TGIF Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, March 21, 2025
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71 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).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
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Jasmine Mooney’s account of being swept into ICE’s detention facilities for two weeks, simply for being a Canadian trying to get into the United States on a work visa, is a must-read.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
You’re welcome!
Texas is poised to make measles a nationwide epidemic, public health experts say
Also. It takes a village.
Texas parents of child who died of measles urge others not to vaccinate
First; Wooo! hooo! We back!
Second I want go amplify this:
@Jax:
So, this whole experience made me realize that we have to figure out how to “harden” our online communities. I believe Baloon Juice has something like this. Jax and I have been talking about Signal. Stormy and I are connected on Discord which may be an option (and if I’m not mistaken can be set up privately or semi-privately.
For me, in the initial hours I panicked that this community had some how threatened jobs and had to come down without warning. Even at this point I’m not sure if tech issues are better or worse.
The shutdown could not have come at a worse time for me. The OTB community was a critical leg of support for me while I was alone in London. Jax and Stormy picked up a lot of slack, but the beauty of the OTB support for me was that it was broad and deep. It felt like I had a lot of people pulling for me and that it didn’t over burden any one person. That was/is important.
Unfortunately, at the same time OTB went down I learned that a dear friend has been credibly accused of a heinous crime. He is almost certainly guilty. This was another loss of critical support. I ended up alone and spiraling. I’m going to count that night as another attempt.
I was very lucky that I only had to make it till morning and now my Fairy Gay Mother is here and I’m not physically alone anymore.
I think it would be a good idea if here and in our other online spaces we start a discussion of what it would look like to protect our spaces in the event that either tech or political disruption occurs.
Third: I’m looking at the patreon and trying to figure out how to toss in a couple of bucks. I’m sure this episode has been expensive in time and money. I don’t have much to spare now, but I do got a couple bucks to throw in. What’s the best way?
Welcome back everyone our long national nightmare is … well that still a cluster but at least OTB is bac in action!!!!
Welcome back Steven, James, Matt, thanks. I suppose the past few days have been “not fun.”
Here is something from Harry Litman re SCOTUS and the Trumpist Administration.
Not a big secret that Trump, Musk and the rest are a bit arrogant, a bit clueless how things really work.
“Talking Feds”
Harry Litman claims to speak from some experience:
Some more at the link re Musk etc., then concluding:
OTB was deeply missed in this household! Glad to have y’all back.
The Texas couple whose child died of measles have been invited to live in the 21st century but declined, choosing instead to believe that an all knowing god – the same god who allowed humans to invent vaccines – *wanted* their little girl to die a preventable death. On the one hand, it is their right to be impervious to reality, but on the other, they denied their child an opportunity to have a full life, and further infringed on the rights of their neighbors to not be exposed to a deadly, easily communicable disease. Selfish may be OK, but, selfish and stupid is a deadly combination.
The deportation to Guantanamo was always for show.
Pentagon reviewing plans to cut troops handling migrants at Guantanamo
A week ago at this hour, I was sitting in a public waiting area at Heathrow, hoping nothing would delay my return flight to Atlanta. I’ll bet there are thousands of pissed-off people at Heathrow or with flights that have been cancelled this morning. I got lucky.
Here’s a question for anyone who knows or has an opinion.
Here was this article in Stars and Stripes (originally appeared in the Washington Post).
Pentagon spokesman sidelined after uproar over Jackie Robinson article
The article was typical of anything dealing with the administration. But what struck me was the picture of the spokesman, John Ullyot.
He has the same slicked back hairstyle as his boss, Pete Hegseth
Is this a style thing these days? I haven’t noticed this since the 60s in the days of Vitalis and Brylcreem. Very Aryan. But I may be reading too much into it.
@charontwo: I am sure CJ Roberts is appalled by the attacks on the judiciary, but I don’t have much sympathy for him. He made this bed with that ridiculous immunity ruling. In one of my many recent sleepless nights I went back to read the dissents in that case, and Justice Jackson called out the very claims they are making now:
She foresaw their legal strategy, and now we will see what SCOTUS does with it. I suspect the majority will agree with the Trump administration, with a few tweaks for the look of things. It’s alll quite depressing.
@Michael Reynolds:
@James Joyner:
@Gustopher:
As I posted on X and Bluesky yesterday….
Things that damage stainless steel:
Saltwater
Bleach
Acids
Oven Cleaner
Abrasive Cleaners
Paintball projectiles
Magnets
This has been a public service announcement.
