Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, November 30, 2024
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36 comments
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.
Entertain me, dammit!
@Michael Cain: Have you seen John Carpenter’s The Thing?
Have you seen Pingu?
Well, now you can see both…Thingu
If that’s not entertainment, I don’t know what is!
I’ve shared a little insight into the concepts of influence delivery systems–i.e. platforms and methods by which suggestive associations are delivered to a target audience. In the case of the US, the RW target audience is below college-educated white people (regardless of income) who carry a phone, and, who either came from a traditional family or came from a broken home and blames their broken upbringing on the lack of traditional family in their upbringing. The Russians have perfected this– out of necessity to protect their dictatorship, as they have a rather large population of blue collar people to keep diverted and divided. Much of their theory is in open source–because who but Russian academics is going to read it (all 12 of them). Plus, the secret sauce is in the application anyway. Many taking heads are unwittingly mouthpieces to perpetuate propaganda. That takes cunning and work to pull off.
At any rate, DJT also has a theory, beyond the Power of Positive Thinking. I am not suggesting that DJT got his operating theory from Robert Greenes 48 Laws. However, most of what is in the book is a collection and collation of well-known principles of subversion and maintaining one’s status as King of Thieves (without waking up to a dagger in the chest).
In 8 years of watching DJT, it’s a reliable predictor of how he will operate. There is a method to the madness–which is not to say there is noble intent behind the method. He remains a narcissist. But one can never counter him if one does not understand his plays.
Happy Saturday and hope you all reflected on Thursday, on everything, however small, you have to be thankful for.
@Michael Cain:
“Let me entertain you, let me make you smile…”
Question:
Do legal/regulatory safeguards exist in place to prevent this catastrophic upheaval of our monetary system by the narrow self interest of the crypto zealots?
https://prospect.org/power/2024-11-26-crypto-plot-against-americas-gold-reserves/
@Michael Cain:
From IMDB–
Marcy Hill: [Marcy enters the room as Benson completes his interview of Denise] Sorry to interrupt you two. Benson, I think you need to look at this. Accounting gave us the wrong figures on the amortization of the new revenue bonds.
Benson DuBois: You mean I worked this whole thing out based on the wrong set of figures?
Marcy Hill: Well, it’s okay. I just spent the last hour figuring it out on the calculator. So, look, it’s not 12.5% compounded quarterly on a total of $11,379,000. It is 13.75% calculated semi-annually on $11,462,000
Benson DuBois: Mm-hmm. So what’s the new total.
Denise Stevens: [Denise does the math in her head] $1,576,025.
Marcy Hill: She’s right.
Benson DuBois: She is?
Marcy Hill: Yes.
Benson DuBois: [Benson addressing Denise] You’re hired.
Marcy Hill: You did all this in your head?
Denise Stevens: Oh, well, I have this thing for numbers. It’s like a second language to me. In fact, coming through the parking lot today, I memorized all the license plates. By the way who has 494-115?
Marcy Hill: I think that’s Pete.
Denise Stevens: His radiator is leaking.
Benson DuBois: That would be Pete. Denise, you will start today.
Denise Stevens: [Benson and Denise shake hands] All right.
Benson DuBois: Marcy will show you the ropes.
Marcy Hill: [Marcy starts to show Denise out of Benson’s office. The orchestra is still in the outer office] This way, Denise. Watch yourself around the bassoon player.
@Rob1: The government doesn’t need to buy Bitcoins, it can steal them from drug transactions just fine. Cynthia needs to read more.
@Jim Brown 32:
Thanks for this succinct reminder of how DJT thinks and operates and the methodology behind the forces operating behind the curtain.
As for myself, (& discussed everywhere and nauseum) I remain relentlessly greatful for 13 years survival of my stage iv CRC diagnosis. My friends, family & what passes as my health and sanity remain unexpected blessings.
ETA and yes, the OTB community is a significant part of that. You’ve been warned!
Yesterday Putin called Trump “clever and experienced,” and “a real man.” so henceforth we can expect Trump to do exactly what Putin wants.
@Rob1:
I don’t know, I suspect not.
Public opinion, I think, needs to be mobilized. Perhaps by comparing Bitcoin etc. to Beanie Babies, tulip bulbs, pet rocks etc.
@just nutha:
That’s already included in the plan; something like 200,000 bitcoins have already been seized. But Lummis is proposing that the U.S. be required to add 200,000 more every year for five years until the U.S Treasury possesses 1 million, using our nation’s gold to raise the funding for this acquisition. RFK Jr is proposing to 4x that number to 4 million.
