Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

The lights are all blinking red.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Saturday Morning Open Thread: One Makes Room for More

Saturday Morning Open Thread: One Makes Room for More

by | 94 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

The Democratic delegate count for New York has been finalized — Clinton 139, Sanders 108 (full pledged delegate count: Clinton 1444, Sanders 1207). Reporters are feeling secure enough to start pestering Clinton surrogates about her VP choices. John Podesta promised the Boston Globe that Hillary’s short list would include a woman (because of course they asked, and what else was he gonna say?) The Washington Post‘s premier horse-race tout Chris Cillizza likes Amy Klobuchar, Tom Perez, Tim Kaine, Sherrod Brown, and Julian Castro, and his explanations are reasonable enough to consider them the Conventional Wisdom picks.
.

But apart from nitpicking the backup Prom Queen/King, Ann Friedman at NYMag has pointed out that there’s more women running for office than ever:

… There are currently 27 women in the running for the U.S. Senate, and 216 are vying for U.S. House seats. Plus six women running for governor. Not all of them will win their primaries to make it to the ballot in November. But there are hundreds of women campaigning right now — you’re just not hearing much about them.

The silence is a real shame, because in 2016 we could see a record-breaking number of women elected to the Senate. There are nine pro-choice Democratic women running for Senate this year, most of whom have a good shot at election. Compare that to the supposedly watershed “Year of the Woman” in 1992, which only saw four women senators elected. And, this year, four of the nine contenders are women of color, which is huge because only two women of color have ever, in history, been elected to the Senate…

Not all of these women candidates, it’s worth noting, have endorsed Clinton. And for those of us who are just voters — whether we’re Clinton superfans, merely lukewarm on her, or Sanders supporters who care about electing women — it’s time to look down the ticket. A lot of signs point to 2016 being a big year for women voters — especially if Donald Trump, who seems to actively hate women, is the Republican nominee. If we’re smart, we’ll use the wide gender gap among voters to lift women candidates at all levels of politics.

Here’s how to start: Rutgers’s Center for American Women in Politics has a list of women who are running in every state. Read it. Find a woman near you, or a woman on the other side of the country whose values you share. And decide to support her — financially, if possible. But in other ways, too. Volunteer. Talk her up. Do what you can. Many candidates are facing primary elections in May and June, so now is a great time to get onboard with their campaigns…

***********
Apart from bickering about terminology working towards change, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    satby

    I like to think that being exposed to our messy, still misogynistic society will be a benefit to my two exchange girls in opening up their views of what women can do when treated equally on all levels. We’re not there yet, but we are farther than a lot of societies.

    Speaking of prom, that’s where they’re going tonight.

  3. 3.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    Crossed a huge threshold in my fitness campaign – I’ve hit the magic number where I was at on my first day of basic training when I was 18 years old (a number which I haven’t seen since my late 20s). Now all I need is six weeks of somebody screaming in my ear, making me double time and do push-ups while calling me a “disgusting fatbody” to get me down to that mystical chart weight that the BMI indices say I should be at as a 54 year old – which, incidentally, is BELOW the weight my 18 year old self reached at the conclusion of that training at USAFA, and which involved visible ribs and well-defined abdominal muscle.

    The struggle is real, yo.

  7. 7.

    LAO

    @Baud: I was pissed that a car alarm woke me up at 5:15 am and it’s too hot to fall back asleep, but that reply almost makes it worth it. My sorry I didn’t vote for you in the NY primary.

  8. 8.

    raven

    @Baud: I marvel at the people at the Y who pay people to yell at them. It’s like setting your watch back so you are “on time”. Really?

  9. 9.

    raven

    @LAO: We slept with the new bedroom windows open and at 4:30 some loud ass music was blaring from somewhere. That was it! The worst thing is at This Old House and Today’s Homeowner were both reruns!

  10. 10.

    LAO

    @raven: I hear you. It’s the worst. I’ve got every window open in my apartment and the fcking car alarm going off for 15 minutes. And, there are birds tweeting. Which to an city girl, is actually more annoying.

