Friday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Friday, June 12, 2026
·
21 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).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
On July 4th, 1976, I got on the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) with a couple of my buddies and traveled to lower Manhattan to watch the Tall Ships sail into NY harbor. It was, of course, the bicentennial and the Tall Ships were part of the celebration. There were a lot of celebrations going on and it was a good time.
Here we are at the 250th anniversary and the feeling is totally different. I can’t bring myself to care and can’t wait until it is over. These feelings bring me great sadness not only for me but for the family. There seems to be nothing memorable out there to get my adult children excited or even thoughtful never mind the young grandchildren.
Anybody else have thoughts along these lines?
@Scott: I was living overseas in SE Asia in 1976, around 7 y.o. at the time. There was a big party at the Counsel General’s house (we were stationed at a consulate, not the embassy). My big takeaway from the day was that cotton candy was awesome (having lived overseas for much of my childhood, this was my first exposure to that particular delicacy).
Yes, it was a decidedly different feel. I wonder what they are doing for those stationed overseas.
@Scott:
My recollection of 76 is that the wounds of Vietnam, Watergate and the general social & economic disruption were put aside for a time and all celebrated and were welcomed to the celebration. Far different now. For the 250th, I see nothing to celebrate though much to mourn.
Earlier today I came across and article in the Financial Times about a report by KPMG on the use of AI in business. The gist is that the uses quoted for AI agents in business and government cited in the report are not real. In a fit of irony, they likely are AI hallucinations.
The piece is behind a paywall, but here’s a piece citing it.
I don’t think this is what is meant as model collapse, but it seems related.
On other news, it seems I chanced into buying a new PC at just the right time. Wednesday the desktop was slower than usual, which is common when there’s a Windows update. It goes back to normal once the update notification comes up.
Not this time. There was no update notification, and I even got a bluescreen and a reboot.
Same thing happened yesterday. It was so slooooooooooow, I gave up on using it after getting an invoice from a store, and streamed Netflix on the TV instead. I don’t think the hard drive went bad again, as it was replaced with a new one a couple of years ago. It feels more like it’s reached the end of its life.
Still, if I didn’t need to use the screen as a monitor for the laptop, I might get it looked at and maybe repaired. As is, all that’s left is to see what non-cloud files I want to back up.
As to the older laptop, I’m thinking I should back up any useful files, then wipe the drive, install Linux (I’m inclined towards Mint), and put it in the kitchen. I figure it would be useful to consult recipes, including some on video, where I’m actually cooking.
@Kathy:
“Marcus”
Trump has made 250 all about him – surprise surprise – and that’s why the observation pales in comparison to the generally good vibes of 200.
Perhaps this tidbit from The New Republic will cheer you all up a trifle:
“Donald Trump’s polling has just crashed. He’s hit a net approval on inflation of negative 50 points on inflation, something no other president has done–ever. Trump is also at 80% disapproval on gas prices. And this the first time Democrats have led Republicans on inflation since the 1970s.”
His aides say (anonymously, of course) that he’s foaming at the mouth.
Don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting bored with all this winning.
Welp, Pete Buttigieg is now talking about reforming institutions – House, Electoral College, SCOTUS. Not really a firebrand.
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/06/this-is-the-centrist-position-now
The more I read about this, the more pleased I am: https://www.upworthy.com/california-principal-has-the-best-response-to-a-mom-questioning-her-pride-shirt-in-the-carpool-line/
She gets pushback from the video taker, which she waves off. The best part is that while this video has been used to try to rally the anti-gay folks, most people have responded positively to the message of “All Are Welcome Here”.
I keep feeling that the people doing the best in battling Trump and MAGA are ordinary people, not politicians. It may be that the politicians just don’t have many cards to play until they get majorities. But we keep seeing these small wins all over the place. Sometimes they are court cases, sometimes protesters, sometimes principals.
The process message here is that we aren’t alone. There are lots of people out there who are like-minded.
@Jay L. Gischer: Given that the arguments are incoherent and easily refuted: What? All shouldn’t be welcome here? I think this principal handled it quite rightly. You’re holding up traffic. Come see me. Send your friend (probably imaginary) also. If she balked any more I would’ve called the resource officer over and ask him/her to handle it.
