Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, December 30, 2023
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46 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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Well, the good news is for the nightmare project that required around 150 samples, these are no longer required. The bad news is they now want photographs of all products. Good thing operations came through and sent us most samples. Obtaining photos missing ones will take some doing, but it’s feasible. More important, it’s not my responsibility.
But, seriously, this agency knows their contract ends tomorrow, and they need deliveries starting on Jan 4th. Why are they only now getting around to it? Worse yet, why didn’t they give their current supplier an extension, and then do the request for proposals with longer lead times for the participants? They could have had their samples easily that way.
Michael Cohen continues to show that he is not a reliable witness:
Ooooooppps…
I’ll give him this, he’s perfected the art of falling on his sword.
@OzarkHillbilly: If your main claim to fame in life is that you were Donald Trump’s fixer that says a lot about your character. Or lack of it.
@Kathy: Your stories remind me of a placard we had in our shipping office when I worked at the produce wholesaler:
@OzarkHillbilly:
@SenyorDave:
Yeah, he gets interviewed a lot because he turned on his former employer/client. That, and he is a narcissistic attention seeker.
You did extremely shitty stuff for an extremely shitty person for money for over a decade gladly with no remorse.
Why should I trust you know? His “change of heart” was for self benefit. Not all fellow travelers are good allies you want to be associated with. Saul Goodman had better professional ethics.
@SenyorDave:
Only the best people.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
A former coworker used to work at that agency. One reason he left, was the hurried nature of acquisitions left for very late times. Consider they not only buy food, but lots of other things. This has been going on for really long. Maybe it is institutional policy, even if unwritten.
I learned yesterday a pretty good friend died. 63. A good person, and wicked smart.
He didn’t show up for work and didn’t answer calls or texts. Cop welfare check found him on the kitchen floor. It was quick, at least.
Nothing terribly interesting about him. A fairly mundane life, but well lived. A decent person.
What is most interesting was that in his early 30s he decided that the best way to get back into shape was to join an amateur, pick-up type hockey league team. 20 minutes into his first skate around he had a massive stroke and almost died.
His smarts were fully intact, but he struggled mightily with speech afterwards, especially right after. Aphasia.
He worked hard to recover his speech, but it wasn’t full and he struggled with it the rest of his life. I understood him fine after time. He preferred to write, so he wrote e-mails and texts a lot. Aphasia can often impact writing as well, but he always wrote clearly, if a bit abruptly.
What was extraordinary was how he dealt with it. I saw it first hand many times – we would go to a restaurant and the server would treat him as if he was developmentally impaired and a moron. It was usually subtle, but you can flat-out discern it. They would speak slowly, simply, and loudly. Ma’am/Sir, he understands you perfectly fine, he just can’t articulate his thoughts easily! Just witnessing it made me very angry.
To him, it was a daily thing that he learned to cope with/accept. Water off his back. No big deal. I don’t know if I could reach his level of generosity and acceptance. That’s lived zen. It would piss me off mightily. I was in awe of his ability to just shake it off as to how people treated him in everyday interactions.
He dealt with that stuff daily. Multiple times a day for decades. I’m not sure if I could cope with what he put up with. I’d probably pretend muteness and communicate with notes.
A hearty “skol!” to Mark!
Police killed Niani Finlayson seconds after responding to her 911 call, video shows
To serve and protect, my ass.
@de stijl:
That’s a nice memorial to him you wrote.
I’m not sure what to make of the Russian War on Ukraine. Is it a forever stalemate?
By any measure, the Russian military has performed laughingly poorly. They had and have a vast numerical advantage. At the start of the war, a vast technology and system advantage, though stymied now.
Seriously, I expected Russia to wipe out all Ukrainian opposition within a week. To fully occupy. That they didn’t and couldn’t was shocking. To me, at least. Okay, they underestimated the force required and will overwhelm Ukraine after reinforcing in a week or so. Nope. Unable. Still unable. That stuns me.
And this isn’t Viet Nam or Soviet Afghanistan or US Afghanistan style main, heavy occupation force versus guerrilla hit and run insurgents. It’s main force vs. main force WW2 style fighting with tanks and the best Russia can do is a pull a draw against relatively tiny Ukraine. It’s shocking to me.
A straight-up debacle. A massive failure that undermines any Russian claim of strength. Frankly, I’m surprised Putin is still alive. I would have expected cooler heads to figure out that the time was ripe for a soft coup and a “sudden heart attack” for Putin. This is a stunning fuck-up on every level.
The whole situation baffles me utterly. Apparently the Russian bear is of the teddy variety.
Every now and then stuff hits you that makes you realize how little freedom others have and how much they are controlled by their authoritarian government. Putin is preparing to run for office again. (I know, funny.) He met with a woman who is “supporting” him. Her son died in Ukraine. She was very careful when explaining that giving up in Ukraine means her son’s life was wasted to refer to it as a special military operation. Hundreds of thousands of casualties, occupying another country and you still not dare call it a war.
