Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, October 12, 2022
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88 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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WA! I’m up checking for substitute teaching jobs–which means it’s 5:30 PDT–and no one has posted a comment yet? I hope this means Ozark slept well last night. Either way, slow day.
There’s speculation that Trump’s running mate in 2024 could be Marjorie Taylor Greene, because she’s popular with the MAGA crowd.
Don’t recall who said it but someone on twitter pointed out that two “democratic” candidates for president in 2020 took advantage of the dem’s low debate threshold to increase their national profile and then bailed on the party while badmouthing it. The dem party needs to increase the debate participation threshold to prevent the next Yang or Gabbard from using the debates in such a cynical fashion. No more vanity candidates and hucksters.
This is what I came up with from yesterday’s lentil pasta thread (no lentil pasta is involved):
Saute one onion, one bell pepper, and some garlic in a pot, then add raw chicken cut in small pieces and half-cook the chicken. Set this aside.
In the same pot toast 1 tbsp tomato paste and add 1 liter of chicken broth, a little onion and two minced cloves of garlic and cook one cup of lentils. Next add a can of beans, add cumin, pepper, and paprika. When it begins to bubble, remove from heat and let it cool a bit. At this point I transfer it to a large bowl, then put it in the blender in batches with some cottage cheese in each batch, maybe some milk as well. Every blended portion goes back to the pot (you can also leave some whole beans and lentils in the pot to begin with.
When all, or the portion you wanted, is blended, put it back on the pot. Add the chicken, onion, and bell pepper you made first, and bring the thing to a boil to finish cooking the chicken.
Talk about coincidences. A new movie adaptation, this time in German, of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” is coming out.
The book came up here a few days ago.
I saw the first adaption made in 1930 (for some reason, they showed it a number of times on TV the year after I read the book). I think I saw parts of the newer adaptation from the late 70s, but not the whole movie.
@Kathy: When you use canned beans, do you drain them or add them packing liquid and all? (Don’t use canned beans, so I know nothing.)
@Kathy: I frequently make lentil & chickpea chili. Somewhere have a recipe for lentil goulash with sweet potatoes.
About the one thing you can’t do with lentils is stuff grape leaves with them. I tried and ended up with a pot of mush.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I can’t speak for Kathy, but Jacques Pepin always adds the liquid from canned beans.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I don’t drain them. Unlike other canned vegetables, beans are packed in their own juices rather than brine. that’s the reason I’m comfortable using them. In effect canned beans are the same as those I make.
The reason I don’t bother to cook my own is that they take a long, long time. First hours soaking in water, then more hours cooking. I’ve been advised to use a pressure cooker (which is how canned beans get made*), but I’d just as soon not.
*Just about all cooked canned vegetables are cooked inside their sealed can. The industrial pressure cookers used serve as much to generate higher water/steam temps, as they do to keep the cans from blowing up. This is also the case for canned soups.
I wonder if this is also the case with cooked veggies packed in plastic pouches, or in Tetra Pak cardboard.
They are using hydrophones to locate whales off the N. Cal coast and transmitting locations to ships in those waters to prevent collisions. There’s a photo of what happens when a cargo ship runs into a whale.
Tom Nichols has a very good piece in http://www.theatlantic.com entitled “J. D. Vance and the Collapse of Dignity.”
I wouldn’t say “Well” but I did get more than usual in bits and pieces. Got up at 5. I had physical therapy this AM, had to leave the house at 6:30. Between showering, taking care of the wife*, etc I barely had time to read the headlines.
*”taking care of the wife” had an extra dimension of… excitement (?) this AM. She called me with a “Tom? I need help.” I knew something was up by the tone of voice. Came down stairs and she is standing in a blood spattered bathroom with her head over the sink trying to stanch the blood flow from her nose with cotton balls.
That’ll teach her to snort my blood thinners.
@CSK: God doesn’t love me that much.
@OzarkHillbilly:
It would be a losing ticket for sure.
SNAFU.