However, putting this into perspective: the U.S current net worth is reported as $123 trillion. Assuming bitcoin is somewhere around $100,000 valuation (but who knows after the govt starts buying), the total value owned by our govt after five years would be $100 billion (Lummis) to $400 billion (RFK Jr – if he has any relevancy).
At the high number of $400 billion, this still only represents something like 3 thousands of a percent of national net worth.
Looking at it that way I have to back off calling this “catastrophic” as in my earlier post. But the ideological/political/structural ramifications of making this move has unpredictable, unforeseen impacts on the stability of our monetary system and the dollar. Our system becomes even more speculative. Plus there’s the whole thing of jacking with our nation’s gold.
Personally, I’m a big fan of predictability when it comes to finance. A lot of people are.
@Jim Brown 32: Here’s my short list of things I’m thankful for:
I am thankful that I am comfortable materially. It ain’t everything, but it is something.
I am thankful that my spouse is still with me in spite of having a brain tumor (more than 10 years ago).
I am thankful that I just celebrated 20 years without recurrence of the heart attack I had.
I am thankful to have such wonderful and engaging daughters.
I am thankful that one of them is winning her struggle with MS, even though it’s kind of a battle. I am thankful that the same one (along with me) does not live in a state that denies her existence as a trans person and would try to make our lives as miserable as possible.
I am thankful that you shared that pointer to Robert Greene and the 48 Laws.
Peace out.
The fascist and rapist president-elect Trump spent Thanksgiving at Moscow-a-Lago with fellow billionaires and oligarchs.
The Harris-Emhoffs spent Thanksgiving morning prepping meals for “the working class”:
I like what I’m hearing and seeing from Democrats post-election, tbh.
@Michael Cain:
One fine day in Mar a Lardo, a shout is heard from the gilded bathroom: “MELANIA!!” And again, “MELANIA!!1!11”
“What the f**k do you want!1!!” answers the trophy wife.
“Get me a bottle of shampoo!!1!!1 NOW11!!
“There’s one already in the shower!!1!”
“Yes!!1! But it says ‘for dry hair’!! and mine’s already WET!!1!!”
@just nutha:
For that matter, the government can make up its own crypto currency and “mine” it as it pleases.
But 1) the government can already do that with real currency, and 2) by buying bitcoin they transfer real currency to the rich who can accumulate crypto.
OMG. Trump has nominated Charles Kushner, unutterably sleazy crook and Jared’s daddy, to be Ambassador to France.
Jesus.
@CSK: At this point he is just screaming the corruption right in our faces. Because he can, because he won, because he will never be held to account for anything, ever. He’s screaming the corruption and then he’s laughing at us.
@DK: I guess a corollary to “living well is the best revenge” is “taking care of people is the best counter to hatred”.
Nothing to see here, folks:
Charles Kushner, Jared’s FIL was nominated to be ambassador to France.
Kushner was pardoned by Trump in 2020 after being convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering in 2005. He spent 14 months in prison and 10 months in a halfway house for his crimes.
In what former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted as U.S. attorney, Kushner hired a prostitute to entrap his brother-in-law with the intention of recording the encounter and sending it to the man’s wife. This unsuccessful scheme was supposed to be revenge for cooperating with investigators.
A couple days ago my wife and I were in a downtown San Francisco hotel. Our room was at the top, 27th floor. We ordered some Instacart. The Instacart delivery person tried to get an employee to give her access to the key-controlled elevator, but could not find one to help. So, rather than call or text to ask me to come down, she schlepped two bags of groceries up 27 floors. An immigrant from Mongolia, she then knocked on our door and apologized for being five minutes late.
@CSK: 49.9% of American voters chose exactly this outcome. Call it a miracle of democracy–in the Aristotelian sense.
@Rob1: I don’t approve of the government buying any Bitcoins while there are Bitcoins left to steal from organized crime. Additionally, I object to the government singling its accumulation efforts on Bitcoins when there are dozens of varieties of Crypto out there. Even Trump and the RWNJs create new Crypto for each scam.
I suggest that the Wyoming representative should persuade her own state to do this as a pilot project to assess the viability of a national program.
@CSK:
@Mikey:
@Lucysfootball:
Is anyone surprised a sexual predator and convicted felon unqualified for his position is populating his cabinet with sexual predators, felons, and others unqualified for their positions?
@just nutha:
Since at this point crypto seems to serve only two purposes: speculation or covert financial transactions, I’d rather not see our government engaged in this distraction.
