Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, December 20, 2023
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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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So, a court has found that Trump is a traitorous insurrectionist because of a coup attempt in which Gini Thomas was an active participant. The ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court, so of course Clarence Thomas will recuse himself.
Sometimes I crack myself up!
Xmas can be hazardous to one’s health:
Risk of penile fractures rises at Christmas, doctors find
Also be wary of Christmas trees, Fairy lights, Turkeys, Champagne corks, Xmas baubles, Heart disease, and Santa.
And people wonder why I ignore the whole thing.
I was in the ER all night between late Sat. night and early Sunday morning due to severe abdominal pain, in what turned out to be a small kidney stone. They put me on Flomax (tamsulosin) and recommended ibuprofen and Tylenol for the pain, but I haven’t taken either since Sunday as the pain has only been very mild and intermittent since leaving the hospital, though I still feel like crap.
A pretty cool picture:
Harbin, China
A tourist splashes water that immediately turns to ice over the frozen Songhua River in Heilongjiang province
Photograph: VCG/Getty Images
@Kylopod:
I have a “pet” kidney stone, first identified most of 20 years ago. It’s down near the bottom of the kidney, has never moved when it shows up in images done for other purposes, and hasn’t grown. Never given me a symptom. I regard it as another of those things a body accumulates as it goes along. Like the scar tissue from the nasty case of pleurisy I had when I was 16 that I have to explain every time I have a chest x-ray.
@Kylopod: Get well soon, this sounds distressing.
So what next? Are you going to pass this stone? Do they expect it to disintegrate?
@Kylopod: Kidney stones are no fun. Hope you feel better soon.
@Kylopod:
I’m on Flomax too. I get a funny look when I pick up my prescription. Kidney stones are brutal though. I feel for you. Hope it goes away on its own.
@Kylopod: When I had a kidney stone, I started out pissing blood. Looked down and said, “Oooo… that’s not good. I should call the doc tomorrow.” It was a Sunday morn. That evening I got my first shot of pain, not too bad but it was a different kind of pain and I told my wife we needed to go to the ER. By the time we got there, I was in so much pain it was all I could do to crawl thru the doors. Straight to a room I went.
They were pretty good to me. Got me a fan to cool me off, something to cover my eyes from the blinding light, and a wonderful shot of morphine. Then I got the flomax and some painkillers (prescription). Took me 3 or 4 days to pass the stone and happy I was to be rid of it.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Penile fracture? Well, they don’t call it a boner for nothing.
@Kylopod:
Take care of yourself.
Catherine Rampell: Right-wing pundits tremble in fear of … tap-dancing (I got this via a gift link, don’t know if it will work for others)
Fragile white syndrome is real. I don’t know if they could be any more ridiculous if they tried.
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah! Great picture!
@Kylopod: Wishing you a speedy recovery. Kidney stones are a beeyotch!
On lighter bad news, it seems my home desktop PC is dying or is already dead.
I had it on a few minutes yesterday, left to get dinner from the kitchen, and when I returned it was trying to run diagnostics. About an hour later between restarting, letting it run auto repair and one disk scan on its own initiative, it would go to green screen and start trying to fix itself over again. It never came back on. Last thing I did was uninstall the last “quality”update. When it was done it was bedtime, so I switched it off.
Today, if we don’t get out of work too late, I’ll see if it responds. If not, try to uninstall another update (features). If that still doesn’t work, I know one place that will attempt repairs. If that doesn’t work, it will be the laptop and an an old monitor.
I can’t afford a new one just now, especially as I want a multifunction cooker with air fryer combo, and an ice cream maker. Besides, it’s looking a lot like Win12 will be out in a few months, so I may as well wait til then.
I do have my most important data files backed up.
@OzarkHillbilly:
As I recall, tap dancing arose from the African American community, like Jazz and Rock.
@OzarkHillbilly: What a great performance! You’d have to be crazy to think there was anything close to offensive about it.
Oh, wait…
@OzarkHillbilly: The whole display is really sad and pathetic for the righties. ☹️ It’s enough to make one proud to be an egghead bobo intelloprog lefty intellectual just for the “intellect” and “intello” part.
@Kathy:
Dorrance indicates that it appears to be a commingling of Irish step dancing and African-American traditions.
@just nutha:
When I read it, I suffered an attack of vicarious embarrassment.
@just nutha:
I don’t get why they just can’t say, “eh, I didn’t like it.” It has to be the most awful outrageous evil vile blah blah blah. Like, Ingraham just saying I don’t like it would be enough if a cue for her followers to not like it either. It’s insane.