Steve
If you were worried that world sea surface temperatures might be returning to normal, you can stop worrying.
@de stijl:
Kathy’s First Law: Nothing lasts forever.
The parallel I see is WWI in the western front. Not in the kind of combat actions, but in that it’s become a war of attrition. If so, then it’s even more imperative for the US and Europe to keep Ukraine supplied, or to force a settlement to end the war.
One spark of hope lies in the end of WWI. Germany held lands in France and other countries, and was not invaded itself. Yet it lost at the conference table after the cease fire, because it could not sustain the fight any longer.
there are several major differences, though. For one thing, the Royal Navy had blockaded trade into German ports. Scarcity ruled, and starvation was a possibility. This is not even close to being the case in Russia, even if a blockade were feasible.
Wars of attrition are the worst. On the one hand, nothing seems to change much in the battlefield. On the other hand, a lot of people die every day.
From a piece at MSNBC dot com, written by Simon Rosenberg who correctly predicted the Red Dribble.
@steve:
A dead Putin (sudden heart attack, obviously) is a dead scape goat you can blame the massive fuck-up on. Disassociate your new regime from the old, degenerate one that started an “easy” war that they couldn’t win.
It’s soft coup 101.
Oscar nominated actor Tom Wilkinson has passed away. RIP.
@Bill Jempty:
I saw Wilkinson in several films. He was terrific.
Today’s adventures on the internet
I unsubscribe from an Amazon Kindle newsletter and what do I get? A confirmation email for my unsubscribe.
My NY Times promotion discount subscription was about to end and my cost go from $6 to $25 a month. So I try to unsubscribe and I’m told I am a bot. This happened for three straight days before I found a work around. I went from using Firefox to Microsoft Edge as my web browser. Then I could manage my subscription.
BTW by threatening to cancel, NYT offers me a discounted subscription. This time it is $4 a month. Hint to NYT subscribers- Threaten to cancel if you want to get a better rate. I have done just that 2 years in a row when my promotion discount subscription was about to end.
I subscribe to the NYT, WAPO, The Palm Beach Post, The Sun-Sentinel, The New Republic, Chess Life and The National Review. AARP and AAA send me magazines that I put in the recycle bins every month.
My next book is finished. I am just going to reread/fix it up before submitting it to my editor sometime next week. I go traditional publishing* next year. I sell books in bookstores, do book signings and maybe travel to Japan** to better research my unfinished Yakuza story.
*- I have 4 more books that are at least 50% finished. Now that I can concentrate on writing- health permitting- and not so much on all the duties (Taxes and upkeep of my S corp, Marketing my books, having to edit and proofread my own writings etc etc) that come with self-publishing, I could have a very productive year writing wise in 2014.
**- Because of first financial then health reasons, I haven’t traveled outside of Florida since 2007.
Broadway actor, dancer and choreographer Maurice Hines dies at 80
RIP
This is the best video I could find.
Cotton Club
Crazy Rhythm
1984
Yesterday Dr. T posted that Trump did break his oath and should be disqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment. Many pundits are caught up in saying Trump running and losing is the best outcome. Dr. T recognized that, given the EC, letting Trump run is a huge risk of the worst outcome.
NYT has a typical story this morning, Would Keeping Trump Off the Ballot Hurt or Help Democracy? It’s typical he-said-she-said, maybe it would help, maybe it wouldn’t. Except for the exact quotes you already know what it says. I’m not wasting a gift link on it. Everything I see talks about the effect on democracy, but there’s another bedrock principle at stake, the rule of law.
Trump got away with making a joke of the emoluments clause because, while they wrote it into the Constitution, the Founders neglected to create legislative mechanisms for enforcing it. And nobody since did because it never became an issue. The congress that wrote 14A also failed to establish a mechanism for enforcement.
The problem is we all know the Supremes will not remove Trump. (OK, there’s a very small chance Chuckles Koch and Leonard Leo will decide Trump is too much of a risk in the general and they’d rather back Haley. I’d bet they’ve got better private polling than anything I’ve seen.) Instead of agonizing over the nuances and imagined consequences, and providing the Supremes with excuses, centrist and liberal writers and pundits would do better to make it clear a plain vernacular reading of the Fourteenth says Trump MUST be disqualified and if the Supremes offer any weasel worded opinion otherwise they deserve the hit to their legitimacy.
@Mister Bluster:
Maurice and his brother Gregory: Great, great dancers and actors.
@CSK:..Great, great dancers and actors.
I’m glad that I saw Cotton Club on the big screen when it first came out.
The UK is undergoing a period of massive Bregrets.
Ah, if only someone had warned them.
@gVOR10:
Perhaps the Founders never intended for it to need to be enforced? It appears that they never intended for anyone not “one of their own” to ever hold office. In such a situation, a “gentlemen’s agreement” was probably considered adequate.
An even more seditious ETA: Is it possible that Trump would meet the Founders’ qualifications as “one of their own?” Scary thought.