The complete lack of moral standing by the Catholic Church says a few things too.
So, yeah.
eta: the lawyer is appealing the fine.
Yesterday morning around dawn I was doing my daily walk. The route was poorly chosen because a mile of it was on a major thoroughfare.
In June, no big deal. Around dawn means roughly 5:30 AM and the occasional vehicle. In October before DST ceases around dawn means around 7:30 AM so full rush hour traffic.
I was waiting at a crosswalk and had punched the button waiting for a green. Somebody was was waiting to take a right with blinkers on and everything. A good citizen.
The light flashed green so I could walk across. The good citizen waited for me and waved me on. She could have been done and through before I would have reached the half way point of the street, but she waved me through and on before her turn.
I appreciate the good citizenship, but it is now a hassle to me. I now have to jog across the street so as to not delay her – the burden is on me now. I jogged and three quarters of the way across the street and some internal bit of my right knee went “twang” and I was instantly hobbled.
Had she just made her right and ignored me I wouldn’t have my right leg elevated with a bag of ice on my knee right now. She could have scooted through no problem and not impeded me in the slightest. But she insisted I go first.
I was .8 miles from home. It took forever. I shuffled home like a Lon Chaney mummy.
When etiquette and good intentions go awry.
@de stijl: As my old man always said, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Here’s the link to the J. D. Vance piece by Tom Nichols I mentioned earlier:
http://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/10/j-d-vance-and-the-collapse-of-dignity/671704/
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m doing that roll of a dice thing and making the decision to wait for a few days to see if it goes away on its own or at least gets appreciably better.
I am unfit to drive so it’d be a taxi there and back. And the waiting for it. A big bother.
Likely, the feedback would be “You sprained your knee. Elevate your leg and apply ice and take aspirin for the pain.” I’m already doing all of those things.
If by Saturday or Sunday there is no improvement, I’ll schedule an appointment.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
So I take it nothing but Special Ed or grade school?
@de stijl:
If you have an elasticized bandage, you could wrap that around your knee (not too tightly) to help reduce swelling.
Staggering…Oz is a worthless piece of crap, but he’s a republican so you should vote for him.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3684499-mehmet-oz-is-clueless-about-the-economy-pennsylvanians-should-vote-for-him-anyway/
@daryl and his brother darryl:
Same as with Herschel Walker. He’s awful, but Republicans should vote for him to take the senate.
Saying his attempts to delay the procedure are inexcusable, a judge has ruled that Trump must be deposed in the defamation lawsuit filed against him by E. Jean Carroll.
Guess he’ll have to plead the Fifth again, like all criminals.
Space Force has adopted an anthem.
…losing ticket for sure.
How many times did I hear that in 2016 about Trump-Pence…
All I ever stated in 2016 was that I could not predict the future and that I did not know who would be sworn in as President USA in January 2017.
I was roundly chastised.
@Mister Bluster:
Well, in all fairness, no one expected Trump to win, including Trump.
@dazedandconfused:
Please, don’t crush my dreams: tell me its Star Trekkin!.
🙂
@JohnSF: I prefer Space Truckin’
@OzarkHillbilly:
I would hope…
Seriously, though, what the fuck?
@Kathy:
Let the half-cooked chicken cool to room temperature, add a dash of expired mayo, and serve your salmonella surprise salad!
My anxiety problems require me to cook the living shit out of chicken. There’s no way I could follow this, ever. I do terrible things to chicken.
I can use sous vide, and “science” to only overcook it a little so it’s not terrible, but I’m always adding a few degrees and a bit more time. Chicken terrifies me.
(I’m ok with other people cooking chicken, and will happily eat that. But I do not trust myself with chicken)
When we get test-tube meats, one of the big improvements is going to be chicken that’s not covered in salmonella.
@CSK: I think Israel would rethink its embrace of the American Far Right if MTG got the VP nod. And maybe then we would find out how much their influence is worth.
