Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, April 10, 2024
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70 comments
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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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Residents in wealthy California town block access to public hot springs with boulders
Awwwwwwww…. Po po wittle wich people, having to allow the hoi polloi access to lands that belong to them. Maybe even see the dirty little beggars! The horror!
More articles on advances in modern warfare:
Air Force-tested software prints drones in 48 hours or less
AI-operated fighter jet will fly Air Force secretary on test run
Not a surprise.
Report: Veterans with extremist views had bad experiences in military
Well, duh.
Donald Trump’s net worth slashed by over $2 billion in one week as media mogul Barry Diller calls Truth Social parent a ‘scam
What’s that definition of stupidity again?
The German valley that was swept away: ‘The cemeteries gave up their dead’
Yah, doing the same thing, over and over again expecting different results.
It looks like Russia is pretty clear who the main target audience for its propaganda efforts is:
“Hunter Biden-linked Ukrainian firm connected to terror attacks”
To quote Mihnea:
@JohnSF: If all you have to sell is BS of course you want a gullible audience. Same as Republicans.
Just in case anybody missed the news: Peter Higgs, physicist who proposed Higgs boson, dies aged 94
RIP
@JohnSF:
You mean the GOP House caucus?
Not a bad strategy, tbf.
Scott- Its clear drones are really important now but I think they and their uses are still evolving as are counter-drone efforts. I think that the small, cheap drones are probably going to be around for a long time for recon. It’s hard to shoot down tiny moving targets and they can be pretty cheap. I am less certain about the larger drones. If they are autonomous i guess they are less susceptible to jamming but they are also bigger targets. My concern would be that given the history of the US military and our contractors that the emphasis will be on building very expensive multi-capability drones since so much of our production is aimed at spending money in as many states as possible so congress will support the spending. There might be a role for those kinds of drones but I bet we overspend on them and find we are better off with lots of cheaper single use versions.
Steve
The headline of the day- Woman wins $1M jackpot after buying lottery ticket by mistake
Alan Weisselberg has been sentenced to six months in jail for perjury in TFG’s civil fraud trial.
@CSK:
Please please please tell me he gets to spend all 6 months in Rikers.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
Nothing I’ve read says where he’ll serve his sentence, but his last incarceration was at Riker’s, so…
@OzarkHillbilly:
A Higgs Boson gets to the church late, and the sexton won’t let him in.
“You gotta let me in,” the Higgs Boson protests. “Without me, there’s no mass.”
@CSK:
The Washington Post reports that he’s expected to serve the sentence at Riker’s.
@Kathy: Ouch. 30 lashes with a wet noodle for you.
@Kathy: Puns are the lowest form of humor. Please, no mas.
The title of this article says it all, but it’s an amusing/appalling read anyway:
http://www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-virtues-and-other-fairy-tales
@Kathy:
One of the recurring characters in the long-running Girl Genius web comic is Bosun Higgs.
An interesting passage recounting the Virginia Slavery debate of 1831/32. Seems emancipation of the slaves of VA was favored in the legislature until the fanatical violence of New England Abolitionists and polarizing condemnation the southern peoples hardened public opinion killing considered legislative emancipation and setting the stage for the Civil War.
Perhaps a lesson for the polarizing rhetoric of today?
Re: on boarding
@Jen said yesterday:
This could be done right now without AI. In many places, boarding passes are scanned at the gate already. So it’s a simple matter of combining the boarding order with the scanner. A gate agent would have to instruct the computer when a group changes, but that should be simple enough (or not, depending on software design philosophies).
Thing is, people often don’t listen to boarding rules, and I bet many don’t know their row number, and won’t even glance at their pass to see what it is. And a lot want to board as soon as possible to secure overhead bin space.
@gVOR10:
A lot of particle physics humor consists of puns.
A neutron has a few drinks at a bar, then asks for the check. The bartender says, “For you, no charge.”
A photon checks in for a flight and is asked whether they have luggage. “No,” answers the photon. “I’m traveling light.”
Not all are puns. For instance:
Bartender: Sorry, our insurance doesn’t cover FTL particles.
A tachyon walks into a bar.
Tall tales but no dessert: the storyteller of Karachi and his ice-cream cart library
@JKB: So… they got their precious fee fees hurt because people were telling the truth about them? Pobrecitos…
Try this on for size, the next time somebody tells the truth about your fellow political travelers, (whether it applies to you or not) man up and own it.
@JKB:
First: Emancipating slaves would have deprived the rich of massive wealth, so no way.
Second: this is just another example of the Right blaming everybody else for their own actions.