@Mister Bluster: Love that movie. The Hines Brothers were both fantastic talents and class acts. Feels like a bygone era. Remembered and missed.
@Kathy:
WW1 was on the way to a negotiated settlement but the introduction of millions of US troops turned the tide against Germany, and the Germans knew they had nothing left between the front and Berlin. The French troops had been in partial mutiny, they had told their generals they would defend but no longer attack. The German morale was in similar straits with the addition of badly depleted resources..which was their barrier to staging anything like a meaningful attack.
Nukes make this a different game. There will be no marching on the capital of a country that has thousands of nukes and nothing to lose.
Pickering is our most experienced and distinguished diplomat. His comments at the outbreak are probably going to pan out. Barring a significant breakthrough by one side (which increasingly appears unlikely) the time for negotiations will come, and the US should position itself for that day.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
No, no, no, Trump would NEVER be one of them. A crude slob like that? An oaf and a boob? Never.
Apparently the Maine Secretary of State was “Swatted” and has received numerous threats since trump posted their contact info on his social media feed.
Which member of this forum could get away with schotastic terrorism like trump does every day?
At some point do we have a legal process or not? Does the law matter?
Trump needs to be imprisoned and silenced.
@Tony W:
I heartily agree with the sentiment, but unfortunately it would be impossible to prove that Trump ordered this, or that these people were acting at his direction.
Hey, it’s New Year’s Eve. I spaced that out all day. I had an invite to a house party, but graciously declined.
Age 20: This party is insane! Anything can happen. It’s awesome!
Age 60: This party is insane! Anything can happen. It’s terrifying!
I have no booze in the house. Mark that, there might be some vodka in the freezer. Last year, I had a six pack of beer available. I drank one and a half over the span of four hours. Chocolate stout, iirc. I party pretty hard, obviously.
If you are going out tonight, have a crap ton of fun and get home safe. I’ll probably be asleep by 10.
Old News
‘No Blame?’ ABC News finds 54 cases invoking ‘Trump’ in connection with violence, threats, alleged assaults.
@de stijl:..Hey, it’s New Year’s Eve.
What time zone are you in?
@Mister Bluster:
I was just about to ask the same thing.
@de stijl: Tomorrow, my friend!
Man, we’ve all had days around here the last few weeks where we forgot what day it is. I’m still not recovered from that one whole week I was off on my days. 😛
It is Sunday morning in Guam, “Where America’s Day Begins”.
I have it on good authority that the party never stops in Guam.
@de stijl:
Of course you don’t need booze darling, you’ve got a gas leak! Get out!
(Just teasing)
@Mister Bluster:
Aw, I screwed up. December has 31 days.
Anyway, it gives me tomorrow to go buy beer.
You know that little song they teach kids “30 Days Hath September” et cetera? I could never recall it. When you’re a kid ABCs are important. Simple addition. How many days in a given month isn’t really salient when you’re 4. Or when you’re retired, apparently. I often forget/am unaware of what day of the week it is. It is mostly is of no importance.
I rely on the knuckle mechanism for month lengths to this day. Knuckle means 31, trough means 30, except for February. I saw Dec 30 on my phone and made a bad assumption.
@CSK: You clearly imagine the Founders to have been Übermensch-types. I see a lot of rich cracker pseudo-gentleman farmers. Trump probably doesn’t have any beliefs that most colonial planters wouldn’t have had.
@de stijl: I have a bottle of rum in my cereal and cooking oil cabinet. I bought it in about July. I have a rum highball about once a month. Although these days, I’m drinking more than I have. Luddite and I have been having dinner at a local cigar bar on Wednesdays while Mrs. Luddite et al. go bowling, so I have a cider or raspberry ale with dinner/cigar.
@CSK: I agree. Trump was never accepted in New York which is why he never married an elite woman; eastern European immigrants are not elite. I think that sentiment is despicable (my Mother was an eastern European), but that’s the way it is. In my psychoanalysis of him this resentment plays large.
@Kathy:
A few months ago I read a piece on the ongoing mess that is post-Brexit Britain, and Nigel Farange, the preeminent advocate of Brexit, said, “Brexit has failed,” he added. “We’ve not delivered on Brexit and the Tories have let us down very, very badly.” But he didn’t think that Britain should have stayed in the EU, rather that the exit was handled poorly. Never mind that the OECD projects that the UK economy will continue to perform poorly relative to most other EU nations.
@Slugger:
Indeed. Trump was desperate to infiltrate the NY haut monde, and they scorned him. Same with the founding fathers.
@al Ameda:
The eternal lament. “Our crazy, cockamamie ideas did not fail. They were implemented badly and thus were failed.”
@CSK: It would be easy to prove that Trump makes threatening statements to judges, court staff, and jury members & their families though.
@Kathy: The UK is undergoing a period of massive Bregrets.
The U.K. government proudly announced that you can now buy beer at the pub in pints, one of the best things about Brexit, they say. The problem is that most people don’t know what a pint is.
How much is that in liters? Nobody knows.