Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, November 20, 2021
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16 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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Do Manchin and Sinema save America by letting Build Back Better pass the Senate in tact, or will their corporate donors set us back decades?
Biden is starting to look like Truman. An underestimated, old school, good ole boy gladhandler and placeholder veep nobody ever thought would reach the presidency, unpopular and maligned in his day — and now considered one of our best president’s in retrospect.
Here’s to hoping the 2022 midterms are Biden’s own Dewey Defeats Truman moment.
OK, sounds good to me.
@OzarkHillbilly:
My father consumed one cup of coffee per day, the occasional piece of sugar-free dark chocolate, and, on the advice of his cardiologist, one glass of red wine with dinner. He lived to be well past 94.
@CSK: I drink a pot of coffee every day, 2 glasses of wine most evenings, and rarely eat chocolate. I’ll be dead this time tomorrow.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Step up the chocolate consumption and you may live to 104.
@CSK: Even when I was a kid I wasn’t all that fond of choclate.
Geico rhetorical questions compilation A laugh every 30 seconds.
Not having watched TV in a couple of decades or more, I hadn’t seen any of these spots. Too funny.
@OzarkHillbilly:
The drill sergeant/therapist reminds me of Michael Reynolds.
@CSK: He’s the same guy who played the DI in Full Metal Jacket and had in fact been a Marine DI at one time.
Let’s celebrate the fact that there is actually one American institution that is willing to stand up for human rights even if it means losing the Chinese audience. While the NBA buckled instantly as soon as China threatened to ban them from the country if a single player criticized anything about them, the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) is demanding that tennis star Peng Shuai be released from wherever she’s been hidden since accusing a former high-level official of sexual assault. And the men’s side — the ATP — has joined with them.
I don’t know what’s more amazing — that the tennis organization is willing to give up all that money to protect one of their own, or that no other team, movie studio, software company or corporation has had the guts to do the same.
The only thing they protect is the bottom line.
@wr:
The key is Women’s Tennis Assoc. The WTA has been at the forefront of human and civil rights for a long time.
There is more than enough reason for Biden to issue a US boycott of the 2022 winter olympics. Since Biden is being compared to Jimmy Carter, he should emulate Carter and create a just moment.
@OzarkHillbilly:..DI…
I can’t wait for the right time to call somebody jack wagon.
(Where’s Keef when you need him?)
@Mister Bluster: In his mother’s basement.
Coffee and Chocolate
(first world gripes)
It’s been 3 1/2 weeks now since the local Panerra has been Drive-Thru only, no inside dining. I could get my Dark Roast at the window and take it home and microwave it in the morning after it sits in the refrigerator all night. At least I would get some value out of my 30 day/$10.05 Coffee Club subscription. As it stands today I have only got 8 cups for my $10 this month which is well below the regular per cup price but is nowhere near the 30¢ a day/all you can drink deal I would enjoy if I could get inside.
Fortunately the Dunkin’ in town has solved their staffing woes. They are open till 7pm. They have a good internet connection and I have been able to enjoy their Holiday Blend medium roast at the senior discount price of $2 (tax included) along with a free chocolate donut compliments of my AARP card.
Dunkin’ is OK. It’s cheaper than Starbucks where they just raised the price of a cup of coffee to $2.74 “for the holidays” as I was told.
Years ago my daddy thought he was going to strike it rich with a donut franchise. Back when I was in grade school he pulled me out of class to ride from Rochester NY to Boston in our new 1960 Dodge Dart (a full size sedan at the time) so he could make a pitch to Dunkin’ Donut’s staff to buy a franchise. We took the time to visit Paul Revere’s house. I think that might have been a requirement as he told my teacher the trip to Boston would be educational for me.
He finally did get a donut franchise. An outfit called Baker’s Dozen Donuts which I can only assume was more in line with his budget. They had a few stores in the midwest. His was in Danville, Illinois his hometown where we had relocated.
Working at the donut shop was not an option for me. No pay other than all the day old donuts I could eat and oh yeah I did get a home to live in and 3 meals a day.
The most memorable time at the store came one evening in October of 1962. I was 14 when the news came over the radio that there were reports that missles were out of their silos at United States millitary bases and President Kennedy had ordered a Naval blockade of Russian ships headed towards Cuba.
I was old enough to know what that meant and also realize that there was absolutly nothing I could do about it.
I remember thinking: “Just have to wait and see what happens.”
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m with you on the coffee consumption (and Cracker can attest to the full-test mud I prefer). Dark chocolate absolutely (milk chocolate hasn’t tasted right since the third week of chemo). Hard liquor, butter, salt, carbs, etc., etc. (I’m the poster child for a BAD 1st world diet). Race you to the rainbow bridge, Ozark?