Hola, June! Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, June 1, 2024
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56 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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Discovery’s season finale: meh.
On the other hand, you have to respect how Trek sticks to tradition: that was some big reset button.
Robert De Niro denied leadership award after speaking out against Trump
Yeah, they’ve got their heads up their asses.
Via Anne Laurie over at BJ comes this jewel:
Idaho jurors mull death penalty for man convicted over ‘doomsday’ killings
After reading that, all I can say is “WTF???”
Good news:
And the active, malicious GOP attempts to squelch access and the right to vote continues…
https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-kansas-supreme-court-0a0b5eea5c57cf54a9597d8a6f8a300e
@OzarkHillbilly:
NAB is basically Sinclair at this point. Late stage buggy whip industry.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-supporters-try-doxx-jurors-violent-threats-conviction-rcna154882
Waiting to fly home from a two week vacation around the southwest US (Denver, Colorado Springs, Phoenix, Grand Canyon, Zion, Las Vegas)
PS: I’m not sure what the cause of Las Vegas’s escalator maintenance crisis is, but I think I’ve seen more broken escalators the last three days than in my entire life up until then.
If I were the Governor of The Sunflower State (full disclosure, I am not) I would follow the lead of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress ask the United States Supreme Court to “step in”.
@Stormy Dragon:
PPS: I walked a total of 72.73 miles over the course of the trip
So the Saga of the Spider Bite from Hell continues.
To fill in some gaps, let me recap:
Monday- A Doc on the Block in Washington. Given antibiotics.
Tuesday: My wife saw her doctor in Sullivan. Given more antibiotics.
Wednesday: Went the ER. Given intravenous antibiotics.
Friday: Went to the ER again. More intravenous antibiotics and admission to the hospital.
All along it has slowly turned uglier and uglier and uglier, to the point where it occurred to that maybe the spider she killed was not the one that bit her, that maybe she was bit by a brown recluse. The light bulb moment came to me after I left the hospital last night and kept pondering where I had seen such a wound before. Finally I placed it as the scar on a friends thigh that she had been given by a brown recluse. Either that or my wife is allergic to spider bites in addition to wasp stings.
Anyway, heading back to the hospital in a bit in hopes of bringing her home. Lord knows, the dogs are bereft with out her. They are used to me disappearing from time to time, but not her.
To top it off, she’s not used to being a patient and is not taking it well. Keeps telling me how that is MY job, not hers.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sorry your wife is having such a bad reaction. I hope she turns the corner soon and then recovers quickly!
Men and other mammals live longer if they are castrated, says researcher
Keep yer dirty hands off my death nuggets.
@DeD:
I assumed this would happen, as I’m sure you did.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I wonder if, uh, chemical “castration” helps too…
DeD: “And the active, malicious GOP attempts to squelch access and the right to vote continues…”
The state Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision and therefore allowed to stand a measure that “requires election officials to match the signatures on advance mail ballots to a person’s voter registration record.“
This can be expected—further efforts to implement signature matching rules that give election officials the ability to reject mail-in ballots that, in their judgment, do not qualify.
@OzarkHillbilly: Yikes, but also interesting.
Males die at a higher rate than females from in the womb right through to old age. I’ve always found this strange.
Flight delayed two hours because American apparently forgot to pick their flight crew up at the hotel.
Oh to be as free from the consequences of gross incompetence as a large US corporation…
@OzarkHillbilly: For myself and I’m sure for the rest of this ramshackle commentariat, we are all rooting for her!
@DeD:
There’s more here. These people are deeply, deeply crazy:
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-threats-courts/
@OzarkHillbilly: I hope that her doctors decide to explore the possibility that her reaction was allergic. If it was, that’s a whole nutha treatment protocol. (Says the guy who’s had allergies for 71 years so far.)
Trump said yesterday that he was “very upset” with how his lawyers handled his case, and that he wanted to testify.
If he wanted to testify, there was nothing and no one to stop him.
@Jen: Is the higher rate adjusted to account for deaths in warfare?
@OzarkHillbilly:
Allergies are the worst. I hope things turn out well.
@Eusebio: I have been told that in my county all mail-in signatures are checked by two election judges – one Democrat and one Republican – sitting in front of a projection screen that throws up the record signature and ballot signature side-by-side as soon as the ballot comes in. Any challenged signature is returned to the voter with opportunity to rectify. This works. It doesn’t have to be so hard.
@Jen:
In evolutionary terms males are more disposable. Human females give birth to a single baby for the most part, but males can impregnate any number of women. If you want the species to survive you give the females the upgrades and leave the males with basic contractor-grade stuff from Home Depot.
@CSK:
Two things:
1) Most important of all, Convicted Felon Orangefuhrer is still guilty*.
2) This is classic Convicted Felon Orangefuhrer stuff. Take weeks or months to prepare or negotiate, agree on what’s to be done, do it, then complain that he wanted to do something completely different. Come, he just did that a few weeks ago with the bipartisan immigration bill negotiated in the Senate.
All he hasn’t done is blame someone else. But it looks like he’s setting up his lawyers for that.
*For those who miss the reference, watch this
@Kathy:
Trump has already blamed his lawyers.
