Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, February 8, 2026
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22 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.
About the upcoming big XpaceS XAI merger and IPO, there’s one other thing to keep in mind: Last year XAI acquired Xitter.
You may recall Adolf overpaid for Twitter back in 2022. He didn’t just write a check for $44 billion. He got “investors” aboard and also may have borrowed money. We know the value of Xitter dropped as users left and it became more of a wingnut cesspit, which must have delighted the investors involved, right?
But if neither Xitter nor the child porn image generator company are making a profit, what’s a broligarch to do? Why, merge both with his ISP that is making a profit (because it sells services people want to pay for).
Voila! Xitter’s investors get share of something that’s actually valuable.
I’m not saying this is the only motive (see the Michael Reynolds Principle on motivations), but it must be part of the overall strategy, such as it is. Remember neither profit nor productive enterprises that offer useful products or services are the goals of end stage capitalism. it’s all share value now.
All money to the oligarchs!
Some AI stuff:
“NonZero”
@charontwo: My hope is that even as more and more things in our life become fake, that people get a better sense of what is real and value it more.
I don’t have much more than hope, though.
Did I miss a post about Michael taking some time away from the site?
@Jen:
I believe he said he and Katherine were returning to the U.S.
@Kathy:
You gonna watch the Superbowl?
According to the Daily Beast, among the Epstein files was a draft document from the prosecutor's office announcing Epstein's death–a day before Epstein died.
This may mean nothing other than carelessness about dates in the prosecutor’s office. If it isn’t carelessness, however, then it’s a very big deal.
Epstein’s brother is being quite vocal about the fact he believes Jeffrey was murdered.
I’m sitting outside at the coffee shop, because apparently it’s outside weather in February, and there is a group meeting to discuss organizing their anti-ICE protesting security. One man, five women.
That man either has the worst sense of operation security, or he’s a fed gathering information.
I was suspicious when he was talking about burner phones and Graphene OS (never trust someone talking about burner phones unless they start with “it’s damn near impossible to keep them from getting linked to you by geographic data”). Now that he’s discussing vetting people, and how he wants their social security numbers. He’s very concerned about being infiltrated by people collaborating with the regime.
Also, I am sitting within easy listening distance, clearly visible, and appear to be taking notes. I could photograph all of them with the camera on my iPad.
“I don’t consume any mainstream news, I only consume independent YouTube journalists.”
Jesus Fucking Christ, the 25 year old “socialists” are not ok.
@CSK:
Is that today 😀
Actually I’m getting the week’s cooking out of the way, so I’ll be free to watch the game later.
@Gustopher: Oh, dear. I’ve fussed about this before, but I really think television and movie content has rotted people’s brains. My husband and I have been watching Homeland, and that show is absolutely chock-a-block full of the worst intel habits I’ve ever seen, and one of the biggest offenses is the chattering about highly classified material out in public with tons of people within earshot. Sigh.
@CSK: Yes, I recall that now, thank you!
@CSK:
@Kathy:
This kickoff at 11:30 pm is bullshit. For some unknown reason, YouTube turned off the pre-game stuff a half hour before kickoff. Just silence for 30 mins.
Also, looks like our PM might be getting shitcanned tomorrow.
@Beth:
Well, Starmer’s chief of staff called it quits today. Will Keir be far behind?
Did Dr. Oz recall his oath or something?
@CSK:
The two things I’m seeing a lot of is 1. The revolt he’s been facing for months is exploding, and 2. He’s called a press conference tomorrow.
I’d take my read with a fistful of salt though. I’ve spent the last year trying to figure things out here. But, man, Starmer is a charisma black hole. He’s like if you took Gavin Newsom, stripped out ALL the charisma and political smarts, and installed a thick marbling of old school racism*. That man is Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes in human form.
As an aside, if Starmer does make it past this week he’s done in May. There are elections that Labour will assuredly eat shit. I get to vote and I’d rather eat hot broken glass than vote for anyone in Labour. I’m guessing my heavily immigrant and hipster borough is gonna go Green.
*before he went full MAGA my English father worked to make his racism appear posh and noble. I didn’t understand just how racist he was until much later.
@Beth:
Your read seems pretty accurate to me.
Halftime take:
Defensive slog, surprisingly few penalties. The score does not reflect Seattle’s 183 yards on offense, though it does New England’s 51 yards. That’s a ferocious red zone defense, though.
Sometimes the second half turns into a different game. I hope this is one of those times.
The Pats lost. Shit.
My oh, My! San Francisco isn’t a shithole! Who knew?
@CSK: CSK, I wish you a full and happy life. May your every wish come true.
Except for the one where the Pats beat the Seahawks. That one I’m claiming. However, I would trade it in an instant to see the Mariners in the World Series.
Odd game. Somewhat reminiscent of last year, but more even in both stats and scores. Again, one team shut down the other for most of the game, and the attempted comeback in the 4th quarter was undone by turnovers.
New England should do well next year. That they went from a 4-13 record to a 14-3 one and a conference championship in back to back seasons, is nothing short of amazing.
@Jay L. Gischer:
Seems fair to me.