Monday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Monday, March 3, 2025
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73 comments
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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.
Happy Lundi Gras to all!
I miss Ozark.
I’m retired. Quite often have a nap mid-afternoon.
Earlier I woke up groggy, saw the sky, saw the clock at 6:20 and my brain assumed pm not am. It took me a minute or so to figure out it was morning, not evening.
That flip of perspective was kinda freaky.
Here is Julie Roginsky with a lengthy recapitulation of Trump interactions with KGB/Russia:
“Link”
A “short” excerpt:
Then,more, etc.
Note this above:
This is the carrot the Russians keep dangling in front of their donkey, I think it unlikely the donkey ever gets to eat the carrot.
Uh-Oh!
How Trump’s 25 percent aluminum tariff could hurt craft beer
We can always buy Bud Light.
America is going down’: China can capitalise on damage caused by Trump, former PLA colonel says
I await with baited breath and popcorn our resident typing apes to appear and point out how dumb we are for not wholeheartedly adopting a Russian style politico-economics system that produces a whopping $700/mo average citizen salary.
Tell us apes—how do you plan to spend your $700, or what’s left after you’ve bought eggs.
We’ve just received another “what five things did you do last week” email from OPM. Luckily we’ve also immediately received follow-up instructions from our agency which are the same as last time.
Can someone please explain to Musk “chain of command”?
This just seems to me to be unilateral disarmament.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has paused cyber offensive against Russia
This is just planning. The Pentagon plans all kinds of operations whether likely to use them or not. Considering how Russia (and others) are conducting offensive operations of their own, this just seems to be stupid.
For a deeper dive, here is rather long article on offensive cyberoperations:
Is Cyber Revolutionary or Barely Relevant in Modern Warfare?
@Grumpy realist:
Note that OPM is run by Russell Vought, the mastermind of Project 2025 and, with Musk/Trump, the rest of the triumvirate running the country now.
One problem with the kompromat theory – Trump’s shamelessness. If nothing else, Trump has shown that there is no situation he will not lie about, and that he will tell the same lie consistently and endlessly, and whine that he is being picked on by political enemies. What would embarrass and humiliate a normal person is just “another day at the office” for Trump, so how would Putin’s kompromat keep him beholden? I tend to agree that dangling the possibility of a Trump Tower Moscow would be more effective.
Headline of townhall.com article: “Trump’s First Six Weeks Have Saved the Union.”
@CSK:
From what?
Define “Great”. And when was that, exactly?
@de stijl:
He made English our official language.
@Charley in Cleveland:
A useful idiot can be a Russian asset.
Plus, they’re super cheap! They do it, basically, for free!
And they’re so dumb, they don’t even realize they’re doing it!
Win-win-win!
Yesterday I set the instant pot on high for 25 minutes. After about ten minutes or so, it hadn’t pressurized, which was really odd. The float valve was up, but it would release steam now and then.
So I turned it off and opened the other valve. Once it let all the steam out, I opened it and inspected the float valve on the lid. it seemed ok. I closed it back up, set it again, and this time it pressurized normally.
WTF?
the end result was a chicken stew with white beans, barley, and chickpeas. The liquid was mostly bullion with a little chipotle sauce and about 2/3 of a can of green salsa (the rest I mixed with onions caramelized separately).
This was the fourth iteration of this dish and I think I’ve done all I can with it. Next I think I’ll try cooking the chicken in salsa with some broth and use it for enchiladas or chilaquiles.
@CSK:
Not the King’s English?
Weird.
Have we discounted the possibility that Trump is afraid of Putin? I mean, perhaps at some point, at some visit to Trump Tower, some high Russian official stood with Trump looking out a window, and said something about what a beautiful view it was, and such a long way down!
Or maybe there was a completely coincidental discussion of polonium-210.
@Kathy: It probably was a seal issue. If you ran your hands over the sides of the IP, you probably would’ve felt a bit of steam coming out the sides. Best thing to do is to run the seal under cold water (it’ll shrink it a bit) and reinstall seal and put the lid back on.
@Scott:
I saw steam issuing from the floating valve now and then, I didn’t think to check the sides of the lid. Though I did confirm it was locked.
We’ll see next time.
@Jay L Gischer:
Seeing what the rapist’s cognition (or lack thereof) is like, maybe Mad Vlad told him he implanted a bomb in his scrotum, which will go off if the felon disobeys him.
Beep-beep!
@CSK:
A foreign language? Here, we speak American!
@Jon:
Ozark and Teve. Two stalwarts.
@de stijl:
There’s an old joke about England and America being two countries divided by a common language.
