Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, December 28, 2023
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43 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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Tom Smothers has passed at 86. RIP, and no, mom liked you best.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tom-smothers-half-famed-comedy-music-duo-smothers-brothers-dead-86-rcna131330
@Flat Earth Luddite: I was talking to my Mallorcan born wife about Tommy last night and even tho she didn’t get here until well after the show was cancelled, she knew of him.
This is real. It’s not a parody.
Today in “An armed society is a polite society.”
@MarkedMan:
She left out “some”.
Governor Haley presents a good opportunity to go over why her State, South Carolina, seceded from the union, in their own words as presented in their declaration of secession. In the first sentence, they make it clear its about slavery:
Next follows a whole lot of legalistic mumbo jumbo about why seceding is legal in their eyes. Then, with that out of the way, they get right back to slavery.
Some more whining, then
Bottom line, the whole document consists of two things: explaining why South Carolina has the right to secede, and stating and restating that the reason is because they want to protect the enslavement of people. There are no other reasons given in the document for secession.
In Nikki Haley’s State of South Carolina the only reason given for succession was slavery. Full stop.
@MarkedMan: The entire exchange is unsurprising. When I lived in Missouri, I dated a guy who was insistent that the Civil War was fought over “states’ rights,” to which I always added, “yeah, the belief that a state’s rights extended to owning people.” The relationship didn’t last long. The “war of Northern aggression” crowd doesn’t do historical accuracy.
Today in “I never thought the Leopards would eat my face” news:
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
@MarkedMan:
@Jen:
You believe the evidence over their delusions? Isn’t that patently un-American?
On other things, look for Swifties to start a GoFundMe soon.
@Kathy: Spain will seize it as partial payment towards her back taxes.
The Guardian has a story today about immigration, mostly the politics for Biden of immigration. For me the highlight of the story is the top picture. Migrants streaming through a hole in Trump’s wall.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I can’t recall a single incident in my 60 some years on this planet, which would have had a better outcome if I had had a gun.
Colorado dipsh!t Lauren Boebert has decided to switch House districts for a better chance of winning.
@OzarkHillbilly:
She doesn’t own it.
@Kathy: I know. It was a joke.
@Chip Daniels: Gun nuts believe absolutely that having a gun makes them safer, despite the real life overwhelming odds that if used it will be against someone they know, with the most likely by far being themselves. We just had a teacher here who bought a gun to school in violation of policy because of “danger”. She claims she didn’t mean to bring it inside, which I guess means she usually leaves it in the glove compartment or under the seat, i.e. “Criminal 7-11 for Guns”. She then dropped the bag it was in without realizing it. Fortunately it was found by a janitor and not a 6 year old.
More and more I’m convinced that owning a gun just makes you stupider.
@MarkedMan: I wonder if Ms. Haley thinks the right side won?
@MarkedMan: I just noted that and wrote post, in fact.
Sigh.
I had a sleep study done in October
I had a sleep study done in November where I was fitted for a mask.
After that I should have gotten a cpap machine
That hasn’t happened.
I have a 3:15 appointment today with the pulmonologist who supposedly wants me to undergo a 3rd sleep study.
Right now I don’t feel like going. Why the hell do I need to go through this again and then see him again…blah…blah…blah
@Bill Jempty: This is so bizarre–what is the holdup? Has anyone explained the need for a THIRD study? The health care system is so strange.
@Bill Jempty: I wonder if they are milking your insurance?
Yesterday, Tom Smothers; today, Gaston Glock. RIP.
Once this Ukraine Special Military Operation is concluded, we should think about a program that would send competent Western carpenters to Russia. They’re having a lot of problems with window installation.
@Michael Reynolds:
Asked the question “does a fall from a 3rd story window usually result in death,” ChatBingAI provided the following answer:
The answer expands into questions involving results dependent on what kind of surface upon which one falls, but the overall is that 3 stories seems to not be high enough in general. Make of this what you will; it is an answer from an AI program, after all.
@OzarkHillbilly: Obligatory “it’s Flori-DUH” comment.
God help Baltimore, I just saw this in our local paper:
Let me answer that: No. No it can’t. And blowing money on a company that is either run by deluded libertarians or just outright con artists isn’t going to change that. Nothing in the article points to anything that would be done by blockchain that couldn’t be done by a traditional database. And all the positive benefits come from a supposed future in which this blockchain repository is deemed by the courts as having as much validity as traditional records, a rather huge ask. As stated in the article itself: ““Blockchain is the first step,” El Husseini said. “The second step … is making the ability and the purpose of the blockchain to be useful.””