BTW, the error message after posting has gone away.
@Kathy: Where are we at with AI? Here’s a field report. Yesterday I was going to watch the last few innings of the Orioles game only to discover that it was ESPN only for the night, and I don’t have ESPN. So I did what I usually did – listened on the radio while I watched the play by play on the MLB app. (I like to see where the pitches land in the strike zone, look up players stats, etc.) I’ve done this hundreds of times, but last night the app started hallucinating. I first noticed it when it said that a player had walked, when he had actually been hit by a pitch. The result was the same, man on first, but it was odd. Then the app said the wrong guy was up. It skipped over the guy who was currently batting and said the next guy was up. For the entire at bat it didn’t show any play action. No balls, no strikes nothing. The player ended up with a productive ground out, which is one in which the batter is out but the man on base advances. The app did acknowledge that the first man was now on second but he simply magically appeared there. Now the batter it had been waiting for was actually up and it resumed the play by play. But it was wrong. The balls and strikes were wrong and then it said he grounded out when in fact he doubled and scored the runner. Didn’t reflect any change of score. It may have eventually but after a couple of more minutes I just gave up on it and closed the app.
Trump wants to expunge his record of the two impeachments. I believe this not constitutional, It’s also stupid and futile. Like we’ll all suddenly forget? The historical record will be wiped clean?
@MarkedMan:
Maybe Hu was on first? Computers historically have struggled with humor 😉
Most times when I use an LLM, I feel like we’ve been on the world’s longest beta test. They have improved, but are still largely limited. Say you cant to know about the hygiene or quality of a hotel you’re unfamiliar with. The LLM will fetch something, but who knows what that is. So you ask for the sources, and wind up reading online reviews. You could have done that from the beginning.
That said, I found an LLM useful to check the specs of various laptops I was looking at. Particularly the CPU. I still wound up looking up the CPUs in websites, but the LLM did have a clue about the matter.
But I’ve said before they’re reasonably good at targeted searches.
@CSK:
He’s a moron. It’s not as though his impeachment card is full, and he needs to make room for those that will drop in 2027 and 2028.
@CSK: They way he is constantly looking to his legacy, such as that and trying to name everything after himself gives reason to suspect he’s feeling his mortality these days. Some news his med exams are practically MD conventions at the moment…
I predicted he would tire himself out, but not confidently. Wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if, should the Ds take over the House and gain the ability to investigate his grifting, he hands the reins to Vance in exchange for Vance promising to give him the kind of pardon Nixon got from Ford. Probably get it too. Vance, I think, is the kind of weasel who would sell his soul to be POTUS.
Steve Miller’s “Take The Money And Run” should replace “Hail To The Chief” anyway, I guess .
@Kathy: @dazedandconfused:
Apparently the Iranians are beginning to notice that there is something radically wrong with Trump’s mental processes.
A bit more good news: Trump’s name is being removed from the Kennedy Center as we speak.
@CSK:
Beginning? I thought they were smarter than that.
From news reports, you’d think Iran has agreed to one MOU, and El Taco thinks it’s a different one.
What I take is that Iran 1) wants to keep its uranium and the enrichment capability, and 2) wants to keep control, and likely charge not-tolls, for transit through Hormuz.
A Trumpic victory, if it were a victory, is one where the enemy winds up in a stronger strategic position than it had before the war. Good job.
Iran also is very adamant that any agreement must include Lebanon. Bibi, who was not part of the talks, says he won’t withdraw from Lebanon, nor Gaza. This alone can blow up everything else.
What’s clear is El Taco pretty much launched his war by giving Iran a dagger to stab the world’s economy in the heart.
I guess it’s possible El taco’s team of negotiators, such as it is, focused on reopening Hormuz and punted the rest for latter talks over the next few months. And that El Taco is not really aware of this.
Given Iran’s de facto control over the strait, this is not even as good as status quo ante unnecessarily stupid bellum.
Gene Shalit, long-time movie critic for the Today Show, has died at age 100.
@CSK:
Livestream of the Kennedy Center delousing