Friday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, January 24, 2025
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70 comments
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About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor 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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Pamela Hemphill, the Idaho woman who became known as ‘MAGA Granny’ and spent time in prison for her role on Jan. 6, says she’s rejecting Trump’s pardon: “I broke the law that day, period. Black and white,” Hemphill told NPR:
Hemphill told the Idaho Statesman:
I was raised to view decency and integrity as unremarkable and de rigueur. But these simple qualities have to be appaluded in the Musk-Trump era.
Good news bad news
Bad news- I need to have a kidney biopsy performed. It will be performed Feb 25th*
Good news- The wife and I can go on our trip that is scheduled to begin next Monday.
So I must be normal, right, asks the author of dung beetle fiction.
*- The soonest the doctor can get me in. My travel plans would have been changed or canceled if I could have been tested earlier.
Today’s, in the Leopard’s Eating People’s Faces Party, former Texas elected and Fox News guest John Basham on Xitter this week:
Luckily for the Bashams, acting VA secretary Todd Hunter is seeking exemptions for hundreds of thousands of VA jobs, per Miltary.com:
So maybe Trump’s EOs don’t or won’t have as much legal teeth as reported?
Costco shareholders overwhelmingly reject anti-DEI measure (Axios):
Bravo to Costco for refusing to go along with the mass hysteria of blaming pronouns, migrants, trans people, and wokeness for problems caused by greedy rightwing billionaires.
@DK: As a 20 year Costco member, I approve.
Latest on Ukraine War courtesy of the Institute for the Study of War
I was too busy to chime in on the Trump and the Bishop imbroglio but I will make two comments:
It reminded me to up my weekly offering to the Episcopal church that I belong to.
And, can we make CHINO (Christian In Name Only) a thing and tag the far right tools of Satan with it?
@Scott: …can we make CHINO (Christian In Name Only) a thing and tag the far right tools of Satan with it?
Whoa! Brilliant idea. Long overdue. Make it so, as Star Trek captains would say.
Texas Paul. Tariffs are bad. Free Markets and Trade good. Except in case of oil.
Texas Paul. Tariffs are bad. Free Markets and Trade good. Except Protectionism good for greedy fossil fuel companies that are destroying the environment by causing catastrophic anthropomorphic climate change
Luigi Mangione is same as the January 6 insurrectionists.
@Paul L.: Man, you are terrible at this. What are you even angling for with this link? Do you agree with it? Do you disagree with it? Do you agree with part of it? Seriously, you are just bad at expressing yourself, which might be why your opinions/thoughts are so muddled. I believe what we tell 8-year olds is, “Use your words.”
@ptfe:
Just pointing out the shameless bad faith hypocrisy.
I am told that the tariffs Trump will enact will raise prices causing inflation and destroy the economy that Biden rebuilt after covid.
@Paul L.
At the risk of turning this into an intervention, I complete agree with the core of what @ptfe wrote:
You are really, really, really hard to understand. Lots of us have said this. Most, if not all of us, are speaking from a place of honesty when we say that.
We know you have different political views than most of the commenters and writers here. And that’s not going to change. But like @ptfe I think more than a little of the conflict and friction you experience is due to lack of clarity.
There’s good reasons for you to consider working on being a little more clear. I know you are really passionate about corruption in policing. I have no doubt about that. And I appreciate that passion goes so far as writing your local elected officials. I wish more people did that.
But the one time you shared something you wrote to a local congress person, it… well… read like one of your posts here. And perversely, your “silent /s” sarcasm read as if you were supporting the very “pro police/tough on crime” attitude you were arguing against.
Heck we all thought you were doing that yesterday.
As I said, I don’t necessarily agree with your content or your black-and-white views on things, but if you could be just be more clear, your words would have more impact (or at least inspire more contemplation from your readers).
@Paul L.:
But to what end? Seriously, using your black-and-white rubric, we’re all guilty of bad-faith hypocrisy– yourself included. That’s just the road to unproductive nihilism.
Trump’s tariffs will raise prices. Seriously, that’s a fact of tariffs. They are not taxes on outside countries–they are taxes on the importer of and consumers of foreign goods. If you don’t think that’s the case, then produce actual counter-arguements against it.
In cases where there are competing domestic products that don’t involve any tariffed materials in the manufacture of their product, there’s a chance that prices may go down (though there is also evidence that local manufacturers still increase their prices to… well… increase their profit).
BTW, even our more right-leaning commenters like Fortune appear to have acknowledged that’s the case.
