Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The revolution will be supervised.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

I was promised a recession.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Let there be snark.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

This really is a full service blog.

We still have time to mess this up!

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Monday Morning Open Thead: One Year Out From Election Day

Monday Morning Open Thead: One Year Out From Election Day

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Keeping it positive, for the start of another week. Good read over coffee, Gail Collins on “Hillary in History“:

… “It’s hard to believe there’s another year,” Clinton said in a phone interview, taking the glass-half-empty perspective. She was on her way to the airport during a fund-raising swing through California, broken up by an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. Her formula for making it through another 12 months, she said cheerfully, was pretty simple: “We’re just getting up every morning. Step by step.”

“It’ll be a long slog,” she added with what I believe the entire nation understands is total accuracy. “But it’s more fun this time because I feel like we’re doing better.”…

Clinton is the only woman who’s ever won a presidential primary. The only others who ever featured as even remote factors were the Republican Margaret Chase Smith in 1964, and the Democrat Shirley Chisholm, who got 152 delegates in 1972. (There were lots of ways to get little chunks of delegates without winning a primary back then.)…

We do have to talk about Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman to have her name placed in nomination at the convention of a major party. “The first woman in politics I was aware of was Margaret Chase Smith,” Clinton recalled. “I can remember opening up Life magazine and reading about this woman who was in the United States Senate. I had no idea there was such a woman.”

Well, there certainly weren’t a whole lot. Smith, who spent much of the 1950s and 1960s as the only woman in the Senate, was the first senator with enough guts to stand up to Joseph McCarthy and his witch hunt. Her courage made such an impression that some Republicans talked about Smith as a possible vice-presidential nominee in 1952. But the party leaders thought a much sounder choice would be Richard Nixon…

The Democrats’ first big moment came in 1972 when Shirley Chisholm ran for the presidential nomination. Chisholm, an African-American, would have been a double historic first. But her party was in no way ready to make symbolic gestures. They needed a winner! So they nominated George McGovern.

HAVE you noticed a pattern here?…

***********

Apart from keeping our loins well girded, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

270Comments

  2. 2.

    Applejinx

    I could do without hearing the name McGovern. McGovern lost because of ‘acid, amnesty and abortion’. The electorate is hugely different now and pot is legal in many states and the White House has been lit in gay rainbow colors and the ‘obligatory mainstream candidate’, the McGovern, is a woman who’d also win barring a totally catastrophic campaign.

    I mean, good for Clinton, for a change we have TWO winners. I think you have to look to the Republicans for the McGovern-analog. I guess that makes Cruz Hubert Humphrey, and Bush is Muskie? Let them run McTrumpern and get levelled when the electorate turns out to be unwilling to go full bozo.

    Neither Clinton nor Sanders are in a remotely McGovernlike political position, and we do still get to choose.

  3. 3.

    Zinsky

    Something I always say to my conservative friends when they ask me why in the world I would vote for Hillary Clinton- “Give me the name of one Republican, just one, who is as well-qualified as Hillary to be president”. Of course, they can’t and it drives them absolutely crazy! Try it!

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Things are getting curiouser and curiouser at Mizzou. One begins to wonder if there might not be a football game next Saturday.

    With his team on the brink of turmoil, Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel and his assistant coaches gathered with a majority of their players Sunday for a team meeting unlike any he’s overseen.

    On Saturday, 32 Mizzou players announced they will not take part in team activities, including games, until University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe steps down or is removed from office, joining voices with a campus movement to oust Wolfe in response to several racial incidents on campus.
    …
    Concerned Student 1950 is the name of the student activist group that this fall issued the university a list of eight demands stemming from a series of racially fueled incidents on campus.

    At the center of the protest is MU grad student Jonathan Butler, who began a hunger strike last Monday, pledging not to eat until Wolfe is removed from office.

    The University System Board of Curators is holding a meeting at 10 a.m. this morning. We’ll see what happens/

  5. 5.

    raven

    As a senator, McGovern was an exemplar of modern American liberalism. He became most known for his outspoken opposition to the growing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He staged a brief nomination run in the 1968 presidential election as a stand-in for the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. The subsequent McGovern–Fraser Commission fundamentally altered the presidential nominating process, by greatly increasing the number of caucuses and primaries and reducing the influence of party insiders. The McGovern–Hatfield Amendment sought to end the Vietnam War by legislative means but was defeated in 1970 and 1971. McGovern’s long-shot, grassroots-based 1972 presidential campaign found triumph in gaining the Democratic nomination but left the party badly split ideologically, and the failed vice-presidential pick of Thomas Eagleton undermined McGovern’s credibility. In the general election McGovern lost to incumbent Richard Nixon in one of the biggest landslides in American electoral history. Re-elected Senator in 1968 and 1974, McGovern was defeated in a bid for a fourth term in 1980.

    On McGovern’s December 15 mission over Linz, his second as pilot, a piece of shrapnel from flak came through the windshield and missed fatally wounding him by only a few inches.[43] The following day on a mission to Brüx, he nearly collided with another bomber during close-formation flying in complete cloud cover.[44] The following day, he was recommended for a medal after surviving a blown wheel on the always-dangerous B-24 take-off, completing a mission over Germany, and then landing without further damage to the plane.[45] On a December 20 mission against the Škoda Works at Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, McGovern’s plane had one engine out and another in flames after being hit by flak. Unable to return to Italy, McGovern flew to a British airfield on Vis, a small island in the Adriatic Sea off the Yugoslav coast that was controlled by Josip Broz Tito’s Partisans. The short field, normally used by small fighter planes, was so unforgiving to four-engined aircraft that many of the bomber crews who tried to make emergency landings there were killed. But McGovern successfully landed, saving his crew, a feat for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.[46][47]

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Zinsky: I think my reply would be “Name me a Republican.” and when they do, I would say “That’s why I can vote for Clinton.”

  8. 8.

    Zinsky

    @raven: Yeah, compare that to Bob Dole’s “heroic” story of how he got his war injuries: Dole threw a grenade, it bounced off a tree and came back at him. Some war hero! Yet, Republicans think Dole was some great hero, while George McGovern was a “peacenik hippie”, because he opposed e Vietnam quagmire. History has a lot of surprises for those who bother to study it!

  9. 9.

    Baud

    Bernie Sanders just said on “her worst day” HRC would be an infinitely better candidate/president than any republican.

    That is true of all of our candidates, including me, as well as just about every commenter on this blog, and about 90% of the dogs and cats in the United States.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: To be honest, I am playing catch up with the whole situation. I only became aware of it in the past couple days. I really don’t have a good feel for what is going on. The article also had this to say:

    There are sure to be financial ramifications if Missouri can’t field a team for Saturday’s game in Kansas City, not to mention the postseason implications for the Tigers (4-5, 1-5 Southeastern Conference). Mizzou must win two of its final three games to secure bowl eligibility.

