Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, June 29, 2022
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73 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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Given my bout with probably-not-Covid last week, I have to ask for those who happen to have any knowledge: does sticking the swab in for under three seconds yield a less accurate result?
Frankly, I’m starting to wonder if the antigen tests I perform on myself using the kits at home are more accurate than some of the PCRs given by professionals at this point.
Yesterday in the Code Red thread, @wr asked,
I don’t think I ever said it, but I felt that the hearings wouldn’t make any real difference in the voting. I still feel that way. At least in the immediate future. It may change things around the margins, but right now the country is too deeply divided for any kind of real shift.
As far as the hearings being a waste of time, I never felt that way. They had to be done, history demanded at least that much. I also now feel a spark of hope that in the years to come there may be an accounting, not that I have any idea of what form that may take.
Steven Taylor bait: War on drugs prolonged Colombia’s decades-long civil war, landmark report finds
I know you are every bit as shocked as I.
Broadly speaking, the Big Lie extremists had a bad day in the Colorado Republican primaries yesterday. “Day” is a misnomer, since the very large majority of votes are cast by mail ballot before election day. Based on that, yesterday’s hearings’ effects were probably non-existent. Rep. Boebert, who was out-crazied on the subject of elections, got the spotlight back over the weekend by announcing she was “tired of this separation of church and state junk” and that the church ought to be setting policies for the government.
I’m very sad Bobble Head Boebert won her primary.
Not bewildering to me.
eta, linky: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jun/28/the-boys-homelander-trump-rightwing-fanbase
Another kind of warfare going on.
A rather banal press release from DoD. Made me wonder why it was released at all.
Reports of Disinformation Campaign Against Rare Earth Processing Facilities
Googling a little more, there is this.
Pro-China digital campaign targets mining firms – cybersecurity report
The present and future of warfare.
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve been watching The Boys since the beginning. It is gloriously demented. It is a total guilty pleasure and makes me laugh every time.
Apparently, it is a sign of the times that there are disturbed humans out there that will take it seriously.
Here is Biden completely reversing Trump’s undermining of NATO. It is a long read so I won’t quote the whole press release. Besides reiterating what we have done to support Ukraine militarily, it goes on:
FACT SHEET – U.S. Defense Contributions to Europe
Sounds like a decent group of kids was on that derailed train:
From WaPo: A Boy Scout escaped Amtrak wreckage and comforted a dying truck driver
@Jen:
I heard about that on local radio. The troop was from Wisconsin, so it made the news around here.
Amazing kids.
Lunch today is bratwurst tacos.
#CulturalAppropriation. 😀
@OzarkHillbilly: WA! They’re watching something on Amazon TV and can’t connect the dots. Not exactly rocket surgeons, eh?
@Mu Yixiao:
Every once in a while, usually when no one else is home, I’ll make myself caned corned beef hash tacos. Mostly because I have terrible taste and am a worse cook.
Beth
Congratulations to Van Ikner. He needed 400 write in votes to win the Democratic nomination to be on the ballot in November for Illinois State Representative District 118. He got 454. Since there was no other Democratic candidate on the Primary Ballot for that seat the nomination is his.
Since the 118th Illinois State Represntative District has been recently redrawn Ikner’s Republican opponent will be Paul Jacobs who was the 115th District Representative. The former 118th District Representative Patrick Windhorst is now representing the 117th District.
The best map that I can find of the new 118th Illinois State House District is here.
Since the main Democratic stronghold in the new district, Jackson County*, has been chopped up between the newly redrawn 118th and the newly redrawn 115th I will give Van Ikner my vote in November and my best of luck.
*Jackson County was the only county in Illinois to go for McGovern over Nixon in the 1972 Republican landslide.
@Mu Yixiao:
A taco is anything wrapped in a soft cornmeal tortilla.
So that’s fusion.
@Kathy:
These were in small flour tortillas.
@Kathy:..A taco is anything wrapped in a soft cornmeal tortilla.
So what have I been eating when I make a chicken taco in a crunchy shell?
@Mister Bluster:
According to some Latinx-friendly gender-non-determinative white college students in Berkeley, it’s an abomination of cultural appropriation based on a history of genocidal colonialism.
