Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, October 14, 2021
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68 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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The Questionable Rewards of a Visit to Inaccessible Island
The superhuman Lamar Jackson is as close as the NFL gets to a one-man team
That last sentence is a bit overstated, there is a receiver on the other end of every pass after all (not to mention all the linemen), but it is still one hell of a stat. I watched the hilights of the Ravens/Colts game and he put on an unbelievable performance in that 4th quarter and OT.
@OzarkHillbilly: Unfortunately, he’s unvaccinated, so he has relatively high odds of missing multiple games this season
In non-political places on the internet where I go mostly, there is a huge furor about the economic situation in the Peoples’ Republic of China. Real estate sector in collapse. Banking and local governments distressed. President Xi grasping power. Blackouts. Coal shortages. Floods closing mines.
In the CNN, NYT, WaPo world of news, crickets.
Anyone here know good sources about China & their economy? Or have thoughts?
Got my Pfizer microchip booster yesterday and it is amazing. Internet speed has doubled and I’m getting 10 bars on my cell phone. The tentacle thingy is sort of cute, while the modified DNA has given me 6-pack abs and Cary Grant good looks. All for the price of a sore arm, couldn’t be happier.
@Sleeping Dog:
Have you given the tentacle thingy a pet name?
@JohnMcC: While the NYT coverage of China isn’t a deep dive, I’ve found that it’s sufficient for me to keep up. This just ran yesterday, about power problems (electricity, not global political power).
For anything more detailed, you might want to look to more regional resources, like the Yomiuri Shimbun. The Economist will occasionally do deep and well-researched longform pieces.
@CSK:
Legs?
@JohnMcC:
China Times and let Google translate it?
@JohnMcC:
The Diplomat and 9DashLine are pretty good for international relations in Asia-Pacific.
Diplomat also has some interesting articles on economic affairs.
For general coverage of economic issues, The Economist, and for daily economic news, the Financial Times.
Also Bloomberg, I suppose, though I don’t look at it that often myself.
@JohnMcC:
China Law Blog
It’s a mix of legal and business stuff (they do legal stuff for businesses), but it’s well-written and accessible to laymen.
Hm.
My comment seems to been eaten by the guardian demons.
Reposting minus links:
@JohnMcC:
The Diplomat and 9DashLine are interesting for international relations in Asia-Pacific.
Diplomat also has some interesting articles on economic affairs.
For general coverage of economic issues, The Economist, and for daily economic news, the Financial Times.
Also Bloomberg, I suppose, though I don’t look at it that often myself.
@JohnMcC:
@JohnMcC:
In general, I think non-English language countries only get surface coverage in the English mainstream media, with the exception of Spanish speaking countries. (I also exempt EU nations and Russia from this because of the alliances and history.) For instance, how much coverage does the fact that France has soldiers on the ground actively fighting right now in multiple countries get? They are training and assisting governments that they keep in power in fighting insurgencies. At the very least, those situations may provide insight and counterpoints to the US efforts in Africa and SA, if not in Middle East. But most journalism is basically gossip, with reporters having conversations with a cadre of their “trusted sources” about everything under the sun, and it is unlikely they are going to get tweets or similar in French or Chinese (or Hindi, etc). Or take my current hobby horse for an example, the way the main stream media in the English speaking world focused exclusively on the French/NATO/EU implications of the explicitly Pacific and Asia submarine deal. It was only this past week that I finally started seeing articles that significantly discussed the Asian implications of the deal.
As for sources, this one is pretty dense and I would only recommend the free news summary rather than the paid newsletter, and then only the top level unless you really want to get into the weeds.
@MarkedMan: Figures, another silly f*ck. I don’t pay much attention to sports these days and heard of Kyrie Irvings principled silly f*ck stand, and mumblings about another NFL QB being a silly f*ck, but nothing of LJ’s.
sigh…
@JohnMcC:
Posted earlier, but got eaten (I think I changed by email addy by accident LOL)
For general EastAsia/Pacific affairs The Diplomat and 9DashLine can be very interesting, but they are not really “breaking” news sites.
