Super Bowl Sunday Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, February 7, 2021
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60 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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A new forum? But I just posted stuff in the old forum! Now it will be ignored… well that’s what I get for nursing a scotch and tapping away on an iPad at 1am. Should have gone to bed.
ETA: And a working Edit button, that I swiped by accident? Crazy.
Today’s GQP in a nutshell.
Charles Pierce:
Inspirational quote/dialogue of the day:
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Carl Sagan in “Pale Blue Dot.”
Bonus: Photo of The Pale Blue Dot
http://www.cnn.com/2021/02/02/politics/brian-sicknick-charges/index.html
Apparently Officer Sicknick suffered no blunt force trauma, so he wasn’t clubbed by a fire extinguisher.
Sidney Blumenthal has a long-ish piece in today’s Guardian.
The martyrdom of Mike Pence
It concludes thusly, and I don’t feel posting the conclusion spoils the piece because we all knew how this would end. Everything Trump touches dies.
I’ve repeatedly predicted here that after Trump leaves office, there will be people claiming he’s still secretly president. As I said in November:
Voila!
@Kylopod:
Other Qs believe that Trump will be inaugurated on March 4 of this year.
@OzarkHillbilly:
My emphasis.
Trump has multiple motivations and typically tries for a trifecta:
1) Adulation and prestige because of the NPD, the narcissism
2) Violence as a spectator, especially if he stirred it up as a sadist with ASPD (Antisocial Personality Disorder, i.e. sociopathy).
3) Personal enrichment as you pointed out.
I.e., ¿Porqué no los tres?
Bear in mind he is also delusional with cognitive impairment.
After reading yesterday’s discussions on race and ethnicity, it was only appropriate that Turner Movie Classics would carry “Blazing Saddles” (1974) last night.
As an avid amateur ethnographer I have always interpreted Mel Brook’s portrayal of the Yiddish speaking Sioux as validation of teachings from the Church of Latter Day Saints.
@Owen:..it was only appropriate that Turner Movie Classics would carry “Blazing Saddles” (1974) last night…
Can’t forget The Producers (1967) which was first of a Mel Brooks double bill.
I don’t get to see a lot of TV other than games at Wild Wings and Chili’s.
I appreciate that TCM does not edit for language as far as I could tell.
There are some things about the good old days that were actually good.
This article really bummed me out.
It’s totally correct and has put things in great historical perspective, but it is still hugely saddening to see it stated so well.
The Unraveling of America: Anthropologist Wade Davis on how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era
My primary reason for reading OTB is the cancel culture practiced by James Joyner and Steven Taylor; their filtering of conservative thought by excluding the racist, misogynistic, homophobic members who currently make up the loudest part of their base.
Yet yesterday we had a whole post and comment section where James Joyner and commenters decried the fact that a 65 year old man (at the time in 2019) lost his job because he decided it was appropriate of over a 2 week span to repeatedly use the word ni&&er around high school students (67, 17, 18 years old).
James, commenters, please tell me, when is it ever appropriate for an adult to repeatedly use the word ni&&er around children? Who by the way, are not their children.
@Owen:
There’s a long tradition of Jewish performers using Yiddish as a stand-in for any foreign language (or at least those lesser-known to a Western audience). The Three Stooges used to do this, especially Larry (who I’ve long suspected grew up in a Yiddish-speaking home), as in this scene.
Sacha Baron Cohen does something similar, using Hebrew for his foreign characters such as Borat, and the Qaddafi clone from The Dictator.
@CSK:
This is so like Armageddon cults.
@Liberal Capitalist: Much like Mark Twain’s quote on how “reports of his death have been exaggerated”, this article makes a few stretches.
To focus on one I am familiar with, let’s look at the claim that “China has not been at war since the 1970s”. Although on different scales than U.S. military operations, China has been far from peacable.
I lived in Taiwan in the early 80s, and I can assure you that based on most definitions, a state of war existed between the Mainland and Taiwan during my time there, and continues to varying degrees to this day in-spite, or probably because of increased economic ties between the two. There have also been numerous border disputes between China and all of its neighbors over the last 50 years, although in fairness many would not be definable as “wars”.