Now multiple issues are starting to get conflated, as they often do in your posts. We are still unsure of the impact of tariffs on inflation going forward. They may not increase it, but they sure are not going to lower it (note that Trump has said he’s not going to necessarily bring prices down despite his promises on the campaign trail).
Whether or that will “destroy the economy”? Time will tell.
I sure wish Beth would check in.
@becca: I messaged her last night, she is ok….well, not ok, but still with us.
@Jax:
That’s a relief.
https://bsky.app/profile/astrokatie.com/post/3lggfb4r3m22o
What could possibly go wrong?
@Jax: Ditto @CSK, what a relief.
@Jax: so relieved to hear that. So are many others. Let her know, okay?
@ptfe:
@Matt Bernius:
Rather than try to figure out a troll’s ramblings, I suggest hunting down the mythical Xitter stone stele* that contains similar ramblings in Trollish, Ecksish, and Executish.
*Apologies to the Rosetta Stone and Jean-François Champollion
Trump puts the squeeze on Canada, ignoring actualities and good neighborliness
@Mikey: Locally, the egg thing is just bizarre. I sell farm eggs at one of our local bars, and at $5/dozen, my eggs are the cheapest in town. I took 17 dozen in a couple days ago and they were gone in 7 hours. The store put limits on how many you can buy at once, we decided we’d better do that at the bar, too.
Good time to be the crazy chicken lady, though! As long as I can keep the bird flu out of my own flock.
Day three of not forgetting what Musk is.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFJOsYGiFLD/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
@Bill Jempty: Enjoy your trip. (And I would give cancer a “que sera sera,” but Luddite’s experience made me a fatalist. You don’t have to go there.)
@Scott: CHINO seems fine to me. Thumbs up.
@Jax:
Out of curiosity, I checked egg prices in Mexico City just now. the overpriced, organic eggs go for US $3.75 a dozen. Regular eggs go for $2.05. Most are sold in packages of 18 or 30 pieces. these are $2.75 and $5 respectively.
Maybe we should smuggle eggs across the border.
@Paul L.:
I agree. Should he be pardoned?
@Kathy:
I understand that the Blueanon cult here are too indoctrinated that they will reject any information that contradicts their worldview narrative as they are not intelligent enough to question their programing.
But convicted felon and adjudicated rapist.
@just nutha:
Sure, I would love the Democrats to campaign on pardoning your hero Luigi Mangione.
But he is being charged in Pennsylvania, New York and Federally.
@Paul L.:
Heil Trump
We’ve come to a conclusion on where to escape to. Italy. They’ve recently started a digital nomad visa, and we are nothing if not digital and nomadic.
As to where within Italy, our default would be Florence – we lived for a while outside of Florence – but Bologna, Udine, Verona and a couple other places are on the menu. Many a slip twixt cup and lip, but we’re aiming for a summer move. We’ll keep the Vegas condo, and we’ll come back a couple times a year to see children.
A DN visa is only good for a year, which is about the length of our attention span, so the idea is to then do DN visas in Portugal, Spain and Greece. If we decide to stay expat longer term we may go for what’s called a Global Talent Visa and relo to France.
Of course nothing is ever set in stone with us, we were neighborhood shopping in London a few years back and ended up in LA.
@Jax: also relieved. Beth is good folk.
@Matt Bernius:
I just assume he wants the conflict and friction.
@Michael Reynolds: A friend of mine just got back from Italy, she too was there on a digital nomad visa. She loved it. Enjoy!
And, another rioter is rejecting his pardon.
I must be more sleep deprived than I thought. For a moment there, it seemed a non-existent entity was addressing me on this thread. That’s clearly not possible.
@Scott: I have sent CHINO out to about a dozen friends and encouraged them to pass it on
Meanwhile, Democrat lawmakers have been introducing bills
I haven’t bought a dozen chicken eggs at the grocery store or any where else for many years. I do order the scrambled egg and sausage on ciabatta sandwich for breakfast at Panera. The price before tax has been $6.59 for at least a year. The egg is some liquid concoction that they have been using. I do remember a time when I could see them crack a real egg on the grill but it’s been a while. In those days you could order the sandwich with the egg sunny side up not that I ever did. Sometimes there is measurably more scrambled egg on the sandwich than other times. The sausage looks to be the same size every time. What has increased is the 1oz. bag of Panera branded Kettle Cooked potato chips that I always add to the order. That item has gone from 99¢ before tax to $1.29 before tax in 12 months or so. If my arithmetic is correct that’s about a 30% increase! I don’t buy spuds at the grocery store to cook at home either so I don’t know if taters have gone up. The 30% increase in the price of the chips could be due to transportation costs or packaging or ???
