Winter Solstice Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, December 21, 2022
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25 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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Via Anne Laurie,
Even a Scrooge like me can appreciate the effort that went in to this.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Next Kevin is going to threaten to hold his breath till he turns blue.
{sigh}
Republican seeks to ban porn.
(It should be noted that data collected by places such as PornHub show that Utah is the largest per-capita consumer of porn in the US.)
Damned dogs are downstairs cutting onions again.
I didn’t have this on my bingo card:
Truly.
RIP Franco Harris
Headline: Trump left ‘shockingly gracious’ letter to Biden on leaving office, book says
Reaction: some former WH staffer is about to get publicly reamed by the a**hole in chief.
@Kathy:
Well, if it was literate as well as gracious, we know Trump himself didn’t write it.
When did the Onion take ownership of the BBC?
Putin says Russia not to blame for war in Ukraine.
@Mu Yixiao:
I think this is a ludicrous attempt at gaslighting.
I found some more russet potatoes last week, so I’m making stuffed potatoes this week. They come in 2.5 kg. bags, therefore I’m also about to find out how long they’ll keep.
I’m not sure what to pair them with. I feel like beef. I first thought spaghetti with ground beef and tomato sauce, but that’s too common place. So I’m thinking instad of fettuccine with olive oil and garlic, mixed with ground beef with just a little tomato paste and paprika.
For the potatoes I want to try some Chihuahua, Oaxaca, and Yellow cheese I got leftover from samples from an aborted (and very misguided) project at work. I figure a single slice, or part of a slice, of yellow cheese at the bottom of each carved-out potato should prove a good foundation.
I also wonder if I should grate onions instead of chopping them as part of the stuffing. Since I’ll be grating cheese anyway, the tools will already be all there.
Io Saturnalia everyone!
I wanted to tell y’all about an exchange I saw on Reddit just the other day. I play a bit of the game Space Engineers, which is a sandbox game where players design and build a variety of spacecraft and rovers and run them about mining and shooting each other.
The post I read was about a crazy two-wheeled mining vehicle which was awesome. In the comments, this exchange happened.
Commenter: This is an interesting thing he (the OP) did.
Poster: Actually, it’s “she” not “he”.
Commenter: Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to presume.
Poster: No worries, I like correcting people when the mistake is made in good faith.
Commenter: I guess if I’d looked at your avatar more closely I could have figured it out.
[Said avatar is tiny]
All I can say is that the world needs more of this. I felt so good after reading that, and I wasn’t even involved.
@Mu Yixiao: The beatings will continue until morale improves.
@OzarkHillbilly: What an amazing kid. He balances out the cheery (?) holiday note I was sent yesterday. Merry Christmas one and all just the same.
@Kathy: Wow! My 1oth grade PE teacher made Franco Harris into a racist joke back in about 67 or 68.
@Kathy: I’d still go with chopped, but that’s because I like the visual and mouth feel appeal of having actual onion pieces. When I’ve grated onions in the past, they’ve cooked down too much.
@Mu Yixiao:
@CSK:
It’s playing into a line that has enormous traction in pro-Russian social media, from both ends of the horseshoe in the US and “the West”, and from parts of the “global South”.
– That Russia was forced reluctantly to “intervene” against NATO/Nazis.
– That Ukraine is being forced to fight , despite “inevitable Russian victory” by NATO/Nazis.
– That Russia has not yet been victorious because of the vast armaments sent to Ukraine by NATO/Nazis.
– That Russia wishes only for peace with it’s Ukrainian brothers, who are being sacrificed pointlessly by… three guesses.
Russia only wants security against wicked ….
Sprinkle on some extra topping depending on which audience you are trying to appeal to. Armaments! Iraq! Satanism! Homosexuals! Secularism! Racism! Oil! Colonialism! Imperialism! Capitalism! Globalism (the “you-know-whos”). NATO! And Nazis; did we mention Nazis?
It’s moronic and banal, and it’s lapped up by considerable numbers.
@just nutha:
Mixed with potato, cheese, and sweet cream, you’ll never ever see it 🙂
I don’t often grate onion, because you get as much onion juice as onion when you do. In this recipe that might help.
Speed bumps in my mental road today:
Board Finds Loophole for South Dakota Guv in ‘No Exceptions’ Law
An ethics panel has ruled it can’t take action against Kristi Noem for using a state plane to travel to a wedding because it has no authority to determine what state business is.
As approved by a majority of the voters in a statewide ballot in 2006, the law in question states “any aircraft owned or leased by the state may be used only in the conduct of state business.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kristi-noem-dodges-accountability-for-using-state-plane-in-south-dakota?source=email&via=desktop
Because changing your voting registration is, you know, just too hard.
According to publicly available voter records, Georgia GOP Rep. Drew Ferguson voted in a county where he no longer lives, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
In fairness, though, he moved in April but drove back to vote in person in May. So, I guess, reasons.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-congressman-who-questioned-2020-election-results-illegally-voted-in-three-elections-report/ar-AA15xhqX
@just nutha:
Sorry for that downer yesterday. That particular strip was shattering to me. A 19-year-old co-worker confessed to me Monday that since his dad and stepmom kicked him out of the house, he’s sleeping rough until he saves enough money to get a place. He works 60+ hours/week in two minimum-wage jobs. I remain gobsmacked at all of society’s brokenness but remain hopeful that I’ll be dead before the revolution.
@Flat Earth Luddite: Not as shattering to me because I’m not as close to it (having no min.-wage coworkers) but traumatizing enough. I’m glad the Gofundme the author started for the women met its goals in spectacular fashion. At least there’s something resembling a happy(-ish) ending even if only sortakinda.
Three down (sortakinda) and only a few hundred million to go. 🙁
ETA: Wishing your coworker well on finding housing.
Watching Zelenskyy address Congress. A solid two minute standing ovation when he entered the chamber.
@Kathy:
We were at Sam’s club today, and chose not to buy the russet potatoes because it was a 4.5 kilo bag.
We did pick up a bag of onions and I was surprised that they were from Peru.
Onions from Peru. I just cannot fathom the economics on how that makes sense at all.
New iPhone SE. Old phone was 3G and I had 2 more days b 4 Verizon shut down obsolete 3G network. New phone makes the old one seem like it was an old magneto phone that you had to crank to get the operator.