Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, August 18, 2020
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86 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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It is primary election day here in Florida. Races for County Sheriff and State House Representative are at the top of the Democratic ballot.
I’ll walk* over to the polling place around seven o’clock. It is in our community’s west clubhouse.
*- From my building, the walk is about 3/4 of a mile round trip.
The Florida headline of the day-
Florida reports lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in two months
The headline of the day-
Citibank sues for $176m payment made in error
Donald Trump may hold funeral service for younger brother at White House
We all know the reasons for this and it is just so grossly abhorrent.
First- Trying to turn a family loss into a political gain.
Second- You just know this at least as much about the fact that Obama is not just invited to eulogize so often (John Lewis, Elijah Cummings, John McCain, Sen Ted Kennedy, the Emanuel AME Church victims, and no doubt more) but also that afterwards people talk about how pitch perfect they were, how he hit all the right notes, and they become youtube hits, go viral even and people watch them a 2nd and some even 3rd time. So…
Third- trump wants to give a nationally televised eulogy so that “afterwards people talk about how pitch perfect it was, how he hit all the right notes,” and it will become a youtube hit! Go VIRAL! The MAGAs will watch it repeatedly!
Fourth- Except it won’t, we know the horrors that will spill from his mouth even before he opens it and the only reason people will watch it is for the same reason they slow down at accidents: They want to see blood.
@Bill: Take the money and run.
@Bill: 2,678 new cases, or about the same as the EU.
(s// I don’t know and can not easily find #s for all of the EU already tallyed up, if I wanted to I could do it myself but that’s a lot of work just for a lame joke)
A fine article on the Italian movie, Bicycle Thieves (first released in this country as The Bicycle Thief.) If you love movies and you’ve never seen this, you’ve missed on of the seminal works in film history.
Jill Biden’s ex-husband accuses her of affair with Joe in 1970s
Definition of irony: in the promotion of a serial adulterer, john and possible child molester, accusing your ex of a 54 yo affair as her husband runs for prez. Doubt this has legs beyond the fever swamps.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Why would the TV networks, even Faux News, cover the funeral of a private citizen of no particular note? What he may get is replays of the sections of the eulogy that show his narcissism.
It is what it is…
I voted. A couple of observations.
1- I was the first person to vote at our precinct though somebody came in behind me to vote also.
2- Along with a ‘I voted’ sticker I received a ‘I voted’. That’s such a great deal I feel like voting again. 😉
3- The Jewish temple directly across* from the condo I live in is also a polling place.
*- Directly across aka If I were to walk in a straight line across a parking lot and a two-lane I’d walk right into the temple building’s south wall.
Oy vey.
As Mike Pence mounts the stage to debate Kamala Harris, he reflects on the word harbinger.
@sam:
Oy is right. He think he personally made Jerusalem the capital? It always has been.
@An Interested Party:
That’s one of those moments you’re really glad you caught live.
I made the mistake of watching the whole 2 hours of convention last night. It was reasonably well produced with some pretty good segments, but that is waaaay too much television for me. One personality who stuck out was Cedric Richmond, the Congressman from New Orleans. Just a good engaging speaker with a good strong thesis statement about the importance of community over stock markets in measuring the economy. I think we will see this guy again.
@Sleeping Dog: Why do they cover his “Covid” news conferences? Same reason, it’s trump. He’s the wreck in the White House they can’t pull their cameras away from. They will report on it because they report on everything he does and they will run at least some of the the footage the WH releases because that’s what they do.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Who says Trump has a say? Unless he’s the executor (and would that even be legal for a POTUS since there’s potential lawsuits??) or there’s a specific directive, the decision gets made by immediate family like spouse and children. If I’m not mistaken, the man had at least a child that would get preference instead of him, if not a spouse. He may always have had pre-set plans.
Why is anybody assuming Donald gets to call the shots?
