Monday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Monday, June 12, 2023
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39 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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The folks at the hosting company “made a few changes in the Apache configuration” yesterday afternoon and all seems well with the site now.
@James Joyner: After the early AM mess, I only had a problem once in the afternoon and it was blessedly brief. Thanx for the update, James, and thanx for everything else.
The kids are alright: Young Montana residents bring climate change case to court for first time ever
And of course, being the good fossil fuel lackeys that they are, the state pulled some legal shenanigans to get it thrown out:
I’m sure they will try try again. In the meanwhile:
In addition to Montana and Hawaii, there are lawsuits pending in Florida, Utah, and Virginia.
Here’s one for Michael Reynolds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPqzWGdAe_U&pp=ygUNY29ycmlkb3IgY3Jldw%3D%3D
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ditto.
Silvio Berlusconi dead at 86
How can somebody see this and not be moved to do something about it?
https://www.massshootingtracker.site/data/?year=2023
Six US mass shootings – yesterday alone.
@Tony W: “Ah got mah guns!!! Come ‘n take ’em, Libtard!!!”
eta, and this was one of them:
Silvio Berlesconi has died.
@CSK: Well, at least one idiot strongman who thought he was above the law has died.
@Mu Yixiao:
Hah! Thanks.
Somebody can shut down Twitter because it isn’t going to get better than this tweet:
In fact, that’s so good, I needed to make it into a post.
Usually the rainy season starts in Mexico City by June, often late in May. It’s the only thing that makes the city bearable between late Spring and early Fall. Between clouds, wind, and rain, the temps go down to low 20s C.
This year, not so much.
There were some rainy days mid-May, but then they stopped. So temps are now climbing to the very high 20s C, which don’t go well with the 70% humidity and still air. It’s common to have a few hot days late in the Spring, but not a few hot weeks with Summer formally days away.
Trump’s arraignment may be delayed because he can’t find a Florida lawyer to represent him. He’ll still be arrested tomorrow, though, and will have to show up in court. 😀
Here’s another whoopsie ChatGPT has come up with fake legal decisions again.
(As the ArsTechnica peanut gallery keeps saying, let’s root for injuries on both sides here.)
@CSK:
Who wouldn’t want to represent a manifestly guilty client who will neither shut up nor pay his legal bills?
@Kathy:
I was promised that El Nino would cook us alive starting about now. I had to wear a jacket today and want to cry it’s so cold.
@grumpy realist:
I got an email from Thompson Reuters about their chat bot enhanced search feature Westlaw. I laughed for a good 10 minutes. That they sent this after the ABA sent a couple articles talking about potential disbarments because of ChatGPT is absolutely hilarious.
@Kathy:
1. Get paid, in full, up front;
2. Include in your retainer agreement specifically that you both understand that the lawyer can’t stop the client from running his mouth, that the client has been advised to keep his mouth shut, and waives any issues created by it.
3. That the attorney will immediately withdraw upon one or the both following: 1. any request to perform anything unethical, 2. failure to immediately pay an additional retainer, up front, earned immediately.
@Beth: Techdirt has a good article reporting on the earlier idiot-lawyers’-day-before-the-judge (where a lot of the questioning by the judge seems to be trying to determine exactly HOW stupid the two lawyers actually are. I mean–really.)
I’m just looking forwards to my next round of CLE dealing with AI and ChatGPT. It should be hilarious.
My daughter graduated this weekend from a large, racially and ethnically diverse public high school. Data set of one, I know, but here goes:
— Graduates were allowed to adorn their gowns with sashes and their caps with decorations, and about a third of the kids did, with all sorts of adornments including leis, kente cloths, flags of other countries, sparkles and glitter, etc.
—Cap and gown decorations had to be approved in advance, but they were basically just looking to prevent anything vulgar.
— My daughter’s cap decorations helped us to spot her in the large crowd, since graduates were allowed to march with their friends rather than in alphabetical order.
— The audience was instructed to cheer as loudly as they wanted for their student, but to stop soon enough for the next student’s name to be called. Across-the-board, people respected that instruction.
@CSK:
He should be appointed a public defender 🙂
@Monala:
You live in a rare island of sanity.
@Beth:
Be mindful of the difference between weather and climate.
Last Wednesday was hot all day. Around 6-6:30 pm, it got cloudy, and heavy rain and wind followed. If I went to the stairwell or the parking lot, it was rather cool. Going back inside in our floor, it was still hot.
I keep the heavy blinds almost all the way closed in my room, so little sunlight can come in and further warm the place. It still gets hot.
No, we don’t have A/C.
@Beth:
You think you can get 1) benito to sign such a thing or 2) stick to it?
@Kathy:
Lol, I know. I just want it to be hot. It’s supposed to be warm by now.