You can’t trust atoms. They make up everything.
@Kathy: Werner Heisenberg is speeding down the highway when he gets pulled over. The trooper comes up to the window and says ” Do you know how fast you were going?” Heisenberg replies “No, but I know precisely where I am.”
That one has them rolling in the aisles at CERN.
@Kathy: Heisenberg and Schroedinger are driving together. They’re stopped by a cop. The cop asks, “Do you know how fast you were going?” “No, but we knew precisely where we were.” This irritates the cop, who decides to search the car. He looks in the trunk. “Did you know there’s a dead cat in here?” “Yes. Now.”
ETA – Oops, sorry, country.
@Batrry:
A major organizing principle of modern day conservatism is Murc’s Law: Only liberals have agency; conservatives just can’t help do what they are doing. I guess history revisionism is the next logical step. I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for those poor slave owners, trying to do the right thing but being forced to own humans as chattel, forced to rip children away from their mothers and sell them to plantations down river. It must’ve been just awful for slave owners to have all that forced on them. But an abolitionist somewhere once said something mean and hurt their feelings, so what could they do?
@Kathy: I always try to board as close to last as possible so that everyone else is out of my way.
Then again, I’m never trying to claim a six-foot duffel bag as a carry on, either.
@Kathy:
AGREED! That’s why the process I propose must be accompanied by a loud buzzer sound, along with something that physically blocks the offender from advancing onto the plane. Basically these idiots must be shamed into looking at their d@mn tickets and figuring out when they are permitted to board.
@JKB:
Indeed. People who perpetrate either wickedness or harm of self and others are often incapable of taking responsibility for their choices. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
We see this all the time from a) addicts, b) criminals and c) the big, strong, non-snowflake alpha men of the party of personal responsibility:
“Waaaaaa an online comment that hurt my wittle feewings forced me to be a fascist/homophobe/racist waaaaaaaaaaa!”
It is unsurprising that certain political movements attract such people, because refusal to hold oneself accountable for one’s own principles and choices is a signpost of a disordered personality, and of an unethical or spoiled unbringing with neglect or entitlement. One of the first interventions we do in therapy is stopping this blame-shifting bad habit.
A lot of Americans need political intervention. Instead they get coddled. Sad.
@Neil Hudelson:
To put it simply: Look what you made me do.
Earlier this morning Trump’s lawyers filed yet another appeal in the hush money case.
@Kathy: Very nice. I will definitely use it
@Jen:
How about: “That’s $50 for jumping ahead in line. Or you can wait your turn.”
Part of the problem may be that enforcing boarding rules in a chaotic line, also causes boarding to take longer.
Ideally, by the time you make it to the jet bridge, you should be able to keep moving until you reach your seat. In practice, you’ll wait inside the bridge, then inside the plane.
@Neil Hudelson: I used to play tennis with a history prof whose specialty was the ante-bellum south and the run-up to the war. It’s a long time since I read his book, Half Slave and Half Free, but I still remember a detail he mentioned. There were, mostly Quaker, teachers who went south and volunteered to teach slaves basic literacy. The slave owners said negroes couldn’t learn to read and write. And knowing the truth deep in their black hearts, they went to a lot of trouble, including violence, to keep the teachers away from their slaves so they wouldn’t be proven wrong.
@CSK:
Trump is scared. It’s unlikely, but should he be convicted, he could theoretically be sentenced to do time. And I think it’s begun to penetrate his thick skull that he can’t just lie his way out of his legal problems. He’s going to have to sit there and listen as multiple witnesses expose him. He’s not in control.
Well, let’s ask ourselves how many people there were in Virginia in 1830 who owned a lot of slaves and stood to lose a lot of money should emancipation come to Old Virginia. Maybe 100, 200? It might be as much as 1000 all told. That’s not a lot of votes.
So what to do if you have lots of money, but not many votes? Here is my speculation. This is what I’d look for:
Those few people with the means and the motivation to stop emancipation would try to turn the emancipation effort into an “assault on our way of life” so as to broaden opposition to it. They would engage in culture wars. They would cherry-pick quotes of people saying terrible things (because there are always people saying terrible things, and get folks so fired up about that that they forget what’s at stake. They would take other people’s quotes out of context. They would talk about all the beautiful things the plantation system has created.
They would create a fantasy world of cavaliers, and frame the “abolitionists” (let’s remember that there were Virginians trying to pass emancipation) as “foreigners from the North”. They would find passages in the Bible that seemed to support their position, and they would expand on the natural human tendency to see the African slaves as inferior.