@OzarkHillbilly: “You’ll have to pry my nuggets from my cold dead hands”
@Jen: Among other reasons, the Y chromosome can almost be considered a defective X, meaning that men only have one copy of a number of genes.
@OzarkHillbilly:
He was sentenced to death.
Exclusive: One in 10 Republicans less likely to vote for Trump after guilty verdict, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Over half of voters (54%) approve of the 12 jurors’ historic decision to convict the former president on 34 felony charges related to a 2016 hush-money scheme with adult actress Stormy Daniels. A similar share believes Trump committed a crime.
Different poll. Same result.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Have been following this case for years. Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow are the epitome of evil.
I am ambivalent on the death penalty. But Daybell deserves it if anyone does.
@DK:
He got it.
@MarkedMan:
The Y Chromosome is literally just an X Chromosome where one of the little legs fell off.
Weird go-around at Zurich from a United 767
There’s vide about halfway down the piece.
@Kathy:
I’ve never been in a go-around, but I have flown in a British Airways jet, one of the rear doors of which swung open about a mile above Heathrow. That was…distressing.
@CSK:
It’s far more common for a go-around to begin well above the runway. One common reason is if the plane isn’t following the correct glide slope, or if it’s not aligned with the runway. Another is ground operations.
One time flying from Atlanta to Orlando, the plane leveled off, increased power, and climbed away. The captain informed us there was another plane on the runway, and we’d have to go around. So, I’ve been in one. But we were still a few minutes from landing.
@OzarkHillbilly: So eunuchs back in olden times lived longer than the mighty ones they served?
If you knew some of the men I’ve known, it would make perfect sense. Sometimes I wonder how I’ve survived this long.
@SC_Birdflyte: Of course They weren’t trying to impress the girls.
@Kathy:
He decided there wasn’t enough room to stop at the speed they were moving relative to the ground after touchdown. Committed to air and tried to drag if off, but no luck. Had to stick the nose down to reduce drag so he would get enough.
I’d like to know what the wind was doing. Such events are sometimes caused by the appearance of a sudden tailwind, and such sudden shifts are associated with rain squalls…and the runway was mighty wet.
@dazedandconfused:
The piece mentions the runway was wet and that there was no crosswind. It says nothing about tail wind one way or the other.
@EddIeInCA:
While I agree that in context this is good news, in the larger picture “Trump convicted on 34 counts, 60 more indictments pending including the one for incitement to insurrection that everyone watched live on TV… 54% of Americans believe he committed a crime” is just pathetic.
@SC_Birdflyte:
Often by just a few hours…
@Kathy:
I don’t know if it’s a factor of Luddite’s advanced age or what, but I find the idea that 767’s have been around 32 years to be absolutely mind-blowing. I mean, I know there a common aircraft, but it doesn’t seem that long to me. Obviously, this is further proof that I did, in fact, inhale.
ETA my personal worst incident involving aircraft included a Cessna float, King Salmon AK, and a mid winter landing there.
@DrDaveT:
“…insurrection…”
No, no, no. You’ve got it all wrong. The Trumpkins were just peaceful patriots touring the Capitol. All the mayhem and injuries and deaths were caused by Antifa and BLM in disguise, who were in league with the Communist globalists and the Capitol Police.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
The bad news is the 767 has been around 42 years.
Production of passenger types ended in 2014. But it’s still in production as the KC-46 tanker, and I think also for freighter types.
On the other hand, the 737 entered service 56 years ago. It has undergone more generations and modifications, but the type should have been retired long ago.
They moved my wife to a long term room. Not sure what to make of that. Other than now I am scared.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Did her doctor give any explanation?
Everyone here at OTB is with you.
@Flat Earth Luddite: Still, your part of that story wasn’t all that bad. After all, your plane wasn’t the one that had flipped over while landing–thus the Cessna float, upside down, in the harbor.
@CSK: Not that I know of, but my take is she’s not getting out tomorrow. I have had more than a little experience with this hospital and it’s doctors and they don’t F around. One time I was in there, they did not hesitate to send me up to St Lou because they weren’t sure they were up to the task.
As of right now, all I know is it does not look good, and I have seen enough to know when doctors are not sure… and maybe a little worried.
Tomorrow will tell the tale.
@OzarkHillbilly: OMG, I hope everything is ok! I got bit by a brown recluse on my eyebrow at my aunt’s house when I stayed the night in her basement, and it was almost a month of antibiotics and fluids before my face became normal. It was almost 20 years ago, but you can still see the scar.
Many good vibes to you and Mrs. Ozark!
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m sorry you and your wife are going through this. The only mildly similar experience was full-body swelling to a yellow jacket sting when I was a kid. The doc told us to head straight for the hospital if I was ever stung again in case my throat swelled too much. Bees never caused that reaction, before or after.
Anyway, sending positive thoughts. Good luck tomorrow.
@Franklin:
Me too. Happened when I was on a Boy Scout campout. Scoutmaster drove like a maniac to the nearest hospital, the ER nurse took one look at my swollen-shut face and jumped me to the front of the line ahead of the kid with the broken leg, they shot me full of benadryl, and I’ve carried an epipen ever since.