Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, April 5, 2022
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57 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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Spanish police and FBI seize superyacht in Mallorca linked to Putin ally
Took a tour boat around the bay of Palma on our last visit there. A whole lot of obscenities at anchor there. This from the article caught my eye:
Respectability, for sale to the highest bidder.
Lauren Boebert can’t spell…Mickey Mouse. She renders it “Micky Mouse.”
How far-right figures like Ammon Bundy cause chaos in US politics
If you aren’t worried, you aren’t paying attention.
@CSK: My wife goes by Micky. She would take great exception to that.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes, but Lauren wasn’t referring to your wife.
@CSK: That wouldn’t matter anymore than it does when people spell her name Mickey.
I don’t doubt it for a second. Denial is not a river in Egypt.
Surprise!
What do you want to bet trump got some off the books action from his former body guard?
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, he only hires the best people. He’s said so himself. Many times.
Capitol attack rioter gets 3.5 years in prison for illegal possession of guns
Just a peach of a guy.
If Judge Barrett is so concerned about being seen as political, maybe she shouldn’t be making speeches at political venues or participate in political events like her White House celebration of her confirmation.
With divisive Supreme Court rulings coming, Barrett says: ‘Read the opinion’
Hurricane-force wind gusts forecast for this afternoon. Good that I had to make the scheduled drive down to Denver yesterday :^)
@OzarkHillbilly: We have similar “just peachy” guys.
@Scott: They’re everywhere. We had a father daughter duo from the small town closest to us get arrested. I forget what charges they were faced with.
@Scott:
Three quarters of an ounce a day. The heaviest stoners I know go through 1/8-1/4 of an ounce a week.
@Neil Hudelson:
When I was in HS, a kid got busted with 10lbs of weed in a grocery bag in his locker. This was back in the days when you could use tobacco on campus, so he just used it as chew. He was continually stoned all day long, and nobody noticed. 😀
Is anyone else amused that the jack-assery caucus (Cruz, Hawley, Graham, and especially Blackburn of TN) stood against Justice-to-be-Jackson based on trumped up charges of going easy on pedophilia…at the very same time the State of Tennessee is passing a law that would legalize child marriage?
https://www.wjhl.com/news/regional/tennessee/gop-bill-would-eliminate-age-requirements-for-marriages-in-tennessee/
@Daryl and his brother Darryl: Amused? No. Not surprised either.
@OzarkHillbilly:
@Neil Hudelson:
@Scott:
I have gotten high almost every day for the last 50 years.
I have a masters degree, am a licensed white collar professional, and earn in the 92nd percentile.
There is no such thing as a “weedaholic.”
There is, however, such a thing as a “dumb-ass.”
@Daryl and his brother Darryl: I’ve got more than few friends who imbibe on a semi regular/regular basis. A couple may even partake more than is healthy for them. Still doesn’t make them addicted.
@OzarkHillbilly:
At the library one slow day:
“Hey, how about we hide these Darwin manuscripts and see how long it is until someone notices?”
In a move that will shock and surprise absolutely no one, Trump is trying to rewrite his own history:
http://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/trump-interview-a-first-historical-assessment/629454/
From a comment on Charlie Sykes column at the Bulwark.
Long ago I tired of the, but that’s not really fascism argument, when someone walked and talked like a fascist. The argument would drag out tropes that had the effect of saying that unless the accused in the 21st century wasn’t exactly in line with Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, it wasn’t fascism. Those arguments have the legitimacy of papist debates on how many angels can fit on the head of a pin. This isn’t to say that the accusation of fascism hasn’t been used too loosely. Neither Reagan, nor G. W. Bush are fascists, no matter how repulsive their politics and programs were. TFG, on the other hand…
@Sleeping Dog:
link: https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/the-kremlins-manifesto-of-hate/comment/5895861?s=r
@Mu Yixiao:
Alas, your friend wasted (cheap) weed. THC has to be decarboxylated–heat treated–before it has psychogenic effects on one’s system.
@OzarkHillbilly:
The addictiveness of marijuana was oversold by the war-on-drugs folks for decades. Now the talking point is that weed isn’t addictive at all, which is also not true. I know more than a few people who do not have self control when they are around weed–if it’s in their home, it’s going to be smoked daily. When they don’t have it for a few days, they get irritable, sometimes a headache. All classic symptoms of withdrawal from an addictive substance. And it’s not just anecdote–while studies on long term weed users are frustratingly few, they do exist and more and more are coming out. What those studies are finding is that, indeed, a small part of the population can become dependent on weed, and experience withdrawal symptoms when they do not have it.
Where weed is different is that when my friend quit nicotine, he became a rage monster whom no one could be around for more than a few minutes. It lasted months. When he quit weed he had a headache for a day, a loss of appetite for a couple of days, was fidgety and bored for a week. Probably quitting caffeine is a worse experience than quitting weed.
Marjorie Taylor Greene announced this morning via Twitter that Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney are pro-pedophile because they voted in favor of Ketanji Brown Jackson.