All of it is basically propaganda. This is my expectation for what happened. Not that I have chapter and verse, mind you.
It’s much similar to how they motivated the young men of the South to fight for them. By framing them as cowards if they didn’t fight to defend “our way of life”. But the plantation/slave owner’s way of life was nothing like their way of life. Such a scam. I am so sorry to see all those good men throw their lives away in a terrible, terrible cause.
@JKB:
So, the very rich slave owners of Virginia would have simply legislated away their own wealth, if only no one had suggested they should do what you claim they were ready to do.
Do me a favor, point out a single contemporary billionaire who would have given up his billions if only people didn’t say he should give up his billions.
Imbecile or pathological liar? I’m never sure which you are.
@JKB: I really hope that in your own life, you don’t let “people are saying nasty things about me” keep you from doing what’s right. I wouldn’t think you do. I try not to. Spite is a thing among humans though, and I have felt its pull.
And yeah, people say nasty things about me. I find I am able to support political social positions even though some of the other people who hold that position are people who have behaved badly toward me.
@CSK: @Michael Reynolds: Since the appeals process, if not the conviction itself, is unlikely to be completed before the election, the only important question currently is what political impact it will have, if any.
I’ve seen a few commentators (such as Glenn Kirschner) say it should be framed as an “election interference” case. Maybe. But I think one reason even many liberals have been less than enthused by it is that it’s the one trial that doesn’t really have anything to do with the unprecedented danger Trump poses to the American system, and feels more like standard-issue corruption. I bet Trump isn’t the first US politician to have paid hush money during an election campaign. That doesn’t make it right, it doesn’t mean he didn’t commit serious crimes. But it also doesn’t make Trump seem uniquely awful in quite the way the other stuff does.
The media narrative will probably frame it as a Clinton-tier lying-about-sex scandal.
So maybe the best we can hope for at the moment is that it (a) interferes with his campaign schedule (b) leads to his further unraveling. It may not be a slam-dunk leading directly to his defeat in November, but it’s not nothing.
@Jay L Gischer: I’m pretty sure that over the years people have said bad things about me, but very rarely to my face, and in the instances where they did I first ascertained the truth of the matter, then decided whether I needed to do something to rectify things. The gist of what they said usually boiled down to I’m an asshole. It’s true, I am an asshole and the truth is I’m comfortable with that fact. It’s not a problem for me.
(I am trying to be less of an asshole these days but only because life is too short to spend much of it on petty little squabbles over something “mean” I probably said)
@Scott:
Looking at the full RAND document now. Interesting. One of the guys who signaled support for Proud Boys in the initial survey denied supporting them in the interview. But not because he is ideologically opposed:
I mean, he’s right. He’s not the right kind of dangerous, but he’s right about Proud Boys.
@Kylopod:
You’d think Trump’s fundamentalist fan club would be a bit perturbed by the fact that he married Melania–the most beautiful, gracious, elegant, and intelligent First Lady ever!–in 2005, and was having affairs with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in 2006. Apparently not.
@CSK: The official story in Trumpworld since 2018 is that the affairs never happened—that Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal are liars who threatened to falsely accuse Trump of having slept with them, which he’d never think of doing because he’s the most loving and devoted husband the world has known, and he paid them off in order to protect Melania’s feelings. What could be more chivalrous than that?
@CSK: Some of us take “forgive our sins (in the same way/to the same degree) as we forgive the sins of others” from The Lord’s Prayer more seriously than others might. (And probably need to, too!)
@Scott:
Moral worth is not measured in money. If it were, I estimate Lardass’ net moral worth to be somewhere south of -$99,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999.99 (ChatGPT assures me this is pronounced: ninety-nine nonillion, nine hundred ninety-nine octillion, nine hundred ninety-nine septillion, nine hundred ninety-nine sextillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quintillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quadrillion, nine hundred ninety-nine trillion, nine hundred ninety-nine billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine point nine nine).
@JKB:..Perhaps a lesson for the polarizing rhetoric of today?
You mean like this?
@Kurtz: I’m reminded a little of the All in the Family episode where Archie inadvertently joins a chapter of the KKK. These men come to him saying they’re recruiting people for some club they belong to, they describe their core principles and beliefs, Archie likes what he hears and quickly signs on. Then they don their white hoods, and Archie is genuinely horrified.
@Kylopod:
Fine. Let’s say it’s true. He’s not accused for sleeping with them, nor for paying them off, but for falsifying business records. Nothing in the fantastic allegation by his deplorables requires the commission of a crime.
TL;DR: Lock him up.