If a globalist Jewish conspiracy prevented a second Trump term, I would be ok with that. If they used their space lasers to just eliminate MTG… I would be offended they left so many others.
@Gustopher:
Well, maybe the gazpacho police will bust her for something.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Maybe if you weren’t an atheist? 😉
@JohnSF:
@dazedandconfused:
Space Oddity by Bowie?
Ground control to Major Tom….
@CSK: With the Electoral College, MAGAts, and the Republican party at large being what they are, I can’t be sure. I would certainly HOPE not, but Democrats didn’t think Hillary would lose either. 🙁
This is really nice. And it didn’t take anti-gravity like Clarke thought it would, but my thought is “why a 747”?
I know it’s because Sir Dick had a few he could no longer use in his airline. Me, I’d get a new 787 or maybe an A350. Speed and altitude are about the same, but the latter uses less fuel.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I wish I knew how many MAGAs there are. They’re as noisy as hell, but volume doesn’t equate to numbers, necessarily.
@Gustopher:
Well, if vat grown meats are made up of animal cells, they can easily be infected with salmonella or any other bacteria or viruses.
@de stijl: I never speed up for the knothead driver who is trying to be polite. Then again, I walk with a cane all the time now. At unsignaled intersections, I sometimes step back from the curb to try to convince them that they should go first. At times when they have dithered and waved and gestured long enough to lose their chance to turn and I end up having to go (so I can get out of their way for try #2), they signal to me that I’m number one.
I smile and shrug.
The tally in the Alex Jones case is at $230M for the first three plaintiffs…9 plaintiffs yet to go.
Thinking of the much lamented departure of Tulsi Gabbard, see that and raise you ex-Labour MP Chris Williamson, once touted by the tankie left as a possible leadership candidate.
Thank heavens Keir Starmer continues to purge the wretched Corbynites.
Latest poll, 9 October by Redfield and Wilton has Labour on 54%, Conservatives 25%.
Landslide territory.
Poll of polls shows 49/26.
🙂
@daryl and his brother darryl:
Final tally – $965M.
I’m pretty sure Alex Jones doesn’t have $965M.
@Flat Earth Luddite: Nothing this morning at all. I did scoop up yearbook and CTC (career and technical classes) for Friday last night before I went to bed at 11 though. It’s really too early in the year for secondary teachers to have planned absences except on Friday for road games, and most of our HS staff is still older, so no kiddos to stay home sick for.
@daryl and his brother darryl: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
This is what he deserves. To be utterly destroyed by the lives he’s disrupted by peddling lies.
@Just nutha ignint crackerd:
This is one of the things I really miss about China–crossing the road. There, it’s common to start crossing at any point in the road (not just corners) when ever there’s a break in traffic from the left. Then stand on the center line until there’s a break in traffic from the right.
I really hate the cars who, rather than taking the 3 seconds to continue on, stop traffic while it takes me 20 seconds to cross the street.
@Kathy: How many Flying Club miles does it cost to launch my own satellite?
@wr:
No clue.
But it will cost more in upper class than coach, and there will still be some kind of fuel surcharge.
@Mu Yixiao: “This is one of the things I really miss about China–crossing the road. ”
I remember crossing a huge — at least ten lanes — street on one of my earliest trips to Beijing. I was less than halfway across when I noticed that drivers making left turns seemed to be steering directly at me. At first I thought I must be paranoid, but then realized they were doing exactly that — steering towards the point where I was at that moment on the assumption that by the time they’d crossed all those opposing lanes I would have moved on from there… It makes sense, but I can’t say I ever got used to it.
@daryl and his brother darryl:
Unfortunately it will come down on appeal.
@Mu Yixiao:
You can do what I do and just aggressively stare down anyone who thinks about maybe hitting me. Adds a little bit of thrill to crossing the street.
@dazedandconfused: WA! It’s even more spectacular that I thought it was. Or not, depending. (This clip has the lyrics on screen. Much clearer.)
