Friday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, December 5, 2025
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39 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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My wife’s book, Wishtree, attacked in Wisconsin.
Pride competing with jealousy.
Legal experts fail to see justification for continued U.S. military strikes on drug boats.
So what?
Everybody is wringing their hands. But so what? If a corrupt legal office, say the Office of General Council says it is OK, then it is OK. There is no remedy. Yet another instance where norms are broken and the legal and constitutional framework underlying the structure of this nation are being torn apart.
There is no consequence for the lawyer (or lawyers) who writes illegal permissions.
And the beat goes on.
@Scott:
There are no consequences yet.
It will take a different Congress, a different Administration with a different DoJ and perhaps a different SCOTUS but there are absolutely available remedies – one that involves many of these people going to jail.
@Scott:
It isn’t much of a consequence, but lawyers who lie can be sanctioned, including disbarment, by their attorney governing body, often the supreme court of the state in which they are licensed. That’s the punishment Ken Chesebro and John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani were handed for their baseless and dishonest attempt to monkey wrench the 2020 vote certification. In a better world, federal judges would now be finding DOJ lawyers, including Blanche and Bondi, in contempt for perpetrating frauds upon the court, and their law licenses would be in jeopardy. But alas, we’re in MAGA world, and any attempt to rein in the barristers pushing phony narratives generates howls of “rogue, leftist judges!!!” from Karoline “Tokyo Rose Garden” Leavitt.
@Michael Reynolds:
Yay! I hope the “ban” goes national. I’m going to complain about it my the local library here in New Mexico to see if I can get it banned.
Good on Katherine.
Ed
Wishing everyone a hardy “Drink up” on the anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition on this day in 1933.
Ham sandwiches declined to comment.
Although I’m opposed to consolidation into ever fewer hands, a Netflix takeover of WB doesn’t sound that bad.
Provided they won’t do a Boeing, where WB winds up buying Netflix with Netflix’s money.
@SKI:
You are describing a project that will take decades. Within three years the American people, in their infinite wisdom, forgot about the damages of the last Trump presidency–including the millions of dead Americans from his failed covid response. If justice doesn’t come in the first 24 months of the next administration, there will be no justice because there won’t be the political will to pursue it.
ETA: Which isn’t to say its impossible, but it will depend on running successful candidates at all federal levels who are aligned on a “Strong Rope, No Floor” message, starting with 2026.
@Michael Reynolds:
@EddieInCA:
How about a sequel where the tree explores the human use of plant genitals in their mating rituals?
@SKI: @Charley in Cleveland: @Neil Hudelson: The closest real life analogy that I can come up with is the legal opinions of John Yoo during the George Bush II administration.
But at the end of day Yoo ended up not ostracized but the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
I don’t have hope at this point.
Perhaps Shakespeare was right.
@Scott: And I’ll throw this out there as chum:
Again from Wikipedia:
According to Captain Ron DeSantis of the fashion police Jesus wore a man dress. The Bible should be banned so children will not be exposed to this perversion.
@Michael Reynolds:
That is a sad video clip. My condolences.
Blue State Wisconsin is Milwaukee and Madison; once you hit the inner suburbs of Milwaukee it’s Red State territory. In fact, nearly everywhere else is Red State.
Evidently ‘pronoun’ is the new ‘woke.’ MAGA Republicans do have a gift for redefining words into submission, rendering them unrecognizable.
@EddieInCA:
Warn them: Trans trees! Today trees, tomorrow the ferns in your living room!
@al Ameda:
My wife the researcher points to the actual biological FACT that red oaks can and do in fact switch sexes, so I think this is all God’s fault.
Netflix is buying Warner/HBO, stymying the Trump loving Ellisons. Not good at all in the grans scheme, but better Ted Sarandos than nepo baby David Ellison. What’s your take @EddieInCA: ?
@Michael Reynolds: Well, good on her. Good on her.
@Michael Reynolds:
Most flowering plants are hermaphrodites. The produce produce polen (plant sperm) and also have the organ to receive polen and make a seed.
Perhaps Jr Half-Brain can lead an all out, multi-trillion dollar, seven year effort to correct this sloppy, immoral design Jehovah stuck us with. We have the technology now, yes? Also those weird fish that are all female, except the alpha which becomes male. And while he’s at it, make male cats not groom other male cats.
@Michael Reynolds:
1. Sad day for the industry. WB – the lot itself – should be named a historical landmark. Just some of the movies shot on the WB lot: My Fair Lady, Casablanca, Bird, Blade Runner, The Big Sleep, Ghostbusters, Goonies, Constantine, Key Largo, Jurassic Park, LaLaLand, Perfect Storm, The Music Man, Dark Knight, Spiderman and Camelot. (just off the top of my head)
2. Sad day for the industry. One less buyer of product.
3. Sad day for the industry. Netflix’s motto, within the industry, has always been, “Any time spent in a movie theatre is time not spent watching Netflix”. They have openly stated, repeatedly, that they want to crush the movie theater distribution model completely.
