Sunday Tabs
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, December 22, 2024
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6 comments
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).
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Trump’s Panama Canal comments are a continuation of his tactic of capturing the rostrum and holding the center of attention by saying outrageously stupid things. That’s his m.o., and it’s working.
@Slugger: Just like buying Greenland in his last term. And after all these years the supposedly liberal MSM still have no idea how to deal with it. Yes, what the prez, or prez elect, says is news. But maybe they could just collect his stupid shit for a week and do a Sunday summary and not jump all over it every day.
@gVOR10:..But maybe they could just collect his stupid shit for a week and do a Sunday summary and not jump all over it every day.
If they were competent they would begin all their Trump Dispatches:
Dateline…Stupid Shit…
@gVOR10:
Rightwing media also reports on all these Trumpian grandstands, but with a celebratory, high-five context. Trump feeds on both, the the fanfare and the horror.
Reportage or not, he’s going to do what he can get away with, and not all are empty threats. Nor should they be regarded as such. The man is not well.
Take back the Panama Canal, restore Mt. Denali’s former name, end the ACA, pardon the Jan 6th insurrectionists …. these kind of intemperate gestures speak less to efficient, functional government and more to one big, bitter ego. And pettiness.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/23/donald-trump-denali-america-tallest-mountain-rename-mount-mckinley
I think this is the real reason he has Panama on the mind: https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-companies-accused-tax-evasion-panama
His associates are mentioned frequently in the Paradise Papers, too, which also came from records in Panama: https://projects.icij.org/paradise-papers/the-influencers/#/