I wish someone would help me understand the strategic crypto reserve. I understand the strategic petroleum reserve that stores a bunch of crude oil against some disastrous interruption in supplies; although, the cynic in me thinks that it also acts as a price support mechanism to insure the profitability of Big Oil. So what’s with crypto; isn’t it just some computer stored data? If the Yellowstone pluton erupts or Mexico and Canada simultaneously attack, we will still have the bitcoins in the cloud. If all known crypto is somehow subverted, we can just create new crypto ex nihilio like Trumpcoin was created. Anyway, Trump started talking about a strategic crypto reserve, and Bitcoin jumped 7.5% in two days. I don’t get it and suspect a scam.
@Charley in Cleveland: The one thing that Trump is consistently sensitive about is his net worth. I think it’s entirely possible that he’s more beholden to the Russian mob than is even generally understood, which could be a sticking point.
So, amid the worst measles outbreak in decades, Texas’ lieutenant governor is worried about he name of a steak?
Figures.
How about renaming measles as Texas fever instead.
@Slugger:
The crypto reserve exists so we can buy pizza delivery and our fave Only Fan subs in case of a nuclear apocalypse.
What, do you not take bitcoin? Where’s your QR code?
JFC, we’re fucking doomed as a species.
2028, please come soon!
I’m kind of ashamed I did not know this. The ARM processor, which are still used in over half of all mobile devices, was designed by a transgender woman, Sophie Wilson.
I did know ARM means Acorn RISC Machine (RISC: Reduced Instruction Set Computer). I even knew Acorn was an early PC pioneer company in the UK…
@Scott: In gaming circles, we call this a “self-own.”
@Slugger: It’s bullshit designed to either enrich someone or play to some segment of the base (possibly both). Any such reserve would be super easy to steal and there’s basically nothing that could be done about it. If you figure out who was behind the theft you could arrest them and that’s it. Because possession is ten tenths of the law when it comes to crypto wallets. There’s no viable mechanism to get the money back.
@Kathy: Back in the 80s RISC was the future of computing and CISC was going to be relegated to the dustbin. It’s been decades and the struggle continues.
Despite knowing a great deal about the ARM platform I too had NO idea that Sophie Wilson is a transgender woman.
@Slugger:
… If all known crypto is somehow subverted, we can just create new crypto ex nihilio like Trumpcoin was created. Anyway, Trump started talking about a strategic crypto reserve, and Bitcoin jumped 7.5% in two days. I don’t get it and suspect a scam.
———————————-
I didn’t used to be this way, but ….
Whatever this Crypto Reserve is or will be, we can be fairly sure that Trump will grift this for his personal financial gain.
I have never once used a QR code. It’s a marketing ploy.
My building instituted an AI bot. Why?
Spammed out to all tenants.
I spammed it back. “SAM, what is the square root of 9?”
3
“SAM, what is the square root of pi?”
Never heard back.
Why does an apartment building need an AI bot to process inquiries? Staff folks do this already. And they’re alive. 8 to 5 Monday to Friday. All emergency numbers are posted everywhere.
Someone seriously thought that adding an AI reply bot for an apartment building resident management system was a good idea, got okayed, and it got implemented. WTAF?
Implode them with recursive logic. Fallout 3 taught me so. ERROR. OVERLOAD. {smoke} [bzzt] (HAL voice slows considerably and ceases dramatically.)
So how long before Ma and Pa Kettle discover their SS check isn’t going to come because of their waste, fraud and abuse?
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:sgti3jsgu3luif24tokvth3a/post/3ljfzbi4lyc2f
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3ljfyyh4kvd2y
@CSK:
Dude, we’re divided by an ocean! Duh!
@Grumpy realist: DoD sent out their instructions today:
@charontwo: Run his algorithms through his SpaceX and Starlink contracts and see what pops up.
@de stijl:
I’m a dudette, thank you very much.
@CSK:
Dudette, we’re divided by an ocean. Duh!
@Kathy:
@Matt:
Lol, we are legion.
Another really fascinating trans woman is Lynn Conway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Conway
A couple of choice selections from that Wikipedia:
@charontwo:
Sometimes I struggle with what the GOP is doing. It’s clearly insane and stupid, but rational in it’s own defective logic. I think the problem is that in the 70s-80s they decided they could sell this crap to the rubes if they just lied about it all the time. Unfortunately for them, they started believing their own lies. I think this is one of the reasons Alito is always so pissed that people don’t love him for his nonsense. Top to bottom they all fundamentally believe ALL of this nonsense and that once it all goes through they will be beloved. Personally, I think a whole lot of them are going to die in political violence when Medicaid and Social Security are destroyed. But they are going to push ahead with this because they are fanatics.
The word “dude” when used as an interjection has always been problematic in that way. I’ve often stopped myself before using the word online, realizing I didn’t know the gender of the person I was addressing–which is interesting because I’ve rarely used the word “dude” in speech. But it’s such a useful word, a way of expressing everything from wonder to condescension, that it ought to have a gender-neutral alternative. It’s a little like “you guys” (a phrase I use quite a bit in the real world), which isn’t intended to be only referring to men, but simply as another version of y’all or youse, a way of compensating for the lack of a distinct plural form of you in Standard English. “Dude,” on the other hand, is a word that only gets applied to men (in the real world, in contexts when a person’s gender is known), but it feels like it shouldn’t be.