@KM: Well, apparently he got to choose the Capital of the nation of Israel. @sam:
So it’s just a recognition of his superpowers.
@KM: I had the same question but nobody seems to have an answer. The family may yet veto this stupidity and I hope for their sake they do. Still, it seems that for dt’s entire life everybody has gone along with whatever he wanted because they were just too damn tired of fighting over stupid shit all the time.
If you’ve ever been in such a relationship, you know the feeling.
If you support this guy for reelection you’re either clueless or an asshole.
@KM:
@OzarkHillbilly:
I expect it depends on how trumpy that part of the Trump family is. I mean, one can easily imagine Donald the Loser bragging incessantly for decades that his father was eulogized by the president* at a White House funeral.
BTW, I don’t recall any funerals being held at the White House.
* Of course, in this hypothetical case, it would have been done by a real president.
@Kathy:
I think the quickest way to put an end to this nonsense is to inform Donald that while he might let his brother has a funeral at the WH, nobody will be holding one for *HIM* there (especially if a Dem’s in office). Does he really want his little brother to get that bragging right when he, the POTUS, will not?
@KM:
I don’t think Robert Trump had any biological children of his own. He adopted his first wife’s son. He did leave a second wife, and presumably she’ll have the say as to what the funeral arrangements will be. Maybe she’ll go along with Donald’s circus.
Senate Intel has released a damning 966 page counterintelligence report on the Trump Campaigns collusion with Russia in the 2016 election…including Manafort’s oft repeated contacts with Russian Intel Operatives.
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf
@KM:
Unfortunately, regardless of who is in office, Trump will probably have a state funeral…
Having said that, I had this mental picture of Biden showing up at Trump’s funeral to nail the casket shut 🙂
@Kathy: I want Trump to have an open casket service and I want the hat pin concession.
Trump would buy the cooperation of Robert’s family. Then likely stiff them. And wouldn’t they have to let Mary come?
On other news, Boom, which I still think it’s a terrible name for an aviation company on many levels, announced it will roll out its XB-1 demonstrator on Oct. 17th. First test flight is slated for 2021.
This is still far from a working supersonic airliner, but it is the first time since Concorde that any manufacturer has produced something other than vaporware (and this includes studies, designs, design studies, and pretty concept art pictures).
Related, Virgin Galactic, which is actually developing the Scaled Composites passenger follow-on of Spaceship One (16 years and counting!), says it’s developing a Mach 3+ business jet. Passenger capacity is advertised as between 9 and 19 people, which to me is a business jet.
I’m more skeptical of any bright prospects for supersonic commercial aviation than I was when Boom first broke in the news some years ago. The sonic boom problem is still there, as is the high fuel consumption. But also public sentiments on economic inequality and carbon emissions has risen quite a bit.
We’ll see.
@Teve: I’ll go with C): Both.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl: I will predict that nobody will read of it because it is on page 16 C, but Durham’s “report” will get front paged everywhere.
@Kathy:
Whoever the sitting president is when Trump finally shuffles off this mortal coil will be tasked with delivering the eulogy.
Worst. Job. Ever. I mean, what good things can anyone say about him? That he kept bronzing manufacturers solvent?
Holy shit. I was absolutely positive I was going to jail when two sheriffs deputies pulled me over, asked me if they could search my car because there were reports of burglaries nearby with a white car leaving the premises, and I said no and they just backed off and let me go.
They said the burglaries involved stolen computers and I realized that I, out of sheer laziness, had two old laptops in the trunk, and said Nope.
@CSK:
There’s a video of Bill Maher doing a Trump eulogy. Link. It begins at around 2:10.
Me, I’d be less wordy:
Well, Donald, you finally did something good, even if it took you literally a lifetime. Good riddance.
Thank you. Drive safely.
@Kathy:
That was good, but I like yours better. Too bad it’ll never happen.
@Kathy: FDR and, IIRC, Lincoln had funeral services at the White House.
