Tax Day Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Monday, April 15, 2024
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37 comments
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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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World’s top cosmologists convene to question conventional view of the universe
So, Rep. Nancy Mace has had massive turnover in her office, with former employees citing a toxic work environment, and according to this piece, “with former staffers expressing dissatisfaction with unrealistic expectations, long hours, and a focus on media appearances over legislating.”
One of her former staffers is running against her in the primary. None of this is surprising to me, she’s seemed like a hot mess since she was elected.
This (from the article) is a strange sentence to me: “This move is unprecedented as it’s rare for a former congressional aide to run against his or her old boss.”
So, is it “rare” (doesn’t happen often), or “unprecedented” (without previous instance)?
Not what I should be focusing on, I’m sure, but I find this sort of writing sloppy.
I’ll tell you what, 8 puppies is a LOT. They’ve fully got their feet under them, and beginning to develop their personalities. Momma dog has stopped feeding them except once in the morning, and she looks miserable when she does it. We’ve started feeding them soaked puppy chow and puppy milk replacer to make up the difference, but I really don’t think the little buggers are ever NOT hungry. 😉
@Jax: What are you going to do with all those dogs!?
@MarkedMan: Most of them are spoken for, they’re border collie/australian shepherds, out of very good working parents, so most of them are going to homes where they’ll be working cattle and/or sheep. They’re just too young to send off yet!
@Jax: If you have Netflix, you might enjoy Muster Dogs. It’s a very interesting show about Australian working dogs (Kelpies), that also happens to feature some absolutely adorable puppies.
We have a granddog in the house this week. Differing from our two 12+-year olds who like to graze on their food, her 4-year old self will eat any and all food within reach, which is making it a challenge to feed the older dogs.
Happy Trump Criminal Trial Day to all who celebrate.
Last one.
Q: How many Vorlons does it take to change a light bulb?
A: The light bulb has always been changed.
Bonus:
Sign seen at the Babylon 5 Vorlon Tourist Office: We have never been here.
Insurance finally caved on my car. I held the line–barely moved from my first counter-offer. Ended up getting more than my bottom line.
@Jen:
Yeah, that slipped by editing. At first, I thought an editor flagged it, and they didn’t add a clause to modify “unprecedented.” But it looks more like that was how they originally cast the sentence. Yuck.
Both my brother and I have kids in their mid-twenties who are more than happy to tell us how the Boomers* have f*cked everything up and how they are so different from us, yet they are making the exact same mistake as Jane Fonda et al did with Vietnam, i.e. believing that since the side the US is backing is doing very bad things, the other side must be heroic and deserve our support. That was a complete misunderstanding of the situation in SE Asia, and it is a complete misunderstanding of the ME today. Their attempts to justify Hamas’ or Iran’s actions based on “justice” just show their naivety.
*Although by most definitions I was on the tail end of the Boomers, my brother even more so, we were too late to get all the free love and stuff but do get all the blame now.
@MarkedMan:..too late to get all the free love and stuff…
Free Love™. HA! There was always a price to pay!
I was born in 1948. Thanks mom and dad!
Well, the piña colada ice cream was a fail.
Pineapple is a labor intensive fruit. It’s also BIG. So it takes too much effort to peel, core, and dice one, and you get a lot left over. Ergo I got some frozen pineapple bits.
Now, I’ve had good results with frozen berries, including strawberries, so I expected something similar. No luck. The bits had a hint of pineapple flavor, no more. It was all I had, so pureed them in the blender with some coconut milk. But the ice cream tastes more like nothing and coconut milk…
Next week I’ll do something simpler, perhaps coffee ice cream.
Preet Bahara had a guy on his podcast who said we shouldn’t be surprised if Trump Media stock starts rising again. The reason was interesting. Somewhere between 10-15% of the stock is shorted and so as those come due the people will have to buy shares to meet the short, which will create demand.
Multiple sources are reporting that RFK Jr. says that Trump asked him to be his V.P.
@CSK: Be still my beating heart.
The Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2024 observes (Chapter 3, Section 9) that ChatGPT has a fairly strong Democratic bias. They see this as a negative — Oh noes, it isn’t bothsides! I suspect it’s due to reality having a fairly strong Democratic bias which is captured in the model’s training. I mean, if you ask the model who won the 2020 election, it will say “Biden” and if you ask it whether the election was stolen, it will say “no”…
@CSK:
According to The Guardian, a Lardass PAC attacked Junior, and the latter claimed on Xitter he’s such a far less radical that Lardass’ sent people to ask him to be his running mate, to which Junior declined.
