Friday’s Forum
Chat up the last day of the work week.
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, January 31, 2020
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37 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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And just in case I was feeling superior to S Dakotans:
I wonder what the Bible has to say about transgender people? Why do I think it is nothing at all.
“100% Republican”.
I caught Sam Rockwell in “Conviction” yesterday. Man, that guy can act.
Sure, I liked him in “Moon” and thought he was meta great in “Mr. Right”… and of course as crewman Guy in “Galaxy Quest” (and sure, JoJo Rabbit, awesome, yes, OK, OK…) … but holy cow I was impressed with Conviction.
Best underrated actor of his generation.
(… and no, I don’t want to talk about the Senate.)
@OzarkHillbilly:
The cruelty is the point.
South Dakota and Missouri are not alone, by the way:
Alan Dershowitz has quit Trump’s defense team. He says they begged him to stay.
@CSK:
Dershowitz finally wake up and realize that he has turned his legal reputation to sh*t?
@Sleeping Dog:
He said he had a family commitment in Florida. I don’t know if this is permanent or temporary.
@Liberal Capitalist: Box of Moonlight.
@Liberal Capitalist:
Rockwell as Chuck Barris is cinematic bliss.
Last week I came across something that reminded me of Francis Fukuyama’s book, Trust. The premise of the book, was that in an increasingly interconnected world the nations that would be successful would require high levels of social and economic trust. He went on to describe what he meant and give examples of countries that show both high and low levels of trust. Among the high trust were the US, France, Japan and others. Among the low Italy, Greece and Russia.
Assuming for a moment that Fukuyama was right and viewing the US of the 21st century, we as a country may have hit peak trust post WWII to the end of the century and it has been all downhill from there. Consistently polling is showing lower and lower levels of support and respect for social and political institutions with the cynicism dipping into the public’s attitude to even those institutions wholly of their own communities. It’s not that some cynicism isn’t healthy, but when it becomes the dominant attitude it is dangerous.
Cris du coeur for revival of can be found nearly daily among the communitariat, today’s being David Brook’s column in this mornings Times and laments and explanations http://www.startribune.com/what-do-state-fair-metal-detectors-say-about-us/567438672/
I guess a benefit of being among the young-old is that you won’t live long enough to see the depth of the pit we are in.
Casualty totals continue to increase from the Iran attack. It’s up to 64, now.
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/64-us-troops-suffered-traumatic-brain-injuries-from-iranian-missile-attack-as-casualty-total-continues-to-balloon-1.616914?fbclid=IwAR1apjZlKfG7bju9CvciJ69M090y9UbH_-MBBlHQA17jBiZYDDrqWzrPQyo#.XjORjwdEe8w.twitter
Don’t forget that today is Brexit Day! The day on which the freedom-loving U.K. throws off its chains from the ageing and undemocratic E.U. to stride the world as a global colossus acting as a beacon of light….(throw in Magna Carta, some bombastic comments about Britain ruling the waves, etc.)
Ha. Right now the average Brit is more in a tizzy about the flu from China showing up on England’s sacred shores. I also suspect that as the stupidities of Brexit begin to bite (more red tape, anyone?) you’ll get more and more complaints. They’ll still be about the E.U. of course–along the lines of “why don’t they let us in without any documentation? They obviously don’t believe in Free Trade!” (TM)
It will be amusing to watch the opinion-shovelers over at the Daily Telegraph start weaselling away from their punditry as reality starts crashing in on them.
This whole impeachment thing just reminds me that in the next decade or so we’re going to have a full-blown constitutional crisis. A minority of Cletuses with diminishing life expectancies drenched in propaganda electing Mitch McConnells to block the ability to deal with any serious problems like health care, global warming, infrastructure, etc, is only going to last so long.
Sexual assault reports went up 33% last year at the military academies.
I’m sure this can’t possibly have anything to do with the Commander in Chief normalizing sexual assault.
@Sleeping Dog:
It seems to me that legal reputations are highly dependent on political views.
@grumpy realist: Kevin Drum has a good post on Brexit and possible acquittal on the the same day with reference to Rupert Murdoch and his media. https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/01/brexit-and-impeachment-now-and-forever/
It seems there is confusion over deontology and consequentialism.
Deontology: a priori rules that govern moral analysis of an action with no weight given to outcomes. Kant’s example: use of atomic weapons is immoral in every circumstance.
Consequentialism: moral disposition of an action is occured by an analysis of the outcome.
Example: dropping atomic weapons on Japan to save the Allies from the costs of an invasion.
A deontologist would argue the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima could never be justified.
A consequentialist would argue that the bombings could be justified if it resulted in less human cost than an invasion would.
@Kurtz:
I changed examples to give a clearer picture, but left Kant’s name. Obviously he knew nothing of the power of the atom.