  11. 11.

    billcoop4

    Hillary won’t tap Elizabeth Warren for one reason (if no others): If they win, a Republican would get to appoint Warren’s successor for the remainder of her term–2018. That would mean one less vote in the Senate.

    Elections matter; off-year ones, especially, matter.

  13. 13.

    raven

    @LAO: I bitch about them damn birds all the time. My hearing aid made it so I can hear them more than ever!

  18. 18.

    satby

    @Baud: One of my conservative hijab wearing daughters is wearing shoes with heels so high I’m hoping she doesn’t break an ankle.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: @LAO: I slept with my windows open and at 3:50 am I awoke to the distant strains of a lovelorn whippoorwill. Sucks to be me.

  22. 22.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @billcoop4: Nope, they’d have an appointed senator for a few months until they have a special election. That’s how Scott Brown got to the Senate.

  24. 24.

    LAO

    @billcoop4: I can’t imagine that Warren would want/accept VP. She can do so much more about the issues she cares about from the Senate.

    Also, as already pointed out, bad politics.

  25. 25.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    @raven:

    Yeah, it’s pretty damned unrealistic. I was painfully skinny at the end of basic, had to put on 10 just to feel and look right. It held decently, but once the kids came, it became impossible to maintain discipline.

  31. 31.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    @satby:

    I was a little chunky, but not too bad.

    If I can drop 20 more, I’ll be over the moon.

    Put it this way – I’m down to 34 slacks and 18 neck. My estimation is that at 54, my bottom slack waist is a 32 and a 17.5 neck (18 year old me bottomed at 30-32 and 17). I’m moving well.

    After that, it’s just maintenance.

  32. 32.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    @raven:

    You gotta love guys like that – no slack in any aspect of their appearance or demeanor on the job.

  33. 33.

    satby

    Reading the overnight thread, I just want to tell KeithP that people fall by the wayside as we get older and good friends get harder to find. But we’re here and rooting for you.
    And take Ruckus up on getting into contact directly, he’s right that you might just help each other.

  37. 37.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    I just spent the last 24 hours upgrading my phone to Marshmellow(it was rooted with custom recovery, so it wasn’t trivial). I’m a bit disappointed that Samsung didn’t include the ability to save pics in RAW format. But it does seem better as far as power usage.

  38. 38.

    Raven

    @satby:

    Me and Loretta, we don’t talk much more,
    She sits and stares through the back door screen.
    And all the news just repeats itself
    Like some forgotten dream that we’ve both seen.
    Someday I’ll go and call up Rudy,
    We worked together at the factory.
    But what could I say if he asks “What’s new?”
    “Nothing, what’s with you? Nothing much to do.”

    Hello In There

    youtu.be/YbYWhdLO43Q

  41. 41.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    @Raven:

    Big Green does have the winning formula on molding late adolescents – work their asses off (and then some more, to make sure that the excess energy has an outlet), encourage competition, instill skill development and a sense of teamwork, and most of them will drop juvenile behavior pretty quickly.

  43. 43.

    Jeffro

    @billcoop4: Exactly. It’s nice to think about Warren as VP or Sanders for that matter, but HRC will probably want youth on the ticket, and/or a female candidate and/or a Hispanic candidate on the ticket…

    …nickel bet that it’ll be Gillibrand or Castro.

    Now then, the agenda for the day:
    1) Get out Prince 3-CD greatest hits set + “Sign O’ The Times”
    2) Play all day long as we go through soccer games, yard sale prep, and so on

  46. 46.

    satby

    @Raven: used to go see John Prine at the Earl of Old Town. And that song is a heartbreaker. Hard to believe he was young when he wrote it.

  48. 48.

    Raven

    @satby: You know he went to Proviso East and was a gymnast? He’s just a year older than me and I thought he was from Kentucky for the longest time.

  53. 53.

    Betty

    For the Senate race in PA, I am hoping Katie McGinty can pull ahead of Joe Sestak. He has been described to me by a family member who has worked with him as “a horrible person.” And we need more women in the Senate. I was pulling for Tom Perez for VP. He has done good work as Secretary of Labor, and Mrs. Clinton seems to like him. He would appeal to the progressive wing which couldn’t hurt.

