Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, March 10, 2024
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34 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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Old time Navy Guy (Officer) here and OMG, Gaza is getting a cheap ass port. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/10/us-military-ship-heads-to-gaza-to-build-temporary-humanitarian-aid-port Seriously, why not 5-10-15-20-25-30 years ago? This is WW II technology. And cough, Egypt ALSO borders Gaza.
Israel would have just bombed in in the past. We are hoping they will let it stand now to get in humanitarian supplies. Once the war is over it will go away.
Steve
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1766489577886261663
Easy watch with subtitles, fisking of Katie Britt Mexican border fable.
Also establishes what a complete total asshole Katie Britt is.
@charontwo:
Telling this story is part of Katie Britt’s shtick, she tells it over and over, and it’s a deeply dishonest story on so many levels, as the tweet I linked to shows.
https://wapo.st/4cbzyg4
Gift link to the clif notes version at the Post, 4 Pinnochios.
@charontwo: Here’s another:
eta a much shorter one
@charontwo: I saw a clip where Megyn Kelly was critiquing Britt’s performance, and the basic gist was that Britt was an awful actress. Kelly declined to comment on the content of anything Britt was saying.
That seems to be how the right is handling the debacle: depicting it purely as an optical disaster. Granted, that’s typically been the way the press has covered bad SOTU responses in the past, from Bobby Jindal’s Mr. Rogers-like intro to Michelle Bachmann’s not looking directly into the camera to Marco Rubio’s incessant water-drinking. But it’s also a convenient way to dodge accountability for the toxic lies contained in these pieces. Sarah Sanders last year was furthering lies about how Biden destroyed the secure border he inherited, but as she didn’t make any obvious errors of presentation, her response was comparatively better received than Britt’s.
Of course the media’s focus on optics over substance is nothing new, but it makes them particularly ill-prepared for a movement so steeped in lies, bigotry, and contempt for democracy, which need to be called out for more than just amateurishness.
It’s stories like this which make me confident that Biden is going to win easily….
Trump mocks Biden Stutter to Open Rally
Trump mocks Biden over stutter
Trump Mocks Biden’s Stutter (Yes, in 2024)
Polls show that most people haven’t been paying attention to the shit Trump has been saying and doing. As the Biden ads start rolling out, each of these outbursts by Trump will peel off a few indenpendents and moderates. But there is no bottom for the current GOP. There just isn’t.
@EddieInCA:
To that point, watching Fox “Media Buzz”, and what is their first story? Trumps big victory on Super Tuesday. So far, nothing on State of the Union, or the GOP response, which was, by far, the biggest story of the week. A very large segment of the country is going to be stunned when Biden wins easily. Is is reminding me of 2012, where the GOP was so certain Romney was not only going to win, but by alot. This time is having that feel to me.
Edit: Story #2 on “Media Buzz” is about the Supreme Court and it’s decision to keep Trump on the ballot. Still not even a word about the State of the Union. That’s direct evidence that the SOTU went so well for Biden that Fox has to keep it from it’s audience.
Edit #2 And story #3 is a debate about whether or not Trump and Biden will debate. Is Fox actually going to completely ignore the SOTU and the response?
@EddieInCA:
Final segment. Focusing on the narrative that he was a “Cranky Old Man”. Unbelievable.
Actually…
Totally believable.
“Trump Bond $81M”
snip
“Raw Story”
snip
@charontwo:
Gee golly gosh, given that Trump claims he’s worth 10 billion dollars, I don’t know why he doesn’t just pay off these chump change fines himself. What’s a half a billion to him?
@CSK:
So is Chubb fronting their own money, or are they being backed by one of their other clients – e.g., Russia?
@charontwo:
Trump seems to have called in a favor from Chubb. Maybe it’s their own money.
http://www.newrepublic.com/post/179692/idiot-backed-trump-bond-e-jean-carroll-trial-evan-greenberg
Really nice story about the drug that is successfully treating many people who have cystic fibrosis. It doesnt work for everyone but it does for a high percentage of people, giving some people a normal life expectancy. Really hit home for wife and I as she worked in the lab at Children’s Hosp. of Philadelphia, going on to become a researcher. In the 70s and 80s CF was a death sentence with constant hospitalizations and if you were lucky you lived into your teens. Now, if started early they expect people to haver fairly normal life expectancies.
Of note, the main character the story follows describes her early struggles before the drug became available. Among them she had to deal with her parents getting divorced. To this day I still remember the lecture where the pulmonary doc speaking put up an overhead (remember those?) showing that the divorce rate for the parents of kids with CF was 100%. It was so stressful going through the repeated hospitalizations knowing that your kid was going to die so young. Kids just shouldn’t die before their parents.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/04/cystic-fibrosis-trikafta-breakthrough-treatment/677471/
Steve
@EddieInCA:
I’m looking forward to a Biden PAC placing adds that show examples of trump’s creeping dementia. Confusing Haley and Pelosi, forgetting Melania’s name, the many times that he stops for several seconds, mid sentence because he’s lost his train of thought.
