Friday the 13th Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, October 13, 2023
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41 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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The Florida headline and photo of the day- 17 Broward deputies charged in pandemic loan fraud
You really to check out the photo that goes with this story. Read carefully what it says on the sign in it….
@Bill Jempty:
Here’s the correct link.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2023/10/12/multiple-broward-sheriffs-employees-facing-indictments-over-pandemic-relief-fund-misuse/
Boy, those popcorn futures I bought last November? They are really paying off now.
@Bill Jempty: Too f’n funny.
WAPO reports Israel has used white phosphorous in Gaza.
That will work wonders, but it won’t bring peace.
Researchers use AI to read word on ancient scroll burned by Vesuvius
Today, one small word, tomorrow the whole scroll. Science is amazing.
NY Times: Biden Administration Awards $7 Billion for 7 Hydrogen Hubs Across the U.S.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Full Translation:
“We’ve been trying to reach you regarding your chariot’s extended warranty…”
Trump says that if the 2020 election hadn’t been rigged and “stollen” Hamas never would have attacked Israel.
I’m always looking for well reasoned opinions that go against my thinking on some matter or another, and so I found this article interesting. I am of the view that Conservative Christian’s religion is phony, that people that are racist and/or Trump supporters can’t really believe they are Christian in any meaningful way. The article makes me question that, not the “they are not Christians in any meaningful way” part, but the “they can’t really believe they are Christians” part. It describes an Obama administration officials attempt to get Republicans on board with foreign aid for the poor. His first attempt was to show them up as hypocrits and phonies, which gave all of us liberals a thrill, but then over the next several months he met them and worked with them and found ways to reach an agreement with them, primarily by working from their Christian faith.
Gave me a lot to think about.
@Chip Daniels:
Funniest thing I’ve read all day.
I hope nobody put any money into this nonsense.
95% of NFT’s now worth zero
Who would have ever thought that paying actual money to “own” something you could screenshot and save for free.. would not end well? Everybody sane, that’s who.
@Chip Daniels: That was perfect. Nicely done.
@CSK: Ah, we are back to invoking German holiday pastries, I see.
@Gavin:
Hell, no.
I put all my money in tulips and beanie babies. The markets have been depressed for so long, they are bound to shoot up any day now! 😀
On serious and real notes, the Dollar is gaining against the Peso. Alas, I was unable to invest much in that currency. I could still invest some more money, though. Only I’ll get a lower return if I do. I estimate a rate of 18.20 pesos per dollar now (buy price). If I wait til it hits 20 (sell price) to sell, I’ll make 9.89%.
That would be fine, except I can get 11% in a seven year government bond (which BTW I have been doing anyway). I’d still risk a trip to the airport exchanges this weekend, which offer the best buy price rates overall (and the worst sell price rates), and see if I can get USD for 17.9-18.05. Past that it’s not a good deal.
I can’t help but think the IDF/Israel is about to make a huge mistake if/when they go into Gaza. The problem is that this is also the part of the plot of the Dark Knight Rises, but . . . Hamas has clearly been planning this attack for a long time. It’s very clear that the Israeli intelligence service had no idea anything bad was going to happen. So if they’ve had two years to prepare, and they’re a messianic death cult, who clearly don’t care about the people of the Gaza Strip . . . how many IEDs are there? How many places for ambushes? How many kamikazi drones do they have ready to go? And when you do have the bulk of the IDF mired down, what does Hezbollah do?
I can’t help but think that a much better approach would be to step back. By all means, encircle Gaza. Don’t let anyone in or out. And then provide them with food. Provide them with water, and electricity, medical supplies, education. And then just say “We’re here, and we can and will wait.”
And, look. Hamas leaders and people involved with the attack need to be brought to justice. No one is disputing that. But if any country has shown that they hold a (justified) grudge, and will pursue you to the ends of the Earth to find you, until the point you die, it’s Israel. Why do the leaders of Hamas need to be punished now, when that also means punishing children?
The hostages are a problem with waiting, but . . . invading isn’t going to help them either. It just might shorten their suffering.
Israel has the upper moral hand right now. It sadly looks like they aren’t going to keep it.
But, this is just like a much darker version of the Republican clown show, and that there should be a unity government with Democrats. It would be possible if we lived in a better world.
@Kevin:
As far as much of the world is concerned the only way Jews can hold moral high ground is by dying. We don’t play that game any more. The world can shove its moral high ground right up its ass, the penalty for killing an Israeli child is death.
Americans who have moral qualms might want to remember that we took this country by force, using genocide and ethnic cleansing. We won WW2 in part by dropping napalm and later nukes, on Japanese cities and incinerating tens of thousands of Japanese civilians. We reacted to 9/11 by invading and occupying one country, then because why not, we invaded and occupied another country. And right now, today, there are Congresspeople demanding we invade Mexico because we can’t stop consuming meth.
Talk of morality is pointless. Israel is going to slaughter Hamas, and yes, just as Hamas planned, a lot of Gazan civilians will die as well.
$40,000 to fix a dent in the bed of the Rivian (EV) pickup. Not due to EV, but because of idiot designers that made a single panel of aluminum from below the tailgate to the windshield on each side.
But then new Ford F-150s cost $5,600 to fix a tail light.
It appears the car companies really don’t want viable products on the market. Or is it Woke engineers are a nightmare?
@JKB: No, it’s a function of basic economics. Small volume vehicles don’t support a large logistics system with lots of repair parts in stock. It is a growing problem with these small, EV start ups like Rivian. Auto insurance companies will be charging huge amounts to insure small volume EVs like Rivian because the repair costs are so high.