I don’t know if anyone else is following the Masimo-Apple lawsuit which may result in the Apple Watch being taken off the market. I have no comments on the specific case, but I know something about Masimo. They are an extremely aggressive and litigous company who has sued their vendors, their employees, and even their end users (hospitals!) and of course are in constant litigation with their competitors. They sue everyone for anything and everything. Back in my medical device design days I was responsible for a pulse oximeter module for an existing device that was going to use the engine module from one of the three big pulse oximeters OEM’s. It turns out Masimo’s engine was simply not designed for products like ours and had been ruled out before I even started. On day one of my employment I got a phone call from two Masimo account reps who proceeded to tell me about what had been decided for the our product, sent me modified drawings that showed how their parts could be used (ridiculous, it made this size-critical device 50% bigger), and then when I didn’t immediately acknowledge what they were saying, bought up the CEO, called him by his first name, and stated outright that the decision to use Masimo had been made personally by him. None of this, of course, was true and I ignored them and we developed and released our product with a competitor’s OEM module. After I left the company I learned we had been sued by Masimo, although I never found out if it was for that or for some other made up slight. And we didn’t even compete with Masimo! We bought from them for other products. One of the most unpleasant companies to deal with I’ve ever come across.
@MarkedMan: “One of the most unpleasant companies to deal with I’ve ever come across.”
It’s almost like Apple and they deserve each other…
I remember how long ago, the National Park Service was putting together a July 4th celebration on the Mall, and managed to get the Beach Boys to be part of the thing.
The Interior Secretary at the time, one James Watt, had a freakout that there would be (gasp) Rock and Roll on his watch. He tried to stop it, but then-president Reagan said, “chill, Jim, it’s the Beach Boys”, or something like that. It kinda reminds me of the current situation.
I mean, what’s the freakout even about? A woman dressed as a soldier? And swinging her hips? How does Marxism fit in?
Maybe they are bothered by reinterpretation of well-known music. I mean, reinterpretation is fine when Elvis or Eric Clapton or the Beatles did it of black music, but a white European? Off limits!
@Jay L Gischer:
I think Reagan informed Watt that he and Nancy liked the Beach Boys.
@OzarkHillbilly: That clip is delightful. The RW pundits condemning it are nuts. But we knew that.
@CSK: notes tap originated as a blend of Black traditional and Irish step dance. Maybe the southern town Marked Man mentioned yesterday with the no N*clangs, Chinese, or Irish after dark sign just didn’t like Chinese and tap dancers.
Years ago the Chicago Ballet did the Nutcracker in Rockford IL. The theatre stage apparently wasn’t quite suitable so they laid panels over it. They were a little loose and made a distracting slapping noise as they were danced on. My wife nearly lost it when I whispered, “Ah, the tap dance of the sugar plum fairies.”
@Beth:
Try as I might, I couldn’t find any “tasteless perversions.”
@Jay L Gischer: I think we all know what bothered the RW pundits, although they’ll avoid explicitly saying it. Same thing as Idris Elba playing Heimdahl in the Thor movies. A Black face in a “White” role. But they’re all OK with Blackface.
@CSK:
It has Black people in it. That’s all it takes for today’s GOP.
@CSK:
So did I. 🙁
Atrios has a thing about Musk. An entirely justifiable thing. Today he links to a report that Teslas have suffered “tens of thousands” of suspension failures, some on brand new, three digits on the odometer, cars. So far they’ve gotten away with claiming abusive use. A commenter added a link to a Forbes article saying Teslas have the highest accident rate per driver of any brand. (RAM was second and Subaru third. RAM is unsurprising, Subaru is. Years ago a magazine writer observed, “No one ever bought an SUV because he was confident in his driving skills.” Subaru makes such a point of safety the same may apply to them.)
Maybe move fast and break things doesn’t work so good outside software. And I’m getting an impression that the Feds collectively are tired of Elon’s shit.
@gVOR10:
Treating car buyers as guinea pigs is just a part of the damage Musk does. Musk is a danger to US national security. An unstable billionaire should not be in a position to shut down communications, or threaten satellite launches. I hope DOJ lawyers are brushing up on eminent domain law.
Police crash SUV into St Louis gay bar and arrest owner for assault
Speaking of Ellington, listening to this reissue is like time-traveling directly to the jazz age. Highly recommended.
Ellington’s Masterpieces
@gVOR10: I think the underlying issue with the tap dancing was the sheer fun and joyful exuberance of the performance. They feed they have to counteract the comparison to Melania’s American Carnage Christmas decor. Because anything good and happy is a slap on Trump.
And OBTW, Trump has to attack immigration to divert attention from the fact that Melania is an anchor baby who came here not because of oppression but for economic gain. And followed it up with a chain migration of her parents who, because of their age, are a burden on the United States.