    According to the contracts agreed upon by MU and BYU, if one team cancels any game in the two-game series, the defaulting school owes $1 million in liquidated damages to the other school for each canceled game to be paid no later than 30 days after the scheduled date for the game, regardless of whether alternative agreements can be made for a replacement game.

    Also, the defaulting team shall not be entitled to any guaranteed payment and must pay all attorney fees and collection costs the other school incurs in collecting the damages. The home team in the two-game series pays the visiting team $250,000 for each game

    Considering the fact that there are probably more than few scholarships at risk here, who knows how it all plays out.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    Sea change.

    The ruling political party here conceded defeat Monday to opposition leader and Noble Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi in the nation’s first free general election in a quarter of a century, according to reports, although votes were still being counted.
     
    “We lost,” Htay Oo, leader of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) told the Reuters news agency. Source

    @raven

    Faculty staff from the University of Missouri are staging a walk out in support of student activists.

    A statement released late Sunday night said: “We, the concerned faculty of the University of Missouri, stand in solidarity with the Mizzou student activists who are advocating for racial justice on our campus and urge all MU faculty to demonstrate their support by walking out on Monday November 9 and Tuesday November 10, 2015 along with other allies such as the Forum on Graduate Rights. Source

  18. 18.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    I had an Oxy alum explain to me that Oxy has an agreement with other universities that allow students to transfer after 2 years at Oxy. The President took advantage of this program.

  19. 19.

    Schlemazel

    Funny that those two things come together in the 70s. McGovern was hand selected by Nixon to be the Dem nominee. There were 8 men in the race and 7 of them polled better than Nixon so he sent is dirty tricks team out to destroy those 7 and leave only the guy Nixon could beat. The Times of London reporters who worked Watergate wrote a book I read in the late 70s detailing the work of scum like Donald Sagretti that I felt was a bigger crime than Watergate. The dirty tricks boys planted the stories about Muskey’s wife that caused him to tear up ion anger, planted evidence smearing Scoop Jackson and Hubert Humphry as having a homosexual affair, it was all so cute.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:
    @MattF:

    LOL. Good morning all.

    A full ‘nother year of this? Yikes. And way too early to drink. Except coffee. Off to make some now.

  24. 24.

    Major Major Major Major

    Open thread, #30 on my fish story is up. https://imjustthisguyyouknow.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/the-fish-30/

    It is a little known fact that there is, in fact, a correct way to hang toilet paper.

    The debate has raged for decades, if not centuries, about whether the paper should be over the roll in a clockwise manner or under the roll in a counterclockwise manner, with arguments on both sides. But the simple fact is that it should go over the roll in a clockwise manner, unless you both have a pet and lack a bathroom door.

    The reasoning is quite simple. The original patent application clearly shows this to be the correct way to hang toilet paper. Also, another little known fact—toilet paper was at one point patented!

    It is said that you can patent just about anything these days, and that’s true, although this one was awarded in 1891, so it’s been true for a while.

  27. 27.

    Schlemazel

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    Those are all maybes. It was whisker close in ’68 and there was a lot of unhappiness over Nixon’s first term. As I said polling showed 7 of 8 beating Nixon. It’s a long time before the election and the Dick has his Southern Strategy and was making great inroads with union workers (often for the very same reason with those 2 wedges) so he might have. But the Dick wanted to make sure so he picked the one guy he knew his smears would stick to.

  32. 32.

    bystander

    @Baud:

    That is true of all of our candidates, including me, as well as just about every commenter on this blog, and about 90% of the dogs and cats in the United States.

    I guess you won’t be naming any pitbull to the Veep slot.

    Moanin’ Joe is slashing Ben Carson up like in a de Palma movie. Mika and, inexplicably, Nicole Wallace are squealing with delight. Mark Halperin is deeply disturbed that a couple dozen “misstatements” are being called lies and the press is piling on. He looks as if he’d like to storm off the set. I could never be that lucky.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Unlimited cash, lavish meals, revolving doors: How Missouri got a D-minus in national ethics report

    Engraved on a wall inside the Missouri state Senate chambers in Jefferson City are the words: “Nothing is politically right that is morally wrong.”

    The legislators who work below that righteous mantra are allowed to rake in unlimited cash from political donors and extravagant gifts from professional lobbyists. They can leave office and, literally overnight, become lobbyists paid to influence their former colleagues. Sometimes they do both at once. All told, no other state in America has such loose ethics restrictions.

    Add to that the fact that some legislators lately have used their stature to engage in improper relationships with, or alleged sexual harassment of, legislative interns half their age, and you have what a national organization says is a near-failing ethics grade for Missouri government.

    “Here in the ‘Show-Me’ state, ethics reform has been an uphill battle as steep as the streets of Jefferson City, the capital,” concludes the Center for Public Integrity. In a new report, it gives Missouri a composite score of 62 — a D-minus — on ethics issues, putting it in the bottom half of all states.

    How bad is that? Illinois — yes, Illinois — scored higher.

    Makes me so proud….

  36. 36.

    Sherparick

    @Applejinx: You are right, in that the electorate is totally different now (for one thing a great deal of the electorate who were 30 or over in 1972 are now dead). 1972 was the first election where the combination of “Southern Strategy” and “Cold War Hawkism” put together a huge election victory, made worse by the fact that McGovern starting with event that occurred before and during the 1972 Convention in Miami, blew up the old FDR coalition (which depended a great deal of socially conservative white male racists and sexists, North and South), and tried to assemble the Obama coalition of “hippies, liberals, feminists, environmentalists, minorities, and young people” to replace it about 36 years ahead of demographic schedule. In the sense, the young Democrats who were so cocky and unforgiving (and it is easy now to forget the passion of the times, particularly surrounding the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Revolution) during that 1972 convention, really never got the whooping Nixon put on them in 1972 when McGovern only got 37.9% of the vote and Richard the most unlikeable man in politics Nixon got 60% of the vote. My Mom and Dad, who never voted for a Republican either before or after 1972 voted for Nixon who they detested because of the events 1972.

    As Digby points out, Hilary will still have a difficult road ahead. She has to keep and energize the “Obama coalition,” and overcome the fact that a lot men, and some women, white and minorities, are going have hard time voting for a women President. Although this group or Republicans is so mendacious and insane its boggle my mind that anyone with reason can support these fools.

  41. 41.

    TS

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    From your link

    “William Boliek is likely to live out his life on death row. His execution was stayed by governor Mel Carnahan. Carnahan died in a plane crash without acting on it and a ruling determined that only Carnahan could overturn the stay.”

    When only a dead person can overturn a stay of execution – is the DP meeting any of the reasons for its existence?