@Beth:
Fascinating indeed. Thanks for posting about her.
@Scott: I notice that our agencies are a) interested in keeping the chain of command and b) providing as little information as possible. Considering what Big Data can weave together from gathered data and the incompetence with which Musk’s minions are guarding our data, both seem to be sensible policies.
@Kylopod:
I probably use “dude” too often in on-line discourse.
One of my favorite bits is:
Dude! Dude… Dude. Dude?
“Dude!” (Yo! Pay attention)
“Dude…” (You are kinda fucking this interchange up, breaking protocol and being at least ass-hole adjacent. Stop digging your own grave. You are line-stepping.)
“Dude.” ({corrective}. You are actively fucking this up now.)
“Dude?” (You fucked up hard. You need to try to fix this best you can now! If you are actually capable, you line-stepped hard.)
@CSK:
I did not mean to misgender. I’m sorry.
@charontwo: This is a classic Mike Johnsonism. “enormous amounts of waste, fraud and abuse” means nothing other than, “we found some waste, fraud and/or abuse”.
I mean, I think we could find some waste, fraud and abuse of SS. I think it might amount to maybe 1 percent of the SS budget. I think it’s a good idea to look for it.
I even think it’s a good idea to look for it with AI. And then have humans screen the cases that the AI finds, since I don’t trust the AI all that much.
ALSO, I think it’s a good idea to look at tax returns with AI. And then have humans screen the cases that the AI finds, and then examine what is found, and prosecute the waste, fraud, and abuse and non-payment, that is found.
Funnily enough, they aren’t doing that. Considering the likely impact that would have on the budget, why aren’t they doing that?
Here’s an example of someone making an argument that I certainly did not agree with going in. But he (William Spaniel) provides a lot of evidence for his argument.
I expect that there are commenters here who will be unhappy with Spaniel and doubt his bonafides. He is, first and foremost, an academic. I’ve watched a lot of his videos and he seems like he’s relatively pro-Ukraine. He is, however, dedicated to pursuing facts. He has a motto which I endorse, “Don’t pay much attention to what politicians say. Pay attention to what they do.”
To be fair, he has noted, in another video, that the deal with Ukraine did not get done, and this is a “do” thing, not a “say” thing.
@Kathy:..Texas Strip…
Way back in 1983 when I was working storm damage for the local landline telephone company in Houston TX after hurricane Alicia ripped up the town I had occasion to visit a local strip club in Space City with my work crew.
A good time was had by all!
@Matt:
WRT to the so-called strategic crypto reserve, which is not at all strategic, you hit the nail on the head:
Trump pandered to the crypto crowd during the campaign, and of course acquired his own crypto stake. But cryptocurrency has become basically just a speculative device, and trump is setting up the government, and therefore the US taxpayer, to be the greater fool of last resort.
@de stijl:
absolutely no offense taken…dude.
@de stijl: I use the QR code on my grocery store data mining system occasionally and can’t say for sure that I never used one in Korea, but I general, I can’t use QR codes because the combined essential and Parkinson’s tremors make things so that I am not able to hold the phone’s sensor still enough to successfully scan the code symbol. But it’s never been much more than a curiosity to me anyway. It’ll be interesting to see what becomes of the transition in retail from UPC bar codes to QR codes.
@de stijl: Chris Rock used it during the infamous Oscar slap: “Dude, it was a GI Jane joke!”
This is an example of what I call the condescending dude. It’s the one you invoke when you want to make it sound like the person you’re talking to is a slow-witted child who just doesn’t get it. It’s the main one that, I admit, I’m often tempted to use when I’m debating someone online.
@de stijl: supposedly Google is going away from two-factor authentication and going to reading QR codes instead.
One of my tech friends is really pissed about this. As he says: Not Everyone Has A Smartphone.
Noah Smith has an interesting posting on his substack about the crypto reserve. He sees it as a gray market mechanism for enriching his cronies.
Kristi Noem apparently visited a library that is split between Vermont and Canada and spent the visit doing a stupid 51st state shtick. The visit was back in late January, but the piece just ran in the Boston Globe a few days ago.
I feel badly for the library. 🙁
@Jon:..
@Charley in Cleveland:
What would embarrass him?
The pee tape isn’t a woman peeing on him, but a man or several men.
Video of him having sex with a lady-boy.
@Grumpy Realist:
@just nutha:
A QR code is just a visual, scannable hyperlink.
As long as it has a web address you can direct a QR to any URL. Redirect.