Finally, there is the big differentiator. Unlike in the U.S. where the Armed Services swear allegiance to the Constitution, the Peoples Liberation Army is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party, not the nation of China specifically. The PLAs extensive use in imposing internal “harmony” is arguably warfare against the rest of the nation.
@Kylopod: It’s my understanding that is the case for Larry and all three Howard boys. I believe Curly Joe (Joe Derita) was a good Catholic boy from Philly.
@Owen:
All three Howard (nee Horowitz) boys and Larry, and Joe Besser (the first Curly Joe) were Jewish–but that doesn’t automatically mean they were all equally conversant in Yiddish. Larry seemed to use the language a lot more than the others.
@Kylopod:
As you no doubt know, presidents prior to FDR were inaugurated on March 4. But the reason for this “belief” is that according to QAnoners, there haven’t been any real U.S. presidents since 1871. So Donald Trump, when inaugurated on March 4, will become the 19th president of the U.S.
@CSK: Wait–so they’re saying Trump has not been a real president up to now, and will take office for the first time in March? And why 1871? Is this some kind of neo-Confederate denial of the legitimacy of Reconstruction?
@Kylopod:
No, I think they’re saying that Trump will resume his position as the 19th president.
As for 1871, the QAnoners are saying that the United States stopped being the United States during that year and became a corporation. It makes no sense, so I can’t explain it.
@Kylopod:
You have to be making that up. No one can believe that.
How does one secretly execute people in front of the White House?
Have the media and the public failed to notice these secret public executions? It’s not like the White House is in some obscure location, it’s a major tourist destination, and even though tourism is way down and you can’t get inside, people still go up the the gates to look.
Wouldn’t Joe Biden notice the dead bodies on his front lawn? I think I would notice dead bodies on my front lawn.
Did the Bidens, traitors to the core, get tricked into moving into a fake White House, and old senile Joe keeps getting lost because the floor plan is wrong or something?
Ok, it’s a bit fun to think about what would have to happen so this was possible.
David Copperfield once made the Statue of Liberty disappear (was he a Republican? I really want him to be a Republican given that detail), so I guess we can hide the visuals with mirrors or something. Ok, I just read up on that and he put up a giant sheet, then moved the stage block the view and dropped the sheet — moving the front gates isn’t going to happen. But let’s assume there are a few spots on the front yard where sight lines are blocked.
There’s the issue of sound. People are going to have to be gagged, and then executed silently. That’s doable. Either a firing squad with silencers, Jewish space lasers, or just slit their throats or hang them or a guillotine.
Ok, totally plausible. Everyone in the Biden administration has to be in on it, if they ever visit the White House, but I’m pretty sure that Pete Buttigieg was a crisis actor anyway.
@Kylopod: I am making an assumption about Bensonhurst natives based on my experience with folks who were born much later than any of the Three Stooges, but based on that experience I am willing to go out on a limb and state the Howard boys were proficient in Yiddish.
There have also been anecdotes that Larry had difficulty remembering lines (well before his stroke in later life), Yiddish quips may have been a way for him to get through that, Oy gevalt!
Oh ye of little faith, ask and you shall receive: Diehard QAnon followers think Trump is secretly still president and carrying out executions at White House
Never underestimate the power of stupid.
@Gustopher:
You’red missing a crucial element here: Joe Biden is really Trump. Trump had Biden’s face transplanted onto his.
No, I’m not joking. QAnon has proposed this.
@CSK: Stealing from the Game of Thrones to feed their fantasies. Figures.
@OzarkHillbilly:
QAnoners seem to be heavily invested in face-removal fantasies. They claim there’s a video of Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin removing the faces of children and wearing them as masks while drinking the children’s blood, or eating them.
@OzarkHillbilly: Why Game of Thrones? There are earlier works with that idea (e.g. Face/Off).
@Kylopod: Because GoT is the most recent and therefor the only one I can specifically remember?