  42. 42.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: Willie pointed out that in the picture of Jesus and Dr. Carson, Jesus is wearing a terry cloth bath robe.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TS: I VOTED FOR THE DEAD GUY!!!!

    The highlight of my voting life was when I was given the opportunity to say that a dead man was better than John Ashcroft.

    Made me so proud….

    And yeah, the death penalty as it exists now is a joke and it’s proponents are political cowards for their repeated attempts to shroud more and more of the process in secrecy.

  50. 50.

    Another Holocene Human

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I feel like whoever did that portrait learned in one of those three month “learn to draw” “schools”, maybe correspondence school, and Carson probably tapped a contact through church. The person did a fairly good portrait of Carson, but the weird Jesus reveals the artist’s weaknesses.

    Again, it’s an image with a specific religious meaning within his community. His church peeps would see that and see the meaning it’s supposed to convey. It’s only uncanny valley to those on the outside looking in.

    I’m not defending SDA … they lie a lot … like Carson and his granaries tale … but I’m tired of people reading this or that into that portrait that Carson and his friends don’t see.

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Another Holocene Human: For a lot of us, it was the straw that broke the camels back. For others, it was an eye opener. For still way too many, it was just another reason to shut their eyes, cover their ears, and yell, “LALALALALALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU LALALALALALALA….”

  54. 54.

    RSA

    @Baud:

    I’m thinking of combining State and Defense. Cuz why pretend anymore?

    Might as well call the office holder “the Secretary of War” then.

  67. 67.

    Another Holocene Human

    Attn: Tommy and Alain

    Sometimes when I try to post comments I get “no data received” errors from WordPress (to be fair, it’s Chrome interpreting WP fucking up) and then I get zero data if I try to reload the page or the top level directory. This has started over the last few days.

  68. 68.

    debbie

    @NotMax:

    My guess is the faculty members who have used the n-word against other faculty members will not be participating in this effort?

  70. 70.

    Matt McIrvin

    My head says Hillary Clinton has a better-than-even chance of winning this.

    My gut says Donald Trump is going to be President, probably by a Reagan-sized landslide. I can feel it. I can feel it whenever I see his gross face giving that Hitler poop-scowl out of the cover of his book. This kind of stupid lurch into atrocity is what America does, usually when there’s no rational argument why it should happen.

    What follows will be an era we’ll be ashamed of for centuries. Piles of bodies, blood in the streets. People like our Republican trolls will laugh and laugh at all the killing.

    The only thing that can comfort me in these situations is statistics, and we don’t yet have reliable statistics.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Remember that Nazi gold train somebody supposedly found? Turns out there really is something there:

    ‘Nazi gold train’ investigators start surveying site in Poland

    Project Riese was a network of underground tunnels and chambers dug out beneath the Owl Mountains by an estimated 30,000 prisoners of war and concentration camp prisoners. The earth embankment that will be surveyed this week by teams including one from Krakow’s mining academy rises up alongside the existing Wroclaw-Walbrzych railway line.

    It will be checked with magnetic field detectors, thermal imaging cameras and radars. The site, on the outskirts of Walbrzych, has been under police guard since August when Koper and his friend, German-born Andreas Richter, showed the authorities images they had taken with a £7,000 ground-penetrating radar kit.

    “Four years ago, we were given information by a witness who was in Walbrzych at the time the train disappeared in April 1945. Radar technology has become affordable so we were able to check the information,” said Koper, who would not reveal if he knew anything about the hiding places of the other two supposed trains.

    “The Nazis dug out the embankment, created a junction and laid track to divert the train off to the side. Then they parked the train, which is 90 metres long, removed the rails and put back the soil.”

    Fascinating story.

  72. 72.

    TS

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I VOTED FOR THE DEAD GUY!!!!

    Not something we get to do very often – closest I came was voting for a guy who beat his dead opponent. Margin of about 50 votes.

  81. 81.

    RSA

    @NotMax:

    A statement released late Sunday night said: “We, the concerned faculty of the University of Missouri, stand in solidarity with the Mizzou student activists…

    This could theoretically be big, because it gives the administration cover for making changes without the appearance of caving to football players who refuse to play. But on the other hand, “We, the concerned faculty…” should really read, “We, the Concerned Faculty Group…” and it’s not clear how big that group is. Before reading the article, I’d thought the statement had come from faculty governance, but it’s hard to tell.

  84. 84.

    Another Holocene Human

    Let me see if I can avoid getting modded for this.

    That stupid 1990s era Maglev demonstration project is back! Our bridges are grade D, our NEC rail infrastructure is woefully out of date, and our bus routes in small and big cities alike are being cancelled while used cars are more expensive than ever, thanks Obama! But our Republican Congress still found the pocket change to waste money on a technology both Germany and Japan rejected as impractical. #Winning

    I love the URL

    baltimoresun “dot” com “slash” news/maryland/bs-md-maglev-grant-20151107-story “dot” html

    Note: Baltimore is home to the infamous 30mph curve on the Northeast Corridor line used by Acela. It is underground and could cost a billion dollars to fix. If they want to enhance capacity on the NEC, though, it is a serious bottleneck that needs addressing. This money could be used for initial engineering on that, but why bother when you can wank about trains that float.

  86. 86.

    Another Holocene Human

    @RSA: Ha, they’ve been reading Saul Alinksy, always feign being bigger and better supported than you are. :))

  87. 87.

    Germy Shoemangler

    New York State Assemblyman Behind Nail Salon Law Is Suddenly Against It

    After the New York Times published an expose on nail salons, state legislators quickly cracked down on the businesses, passing a law that protects workers from unfair working conditions. Ron Kim, an assemblyman from Flushing, Queens, helped draft the bill, but the paper reports that he’s now a leading opponent of his own bill. Kim is particularly upset about the provisions designed to protect against wage fraud, and claims he thought the law would apply to all “appearance enhancement” businesses. “I genuinely did not think they were applying it to only nail salons,” Kim said.

  88. 88.

    Germy Shoemangler

    This may clear things up: Nail-salon owners quickly organized in response to the crackdown, and according to the Times, they gave Kim tens of thousands in political donations. On the other hand, in September, Kim returned a $5,000 donation from the Korean American Nail Salon Association, and $2,000 from the Chinese Nail Salon Association of East America to avoid the appearance of impropriety. “I didn’t want to give any impression to anybody that I did this because they were at one point donating to my campaign,” Kim said, “even though I don’t think that there was anything illegal in what that was.” So it sounds like Kim just rethought the issue after all!

