Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, August 11, 2024
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59 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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To paraphrase Adam savage: There’s their problem!
When you look at the top ten green card recipients by country of origin, you see not one European country. Remember when the felon complained about legal immigrants from trumphole countries?
This is one fundamental problem with racism, when you don’t judge people by what they do but rather on shallow, irrelevant metrics.
Why would someone who lives in a wealthy European country want to come here for anything more than a visit? Marriage is one reason (my wife’s)(and Spain was an economic backwater with a fascist govt at that time) A 2nd reason is…. Easy access to guns?
@Kathy: There is a dwindling list of countries from where a person can migrate to the U.S. and have a better experience. And even most of those countries have things like universal health care.
The Republican plan to solve the immigration issue is to create an emigration issue.
I have been thinking about policy a lot lately, and I think we need to shift our focus.
The right-wing has become very good at getting us to go play in the corner on specific issues as a distraction technique. They’ll implement abortion restrictions, then watch as we go and fight about which day a zygote becomes a human. Or they’ll get us fighting about how long the barrel of a rifle needs to be in order to qualify as one class of weapon or another.
I want to move away from fighting these little skirmishes and take the fight to them in a way that will set us up for the future, and cause the American people to be dismissive of the crazies before they even take a foothold.
This approach might mean things like adopting the Australian law about compulsory voting, shutting down the home-schooling industry, creating a federal civics curriculum that explains our system of government in a neutral, age-appropriate way throughout K-12, brutally bashing religion out of our government – starting with the full taxation of religious businesses, restoring some flavor of the fairness doctrine to shut down lying “news” businesses, implementing a truth-in-advertising scheme similar to that of the U.K., and pushing harder on net neutrality.
Democracy depends on perfect information, delivered perfectly.
Education, done well, will innoculate us against the next Trump.
@OzarkHillbilly:
@Tony W:
Beyond economic factors, I suppose there are several reasons why someone might emigrate to the US. But the big two drivers of wholesale emigration are living standards and security. This goes back a long way in history, and it’s even in the Bible (Jacob’s family moving to Egypt).
As to Spain, during Franco’s rule, a lot of Spaniards moved to Mexico and other Latin American countries. No idea how many went to the US during that time.
I just realized that Joe got the same treatment he gave the Ukrainian prosecutor
The Democrat donors basically said:
Karma
@JKB: Joe Biden withdrew on his own. Nobody forced him – because nobody *could* force him.
If not for his selfless, heroic act, we could just have two old men fighting over the Oval Office, but Joe withdrew for the good of the country.
And the whole situation has really gotten under Trump’s peel. Which I find amusing.
@Kathy:
There have been thousands and thousands of these.
@JKB:..karma…
Everyone who thinks that karma (whatever that is) had anything to do with President Biden withdrawing his candidacy please raise your hand.
@JKB:
Ah, I do love waking up to MAGAt gibberish. Still haven’t been told what to think and say, you childless cat man? Of course that’s because cult leader – three weeks in – still hasn’t figured it out, and it’s not like you’d have an independent analysis, let alone generate an independent response. This particular stupidity is, I’m gonna guess, something someone on Twitter said, and you don’t have the wit to realize it’s just stupid.
BTW, Kamala was just here in Vegas. 5,000 people were in line and unable to get in because the stadium was full to bursting. Trump is going to lose, and badly. So badly his attempts to steal the election will be laughed off. And people like you? Remember what happened to Koreshis who survived? Neither do I.
I assure you, no swing voter cares how it went down. It’s Trump vs Harris now and too bad if that has gotten under Trump’s thin skin.
@Mister Bluster:
IMO, the Felon’s campaign servers being hacked is a better example of karma.
It’s also damned funny.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I know some scientists who have come to the US for opportunities. We don’t fund science well, but there are generally more and better options here than smaller European countries. The adjustment to our health care system is usually not smooth..
@Kathy: There’s a story about how a Danish hacker figured out Trump’s Twitter password back in the day – because it was “yourefired”.
So then Trump’s people came to him and said that he needed to use something with letters and numbers and symbols – something like “MAGA2020!”.
So he changed his password, literally, to “MAGA2020!”, and the Danish white-hat figured that one out too, but it took two tries to guess it.
This is the guy that the Rs want to put back in charge of our National Security infrastructure. The guy who stored classified material in the bathroom at Merde-a-Lardo.
No thank you.
I’m intrigued by Trump’s reaction going forward as he sees his inevitable loss looming. He’s been counting on winning to stay out of jail. Since Trump’s pet Supremes decided that presidents are kings, Trump, being the paranoid fuckwit he is, will be afraid that Biden will order his arrest as soon as the election results are in.
I think there is a non-zero chance that Trump will drop out of the race if it’s the only way to avoid actually having his ass handed to him by a Black woman.
More likely, he loses badly, peddles his usual lies about cheating, and flees to a safe place rather than face likely incarceration. Possible destinations: Florida to be protected by DeSantis, Russia, or Qatar, where he can be neighbors with whoever’s the latest guy in charge of Hamas.
He will almost certainly launch his own cryptocurrency. He may try a TV series in which he pretends to still be president, complete with an Oval Office set. And he and Elon will create a Trump AI which will be used to generate more, “Sir, sir,” stories.
And of course, within two years Melania will be seeking a conservatorship on the grounds that Trump is no longer mentally competent to manage his finances. Don Jr. will try to buy a sports team, fail, then check into rehab for his cocaine problem. Eric will open a restaurant, off-strip, here in Vegas and when that fails, he’ll run for governor, and fail. Ivanka will take her husband’s name and claim she was never really a Trump.
