Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Saturday, June 21, 2025
·
48 comments
OTB relies on its readers to support it. Please consider helping by becoming a monthly contributor through Patreon or making a one-time contribution via PayPal. Thanks for your consideration.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus 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).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
The headline of the day- Pilot killed in North Carolina crash was trying to avoid hitting turtle on runway
We now know why a 787 airliner couldn’t land at Naples Airport-
Dear Wife and I will be starting our Italian trip by flying into Naples on September 23. Mt. Vesuvius here we come.
The Florida headline of the day- DeSantis signs bill banning weather modification in Florida
@Bill Jempty:
Somebody better tell Trump: No Sharpies!
@CSK:
Somebody better tell Chief Wild Eagle. No rain or snow dances! Because of events in the Middle East, war dances are allowed.
@Bill Jempty:..weather…
Since the link you provide pulls up an item behind a pay wall I’m not clear about the legislation that Gov. DeSantis has signed. For some reason I can see the comments. They don’t help much. All that I can assume is that carrying a bumbershoot and using windshield wipers when driving in the rain will get you a fine and boarding up shops and homes before a hurricane is mandatory jail time.
@Mister Bluster:
This may clarify the issue:
http://www.floridapolitics.com/archives/744489-gov-desantis-signs-controversial-chemtrails-legislation/
@Mister Bluster: Its mostly centered around the idea that chemtrails are being used for nefarious purposes. Which is related also to the idea that climate change is not real so they arent going to let anyone put stuff in the sky.
Steve
@Mister Bluster:
For some reason, the paywall let me view comments. Boy howdy! My condolences to the sane residents of Fla. Contrails and chemtrails and flouride oh me oh my.
@CSK:
Thanks for the link. IMO, this legislation just proves the adage of why you don’t watch sausage being made
@CSK:..Sunshine State!..
Thanks for the link.
Next the Florida Legislature will be investigating Astrology and Karma and Flat Earthians.
@CSK: This is weird, yes, I get what the bill is addressing; no, knowing clears up nothing. The explanation is just as whack as the original headline. I guess that’s why the place is named FloriDUH.
We may lose the house we thought we had in Cascais, so we were out doing street-side inspections of a couple other places and here’s a freedom you have in Portugal that you don’t in the US: we could peer in through gates and fences with zero chance of being shot. It’s one of the nice things about Europe, the relative freedom from fear of other people.
@Michael Reynolds:
Sorry to hear about the possible house loss. Have you and K. seen anything else promising?
Take a minute and read the gift link…
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/us/white-supremacist-university-of-florida-paper.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Qk8.gDQK.RB5UiSCYQG4p&smid=url-share
LGM has more on this mother of just about all hypocrisies.
@Michael Reynolds:
MAGA lax gun freedom = loss of freedom to live civilly.
Trump and Putin, brothers in bluster and b.s.
@becca:
I’m speechless.
@Mister Bluster:
Hey hey hey, I’m Old Dominion Flat Earther. Nothing like those Apostolic or New Restoration Flat Earthers!
@becca: Well, from an originalist standpoint, he does have a compelling argument. If one adds a Marxist standpoint, one could argue that the Constitution only applies to propertied whites. Essay contests of all sorts frequently bias toward rewarding the most innovative idea expressed in the most colorful/forceful/compelling language/manner. That may be a reflection on the American ethos in some meaningful way.
Talk about “grooming” our youth. Our young males are vulnerable to this kind of manipulation, as ideals of civility have taken a backseat to “throwback” archetypes in our pop culture. Yes, pop culture, like advertising, absolutely does program our behavior.
Ann Coulter and Laura Ingram, forever pining for the return of “real manly men,” are surely pleased. But just consider what kind of fathers these nazi recruits will be, and how that will further estrange family life in America.
@Flat Earth Luddite:..Old Dominion Flat Earther…
So is this guy your Spiritual Leader?
@becca:
From the article, the law student’s paper…
So in a law school seminar on originalism, taught by a trump-nominated federal judge, Article V can be disregarded so that a paper deserving a poor grade can be elevated to award-winning status because… what, it’s provocative?
