Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, August 17, 2022
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51 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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One thing I find interesting is that none of the excuses for Trump have stuck. There is no coherent, plausible excuse path determined yet. It’s all ad hoc.
They were spamming excuse after excuse at the wall to see what stuck and none of them did.
As a consequence, the pushback seems splintered and disjointed. Nobody knows the narrative yet. The ad hoc approach failed. It looked desperate. It looked flimsy. It looked ludicrous.
Were the documents declassified by Trump edict, or were they planted by agents of the Deep State? They had cognitively contradictory excuses. It was a PR disaster. There was no narrative beyond a raw victimization pity beg.
They are desperate.
It’s gonna get a lot worse before it gets better. Assuming it can get better.
US labor leaders say underfunding at federal agency has ‘reached crisis stage’
Union officials fear that the overstretched NLRB won’t be able to handle the surge in union activity, giving corporations the upper hand
Republican control of budgets keeps bearing fruit for corporations years later.
@de stijl: Yup. Self-own by the stable genius. Nobody even needed to know about the search yet. The DOJ wanted this to be kept quiet. Leaks aside, it’s possible Trump’s legal team could have privately worked out some deal with the DOJ: everything is back in the goverment’s hands now, let’s drop this.
But Treason Trump and his crime family just couldn’t help themselves.
It’s an unjustified witch hunt banana republic break-in raid! No classified documents! Defund Law enforcement! Destroy the FBI! The FBI planted classified documents! Actually, Trump pre-emptively declassified the documents the FBI planted! Release the warrant! Don’t release the warrant! Okay, but Trump didn’t personally pack anything! They were overclassified! You can find the nuclear codes on your phone or something, so who cares? But Obama! But Hillary! Don’t blame us for the anti-FBI violence, we want to lower the temperature!
Incoherent, desperate clownery. In process, Trump and all his excuse-makers (the WSJ, David Brooks, Taibbi, Ron DeFascist, Yang, Hannity, Carlson, Glenn Greenfraud, George Will, the normally sober David French, a bevy of Republican officeholders) have all been made to look like fools. Or even bigger fools, in the case of most. Good!
To paraphrase an unfunny joke: Benito is making treason look bad.
American Airlines has placed an order for 20 Overture supersonic jets with Boom.
Given that Virgin Atlantic, Japan Airlines, and United have placed orders or invested in Boom, I’ve a hard time seeing much significance in AA’s order. Oh, the news mentions they’ve paid an non-refundable deposit. We’re not told for how much, nor the terms. I think it’s more symbolic than real.
I won’t got into the many issues around Overture’s development (some are at the link), but rather will remind everyone that plenty of airlines placed orders for the Concorde back in the day. A grand total of two (2) ever operated the type (four if you count short-term wet leases by Singapore and Braniff). So, the actuality of such orders depends on what Boom actually comes up with, how much it costs to acquire and operate, etc.
Oh, and Concorde was a joint project by France and the UK. Their governments pretty much made British Airways and Air France take delivery and operate the plane. Boom has no such clout.
@Kathy: You know far more about this subject than I do but I don’t know. This is a marketing plan at this point. I read somewhere else that the engines haven’t even been picked yet (which drives design) and that they went with 4 engines (while all trends are less engines).
One of the issues that killed the Boeing SST was the effect on the ozone layer. Is that no longer an issue?
I can’t link to the actual review of Jared’s book in the NYTimes, but this will give you a flavor of it.
http://www.rawstory.com/breaking-history-jared-kushner/
@CSK:
Here’s the Times’ link
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/17/books/review-breaking-history-jared-kushner.html
Probably all you need to know.
@Sleeping Dog: That’s a helluva review.
A sample, for those w/o a NYT subscription:
@Sleeping Dog: @Jen:
Thanks, both of you. I can’t imagine who’ll buy this dreck.
Elementary, middle, and high schools are back in session (for the most part). Lots of excitement and drama, natch.
Peer group affiliations are of upmost importance. It’s interesting watching the children in my life navigate these. Who am I? Who are they? Is there a we?
It’s also interesting to reflect on my own history in this domain. And then to reflect on my reflection — memory is constructive (and often self-serving) after all.
What identities did I sample? What groups did I affiliate with, reject out of hand, aspire to, etc? And what, if anything, are the threads connecting past to present.
These are some of the things I’ve been noodling lately.
New water cuts coming for Southwest as Colorado River falls into Tier 2 shortage
Prediction: AZ GOP ends up running on refusing to comply with the water restrictions and claiming “the Democrats want to take away your water”. If this works (and it probably will because rural Arizonans won’t want to accept the cuts), this results in a situation where large amounts of water is being stolen from the Colorado just below Glenn Canyon until Hoover Dam and the Central Arizona Project Canal run dry and all the farms in Southern Arizona are destroyed.
