Monday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Monday, January 12, 2026
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40 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).
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Starting off the week with something trivial: a movie recommendation.
We watched “The Life of Chuck” on Prime Saturday. Based on a Stephen King novella the movie is about the title describes. It starts with Act 3 and moves back in time. Engages in a bit of magical realism (I hope I’m using the term correctly). Small, not much action but life affirming. Just the kind of movie that we needed. Some critics loved it and gave it high marks and some hated it. Go figure.
Question: Should the Democratic Party vow, in the event that we take the White House in 2028, to undo whatever Trump has done regarding Greenland?
@Michael Reynolds: That seems rather trivial compared to the project they need to undertake. That being the reconstruction of the foundations of our republic. The scrubbing of old laws (like the Insurrection Act, Alien Enemies Act, etc.) that are being dredged up and used to abuse our system. The hard work of writing laws that don’t leave discretion to the executive branch (yes, that will make us even more bureaucratic and creaky but you can’t leave it to norms or discretion anymore). Bottomline, I just don’t think Greenland will excite the population to rise up and ‘throw the bums out’.
Capitol agenda: Trump tests GOP with Fed probe
The answer is no, they will not stop at nothing and two, the problem is cowardly anonymity in Congress.
@Scott:
The director, Mike Flanagan, has made a few Stephen King based series as well as some other horror-inspired projects. They are all quite good and thought provoking. I recommend ‘Midnight Mass,’ a reimagining of ‘Salems Lot.’
@Scott: Sen Tom Tillis on same subject:
Only now is the independence and credibility of the Justice Dept in question? Do these Senators just go through life on drugs?
@Michael Reynolds:
@Scott:
They should promise to reverse any Greenland action, but Scott’s right it won’t move voters. But that and tearing down his ballroom and the proposed Arc de Trump will be visible indicators of moving on. Much of the stuff Scott mentions will take several administrations to complete.
@Scott:
It’s not about throwing the bums out, and there is nothing any more consequential than the matter of whether we are going invade a NATO ally. Trump is threatening to start a war with a long-standing ally. If we state clearly that we will undo whatever he does, maybe we can head this off.
@Michael Reynolds: Threatening war on ally, yes, but the Fed has been kind of a third rail. The Roberts Court had been in a mode of allowing Trump to run amok through the bureaucracy, but not the Fed. Corporate types hate other regulators, but the Fed is the priesthood of the sacred markets. This may be an agency too far for Trump.
@Scott:
I just don’t get it. his term ends in May this year, and then El Taco can nominate whatever ass-kissing sock puppet he wants. A criminal probe won’t land him in court sooner than that.
I suppose it might be a means of pressuring him to resign, but that would be as damaging as if El Taco had Vance shoot Powell in the oval office.
@Kathy: It does seem odd. But Trump is big on performative hostility and short on planning. On the other hand, Powell is pretty popular with the corporate set and Trump may feel he needs this to support not reappointing Powell.
@gVOR10:
Well the market is reacting. From the NYT
Trump has declared himself acting president of Venezuela.
@CSK:
Is that necessary? Hasn’t Venezuela suffered enough?
@Kathy:
I’m not joking.
@CSK:
Neither am I.
“neo-Nazi’s & Minneapolis & ICE”
Excerpts:
Folks are hyperventilating about Oregon voter rolls.
Mark Hemingway “Oregon only has 4 million people. And like 20 percent of their voter registrations were bad? How many ballots were they sending to wrong addresses? It’s an all mail in ballot state!”
Not quite. If folks do not vote in 2 consecutive Federal elections Oregon moves them to the inactive voter list and a ballot is NOT sent. Unlike some other states they are not “purged” (removed). If a voter then updates their address up to election day they can be issued a ballot, unlike having to re-register over 21 days in advance (no same day registration in Oregon).
No voter fraud, but you’ll be hearing that.
@Scott:
Agreed. the brutal fact of national elections is that voters care about three and only three issues:
1) the economy
2) the economy
3) the economy
By “the economy” I mean how voters perceive their individual economic situation. This often tracks with the overall economic metrics, but not always. We saw this in 2024.
This also does not mean the party in power will remain in power during good economic times. It’s the likely outcome, but this is when other issues can determine the election.
@Kathy:
Yes, but he also holds a term as a Fed Governor, which does not expire until January 31, 2028. Some details are explained in this CNBC piece from January 2 — basically, Powell could retain some influence on the Fed until trump’s last year in office if he chooses to remain on the Board of Governors.
It would be unusual for a former Fed Chair to remain on the Board, but Powell has not tipped his hand on what he will do when his Chairmanship ends in May, which is no doubt an annoyance to trump. The Fed Board of Governors not only makes up much of the rate-setting FOMC, but the Board could also theoretically fire Fed bank presidents who make up the remainder of the FOMC. And the seven-member Board now has three Trump appointees, so the loss of Powell as a Governor could tip the balance of the Board and potentially result in other strong-armed changes to the FOMC before the end of January 2028. Because after that, there would be relatively little time left in trump’s term for Fed decisions to trumpify the economy.
The S&P 500 Index, which started today down about three-tenths of one percent, has now risen above its Friday close. That’s what the markets think, at least in the short term, of the administration’s ginned-up charges against the Fed Chair, and Powell’s extraordinary public statement,
@Eusebio: I have a somewhat darker view of this.
I think what Trump wants is for the fed to juice the economy. He says he wants less inflation, but that’s just talk. What he wants is big growth numbers and a surge in the stock market, which can be accomplished with low interest rates. That’s my take.
