Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, June 16, 2021
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96 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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Bridge made of string: Peruvians weave 500-year-old Incan crossing back into place
Pretty cool.
Senator Manchin’s insistence on bipartisanship and preservation of the filibuster must be presented to him directly and challenged with his own words — “We can do this. We must do this.” Manchin must be forced to confront his own dilemma of the reality that if Congress will not come together then what is the option if as he says, “Inaction is not an option.”
“Steps To An American Voting Rights Act“
Tucker Carlson launches bizarre conspiracy theory that January 6th insurrection was a false flag organized by the FBI
@Teve:
Fox is also still pushing hydroxychloroquine.
I’m not a big fan of censorship, but at the same time I feel that there really should be some consequences at some point.
These people and their weaponized lies are destroying society.
@drj:
Russia plants seeds on the net, Fox finds them and broadcasts them.
Three hours form now marks exactly two weeks since my second dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.
Now I’m fully vaccinated.
@Kathy: woohoo!
@Teve:
Tucker’s a little slow on the uptake here. This notion that the Capitol Hill miscreants were Antifa/BLM plants started taking root when the extent of the damage became known, and people started getting arrested. Suddenly they weren’t brave patriots any longer, but commie subversives.
thread
@CSK:
The GOP version of doublethink is incredibly fast. Put into words, it looks like this:
We’re at war with Eurasia! We have always been at war with Eastasia!
@Kathy:
They learned well from Trump: Say whatever is advantageous at any given moment, even if it contradicts something you said five minutes ago.
Regarding yesterday’s thread about Mitch and his strategy of Immanent Inaction*, IMO the larger problem is the Democratic Party has apparently thought little about judicial reform, and it’s certainly not among their priorities.
It’s hard to fault them for this much, because there are so many other things, from fair wages to fair taxes, that one can’t expect them to make everything a priority.
Still, there are options, though they all depend on the Reluctant Pair to move against the filibuster.
One notion I’m mulling over would be legislation that mandates a Senate floor vote on SCOTUS nominations, or even all federal judicial nominations, within 30-45 days of the nomination, with or without committee hearings. The rationale being the third branch of the government must be properly staffed without delay.
There are some consequences to consider with the removal of the filibuster, too.
The curse of alliteration. Permanent Obstruction would have been more accurate.
@CSK:
Commie subversives with Odal rune flags and Blood Drop Cross tattoos.
My plans for tonight:
https://thewoksoflife.com/how-to-make-chili-oil/
@charon:
Yes, and the Confederate battle flag. Antifa and BLM members always wave those.
@Teve:
I use the much simpler one that’s on tables in restaurants in China.
1) Sichuan chili flakes
2) Sesame seeds
Mix them in a heat-resistant bowl.
Heat oil to the smoke point and slowly pour over the mixture. It’ll foam up, so be careful. Keep pouring until it’s the consistency you like–then pour in a little more oil. It’ll get soaked up.
It has a “woody” flavor that’s unlike western hot sauces, but goes great on almost anything (I just had it on my breakfast sandwich).
I am going to make an observation with a grand total of two examples to back it up, so I offer it as an observation, not as a generalization.
I’ve got two people on my team that are vaccine hesitant. One still hasn’t gotten it because he doesn’t want to be a “guinea pig”. Another has been vaccinated but I suspect it has more to do with his wife then him. That second guy has made comments indicating he feels the whole pandemic has been overblown. While I try to avoid political discussions at work, I know that both are at least Trump adjacent and get their information from the Fox News-ish world, if not Fox itself.
Both of them are also difficult to manage, one to the point where I spent my drive in wondering if it was time to pull the plug on one of them. These are engineering type people, and they are smart and knowledgeable, but they both have a real shortfall in their ability to set or accept goals, formulate or agree to plan, execute it and close it off. They get easily distracted and, when bored, find a million other things to do. It’s not that they don’t work and don’t do good things, it’s that they don’t seem to think of this work as connected to anything other than the shortest term objectives. They seem to think of their work as comprised of a hundred small things, disconnected, each equally important, and have little ability to internalize these small things as part of an overarching goal or plan.
Just a minor example. We set a requirement that a product that it has to regulate within plus or minus five percent, and one of them was responsible for testing. The first two of ten units passed that test, but with plus or minus 2-3% variation. He and another engineer speculated about ways to improve this to less than one percent. I just found out that he a) never completed testing the other units in the sample set, b) modified two of them to pursue the new theories. He had indicated to the group the last time we met that he would be done in two days but now, two weeks later, we learn that he had gone off on this side trail. He honestly does not see why its a concern, despite the fact that we have a 6 week deadline which should have been trivial to meet and is now at risk.
