Given the Iowa debacle, the NV Dems quickly dropped their app resulting in a new cumbersome manual check in process that resulting in really long lines for early voting in their caucuses. All in all, it took us 4 hours between leaving the house and returning home.

But the weather was lovely. Gorgeous actually, in the shade of the highschool courtyard we were queued up.

I spent most of the time chatting with Sandy. She was a retiree from West Virginia who moved to Vegas after her mother passed away. She works part time at Marshalls, who she said treats her well. She grew up in Baltimore, and her father passed away on on Valentines day in the 70’s. He served our nation as an engineer and logistics agent in World War 2, the Korean War, and Vietnam. We killed him with Agent Orange. Her uncle was native american and would attend high school games with his palomino in full regalia.

This was her first time early voting in the caucus. She said she was more conservative in the past, but this town had loosened her up.

Her cousin, Nancy, was the one who enticed Sandy to move out here to Vegas. She used to work in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. One of her friends was a high roller at the Rio and brought her out to this town a couple times. She liked it so much, she decided to retire out here in the early 2000’s. She was happily waiting in line after a horrible experience in the 2016 caucus which dragged out for hours in a contentious room.

She mentioned an acquaintance Chef Sheridan who was opening up a third restaurant. I had the pleasure of telling her the Every Grain is already open! She used to eat Sheridan’s Bao’s at the salon counter when he was working out of a truck, I think near at Tropicana and Decatur.

The guy in front of us was stocky a long haired dude who worked on the crew of a reality TV show. He grew up in New Jersey and got his MFA from CCA, which was still California College of the Arts and Crafts when I was at Berkeley. We compared notes on life in the Bay and lamented the high cost of living out there. We were both flummoxed on how anyone with a menial wage job can continue to survive out there.

He mentioned he was here to vote for Bernie. An hour later, my wife asked why ranked choice voting wasn’t more common. I’ve heard about the concept as long as I’ve been following politics as a kid, and my opinion is that it has never been implemented because the two parties want to keep their structural deathgrip on the political system. The danger of ranked choice voting is that it might make people feel more comfortable about voting on something crazy, such the Green party. We had a good laugh over mess we’re in.

And of course we shouldn’t ignore the hard work of the volunteers to keep the process running as smoothly as they could given the hand they were dealt. The caucus is managed by the political party so everything was being handled by volunteers. The district leader said he and his team got thirty minutes of training the day before. When they were overwhelmed that morning, he called in some favors from his friends in the Warren campaign who came and helped out. The guy who kept tabs wait times was just a voter who decided to hang around and help out when he saw how long the lines had become.

They passed out waters, and pulled out seats. They picked up some donuts, and shared some pizzas.

It was a long wait, but they kept the spirits up. It was as close to a civic party as you could get, queued up in a line with your fellow citizens.

It was a long wait, but you know what we didn’t waste our time talking about?

Yup.

He wasn’t worth mentioning.

We had better things on our mind.

I just voted in the early caucus for Buttigieg.

Throughout 2019 I was rooting for Warren as a sentimental favorite, bitter by the corporatist slant and the ascendance of the GOP under the watch of the Obama administration. I was unconvinced by Pete’s youth, and harbored a deep suspicion of yet another precocious young white man, quickly climbing the ladder with effortless ease, leapfrogging others with much deeper resumes. However, as Warren’s campaign continued to stall, I became concerned about her political acumen, falling for Trump’s ancestry gambit and a lack of results from the first two contests.

After the results of New Hampshire, I surveyed the field. Klobuchar’s cruel treatment of Myon Burrell as well as her own staffers scratched her off my list. I didn’t need to lose another election to Trump by trying 4 more years of Biden. Gabbard is in her own universe. Tom Steyer does nothing for me other than clog up the Facebook feed. Yang quit. And Bloomberg isn’t even on the Nevada ballot.