For the rest of the world, it’s a taco. 🙂
“Reply All” was one of my favorite podcasts, until it was destroyed from the inside by the purity police. Basically what happened was that there was a movement to unionize and PJ Vogt, one of the two creators of the Podcast long before it joined the Gimlet company, thought that was a bad idea and said so. The more junior employees decided that made him an oppressive white male, using his position of authority to inflict aggressions on them, and after weeks of endless meetings, drove him from the show. It continued on for a while and I tried to give the other host, Alex Goldman, and a third host they had added sometime before the kerfluffle, Emmanuel Dotzi, a chance to figure out the dynamic. It was tough, because what had been an interesting and quirky program about two oddball friends diving down deep into obscure corners of the internet soon became a mishmash of whatever idea some associate producer had that week. It didn’t have the same intimacy or the same vibe. It may be that they eventually found their footing and achieved a balance but before I found out, Gimlet went to Spotify and I couldn’t get it via Apple Podcasts, so I stopped listening. I just found out that Alex and Emmanuel have left the show too. Perhaps the show will continue in some fashion, but as of now there is nowhere to tune in to hear Alex track down why his US based father suddenly had a bunch of charges for Moscow Uber rides when he woke up one morning, or why a particular house in the midwest keeps getting angry visitors looking for their stolen cell phones, or why Alex’s and PJ’s boss (another Alex) is clueless about a tweet that has Hillary Clinton winning an 8-bit video game with a “half-A”.
@Mu Yixiao:
Then it’s a burrito or a quesadilla.
@Mister Bluster:
Well, it’s not a taco.
Item #1:
Alabama cites Roe decision in urging court to let state ban trans health care
Item #2:
@Kathy:
Burritos are completely wrapped, tacos are just folded over. And quesadillas require cheese (queso! You heathens in Ciudad de Mexico are completely wrong; the proud tortilla patriots in Juarez understand how it works).
It’s a taco. Old El Paso says so.
As WWI started because of a sandwich, herein started the Second Mexican-American War.
🙂
@Stormy Dragon: I wonder if there are any laws left on the books that would apply to the adulterer Ken Paxton.
@Mu Yixiao:
Referencing “cultural appropriation” and “that’s wrong” food…
Jamie Spafford of SORTEDfood* received actual death threats for making a “paella burrito” on the “ultimate burrito battle” episode.
He claims he has received threats of violence – including being warned of an axe attack – and he has even been reported to the police over his recipe.
And this Reddit thread is just wonderful.
=========
*Look them up on YouTube. They’re absolutely fabulous.
@Kathy:
San Antonio (America’s Taco Capital) would disagree.
@Scott: I’m gonna have to look it up.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Every now and again I get to point and laugh and not feel guilty for it.
Per Fox: Trans skateboarder who won first prize against 13-year-old girl is a combat vet, dad who was rejected from the Olympics
You go girl!
Fox is not being particularly supportive of our vets here.
@Mu Yixiao:
Find me those Latinx-friendly gender-non-determinative white college students in Berkeley who object, motherfucker.
“Is a hotdog a sandwich or a taco?” is one of the great debates among the youth, with battle lines drawn haphazardly on issues such as whether the taco shell can be made of bread (the materialists), and whether a hot dog will be transmuted from a taco into a sandwich if the bun splits (the topologists), or whether the initial taco state is immutable (the originalists).
Many an herb was torched in these debates.
Also, dandan noodles are deconstructed spaghetti and meatballs.
@Kathy:
And an hour later, we will have finally achieved cold fusion.
@Gustopher: I love the image of The Topologists brawling with The Originalists! 😉
@Gustopher:
The Sandwich Alignment Chart
“Radical Sandwich Anarchy” is a favorite phrase of mine ever since I saw it.
@Scott:
Given he’s been indicted for seven years now with no trial, does it matter?
@Gustopher: Taco = Sandwich = Taco thus a hotdog on a bun is both. A hotdog sans bun, as my daughters prefer them, is neither. It is just solidified old cow soup.
@Mu Yixiao:
You can take two slices of Wonder bread, turkey, tomato, and lettuce, and call it a turkey hamburger, too. There’s no equivalent to the Gazpacho police to stop you.
@Kathy:
I may be one of the few people in North America who’s never eaten so much as a slice of Wonder Bread. My mother refused to buy it.
@OzarkHillbilly: I haven’t started the current season, but the idea that anyone didn’t understand that Homelander was the main villain (and, as noted, a truly terrifying one) has some serious comprehension problems (or they might be a neo-Nazi).
