Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, May 3, 2026
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10 comments
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).
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Odd fact of the day:
There’s an Onion Futures Act in the US. It forbids trading in onion futures, as well as movie box office futures.
@Kathy: The Chicago Mercantile Exchange sued to challenge the restriction, lost in District Court, and declined to appeal the decision.
This is how we know that this didn’t happen today. Who doesn’t appeal, or try to appeal their case?
We are moving, again. Just across town this time, from 2 bedroom hi-rise condo to suburban 5/4 with a casita, a pool and a distant view of The Strip. In the 46 years my wife and I have been together we have lived in Texas (1 home), Maine (2), Massachusetts (1), Maryland (5), Virginia (2), Tennessee (1) Florida (3), North Carolina (2), Illinois (1), Minnesota (3), California (5), Italy (1), Portugal (1) and Nevada (soon to be 2). That’s 29 homes in 11 states and 2 foreign countries. Just a hair over 1.5 years per home. I’m not counting extended stays in motels, short-term apartments, most of a year in a dorm or time living on the street.
Before meeting Katherine I lived in California (8), Iowa (1), Florida (3), Louisiana (1), France (2), Virginia (2), Portugal (2), Maryland (2) and DC (1). Not a complete list – I’ve forgotten some of the moves both before and after Katherine.
Since we’re trying to make this move quickly the net result is that about 70% of our stuff is in one Public Storage space, another 10% in another Public Storage space, and 20% in the mostly empty condo, where we are for another 2 weeks.
Katherine goes off on book tour Monday, back in two weeks at which point we will have four days to perform the last move, before we have a week of family shit to deal with in Marin County followed by immediately flying to Portugal to spend 2 months there and sweat how the fuck we’re getting ourselves and our dogs repatriated in a world without jet fuel.
I’m 71 and a bit depressed that I never lived in New York City, which seems like something we should have done. We thought about it but NYC is where editors and other writers are and we live in dread of having to be sociable.
Here’s what I have learned: moving, no matter how experienced you are, or even how much money you have, is always, always, always a fucking pain in the fucking ass.
That said, I still want to live in London at some point, as well as Amsterdam, Paris and Nice, before probably ending up back where I was spawned: Los Angeles. At my age it’s a race against time.
@Michael Reynolds:
Got no time for spreadin’ roots
The time has come to be gone
And thoough our health we drank a thousand times
It’s time to ramble on
Remember a Seinfeld ep where George subs for the gentleman who moved cars on the block from one side of the street to the other for some reason? British Airways is looking for someone to do just that in Chicago.
Well, moving airplanes, not cars, and from one terminal to another, not across the street.
So, the piece mentions BA flights arrive in one terminal and then depart from another. It doesn’t say why.
Just thought I’d note a few things in the news of late that seem to be not getting all the attention they deserve:
In Mali the position of the miliatary junta in the north seems to be collapsing, and even around the capital, Bamako, their position is looking shaky.
The Russian “Africa Corps” is being rather predictably incompetent when it comes to serious combat, as opposed to looting, raping, extorting, and massacring villagers.
The position of the other two members of the military coup-club, Burkina Faso and Niger, are also lokking a bit iffy.
Who know, perhaps they’d have done better to listen to the French when they advised against a policy of repression of the discontented areas?
The problem is, that if jihadist groups control large areas of Mali etc, there is a likelihood of expanding violence into neighbouring states.
The “southern tier” of West Africa have states that are stronger, and generally more sensible, but can do without the Sahel as a reservoir and refuge foe jihadis.
In addition, the larger Sahel, from Mali to Sudan and South Sudan, including northern Congo, looks to possibly face collapse into a whole belt of failing states and chaos.
Neither Europe nor the US have serious forces or attention to spare from their more immediate problems of Russia and the Middle East respectively.
In the Gulf, the departure of the UAE from OPEC apperars to indicate a deeper underlying breach with Saudi Arabia. The Suadi’s seem inclined to favour a compromise peace, are dubious about US policy, suspcious of Israeli belligerence, and realise Iran is unlikely to conveniently disappear. They seem to looking for a regional alliance involving Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, etc.
UAE meanwhile seems to be doubling down on aligning with the US and Israel.
Meanwhile, Somali pirates have decided this is a fine time to start hijacking oil tankers.
If I were they, I’d be cautious about this, given the irritated moods in a lot of capitals right not, but pirates gonna pirate, I suppose.
