Tax Day Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
·
22 comments
OTB relies on its readers to support it. Please consider helping by becoming a monthly contributor through Patreon or making a one-time contribution via PayPal. Thanks for your consideration.
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 guess most of you will have seen this already:
Hungary’s New Leader Reveals Viktor Orbán Was Paying CPAC
But what I haven’t seen reported in connection with this is that Orbán was Putin’s bag man for the global far-right.
Which makes it all but certain that CPAC has been indirectly funded by Russia.
Remember that when these assholes start talking about “America First.”
@drj: As the old folks back in the country would say: we been knew.
VP Eyeliner;
I’m pretty sure Hitler attacked Poland, without provocation, just as Fatso attacked Iran without provocation. I know Vance was a diversity admission to Yale but he should know this basic fact of history. These morons have zero self-awareness.
Republicans’ big 2026 problem: An unhinged Trump who doesn’t seem to care about them (CNN Opinion)
And Vance is also a flop, what next?
@Daryl:
Ha! Well now Leo can sleep at night, knowing three-day Catholic JD Vance likes his roles. Dumb + smug is quite the combo, at least liberal condescension comes from actual superiority. JD Vance really has no idea how ignorant and clueless he is, and the trainwreck is amazing to witness. Slick Gavin must be salivating at the prospect of facing off against this lazy, sanctimonious fraud Vance in a debate.
The God that Christians invented does not shrink themselves to taking sides in man’s petty militarism. The New Testament God advocates for an end to war, peace on earth, and goodwill to mankind (Luke 2:13-14) — not for victory on this or that side. JD Vance would know this had he grown up in church like we did. Instead, he’s a pedoloving bloated-faced fake with a bloated ego who converted last week but thinks he can lecture a Pope.
This Hindu-married charisma blackhole is the best Thiel and Putin got? Lol
Dr. Don Doctored My Eyes – a MAGA lament
(with apologies to Jackson Browne)
Doctor, my eyes have seen your MAGA years
And your whirling parade of fears, without crying
Now I don’t want to understand
That I haven’t done all that I could
To repeat your evil as good, without lyin’
You won’t help me even if you can
Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what is wrong
Was I unwise
To leave them closed for so long?
‘Cause I have wandered through your world
And as each horror you’ve unfurled
I’ve been waiting to awaken from your schemes
People confront your lies where they will
I never noticed them until I got this feeling
That it’s later than it seems
Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what you see
I hear the growing cries
Just say if it’s too late for me
Doctor, my eyes
But cannot see the approaching brink
Is this the prize
For having learned how not to think?
@DK:
Excellent!
WAIT! We still have a Tax Day ???? But the tariffs ?!?!?
@DK:
@Rob1:
Christmas, Easter and Friday Night Bingo…
You know that picture of Trump as Jesus, healing the sick? The thing that’s making me scratch my head is that somebody on the White House staff made that picture. Somebody on the White House staff posted that picture.
What were any of them thinking?
I’m sure this is what El Taco means when he says the war’s been won.
Lead:
Consider production and transportation costs have remained relatively the same for oil producers, btu the price of their swill has gone up. Mission Accomplished!
But if the war just ends, the extra profits will dry up. So the war is won, yet it needs to continue.
@Jay L. Gischer:
Check the video @Gregory Lawrence Brown linked to yesterday. It’s a short by Dan McClellan, at some point he mentions where the image came from. It’s some MAGAt named Adams.
@Jay L. Gischer: I said pretty much exactly this to my husband. There’s no way Trump understands enough about technology to do it himself. Someone DID THAT FOR HIM.
These people have the worst possible political instincts. I’m baffled as to how they keep getting defended by elected Republicans. Anyone in their right mind should have distanced themselves LONG AGO.
@Jen: Your last two sentences pretty much answer their own question.
@Jay L. Gischer: @Kathy: @Jen:
According to The New Republic, Trump has posted yet another image of him and Jesus, this one of them sharing a tender embrace.
@Jay L. Gischer:
@Jen:
I read somewhere that the felon’s “Jesus” meme was originally posted on shitter several months ago and taken down. Someone kept a copy and it found it’s way to fatso.
@Jen:
With the garden variety, free LLM bots, you don’t need to understand an iota as regards technology. The trick is to be specific about what you want/intend to do, and keep changing the image until it’s close enough.
So, no way El Taco could do it.
@Sleeping Dog:
There’s a big difference between a John Doe and El Taco posting the image.
BTW, remember the backlash when one of The Beatles claimed their band was “bigger than Jesus”?
Temporary lull as Hell Week crescendoes to what we hope, fervently, will be a climax…
I’ve chicken stock left, and I thought I should make a bean and chicken stew with it. I usually place a raw chicken breast in with the beans and broth in the instant pot, and let the magic of air pressure work. This time I think I should try to brown the chicken breast first, along with some heads of green onions, and deglaze with white wine.
It needs to be something simple and quick, again, due to the amount of work we’re doing.
Moment of levity:
Q: Why doesn’t El Taco’s mind ever wander?
A: Manypoeplesayit’s because it’s too little to be let out alone.
I wonder how are the rocket scientists at Heritage Foundation currently feeling about their grand strategery of packing the Supreme Court with Catholics?
Snap is laying off 16% of its employees, to be replaced by AI…
Remembre only a few years ago the job of computer programmer was touted as paying well and set to grow indefinitely?
There are two notes of interest in this piece. One is that an activist investor, Irenic Capital, is involved. Activist investors are the worst. Ask Southwest.
The other is this:
I’ve been hearing much the same from long form videos on Youtube that deal in economics. Some claim the companies were overstaffed, and are using AI as en excuse. Others claim the move is for purposes of cutting costs.
BTW, a term’s beginning to trend here and there. You know AI slop? The new term is “work slop.” It means the stuff Ai produces when used in businesses. I’ll have more to say on that later. Let’s just say I’m very sympathetic with the employee who said “I’m not worried ChatGPT can do my job. I’m worried some manager thinks ChatGPT can do my job.”
A reminder that the MEUs have not turned around, the 82d is still deployed and a third carrier is about a week out. Moonlight is at about 4% tonight, 1% tomorrow and the new moon is on the 17th.
El Taco believes diet soda kills cancer.
Of course, this is Fake News, straight from the mouth’s of Doctor Oz and El Taco Jr. Don’t believe a word!!11!
But there’s this quote:
Ok. every dog owner in the world knows one thing dogs secrete that kills grass. El Taco should drink lots of it.
Moving on (I’m working late* and caught a lull), chatbots are giving bad medical advice again. In this case, citing maade up disease.
What’s scary is that, according to this piece, it’s all based on two posts on Medium, and a pre-print paper which should trigger red flags. It contains references to Prof. Sideshow Bob, fake universities, Starfleet Academy (!), and Ross Geller.
Here’s a brief quote:
We’re screwed.
Seriously. while I’ve said I’ve found copilot pretty good at search, when looking for something very specific, this assumes one will look at the sources cited. Really, going on thirty years of the internet age, skepticism about stuff found online should be second nature by now.
*Chances are we’ll work early, too. Likely until 8 or 9 am.