Sunday Morning Tabs
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, February 16, 2025
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32 comments
- Speaking of Alabama (start it for the NIH talk, stay to the end for the Tuberville nonsense):
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor 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.
Re the Gulf of Mexico issue: you say “[Trump] has the legal right” to change the name to Gulf of America.
Does he? The Gulf of Mexico is international waters. At most Trump can rename a portion of it that falls within 12 nautical miles of our coasts. Looking at a map, it’s clear that more of Mexico’s coasts border on the waters than ours.
Here’s another long read from ProPublica on USAID concerning Peter Marocco, the Trump appointed head of USAID:
Trump Official Destroying USAID Secretly Met With Christian Nationalists Abroad in Defiance of U.S. Policy
Guarantee that Russ Vought, a radical Christian Nationalist is behind Marocco. And guarantee that the far right Christian Nationalists are collaborating with Russians and are engaged in borderline treason.
Hey, rename the Gulf yourself !
I’m partial to this one:
@Not the IT Dept.:
IIRC, there are a large number of international border and navigation agreements that reference the Gulf of Mexico. It seems unlikely that those will get changed.
@Not the IT Dept.: He has the right to determine what the US calls it. The same way Obama renamed Mt. McKinley. Different countries often call different geographical features by different names. The linked piece spells it all out.
@Michael Cain: They won’t.
Biggest jackass in the Senate: Tommy Tuberville.
@Scott: Dodik had additional sanctions placed on him this past December during the last days of Biden’s administration.
Back in 2012:
More recently in 2024:
There are legions of ultra-nationalists woven into the social fabric of Europe, especially in the territorially conflicted areas to the east. Apparently the impetus has now jumped “the Pond.” And criminality seems to go hand-in-hand, here as there.
@Steven L. Taylor: The same way Obama renamed Mt. McKinley.
Actually, not at all the way Obama did it. He did it at the request of the state of Alaska, which had wanted it done for several years. Trump did it on a whim.
@CSK: he may well the dumbest member of Congress ever.
@Not the IT Dept.: Read the piece. The legal authority is the same. I am not sure why you want to argue over this.
I am obviously not defending the move. But I also have to accept reality.
@Not the IT Dept.:
@Steven L. Taylor: The legal authority is the same. I am not sure why you want to argue over this.
Because I’m not sure why you can’t just acknowledge that there’s a difference between a well-thought out and locally supported change, and the whim of an authoritarian. In English, the name is the Gulf of Mexico. In Spanish, I’m sure it’s something else that doesn’t concern me. As an American, I’d like our President to stop doing dick things that embarrass the country.
If Trump wakes up tomorrow and decides Montana should be renamed “Wild-Horsey-Giddy-Up-Land”, would that be acceptable to Americans, regardless of the legal authority?
@Steven L. Taylor:
I’m aghast at the things Tuberville says, starting with insisting on being addressed as “coach” rather than “senator.” It’s clear which he thinks is more important. What an embarrassment for Alabama.
@Not the IT Dept.: I think we’d all agree that there’s a big difference between Obama and Trump’s use of that power. The problem with Our Awful Age is how easily abused this and other powers are.
@Not the IT Dept.:
Personally, I think obsessing over this is exactly why he did it. Yes, it’s petty. But that works both ways, no? In the grand scheme of things, it’s an annoyance that can be reversed. In the short-term, those who are less engaged just see two sides being petty. They see two children claiming the other started it.
Hammer them on things that have real effects and will be harder to fix.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Senate–probably.
The House has a couple members who beg to differ. But I’ll admit that even the dimmer Dem members are a step up from coach.
@CSK:
Our estimable host aside, I don’t think Alabama feels particularly embarrassed by Tuberville.
@Not the IT Dept.:
You can be really prickly sometimes for reasons I do not understand.
I get it: you are with Trump over this (so am I!).
But you are both ignoring what I wrote, do not appear to have read the article, and are using me as proxy for the people you are really annoyed with.
Do I deserve this? No. Could you afford me a bit of grace and try to see what I am saying? That would be nice.
Even my annotation in the OP did not defend anything. It was noting the Feds can do what they did while acknowledging on the one hand the legality of it all but also noting there has to be a line at which people won’t comply.
For Heaven’s sake, I have called Trump a fascist and an authoritarian repeatedly. Can you not read what I write in this broader context?
@Kurtz: It is a real contest. I find MTG, for example, to be execrable, but have no doubt she is smarter than Tuberville. I think even Boebert is smarter.
@gVOR10: I suspect that somewhere between 35%-40%+ are embarrassed.
@Steven L. Taylor:
This was the person I had in mind.
I will admit, most of what I see about Tuberville is highlighted here at OTB. You live in that state. So, I’ll defer.
I agree with Steven on the Gulf of Mexico/America. It’s dumb and petty and will likely be reversed when the next Democrat takes office (also true of most other Trump executive actions, BTW). But ultimately it’s of no consequence compared to what else is going on. The WH retaliating against the AP for not calling it the “Gulf Of America” is a much bigger deal than the name change itself which was done legally.
But in terms of the bigger picture, it’s part and parcel of a belief among idealogues that language is a weapon and that forcing people to (or trying to) say certain things or use certain terms and names is good, necessary, and even righteous. Most of it is just dumb virtue signaling and ought to be ignored with a condescending eye-roll. Activists, the government, or any group can’t actually control language despite their attempts to do so, and Trump’s dumb “Gulf of America” is no different.
@Steven L. Taylor:
So, not enough to correct the problem. That’s too bad. 🙁
@just nutha: Nope! There are rumblings he may run for Governor.
@Steven L. Taylor: Oh. How lucky for all y’all. Just what the state needs.
@Andy:
Agreed.
And to be clear: I think that the name change itself is dumb.
@just nutha: Indeed.
@Steven L. Taylor: Could you afford me a bit of grace and try to see what I am saying? That would be nice.
You first.
@Steven L. Taylor:
All because he’s a goddam football coach. This makes him some kind of genius statesman?
I remember one of Nick Saban’s fans saying that Saban wasn’t God, but almost. This is just nuts. Grow the hell up. Not you, Dean Taylor, obviously.
The official presidential photo is almost identical to the Georgia mug shot. I go to my local VAMC fairly often but I haven’t been in since he took over. In the past I noticed a lot of patients/clients would walk in and flip off the portraits of Obama and Biden. I wonder how long before our medical benefits get curtailed and they start flipping off the mug shot/portrait on the wall now.
@Not the IT Dept.: I understand that it was a whim on Trump’s part. And the piece that I linked noted why Obama did what he did.
To be clear: I didn’t ever say they were morally equivalent, just legally so. But it should be clear that I am not approving, to include the OP.
Hopefully that is sufficient.
I honestly do not understand why you are being so recalcitrant about all of this.