I wonder if this is part of the reason why they are so susceptible to Fox News-ish information. Everything is disconnected. Everything is equally important or unimportant. You just keep doing things rather than have a plan and execute to it.
@Mu Yixiao: I’m slowly getting back to healthy and that means i need ways to trick myself into eating veggies, especially at work where the crew orders out every day. So I need to make this in bulk. 😀
I’ve been making my own sauces lately—salsa, marinara, etc—because I have high BP amd the store bought varieties have shockingly high amounts of sodium.
@Mu Yixiao: i do have some roasted sesame oil at home, that would be a good addition.
@Teve:
I make somewhere between a pint and a quart at a time. It lasts forever (no refrigeration needed), and you don’t need very much at a time.
@Mu Yixiao: i wish I’d found this recipe yesterday, I definitely could have found Sichuan pepper flakes in Gainesville. Might have trouble finding them in this little redneck hamlet.
@Mu Yixiao: what oil do you use?
@Teve:
I use olive oil–because that’s what’s in my cupboard. But you can use pretty much any oil you want. In China it was primarily canola.
@Teve: One of the dumbest (there’s a lot to choose from, certainly, but this is one of the dumbest) things about the conservative hostility to education is the assertion teachers are “indoctrinating” kids.
I have several close friends who are teachers, and they just laugh at that nonsense. They have several classes of 25-30 students, plus various non-teaching duties. They put in many hours a week of work outside the classroom, and a significant amount of that is uncompensated. The last thing they have time for is “indoctrinating” anyone.
A few weeks ago, I saw a meme that really encapsulates the conservative relationship with…well, damn near everything: “It’s easy to make everything a conspiracy theory when you don’t know how anything works.” They don’t know what teachers do, but they do know they hate teachers, so they just make all this bad shit up. It’s weaponized ignorance.
@Mu Yixiao: I have some great olive oil from California Olive Ranch. The recipes I see call for ~225°F, which is way below the smoke point, so I’ll try that for batch #1.
@Mikey: one of my college teacher friends passed around a meme that said, “you think I’m powerful enough to indoctrinate your kid in Revolutionary Marxism? I can’t even get your kid to read the fucking syllabus!”
@Teve: Re: chili oil. Or, in this case, chili paste.
My wife was making a dish that called for shrimp paste to go into a pan with hot oil (I can’t remember the recipe, but I remember this part). We didn’t have any shrimp paste, but we did have chili paste with shrimp, so she scooped out a sizable chunk and put it in the pan.
I was upstairs on my computer when my eyes began to sting. Then my nose began to burn. I had no idea what the hell was going on. My son came out of his room, eyes watering. My wife came running up, eyes REALLY watering.
Turns out when you dump a bunch of chili paste into hot-ass oil, it aerosolizes into the rough equivalent of pepper spray. We had to air out the house for a while.
On the plus side, once the pain subsided the house did smell really good for a couple hours. But dinner was a bit on the spicy side…
@CSK:
The Odal rune is a bit obscure as a Nazi symbol, wouldn’t people just pretending to be Nazis go with swastikas?
@Mikey:
While I was in China, I had many experiences in accidental pepper spray. 😀
There were times it wasn’t even coming from my apartment!
@charon:
That’s a very astute observation.
The swastika would also be a lot more obvious to onlookers.
@Teve:
Amen.
And forget getting them to do the weekly reading.
@Teve:
@Steven L. Taylor:
Preach it!
Maybe stop treating them like shit?
Amazon burns through workers so quickly that executives are worried they’ll run out of people to employ, according to a new report
@MarkedMan:
Did they have the authority or scope to reduce variations a part of their duties? Was 2-3% within a stated acceptable margin for error? If so, it sounds like they decided they found something they thought was personally unacceptable and neglected their actual job to pursue their pet peeve. Their thoughts and opinions are paramount and following their whims matters more than meeting the ultimate goal. In other words, self-absorbed and self-interested so of course Trumpism would appeal – it’s codified Id-appeasement and momentary satisfaction of curiosity matters more than a plan or final result. At its heart, MAGA is about letting petty people feel vindicated in their complaints and selfishness so someone willing to endanger a project over a small and unnecessary deviation percentage would be Trump-curious is nothing else.
@Teve:
That would help, wouldn’t it? A lesson I learned by example from my father was “always be good to the people who work for you.”
Oh, shit, the local Winn-Dixie has Impossible Burger for $8/lb.
It’s getting easier to get away from factory farming all the time.