And there’s this:
I can believe it. If Junior spurned Lardass, the latter would treat him like an enemy. See Kelly, Mattis, et. al.
I had one of the absolute worst workdays ever today. I won’t bore you with the details, but I had to scramble to find $1,000 (give or take), and wait on several people to show up to sign some papers, all of which needed to be rushed to Puebla, 150 km away, RIGHT THE F**K NOW.
The worst part is there was no need for this. For one thing, the project manager should have sent the papers and money on Friday. For another, the department head knew since Saturday but waited until Monday morning to get things moving.
This effing job is hard and stressful enough already, without adding more hurry up stress at the last minute.
@Kathy:
Oh, absolutely.
Trump has to be in court so he’ll miss Barron’s high school graduation–which is next month.
Quelle tragedy.
Welp, NASDAQ:DJT closed at 26 and change today, an 18% drop. The company filed stuff to enable additional selling. It’s standard, really to do this. It enables Trump to sell after the lockout. And yet it spooked the market somehow.
Yes, there will be a bounce when people cover their shorts. Even a dead cat bounces if you drop it far enough.
I recall several kitchen appliances my parents acquired in the 70s, which wound up gathering dust in some closet. They worked, but the weren’t as convenient as they seemed. I recall most of all a deep fryer, an electric crepe pan, and a coffee maker.
Other appliances later did make themselves at home, and are used frequently, but are not as useful for many things as first advertised. Like the microwave. It works, but I think it was used 90% of the time to reheat food, and maybe 9.99% to make microwave popcorn.
That’s one reason I hesitated a long time before buying either an air fryer or a multi function pot, and wound up buying an integrated multi pot with air fryer functionality. Even then, I figured I might use it only a few times per year. Enough to be worth it, to be sure, but not an essential.
So it’s been a pleasant surprise that for the past six weeks or so, I’ve cooked all my entrees or sides in it. It’s one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.
@Jay L Gischer:
.
Not necessarily. If you shorted the stock at $50 and it goes down to $2 (what it’s actually worth, based on it’s cash on hand),, are you really going to worry it’s going up? No. People will still be shorting the stock at $2. This stock is going to zero unless it’s going to be profitable some day – which it won’t. It’s NEVER going to make a profit. There is no reason to cover your short at this, or any other point until it’s under $3. Some morons were buying this POS today at $27. They’re going to lose it all.
New York judge in the “hush money” show trial seeks to ensure Donald Trump’s re-election by denying Trump leave to attend his son’s graduation and seeking to tie Trump up by requiring he be in the courtroom until June when the trial is expected to reach it’s pre-ordained conclusion.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden seeks to stop Israel from defending its people from Biden funded Iranian attacks.
@Kathy: There are too many Juniors running around
You mean treating him the same as every other defendant in his courtroom. And you have a problem with thiiisssss, why?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAAAAHAAAAA…..
All humor is based on the ridiculousness of reality. You should take your act on the road. You might even get a nickel or 3 out of the crowd.
@EddieInCA:
That is usually true, works for most stocks, but not this one. In order to hold a short position, you need to borrow shares, and the supply of shares to borrow is so limited there is a huge carrying cost just to hold a short position. These shares need to decline rapidly or the shorts lose money on carrying costs.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Back in high school, “junior” was the slang for an entitled rich kid who liked to ostentatiously display their wealth.
@JKB:
Trump is a defendant in a criminal trial. NO defendant in a criminal trial EVER gets time off to attend a family occasion.
@CSK: If you can’t do the time don’t do the crime!!!!!
BACK THE BLUE!!
oh wait…
@CSK:
Defendants do not have to be in the courtroom except at verdict and sentencing. Trump needs to run this up to SCOTUS.
Defendants do have a constitutional right to be in the courtroom but it is their choice. This judge is openly corrupt.
@JKB: That’s new to me as every state I’ve lived in so far has required the defendant to be present for the trial. Then again all those people weren’t billionaires so maybe it’s just that two tier system that I keep hearing about that allows the rich to skip their trials?
Oh look New York law.
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CPL/340.50
Try again?
@OzarkHillbilly: Later reporting says Trump indeed is not being treated like any other defendant. The judge has apparently said he’ll consider time off for Trump’s kid’s graduation depending on how the trial schedule is going as that date approaches. Commentators don’t think any other defendant would get that consideration.
@gVOR10:
Trump now wants to stand beside the bench as the judge questions potential jurors, presumably so he can glower menacingly at them.
@JKB: In civil trials the defendant doesn’t need to be there, but must for criminal trials.
Whether or not that makes sense… it’s what we do, and Trump should not be treated special. Also, he should be sent to Rikers when he violates the gag order.