@Jax:
Thank you for checking in and PLEASE pass along our support.
@JKB:
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have been introducing bills
Am I doing the “nut picking” thing you love to do correctly?
@Mister Bluster:
Likely one of two things:
1) Beaten eggs pasteurized and packaged in liquid form. It’s convenient for large operations, like restaurants. Not so much at home where smaller quantities of eggs are used. But if you want a precise measure of egg, it would be the way to go.
2) Reconstituted freeze dried eggs. Beat the eggs, freeze dry them, grind them to a powder, then add water to reconstitute.
These options are more expensive than eggs, but they keep longer. Powdered eggs last for years in their packaging. Now and then, I buy half liter cartons of egg whites. Not often. I can separate eggs just fine, but have limited use for yolks by themselves.
At omelet stations in Vegas buffets, they beat a lot of eggs and ladle them from a large container to the grill or pan for cooking. Some do serve fried eggs as well. these they crack individually
What an insufferable little twat she is. These people spend entirely too much time casing out the other people using the restroom, and it’s creepy as hell.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/lauren-boebert-forced-apologize-trying-143312431.html
@JKB:
It doesn’t surprise me for a minute that you can’t figure out the point of introducing that bill.
Heil MAGA. Heil Trump.
@Jen: Wow, that guy has some thoughtful things to say.
It seems to me that with any of these turnarounds, where against the odds, people change, there is some relationship present that has some impact.
@Jen:
And, another rioter is rejecting his pardon from the convicted felon and adjudicated rapist.
Government prosecutors claim that defendants have a ethical duty to not publicly talk about their cases.
@Jax: I see that Boebert went and recruited the assistance of Congressman Nancy Mace, which I find odd, since to the best of my knowledge, Congressman Mace is a man. I mean, I suppose there are times when a man can be invited into the women’s restroom for security purposes.
What’s that you say? Congressman Mace looks like a woman? That doesn’t matter, it csn be done by choice and surgery. No, I feel quite sure that Congressman Mace is male, and I understand there is a mandate to use someone’s proper pronouns.
Also, should I ever learn that someone dressed like Sarah McBride and of roughly the same size and build were to be deliberately trolling certain Members of Congress I will be very … pleased.
@Paul L.:
And Epstein-bestie pedophile. You brainwashed MAGA slave crybabies always forget that one.
@Jay L Gischer: Hahaha.
“We won with poorly educated, I love the poorly educated.” – Donald J. Trump, criminal, rapist, and pedophile.
@Scott: The year 1992 is on our Costco Card!
@Paul L.: I didn’t ask about what you would like the Democrats to do, I asked what you would like TO SEE happen.
Have to agree with ptfe and Bernius, you’re not good at this and if your answer had been even a fraction of a percent as clever as you imagined it is, it would be orders of magnitude more creative and pointed than it was. But thanks for playing. Trolling you was…
…meh, actually too easy. 🙁
@Jax:
@Jay L Gischer:
@DK:
Until I see congressman Boebert’s genitals and genome, I’ve no reason to believe he’s a woman, either.
@Kathy: FWIW, I think Nancy Mace is a better candidate for this. No real reason, just a vibe.
@JKB: Hmmm… A Democrat who wants a reproductive law based on the overall principle of what the scriptures seem to be attempting to define as “sin” (but not “crime”). Didn’t see that coming, but props all the same.
(But I’ll take it that, based on your comment–and history here–that you’re not down with our Congressperson’s view on the matter until I hear otherwise.)
@DK:
A Epstein-bestie pedophile/minor attracted person sexually assaulted and adjudicated raped (showed Laken Riley Latin Passion) a 50+ year woman?
Omnisexual?
Lest we forget what a raging narcissist/fabulist sounds like:
Thank goodness we have our top man on the case amid this horrible economic state Biden left us with! Time to deepen the tax cuts for the wealthy and avert national disaster!
Can I hear an AMEN for our new golden age?!?
@Mister Bluster: Worked in wholesale produce for 15 years. Wholesale potato prices fluctuate based on crop size, season, variety, market demand relative to supply, and a host of other factors and have some significant volatility (or had at least in my time, I’ll assume not much has changed). Producers of potato chips (and other items) contract on a type of futures market, from what I understand, to try to hold costs stable, but all of the factors you mentioned can come into play in addition to market forces and price gouging. I’m confident that potato chips are a small enough segment of Panera’s total sales (I didn’t even know Panera sold them) that they raised the price to pass on a cost increase (who wants to sell potato chips at a loss?). Better than not being able to get them, for sure. (I always get a pastry instead, but I don’t go to Panera every day and never got the potato chips habit– allergies.)
