Friday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Friday, January 20, 2023
·
50 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).
Follow Steven on
Twitter
RIP David Crosby.
August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023
The company says,
Yes… “heartfelt sorrow” and they are sooo concerned about their employees. FTR, these employees are represented by UFCW local 2. I can only imagine the restrictions they are subject to in Oklahoma.
Hahahaha:
He’ll probably wiggle out of this like everything else, but good on this judge for calling Trump out on this.
@Jen: Dershowitz has been trying to dodge sanctions on himself for his work on the Kari Lake case. I don’t know if he’s succeeded or not yet.
@Jen: According to the Guardian,
also.
Just a peach of a guy. A rotten worm riddled peach.
@Jen:
The funniest part of this story is a footnote noting the IRONY.
In a lawsuit claiming that Clinton was trying to rig the election by falsely accusing Trump’s campaign of links to Russia…Trump relied on evidence from Russian Intelligence.
See footnote #6, Page 8.
https://static.poder360.com.br/2023/01/trumop-clinton-20jan2023.pdf
BTW…for the mathematically challenged.
Republicans are pushing a National Sales Tax they claim is 23%.
Fatc: Under this bill you will pay $30 in tax on a $100 purchase. It is a 30% tax.
$30 dollars is 23% of the $130 total you will pay. That’s where they are getting 23%.
The fuqer’s lie about EVERYTHING.
@daryl and his brother darryl: The Republican War on the Poor continues.
@Jen:
Well, no. not on the poor. It’s for the poor. Surely you’ve seen the GQP successfully keeps increasing the ranks of the poor.
If anything it’s a war on the middle class, which does seem to be waning fast.
On other things, any thoughts on Jacinda Ardern resigning as Prime Minister?
Something has been rolling around in my head for a week or so now, and I’ve realized that there is no better way to answer the question of “Was Trump the cause of the Republican’s nose dive into an ethical shit pit or was he merely the inevitable result of the underlying rot?”, than to point to Kevin McCarthy, who preceded Trump into office by a decade and was part of the Tea Party movement. What did Ol’ Kevin say when asked about George Santos? Without hesitation or shame he responded, “Everyone embellishes their resume”. A fair number of other Republicans had variations on the same theme.
First, no, everyone does NOT embellish their resume. But more to the point, remember when the American Ideal was fair play, honesty, and ‘my word is my bond’? Even the most corrupt politicians knew that their public facing side had to project that. But Kevin McCarthy understands that to the Republican base (the 10-20% who pay attention and set the agenda) admitting dishonesty, cheating and lying will cause him no trouble whatsoever. And he’s right! The fact that he made this comment has caused almost no ripple in the stream. Think about that.
@MarkedMan:
The key phrase here is “public-facing side.” Donald Trump made it acceptable to be open about things previous politicians tried to keep under wraps: misogyny, racism, churlishness, vulgarity, etc.
Worse, he made it acceptable for his fan club to behave badly–indeed, to glory in it.
So, the royal government of Mexico decided to change its government acquisitions portal, without much in the way of warning. And apparently without thinking things through.
First thing I did was look for the manual and help areas for the new portal. There they were, very easy to find. I downloaded the manual, the FAQ file, and some other documents.
They are all for the old portal.
We’ve been muddling through. Past registration, which was easy enough, there’s a need to upload lots of documents and info, just to be able to enter into a proposal. Partly this is a function of how the companies in the group are constituted, partly it’s an atavistic practice of extracting all possible information in bureaucratic forms, even that which is irrelevant.
the task isn’t complicated. It is tedious, time-consuming, and requires concentration (lots of figures, dates, and names to keep straight).
I seriously need this weekend.
My first thought was some big ongoing corruption was about to revealed by a media organization. It has now been a week (?) and still nothing. That does not necessarily mean my initial cynicism was wrong, but I am now thinking maybe it really is a case of burn out. If so I applaud her, life is too short to waste on a thing that has become detrimental.
A small act of kindness:
Grows.
@MarkedMan: Whenever I hear the question “Is Trump the cause of the GOP’s problems, or merely the symptom?” I always feel this is overly simplistic. I understand where the mantra “Trump is the symptom, not the cause” comes from. Dems are frustrated by the frequent attempts to treat him as an aberration and ignore the conditions that led up to him. But a lot of Dems go too far in the other direction–acting like he’s merely a vessel for problems that were already there. Someone here the other day (I can’t remember who) stated that if Trump hadn’t come along, someone a lot like him would have. I disagree with that somewhat. Trump is in some ways a unique personality. Not necessarily in every attribute, but in the total package. That’s not to say a lot of the features of the Trump era–shameless lying, refusal ever to apologize, open advocacy of the most insane conspiracy theories, contempt for democracy, hardcore racism, misogyny, and so on–just sprung up overnight the moment Trump stepped down that escalator. But I don’t think it would have played out the same way if he’d never decided to run in 2016. Most of these qualities sit on a spectrum, anyway, with Trump at the extreme (at least relative to what came before). We might have ended up with another demagogue, but it wouldn’t have been the same in the particulars.
