Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
·
89 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).
Follow Steven on
Twitter
Florida researchers capture invasive pythons by attaching GPS collars to prey
However…
No silver bullet then.
Bonkers Republican bill in Idaho would make mRNA-based vaccination a crime
Carnival float in Italy:
https://twitter.com/gun1man/status/1627391038728859650?cxt=HHwWhMCz4eDh05UtAAAA
@Mister Bluster:
That’s accurate normally, but on this trip the plane was ID’d with a non-descript call signal as Biden wasn’t scheduled to leave Washington till Monday and the WH wanted to keep his whereabouts secret. They even created a fictitious office schedule for his day in DC on Monday.
https://post.news/article/2M3C46yaQVEgPutCK96jAqYaDQ6
@Stormy Dragon: Stupid is as stupid does.
eta: Pro-Life my ass.
@daryl and his brother darryl:
The Trump image is FAR too fit and muscular to be credible.
@CSK: I was thinking that the sight of his shirtless flabby ass on a horse trotting around would be quite humorous but I suspect it would instead cause me to tear the eyeballs out of my head.
I just want to remind everyone that a member of the House Homeland Security Committee has called for Red States to secede from the Nation.
And the Speaker of the House has given a Russian Asset and known propagandist exclusive access to the January 6th Security tapes.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Then by all means DO NOT look at this:
http://www.businessinsider.com/artist-behind-viral-nude-trump-portrait-2016-4
@CSK: Thanx for the trigger warning. I’ll pass.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Chicken. 😀
I am in Berlin at the Berlin Film Festival. Sure, why not?
Much of my life has involved me asking myself, “How did this happen?” The only through-line in my life is serendipity – randomness and adaptation to same. I believe I’m about to be signed by one of the big three agencies, and the odds of getting a good adaptation have risen dramatically because 10 years ago I was kind in responding to a fan e-mail. A fan letter about a YA book series I wrote because I needed money, having no interest in YA, just as earlier I’d had no interest in kidlit generally. On top of the fact that everything good in my life grew from a glance at a window 45 years ago. In a city I had no reason to be in because I’d only gone there to avoid the police. Which etcetera…etcetera… and somehow, I’m in Berlin.
I don’t really even particularly like movies.
If I believed in a supreme being they’d be from the ancient Greek pantheon, the kind of god that enjoyed fucking with humans just for laughs.
@Michael Reynolds:
That would be Ate.
On a sclae from 1 to 10, buying trains too big to use existing tunnels, ranks at least at 10.01
@daryl and his brother darryl: From the Republican Texas 2022 platform:
BTW:
Happy Plus-sized Tuesday, everyone!
@Kathy:
Pretty much the entire Eris clan really. Heck, Eris even enjoyed fucking with other gods.
All hail Discordia!
@Scott:.. Texas retains the right to secede…
Promises, promises…
@CSK: Bokbokbokbok…
@daryl and his brother darryl:
@Scott:
@Mister Bluster:
I think it will be like the weather: Everyone talks secession, but nobody does anything about it.
@Scott: @Mister Bluster: I wish they’d hurry up about it.
@Kathy: Ooooopps.
@daryl and his brother darryl:
@Scott:
The thing I love about the Red state secession fantasies is that only Texas is sort of viable as a country. A couple others might be ok-ish provided nothing goes wrong. Lol, one Hurricane and FL is gone. They might all somewhat make it in a confederacy, but again, FL is doomed and AL, MS, and LA are straight boat anchors. Anyone think TX is going to pay for anything? The whole project would be doomed without the Blue states to bailout their nonsense.
The other thought that popped into my head is that it’s all based on the racist assumption that the sizable Black population of the South would meekly go along with it.
@Beth:
California might do ok on its own.
The smaller red states should wait for Texas to go first, then beg to be taken on as client states. They do seem to like the extractive economic model just fine, after all.
@Beth:
You make excellent points.
Although TX, FL, CO, NV, and a handful of others may survive for a bit…it wouldn’t be long. Especially if you think about the Federal Installations that would disappear from their states. NASA alone, when it left, would seriously wound both TX and FL.