Per the NYT, Musk is “set to get access to top secret U.S. plan for potential war with China.”
@Scott: Gavin Newsom sports the slicked back hair look, but his is more of a hair gel thing than Hegseth’s full-on Dapper Dan’s pomade look.
As for the DoD press secretary, maybe now we’ll be hearing from DoD deputy press secretary Kingsley Wilson, who has a history of pushing antisemitic, extremist theories (NPR):
BTW, the latest ep of Ancient Geeks dropped last Monday.
I’ve one correction about the Robot Novels. The one where people live in near total isolation is the second one, The Naked Sun. It takes place on Solaria, and, IMO, the background was setup for a locked room mystery. Someone was killed, and the taboo on being in the physical presence of another meant only one person could have killed him. Except that person couldn’t have done it either.
The preceding novel, The Caves of Steel, takes place on Earth, where an awfully overpopulated world of 8 billion (!)* requires extreme measures like underground cities (to conserve energy), a very communal existence with shared bathrooms, and the population subsists on a diet of synthetic food made from yeast.
More maybe later. I’m supposed to be working.
*I half excuse it because the Green Revolution was just getting started when Asimov wrote Caves.
The other day I came across a cartoon promising that the felon will have a third term, in the cartoon, the felon was presented as Caesar. It is reported that the felon has replaced Andrew Jackson as his presidential hero with Wm. McKinley.
Has it occured to the MAGAts and the felon that neither of these leaders completed their term in office? Alas the Ides of March have passed.
@EddieInDR:
Someone donated ten cybertrucks to the Vegas PD (Metro, in local parlance). Quite a stupid move as they are unsafe and alienating, but then this is Vegas, which is already an oligarchy, and utterly incapable of resisting the super rich (whales, in the local parlance). See also: Elon’s Tunnel of Musky Claustrophobia.
@Sleeping Dog:
@CSK: Musk is a highly-placed official in an administration, elected by a plurality of the voters at that, that has declared China an enemy in the past. Additionally, outside of Trump himself, Musk is arguably the smartest guy in that room, how low a bar that fact represents notwithstanding. There’s no outrage here. It’s business as usual. What could possibly go wrong?
We seem to have gone from “It’s not antisemitism to criticize Israel or support Palestinians,” to “It’s antisemitism only when you criticize Israel or support Palestinians.”
TGIF —- Thank Goodness It’s Functioning!!! Again.
And I add my voice to to the chorus, thanking the hard work of the entire OTB crew in getting this baby humming again. Thanks, folks!
What a pleasant surprise this morning to find OTB up and running. Welcome back and thanks.
@charontwo: I understand the need to look for hope, but my takeaway from this is that Roberts and SCOTUS will vigorously defend their privileges and process. They really dont want everyone of these Trump cases coming to them. They dont want the work so they are hoping not every decision will be appealed. They also dont want the lower status of cases being brought directly to them. Also, they have lifetime appointments but they are probably bright enough to realize that if judges can get impeached for BS while the GOP holds office the Dems will eventually hold office and then they will be at risk.
So the question remains as far as I am concerned as to whether they will mostly rubber stamp the Trump/Musk actions. I expect them to decide POTUS does have the power of impoundment at the very least. At best I think they rule against the most outrageous actions.
Steve
@charontwo:
For two hundred years a lot of things Trump&mob are doing have been inappropriate, but Trump’s MAGA aligned Justices including Roberts, have failed to hold the line on “inappropriate. ” So, I don’t hold out much hope for deliverance at their hands.
Along a similar line, yesterday, I was at
the boneyarda storage facilitythe retirement community in Red State Murka at which a friend from college days resides. He and I were working on getting a Chromebook he was given a month or more ago up and running*, and I overheard a conversation happening close by where one of theMAGA-addled geezersresidents was asking another about why Trump was dismantling the Department of Education (out of curiosity, understand, not dismay or anything). His conversation partner wasn’t sure, but is confident that if Trump wants it eliminated, it’s because the department is “doing bad stuff to the kids.”*My friend has bad eyesight and memory issues (maybe early-ish onset Alzheimer’s that he is scrupulously leaving undiagnosed) and couldn’t figure out how to open the Google account that operates the device.
@Scott:
I give you: Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and a gaggle of other ultra Repubs whose hair lives in the 1950s along with HUAC and the ghost of Richard Nixon.
1950’s hair to contain a 1950’s mind.
Yeah. I noticed that a decade ago. You know, real men don’t blow-dry. That word, “blow,” not manly.