For general news The Economist, for current economic news The Financial Times and the Singapore Business Times. Also Bloomberg, I suppose, though it’s not a personal routine “go to”.
I posted this at the end of the day yesterday:
few days ago I asked whether I should get a second Moderna shot, having snuck in a Moderna booster recently after receiving the J&J vaccine in March (recent health issues led me to take this step).
Well, the NYT reported this yesterday:
I don’t think I need the second Moderna shot. 😀
@JohnSF:
Yup–a lot of regulars end up in moderation due to the e-mail issue or a typo in their moniker.
Many thanks to all who suggested sources. (Esp @JohnSF who ended up wrestling with moderation – is there a double entendre there?)
Somehow my youtube algorithm has me on a diet of Fallon Gong and apparent Indian propaganda.
@JohnMcC:
I defeated moderation years ago!
*hic*
Pass the corkscrew.
@Monala:
I read about it yesterday. It also seems like people with two Pfizer shots got a bigger antibody boost with Moderna (full dose) than with a third Pfizer shot.
@Monala:
But you got the regular Moderna, not the booster (which doesn’t yet exist, AFAIK), right? Something I have not established is whether the booster is a different formulation from the original vax.
@CSK: I remember reading somewhere that the Moderna “booster” will likely be smaller than the original 100 for both the first doses.
For all intents and purposes, I think when regular people refer to getting a Moderna “booster”, they’ve already had either one shot of J&J or both Pfizer, and consider a “first” shot of Moderna a booster.
@CSK: I’m curious about when they’re going to be able to modify the vaccines to cover variants? Do they have to go through FDA approval every time, for every variant?
I’m only partway through this article, but it’s…. bizarre and scary.
The man behind a pro-Trump propaganda empire.
@Sleeping Dog: When I lived in China I would read the China Daily, which is an official Party English language paper. It was actually useful for things like high speed rail lines openings and stuff like that, and it could have interesting articles about regional culture or cuisine, travel stories for different Chinese locations or regions, etc, and also, if you read between the lines, what the Party was pushing, how they felt about various trade developments, etc.
I just checked it out now and it appears to have gone even more into the 1950’s Soviet news agency model (“Tractor Production Up 3.2%!”, “Comrade Stalin visits Vostayovik Collective to cheering crowds!”). Here are some sample headlines from todays China Daily: Topline story, “President Xi’s Quotes on the Elderly”, “Xi’s Moments: Xi stresses enhancing whole-process people’s democracy”. This type of personality cult stuff was extremely rare or non-existent 10 years ago, at least in the English language media.
On the “between the lines” front:
– There is nothing I could find that indicated anything negative has happened in China, no fires, no train wrecks, no droughts or pollution alerts. In the past, there would have been at least the Chinese version of stories that had been reported in the West and, given that there were many more Western reporters in China then and they had freer movement, there was quite a few such stories. So the Party seems to have succeeded in their goals for evicting foreign reporters coupled with very tight restrictions on those that remain.
– The only “bad news” story is about a fire in Taiwan. It is normal to see reports of tragedies in countries that China is having difficult diplomatic relations with.
– An article stating that there is no power generation problem (there is)
– An article about how the wonderful foresight of the Party has brought walnut production to Xinjiang, bringing opportunity to the happy residents (at least, those that haven’t been interred in slave labor and re-education camps)
– An editorial (technically an OpEd, but in a Chinese newspaper they are really just editorials, which are really just the Communist Parties message) talking about how China seeks harmony with nature. (I infer from this that there is still a valid ecological movement within China, albeit it plays out in the Party rather than the general populace. Long gone are the days that people could safely protest about a toxic dump or the like)
– There seems to be an unusual number of articles and columns about the elderly, so I assume they must be promoting some specific government initiatives, but I’m not sure what they are.