@Stormy Dragon:
Pro-Life my ass. I’m never calling them that again. This is more like Pro-Hate. Or Pro-People-Just-Like-Me.
The courts had a lot of work when it came to figuring out how to adjudicate the 14th Amendment. What followed is something Americans can rightly be proud of, and is fairly complex. The courts have developed the three levels, the least of which is “rational basis”. Which is to day, the State is required to have a reasonable reason for placing restrictions on some subgroup of citizens.
But there is no rational basis here for restricting care for trans children – just as there is no rational basis for restricting access to early term abortions. There is only a religious basis-the belief that a 5-week-old blastocyst has a soul.
This piece shows just how terrible the reasoning in this opinion is.
@Gustopher: “Find me those Latinx-friendly gender-non-determinative white college students in Berkeley who object, motherfucker.”
Oh, there may be one or two of them. And then they are used constantly by smug conservatives who cry “cancel culture” while ignoring Republican legislatures literally determining what can be said at college campuses and firing those who won’t toe their line. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/the-other-cancel-culture-how-a-public-university-is-bowing-to-a-conservative-crusade
But remember, if you mention this, it’s because you have no sense of humor.
@Steven L. Taylor: “I haven’t started the current season,”
In the first two seasons he was a proto-fascist, but in the third he becomes Donald Trump, even holding board meetings where everyone present goes around the table to say what an honor it is to serve under him and firing anyone in the company who is competent in favor of those who will cover up and flatter.
@MarkedMan: “Reply All” was one of my favorite podcasts, until it was destroyed from the inside by the purity police. Basically what happened was that there was a movement to unionize”
Let’s see if I correctly understand this terrible injustice that happened to you.
There was a bit of free entertainment that you liked listening to. But apparently some percentage of those involved in making this entertainment felt they were being so badly mistreated they needed to unionize, despite the huge obstacles the government and corporations put in the way of that. The fight got ugly, presumably because the owners didn’t want to let the workers organize, and eventually one of the entertainers whose work you enjoyed left.
Man, it sucks when those purity police destroy your fun simply because they are risking their livelihoods and careers to fight for a better work environment for themselves and every other worker. You have every right to be bitter.
@Gustopher:
I’m not sure if you understood that I was being facetious, and I’m not sure if you are being facetious with this comment. Sarcasm on the internet being what it is. 🙂
But… while I was using hyperbole (and ticking off all the buzz words I could think of), there are people out there who have that attitude. The story that comes to mind was two women who spent a year traveling through Mexico learning how to make tortillas from old grandmothers, then took that knowledge back to Portland (IIRC) and opened a food truck. The backlash they got from some extremists was so bad that they had to shut down.
Yep. Found it. Portland. Death threats over “cultural appropriation” of tortilla recipies.
Then there was the incident I posted about above with Jamie Spafford getting death threats about a paella burrito.
I’ve read about other such incidents, but don’t have enough info (or energy) to search for them. It’s not common, it’s not pervasive, but there are just enough “culture warriors” out there to make a stink (and death threats! WTF??) and make people afraid.
Ding ding ding ding… I think we have a winner! Neo Nazis by and large are not the brightest bulbs in the box. If they were, they wouldn’t be Neo Nazis.
Stephen Breyer is retiring as of tomorrow.
@Stormy Dragon:
@Jay L Gischer:
Wow, they really want us dead. That’s what they mean by history and tradition, dead queers, everyone else knows their place. I’m guessing that most of the Confederacy will be absolutely off-limits to people like me soon.
I’m so glad I got my surgery scheduled before the end of the year. We’re about to find out what explicit fascism is like.
@wr: That was depressing.
@wr:
Nope! Wrong in all important respects.
Some of the employees wanted to unionize. I’m always for unions and wished them the best with that. One of the employees, not an owner (but maybe management? You would know better than me if talent is considered management on a show) thought unionizing was a mistake and thought he should be allowed to speak out just like anyone else. They disagreed with his thoughts on unionization and I have no problem with them telling him he was full of BS. But he was a white male, older than most of the employees and he failed to see that his negative attitudes towards unionization was really an aggression against people of color, and he needed to acknowledge his white privilege and apologize to all, over and over again, but it was never enough and required so many, many meetings and eventually he just left. Complicating this was the fact that another person forced to bow and scrape and profess their sins to the People’s Committee and who eventually had enough and left was a woman of color. But she was the head producer (executive producer? Main producer?), so I assume she was management (?). And she wasn’t African American, but came by her color another way. And so she was deemed equally privileged and equally in a state of perpetual sin.
