Friday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, August 16, 2024
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37 comments
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About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former 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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Trump, during his yesterday whatever-that-was, brought up the Presidential Medal of Freedom he gave Miriam Adelson for doing nothing to benefit anyone but Trump. Then he said this:
First off, if the Medal of Freedom is “equivalent” to the Medal of Honor, where’s my Medal of Honor because I’ve done 1000 times more for this country than Miriam Adelson.
Second, how insulting is this to Medal of Honor recipients? It would be unbelievable coming from anyone but Trump, who has for years denigrated the service of military heroes.
According to The Christian Science Monitor, JD Vance claims “Amazon funded Black Lives Matter so riots would destroy rival retailers” and major corporations are pro-abortion.
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2024/0815/jd-vance-speech-bezos-amazon-abortion
It’s something to behold, Vance trying to show he’s more senile than Trump.
@Not the IT Dept.:
Vance, Vance, Vance, you really need to stop digging that hole. Put down the shovel. No seriously dude, just shut your pie hole.
Seriously, I thought that I was a crackpot Luddite ite, but all concede that you own that title.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
ETA. I’ll concede that you own that title.
ETA – good luck fixing the edit button plug-in, dudes!
He’s dead for decades but can still call them:
“What the Trump side is failing to understand is how many people simply don’t want to look deeply at Harris and Walz. Looking and sounding the part is enough for them.”
https://x.com/dick_nixon/status/1824394976437944473
@Flat Earth Luddite:
I’ll write what I please. When the owners of this site have a problem, they can call me on it.
@Not the IT Dept.:..They Saved Nixon’s Brain!
@Not the IT Dept.: I shouldn’t get in the middle of this, but I understood Luddite as talking to Vance, not you.
Now, as to why he thinks Vance can hear him…
@Mikey: I just read this a few minutes ago when I opened my computer. Even for Trump this might be a new low. How the fuck could any veteran or military household consider voting for that disgusting piece of shit?
I grew up in a town that bordered on Bridgewater, NJ. Every road that went into Bridgewater had a plaque that honored John Basilone, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Guadalcanal, and the Navy Cross posthumously for extraordinary heroism at Iwo Jima. He was the only enlisted Marine to receive both of these decorations in World War II.
Go ahead and check out his Wikipedia entry, what he did was absurd, and I mean that in the most positive way. It was superhuman.
Miriam Adelson was awarded her Medal of Freedom because she and her late husband give gobs of money to the GOP, and also helps fund settlements in Israel. And Trump has the gall to implicitly denigrate the recipients of the Medal of Honor? These people are pretty much the literal definition of heroes.
I would hope these comments by Trump end up in an ad. Let vets know what he really thinks of them.
@Mikey & @Lucysfootball:
I just posted about that here: https://outsidethebeltway.com/loose-lips-sink-ships-or-campaigns/
I found out recently if you make an alloy of sodium and potassium, the alloy’s melting point drops to below zero C. Meaning the alloy is liquid at room temperature.
Alloys change the physical properties of materials, but not their chemical ones. So this alloy, called NaK, leaves its constituent elements as highly reactive as ever.
Now, what is it about liquid metals that makes them so dangerous? Mercury is toxic. NaK makes water blow up*, and the rest need really high temperatures to begin flowing. It’s too bad, because liquid metals are fun to play with. Long, long ago, in junior high school, the chemistry teacher did a demo of what can float on mercury. It’s weird to see a small iron cube float.
*Not really. But the reaction breaks the water appart and produces a lot of heat. Then the oxygen and hydrogen burn fast enough to produce small explosions.
So yesterday a video came out of a conversation between VP Harris and Governor Walz about food. Walz made a self-deprecating joke about “white people tacos” and how black pepper is the top of the spice scale in Minnesota. It was cute and funny and they really seem to get along.
Well, today the white grievance crowd on the idiot right is absolutely losing its shit over Walz’ display of “anti-white racism” and “what if he said a taco with fried chicken and watermelon in it was ‘black people tacos'” and other absolutely stupid nonsense.
But it made me think this is one manifestation of why conservatives suck at comedy. They don’t understand humor. For one thing, a member of a group is always allowed to poke fun at the group. But for conservatives that’s not funny. For conservatives, humor only exists when a member of a privileged group is punching down. For everyone else, that’s just petty and mean, but for conservatives it’s the pinnacle of funny.
Anyway, as a midwestern-born-and-raised white guy (who has learned to eat spicy, lol) I thought it was hilarious.