Just got off the phone and it seems we have a flat in London. It’s in King’s Cross and we’ll be able to walk to St. Pancras for the Eurostar as well as KC station for all north-bound trains. And there’s a Waitrose a few hundred meters (that’s right, going metric) away.
The taxonomy of British grocery stores is interesting, very class or at least wealth conscious. Waitrose is the poshest, then Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Aldi and Lidl. If I have that right. The proximity of Waitrose forces my hand and, anyway as an American I exist outside of the class system. There are zero good grocery stores in Vegas, so I’m looking forward to a more pleasant food shopping experience.
We’ll also be walking distance to a Dishoom (Indian food) and approximately 219 Prêt a Mangers. I’m eagerly anticipating a car-free life. When I was a kid in Fouras, France I could walk or bike to a boulangererie, a patisserie and an epiçerie, and I’ve been looking for something like that ever since.
But the best thing, and I wonder if @Beth is feeling this, I will be able to walk down a street without suspecting everyone I encounter of being a fascist traitor to the country and the Constitution.
We’ll be applying for longer term visas under the Global Talent Visa program, though we are not at all sure we’re globally talented enough to qualify. It may help that I sell better in the UK than the US. It’ll be a change for Katherine as well. She sells fuck-all in the UK but squats comfortably on the bestseller list in the US, while I’m semi-famouser in the UK.
@Michael Reynolds:
Yeah, it happens really quickly. I had the same experience in Korea.
When Bezos bent the knee, I cancelled WaPo and Amazon Prime, though since I had paid annually for the latter, the service was still available to me until March 20th. If its already paid for, don’t mind using it for a bit longer, fair enough.
Leading up to March 20th I was just inundated with emails asking me to reconsider, extolling the benefits of Prime, etc. The last such email was on the 19th. I log into my bank today and see Amazon charged me $140 to renew my Prime membership yesterday.
So I spent an hour yelling at an underpaid customer service agent in Nepal (or, wherever) I wish they’d hire American only b/c then I wouldn’t feel so bad at losing my temper–a Nepalese woman may not have much of a choice and understandably doesn’t care about American politics. An American working there has made a choice.
Anyway, they are refunding me $139.50 instead of $140, because technically I had Amazon Prime available to me from midnight till 10 am today. Fine, Bezos, enjoy your last two quarters from me.
When Bezos bent the knee, I cancelled WaPo and Amazon Prime, though since I had paid annually for the latter, the service was still available to me until March 20th. If its already paid for, don’t mind using it for a bit longer, fair enough.
Leading up to March 20th I was just inundated with emails asking me to reconsider, extolling the benefits of Prime, etc. The last such email was on the 19th. I log into my bank today and see Amazon charged me $140 to renew my Prime membership yesterday.
So I spent an hour yelling at an underpaid customer service agent in Nepal (or, wherever). I wish they’d hire American only b/c then I wouldn’t feel so bad at losing my temper–a Nepalese woman may not have much of a choice and understandably doesn’t care about American politics. An American working there has made a choice.
Anyway, they are refunding me $139.50 instead of $140, because technically I had Amazon Prime available to me from midnight till 10 am today. Fine, Bezos, enjoy your last two quarters from me.
@Michael Reynolds:
That part is nice. The part where no one quite believes me when I tell them how bad it is.
My biggest problem is that I can’t find a place for us to live on the budget I was give. Objectively, based on our budget and requirements I was given, we should be living in Tatooine. Excuse me, Acton. That’s the right move for everyone but me. There aren’t enough quaaludes in the world to keep me alive in Acton.
I should be out pounding the pavement now but I locked myself out of my Microsoft account and since we don’t own anything anymore I’m about to freak out.
Question for the political scientists. Our process for choosing federal judges is pretty sucky. They are now chosen mostly on the basis of being young (lifetime appointments) and having the correct ideology. I wonder if the people writing the constitution had been more leery about the power of parties if they would have changed that. Maybe have made it so that in order for a judge to be confirmed they would have required gaining some number of votes from the opposition party and set a time limit of say 15 years. That might have eliminated the extreme young ideologues we have now.
Steve
@Michael Reynolds:
Revel in the irony that the British Imperial system of measures is no longer current in Britain 😀
BTW, you’re going rational. Literally. Most measures are a ratio of the basic unit (ie a centimeter is 1/100th of a meter).
@charontwo:
Thank you, that was an interesting piece and substack. I have a lot of respect for Litman’s observations.
