Monday’s Forum

FILED UNDER: Open Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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

Comments

  1. OzarkHillbilly says:

    The US rental car giant Hertz has apologized and pledged to retrain its staff after an employee denied a Puerto Rican customer a prepaid vehicle on the mistaken belief that he was from a foreign country and needed a passport.

    During the encounter with the customer at New Orleans’s Louis Armstrong international airport, the Hertz employee also waved over a law enforcement officer who allegedly threatened to turn the man over to immigration authorities even though Puerto Rico has been a US territory since 1898 and has a representative in Congress as well, according to a stunning report which CBS correspondent David Begnaud published on Twitter and Instagram late Saturday.
    ………………
    Hertz didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian. The company apologized to Marchand and issued him a refund immediately after being asked about his experience by Begnaud, whose Twitter and Instagram accounts are each followed by about 270,000 users.

    “Hertz accepts Puerto Rican driver’s licenses from our customers renting in the US without requiring a valid passport,” the company said in a statement first sent to Begnaud and later provided to the Guardian. “We are reinforcing our policies with employees to ensure that they are understood and followed consistently across our locations.”

    See? They gave him back his money and it’s all OK now.

    1
  2. Kurtz says:

    Is anybody here keeping up with Succession? Because that was one hell of an episode.

    2
  3. daryl and his brother darryl says:

    OK – now this is hilarious.
    House Republicans investigating the Biden family, last week, issued a report basically saying they had found nothing and yet they begged the media to take up their smear campaign nonetheless.
    The NYTimes acted appropriately.
    https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1656697066326720512/photo/1
    NOW Comer (R-KY) is claiming all the informants they claimed to have, have all mysteriously disappeared.
    https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1657772671999041537
    It’s kinda strange…like they never really existed.
    These people are incredibly incompetent and are not to be taken seriously.

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  4. daryl and his brother darryl says:
  5. CSK says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    There are probably more dimwits who believe Puerto Rico is a foreign country than we know.

    2
  6. Kathy says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I last rented a car in Orlando in 2006. Offhand I can’t recall being asked for a passport. A driver’s license, yes, and a credit card to cover insurance.

  7. becca says:

    @Kurtz: I thought last week’s episode was really good, especially the scene at the end with Tom and Shiv. I’ve been re-watching the first three seasons and forgot last night brought a new episode. Have to watch it asap after reading your comment.

    2
  8. Kylopod says:

    @CSK:

    There are probably more dimwits who believe Puerto Rico is a foreign country than we know.

    There was a poll a while back where about 47% of Americans didn’t consider Puerto Ricans to be US citizens.

    I should note that with polls like this, it’s always hard to tell how much is simple illiteracy vs. belligerent racism. It’s kind of like those polls where a substantial chunk of the public believes dinosaurs coexisted with humans. How much of that is due to people stuck in a “Flintstones” understanding of natural history, as opposed to creationists who consciously reject the scientific evidence for an ancient earth? Similarly, I’m sure there are many people who simply don’t know PR is US territory out of ignorance. But I think there are also many who know it, but who still refuse to accept its residents as “real” Americans.

    6
  9. CSK says:

    @daryl and his brother darryl:

    Oh, no fears. The Gateway Pundit says that Comer is going to drop a bomb and reveal who’s intimidating the informants.

    1
  10. Kathy says:

    I’m following a cooking course in Wondrium. It’s like a cooking show, with a chef making recipes on screen, with some additional content. Yesterday’s involved various types of chowder, starting with clams*, and then fish, before moving on to something actually edible like corn.

    But there was an interesting bit: breading with instant mashed potato flakes.

    I’d never thought of that. I’ve used store bought breadcrumbs, made my own by drying bread in the oven and pulverizing it, and I’ve even used fritos a few times. I’ve also made mashed potatoes with dehydrated flakes (as close to using fresh potatoes as to make little difference). I never thought of using them for “breading” instead of actual breadcrumbs.

    I think I should try it next week, possibly with chicken. I just need to think of something in addition, like cordon bleu.