So, bottom line, without context, it’s probably not worth reading. There didn’t seem to be any articles that were just interesting on their own. Everything seems to be pushing a message.
@CSK: yes. I did read today that Moderna’s booster shot will likely be a smaller dose.
@JohnSF: For those unaware, some context on why it might be called 9 Dash Line.
@Jax: I would expect them to do it the way they do flu shots. I don’t know the particulars but every year they do a new one tailored to the variant they think will be most prevalent. Hard to see them going thru the full approval process in just a few months.
@Jax:
I think the key point is: these are new kinds of vaccines (the mRNA Pfizer and Moderna shots), therefore we need to carry out testing to see how they work.
Unlike the flu vaccine, which is made for different strains every year, but it’s known technology and we know how it works.
BTW, I’ve come across flu shots not made using chicken eggs. You should find one and take it.
• Former President Donald Trump has a bold strategy for the 2022 and 2024 elections:
Oh. Please?!
@Mu Yixiao:
If he doesn’t want Republicans voting in 2024, does that mean he won’t be running for prez then?
@Mu Yixiao:
1) Can they really be that stupid?
2) This might just prompt some on the GQP to try a second amendment solution on him.
@Kathy:
If they’re MAGAs, yes, they can be just that stupid.
@Mu Yixiao: @Kathy: I think this is yet another example of where Trump’s ego is overriding his self-preservation instinct. His political future and continuing influence over the GOP is tied to the party’s general success. If they do disappointingly in 2022–and especially if there seems to be less Republican turnout than expected–that is the likeliest way to finally at long lost inspire an anti-Trump backlash within the party. Maybe it won’t happen, maybe they’ll just cry fraud (well of course they will) and double-down on Trumpism just as they did after their previous losses. But he’s still pushing his luck, and other things being equal is in a better position if Republicans do well in 2022.
@Kylopod:
Here’s a comment from Lucianne.com on a closely related subject:
“Doesn’t really matter at this point how we vote. The Dominion voting machines will make sure the Dems hold the House and the Senate both locally and Federally.”
@Kathy: Thanks, I called our local Public Health office to see if they could get that kind, they said no, and they’re not sure where I should call inside of Wyoming to see if they have any….I guess the bigger towns and pharmacies. I’ll call around down in the Rock Springs area and see if they have it, I have to go down there next week to see a specialist for my “ear infection that isn’t an ear infection anymore”, anyways. 😐
@Kylopod: my first thought was TFG may be feeling more heat from Vance and Co. Gotta get his coup on before all the indictments drop. Hence,the luck pushing.
Thing I’ve been noticing happening a lot more often recently:
Stores keep randomly changing their hours and not even trying to keep their signs accurate, so you go to a store expecting them to be open, and according to the sign on the door they should be open, but they’re not.
There’s several places I used to frequent regularly that I’ve basically stopped going to because it’s not worth the hassle of driving out there to see if they decided to be open today.
I think there’s a lot of “small business owners” in for a rude awakening, when they’re so opposed to improving worker conditions enough to attract and retain employees that they’d rather start hassling their customers rather than admit they need to make a change.
Ouch…. this is going to have an impact.
Microsoft is closing down LinkedIn in china.
LinkedIn is (soon “was”) a big thing for Chinese businesses, because it allows them to interact directly with foreign businesses and business people.
Here’s a non-paywalled link (bbc.com)
@becca:
Maybe because yesterday a Georgia judge dismissed the election fraud lawsuit.
@CSK: yep, could be walls closing in.
@MarkedMan:
I’ve subscribed to the free weekly summaries for several years. Interesting and informative, but my gosh, don’t the weeds get tall and thick on the back 40 acres?
@becca:
And…the breaking news is that the Jan. 6 panel will hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena.
@Stormy Dragon:
I’ve learned to call ahead of time.
