Monday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Monday, September 30, 2024
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36 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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Crappity crap crap. The repaired nerves in my leg are, like Richard Pryor’s crack pipe in his famous bit, not happy. Today’s going to be a long one.
Ok, whinging done.
In other news, Oregon has given the Repugnant Old Party some ammo on against vote by mail. Apparently OR DMV mistakenly registered approximately 1200 noncitizens to vote
Here is something @Bobert posted in yesterday’s forum that I can react to, my emphasis inserted:
Trump has senile dementia and has always been lazy and easy to manipulate, to play. He will be a figurehead while his “aides” actually run the country unless they get to do Amendment 25 eventually. Project 2025 will be their operating manual.
Thomas Zimmer did a really deep dive in his recent newsletter, what Project 2025 consists of, the background, current status and more, with a lot of links included. I am not going to excerpt, it’s a long piece. Here is the substack:
“Zimmer”
There is a lot of resemblance of Project 2025 to the NAR and the Seven Mountains Mandate. In the comments to Sunday;s “Tabs” post I put up some links about Lance Wallnau who preaches this stuff.
OK, correction, here are the closing three paragraphs of my Zimmer link:
“Zimmer”
That final paragraph sounds a lot like the NAR and Seven Mountains Mandate.
Just found a new link on Wallnau/J.D.Vance:
“PopInfo”
Excerpt:
Always fun to see proof that when political parties and/or politicians are not attached to policies, the majority of the country is super progressive.
Republicans don’t like Republican policies
I don’t know what more people need to understand that the modern Republican party has less than zero ability to execute competent governance.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
One thing I would note is that 1200 people without proof of citizenship is not the same thing as 1200 non-citizens
A book I read recently stated, numerous times, that there have been over 11,000 proposed amendments to the US Constitution, but only 27 have passed*. I went looking for confirmation on this number, and I found a Wikipedia entry, which cited a source in a Senate website. The author kept bringing this up to show how hard it is to amend the constitution.
I haven’t found a list of all of them. The Wikipedia entry has a sampling. A lot of them are best left unpassed and forgotten. Some might have been an improvement. I was surprised to find an amendment to abolish the electoral college was proposed in 1969, and it actually passed in the House by a rather large margin. Then it was filibustered to death in the Senate.
*Two of them cancel each other out, as one set up prohibition and the other repealed it. And ten are the Bill of Rights, passed shortly after the adoption of the constitution.
I would just love to have these events undergo a scientific peer review.
I am so tired of vibes running the conservative party,
@Liberal Capitalist:..I would just love to have these events undergo a scientific peer review.
Let’s add karma (whatever that is) to the list of alleged phenomena subject to scientific scrutiny.
Sal Mercogliano – a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner – discussing the impending shutdown of the East and Gulf coast ports. On the one side, the ILA union, on the other a consortium of mostly foreign port operators/shipping companies, including the China Overseas Shipping Company. The same shipping companies that extorted the Biden admin to use the US Navy to protect non-US flag ships in the Red Sea.
Remember the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, staffed by a bunch of recent Liberty University grads and supposed to manage the Iraq economy, how well that worked out?
I suspect Project 2025 would find its grunts by mining Turning Point, Liberty, Hillsdale, Bob Jones etc. Should just exude competence.
In 1964 George Wallace ran for the Democratic nomination on a segregationist, inciting crowds with rhetoric coming close to mob incitement. He lost, and was rejected by the Democratic establishment, back in the time when that could happen. Over the weekend I was playing with the thought that Trump in 2016 mirrored Wallace, but at a time when the Party had lost control of the nomination. And example of Wallace from Wiki:
@charontwo:
The model for this would be the Trump Campaign’s handing over its GOTV effort to Turning Point.
Relief at last! We lost power, TV, and Internet service Thursday thanks to Helene. We got power back after a few hours, but didn’t get Internet service back until just now. But we’re fortunate; we have good friends in Weaverville, NC (just north of Asheville) and they can’t even get out of their subdivision. That whole area is cut off for who knows how long.
@SC_Birdflyte: Glad you are okay. The pictures are just horrific.
@SC_Birdflyte:..power, TV, and Internet service…
Back in the good old days when I worked storm damage to restore service to residences people would bring me coffee and cookies when they got their dial tone back. Now telephone service isn’t even mentioned.
@Stormy Dragon:
Oh I know, Stormy. I’m giggling about how their knickers are knotted up by meaningless numbers. And we KNOW they’re gonna scream about this.
@SC_Birdflyte:
Glad all’s well with you.
@Mister Bluster:
I like your new pfp. I think I’ve shared here before some of my discoveries after buying the house of a nonagenarian semi-hoarding white supremacist, including a lot of election stuff. Lots of Wallace and Pat Buchanan memorabilia, and bunches of David Duke merch even though this guy lived in Indiana his whole life and not LA. Also, quite few “I Like Ike” buttons. I like Ike as well, so I kept those as well as one single Wallace button as an historical oddity. The rest were burned in a bon fire while drinking one of the stashes of his whiskey I found.