    But on the other other hand, Kim kept at least $17,000 in donations from salon owners. He claims he didn’t realize the donors were affiliated with the nail-salon industry, though some of the money came directly from the salons. His staff is looking into whether that money should be returned too.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @BillinGlendaleCA: There are 3 guys involved initially and they all have different ideas of what might be on it. One of them thinks it is probably loaded with secret weapons projects they were rumored to be working on at Project Riese. The Polish gov’t is being very careful and for good reason. If you are going to go to the effort of burying an armored train, wouldn’t you booby trap it too?

  90. 90.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Baud: Any word on how to avoid it, or are these just random server barfs?

    …as I make my subjects and predicates agree, I note that I was surprised to find out that Old Norse had a bigger impact on destroying inflective endings in English, according to British experts, than I was ever aware (reading America narratives on the development of English). They said the creolization doesn’t occur until quite late after the Norman Conquest and by then hundreds of years of Norse settlers making all the noun endings sound like schwas had taken their toll.

  92. 92.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Germy Shoemangler: It’s amazing the pushback is over wage theft. Apparently, forcing workers to work for free (cough cough) is just good old American business practice and the powerful central government sticking its nose in to make sure the little guy/gal gets everything they worked for is KILLING business.

    I will never understand why so many businesses that aren’t cheating (on wages, taxes, or stiffing suppliers) join groups like local CoCs or other associations that basically lobby to keep businesses that are cheating from getting in trouble or getting run out of business. Why help your shady competition screw you? And yes, I’m aware that there are businesses that decline to join these groups. I’m just shocked at how many continue to which aren’t obviously (to me) engaged in shady behavior.

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: No way. HUD is responsible for things that have a direct impact on the quality and affordability of peoples lives. It would take a serious investment of time and money to do that properly and that sounds way too much like work.

    Screw that.

  98. 98.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Another Holocene Human:

    I will never understand why so many businesses that aren’t cheating (on wages, taxes, or stiffing suppliers) join groups like local CoCs or other associations that basically lobby to keep businesses that are cheating from getting in trouble or getting run out of business.

    I always found it strange that businesses could organize (chamber of commerce, etc) and yet if workers try to organize it’s… somehow Un-American.

  100. 100.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Holocene Human: Maglev seems to be hanging on to some degree in Japan. There’s actually a new line under construction.

    At the Birmingham (UK) airport, they actually replaced a maglev people-mover with a cable car. Maglev doesn’t seem like the technology I’d pick for a 600-meter people-mover line, but I’m sure they had reasons.

  101. 101.

    Snarkworth

    Just noticed that, according to the post headline, this is an Open Thead.

    I always keep my thead zipped up, unless I forget.

  103. 103.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Satby: History’s second greatest meanie? What did you do now, tell the girls to wash the dishes after supper?

  107. 107.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Satby: She sued Mel Brooks over the Blazing Saddles character “Hedley Lamaar” but I don’t remember how it ended; if there was a settlement or not.

  109. 109.

    Germy Shoemangler

    This page keeps going blank on me.

    There’s nothing wrong with this website that a miracle can’t fix.

    (to paraphrase woollcot)

  112. 112.

    SFAW

    Dear Soon-to-be-President Baud –

    For SoS or SoD (or both), might I suggest mclaren as your top choice?

    And for Ambassador to Kenya: Racism to Rise (sometimes called “Right to Rise”)

  113. 113.

    max

    @Sherparick: She has to keep and energize the “Obama coalition,” and overcome the fact that a lot men, and some women, white and minorities, are going have hard time voting for a women President.

    No. That is a problem, yes, but that’s not her main problem. She will absolutely have resistance to overcome from various people reluctant to vote for a female (and it’s going to be nasty when the R’s fully switch from racism to gynophobia), but she’ll get a boost from all the married white women who might vote for an R otherwise who want to see a woman in the White House.

    Her problem (currently going unrecognized) is that she figures she can replay the 90’s and focus on serving the upper class and the upper middle class in both monetary ways and in sensibility. Occasionally she can throw some scraps to the base (not often). So when she Runs to the Middle, as all the editorial writers will urge her to do, she’s going to be winding up shedding possibly substantial elements of the Obama coalition. (The equivalent here is George H.W. Bush promising a kinder, gentler nation after Reagan. Of course, he delivered exactly the opposite of that plus an Imperial policy no one actually had any use for – if she tries to play her version of that and move to the right, its going to destroy her.)

    Bill Clinton couldn’t get to a majority even in 1996, and he can thank Ross Perot for getting elected at all. Al Gore had the same problem and wound up getting screwed over with 48 percent of the vote. Obama beat Clinton the first time, and got over 50% in two elections even in a disastrous economic environment for the straight forward reason that he could deliver hope that the Democrats would behave differently from previous incarnations. Although he’s had quite a few bobbles on that front, you can’t say he didn’t try.

    If Clinton is offering Less of the Same here (and delivering less than that just like every other President), then she’s going to have a problem, either coming up in 2016 or in a primary split/party split in 2020. Its not a problem with beating the Republicans per se (now more unpopular than ever!), it’s trying to triangulate her way to victory. Eight (or four) years of compromising on Not Being a Republican isn’t going to be good enough. If she winds up delivering RINO policies and not much else, she’s fucked.

    max
    [‘Unfortunately, she seems to be absorbing the Beltway pablum they’re peddling at the moment – bipartisan compromise! Republicans get most of what they want and the Democrats get iced out.’]

  115. 115.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @max:

    she’ll get a boost from all the married white women who might vote for an R otherwise who want to see a woman in the White House.

    I like to think that, but isn’t that the same logic that GOP operatives used when they put Sarah up for McCain’s VP? That tons of women would vote for their ticket because she’s a woman!

    I personally like the idea of GOP women defying their husbands and voting for HRC, but I’m not sure it will happen.

  119. 119.

    satby

    @Germy Shoemangler: Like everything else, some will and some won’t. The Palin nomination was an insult: an obvious sop to women and a supremely unqualified candidate, so it garnered the appropriate backlash.

  122. 122.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax: The military gets a quarter of the seats in parliament and control of several important ministries. Their fear and dislike of the opposition is great. Whether they have the courage to cede control remains to be seen.

  123. 123.

    debbie

    Glenn Beck’s decided that Trump will end up being the Republican candidate, if only because he’s the only one who will say, “Sit down and shut up!”

  125. 125.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Amir Khalid:

    The new loin girders run on hybrid solar/electric power.

    I’m wearing a prototype. It runs on methane. Special attachment fits around back. Got enough power to last the week.

  126. 126.

    Gin & Tonic

    In other news, WADA, the World anti-doping agency, has just issued a report recommending that Russia be suspended from all international competition in “athletics” (what used to be called track and field) due to systematic doping violations.

  127. 127.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @OzarkHillbilly: The logic of the abuser: “Look what you made me do.”