4. F**k David Zazlav. May he rot in hell.
5. Sad day for the industry. Don’t be surprised if Ellison, who really wants WB, gets the Trump administration to block the sale because…. Trump.
@Scott: “There is no consequence for the lawyer (or lawyers) who writes illegal permissions.”
Sure there are. John Yoo has been a professor at Berkeley since he left the Bush administration.
@EddieInCA:
Regarding your 5th point, I feel that Ted Sarandos will come up with a creative way to explain why they need to give President Trump a nice fat bribe (as high as 250 million to half a billion?) to ensure that this merger goes through.
As much as Trump is buddy, buddy with the Ellison’s at the end of the day if you offer him enough money he does not care if you have a D or an R before your name, and will help grease the wheels to make sure you get what you want. Of course, I just pointed out water is wet as by now everyone in the U.S. knows this, lol.
@Michael Reynolds: Not exactly beating the allegations of trying to indoctrinate children with messages of kindness, tolerance and even acceptance.
I hope there is a sequel about the paradox of tolerating intolerance, balanced against the risks of cancel culture.
Also, it’s never too early for a child to learn about Mycorrhizal networks.
Out of the mouths of babes…
My just-turned-eight grand girl informed me that she was not happy potus had another 3 years because “nobody likes him that are nice people”.
We make a habit of not listening or talking about the news when we have the kids, so I claim innocence. My daughter and SIL are focused on giving the girls love and positivity rather than rancor, so there appears to be some second graders with pretty good political savvy.
I will take any kernel of hope for the future I can get.
@Michael Reynolds:
@EddieInCA:
One streamer to rule them all
One streamer to find them
One streamer to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them
I just figured it would be Disney…
@Gustopher:
That well known Irishman, Mike O’Ryzal
He’s such a fun guy!
@Michael Reynolds:
My word, but some people are just so silly.
Most trees, and for that matter most plants, are hermaphrodite.
Some people need to spend more time gardening, and less time in the mire of “culture wars” nonsense.
My regards to your wife.
@becca:
Counter hypothesis: some children that young have working senses and brains and are capable of age-apropriate critical thinking.
LOLOLOL. The Washington Post has an article (sorry, no link as I no longer have a subscription) about how the Trump administration’s war on DEI is going to hurt…
White males.
Yep. By prohibiting gender balancing (where a college tries to have equal numbers of male and female students), colleges are only going to be looking at traditional metrics: grades, test scores. And, importantly, women comprise about double the number of applicants to college than men.
So, since colleges will no longer be trying to hit a 50/50 mix, and there are nearly double the number of female college applicants than male, college admissions are going to start skewing way more female.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
The Fixer court will hear El Taco’s deranged argument against birthright citizenship.
I understand courts work in a certain way, and even absurd, ridiculous, preposterous, deranged arguments get heard. But when something is so simple and clear, like the text of the 14th amendment, there’s really no argument to make.
The text says verbatim “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. ”
Now, one could argue what “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” means. At the time, this probably meant foreign diplomats and all or some Native American groups that had some degree of autonomy and were regarded as nations not part of the US.
In modern times, one is “under the jurisdiction” of any country one happens to be in, regardless of how one entered said country. The one exception being diplomats or those who entered under a diplomatic passport.
I’ve no doubt the fixers can manufacture a reason why none of this is so, and rule in El Taco’s favor, or partially in his favor, limiting the exclusion to those who entered the country illegally.
All this said, I can buy the argument that birthright citizenship should be evaluated. Most countries that have it are in the western hemisphere, and probably adopted it in imitation of America, as they’ve adopted a lot of other trappings and norms from the US, like a presidential system and bicameral legislatures, and even the same kind of separation of powers.
But then any changes would involve amending the constitution. Not spewing out an executive order in manifest contradiction of the literal meaning of the constitution’s text.
Menwhile in Washington, the adminstration releases the new US National Security
InanityStrategy.Russia does not get mentioned as an adverary. Surprise surprise!
Whereas regarding Europe:
(In fact, majority of Europeans back suuporting Ukraine.)
Consider the Republican reaction if any European country issued a policy document stating “the growing influence of moderate & pro-democracy forces in America in recent state elections gives great cause for optimism.”
This is entire thing is little short of a decalaration of hostilities on a plurality of European governments.
Who the hell drafted this pile of horseshit?
Vance?
Putin?
This is little short of a declaration of the end of the Atlantic Alliance, unless re-cast as a collection of populist dimwits running US client states.
Or possibly Russian client states?
Screw THAT for a game.
More importantly, if this is definitive, it won’t even be fully repairable under a future Democrat administration.
No remotely sane European state will place its vital security interests at the mercy of a US that in another electoral cycle could see a MAGA-fied lunatic back in the White House depending on the mood of some counties in swing states.
In addition, once the “European strategic independence” train leaves the station, it will pick up momentum inexorably. Domestic interests will increasingly be engaged in squeezing the US out of the arms market.