@anjin-san: Yep, that’s my hometown.
I’m pretty sure they just showed their policy for investigating police involved accidents: Accuse, beat, and arrest I’m only surprised they didn’t charge the poor guy with breaking their fists with his face.
@Scott: You mean they aren’t a burden on trump? I am shocked, shocked I tell you!
For all of you who get your info from Fox and WSJ you may not be aware that crime is down, a lot. Kind of a funny piece but it does have the numbers. The one crime that remains up is car theft which likely remains high as long as used car prices remain high.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/12/20/crime-murder-violence-down-biden-fox-news/71974355007/
Steve
@steve:
I am working on a post about the drop in crime and addressing some of the really foolish rebuttals that people are using against it. Probably should have invested my time in that writing this morning.
I will say that one of the reasons car theft is so high is the ability to hack Kias and Hundais.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkaq9z/us-cities-have-a-staggering-problem-of-kia-and-hyundai-thefts-this-data-shows-it
Good news, the Pfizer COVID booster shots are now available, including in a pharmacy conveniently close to me.
They cost approx. $50 US each. This made me wonder whether they’re still free in the US, and if not how much do they go for.
I’ll get mine this week if we don’t leave work too late, or Saturday if we do.
@steve:
When I was in Italy recently, almost everyone I talked to asked me something like, “Is San Francisco OK?” or “Are you safe there?”
The propaganda campaign against SF has been very effective. Here in the real world, I get to the city often and have not once felt unsafe. The sketchy areas that I avoid, I have been avoiding all along in the 50+ years I have been hanging out there.
Property crime is a problem, but if you look at actual crime data, SF is pretty safe. Clearly, the fear-mongers have been hard at work, and not without success.
@gVOR10:
It’s cause of all the sex crazed lesbians rushin around in their Subarus running people over on the way to the orgy.
Is that how I Fox News?
@anjin-san:
Much the same was said about NYC in the 80s. I visited in 83 or 84, feeling very anxious about what kind of hellhole I was accompanying my dad on a business trip there. It felt as normal as any other city I’ve ever visited.
I’m sure there was crime, because there’s crime everywhere. I saw and experienced none.
I saw and experienced loads of traffic. Also an amazing skyline, and lots of great restaurants.
@Scott:
Anchor baby mother?
But, but, but. Melanie is one of the good immigrants. Can’t you tell just by looking at her? /s
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’ve done that in Michigan, when it was 25 below.
Not 25 below due to wind chill, actual 25 below dead calm.
The worst that I have done there was a 50 below, but that was with wind chill.
It was cool to watch the water seem to vaporize and then freeze… but it was a real drag to realize that beer became beer slushie when you popped the top of the can.
@Liberal Capitalist: The coldest I have experienced was around 15 below.* Was floating on the Meramec River, and the river “froze” up overnight (not really, it’s spring fed, but the ice was bank to bank and hearing the floating ice grind against the ice along the banks was creepy as all fck). The hoar frost the next morning was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
* The low in STL that night hit -12, iirc. STL is typically about 5 degrees warmer than temps out here so I might be a little conservative in estimating only 3 degrees colder, but winter is different from summer so I don’t think so.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’ve never experienced really cold weather. A few times temps may get down to -5 C late at night or a few hour before dawn, but that’s about as cold as Mex City gets. Once in Toluca, which sits higher, My car’s thermometer read -7.
A typical winter’s day here, like yesterday, dawns cold, around 7-9 C, then gets warm, around 16-18 C by early afternoon (1-3 pm). Unless it’s cloudy. We get the cold air, but though the Sun’s rays are at an angle that confers less heat, we do get some heat. Ergo cold nights and temperate days. Some days it can get as hot as 22 C.
When it’s cloudy, it stays cold all day, rarely rising above 12 C.
The coldest I’ve experienced, was on the trip to NYC I mentioned above. It was early in April, and temps rarely went over 10 C, even in direct sunlight. I found that remarkable and counter intuitive. Somehow, a temp of 5-10 C felt a lot colder in NYC than in Mexico City.
@Kathy: My last COVID shot was paid for by Medicare and my supplemental insurance and was billed @ $156.
@Beth: AYUP!
@just nutha:
Ouch.
Insurance down here doesn’t cover vaccines.
I’ve mentioned them to three people. Two were enthusiastic, the third was scared for some reason.
BTW, the desktop PC did boot up. I’m posting on it right now.
@Kathy:
As far as I can tell, Kaiser has not charged me for my recent COVID, flu & RSV shots; it appears they fall under covered preventative medicine.