Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, March 7, 2021
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62 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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Trump administration State Department appointee charged for his role in the Riot, was turned in by colleagues
In Georgia, Republicans Take Aim at Role of Black Churches in Elections
Voter suppression at its finest.
@sam: They’re Christian but not quite the right color of Christian.
Minari director Lee Isaac Chung: ‘My friends back in Arkansas are the audience I wanted to connect with’
Looks very interesting, I’m gonna have to find it.
@Teve: Michael Harriot is a must read.
Sinema and the minimum wage increase
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/541980-sinema-pushes-back-on-criticism-of-her-vote-against-15-minimum-wage-implying
@briantylercohen
While Trump was president, EVERY Democrat voted for the $2 trillion CARES Act, even though doing so helped Trump.
While Biden is president, ZERO Republicans voted for the $1.9 trillion American Relief Plan, because hurting Biden is more important than helping Americans.
“Do you ever notice, how all the scary internet conspiracy theorists – the radical QAnon people – when you actually see them on camera or in jail cells, as a lot of them now are, are maybe kind of confused with the wrong ideas, but they’re all kind of gentle people now waving American flags? They like this country.”
-Tucker Carlson.
Just got here from yesterday’s Forum (because once the tournaments started I was gone to a better place–smiley face). Was interested by the banter r/t “insurrection” v “coup” v “riot”. Have no personal opinion strong enough to matter but became curious: Is there an accepted ‘Oxford English Dictionary’ definition for these words? In the Intelligence field? Or Legal world? Just wond’rin’.
LA county may return beachfront land seized from Black family a century ago
Let’s see, give the land back or say your sorry and put up a plaque.
Decisions decisions… It’s so hard to know what’s the right thing to do.
@OzarkHillbilly:
The land was seized under eminent domain, which is, unfortunately, perfectly legal as long as the owners were paid a fair price. That would be the issue here. I had a childhood friend who lost her family home–a beautiful 150-year-old farmhouse–to eminent domain.
Of course eminent domain can be abused. We all know how Trump engaged in it to build his ghastly Atlantic City casinos.
@CSK: Yes, I read the article. Do you really think LA county paid a black family fair market price in 1924? Either way, it is a highly abusive practice quite often used for the sole benefit of private actors under the banner of “progress.”
They recently seized a bunch of land near us to put in a new transmission line for the sole purpose of reopening an old iron mine. That was 10 years ago and the only jobs it has produced are for mining consultants and geologic assayers. Pretty sure none of them were local folks, certainly not any of those who had their land taken.
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s why I emphasized “paid a fair price,” because clearly L.A. County didn’t. I’d love to see the family get what the land is worth–adjusted for inflation.
@OzarkHillbilly:
“they[QAnoners]’re all kind of gentle people now waving American flags”
This sort of sh!t, like the comment that the insurrectioners were just “aggressive tourists”, shows how far some people will contort themselves to avoid seeing the danger our country is in. If we just sweep under the rug people’s malicious intent to violently attack others for political reasons, we will lose the ability to peaceably make public policy.
So I guess Schumer invoked cloture on Garland and a couple others right after the big vote on the aid bill, after a bunch of R’s left and he temporarily had a quorum.
I will happily admit that I underestimated Schumer. 😉
The video clips are worth watching, Hickenlooper was downright giddy and laughing behind his mask!
https://www.balloon-juice.com/2021/03/06/breaking-senate-majority-leader-schumer-has-advanced-merrick-garlands-nomination-to-a-final-vote/
This sounds a hell of a lot more entertaining than Oprah Winfrey’s interview with the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk this evening:
http://www.berklee.edu/events/great-american-songbook-carole-king-the-50th-anniversary-of-tapestry-virtual-concert
It’s free on Youtube.
@Moosebreath: It’s not the flag they are waving, it’s their AK-47s and AR-15s, but I can see why tucker might be confused considering how the right likes to wrap themselves in the flag while worshiping their talismans.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Don’t forget the gallows they constructed outside the Capitol. “Gentle people” always build gallows, force their way into buildings, and rampage through them chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”
@Jax:
Remember that invoking cloture on nominations only requires 50 votes plus the Veep’s tie breaking vote
@CSK: And carry bear spray and stun guns in DC, because you never know when you might run into a bear.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, they’ll tell you they were only doing what Trump wanted them to do. Speaking of which, has any one of them ever commented on the fact that their brave leader, after promising to be with them at the Capitol, scuttled right back to the White House to watch them on tv?
