Friday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, April 11, 2025
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86 comments
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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BlueSky.
Target suffers eighth week of foot-traffic losses since caving on DEI (Retail Brew)
Target’s foot traffic down amid economic uncertainty, DEI boycotts (Minn. Star Tribune)
Costco’s Foot Traffic Increases For 13th Week After Reaffirming DEI (Atlanta Daily World)
Go antiwoke, go broke.
Good grief:
U.S. Military Removes Commander of Greenland Base After Vance Visit
[…] While the statement didn’t cite a specific reason for her removal, Mr. Parnell said that “actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated.” […]
Matt and others, I strongly recommend the David McWilliams podcast.. his talk with Mark Blyth is a good first listen.
Breaking: the list of countries clamoring to negotiate a trade deal with the felon includes Upper Begonia, Corto Maltese, Wakanda, Isauria, Etruria, Bythinia, Epirus, Persia, and Shangri-La
Goo@Kathy: good news for once with Wakanda. Not sure how US would get by wo vibranium these next few years.
“Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline
Hundreds of Students at Military Base Schools Walk Out to Protest Trump Administration’s Anti-Diversity Policies
From Barron’s:
@Jen:
I think it had something to do with flags.
@Jen:
I bet VP Eyeliner feels like a big strong alpha male, now.
@Jen:
The American testosterone pumped “vikings” have landed!
@CSK: Yes, she refused to remove the Danish flag at the request of the VP, but also the email that was sent that pointed out bases should be apolitical. I think it’s 50/50 that a white male would have been removed for doing the same thing.
@Jen: “Her” removal? Well allllllllrightie, then. What’s the issue? How much more insubordinate can you get than commanding while female? (Well, commanding while trans, maybe, but that’s probably a societal evolution or two away still, I would think.)
@Scott: Turning the nation into a disease-ridden shithole country is proceeding much faster than I imagined possible. 🙁
@charontwo:
I’m pretty sure we already passed that exit a while ago.
@just nutha:
Commanding while Black isn’t a good idea, either, as in the case of C. Q. Brown.
Then again, Trump did can a white guy, Timothy Haugh, because he was a Biden appointee.
@CSK: We live in Bizarro World now. (And I don’t think that can be fixed, either.)
Larry Fink of Black Rock says we’re prolly already in recession. That is 1000000…% on trump and elmo.
Reserve currency still looks like it might be losing credibility.
U.S. dollar off roughly 1.2% from yesterday close this morning. U.S. treasury notes/bonds yields up significantly this A.M.
https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/TVC-DXY/
@just nutha: oh, Lordy. I’m sure trump will take being called a joke, cuz you know that’s how he’ll take the remarks, with his usual bonhomie. Hide the ketchup!
@becca:
Well, Trump doesn’t read, and no one close to him who does read will mention it, so perhaps he’ll never know.
@becca: @CSK: And how much does he care about what the Chinese think anyway? Or anyone else not named Donald J Trump, for that matter?
@DK: Good.
And just to help back up the point, Target should have learned lesson number 1 in “20 Lessons on Tyranny: by Timothy Snyder / read by John Lithgow”
I think someone else here made a similar point already, but I’d just like to reiterate that it’s a shame that it takes losing money for people, especially already-wealthy people, to start caring about the country. Not rampant corruption, criminality, attacks on democracy, cruelty, etc., but the possibility that we might start to lose some money. I know there are lots of good people out there, but there are so many pathetic ones.
On the other hand, if that’s what it takes to neuter this horrible administration, so be it.
Pretty steady state, not increasing, but not burning out either.
Texas measles update:
• At this time, 541 cases have been confirmed since late January. This is an increase of 36 since the April 8 update.
• Five percent, or fewer than 30 of the confirmed cases, are estimated to be actively infectious since their rash onset date was more than a week ago.
• Individuals are infectious four days prior to and four days after rash onset.
A good day for the norovirus.
CDC’s cruise ship inspectors laid off amid bad year for outbreaks
@Scott:
So they had, at the most, around 36 staff including the Public Health Service officers, and now they have 12.
It sounds like they already know which parts of the job are unnecessary. I hope the efficiency gains are enough to offset the personnel cutbacks.
Please be specific and tell us “which parts of the job are unnecessary”. You seem to know.
