Monday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Monday, August 25, 2025
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27 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
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BlueSky.
I watched Surviving Ohio State on MAX last night.
About the sex abuse scandal and attempted coverup within the OSU athletic system. Especially the wrestling team. Congressman Jim Jordan plays a prominent role in the coverup and minimizing the damage done by a depraved Dr Strauss.
I recommend it to all. I hope the people in Jordan’s district see it. Never met a sex pest he wouldn’t defend.
Trump and RFK Jr. will ban the Covid 19 mRNA vax within months.
I thought that was Trump’s proudest achievement.
Suppose you were to find several exemplars of art from a hitherto unknown ancient civilization. You notice paintings and sculptures and figurines depict animals, plants, trees, and material objects, but never people. Would you then assume there was some kind of taboo on depicting people in their art?
@CSK: Our county public health is having a flu/Covid vaccine clinic in September. Guess I better check on the date and make sure I make it.
@CSK:
@Jax:
But isn’t the Pfizer shot made in America?
Speaking of that, I’ve come across and awful lot of YouTube videos explaining why it’s so hard to manufacture stuff in the US without raw materials, parts, and even machinery made or sourced elsewhere.
The simple explanation is that getting such things from abroad is cheaper. The reasons for this range from lower labor costs to availability of resources (can’t grow rubber trees in much of the US) to long standing practices. But now and then it gets mentioned some materials and parts don’t meet investor targets for short term gains.
So it’s not like you can’t make a bicycle or a metal brush or an airplane in the US, but rather that it would cost much more if you tried to use domestically sourced materials and parts. And that getting such sources would take time and a large dose of money first.
Just slapping tariffs on foreign goods won’t do it.
@Kathy:
The Moderna covid vaccine sold in the US is also manufactured in the US. While Moderna does the final “assembly”, a number of US specialty companies produce the materials that go into it. They also have assembly and suppliers overseas for other markets.
I haven’t read anything about the administration cutting back and/or redirecting the parts of the FDA that do requirements, inspections, and licensing for drug manufacturing.
@CSK:
So far I’m only finding a Daily Beast story covering that, and their article only has a single source, a quack British doctor who is friends with RFK Jr. I would not be surprised if this did happen, but for now I’m waiting for confirmation from other sources. DB has always been more than a bit tabloid-y, but they have gotten worse in the second Trump term, becoming more like Raw Story with each passing month.
On the flip side, always good to assume the worst with the Trump administration.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-and-robert-f-kennedy-junior-to-ban-covid-19-vaccine-within-months/
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia Went to what was supposed to be a meeting with ICE. Instead, he was detained again, to be deported to Uganda.
https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-8-25-2025
Can’t see link or other functions like bold or italics. I suspect we will see the “END WORK ZONE” sign when repairs are complete.
BILLBOARD FOR PROUD BOYS HATE GROUP REMOVED IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AFTER PUBLIC PRESSURE
“After strong community opposition, including a county board meeting where dozens of people spoke against it, the Proud Boys billboard that was put up near a high school in Clinton County was removed Tuesday.
A representative from Lamar Advertising’s Collinsville office said the sign was taken down around noon. The company declined further comment.
Clinton County Board Chairman Brad Knolhoff said the county had no legal authority to regulate the billboard’s content, but he and many others contacted the company, expressing their outrage.”
https://thesouthern.com/news/billboard-for-proud-boys-hate-group-removed-in-southern-illinois-after-public-pressure/article_b3c0d2bd-569f-5a69-9776-14cf6d0271fa.html
Breese, Illinois is about 80 miles north of my front door. It is near several telephone exchanges that I covered when I was a company employee of Verizon Communications (not Verizon Wireless) and I have been through there many times.
I’m woke. I’m the wokest guy in the world. When my daughter was twelve I had her read The Diary of Anne Frank. However, I want to plead not guilty to some recent charges against my ilk. I was inattentive to that model wearing denim clothes; I just was not paying attention. I had nothing to do with the logo change at any restaurant. Those restaurants serve pretty generic food, and competition keeps their prices in a fairly restrictive range. Location is the most important determinant for me. I don’t think that I sit at home and after rumination decide to go get a double cheeseburger at a specific chain. Rather I am driving somewhere, and when my stomach kicks in, I look for a convenient exit ramp featuring a place that my stomach will accept. I have been to Cracker Barrel twice in the past twenty years under such circumstances. I was on a long drive, needed breakfast, and their store looked like a easy off-ramp away. I had two eggs over easy, bacon, hash browns, toast (I always get sour dough), and coffee. I thought the meal was in the same ballpark as ninety nine other restaurant chains; I did find the attached gift shop a little strange. It’s amazing that people buy swag to commemorate eating along US 40, but I guess they do. I haven’t thought about it since then, and I promise that I did not use my influence with the Illuminati or Hillary Clinton to make them change their logo. Honest.
Slugger — I thought Cracker Barrel was a long defunct brand like Howard Johnson’s, if not entirely fictitious like … (google, google) huh, Knott’s Berry Farm is real? As it is, I don’t understand how losing a logo of an old white(?) guy sitting next to a barrel would bother anyone.
And when I saw the Sydney Sweeney eugenics jeans ad, I thought it was a parody. I was sent a link by a friend who likes to make me question my understanding of reality.