The article says, about the judge, “a member of the conservative Federalist Society, he has earned praise from both liberals and conservatives over the course of his career.” But maybe now he’s a kook.
@Mister Bluster:
Daddy! (No, seriously, he’s secretly a Cube Earther. But points for the effort!)
ETA Grandma told me repeatedly the stories about how the family was drummed out of early “excursion tours” in Europe and Britain because the male relatives kept getting the sequence (loot, pillage, burn) wrong. Apparently dyslexia runs in the family. Could explain why we ended up in ND USA for the mild, temperate climate 800 years later .
@CSK:
We have a number of targets but here in Portugal the sons of bitches take the whole work-life balance thing seriously. So on Thursday it was a holiday, which apparently also included Friday, and then the weekend, during which time no one even read our plaintive texts.
We may find something out on Monday. Maybe.
@Michael Reynolds:
Well, the best to you both. If you don’t get your original choice, something will turn up for you, I’m sure.
Trump is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the “rigged” 2020 election. He just won’t STFU about this.
@CSK:
Sure…but who knows what nonsense a hyper-partisan special prosecutor is going to fabricate. Trump doesn’t want facts…he wants the slightest excuse to scream;
Looking over my bookshelf today, I came across something decidedly unusual: an unread book I can’t even remember buying.
There are a few books I gave up on reading. I don’t recall when or where I got each one of my dozens of read books, but I do have a vague notion of at least when I got them (ie most Trek novels were obtained in the 90s).
Anyway, it’s a Star Wars novel, non canon, by Timothy Zahn called Choices of One. It has Mara Jade on the cover, so I expect I’ll read it when I’m done with the non-fiction fictional history of the Empire I’m reading now.
@becca:
Neutrality and open debate in the marketplace of ideas—unless those ideas promote diversity, equity, or inclusion.
@Michael Reynolds: Good luck!
@Monala:
Such ideas are heresy and anathema, and shall be zealously erased from all public and private mention, dontcha know?
Well, it’s done. Trump just announced on “Truth” Social that B2 bombers hit three Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump just announced on Truth Social:
@Mikey:
Not sure “it’s done.” Humans have a way of defying our expectations. Especially when confronted with that which they perceive as an existential threat. Things tend to spiral. Especially in that part of the world.
I guess Trump didn’t chicken out.
Do you guys ever get anything right? Ever? Ever??
Clowns.
@Connor: Does your wife ever any views on Only Fans? Ever? Ever?? Cuck
@Connor:
From time to time.
I might note that the possible initation of a major war is of considerable importance.
Pwning the libs, not so much.
@Rob1: I meant the deed is done. From here forward…well, I can only agree with you.
@JKB:
What an ass.
The full damage assessent is going to take time, and daylight satellite observation
Typical Trump.
“Kayfabe, baby.”
@JohnSF:
But that’s not how it happens in the movies!1!!11!!!1
Andy wasn’t wrong. Too bad we’ve just entered another Middle East war.
Seen on BlueSky:
“It’s a good thing Congress isn’t alive to see this.”
@Flat Earth Luddite:
No one expects the Spansish Inquisition!
And for all the talk about what a bunch of idiots in charge, this was carried out flawlessly.
Flawlessly and effectively.
But you clowns have been wrong at every turn.
Not surprised.
Next stage: does Iran attempt to close the Straits of Hormuz, and/or atttack US in ME or elsewhere?
If Iran escalates to non-US targets, ie Gulf, that will massively increase ally argument for US to step up to full scale attacks.
@Connor:
That is down to the USAF, who are rather competent.
The larger question is, has the administration calculated the outcoming decision tree?
That seems less certain.
Bibi has been trying unsuccessfully for more than 20 years to get the U.S. into a war with Iran. He finally found a fool stupid enough to do it.
Iran has been in a declared war against the United States since 1979. The US had only taken casualties till Trump took out Solemani. One would hope that Israel removed some more of the low lineal list numbers in the IRGC last night.