Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, January 3, 2026
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18 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.
So, one question: does Trump fly Maduro to the US and face legal challenges? Or, my guess, Guantanamo?
I’m done with making predictions.
I do wonder whether the goal is regime change, or to seize the oil fields in Venezuela. However Venezuelans feel about Maduro, they won’t take kindly to their biggest source of revenue being taken by a foreign power.
JFC, that escalated quickly. We. Have. Kidnapped. A. Foreign. Leader.
@Michael Reynolds: Maduro and his wife were indicted in the Southern District of New York federal court in March, 2020. Assorted drugs and weapons charges.
If Maduro’s acquitted, does he go back home and take up the throne again?
Just bumped over 78. Don’t feel a day over 77. At least not until tomorrow.
Thanks mom. RIP
@Kathy:
Presumably they would extradite him to Argentina, where there is also an outstanding arrest warrant. That one’s for crimes against humanity: disappearance, torture, murder, and persecution of dissidents.
Confession time:
Sometimes I’ll begin to write a comment here with a fair deal of background info, and then I realize I don’t really have a point to make about it, or haven’t reached a conclusion on the matter.
More often I begin to write a comment here and realize either 1) it requires too much background info to make it readable, or 2) I can’t quite find the way to make the point I want to make.
When any of the above happens, I quit the comment and go on to think some more about it.
@Gregory Lawrence Brown:
Happy birthday!
@CSK:..
Thank you!
remember the Texla diner adolf opened a few months ago?
It’s largely empty now.
What caught my eye, besides a follow up piece, was this bit: “… as part of an idea to have amenities for waiting drivers connected to Supercharger stations. ”
That’s not a bad idea at all. Charging an EV takes longer than filling up a gas tank. Therefore giving people something to do while the car charges, and charging them for it (no pun intended), would seem to be good business sense.
It seems to me, though, this might be a better idea to try on freeways and highways. We hear a lot about range anxiety with EVs, which make road trips at the least a source of anxiety. Having a network of chargers along the way, and a place to eat while the car charges, along with clean restrooms, would help matters.
But Texla is now an AI and robotics company. So who cares any more.
@Gregory Lawrence Brown: Happy birthday. I think we’re both safe as long as Keith Richards stays alive, he’s my human talisman.
@Gregory Lawrence Brown:
Happy birthday!
@Mr. Prosser:..
Just for you. This is the only clip that I can find.
Candy Slice Gimmie Mick, Gimme Mick
starts at 5:00 minutes in.
Gilda Radner RIP
@JohnSF:..
Thank You.
London has been on my bucket list ever since I read several Sherlock Holmes stories when I was living in San Francisco 50 years ago.
Not sure when I’ll make that trip.
@Gregory Lawrence Brown:
Have to say, have not visited London in some 40 years.
Be interesting to see how it’s changed.
New York is on my list.
But given current visa requirements, that may now never happen.
Oh well.
Rome gets bumped up the order instead.
@Mr. Prosser:
Five billion years in the future, aliens land on a dying Earh, where only crustaceans scutlle on the desert shores of a sluggish sea, under the red rays of a swollen sun.
Then, a wasted figure lounging against a rock stands up:
“Ello! ‘Ave you ‘eard this one?”
Incidentally re Venezuela implications:
The Cuban governement was bigging up its position as “security provider” and “anti Yankee bulwark”
And getting a massive assist from cheap oil from Venezuela in return for its support,
Havana now found swimming without trunks when the tide goes out?