And questions may start to be asked about whether it is in the European interest to have any US bases in Europe at all.
Including those for support of US air links to the ME/NA and US naval forces in the Med.
It won’t happen soon, but the trajectory of divergence seems highly likely.
On the topic of US-Europen divergence, this article in Politico sums up other widespread reporting on the recent mood of several European leaders:
Macron:
Merz:
Stubb:
“European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and European Council President António Costa also participated in Monday’s call”
@JohnSF:
Sounds a lot like Bolshevism without the Marxist-Lenninist intellectual underpinning, plus a hefty dose of nazi-like bigotry.
@Kathy:
The really remarkable thing is that the idiots who wrote this seem unable to grasp that, beneath a willingness to be opportunistic shits, many European populist nationalists are, in fact NATIONALISTS.
Who frequently loathe the US tout court, and not just “woke Democrat globalists.”
It’s similar to the delusions of both MAGA “kuturkampf” types, and “Republican realists”, that Russia is somehow available as an idological and strategic ally, when Putin is both unable now to escape the “fond embrace” of Xi, (unless he could somehow dominate Europe) and represents a Russian siloviki elite that both despises, fears, and hates both the US, (and Europe) in any variant.
Largely out of curdled resentment at the loss of the Russian imperium and what they see as a humiliting relegation from being a “peer Super-Power that they regard as the outcome of the end of the Cold War.
“We were robbed and betrayed, and we shall have our revenge” is a basic element in the mentality of the Putin elite.
That and “regime protection” by shoring up the regional autocrat/oligarch political economy system are the basic reasons behind Russian policy re Ukraine (and Georgia and Armenia) from 2012 to date.
And its policies re Iran, in Syria till recently, and to some extent in the Sahel.
@Kathy:
Somebody on twitter compared it to a “Comintern of the Right”.
And returning to what I said above, they forget the ironies of history.
The Comintern (and its subsequent incarnations) may have aided the rise of the Communist Party to power in China.
But it was above all the Chinese Communist Party, and with little inclination to defer to Moscow.
A Europe ruled by an alliance of the reactionary Right could end up being at least as great a threat to the US, even a MAGA-Republican US, as China might possibly be.
MEGA won’t be MAGA.
@JohnSF:
I find it remarkable they manage to grasp anything.
Come to think of it, I’ve no evidence for that…
I don’t have a god read on Europe. I know there are economic issues, despite a far more generous welfare state in most European countries. Partly, IMO, this should be a result of the race to the bottom regarding corporate taxes, and partly a result of globalization (those VW plants in Mexico employ very few Germans).
Some, like the retirement age kerfuffle in France recently, are a function of declining birth rates. Ironically the stopgap measure against that issue is to allow more regular immigrants who will pay taxes.
Of course this will drive growth in their origin countries, which will wind up lowering birth rates. but immigration should be good for a few decades yet.
One week from today is el dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe. I am thinking of going to the local ICE headquarters with images, candles, and maybe some foods. What foods are appropriate for this fiesta? I am sure the ICE officers would like some treats.
@Kathy:
Seen via BlueSky Repost by Ken White aka Popehat aka Fat, Illiterate and Violent Hat*. Originally posted by one of the authors. Reading it now. So far, seems worth the investment prior to the SCOTUS ruling.
BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP AND THE DUNNING
SCHOOL OF UNORIGINAL MEANINGS
Evan D. Bernick, Paul Gowder & Anthony Michael Kreis
Cornell Law Review. 2025.
Bonus: Michael Anton, John Eastman, and others get properly exposed as pseudoscholars. And I have yet to reach the conclusion portion. (disclosure: I consider them pseudoscholars, a view not necessarily shared by any one or more of the authors. YMMV.)
*is White opposed to the Oxford Comma? Back when I first joined this community, we had downvotes. I opined on the Oxford Comma. Got downvoted more than upvoted. Read arguments here and elsewhere. Subsequently started using it. I went from one side of meh to the other side of meh.
@JohnSF, is non-use of the Oxford Comma referred to as Cambridge Commic Abstention? And where the hell does Harvard get the gall to appropriate it?
@Kurtz:
I’m guessing White changes nicknames so often, he sometimes mistypes.
Me, I use the Oxford comma. I get in trouble at work for it sometimes.
Anyway, yes, the doctrine of originalism clearly states the original meaning and the original intent of the Founders is what the argument their side makes needs it to be.
Jurisdiction in this sense obviously means allegiance. And persons means white people. And the mention of sex in the 19th amendment means male sex.
And of course, pigs can fly.
@Kathy:
I kind of share your cynical view of how Originalism has been put into practice in most cases.
But you know me. In my best moments, rare as they may be, I do my best to engage on the ground of my opponent as much as I can.
For Kathy, Sabor Judio Cookbook author dishes on Jewish-Mexican cuisine that is ‘kosherísimo
I’m familiar with the Chinese-Mexican cooking of the Mexicali area.