I voted for Bernie in 2016, preferring his clarion call of income equality and fearing Clinton’s hawkishness. Even then, I knew I was overlooking the problem of whether the dude could actually govern. I’ll still happily vote for Bernie over Trump, but after almost two years inside the department of “Administration”, I have much greater appreciation for the vast apparatus of government. I suspect the federal civil service is already tottering, and I worry about the lasting damage that may come with a revolutionary firebrand immediately following the current lout. Income inequality is important, but I am one of those dreaded “temperamentally conservative” liberals, so this issue is not my end-all, especially after becoming intimately familiar with the daily exertions of good government.

Which brings me back to the primary protagonists, both of whom I trust will execute fine administrations. Up through this Tuesday, my knowledge was merely a mental collection of memes, vibes, and clips. So I finally decided to listen to their campaign announcement speeches and compare the two candidates as politicians. How did Buttigieg and Warren sell themselves on day one?

From those two speeches, Mayor Pete won my vote – not in policy but in approach. I think the two candidates are headed in the same direction, they are both quite progressive. Warren wants to get there a little faster, which is great, but she is proposing even more fighting as the route to the promised land. As much as I relish the idea of fighting force on force, the Dem’s are awful at direct confrontation with the GOP.

We live in a 45/55 society which has been gerrymandered towards the minority, in the House, the Senate, the electoral college, and the Supreme Court. We can keep banging our heads against power politics, but we’re a diverse rabble running up against the well drilled formations of a conformist political party in the grip of an awesome propaganda machine. The progressive ideals I hold are so self-evident and Trump is so repugnant, I have to believe there must be another way to create an overwhelming majority that could engulf the GOP’s steadfast obstinance. After all, if we can merely flip a tenth of Trump voters we’re in Nixon-McGovern territory.

That said, I’m not pollyannaish about our prospects. I can see the stubborn recalcitrance of most Trump voters, especially as the economy hums along. It is a well nigh impossible task to reframe the current dichotomy to create a new paradigm and convert or attract new voters outside of the polarized mess that is making our mass and social medias stratospherically wealthy.

However, after listening to those two speeches (colored by my feel for the trajectories of these two campaigns) I have come to the opinion that Warren will be crushed by Trump in the general campaign, whether she wins or loses.

If you want a direct confrontation with Trump, you must be ready to battle beyond rules or norms, as he has been happily doing his entire campaign and administration. And even if she wins the general, her victorious path to the White House will have exacerbated the current polarization and enmities. I feel guilty for saying it, but I’m just tired of the prospect of four more years of this siege warfare. I’d rather take another flier on a hopey changey guy who has a shot at outflanking the opposition. Does that make me a sucker?

Yes, I’m betting on a lot of unproven potential. During my short time in government, I have observed the unique difficulties of being an “executive”, though we all must still acknowledge that South Bend is vanishingly small compared to the gig he’s pursuing. I know the guy’s perspective is circumscribed by his white, male privilege, however the recent New York Times article shows an ability to learn, grow, and develop alliances in spite of initial missteps. I know he’s taking money from rich folks, which is not preferable, but not disqualifying in this particular game we’re playing. He certainly loves his rhetoric. Is he also likely to defer too much to the corporations or dawdle in the hope of building a non existent consensus?

Maybe. But if he can defeat the wannabe authoritarian with small hands, advance parts of a progressive agenda, and restore a functioning government, I’ll take the trade.

Will Pete succeed in doing rhetorical jujitsu on Trump’s full frontal assault? Does his celebrated 2019 performance at the Fox News Town Hall translate for the general election? Will it reach the voting masses in swing states, beyond caressing the intellectual erogenous zones of the coastal elites? And if he gets elected, is there any way he can get anything done with an obstructionist GOP, that will likely claim one or both houses of Congress in 2022 if Pete is president?

I doubt it. But at least I can see a glimmer of hope.

So take it for what it’s worth, a tepid endorsement for the youngster out of South Bend and for Freedom, Security, Democracy.

