Welcome to August Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, August 1, 2025
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24 comments
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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.
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So which political system does the Trump Administration most resemble.
Kim North Korea
Maoist China
Stalinist Russia
Orban Hungary
Lukashenko Belarus
Chavez Venezuela
Others?
Trump administration firings mount as staffers’ loyalty is called into question
@Scott: President Dwayne Commacho of Idiocracy definitely needs to be in the mix.
74,000 new jobs in July.
Pretty piss poor in this New Golden Age.
Roughly 1/2 the break-even number.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
@Daryl: Dow futures down 395 at 0814.
@Daryl:
June was revised from 147,000 TO JUST 14,000!!!
And the dollar continues to spiral.
@Daryl:
Worse still, the jobs reports for May and June were revised sharply downward:
May – 144,000 revised to 19,000
June – 147,000 revised to 14,000
I seem to recall complaints that jobs reports under trump were later being revised upward, thus denying him “credit” for the jobs when they were announced. So maybe this is what the complainers wanted.
Add.: Daryl beat me to it while I was afk.
@Eusebio: Fake news! Nutlick and the bureaucrats in the Bureau of Labor Statistics are the deep state now and out to make Trump look bad. Calling Laura Loomer!
@becca:
Disagree. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho was far above El Taco’s station.
He was smarter, too.
@Daryl:
@Eusebio:
What does the black Sharpie revision say?
Re: the May and June (significant/downward) revisions…didn’t one of our resident contrarians suggest that the Biden administration was always puffing up their numbers, only to revise them later? Are these revisions also Biden’s fault?
@Jen: Yup:
Thursday, 3 July 2025 at 10:15:
The declaration was already silly last month, looks downright dumb today.
U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs last month as labor market weakens in face of Trump trade wars (AP via Washington Times)
Stunning revisions show US added 258K fewer jobs than first reported (The Hill)
US labor market adds 73,000 jobs in July while May, June reports see ‘larger than normal’ downward revisions (Yahoo Finance)
May – 19,000 jobs
June – 17,000 jobs
July – 73,000 jobs (pending future massive doward revisions)
Yikes! Abysmal numbers — predictably so given modern GQP presidents’ talent for spinning a strengthening, growing Democratic economy into fiscal mediocrity and failure. Rinse, wash, repeat.
But some Trumpers expect us to believe they support the Epstein-bestie rapist thug who incited a terror attack on Congress and who illegally detains migrant workers in torture prisons because of some sober, objective analysis of economic data. Pfft! Lol
Fakery and bs all the way down.
@Jen:
Surely braindead MAGA sheep will find way to blame the nearest Dem, wedded as they are to Trump’s post-truth era.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin: The Jeffrey Epstein plea agreement “was a sweetheart plea deal that was made under the Obama administration.” (Politifact)
Childish, lying, pedo-enabling dirtbags.
BTW, I’m stunned El Taco doesn’t seem to know he can get Sharpies in gold
Looks like Trump’s FBI is playing games with the Epstein Files.
Also there is reporting that Maxwell has been moved to a minimum security prison.
Pending her Presidential Pardon, perhaps?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-08-01/epstein-files-trump-s-name-was-redacted-by-the-fbi?utm_source=website&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy
Per our Great Dictator:
I’m just wondering why our nuclear submarines are in inappropriate regions.
(If nothing else, you don’t want things in inappropriate places unless they have a flared base)
@Gustopher:
As far as I know, US nuclear missile subs are stationed in the northern Pacific and northern Atlantic, awaiting orders to nuke the crap out of Russia or China as the case may be. These are not first trike weapons, but rather held in case land based missiles are taken out in a first strike. Of course, the missiles don’t know this. They’ll launch and their bombs will detonate when the humans say “kill.”
On the other hand, US nuclear-powered attack submarines are mor dispersed. Their main function, as far as I know, is to shadow Russian and Chinese nuclear missile subs, and would try to sink them in case of nuclear war.
But they can also be used to hunt and sink any other kind of ship. And they’re capable of firing cruise missiles to targets far away (with either nuclear or conventional warheads).
So it’s unclear what kind of nuclear subs El Taco moved or where. Not to mention what for.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting will shut down after Trump funding cuts
CNN
@Kathy: Some of our subs, and presumably theirs, used to hide under the Arctic ice cap. That option seems to be rapidly shrinking. But I hope you libturds won’t use that as an excuse to claim there’s anything funny going on with the weather. 😉
@gVOR10:
Doesn’t it only mean it will take less fuel to keep the sub warm 😀
@Scott:
Big Brother Oceania.
Winston Smith will soon be the busiest man in Washington.
@Gustopher:
Given that Trident SLBMs have a range of some 7,000 to 12,000 km, it’s rather hard to think where they might be out of range, unless they are wandering about in the far southern hemisphere for no rational reason whatsoever.
Unless, of course, he’s thinking of SLCM’s?
For an arbitrary value of “thinking”.
“Well, hello sailor!”, as they sometimes say in Portsmouth. Or so I have been told. 😉
On positive developments today, Texla got an adverse jury judgement of over $200 million for an autopilot crash in 2019.
What won’t get reported will be 1) the long, long, long appeals process, and 2) whatever settlement Texla eventually reaches to just end it some years from now.
@Gustopher: Dear leader is the absolute champion of “foolish and inflammatory statements”. How dare Medvedev to challenge His supremacy in this area.
“Grown men, big strong guys, they come up to me crying saying thank you sir for all your foolish and inflammatory statements. No one is more foolish than you.”*
*Not an actual Trump quote, merely a reasonable facsimile.
@Scott O:
“Speak softly and carry a big stick”
Often a problem for some men who think their stick is a bit on the small side. 😉
Also, once a wrestling kayfabe barker, always a wrestling kayfabe barker.
Trump seems to think everything is kayfabe.
The problem with that is, it devalues genuine cold menace, which is an art in itself.
Medvedev is a licensed clown for the Kremlin.
You don’t get down in the mud with the pig.
As I’ve said before: Eisenhower he ain’t.