Monday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Monday, July 26, 2021
·
84 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).
Follow Steven on
Twitter
In Texas, arson for Jesus is a thing:
http://www.ktsm.com/local/man-accused-of-setting-west-side-house-on-fire-charged-with-capital-murder/
Flew on an airplane last week for the first time in a year and a half. Forgot all about American Airlines Pain Infliction Business Model whereby they do everything to make flying unpleasant and inconvenient so as to incentivize you to buy upgrades.
Yes, I have a long standing hate relationship with American.
Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance blames America’s woes on ‘the childless left’
@OzarkHillbilly: Good God that’s offensive.
I wonder how any Republican couples struggling with infertility feel about that.
And something about weighting parental votes to match the number of kids they have seems to violate one person, one vote. IANAL…but I believe Vance is.
@OzarkHillbilly: Since life begins at conception I assume that Vance thinks parents should get an extra vote for each fetus as well. Fair is fair. Still, giving a full extra vote for each child seems excessive. Three-fifths of a vote per child seems about right. After all, history teaches us that nothing can go wrong with that kind of compromise.
I have had a suspicion for a while that belief in evolution and belief in Social Darwinism are inversely proportional.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E7MSFwiUUAQUJw9?format=jpg&name=900×900
Chart: 1 year of hospitalization
@Jen: @Roger:
I always point out “life begins at conception” leads to banning assisted reproduction like IVF.
Closing quote from, Iraqi militias grow in power as Iran’s military strongman proves too weak
Translation: “Whatever happened to smoke filled rooms?”
Stop Insulting Trump Voters and Their Concerns. Instead, Shut Up and Take It.
Growing group of GOP members wants McCarthy to punish Kinzinger and Cheney for joining January 6 committee
Just over half of Americans believe voting is a ‘fundamental right’ as states pass legislation tightening ballot access, Pew poll shows
@Roger:..Since life begins at conception I assume that Vance thinks parents should get an extra vote for each fetus as well.
TRIGGER WARNING!!!
I have always contended that human life begins before conception since the eggs that develop in females and the sperm in males are alive and human.
How about women get an extra vote once a month and men get an extra vote each time they choke the chicken!
My Congressman, Chip Roy, member of the House Taliban Caucus on registering women for draft.
“This is it for me. This is a litmus test. Fight this nonsense or we are not on the same team. Abolish the draft if you want… but draft my daughter you will not.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/chiproytx/status/1418592290818433027
@Teve: And, for gosh sakes, don’t follow them around convenience stores telling them they are the worst human being ever.
@Scott: Nothing will ever beat the comments by Professor Newt Gingrich in the mid-1990s:
“What does combat mean? If combat means being in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections, and they don’t have upper body strength. I mean, some do, but they’re relatively rare. On the other hand, men are basically little piglets, you drop them in the ditch, they roll around in it, doesn’t matter, you know. These things are very real. On the other hand, if combat means being on an Aegis class cruiser managing the computer controls for 12 ships and their rockets, a female again may be dramatically better than a male who gets very, very frustrated sitting in a chair all the time because males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.”
@Kylopod:
Giraffes??????
http://www.rawstory.com/trump-cult-2653974187/
I can’t access the Daily Beast story, so Matt Lewis may have addressed one other very important matter. But if he didn’t, it should be noted that Trump made it acceptable–at least within his cult–for people to vent their worst thoughts and feelings. He validated their darkest side. That was his primary appeal.
@CSK: It was a weird remark, he was speaking off the cuff, though in full context I think I got what he was trying to say. I remember distinctly when it happened–I was in my teens, and it became a running joke in my family. (I did one of my first political photoshops using just Microsoft Paint, showing Newt’s head on the body of a giraffe.) I’m surprised this incident has been largely forgotten (sure it was quite a while ago but people still talk about Dan Quayle misspelling potato, which is even older); it’s one of the most Newtian Newt moments I lived through.
@CSK: I think an important thing he also validated was the idea of never apologizing. He was hardly the first figure on the right to display this tendency, but he really solidified it and made it absolute and total. And it wasn’t just the idea of never apologizing, but the idea of never acknowledging defeat, the primary motivator behind the Big Lie about the 2020 election. The Trumpian right has created a reality for itself in which they’re not only always right, but always winners, always triumphing over their enemies literally every moment of their lives; the notion that liberals or RINOs or the Deep State would ever come out on top in anything, ever, is literally unthinkable.
@Kylopod:
I’d argue that the Trumpkins might feel as if they’re morally the winners, in the sense that they believe themselves to be on the side of virtue and patriotism, whereas everybody else is a purveyor of evil, but I don’t think they see themselves as winning in terms of prevailing over the liberals.