    *How do people eat such things? Really. I know we eat dead plants and animals, it’s part of Kathy’s First Law of Cooking**, but that’s miles away from killing the food as part of the cooking process. Besides, you’ll be eating all internal organs and undischarged waste the clams may have.

    ** The food you’re cooking is already dead. You can’t hurt it any more.

  11. Kathy says:

    @CSK:

    Maybe he’s planning to be a pillow salesman following his political career, and figures crazy, stupid hints and innuendo are good training for that.

  12. CSK says:

    Donald Trump’s deeply considered and elegantly expressed reflections on Ron DeSantis and Fox news this a.m. on Truth Social:

    “He sucks, & so does Fox News!”

  13. CSK says:

    Save a seat in the clown car for another clown: Rick Perry is thinking about running in 2024.

  14. Steven L. Taylor says:

    @CSK: Oops.

    1
  15. CSK says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:
    That’s one way of putting it.

    1
  16. Mister Bluste says:

    …Puerto Rico has been a US territory since 1898…

    …and New Mexico has been one of the Fifty Nifty since January of 1912. Longer than Arizona that was admitted to the Union in February 1912.
    In my travels across the country to ply my trade in the landline telephone industry I met more than a few American Citizens who would see a New Mexico license plate on a workers truck and say out loud “How do they get to work here?” They wouldn’t believe me when I would tell them that New Mexico was a US State. I had to get my road atlas out and show them.
    Some times the license plate would say New Mexico USA.
    That didn’t seem to matter.

  17. Joe says:

    But I think there are also many who know it, but who still refuse to accept [PR’s] residents as “real” Americans.

    As long as we’re on the topic, Kylopod, let me introduce you to the citizens of DC.

  18. Mister Bluster says:

    NOTE TO SELF!
    PROOFREAD EVERYTHING INCLUDING THE NAME AND ADDRESS FIELDS 15 TIMES BEFORE YOU POST A COMMENT!!!

    …Puerto Rico has been a US territory since 1898…

    …and New Mexico has been one of the Fifty Nifty since January of 1912. Longer than Arizona that was admitted to the Union in February 1912.
    In my travels across the country to ply my trade in the landline telephone industry I met more than a few American Citizens who would see a New Mexico license plate on a workers truck and say out loud “How do they get to work here?” They wouldn’t believe me when I would tell them that New Mexico was a US State. I had to get my road atlas out and show them.
    Some times the license plate would say New Mexico USA.
    That didn’t seem to matter.

    2
  19. Kurtz says:

    @becca:

    That scene was just, wow. I would need to rewatch it to be sure, but in my memory, it was shocking. Not because it wasn’t headed that way at some point, but because the tension throughout the episode didn’t point to imminence.

    I also loved Tom’s scene re-entering the party.

    2
  20. Mu Yixiao says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Well… as I related a few months ago, the clerks at the Post Office didn’t know that PR was part of the US. I don’t know how long it would have taken to clear it up for the poor customer if I hadn’t been there. 😛

  21. MarkedMan says:

    @Mister Bluster:

    I met more than a few American Citizens who would see a New Mexico license plate on a workers truck and say out loud “How do they get to work here?” They wouldn’t believe me when I would tell them that New Mexico was a US State.

    This is why I don’t make big moral judgements on people just because they are a Trump supporter or a Republican. People like us know in excruciating detail everything that is done and said. But I would guess the segment of the population that is shocked to learn that New Mexico is a US state is larger than the segment we occupy.

    2
  22. just nutha says:

    Our Second Amendment at work!

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed off on additional protections for gun and ammunition dealers, manufacturers and sellers against lawsuits within a bill that lawmakers passed after a deadly school shooting in March.

    The Republican governor quietly signed the legislation Thursday. Its provisions kick in on July 1.

    The state Senate gave final passage to the bill in mid-April, just weeks after the March 27 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville that killed six people, including three 9-year-olds. The House had passed it before the shooting.