Then you put the inherent limits on trade that a border at those states would cause. Treaties would have to be negotiated. Blah blah blah.
Still – McCarthy should be forced to own this.
Putin suspends participation in START nuclear treaty.
Forced, don’t ya know. Forced. No other possible choice.
@Beth: Also Texas is an urban state and the cities would not go along with it. San Antonio, with its four military bases and large population of military retirees dependent on pensions and medical care would quickly go bankrupt without federal dollars. Also the possibility that Texas would devolve into just another corrupt petrostate.
Yes, it is all performative.
@Mu Yixiao: Just another gambit to get the US population all riled up and cause a lot of handwringing.
@Beth: All talk of succession would end once retirees realized they would be dependent on trump states for their Social Security and Medicare. Can you imagine what seniors would do to a DeSantis if he told them their future checks were dependent on the generosity of Texans?
Donor states and welfare states
https://www.moneygeek.com/living/states-most-reliant-federal-government/
provides the return on federal tax dollars and the percent of fed largess that funds the state budget.
Yeah, those R states wouldn’t survive on their own.
Even Republicans are trashing MTG for her secession fantasy:
http://www.salon.com/2023/02/21/wrong-and-honestly-evil-even-are-trashing-mtgs-treasonous-call-for-secession/
I last planned a trip of more than one day back in 2015.
Things have changed.
A lot.
I don’t recall all the details from 8 years ago, but things were definitely more transparent. For instance, flight info was displayed along hotel rates. Now largely it’s not, even on airline sites.
So, you see a great deal, pick the hotel, then click on the flight info, and then you find out it’s basic economy leaving at 10 pm. Changing it so you can 1) take a carry on bag, and 2) leave mid-morning, raises the total price by 30%.
I’m going to have to look at separate air and lodging bookings.
@Scott:
Back when I lived there, there was a common belief in Texas’ unique status.
Texas was actually an independent country, the Republic of Texas before joining the union. The reasoning is that because it entered by treaty, it retains the option to opt back out.
But the outcome of the Civil War establishes taint so.
@MarkedMan:
See, I don’t think so. I think of that Saddam Hussain clip where he has the Iraqi congress members dragged out to be executed. He “cried” and they all started cheering.
That’s what I think would happen in The Villages if DeSantis and Scott got their way.
@charon: Then there is this little gem about Texas:
Texas’ Little-Known Right to Split Itself into 5 States
Guarantee that this would happen because just as blue states don’t want to subsidize red states, the Texas urban areas do not want to subsidize the rural area.
Marge Taylor thinks the red States should secede…because, sex toys.
https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1628062974060404736
@daryl and his brother darryl:
Holy crap! She’s even crazier and dumber than I gave her credit for:
She seems to think that the Red states/Conservatives/MAGA Loons have the power to force the Blue states to acquiesce and pay for this fever dream lunacy and she thinks that we would just accept it? Like, this is the Articles of Confederation only worse and dumber. Again, her racist ass seems to think that the sizable black population of the South would simply sit still and let themselves be re-enslaved. This is the fever dream of a moron.
@charon:
“Back when I lived there, there was a common belief in Texas’ unique status.”
I visited Alaska in the 90’s, when there was a movement to split the state in two, solely to make Texas the third largest state by area.
So you think Marge. Oh and you’ll need your on military.
@Beth:
Doubt that. Yes to fever dream, no to moron.
I think she is more like Tucker Carlson, lying to the gullible to manipulate them. It’s just shtick. (She must have put a lot of work into concocting that elaborate fantasy. While not thinking through the possibilities of how the rest of the world could sanction the red states asses if they try to fuck up the climate etc.)
@CSK: That was an interesting item. I note that her technique is to place a face that triggers a visceral reaction in people onto a body (as opposed to an accurate representation of the person’s actual form).
I wonder if Trump likes the pose? (Especially the facial expression.)
@Mu Yixiao: It’s not about being plus sized (which would be “Mardi Gros”) but rather about using up leavening before lent starts so that it won’t go wasted as you use new, fresh leavening for Easter’s hot cross buns.