@Kathy: Mine would be something like this: “My mother always said that if one can’t say anything nice about a person, than say nothing at all.” and then return to my seat.
Can you spell “collusion?”
I knew you could!
Trump’s 2016 campaign chair was a ‘grave counterintelligence threat,’ had contact with Russian intelligence, Senate panel finds
But wait, there’s more!
Hahahahaha…BULLSHIT!
@Kathy: A Trump funeral would be a fine time for a Democratic President to talk about burying the divisions in America, and the hatred.
Bonus points for placing a hatchet in the casket to literally bury the hatchet.
More bonus points for mutilating the corpse with the hatchet, to make sure he’s really dead and stays dead.
@Kathy:
“Unfortunately, regardless of who is in office, Trump will probably have a state funeral.”
I expect it will have YUUUGE! crowds. After all, if you give people what they want, they will show up.
@Moosebreath:
Well, it would be kind of a very big funeral party.
@CSK :
I know you didn’t mean it that way but adopted children count. Priority goes to the spouse so second wife chooses but if not, most states would give rights to the offspring so the adopted son would be next in line to decide. However, most of this is a moot point since I’m fairly sure he would have had a will and specifics stated ahead of time – wealthy people usually do. Do we want to see if Trump’s so self-centered he’d go against the last wishes of family for ratings?
I’m also vaguely convinced there’s some sort of protocol or rules around WH funerals. As @Kathy notes, a former POTUS gets a state funeral but specifically one held at the WH? Clearly not since we’ve not seen one for recently deceased POTUS. In other words, it’s not an automatic privilege/honor and so can be denied. Again, point it out to Donald that while he has to be held in state when he dies, nobody said it was gonna be in the Lincoln Bedroom so why give that honor to someone else?
What happened to me today for approximately two hours is why I won’t ever bundle all phone, television and internet services with the same provider.
I took a nap around 930 and woke at 1030 to discover I had no phone service. A quick check showed my internet was down too which means television wasn’t going to work either.
Using my LG cellphone* (filled with Tracphone minutes every 3 months), I called Xfinity. I was told we would without service till almost 2:30. It came back around 12:45.
Dear wife, who uses her cell phone all the time, has T Mobile. With my health I just can’t take the chance of having no way of calling out if I am in distress.
*- Its a throw away cellphone where I buy minutes. I don’t use it much and minutes accumulate unless you don’t get a new card before the present minutes expire. I have 1,700 plus minutes right now and my current service has 19 days to go.
@KM:
We don’t need to see. We know.
I’m hopeful whoever the future president is who has to arrange this, might argue such honor will not be bestowed on a convicted felon.
My paternal grandmother, Ida, was 27 that year.
I have no memory of my maternal grandmother although I’ve been told that I visited her before she died when I was very young.
@Bill:..bundle all phone, television and internet services with the same provider.
When Verizon Communications operated the landline telephone exchange where I live I bundled landline phone, DSL Internet and Verizon Wireless. Verizon Communications offered a package that included DirectTv at the time (before AT T bought DirecTv) but did not offer any other video service. No FiOS available. Even though I was a Verizon Communications employee at the time and got a discount it wasn’t such a great deal so I never signed up for the TV.
There were a few times when the land line phone and the DSL would go down but the cell service would still work.
Verizon Communications sold my local exchange to Frontier Communications several years ago. I finally dropped my land line phone keeping the High Speed DSL. My cell is still with Verizon Wireless.
Having worked for Frontier in the past I knew there was trouble ahead. FTR is now in bankruptcy.
I can’t post the link without going into moderation limbo, but the Trump campaign is suing the state of Nevada for its plan to provide vote-by-mail ballots for all registered voters
Trump’s butt is big enough, but I don’t think this would help him with the hounds of the New York City DA’s office.
@Flat earth luddite:..can’t post the link…
Try this: Nevada Independent
@SC_Birdflyte: So this would be history repeating as farce?
