Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, May 15, 2021
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66 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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I offer this link as a rare example of good science journalism.
It-s about the research under one biologist, Michael Levin, who investigates the role of bioelectricity, including ion channels, in how cells communicate and how that gets other cells to perform or grow differently. It highlights the role this processes have in determining the development of zygote to fetus to newborn, how limbs or organs can be made to grow back, etc., with minimal speculation and no wild predictions of when we’ll be able to replace or regrow lost limbs or damaged organs.
Holy Shit!
In re yesterday’s post and thread on the GOP purge/civil war, keep two things in mind:
1) The Asshole d’Orange enjoyed the support of most of the GOP up until the election. Opposition, such as it was, began after he failed at reelection.
2) The actual sin against the leader came when many in the GOP denounced the Orange Turd for inciting an insurrection and damaging democracy with his Big Stupid Lie. Some came back in the fold, more did not support impeachment or removal. Those that did and then failed to kiss the Orange Asshole, are now enemies of the party, but to varying degrees. For example, Romney hasn’t been as vocal in attacking trump as Cheney was.
So the purge and or the civil war, if any, will begin to play out in the primaries next year. And more so in the 23-24 general election primaries. If the Tiny Orange Prick runs, I wouldn’t be surprised if others with a chance at the nomination simply allow him a clear field. Anyone who dares run against him will be mercilessly attacked not just by Tiny, but by every other spineless worm brave enough to hit at victims who cannot hit back.
If I live to be 100, and inflation never spends a whole quarter above 3% again, I’ll still be subjected to weekly ZOMG inflation! stories for the next 56 years.
China landed a rover on Mars.
That is an impressive feat, even if NASA is way ahead. Interesting note, China is only the second country to do this. The Soviets/Russians never managed this in several attempts. All failed in some way.
Japan is woefully behind in vaccination with the Olympics just over two months away
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/05/15/national/covid-vaccine-pace-state-of-emergency/
Rather bad news for Republicans: the right track/wrong track numbers are kind of amazing. At election time it was wrong by about 30 points. Right after 1/6 it was wrong by 50. Then, a sharp narrowing and it is now wrong track by just 7 points. Not since June of 2009 – 12 years ago, have we come close to this small a gap.
@Doug Mataconis: The NYTimes had an article giving a bit more insight into this and there are two deeply ingrained characteristics of Japanese society that are working against vaccination. The first is their deep and overarching notions of racial purity. I saw this when I was doing medical devices. Governmental policy is that the Japanese race is so different from other races that their equivalent of the FDA cannot accept clinical data that was not done specifically on ethnic Japanese. So the vaccines only got started on a second round of clinical trials targeted at the Japanese after getting approval in other major countries and getting production and delivery under way.
The second is a cultural belief that one must be trained in exactly the “proper” way to do anything, from flower arranging to serving tea to making sushi to sharpening a chisel, and this requires months or years of dedication and training. In this case, in the publics and governments eyes only doctors and nurses have the expertise to administer a shot. And while the government also recognizes that veterinarians are trained in injections and vaccinations, the public will not accept them to give a jab to a human.
@MarkedMan:
Yet they’re still determined to host the Olympics this summer.
There is a lot of talk about what the Republican Party “must” do, or how it will collapse. FWIW, in my opinion there are now only two possible outcomes over the next 5-10 years. This is based largely on the fact that the only way for a Republican candidate to be nominated for any significant office is through a primary. The Republican leadership has lost control of the party. This is illustrated by the Liz Cheney affair. Way too much attention is paid to her “noble” refusal to accept the big lie. I suspect her motivation has a lot more to do with the fact that she is deep within the traditional Party hierarchy, and she sees that hierarchy steadily losing power to people they despise and who have no respect. Bottom line, Trump IS the modern Republican Party, as are the Gaetz’s and the Taylor-Greene’s and the Jim Jordan’s.
The first path for the Party is to go the way of the California or the Oregon Republicans. They continue to drive away the sane people and attract more and more extremists, until they become a permanent and bitter minority, endlessly but ineffectively whining and moaning.