I bet every lawyer he hires from about a year ago until now has had him sign something substantially similar, especially the pay up front part. No lawyer with half a brain is not getting paid upfront. There are however, plenty of morons to chew up. I generally don’t have a problem with lawyers representing him, we’re mercenaries. I do find a special glee in when he manages to screw over one of his attorneys though. There are so many ways to protect yourself from a nutty client, they think they are smarter than him so they don’t.
As for the stick to it, no one should expect him to stick to any agreement, that’s simply there as an easy out so you don’t get stuck with him. Get paid up front, get out 2 steps before the whole thing goes south. Good attorneys do that.
@Beth:
You must be a good attorney.
@Beth:
I recall reading something a few years ago about how warmer temps mess up winds that contain cold polar air. I forget whether this cold air escapes south from the north pole all the time, or only during winter.
Last year, though, the rainy season was shorter than average, and we got less rain than expected. Partly that’s related with the number of hurricanes and tropical storms in the Gulf region, as that drives a lot of moisture inland.
@CSK:
Lol, I dunno about that . Thankfully I mostly do transactional real estate work so that tends to limit the scope of the crazy, most of the time. For litigation work I have started insisting on getting substantially paid up front. People want to fight to the death “on principle” tend to find their principles are wayyy to expensive after the 1st invoice. And it weeds out problem people and cases early. I’ll put up with tons of drama and insanity so long as I’m getting paid.
@Beth: My experience in IP has been a) nobody wants to pay for preliminary work, even if it will save the client a few office actions. B) individual clients don’t understand at all why their “best thing since sliced bread” invention is in fact i) already patented or ii) obvious. Oh, and NOBODY wants to be in charge of prior art searches.
@Mu Yixiao:
Whenever such a person dies, I always wonder: what took them so long?
@Monala: Congrats. Job well done. Me? I was just happy they graduated. (one was college material, the other wasn’t) Just happy they managed it.
Brief notes on the weekend’s experiments in the kitchen.
The kasha worked even better than I’d hoped mixed with the meatball stew. I just need to change two things: 1) no butter (it adds little overall), 2) I should try toasting the kasha before cooking it, or find a pre-toasted version. Otherwise it was perfect.
Next I’ve a question: what is supposed to be the consistency of Jell-O pudding? It’s been literally decades since I’d had any, but I recall it being a bit more solid than liquid. Not as solid as regular jello, but far more solid than Greek yogurt.
Maybe I need to whisk it more. I did the indicated 2 minutes by hand. At first it felt as liquid as milk, but it got thicker the longer I whisked. Or I could try the electric hand mixer. the other thing is I don’t recall when I added the peanut butter. That is, did I add it right away, or after allowing the pudding to set a while?
In any case, it was really good.
@Beth:
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahah! 😀
@Kathy: Adding an emulsifier, like peanut butter, will make the pudding thinner because even if it doesn’t seem like it should to you, the PB adds fluid content (in this case peanut oil as well as others). Even so, if you’re using instant pudding rather than cook on the stove type, the finished product will be much softer. On the plus side, the PB may keep it from separating longer. (My experience with instant pudding is that it’s a make today eat today product.)
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
It seems, like the cat, it’s always the peanut butter. Makes sense. Like the cat, the PB is not quite solid. 🙂
Long ago, I think the last time was in the mid-90s, at home we sometimes had a dessert made with pudding and vanilla cookies. First a bunch of cookies were soaked in still hot lemon lime jello, and placed at the bottom of a baking dish. On top went a layer of vanilla instant pudding (without PB). Next another layer of cookies soaked in jello. then a layer of chocolate pudding. and on top pulverized vanilla cookies.
It wasn’t solid like cake or pie, but solid enough you could easily cut a square, and ti would remain a square.
what I wound up with yesterday would not work in this recipe. I’d wound up with vanilla PB pudding and cookies paste.
It’s still delicious with the added peanut butter. So, either I’ll learn to eat it like melted ice cream, or figure out something else.
@Kathy: I use extra pudding/jello mix for my branding salads anytime I add extra ingredients to help them set up, and refrigerate right away.
Sorry to be a pain, but are there issues with the comments? I went to go add something to a different thread and things were missing? or locked? Or I’m an idiot.
@Beth:..issues…
I have recently read some commenters stating that it takes longer for pages to load. Tonight (Monday, June 12, 11pm cdt) is the first time I have had to wait for a page to load.
MacBook Air
macOS Sierra 10.12.6
Safari 12.1.2 (12607.3.10)
I don’t think you are an idiot.
Now I’m getting messages that the server is not responding.
I wonder if this comment will post.
@Beth:..issues…
Second attempt to reply to Beth. First reply wouldn’t post.
Page loading takes lnger than normal on my Safari.
On Chrome it times out and doesn’t load at all.
I wonder if this will post.
You are not an idiot.
Must be some sort of squirrel convention…