Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, July 19, 2025
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29 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).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
I posted this quote late yesterday and want to re-up it.
CBS’s motives aren’t clear, but it’s silly to think there’s no relation.
Just imagine if Trump had to exist with George Carlin???
Chris Hayes
Alan Bergman, who with his wife Marilyn wrote the lyrics to songs ‘The Way we Were’ and ‘The Windmills of my Mind’ has passed away.
In case anyone missed it, Connie Francis who sang ‘Where the Boys Are’, has also passed away. RIP Mr. Bergman and Ms. Francis
McSweeney’s — yes, the humor site McSweeney’s — maintains a list of the Trump 2.0 abominations, nicely categorized, for every day that ticks by.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/june-2025-atrocities-273-313
Ian Leslie wrote a good piece earlier this month. 27 Notes On Growing Old(er)
I especially like this bit:
From NYT this morning (gift link),
Didn’t democracy abroad used to be a U. S. foreign policy goal? But it’s the last thing Trump wants, anywhere.
@Mimai:
Strong disagree.
Pretty much none of that rings a bell for me. I’m not surprised that I’m growing older, I’d be rather surprised if I were not what with time being a thing. It hasn’t seemed at all abrupt, it’s quite gradual. I don’t feel things are changing too quickly, on the contrary, I’m as impatient as ever. And I’m less dogmatic, not more, and more likely rather than less likely to question my assumptions. As to what age do I ‘feel’? I don’t even know what that means. How do you feel a number?
@Michael Reynolds:
Of course you disagree.
I say this with some trepidation, but I think you are being overly literal.
With the exception of those in florid psychosis mode, few people are “surprised” by growing older. As you so wisely put it: time being a thing.
As for change happening quickly or gradually (ahem, seemingly so), you being less dogmatic, you being more likely to question your assumptions, etc… well good on you. But as you well know, you are a unicorn.
“How do you feel a number?” Again, this is overly literal for such a gifted writer and keen observer of all things.
Do I feel the number 34? No, of course not.
Do I remember — recall fondly, with some bit of **gasp** nostalgia — what it was like to run 50 miles/week baseline while also engaging in lots of other physically demanding hobbies without my body breaking down? Yes, yes I do. And the last time I could do that was around age 34.
I’m a member of a variety of online communities besides OTB. Online, FB, and specialized organizations around my cancer “lifestyle”, political, and philosophical leanings. Of late, my thoughts keep coming back to:
As my organic chem prof used to say, “questions, comments, observations?”
Help a poor benighted Luddite here gang.
@gVOR10:
EXCEPT, of course, when a US official is criticising European countries for disqualifying far-right candidates who have broken national laws.
Because reasons.
@JohnSF: And, from the Guardian,
@gVOR10:
Good grief. However, from the Guardian article,
@Mimai:
Unicorn, weirdo, I’ll take either.
I’m not just being contrary, I just don’t feel any of those things, I have no nostalgia. Life is a story, beginning, middle and end. The end will come in a minute or in 20 years, quick and easy, or a long, nasty death struggle. But it’s been an interesting story. Yes, Maximus, I have been entertained, and that’s all I can ask.
@gVOR10:
Why would they want to come here anyway???
I’m not convinced to read a thousand page biography of someone I regard as a destructive asshat, but I’m tempted by this review, via Balloon Juice, of Buckley: The Life and The Revolution that Changed America.
@Mimai: Hmm, #15, which you quote, is an active force, but having observed it in others, I have put considerable effort into mitigating it. Yes, the world now has expectations that I would know things that I don’t know, and I work to find and understand and incorporate those expectations.
To me, that is staying alive.
One point I take strong issue with is #17. I am someone who took the determination to not short-change family, even while having a fairly high-powered career. It definitely cost me, and those costs are painful, but you will never hear me uttering a regret.
And that’s the thing about the “Spend more time with family” regret. You don’t really hear much regret the other way. It’s as if Alex Hormozi doesn’t think “regret” exists. Sure, yes, you made a choice, and you should own it, but to deny that one can look back and think of a different choice that might have worked out better – that’s nonsense.
I play “kids games” all the time. I’m having fun with it. I don’t care if somebody thinks I’m too old to do that. I did it and had fun before they were born, so step aside, sister and let me show you how it’s done.
So, I’m not a rock star, but I don’t give a damn about “acting my age”.
Wisdom is about a lot more than knowing things. Wisdom is about putting those things you’ve learned about people and life into practice, making it part of your decision-making process. Trying to articulate it doesn’t usually turn out well, since it isn’t about a fact, or a set of facts.