This is a slightly modified version of comment I made on James Joyner’s post on Covid-19 and international trade.
The biggest impact from the pandemic on the travel and hotel industry from the pandemic is likely to be the decline of business travel. The Covid-19 lockdowns have made meeting via applications like Xoom and Skype have made communication with potential cusmunicating with potential and potential and actual clients possible without leaving your desk oeven your office. This is likely to be less willing to assume the cost of international and long distance travel.
@Doug Mataconis: Yeah, I forgot til after I posted it and started looking for the video clips. I’m just glad Tom Cotton got the rug pulled out from under him on trying to stall Garland’s nomination even further.
http://www.wkrg.com/top-stories/news-5-investigates-south-alabama-professors-on-leave-over-racially-insensitive-photos/
Nooses? They thought waving nooses around was okay? Are they imbeciles?
@Teve: I think this gets at a key thing that makes discussions of DEI so frequently difficult. What it means to have “representation” is so foreign to many members of the dominant cultural group – I’ve heard it described as like trying to explain the color red (or any color) to someone who has achromatopsia – that they can’t engage in a productive discussion about it. Moreover, this often leads to defensiveness and accusations that the other person is being a [insert any number of epithets that are frequently used in this context].
The “solution(s)” to this is not readily apparent. Travel can help, but that’s not particularly scalable or long-lasting. Other ideas?
@sam:
The Trump Cult formerly known as the Republican Party only supports church in politics when it is the right color church
Multiple outlets are reporting that Donald Trump is very angry with Jared Kushner over his election loss.
Two things here. The first is:
Is Trump admitting he lost the election? He must be if he’s blaming Kushner.
Second thing:
Why is Trump blaming Kushner?
@CSK:
Answering my own question:
Trump blamed Kushner for his election loss because Kushner ordered too much coronavirus testing. Trump didn’t want the testing done because it would reveal too many cases of the illness.
@CSK: I was gonna say it’s because shouldering the blame for his own failures is the responsible thing to do.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Has Trump ever taken the responsibility for anything?
“I don’t take responsibility at all for that,” he said on March 12, 2020 when queried about the lag in testing. Then he blamed that on…Barack Obama.
A friend quoted this to me a few years ago and since then I’ve kept it in mind whenever I’m tempted to be surprised by the actions of others.
—–
A Mexican restaurant in Texas kept its mask rule. People threatened to call ICE on the staff.
We’re being shown daily who the Republicans are, yet we’re not believing.
@Loviatar:
How do these same people feel about “Christian” bakers being “forced” to bake wedding cakes for gay couples? I presume the rights of businesses to make their own rules are sacrosanct then. Right?
There’s a fascinating Gordon Ramsay show where he goes into failing restaurants and tries to fix them. Different prices, different sourcing of ingredients, whatever’s wrong. It is stunning how stubborn people are about changing. This dude had a little bistro where he was serving food that was last popular in the 90s, ingredients were super explensize, he was losing $2 grand a week and his wife called in Ramsey and he was refusing to change because 20 years ago he got a Michelin star. Entrées were like 40 bucks and nobody was coming to the restaurant anymore. After an entire week of cajoling Ramsey finally got him to change the name of the restaurant, change the sourcing of the ingredients, and change the menu. And guess what the restaurant was suddenly in the black and the dining room was full and everything was going great. But he must’ve changed back as soon as Ramsey left because several people in the comments knew the story and said that the guy was so-and-so and declared bankruptcy six months after the episode aired and his wife left him. WTF.
@Teve:
Didn’t, or doesn’t, a guy named Robert Irvine have a similar show called Restaurant: Impossible, in which he hits some failing place and has 2 days and 10 grand to turn it around?
@CSK:
I am constantly reminded of a study some years ago that claimed conservatives understand liberals better than the reverse. They asked on a list of issues what the other side would support or pppose. Conservatives did better at predicting liberal responses. So yes, they kind of understand liberals better. But what it really showed is that conservatives don’t know from week to week what they support. How am I supposed to keep up?