JD Vance’s story about yelling at his son revealed an interesting bit of information (beyond him being a moron). His son is watching Pokémon. In Evangelical circles, this is a BIG no no– Pokémon is, they believe, somehow Satanic.
Had he actually been a part of this tribe–he would have known and left that detail out of the story.
@Jim Brown 32:
We ran into some of that mentality back in the 90’s. We were showing characters becoming animals. So, you know, Satan.
@Michael Reynolds: I wonder if Trump might try to make a deal for a Presidential pardon? If he’s winning, he has no reason to bargain. If he’s losing he has nothing to bargain with. But if the odds were, say, 60/40 against him, I could see him trying.
test…
Success! Let me know if others see the edit button back!
Random musings….
1. The USA/Serbia men’s Olympic semifinal baseketball game was one of the best games of all time, any league, and place, any time. Both teams played their hearts out and it was shame to see one team have to lose. Also, France played the USA tough in the gold medal game. The world is catching up to USA Basketball.
2. Having been in LA for the 1984 Olympics, I can’t want for 2028. We crushed it last time, and will again.
3. My sister, in AZ, who has NEVER been politically motivated, is a volunteer for the Harris/Walz campaign, working almost 20 hours a week already in AZ for the campaign.
4. Two friends in Vegas went the the Harris/Walz event yesterday in Vegas. Photo’s don’t do justice to the crowds (their words. not mine.). Many, many were turned away. People came out in 106 degree weather and waited for hours outside for a chance go get in.
5. The betting markets – people who actually put money on the line – have Harris up to a 59% probability of winning.
test
No EDIT key here…
All set on the Harmony of the Seas, waiting to get underway. Of course, some old White dude is walking through the Windjammer buffet wearing a “Trump Save America” cap. Six thousand passengers, multiple countries and nationalities represented. This guy is definitely making a statement. What privileged balls this guy has.
Phone test.
@Michael Reynolds:
Looks like you’re working on the outline of your next thriller, MR.
No EDIT key on iPhone.
@Mister Bluster:
Thanks for the update. I’m hoping that might be a caching/cookie problem.
I’m still seeing it on the desktop version.
MacBook Air laptop test.
Lemme see …
Nope, no edit on phone at least.
No EDIT key on my MacBook Air laptop running Chrome.
Looking for Mister Edit Key on my MacBook Air using Version 12.1.2 (12607.3.10).
Recent post at 14:20 corrected:
Looking for Mister Edit Key on my MacBook Air using Safari (edit) Version 12.1.2 (12607.3.10).
No EDIT key
@Tony W:
Sorry, that one doesn’t pass the sniff test — it requires that Trump know how to spell “you’re”.
@Mister Bluster:
Dagnabbit!
Testing for edit key.
No edit key on Chromebook.
Testing on my desktop windows 10 and firefox web browser
I can edit.
@Matt Bernius:..
I occasionally get prompts from the computer gods that I should download current editions of my Mac OS and the Chrome browser that I use. Don’t know if this would affect the implementation of the EDIT key. Maybe technical reports from OTB denizens with more up to date systems would be a better test of your efforts to fix the EDIT key.
GB
Test
Nothing here on my IPad.
test edit key
nope, don’t see – desktop Dell, chrome, Win 11
@EddieInCA:
Both the Serbian and French team had current and past NBA players. The Serbia vs USA match was a good watch for sure.
Edit key test: DuckDuckGo Browser on an iPad
No joy
Trying again after using DuckDuckGo’s “Clear Data” function
Nope
Safari browser on an iPad
Thanks for the feedback all.
Well keep working on that.
Engineer at Tesla trying to backtrack on the whole “we’re not going to sell the basic trim Cybertruck anymore.” Oh no, they still plan to sell it….down the pipeline sometime.
Looks like Musk is still trying to wring as much money as possible out of the Musk stans. I suspect we’ll see that basic model at the same time we see working ADAS level 4 FSD. Which means to say…never.
@JKB
Except President Biden is still president.
I’m unaware of any law, convention, or customary practice, that requires a sitting president to run for a second term if they don’t want to.
See also Presidents Johnson, Truman, Coolidge, Theodore Roosevelt, etc.
And then Vice President Biden was hardly alone in wanting chief prosecutor Shokin booted; the Rada was moving to a vote of no confidence against Yatsenyuk’s government out of sheer disgust at his mixture of incompetence and connivance in corruption.
@JohnSF:
Also: no edit button, Chrome on Win7.
@EddieInCA:
I have a relative in North Carolina who, with his adult age daughter, recently signed up to work for the Harris-Walz ticket. Over 3 weeks ago he saw no chance for Biden. It’s on.
@Kathy:..a better example of karma.
Yeah, karma is one of those things that people make up as they go along. Like invisible angels. Because there’s nothing really there.
Apparently a photo of Vance in drag has emerged
As anybody could have predicted.
@Tony W:..in drag…
Vivian Vance?
@DeD:
I’m actually doing something I’ve never tried to do. I’m starting with nothing but a word. “Feral.” I’m paying no attention to the market. And I’m writing in first present, which I’ve never done. My default is third past, and a lot of first past. And once in third present. Even more improvisational than I usually am. Also playing with super short chapters. And it may be kind of a riff on Peter Pan, or not, I haven’t decided yet. Also I think there may be nudity. And magical realism.
What I’m saying is, thank god my wife is making bank.
@Tony W:
That is not drag, it is misogyny.
The guy is clowning around, mocking women, not trying to pass as one.
Misogynist asshole to his core.