Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, February 22, 2026
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27 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.
First world problems not on anyone’s bingo card: Spending the night inside an A320
USA 2-Canada 1 OT
For the GOLD!
Take that, you Easterners!!
https://share.google/CcHmcGLgHRidjju11
Every so often I wonder why Trump won’t release the Epstein files if, as he claims, they “exonerate” him. Because he wants to protect other people? Nonsense. There’s no one whom Trump won’t throw under the bus to save or benefit himself.
Faux naive question: If the people Trump is protecting are pedophiles, why wouldn’t he want to see them behind bars???? After all, isn’t he supposed to be a man of God?
WTF? Everybody is reporting Trump is sending the USS Mercy, in his phrasing a “hospital boat”, to Greenland, to rescue the poor Greenlanders from free Danish medical care. At Digby’s place Tom Sullivan notes that a US submarine surfaced off Nuuk yesterday and a sailor was transported by Danish military helicopter to the hospital in Nuuk. For a boat (properly used here) to surface and disclose its location implies serious emergency.
How this is related to the hospital ship is unstated. I’ve not seen an ETA or current location for the Mercy, which was in dry dock in Mobile a month ago. I can imagine there are treatments not available in Greenland, pop. 60,000. But what can a hospital ship provide that wouldn’t be more expeditiously handled by flying the sailor to Walter Reed, or Ramstein, or Copenhagen? The sailor would be there by now. I can imagine treatments we would want to keep secret, radiation, pregnancy, COVID, etc. But surely they told the Danish doctors why emergency treatment was necessary.
@CSK:
And, per Q, on a mission (from God?) to destroy the deep state and it’s pedophile network.
@gVOR10:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/us/politics/trump-greenland-hospital-ship.html
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Leopards everywhere.
I should think this would have gotten more attention: “autonomous” vehicles require assistance from remote operators.
It seems the fake it til you make it ethos really has the faking part down.
@gVOR10: Trump and his sad excuse for a party couldn’t give half a shit about the tens of millions of Americans who can’t access adequate medical care, but he’ll send a whole-ass hospital ship to fucking Greenland, which actually has universal health insurance coverage.
@Mikey:
Actually he can’t. Comfort is in drydock until April, Mercy even longer.
https://digbysblog.net/2026/02/22/donald-trump-humanitarian-imperialist/
Both in Mobile, AL shipyard.
My guess, and it’s just a guess, is that whatever that sailor has, it makes flying inadvisable. They aren’t telling us what it is, because medical privacy, duh. (We’re lucky Trump didn’t ignore that part, because it’s very likely he knows. But then, maybe they didn’t tell him, and he didn’t care enough to ask.)
So they are sending a ship that they have ready as a substitute for the hospital ships, which is something I expect the Navy to do. All very normal.
However, such a simple and normal story of this will not do for Trump. It has to be outlandish and larger than life. (Well, or he could ignore it, but maybe he didn’t have much material.)
@charontwo:
It was not clear why Mr. Trump planned to assist Greenland with its health care.
It is seldom clear why Mr. Trump plans anything.
@Mikey: I applaud Trump’s acknowledging that the Federal government is responsible for the provision of healthcare. I do concur that unmet needs in the US should be a priority. America first! Send doctors to Mississippi, Idaho, and Nevada where the doctor/patient ratios are the worst.
Offering to send something unavailable seems in character for Trump.
@Jay L. Gischer:
Possibly something like a punctured lung. An acquaintance had a biking accident in Cape Verde a few years ago that resulted in a broken rib and punctured lung. He needed to stay on the island for 5-6 weeks till it healed enough for him to safely fly.
@CSK:
“It is seldom clear why Mr. Trump plans anything.”
It’s even more seldom clear whether Mr. Trump plans anything.
@Kathy:
Everything ok there? I saw on Bluesky that something bad was happening?
So, we were just debating an invitation to a lit festival in Guadalajara. Were not sure whether to say yes or no. And now we have our answer.
