yeah. i can fit four scanned pages on one page, thereby cutting costs down to 25%. well, if i end up paying $0.25/sheet, and i have to print 60 pages three times, it's not a small sum. that's $45. i think i can find it somewhere for $0.15/sheet, but that's still $27. sure, i'd like to avoid paying for that.

if i can get it down to 20 pages or so, that's $15 at $0.25/sheet - or $9 at $0.15/sheet. i think it's $0.15 at the great law library in the building, and also at the public library across the street.

i'm going to do this in full size to start, and see how much it actually costs. if i can get it under $30, total, i'll just eat it. but, i am going to mail a copy to the windsor police by snail mail, in addition to sending them a copy by email, and i will have to print that from windsor, so maybe i can cut the page length down when i get to that point.

so, the application record is really more frustrating due to the need to convert all of these pdf documents to word 2003 format, which is just being done by inserting dozens of images.

like, i'm spending time typesetting. really. that's the work required for this.

and, it's kind of dumb in terms of requirements because the only reason i'm doing this is to create a table of contents, and number the pages.

i'm really just taking the file i gave them last week, along with the initial report, the review and some scattered emails. i could have just sent it in separate documents. but i have to number everything, which is rather daft.

*shrug*.

so, i'm almost done the first part....

i don't really have to do the third part and the fourth part is just filing, so, as expected, it's just a few hours. i'm sure i'll be done by the morning.

but, i'm out of soy milk so i need to talk a walk while it's nice.

it's currently looking like it'll be about 60 pages, but can i shrink that? i'll try.

is it surprising that they're doing so poorly? kind of, but not really.

i think that harris has simply demonstrated herself to be an unserious candidate. if i were her, i'd actually be worried about keeping her senate seat. her debate performances were atrocious.

and, booker is just kind of....white.

but, i'm going to throw this out there: in 2008, black voters rushed to go to "their guy", and found out he wasn't such a good pick, after all. he sided with wall street. he sold them out on health care. he deported people by the millions, he did nothing for criminal justice reform and he actually oversaw a decrease in living standards for african-americans, albeit mostly due to the global recession.

i know that black voters are loathe to criticize obama in public.

but, is there some lingering apprehension about voting based on race due to what obama actually became, and a kind of return to voting on street cred?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/heres-why-kamala-harris-and-cory-booker-cant-break-through-the-democratic-primary-field

but, i mean, if your argument is "don't let the gay guy win, because we'll lose texas for sure", then all i can really say is that we're not on the same side.

i'm not going to end up supporting buttigieg. i'm leaning socialist/green. i've been clear on that.

but, i'd kind of like to see this play out, because i sort of think it's necessary.

so, you've got people like harris and castro warning that the democrats need to elect somebody that will appeal to black voters, which is just a homophobic dog whistle - and should be interpreted and analyzed and treated exactly like that.

the church doesn't like the gays, and the blacks (in the south) are controlled by the church. ergo....

but, am i going to shrug that off and say "oh, well"? no. if the black church will not stand with gay rights, then they need to be openly and explicitly called out for it and opposed on those terms. fuck the black church, then. i'm not going to support a party that won't vote for a candidate because they're gay. those people aren't allies, they're opponents.

that said, something i learned in 2016 is that this narrative is all wrong, and that these attitudes are defined less by race or skin colour and more by geography. so, an argument that southern blacks don't like the gays (or the jews.) may have a lot of evidence to support it, but that evidence cannot be extended to blacks in the north, who tend to be more like northern whites. if you look at states like tennessee in 2016, clinton did about as well with whites as she did with blacks, and if you look at states like illinois, sanders was far more competitive with blacks than he was in the south, and sometimes outright won latinos.

so, arguing that blacks in milwaukee or detroit won't vote for a gay guy is probably wrong. arabs, on the other hand...

if your concern is about black voter enthusiasm and eventual turnout around a gay candidate, that's mostly going to be an issue in the general in the south, and the republicans are going to sweep these states, anyways. do the democrats have a serious chance of winning georgia or texas? i'd rather focus on michigan and wisconsin - i think the chances are a lot higher.

that said, this is why you have primaries, you let the voters figure it out. if wisconsin and michigan pick the gay guy, as the trends are suggesting will happen, the democratic process needs to be respected.

i said this in 2016, though - if the south wants to insist on picking candidates that the north won't support, then we're going to have to fight about it. the south can't expect the north to just go along to get along, or erect some kind of primacy for black voter preference in the party. the liberal north has been losing this fight in the party to the conservative south for decades, now. the west wants in, too, and they lean left. the liberal north has to come up with some kind of strategy to start defeating the black church. it's long overdue...

the way you beat biden is that you do really, really, really well with white voters in the north.

...which is, incidentally, also how you beat trump.

my preferred ideological candidate didn't listen to good advice because he's not very bright. a more intelligent candidate, who i agree with far less, actually figured that out, and he's on the only path there actually is.

all i can do is shrug and vote green.

and, remind people that you should listen to the mathematicians, not the marketing consultants.

so, that was another sleepy morning, and what can i do besides shrug it off and drink more coffee and try to stay awake longer?

i spent the evening clearing out shows for the first half of the month, which is relevant as i determine whether to go back to toronto mid-month or not.

i wanted to get most of the writing done overnight. i guess i'll have to spend the day doing it, instead.