On the contrary, the paranoia about the dark forces of the Deep State taking over runs very, very deep. Just take a look at any one of the crackpot websites such as The Gateway Pundit, The Conservative Tree House, Lucianne.com, etc.
@CSK:
I strongly disagree. They obsess on the idea that they’re always prevailing over liberals. It’s been at the very heart of the Stop-the-Steal movement from the start, where they have consistently gone way farther than simply alleging the election was stolen, to the point of completely denying Trump isn’t still the president. After the election itself, first they were saying Trump was going to overturn the results and be sworn in to a second term; since the inauguration they shifted to saying Trump would be reinstated. Some of them are even saying Trump is in fact still somehow in control. Sure, I’m describing the absolute extremes of the lunatic fringe of Trumpists, but it’s still pretty widespread and indicative of the pathological mindset motivating them. Recently someone here showed a pic of graffiti with the message “Silly liberals, Trump won.” The idea of gloating about being the victims of election theft is simply bizarre (can you imagine a Dem in 2000 saying “Silly conservatives, Gore won”?). It’s because they view it as a betrayal to acknowledge even being a victim.
The whole “owning the libs” business is frequently misunderstood in the sense that, their goal isn’t to actually own the libs, it is to construct a delusion that they are, in fact, always and eternally owning the libs. It’s not an end goal to them, it’s a description of their continual reality. They completely refuse to acknowledge the possibility that they have ever failed in their quest to own the libs, or ever even conceivably could fail.
A few other European countries are following France’s lead, and restricting access to bars, restaurants, gyms, theaters, etc. to those how are vaccinated. Some allow a recent negative COVID test as well.
I just can’t wrap my head around the reluctance to get a vaccine, given the risks the SARS-CoV-2 (trump) virus poses to health, well-being, the economy, and society. It’s like sitting next to a fire extinguisher while the room is burning, and doing nothing about it. The fire’s not dangerous, just a little hot. Those people burned to a crisp past where the fire spread died of other causes. The extinguisher may explode and hurt me. The fire’s just a hoax.
Turning to lighter topics, I made chicken milanesas in chipotle sauce. Instead of covering the milanesas in just breadcrumbs, I mixed in some corn meal in equal proportion. I couldn’t taste any major difference (not like the time I used Frito crumbs). But the chipotle sauce was rather good, and very simple. Oven baked potato slices on the side.
@Kylopod:
Look, the Trumpkins can say all they want that Trump won in 2020, but that statement and $2.75 will get them on the New York subway. Who’s in the White House? Joe Biden. What have the Trumpkins won? Nothing.
@CSK:
I think it’s questionable they haven’t won anything, though I’d class that as a side point. You posted an article about the type of mindset that Trump validated in his supporters, and I was commenting on that mindset. How effective that mindset is as an electoral strategy is somewhat of a different discussion (and I think it’s complicated, though obviously it didn’t stop Biden from becoming president and it probably contributed to the GOP’s defeat in the Georgia runoffs). I was just probing the motivations behind their denial of reality–that they don’t just think Dems happened to steal the election, they think the idea of Dems winning is a literal impossibility. This obsession with the idea not only that winning is the most important value in life, but their complete refusal to acknowledge any other outcome could conceivably even happen, is one of Trump’s unique contributions. There were precursors to it in the conservative movement, but he made it absolute and total to the lunatic degree we see today.
@Kylopod:
There I agree with you, certainly.
“We will have so much winning if I get elected that you will get bored with winning.” — Donald Trump
I can see how it would appeal to angry people who feel constantly shat upon by life.
How quickly would we reach herd immunitah if the federal government deposited $500 into your bank account when the local health department submitted your name as a vaccinee?
(Such a program, btw, would cost a mere ~$125B)
@CSK:..Who’s in the White House?
I know of at least one person who thinks that the victims of the Sandy Hook murders are alive and still being held in the bowels of the White House by the deep state agents for President Obama so Obama can repeal the 2nd Amendment and take away the guns of Americans.
“Trump can’t find them.” she told me. I am certain that she is not the lone believer in this lunacy.
This is the level of total inane stupidity that exists in the minds of Trump supporters.
Not to mention that the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan openly support Trump.
Someone please remind me what the good it would be to communicate with these citizens?
@Mister Bluster: I saw something the other day about a pastor who claims that the real Joe Biden is dead, the guy posing as him is a clone, and you can tell because his eye colors have changed. (I must confess I couldn’t tell you offhand the color of Biden’s eyes–I’m not colorblind, it’s just not something I typically pay any attention to.) Further, he insists that Trump is still the president, with full access to the nuclear codes.
Not a well-known fellow, though Roseanne Barr appeared in an interview with him.
Lake Powell, Second-Largest Reservoir in U.S., Hits Record Low as Megadrought Worsens
@Teve:
OMFG! They want to steal my identity and bank account!
