Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, March 8, 2025
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18 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).
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Forthcoming book: I’d like to announce my forthcoming US history book, covering a decisive but tumultuous era in that country’s history, titled “The trade policies of the United States: 10:30 am to 1:30 pm on Friday, March 7, 2025” It will be 400 pages.
@Kathy: if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re channeling the spirit of Dorothy Parker (or Robert Benchley). 🙂
Thanks to LGM for the pointer to this latest chapter in government by axe-wielding zealots:
Musk’s Stegosaurus-sized brain seems incapable of realizing that (1) the work of air traffic controllers needs to continue, regardless of how they were hired; (2) “DEI hires” might be doing this essential work very well; and (3) killing air travelers and crippling the airline and air freight industries might be catastrophic. The only important objective is to fire “DEI hires,” which is the easiest code to solve since Pig Latin.
@Kingdaddy: Not to mention the stupidity of Trump’s MIT comment.
I am sure that well qualified MIT graduates want ATC jobs, which are incredibly high stress with moderate pay and subject to the apparent whims of Musk’s DOGE minions.
@Jen:
Well, Trump’s Uncle John taught MIT, so that makes him and everyone affiliated with MIT a genius.
A very stable genius.
As conflicted as I am about Eon Productions transferring the rights to James Bond to Amazon, I would LOVE to see an update to the old Miller Lite beer commercials (“tastes great!” “less filling!”) featuring several actors who played Bond over the years (a now-retired Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan, and Craig), some of his female costars (e.g., D’Abo, Lowell or Soto, Richards, Berry, Green), or his villains. Maybe with a cameo by Mike (“Austin Powers”) Myers. It’s presumably all possible now. 🙂
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/20/g-s1-49866/amazon-has-acquired-creative-control-of-the-james-bond-franchise
In an attempt to use up all these damn eggs my 20 remaining chickens are laying, I’m making an angel food cake from scratch, and a triple batch of hawaiian egg bread, half of which I’ll turn into bread pudding later. The egg bread takes, I shit you not, 18 egg yolks and full extra dozen whole eggs for a triple batch. That’ll use some up!
Across Indian Country, mass firings at colleges open up age-old wounds
@Gromitt Gunn: Some of us (including myself) are being reinstated effective Monday, but remain under the cloud of “a plan to cut needs to be implemented by mid September.” So I have no confidence that this latest development is the final development.
@Jax: Ha. I am on the other end of the spectrum. I have some ham to use up, and my husband suggested quiche. I laughed and said absolutely not, that uses FIVE eggs.
@Gromitt Gunn: Still, yay!!! Even if only for the time being. (And you now have several more months to plan your next step on teh gubmint nickel. 😉 )
@Jen: I know, I did feel a little bit…..ridiculously wealthy….using that many eggs. I kinda got myself in a hole by only keeping certain egg clients, they will not take any eggs that are over a week old (I know, so many eyerolls), and I had 4 dozen extra that are (gasp) 10 days old.
I really wasn’t expecting the 20 I kept to lay this well. It’s not like we were picking by the best layers, the criteria was “Golden Wonder Boy and his Hoe Brigade”. 😉
@Jen: I also haven’t made an angel food cake from scratch since I was in high school, I was pretty proud of how it turned out.
Hat tip to Mimai, if he’s reading….that Ankarsrum mixer you recommended a couple years back is like driving a Jaguar compared to a Kitchen-Aid. I really tested it today with that triple batch of eggy bread dough! 12 cups of flour, recipe called for 13 1/2, so I had to pull it out at that point and hand knead it, but I like doing that, anyways.
@Kingdaddy:
On the subject of Musk’s limited brain, which tends towards recklessness, I wonder if it has occurred to Musk how big a risk he is taking by becoming the head MAGAt.
Elon, notice how your peer billionaires try to play both sides whenever possible? This is due to the old saying that friends come and go but enemies accumulate. The political pendulum swings both ways, Elon. What do you suppose will happen, now that you have gleefully taken the role of the most ruthless of Trump’s tools, to all the government cheese your enterprises have enjoyed when it does? The odds of Space X’s survival will be roughly the same as that of a doughnut in a cop shop.
Elon, WTF are you thinking!?! That this will be a thousand year Reich??
@dazedandconfused:
Musk’s enterprises in Europe are, I suspect, going to experience the problems of dealing with a regulatory bureaucracy whose political overseers are rather pissed off.
He may be counting on US clout to override that; he may be mistaken.
US influence in European governance is a asset that is wasting very rapidly indeed.
Babysitting the 5 y/o twins tonight. We made dumplings from scratch but the hit of the night was the chocolate whipped cream I had them make. Who would have guessed 5 y/o kids would like chocolate whipped cream?
Steve
@Kingdaddy:
DOGE people try to fire ATCs. Musk calls it is a lie.
I made this point in a thread recently. Musk isn’t doing anything. He is clearly not managing these children. He is on Twitter all day. That’s what he does.
And even if he is more engaged than that, he is lying about what he is doing.
Also, Musk demands names and details, but reserves the right to just say “DEI” to be right and end the conversation.
Reminds me of a certain poster here. Regular points out that Musk’s team gutted agencies investigating Musk’s companies. The reply: no more EV charging, so Musk was targeted, too.
Whatever you think of the OTB toad’s cognitive capacity, Musk doesn’t appear to have much more. Perhaps owing to his daily K Hole.
Musk is a 4Chan adolescent. He has a bunch of kids, most of whom he ignores. Indeed, his BMs have to publicly @ him on Twitter if one of his children not named X-fhdhbddhdh$@$djdndej!!!!shskd has an emergency.
He is such a bad gamer, he has to pay to see his name on a leader board.
He is a pathetic NPC.
Ironic.
@Kurtz: I think the only funny thing I ever saw the Fortune-Toad say was when he called Musk a Lizard person, but then got lost on whether he was green or grey…..
It was the only time I actually saw Musk as possibly “not actually human”, though, and NOT just straight up EVIL. I would not be surprised if he was a Lizard-Person, but I am unaware of the fine details between Lizard-People, so maybe Fortune-Toad should enlighten us. That should be fun. 😉