Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, May 8, 2022
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24 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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Happy Mothers Day, to all the OTB comment section moms!
It might go for as much as $35K(Canadian) at auction. That’s one hell of a grilled cheese sandwich.
the side effects from the AZ vaccine wore off around 10 am yesterday. By then it was too late to go to the store for groceries (too crowded), but I had planned on going Sunday to the office to finish some work.
Alas, I was too sleepy, so I took a mid-morning nap.
Oh, well. I woke up around noon. then watched some TV*, then had lunch at 2, then took another nap until 4 pm. By then it was too late to go to the office or the store (sure it was).
So, it’s almost 9 am and I’m at the office finishing some work, after having gone to the store. Next I have to cook (chicken milanesas on a bed of fettuccine with mushroom and garlic sauce). For the life of me, I can’t see how I’ll have time to finish season 1 of Star trek Prodigy.
BTW, the first ep, where there are robots and no one speaks the same language and there’s no Federation around, felt more like Star Wars than Star Trek to me.
It’s a bit of a long read, more than a little like something John le Carre would write, but well worth the time.
DEMS IN DISSARRAY! Oh wait…
Apparently Meghan McCain has a book out and blames Steve Schmidt for her father picking Sarah Palin. Schmidt says Palin was all Rick Davis’ responsibility. Davis of the consulting firm Davis-Manafort.
He’s been posting long Twitter threads,
Schmidt says of Meghan,
I do hope some day we seriously investigate the tie$ between the Republican Party and Russia.
@gVOR08:
Something I don’t get about Meghan McCain: Her husband, Ben Domenech, adores Trump. McCain loathes Trump. How do they co-exist in the same house, never mind zip code?
If the US is sanctioning companies and individuals involved in Russian propaganda, shouldn’t they go after Murdoch and News Corp.?
Re: primaries.
From WAPO, Maryland Gov. Hogan has been walking a line between his Catholic believe that abortion is wrong and his Republican believe that getting elected in a Blue state is good. Now he, like half the GOPs in the country, is considering a run for prez. The lege voted a small fund to train additional abortion providers. Hogan is withholding the money.
@CSK: Like Michael Corleone said, “It’s nothing personal – It’s strictly business.” Republicans are the true post-modern party. They believe everything and nothing, whatever furthers their careers. Plus Meghan doesn’t seem terribly bright.
From The Hill:
Two comments:
-First, this is the perfect example of the Conservative stereotype: someone who can only marshal empathy when the circumstances match their own.
– Second, if a fetus at the moment of conception is a “pre-born” human (something I consider airy-fairy nonsense) with a soul and feelings and fears, then abortion is murder, full stop. The fact that ol’ Nancy thinks she should be allowed to murder her own pre-born child because she feels sufficiently traumatized but everyone else is simply an immoral POC is a load of BS.
@MarkedMan:..Republican Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.)…
I read the Face the Nation transcript dated May 8, 2022. She did say that she was raped however she never said that she aborted her fetus. Apparently we are to assume that she did.
I also note that she did not answer the question: “Do you think President Trump is still the leader of your party?”
She does say: “And I think he’s been- been given bad advice.”
I guess Representative Mace is talking about Trump here as she refers to her primary opponent as “her”*.
*A quick check of Ballotpedia shows two female opponents to Representative Mace.
@Mister Bluster:
She’s right about that. Didn’t Benito brag in 2016 he doesn’t need advisors because he’s so smart? If so, he advises himself, and the logic is inexorable.
@MarkedMan: Also there’s the obvious implication that a woman has no agency over her own body until after she’s already been violated.
@MarkedMan:
Re your second point (and removing the individual politician in this case so as to flesh out the idea):
A pro-life (or anti-abortion or whatever term you prefer) politician might prefer a world of zero abortions. And as such, might prefer an absolutist policy/law. “No abortions. No exceptions.”
And might realize the impossibility of this (near term or ever) preference in the current world. And seeking to avoid making the perfect the enemy of the good, that politician might support a limited exception to the preferred “No abortion” policy/law. If that politician thought that such an exception would make the policy/law palatable enough to pass.
Of course, this would not achieve the desired preference of a zero-abortion world. It would however drastically reduce the number of abortions.
Insert requisite von Bismarck quote here.
@Mikey:
The white supremacists are against the overturning of Roe. They are quite open about maintaining that pregnant Black and Hispanic women should be encouraged to abort.
@Mimai: So, just the usual Republican lying. “We are only doing this for the health of the mother”, “We accept Roe as settled law”, “We don’t intend this ruling to endanger gay marriage”, etc etc etc.
Bottom line, never believe a word a Republican says.
@gVOR08: My sense is that the US Security establishment has a pretty good idea of what’s happening, but guys like Deripaska are good enough at “arms length” operations that there’s not much they can do about it. Not until Russia invaded Ukraine, that is.
@MarkedMan:
I don’t understand your response. Well, I understand the words and the sentiment, just not in the context of what I wrote.
A lot of people do truly believe that abortion is wrong. And that it should be eliminated. And if not eliminated, reduced in number.
And some of those “a lot of people” are politicians. And as politicians, they act in, um, politician-like ways in order to advance their preferences. And this behavior, in and of itself, doesn’t negate their original belief.
That is my perspective. You may have a different one. But I couldn’t tell from your response.
This is interesting: Mexico is rerouting a major rail link to avoid Texas
One is tempted to say “and so it begins.” But it really began a long time ago.
For those of us who hit a Dallas Morning News paywall try these links:
San Antonio Current
or
KXAS-TV NBC5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Despite being neighbors I wonder how many Texas Republicans think that New Mexico is not a part the United States.
@Mister Bluster: It’s weird. I ran into something that looked like a paywall, but I was able to read the article anyway.
@Jay L Gischer:..paywall…
Some sites give 1 or 2 0r 3 free items usually at the beginning of a month. I can never keep track of any of that. Seems like I get a message from some sites that I have used my free article limit when I know that I have not read anything from that site. Like the message I just got from the Dallas Morning News that I have reached my limit of 3 free articles this month. I am almost certain that I have not visited the Dallas Morning News site this month. However my memory is just about shot and I am easily confused.
Cracker, saw your recent post on the other topic. Glad you’re up and doing better!