Day: November 18, 2020

A couple of weight workouts

I forgot to log Monday’s workout so I’ll do that now and do this morning’s as well.

Monday: pull ups (55 reps total; did a few sets of 10)

bench: 10 x 134, 2 x 184, 2 x 184, 2 x 179 (wanted 3), 5 x 166, 5 x 166 (I have 44 lb. bar and a mix of kg and lb. plates) All reps had a pause at the bottom.

shoulder: 3 sets of 10 with 40, 40, 44 dumbbell, 10 x 88 barbell

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134 trap bar

trap bar squats: 10 x 134 neutral, 10 x 134 deficit, 10 x 156 deficit, 10 x 167 deficit

push ups: 30, 30, 15 and headstand.

Today: windier; pull ups: did a couple of sets of 10 and some broken sets; got used to gloves (I’ll have to get used to them); 55 reps total.

bench: 10 x 134, 8 x 161 (all with pauses)

shoulder: 3 sets of 10 x 44 dumbbell, 10 x 88, 9 x 90 barbell

single arm rows: 3 sets of 10 x 60

deadlift: deficit: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 209

high handles: 10 x 234 (screwed up and put two 10’s and one 5 with my 25 and 45…senior moment.

plank: 2:30 and headstand.

So where do Democrats go from here?

Yes, Biden won the election; he currently has a 51-47.3 lead in the popular vote and a 79.15 to 73.4 million lead (massive turnout!)

But the Democrats did rather poorly in Congress; we still don’t know the carnage but we lost House seats and will be extremely fortunate to eek out a tie in the Senate (I don’t expect us to; and yes, I chipped in).

But, how will we win purple Congressional Districts and purple states?

There are some issues.

Bill Maher has some words of wisdom..well worth listening to:

And what plays well in academic and in well educated circles…just does not convince the voters:

“Advancing universalistic programs that disproportionately benefit Black and Latino people is traditionally how liberal policymakers have tried to promote racial equity (Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson labeled it “The Hidden Agenda” in his 1987 book The Truly Disadvantaged), while conservatives do the opposite. When Rush Limbaugh called the Affordable Care Act “a civil rights bill” and “reparations” in 2010, he didn’t mean that as praise.

In a pre-election op-ed published in The New York Times, UC Berkeley professors Ellora Derenoncourt and Claire Montialoux argued for a renewed focus on the minimum wage, noting that this was a key demand of the 1963 March on Washington and that their research says fully 20 percent of the closure in the Black-white wage gap during the Civil Rights Era came from the 1966 minimum wage increase.

But Democratic elected officials did not emphasize the issue much during the 2020 race.”

Yglesias goes on to say:

My suspicion is that this is a weird tic of campus politics that has followed graduates into the professional arena where they unconsciously started deploying it in less appropriate contexts. If you’re in a dorm at a fancy college and you can convince an administrator that something is racist, the administrator will probably put a stop to it. At the same time, “this is bad for poor people” just isn’t going to get you far as a campus argument. After all, these schools more or less openly auction off a number of admissions slots to wealthy donors (while, of course, practicing affirmative action to keep things diverse) so they can hardly take a hard line on class politics.

But electoral politics in a democracy isn’t like that. And to the extent that the US political system isn’t democratic, it’s mostly tilted in favor of over-representing white people with no college degree. So if you actually want to close racial gaps by raising the minimum wage, expanding union membership, expanding Medicaid, and reducing student debt, the last thing you want to do is to sell people on the idea that this is really all about race.

So in this sense, the Bernie types are right: sell the plans in race neutral form (“this helps poor people”) and leave race out of it.

But this might anger the wokes.

We have such a tricky road to tread.

And yes, the largely white, ‘jackrabbit” and Ya’ll states have the electoral advantage and a big advantage in the Senate, and there is not much we can do about it, save breaking up the country (which I favor, but it won’t happen in my lifetime).

Personal opinion Note that Democrats have LOST ground with minorities; this is NOT limited to Cubans in Florida:

What is going on? Of course, politics is local too, but on a global scale, I’d say that Latinos broadly reject “wokeness”:

No one wants “educated” wokes coming in to “educate us” on what is appropriate for ourselves.

And, I honestly think that Democrats, at least the very liberal ones, appear to have a hostility to accomplishment and success ..they took a sensible statement by Obama “you didn’t build that..” (meaning the PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE by which people and goods get to businesses) to mean “you didn’t earn that..”; “success” is equated with “privilege.”

Who in the hell wants to aspire to being a loser or a victim?

The attitude just appears to be wrong.

17 November walk and

I might have more to say later; let’s just say that while I am glad that Trump lost the election; Congress will be a zoo.

Well, the walk itself; just under 15 minutes per mile on a perfect day. Ok..not that bad but hardly swift. No wind; lots of run; mild glute pain and some NSAIDS.

When I got back I saw some cars being towed; I wonder what the story was..could be many things. Most of them: not good.

And yes; we are back at level 3 due to increased COVID cases and yes, dummies are still planning to have family Thanksgiving get togethers…superspreader event.