Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, June 22, 2024
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40 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a 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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Right now I’m too pissed off to say anything more than, “Go get a real job you ass sucking POS.”
@OzarkHillbilly: What are Bailey’s chances looking like for holding the AG position, verses Scharf?
This seems like such a blatant ploy and a massive waste of taxpayer money.
@Jen:
I have no idea but I’m sure the choice is similar to picking SARs or Ebola. TBH, I don’t pay much attention to MO GOP politics because no matter how stupid they were yesterday, I can guarantee they will be worse today. Keeping up with their latest shenanigans is the best I can do.
Bailey has been doing this kind of stuff ever since he moved into the AG office. Wasting taxpayer money on culture war BS is his modus operandi, as it is for most of the MO GOP.
@OzarkHillbilly: Setting aside for the second the sheer [I can’t even find the word] of this promised lawsuit, what redress does he seek now that the trial is over and has successfully kept Trump off the campaign trail however much it is going to? And how is one state AG going to the courts to impede a DA in another state less “lawfare” and “rogue” than the first AG’s action? Even as nakedly political stunts to, this does not seem very thought out.
Thanx Keith, you just outlined the GOP’s next ad campaign.
Headlines in RWNJ land. Oh, you mean in the law suit. Hmmmm… Not sure that ever crossed his mind.
Thanks to (surprisingly) an Atlantic article by Charlie Warzel, I’ve found a new Jam Band, Goose, and learned that John Mayer is a permanent member of Dead and Friends. I love John Mayers guitar and voice, but not so enamored of his pop, so this may be the perfect combo.
This is a gut punch: ‘Reality hit: I was about to give birth to a dead man’s child’: I became a widow and single mother aged 26
It ends on a hopeful note.
One more book for the “To read” list.
So, my golf partner (and boss) decided to celebrate Pride month by announcing a change of name and pronouns. I can honestly say it is going to be difficult to wear the new grooves in my brain and honor the changes, but I will do my best. I will, however, razz her about going to great lengths just to get to use the red tees…
The Economist has a nice group of articles on climate change and green energy. I really liked this one on solar energy.
“Today solar power is long past the toy phase. Panels now occupy an area around half that of Wales, and this year they will provide the world with about 6% of its electricity—which is almost three times as much electrical energy as America consumed back in 1954. Yet this historic growth is only the second-most-remarkable thing about the rise of solar power. The most remarkable is that it is nowhere near over.
To call solar power’s rise exponential is not hyperbole, but a statement of fact. Installed solar capacity doubles roughly every three years, and so grows ten-fold each decade. Such sustained growth is seldom seen in anything that matters. That makes it hard for people to get their heads round what is going on. When it was a tenth of its current size ten years ago, solar power was still seen as marginal even by experts who knew how fast it had grown. The next ten-fold increase will be equivalent to multiplying the world’s entire fleet of nuclear reactors by eight in less than the time it typically takes to build just a single one of them.
Solar cells will in all likelihood be the single biggest source of electrical power on the planet by the mid 2030s. By the 2040s they may be the largest source not just of electricity but of all energy. On current trends, the all-in cost of the electricity they produce promises to be less than half as expensive as the cheapest available today. ”
https://archive.ph/Gy3BZ
Trump has endorsed Lauren Boebert.
@steve: as an aside, I heard Bill Gates promoting TerraPower, his nuclear energy company. I am ambivalent about nuclear in general, but the big problem I see with this company is that it relies on Haleu, a type of uranium only produced in Russia and China.
They have already broke ground in Wyoming.
@CSK: Trump’s endorsements seem to fall into two categories: pro for,a endorsements of the candidate most likely to win, or some bile based endorsement against the incumbent. What’s interesting is that the test of Trump’s relevance once he is not running himself is his success in the latter category. My impression is that Trump’s endorsement isn’t really worth much. The people that are his most ardent supporters don’t really seem to give a flying f* about any other race.
@MarkedMan:
Some of Trump’s fans on Truth Social aren’t thrilled with this endorsement, one of them referring to Boebert as “gutter trash.”
@OzarkHillbilly: @Joe: According to an article in the TPM Weekend list, That’ll Do It if this gem is filed as The State of Missouri vs. The State of New York then the case goes directly to the Supreme Court since it’s an interstate case. Of course the court won’t be in session to consider accepting it until October. They’re a bit busy at this time.
@OzarkHillbilly: This should be easy for the Supremes; the Missouri AG shouldn’t have standing to question what NYS does related to crimes in NYS.
Will the Supremes duck may be a different issue altogether.
@DrDaveT: One time my boss was criticized for driving from the ladies tee. He told the critic it was only because he couldn’t find the children’s tee.
@CSK: Am I supposed to be surprised or something?