The second path is for them to turn the US into the Confederacy, into a giant Mississippi or Alabama, and rule by Jim Crow tactics. They sew dissension and hate and work behind the scenes to render the votes of people they can’t control irrelevant.
If it goes the first way, I’m not too worried. The Democrats contain enough factions to drive the friction and consensus building that democracy needs, and eventually it will probably split into two parties. If it goes the second way, well, there is a reason why Mississippi and Alabama continue to be little more than third world in their statistics for health and prosperity.
This is the guy who has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with the Justice Department investigating of Matt Gaetz.
It appears that Gaetz has some trouble ahead.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/matt-gaetz-joel-greenberg-plea-deal/2021/05/14/6e2b56e8-b42b-11eb-a980-a60af976ed44_story.html
Voter Fraud Exists!!:
“A Colorado man who was recently charged with murder in the disappearance of his wife a year ago has also been charged with voter fraud for voting for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election using his wife’s mail-in ballot, according to an affidavit.”
Somehow, I don’t think Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick plans to pay a reward in this case.
@MarkedMan:
And I bet they won’t even take data from Korea.
As to shots, subcutaneous injections are so easy, the average person with average dexterity can learn to do them safely in a matter of hours, most of which consist of practice. I know plenty of people who know how to give shots this way. I’d take a vaccine, or any other similar shot, from any of them, and from a veterinarian, too, any time.
@Kathy:
When I was in the USAF I attended a “combat lifesaver” course. This was basically advanced first aid, but we also learned how to administer IV saline solution to hold off the shock of blood loss. The first few sticks were done on an orange, then there was a fake practice “arm,” but the final test was on each other.
I went first with my randomly-selected partner and had no problem with getting the IV needle inserted and the drip going. However, when he went to stick the needle in my arm, he still had some iodine on his fingers from the sterilizing swab and it was sticky so he ended up swiveling the needle out the side of my vein. The subcutaneous bubble of blood rose in moments. Ugh.
All I could do was look at him and go, “why, dude?” We had a laugh about it, actually, what can you do? He didn’t mean to. I ended up with a huge bruise in the crook of my elbow.
@Doug Mataconis: Mr Greenberg was originally charged with 33 federal crimes. After the plea deal, there are only 6. As a lawyer, do you think the difference is any clue as to the seriousness of the charges that the prosecutors expect to bring against (ahem…) ‘other parties’? Or is that not a calculation that can be made?
@Mikey:
An IV is much harder. As you found out, it carries other potential consequences as well.
@CSK: It doesn’t surprise me that they’re still planning to hold the Olympics, even if nobody shows up. Projects in Japan are incredibly hard to derail even if there’s a bloody good reason for doing so. The deadline is everything….
One of my unspoken jobs as a gaijin running around the Japanese government/business sectors was to pipe up and act as the Holy Fool who tells the truth when a project was really becoming unnecessary/going off track. I could afford to “lose face” because I wasn’t anyone trapped by etiquette and custom within the networks.
@Kathy: Indeed. I guess what I was trying to say before I remembered how funny the whole thing ended up was that if a bunch of dopey 20-year-olds could get together and achieve at least 50% proficiency in administering an IV, training someone to give a COVID vaccination should be easy peasy, as you said.
@Kathy:
I haven’t read the link, but I will note that attempting to regrow lost limbs is exactly the origin story for one of Spider-Man’s villains, The Lizard.
@grumpy realist:
Did they listen to you?
@Kathy:
As MarkedMan pointed out, this has nothing to do with practical application. It’s entirely cultural. It’s almost impossible for someone who hasn’t dealt with them directly to understand just how weird the Japanese are.
What they consider “normal”, we would label as a significant fetish*. I can absolutely see them refusing vaccinations because the person giving it doesn’t have X years of experience in giving this specific type of injection.
=====
* If you’re courageous, look up “shibari”. It’s erotic bondage–where the rope is far more important than the woman being tied up.
