Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, February 16, 2025
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26 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’ve nothing to say” is not a comment.
Or is it?
Dr. Evil and his mini-he
Make of it what you will.
@Rob1:
This is the kid who told Trump to shut up while his father was speaking.
Easy – The Commodores
(Like Sunday Morning)
Obama created framework under which DOGE is operating., set the laws governing access to agency data, got it funded as an ongoing program. Trump and Elon just gave it a mission to good for the American People instead of running cover for bureaucrat failures like the Obamacare website.
Sweet.
@JKB: What is God’s name is your point? That one president established a government office with a specific purpose, and now Trump has taken that office, renamed it, and used it for an entirely different purpose, so that when American citizens start suffering because of Musk’s evil and illegal cuts you can crow that it’s really all Obama’s fault?
This is pathetic even for you, and that’s saying a lot.
@JKB: Yes, I too, believe every “expert” I read on Twitter/X.
@wr:
@Jax:
It may be that Ford Prefect got it wrong. It’s not when they stop talking that their brains begin to work, but when they stop lying.
@wr: Doge has flop sweat dripping off it. JKB is programmed for damage control now.
@Rob1:
The linked article speculates about why Musk is bringing this particular kid to so many public events. I’ll suggest it’s the best way to make sure the kid doesn’t give any interviews to the press while Daddy’s not looking. Kid seems to have quite a bit on his mind these days.
@Jax:
I’m going to ignore the original thing other than to say some people see the word “lawyer” and think that it automatically implies “expert.”
We have one of those “who” people here. It’s frustrating.
—
I scrolled up to see the context. It was posted on a Musk re-tweet of a pro-natalist interview. I was looking at the replies and found this:
That describes both Trump and Musk. I naturally thought it was a Dem. Nope. Trump fan.
QED.
@Mister Bluster: Serves as a chill pill — or a sardonic counterpoint to all this. I’ll take it as the former and sign off for the rest of this sunny Sunday. Cheers.
—- and leave you with one, Bill Withers Lovely Day. Gonna go find my “lovely day.” She’s somewhere in the house.
https://youtu.be/bEeaS6fuUoA?si=SYvyaXTMKfSi-VUH)
Firing a couple of dozen immigration judges means even less due process, if that wasn’t already obviously the direction.
@JKB:
So according to this propaganda on Musks social media dumpster, the name has changed, the mission has changed, its funding has been increased, and it is no longer under the OMB. Other than that, it’s exactly the same.
Why are all you MAGAts such gullible ijits?
@Kurtz:
What the chief nazi does is reproductive abuse.
Of course, this type of behavior is common among chimpanzees.
@Daryl:
If they weren’t they wouldn’t be MAGA.
@JKB: Ha. You know the reckless, incompetent Musk presidency is flailing when Republicans are already trying to blame it on the black guy.
President Doughboy attended the race in Daytona, today.
It was halted after 11 laps.
Just sayin’.
@Daryl:
He also attended the Super Bowl, picking KC and lying about Tuberville’s connection to Mahomes.
KC was summarily annihilated by Philly.
I don’t think I’d want Doughboys attendance at a sporting event I was involved in.
@Daryl:
Next year there’s the FIFA Snoozefest in his turf. He should totally go. maybe they’ll cancel the whole thing, or even end the sport altogether! 😉
Janet Yellen – master bond trader
https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2025/02/14/venture-capitalist-tells-megyn-kelly-why-trump-admin-faces-uphill-battle-tackling-us-debt/
@Connor: Dude…seriously…you’re linking to the Daily Caller??? Why not a Marvel Comic book? Sorry, graphic novel.
@Ken_L: If memory serves, you live in Australia, correct? Pardon the intrusion, but are you in the Sydney area? There’s a reason for my question, aside from curiosity. But feel free to not answer it – I won’t take offense.
@Daryl: No, comic book is correct. Most Marvel and DC graphic novels are compilations.
@Kurtz:
https://youtu.be/UvrJ-P1ofgE?si=iwdKVt8PJ4wo-FYs
Hands down best movie about lawyers ever. We’re not experts, we’re priests at the Temple of Janitors.
The founding people of the US Digital Service (which has been transformed by Trump into the DOGE) are people I know, or at least know of.
They were brought in, not to “cover”, but to fix the issues of the Obamacare rollout, which went badly, it’s true.
I read in detail their reports of what they saw and what they did. I read followups about what else they were doing. I liked it.
This is such a perfect example of how messed up people’s epistemology is right now. They have such terrible instincts for sifting out what’s true.
For instance, I’ve been deluged with ads on YouTube for all kinds of miracle cures. Every last one of them is made to look like someone just picked up a phone and started filming by talking into it. I assure you, that’s not what happened. It’s meant to seem “authentic”, which apparently people weight much higher than any “I’m an expert” or even “I was there”.
So much trash in the information environment right now, and such poor methods to sift through it.
My favorite is “this one trick with salt” that will make your dick bigger and is “much better than the blue pill”. If you watch carefully, even though the women talking in these ads are saying the lines, the audio is dubbed by some sort of text-to-speech. WTF?