Friday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, February 3, 2023
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55 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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A little laugh to start your day (YouTube)
TIL: humans have striped skin, but we can’t see them because our stripes, called Blaschko’s lines, are normally the same color as the rest of our skin
@Stormy Dragon: Whoa! I wonder if they are visible under different wavelengths of light and, if so, if animals could see them.
Holy cr@p. 517,000 new jobs added in January.
@Jen:
Crap, Jerome Powell is going to be livid when he finds out…
@MarkedMan: Yes, and Yes.
@Jen:
Huge number, and good numbers across the board.
Thanks, Brandon!!!
@Jen:
But Hunter’s laptop!*
*I’m sure one of my GQP customers will say something like this today.
@Grommit Gunn: So cool. My cat might see me as a tiger!
Trump has now claimed, a couple times, that he knows magical words that will end the ongoing war crime in Ukraine.
But he’s not going to tell us.
He’s so precious…
Over 75,000 Job Openings in Iowa Alone. Millions of Refugees Seeking Work. Make the Connection.
While there is a segment of the Dem party that opposes immigration, by far the greatest resistance is from the R base and it is culturally driven. It makes sense that the political pressure regarding the scarcity of workers will be most acute on governors, both R and Dem. Economics and the needs of Main St businesses may finally result break the loggerhead over immigration reform.
It will still take a few years, Congress and particularly the House is inured from this pressure and more responsive to the base than Main St.
@daryl and his brother darryl:
And he also claims that DeSantis wept while begging him for his endorsement.
@CSK:
Well, DeSantis is a sniveling coward as are most bullies.
So I’m inclined to believe it.
I’d decided to make chilaquiles and a pasta dish on the side, when I began to think about mixing lentils, rice, and refried beans with the chilaquiles. Aside from having to cook the rice and lentils*, the whole thing seemed messy.
I kept thinking about it, and settled on the following:
a layer of chilaquiles (with shredded chicken, of course)
a layer of rice and lentils mixed with refried beans and cheese
a second layer of chilaquiles and some more cheese on top
All baked long enough to melt the cheese.
A normal person would make lentil soup, serve the chilaquiles with refried beans on the side, and have rice as a starter. That seems like an unnecessary profusion of dishes to me.
*The idea is to cook the lentils with enough water to make broth, then cook the rice in that broth. Maybe with some tomato paste as well.
@Jen: This recession really sucks.
Audio at the link.
Wrongful death lawsuit upheld after 100-hour search to serve Rittenhouse
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving WATB.
According to Rolling Stone, “multiple Trump advisors–including at least one lawyer–have told him in recent months that he has a stronger case if he argues that the payments [to Stormy Daniels] had nothing to do with the election,” but instead were a payoff to Daniels to keep her mouth shut about the affair.
Trump doesn’t want to do that because he’d end up paying Melania more in a divorce settlement.
The fling with Stormy took place in the summer following Barron’s birth in 2006. Donald doesn’t know his wife very well. I’m sure she’s quite well aware of Stormy and Karen McDougal and all of his other dalliances and accepts them as the cost of doing business.
@CSK:
Yeah, but given his prior track record, there’s probably something in the prenup that threads some needle with public acknowledgement of affairs, like, they both can have them but can’t ever go on record saying they happened or some such thing, or it ends up in a larger payout.
@CSK:
I don’t care. Do u?
Up Up and Away
The 5th Dimension
@Jen:
That’s likely true about the pre-nup, which as you must recall, Melania had renegotiated before she’d consent to move into the White House in 2017 in order to put Barron on an equal inheritance footing with the three older spawn.
It must be an interesting document: “You do your thing, I do mine, and we both keep quiet about it.”
@Kylopod:
I’ve never understood the “do u” part of this. “I really don’t care,” on the other hand, seems like a perfect encapsulation of Melania’s philosophy of life.
We should build a wall to keep Chinese Balloons out.
@CSK: Rhetorically, I’d say the “Do u?” part is mocking people who care. If you simply say “I really don’t care,” and leave it at that, then there’s a possibility you don’t think there’s anything wrong with people who care–you go your way, I go mine. I don’t care about model train sets, or foot fetishists, but if that’s what you’re into, more power to you. But adding “Do u?” is saying in effect, “What, you actually give a shit?” It moves the message from mere indifference to nihilistic cynicism.
