Monday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Monday, June 2, 2025
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20 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.
To me the most impressive aspect of the Ukrainian drone strike is the smuggling and deploying of the drone weapons deep into Russia. How their Security Services did that is the stuff of novels.
To attack Russian air bases, Ukrainian spies hid drones in wooden sheds
Ukraine drones strike bombers during major attack in Russia
Massive asymmetry, as well
Dear Wife and I got home from our Alaska cruise Saturday night. We spent yesterday restocking the refrigerator and running laundry.
The cruise was great. Now DW has an urge for us to see Antarctica as part of a cruise. We won’t be doing that before next year.
We’ll be going to the BVI late this month to research my next book. The BVI isn’t on our bucket list but it would help to visit those islands before setting most of a novel there.
In the meantime I will be rooting for the Florida Panthers to win the Stanley Cup for the second straight year. What a turnaround after I spent over a decade masochistically following the team.
Not a whole lot more for me to write about. Trump is still acting like Trump. What stupidity is in store for us this week?
One of the greatest political ads I’ve ever seen.
More taxes on working Americans:
A tomato tax looms for Mexican growers — and will affect U.S. consumers
@Michael Reynolds: Wow, that ad by Dr. Annie Andrews is amazing. As you said, Michael, probably the best I’ve ever seen. She directly calls out Lindsey Graham for being out of touch and for supporting ALL of Trump’s nominees no matter how unqualified. And she does a great job of “prebunking” the idea that she is a crazy far left lunatic.
Bravo to her!
This business with masked, unidentified, non-uniformed strangers kidnapping people on the street is not going to end well. Someone is going to shot, if not by a victim then by a good samaritan.
At least the Gestapo wore uniforms.
@Michael Reynolds: My check is in the mail.
@Scott:
Another account:
“Status Kuo“
The potato croquettes need work, but the marinated chicken was a success.
Briefly,
1 boneless chicken breast cut into bite size pieces.
Marinade in : 3 Tbsp soy sauce, juice of one orange, 1 tsp. white pepper, 1 Tbsp. garlic powder, some dried garlic flakes, about 1/2 tsp powdered ginger (what was left in the container, pretty much).
Now, I let it marinate in the fridge for about 20 hours. this was not on purpose, but a function of the time available to do things around having to visit mom at the hospital*. Anyway, I removed it from the marinade, reserved what little was left, and tossed them in the air frier at 200 C for 12 minutes or so.
I then sauteed some onions, added the leftover marinade, some tomato sauce (about 100 grams), and mixed that with the chicken. Serve over white rice.
*Mom’s doing fine and was released this morning. Most of the long stay involved IV antibiotics.
Local media is reporting a record-shattering turnout for Mexico’s first ever judicial election, of (drumroll) just over 13%.
It does shatter all records. Never has there been an election with such low turnout, not even when the PRI rigged all elections.
Good job
I am in Cascais, Portugal, which all the cool kids know is pronounced Cosh caish, and just had one of the greatest pieces of fish I have ever enjoyed. As we walked back tipsily to our hotel I experienced a rare emotion. I was happy. It won’t last – I am still me – but the sun is up, the boats in the marina are rocking, and the sea bass was so fresh it still had one fin in the ocean. The last time I had fish this good my Dad had speared it off Terceira 20 minutes earlier and fried it up on the back of an Army J-Boat.
“NYT”
Your occasional reminder, rare earth metals are an issue. Perhaps Taco Man will be needing to CO again soon.
It was apparently a birthday for a kid in my daughter’s class today. For whatever reason, the goodie bag had a little plastic horn it it. Sounds like a vuvuzela. She was blasting the thing like crazy on the way home from school and threatened to use it in her room.
I explained to her that we live in an apartment building and that she couldn’t do that. She was crestfallen. Then I was like, “but you can go on the balcony and serenade the Tesco freaks.” She like that idea.
So, after dinner she hopped up and announced she was going on the balcony like she was going to work. My friends, the Tesco freaks delivered. People started making honking noises and beeping their horns.
This also gives me proof that my idea to get the “extra powerful bubble gun” from the mall and rain bubbles down on the Tesco freaks would be met with glee.
@Beth:
Perhaps while she’s performing her bubble bombardment, she could sing: “I’m forever blowing bubbles.”
P.S. Why are Tesco customers or employees freaks?
@CSK:
Oh, the employees are fine. It’s the wild ass customers. They’re always shouting weird shit. Like we get to hear all the group dramas or weird things going on in several different languages. Sometimes it’s happy weirdness, sometimes it’s screaming fighting.
We’re in kind of a strange area. Like, Thursday through Sunday evening it’s loud and boisterous. There’s like a beer garden and 3 clubs and all sorts of shit. I like it, but I can see this being very annoying for some people.
@Scott:
I was just coming over here to note that you can sort of gauge how big of a deal this strike on Russia was by Ukraine by what popped up while surfing my suggested Youtube videos page where one of the suggested videos is a Fox News report with this title: Ukraine’s ‘brilliant’ operation against Russia: ‘REMARKABLE’ (end copy/paste)
I did not expect that a Fox report praising this operation would be the first video on this subject I would see while checking out the news on Youtube.
Wow, this really is an operation that in a few years someone in Hollywood will be interested in creating a based on real events thriller film using this event as foundation of the film’s plot.
For Russia to lose what, maybe almost 25-30% of their bombers this far into the war, that really is remarkable and almost a bit surreal to type that out. It seems pretty clear here that China, being Russia’s closest and mightiest ally, could do more to get the war to wind down, but I suspect that China is more than content to watch Ukraine severely degrade Russia’s war fleet which just makes it easier for China to loom large over Russia sometime in the perhaps near future (I also am pretty sure I just pointed out water is wet with this observation of mine).
CNN’s Youtube video I am watching says that this operation too a year and a half(!) to plan and execute.
Holy cow, the amount of patience it took to get this set-up and determine the right time to strike just takes my breath away.
@Beth:
Grocery shopping during my time in the U.K. was clearly more sedate than it appears to be now.
@Scott:
@inhumans99:
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:
The Russian have created an enemy in Ukraine that’s willing to use the entire Mossad/KGB/SOE playbook, and spice it up with cutting-edge technical expertise, daring, and the driving imperative of national survival.
And to “get bloody” quite ruthlessly when expedient.
As well a familiarity with Russia, its security procedures and foibles, and an widespread ability to pass as Russian.
@JohnSF:
Those bombers were weapons platforms meant to be used against us. Ukraine just reduced the nuclear threat against the US and NATO. That is a huge thing. What other ally has actually reduced the nuclear threat? We need these people in NATO.
@CSK: My expectations for shopping in London were formed by 1970’s television, although this scene took place not in a grocery store, but a tobacconist’s…