A Nigerian Prince needs your $2738USD dollars. You will receive $5m if you help. Click this link to help.
The more I think about this, why are QRs a thing, or even allowed?
I get it. A quick camera version of a hyperlink. BUT THERE’S NO SECURITY!!!
You have to trust that that QR won’t point you to a bad URL. Trust us. We can’t give you an actual printed menu.
I’ve worked in restaurants before. Most kitchens are hardcore drug dens. Literally.
Yeah, no. Just give me a menu.
I’ve been rereading Brad DeLong’s Slouching Towards Utopia excellent economic history of what he calls the long 20th century, the era of rapid economic growth, 1870 to 2010. He talks of Mussolini’s invention of fascism:
We tend to view Trump as sui generis because we haven’t seen his like here before at the national level, except maybe Jackson. But the world has seen this movie many times. Mussolini’s version ended badly in 1943.
@Kylopod:
I noticed a few years ago that among teenagers (at the time) bro and bruh are often used as if they are gender neutral.
If bro and bruh can be considered neutral, dude certainly can.
The nazi in chief is set to blow up another rocket.
I think even if the nazi in chief had not gone full nazi and deranged, I’d have lost patience with what looks like amateurish iterative testing.
@gVOR10:
IMO the simplest way to understand the term fascist is to look at the symbol. The fasces: A lot of arrows bunched together was the Roman symbol of unapologetic raw power. Our own eagle clutches one too, btw. Everybody likes power.
And that’s key. The power to do anything empowers the government to fix anything. In fact the most efficient form of government is a wise, benign dictatorship. That’s how it seduces, but since power inevitably corrupts…
Just a reminder that we are coming up soon on another budget deadline and possibly shutting down the govt. I suspect that President Musk will be happy with shutting things down. It will be the job of President emeritus Trump to convince his followers it’s the fault of the Dems and ignore the fact that the GOP controls Congress, Senate, SCOTUS and Presidency.
Steve
@de stijl:
I found it something of a regional thing when I was a kid. We moved back and forth between east and west coasts when I was a child. Learned to talk in CA, but when we got to NYC, I would get laughed at by the other kids every time I said “Dude!”. Something that nobody thought a thing about in the west. Everybody said it. The word struck eastern ears differently than it did western ones.
@Kurtz:
It can. I’m just not convinced it is used that way. When it comes up in sentences like “Dude, you’re in LA!” it’s almost never used when talking to someone the speaker knows is a woman. At least that’s been my impression.
The reason people use it so much online is that they often assume as a matter of default that whoever they’re interacting with is a man (and that opens up its own discussion). I’m curious to know if those here who go by clearly feminine names have been duded before in online discussions.
I’m not claiming any of this is written in stone; these are just general observations I’ve made over the years. If the term “breaking balls” can be applied to women (as it has been on occasion), I don’t see any inherent reason why dude can’t also be.
@Kathy:
How about that? It went much better this time. The launch was scrubbed. Congrats!
@dazedandconfused:
The fasces is made up of wooden rods or sticks, not arrows, wrapped around an axe. But yes, it’s a symbol of power.
@steve:
The groundwork’s being laid. A demand by Democrats that the funds appropriated by Congress be spent as intended, is being described by the GQP as a poison pill, and an attempt to prevent the felon and the nazi in chief from exercising their authority.
@Kurtz: I’ve seen women using bro to other women along with men. It’s considered fairly generic these days. Dude is also used in such manner.
@Kylopod:..“breaking balls”…
Just saw this post yesterday on FB by a friend who has a 2 year old son:
@steve: And they’ll buy it. MAGA cannot fail, it can only be failed by others.
ETA: “The groundwork’s being laid. A demand by Democrats that the funds appropriated by Congress be spent as intended, is being described by the GQP as a poison pill, and an attempt to prevent the felon and the nazi in chief from exercising their authority.” h/t: Kathy
Fifty years ago I was walking in town and saw two friends (?) coming my way.
“Hi guys!” I said.
One of them smiled as the other, Jill Pope, ripped me a new one as she yelled:
“Do we look like guys to you?”
We’ve come a long way baby!
For folks who are interested:
STAND UP FOR SCIENCE rallies are occurring around the country on Friday, March 7.
Dude, Where’s My Car?
With a title like that you’d assume it’s trash, a bad movie.
It’s a low-key pretty great movie. Is it the “Citizen Cane” of alcoholic clown movies?
No way, that’d be Shakes The Clown. (Watch that movie, too, btw)
Dude, Where’s My Car is a lot like Scream. Self-aware, but not gratingly so. It’s not meta. It mocks the genre and also embraces the genre.
Don’t avoid it cuz the name is kitschy stupid. (It is not like those god-awful Scary Movie “parodies”.)
@Kylopod:
The Dude begs to differ…
@dazedandconfused:
The dude abides…man
El dudirino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.