Aaron Laigaie co-founder of the Proud Boys, well-known figure in the American far-right, staunch Trump supporter, and well-known anti-vaxxer who insisted he had a “natural resistance” to the Covid virus, has died.
Yup – of Covid.
Aaron is now a poster child for Darwinism AND the Dunning Kruger Effect.
@Kathy:
@OzarkHillbilly:
She kept deaths from Covid to ~2,500…which I believe is the best record, worldwide…so I think she deserves some time off.
As if the House GQP isn’t effed up enough now, trump is adding to their misery telling them not to touch SS and Medicare in debt limit fight.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/20/trump-gop-medicare-social-security-debt-ceiling-00078731
@Jen:
@daryl and his brother darryl:
The second funniest things about this is that, after the $1,00,000 sanction, Trump and his Attorney have rapidly dropped their suit against Letitia James, the NYAG.
So much winning. I’m tired of all the winning.
@OzarkHillbilly: I certainly applaud this man’s generosity, but a hundred dollars a month won’t cover many pharmacy bills. An asthma inhaler like Proventil is close to $70 for one inhaler. Pharma prices are a systemic problem.
This is from one of our industry “competitors”.
School lights haven’t been shut off for almost a year and a half–because the system is broken.
@Slugger: Yes, a “small act of kindness” that has grown to more. Not enough, that would take govt action and as long as the GOP can block that, their pharmaceutical donors will be happy with them.
I would characterize Trump as the expression of the fears, anger, and frustration of his base that has been generated by the sense they have that they are losing their hold on the moral consensus of America. We now allow gay marriage, welcome trans people, and it looked to them as abortion would never become illegal. This is magnified by the trend of their being fewer and fewer people (percentage wise) in the country that identified as white and Christian. This was terrifying to them, Trump was the result.
I don’t think Kevin McCarthy shares most of those fears, which is why the MAGAs don’t trust him.
@OzarkHillbilly: In fairness, if I’d suggested we drop a complaint when I found out who the judge was and was convinced to continue by my attorney, I’d want the attorney to pay for the mistake, too. Then again, I’m known to be unreasonable, too.
@Kathy: The article I saw on Ardern’s resignation looked to be a move to strengthen the Liberal position for an election that’s coming anyway by replacing her with a incumbent who will seek to continue in office. Beyond that, it really looks to me like she wants to leave politics for a while. And more power to her on that side. More people’s parents should get to be proud of their children’s service in elected office. We’re becoming a nation where all our office holders don’t have proud mothers, they have mother’s who’ve been dead for decades. 🙁
@just nutha:
Or the attorney’s malpractice carrier.
@CSK: I guess I think about it like one of Kevin Drum’s charts. He often looks at something that is a hot media topic (wages, mortgage rates, etc) and plots it out over a longer period of time, only to reveal that the trend has been very steady over time. I think if it were possible to plot Republican ethics and behavior over the past 50 years Trump would fall exactly on that line. Whatever was going on in Reagan’s mind, he presented a sunny, moral position to the world. Gingrich was a different story. The Tea Party was worse. The Trump base is worse again but not an anomaly, just a continuation of a trend.
Obviously, I have no proof for this, it’s just my impression.
@CSK: Did Trump “make it acceptable,” or did he merely realize that his voting base DGAF about appearances and “public-facing side.” I think that it matters because there’s a profound if the voting base DGAF, the system will not improve with Trump gone, and I think we’re looking at massive public (VOTER!) failure rather than a slick con artist deceiving well-meaning public-spirited people. The conservative line (and dream, maybe*) is that once bad ol’ Trump is gone, thing will be back to normal; whereas I think what we saw with Republican support of Trump actually is normal.
*To the extent that “good conservatives” isn’t wishful thinking. I left conservatism behind more than 2 decades before Trump. ETA: And was never a Reagan supporter at all, though I still hoped for better deficit control and other economic and social agenda elements of conservatism.
@Kylopod:
That would be me!
I’m not saying you are wrong here, just that, as I mention above, my impression is that this has been a pretty steady march to decadence and despair.
But there is an aspect of Trump that is an anomaly: his clownishness. If I had made a prediction of where the Republican Party was headed I would have said Bolsonaro or Duterte.
Hmmm. I’ve never thought of it like this before but perhaps we were actually lucky that our Duterte was an incompetent buffoon.
@Sleeping Dog: I don’t think the Q Caucus cares about what Trump says. He’s a vaccine loving squish who doesn’t want to burn literally everything down.
So, after Frankenstein loses control of his monster, and then the monster creates his own monster and loses control, does Frankenstein feel a bit of pleasure watching his monster panic as the monster’s monster destroys them both?