After reading his take on Chief Justice Roberts’ recent remarks I have come to the conclusion that Roberts, as much as many others, did not or could not bring himself to believe that Trump would do this, that through his blunt malevolent force of personality, bring us to the point where he (Roberts) felt the need to speak up.
But really, Roberts can’t be too surprised, after all he does believe in the Unitary Executive theory, that Article II gives a president broad authority over federal government operations. In a not unrelated matter Roberts gave us Citizens United which, 15 years later, allowed Elon Musk to ‘donate’ $270M to the Trump campaign, and enabled Trump to ’employ’ Musk to take a chainsaw to said federal government operations. Finally, the Roberts’ Presidential Immunity decision … enough said.
Chief Justice Roberts underestimated Trump, but I doubt that Justices Alito and Thomas did. They knew what was coming and they liked what they saw.
Right about the same time OTB went techno-sideways Facebook stopped sending me the six digit code needed to complete the two step log in. This has happened before and I have learned that the only thing I can do besides creating a second account (ain’t gonna’ do that…yet) is wait until Facebook starts sending me the code again. It is pure coincidence that FB has started sending me the code this AM. Right after OTB came back.
Fortunately I can watch cat and kitten videos till my eyeballs melt.
Another way to bide the time is to check out Lauren Jumps as she amazes me with her Fancy Feats.
If I want to use my OTB downtime to actually learn something I have discovered Biblical Scholar Dan McClellan. If this guy had been teaching my Luther’s Small Catechism class (Missouri Synod) when I was 12 years old I would likely have left the church before I finally did.
@Beth:
@Michael Reynolds:
There aren’t enough quaaludes in the world to keep me alive in Acton.
Beth,
I lived in Ealing for close to a year, which is right up the Uxbridge Road from Acton. I absolutely loved it. I loved Acton, Ealing, Shepherd’s Bush, and that entire area. My gym was a Ealing Common. People were nice. It was worgking class, and I was only a few stops away on the Picadilly or District lines to Notting Hill or Central London.
Michael –
You’re living in one of the best areas for food in all of London. The area around Kings Cross/Pancras is amazing for Indian, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, even Lebanesese and Israeli food. You’re going to love that area.
I’m jealous, but I’ll be in the UK in October, so hopefully we’ll meet in a pub and have a pint.
@Kingdaddy:
That is one horrific story.
Just got a text that reads:
Damn Elon you really want to know what I think?
#$@!%#$@!%#$@!%#$@!%#$@!%#$@!%#$@!%#$@!%#$@!%#$@!%#$@!%#$@!
@Mister Bluster:
How did you get on the muskrat’s contact list?
More podcasts:
David McWilliams — If you’re going to listen to economics, add an Irish accent. It helps that this guy worked for the Irish central bank and led a department in London for UBS and BNP.
These two are different but both good in their own way:
Citation Needed
Citations Needed
Due Diligence — I have listened to this podcast’s episode with Mark Blyth three times and I still don’t understand everything yet. Probably because it’s over an hour discussing inflation.
Reading deeper, this may be a longer term problem and not necessarily caused by Trump actions. But…
Austin airport issues ground stop for flights from Houston and Dallas due to FAA staffing issue
Update: Apparently the ground stop was lifted. FAA lifts ground stop at Austin airport
@SC_Birdflyte:
That’s one hell of a trumpshow. I caught a bit on the BBC before leaving for work. I imagine the aviation blogs will be full of it when I check them out this evening.
I had the sense that electrical substations fires are not common, but they do happen now and then. I do know some transformers make use of oil for some reason. Some hasty reading and searching seems to confirm this.
Apparently some flights will resume in the evening.
It won’t come close to the Southwest meltdown, I’m sure.
@Scott: More measles news:
Texas measles cases rise to 309. Here is what you need to know.
I wish they would document and report the costs of hospitalization. And how much taxpayers/insurers are paying.
+1 for being happy that OTB is up again, and seconding @Beth: note that throwing in on the Patreon to help with the cleanup is a great idea for those who can. If you need an additional incentive, getting emails from James sent via Patreon during the downtime to know that it was just a technical issue and not the end of OTB was a huge relief
@EddieInDR:
That would rule.
I’m sure Acton is lovely, but it’s not what I want to get out of London. Also, since I’m going to be the tradwife for a bit, if I can’t get groceries without walking to the end of the earth, its not gonna work.
Oh, barf! Is nothing sacred anymore? Answer: no
Boeing wins contract for NGAD fighter jet, dubbed F-47
F-47. Get it?