    I’m at the point where I have to cut back on my rawstory and crooksandliars visits, for the sake of my blood pressure.

  130. 130.

    Germy Shoemangler

    BREAKING NEWS:

    There was a shooting near Penn Station. Three people shot, one fatally.

  131. 131.

    NotMax

    @max

    and he can thank Ross Perot for getting elected at all

    Persistent myth. Bush’s approval rating during the ’92 election fluctuated at or near 35%. It’s been fairly well documented since that Perot’s vote split close to evenly from both sides. One example (among many others):

    According to the exit poll data, 38% of the Perot voters said they would have voted for Clinton in a two way race, 38% would have voted for Bush, 24% would not have voted.… Source

    Another:

    So where does the Perot myth come from? Some of it has to do with the very real anger that existed toward Bush on the right in ’92. Pat Buchanan, running on a platform that combined nativism and economic nationalism, embarrassed Bush with a strong showing in the New Hampshire primary and accumulated more than three million votes in the Republican primaries. These Buchanan voters are often seen as the backbone of the Perot movement, and certainly there was plenty of overlap. But Perot’s coalition also included frustrated Democrats who’d voted for Paul Tsongas in his primary campaign against Clinton. The centerpiece of Tsongas’s campaign was the exact same as Perot’s: a frantic warning about the nation’s skyrocketing debt. Source

  133. 133.

    BubbaDave

    @Germy Shoemangler:
    I think it’s more likely, not because “she’s a woman” but because the GOP will inevitably descend into the worst sort of sexist garbage during the campaign. I think there will be a lot of soft GOP women who will see the same kind of nonsense they’ve faced in their own careers and take advantage of a chance to kick The Man right in the danglies in the privacy of the voting booth….

  135. 135.

    Amir Khalid

    @Gin & Tonic:
    It’s always been called “athletics” internationally, as far back as I can remember. “Track and field” is American English.

  136. 136.

    Brachiator

    @max: White people have voted Republican for a number of years, and men more than women. Clinton must engage the Obama coalition, aka the modern Democratic Party. She may also have to work harder to win over Latinos and Latino males, especially if the GOP nominate Rubio or pick a Latino for VP. That Clinton will do well with more married white women is not a sure thing.

    Given the ongoing weakness in the economy, I don’t see much value in strongly pandering to the middle class and upper class. I also don’t think that a run to the middle is assured, or that it would mean very much. GOP voters seem to want to push their party further to the right, while the Democratic party has to deal with the Bernie effect.

  139. 139.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Another Holocene Human:

    The shooting happened at about 6 a.m. near the entrance of a subway station at 35th Street and Eighth Avenue, a block north of Penn Station, one of the nation’s busiest transit hubs.

  140. 140.

    OzarkHillbilly

    NOT NEWS:

    4 different people were shot in St Louis over the weekend, 3 dead.

    The thing that gets me about news like this is how it is used for the justification of concealed carry or to stay away from the city because “bad things happen there.” As tho somehow or other people are going around and shooting random people for no particular reason at all. Such crime is very rarely random, there is very high likelihood of a direct connection between victim and perpetrator.

  141. 141.

    Another Holocene Human

    Oh, this must be the “midtown Manhattan” shooting on the wires

    That’s New York Penn Station, tyvm.

  142. 142.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Brachiator: I don’t think nominating Rubio or Cruz is going to make gigantic inroads in the Hispanic vote, since they are both Cubans, favored in our immigration system and treated differently than immigrants from any other country.

  143. 143.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Germy Shoemangler: The New York City based media will never acknowledge this, but there is a Newark Penn Station as well as a Baltimore Penn Station, #14 and #7 to New York Penn Station’s #1.

    Both Newark and Baltimore Penn are multi-modal hubs with local/regional rail connections and bus connections.

  144. 144.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The thing that gets me about news like this is how it is used for the justification of concealed carry or to stay away from the city because “bad things happen there.”

    It’s the logic that enabled John Lennon’s assassin (refuse to type his name) to obtain hollow-point bullets. Gunman’s friend found out he was going to big bad NYC and felt justified in giving him the ammo.

  145. 145.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Matt McIrvin: Nope, Japan is not operating maglev, not even on a test track according to Wikiepedia, which knows all, at least it it’s nosebleed nerd shit.

    go to wiki/SCMaglev

    deleted, lemme google that some more

  147. 147.

    Another Holocene Human

    The bottom line is that the bullet train is a proven technology, but it’s too “boring” for CONgress.

  148. 148.

    Another Holocene Human

    @The Other Chuck: Oh gosh, really? Well, gee, aside from laziness (shift key, shift key, shift key) I can roll me some [a] tags. (I know how to make brackets–too lazy again.)

  149. 149.

    NotMax

    @Germy Shoemangler

    Penn Station in Manhattan is at 34th and 7th. Uptown blocks there run about 20 to a mile, crosstown blocks on the west side about 6 to a mile. Not really much within sight of Penn Station; about a 3 – 5 minute walk from 34th & 7th.

    35th & 8th is roughly where the old Post Office building is, across from the ass end of Madison Square Garden. There is an underground arcade that connects into Penn Station proper once when descends into the subway from the street.

  152. 152.

    Another Holocene Human

    @The Other Chuck: On the plus side they’re only 4 chara long and only one shift key press. My problem is that even though I can do compares if I don’t sound them out, I always, always mix up “greater than” and “less than”.

  159. 159.

    rikyrah

    Ben Carson, and the failure of black conservatives

    Terrell Jermaine Starr

    I was a 17-year-old teenager growing up on the west side of Detroit when I first read Ben Carson’s biography Gifted Hands.

    ……………………………………………

    In September during his tour of Ferguson, Missouri, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by former police officer Darren Wilson, Carson said, “We need to de-emphasize race and emphasize respect for each other.” He added that he was raised to respect police and “never had any problem.”

    This is Carson’s M.O.

    When Carson speaks to the mostly white audiences who support him, he positions himself as a black person who doesn’t “complain” about racism. He argues that we need to move beyond having difficult discussions about race.

    And his messaging during his campaign has been crystal clear: I am who I am because I worked hard, and that is the best way to overcome racism. If you are black and cannot succeed like me, he tells his mostly white audiences, then only you are to blame for your problems — not police brutality, an unfair criminal justice system, or racist hiring practices.

    ……………….

    But Carson, the presidential candidate, doesn’t tell his white supporters about the pitfalls he narrowly avoided; he only talks about the heroic leaps he took in avoiding them. When I read Gifted Hands nearly 18 years ago as a young teenager, I never envisioned Carson becoming a 21st century Nat Turner — but neither could I foresee him dismissing racial injustice entirely. The culmination of Carson’s success, as I now know, was not designed to accommodate any sense of responsibility for those in the black community who didn’t “make it.”

