I was in a ride share on the way to the Hollywood Bowl when the driver asked me why I moved to Los Angeles. My initial response was for the culture. Most places just don’t have the diverse art scene. This weekend was a pretty good example of what I meant.

Jimmy Eat World

Carissa’s Wierd

The show at the Bowl was for Jimmy Eat World and their Bleed American tour—the venue being the biggest the band had ever headlined. The night before was a noise show featuring Leila Bordreuil and Twig Harper at the single-room art space Human Resources. Last night was Carissa’s Wierd at the general music venue Echoplex. (This one was particularly strange because I’ve been listening to that band for 20 years, most of which they’ve been broken up for, but apparently has had a resurgence in popularity among the TikTok kids, and I was easily one of the oldest people in the crowd—by decades.)

So in three consecutive nights I saw three wildly different concerts at venues of all sizes, and that’s just the norm here. And this was just music. I didn’t go to any movies or galleries. And most places in the United States—much to their detriment—simply don’t offer that kind of consistent experience. I often think that opportunity for exposure to the arts is one of the most broken parts of American society (albeit admittedly less important than like, the housing crisis or decaying infrastructure).

The powerful and their news outlets consistently seek to divide people, and the arts are a way to fight back against that. It’s probably one of the reasons as to why they’re so under-funded here. Sometimes weekends like this make me kick myself for not moving to LA sooner in life, but for now I’m just glad I did at all.

Along Third by La Brea

LA Mayoral race early-morning update via LAist

Though the race officially can’t be called, voting in Los Angeles tends to break progressive later on—the same way it did during the mayoral primary earlier this year when Nithya came from behind to beat Spencer Pratt—meaning that Raman will likely run away with this thing. This is wonderful news for the future of Los Angeles.

Though there are many nationwide electoral celebrations going on, this is the one that I was really looking forward to. Yes, because it directly affects the city I live in, but also because Karen Bass is a centrist democrat. While many of the election results across America are about Democrats beating out Republicans, this was a progressive usurping a traditional liberal in a major city.

I can’t really get excited about the ‘Blue Wave’ until politicians actually start doing things; prosecute the Trump administration, abolish ICE, divest from Israel, tax the ultra-wealthy, increase the minimum wage, end the war in Iran, release the Epstein Files. I mean start with any of those.

To me, this feels very much like 2008, when this era of ‘hope and change’ turned into broken promises, a continued war on ‘terror,’ a bank bailout, and excuses as to why universal healthcare wasn’t an option—and that was when the Democrats controlled all of Congress and the White House. If this new batch can actually follow through on some serious changes in how American governance has been going, I’ll happily change my tune. But for now, I’ll keep my attention on what happens locally and not hold my breath on sweeping national change.

Though I am an incredible cynic about the larger-scale state of American democracy, I am not one of those people who just sits out the vote altogether. Local governance is still an important thing that hasn’t been completely corrupted by forces of capital, and when done right, can substantially better the lives of community members.

Here in Los Angeles, we have an incredibly important mayoral race that will very much determine whether or not this city even has the potential to improve over the next decade. If Nithya Raman can pull off a win, there’s actually hope that this city can change some of the issues that are currently being completely ignored by city hall. There are also broader California measures—such as taxing billionaires—that are not remotely close to what I want but still better than nothing. (This would be a one-time, five-percent tax that I believe should be annual and closer to 35%.)

Yet, nationally, everyone is expecting a blue wave of Democratic candidates to win seats in the US Senate that are currently held by Republicans. Like, cool, good for y’all who care, but I really don’t understand the psychology of people excited about this. The Democrats have long-proven they will do nothing on major issues. Even if they had a supermajority in the Senate, I bet they’ll say, “Trump will veto our legislation and we can’t get a 2/3 majority, so why bother?”

It is a party of corrupt, mostly right-leaning Zionists and capitalists who have always voted to fund ICE and Israel. To think they’ll do anything about either of those—much less somehow control the global economic landscape and bring down gas or food prices—is legitimately insane at this point. Let’s not forget when Obama was elected, the Democrats also had a supermajority in the Senate and held the House and still didn’t pass universal healthcare or close Guantanamo Bay.

In 2026, to believe in the Democratic party, much less expect anything from them, is a fool’s errand. It has been nearly 20 years of complete disappointment that goes even further back to Bill Clinton rolling out a fairly right-wing agenda in law enforcement, telecommunications, and public services. While I understand any measure to curtail the insanity of the Trump administration is at least a step in the right direction, I will be shocked if the liberals do anything more than write strongly-worded letters about why the United States is doing bad things.

At a national level, Election Day has become a moment where pundits on the news networks try to justify their existence and the people can feel a remote garnish of hope to temporarily mute the stink of the pile of shit that is the US government. It is a profoundly stupid day, a performance of smoke and mirrors by a bunch of snake-oil salesmen, and the continued belief in it is exactly why the people are doomed to a future of ruin.

The rain has subsided