Friday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, February 2, 2024
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53 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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Yesterday, CSK asked about the latest attempt to have New Hampshire secede if the national debt passes the $40 T mark.
The measure was rejected without debate, which is exactly how it should go. The sponsor is one of our state’s suspected closeted Libertarians who runs on the Republican ticket to get himself elected.
Via WaPo, Jason Gerhard is “a Republican from Northfield who spent 12 years in prison for helping a New Hampshire couple escape capture on tax evasion charges. Ed and Elaine Brown remained holed up in an armed standoff at their home in Plainfield for months before being arrested in 2007.”
Sigh.
Who needs lobbyists? The oil and gas industry owns Louisiana.
@Jen: I guess 12 years wasn’t long enough.
eta: or maybe thus is just proof that you really can’t fix stupid.
Flight risk: suspected spy pigeon released after eight months in detention in India
I did not have that on my 2024 Headline Bingo card.
@Jen: The whole idea is comical.
“This nation has too much debt! Let’s form our own nation, stand up our own army, treasury, tax collection service, intelligence agencies, foreign relations agencies, transportation and labor departments, and health care system! That’ll be cheaper!”
@Jen:
I’m not doubting you, but a Libertarian who has the self awareness to closet themselves around sane people just seems… remarkable. Unlikely? Oxymoronic? It implies a Libertarian that understands and is interested in how others think. I’m pretty sure they rip up your Libertarian membership card if they so much as suspect you of that.
@MarkedMan: It’s endemic here in New Hampshire. I don’t know if they sent out a memo or just realized that it was easier to glom onto a prominent party label, but there are quite a few Libertarians who run as Republicans here.
I had one show up at my house, going door-to-door campaigning for a state house seat. He flat-out said that while he was running as a Republican, his “leanings” were Libertarian. IIRC, he was one of the sponsors of an earlier bid to secede.
I don’t see how this passes constitutional muster but I am not a lawyer.
I mean, I know kids have accidents (that’s why our school makes you send an extra set of clothes), but to actually have a kindergarten-aged child in a regular classroom still wearing diapers? And expecting the teacher to change them? No. Just….no.
https://www.ksl.com/article/50863115/why-this-utah-lawmaker-wants-kids-to-be-potty-trained-to-enroll-in-kindergarten
Another day, another amazing metric for the Biden economy.
‘WHOPPER!’ CNBC Anchor Stunned Over Hot New Jobs Report — ‘HUGE JUMP’ In Pay
Another shockingly good jobs report shows America’s economy is booming
Thanks Brandon!
@EddieInCA:
That’s a very peculiar way to destroy a country.
Wapo gift link to a little “state of the economy” quiz.
I got 4 out of 4 (I know surprise surprise) This little tidbit caught my eye:
So in a straight up “first 3 years comparison” Biden is more than 8 million jobs better than trump.
@Jen:
Thanks very much. I’ll echo you: Sigh.
Heh.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I also got 4-4. But I was more intrigued by seeing how wrong most people were on their answers. #2 claims that 90% of Americans got that answer wrong. That goes to the power of propaganda and misinformation. What will it take for the actual facts to break through? I mean, even Fox is having to admit it’s a good economy, and it’s still growing.
Every time Trump screams “WORST ECONOMY IN HISTORY!!!” it’s going to be countered with, “Well, actually….”
Yep. That latest jobs report you posted up? It’s rigged. Everybody just knows trump was the best thing to ever happen to our economy. He told me so.
@MarkedMan:
Your O’s are starting to act like a team series about winning a WS.
Nice acquisition at a reasonable cost.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have complaints about using the initial jobs reports for anything. (1) They’re seasonally adjusted so sometimes a positive number actually means “Employers laid off fewer workers than expected last month.” (2) There are often large changes made in the second and third estimates. In at least one case the media savaged Biden when the initial estimate was about +35,000. They were silent a few months later when the second estimate for the same month was +235,000.
Raining on the Biden will win in November camp-
Don’t forget rent is up 35% since 2000. People vote their pocket books and wallets. Throw in concerns about Biden’s ability to do the job and splits in the Democratic party over Gaza, it don’t look good.
@EddieInCA: @OzarkHillbilly: Biden can’t just campaign on accomplishments. That doesn’t work anymore. Negative partisanship does work. Karl Rove was right. You need to attack your opponent on his strengths (or at least perceived strengths and things he brags about). They need to attack Trump on his handling of the economy, the budget, defense, etc.
@Sleeping Dog: Yep, was very happy to see that
@Bill Jempty:
From your linked article:
So his income has gone up 40% and his groceries might have gone up 25%. How, exactly is this an issue? He should be better off than he was four years ago due to the increased wages.
People are morons.
You know what we need? A unified search keyboard command that will work on all desktop PC software.