    Instead, it is only tailored to assure white voters that they don’t have to bear any of the racial baggage that comes with being black in America.

    http://theweek.com/articles/585266/ben-carson-failure-black-conservatives

  160. 160.

    The Other Chuck

    @NotMax: Oh, I don’t mix up the entities for those, it’s remembering " and not &quote; not to mention remembering the semicolons, also leaving off the ampersand on the ‘quot’ I just typed, etc… I wish HTML just used an escape char like backslash for those kind of entities.

  162. 162.

    Another Holocene Human

    @The Other Chuck: Backslash would have been a disaster with all those MS-DOS servers around with backslashity file paths–right?

    (Well, it would have screwed up those intranet and zeronet projects I did eons ago that were full of filepath links.)

  165. 165.

    Brachiator

    @schrodinger’s cat: I agree with you with respect to Cruz, but not Rubio or a Latino VP. And even here the impact may be greater with male Latinos. If Clinton is the nominee, the gender effect may be very significant. Also, Rubio’s youth may work in his favor. The new Trudeau effect.

  166. 166.

    Davebo

    Interesting that Veterans Day is a holiday for federal employees. I say that because we all know almost no one else gets the day off yet it celebrates former federal employees!

  168. 168.

    MazeDancer

    @bystander:

    Moanin’ Joe is slashing Ben Carson up like in a de Palma movie.

    That is not an exaggeration. “Rant” doesn’t even begin to describe Joe’s fomenting. Nicole Wallace literally put her hands to her head while crying “the Pyramids!” Mark Halperin can’t seem to believe he’s watching the two Republicans telling the truth about Carson’s lies.

    It’s pretty fascinating.

    Joe is especially upset about West Point. As he was this weekend. Joe is determined to take down Carson. Bizarrely by using the truth. Joe is not exaggerating one iota, either. He is just yelling the facts.

  170. 170.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: BTW, my girls are delightful: great sports, willing to experience any (reasonable) thing, hardworking in school, great senses of humor and appreciative of my efforts to make their stay here a happy one. I am very glad I decided to host this year, though it’s the trigger making me look for a full time job again.

  171. 171.

    NotMax

    Just now (5:20 a.m.), got a phone call from “the IRS.” Yeah, right. Scammers’ robocalls can’t even account for time zones.

    @Amir Khalid

    Very retro chic.

  176. 176.

    MattF

    @NotMax: I got a call like that several months ago. They were really quite aggressive– called me back after I hung up on them and left a message warning me not to ignore them. There’s an IRS site where you can report these scammers– and you should do so, particularly if you have their phone# from caller ID.

  179. 179.

    The Other Chuck

    Something the blog devs might want to look at: the PayPal logo at the bottom doesn’t link to anything. I’d suggest nuking it from the footer and replacing it with an actually working standard paypal lozenge button in the sidebar.

  180. 180.

    PurpleGirl

    @Germy Shoemangler: The upset from that building being lost helped to give NYC the Landmarks preservation law and Commission. That helped to save Grand Central Terminal and a number of other buildings. Not saying it was worth losing Penn Station to get the landmarks law but that the two events are connected.

  182. 182.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Chisholm wouldn’t have won a single state. Not back in 1972. No fucking way.

    McGovern, by contrast, was also a sure-fire loser. Truth was, in that election we had no bench and no path to victory. In large part due to LBJ killing off (not literally) all the potential competition, and the incredible spectacle of Nixon, of all people, selling himself as a peacemaker – AND PEOPLE BOUGHT IT.

  184. 184.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: I didn’t really think they were a problem, just playing with the idea of 2 teenagers in the house and remembering what that was like.

  190. 190.

    Another Holocene Human

    Weird neurological observation. I have visual acuity in both eyes thanks to $_GLASSES, but I feel like I notice and recall more detail, especially aesthetic detail with my right eye than my left. Illusion or legit?

  192. 192.

    Another Holocene Human

    @srv: These grades are always skewed by who got caught. CT less corrupt than MA? Yaright. CT had a fucking governor resign last decade for corruptitude. RI the same grade as MA? Geddoudatown. RI is infamous in New England for being the corruptasfuck fuck’s corruptasfuckville. (Given their shitty tax system, created to shelter the wealth of summering robber barons, it was all but inevitable.) And Florida got a D not an F? Lies. Lies from the pit of hell.

  193. 193.

    Mandalay

    @NotMax:

    Just now (5:20 a.m.), got a phone call from “the IRS.” Yeah, right. Scammers’ robocalls can’t even account for time zones.

    I will vote for any presidential candidate of any party who says “Within 30 days of taking office I will end all robocalls, and if it doesn’t happen I will resign”.

    I suppose the economy, climate change, human rights and world peace matter as well, but my vote can be bought.

  195. 195.

    Another Holocene Human

    @The Other Chuck: Well, the opthalmologist said so, but I didn’t realize it could affect perception in that way. I have the lazy left eye, which sometimes struggles to focus. I guess maybe it’s gotten worse over the years.

  196. 196.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Mandalay: The telcos would assassinate him/her the night before inauguration.

    They don’t want to aggravation and expense of modifying their system to make it easier to stop the scammers.

  199. 199.

    The Other Chuck

    @amk: Click the Stylish button in the toolbar (should be a big “S”), and there should be a checkbox next to MBBJ. Uncheck it and that will disable it.

    This seems to be a pretty common complaint with this stylesheet, so I’m pondering moving the date below the name instead. Thing is, I really like it to the right, so maybe I’ll just do it as a variant.

  202. 202.

    sparrow

    @Germy Shoemangler: The whole idea is wildly out of touch. Women can be the worst offenders in persecuting other women, and big-time sexist against other women, as we all know. The GOP women I know hate Hillary with the heat of a thousands suns, and that’s putting it mildly. It’s the extra bonus of being a woman that means she gets hated even more than a man would. Remember that the republican id is getting to hate everything you aren’t to make yourself feel more righteous, and a woman on the opposite team is exactly what republican women want to prove they aren’t.

    So no, I’m not buying into GOP women saving Hillary’s ass. I think she goes down in the general, personally.

  205. 205.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Germy Shoemangler: DC’s Union Station has a bit of the same majesty, though most of it is now an upscale shopping center and most of the actual train station is under some relatively prosaic structures in the back.

    And preserving that was a near thing. I remember its ridiculous Bicentennial Visitor’s Center incarnation, and the years when it was essentially abandoned and collapsing.

  206. 206.

    Mandalay

    @Another Holocene Human:

    The telcos would assassinate him/her the night before inauguration.

    Probably so. I’ve had to block my own phone number since so many con artists fake it in my caller ID.

    Pretending to be someone else generally gets you into trouble, but not when it comes to spoofing caller ID data. And apparently it’s perfectly legal. Good job Congress.

