Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, July 28, 2022
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35 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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Wokity woke woke wokity woke.
Maybe THAT will get a discussion started this morning…
@wr:
You trying to wake the whole neighbourhood?
@JohnSF: It’s that or actually do some work.
Bad news for all who expected the snarkiest, funniest airline rebranding: Spirit has rejected Frontier’s merger bid, and will likely agree to be consumed by JetBlue.
Trump says he intends to sue CNN and other media outlets for making false and defamatory statements about him.
@CSK: Seems like CNN and other media outlets can respond in kind.
@CSK: I would love that; discovery would not be his friend.
@Scott: @Barry:
According to the filing, Trump “subjectively” believes it’s true that he won the election.
@wr:
My daily dilemma.
@CSK:
@Barry:
First, until Benito files, it’s just bluster.
Second, who’d be stupid enough to represent him? There’ll be no massive award to take a cut off, and Cheetoman is notorious for not paying his bills.
Third, since the election si widely regarded as having been free and fair, Team Orange would have to prove there was fraud, and that CNN knew this and still published what they did.
It’s a lose-lose proposition.
@Kathy:
The RNC is paying all Trump’s legal bills. His team has filed a 282 page noticed of intent. They want CNN to retract all the statements about “The Big Lie.”
@CSK: Speaking of defamation suits:
Former Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann Loses Defamation Lawsuits Against CBS, ABC, NYT, and Others
@CSK:
Oh, ok.
But what else would they do with all that donor money, right?
So, it’s not a lose-lose proposition, but a lose-lose-lose one. Very efficient.
@Scott:
I suppose it’s hard to win a defamation case when the plaintiff has a Morden smirk in their best known picture.
@Kathy:
Well, the RNC has informed Trump that they’ll cut off the legal fee gravy train if he runs for president, so I guess he has to ride the train before it gets taken out of service.
Of course, that also means that they think he’s going to run.
Interesting that Trump would announce his intent to sue right after the RNC says it won’t foot his legal bills.
Oh, and Trump has asked the court for “absolute immunity” from any Jan. 6-related lawsuits.
@Kathy: This is a little dark given the age of young Mr. Sandmann. So consider it directed at his sponsors>
@Scott:
That was one of my favorite scenes on Babylon 5.
Later on in the story arc, we get to see Morden’s head as Vir wanted, and he does wave at his lifeless eyes.
Though he’s quite less cheerful when that happens.
@Scott:
@Kathy:
A line with a lot of applicability in the recent affairs of several nations.
@CSK:
The first thing I would do is file a sanctions motion directed solely at his attorneys. He might have a subjective believe, but his attorneys are not allowed to jettison objective reason. Nuke them and continue to nuke them. Any attorney who files this garbage needs to be beaten into submission by the profession. Please note, I say this as one hell of a mercenary attorney.
One of the reasons that so many of these chuds manage to stay in power is the support of the idiots underneath them. Make those morons pay. “Oh, hey, so I’m glad you spent all that money on schooling, and went to the best expensive law school, and spent all those long tedious hours at big law getting ground to dust and getting yelled at; you’re disbarred.”
@Scott: Everything about that case was bad. A misleading image of him on Twitter leads to a frenzy of progressive censure which then led to him becoming embraced by the right in a death grip bear hug. The school trip chaperones who didn’t have the common sense not to put a bunch of high school kids as spectators literally in the middle of a highly charged and rapidly escalating protest clash, with hundreds of people filming on their cell phones. I hope that kid can get away from it all someday and figure out who he is without a thousand shorty voices trying to do it for him.
@Kathy: What’s a “Morden Smirk”? Google was no help…
I think very few can wield a filet knife like a Never Trumper.
Mike Pence Sold His Soul for Nothing
@MarkedMan:
Morden was am unctuous bad guy in Babylon 5 who smirked most of the time. Even, I think a few minutes before he was executed. The smirk was highly irritating.
@Scott:
I was just going to post this. Thanks for saving me the trouble.
Good piece.
@Kathy:
Believe it or not, Trump’s lawyer for this lawsuit is named James M. Trusty
@Stormy Dragon:
Hmmm. One of the meanings of “trusty” is a prisoner who’s been given privileges in return for good behavior.
@Stormy Dragon:
Reality is absurd.
In the race to replace Boris Johnson polling indicates the campaign slogan that resonates most with the general public: “Come Swiftly, Sweet Meteor of Doom!”
Those being among crucial “swing” votes Tories must hold.
Among all groups polled net fav. figures are:
Starmer -18; Sunak -30; Truss -32; Johnson -45
Toast, I tell ‘ee, toast.
*snigger*
Trump’s excuse for hosting the Saudis at Bedminster is that “nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11.”
There’s a photo of him in the Daily News. He looks as if he’s gained another 30 pounds.
I think I may have come up with an answer to the question “When will the COVID pandemic be over?”
Never.
Someone I know how just got over it this Monday, invited me to a large family lunch this weekend. I declined. Today at the office, one of the mangers suggested a department party in September at his place. Fewer people are wearing masks in public places where masking isn’t enforced.
So, don’t worry if you’ve been missing out. COVID will have us to kick around for a long, long time. So long as new variants come up, we’ll never catch up fast enough through vaccination or even prior infection. We’ll always be vulnerable, and we’re eager to spread it.
Oh, it may go endemic and perform rolling outbreaks that never stop. It’s not seasonal, though it kind of hits harder in winter when its prey* spreads it more efficiently. But it’s always around.
The Johns Hopkins tracker states there have been 574.5 million cases total worldwide. We know this figure is inaccurate due to insufficient testing. It might be double that, or 1.5 times that. In any case, there’s plenty of tasty human ACE2 receptors to feast on yet.
*The species who everyday makes more of a mockery of the sapiens part of our name.
Saw this Illinois personalized License Plate yesterday here in Sleepytown:
DR WHY
Bernard Cribbins, beloved by all the the Doctor Who fandom as Wilf, (grandfather of Catherine Rate’s character Donna Noble) has died of being 93.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/28/arts/television/bernard-cribbins-dead.html
He is expected to appear in the 60th anniversary special for Doctor Who, as he was seen on location as they were filming.
@Beth:
And truth is always stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.
Here’s another obituary about Bernard Cribbins; this one from the Guardian.