The other day I created a graphic showing two maps: the one on top is the Civil War map (red for the states in the Confederacy, blue for the Union), the one on bottom the 2020 presidential election.
You can see the problem already. The Union/Confederate divide was a pretty even split between the upper and lower halves of the country east of the Plains. Just on geographic borders alone, a splitoff made more sense than the current red/blue divide.
I’m not even sure I’d call the secession talk a fantasy. That would be giving it too much credit. At least the Q people who talk about Trump reinstatement are making some level of a concrete description of the world they hope to live in. With secession, it never goes beyond the applause line.
It just goes back to one of the most pathetic aspects of right-wing culture, which is that they think they’re somehow scoring points whenever they fulfill the singular achievement of saying something that gets a negative reaction from liberals. When liberals get alarmed by something they say, they pat themselves on the back for “making the libs cry.” When liberals laugh at them, they ignore the fact they’re being laughed at and they tell themselves they’re still making the libs cry. They’re in perpetual Nelson haha mode.
Newly elected Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee is George Santos 2.0. Local news has discovered that he lied about his education, claiming to have studied economics when he didn’t, and to have graduate degrees from Vanderbilt when he only took certificate courses. He also lied about his work history, claiming to be an economist when he was only a lobbyist, as well as claiming he worked in law-enforcement in international trafficking, when he was only a volunteer reserve sheriff’s deputy whose main responsibilities were providing security at government meetings.
link
@Beth:
@Sleeping Dog:
@charon:
She is actually posting “Articles of Secession” and claimed explicitly at the beginning to be speaking for the Republican Party.
Emphasis, mine.
I sure hope a reporter, somewhere, will eventually ask Leadership about this.
@daryl and his brother darryl: I’m curious, if TX and FL seceeded, where would NASA move to? Cali? NM, maybe?
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Do I have to put the sarcasm tag on comments? 😛
(Especially after the Roald Dahl thread over the weekend)
@Scott:
Texas already used up 1 of their four subdivision states: part of the Texas Republic is currently part of Oklahoma (the parts of Texas above 36º 30′ N latitude had to be split off to comply with the Missouri compromise).
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Would have to be SoCal or NM. Florida and Texas provide equatorial launch access, and I assume we wouldn’t want to farm that out to another country. Maybe PR would be the big benefactor.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Virginia. Georgia if it decides it’s not red enough.
You want a state as far south as possible, and with an Atlantic coastline. This is because the Earth rotate faster as you approach the equator, and you want to take advantage of that. Satellites go in in an easterly trajectory to match the rotation, too. Launches from California would traverse populated areas rather than mostly empty ocean.
California does have launch sites like Vandenberg AFB, but they’re used for polar orbits.
So, absent Florida or Texas, that leaves Virginia.
Or rent some space in Costa Rica or Colombia.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
The artist gave Trump a very small male member. That must have made him insane with rage.
@ptfe:
I forgot Puerto Rico. That would be better than Virginia.
@Kathy:
Hawaii would be a good choice too and would allow Return to Launch Site aborts (which no one knows will actually work) to be replaced with an Abort to California
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Obviously NASA has many facilities across the US…But the Johnson and Kennedy facilities are preeminent with over a third of NASA employees between them…not including contractors.
@Kathy: Guiana Space Centre.
A lot of the infrastructure is already built.
Just read that on 25 Dec 2021 the James Webb Space Telescope was launched from there. Did not know that.
@Moosebreath: I have always heard the joke about the newly minted Alaska senator responding to a gripe from the Texan about no longer being the largest state in the union, to which the Alaskan reportedly said, “stop whining or we will divide up four ways and you will be fifth.”
@daryl and his brother darryl:
It would be simpler to exile the Representative from Q.
@Stormy Dragon: Montana joins the fray, with a bill making it illegal to donate blood, plasma or organs if you’ve received an mRNA vaccine.
@Kathy:..vacation…
My sister is in Cancun right now for her birthday. So far she has posted several alligator pictures on her FB feed and a picture of a habitat for cats at the resort she is visiting.