UK joke…what are the 6 saddest words in the English language:
“Marks and Spencer meals for one”
@Scott:
Being Boeing, expect it to be way late, way, way over budget, and with a literally fatal flaw or two. Odds are the felon rapist won’t be alive to see it fly, if it ever does.
@Kathy: “We seem to have gone from “It’s not antisemitism to criticize Israel or support Palestinians,” to “It’s antisemitism only when you criticize Israel or support Palestinians.””
IMHO, the thing about Right-Wing White US ‘Christians’ is that they feel that the end of the world will require the creation and destruction of the state of Israel (with variation on pre/post tribulation, etc.). The end result is that every Jewish person will either accept Jesus as their messiah (and no longer be Jewish) or die and go to hell.
I term this ‘the Final Final Solution’. It means that support for the state of Israel can combine quite nicely with a desire to destroy Judaism (at least, on Earth).
@steve: “So the question remains as far as I am concerned as to whether they will mostly rubber stamp the Trump/Musk actions. I expect them to decide POTUS does have the power of impoundment at the very least. At best I think they rule against the most outrageous actions. ”
Well, they were confronted with ‘is it OK for a Republican President to attack Congress?’ and replied ‘Yes’.
They might feel that giving Trump free rein is reversible, will accomplish things they like, and will not bite them in the @ss.
@Beth:
London rents are batshit crazy. To stay sane I’m pretending that $1 = 1 GBP.
Also I hear food and drink is crazy expensive, but I dine and drink in casinos, so I’m beyond being upset at $25 cocktails.
@EddieInDR:
Just one?
@al Ameda: No one ever supports the oligarch beyond that which they supported him doing. The problem of supporting leader for his ability to oppress is that such a leader will always oppress beyond your will.
Better to not go down that road. (Including the “our leaders should be willing to do what they do” trail. 🙁 )
@Michael Reynolds: I’d love to live next to a Waitrose. I do live in walking distance of 219 Prets, and that’s something that gets old pretty fast…
@Michael Reynolds: “Also I hear food and drink is crazy expensive, but I dine and drink in casinos, so I’m beyond being upset at $25 cocktails.”
Yeah, that’s the great thing about living in Manhattan. Every time I go to a city that’s reputed to be terribly expensive, it always ends up being the same as I pay at home…
@Scott: Take it from a different perspective: It’s called the F-47 because he realized in his lizard brain stem that calling it the F-Trump would be a bad idea.
Now figure out why and realize the same condition applies to either designation. 😉
@Kathy:
Transformer oils satisfy several properties. It tolerates relatively high heat w/o breaking down. It has high thermal conductivity. It’s an excellent insulator. It doesn’t react with the metal components. It’s compatible with the kraft paper insulation used in high-voltage transformers. It’s easy to take small samples which can be tested to check on the general “health” of the transformer.
I used to work with a guy who knew all sorts of interesting things about power plants and substations. When he told me about transformer oils, I was impressed by whichever long-ago engineers had figured out that it cheaply solved multiple problems.
@Barry: I’m not seeing why accept Jesus as Messiah== “no longer be Jewish” but have no dog in the fight. And I even get how “Messianic Jews” can be kind of a pain and offensive.
That said, I’m interested in hearing an expansion of that thought if you’re up for expanding.
ETA: And allow me to note that “The end result is that every Jewish person will either accept Jesus as their messiah (and no longer be Jewish) or die and go to hell” is a “christian” traditional interpretation that does not appear to be Biblical.
@Michael Reynolds:
I’m keen to hear about your visa process. I’ve been smothered by the visa systems for Australia and Belgium over the past several weeks. It’s striking (and telling) how different they are.
ps, This gave me a chuckle: “She sells fuck-all in the UK but squats comfortably on the bestseller list in the US”
@Neil Hudelson:
I recommend contacting your bank and asking them to stop all payments to that account. Lots of hacking going on, and the banks are accustomed to this request because a lot of businesses have, for some reason, shown an ability to “automatically” deduct auto-pays after the account was supposedly ended.
I’ve found this method of cancelling subscriptions easier and simpler than contacting the business itself, actually. Nobody pretending it’s difficult, sale’s spiels, and assorted BS at the bank. Only downside is re-subscribing becomes a two-step process.
@Barry:
I’m aware of the end of the world fantasies. I’m sure Bibi is as well, but he doesn’t give a damn. Why worry about something that won’t ever happen?