@just nutha:
Not at all. Boebert has been so overt and consistent in her groveling to Trump that of course he’s endorsing her.
@Mr. Prosser: since the Supremes can only handle a limited number of cases per year, I really wish they were able to push things like this down to, say, the DC circuit.
A case like this deserves to be heard in court, and the lawyers who present it deserve to be sanctioned when their arguments are not based in law.
There need to be consequences to bad behavior. Negative consequences, in particular, as I’m sure AG Bailey-Douchecanoe is quite pleased with the press he has gotten.
@CSK:
So they’re upset their convicted felon fuhrer endorsed someone above his station?
@Gustopher: I believe that cases like this between the states where the Supreme Court has “original jurisdiction” are referred by SCOTUS to a special master to conduct the trial before evaluating and acting on the ruling.
It has been the case in the past that Supreme Court Justices would occasionally sit by special designation as trial judges just to see what it was like on the front line. I think both Douglas and Renquist did this, perhaps others more recently.
@Kathy:
What stunned me was MAGAs referring to one of their own as “gutter trash.”
@CSK: As Luddite can assure you, I was a RWNJ in a past life. We’re very mercurial in our alliances. Boebert being turned on is a little surprising, but I don’t follow what she’s doing, so I don’t know how she’s alienated her constituency.
@just nutha:
I think Boebert jerking off her date in a theater, as well as the extra-legal antics of her son and ex-husband, finally did it for some of the MAGAs.
I used to think the Palins were uber-trash, culminating in the drunken brawl that occurred when they crashed a party, but Clan Boebert is giving them a run for their money. Not to speak of the penchant both crews have for spawning children out of wedlock. Talk about Christian family values.
The Louisiana state lege is very serious about their devotion to the Ten Commandments. They listed the Commandments in their bill exactly as they require they be displayed in the schools. They list eleven.
@just nutha:
PHRASING!
Jeezus, nutha, watch the phrasing.
(iPad wanted to make “nutha” into “nutchatch”, which I don’t think is a word)
@gVOR10:
According to this there were fifteen. Oops.
@gVOR10: Perhaps instead of listing the Ten Commandments, they’d do better in Louisiana to list the numbers from one to ten, and the alphabet. Got some catchin’ up to do…
I mentioned a few weeks ago Arthur C. Clarke’s prediction that the size of computers would be limited by power draw, that they’d require unobtainable amounts of power and a Niagara to cool them. The replacement of vacuum tubes with transistors seemed to prove him wrong. NYT and WAPO both had articles lately on the extremities AI companies are going to to get clean power for their AI servers. Or at least to greenwash them.
@Gustopher: My apologies. 😛 As for “nutchatch,” “nuthatch” with no mid-word /c/ is a bird. How your AI added the “c” is beyond my ken (and my Barbie 😛 )
Your ken would be an eleven in Louisiana!
Steve
@CSK:
I’m only surprised because Bobert is better looking than MTG and seemingly crazier. I would have thought that would been a better draw.
@Beth:
I suppose there are some things that revolt even MAGAs.
Question: If Trump ordered a Republican member of Congress to strip their spouse naked, and hold them down while Trump raped them, what percentage of of the GOP caucus would obey?
I’ll say 95%.
@Michael Reynolds:
Trump might eschew that opportunity on the grounds that very few of those wives are sufficiently young and beautiful, by his standards.
Remember, this is the guy who once proudly proclaimed: “It doesn’t matter what the press says about you as long as you have a young and beautiful piece of ass on your arm.”
@Michael Reynolds: Do the women have to hold down their spouses while Trump rapes their husbands? There are 218 Republicans in the House, of which 29 are women. That is 13%. If Republican Congresspersons acted like normal human beings I would guess that the 95% is way too high because what type of woman would be party to rape? But then I think of someone like Elise Stefanik. If holding down her husband while Trump rapes him would get her the VP slot I think she would get some of her staffers if she needed help.
Would Trump lose much support if he did it?
@SenyorDave:
Probably Trump wouldn’t lose any support. Seventy-five percent of MAGAs would say it was fake news planted by the Deep State and promulgated by the anti-Trump media. Twenty percent would never know about it because The Gateway Pundit and The Conservative Treehouse and OANN would never mention it. Five percent would openly admire him for it.
@Beth: Linking “Lauren Boebert” and “carpetbagger,” I encountered some sources noting that moving to “the most Republican district in America” (Col 4 from Col 3–which moved from “Red” to “toss up” during her term) has been called by some an act of cowardice. Why cowardice concerns MAGAts given that she still talks like a mean girl is, again, beyond my ken* (no matter how high it would score in Lou’siana).
*But I’m not gonna do my lame, dad joke Barbie line again. Once is my limit.
It’s an invasion!