Adios, May Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, May 31, 2026
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18 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).
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Fatso is now going to make the 250th celebration into a political rally for himself. Welcome to the United States of North Korea.
Quite simply the most egregious thing he could possibly do.
SMFH
https://apnews.com/article/trump-fair-250-anniversary-great-american-musicians-66bae27bc720c6882d8e73ce4a81efe6?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share
@Daryl:
A great opportunity for a No Kings rally to take over the event. Better yet, the felon may be in attendance.
@Daryl:
So if the singers are as lousy as he now claims, why did he invite them in the first place?
Some good news: Peter Thiel’s and Trump Jr.’s Enhanced Games were a flop.
@Kingdaddy:
Something’s happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear, but I’m tempted to use the annoying word, zeitgeist. The zeitgeist is changing, slowly, almost imperceptibly, and now all of a sudden. MAGA is collapsing in ways the polls aren’t yet showing fully, but which you can feel. So many little failures – in the courts, in votes cast, in cultural embarrassments from ‘roid games to Vanilla Ice. With a larger fail in a lost war that has trapped a helpless, feckless, unwell Trump, while exacerbating economic worry. Bullied by Bibi, humiliated by Xi, bested by Mark Carney (A Canadian FFS!), derided and ignored by Europe.
Trump feels it too. I think he’s confronting his own mortality, feeling the power drain away, sensing his own impending doom, even vaguely aware that he has been a failure. He’s trying to prop up his ego with ever more desperate branding exercises. The ballroom, the reflecting pool, the statue, the arch, the 250 dollar bill, the Kennedy Center, all the vulgar gold-painted Hobby Lobby appliqué. He’s increasingly desperate, knows he’s spiraling, but no longer has the energy left to even try to save himself.
I no longer wish him dead. He’s done most of the damage he can do, now I want him to live out his term, weakening day by day. I don’t want the MAGAts to have a lost cause fantasy of how he woulds coulda if only he’d lived. No, I want them to see their messiah stumbling, snoozing, babbling, stymied at every turn. I want them to realize they’ve tied themselves to an anchor that will drag them all down. I want to watch MAGA watch this loathsome vermin crawl out of the White House, and I want them to hear our laughter.
@Kingdaddy: Did theyreally lose money? I assume all Trump ventures are designed by a sharp mind where losses on paper are just a cover. That is why so many Trump projects have ended in bankruptcy. He is every bit as svelte as Zero Mostel but not as charming.
Second to last paragraph…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/31/jasmeet-bains-california-congress-race-democrats
@Michael Reynolds:
It’s gas prices. And, it will get worse if Trump cannot get the gulf open very soon, we will use up all the slack in the system as strategic reserves of petroleum are exhausted.
And the Enhanced Games are not a sign of anything, they are just another Trump Phone.
@CSK:
You and your crazy logic!!!
@Daryl:
Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Jen, Sleeping Dog, and Daryl:
Did any of you hear the meteor explosion yesterday?
@CSK:
I did not hear it, just saw the news article.
@Sleeping Dog:
Yeah, me neither, and I think you and I were as close to it as we could get without being out to sea.
@Michael Reynolds:
Have you noticed how much traction Pope Leo is getting about AI and egregious capital?
This is something US “conservatives” often miss about European “conservatives”: a lot of the latter are in the “Christian Democrat” tradition.
Whereas US ones are often a weird variety of “liberal”.
Point is, European “conservatives” are often rather sceptical about both capitalism and “progress”.
This can be good, or bad.
But it’s just different from American assumptions about politics.
Same apples to many other polities, eg Japan.
The US “conservative” combination of radical liberalism plus evangelical religiosity plus race is rather unique to the US.
I don’t pretend to understand how this relates to the US mass opinion base.
But I suggest that if Trump is unable to gratify “the grump”, it’s unlikely Vance will do much better.
Perhaps some politician might win on the basis of actually addressing the problems of humanity in the 21st century?
@CSK: Unfortunately I did not. I live far enough away from the Cape that, at worst, I’m affected by I-95 traffic and I can easily avoid that.
@Michael Reynolds:
Trump is not ignored by Europe; he worries Europe extremely, because he violates the entire basis of the post-1945 and post-1991 order.
The thing is, the MAGA expectation that Europe would just roll over is based on false premises.
Being a subordinate in a co-operative hegemony is one thing; being talked to like a bitch and slapped in the face is entirely another.
Neither Brits, nor Poles, nor Italians, nor even Germans, to say nothing of the French, are inclined to tolerate it.
@JohnSF:
How does that increase share value?
@Michael Reynolds: Plus 1000 for the Stephen Stills reference (via Buffalo Springfield). Bonus points if you can recall the actual name of the tune. My psychic powers will determine if you looked it up on the internet, though.
Meanwhile, I’m noting the same vibe change that you are. And yeah, gas prices are part of it, but not all of it. I’m noticing that people will call Stephen Miller an “ugly fuck” on social media and then nobody, but nobody backed down or flinched after the push back of “uncivility”. Good lord, the guy invented uncivility, and it is that we are calling ugly.
Also, I am enjoying the response to Mullin’s threat to shut down international airports in sanctuary cities, which is “go ahead, make my day!”
Yeah, definite vibe shift.