We have universal cut and paste commands (ctrl-c and ctrl-v). So why is search ctrl-f in Edge and Chrome, but not on Word and Excel? Worse, why can I get search in Word by using alt-e-u sequentially, but in Excel it’s alt-e-b?
@OzarkHillbilly:
But ‘Biden’s economy’ includes the recovery from the pandemic; a very good thing, but not an increase over the previous Obama and Trump trend
https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/employment-population-ratio.htm
Biden has been a steady hand, thankfully, but isn’t this ‘we are back’ rather than ‘we are better’?
Ironically, the Washington Post is trying to help Biden…
WaPo reports…
@Bill Jempty:
I don’t know if that’s been the case in the last 16 years.
@JKB: food inflation can be partially attributed to more droughts and extreme weather caused by climate change, something you just can’t accept. The yam will only make it worse. Unless, of course, he initiates price controls. Another criminal Republican president tried that in the past. Don’t think it worked out too well.
@JKB: Let’s not forget the sneaky “shrinkflation” behavior of companies, where they keep the boxes the same size but put less product in them. Is that Biden’s fault too, or are you willing to acknowledge that maybe corporations aren’t being good actors here?
Also, what @becca said. Avian flu is a big part of why egg prices rose so much, drought has severely impacted the cost of beef, etc.
Last month I was diagnosed with ADHD, inattentive type. I wasn’t particularly shocked by this. 10 days ago I started taking Strattera, a non-stimulant ADHD med. The first day was bonkers. I was high as a freaking kite. I had ALL the motivation and very little focus, but when I could focus on something I got shit done. I folded like a thousand clean socks that have been hanging out in my laundry room. It got somewhat better over the last 10 days.
But the side effects have been absurd. I’m typing this with a mouthguard in because I’m grinding my teeth like I was rolling. While not as bad as it was the first day, I feel kinda high. This is the wildest thing. I’ve got more motivation, more focus, not good, but more. I mean, I’m not spending an hour staring at a wall.
Other wild effects, I realized today that I haven’t felt bored in 10 days. Absolutely zero boredom. I’ve also lost 5 pounds in a week cause I have zero appetite and when I do eat it’s tough cause the thought of eating is gross. Good thing I’m at a minimum 20 pounds overweight.
I repeat, this is a non-stimulant med.
ETA: I’m on the lowest dose, 25 mg. I was supposed to double that today to 50 mg, but I decided to push it off for a day because I have to work today and actually need to not be high.
@Kathy: I supsect it has to do with the DOS era lawsuit over copyright where (I think) one of the spreadsheet companies sued another one (might have been microsoft) because they copied their design too closely, and a prominent part of that was the shortcut keys. Or at least that’s how I remember it.
And while you might say, “but word and excel are both microsoft products”, most of their office suite was acquired one at a time from other companies.
@restless: It should never be forgotten that the Republican answer to inflation was to throw people out of work. They were fairly frothing at the mouth to do so. The Biden team was willing to take a bit more of an inflation hit to keep people working. It made a few billionaires and their toadies unhappy, but it kept millions of people working. Definitely a stellar tradeoff in my book.
@Bill Jempty:
Doesn’t look good for whom? Under Biden, Democrats have outperformed and exceeded expections in the 2022 and 2023 elections.
Not sure why some assume that dissatisfaction with corporate greed automatically equals voting for a rightwing party that wants tax cuts for billionaires and that crashes the economy every time they get power. I see no evidence in recent voter behavior that “voting with pocketbooks” = “voting for Trump and Republicans.”
@DK:
It’s small and anecdotal, but in the trans group I run there are plenty of people promising not to vote for Biden or Democrats because “there’s no difference between Democrats and Republicans.” Some of those people should know better and some are just completely stupid.
It has me very disheartened.
@Michael Cain: I know their weaknesses. But even if you knock off the last 3 quarters, Biden’s jobs record for his first 3 years is still over 7 million better than trump’s.
@Scott: Biden is attacking trump, and from what I’ve read, it’s sending trump over the edge.
I was just reading an article about Tommy Tuberville and his military blockade, and I swear I read his name as Tommy Tinkerbelle.
@restless: I repeat:
Biden’s jobs increases includes the 6 million plus jobs lost to the pandemic (take note I do not say “that trump lost”) plus 8 million more. In 3 years. I am comparing apples to apples. trump’s first 3 years vs Biden’s first 3 years.
@Scott:
Fox News Host Warns Republicans: Don’t Run on the Economy — ‘It’s Good’
@MarkedMan:
Maybe on some future Trek reboot, someone can crash the Borg by getting them to do a search 🙂
Actor Carl Weathers, 76, who played Apollo Creed in the first four Rocky movies, has died. RIP.