Seven years ago, we were sitting on the concrete pavement in a Buc-ee’s parking lot eating a salad, leaving Houston to our new home of Las Vegas.

Today, I just stamped my first drawing.

Singular. The “set” is just a single sheet demolition plan removing two kitchens at the Desert Regional Center.

If I wanted to make it sound more impressive, I could say the project manual was also stamped. All 28 pages of SPWD boilerplate with 2 pages of technical specifications – 02 41 19, Selective Demolition.

And technically, I actually stamped our home remodel a couple years ago. But anyone is allowed to sign drawings for their own house if they’re the homeowner.

So this is the first time that “counts”.

It’s not much, but hey it has been twenty years in the making. I’m going to do my victory lap.

Happy Valentines Day!

I saw a post complaining about the lack of free time after working, cooking, cleaning, and exercising, even as a single person. So I decided to do some math.

Hmm interesting….

• 55 hours for a full time gig (factoring in a quick 1hr breakfast / morning routine, 1hr lunch, and 1hr commute)*
• 15 hours for six meals cooked at home (if you cook from scratch I don’t see how you would spend less than 2.5hrs cooking-eating-cleaning. Also I’m defining “often” as more than half of eleven meals – five dinners during the week and six during the weekend)
• 8 hours for the other five meals not eaten at home (a little more than an 1.5hrs each, including travel)
• 3 hours of exercise (CDC recommends 150 minutes per week)
• 56 hours for sleep (CDC recommends 7hrs or more for adults per night so 8hrs to include an evening routine)
• 4 hours for cleaning (this one seems a little short, but let’s go with a small apartment for a minimalist, so we’ll say it’s half a workday.)

That list totals up to 141 hours out of the 7×24 = 168 hours in a week.

This leaves 27 hours (or 1,620 minutes) to enjoy your off time. It’s odd number that feels simultaneously small and expansive….and I just spent 30 minutes writing this post!

*footnote: I am of the belief that a 40 hour week gig will only maintain your current position in life. If you have dreams of advancement, add another 8 hours for honing your skills – either at the company or on your own….so now we’re down to 19 hours of free time in a week.

**footnote: If you have young kids throw all this out the window. Hmm, maybe I should do this for myself….some other time!

In 1998-99, I had worked closely with him as an editor of Process, a Journal of Student Work. The books were eventually printed but it was a good lesson in how bleeping hard it is to get anything done. Indeed, it was such a painful experience that I had of blocked it out of my memory, but as I write, I can pinpoint this experience as the beginning of my Project Management career.

A year later (two decades ago from this year), I came back from spring break to find out he had committed suicide. It was utterly devastating. So devastating that I roped in a couple friends to do Process a second time. Which was yet again a grinding experience that overshadowed my senior year in college. I doubt it was a very good idea to volunteer for such pain and suffer, but in retrospect it was most likely good to do it twice, to learn that experience will make things a little easier, but not much easier.

The biggest payoff from this second run is that I became close to my two fellow editors over that crazy year, and I still telephone one of them every month or so. I’d say any effort that nets you something like that for the next 20 years is pretty damn good.

In any case, I spent yesterday morning looking up the grad student who had passed away in 2000. The internet now claims maybe he isn’t dead. It is a bit odd, because he has managed to have zero digital footprint, except for an award nomination in 1999, an exhibition announcement from 1998, and in the meeting minutes of some planning commission that noted he had passed away in 2000.

This wasn’t a man who could have laid low for twenty years. I suspect the internet is mixing up two people….but maybe not.

Even though I’m generally quite proud of my internet searching skillz, I’ve hit the end of the line – at least without spending a little money or significant time.

So I’ll try again in 2030. If the dude is alive but wants to stay deceased, I should respect his will for at least another decade. If he’s actually dead, there should be more free information available in the internet to confirm this loss.

And as a final little nugget, here is a photo myself (from 2006) that I came across while trawling through old emails. This had nothing to do with him, but I wanna post it somewhere!