@Bill: I liked Tracfone service and used it for many years without any problems. Now I have friends and relatives who like to talk on the phone and I have been known to humor them for more than an hour at times, so I simply can’t keep enough minutes economically. I had 1200 minutes of service in January of this year and ran out twice before April. But it is a good phone system for emergencies and unrecovered introverts.
And today’s entry in the evidence that Karma might be an actual thing file:
“Diamond and Silk Call Out Fox News’ Racism After They Got Fired as 2020 Continues to be Raggedy AF”
https://www.theroot.com/diamond-and-silk-call-out-fox-news-racism-after-they-go-1844754864?
Wherever they hold the funeral service for Robert Trump, you can expect Donald will give a eulogy. Wherever Donald eulogizes his brother, Robert, you can guess how it will go. Given that Robert was widely remembered as the “good” Trump, you can anticipate that Robert deserved better.
@Teve: I spent some time in Maine over the weekend, and saw literally hundreds of Trump/Pence signs. Counted all of three for Biden.
I know that I was in rural areas, but the level of support–signs, flags, etc.–for Trump is depressing.
@Jen:
Maybe that’s why Susan Collins is so unwilling to criticize Trump.
What part of Maine, if you don’t mind my asking.
Here in northeastern Mass., I’ve seen one giant Trump sign. That was in Salisbury. No other signs for him, or for Biden, anywhere else. That’s odd.
@CSK: @Jen:
Here in Utah – Park City, Salt Lake, Provo, Heber City, and Orem – I’ve seen exactly zero yard signs. None for Trump/Pence and none for Biden/Harris. As for bumper stickers, more Biden than Trump by at least 3-1, but that’s only in Park City. In SLC it was about even.
@EddieInCA:
I’m trying to figure out why this should be so. Either it has something to do with the pandemic–quite what, I haven’t yet figured out, since ordering a sign and putting it in your front yard is hardly on the list of prohibited activities–or people have become so, so polarized that they don’t care to advertise their politics for fear of retribution. I suppose another possibility is that no one’s very excited about either Trump or Biden.
I’m not seeing any bumper stickers, either.
Lots of fires here in Colorado during the last week. Part of a major freeway, I-70, has been closed down for days. Drove between a couple of big fires on the way home from vacation without even realizing it.
@CSK: We drove to Mt. Desert Island, up through the center of the state. Augusta area, up through Palmyra, Corinth, Old Town, Ellsworth–we were on the bike and all over the place. I am not exaggerating when I say “hundreds”–there were towns we went through where almost every property had a sign out front. There were even quite a few Trump signs on Mt. Desert Island, although none in Bar Harbor. That’s where the Biden signs were.
And yes–that was exactly my thought about Collins.
@Flat earth luddite: That will go over like a lead balloon.
@Jen:
Thanks. The Trump signs on Mt. Desert Island surprise me a bit, since Northeast Harbor is historically an enclave of the old rich, but I suppose even a hopelessly vulgar buffoon like Trump is preferable to a Democrat. (They must cringe when they vote for him.) The Biden signs in Bar Harbor don’t surprise me; for a long time it’s been sort of artsy-craftsy. There was an Italian restaurant there that played Puccini; my father adored it.
Does your part of NH have a lot of signs?
@CSK: Not a lot of signs here, no. A few of the Trump supporters from 2016 have new signs up (Trump 2020), but for the most part there aren’t that many. And I live in a town that went for Trump in 2016, same with surrounding towns, so it’s not like I’m in some liberal enclave.
That’s part of what I found so surprising about Maine, I think–it was going from a handful here to significant numbers there. One sign read “Trump 2020: Make liberals cry again.” {eye roll} To be clear, the bulk of the signs were in central Maine (they are everywhere), only a few dozen or so on Mt. Desert Island.
It made me think, this is how people can get caught up in believing what Trump says–they are literally surrounded for MILES by people who agree with them. There’s definitely a rural bubble.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
Just started looking at that.