@Mister Bluster:
Let’s see: Twenty children and six adults have been hidden in the White House since December 2012. And in four years’ residence, Donald Trump never found them. He also never noticed anyone
guarding them, bringing them food, water, medical care, etc. Right. Sure makes sense to me!
@Kylopod:
Well, Devin Nunes thinks that the Deep State may be using computer-generated graphics to fake Biden’s speeches.
@Kylopod:
I take some comfort that the trump cult will spend the next four years, hopefully the next 8, much like many of us spent the Ass’s term: continually hoping for that one revelation that will remove Biden from office, and continually failing to get it.
The one difference is we had reality-based hopes, often backed with evidence, while the trump cult has neither.
@Kylopod:
Well, if Biden v.2 is a clone, he’d have the identical eye color to Biden v.1. Right?
@CSK: Mutant clone. Maybe they should check his toes to see they’re not webbed.
@Teve: I understand that snow and rain are still cold and wet, too.
The “Biden’s eye color is different bc he’s been replaced!!1” horseshit is so popular that Reuters did a fact check on it.
Anyway even if the mutant clone has different-colored eyes, do you know how many different shades of blue colored contacts come in? Lots Of Them, Katie!
@Teve: Blues will not replace us!
Sorry, couldn’t help it.
Great now the provider counties (the ones who voted for Biden) will need to provide even greater support to the taker counties.
Popular meme I’m seeing on the Social Media:
@Kylopod: Indeed, the whole claim about the election is that Biden would never have won had the vote not been rigged. Limbaugh used to hold out that conservatives lost elections from not realizing that they are the true organic majority of the country and moving to the left to get votes.
@Kylopod: heh
@Teve:
One thing consistent about conspiracy theories is the way that on the one hand they describe some plot so elaborate it manages to escape everyone else’s detection, yet there’s always one giant glaring giveaway which the conspirators somehow overlook (for instance, the alleged pillow over Justice Scalia’s face, which came from an unfortunately phrased remark by the rancher who found him and was clearly describing a man who died peacefully in his sleep).
@Kylopod:
Surely the Deep State is so all-powerful that they could produce a non-mutant clone.
@CSK: Not even Devin Nunes is stupid enough to believe that. (And even if he did, his cow would clear things up for him.) That statement is only out there because there are Republicans that aren’t even as smart as Devin Nunes (and don’t have a cow to explain reality to them).
@CSK: No, you genetically engineer the eye color of each clone so you can tell them apart. Everybody knows that. 🙁
@Kylopod:
My favorite asinine conspiracy is the one positing that all 26 Sandy Hook victims were crisis actors. Were all the cops and EMTs who responded to the scene in on the conspiracy? All the doctors and nurses at all the hospitals who received the victims? All the reporters who covered the shooting? All the funeral home workers who prepared the bodies for burial? All the clergy who officiated at the obsequies? Not to speak of the parents, relatives, and friends of the dead.
And nobody talked? Not one person?
And what happened to the crisis actors/victims themselves? Oh, right. They’re being held hostage in the bowels of the White House on order of Obama.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Silly me. Thank you so much for addressing this grievous gap in my scientific education.
@CSK:
Well, obviously.
Why do you think you never see herds of giraffes in Oklahoma these days, eh?
Some of these Biden conspiracy theories might make a good Treehouse of Horror.
So, they admit we successfully stole the election which makes them, you know, losers. Even worse, the victims of the greatest heist in American history.
@Teve:..Dolly Parton…
I’d ride in a rocket with Dolly Parton From Here to the Moon and Back!
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, that was exactly my point. They’re losers. Just like Trump.
@CSK:
Since scientists in Scotland cloned a sheep, there has been a lot of talk about cloning pets. I recall reading about one such venture or experiment, and the resulting dogs had different color hair/fur from the original dog.
The thing about a Biden clone, is that whoever engaged in this particular conspiracy, would have had to clone Biden over 70 years ago. A clone is a new being supposed to be genetically identical to a prior being. New beings must grow from infancy to adulthood in the same time as everyone else. A Biden clone made since cloning mammals became possible, 1996, would be only 25 today. Good luck passing him off as being in his late 70s.
@Teve: Forget hammers, they’re dumb as a box of Boeberts.
@Kathy: that’s before you apply the Jewish Aging Laser. Duh. It’s like you don’t know any science.
@Kathy:
True, but do remember that nothing, absolutely nothing, is beyond the evil machinations of the Deep State.
@Teve:
@CSK:
And before it would have been an impostor who underwent plastic surgery, right?
Remember in the original “Mission: Impossible” in the 60s, they impersonated all sorts of people using makeup and latex masks and acting? The Mythbusters tried something like that, and I don’t think it worked well.
@CSK:
Machinations of the Deep State? Do they include the steeped dates?