You’d think Department of Efficiency czar, Musk, would agree, except of course, he has a personal benefit. The sacking of Rome begins.
@Kathy:
Well…no, when you put it that way.
@CSK:
How is this in any way a change from what Trump has always done?
@Michael Reynolds:
Michael,
Is Ripley’s Believe it or Not still taking submissions?
I hope you gave her a good tip.
@DrDaveT:
Oh, nothing, really. It was just Putin reaffirming that Trump will obey him unquestioningly and instantaneously.
Trump’s like the slave in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: “I live to grovel.”
@Jim Brown 32:
Jim, I’m of the opinion what’s needed before messaging is listening. Heard Eric Clapton once say that before he writes anything he spends days and days listening to music. All kinds of music. Listening not just for the notes, but what the notes are making him feel. A sensitive soul can detect in another needs and longings which are not plainly articulated.
This nation is still largely lower-middle class, poorly educated in a general way, and white. Let’s call them the Wal-Martians. Listen not to just what they say, but listen for what is really bugging them. What they are really afraid of. What they really hope for. Rare is the demographic looking to be lectured on what they are supposed to be.
@Bill Jempty:
Gave her a C note.
I just discovered Thom Hartmann is on Bluesky, IMO worth following:
https://bsky.app/profile/hartmannreport.com
@dazedandconfused: I agree with you whole-heartedly. I live amongst these people so I know what they are talking about. The problem is, whiteshoe consultants that advise Democrat candidates aren’t generally from places like this–nor spend any meaningful time figuring out how to craft a resounding message. They are still playing the Turnout game when it’s no longer about Turnout. DJT persuaded enough simpletons that if he wasn’t elected we’d lose our country. They showed up a voted for him and no one else.
That said, I don’t think there is a huge problem with the Democrat message. Voters voted for Dem initiatives and down ballot Dems outperformed Harris.
There is always an angle for a salesman. My Trumper secretary is deeply concerned about the environment and the lack of culture in Florida’s Panhandle. My DeSantis/Trumper neighbors rue how many of the fishing regulations in Florida are set to benefit large companies at the expense of small commercial and recreational fisherman. These are examples of local knowledge that would give a Democrat candidates and angle to undermine the credibility of the GOP. But what good is a message if you can’t get it here in a natural organic way? A way that makes people share within their social circle?
This is hard and takes time to develop the infrastructure. To use a simplistic illustration–the RW is the only Party dropping leaflets over Flyover country. Dems just flyover.
Kash Patel is Trump’s pick to head the F BI.
@Jim Brown 32: On this theme of “listening” let me add my own assent, as well as endorse Jim’s distaste for “whiteshoe consultants”.
I read a piece just a couple of days ago on “the coming land war in Montana”. The author appears to have strong ties to Montana, but I did not like the way the working people of Montana were described. They were anonymous. They were almost props in the drama that the author had written, and in which private equity firms, which were buying up all the land in Montana, are the villains.
The working class people – one of the two factions in his imagined land war – has no real voice of its own. I found it curious, and odd.
Bear in mind, I was just back in the town of 3,000 that I grew up with this fall, chatting and having a great time with my old classmates. I do know how to talk to them. They could be reachable. Someone who knows how to talk to them in a way that sounds real to them could make some headway. The working-class men my age have had the crap kicked out of their bodies. One woman who was a really good friend – we did some music together – said her brother and her son had both died of brain tumors caused by gases released as they did their welding work.
Donald Trump is not going to do anything to stop that, or to help that. But when he says, “the system is rigged” they respond, because it is rigged.
I can understand and relate to how Kamala talks. I don’t think she’s phony. But what I think doesn’t matter so much as what those guys think. Biden was a bit better, but only a bit. It seems he actually doesn’t like campaigning and drama, but that’s exactly what we need.
I wasn’t a Sanders backer, mostly because I didn’t think the timing was right for him. I don’t know that I would endorse all his policy ideas, either. What I do endorse is how he can talk in a way that sounds credible to the people I grew up with.
Antivaxxer at HHS, and now also at CDC.
If you have school age children, make sure they’ve had all their vaccines. Also remember no vaccine is 100% effective. Therefore if there’s even one child at their school with measles or some other vaccine preventable disease, it would be best to keep your children home a few days just in case.
@Jim Brown 32:
This isn’t really accurate. Consultants have all kinds of backgrounds, and plenty of the ones I’ve met grew up in rural areas. The problem isn’t the consultants–it’s the homogenization of messaging to fit a purity narrative.