@Rob1:
Trump ALWAYS knows better than the experts in any field. Recall when he claimed he knew more about military matters than the generals.
@Jax:
You needed to learn “mind your own business” at your age? Were you raised by wolves or in some Charles Dickens’ story? What gives?
@Rob1:
@CSK:
In this case, the rapist felon might have a point. After all, Powell was appointed by a moron.
At that, he might frighten Powell and the rest of the Fed’s board to lower rates. But getting the rest of the effing world to go along won’t be that simple.
@Tony W:
1991 on ours.
@Rob1:
Trump has an interest rate problem that he will only exacerbate. In mid December the Fed lowered interests rates that banks are charged when borrowing from the Fed. Typically what happens is that within a day or so, long term, think car loans and mortgages, begin dropping as well, but in Dec that isn’t what happened. Long term rates actually increased and have continued to do so, because the market was placing a cost on the trumpian economic program. Bankers were taking what he said he would do as actually what he would do. Knowing that his program is inflationary, they are pricing that into long term interest rates.
Krugman covered it here: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/is-there-an-insanity-premium-on-interest
At this rate, assuming the 12 million figure, the administration has about 150,000 more flights to make. Or about 100 flights every day for the next 4 years.
The C-17 has a listed operational cost of approximately $22,000 hr. The estimated round-trip flying time to Guatamala City (as example) is approximately 11 hours. 150,000 flights would cost $36 billion dollars. Add in the $40 billion in lost taxes generated by these immigrants, and all the other related costs associated with the loss of workers, and direct costs for interdiction and managing the detainees. One can see why Mr. I-know-interest-better-than-the Federal-Reserve had 6 bankruptcies. Playing with OPM clearly not a limiting factor for the biz wiz. His performance, our bill.
@Kathy:..
@just nutha:..
Thank you both for the food feedback…
I haven’t thought about it for a long time but my memory has been jogged to recall the summers I spent in the ’50s at my cousin’s central Illinois farm for a few weeks in the summer. I was probably 10 years old. They did have electricity and a TV that got one channel. No indoor plumbing, just a hand pump at the kitchen sink and an outhouse. Got to gather eggs and drive the tractor. But the most fun was shooting at glass bottles sitting on the fence post with a .22 rifle.
@Bill Jempty:
@Tony W:
1990 here!
The Wyoming State Legistature is going above and beyond on the cray cray this year. The Freedumb Caucus is fully in control. 😐
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/01/24/bill-to-keep-abortion-drugs-out-of-water-supply-passes-house-committee/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIA8YZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHRU-lEPbXrUbNbjDL6CuNePHuamiG0wDJbmBOcLP5R4PcqmQy81t2KcPgg_aem_ADTGOFrfECgeWI9nWua-KQ
Trump has revoked Anthony Fauci’s protection detail.
For a minute there, it was scary. IT was fiddling with the Wi-Fi, and warned us it would be down a bit. They came to check whether it was back up, and OTB wouldn’t load, I got some kind of error instead (not 404).
But I restarted Chrome and all was well.
The Guardian still won’t load, but that can wait or I can find some other news source. I do think I need to remind IT I’m not supposed to have any restrictions on the web, by order of the department boss (seriously, he relies on me for odd info searches).
@Mister Bluster: Never been good at motionless standing targets, but I can shoot clay pigeons. I think the tremor plays less of a role on moving targets.
And the multiple pellets in shotgun shells probably increase my chances of hitting the target.
The least qualified and most morally compromised person ever nominated for Secretary of Defense has just been confirmed.
We. Are. So. Fucked.
@Sleeping Dog:
This.
And then consider the inflationary impact of proposed tariffs, and the incoherence of “tariffs will substitute for taxes” and also “tariffs will promote domestic production”
They may be able do one or the other; they can’t do both at the same time.
And also, failing to calculate the impact on the bond markets of likely inflation impact, and both a reduced external dollar surplus and increased deficits if tax cuts are implemented, without massive balancing expenditure cuts.
Which seem unlikely.
There seem to be lot of American “conservatives” who think the dollar bond demand is a “thing ordained of heaven”.
It ain’t.