Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, May 24, 2023
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35 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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Are OzarkHillbilly and I the only ones who’ve risen to greet the new day?
@CSK: 35 years of getting up at 3 or 4 in the AM has made me an early riser, tho this AM I slept in till 5.
I am certainly not qualified to judge it’s “groundbreaking technologies” but I rather doubt that is what they will be remembered for.
@OzarkHillbilly: I always said that if I’ll get up early for the boss, you can be damn sure I’ll get up early for myself too!
The final six years that I worked in the landline telephone industry I was on 24 hour callout every other week. The phone would wake me up at say 2am. Then I would run at least an hour to the job site. When I was done it was too late to go home and sleep so I would sit at the coffee shop till it was time to start my regular shift at 7am. It was the only part of the job that I didn’t like.
ETA: Hello EDIT key. Looks like you’re not getting any sleep these days.
Inauguration day poet collection removed from FL public school library due to one parental complaint. But, remember, according to our resident self-proclaimed free speech enthusiast, the real problem is that a colleague couldn’t enjoy her coffee in peace after a ham handed characterization of a minority.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article275671496.html
Gonna have a smile on my face all day.
Target removes some LGBTQ+ merchandise after right wing backlash:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/24/target-lgbtq-clothing-controversy-boycott/
All of a sudden my “like” button has vanished.
@CSK: Yes, the like button is gone…I figured it was something I’d missed an update about, as I’ve been busy lately.
@Jen:
Glad it’s not just me.
@CSK:
That’s the sign of the apocalypse.
Good. I had a lot of work today 😉
Noticed that the “thumbs up” tag at the bottom of post has disappeared. Is that a new feature, or temporary?
Are Comer and Jordan nothing more than Joe McCarthy part two?
@Bob@Youngstown:
First tragedy, then farce. Seems just about right.
Not that the farce will be painless, nor that it will avoid massive destruction. See Napoleon III, who was the subject of Marx’s comment.
Trump said today on Truth Social that E. Jean Carroll is his stalker because she liked The Apprentice.
RFK Jr. told Steve Bannon that Trump is the best debater since…Lincoln.
I don’t know who’s more delusional, RFK Jr. or Trump.
Tina Turner has died.
RIP
Boxtop
Featuring Little Ann
1958
Tune Town
St. Louis 4, MO
@Mister Bluster: @Mister Bluster:
She was something.
@CSK:..She was something.
Thumbs Up!
Maybe you’ve heard Mount Popocatepetl, a volcano near Mexico City, has become more active in recent days.
I don’t know when it last erupted with lots of lava, rocks, etc. Around 1994-95, after a long period of dormancy, it began to spew smoke and ash (and it melted the glacier at the summit). Now and then, it does so more often or in larger quantity.
The city is no danger, but there are small towns and farms nearby which would suffer. I don’t know enough to say what the chances are for an explosive eruption, the most dangerous kind. The tendency is to assume the frequent discharge of gas and ashes menas pressure ins’t building up, but nothing is ever so simple.
Some town have suspended school classes, so kids won’t be exposed to smoke and ash (volcanic ash is nasty stuff), and there are evacuation plans in place.
As to the city, the major effect were flight cancellations and delays. Volcanic ash is tiny fragments of rock, minerals, and volcanic glass. It’s abrasive, sticky, and forms abrasive and sticky mud on contact with water*. If a jet engine ingests it, it tends to shut down. Often it can be restarted after a while, but one such incident shortly after takeoff, or on final approach, amid a crowded city airport, could be a major disaster.
*Late 90s or early 2000s some ash fell on the city (very little where I live). It was recommended people sweep it up with brooms and place it in trash cans. There were strong warnings against dumping them in the sewers.
@Kathy:
Thanks for the update. I had been meaning to ask you about this. It’s good to know you’re safe, or at least not in immediate danger.
Pelosi: “Get your foot off my desk.”
Judge: “Four and 1/2 years.”
@CSK:
I’ve been meaning to post about it for a few days, but couldn’t quite figure out what to say. There are few specifics. also, like in one of the volcano movies in the 90s, we’ve been getting used to nearby volcanic activity for 30 years now.
BTW, there are two other volcanoes nearby. Ajusco, and Iztaccihuatl (which I was sure was spelled Ixtlazihuatl). The latter one is near Popocatepetl, but has shown no activity at all.
@Bob@Youngstown: Stupid Joe McCarthy part 2.
@Mister Bluster: Fuck me. She and I had a deal: Me first.
This will shock. . . well, none of the regulars here. . . but DeSantis’s mind-meld with Elon Musk went sideways as the depopulated Twitter repeatedly crashed.
This fuckwit tied himself to an unstable billionaire who then failed to deliver. That’s a whole new chapter of political malpractice. What a schmuck.
@Mister Bluster:
Most deaths. . . meh. But this one stung. I’m dreading Mick, Keith and Sir Paul.
@OzarkHillbilly: @Michael Reynolds:
She was one of those rare individuals whom you thought would be around forever.
We didn’t used to have a thumbs up function so I’ll probably get used to not having it fairly quickly but it’s absence got me thinking, and I realized it had a negative side as well as a positive. I can’t tell you how many times I thumbed up someone who made a good point but whose viewpoint was crosswise from mine. Now that I think of it, that is probably the most important time to put it in writing.
@Michael Reynolds: My wife took me to “Tina!” For my birthday and the woman who played her was un-effing-believably good… and all I could think of whenever she was singing was “Turner sang just as good and with a lot more style.” Nothing against the actress. If she wasn’t playing TT I would have been raving.
@Michael Reynolds:
First Starship, then Twitter blows up.
I seriously wonder whether The Mars Emperor God of Phobos has completely lost it, and Spacex’s Falcon 9s and Starlink simply run on inertia.
I mean, it’s not like it’s hard to tell a tech platform won’t run as well with a fraction of the staff, or that means of diverting hot gasses and use of a water deluge to deal with vibration wasn’t known prior to Starship’s first attempt.
As to the latter, the first test launch of a Saturn V knocked plaster dust loose off the control room ceiling over three miles away. Nowhere near catastrophic, but one would wonder what vibration was like for 1) the booster, 2) the launch tower and pad, and 3) the people who would one day ride the rocket. Ergo water deluge.
Starship expends more energy than the Saturn V.
@Michael Reynolds: It’s the ones that are still creating and pushing themselves that I miss most.
When The Rolling Stones die, I think they will be able to rest easy knowing that they said everything they had to say artistically. And that they made the catchiest song with the worst lyrics (“Brown Sugar” is quite an amazing song). The got to finish their story.
You can’t say the same for people like David Bowie, Johnny Cash or Prince. Or John Prine.
Bob Dylan still churns out something interesting every few years. That’s gonna suck. But every album sounds like it was meant to be released posthumously, so I think he’s been preparing for it for the last 25 years.
I guess what I’m saying is this: The Rolling Stones can die. Or something.