@just nutha:
I suppose if Jews who accept Jesús as their personal something or other remained Jewish, then there’d be a big Synagogue of Ben Shimon in Rome, rather than a St. Peter’s Cathedral.
@CSK:..How did you get on the muskrat’s contact list?
I get very few unsolicited texts from senders that I don’t recognize. The most common are notices that I owe tolls for turnpikes that I have not traveled recently and I’ve only received three or four of those in the past year. Can’t say if my phone number is randomly generated or somehow cribbed from ???.
Any text wanting a reply in two minutes must be some sort of bot.
Someone asked about political texts soliciting donations. No texts only eMails. I finally got a text from the Democratic Party of Makanda Township IL where I live. They didn’t even ask for money. Just a pitch for my vote in the Township election Tuesday April 1.
It will be my pleasure to vote for the Democratic slate. As long as Donald Trump is the leader of the GOP I will NEVER vote for a Republican.
@Michael Cain:
A general rule is that risk can be minimized but can’t be eliminated.
Coincidentally having to do with fires, the Apollo 1 launch pad test involved no fuel or oxidizer, no acceleration of any kind, not even movement, and thus was classified as very low risk. I don’t suppose NASA evaluated the risk of lots of combustible materials in an all-oxygen atmosphere combined with a single entry/exit/escape hatch that was hard to open.
As to the fire today at Heathrow, I suppose there will be an investigation. How well was the equipment kept? Have similar fires happened in installations with similar or the same equipment? Are there any manufacturing issues? etc.
@Mister Bluster:
Or someone wanting to know that the number is valid. From some sources I’ve read, text spamming using randomly selected numbers is a real thing. Check area codes and prefixes for active use by the phone systems and go from there with generating.
@Kathy:
I recall reading somewhere that the Jews in ancient Rome were kind of liked. The Romans found the religion attractive. Two things stood in the way though, the exclusive nature of the tribe, nobody could just say the right words and become Jewish, and the requirement for penis mutilation did not garner a great deal of enthusiasm.
The earliest argument for the Christians, IIRC, was between Jesus’s brother and Paul. The issue was whether or not the story of Jesus should be spread to the gentiles. Big falling out, with Jesus’s brother winning the debate that it should be exclusively for jews but losing the war, as Paul just went elsewhere and started spreading it anyway.
There are a few theological differences between Judaism and it’s to off-spring sects, but the big key IMO was the other two were open to everyone. The decision to be an exclusive club was not an idle one: What becomes of “God’s chosen people” when everyone is chosen?
@Just nutha ignint cracker:..text spamming…
I suspect that anyone claiming to represent President Musk and wants to know my opinion is a total fraud.
@dazedandconfused:
Things varied a great deal over time. Overall, pagans were more tolerant of other religions, and many deities moved from one religion to another, or were mixed between religions. It wasn’t uncommon to worship foreign gods, too.
Judaism had its one god, which was abstract and couldn’t be depicted. This placed them somewhat at odds with other religions. however, the religious rituals were similar, involving prayer, offerings, and animal sacrifices. So there was also commonality.
Beyond that, Roman culture had great respect for precedent and for older customs and practices. And Judaism predated Rome and Greece. There were also the Roman god-fearers, who adopted some of Judaism’s rituals and customs.
There was a lot of friction in the province of Judea, more or less modern Israel, because Israelites never took kindly to conquerors (despite being under one or another for most of history). Rebellions were common. Hadrian destroyed the temple at Jerusalem, as well as much of the city, and expelled all Jews from it.
@Mimai:
The UK has automatic 6 month visas for Americans, renewable if you leave the country for a bit. It’s quite easy. There’s an app called UK ETA.
ETA: The Global Talent one I have not delved into yet.
@Mister Bluster: I include a much broader cohort for “is a total fraud” than you do, or so it would seem. I include most unsolicited texts, including several charitable organizations.
@Mimai: I am on Signal now, in case OTB goes down again. I’d like to stay in touch with you. tiedyejax.74
Everyone else is welcome, too. Except Paul L. That guy can kiss off. 😉
I was just on the Social Security website, WTF, bankers hours? Please try again during our regular service hours (Eastern Time):
Day
Service Hours
Monday-Friday 4:15 a.m. – 1:00 a.m.
Saturday 5:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:00 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Federal Holidays Same hours as the day the holiday occurs.
@Beth: I stayed in Kensington on Cromwell Road on my recent trip there. There was Sainsbury just across the street and Tesco a few blocks away.