Which will be blamed on a globalist conspiracy.
@Jen:
@CSK:
Yup, the cat licking a dog’s eye goop line is a classic, the review should be memorable simply for that.
Most politician’s books are awful, but typically among their supporters, someone organizes a bulk purchase, so the book appears near the top of the NYT and other’s book lists. Who’d do that for Jared?
@Sleeping Dog:
Well, no one. Jared appears to be universally despised. The MAGAs hate him, and so does everyone else.
@CSK:
Yeah, Jared is one of the few people in the world, that when they enter the room, their dog gets up and leaves rather than wag their tail.
@Sleeping Dog:
That made me laugh.
Or it could be that the dog whimpers, flattens its ears, and then squirms under the nearest sofa to hide.
@Scott:
You know, I haven’t heard much about damage to the ozone layer since the mid-80s. I forget even if it was the exhaust itself, or the altitude where the fuel was burned. Concorde flew higher than other commercial jets, 60,000 ft. vs 30-40,000. This puts it within the ozone layer.
What killed the Boeing 2707 was the government stopped subsidizing its development. Later when Concorde failed to gain any orders except for those from BA ad AF, and when it was barred from supersonic travel over land, it looked like the right decision.
It’s also worth remembering Boom is a startup with limited capital and resources. I assume investors and the airlines involved understand they’re investing in R&D, not on a finished product. Back when it launched, Boom planned for a Mach 2+ twin engine design. We’re at Mach 1.7 and four engines. Who knows whether that’s what Overture will really be.
@CSK:
It depends on how trumpy Jared or his owner really are. $2 billion Saudi dollars can buy him the top spot on the best seller list.
@OzarkHillbilly: It’ll get better after the orange and grapefruit trees they’ll plant in the Yakima Valley start producing, but it’ll be a while, yet.
@Jen: Ouchies! That’s gonna leave a mark.
@CSK: I dunno. But I will say that there are several books where reading a review in a good magazine has provided enough information to replace the need to actually read the book.
Jared’s would certainly be one of them except that I’ve no desire to read the book at all. Jen’s excerpt exceeded my informational needs about it nicely. And colorfully as well. 😛
@Kathy:
Yeah, I thought of that. It’s #3520 at Amazon overall. Only the top 100 really count.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
http://www.nymag.com has a list of the “juiciest” excerpts. They’re a big nothing.
@Kathy:
I suspect the Boom is up against the now well-developed charter jet business for the uber wealthy. The hour or so saved will be lost in the hassle of having to mess around in the system of public airliners. TSA, et al, is bypassed in the private charters. Everybody who’s an anybody uses private charters or private jets these days.
@Mimai:
An odd thing to be vaguely ashamed of, but I was fairly popular in high school.
I was president of my class. I was an athlete and not half bad at football and golf, although my basketball skills lacked, but I tried hard. I dated a cheerleader. I was an A student across the board.
I was extremely good at school and school related activities because I had to be. Home was a potential nightmare. A bipolar parent. If she ignored me entirely for a full week, that was the best week ever. I learned very early to cook for myself which became a lifelong positive skill. Home was to be avoided. Friends and school was the way better alternative. I constructed my day to be away from mom as much as possible.
School was the default refuge. My retreat. I was good at it. I was very bright and insatiably curious naturally. I was well behaved. I was respectful but a bit bold. I very much enjoyed taking in huge chunks of knowledge and information and attempting to synthesize that. I was an extraordinarily good student and gifted. I loved extracurricular activities and the more the better. Extracurriculars kept me away from going home.
As I aged up I became interested in things my peers considered odd or weird. I kinda cared what they thought of me, but mostly not. I didn’t flaunt it hard, but I knew what I liked in music and movies and, if asked, would tell true.
I was into punk rock and classical music. I was into big, deep, thinky books about, well, everything I guess. I was into art house movies. I was a decided weirdo who was also oddly popular and class president and played football well and was homecoming “king”. I felt like a complete fucking fraud.
To my friends I was out about my weirdness and teenage obsessions. If you’re in my car you are listening to Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols, or The Clash, Devo, Elvis Costello, or the Talking Heads.
I was popular. I was weird. I was influential amongst my peer group. I was odd. And all of that made me feel very conflicted.
I desperately wanted to go to college and start over. A reset.
At the time I was pretty freaked out seemingly having it squared away to an outside eye and feeling so inadequate and anxious in my brain.
Honestly, the NYT book review of Kushner’s 500-page empty tome is the literary equivalent of that same publication’s Guy Fieri restaurant review. It’s full of choice phrases.
It’s practically a work of art.