    Lee’s choice to sign the bill comes as he keeps pushing for the same Republican lawmakers, who hold supermajorities in the House and Senate, to pass a proposal that aims to keep guns away from people who could harm themselves or others. Lee plans to call lawmakers back into an August special session that aims “to strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights” after they adjourned last month without taking up his “temporary mental health order of protection” proposal. His office hasn’t released the parameters of what version of that proposal, or others, will be considered in the session yet.

    Thanks Republicans! (And all y’all were saying that Republicans never do anything. We should be so lucky. 🙁 )

    2
  23. DK says:

    @daryl and his brother darryl:

    These people are incredibly incompetent and are not to be taken seriously.

    These people = Contemporary conservatives

    are incredibly incompetent = are deluded, mentally ill pathological liars

    and are not to be taken seriously = and are not taken seriously by smart, decent people.

    1
  24. becca says:

    @Kurtz: Sarah Snook was extraordinary in that scene. Matthew McFayden certainly held his own, but Snook was stunning.
    Just watched episode 8 and the Roys each boiled down to their true essence. Ho, boy, I have no idea how it all ends. Five episodes to go…

    1
  25. DK says:

    @MarkedMan:

    This is why I don’t make big moral judgements on people just because they are a Trump supporter or a Republican.

    In additional to thinking Trump Republicans are amoral, deplorable neofascist clowns, I also think they are stupid ignoramuses. Does that cover the bases?

    3
  26. DK says:

    @CSK:

    “He sucks, & so does Fox News!”

    Gice the man his due. When he’s right he’s right.

    2
  27. CSK says:

    @DK:

    😀

    1
  28. becca says:

    @becca: correction: only two episodes left.

    2
  29. CSK says:

    This is way, way, way beyond revolting:

    http://www.rawstory.com/rudy-giuliani-noelle-dunphy-lawsuit/

  30. just nutha says:

    @CSK: My reaction is completely different. I’m more along the line of *What? I’m supposed to be surprised by this or something?*

    @DK: MarkedMan is more generous of spirit than people like me, though. I’ll let you decide for yourself where you are on the continuum.

  31. just nutha says:

    @CSK: And it’s certainly possible that his doctor has prescribed sildenafil to treat pulmonary hypertension. It’s not completely impossible for him to have one of the two types of PH (out of 5) that sildenafil treats.

  32. gVOR08 says:

    Looks like Durham has submitted his report and wrapped up his investigation. Not with a bang but a whimper.

    1
  33. DK says:

    @just nutha: My generosity of spirit depends on who I’m dealing with. To kind and decent people, very generous. To fascists and enablers of white supremacy, not generous.

    People who support a lying bigot who lost his toxic presidential scampaign with racist birther lies and who tweeted a White Power video on 28 June 2020 obviously don’t give a rip about my black behind, so why should I be generous to them? Eff those guys.

    4
  34. Kathy says:

    Over the weekend I made meatballs in tomato sauce with rice and potatoes. They turned out really well.

    Usually I begin to plan next week’s meal on Wednesday, then write the shopping list. Last week I felt like some kind of soup with ground beef and potatoes. I’ve no idea where that came from. So, I started turning over recipes in my head, and wrote one by Friday, along with a shopping list.

    Meat I buy separately from a specialty store that offers lower prices. As I entered the order online, it hit me: meatballs in sauce, not ground beef soup. But I didn’t revise the shopping list, so I also got potatoes.

    I decided to cook them with the meatballs anyway and see what would happen. I diced them small, so they might cook before the beef. Well, they kind of add body and flavor to the mix. Rice is something I add to meatballs in sauce when I have them, so that was not an issue.

    I began by seeding but not peeling one tomato, that I then chopped and sauteed in a pot with two onion slices and one clove of garlic. When well and truly done, I transferred all that to a blender with one chipotle pepper, and added some tomato sauce and beef broth before liquefying it.

    Back in the pot I sauteed more onion slices and several cloves of garlic. I added the contents from the blender, more tomato sauce, and more beef broth (it must have been like 1.5 liters all told; it’s easier when one uses hot water and beef bouillon). When it started to bubble I added paprika, ground black pepper, and just a little bit of fine herbs and oregano (at a guess, less than half a teaspoon all told). When it boiled, I added the potatoes. When it boiled again, I added the meatballs, reduced the heat to low and let it simmer for a while (I didn’t time it). Between sauteing and boiling in broth, the onions pretty much dissolved, I think.