@Mikey: My guess is that posts framing Walz’s joking around as “anti-white racism” happened because the political team, which sees everything first, were afraid of that clip, because they thought it worked really well, and wanted to undermine it with their partisans by framing it as something terrible, so nobody would be willing to say, “I thought that was cute”, etc.
And yeah, that sounds a little bit like a conspiracy theory. Make of it what you will.
@Kathy:
Ever read Derek Lowe’s posts on “Thing’s I Won’t Work With”?
Both amusing and scary as hell.
Chemistry, fun for all the family.
@MarkedMan: He’s a Luddite. He doesn’t understand how the technology works. 😉
Oh f***. Really?And to add insult to injury, it was declared compensation (at a value of $15 no less) and the staff had income tax withheld. On a potato!
The original article which enlightened me to this “gem”* If you’ve been wondering why hospital care in your area is struggling to keep up, this may be a clue.
*Pun intended. One of the early season russet potatoes is called “Norgold Gem.”
Today’s bumper sticker.
CARTER/MONDALE
At LGM Scott Lemieux posts Does the seamless transition to Harris mean that parties are stronger than we think?Has Dr. Taylor been misleading us?
Just checking, are other folks seeing the edit button? And is it working for them?
@Matt Bernius:
Nope.
“Edit has left the building.“
@Mikey: Minnesota is a great, beautiful place full of some of the best people on earth. However, the culinary arts have found a poor soil there. Hot dish and jello salad are simply unswallowable. They like walleye because it doesn’t taste like fish; the way they prepare it makes it taste like nothing at all. A Minnesotans’ cooking advice is like getting marital counseling from Donald Trump.
Of course, we have great food in Iowa.
@Mikey:
Yes. Comes across a bit like Keir Starmer chatting about his curry preferences.
It’s just a politician “doing human”.
And it seems Walz can do self-deprecating deadpan humour pretty well.
I have to admit, I was totally unaware of Walz before now; but he looks like a sound fellow.
(Personally my pick would have been Kelly, but that’s probably just on name recognition bias. Also sounds Irish, which is a bonus point. 😉 )
@JohnSF:
Thanks.
@gVOR10:
I have been thinking of this as a bit of a structure versus agency sort of thing. I know I often come out on the “structure” side of this equation.
In the case of Biden, I suspect we will learn that the successful navigation of this issue will come down to one key person: Nancy Pelosi.
There were definitely structural factors that helped facilitate the transition. For example that this was before the election versus after (separating it from the post Jan 6th opportunity to get rid of Trump).
That said, I wonder if this would have happened if, for example, Mitch McConnell was in Pelosi’s place. My gut says no (or at least not as cleanly).
@Matt Bernius:
My take, Biden and Harris were the key players organizing the transfer.
People like Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries, Clyburn etc. had lesser roles.
@charontwo:
TY for writing that. I realized that I am not giving Biden enough credit for his agency as well.
This especially would not have happened if he was someone who would have just dug his heels in. I still believe that without the significant pressure he would still be running. And according to reports, he is understandably frustrated with certain Democrats he sees as having pushed him out.
I also think that under similar circumstances Trump would NOT have bowed to the pressure or the reality of his chances (and it’s broader impact on the party).
I suspect this will turn into a post this weekend.
@Slugger: I thought that “white guy food” joke is even funnier if you read it as a Minnesota food joke.
And I must protest about Minnesota-not-making-walleye-taste-like-fish. I don’t think that ANY cuisine can make walleye taste like anything. It’s a huge mouthful of nothing. It makes cod flavorful by comparison.
Meanwhile in Russia:
Ukraine seems to be systematically taking out the bridges over the River Seym. Isolating the area to the left of their salient. And possibly (less clear) on the Psel and Illek to their north and east.
My guess: UAF intends to secure a defensive area roughly 150 miles long by 30 deep, dig in, force the Russians to come at them, and bleed them.
OTOH, possible Ukraine may still go for more depth north-eastward, if the Russian response continues to be shambolic.
@Slugger:
Just as we do in England.
😉
@Matt Bernius:
No edit button for me.
No edit here.
Paging Kathy: I just read that Vance’s 737 had to turn back to fix a loose door. Boeing continues to amaze.
@Mister Bluster:
dagnabbit, thanks all.
@Slugger:
I heard. It’s and NG (next generation) 90s design, not a MAX. It may be some kind of weird, felonious maintenance from their campaign.
It’s always important to highlight the objective reality of Lina Khan’s wildly successful tenure as head of the FTC.
She’s amazing, arguably the best selection of Biden’s term. Everybody who has to go against her in court knows full well her ability and willingness to win.
@Matt Bernius:
“LGM“