@Kathy: I assume there are sterilization processes in our test-tube meat factories. Ensures a consistency of flavor.
Of course, in Seattle one of the better coffee shops had a roasterie with a rat infestation, so you never know where that good flavor is coming from.
Anyway I trust everyone else’s chicken handling skills more than mine, even places that terrify me.
@Gustopher:
You could always buy chicken thighs, which will stand up to almost any cooking.
@Beth:
The problem isn’t that they’re trying to hit me. It’s that they stop when the more efficient thing for everyone is for them to continue driving.
@CSK: If it was only MAGAts, it might not be a problem, but you also have staunch Republicans, people who prefer a right-wing agenda, the nut cases who just want to give Michael Moore’s giant “f**k you” to society, and principled independent voters who vote their (always pro-GQP, strangely enough) “consciences.” Overall, I don’t see that running mate choice flipping enough voters. Much the same as the choice of Palin for McCain, only in reverse.
We sometimes disagree here, amongst ourselves, but I believe we can all come together as one to enjoy the fact that a jury just fined Alex Jones almost a billion – yes, with a ‘b’ – dollars.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Had it been up to me their ritual would’ve been the stroking their phones, seemingly fascinated at the smooth hardness of them, while the theme from 2001 SO plays.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: It’s like a bad space sitcom theme song.
My favorite them song, from the Bruce Campbell historical (and inaccurate) show, “Jack of All Trades”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhS5xMK845U&t=233s
@daryl and his brother darryl: BBC has the total at $965 million as of 6 minutes ago. The link below claims that Jones will go banko. Lawyers here can explain how that will affect the judgement if they wish. In any event, the total is well more than he can pay. I think that’s called a pyrrhic victory.
On the other hand for those who don’t actually care about the families, only destroying Jones…
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Alex-Jones-defamation-net-worth-17493673.php
@Kathy: This is about accountability. He can appeal, sure, but there is no damages cap to Connecticut’s unfair trade practices act. He’s also saying that there’s no money. Whatever. He’s been held accountable, and this will stick with him.
Also, there’s a third trial, so he’s not done with court yet.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I’m beginning to wonder if Tulsi Gabbard has her eye on being Trump’s vp in 2024. She left the Democratic Party yesterday, and today she’s endorsing a Trump-backed candidate (Joe Kent) and campaigning with another (Don Bolduc).
@Mu Yixiao: In major cities in Korea at large intersections there were pedestrian islands (most quite large) at the edges of intersections that allowed cars to make right turns behind pedestrians waiting to cross. Did Chinese cities do that sort of configuration, too?
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Nope. While there are separate lanes for e-bikes and scooters, pedestrians are mostly an after thought. For anyone in a polite society, it must look like the little old ladies coming out of the store have a death wish, but… that’s just crossing the road in China. 🙂
@CSK: I think hindquarters are tastier, too, but tastes differ. I know my doctor didn’t like that I ate chicken legs and thighs when I was having HBP and cholesterol issues, but my cholesterol went way down while I was in Korea and never came back up, so my current doctor doesn’t complain.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
It’s not how much he can pay, so long as he pays everything he owns or will ever earn.
Which we know will not happen.
Me, I’m sorry civil law does not allow for incarceration.
@Mu Yixiao: Drivers stopping when they shouldn’t was never a problem in Korean cities I lived in. They don’t even all stop when the law requires them to.
Meanwhile in Russia, the FSB uncovers the Ukrainian agents who bombed the Kerch Bridge, and the actual truck … they … er …wait,what?
FSB: for the spy who doesn’t like to try too hard.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
So, I’m not a BK attorney, that shit’s way too complicated, but basically just because you file for bankruptcy it doesn’t mean you automatically get a free pass. You know, kill your debts and keep all your stuff. For most regular (read poor/middle class) it functionally does. You might be able to keep your house, your car, your tools, a bunch of crap in the basement.