@Neil Hudelson: I’ll say at the outset that I never plan on doing this, but I am curious as to why the step of oven-toasting is necessary when infusing butter. The heat point of clarified butter is around 250 degrees, which is near enough to the 240 degrees that the link you posted says is necessary to decarboxylate.
Of relevance to the interests here The Phoney War: Not the woke, but Carlson-Corbyn conspiracies are remaking politics.
@Neil Hudelson:
This always frustrates me. My mom was/is addicted to weed. I doubt she goes a day without self medicating herself into oblivion, just like my dad did with alcohol. Trying to explain this to most people is frustrating and pointless. I constantly get “no its not addictive” screeched back at me. Trying to explain that her substance abuse led to part of my PTSD and absolute refusal to touch the stuff just gets me crazier looks.
@CSK: Personally, I would pay to see Lisa Murkowski do a Will Smith on MTG.
@Neil Hudelson:
I haven’t read those studies, but from where I sit what you describe sounds more like the discomfort of dropping a bad habit rather than trying to kick an addiction.
People who meditate or practice yoga or exercise regularly or masturbate would probably suffer similar effects.
I guess you could identify all of those things as addictions. So let’s say that there is a spectrum, and marijuana is at the near-zero end of the range.
@Scott:
Especially since Greene is good buddies with Matt Gaetz, who seems to have an unfortunate proclivity for very young girls.
@Beth:
Physical addiction usually has withdrawal symptoms. I smoke a cigar or two every day. Go on vacation and don’t smoke for weeks with zero withdrawal. Same with weed. Same with alcohol. I mean, I prefer a world where I can smoke a cigar and a joint and drink whiskey, but it’s not an addiction.
@CSK: She’s not old enough to have heard the song:
@OzarkHillbilly: And in much the same way, he wouldn’t want his name misspelled either. Thus, the catchy song to help people remember. As a big Hollywoodland star, he has a lot of leverage in such matters.
Drum has a chart up comparing the murder rate in all fifty states. It completely reinforces my stereotype of red states as violent sewers full of open-carry loons and militia man-boys.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Yes, she is.
@Neil Hudelson:
I don’t remember the guy’s name anymore–IIRC, he was a star Portland during the “Jailblazers” era–who on a TV news interview proclaimed he didn’t have a cocaine problem because he could afford all the blow he was shoving up his nose. The “weed isn’t addictive” argument is based on similar theories/viewpoints.
That being said. People will believe what they want. About God, about weed, about lots of stuff.
@Michael Reynolds:
Sure, but it doesn’t sound like you are using those things to medicate undealt with trauma or a blanket refusal to deal with reality. I also doubt you would suggest that there are no alcohol addicts? The fact that the vast majority of people can use a substance without addiction does not mean that there are some people who, for various reasons, will become addicted.
Just to stake out my position a little more bluntly, I am an anti-cannabis, lets say “nutjob”. I don’t like it, don’t want to be around it. That being said, I think adults should be able to use most substances they want to in order to make their lives more enjoyable, for whatever reason. Hell, I’ve found some stuff to add sparkle to my life. I just make sure I am intentional and responsible about my use. I also keep my mouth shut (for the most part) about my hatred of pot.
@CSK: Well then maybe her family was one of those “television is a Satanic tool to enslave the minds of the young” families. I can’t explain why she wouldn’t know the song and am not willing to accept the idea that the good citizens of whatever state she comes from would elect an illiterate buffoon to high office.
I also will refuse to defend the good Representative if people from her state choose to correct my assumptions about their fellow electors. Balance in everything.
So, about the stolen commercial airplanes in Russia…
The situation is growing complicated. Most leased planes have been registered in Russia, not following the usual procedures. Still, if they’re flown outside of the Putin Empire, they can be repossessed. So for now they mostly don’t fly abroad. And of course there’s no way for lessors to send crews to repossess the planes inside Mad Vlad’s realm.
Some lessors have begun to request payments from their insurers. Insurance companies, as we all know, don’t show much enthusiasm at paying out money. Expect weeks if not months of negotiations.
If/when the insurers pay, the lessors won’t care anymore who has the planes. But the insurers will. After all, they can now repossess the planes and sell them (possibly to the same lessors they paid), in order to recoup their losses.
We’re talking large amounts here. Insurers don’t pay off claims on whole fleets rather than on individual planes which are damaged or destroyed or stolen. So I’d expect the insurers, if they pay, will do it on installments over months or years. If/when they can recover some aircraft, they’d be returned to the lessors as payment in kind, or in lieu of payments owed.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Hey, Lauren’s an educated person. She got her GED at age…34.
She’s especially good with the English language; she claims her favorite pronoun is “Patriot.”
@Jen:
I think the point of decarbing it by itself is just quality control. You may be using veg oil instead of butter, or vodka to make a tincture, and wouldn’t have a visual queue that the flower has reached a high enough temperature.
If you threw weed into butter and then clarified the butter–ensuring everything got up to 250 degrees or so–you probably wouldn’t have a problem.
I find it all way too much work. If, as a parent of two toddlers in a prohibition state, I’m lucky enough to somehow come across some weed, why would I waste hours cooking butter, then brownies, then wait another hour+ for it to take effect, when I could just roll a joint in a minute?
