Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, February 27, 2024
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39 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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I have completed my little psyops experiment I’ve been running in my office here in DeSantistan. My secretary comes into my office yesterday and admitted I was right that listening to only one station was dangerous and could lead to radicalization. She admitted that, as much as it pained her, she found value in seeing what they were discussing on MSNBC and CNN in comparison with Fox.
I have been setting this up for over 2 years. Of course, she thinks this was mostly her idea which is the only way she would ever come to this point. She even told me she was thinking of switching to becoming an Independent and leaving the GOP as they never actually did anything about problems.
Will she vote for Biden? Never…but she could absolutely leave the box for POTUS blank. This will be my next goal.
@Jim Brown 32: Job well done, Sir! Very well done.
From, I read this:
You mean you aren’t sure? Maybe one’s a transmission and the others a transfer case? I know, speaking in front of a camera* is hard, but I still had to laugh. The rest of the story is just plain sad.
*something I have avoided on a couple of occasions.
In Missouri (sorry, Ozark) a woman can’t get a divorce if she’s pregnant.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/missouri-law-prevents-pregnant-women-from-getting-divorced
I missed this one from Greg Abbott:
“We are using every tool that can be used from building a border wall, to building these border barriers, to passing this law that I signed that led to another lawsuit by the Biden administration where I signed a law making it illegal for somebody to enter Texas from another country,” Abbott said on “The Dana Loesch Show” last week.
“The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border, because of course the Biden administration would charge us with murder,” Abbott later added.
Greg Abbott is a self-proclaimed Christian who has talked about how religion helped him deal with the accident that left him in a wheelchair. These comments give an indication of the depth of his Christian beliefs.
The 5th Circuit of course.
FYI:
If we can’t protect this planet, we deserve extinction. We have no right to trash another.
@CSK: I wonder if “he needed killin’ ” will be a viable defense? Who am I kidding, a defense for a woman to kill her man?
Thanx. I think.
Well, Massachusetts has ts share of freaks, too. Although “freak” might be far too mild a term to describe this creature:
http://www.universalhub.com/2024/tough-choice-republican-voters-one-boston-district
@CSK:
That got me wondering; what if the baby’s father wasn’t the husband?
@Jim Brown 32: I’d be very interested in hearing some additional details of how you did this. I’ve been trying a similar project, without much evident success
@CSK:
The Universal Hub has a way with headlines…
@Sleeping Dog:
Oh, that would probably be the husband’s defense for killing the wife.
@Sleeping Dog:
I’d never heard of The Universal Hub prior to this, but yes, they do have a way with words.
On a totally irrelevant note, I almost binged the last two eps of Disenchantment last night. I’d planned to watch eps 7 and 8, and leave the final 2 for the rest of the week. But things really got serious at the end of ep 8. So I think I’ll watch them today, and catch up with John Oliver tomorrow.
Please warn if you post spoilers.
Oklahoma state senator asked to respond to the death of a non-binary teen after an alleged beating in a public school restroom…
Fury as Oklahoma senator calls LGBTQ+ people ‘filth’ after being asked about Nex Benedict’s death
@Stormy Dragon:
It’s always been clear all anti-trans bills were meant as repression, but now it’s out in the open. I don’t know if it will have any effect.
@SenyorDave:
This is, of course, false. There are no federal murder laws. The State of Texas would charge them with murder. Oh, the irony.
Another day, another all-time highest global sea surface temperature ever recorded. Ho hum.
While I have little confidence that Speaker Johnson can pull this off without suffering severe consequences from the Republican Right Wing Zealots in the United States House of Representatives and from private citizen Donald Trump who has him by the balls, I wish the Speaker the best of luck.
@Mister Bluster: Yeah, he’s in a tough spot. The big point of leverage he has with the MAGA faction is that he was the last choice before making a deal with the Democrats to choose a speaker. Nobody on that side of the aisle wants that, and you can be sure they are lining up their reasons why, “Those guys forced us to make this deal”.
@Mister Bluster:
@Jay L Gischer:
I’m pretty sure he’s toast. I honestly think he has half a functioning brain, but the religious fanatic half is clearly in charge. I should state that, as of right now, I don’t necessarily want him to fail. I think a government shutdown is bad. That being said, if the choice is between a shut down and Dems eating a shit sandwich full of anti-LGBT, anti-immigrant bullshit, then shutdown it is.
I’m pretty sure we’re going to walk up to the brink on Saturday and then see who blinks. If it’s johnson they are going to tear him limb from limb monday morning. I honestly think that the Gaetz/MGT wing thing they are not only winning, but incapable of defeat. If we get past this week with a deal, Johnson is politically dead and the March 8 deadline is toast.
Please, please, universe, I want to be wrong.
@Beth: The Republicans actively demonstrating that they are worse than Democrats may be the only way that the “Lesser of Two Evils” campaign actually works.
I am, technically, an optimist.
@OzarkHillbilly:
On the subject of things said on TeeVee that crack one up, one of the voices on ESPN said, in relation to a player who got “franchise tagged”:
“The players hate it. He gets a guaranteed $20 million for this year, but has no long term security.”
@Beth: I certainly don’t have a crystal ball, but I think we get a deal, and Johnson survives. I think he has better caucus management and political skills than Kevin McCarthy did.
Also, I think if he wants the D caucus to help him out on the motion to unseat him, he knows enough to make a deal with them. Furthermore, he needs to know the general outlines of that deal, and show it to the MAGAs at the right time, and with the right tone. I think he can do all those things. I don’t know whether he will do all those things.
