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Cake day: July 15th, 2023

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  • I’ve never had to wait long in New Orleans or DC except for odd circumstances but those places essentially have predetermined elections.

    • During the pandemic in New Orleans, they made the Smoothie King Center the main early voting location. That took a couple of hours but in normal years, I vote at a fire department and it just takes a few minutes.

    • In 2008 in DC, I lived near the White House and my polling place was an historic AME church that was a spot on the Underground Railroad. Every global news channel with staff in DC — so all of them — was trying to interview people. So, I’m not sure that was the voting system’s fault so much as global media asking everyone for a sound bite. (I got interviewed by Japan’s NHK but I didn’t make the cut. If I want to get on Japanese TV, I guess I’ll have to go on a game show.)

    But I’ve never lived in a competitive state or district. DC doesn’t have real representation in Congress and Louisiana’s 2nd district is drawn for Voting Rights Act compliance reasons so it’s also not typically competitive. (Louisiana also elects state/local officials in non-presidential years so it’s rarely got much on the ballot besides President and maybe an amendment or two. This year, we voted on whether offshore wind farms would participate in the coastal wetlands restoration program like offshore oil rigs.)





  • I would rather cook because I like the taste much, much more. Almost all frozen stuff is just flavorless to me so I end up having to doctor it up anyway. It’s easier for me to just start from scratch unless it’s something that’s a giant pain.

    I also worked as a cook when I was young so the effort/time is probably a bit less for me since I can do the food prep stuff quickly and without much mental effort. When I chop vegetables, my brain basically does it on autopilot.


  • By the way, I don’t want to discourage anyone from studying International Affairs (or International Relations or International Political Economy or whatever it is at your school). I’m very happy I did. Reading primary sources and writing papers is a good thing. And we have loads of transcripts of actual world leaders making decisions. At my college, we read both the declassified U.S. cabinet and Soviet side’s actual transcripts during the Cuban missile crisis and I wrote papers about avoiding war.

    I don’t regret studying it. Sometimes, something happens and I can predict it because I’ve read those primary sources. It’s a valuable skill. Peace is the goal.









  • Renminbi would already be a reserve currency if they didn’t have currency controls. The reason the dollar and (to a lesser extent) euro, Swiss franc, etc. serve that role is because no one really has to worry about withdrawing their funds and converting them. China can obviously get there but that sort of trust takes time and probably other reforms in China.

    For the record, I’m not talking about politics or who is good or bad here. I’m just talking about the basic reality of business transactions. Being one of the currencies accepted in global contracts requires a lot of trust.