@Stormy Dragon:
@Scott:
The issue with Hawaii and Guiana, and for that matter Puerto Rico and Colombia and Costa Rica, is the added cost and time of shipping rocket segments and payloads to the launch site. A lot of that currently travels by rail and trucks, as far as I know.
The large infrared telescope, BTW, was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), which is a partner in the project. they used an Arianne rocket, too.
Far more worrying would be where St. Elon the Twit builds his rockets.
@Kylopod:
The
red necksthe rural voters in GA and TX may want to secede, but there is no way in hell that the business interests of Houston, Dallas and Atlanta will let it happen. It will be like Missouri at the beginning of the Civil War, the rural areas wanted to join the Confederacy, but StL, KC and Springfield said, not so fast.@Monala:
Well, that would help ease the surplus of organs, blood, plasma, and blood products in the state, wouldn’t it?
I assume in whatever effed up, bizarro universe they inhabit, that is the situation.
GJ Forewoman in Fulton County, GA all-but guaranteeing indictments, but for whom?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/us/trump-georgia-grand-jury-indictments.html
@Kylopod:
@Sleeping Dog:
This x 1,000.
I highlight her comments not because I find them plausible in the least, but to show how crazy she is and that Leadership refuses to condemn her, much less to punish her treasonous ideology.
One thing you frequently see in secession discussions is the rural areas think they would be able to use food supply to blackmail the urban areas into continuing pre-secession subsidies… without realizing without a farming lobby backing punitive tariffs put in place to protect domestic farming from overseas producers, a lot of urban areas could probably get food cheaper than they currently do.
@Monala: More Montana news:
State GOP says former governor, past RNC chair no longer a Republican
@Mister Bluster:
I thought human civilization was the habitat for cats…
The date I selected turned out to be excellent. Consider:
1) The 20th is a holiday, so I get a three day weekend before going on vacation.
2) The period also falls between the three day weekend and school spring vacation the first two weeks of April.
3) The first week of April is Easter (I think), including Good Friday* which most working people get as a day off.
So domestic tourism is really down that week, and so are many prices.
And all I was thinking of was the weather.
*That’s so redundant.
@Sleeping Dog:..Air Force One…
Obviously I would fail the entrance exam for Secret Service School.
I have seen both Rail Force One and Train Force One used to tag the consist that President Biden rode from Poland to Kyiv and back (clickety-clack) so I am confused about that. I suspect that confusion is the aim of successful security.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: I assume it would stay, as uprooting NASA launch sites is likely going to be more expensive than renting in Jesusland. Plus, when NASA can just dump their trash in the local river or whatever, that will cut costs more.
I see that James O’Keefe, of the ironically named Project Veritas, is out of work.
Maybe Kevin McCarthy should give HIM the tapes of January 6th to edit???
@Beth:
I’m not sure if I am getting more impatient with stupid and dishonest people as I get older, or whether stupid and dishonest people are getting stupider and more flagrantly dishonest.
Does MTG believe this shit, or is she playing a game, or was she playing a game until she started believing? I don’t know, shove her in a hole and forget about her and it doesn’t really matter.
I want a better quality of terrible people. This is lazy shit.
(If we discover that something vile is going to come out about her divorce, and this is pre-emptive SEO to make sure all searches for “MTG divorce” are not about that, I will revise my opinion of her upwards greatly, but her divorce has been over for a few months, so that’s doubtful.)
@daryl and his brother darryl:
Yeah, Project Veritas bounced him for misusing funds. The MAGAs say it’s a Deep State plot against him.
Trump is calling Fox “the RINO network” now because of their coverage of De Santis.
Bing’s Chatbot 5000 continues to impress.
https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-microsoft-corp-business-software-fb49e5d625bf37be0527e5173116bef3
We are automating the roles of the worst people in the world, making the production of shit content and trolling more efficient. This is what MTG will have to compete with to be offensive and shocking, or batshit insane, or really fucking stupid, or whatever her grift is.
I was expecting our AI overlords would be modeling different terrible human behavior. An impassive, unemotional, distant commitment to optimizing the needs of the many over the needs of the individual and crushing the individual in the process. Automated grievance and spite was unexpected.