@Michael Reynolds:
Honest question, at what point do you look at what Israel is currently doing and say, “that was too much.” What’s the end game here, kill everyone in Gaza, either though bombs or starvation or cholera? I suspect the effort to push civilians out of northern Gaza is just a pretext to annexing that area. I could be wrong, but I’m expecting the Palestinian dead to reach over a million. Is that acceptable?
And what about the West Bank? Do we think that isn’t next? To me it’s starting to feel like Israel has sold it’s soul, the only question is how much death they are going to get for it.
@Jen:
I sometimes wonder if Trump now misspells the word because his fans think it’s cute.
@Michael Reynolds:
According to people with no morals.
But glad to know in the future you’ll be silent about criticizing the amorality, inhumanity, bigotry, and indecency of Trump and the Republican Party.
This descendant of victims of genocidal American chattel slavery will never, ever be silent about inhumanity directed against innocents — or about they who enable it with their silence. Shame on them.
@Beth:
A question better directed to those who understand morality and humanity still matter. It’s a waste of time asking those who are proudly and belligerently amoral and nilihistic to care about others.
@JKB:
You don’t even know what “woke” means.
@DK:
As if there would be some point to engaging with the self-congratulated moral superiority circle jerk.
@CSK:..I sometimes wonder if Trump now misspells the word because his fans think it’s cute.
You are assuming that his fans know that the word is misspelled.
Kittens are cute. Trump is ugly.
@charontwo:
Don’t worry about it, it’s not for you. Stick to the selfish-interested, amoral, endless cycle death cult you prefer.
@Chip Daniels: Sounds like a message on my voicemail.
@Gavin: I wonder whether anyone with a legal background got caught up in it? All of my textbook on property law flew before my mind’s eye when I was first introduced to the concept (as well as WARNING WARNING WARNING in huge non-friendly letters)
@Mister Bluster:
You’re right; I assumed way too much.
@Grumpy realist:
But, just hear me out, what if the bundle of sticks was all digital. /mindblown
@DK:
BTW, have you happened to come across this: https://www.instagram.com/p/CyPHiaZgLRV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Heads up, its a cannabis ad. One of my absolute favorite things is the idea of White Nonsense. This ad, is 10000% the Whitest Nonsense. Lets take a substance we’ve been demonizing in the most racist ways for a hundred years and figure out a way to sell it to White Suburban Woman who think that wine coolers are hard liqueur. Every single bit of this ad was more bonkers than the next. I can’t wait till the legalize mushrooms enough that we get ads for psychedelic mushrooms like this one.
Oh, and my favorite part of the ad is when she’s like “oh yeah! 50 MG!” I’m a big girl and I like, lets just say heavy doses, 50mg is a good time, but it’s an evening eraser. There’s nothing doing after that 50 other than enjoying the ride to annoying your spouse town.
@Beth:
Bonkers! It’s scripted like an SNL short lol
50mg??? Hahahaha
@Beth: I’m already having fun with the definitions in IP and IP rights in cyberspace. Plus overlapping/conflicting definitions in AI. (Half of my work can be described as “AI + vehicle = new invention, ???, Patentable!” To which I say: “nice try but no cigar”)
@DK:
Lol, “50mg darling is perfect, I won’t have to put up with you or the kids shit tonight!”
Like, I enjoy bombing out a 50 every now and then. I like it cause I end up with two music tracks playing in my head along with three conversations, a car alarm and the weird part of my brain who’s sole job is to keep me alive at all costs freaking out. I thoroughly enjoy that. Oh, and my skin feels like I’m in a very humid microwave. glorious.
My partner, however, hates it. I mean, on one hand, I can’t talk so that’s always a bonus, but on the other hand, I’m a twitchy little goblin out to annoy the shit out of everyone.
I can’t imagine some bougie suburban housewife enjoying that. Hell, I made a joke about edibles to a parent at my kids school. I thought she might be a fun mom. She looked at me like I had offered her heroin and said, “Well, maybe we should just have METH!” She’s not doing a 50.
Number Please
When I worked in the landline telephone industry the trouble code for this was
NDT (No Dial Tone).
https://twitter.com/rooster_ohio/status/1711910938780078138/photo/1
https://twitter.com/rooster_ohio/status/1711910938780078138
@Michael Reynolds:
You need to consider, is this part of the Hamas plan?
Remember these are, in many cases, not merely Islamists, but heretical ones.
“Immanentize the Eschaton.”
Whose heresy is becoming populist-Islamist common coin across a large part of the world.
For a variety of reasons.
See France, where Muslim youth movement that is largely not even Arab (more Berber or African) has become pro-Palestinian as a a badge of protest. Similar in UK re. Muslims of Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent (and, believe me, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are not best friends).
Israel is compelled to extirpate Hamas.
The question is, achieving that in such a way as not to fatally undermine Israel’s international political position.
This may not be the first thought of Israelis right now (tbh, it’s not mine, given a free choice)
But Israel must plan for the longer term, as well as annihilating Hamas.
Which they must, and will.
@JohnSF:
I’d go all snarky and paraphrase Tom Clancy: “You need to be alive to be pariah.” But the truth is Israel should be very conscious of the fact that Hamas is not an existential threat.
@Michael Reynolds:
@Beth:
@DK:
I’ve not been commenting very much last week out of sheer sick sadness, but as I said about this atrocity some days ago:
I think back to what my father and uncles (once) spoke about spending days digging dead families out of the rubble of a burning city, Coventry.
As both Churchill and Harris said:
“They have sown the wind; they shall reap the whirlwind.”
There were are lot of Coventrians of my fathers generation who had the whirlwind tattoo.
Remonstrations of liberal Americans about their various unpleasantness re. Germany would, I suspect, have availed little.
And what Hamas have done is far, far worse.
@JKB:
Good work.
This fits right in with the new meme that ‘woke is anything conservatives don’t like.’