@Jen:
And just like that Billy Joel music is now ruined for me, because every time I hear it, I’m gonna think of him palling arount on a yacht with the Murdochs, the Trumps, and the Kushners >=(
@Stormy Dragon:
I wasn’t particularly surprised by Billy Joel. That makes just a ton of sense. I’m kinda shocked that Bono and Bob Geldof would hang out with that rogue’s gallery of wet turds.
@Beth:
Vice has chimed in with a piece entitled “Surprise, Jared Kushner’s Book Sounds Like Complete Dogshit.”
http://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bzjn/jared-kushner-book
I’m sure the ghostwriter would prefer his identity never to be revealed.
@Beth:
Bono was more of an “I knew it!” for me. He’s always been an asshole and his “activism” has always struck me as performative.
@CSK:
The caption for that picture of him should be “If obsequious was a person”.
@Beth:
Kushner reminds me of a cross between Uriah Heep and a discount Machiavelli.
@CSK: So they succeed in the all-important “presenting the author as he or she really is” category. Good to know.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I can imagine how excruciating it must have been sitting there recording Jared’s voice.
@Beth: My experience is that most artists (but I suspect particularly musical ones) learn to be “for sale” as a matter of early survival (I preformed musically until I was in my late 40s but on the far fringe and never made any money because I wasn’t for sale all the time/worth buying–very worth getting for free tho). My guess is that old habits die hard.
@CSK: Her. Kushner’s book was ghostwritten by Brittany Baldwin, she’s a speechwriter for Sen. Cruz and the like.
@Jen:
Ah-ha! Thank you.
I’ve not seen any good reviews so far.
@de stijl:
Thanks for this! Indeed, it isn’t cool to be (or have been) cool. Nor is it popular to be (or have been) popular. Hence, you often see otherwise successful – dare I say, cool and/or popular – people telling tales (some of which may even be true) about how uncool, unpopular, rebellious, etc they were. And still are.
You strike me as genuine. Of course, maybe you’re playing a multi-dimensional game wherein you pretend to have been cool in order to signal how very uncool you actually are, which makes you all the more cooler. But I doubt it.
Trump is calling for the Jan. 6 committee to be dissolved, because Liz Cheney lost the Wyoming primary, and that means the people no longer want him to be investigated.
“This,” he says, “was a referendum on the NEVER-ENDING witch hunt!”
@Mimai: I thought Bruce Springsteen said it best:
@CSK:
I enjoyed this…
@CSK: He just needs to be patient. He’ll likely get his wish in January. 🙁
@dazedandconfused:
Excellent.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I hope not.
@CSK: I would dearly, DEARLY love for Pelosi (if we manage to maintain the House, and hence, the Jan 6 Committee) to re-appoint Liz Cheney to the Committee. I think she can, can’t she? Outside advisor or something?
@Jax:
I don’t know, but it’s an interesting question.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Nice reference! Very nice. He said a lot of wise things.
“it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive”
@CSK: Heads would spin. If we’re lucky, TFG would be so mad he’d stroke out.
If Cheney’s really planning a presidential run, it would be a perfect opportunity to stay in the spotlight and hammer home the message from her concession speech.
@Jax:
I believe Ms. Cheney is a lawyer. She could be appointed as counsel to the Jam 6 committee.
@Jen:
Those quotes sound like snippets fron Brett Easton Ellis’ American Psycho.
Some (Republican) friends who are publicly anti-Trump locally have been receiving hate mail the last couple days. I thought you guys might enjoy the insult list they’re considering. 😛 😛
These insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words.
1. “He had delusions of adequacy ” Walter Kerr
2. “He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”- Winston Churchill
3. “I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure. – Clarence Darrow
4. “He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”-William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
5. “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”- Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
6. “Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.” – Moses Hadas
7. “I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” – Mark Twain
8. “He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” – Oscar Wilde
9. “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one.” -George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
10. “Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.” – Winston Churchill, in response
11. “I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here” – Stephen Bishop
12. “He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” – John Bright
13. “I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.” – Irvin S. Cobb
14. “He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.” – Samuel Johnson
15. “He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up. – Paul Keating
16. “He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” – Forrest Tucker
17. “Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?” – Mark Twain
18. “His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” – Mae West
19. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” – Oscar Wilde
20. “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination.” – Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
21. “He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” – Billy Wilder
22. “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But I’m afraid this wasn’t it.” – Groucho Marx
23. The exchange between Winston Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, “If you were my husband I’d give you poison.” He said, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”
24. “He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.” – Abraham Lincoln
25. “There’s nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won’t cure.” — Jack E. Leonard
26. “They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.” — Thomas Brackett Reed
27. “He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them.” — James Reston (about Richard Nixon) —Robert L Truesdell