  207. 207.

    Brachiator

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Isn’t Rubio, Cuban too? And Rubio is nowhere as good looking as Trudeau.

    Cruz is old and creepy looking. Rubio is young, but I guess nowhere near as hot as Trudeau (at least according to Jezebel and other sites). But the Cuban thing as a disconnect with other Latinos is a fairy tale that some liberals tell themselves before they go to bed at night.

    Also, I say that Rubio could give Latino males, especially, a reason not to vote for Clinton. And Rubio could give a lot of winks and nods to comprehensive immigration reform and peel away Latino votes that otherwise would go to the Democrats. Cruz is no good at all on the issue of immigration.

  211. 211.

    gwangung

    @sparrow: Not GOP women…”independent” women. More of them than you might think.

    And I think you over-estimate the rabidness of all but the hardcore GOP women.

  212. 212.

    JPL

    @raven: Good. The media told me that it was his handling of the situation, but the truth was he wasn’t handling the situation.

  213. 213.

    MazeDancer

    @satby:

    For everyone who missed Joe Scarborough’s astonishing rage rant against Ben Carson this AM, found a video, on You Tube.

    Seeing Republicans telling the truth – Nicole Wallace joined Joe in anti-Carson land – was most remarkable. As was watching Mark Halperin being silently confused by their going off memo.

    Joe overstepped in next segment. He kept flashing a picture of that portrait Carson has of him with “Jesus”. Now the fundies are angry Joe insulted Jesus. Gives them a reason to ignore the factual take down about Carson lying.

  214. 214.

    Another Holocene Human

    @sparrow: I disagree.

    1. GOP needs high white share or white turnout. I don’t see how you go lower than Obama (unless the Dem nominee is a total fail whale whom DEMOCRATS reject) and you’re not going to juice Evangelical turnout without giving them an Evangelical candidate. That would be Carson, but he’s not going to be the nominee. Despite their numbers, Evangelicals do not control the national GOP primary. (Remember, Dubya was favored by Wall St pigs and Evangelicals who thought he was one of them, and in every way that mattered, he was.)

    2. Demographics keep marching on. The yout’ turn out for presidential elections and they are increasingly non-white, so that white share of their vote becomes less and less relevant.

    3. You’re forgetting about Black women, who will crawl over broken glass to vote down whoever the R’s put up and will make sure their entire extended family votes as well. They are pissed.

    4. Don’t count out Latino activists. They lifted a lot of heavy rocks in 2012 and since then there has been increasing radicalization. While Latino activists never wanted to be beholden to one party and they have plenty of harsh words for Democrats in power, the GOP has been so balls-to-the-walls racist on immigration reform and, well, everything else, that only a fantasist could suppose that D Latino vote share and total vote will go down this cycle. I think not–especially in purple states.

    5. Expect one or two surprise states where the presidential preference vote in the general is a LOT closer than a lazy, no-research overview would suppose.

    6. Electoral college. Obama’s path to victory will be Hilary’s. Still valid, still inescapable. Note this is why GOTV activists are urging Dems to think about Senate and House seats. The GOP can’t flip all the states they need to take WH (without a miracle). But they can keep both houses on the Hill if Dems can’t get organized. (And this is a good Senate map for Dems. If we don’t fuck it up.)

  215. 215.

    Paul in KY

    @Brachiator: Latinos I have met (non-Cuban variety) have generally indicated a distaste for the Cubans that ended up in Miami. Like the ones still in Cuba.

  216. 216.

    raven

    @JPL: I have a good buddy that played there in the 70’s and was a major fundraiser there for 20 years. He called me when Thomas fired him and told me it was only a matter of time.

  217. 217.

    Southern Beale

    @MazeDancer:

    Seems like Political Twitter has already decided Carson is done and has moved on to Rubio. I imagine he will continue with his book tour but it seems like nobody in the establishment is taking him seriously anymore. Another right wing hero goes down in flames. Poor dears.

  218. 218.

    benw

    @raven: so all we need to fight the power is to suggest that possibly there might be a few less football games? That’s… interesting.

  219. 219.

    Southern Beale

    @Brachiator:

    And Rubio could give a lot of winks and nods to comprehensive immigration reform…

    He’s already called for deporting undocumented immigrants so I’d say that ship has sailed.

    I don’t get the sense that Latinos in general are fond of Cubans. Cubans got special treatment and Latino voters haven’t forgotten that.

  220. 220.

    Another Holocene Human

    @MazeDancer:

    Joe overstepped in next segment. He kept flashing a picture of that portrait Carson has of him with “Jesus”. Now the fundies are angry Joe insulted Jesus. Gives them a reason to ignore the factual take down about Carson lying.

    People who aren’t fundy god-botherers, or who aren’t very familiar with the mindset/beliefs of fundy god-botherers, don’t understand that that image has totally different connotations to them as it does to those outside the asylum.

    BTW, fundy god-botherers, yes, Joe was mocking your beliefs. Because they are mock-worthy. Go sue him for blasphemy. The judge’s dismissal should make for some great reading.

  221. 221.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Southern Beale: There are lots of ethnic rivalries within the Latino community. What’s more interesting is that the first generation who ran from Castro is dying off and the children and grandchildren are drifting away from the old hardline beliefs. Some of them have even registered Democratic–the horror!

  222. 222.

    Mandalay

    @sparrow: There was a great comment on the article you linked to:

    I feel that once you get to a certain level of income you just can’t really understand the plight of the poor. Intellectually you can comprehend it, but emotionally, that’s another matter. Even those who came from poverty and then come into money have this issue.

    That encapsulates a fundamental problem of having a country run mostly by white male millionaires. They intellectually understand the problems of being poor, black, gay, etc…, but there is no real emotional attachment. Every now and again you see that emotional component emerge (e.g. Dick Cheney having a gay daughter) but almost always those who decide the fate of the disadvantaged have no skin in the game.

    Also from your link, it’s astounding that Bernie’s net worth is only $330k (as opposed to ~$32 million for Hillary Clinton). Either he has made some awful investments, or (more likely) he has simply given away a lot of his income.

  224. 224.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Paul in KY: I read something about “anti-Communists” committing terrorist acts on US soil during the 80’s (? I guess) and being protected by the GOP powers that be, because Reds-under-the-bed. Is that right?

  226. 226.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Brachiator: Rubio is a flip-flopper and the Spanish language press has reported on immigration reform obsessively. How does he build any credibility now?

    You are right that some people will vote “guy who looks like me” over the issues, although the same is probably true and to the same extent for Hilary. I can only think of one or two states where that could flip the election.

    BTW, to know Rubio is to think he’s a pile of crap. See: Florida voters.

  227. 227.