@Kylopod:
Yes, I can see that. The incorrect punctuation bugs me. It should be a period or semi-colon rather than a comma before the “do u.”
@daryl and his brother darryl:
http://www.nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/trump-knows-how-to-end-ukraine-war-now-but-its-a-secret.html
Recently there was a discussion here about a new lawsuit against a baker for agreeing to bake a pink and blue cake and then rescinding it when he (she?) learned that it was for a transgender transition party. A few here expressed resentment at the plaintiff because this particular baker, who had a known history of anti-trans views, was deliberately targeted in order to create a test case. In contrast, I thought it was not only legitimate but important, in that it was perfectly crafted to whittle the issues in the case to a minimum, and therefore head off the a court failing to address the central issue: at what point does a publicly available service or product become artistic expression and can therefore be used to discriminate against another person?
Well, here’s an example of such a minimalist test case, although it wasn’t deliberately crafted. One Nigel Powers was working the gas pumps in Oregon (where pumping your own is still not allowed) when a black woman pulled in. He ignored her and instead helped a number of white people who came after her. When she finally challenged him, he laughed in her face and told her he didn’t serve blacks. The good news is that she won a million dollars, and the racist was eventually fired, although not for refusing to serve her. The bad news is that a citizen of the United States and the State of Oregon went into a public convenience and was humiliated and made to feel debased and attacked. Oregon has laws against that, but the Supreme Court has called into question the effectiveness of those laws when a defendant holds up the religion card.
There are those here who feel that, while it may be despicable, religious freedom requires us to allow someone to debase people based on their sexual orientation or gender history, and those who were turned down should just accept it and go to another public convenience. However, I suspect they would argue that pumping gas is somehow different, despite the fact that there are a heckuva lot more gas stations than bakers. That’s why this pink/blue test case is so important. Was the “artistic expression” argument the Supremes accepted just window dressing for their true aim, i.e. changing a century of accepted law that extremist (yes, extremist) religion cannot override important governmental guarantees? In my opinion, if the Supremes accept the defendants argument (that a basic pink and blue cake is okay up to the moment they learn what it was to be used for and then they can reject the customer), then it’s clear to me this is about establishing religion as supreme to civil life.
@daryl and his brother darryl:
That’s because he can neither remember nor pronounce appeasement.
@Kylopod: FWIW, I’ve never been able to figure out what the purpose of Melania’s statement (I really don’t care. Do U?) was. It could have been what you said. It could have been aimed at Trump (she certainly didn’t look happy to be with him). Or it could have just been the only thing in her wardrobe that qualified as “not fancy” and she didn’t realize the stir it would cause. Or it could have been something entirely different. But in the end, I Really Don’t Care, because I always have seen Melania as a private individual who happened to be Trump’s wife. She never did the First Lady thing, other than the decorating and fashion part of it, and that is her right. We elected him (shudder), not her. While I’m not condemning anyone who views her harshly and who disagrees and says her attendance at rallies and so forth makes her a legitimate target, I personally don’t feel any need to decide where she is coming from.
Why nothing on the Chinese balloon flying over Montana? Anyone know if its true that EMT attacks are carried out by these balloons and any opinions on if maybe they are working with the russians to use an EMT to take our ability to retaliate against a nuclear attack?
@Kathy:
This sounds like the terribly inauthentic way I like to make “chicken enchiladas” where it’s essentially a lasagna with tortillas instead of noodles: layer of sauce, layer of tortillas, layer of shredded chicken, layer of shredded cheese, repeat until you reach the top of the casserole dish, and then bake
@Stormy Dragon:
Some people like placing a layer of beans and cheese between layers of chilaquiles. but inside a cake mold. It’s not a bad notion, but the chilaquiles some off awfully dry that way (or they don’t use enough salsa to begin with).
@HelloWorld!:
I do not think the Chinese are using balloons to attack Emergency Medical Technicians.
Nor do I think and Emergency Medical Technician would be able to incapacitate our ability to retaliate. I mean… I guess if they used those shocky paddles on just the right circuit board. But… it’s unlikely they’d be able to get that close.
@HelloWorld!:
Well, Trump demands that the balloon be shot down.