@CSK: a lot of the abuse of employees is for insane delivery speed. I never joined Prime because I don’t need that pepper mill rushed to my house in 2 hours. That fish spatula can wait a day.
(I only ever once paid Amazon a delivery charge, and frankly a Breathalyzer could have shown you the reason that happened. 😛 )
Professors are indoctrinating students? ORLY? Hm.
Conservatives need to chill. All of that excess cortisol has got to be unhealthy.
@Mikey:
These were the kids that resented learning the first place and grew up to think schools are glorified and expensive babysitting services. They don’t know what teachers do because the process of educating and learning is something they want nothing to do with. They don’t read to their kids or work with them on important like skills at home – that’s the teacher’s job damnit!
How many of them send their kids to school well below what someone of that age should be able to do and get angry if the child requires remedial assistance or a learning plan?
At the same time, they’re very aware that since they have little input in the child’s education the kid might develop opinions or ideas contrary to their own. The kid’s not watching FOX or OAN after all so if they say something that’s not towing the line, it *must* be because subversives are indoctrinating them and not lack of direct exposure to the latest toxic BS (they’re still picking it up second-hand unfortunately). Finally, projection of their own behavior just blindly accepting what conservative media feeds them leads to them thinking liberals must be trying to achieve the same. QAnon got them thinking vaccine make them magnetic for god’s sake; they’ll naturally assume liberals are trying to do something similar as that’s how their world works.
“No. 3 Senate Republican John Barrasso vows to make Biden a ‘one-half-term president’”
https://t.co/KuhS2mXa4F?amp=1
@Teve:
I know. Generally if I need something that urgently, I go out and buy it. I get exactly what I want when I need it, and I support a local business. Not to speak of the fresh air and exercise I benefit from in the process.
@Teve:
Apparently it’s more than just the delivery people who are being maltreated:
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-polices-based-jeff-bezos-belief-all-workers-are-lazy-2021-6
The worst job I ever had was a part-time one in a bookstore. Five bucks an hour and all the abuse from the owner you could handle.
@Teve: Some years back I listened to a Podcast about low-sodium foods. They talked to a food scientist at Campbells who was very open about what made low-sodium versions of their soups problematic: since they were removing something (salt) customers expected them to cost the same. But to give the same intensity of flavor they needed to use a significantly better grade of ingredients. Since that day I’ve really noticed how many foods you can hardly taste anything but the salt.
Oh joy. China’s puffing out its chest and trying to look tough in front of the US.
China incursion into Taiwan Air Defense Zone. And, of course, they blame it on the US.
@CSK: I read The Everything Store and am on the liberry waitlist for Amazon Unbound. The big takeaway of the first is that Bezos is exceptionally smart and also ruthless and lacking in empathy.
@MarkedMan: my 140/100 BP needs me to avoid Campbell’s soups.
According to Bess Levin in Vanity Fair, Trump was after the DOJ to investigate whether Italian satellites switched votes for him to votes for Biden.
First Jewish space lasers. Now Italian satellites.
@CSK:
“The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.”
@Teve:
Well, that’s very apt. Although I think Trump and Company have the Watergate crew beat in the stupidity department.
WA! Fun conversation yesterday in the Schumer post. 🙁 Good times! Arriving back late, after dealing with a flooded kitchen for a while, I saw this morning that a late post from our friend “the Q” (not to be confused with the other “Q” AFAICT) noting:
I just wanted to note that “sperm donor” is a term from back sometime in the 80s when Dr. Laura (do we even remember her, or is her 15 minutes of fame finally and permanently over?) decided she needed to distinguish between the men who participate in making pregnancies happen and the ones who subsequently raise the children these pregnancies produce.
So to our irascible associate the Q, I bid you welcome to the mid-1980s. But I suspect you’re not going to like it here–Reagan is President and the Moral Majority is exerting control over the GOP.
@OzarkHillbilly: WA! Very cool. I have never successfully walked across a rope bridge. Fear of falling (or jumping) paralyzed me both prior attempts.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
It is an important distinction for the holiday’s meaning as the day is supposed to be celebrating *fathers*, not just men who’ve managed to impregnate someone. Fathers are those who raise their children, give succor and guidance. They work hard, are there when their family needs them and although they’re not perfect, they do what they can. Daddy deserves respect and a day to relax – the dude who can’t be bothered to take care of his kids or abuses and neglects them shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath. We celebrate the good guys, not the ones who want credit without putting in the effort. Mother’s Day has the same issue for those with abusive or absent moms – you’re expected to care about her when she might not have cared about you. Not everyone has a happy family and we need to understand that as the holiday assumes decent relationships and decent honorees.
Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads doing their best and living up to the name. No cookies for the guys who’s only contribution was a thimble full of bodily fluids.
@CSK: Yes. An employer should do that. It’s one of the most important reasons that I’ve never wanted to be self-employed. 😉
@Jen: That type of event happens to me occasionally in substitute teaching. My response is always “oh, I’m sorry.” Have I been doing it wrong all this time? I had no idea.
Late follow up to my conversation with de stijl yesterday, but it apparently wasn’t a local insanity. BAT has one closing this afternoon, currently bid at $13,600. WA!
From a 30/30 look (30’/30mph) it looks ok, but rough. Seller admits he’s put 30 miles on it since he bought it.
There may be too much money in other people’s hands. But there’s always someone willing to take it from them.
@Teve: Stay the course. It took a long time (I won’t say how long; it would be discouraging) but I eventually went from 160/1o5 to 112/70 just yesterday at the doctor’s for a test.
@Teve:
Once I got back to the states, I did my full “Okay, you’re over fifty” check up, and ended up on BP meds. At that appointment, and when talking to a few other doctors in the course of tracking down other issues, I’ve repeatedly gotten the “We should talk about your diet” or just “Here’s the way you need to eat” speech.
I’ve bit my tongue every time. Why?
* I don’t eat processed or packaged foods.
* I eat lean meats that I trim myself (2 years in a butcher shop–and I’m very picky about trim).
* Veggies come from a garden, not a can.
* I don’t eat much bread. My main starch is white rice, though I do like roasted potatoes.
* I don’t eat sweets.
* I don’t drink soda.
* Salt is what you put on the sidewalk to get rid of ice. It doesn’t belong anywhere near my food.
* I am NOT giving up my whole milk, real butter, cream for my coffee (one cup per day max), or cheese.
I finally broke down and said all of this to the last specialist I talked to. Her reaction was… “oh. It sounds like you’ve got that covered.”
{sigh}
Outlook has changed the names of the whitelist and blacklist.
@drj:
It’s weird — we have laws (libel and slander) to protect individual people from malicious or negligently harmful speech, but we have no corresponding laws to protect all of society from malicious or negligently harmful speech, even on a much grander scale.
@DrDaveT:
That’s because an individual’s reputation is considered an asset, much like a house or a car, and slander or libel can directly harm the person’s reputation, and therefore ability to earn a living. That’s why the two worst things you can do are to accuse someone unjustly of being a criminal or to accuse that person unjustly of being mentally ill.
I don’t think society at large has a reputation that can be damaged in that fashion.
@Mu Yixiao:
Okay, I’ll bite. Changed them to…what?
@CSK:
“Safe Senders” and “Blocked Senders”
It’s part of a trend where tech companies (and others) are virtue signaling by removing references to black, white, master, and slave. It’s no longer the “Master bedroom”, it’s the “primary bedroom”. It’s not the master drive and slave drive in your computer. “Blacklist” implies that “black = bad”.
@Mu Yixiao:
Oh, I know about “master” and “black,” and the reasons for their elimination. I was just wondering what words had been substituted.
That’s because a least a large segment of our society is mentally ill and/or criminally disposed. How else does one explain trump’s 74,216,154 votes?
Devon and
This is Digby. Today he did something amazing and helped save a young woman who was thinking of taking her own life on a bridge over the M5 near Exeter
(thread)
@Mu Yixiao: safe senders and blocked senders makes sense to me. First world problem, anyone?
@OzarkHillbilly:
The same people who’d pay $500 for a personalized birthday message from Don Junior, I suppose.
http://www.rawstory.com/ivanka-trump-and-donald-trump-jr/
@Mu Yixiao: I’ll bite: why the sigh?
@CSK: I rest my case.
ETA: see, this is why I’ve never gotten ahead. I could never take $500 from someone for a birthday message from me. First off, I’d feel guilty as hell abusing the mentally deranged, and 2ndly anybody who would want it is nobody I would ever associate with.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Because it’s pointless virtue signaling.
There are a whole lot of issues that need to be dealt with when it comes to race relations in this country, and changing the names of white/black list is going to do exactly nothing.
@Mu Yixiao: If its pointless, what does it matter?
@Steven L. Taylor: @Mu Yixiao: TBH, “Safe Senders” and “Blocked Senders” is clearer.
And yes, I understand that “whitelist” and “blacklist” have nothing to do with race in their origins.
@Mu Yixiao:
Also: what is wrong with trying to signal virtue?
@Steven L. Taylor: it can embarrass people who lack that virtue.
@Steven L. Taylor: @Teve:
Well, virtue signaling by people who don’t practice the virtue they’re signaling can be tiresome.