@JohnSF:
Probably, since the liquid from the steeped dates was the prophet Mohammed’s favored beverage, and everyone knows that the Deep State globalists are in league with Islam.
@CSK:
Aha! Now it all makes sense!
(Or will do if I drink a couple of pints of that stuff, fermented…)
@Sleeping Dog: Proof of illness date has to be tied in to that. Anyone after vaccines came out is SOL.
Lest anyone should think the US has cornered the global market in the crazee, take a look at this crop of prize lunatics (Courtesy of Marc Lister).
Ye gods!
Heard part of a rather sad radio interview with the son of Kate Shemirani, one of the speakers, this morning.
How do you handle it when your own mother becomes like this. Painful; poor guy.
@Kylopod:
This is deeply imbedded in human nature and not limited to conspiracists. I can’t tell you how many times I have to practically force junior engineers to accept that there might have been a legitimate design choice behind what they consider to be a “fatal flaw” that only an idiot could make. They remain supremely confident that with a few minutes of analysis they are able to see the things missed entirely by the 10-12 people who spent months or years working on it.
Of course, once in a while they happen to be correct in that belief…
@JohnSF:
They’re waving a Trump flag? A British crowd???? What the hell?????
@CSK:
Oh yes indeed.
What are sometimes referred to as “BrexityTrumpkins”.
The perils to British political discourse of a common language (more or less).
There’s a fair chunk of the Brit pop-right whov’e been following US political discourse for years Unlike, say, me 🙂
There are certain “tells” in their comments; references to “MSM” or “liberals” or “rights” etc that really only make sense in a US context.
(An entirely different demographic from the transatlantic ties of a section of the Tory elite: the “Tufton Street Mob”)
@JohnSF:
Well, that sounds depressingly familiar.
Good meme:
“Bats now use the term ‘Trumpshit crazy.'”
Police Are Telling ShotSpotter to Alter Evidence From Gunshot-Detecting AI
What??? Cops trying to fabricate evidence, particularly in Black neighborhoods??? I find that hard to believe, mister.
I signed up for the locally available version of HBO Max*, because they were offering a 50% lifetime discount on monthly fees**.
There is some interesting stuff available, like the current season of Rick and Morty, and several DC animated movies and series. This last leads me to ask: why isn’t the whole DC WB animated content being offered? After all, HBO is owned*** by Warner, right? It may be some licenses are tied up in other streaming services, I suppose.
*No longer grounded by the FAA I suppose.
**No, I don’t believe the discount is for life, but it’s a pretty good deal compared to other streaming services.
**Someday, Jeff Bezos will own all media. Resistance is futile.
@Teve:
There’s a pretty big upside:
Actions, meet Consequences.
Of course, that cuts both ways. For one thing, the 1/6 Committee* had better wrap up by as early next year as possible, before the likely loss of the House (midterms rarely favor the party in the White House). For another, Kevin and Mitch will tar the Committee as a partisan hack job. The former is already calling Cheney and Kinzinger “Pelosi Republicans.”
I wonder if they’ll subpoena the Orange Ass to testify.
*Isn’t it a bit ridiculous to have three double-letters in a three syllable word?
Gotta pass this along before I move on with my evening: Pink offers to pay fines for Norwegian women’s beach handball team
@Teve:
Jewish aging lasers. Ridiculous. Why would they need Jewish aging lasers when they still have the time machine Obama used to place his birth announcement in Honolulu.
@gVOR08: The time machine is in such high demand that they’ve asked people to start returning five minutes before they left, so that everybody can have a turn before everybody else.
@Kathy: Probably because in the US, DC Universe is its own premium streaming station. If it wanes in popularity, it could be merged with HBOMax or something in the way that WWE Network merged with Peacock, but it isn’t happening so far.
@Teve: I take it that they have a different exit for the people coming back, but how does that stop the travelers from being in the parking area before their car arrived and meeting themselves? Do they do the thing that Amazon Fulfillment does by putting the time clock 15 minutes away from the work stations? I suppose that would work.
@Just nutha ignint cracker-: no no no, after you get back you find 5-minute younger you in line and pick up the car keys from them. That way Younger You doesn’t lose them in a different time, which trust me, is a pain in the Butt.
@Kathy:
Ask the bookkeeping committee what it thinks of that. At least the “i” in “committee” gives it a moment’s rest.
Mmmm. We’ve reached COVID positivity in my county to the point where they’re just notifying people on Facebook now.
“Hey, Jenny, I hugged you at Rendezvous, Public Health will be contacting you!”
“Michael, we danced at ____’s wedding, Public Health will be contacting you!”
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s pretty bad when the players get fined for not showing enough camel toe. I want to see all IOC officials (and whoever are the Beach Volleyball regulatory body) required to wear nothing but a Speedo to all official events, from now on. Fair’s fair.