Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, December 15, 2020
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67 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’s just the flu.
White House Official Recovers From Severe Covid-19, Friend Says
That graph… WASF.
51% of Americans are wrong.
Die Hard is NOT a Christmas movie, say Americans
GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer (ND), a top Trump ally, when asked by Hill pool if Biden is president-elect:
Prof. Irwin Corey reached out from the beyond to say he is filing suit against Sen. Cramer for copyright infringement.
@Scott: Is too.
Putin has finally congratulated Biden on his win, saying he wishes Biden “every success.”
@sam:
That’s their story and they are sticking to it: Someone will be inaugurated in January. Could be DJT; could be the other guy. It’s really a coin flip at this time so hard to say decisively.
@Scott: “Yippie Ki Yay, Motherfucker.” is the new “Ho ho ho.”
@Paine: Heads, Biden wins. Tails, trump loses.
Ann Reinking – RIP
The Dancer of a Generation: A Celebration of 12 Killer Ann Reinking Videos.
I’ve never been to the New York play scene, don’t follow it at all. But her? Her I know.
@Scott:
I had to educate the high-school girl at the cash resister about this last night.
She didn’t believe the 20-something manager. My calm voice and grey hair lent authority to my assurances that it is, in fact, a Christmas movie.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I am sad. She was an incredible talent.
@CSK: Indeed.
@Scott: Of course it’s a Christmas movie. It takes place at Christmas time, the setting is a Christmas party, and an estranged couple are reunited (give or take 😉 ). Lifetime should be showing it in the seasonal rotation and probably will be in a couple more years.
I just got my first ever flu shot, right here at work.
I thought the company had secured vaccines, but this wasn’t the case. Instead, personnel of the Social Security Institute, Mexico’s largest public healthcare system, bring and administer them.
On other things, I thought it was Gremlins that was a Christmas movie.
Treasure hunter marks five years in jail for refusing to give up his gold
His fines have also accumulated to the tune of $1.8 million.
@Scott:
Heathens. Next they say Gremlins doesn’t count either!!
@Just nutha ignint cracker: It also has Xmas shootouts and Xmas explosions, just like Santa does.
@Kathy: Gremlins is a Xmas movie.
@OzarkHillbilly:
In Futurama, Robot Santa Claus has a really big arsenal at his death fortress on the North Pole of Neptune, and says things like “Your mistletoe is no match for my TOW missile!”
This just brings joy to my heart. Trump sending out fund raising emails implying the money will go to the Georgia races and instead pocketing it himself.
For all my family and friends in the Northeast.
@MarkedMan:
Well, he needs the money to pay off that personally guaranteed $400+ million debt that comes due next year, doesn’t he? The bread has to come from somewhere, right?
Speaking of vaccines, it looks like Moderna’s vaccine will get emergency use authorization soon.
mRNA vaccines may revolutionize vaccine development. But let not the viral vector adenovirus vaccine be overshadowed, Both techniques yielded workable, safe, effective vaccines against a new pathogen in record time.
Back in the 80s when the first real steps in genetic engineering were being taken, I didn’t imagine it would lead to quick vaccine development. I do recall much talk of using plasmids, genetic material shared naturally between bacteria, to base vaccines on. I wonder if anything came off that.
@Kathy:
There was some discussion of this in a book I read not long ago, titled Biography of Resistance. My recollection of that was that it’s being studied now because it occurs naturally and allows antibiotic resistance to be conferred from one bacteria to another.
@Teve: For once I wish Trump’s projection would come true.
@Jen:
I understand bacteria are rather promiscuous with their plasmids. So if a “good” bacterial colony in your gut gets resistance, they can pass it on to other species going through the digestive tract. And this doesn’t just happen in humans, but also in cattle, poultry, and other domesticates we feed antibiotics to.
I just saw someone say that they weren’t getting the Covid vaccine because they use Holistic Herbs. The thoughts I had immediately after reading that tell me I’m a bad person.
(OK something just changed on the website and now my email doesn’t autofill at all. Ugh.)
Things that will suddenly matter to the GOP come Jan. 21, 2021.
The National Debt
Deficits
Cronyism
Nepotism
Morality
A commenter at Lucianne.com is opining that Amy Coney Barrett is “a liberal commie tool.” How quickly they forget.
Here’s an interesting piece, an interview with the author of A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear, the story of…well, just read it, it’s funny.