Trump has to sit for a videotaped deposition on Oct. 18 regarding a lawsuit against him for calling Mexicans rapists. A group of Mexicans claim they were assaulted for protesting outside Trump Tower in Sept. 2015.
Even his own lawyers don’t trust him not to lie.
@flat earth luddite:you’re not kidding! My guess is that to a more informed reader then me, what appears to be duplicative quotes from different sources have some subtle distinctions. Or that you can tell something from the wording about who was pulling the strings. But I’m happy getting the top level.
@MarkedMan: I was going to suggest Sinocism. Now I don’t have to. Thanks.
@Kathy: We’ll know how stupid they are in a little less than 13 months.
@Jax:
There’s at least a second one.
@MarkedMan:
Sinocism looks very interesting; thanks for the pointer.
Just signed up for the free email bulletin.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
We may or may not know. It’s worth recalling how much the conversation changed due to the Georgia runoffs. Remember how skeptical most of us here were initially that Trump’s rhetoric would matter? Indeed, it seemed that the people who took it the most seriously at the time were establishment Republicans. It’s only because we saw the results that we know it made a difference. But even if Dems had come up short in those two elections, that wouldn’t necessarily mean the theory that Trump’s rhetoric dampened Republican turnout was wrong–it simply would mean it wasn’t sufficient to change the outcome in those races. Yet I’m pretty sure the narrative would have evaporated.
It’s kind of like if Hillary had narrowly won 2016, the Dems’ weaknesses among working-class whites would have continued to be ignored, even though they would have been just as real. Political effects tend not to be noticed unless they outright change the results of an election.
And it gets even more complicated if we’re talking about a midterm, where there isn’t any clear, objective definition of what it means to “win” or “lose.” Generally, we tend to think of it as the default for the party in the White House to get absolutely crushed in a midterm, and anything short of that is seen as a defeat for the out-party. Yet the Dems’ current majorities are so razor-thin the GOP only needs modest gains to flip either chamber. (If in 2018 the Dems had picked up “only” 20 House seats it would have been judged a dismal failure; if the GOP picks up the same number of seats next year, that will probably be considered a pretty good result for them.) If they do flip one or both houses, that will certainly be a victory for them at some level, but it won’t necessarily imply they maximized their potential, and it’s not clear what narrative would emerge.
@CSK:
Correct. I remember reading that they always, always go in pairs now, because if there’s just one lawyer, Trump will flat out lie and contradict–and it was one person’s word against the other. So, now they have to go in pairs so it’s two people available to corroborate what is said.
He really is just the worst person imaginable.
@Jen:
Yup. Patrick McGahn, who was Trump’s lawyer in 1993, said that bit about going in pairs to see him.
@Monala: @Jax:
A single 50 microgram shot of Moderna has been approved by the FDA as a booster.
I should take the time someday to write down my recipes.
I was thinking of chicken marinated in lime, and then I remembered I’d done it before. Cilantro Lime Chicken.
Mariante boneless chicken breasts, whole or cut in pieces, in the juice of two limes and some pepper for a few hours. Then half cook it in a saucepan and set it aside. Cook some onions in the pan to your taste (mine is very cooked until they brown). Meantime in a blender mix 1 1/2 cups of chicken soup (or stock) with 3-4 cloves of garlic and lots of cilantro, twigs and all.
Add the sauce to the pan with the onions, add the chicken so it finishes cooking, the add 1/4 cup of cold water with 1-2 tsp. cornstarch to thicken the sauce.
I think some whole ginger would go well in the sauce.