My first experiment with chili oil has now been put in a bottle. It’s not bad, but next time I’m going to add more garlic. And the EVOO flavor is really pronounced, so maybe next time I’ll use a lighter olive oil.
@Mu Yixiao:
I suspect the point is less about racial progress and more about business progress.
@Teve: I always wait a few days/weeks before making any judgements. IME flavors develop as things age.
What could possibly go wrong?
Airbus & Cathay Pacific Partner To Cut Pilot Staffing On Long Haul Flights
Actually the linked piece brings up a troubling thought:
Also what happens during a bathroom break. Does a flight attendant staff the cockpit alone?
@Kathy:
When making flight plans, I shall endeavor to eschew those two carriers.
@Teve: One, wait a few days to see how the flavors meld.
Two, when using garlic in oil, please make sure you handle properly and refrigerate, as garlic in oil is a happy place for botulinum toxins/botulism.
@Jen: it was very simple, what I did. I kept the oil around 225°F, I used a cup of olive oil and a tablespoon of chili flakes, and two whole cloves of garlic, and I simmered it for 30 minutes. Then I fished the garlic cloves out. Voilà! So there’s no chunks of garlic in the oil now. But I will definitely keep that advice in mind for other garlic preparations I make.
Unless it changes pretty dramatically in the fridge in a few days, the next time I make this I’m going to use six or eight cloves of garlic.
@CSK: Indeed.
Although one of the ironies here is that practical virtue (like, say, politeness) as taught by Aristotle assumes one achieves virtue through habituation (almost “fake it until you make it”). This suggests that there may actually be some, well, virtue, in virtue signalling even if it is not wholly sincere.
@Steven L. Taylor:
That’s true, but not quite what I had in mind. Let me provide an example. I once had a senior colleague who had a modest reputation for being a great humanitarian, always rushing off to speak at whatever well-publicized conference on behalf of the oppressed invited him to do so. Yet he treated his junior colleagues and the secretaries like garbage. One of the younger men in the department had applied for a tenure-track assistant professorship. One day, Mr. Great Humanitarian was walking down the hall, and he saw the young man with me and about four or five others. He barked, “You didn’t get the job,” and sailed away down the corridor. The young man sort of smiled weakly and retreated into his office. The rest of us were motionless and silent, aghast, shocked, stunned, whatever you like to call it.
That’s what I mean by virtue signaling when you don’t practice the virtue. Great humanitarian. Yeah, sure.
😛 😛
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2021/06/16/bear-breaks-into-car-spends-an-hour-inside-with-case-of-beer/
@Teve:
re: Amazon
No lie. Remember when Amazon was looking for people to start independent local delivery companies?
I stepped up. You had to have a business background, have X dollars in the bank, and have a history of startups and managing people.
I made it through the third interview, which I prolly derailed when they asked: “Do you have any questions or concerns?”
My answer: Knowing Amazon’s history, what guarantee do I have that If I switch over my entire focus to this endeavor, that Amazon would not decide a year later that they would to change their model. Then my company, investments and employees would be redundant.
I did not go on to the next phase.
And by the way, most of those companies DID close: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/08/13/report-amazon-cuts-ties-over-1-200-delivery-drivers/3363461001/
Amazon will do what it needs to do to fulfil its commitment today at the lowest possible cost to Amazon.
And if it has to crush bodies to lube the wheels of commerce, then it will.
@Liberal Capitalist: I have a friend whose daughter was really psyched about getting a job in an Amazon fulfillment center in central Florida. Three months later, she quit, and has nothing good to say about that company. She despises them now.
@Teve:
I hate to say I told you–not you in particular, Teve, the generic you–so, but I saw an interview with Bezos just after he started Amazon, and he giggled throughout the whole thing. Giggled. I thought to myself, “This guy is a major league weirdo, and I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.”
I was right.
Proof that the vaccine works:
Two weeks after the second dose, when I think of a song, it comes up next on my satellite radio rotation…
@Flat Earth Luddite: I’ve lost my keys twice and the 5 G sucks, plus my kids can’t find my tracking device when I run away. 😉
@Flat Earth Luddite:..satellite radio…
Do you think of this tune often?
@Teve: Don’t the fake meats have a boatload of salt?
@Steven L. Taylor:
The eight-fold path of Buddhism is also pretty much “fake it til you make it,” and Buddhists have fewer religious genocides than other popular religions, I believe. And if fewer genocides isn’t the best metric of virtue, I don’t know what is.
(Yes, Myanmar is kind of messing with their record, but fewer…)
@Mu Yixiao:
No, your sigh was definitely vice signaling, not virtue signaling.