Meanwhile, Clarkesworld Magazine has had their submission queue flooded with AI generated short stories.
I asked this on another forum the other day: Is Project Veritas without James O’Keefe sort of like Queen without Freddie Mercury?
@Mister Bluster:
This was the call sign; SAM060, Special Air Mission 060. Great trivia question.
@CSK:..Fox “the RINO network”…
And he has a very excellent business plan for CNN:
@CSK: I didn’t study the picture enough to make that determination, so I’ll have to take your word on it. 😀 😛
@Gustopher: “I’m not sure if I am getting more impatient with stupid and dishonest people as I get older, or whether stupid and dishonest people are getting stupider and more flagrantly dishonest.”
Pour quoi pas le deux with an acknowledgement that factor B is still larger?
@Gustopher:
I don’t know, but they sure seem to get more prominent in national media these days. Probably because they make up a large bloc of one of our two major parties.
I long ago concluded that for people like MTG or TFG “believe” doesn’t enter into it. It’s Dr. Frankfurt’s bullshit. Everybody makes the mistake of assuming other people are like them. Here at OTB the front pagers and commenters mostly want to see and describe the world accurately. It takes effort to understand a lot of people just aren’t wired that way. Ironically, our conservative party is becoming thoroughly post-modern.
There’s an item in Political Wire today that the Montana Republican Party has excommunicated former governor and chair of the RNC Marc Racicot. The faux populist wing of the party may succeed in driving out the supposed RINOs. If they succeed I suspect they’ll retain many of the glibertarian donors, the Uihleins, Mercers, Thiel, etc. but I’d expect a lot of corporate types to switch to the rational party.
Above @gVOR08: I mention the Uihleins. I had somehow gotten an idea Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein made their money from starting up the Uline company. The Guardian has a good story about them. Turns out Richard is fourth generation Schlitz beer money. The story dwells on his cousin, Lynde Bradley Uihline, competing with them. Richard and Elizabeth are backing one of the conservative Republicans in today’s four way jungle primary to select two candidates for a state Supreme Court seat. Lynde is backing one of the Dems. This is a bit surprising as she’s a Bradley as in Allen-Bradley, the electrical equipment maker which the family sold to Rockwell Automation for a large fortune, which spawned the RWNJ Bradley Foundation. But the big money is coming from Richard and Elizabeth. They, with help from the Kochs and others are responsible for the complete disaster that WI politics has become. Although they choose to live in IL. They’re also supporters Ron Johnson and MTG.
The Guardian article points out that this flows directly from Citizens United which overthrew WI’s previous strict campaign finance rules. They are now a tossup state with a thoroughly gerrymandered GOP legislature.
@Kathy:
People forget how long ago the JWST project started. At that time there was no SpaceX, the Delta IV Heavy was new and expensive, and neither the Shuttle nor the Atlas V could provide the necessary performance. Europe providing launch services on an Arianne 5 was the natural fit.
The real indicator that a partition of the country is possible will be whether there’s a devolution of authority to deal with the consequences of climate change. I assert there will be, starting with fundamental differences in how different regions want their electric grids to adapt.
@Michael Cain:
I think this particular instrument began development in the mid-90s.
Space missions take a long time getting started. They’re so expensive to build and launch, that you want to get the most out of them. At the same time, you also want the best chance at success. A balance needs to be struck on how complex a probe or instrument will be, as well as how massive and how expensive.
And it does hurt when one fails, like the Mars polar lander.
On the flip side, many outlast their design operational time by decades (though this adds the expense of keeping them running). Take the Voyagers, they’re nearing five decades of operation.
@Kathy: Time, maybe. But shipping by ocean is relatively cheap, and size doesn’t matter.
@Gustopher:
As in “shove her in a hole and forget about her”…… like trash ? (reference to discussion of several days ago)
Vivek Ramaswamy, the multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur and self-described intellectual godfather of the anti-woke movement, announced on Tuesday that he is running for president.
Politico
@Monala: I can’t wait for the people who need them to weigh in.