    The Other Chuck

    Ok, I’ve updated MBBJ to no longer move post metadata (the date) around, and it’s back below nyms. This does create a kind of unsightly jumpy effect with Troll-B-Gone, but that’s something I’ll fix in TBG.

  230. 230.

    Paul in KY

    @Another Holocene Human: Yeah, that crap happened. there was one guy who blew up a Cuban jet (killing many) & was allowed to live here. The non-Cuban Latinos also hate the ‘dry foot’ speciality that Cubans get & also their reflexive pro-GOP bias.

    Have not spoken to a bunch of these people, though.

  233. 233.

    Brachiator

    @Just One More Canuck:

    The Trudeau effect? I’d be interested to know just what you think the Trudeau effect was.

    I’m largely joking. Trudeau is young. Some Americans might vote for Rubio simply because he is young. Or Rubio could try to work the angle that he represents a new generation, and argue that Clinton is a retread and a repeat of old politics.

    The result would be two North American leaders who were young dudes. All the young dudes. Carry the news.

  234. 234.

    Another Holocene Human

    @rikyrah: Supreme Court. Veto pen. Executive agencies. I liked her work at State, hopeful she can pick good people. Obama’s exec picks were hit or miss IMO but I only hold that against him a little.

    I have no proof of this, but rumor mill says Hilary is trying to flip congressional seats. Very encouraging news if true.

    I listened to Sanders when he said he was running. He said he was running an issues campaign, not a campaign to become POTUS, and I believe him.

    The Dem party has other eligible people out there who stayed out because Hilary was running. Am I happy about that? No. Has Hilary assuaged a lot of my initial worries about her current campaign? Yes. I’m cool with it. Fuck the GOP.

    eta: or what @The Other Chuck said

  236. 236.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Brachiator: Well, Trudeau ran to the left, and Rubio when he ran for Senate ran to the middle (for a GOPer), but then when he ran up against the harsh glare of national right wing politics he pissed his pants and retreated.

  237. 237.

    Kropadope

    @Another Holocene Human:

    I liked her work at State

    Examples?

    Has Hilary assuaged a lot of my initial worries about her current campaign? Yes.

    Yeah, she’s gotten really good at saying what people who might vote in Democratic primaries want to hear.

  238. 238.

    cmorenc

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    On Saturday, 32 Mizzou players announced they will not take part in team activities, including games, until University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe steps down or is removed from office

    These players bravely went out on a very long, high limb with this move, since a substantial portion of them would have no easy alternative way to finance continuation in college if they lost their football scholarships. Nor would it have been easy or quick under NCAA rules for them to transfer to other schools to play football, even if other schools wanted them.

  242. 242.

    Another Holocene Human

    The political pressure to grant Bosch a pardon was begun during the congressional campaign run by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, herself a Cuban American, and overseen by her campaign manager Jeb Bush.

    I knew there was a reason I couldn’t stand her. (I think she is currently a state senator.)

  244. 244.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Matt McIrvin: They turn out for presidential elections and not for any other elections. Thus, presidential elections (the general) are always a skewed electorate vs what you see in most election.

    Other groups that turn out just once every four years:

    Single moms
    Minimum wage workers

  245. 245.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Kropadope: Immediately focus put on human rights for women and girls. Hellz yeah, that gets my vote.

    Also, her employees at State lovedlovedloved her. I’ve heard similar from people who worked for Bill’s 1990s presidential campaigns. She is doing something right to inspire that kind of loyalty.

  249. 249.

    The Other Chuck

    @amk: No blue background going on, just grey. Make sure you don’t have the original Better Balloon Juice installed as well as MBBJ, since they’ll interfere with each other. Beyond that, what browser are you using?

  257. 257.

    Brachiator

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Obama’s exec picks were hit

    Which reminds me. The GOP gridlock machine continues unabated. Whenever people complain about Obama’s exec picks, I say, fvck, the bigger problem is that his choices have been stalled by the GOP. From the latest Guardian story:

    US ambassadors in diplomatic limbo as they wait for Senate approval
    International standing of US at risk as up to 32 ambassadors await confirmation of their role by the Senate

    On paper, John Estrada – who was born in Trinidad, became an American citizen and won a distinguished service medal after 34 years in the marines – is the perfect choice for US ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.

    But more than two years after being nominated by President Barack Obama, the retired sergeant-major is still waiting to pack his suitcase.

    Estrada is not alone in diplomatic limbo. About 32 ambassadors and senior officials are awaiting confirmation by the Senate, including Roberta Jacobson, whose prolonged hold-up leaves the US without an ambassador to Mexico, its third biggest trading partner. Her case is set to finally be voted on by the senate foreign relations committee on Tuesday but still requires full senate confirmation.

    There are still executive department and judicial nominees also left out in the cold. Should Hillary or even Bernie win, one of the first orders of business has to be an agreement to end this BS. This is also why the Democrats need to have a strategy to elect more Democrats to Congress. A president alone cannot buck the BS.

  258. 258.

    Kropadope

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Immediately focus put on human rights for women and girls. Hellz yeah, that gets my vote.

    “Focused,” huh? I could focus on women’s rights for the entire rest of my life and not change a thing. The focus requires action in order to accomplish anything. What has she done? Like, in terms of policies enacted and lives changed. I’ve spent a while trying to read up on it and haven’t found any examples. Maybe you know examples? Symbolic gestures don’t put bread on the table.

  261. 261.

    The Other Chuck

    @amk: I can’t reproduce the problem you’re describing. Only thing I can think of is if you have the original Better Balloon Juice stylesheet, which I can’t maintain anymore since userstyles.org screwed up my login.

  263. 263.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Kropadope:

    Did you try Googling “state department initiatives women”? Because I got a bunch of hits that way, like this one.

    If conferences, programs, and initiatives don’t count, please let us know what you’re specifically looking for. The Secretary of State does not write or pass legislation, so you’ll have to go back to her Senate career if that’s what you’re looking for.

  264. 264.

    Brachiator

    @Paul in KY:

    Latinos I have met (non-Cuban variety) have generally indicated a distaste for the Cubans that ended up in Miami. Like the ones still in Cuba.

    Latinos are not monolithic. Many Latinos that I know, including relatives, have more distaste for gabachos than for Cubans.

  265. 265.

    The Other Chuck

    I’ve updated the Balloon Juice Troll-B-Gone script to deal with the style changes in MBBJ. Due to a namespace change away from a domain I no longer own, if you want to update it, you’ll need to remove your existing TBG script and install it again. It should keep your existing block lists intact.

    Get it here

  266. 266.

    Denali

    @Not Max,

    Thanks for the clarification. But I really should have checked the BJ Lexicon for the true meaning of EGL.

    The other commentators were very helpful also too.

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