@Slugger: If your pharmacy is charging $70 for a Proventil inhaler, you’re already getting a discount unless pharmacies where I live are price gouging. A generic albuterol inhaler is over $150 where I live, Proventil is even higher.
ETA: But yeah, pharma prices are a problem.
@Beth: If the attorney wants her (in this case, I think) malpractice carrier to pick this one up, that’s fine by me. As long as I’m not paying the fine, I don’t care who does.
@MarkedMan: I think you are naively assuming that Trump is as bad as it gets. Desantis is going to try to out-Trump Trump, and might succeed.
(Santos would be way more amusing, but alas, born in Brazil or Lithuania or something, so ineligible for the Presidency)
@Gustopher:
Probably not the Q caucus, but the 18 R’s that represent districts that Biden won and those R’s who won their races by <5% will take note. Trump's warning gives them cover to oppose going after SS/Medicare.
@CSK:
I’d like to rise in defense of vulgarity. I know lots of extremely vulgar people who are also perfectly delightful because they’re also kind. The problem with Trump isn’t his vulgarity, it’s his cruelty.
@Mu Yixiao:
People are often shocked that, as bleeding edge I am about tech, I don’t have smart appliances in my home, and one of the big reasons why is not wanting to be in a situation where a company somewhere gets bought out or goes bankrupt and suddenly my thermostat doesn’t work anymore.
@Gustopher:
It’s on a completely unrelated topic, but over at LGM Scott Lemieux has the perfect graphic for your comment.
(As I get older, I find I miss a lot of pop culture memes. I had to look up “Let them fight.” It’s from the 2014 Godzilla, the Japanese scientist advising the authorities to let Godzilla and Muto go after each other.
@OzarkHillbilly:
@daryl and his brother darryl:
@just nutha:
I was surprised to read of Ardern’s resignation, and found no immediate, obvious reason for it. So burnout is a distinct possibility.
I think of it as a Cincinnatus moment, even if she had no fixed term limits (so more of a Diocletian moment, but he has no city in Ohio named after him).
@Stormy Dragon:
There’s no doubt the Trumpkins reveled in his gleeful sadism.
“The cruelty is the point.” — Adam Serwer
@Gustopher:
No, not at all. As I said, I think Trump was on the straight line extrapolation from Reagan to Gingrich to Tea Party to Trump. I though it went without saying that the next data point will be even worse.
@MarkedMan:
I read somewhere that in the 2016 election, people in their 40s and 50s living in the Deep South voted for the first time ever–for Trump. Something about him dragged them out of their apathy.
@Gustopher:
Are you sure that he was not born here? Or are you just going on his word….
@MarkedMan:
This? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7FKO5DlV0
@Gustopher: Eventually some RWNJ is going to wonder why can’t Santos just lie about where he was born? After all, it worked for Obama.
@just nutha:
yeah. Lol, I’m just, ahem, peeved, today because I had to think of my malpractice carrier after another attorney threated to subpoena me over a former client that stiffed me. He wanted me to do more work for him and the client after the client stiffed me (and refused to listen to me).
Also, did everyone decide that today was the day to start work after the new year? or is everyone just pissed its friday?
@just nutha: If I based my expectations of success on what judges I drew…
Well, let’s just say I must not have a whole lot of confidence in the facts of my case, and maybe I should lose.
@Beth:..or is everyone just pissed its friday?
Not since I picked up today’s mail!
My sincere thanks to the JND Legal Administration of Seattle, Washington.
I totally forgot that I made a claim in the Equifax Data Breech Settlement between July 22, 2019 and January 22, 2020. After all it was only three years ago so it dropped from my sights after maybe two years (more like 10 minutes after I made the claim, nothing will ever come of this.).
To my surprise I got a check today for $5.21! That and 18¢ more plus tax will get me a Big Mac!
My faith in the legal system has been renewed!
All of a sudden somebody told them whiteness was under attack! Who’could’a’knowed that would resonate with a bunch of insecure white people????
This must be my lucky day!
Not 25 minutes ago I noticed that gas at Circle K had dropped from $3.499/gal. which it has been for several weeks along with most other pumps in town to $3.o99/gal. Stopped in for some fuel.
Just looked out the window of MickeyD’s and gas is back up to $3.499/gal. at Circle K again.
@Beth:
To the best of my knowledge, no one in Western history has ever been pissed that it’s Friday.
Though when we know we’ll be working Saturday and/or Sunday, we may get bitter as luckier coworkers leave at 5-6 pm and they wish us a good weekend.
That’s not the situation today (though I’ll have to come in on Sunday* and go to the bank on Saturday). But I am pissed because the week started off looking as it would be light, and then we got hit with massive amounts of work. The new portal I ranted about earlier, also some new projects I see little chance of winning.
*Just petty cash. that gets done in an hour or so.