Israel meanwhile is showing it’s amazing ability to “win friends and influence people” by purchasing grain from Russia originating in occuppied Ukraine. It appears Ukraine has complained about this privately, but been repeatedly told “full details are required” then “Oops, cargo sold and offloaded, too late now, sorry!”
In short, Israel has been taking the piss; probably due to the private connections between Israeli traders and Russian oligarchs. And perhaps to Netanyahu’s inclination to poke the EU in the eye.
At any rate, Ukraine ran out of patience with the duplicity, and now Israel is now feigning grievance, and angling for US support.
Israel may well get away with it, given US support. But it continues to build up red entries in its international ledger, which is a rather reckless thing to do, given its general situation.
Ukraine, meanwhile, continues to hammer Russian oil refineries, terminals, and tankers.
Russia seems to be appealing to the “international community” in general and Trump in particular to rein in Ukraine
The problem there being, Kyiv seems increasingly disinclined to give a tuppeny damn about what Washington may think, and Europe seems unlikely to undercut what seems to be an increasingly effective Ukrainian operation.
Especially as the Trump administration is busily wrecking US relations with Germany because Trump is having a tantrum about Chancellor Merz observing, entirely accurately, that the US is being humiliated by Iran re. securing the Straits of Hormuz.
“If you tell the emperor he has no clothes, he’ll just have a hissy fit! Just praise his orange-painted magnificence!”
On more serious aviation news, remember the China Eastern airlines 737 that crashed in 2022? The Chinese civil aviation authority refused to disclose the results of the investigations, on the grounds that it would “endanger national security and societal stability”.
A few days ago, the NTSB released the flight data recorder readout, in response to a FOIA request.
It shows both engines were switched off, through the now infamous fuel cut-off switches, the autopilot was disconnected, and the control column was pulled hard left and pushed forward, putting the plane into an inverted barrel roll.
In other words, it was one of the two pilots that crashed the plane on purpose.
A crumb of comfort can be had that the 737 NG family is not prone to sudden uncontrolled nose dives
@Michael Reynolds:
Do it anyway.
Just don’t tell them, and wear a ridiculous disguise, and if ever confronted just claim to be someone else. Preferably while speaking in an awful French accent.
“Wot? Who is zis Michel le Grant? J’amapelle Augustine St. Boulevard, and moi petite et lovely wife Soufflé.”
@Michael Reynolds:
New York and London are the only real rivals for “world city”.
Personally though, I’d go for Paris for the class, Amsterdam for the cool, Nice for the weather.
I have to admit envying you for the options.
lol.
Tempted to list a lot of cities you really don’t want to move to.
Dubai?
Moscow?
@JohnSF:
We are both positively phototropic – we gravitate toward sunlight. On the other hand, we are violently opposed to humidity, so that does for Dubai. Also, I’m in Vegas where we already have plenty of faux cityscapes and greed.
Grabbing a random list of best cities. Time Out:
Melbourne. Absolutely. I was there for a couple days. A very nice vibe.
Shanghai. In this political climate, no. Our daughter is Chinese and occasionally suggests tracking down her birth parents. If she decides she wants to go, I’ll help.
Edinburgh. I love Ediburgh, been there half a dozen times, mostly to pimp books. But the weather.
London. Can I fly to Spain or Mallorca or Madeira to see the sun? Like most Brits? Top of my list.
New York. I’m torn. It feels like a cramped apartment. OTOH, The Comedy Store. And the food, sweet Jesus, the entire world’s food concentrated in one place. On the other other hand, I have a sense memory of a howling, freezing winter’s day in Manhattan. And publishing is there.
Cape Town. Hmmm. Interesting.
Mexico City. I don’t know enough to have an opinion.
Bangkok. For a year, definitely. But the noise and disorder would get to me. Also the humidity. But the food!
Seoul. No. Weather, insular culture, Nork artillery.
Tokyo. Apparently they shut down the Robot Restaurant of Kabukicho which I – and Anthony Bourdain – named the greatest show ever. The politeness got on my nerves. I would never do well in such a rule-oriented society.
Also, no to Singapore for humidity though I’d love to visit and we have an open invitation to visit the American schools there. Sydney yes. Wellington for a year just to hear Kiwis turn all vowels into ‘i’s’. Saigon for a year. Buenos Aires, Paris, Nice, Barcelona, Seville, San Sebastian (again: the food), Porto, Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Vancouver, Toronto, Reykjavik (for six months – it’s sweet but small.)
So two things are clear: I need to earn more and live to 100.