Hey, nothing lasts forever and it had 6 good years, an eon in Podcast years. It may have gone down the toilet anyway, or if not on its own, then been driven there by the Spotify crap. So I’m only mildly grousing about that aspect. But I don’t hold that there are people who, by the color of their skin or their sex or their age, are not allowed to express an opinion but are only there to obsequiously defer to others. And if they disagree they must be humiliated and then ejected. It’s disgusting behavior. So yes, that part pisses me off.
And to be honest, despite all of this I hope that all the younger employees fared well as it shrunk in audience and, so I presume, staff. And for the second time in just over a year they are going on sabbatical and will return some undetermined months later with different leads and a somewhat different format. I think it’s likely that will go about as well as it does when TV shows go through the same type of turmoil, and I sincerely hope that when the show folds they all land on their feet and are able to get jobs at Gimlet or somewhere else as good or better.
@Stormy Dragon: The claim that a pop tart is a sandwich is just wrong. It’s a ravioli — Filling between two sheets of wheat product, sealed at all edges.
@Mu Yixiao: Is Berkeley part of Portland? No it is not. My point stands.
RE: tortillas.
I’m visiting my daughter in Tucson and she introduced me to Sonoran tortillas. What a revelation. Now I will never enjoy a standard flour tortilla again.
@Steven L. Taylor: Wait…there are people who didn’t get that Homelander is the bad guy? That was obvious like three episodes into Season 1. Wow.
@Beth:
I’m less pessimistic about this, given the 2020 decision, where Gorsuch and Roberts joined Breyer, Kagan, Sotomayor, and Ginsburg, to the effect that Title VII applies to LGBTQ+ people.
I’m not optimistic about it. Just less pessimistic. Optimism died with Roe.
@Gustopher:
You have no sense of humor and don’t understand over-the-top blatant satire. Got it.
But why, oh why, would I choose Berkeley as my stereotypical “progressive” campus? Gee… I don’t know… let me think:
We’re having a fun, playful argument about “what is a taco?” and you throw in “motherfucker” at me because I described a fictitious stereotype? Seriously?
Now you go sit in the corner. There will be no peanut butter and jelly lamb tacos or halal vegan mojitos for you until you think about what you’ve done and learn how to play with others.
@Mikey:
I’m very fortunate in that I can love a well-crafted specialty food, but still enjoy the cheap version.
For example: When I was in China, there were a few times that I really wanted lasagna*. I was able to get the pasta at a German grocery store (Metro), ground/minced pork at the supermarket (no ground beef for a 1000 km radius), and all the veg at the local “traditional market” (“farmers’ market” for you city folk).**
But cheese? I could get very little good cheese over there (but somehow found Colby from Wisconsin!), so I made my lasagna with a European version of Kraft Singles.
Give me a home-made tortilla and I will relish it. But for stuff I’m making on a Tuesday night after work? The La Bandarita tortillas I get at the Piggly Wiggly are just fine.
====
* Interesting. Spell check doesn’t accept “lasagne” as a valid spelling.
** Though it was always fun to watch the “aunties” who were shopping at the same time as me, as they watched me buying several kilos of tomatoes (to cook down into sauce). I’d just smile and say “Mei Guo cai” (American food) or “Mo Xi Ge cai” (Mexican food), and they’d go “Ahhh!” and nod and smile, and go back to their shopping.
@Kathy:
I wish I could share your lesser pessimism, but I think Bostock was an abberation due to Gorsuch being a crank.
I’m pretty sure what’s going to happen is that Paxton is going to persecute someone for being gay. the Texas court will agree, forcing the defendant to appeal. A radically different SCOTUS will say that gay sex is not protected under our “history and traditions” and therefore Lawrence is overruled. The question will be whether or not they immediately overrule Obergafell at the same time.
Another thing about the “history and tradition” crap that Alabama and others are/will be peddling is that so called “anti-crossdressing” laws are quite prevalent and long standing.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/arresting-dress-timeline-anti-cross-dressing-laws-u-s
These will be used against us. This is why it will eventually be illegal for me to be present in many states. As will traveling with my meds.
@Beth: Hey! I would eat those.
@Mister Bluster: Congratulations!
@Mu Yixiao: Dude, it was just a joke. Why are you sensitive?