  56. 56.

    satby

    @Baud: A virtual VP might appeal to the youngs, and you’re the obvious selection there.
    But how are you on the Twitter thing that’s all the rage now?

  57. 57.

    JMG

    Clinton’s been in public life quite some time and now, and we ought to be familiar with her decision-making MO. Odds are overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition her VP pick will be conventional to the point of cautious, based on her own conviction as to who would be 1. The best President should it come to that, and 2. Most effective campaigner. Since she is such a well-known (for better or worse) candidate, she is free to pick a lower-profile pol if she wishes.
    Long winded way of saying I think she’ll pick one of the Obama Cabinet choices.

  60. 60.

    eric

    If it is a woman, think of the money we will save having a woman president and vice president. Alan Simpson would approve.

  61. 61.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    No more taking Senators out of the Senate, unless it’s Sanders, but not for VP. Connie Schultz said that Kasich’s appointment of a replacement for Sherrod is a topic of discussion in their house, so he’s not going anywhere. I like the idea of Tom Perez. I’d like to see Sanders be tapped to head the VA since it’s the Senate committee he was on, and actually give him something to be held accountable for, but he’d rather scold than accomplish, so there’s that.

  62. 62.

    Zinsky

    @Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: The BMI is bullshit. Muscle is heavier and more dense and all the BMI measures is the ratio of your height to your weight. So, if you are shorter than normal and muscular, it gives you a bad ratio. Adrian Peterson, running back for the Minnesota Vikings and one of the most fit men in professional sports, is considered obese under the BMI measurements. Total nonsense.

  65. 65.

    Arm The Homeless

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Marshmallow on my HTC ONE M8 actually went much smoother than the Lollipop upgrade. But at this point I can’t stand all the junk contained in the stock ROMs, so I went straight to another custom. The camera on my phone is so mediocre that I can’t direct you to a camera app with RAW capabilities, because the stock app is good enough for gov’t work.

    Battery OTOH, has been a marked improvement over Lollipop, but I will not use Samsung with their Exynos processors, too many quirks for my taste, and a palpable disdain for the custom ROM crowd from Samsung HQ. Beautiful hardware though.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    Two mass shootings in past 24-36 hours; eight dead in rural Ohio (although shooter spared a newborn and two small children) and six dead, including shooter, in Georgia.

  67. 67.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Arm The Homeless: Mine’s a Note Edge, so it’s a Qualcom. I was rooted and had a custom recovery so I had to find the stock recovery and ended up downloading the Lollipop rom to extract it. Samsung hasn’t incorporated Android’s camera API 2 in their older phones, so even with a different camera app, no dice.

  68. 68.

    Schlemazel Khan

    As a liberal and a Minnesotan I say “Take my senator, PLEASE!”
    Amy is great on the campaign trail, gives a good stump speech. She worked the state for Kerry & sold me so I gave her more money & time than I had for any candidate in a long time (it helped that the kids were old enough to free up time). She got elected & promptly voted on the Bush side of every damn thing that came before the senate. When I called to ask why her staff lied to me about how she had voted despite votes being public record.

  69. 69.

    Arm The Homeless

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Glad to see they are have a wider SoC selection. The Snapdragon processors are by far my fav. I have been keeping a collection of previous stock ROMs for just the reason you mentioned, I will keep the HTC for at least another year, but Samsung just seems so apathetic towards their tinkering fans.

    BTW, have you tried some of the CAF browsers for snapdragon? The speed compared to Chrome is amazing.

  71. 71.

    debbie

    @LAO:

    My neighbors let their baby cry for an hour last week in the middle of the night. I look forward to opening windows, if only to drown that out.

  72. 72.

    msdc

    The Washington Post‘s premier horse-race tout Chris Cillizza likes Amy Klobuchar, Tom Perez, Tim Kaine, Sherrod Brown, and Julian Castro

    For the love of God, I hope Clinton has the sense (and enough better alternatives) not to pick a sitting senator. Especially not one whose replacement would be named by John Kasich.

  74. 74.

    eric

    It should be someone fluent in spanish to to do spanish speaking media. can be a gringo, i dont care….