He also sent me a the main image of this:
https://www.smoothieking.com/landing-pages/heinz-tomato-ketchup-smoothie
I don’t think it’s wokeness that made me not believe that.
When the truth of science and empiricism threatens the governing power to the extent that it decrees the squelching and censorship of all such activity AND related public discourse, you better damn well understand that your country is headed towards full-on authoritarian dictatorship, and plan your response accordingly, however you are so inclined.
《 NASA chief to defy agency’s charter, terminating science 》
《 NASA’s 1958 charter’s top priority was, “the expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space.” Is this how it ends?
And now, here in August of 2025, acting NASA chief Sean Duffy just announced the intention to terminate all science activities except those related to spaceflight. It’s an extinction-level event for American science, one that will surely destroy arguably the greatest organization symbolizing science and progress in all of history.
☆Key Takeaways
● When NASA was founded back in 1958, its charter explicitly declared “that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.” ● For decades, success meant a mix of spaceflight, crewed exploration, robotic exploration, education activities, and science across four major disciplines: Earth science, astrophysics, planetary science, and heliophysics. ● In a galling announcement made in August of 2025, NASA’s acting chief, Sean Duffy, declared the intention to abandon all non-spaceflight and exploration-related activities, defying the agency’s charter. Will anyone act to save the heart of NASA? 》
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/nasa-chief-defy-charter-science/
I think the ketchup smoothie is real (no link button: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/smoothie-king-heinz-ketchup-smoothie/)
I can’t say I’m surprised. The sugar content in ketchup is high. And tomatoes are fruits.
The bull of NASA’s activities is the various probes and satellites carrying out scientific missions. Maybe it’s not the majority of the budget, I haven’t looked.
O course, there are two things: 1) Many involve studying Earth, which means in part climate studies. 2) A lot of these missions are run out of the Jet Propulsion Lab at the California Institute of Technology.
Here’s a list of current missions: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/?mission_status=current
These are missions still actively providing data. If you go to page four, you’ll see the Voyager probes (what’s the depreciated cost of these missions over almost 50 years?) Near the end of page one is the Deep Space Network. This is a series of parabolic antennas scattered all over the world that are the sole means of receiving data from probes past the Moon’s orbit.
i persist in being astounded that nurses can strip the bed and put fresh sheets on it while I’m lying in it.
Politico is reporting that Trump is considering changing the Pentagon’s name to the Department of War. Why? Because he doesn’t want us “to be defense only,” something that he appears to think is the case when we have a Department of Defense.
How has it only been 8 months of this sh!t?
Jen:
Trump doesn’t know that the Secy of War became the Secy of Defense in Sept. 1947.
@Jen
@CSK
Until WWII the War Department was the army (including the army air corps which alter became the air force),and the Navy Department was the navy and marines.
BTW, yesterday there was a comment on Krugman’s Sunday interview in his substack. One thing his guest explained was that NATO, the WTO, and various other alliances, trade treaties, and international agencies, all were set up so the US would benefit most, but also treated all others as equals.
So in effect the US had the substance of power without the appearance of power.
EL Taco infamously cares little about anything other than appearance. So he’s doing his twisted best to take on the appearance of power, but in a way that decreases the substance of it.
In essence, he’s on track to make the US into a paper tiger, because it looks more ferocious
@CSK: It’s an amazing bit of slight of hand. I kind of wonder if they also learn card tricks — it feels like there should be some overlap in skills.
@Kathy: It’s real. (My response when my friend sent it to me was “I don’t think it’s real, but I fear you’re going to prove that it is.”
I’m surprised, because the vinegar content of ketchup is pretty high, and vinegar smoothies are seldom a thing.
@Gustopher:
Not vinegar, but many fruits have high acidity. All the citrus fruits, and many berries.
《 Q: “On the Department of War, how do you plan to do that? It requires an act of Congress to rename the Defense Department…”
President Trump: “We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that…Defense is too defensive. We want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive, too if we have to be.”
https://x.com/cspan/status/1960072433760706827 》
Being offensive is his strong suit. That and never having a guilty conscience.
I think El Taco is about to discover Alfred Dreyfus (Still no link button: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/25/france-has-no-lessons-to-take-from-us-on-tackling-antisemitism-say-ministers )
Of course he’ll claim no one ever heard of him before, even though he was the star of Jaws.
@Gustopher: I wonder if they’ll add frozen fries on request.
So, the nazi’s V2 super heavy is just about 20 minutes to launch: https://www.youtube.com/live/04-mfJavLT0?si=HKVLjmFD5x8MllXe
@Gustopher:
I’m old-fashioned enough to understand why someone might object to removing the actual cracker barrel from the Cracker Barrel logo. Forget the old white guy in overalls; the whole premise of the chain is that it’s a continuation of the midwest/frontier General Store where cracker barrels (and pickle barrels, etc.) were a thing.
@Kathy:
Scrubbed again. How long will the good luck streak continue?
@DrDaveT:
I objected when American Airlines changed its tail logo to the mutant piano*, but not enough to more than joke about it. At that, I’m not sure I’ve ever even flown on AA.
*It’s supposed to be a stylized flag, link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines#/media/File:American_Airlines_Boeing_777-300ER_(2-1_crop).jpg
But, seriously, then do the blue part solid rather than striped.