“It wouldn’t be the Tao if there weren’t jokes about it.” – from Ursula LeGuin’s rendering of the Tao Te Ching
@Flat Earth Luddite: Help as in? Parsing out the intersection of these concepts?
Certainly organic chemistry or any study of any “organic” anything to do with life, would concur, that cooperative (civil) exchanges tend to be “additive” in their outcomes and conflicted exchanges tend to be far less so, perhaps even destructive.
The word sustainable comes to mind. Sure, it may be good for your political career, or pocketbook, or shareholder value, but is is good for the sustainability of the community that sustains all of us together? That sawing sound you hear, is us sitting on a branch.
@Jay L. Gischer:
Good stuff Jay. #onbrand
Reminds me of a few notions that I find really resonant, and that are also quite useful in narrative therapy (and its cousins).
Avenoir: the desire to see your memories in advance.
Anemoia: nostalgia for a time you never experienced.
Klexos: the art of dwelling on the past.
Taken from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. A lovely book that I gift often.
The pace of our slow march away from our best aspirations, is now quickening.
We are in the sky, aboard a JSX flight from Miami to Dallas. We are transporting our dogs – Astrid and Boss – home to Vegas. Boss is a pug and too big to go under-seat and too brachiocephalic to fly in cargo. So, while we were in Portugal we flew them to K’s sister in Virginia, a process that involved flying JSX from Vegas to Dallas, spending a night, then flying them to Miami which is as close as we could get on JSX. SIL drove down from Richmond, then drove the dogs back to Virginia. And now we are reversing that route. In October we will fly them JSX to the Bay Area, then fly Bark Air from SF to NYC, and a second flight on Bark to Lisbon.
It’s every bit as stupid and wasteful as it sounds. Don’t get a pug.
@Rob1:
Don’t forget the third option: flee.
I think that makes 4001 lawsuits filed by Trump.
@Jay L. Gischer:
It’s just unseemly to talk about, and you usually hear about from the estranged family members more than anyone.
I assure you there are lots of people who are thinking “I spent way too much time and energy on that shithead (or those ungrateful bastards, or whatever), I would have cut them off sooner if they weren’t family.”
@Gustopher:
Then there are the pricks who just cut them off, family or not.
@Michael Reynolds: You need a special airline? You can’t just buy the dog a seat? I can see a requirement to buy seats on either side of the dog, because you can’t assume your animal will be well behaved and lovely, even in a larger carrier. Even a “the dog needs a window seat so when we abandon it in an emergency it’s not in the way” rule.
But a special airline? Ridiculous.
I recall a cellist friend discussing having to buy a seat for her cello. Sure, a pug is likely more annoying than a cello, but it’s a lot smaller.
@Michael Reynolds:
Wow! Your world is very different from mine. What are we talking? About $40k one way?
Next time call me. I would gladly drive your dogs directly to Virginia for much much less. I love dogs. They would probably be happier with the drive than the flights.
I don’t mean to sound critical, congratulations on your success, but as you said it’s “stupid and wasteful”. What would Uber cost to Virginia with 2 dogs?
A while ago you commented about the difficulties of getting your dogs to Europe. Maybe you should try putting up a want ad on a sailing website. I’m pretty sure some captain would be willing to take them along for the right price.
@Gustopher:
Airlines no longer let dogs in the cabin unless they are under 22 pounds and fit under the seat. Believe me, we researched it.
@Scott O:
No, not 40K or even close, but not cheap. We did have to buy the dogs their own seats but it was in the hundreds not thousands. Now, Bark Air from SF and on to Lisbon? That is costly AF. But my wife is famously an animal lover. And since this money comes indirectly from her animal love, I just carry the bags, pick up the dog shit and mutter under my breath.
I wish I’d thought of the sailing things. Hmmm. We did try the Queen Mary 2 but their kennels are booked all year – lots of Americans heading over with pets.
@Scott O:
You can look at the Bark Air website to see how different.
@Michael Reynolds:
Apologies for overestimating the cost. A Google search told me $9k per hour for JSX but I guess that’s for a private or custom flight.
@Gustopher: Well, you have given me a nice reminder of how great my family is, in spite of the various skeletons lying about.
I think the most credit goes to my paternal grandmother, who died when I was 3, but she was clearly a powerful force in advancing decency and tolerance in the family. And in promoting big family get-togethers and picnics.