This article [see note below] is getting play around the intertubes and it is pissing me off. It’s an article about the iPhone but I don’t care about that. It’s the bogus math it employs, a trick used by phonies with many different agendas. It leads off
Notice it doesn’t mention inflation? It’s not worth reading any article or commentary on prices more than a couple of years ago that doesn’t mention inflation. The authors are either innumerate or just trying to fool you. Let’s head over to a handy historical inflection adjustment calculator and plug in the original purchase price of the iPhone, $499 and the year, 2007 and what does it cost in terms of today’s US dollars? $646. What does the entry model of the iPhone 13 cost right now? $699. A $53 difference, not nearly so dramatic. But wait! There’s more! What is the lowest cost iPhone available right now from Apple? The iPhone SE at $399. Let’s work that inflation calculation in reverse and we get $308. Maybe the story is that a darn good iPhone 9-10 generations better than the original one (and the one my daughter bought last year and is quite happy with), costs a third less. And the iPhone 11 like I have and which is a downright awesome phone, is still available starting at – wait, what?! $499, the price of the original iPhone, not accounting for inflation! After adjustment, you find that the 2007 price is $385, 80% of the originals cost!
So an article that was actually researched would read something like, “When the iPhone was originally released there was only one model and it cost the equivalent of $646 in 2021 dollars. There are 8 models of iPhone’s available today, ranging in cost from $399 to $999, although adding a terabyte of memory to the newest, largest, most powerful model can bump that up to $1499.
FWIW, I have the minimum memory on my iPhone 11, and have my photos and such backed up in the cloud. I’ve turned on intelligent photo management and intelligent app management, and although I occasionally have to wait a few seconds for a photo or an app to restore from a thumbnail, I’m perfectly happy with the amount of memory I have, despite having probably 100-150 apps installed on the phone, something that was definitely not true of my first iPhone, a 3S. After about a year I was having to delete stuff.
Note: when I started to post the link I noticed it was full of trackers, which made me change my assumption that the authors were innumerate to “the authors are putting out random click-bait”.
So this happened in Texas, because of course that’s where it would happen.
Southlake school leader tells teachers to balance Holocaust books with ‘opposing’ views
The Republican (because of course he is) who wrote the law says “that’s not what the law says,” but maybe he should have thought about how shit like this would be interpreted by the people who will actually bear the penalties for erring on the wrong side of caution.
Also…”that’s come up.” Somebody somewhere in that school district actually believes there should be a “balanced perspective” concerning the Holocaust, and they believe it strongly enough that they brought it to district administrators.
@MarkedMan:
China Times and China Daily are two different papers, the Times is located in Taiwan and covers the mainland extensively. I’ve read select CT articles and they appear well sourced and well written.
@Kathy: Not having any luck finding either in Wyoming itself via the Public Health offices in each county. Checking Idaho and Utah now.
@Kathy: this sounds good! I’m going to try it tonight
@Monala:
I forgot to specify the juice of one or two limes in the sauce as well.
@Jax:
You know, one reason I hunted down a flu shot last year, was a buzz that it might offer some protection against COVID.
This appears to be based in fact, as T cells produced by flu shots carry an antigen receptor similar to those found on T cells produced by COVID vaccines.
So i wonder if the reverse is true, and COVID shots might also offer some added protection against flu.
@Kathy:
Yes. I recall reading somewhere that flu shots might offer some protection against Covid.
@Mikey: You wanna lay odds that it is that school administrator himself that brought it up?
@Sleeping Dog: is there an English language China Times? Or can you read Mandarin?
I used to read an English language paper out of Hong Kong but I assume all such are essentially gone now.
@Kathy:
@CSK: Plus we know damn good and well flu’s gonna come rockin back this year with no masks or mitigating measures. The vaccine saved me from Covid, but I’ve never been able to get a flu shot after the swine flu shot. I’m determined to find one, I ain’t getting taken out by the flu after dealing with 2 years of this bullshit.
@Mikey:
I was about to post a link to this. No doubt someone is going to look it up and be swayed to the revisionism (excuse me, bullshit) pushed by the anti-Semitic crowd.
Just waiting for any historical mention of the KKK to be decried as biased against a fraternal organization formed to defend the rights of white christian men. Oh wait, they probably purged any textbooks that mention the KKK in the first place.