Tabby Thursday
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, November 20, 2025
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14 comments
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).
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Is there a job that Eagle Ed Martin won’t screw up?
Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards is a much better Olympic ski jumper* than “Eagle” Ed Martin is an attorney.
*Eddie the Eagle Edwards competed in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics and finished last in both ski jumping events. In the Normal hill event, he jumped 55 m, while winner Matti Nykanen jumped 89.5 m. The Eagle is not known for long jumps, but for his self-sufficiency and overall pluckiness.
Regarding Judge Wolf’s resignation, he only provided an opportunity for the felon to place another toady on the bench.
@Sleeping Dog: Judge Wolf was already on senior status. He did not create an opening by resigning.
Bernstein’s take on Trump secrecy and the Epstein files is a lot more like mine. I expect that there’s a lot of stuff that’s embarrassing, but very little that’s usable as evidence. If any.
@Jay L. Gischer:
I also expect that the files have a lot of stuff that’s embarrassing, to say the least. Bernstein says,
The revelations may be career ending for most people, but as we know, the bar is much higher for trump. Larry Summers, for his more recent communications with Epstein, has stepped down from the Board of OpenAI, and is on immediate leave from teaching and being investigated by Harvard.
There would have to be truly astounding derogatory information on trump for him to be drummed out of office, but I’m not expecting to see the public records or investigation that would be needed. With the records, the administration is the custodian, so anything truly awful would have difficulty seeing the light of day. And a serious investigation is not likely to happen because of the high bar for criminal conviction, as well as the statute of limitations that applies to all but the most vile crimes.
@Jay L. Gischer: Yeah, I have suspected it was as much “protect people I palled around with” as protecting himself. Asking what would motivate a classic Mafia boss to act the way Trump acts is really pretty reliable.
@Jay L. Gischer:
@Eusebio:
I think if there was something really damaging, like El Taco raped a 12 to 15 year old girl, or more than one, someone in the Biden administration would have found a way to leak it.
I think it’s the tax returns all over again. Yes, there’s something embarrassing, after all, he was close friends with pedophile and there’s plenty of indications he knew all about it, but nothing criminal and nothing that would turn the MAGAt base of deplorables against him.
Like Chuck Schumer, Ezra Klein is stuck in a world where “normal” still exists. He’s bringing a pea shooter to a gunfight.
The Dems desperately need new leadership. Ezra Klein ain’t it.
@Kathy:
Normally, I would have the same assessment as you. BUT… his appeasment to Putin makes no sense if Putin doesn’t have something on him. Putin is the one, the only one, that continually embarrasses Trump with ZERO pushback from Trump. Zero. And it’s obvious how much he kisses Putin’s ass. Why?
@EddieInCA: I wish I could be as naive as Ezra Klein. He seems happy.
Concerned, maybe, but happy.
I should find him infuriating, and insufferable, but I really find that I just want to protect him as that last bit of innocence in the world.
He was really into Effective Altruism and didn’t realize that it was 50% sex cult, 40% grift, and only 10% earnest. He just really thought mosquito netting was the most cost effective way to help humanity.
I had a coworker/semi-friend who got into Effective Altruism specifically for the sex cult part. She seemed to be having a good time, travelled all over to help organize and speak at conferences, and thought she was saving the world. There were much worse cults one could get into.
She was a bit naive too. She was raised in North Carolina, and believed what she was taught about slavery being very rare there and not the real cause of the War of Northern Aggression — and was surprised when shown census reports from North Carolina in the 1840s. But she recognized that she had been lied to, and reevaluated things. So, naive, but not as naive as Ezra Klein.
She slept with a boy* I liked, (which was fine since he was straight, and it was good someone was sleeping with him) and got him involved in Effective Altruism, and he raised money to build a school in Thailand, since X thousand dollars went so much further there to help people than it would here. So, she was doing real good in the world, assuming it wasn’t all a grift and the school exists. I should look her up.
Anyway, after that ramble I just want to reiterate that Ezra Klein in a precious pocket of innocence and naivety that must be protected at all costs. Possibly put into one of the isolation floating tank thingies for a few years and then be brought out to reintroduce hopeful idiocy into the world after our current problems grind to their conclusion.
*: with all the pedophilia in the news, I should point out that the “boy” was 25.
@EddieInCA:
IMO it’s the same reason a dog wags their tail and exposes their belly: submission to an alpha.
@Gustopher:
Even when taken as a serious ethical discipline, Effective altruism gets too abstract too fast, and winds up accomplishing little or nothing of use to anyone. I think I’ve reda at the moment the focus is on improving the future, as that would help far more people who will live then than people who are alive today.
It’s better all around if it’s a cult and a scam.
@Kathy:
On the one hand, that can lead to all sorts of dystopian futures where ridiculous characters like Elon Musk are real and trying to save the world as only they can. But on the other hand, it provides numbers and data to over-privileged autistic googlers who wouldn’t get involved otherwise because they have no direct connection to anyone who has ever suffered — baby steps to actually getting involved.
There’s a huge White Savior aspect to it, too. It is chock full of lower case white supremacy. They mean well, but very white savior.
But, as my coworker/semifriend explained, she was half-Filipino, and bringing up colonialism in these settings was the most effective flirting she had ever done, she had graphs to prove it, and also a rural family in some Latin American country somewhere got some guinea pigs, and don’t people in Latin America deserve pets?
And I swear to the god or gods I don’t believe in that she had graphs and didn’t know people eat guinea pigs.
I always figured she would either save the world, destroy the world, or end up in jail.
I really need to look her up. Given the world, I’m betting jail.
@EddieInCA: A significant number of people can be manipulated without coercion, and the Russian KGB were consummate masters in the art. Trump’s niece Mary. a practicing psychologist, wrote about his childhood. Donald was not his favored son. His older brother was, and Donald was shipped off to a military academy. Nobody does that to someone who they want close, and his father was a ruthless bastard.
Putin probably has but to play the role of the approving father figure Trump never had to influence him. It’s not a matter of extreme sophistication either, every successful pimp knows how the game is played.
@EddieInCA: While your take makes some sense it’s looking less and less so. Or maybe that stuff isn’t in the files.
It’s possible that Trump’s instincts are to suck up to powerful people. It’s possible that Trump is really scared of radioactive poison in his Big Mac, or being thrown out a window.
I can think of more explanations for Trump’s behavior v. Putin. Pelosi thinks Putin has something on Trump, but that something may not be Epstein related at all.