When I forget the shoes

[ljplicease]

Lena was driving us to dance practice. First I was complaining about Alex and his inability to get the Bugzilla working because of the shebangs. She laughed because I used a funny word. It is a real word though! I did not make it up. Then I was complaining because the migration procedure for my new New^[1] Nintendo 3DS was absurd and error prone. And that complaining to @NintendoAmerica didn't seem to provoke a reaction, as it has with @Rackspace and some others. Lena parked the car and asked “Where are the shoes?”

You see, in all of my ranting and being entirely inside of myself, I didn't pick up our dancing shoes when we left the house. I took responsibility for it. I was the one! Lena drove back to the house to retrieve the shoes and I went in to let Alex know that we were delayed due to the missing shoes. Only Alex was upstairs I think watching a movie or otherwise being more oriented toward his family. (We were there to practice on our own, not for a lesson). So instead I waited for Lena to return. And I read something about the election to make me fume some more. Now that Trump is on the back foot it is a better sort of fuming. I still just can't even.

And here's if just dudes voted. pic.twitter.com/HjqJzIVwc4

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 11, 2016

All of the states that I have lived in, except for Arizona are blue here. And technically I was resident in neighbouring New Mexico during the semesters I “lived” in Arizona. I also once told Lena that I had lived in all of the “New” states in America once. Only it turned out that I had forgotten that New Hampshire is also a “New” state. But then I remembered I stayed the night at a friend's house in New Hampshire on the way to Maine, so that counts right? Well not anymore I guess. It only counts when you want it to.

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1. yes, two “news” because it is recently purchased, and “New” is in the name

Comments

[oakfarm2.livejournal.com]

One thing one noticed about the US election, it seems to me like the media like to divide the voters when reporting about it. This is how men and women vote. This is how unmarried women vote. How millennials will vote. How Latinos. How the African Americans. How the Pakistan Americans. And so on ... ok I haven’t seen the last one. But in the end of the day it’s about getting more than 50 % of the total vote.

[plicease]

Majority isn't required, just a plurality, so you don't even need 50% of the vote. And you only need to win Ohio and Florida apparently.

I think they talk about the different demographics because winning frequently isn't about getting more votes than the other guy. You have so many votes more or less in the bag because your party always gets those votes. The remaining undecided votes are an odd assortment of points of view that you have to address to win them over, without alienating your base too much. Obama's victories rested largely on the micro-targeting of individual (!) voters. So I think the reason commentators talk about different demographic groups is that the candidates do. And the candidates do because it works.

As an example, the African American vote very loyal, it breaks almost always for the Democrats, but because of that their issues frequently get more lip service than other groups.

It isn't always a good thing, but it isn't always bad either. Focusing on the needs of a smaller groups with specific needs can be the right thing to do. In this case the issue is sexual assault. Many women know from experience that it is a real problem, and many men are at best surprised and at worst in denial. At least we are talking about it.