@Beth:
A cartel is openly at war against government forces. Americans are being told to shelter in place. The cartel has Puerto Vallarta airport occupied and are putting up roadblocks around the city.
@Beth:
I’d no idea until now. I was busy in the kitchen. I’m trying to catch up. It seems all the trouble is on the western part of the country, far away from here.
Thanks for asking.
@Michael Reynolds:
@Kathy:
Yikes. I’m glad you’re safe. That sounds like some heavy shit went down. And his head was the price of keeping the U.S. out.
I wonder what people will do when the price of drugs starts spiking. Trump just ruined cheap coke.
It’s unclear to me why anyone would want to send a 1,000 bed hospital ship to Greenland. The big amphibious assault ships have sizeable medical facilities, I believe with six operating rooms and 64 beds; overflow to almost 600 beds. There’s the new USNS Cody that is, among other things, a role 2 medical facility. Role 2 sits between first responders and comprehensive hospitals.
Poking about the internet, it appears the big hospital ships are too big for Nuuk Harbor, even if they were available. The assault ships probably fit; cruise ships about the same size dock in Nuuk. The Cody would definitely fit. OTOH, putting any of those in Nuuk Harbor for an extended stay would play hell with the commercial traffic. Also, the harbor has been known to ice over, so any of the USN ships might have to withdraw as far as the fjord outside the harbor if that happens.
@Michael Cain:
Not to mention the icebergs.
If Cody is underway, it will take about a week to get to Nuuk from Virginia (assuming that’s where Cody is).
And it’s doubtful if it has any better medical faclities than the Queen Ingrid’s Hospital.
All told, it looks like Trump is being Trump.
Again.
“It’s kayfabe, baby!”
@Beth:
Way past time to legalize drugs and treat addiction as the health problem it is.
@CSK: I can believe it as a reflexive response, one drilled into him from his real-estate past. Back when he was a developer he never blamed the bankers for his failures. Everyone else, yes, but never the people who gave him money.
Big commercial development is a game really being played by the banks (of various sorts), who use “developers” as a buffer for public outrage and public perception of “bankers run everything”. All outrage, if it comes, is directed at the developers.
Now and then, I hear that LLMs give completely illogical answers. Here are two I tried:
1) Prompt: The car wash is 100 meters away from here. Should I walk or drive there?
Answer: If it’s only 100 meters, you’re basically choosing between a one‑minute stroll and starting the car for a trip shorter than a city block. In most cases, walking is the simpler, faster, and more pleasant option — no parking, no engine warm‑up, no fuss.
2) Prompt: I was given a coffee mug. The top is sealed, and the bottom is open. Worse, the handle is on the left side, and I’m right handed. What should I do with it?
Answer: It sounds like someone handed you an object that technically resembles a mug but functionally behaves more like a conceptual art piece. A sealed top, an open bottom, and a handle on the “wrong” side for your dominant hand — that’s not a mug, that’s a philosophical prompt disguised as drinkware.
The bot also suggests this fix: Add a bottom (wood, cork, resin). Drill open the top. Reorient the handle. But honestly, at that point you’re basically building a new mug.
Prompt: What if I just flip it over?
Answer: Flipping it over is actually the most elegant solution — and also the funniest, because it instantly transforms the “mug” into something that finally obeys the laws of physics.
and then it says this:
Once flipped, it can function as:
– A pencil cup
– A small planter
– A toothbrush holder
– A quirky container for anything except liquids
– A desk totem reminding you that life is sometimes designed incorrectly
It becomes a philosophical victory
You’ve outsmarted the mug.
You’ve refused to accept its original, nonsensical orientation.
You’ve asserted dominance over a piece of pottery.
Honestly, flipping it over might be the most satisfying thing you do with it.
If you want to get even more creative, I’m curious what the mug looks like — is it intentionally absurd, or just poorly designed?
“I’m not worried ChatGPT can do my job. I’m worried some manager thinks ChatGPT can do my job.”
@Kathy:
Ah, “Hotel California” protocol. Everybody hates that.