How a New Hampshire libertarian utopia was foiled by bears
Autofill test
@EddieInCA:
On Facebook, on a friend’s page, some idiot said that Biden should be removed from office because Hunter’s activities make him too susceptible to blackmail.
@Mikey: Ha! That was good.
@Kathy: it is.
@OzarkHillbilly:
That Anne Reinking…yes, familiar with her work even if the name did not immediately click in my head. My sister used to put on the original VHS Annie film quite often when we were kids so I have seen her dance in Annie multiple times. She looked wonderful in that yellow dress during her Annie dance sequence. What a loss, she was such a beautiful and talented woman. RIP.
@sam:
At a certain point, the reaction to these statements — including by the press — needs to be laughter. Stop pretending that this crap can be taken seriously.
@CSK: I’ve been wondering how long it took after the SC decision before they assigned her a security detail.
@EddieInCA:
Standing up to Russia
Free trade
How many hours the President spends at the golf course / watching TV / asleep
Gravitas
Dignity
Credentials
…
@OzarkHillbilly: @Kathy: @
Is it too late to get in a late vote for a family favorite, “A Wish For Things That Work”? FWIW, the character Bill the Cat had, at one time in the strip, Donald Trump’s brain. In addition, it features flightless waterfowl, Santa Claus, and the world’s first cross-dressing cockroach.
ALBATROSS!
Curse these shaky hands and NO EDIT BUTTON. Arrgghhh!
@Teve:
I’ve heard about this book these people might profit from reading. I forget the title, but it has some killer lines regarding motes and beams in eyes.
Biden’s nominated Mayor Pete as Transportation Secretary.
Good Lord, are we actually gonna get an Infrastructure Week?!
@Teve:
I dealt with this the other day. Trump actually came within about 43,000 votes of winning a second term–but that’s a bit complicated because I was basing it on a scenario where he wins AZ, GA, and WI, which would bring the EC to a 269-269 tie, and then the GOP-controlled House delegations would almost certainly have handed Trump a second term. I’m not sure where the 65,000 figure above comes from, but I guess it’s based on looking which states would have given Trump an outright EC majority with the smallest total shift in raw number of votes.
@Jax: I would’ve made him US ambassador to the UN, but maybe transportation will be good too.
@Jax:
Hey, we had Infrastructure Week, lots of Infrastructure Weeks. Just no infrastructure.
@Scott:
I suppose periodic, as-needed, GoFundMe accounts are cheaper than a Single Payer Health Insurance system for all Americans. I wonder if our European friends have considered changing their Single Payer systems to a series of GoFundMe initiatives?
Seriously, I wish Mr. Bailey well.
However, I have nothing but contempt for this Administration, for those in this Congress, for those who KNEW better, and who persistently and incessantly characterized this pandemic as a hoax.
@gVOR08:
Much like the Republican health care plan. They were going to announce it in two weeks. What did we get? Another announcement. And another…and another…and…
@Kathy: The Mote in God’s Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, very good book SciFi, you’d enjoy it. 😉
@Teve: Not to mention that our extremists are more middle of the road than GOP centrists.
@OzarkHillbilly:
When I re-read it, before going on to the sequel (it had been a lengthy interval), I wondered why I couldn’t see the first time what the Moties were hiding.
My well wishes for Mr Bailey were tempered by reading that he is a hard core trumpist. Mind you, I don’t wish him ill, he has already paid more than enough, but if he hasn’t learned by now, who am I to intervene?
@Kathy: Is the sequel any good?
@OzarkHillbilly:
If you enjoy long, drawn out, very realistic descriptions of space maneuvers, it’s great.
There’s an in-depth look at Moty societies in the asteroid belts. That was the best part for me.
@Kathy: Thanx, If the library has it then.
Trump’s latest Tweet (about seven hours ago) is that “Tremendous evidence [is] pouring in on (sic) voter fraud. There has never been anything like this in our Country!”
I’d like to see some of this evidence.
@CSK: Well, he certainly won’t be able to earn $400 million before the end of next year, will he?
@OzarkHillbilly:
“Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.”
@OzarkHillbilly:
On the one hand, it brings back some favorite characters from a beloved novel.
On the other hand, it’s not a very good story.
On the gripping hand, it has crottled greep.
Granholm for DoE
GOP brown shirts.