However, for someone who as a TON of money and assets. Well, now that’s different. First, Jones AND the company will have to divulge basically all their assets and liabilities. The Court and the creditors are also going to be able to go digging through there and try to unwind a bunch of the shady dealing he was doing to protect his assets, like weird loans to family members. They could get sucked into that. Then once they determine what he’s got, the court will divide that up amongst the creditors and then wipe him clean.
Now, that’s super basic and superficial and my BK daddy would probably poke a ton of holes in that, but it works.
TLDR; Jones is in for a very unpleasant time.
@JohnSF: @JohnSF:
Another market for the ADEs
@CSK: Gabbard was never a Democrat to begin with. I mean, she claimed to be, but it’s been obvious for a long time what her role is. She claims she reached her positions independently, nobody is “telling” her, which is an obvious push-back to those who believe she’s a Russian asset. Unfortunately for her, “I’m not compromised, I’m just a useful idiot” isn’t the flex she seems to think it is.
Don Bolduc is as Trumpy as it gets. Anyone who can “leave the Democratic Party” and go straight to him…well, again, never really a Democrat to start with.
@Beth:
I’ve come across this kind of thing when following the bankruptcy of a company (mostly airlines).
Not nearly as unpleasant as he deserves.
@Beth: Thanks! That sounds promising!
I don’t know. Every year when the humidity abates, she gets more nosebleeds. This year is extreme.
As one who is actually on bloodthinners, I get them too. but not like she does.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Nah. I once stood bent over my son’s blood spattered gurney in the Cardinal Glennon ER praying to a god I knew didn’t exist. Guess what? He never showed up.
@Michael Reynolds: Amen to that.
This is amazing:
https://apple.news/AUAfBYlNhQx-dM37926FSIw
Hope that link works
In Re: the tail end of yesterday’s Open Forum…
@Gustopher:
I quite like it. 😉 Spotify came up on a post a couple days ago and somebody mentioned that you couldn’t find good “niche” music on it. I beg to differ! I’ve been spending countless hours on a tractor listening to Spotify, and once my playlist ends, they just keep finding shit they “think” I might like.
Which led me down a musical rabbit hole. It all started when I didn’t “specify” a playlist, I just started playing Alestorm, “Fuck you with an Anchor”. Which led me to a genre of music I was unaware existed….I call it “Pirate Thrash”.
It turns out the only thing I like as much as banjo is….pirates. 😛 😛
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Really? Only an 80?! Man, you should play that shit in your head when you’re cruising around with a grocery cart at the store!!
Today’s episode of Andor…holy crap. This show is fantastic. Fantastic.
@Mikey:
It’s been a crap day for me. A full on running battle with Seasonal Affective Disorder. Hit me like a truck today. I only have to make it one more hour until I get to watch Andor. That will make it all better.
@Mikey: “Don Bolduc is as Trumpy as it gets. Anyone who can “leave the Democratic Party” and go straight to him…well, again, never really a Democrat to start with.”
She’s not a Democrat or a Republican. She’s an attention whore.* She’s going to go wherever people will pay attention to her. And right now it seems like there are Republicans who are stupid enough to do just that.
Think of it as a sneak preview of Krysten Sinema’s career after 2024.
*Not a gendered insult, by the way. Andrew Yang is another one…
Also Derry Girls. Watch it.
@Mikey:
That show has the best character definition I’ve ever seen in a single episode of TV. Lisa McGee, the showrunner, is brilliant.
Idea for a reality TV show: the hounding of Alex Jones, the stripping away of everything he has.
@Michael Reynolds: I’d actually watch that. And Tucker Carlson. The debt needs to be paid.
@Gustopher: That Space Force anthem keeps reminding me of the “All American League” song from “A League of Their Own”.
@Mikey: I watched Andor last night after coming home from a fairly stressful budget meeting. Holy cow.
It took me a good hour to settle last night. My ability to fall asleep is heavily impacted by state of mind, and when I’m agitated it takes ages.
I also adore Derry Girls. That is probably what we should have watched, given my mental frame post-meeting.