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
Headaches are usually a sign of physical withdrawal, not habit breaking, ditto loss of appetite and a few other markers. Addiction withdrawal, like addiction itself, is on a spectrum. Withdrawal from heavy alcohol dependency can itself kill you. Withdrawal from heroine is supposedly just the worst hell to go through. Withdrawal from caffeine is usually irritability and a headache–but make no mistake, it’s withdrawal.
In many ways, this all reinforces the pro-legalization argument.
Alcohol: very addictive when compared to other additive drugs. Dependency often is life destroying. Behavior while addictive is ruinous. Quitting can also be literally life destroying.
Tobacco: very addictive when compared to other addictive drugs. Use is incredibly harmful to health, including long term damage that remains after quitting. Quitting often turns you into a monster for a month or two.
Weed: addiction is very rare, though exists. Dependency generally annoys people around you, but doesn’t ruin one’s life. Very, very little long term health side effects that we know of (rare cases of COPD, but not much else). If you are one of the rare addicts, quitting is a minor discomfort for a few days.
I have no withdrawal symptoms when I stop drinking (something I do periodically, usually to try and drop a few pounds), but alcoholics can suffer such bad withdrawal they end up in the hospital. There are some who take pain medication after surgery and stop with no issues, others become addicted.
Some people get addicted to substances that alter mood, whether it’s alcohol or pain meds or weed. Others don’t.
Also there’s some evidence that smoking weed during one’s younger years (teenage) can have physical effects on the brain if one’s genetic make-up predisposes one that way.
We still really don’t know much about the brain and how it works. My own feeling is that our present mental health technology (pharmaceuticals et al.) is still at the level of doing surgery with a meat axe.
And the number of people with mental health problems who have ended up going into psychology themselves is distressing. OK if you’ve been cured, otherwise you’re just spreading your crap out to a population of unfortunately very vulnerable people. (I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard about therapists who are exhibiting narcissistic or other Cluster-B traits.)
Some news from Europe:
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen announced that Hungary will face proceedings under the Commission’s authority to cut funding to countries that breach EU lawfulness standards.
Czech Republic sends c.50 T72 M4CZ tanks to Ukraine.
Soviet T72 but with major Czech upgrades to NATO combat standard.
EU announces new Russian sanctions package to be put to a Council vote:
Banning imports of coal, wood, chemicals
Further export bans including semiconductors, computers, hydrocarbon production plant, other electrical and transport equipment.
Russian ships and trucks to be denied any access to the EU.
Ban all transactions with VTBank and another three Russian banks.
Dozens more individuals to be added to the EU sanctions list.
(A lot of these have already been implemented by various countries, but will now become all-EU rules)
Still no proposals to cut oil and gas imports EU wide though.
Though again, some countries have already implemented full or partial bans.
@JohnSF: Adjacent news.
Defense Production Act Title III Presidential Determination for Critical Materials in Large-Capacity Batteries
@Jen: People get addicted to gambling (the experience creates chemicals in the brain, and the addition is really more to that chemical cycle). Is weed more or less addictive than gambling?
It’s definitely cheaper. Shifting gambling addicts to weed might be an effective harm-reduction strategy.
I made the mistake of binging on Severance, and now I have to wait until Friday for the season finale.
The show raises some interesting questions. I don’t think of any practical or real application, given the premise is absolutely impossible, but very interesting to think about, and offering many possibilities for ramifications which could be used in other types of stories.
That aside, and spoiler free, I’ve a question: what do the severed employees do for lunch?
@Scott:
Sensible.
Meanwhile, UK government continues to have its head firmly in the sand.
Leading UK semiconductor manufacturer Newport Wafer Fab sale to Dutch subsidiary of Chinese company, Wingtech will not be halted.
Appeals had been made to block on national security grounds.
🙁
@Kathy:
Egg bar?
Seriously though, it’s probably something absurd and brutal, like bologna on white bread with mayo sandwiches.
@Gustopher: I have no idea if gambling is more or less addictive than weed (I am also left wondering about variations, such as hashish, to which I have seen addiction referenced).
Gambling is not my thing, it stresses me out to even watch people at a casino.
@Beth:
Too sporadic.
I don’t think they eat lunch. Not because we’ve never seen them do so (remember, we never saw bathrooms on the Enterprise), but because different departments would mix and clearly that’s sacrilegious.
@Kathy:
Yeah. Something about that scene made me really want deviled eggs. I don’t know why. I’m sure those were like paste, saw dust and food coloring, but they looked really tasty.
Anyway, wasn’t there like at least one scene when they were in the like kitchenette and they were eating. I thought that was implied to be lunchtime. I had to rewrite that after I wrote “breakroom” and shuddered.
@Beth:
Problem with binging is I tend to miss details. I recall a table scene, but I think the only time I saw food, other than the various “parties,” was from the vending machine.
A congressional candidate in New Hampshire allegedly voted in both the NH and NJ presidential primaries in 2016.
Anyone want to guess which party he belongs to?
@Jen: Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party?
Lock him up! Lock him up!