Since fees from the cruise ship companies pay for the program, not taxpayer dollars where are these “efficiency gains” supposed to occur.
@Mister Bluster: Basic reading skills.
“…saddle inspectors with more administrative work, multiple officials said, detracting from time that should be spent inspecting and investigating”.
Silly me.
Less time inspecting and investigating that can allow more disease to spread is a good thing.
Got it.
@Mister Bluster: Incredible.
@Kathy:
But it is rumored that the Duchy of Fenwick is readying a declaration of war.
@Fortune: I wonder if the cruise ship industry will want their fees back since they are no longer getting the service they paid for. How does this cut costs to the taxpayer?
It doesn’t.
However the cruise lines can reduce their fares and call it the Rubella Rebate!
@Scott: No one likes to pay fees. Are they optional? Even if they are, the government is still doing the inspections, right?
There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that this administration cannot FUBAR:
Trump tariff collection for freight shipments delayed by Customs ‘glitch’
[…] The alert explained that U.S. Customs discovered that the entry code for U.S. shippers to use to have their freight exempted is not working and “the issue is being reviewed.”
In the alert, Customs advised filers “to transmit cargo release separately and follow up with the summary filing when resolved.”
Normally, when a U.S. importer pays for their freight, they file both the cargo release forms and their financial papers, so they can pay for their cargo. To keep the cargo moving, Customs is advising importers to file the cargo release form now, and file the financial form later, once the glitch is corrected.
For now, that means the tariffs are not being collected by the U.S. government. […]
So, all of the headaches, none of the revenue. Good job!
Please, Stop.Feeding.The.Troll
@Kathy: I don’t think of myself as a troll but this comment will inspire me to comment more often. Not as a troll but because the implied fear of exposure to disagreement needs to be treated.
@Fortune: Are they? I read it as they are still doing inspections but at a reduced rate. Mainly because they don’t have the lower priced support staff to do the admin work. If your only performance metric is cost (labor) and not the produced product (inspections), I guess that is a savings to someone.
@Scott: I don’t know the industry’s rules either.
For no reason at all I’m reminded of an old saying that more or less goes: The ass brays when he hears his name.
@Fortune: Ha. Gotta love the narcissisism of believing there are no disagreements here without one’s own half-baked apologetics. Absent that, nothing but harmonious mind meld. And only you can fix it lol
Contrarions of all stripes love to play martyr. They’re frequently just intellectually lazy.
I think everybody will benefit if you don’t preface your responses with “Jane, you ignorant slut”. This is, if you are old enough to get the reference.
@DK: Can we agree this comment section had no disagreement before my comment?
@Fortune: I must be dense or just have thicker skin but I find it hard to discern any disagreement here. It is all just discussion.
@Fortune: To what end? We should first agree on whether or not the discourse in question stood to benefit from disagreement. A disagreeable contribution ought to be substantive, not existing just for its own sake.
My entryway floor had no mud til I tracked dirt in this morning after watering my plants. That fact in and of itself does not make mud necessary, nor desirable.
Often, reflexive contrarians mistake their rhetorical mud for critical thinking.
@Scott: I agree but it was apparently too heavy for Kathy and DK.
“It sounds like they already know which parts of the job are unnecessary. I hope the efficiency gains are enough to offset the personnel cutbacks.”
Almost all jobs have some administrative and reporting aspects. Those dont go away when you cut out the number of people working. In this case since the industry is paying for the work I suspect much or most of that paperwork is going to the industry as proof the job was done and they have passed inspection. The question is rather can 12 people do the work of 36 and AFAICT there no real rationale given for the number chosen, just an assumption 12 would work. It also seems like current conditions would be taken into consideration ie the increasing number of norovirus cases.
Steve
@Scott:
I’m not sure why the inspectors are “baffled” by the steep cuts, any government entity infringing on business is probably in the crosshairs.
I think I like Gizmodo’s headline best:
CDC Cuts Cruise Ship Health Inspectors as Puke-Filled Year Rages On
@Scott: Also, no they are not doing inspections, according to the Gizmodo article, the remaining crew will be there to respond to outbreaks only, but they also fired the epidemiologist so
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Fortune: something you do that makes me doubt your intentions — you seem to want to separate people here. You did this with me and I have noted it in some of your other comments. Bringing DK and Kathy up in your reply to Scott was unnecessary and small and comes off as passive aggressive. Not a good look.