@grumpy realist:
Holy Hells. That just might be my dream job (assuming that they’d actually listen to me). The only problem I see is that, regardless of me being willing to accept the massive loss of face for speaking up, someone else would have to lose face by actually cancelling the project. So… I’d have to have the (publicly presented) authority to actually cancel projects.
@MarkedMan:
I often argue in these threads that conservatism is more a matter of psychology than policy. Part of the psychology is that as a conservative I am one of the elect, a maker not a taker, one of those who should be ruling in this Republic-not-a-Democracy, one of the best people, not one of the mob. And Trump made that impossible.
Also, she probably thinks she can raise enough money from the Establishment to win her primary (how much money do you need to buy all the media available in WY?) and she’s opening up a non-Trump lane for 2024 rather than compete in the very crowded Trumpy lane.
@Mu Yixiao:
I get it.
It’s also a stupid, bigoted attitude that’s getting people killed.
But, at least, the Olympic flame will be lit by someone who trained in the proper arts for 35 years before even being allowed near to an actual flame. Won’t that be something for the COVID dead to brag about?
@grumpy realist: @MarkedMan: I know nothing about Japanese culture, but I have an impression that they recognize ethnic differences among themselves. I believe they still discriminate against the Ainu. Besides being desperate to believe they’re not ethnic Chinese, are there points of ethnic discrimination amongst themselves? No point to make, just curiosity.
Must read piece at LGM on the demographics of the 1/6 “tourists”. It summarizes the research of a Prof. Robert Pape who did a deep dive. (He says many of them believe the Great Replacement theory. I don’t know how he was able to get into their beliefs.) Paul Campos adds, “Pape doesn’t put it this way, but increasingly, it’s just Republicans.” And I would add that the “Beer Gut Putsch” characterization seems fair.
A technical aside – the Boulder supermarket shooter was described as using a semi-automatic pistol, although you or I would call it an assault rifle. Actually I’d call it a pretend assault rifle. A photo in the linked post shows, I believe, the Taylor Green person holding what I take to be a similar “pistol”. Legally the distinction is a matter of barrel length.
@Teve: Why should you get off? I’ve had to listen to inflation/debt/deficit/destroy the economy stories since I was about 14 or 15–both from the various media/talk radio outlets and my own family. My older brother was just warning me that “one day, the US is gonna default/China-Russia-the EU were gonna pull the US into default and the game will be over” last time I talked to him on the phone. (He has more wealth than I do, so he has way greater exposure. Maybe I’d worry in his shoes to. Or maybe I’d just by a classic car on a Bring-a-Trailer auction for a ridiculous amount of money and forget about it.)
@CSK: I think the amount of money they’ve needed the nation to invest without the payoff either in international prestige or hard cash is too big a risk for the politicians to bear. Do it next year? I dunno how that works, so I can’t say. My impression is that the event would just be cancelled (and Japan might not be better situated to host next year anyway).
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Do you know if they took a big financial hit from last summer’s cancellation?
Oh great! And now for something completely different: Israel blows up the Gaza offices of AP. […sigh…]
@CSK: I don’t follow the Olympics, even to watch them, only catch occasional articles. Last one that I read indicated that hosting an Olympics costs close to twice what it makes. They’re ALWAYS a financial hit.
Anyone who follows more closely than I do, please feel free to correct my data point.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Israel’s gone from the plucky underdog that punches above its weight, to the 800-lb gorilla who bullies the weakest people around.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: FWIW the IDF claims there was a Hamas intel operation in the building.
I am not convinced, but that’s what they’re saying.
I was just changing credit cards on my Patreon account and thought it was a good time to remind everyone (or at least everyone that hangs in this comments section) that James pays for this blog out of his own pocket. He has a Patreon account, though, and if you want to throw a few dollars a month into keeping it going, you can go to that link in the upper right hand corner.
@sam: FWK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Post by biologist PZ Myers:
links in the original
@Teve:
It’s just a compilation of remastered and remixed conspiracies from previous eras.
Also, this made me think of you.