The interesting thing is that, as far as I know, Q himself/herself/itself hasn’t been heard from since December. So his/her/its remaining followers have been pretty much left to their own devices.
Q deep dive:
Paywalled I suppose,
https://newrepublic.com/article/161103/qanon-cultification-american-right
From my link above:
@Gustopher: The Deep Staters are executed in the dark of night and their bodies are spirited away before dawn. The only reason Biden knows is because he’s been getting VHS tapes of the executions with his daily briefing–ala Riverdale from last season (mysteriously left on his door step, I would add).
You can read other excerpts from that TNR piece on QAnon here:
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2021/02/sunday-long-read-how-america-went-q-q.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ZVTS+%28Zandar+Versus+The+Stupid%29
@charon:
I got a “first of 3 free articles” notification, so I was able to read the whole piece.
@CSK:..“first of 3 free articles” notification…
My notice read “last free article”.
I have no idea what the first two were or when I read them.
Of course if this was before last week or yesterday or maybe five minutes ago (take your pick) it’s a good bet I have totally forgotten.
Sigh. We definitely need a better grade of humans. This 1.2 version seems awfully buggy.
WHEE, Edit button worked. Interview posted by BBC News on 1/30/2021.
As usual, my Google-fu is weak, and I can’t get the link to post. I’ll rely on the better angels at OTB (or Smurfs, as the case may be), to look this one up at BBC.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
No, no, no, no, no. It’s not really Biden in the White House. It’s Trump with Biden’s face.
How many times to I have to say this? Sheesh.
@flat earth luddite: Ask and ye shall receive:
The child environmentalist receiving death threats in Colombia.
I live to serve.
@Loviatar:
Cancel culture? I had to go back and re-read yesterday’s posting (and responses) in their entirety. Haven’t really noticed “cancel culture” applied by either of them. Still don’t see it. Apparently YMMV.
Personally, I like hearing from conservative perspectives that don’t assume I’m a bible-burning face eating anti-capitalist pedophile* because Liberal? Again, YMMV.
Yes, they both have blind spots, as do we all. IMO, they lean towards a more conservative or civilized world view than I do. Again IMO they never deny or backpedal that.
I find it enjoyable to read a conservative point of view that doesn’t scream at me that I’m a despicable idiot pedophile because I’m more liberal than they. They give me a forum to learn someone else’s opinions and viewpoints. I appreciate that.
*although my daughter (then 12-13) once informed me that my proper name/job title was EvilDemonSpawnofSatan™. She was enraged when I laughed and awarded style points.
Finally, should the subject of yesterday’s column have been fired? Probably not, (again IMO), because his colleagues, peers and students didn’t ask for that.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Grazzi, Signore.
66 years old tomorrow. Officially 7 years past expiration date on the milk carton.
@CSK:
This I had heard of, and if it gets us a decent split of the crazy vote in 2022, I’m all for it. Unified crazies in control of a major political party is bad. But it’s got to be more than the face, unless Trump was wearing a fat suit for years. I’m betting it’s a mind swap ray.
I just feel sorry for poor befuddled Joe Biden in Trump’s body who is going to be standing trial during his impeachment next week.
@Gustopher:
I know. The face-swap proponents haven’t yet. to my knowledge, accounted for the troublesome fact that Trump is still fat and Biden isn’t.
@Mister Bluster:
Here is how you deal with that. Search for “CCleaner” online.
It was formerly known as “Crap Cleaner”, because that is what it does.
Be careful! Before running it, take a look at the cookies that it shows you. Decide which one you want to save (teh pages that you usually intentionally visit. The rest will be wiped out.
What this will accomplish: Besides getting rid of a lot of unnecessary crap in Windows, one it removes the cookies of things behind paywalls, you get to visit again. Works for most but not all sites.
@Liberal Capitalist:..Cleaner…
Thanks for the tip. I have a Mac and have already found an item CCleaner for Mac that I will check out after Brady and Gronk teach Kansas City how to play football.
@flat earth luddite:
You and I are mostly on the same page, obviously I have to be a little clearer in my writing.