@Kathy:
I just had a thought. The Borg were partially organic, I doubt the mechanicals could filter everything and it seems like in many, most, cases the underlying organic seemed be kept mostly whole. So, why not shoot up a couple of borg drones with a heavy dose of amphetamines or opioids and let them take their either addictions or wildly erratic behaviors back to the collective?
@Beth:
More realistic than killing them all with a drawing.
I’m convinced the Borg are a result of a failed Neuralink experiment and a time warp.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Note that I’m not trying to say that Biden hasn’t done very well. Had Trump been reelected, I suspect we would have seen that predicted recession.
All I’m saying is that crediting Biden with “creating” 14 million jobs seems to be the wrong way to frame it.
The jobs recovery from the recession was already underway when Biden took office. Biden‘s policies helped maintain and expand that growth. Biden has definitely outpaced Trump, with 8 million post-recession versus 6 million over the first three years of their respective terms.
I mean, back in the 2008/9 recession, Obama took office with a budget deficit of over $10 trillion. Republicans tried to say that he caused that, but of course he didn’t. If Obama wasn’t responsible for the collapse of the economy just before he took office, perhaps Biden can’t claim the initial job recovery when he first took office?
@Beth: I can almost accept some very poorly informed people thinking there isn’t a huge difference between the parties and not voting for either Biden or Trump (although the 91 felony indictments should matter), but large parts of the GOP literally want to eliminate trans people. And they make no bones about it, as can be evidenced by actions in the red state houses. I’m Jewish and if they did one percent to Jews what these states are doing to trans people I would vote Democratic on that issue alone.
@Beth:
There’s a pretty BIG difference regarding transgender people. At worst Democrats are indifferent, at best they are supportive. With Republicans, at best they wish you would die, at worst they want to kill you.
@CSK: As Apollo said in the first Rocky movie- Ain’t gonna be no rematch. RIP
@DK: We saw people voting their wallets in 2020, and Dr. Taylor admitted as much. Why should 2024 be different?
@Neil Hudelson: As I said in another post here, they did in 2020 and Dr. Taylor here admitted as much. Why should 2024 be any different?
@CSK:
Carl Weathers was also a great guest star on Arrested Development.
RIP.
@Matt Bernius:
Weathers got an Emmy nomination for his part in The Mandalorian.
@senyordave:
@Kathy:
Oh, I’m in full agreement with both of you. Not just because I’m trans or team Democrat, but because I have a (mostly) functional brain.
Some of it is because of youth or being poorly informed/lack of understanding, but a lot of it is just pure unadulterated stupidity. There seems to be a lot of ignorant magical thinking. Like, Democrats in general and/or Biden in particular could just snap their fingers and ta-da, their prefered policy would be enacted. It’s infuriating.
An example of this sort of thinking: I got into an argument with one of the kids. Their premise was that all the highways in Chicago should be immediately ripped out and replaced with “housing”. Particularly, Lake Shore Drive should be ripped out and turned into a park. I pointed out that, in my view, this looks like a Northsider is saying that Southsider’s should be blocked from coming North because it would make it way more difficult. I also pointed out that historically, things like this only benefit the Northside. There would be a big beautiful park from the Loop to the Northside and the Southside would get nothing. It’s a fact that the Northside gets way more resources than the Southside and the Westside gets NOTHING. This caused the person to flip out and leave our discord for about a week. A bunch of them seem to think that we can magically imitate Europe because something something Europe better? They also didn’t like that it was pointed out that if you rip out all the highways the city will need a lot more cement plants close in and those plants would go into Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, not White neighborhoods. That didn’t penetrate the magical thinking either.
This sort of crap is why I’m super worried about November.
Not 8 million vs 6 million. 14 million vs 6 million. 14 million is the number of jobs added to the economy since Biden took over. Now we can quibble over how much he was responsible for the return of those 6+ million jobs lost to the pandemic that returned in ’21-’22, I am certainly amenable to the obvious fact that a certain number of jobs that had been lost due to the pandemic would reappear with it’s end, but to say he had nothing to do with it just defies logic.
From AJC–
I am not surprised by what was going on. Willis dragging this thing out and clinging to this case don’t surprise me either
As Matt wrote here on January 16th–
The case shouldn’t be dismissed but Willis and Wade need to step aside for there is a conflict of interest.
Which means this case isn’t going anywhere for a while and the longer Willis hangs on, the longer it will before any trial starts.
In other news, the court date for the federal election case against Trump has been postponed.
Drip…
Fox’s Kudlow Dings Conservatives for ‘Trying to Dig Holes’ in ‘Blowout’ Jobs Numbers: ‘It’s a Very Strong Report’
This segment by Kudlow will become a great online Dem ad very soon. If you click on it, watch through the second commercial. He goes into great detail as to exactly why it’s such a great jobs report.