After just a brief look (and the summaries by Natasha Bertrand)
Well, there’s no “OK, I admit it, I colluded.” by Trump.
But it’s clear that people in the campaign were interacting with Russian agencies.
Asserting Trump knew nothing about it stretches credibility beyond reasonable limits.
(As if we didn’t already know that. But vindication is always nice.)
@Jen:
Went up to North Conway for lunch today and came back through Fryburg, Cornish etc. Trump signs predominated, but that doesn’t surprise me as his campaign is pushing people to display signs. As we got down to the southern part of the state York, Elliot, Kittery there were a significant number of Biden signs.
Trump signs have been going up for a couple of months, but in the last week Biden signs are beginning to appear.
One of the reasons that I’m skeptical of the silent Trump supporter meme, is how loud and proud his supporters are. Looking at the polls, you can make a case that it is the Biden voter who is quiet.
@Sleeping Dog:
There’s no doubt that the base is very loud and proud in its support of Trump. The voters who concern me are the ones who plan to vote for Trump, but won’t admit it. I have no way to calculate how many of those people there are.
Part n* of my campaign to cheer up Americans by recounting the most egregious f*^kups of the British government.
Well, due to covid, this summers A level exams were cancelled.
A-level grades are THE thing that university entrance are based on.
It is impossible to overstate how important they are to school leavers hopes re. higher education.
So, an alternative system is needed.
This has been known to be virtually inevitable since schools were suspended in late March.
With the best part of 5 months to prepare, the Department of Education proceeds to cock things up on a scale that would make Betsy DeVos blush.
And then u-turns, quite rightly, but leaving students still unclear how they are places, universities unsure how the hell hell to reset admissions without incurring financial penalties, and how to balance claims of pre/post reset to central assesment grading.
And does Education Secretary Gavin Williamson resign? Is he fired? Oh, sweet summer child!
No, he palms off the blame on Ofqual (who were obviously working to DoEd instructions; and possibly to those of the Johnson/Cummings/Gove triumvirate).
*snarl*
At least, though, we have got out of it possibly the most vicious public slaughter of a senior minister I have ever seen.
@Sleeping Dog:
Several polls indicate most likely Biden voters are voting against Trump, while most likely Trump voters are voting for Donnie the Loser.
This kind of speaks to the old maxim by Heinlein that there is always a candidate worth voting against. IN this case I think there is one candidate worth voting out.
Anyway, if the polls are right, then likely Biden voters won’t be enthusiastic enough to put up signs. This doesn’t matter one bit, so long as they do vote for Biden in Nov. 3rd.
Query from a Brit:
Are political support signs common is US election periods?
They’re not unknown in UK, but they’re very much the exception to the rule.
Perhaps part of the old British thing: except among people close, you don’t usually talk politics or religion.
Seriously, you can know someone as a casual friend or work colleague for years, and have no idea of their politics or religion.
(But you’ll surely know what teams they support.)
There also a British phrase for someone who parades their religiosity (can used by people who are communicants or equiv, themselves) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/God_botherer
No corresponding term for a political enthusiast, except for “annoying” LOL.
@Flat earth luddite:
And you know, Nevada is the state that did it right from a procedural perspective. Called the legislature back into special session, changed the laws, provided additional funding so the county clerks could buy equipment and sign contracts for printing, etc. None of the shenanigans — and the part of me that worked for a state legislature calls it that — with the executive or judicial branches claiming powers that they clearly don’t have to ignore/rewrite the statutes.
The fact that the Trump campaign took on Nevada rather than the states where various officials, some elected and some not, are making the rules up as they go, says something about their judgement.
@Kingdaddy:
Along the I-25 urban corridor, it’s been impossible to ignore the fact that something like 100,000 acres have burned over the past week. All you have to do is step outside, and you ask “What’s on fire?”