A federal judge has denied Trump’s attempt to have the Central Park Five’s defamation suit against him dismissed.
@Jen: What is the liability for a cruise ship company if there is an outbreak?
The problem with self-regulation in a lot of scenarios is that there is no devastating financial loss or jail time.
Look at Amazon — they never fail to charge you, and when their website goes down, people are scrambling to get it back up. And there are many layers of redundancy. That’s because real money is on the line. The more critical the system, the more resilient it is — a minor feature might vanish for a bit, but the key things are very reliable.
Meanwhile, Boar’s Head deli meats is a filthy listeria-ridden hole because relatively few people die, and the costs of killing a few people are low compared to profits, and no one goes to jail.
Had the managers who were overseeing the rancid liverwurst spattering walls and machines and contaminating other products on a regular basis been charged with manslaughter or negligent homicide (death from food poisoning is a very foreseeable consequence, and there was clear negligence), I think self-regulation would work better in that industry.
Saw this on Gizmodo too. A reminder that pushing everything to X is being done to drive advertisers back to the platform, so it’s all to line Musk’s pockets:
Social Security Admin Reportedly Moving All Communication to X, the Everything App
Also, good luck with that. JFC.
@Gustopher:
I’m assuming none. I’ve never taken a cruise, but I’d be shocked if there wasn’t something in the small print that says they don’t bear any responsibility. The reason cruise lines tend to WANT these inspectors is that these boats are floating petri dishes and having guests get sick is bad PR. Having a third party in is more effective than trying to get employees to do this as it allows the government to play bad cop and force them to correct stuff, I suspect.
@becca: That’s not my intention. I wasn’t sure if Scott and I were talking about the same thing and I wanted him to know I wasn’t complaining about my interaction with him. If I don’t refer to specifics people complain I’m generalizing or making it up. And Kathy and DK came at me.
So, it seems like the Trump administration is now pivoting to “tariffs are all about an economic realignment with China”.
(Subject to change according to Trump’s mood, daily)
Well.
If that were the case, starting the ball by making most allies question US reliability in extremis, levying 10% – or 20% or 25%, or whatever the hell it is right now on Canada, Mexico, steel, and automotives etc – on all partners or potential partners, and licking the bond market in the nuts seems a bit sub-optimal.
But then, I’m not a very stable genius.
On which note: the UK in general is rather peeved about 10% and 25% tariffs, when we have done nothing whatsoever to deserve that.
@Jen: A first rate CF, for sure. It’s a good thing that Fortune is here to explain that it’s no big deal. I know I’m relieved. 🙁
@Kathy:
Jadis, Queen of Narnia, reported to be offering a special deal on special tasty fudge.
Sauron, Dark Lord pro-tem of Mordor offering a deal on magic rings: buy Seven, get Nine free, just hand over the Three.
And all the ents you can eat.
Sounds fair.
@JohnSF:
The way Trump plays it out, everything will have gone as planned. In his world, there are no sand traps.
@Rob1:
Problem being, he’s playing golf on a money per hole basis, with other players liable to punch you on the snoot if they catch you cheating.
Not his accustomed game, I think.
@JohnSF:
@Rob1:
I see it more as a case of monkey see, monkey do, especially if it saw another monkey doing it.
Mad Vlad’s initial invasion of Ukraine was a textbook envelopment maneuver, aiming straight at Kyiv. When that didn’t work, as Ukrainian forces stopped the Russians, he flipped to taking all of the Black Sea Coast. When that felt short, Mad Vlad instead tried to consolidate the oblasts where his troops still held.
In between all these strategic changes, he insisted everything was going to plan.
So:
1) Permanent tariffs to re-shore manufacturing.
2) Negotiation tactic
3) Pressure China! Yeah! That’s the ticket!
What will 4, 5, 6, 7…..255 be? At some point, he’ll be repeating himself.
@JohnSF:
I have to paraphrase Lisa Simpson: I understand the words, but the post makes no sense 😉
@Kathy:
Needs the Lewis/Tolkien geek priors, perhaps. 🙂
@Fortune: Kathy asked the rest of us not to feed the troll. She didn’t name names. But I guess if that delicate glass slipper fits, wear that bitch!