If you can afford to give some money to @WCKitchen, please do. These people are amazeballs.
@Kurtz: lol “ i’m a part-time employee one week through a two week notice I DON’T GIVE A SHIT.”
I took way too much abuse in my poor retail career, but it led me to both a retail job where I am making bank, and a zen-like quality where a stranger can’t hurt me. And if you’re in retail, sometimes strangers will abuse you just to prove that they are superior white Trumper assholes and you are lesser than them.
Anyway, Tempur-pedic mattresses are not cheap and if you can sell them you can make All Teh Monies. I’m making approximately double what the median employee in this county makes.
@Teve: it was funny though, a decade ago, when I worked at Home Depot, elderly assholes would get pissed off and say “I’m never shopping at Home Depot again I’m going to Lowe’s!”, and my next job, at Lowe’s, I had elderly assholes saying “I’m not shopping at Lowe’s ever again I’m going to Home Depot!” Like, dude, Milwaukee, DeWalt, Porter-Cable, Bostitch…they’ve all got the same deals with both co-monopolies. Your Republican policies mean you’re not going to win.
It was funny though occasionally when I would encounter somebody who would say like “I need to cut this bathroom tile, how do I do it?”, and I would say “OK you can do it with this kind of tile nipper, or you can do it with this glass cutting circular tool, or you can do it with a wet saw,” and they would say “no I’m not gonna do any of that shit, you got anybody who knows what they’re doing?” and I got to experience the lovely freedom of saying “I’ll go get somebody who can help you.” and just walk away and avoid that part of the store for the next hour. 😀
“Every time you come here your order is messed up? Sounds like you’re making a mistake.”
@Teve: Yeah. It has never made any sense to me to wade through all of that crap just to see a handful of viral (no pun intended) pet videos and Tick Tocks.
Especially when you guys will curate them for me and post only the best ones here! 😉
@Teve: Thanks. I just sent that to a friend of mine who is all het up about Qanon.
@Teve: You’re soooooo lucky! I was the guy who always had to tell people “no.” (And on top of that, I was also the “designated blamee.” 🙁 )
Song recco:
Marching Bands of Manhattan by Death Cab For Cutie
It is inexorable. Your love is going to drown.
There are a lot of off-beat weirdo covers of this worth checking too.
A very cool back-to-back combo is Going Underground by The Jam and then follow up with Hate To Say I Told You So by The Hives.
Aesthetically and visually.
@de stijl: Yaaayyyyy! I’ve missed you. 😉 I had music for you, but I can only remember this one, right now. It reminded me of you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH9-iTpZVe0
@de stijl: gah! It’s so weird hearing Seattle sing about NYC. Deeply disconcerting. I got halfway through it and turned it off figuring I will try again when I’m a bit more prepared.
That was like Lou Reed singing a song namechecking Pike’s Place Market, the very stabby corner of Pike and 3rd, Columbia City Bakery and maybe people shooting up heroin with the Space Needle.
For some reason, I never got really into Death Cab, despite loving The Postal Service (and the weird covers the appear on the b-sides of the singles… the Shins doing “We Will Become Silhouettes” is amazing.) I think every iPod in Seattle had that Postal Service album on it when I moved out here.
@de stijl: And so I thought “I wonder what Death Cab has done lately?” And I found a cover of REM’s “Fall On Me” that just sounds … wrong. The exact wrong amount of different.
There was a band/collaboration called Cry, Cry, Cry that did a very pretty cover of “Fall On Me” that I quite love and which has been completely forgotten to the best of my knowledge. That is my return recommendation.
@Jax:
You know you are my bae, right?
You crack me up always.
@Gustopher:
Like Rancid singing about NYC on Olympia, WA.
They sorta get it, but don’t.
I only lived there for barely a year, but Armstrong is writing a tourist version of NYC.
Don’t get me wrong. I love that man, but he has blind spots. Like exes in The Revenants.
@Gustopher:
I love The Postal Service.
A supergroup that worked.