@gVOR08:
I could be wrong, but this inconsistency that you astutely pointed out seems to have grown far greater since the advent of Trump. The man’s a weathervane. He has no convictions, no principles, no beliefs except in his own self-aggrandizement, so it makes it difficult for any of his followers to latch onto any kind of coherent “Trump doctrine.” There isn’t any. Recall that after the Parkland shooting, he wanted to grab all guns and ask questions later. Well, someone obviously talked him out of that, and quickly, because the right to keep and bear arms is vital to Trumpkins.
I sometimes wonder what would happen if Trump came out as pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQ. How would his fans rationalize that?
The point is, if you’re going to follow Trump, you have to be prepared to switch sides very, very frequently, or simply close your ears to Trump’s inconsistencies.
Barrasso don’t math too good-like.
@CSK: yeah. Haven’t seen that yet.
@Teve:
1) I doubt there’s much reality shown in “reality shows.”
2) “Happiness is doing it rotten your way.” Isaac Asimov.
@CSK:
And they don’t even know they do it. They’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
@gVOR08:
Well, I think that has to do with the fact that they’re infatuated with his ghastly personality. They identify with him. So ultimately what he says or does is immaterial.
It’s important also to bear in mind that anything Trump says or does that could offend them is immediately dismissed as fake news. I’m sure the more delicate souls among them believe the pussy-grabbing tape was faked, because Trump said it was–after apologizing for making it.
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour won’t hurt businesses. My company is proof.
We are just about a week away from the first anniversary of the day the world changed.
It started on 3/16/2020:
It was the sports world that gave us the first indication of what was to come. In a few short hours we saw the first cases in the NBA, I believe it was the Utah Jazz that saw a spike in among its players. This led to a swift response from the NBA to shut down, a move that led to the last few games of the season and the playoffs and finals in a bubble. The NHL ended up following the bubble plan. NCAA Conferences shut down all Conference Tournaments and March Madness.
Within days, businesses to do shutdowns of their own and Governors across the country put their states on shutdown status with some states issuing “Stay at :Home:” orders that applied to everyone who wasn’t considered an essential employee.
What a year it has been.
@Doug Mataconis: Sinema wants to say it’s sexism why she’s being singled out, but it’s because she was being a performative asshole.
If every Senator votes for every bill with a thumbs up por down and a curtesy, I will happily be corrected.
@Doug Mataconis:
It had a redemptive moment on Nov. 3rd.
@Kathy:
True
@Gustopher:
She seems to have adopted ths Thumbs Down thing from John McCain
Dems Need To Insult Their Base And Love Big Oil And Tell White People They’re Not Racist Even When They Are
The fine people at Wonkette are not happy with Matt Yglesias.
@Doug Mataconis: And the curtesy? Did she get that from John McCain too?
John McCain was also being a performative asshole when he did that, by the way. He could have stayed in Arizona, just blown off the vote, and the ObamaCare repeal would have failed. Instead, he decided the the best use of some of his last days on Earth were to fly across the country, personally tell his Republican colleagues to go fuck themselves, and then fly back.
It was all the more exciting because the only reason to fly across the country would be to vote yes, and because he was the deciding vote.
He fooled everyone by announcing he was flying out, and then gave a performance that was the equivalent to taking a shit on Donald Trump’s desk. And he knew it. And we all know he was grinning from ear to ear on his way back, letting calls from his angry colleagues go to voicemail.
Utterly spiteful. Brilliantly spiteful.
Sinema modeled her behavior after one of the great “fuck you” moments in politics, and doesn’t even get to be the deciding vote, or surprise anyone. It was utterly gratuitous.
She can’t be surprised when people react as if she said “fuck you.”
@Teve: Matt Yglesias is a bit of a professional troll. I like that about him.
I recall him saying something about “you’ll know when the Democrats actually start listening to the Latinx community when they stop calling them Latinx.” A pretty good line.
He’s not always right, he’s sometimes very wrong, but he does love a little Purity Pony punching. As do we all.
He’s like a rude, less-intelligent, non-earnest Ezra Klein. But I mean that in a good way!
@Gustopher:
It also generated one of the biggest myths surrounding his reputation, one which lives on even after his death–the notion that he singlehandedly ended ACA repeal. Incredibly, both Democrats and Republicans seem to believe this myth; the only thing they disagree on is whether it’s to McCain’s credit or blame.
Here’s what happened: McCain voted for the Senate’s first repeal bill, dubbed “repeal and replace.” But enough other Republicans voted against it that it didn’t pass. Then the Senate proposed another bill, dubbed “repeal without replace.” This one McCain voted against, but enough other Republicans voted against it that McCain’s vote didn’t affect the outcome on its own.