(He stashed a lot of things–bullets, bibles, whiskey and homemade wine/vinegar, lightbulbs, [limited] cash–in the ground, in the walls. Couldn’t be too careful knowing the blacks/jews/government officials were going to come by any moment to take away your .22 rifles.)
(Seriously, lots and lots and lots of boxes and waterproof canisters of .22 shells and a few rifles in the walls. You’d think prepping for the apocalypse would entail hoarding something with a bit more oomph and bit less squirrel-hunter-y.)
Michael Reynolds, have you seen the 43-foot-tall marionette of a nude Trump that’s been erected (ahem) alongside a Vegas freeway?
@CSK:
I have not, but I will put that on my list.
@Michael Reynolds:
Well, hurry, because the exhibit is going on the road tomorrow.
Heather Cox Richardson on fire today:
“Richardson”
snip
@JKB: Wow. Commie union workers versus Commie furriners. Must be hard for you to figure out which one you want to lose most.
“Bulwark”
My recollection of the beginning of “The Godfather” the neighborhood was pretty adjusted to being run by the Marlon Brando character.
@CSK: @CSK:
“have you seen the 43-foot-tall marionette of a nude Trump that’s been erected (ahem) alongside a Vegas freeway?”
“Well, hurry, because the exhibit is going on the road tomorrow.”
Trump really is incontinent, then. (sorry, I couldn’t resist)
Pease 157th wing, KC-46A tankers deploying to southwest Asia to help ‘deter Iran’
The. biggest reason to have air refueling in southern Asia is to refuel Israeli aircraft attacking Iran.
@charontwo:
A Zimmer frame of reference?
🙂
@CSK:
I googled it. It’s slightly less hideous than the original. This clip illustrates it perfectly.
Wife and I have been talking over the response to Helene. So far it looks pretty good. The western Carolinas, hill country, has been hit pretty hard. It makes a lot of sense that the federal government aid people in such an unexpected catastrophe. However, I feel a bit differently about the coastal areas, the places where they knew they were likely to face hurricanes. In the short term they should still be getting the help they need. The federal government has resources no one else does and we need to save lives.
However, in the longer term, I think those coastal cities in the south should bear a significant share of the costs of rebuilding. People there like to brag about how they pay less in taxes and they get to have warm weather. Well, maybe their tax load should more accurately represent the true costs of living in those areas.
Steve
@JKB: @JKB:
Even you must understand that the alternative to the USN policing the seas, is to have China, India, Japan, South Korea, UK, France, Germany, Russia (cult leader’s cult leader) and a few dozen other nations all squeezing their navies into the Red Sea and Persian Gulf to protect their ships.
Right? Go on Google Maps. Look at the Red Sea and the Gulf.
Trump, completely ignorant of history and everything else, of course cannot understand anything that isn’t a transaction, or an ass-kissing. He seems to think we rent out the US Navy. He thinks the US military is a mercenary force, for sale, like he’s for sale. The US military is not (yet) a mercenary force, they are the physical manifestation of American power. We wanted domination of the seas, because as the only top tier navy in the world, we have access everywhere, and bases everywhere, and can deny same to enemies, so that we can blow shit up everywhere on earth. There is a whole lot more ocean than land on this planet, and we own the ocean. That’s why we’re a superpower. And not the banana republic of your dreams.
@Neil Hudelson:..I like your new pfp.
This is not a campaign button that I own. It is straight off the internet. I do have several that I found in a sandwich bag at the local thrift shop. Most are from candidates who have run in my lifetime, since 1948. I suspect that the Coolidge for President with his image and the script
RED GARTER-CAMPAIGN HDQTRS (sic) across the bottom of the button may not be an original as his only elected term began on March 4, 1925.
Fulton County Superior Court judge Robert McBurney struck down Georgia’s abortion ban.
This is good. I’d feel better if I knew what come next. I assume the ruling can and will be appealed, So maybe this reprieve won’t last long.
On other news, Biden calls out El Weirdo for lying (apologies for the link to Xitter).
Over at LGM I find that a careful analysis by Rolling Stone shows JD What’s His Name grew up in a comfortably middle class situation. Partially supported by his grandfather’s union pension from the steel mill. I know it’s hard to believe be he might have lied, but there it is.
Pete Rose has passed away. A better ballplayer than a human being Baseball author Bill James would have described him*. Rose bet on baseball and deserved the ban handed down to him by MLB.
*- Not just because of gambling. Rose had other less than pleasant attributes.
@gVOR10:
Even back when the critics were cooing over the wondrousness of Hillbilly Elegy, I had a feeling this guy was a total phony and operator, and that his book was fabricated horseshit.
I was right.