@Beth: Congratulations to you, too! Two people here getting what they wanted! A red letter day!
@Beth:
Hey, Beth, I frequently bought canned corned beef from prison commissary because I could avoid the ptomaine and botulism laden kitchen. If we’d only had tortillas I’d have been set. Had to make do with Ritz crackers. OTOH, I also drank shine made from fermented and distilled grapefruit. Yes, hangover was lethal. But the lifer’s club did make me an honorary member, so it was all good.
Yes, my earlier life made herding attorneys relatively easy, and the pay wasn’t half bad.
@Gustopher: He doesn’t get internet humor? Someone else had the same problem yesterday. Hmmm…
And in further news that not all is wrong with the world, I would note that purported singer R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. Well I’m glad I’m not there, it certainly will be interesting when he introduces himself to his fellow inmates. I’m imagining it’ll go something like this:
See, not everything sucks!
Illinois Republican Governor Primary
Richard “I’m their worst nightmare” Irvin, backed by one Republican Millionaire and who led the field in early May came in third losing to Trump backed State Senator Darren Bailey who is backed by another Republican Millionaire. Bailey 58%. Third place Irvin 15%.
While I can not predict the future I can guess that incumbent Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker will be reelected in November.
@Just nutha:..Congratulations!..
I can only take credit for one vote.
There are 453 other Illinoians out there equally responsible for this victory.
@Gustopher:
Dude. I specifically asked if it was a joke, and you doubled down on the “being nebulous”.
And… I denied you PB&J lamb tortillas and told you to go sit in the corner. You think that’s me being serious?
@Mister Bluster:
I can’t tell you how happy I am that Irvin lost and Griffen got chased out of the state. I hope he gets one ass cheek bit off by an alligator.
As for Pritzker, I have a friend who’s a devoted communist and does nothing but bitch about how stupid and awful Democrats are. She loves him and will be voting for him. How did we get lucky enough to get a billionaire governor who isn’t incompetent and trying to steal everything?
@Just nutha:
Thanks. I cried and blasted the Star Wars soundtracks on my way home. At least once I get it done they can’t take it away from me.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
That sounds intense.
I leave you with my #CulturalAppropriationDinner:
Cultural Appropriation Tacos (they needed some Sriracha).
Flour tortillas (Mexico)
Fried in olive oil (Italy)
Tzatziki sauce (Greece)
Leftover shakshuka (Israel)
Mozzarella (Italy)
Chicken drumsticks seasoned with Lawry’s (American)
Kimchi (Korea)
Spritzed with lime juice (Florida (that’s a foreign culture…right?)
Washed down with Orange Pekoe iced tea (China)
And followed by a Scotch made in the USA.
@Mu Yixiao: How about lao gan ma instead of sriracha?
@Beth:
Well, I deserved every minute of the nickel, but 40 years later, I’m largely content with my life. I joke with Cracker that the idea that I spent 30+years in law after that is a sign of true mental illness.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
In such contexts, attempts to achieve mastery can be a sign of mental illness or health. Depends on the nature (and in some sense, “success”) of the attempts.
[sorry to butt in on your conversation with Beth]
@Mimai:
No no no, no need to apologize. Somehow I missed the exit ramp. An attorney I’ve known for decades once said I suffer from obsessive compulsive AND anal retentive disorders, and I’d require meds if I worked for non lawyers. Personally, I thought law was “the great game,” and I (mostly) had way more fun than allowed on a workday.
Spent a lot of time reading and navel gazing in my cell, and a significant time with a shrink after I got out.
I wasn’t the typical con. But aside from Cracker (who knew me years earlier) and SWMBO, never a topic for discussion, except for my over sharing here. L
@Mu Yixiao:
As long as we’re all being cranky/pedantic/tongue-in-cheek, isn’t “Scotch” by definition always made in Scotland? It’d be a whiskey (with an ‘e’) made in the USA, no?
@Jen:
I was mistaken on this one. It’s actually bottled in Scotland from a distillery in Glasgow.
@Just nutha:
From a cultural appropriation angle, that would be better. But from a flavor angle… nah. Sriracha.
There are limits to how far I’ll go. 🙂
@Mu Yixiao: Fair enough! I don’t care for lao gan ma either. Or sriracha for that matter. Got used to gochujang in Korea and prefer either it or Tabasco (capitalized to indicate the brand). But I don’t do spicy often.