DK, well, you’re a pretty easy target. Of course they’re going to take up the cause. You should understand that by now. I suppose that’s probably why you come and derail threads, it’s interaction you can’t get elsewhere.
@Jax: Kathy makes similar comments all the time. This may be the first time I’ve responded. And someone complains I’m passive-aggressive?
Lie detector time: who do you think she was talking about?
@reid:
The losing money aspect obviously motivates those who lose the most money.
But that’s not just the rich.
I know some not-that-rich (but obviously not that poor, either) people who have lost about 10% of their retirement funds this week.
And they were not even enormously exposed to US stocks, as such.
The thing is, it indicate massive levels of sheer incompetence.
And incompetent government is a very bad thing.
Seriously: countries have coped with corrupt, cruel, undemocratic and even criminal rulers, for much of history.
But utter fuckwittery in times of crisis tends to go very bad, very fast.
@Scott:
So much winning.
This degree of incompetence defies parody. A story like this in The Onion would have been unfunny, because unbelievable.
@Kathy:
imho, Putins’s tactics and operational means have altered, largely because the Ukrainians have repeatedly kicked him in the balls.
But his goals have remained consistent, from before 2014 to date: one way or another, Ukraine shall be subordinated to Russia.
Or, more precisely, to the Putin model autocratic/oligarchic political economy.
Which is what he can now hope Trump will serve up to him on a plate.
Unfortunately for him, and for Trump, Ukraine and Europe have different ideas.
@Fortune: Like I said, if that shoe fits, wear it.
Would you go away if we all ignored you completely?
@JohnSF:
Maybe.
But maybe it would all be Geek to me 😀
@Fortune: n1gg@ please. You think people on this blog don’t browse other blogs and corners of the Internet to find alternative opinions? And that we need your dumb @$$ to expose us to contrary opinions?
Well thanks be to you for keeping us abreast of the musings of the stupid, pretentious, and cos-playing intellectual camps Well done!
@JohnSF: Trump may have learned, only by means of trial-and-error, that picking a fight with the whole world at once isn’t a great idea. It seems his merry band of advisers failed to imagine that might be so too. The coordinated threat of a run on US bonds, an easily predictable response, was beyond their imagination.
@Jax:
If no one ever reads anything they write, isn’t it the same as if they went away?
@Fortune:
I disagree!
😉
@JohnSF:
About four minutes in…Andy Serkis reads Trump statement as Gollum?
@dazedandconfused:
lol
I think Grima Wormtounge has an opening for playing the part of Bannon in the movie
And I still think Denethor should sue. 😉
@dazedandconfused
Yep.
Problem being, that once it’s done, you don’t get to call backsies.
Sovereign states tend not to react well to being pissed about with.
And as Carville sorta said, the bond markets are always the 800lb gorilla.
The amusing thing being, the hedgies seem to have screwed Trump without any intention.
Because their “cunning plan” was to offset margin calls on stock value falls with bond sales, on the basis that bonds should be going up.
But missed the problem of
1) every other hedgie doing that same thing, and
2) international demand for dollars going south.
Oops.
@Kathy: Does a bear shit in the woods and a tree fall without anybody caring? Yes, yes they would. I vote we all just studiously ignore Fortune. Let’s see how long he can stand it.
@Kathy:
When it comes to imaginary worlds, I am your hucklebery.
What are the shipping rates in Earthsea these days?
I shall do my best to calculate them. 😉
@Jax:
I entirely appreciate the inclination to disdain, but I tend to find ill-founded assumptions amusing.
If Fortune wishes to engage with me, he is entirely free to do so.
I always welcome amusement.
Just as sharks appreciate pilchards.
@JohnSF:
14 Geds to the Tenar.
@Jim X 32:
I’m sometimes tempted to play the ultra-con contrarian a@@wit here, on the basis that I sort of am, being a Brit traditionalist, and still more that I can do it better than most that turn up, without even being semi-conscious.
They are just so feeble it’s embarrassing.
If you wanna trollz, at least put the effort in.
Me, enjoying the thought of Fortune googling what the fuck a pilchard is. 😉
@Jax:
Sorta like a sardine, lol
@JohnSF: Indeed.
I mean, I knew. Doubt he did, though. 😉
@Jax: Classic collective action problem.