@Kathy: I’m envisioning something that’s a cross between the highway toll scans and a cattle chute. As you walk through the scanning device, it reads your bar/QR code. If you’re supposed to be boarding, you can continue to walk straight through. However, if you’ve not paid attention/intentionally tried to jump the line, BEEP (loud buzz) and the gate shifts, shuttling you over to a holding pen. You are trapped there until everyone else boards, then the gate opens.
People would learn fast, I think. (Or, more likely, they’d scream and yell and be obnoxious…maybe there’s another pen there to cart them off to the airport jail?)
A girl can dream.
@Kathy:
Oh, it was Weisselberg who falsified the business records. TFG had nothing to do with that.
@Kathy:
lol … You win this thread.
A friend of mine has a ‘wanted poster’ in his ‘study.’
“Wanted Dead And Alive, Schrodinger’s Cat.”
@Jen:
No electric shock? I’m disappointed…
One time, the Aeromexico gate agent began trying to organize people in groups before opening boarding. Between people chatting, yakking on the cell phone, texting on the phone, listening to music, etc. it was harder than herding drunk cats.
Another source of boarding delay, is the person who’s been crowding the boarding area, waiting in line, and only when asked for their boarding pass do they think to look for their travel documents in their bag. I think I run across people like that in at least half the flights (in the other half, I assume they were behind me in line).
@Jen:
If this system can be perfected at airports I can think of all kinds of lineup situations it could be modified to improve. Especially with Kathy’s electric shock addition….
@CSK:
Fine. They can share a cell in Riker’s.
@Pete S:
I’d settle for just the electric shock.
@Jen: I like it!!! 😀 😀 😀
@Kathy: @Pete S: No. The electric shock feature is overkill and mean spirited. (Thinking of my “forgive our sins as…” comment from above.)
How about ten days in county jail for every three denied appeals?
Coincidentally, Lardass got just such a third strike just now.
I recently read Timothy Ryback’s Takeover, which is a detailed history of the year leading up to Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in January of 1933. It’s presented as a tale of plotting and scheming, much of it by Hitler’s opponents, but the fact is that after the Nov 1932 election Nazis were the largest bloc in the Reichstag, holding 33% of the seats, so Hitler had a pretty strong hand. This was down a bit from 37% in the July 1932 election. Yes, they were having a parliamentary crisis. In 1924 Hitler had been convicted of high treason (I think technically against the state of Bavaria) for the failed Beer Hall Putsch, and served prison time. Nine years from imprisoned for treason to Chancellor.
Even if somebody manages to get convictions for Trump before the election, I don’t expect it to make any real difference. Deep state plot weaponizing the DoJ every president’s done it Hunter Biden’s laptop.
So, after condemning the AZ supreme court ruling allowing an 1864 law banning all abortions, Arizona republicans blocked a vote by Democrats and one Republican to repeal this law.
The Chutzpah is strong in these ones.
Oops! Link to the above
@Kathy:
Q: How many physicists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: One, but only if he can get funding for three grad students and a new lab
@Kylopod:
Indeed. Were I Biden, I’d be focusing on the election meddling in Georgia and the (apparently now forgotten) extortion of Ukraine for invented dirt on Biden. Those are unforgivable by everyone except GOP Congressthings.
@DrDaveT:
Good one.
Someday I may post my B5 and Trek light bulb jokes.
@Kathy:
Saw a bio of Bill Buckley on PBS the other day. “American Masters” IIRC. Was surprised to find it interesting. One of the things dealt with was the nomination of Barry Goldwater and how that happy plan came apart. Failure to control the extremists which Bill unwisely tried to court and then tip-toe around. It is a fair statement to say this had been the problem for conservatives ever since they tried to coalesce a majority.
The Barry Goldwater quote that fits this mess:
Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.
Said in November 1994, as quoted in John Dean, Conservatives Without Conscience (2006).
This was grabbed from a wikiquote page which I found interesting reading. He clearly saw the problem. Compromise is essential in a democracy.
Q: How many flies does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Just two. But nobody knows how they get in there…
@dazedandconfused:
I’d heard that Goldwater quote before. I didn’t know it was from the 90s. by then, hadn’t the preachers asserted at least partial control over the GQP?
BTW, the first quote in the Wiki begins “extremism in the defense of liberty” etc. Well, ins’t that the GQP now?
@Kathy:
What was surprising to me was the documentary on Bill Buckley said Bill considered that quote about extremism made at the convention a terrible mistake, as it alienated the sort of conservatives Bill had gathered. I suspect he was thinking about the “Goldwater Republicans” which such as Hillary was at the time.