  75. 75.

    Stella

    In the last poll in AZ Ann Kirkbride was polling one point behind St. John McCain. I’d like to see him retired and that seat turn blue, even if she’s no lefty.

    BMI is a fine population metric which tracks well with fat loss, even if it is useless for determining whether NFL players are overweight. It can overestimate obesity in muscular white and African American men, but underestimates obesity in the rest of us. At the individual level it is best used as a screening tool. A higher BMI doesn’t mean that you are overweight, but rather that you need to ask yourself whether you are overweight. At a BMI of 25, for example, my blood pressure was in the pre-hypertension range and my blood sugar was pre-diabetic. That made it hard to say that my weight was “normal”.

  79. 79.

    Dan

    as for HRC’s VP nom, I’m inclined to think it won’t be a senator unless they come from a deep blue state with a Dem governor. Julian Castro is a def possibility, though I think Tom Perez would be the better choice (impeccable progressive credentials, he’s made a lot of great policy at Labor, speaks fluent Spanish, and apparently he’s fantastic on the campaign trail).

    If Donna Edwards loses the MD Senate nomination to Chris Van Hollen, she might be an interesting left-field choice for VP.

  80. 80.

    gelfling545

    @satby: A lot of the Sanders fans of my acquaintance became interested in O’Malley after the debates. I wonder if he is one of her options. Strictly anecdotal but if this is a more general interest it might help to ease the pain of Sanders loss.

  81. 81.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Arm The Homeless:

    The Snapdragon processors are by far my fav.

    I’m still on a Nexus 4 and have never rooted or done anything else “fancy” on Android. I mainly use it for reminders, etc. (being a long-time user of Pimlical), occasional photos for documentation, occasional texting and rare phone calls. And Google Maps.

    I had high hopes for the Snapdragon 820, but it seems like something is wrong with it based on the power consumption numbers compared to the latest Exynos on the international S6/Edge. And Samsung seems to have throttled it compared to the G5, etc., to get as good battery life numbers as they’re getting. Maybe they’ll tweak things with updates, but I get nervous when I hear about Samsung’s tardiness there and them seemingly dropping phones (even flagships) after 18 months or so. (The above is stuff I’ve read on AndroidPolice – dunno if I’m garbling the reality.)

    I was thinking that this would be the year for me to finally upgrade to an LTE phone, but I may keep waiting. Since I keep phones so long (I had a Palm phone for ages), and since the pace of advancements is slowing, I really want to make the right choice. I plan on waiting to see what the latest Note looks like in the summer/fall (I like the idea of all the extra sensors, and the pen input), but I don’t want to be dragging around a shingle (though I probably will hang it off my belt anyway). I have hopes there will be a decent new Nexus this year as well, but who knows.

    I’ve briefly considered CM13, but haven’t spent the time to figure out whether I’d be comfortable messing around with it. How does one figure out which ROM is worth using on their hardware? Is there a go-to site with decent info (warts-and-all and not just fanbois)?

    So many decisions… I’ll probably ultimately just pick something supported and with a US warranty and be done with it. I had high hopes for the G5 but AP really beat up on it, especially for the price. If I ultimately have to end up “upgrading” every 2 years, well such is life.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  82. 82.

    Matt McIrvin

    So, it’s sounding as if Prince might have died from the aftereffects of a Percocet OD. Not your standard rock-star drug abuse, but addiction to painkillers prescribed after hip surgery–a distressingly common sort of story these days. Percocet has acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) in it, which will really fuck you up internally if you overdose.

    We really have to figure out what we’re doing with prescription pain management. There was a period when it seemed as if doctors were too reluctant to give people the meds they needed, even if they were terminally ill; then they started erring in the opposite direction. I don’t know what the answer is, though.

  83. 83.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @eric: Tim Kaine ticks that box.

    Kaine’s a good guy, but I don’t think he’s especially inspiring, and he doesn’t help too much in the let’s-expand-the-demographics-of-people-in-high-office category. He would be a good surrogate for her though, and he’s been right on the need for Congress to authorize the military actions we’re taking in Syria and elsewhere. He’s not an empty suit by any means.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  84. 84.