Adam Parkomenko, on Twitter, asks if Josh Hawley has been seen running from the balloon, yet?
https://www.google.com/search?q=f+troop+it+is+balloon&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS1026US1026&oq=f+troop+it+is+balloon&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30j0i390.8400j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:0298ca25,vid:KlyERnu7zUw
@MarkedMan:
I miss Melania’s Christmas decorations. They were always unexpected. The trees of blood, the dystopian nightmare of Christmas… I kind of liked it.
@HelloWorld!:
@Mu Yixiao:
@CSK:
OK, it’s one white balloon, and it’s winter, but anyhoo:
99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it’s red alert
There’s something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
The 99 red balloons go by
@Mu Yixiao:
I wouldn’t be so hasty to rule this out. Remember that 1960’s documentary, “The Prisoner”?
@daryl and his brother darryl:
At a guess: “We surrender.”
FYDT
@JohnSF: Why would we want to end the war in Ukraine? Russian military power is being degraded at minor financial cost and minimal cost in American blood. Russia’s position as a supplier of hydrocarbons to Europe is in sharp decline. This war has so far been a big boost to NATO which is a tool of US might. End the war? Why?
Meanwhile, President Biden’s foreign policy continues to fail, according to critics (/snark)
US secures deal on Philippines bases
I remember saying here a while back, which way the Philippines moves is a major thing to look for re.the politics and strategic situation of E/SE Asia. Looks like they are now fully back on the US side of the equation.
Excellent work, guys.
Perhaps a lesson for Beijing. If you are trying to woo a country on side, and actually making headway, building bases in disputed waters and saying, in effect, “ner-ner, whatcha gonna do, Flip wimps?” may be a tad counter-productive.
The MAGAt’s are positively losing their minds over this balloon.
Wait until they hear about satellites.
@Slugger:
Well, I can’t speak for the United States of America, but I want to see it ended.
But then I’m biased.
I have Ukrainian friends and relatives.
Just not ended by capitulation.
@JohnSF:
Hey, that turned out to be Nixon’s secret plan for ending the war in Vietnam.
@Gustopher:
Central European vampire paganism aesthetics at their very best.
@gVOR08:
A major difference being: Ukraine isn’t South Vietnam.
On which topic, other news that may have been missed this week:
Ukrainian anti-corruption investigations gather pace.
Among others, the residence of the businessman Igor Kolomoisky was raided
Key thing about Kolomoisky, he was formerly Zelensky’s employer, and one of his patrons in moving into politics.
That Zelensky is willing to target him indicates his independence from the old patronage structures, and alignment with the “reformers” who now control the General Staff, key ministries, and a major bloc in Parliament.
IMO emerging new power base in Ukraine politics of the patriotic centre/middle class who are outside the old “networks” and also detatched form previous populist parties of the left and the right.
@HelloWorld!: “You know who else uses balloons, Mandrake? Children. That’s how your hard core-commie works.”
Perhaps the best tweet ever?
From the National Park Service
Words of wisdom, without a doubt.
@MarkedMan:
It was a commercial design, the garment came complete with that wording as purchased.
@Slugger:
Because innocent people who do not deserve it are being genocided, tortured, executed, deported etc.
Putin will never stop, the only way it can end is Ukraine gets enough support to win. The more support, the faster this ends.
@charon:
Oh, we know Melania bought the jacket that way. What message was she sending? She was on her way to visit a children’s shelter.
I support Ukrainian resistance, and I think our government should give them all possible assistance. I think that Trump’s assertions are just BS and not based on considerations of realistic possibilities for the Ukrainians nor US interests.
@JohnSF: Ronan Farrow once tweeted:
It was a wonderous tweet. My favorite tweet. (For those who don’t follow, I Woody Allen was involved with Ronan’s mom for years, and then married Ronan’s sister — I can’t use pronouns there because it just confuses everything and leaves Woody Allen involved with his own mom and sister, which would be weird and wrong as opposed to marrying his own daughter which was weird and wrong…)
But in animal themes there is this:
https://twitter.com/adzebill/status/126781616528957440
But this ermine tweet is a good contender for best tweet ever. Solid choice.
I’m also partial to the Leopards Eating People’s faces tweet, and drill’s drunk driving tweet.
@Slugger: Trump’s assertions are just another reminder he’s a Putin-puppet and a national security threat who belongs far away from the levers of military and diplomatic power.
The death and destruction in Ukraine is devastating — and destabilizing to the entire world’s economy, food security, and safety. That’s why we want it to end. Putin’s defeat would be great, a negotiated ceasefire or stalemate is good enough.