that’s on whoever is pocketing the profits that should’ve been part of the cost of labor, or pocketing the profits that should’ve been part of the cost of health and safety measures, or.

anyway write your legislators about making minimum wage a living wage with annual cost-of-living increases, and about stronger labor protections, with enough higher fines for noncompliance that paying the fines will cost employers more than it’ll cost employers to pay and protect its staff properly