So, understanding that, you can see that people who think Trump wins this one will bet on the stock market going up.
@Michael Reynolds:
Why limit it to Greenland?
In this new year we have seen:
* Kidnapping of a foreign leader
* Extortion of the Federal Reserve
* Murder of a citizen by an ICE officer
* Threats to invade Greenland
* A presidential pronouncement that credit card rates over 10 percent are illegal
Did someone spike his Coke with fentanyl?
I guess the whole “Drive Epstein out of the media cycle” thing is working though.
This stuff is the kind of ridiculous, over-the-top stuff that I once read in satires in Mad Magazine. Only now it’s real. (Hmm, I wonder if that’s his source of ideas.)
It’s not that I don’t take it seriously. I do wonder if we can both laugh at how ridiculous this is AND take it seriously.
@Jay L. Gischer:
Lots of stuff came out of Hollywood in the 1930’s mocking Herr Hitler’s clownishness.
I had never heard of the movie One Battle After Another until Saturday, when mr becca found it on HBO.
Really interesting and unique. Now I want to watch Inherent Vice, another Anderson take on Pynchon.
@Jay L. Gischer:
I don’t doubt that it’s a factor that low interest rates generally favor the stock market. But there may be other things at play, as described by Paul Krugman a few months ago…
@Eusebio: Thanks for the info. I would also assume Kevin Hassett, who is expected to be Trump’s nominee to replace Powell, is telling Trump the economy would be great for the midterms if only Powell weren’t in the way. I would assume Trump has no idea how interest rates affect inflation. But as a real estate investor he hated high rates and has learned nothing since.
@Daryl:
Because contra the odd assumptions in comments here, I’m not talking about electoral politics. Greenland is the end of NATO. It’s the end of trust in America. It will be terribly damaging to US power. It’s a very bad thing, a very dangerous thing. And unlike rattling off a dozen misdeeds we have to rectify, it is specific, it is limited, it can be addressed directly, not via a laundry list.
And it will enrage Trump like nothing else.
@Daryl:
@Michael Reynolds:
There is a good reason in international relations for such a promise by the Democrats.
It might help to alleviate the damage to the Atlantic Alliance.
It would never be the same again, if Trump seized Greenland; it would be very badly damaged if the administration somehow coerced Denmark into separation and US association refrendum(s) in Greenland and managed obtain both.
In either event, the basis of the relationship would be gone.
And Europe would perforce make a major effort for “strategic decoupling” and a new “European Defence Union” and/or removal of US from the integrated NATO commands.
But if the Democrats made it plain that direct coercion of Europe was rejected by them, there might be a prospect for a future, albeit more cautious and far less integrated, alliance realtionship.
Something perhaps similar to the US-Japanese alliance?
@JohnSF: I don’t think it would help much — the US will always be one narrow election away from lunacy and would not be considered a reliable partner for anything.
I expect that damage is already done, and European nations are working on how to deal with the US as an unreliable partner that randomly veers into adversary territory on a regular basis, and it will take decades to get past that.
@Michael Reynolds:
There’s every chance an enraged Trump will take it as a challenge.
I’d want to see it as part of a coordinated opposition on many fronts, but we don’t have that. We have feckless Democrats doing next to nothing. Perhaps they are secretly planning their coordinated opposition on many fronts.
And in lighter, terrible news:
At least the suspect is smart enough to figure out that a synagogue has Jewish ties.
I am heartened that the suspect appears to have lightly set himself on fire. And that his father turned him in pretty much immediately.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/12/mississippi-synagogue-fire-fbi-suspect-targeted
@becca:
OBAA won a bunch of Golden Globes last night, including Best Picture.
@Michael Reynolds:
No, that’s a point better demonstrated than spoken, done so by extreme but non-violent efforts to block if from happening. The reversal will be a given and can be left un-said.
Despite being able to take the weekend off, finally, cooking didn’t go exactly as planned.
It came out really well, though.
First, the point was to make air fryer meatloaf. The problem is when I use the air fryer for one dish, I tend to want to cook something else in it, too. So I went with a mix of charred vegetables (green onions, celery, bell pepper, and broccoli) with pasta in olive oil and garlic sauce.
All well and good, but 15 minutes for the onions, fifteen more for the bell peppers, 7 for the broccoli, I gave up and stuck the meatloaf in the oven….
Also, I was going to beat an egg in a bowl, and the glaze in a separate bowl. For some reason I lost track of what I was doing, and the egg wound up with the glaze. It’s ok because everything went in to the oven and got cooked, but how did that happen?
The egg had no noticeable effect on the glaze, which is more a sauce the way I make it. Maybe it was a bit less acidic than usual (I’m thinking I should add honey to it next time).
The pasta was a success.
Next week I hope I’ll find turkey pieces at the store. They tend to come up after the winter holidays.
The EPA is no longer concerned with the lives of American Citizens, only business interests.
https://x.com/nytimes/status/2010783815615058327?s=20
@becca: “Really interesting and unique. Now I want to watch Inherent Vice, another Anderson take on Pynchon.”
I hope you enjoy Inherent Vice, but if you are interested in seeing Anderson’s two best films by far you should check out Boogie Nights and Magnolia…
My God. Perfidy, too? I’d say it’s unbelievable, but we all know there’s no bottom with this lawless, fascist administration.
U.S. Attacked Boat With Aircraft That Looked Like a Civilian Plane
Apple solves it’s Apple Intelligence problem by partnering with Google.