    Miss Bianca

    Shout-out for Gail Schwartz, running to unseat Scott Tipton, CO CD-3! A really effective state legislator and a hell of a nice lady. I’m planning to kick a little money to her campaign myself, and definitely volunteer, but if any of you have some cash to spare, this is a seat that could – that *must* – be flipped.

  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @gelfling545: i think O’Malley wanted it bad in 2008, but if he wants it this time, egging Bernie on about The Speeches doesn’t seem to be the smart way to do it.

    Talk of picking Warren drives me nuts. What the fuck will it take for the Left to understand that the other branches of government actually matter?

    there are pros and cons to every pick, and i agree that Perez’s resume is a little light by traditional standards, but I think the pros outweigh that, and 08 killed a couple of CW truisms about Veep picks, curse of the Hill, no (traditional) Southerner on the ticket

  86. 86.

    Origuy

    @Matt McIrvin: My housemate has arachnoiditis and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Years ago, when the pain became constant, they started her on morphine, but it made her a little groggy. Then she switched to methadone tablets. She was on those for years, but the side-effects include arrhythmia and they started worrying about the effect on her heart. Now she uses fentanyl patches. No chance of an accidental overdose.

  88. 88.

    Anonymous At Work

    @Dan: Julian Castro has similar creds, dynamic young mayor, speaks Spanish. Either him or Perez would also aim at the demographic nightmare that the GOP is hoping to avoid.

  89. 89.

    max

    Late.

    And for those of us who are just voters — whether we’re Clinton superfans, merely lukewarm on her, or Sanders supporters who care about electing women — it’s time to look down the ticket.

    Given how little money I have this year, I haven’t been able to back as many candidates as I’d like to, but I already looked down the ticket in January. I’m on the table for Kamala Harris (over Loretta Sanchez who is apparently neo-con as fuck), Donna Edwards and Tammy Duckworth for the Senate.

    max
    [‘But please feel free to pile on.’]

  90. 90.

    maryQ

    @billcoop4: Massachusetts thanks you for this reminder. Jeez, I go nuts with the weekly rollout of liberal plots to depriveme of my hard-won senior senator.

  91. 91.

    nutella

    @Stella:

    At a BMI of 25, for example, my blood pressure was in the pre-hypertension range and my blood sugar was pre-diabetic. That made it hard to say that my weight was “normal”.

    Your BMI, and everyone’s BMI, is not a problem. Your problem was your blood pressure and blood sugar were unhealthy.

    BMI is a ridiculously oversimplified ratio that is just as useless for everyone as it is for muscular athletes. The most healthy BMI, on the average, is what they call somewhat overweight. Departing from that in EITHER direction leads to less healthy populations, on the average.

    But knowing this pattern tells you nothing about the health of any individual. What does is actual health checks like blood pressure and blood sugar. Then you know if you’re healthy or not. Fat healthy people and unhealthy underweight people exist in large numbers.

    The important thing for all of us is to get regular checkups.

    And to fight any employer or insurance company that tries to harass people for their BMI,

  92. 92.

    Dan

    @Anonymous At Work:

    Castro actually doesn’t speak fluent Spanish. and to me, Perez’s work as Assistant Attorney General and Sec of Labor have been more compelling than Castro’s tenure at HUD. Which is not to say that Castro would be a bad choice at all, I just think Perez would be better.

  93. 93.

    Miss Bianca

    @quakerinabasement: Oh, Christ, no. I don’t think so. And I really, really hope not. It won’t help her in terms of voter demographics, for one thing – Hickenlooper is a very middle of the road Dem, not unlike HRC herself, and additionally controversial because of his support for fracking (he was an oil and gas guy) – and it will actively damage us here in CO. We’ll get a wingnut Republican in his place. Please, God, no. He’s not perfect, but he’s a hell of a lot better than whoever will be drooling to take his place.

  94. 94.

    berliner2

    Sources inside the Clinton campaign not speaking to the WaPo suggest it’s already been decided, and it’s going to be a young Latino. Clinton/Castro 2016!

Comments are closed.