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was in a hurry.
So, (way) too late: Taylor doesn’t owe money to the Spanish tax authorities.
Better?
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I think falling from a window is more likely to be fatal if a KGB agent shoots you in the head after you hit the pavement.
@Michael Reynolds: Defenestrators gonna defenestrate.
@Michael Reynolds:
In my experience, downward shot into body/pavement= bad idea. No way to know where the richochet is gonna go. (Better if the body’s on dirt/loam. Easier to make sure his hands are tied behind his back before you run him out the window at a high rate of speed. However, as always, ymmv.
@Kathy: Ah, got it. You know it’s not funny when you have to explain a joke. 😉
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Third floor is not a precise measurement. The house I grew up in had low ceilings, and therefore shorter floors. the apartment I live in now has higher ceilings and taller floors. I guesstimate if you placed both at ground level side by side, the top of the house’s second floor would reach about halfway to the building’s second floor.
So the question is how high this particular third floor was.
That aside, there’s the matter of what struck the ground first, and at what angle.
@Michael Reynolds:
Or even before you fall.
Of course, given the stated “heart problems” I suspect he was shot somewhat lower.
@DrDaveT:
A bullet wound is hard to miss or cover up.
So how’s this? NKVD agent poisons victim, then throws them a bit later out the window from a third floor height. Evidently the fall killed them, and there’s no reason to look for poison.
@Michael Reynolds: Why not before? The force of impact of the bullet should be sufficient to propel you through the window. (Maybe even if it’s still closed, if it’s a big enough gun.)
@Kathy: And there’s always the case of a British-style manor house–where the third floor is actually the fourth (because the “ground floor” is not given an ordinal number).
ETA: “A bullet wound is hard to miss or cover up.”
Doesn’t that depend on what one is looking (or, in some cases, not looking) for?
Maduro’s reaction to one Royal Navy ship reminds me of the joke about the Canadian governor that asks the government in Ottawa for some RCMP officers to deal with a riot. The next day one Mountie reports to the governor.
“They only sent you?” the governor asks in horror.
“Yes, sir,” the officer replies. “You only have one riot, after all.”
It’s Russia, the cover up consists of telling the “journalists” what to say, under penalty of death.
Maine Secretary of State blocks Trump from primary ballot.
Washington Post
@Mister Bluster:
That’s even better than Colorado. Der Kleine Fhürer has to challenge the decision in court.
Maine has kicked Trump off the ballot
The not so big aviation news, is that Mexicana has arisen and is flying to a few destinations.
Now it’s run by the Mexican armed forces for some reason. they’ve been having a hell of a time getting an operations certificate, and an even harder time leasing aircraft. Kind of hard to fly without airplanes, or so I hear.
Right now it has 3 older B 737s on loan from Mexico’s Air Force. It’s pretty common for new airlines to start with used airplanes, leased or bought at lower prices. Operating military transports, or whatever these were/are, is new to me.
The overlooked news is that an equally dead Mexicana affiliate, Mexicana Link, was also resurrected. You can see the route map here.
There’s little room for sentiment in the airline industry, although there’s plenty among commercial aviation enthusiasts. So re-using a dead airline’s name means little past marketing. there’s a new iteration of Eastern, and there was one of Pan Am. They tend to remain obscure or go broke…
Mexicana was good, and died before the legacy airlines began downgrading services and charging fees for everything. I last flew it in 2010, before it collapsed. At the time, they still had hot meals in economy for international flights. these days most narrowbody aircraft don’t even have facilities for reheating food.
Had it stuck around past 2010, it would be as crummy as most older airlines are.
@Mister Bluster:
@CSK:
On the one hand, this may be like the indictments. Once one came up, others followed. Now we may see more states disqualify Der Kleine Führer.
On the other hand, the Kraken Korps has people, like Eastman, who believe in all sorts of imaginary, magical remedies for legal issues. So they’ll do all sorts of things they claim are lawful, which aren’t. Like urge faithless electors to vote Fuhrer, regardless of the actual results, especially in states where Orange Clown wasn’t on the ballot.
Also, it’s likely Der Klein has learned, unlikely as that seems, that he cannot and won’t ever win in a court of law, but he can cunt on “winning” the public opinion battles. As the only opinion that matters is that of the Brownshirt Brigade.
So, even if the election is called for Biden on election night, expect nonstop lawsuits, noise, sh*t-flinging in all directions, and ever more desperate calls for violent action to “save” the country. This time, I also expect actual violence before and after the election. maybe during the election, too. It may be the only way Der Kleine Fuhrer can win is by physically preventing people from voting.