@Guarneri:
Considering Dr. Dave is center-right, I would think you may be more willing to give him and his views a little respect.
That would assume that you are a reasonable person. So the ass is I in this case.
Looking back on 2016:
UK: Let’s shoot ourselves in the head!
USA: Hold my beer.
I’ve been thinking about communism recently. I’ve come up against two questions:
1) Why did communist countries require a totalitarian dictatorship? Sure, some aspects, like agricultural collectivization and the nationalization of industry, required the kind of force a democracy won’t usually exert. But still…
2) Would communism work better today using big data to measure actual needs, consumption, and production?
@Kathy:
Well, before anybody answers this question, we should probably remind ourselves something.
People typically frame socialism as the opposite of libertarianism. Communism is a variant of the latter, but it embraced nationalization of industry by the State as a necessary step toward the eventual goal of a stateless society.
Americans tend to think of Capitalism and Socialism as Right and Left, respectively. It wasn’t always that way. And it really shouldn’t be now. Socialists and American Libertarians could arguably be again linked properly–both are, in their essential natures–approaches to liberation.
@Kurtz:
Even if that were true*, it wouldn’t improve the fiddle-maker’s opinion of me. He’s not conservative; he’s spiteful. That’s not a left or right thing.
Of course, the hilarious part is that he thinks there is something either thoughtless or ignorant about hypothesizing a link between the Commander in Chief bragging about certain behaviors and having those behaviors become more common within a portion of the military.
If he had evidence of any kind that there is no such link, I’d be happy to consider it. Data beats speculation any day. But G doesn’t do data; data always work against his preferred beliefs.
*By world standards, center-right is probably accurate. By US standards, I’m a flaming liberal. I’m way progressive on social issues, but (for example) my willingness to redistribute wealth is based on empirical findings about how wealth inequity hurts everyone in the long run. I believe the purpose of government is to establish a just rule of law**, internalize externalities, leverage economies of scale, and maintain freedom of markets otherwise — which leads me to think that a fairly large and powerful government is both necessary and desirable. I would rather help people than punish them — needle exchanges for addicts, abortions available, safety nets, etc. — because I think in the long run that’s a more effective way to fight addiction and unwanted pregnancy and poverty. That gets me kicked out of the conservative club, at least domestically.
**Generally defined as “protect people from each other”.
@grumpy realist: as with many western democracies at the moment, the UK is a diverse place encompassing very different views. I wouldn’t roll up in a bar in Greenwich Village, or Boston, Chicago, or the Castro, yelling “hey Trump-fans! You all love Trump and Pence and Mitch McConnell don’t you!” It would be unfair, and fail to recognise that political events in the US have failed a very sizeable chunk of Americans.
Probably somewhere a bit over half of Brits would either actively want to or would accept staying in the EU. The UK isn’t even the most Eurosceptic European country anymore – it’s just the one who got stuck with a prime minister willing to risk a vote. This situation is just the way the crappy political cookie happens to have crumbled.
I’d always counsel a bit of sympathy for a country crapping it’s pants politically, it doesn’t often tell you as much about that nation’s psyche as you’d think…
Joe Rogan responds to Sander’s promotion of his “endorsement.” Watch at least the first couple of minutes.
@Kathy:
The USSR came about because of a revolution. History has shown that revolutionaries once they gain power are reluctant to give it up. Revolutionaries also tend to be paranoid (With good reason as they fight their way to the top. Trouble is most find it difficult to impossible to change their mindset after victory) and insecure. They don’t trust the people to support them.
@Andy:..Watch at least the first couple of minutes.
I got as far as him saying:”…maybe we’re better off with Trump, maybe we’re better off with someone else. I don’t know.”
That’s the first and last time I will pay any attention to this guy.
@Andy: Who’s Sander?
“There never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.” -John Adams
@Teve:
This is an follow-up to a discussion here last week about Rogan ‘endorsing’ Sanders.
@Sleeping Dog: If so, it just reinforces the adage “too soon old, too late wise.”
ETA: “What do metal detectors at state fairs say about us?” No, I’m not going to a state fair where I have to be searched for weapons. Nuh-huh.
Well, “family”, she does call him “Uncle Alan”…
[rim shot]
@Kathy:
I suspect it’s because Marx never thought about the nature of power. Communist countries don’t require dictatorships, but that’s what you get when fail to separate powers.
It could hardly be worse, I guess.
Mary Higgins Clark has died. I can’t say I found her writing particularly compelling.
@Kit:
Ask an American Libertarian about how to enact their vision. You will likely get a response along the lines of “transitions are tricky.” The various varieties of anarchism on the Left are forced to admit the same.
I serve notice I’ll have a spoiler discussion of the series finale of The Good Place at the next open forum (I’m reserving the Ep. IX spoiler discussion for a time when I can re-watch the movie, I need to clear some points up).
Spoiler-free preview: I was a little disappointed.