Finally, the Senate proposed a bill that was dubbed “skinny repeal.” This one consisted of nothing more than elimination of the individual mandate penalty and a few taxes. That was it; it didn’t touch the underlying structure of the ACA. Only Collins and Murkowski came out against this bill initially, and McCain was expected to vote for it–and that’s when he did his famous “thumbs-down” at the last moment, killing the repeal effort until a few months later when it was temporarily revived with Graham-Cassidy, which ended up never reaching the floor. However, the essence of skinny repeal–elimination of the mandate penalty–ended up passing later on, as part of the tax bill.
The spin surrounding skinny repeal was that it was simply a ploy to get to conference committee, where Republicans would then craft a new, more comprehensive repeal bill that could be accepted by both houses. It was this attempt to get around the regular procedures that was McCain’s primary objection to the bill. If McCain had supported the skinny-repeal bill and it had passed the Senate, there’s no guarantee the ploy would have succeeded at leading to a comprehensive repeal bill acceptable to both houses. It’s possible it would have, in which case McCain deserves some credit for stopping the process in its tracks, but there are a lot of reasons to believe the Republicans were just going in circles and any new version of comprehensive repeal would have suffered the same fate as the first two Senate bills (as well as Graham-Cassidy), dying on the Senate floor with or without McCain’s help.
So in short, McCain played a much more minimal role than is commonly believed in the failure of ACA repeal. It’s very possible that even if you took him out of the picture entirely, it would have had the exact same outcome.
@Mikey: Whenever I read Twitter handles, I wonder who “brianty lercohen” is about half the time. My guess is that I’m the only one. I sort and group strangely.
@JohnMcC: I was just about to say “wait, the guy on the Wendy’s commercial was saying the playoffs don’t start for another week,” but then I realized that I don’t have any channels that stream live sports and must be a week off.
@CSK: I would, too, but what we’re going to see is a plaque thanking the family for their “selfless contribution to the community.” It’s the *right choice* for a county in the throes of economic hardship caused by Covid-19. They just don’t have the ability to do anything else *right now*. (And, of course, later will be too late.)
@Teve: The story here goes that Gordon Ramsay came to Longview, WA to do the same type of thing for what had been a large hotel at the time that the city was platted. He came to the conclusion that there were no circumstances where the hotel could be turned into anything other than what it had become–a relatively large studio and 1 bedroom apartment complex.
@Doug Mataconis:
Most business travel is pointless. All can be accomplished without the face to face. A lot of business travel is strictly performative. I am here; face to face, is bullshit unless negotiator is ultimate decision maker.
80% is sales calls.
Covid re-oriented “service” away from schmoozing to actual service rather than glad- handing. Covid killed the schmooze travel culture that sales departments often settle into.
Zoom and equivalents work perfectly fine, are way cheaper, and actually allow service people to interact with and pass knowledge to the tech people.
Covid = disintermediation
@Doug Mataconis:
So cool to see your name here!
@Loviatar:
You have always struck me as a person more interested in payback and retribution rather than moving forward legislation that benefits all of us.
@Kylopod: Somehow, that makes the effort he took to spend some of his last days coming to Washington to give a big, personal “fuck you” even better.
Imagine how much hatred he had in his heart to do that for so little.
I suffer from few positive views about John McCain, but his showmanship and spite at the end was excellent. Also, he inspired this: https://youtu.be/MRmey2WvWnw (well, he and a variety of illegal drugs inspired that, I’m betting)
@Gustopher:
Did it have to be hatred? Even now as we’re discussing it, I always seem to be one of the few people aware of what actually happened. I followed it very closely at the time, and I’ve since been pretty astonished at how widespread the mythical version is. Isn’t that a testament to how powerful he was at his own brand-building? As you said, he was a showman, but unlike Trump’s showmanship, which everybody recognizes as showmanship, McCain’s masqueraded as authenticity, and the media fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. It’s something he did for years–it didn’t start with Trump. Country first, straight-talk express–those weren’t his attributes, they were his brands. Just like “drain the swamp” is Trump’s brand. The difference is that Trump only fooled the yokels, McCain fooled the bourgeoisie. The thumbs-down episode was a masterclass in achieving that effect.
P.S. My favorite McCain-related parody vid is still this.