    2
  35. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @CSK: I know, and the state of American ignorance is truly sad.

    ps: other than my wife cursing me in a mix of Mallorcan, Spanish, and French, I miss hearing the Spanish language. Feeling like a trip to PR is in my near future. Maybe Cuba too.

    1
  36. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @CSK: He did so well the last time he ran…

  37. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Mu Yixiao: Jeebus…

  38. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @MarkedMan: And that should scare you.

  39. Mu Yixiao says:

    Two Congressional staffers attacked with baseball bat*

    Two staffers working for Virginia congressman Gerry Connolly were injured on Monday after being attacked by a man wielding a baseball bat.

    In an interview with CNN, Mr Connolly said that the assailant had struck a senior aide in the head with a metal bat and hit an intern – who was on her first day on the job – on the side.

    In its own statement, US Capitol Police identified the suspect as 49-year-old Virginia resident Xuan Kha Tran Pham, who now faces one count of aggravated malicious wounding and one count of malicious wounding.

    Fortunately(?) it looks like it’s just generic mental illness. And–despite what many people here think of me–I’m very glad to know that he didn’t have a gun. And I hope that he’s never allowed to acquire one.

    CBS, the BBC’s US partner, has reported that a man with the same name as the suspect last year filed a handwritten lawsuit against the CIA, seeking $29m (£23m) for “brutally torturing” him “from the fourth dimension”. The justice department sought to dismiss the case earlier this year.

    The article doesn’t state exactly where this happened (it sounds like Connolly’s district office), but I’m very curious how someone got close to the staff while carrying a metal baseball bat.

    ===
    * I am completely baffled by the BBC’s approach to capitalization. They refuse to use title case for headlines, and they refuse to use capitals for some acronymic agencies (NASA/Nasa or ESA/Esa), but use them for others (FBI, NSA, NIH)–even going against the standard of the actual agencies (e.g., NASA always writes their own name in all caps; the BBC has decided that’s wrong.)

  40. dazedandconfused says:

    @Kurtz:

    I have. Succession keeps me hooked. Somebody should get an award for that show.

    1
  41. Gustopher says:

    @Kylopod:

    There was a poll a while back where about 47% of Americans didn’t consider Puerto Ricans to be US citizens.

    I should note that with polls like this, it’s always hard to tell how much is simple illiteracy vs. belligerent racism. […] Similarly, I’m sure there are many people who simply don’t know PR is US territory out of ignorance. But I think there are also many who know it, but who still refuse to accept its residents as “real” Americans.

    Can they vote for President? No? Then, no, they are not “real” Americans and are citizens in name only.

    Our territories either need to be folded into the United States as states, or be independent. We should not have second class citizens — even if they prefer their current status, it undermines American values of freedom and equality. Colonialism should end.

    (If they want to be British territories or something, that’s good too I suppose)

    ——
    I’m also opposed to temporary worker visas on the same general principle. If you’re in this country, you should be on a path to citizenship. Full citizenship, not some watered down second class version.

    2
  42. Gustopher says:

    @Mu Yixiao:

    I am completely baffled by the BBC’s approach to capitalization.

    I kind of wish we readopted the Random Capitalization for Emphasis and Fun that was prevalent among the founding fathers and folks of that era.

  43. CSK says:

    @Gustopher:

    Donald Trump has adopted it.

  44. Kathy says:

    @Gustopher:

    I’m also opposed to temporary worker visas on the same general principle. If you’re in this country, you should be on a path to citizenship. Full citizenship, not some watered down second class version.

    There’s a relevant difference in the case of work visas. Some people might just want to work in some country, send some money back home, save some money, and eventually return home.

    I would favor allowing all legal residents to vote on local and state elections, maybe even in federal ones. If one pays taxes, one should have a say.

    2