On another subject, could you reach out to me at jf*****@ya***.com, I’ve a question.
Some music for the weekend: All 9 of Beethoven’s symphonies.
@charontwo:
It gets worse.
I’ve been reading up on surety bonds lately. Its something I should have known, given we use them in business all the time (to guarantee contracts with government agencies, but also other things).
I had been told it works like insurance. It doesn’t.
If you total your car, your insurer will pay you for your loss. It may raise your premiums later, but that’s a different matter. If you take out a bond* to guarantee a contract, and it gets rescinded, the bond company will pay the government agency the agreed amount. But they will also try to get their money back from you, seeing as you were the party at fault.
So, we may likely find, later on, that Chubb has agreed to pay the Lardass bond, and not to seek redress from Lardass himself. Not just the Carroll bond, but also very likely the NY state bond as well.
Why? Well, can you imagine holding a half billion blackmail cudgel ove the creature sitting at the oval office?
Of course, if he loses the election….
*We can also guarantee contracts with a certified check, or by depositing the money to the government agency’s account. Of course, that means a lot of money tied up for a year or longer, even if it gets returned once the contract is completed.
BTW, I’ve seen some competitors use bonds from Chubb now and then. I’d no idea they were so big.
Senator Joe Biden responds to the 2024 State of the Union address.
Many more people are starting to feel Ronald Reagan’s
“I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic party left me”
@JKB:
Wait, wait, wait, you guys had all this time to come up with something, anything, and this? This is what the brain trust over there came up with? Ahahahahahabahababahah. Pathetic.
I should be ready to try out ice cream making in a few hours. Due to reasons, I’ll be able to make just one today. I’m torn between yogurt mocha and coconut lime. On the one hand, the former requires a pot to dissolve some chocolate tablets (don’t ask). On the other hand, the coconut lime requires a blender. Either way, more dishes to wash…
At least I’ve the ingredients for both.
The inevitable SNL sketch of the SOTU rebuttal.
@Beth:
To be fair, it’s hard to run a brain trust without brains.
@Kathy: Some people without brains do an awful lot of trusting.
@JKB: OMGG!!!!
The United StatesDelaware must have been a hell hole in those days. I’m soooooooooo relieved that I was living in Ellensburg instead ofthe United Statesthere at the time. Whew!@Beth: This, too. But I am glad that both Reagan and JKB were able to find a home for their Dixiecrat fantasies in the Republican Party post Strom Thurmand and George Wallace. And I feel their pain, because I, too, found myself feeling abandoned by the Republicans from Reagan on. Then I realize that I how sick a puppy I’d been during my conservative youth and stopped feeling abandoned.
Haven’t gotten over feeling disenfranchised, though. Maybe someday.
@Kathy: @Kathy: A Denver classical music station used to play all nine symphonies on New Year’s Eve, timing it so the final choral movement of the Ninth coincided with midnight. After the symphonies the station played Gregorian Chants until dawn.
Go with coconut lime, sheer ambrosia
@steve:
The Israeli government plan is to upgrade the temporary pier after they take possession of Gaza.
@steve: Good news. My cousin died from it. They thought my son had it. Thank dawg, not.
@Mt. Prosser:
Ambrosia is overrated.
I think I used too much liquid or the machine. It says 1.4 liters. So it was one liter coconut water, .33 liters coconut milk, and two limes. Either that adds up to more than I thought, or maybe I should have let it run longer.
It did make ice cream, or rather sherbet, but there was some liquid left over.
We’ll see next when I do the yogurt mocha. I’ll try to keep it under 1.2 liters just in case.
@Kathy: Damn… Shit out of luck again. 🙁
@Kathy: I can understand with that amount of coconut water it would come out like sherbet. There’s a gelato place here that makes a wonderful, creamy coconut lime. Unfortunately it’s hit or miss when it’s available.
@Richard Gardner:
A ship and a barge are on the way from Cypris.
Just like construction companies do on the coastal (no road) parts of Alaska, this barge could conceivably be grounded in 6-8 feet of water and ramps constructed off the nose. Stabilized there with anchors, and with more barges attached to the stern makes for pier. Not storm worthy, but neither will be the one the Navy is planning. Could be done pretty quickly.
@CSK:
I wouldn’t put much on that. Trump most definitely has enough real estate owed outright to place in hock with a bondsman for collateral to cover that amount. If Chubb underwrites the half billion pending in the other judgement it would be news though.
Trump claims the Oscars are “very unfair.”
I guess they must be rigged, too.
@CSK:
No, the Razzies are rigged.
Lardass is the worst everything, and he won nothing this year.