Day: March 4, 2020

quickie

I had an early work appointment and so cut the workout short…also, the ROTC flooded the weight room.
pull ups: 4 sets of 10, one of 7, one of 5 (went well)
rotator cuff
super set of clean and presses with back squats:
presses: 3 sets of 5 x 95 (full reps)
back squats: 5 x 45, 85, 85 (I wish this were a typo)
superset of Hammer rows with dumbbell presses
rows; 3 sets of 10 x 210
presses: 3 sets of 10 x 45

Then home; deadlift: 6 x 145 conventional, 5 x 211 conventional, 5 x 211 sumo (bounced a rep by accident)
I was trashed by then; total workout time was 75 minutes, including the walk home. Passed on hex

Painful introspection

Well, I am seeing a LOT of anger on political twitter. Example:

And you have some of this from Warren supporters as well.

(she saw the handwriting on the wall the day before)

Here is a story from my political past: In 2004, I got involved in the general election. I took several trips to Iowa to campaign for Senator Kerry as well as making “Kerry calls”, donating money, etc.

Result: a very bitter defeat. When Kerry finally conceded Ohio, I was almost in tears…I’ve never been so low.

That hurt. Badly.

But…with time…. I had to admit that we had gotten “out-campaigned.”

Bush was far more organized.

When I went to Iowa the workers there often didn’t know how many were coming..or how best to use us. When I made Kerry calls, I found that I was the FIRST one they had heard from in over several months. There were also competing events nearby, etc.

So, I decided to do something about it. I joined the local Democrats and got involved in local stuff. I also got aboard the Obama team early.

In 2008: very different story. When I volunteered to do a task for the Obama campaign, I got a follow up call. When I went somewhere to campaign, they were ready for us..in fact called us the night before, asked us what we needed, etc. They had a plan on where to send us. The difference was night and day.

And on election day, we were sent straight to the correct houses..and I mean “we”; they had helped me organize a small crew.

As I like to say: in 2004, I mourned alone. In 2008, I celebrated with friends.

Interesting (to me) aspects of Super Tuesday

Yes, Biden didn’t have that much of a campaign presence. But this was a different sort of election. In 2008, D voters really, really liked both Hillary and Barack.
This time you had:

“Good Old Joe”
The Billionaire who wanted to buy the election
The crazy radical
The woke but brilliant college professor.

There was really little convincing to be done….and D’s were motivated because we are sick to death of Trump.

And this is the “woke” part: Warren appeared to rely way too much on self-styled “activists” who claimed to represent a community but, in reality, did not.

Very few want that.

Another lesson: relying on record turnout by younger voters is an excellent way to guarantee failure.

But the biggest lesson: nagging people and wagging your finger at them doesn’t persuade anyone. At least that is my opinion.

My conjecture: the “true believers” (the rabid Sanders and Warren supporters) will learn NOTHING from this.

Sanders supporters will blame the selfish, scared, stupid “Boomers” who can’t think for themselves. They won’t blame themselves for the 18-29 vote not showing up nor blame themselves for supporting a do-nothing windbag.

The more rabid Warren supporters will blame sexism and misogyny. They won’t accept that she simply isn’t good at politics.