@JohnSF: Yes, yard signs are definitely a “thing” here. It’s a fairly tried and true political tactic–it provides a level of visual “moral support” and can help to bolster a campaign. The most ardent supporters are LOUD AND PROUD and willing to display their support, inviting, perhaps, the ire of their neighbors.
My husband, who is British, would probably rather have a root canal than put a sign in our yard (I’m with him on that). However, he says that if neighbors start putting up Trump signs, we will 100% have one up for Biden.
@JohnSF:..phrase for someone who parades their religiosity…
Bible Thumper, Holy Roller, Zealot…
@JohnSF:
Signs are fairly common. Not everyone puts them out, but you see them on the front lawns of people who are really committed, as far as I can tell. From my observation–and this is only my observation–they tend to be more common in less affluent neighborhoods.
Thanks for trying to entertain/distract us.
Out here, signs don’t mean a damn thing. It’s trump signs and *trump signs only*, about one every 25.5 acres. Neither acres nor signs vote.
** I haven’t gotten my Biden sign yet. I’m wondering if it will last thru the first wkend.
Saint Louis’ Favorite Honkies to speak at Republican convention.
St. Louis Couple Who Waved Guns At Black Lives Matter Protesters To Speak At RNC
@Jen:
@CSK:
Do the campaigns or candidates give them away for free, or is it something they send in exchange for (I assume small) donations?
A viral rumor has Brock Turner (the Stanford student who raped an unconscious female classmate, and received a slap on the wrist for it) speaking at the RNC. Despite the rumor being untrue…
@CSK:
Frankly, I don’t believe there is a hidden trough of Trump voters. In 16, the voters who were considered ‘hidden trump voters’ were the undecideds, who were mostly the hate both candidates voter and those voters went to Trump. This year, there are simply not very many undecided voters and surveys on where those voters lean is toward Biden.
If going into election day Biden is still holding an 8-10% lead, those voters will fall in line with him, so to be on the winning team.
@Kathy:
Yes, not many are excited about Joe, I’m not, but I can’t wait to vote against the Former Reality Show Host. (damn, I wish I could call him Tiny)
@Kathy:
I know you can buy signs for Biden and Trump. I don’t know if you can get them in return for a donation.
@Sleeping Dog:
You’re probably right.
@Kathy: Campaigns used to give them away for free–or, more specifically, you could have a sign put in your yard by calling a campaign and getting on the list to have one put up. Campaigns liked this because they could then control the installation–they’d pick a day a few weeks before the election and then do a sign drop, and it would look like BAM! overnight support was increasing.
Unfortunately, way too many people decided to start pranking friends & family by calling to have signs installed in yards of non-supporters. Sign drops are now relegated to public byways and busy street corners.
They could now be charging for them, that would make sense on some level.
@JohnSF: any commentator who can give us “most risible twat pageant” certainly has my vote! But then again, I am as I am named.
And HT to Ozark and Bluster… maybe someday I’ll finger out this whole Commodore 64 thingie.
@CSK:
Well, if you buy anything from a campaign, you’re effectively contributing your money to the cause.
@Jen:
Interesting turn of unintended consequences.
@Kathy:
Amazon sells a lot of stuff, signage included, for Biden and Trump. I didn’t check who manufactured it or who gets the profit.
@Monala:
Wow!! There’s a name I haven’t seen or heard in a long, long time. Back in the late 80’s, probably 1987 or 1988, Randi Mayem Singer sold one of the best scripts I’ve ever read, “A $.22 Romance” for an ungodly sum [at the time] for an unknown writer. The script has never been produced, despite it constantly showing up on lists for the “best unproduced screenplay”. The company I was working for at the time, Interscope, brought her in for a meeting, and I remember her being damn smart and damn good looking. Thanks for bringing back a good memory, Monala.
@EddieInCA: Checking her out on IMDB, she basically has never stopped working, mostly in TV.