Golden Smog was similar in the same vein earlier.
@Gustopher:
I liked that. REM is not my normal jam, but Cry, Cry, Cry did a kick ass thing.
I am of the age that REM should be key, but it never clicked hard for me except for stray songs. Losing My Religion or Everybody Hurts. A band that should click but only in pieces for me.
A dude you should check out is Lloyd Cole. Jennifer She Said. Rattlesnakes. Dude kicks pop rock ass.
Jennifer She Said is a foundational foci of my being.
@de stijl:
Dude, I’ve missed you.
@Kurtz:
Back at ya.
I had a thought that nothing that we say here makes a whit of difference on anything. The nation will muddle on despite us.
You know what, big deal. If the ship is going down, I will provide cheeky quips and solid song reccos.
@de stijl:
Yeah. I suppose not much matters in that way. Muddle along. Maybe make a person or two think. I mean, erudition does not an influencer make. It probably hinders it.
@de stijl:
Jennifer Save Me by Golden Smog is great, no foolin’.
Kinda up @Jax alley / style: country inflected Americana.
A great song.
@de stijl: Lloyd Cole is fun so far.
I got into REM in high school, back around Life’s Rich Pageant and Document. Probably the first music I really liked that wasn’t something my brothers liked. So, I might think of them more fondly than I otherwise would. They’re no Deep Purple, but then again, they’re no Deep Purple.
My two brothers and I are quite split on the best era of Deep Purple, with one preferring the classic Mark II lineup, the other preferring the reunion era, and me preferring the weird slightly prog-rock Mark I lineup… “Why Didn’t Rosemary?” may not be a hit, but… actually there’s no but there, a song about how all the conflict in Rosemary’s Baby could have just been avoided if she took birth control was never going to be hit… wait, how are there 340,744 plays of it on Spotify? Who are those people? Why are those people?
Now I need to hunt through Spotify to find the songs I love that no one else does. Bob Neuwirth’s “Private Eye” has 2,406 plays. That seems about right.
I mean… yeah?
@Gustopher:
Made me shut up for a bit and back off. If our words are meaningless and unheard we are shouting into the void.
But sometimes I may want to speak anyway and fuck the void.
So I re-engaged.
@Gustopher:
This list made me laugh. That is a very stabby corner indeed. When you name-checked Columbia City Bakery, I immediately thought of Geraldine’s Counter. Loved that place. You spend much time in West Seattle? The Beveridge Place Pub was a favorite spot – beers, soccer, dogs, order-in from Lee’s or Maharaja….good times those.
@Mimai: Geraldine’s counter was one of my favorites. And a decade ago there was another great restaurant across the street… the Wellington? Some friends and I would have dinner there about once a month.
And Bob’s Quality Meats.
Columbia City is one of the best neighborhoods. Haven’t been there since the pandemic.
Never spent much time in West Seattle. Now that Il Corvo is closed, though, I guess I’ll go there to eat at it’s sister restaurant. (I took a job right near Il Corvo starting a week before covid — Il Corvo was the deciding factor.)
@Gustopher: Hot damn, you’re close to Salumi and Uwajimaya. And close enough to Tamarind Tree. And so many other great lunch spots. I’m jelly.
@Mimai: And the jail! We share a building with the public defenders office!
But we haven’t been in the office for a year.
Tamarind Tree is a big hike. It’s great. Used to go there all the time when I worked for our local bookstore, when they were in the PacMed building, before they were the everything store.
(One time the fine folks at Tamarind Tree messed up someone’s order, and gave them fake prawns rather than real prawns. We all discovered that their fake prawns are better than the real thing, and it became a regular thing)
(Another time, we ordered something that came with blood cubes, so we asked to have them sent to another table of bookstore workers… they claimed the blood cubes were delicious, but my immediate group was all too squeemish)
7 Star Lucky Pepper was right near Tamarind Tree, and had an amazing Cumin Beef.
But my favorites are Señor Moose in Ballard, and Szechuan First in Kent. (Szechuan First is not a Savings and Loan)