But when I look at what their differences are, my gut feeling is “this will get resolved”. The thing to remember is that there is a big downside to making a deal at anything but the last moment, since it will look to partisans like you maybe could have got better if you just held out a bit longer.
I make no prediction at all about whether LGBTQetcetc will be thrown under the bus. I can’t rule it out, though “we don’t want their filth in Oklahoma” is probably not helping the anti- crowd right now.
@Jay L Gischer:
I don’t think he has better political skills at all. I do think the Q Caucus is a bit more afraid of what happens if Johnson is removed, so he has a bit more leeway.
While this seems like good news, the lesson from the Trojan War is “always look for the catch.”
Starbucks agrees to talk to the union.
@Stormy Dragon:
A few words for State Senator Woods that he might have encountered, but just in case he hasn’t read the complete book…
Macron is getting a bad case of the clevers (ie his idea is not wise).
There’s a delicate balance between supporting Ukraine militarily and not escalating the conflict. If the aggressor were any other country, except China, NATO could send troops freely. Against Russia, it invites escalation with a nuclear power. Not smart.
granted Ukraine may lose, given the limited aid Europe and NATO provide. It probably will lose some territories by the time the war ends, however and whenever that happens. In that case, Russia will have paid a very high price, higher than it did on its wars with Chechnya and Georgia.
And that may be the best we can expect. It’s not ideal, it’s not even good, but it’s what’s possible.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Republiqans in Florida are running head long into the law of consequences: actions have consequences. So they have “paused” attempts at a fetal/embryo personhood law.
Translated to English, they need time to rework the bill so they can have their cake and eat it. Unfortunately, this is not very hard to accomplish, Simply set a lower limit when personhood begins, say as much time past conception as leftover and non-viable IVF embryos won’t be affected.
We’re in for a hard, painful time until sanity returns.
@Jay L Gischer: “I think he has better caucus management and political skills than Kevin McCarthy did.”
I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s certainly the case that there isn’t really a replacement for him anywhere out there, and even the MAGA-freaks know how bad a repeat of the last speaker battle would look.
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you for reminding me. The idea of Biden doing a campaign stop on Seth Meyer’s show has a “what’s wrong with this picture” quality to it. But at least he was appearing about whether Taylor Swift still has his back instead of something important. 🙁
@Sleeping Dog: In some states, it doesn’t matter unless the woman wishes to declare someone other than her husband as the father.
@Gustopher:
I agree with you, but I suspect the MAGA wing will lose that fear quickly if either Trump gets pissy, or Johnson is too conciliatory towards (gestures vaguely leftward). Also, “too conciliatory” is entirely subjective within the heads of gaetz and MTG.
@Gustopher:
I agree with you, but I suspect the MAGA wing will lose that fear quickly if either Trump gets pissy, or Johnson is too conciliatory towards (gestures vaguely leftward). Also, “too conciliatory” is entirely subjective within the heads of gaetz and MTG.
@Kingdaddy: I suspect that Woods would say that he is being kind and compassionate in the manner of Christ–
–to the kids who beat the tranny freak.
Two thoughts:
1. Not a high bar to jump.
2. From your lips to God’s ears. I admire your optimism.
My predictions for todays Michigan primary:
Biden – 75%
Uncomiited – 15%
Phillips – 7%
Williamson – 3%
Trump – 60%
Haley – 30%
DeSantis – 5%
Uncomiited – 3%
Everyone else – 2%
@Erik: There is an influence concept I call mirroring and shaping. It’s is commonly known by a different name in the community of professionals that make a living in this trade space so you’ll have do your own research if you want more of the academics and studies behind why it works. It still remains more art than science– so the practitioner matters.
In short, I rarely challenge her directly, instead, I mirror her behavior: I have my office TV on Fox News quite a bit during the day. She has her TV on Fox all day. She complains about the government and illegals. So do I. She hates Biden, I also express beefs with Biden. That is mirroring–which establishes trust and comfort level. Trump uses a similar tactic but not as eloquently as a person with intelligence. However, he is is naturally charismatic which is a 70% solution. Obama, Clinton, MLK, Lincoln, etc are the Gold Standard.
Shaping happens randomly where opportune, appropriate, and unexpected. For example, there are times when my office TV is on CNN or MSNBC and she comes in–if it happens to be on a story about Congress. I complain about Congress (mirror her complaint) then work my complaint around to how shiesty Congress critters trick average voters (of course, not her) into thinking POTUS is the reason immigration is not fixed when they are the real culprits. She knows enough about the government to know this is true. And of course, she’s above average so she sees right through their ploy unlike the average voters who are consistently duped. She liked Desantis in the Primary ( but knew he wouldn’t be at Trump). I have said often how I was hoping Desantis lit in on the insurance companies the way he went after AGs in the states so we could roll back insurance profiteering in this State. insurance rates are something she complains about and DeSantis won’t do anything about
There are some issues I’ve had to address weeks after learning her position when the circumstance were favorable to address her from a third party perspective. Over the last 2 years in the course of natural conversations she’s heard countless examples of Government investments driving new industry or private sector innovation. From time to time, I’ll tell her I saw a story on that liberal dumpster fire MSNBC (again mirroring) bout those investments. And how greedy 1% CEOs won’t risk shareholder capital on basic scientific research without Government investment (All true but mirrors her disdain for the 1% but educates her on the government role in industry,
Frontal assaults on peoples believes are futile. One must make flanking, suggestive attacks in order to have an opportunity to change minds.
@EddieInCA: I did my bit! Although I wasn’t sure if it was better to vote for Biden or against Trump …