—-
Do you notice there’s none of the racist, misogynistic, homophobic comments on this site? You know the kind you’ll see on most conservative sites that allow comments. Why you may ask, James and Steven are very aggressive in moderating it out of the site. In other words, they “cancel” those who won’t abide by their site policies.
—–
As I said, that’s why I come to this site, I get the conservative message of the day, without the usual side-order of racism, sexism and homophobia.
—–
Then, please answer my question; when is it ever appropriate for an adult to repeatedly use the word ni&&er around children? Who by the way, are not their f’ing children.
@Loviatar:
Thanks for your clarification. I misunderstood the thrust of your comment. Sounds like we’re at least in the same magazine, if not the exact same page.
I missed the original brouhaha. My understanding was that he was repeating comment from a student asking if it was ok. If that’s what happened, it’s a teaching moment; if not, it certainly was not ok.
@Loviatar: On the previous thread, I brought up the “use/mention” distinction. I am aware of a number of people who make that distinction, even with the word in question. Some of those people are, in fact, African-Americans, who don’t take offense at the mention of the word, as opposed to the use of it. It seems that you are not willing to make that distinction, though, as is your right.
As to children, we are speaking of 16/17 year olds. They have heard all the bad words before. My impression was not that he was encouraging use of the word, quite the opposite. But that’s only an impression, as the piece was quite vague. Maybe that’s still a problem for you, but it also makes it different to me.
@Mister Bluster:
I find it hard to pay much attention when I don’t like the teams who are playing*. But from what I’ve seen, the KC defense seems to be playing for the Bucs.
*true story: I did not see the infamous Atlanta vs New England Super Bowl. I tuned in at halftime to see Lady Gaga, and then I switched to something else. that was one game I wanted both teams to lose. Since that can’t happen, there was no point in watching.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
You know what got to me reading yesterday’s post and comments; the blase attitude everyone had about this adult repeatedly using language like that around children.
@Kathy:..I wanted both teams to lose.
Since I am a Cub fan those are my sentiments when the New York Mets play the Saint Louis Cardinals.
As for Super Bowl LI. The Patriots lost the first 3 quarters and the Falcons lost their religion in the 4th quarter and OT.
@Mister Bluster: I have been using Onyx for years on my mother’s Mac (my wife and I PC) with no issues.
Being pragmatic, I cracked open the bottle of “Widow Jane” whiskey aged 10 years that my wife gave me for Christmas at the beginning of the 4th Quarter to celebrate the Bucs win.
I would love to hear the dialogue between Brady and Mathieu during the last minute of the first half, Tom clearly got into Tyrann Mathieu’s head.
@Owen:..Onyx…
Thanks for the tip. I’ll check it out too.
@CSK: I hadn’t heard that until today–and apparently didn’t read your comment until after I posted my speculation. My bad. 🙁
@Mister Bluster: Wow! That was the most pathetic Super Bowl game I’ve seen in I can’t remember how long. (It also happens to be the only Super Bowl game I’ve watched all of in also I can’t remember how long, but if this game was typical, I haven’t been missing anything. [And the commercials were just as pathetic. 🙁 ]) Yeccchhhh!
@Kathy: Today’s was the first halftime show I’ve ever watched (I was at a friend’s house for his birthday celebration). I think the last time I saw a Super Bowl, they were still going to the comment guys at the studio at halftime for highlights. I’ve never heard that performer before. He was okay.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:..pathetic Super Bowl game…
Definitely not the contest that I expected. I was rooting for Brady as he was the “old man” on the field. I don’t usually enjoy one sided games unless my team is the one pummeling the opponent.
Like Super Bowl XX between Da Bears and the Patriots in 1985. Chicago crushed New England 46-10 to my delight. Didn’t pay much attention to the commercials and missed all of the half time show as there was a Law and Order Marathon running on another channel and I kept switching back and forth as the game got less competitive. Did catch my heroes Bevis and Butthead “she said crack” in passing. I have no idea what the ad was for. Recent 1/2 time shows of note that I remember are Madonna, Lady Gaga in an Egg and Bruno Mars with The Red Hot Chili Peppers.