Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, July 18, 2024
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31 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor 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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Is anybody else surprised that Trump didn’t pretend to be dead for three days, then he just reappears on Fox News or something?
Missed opportunity.
@Tony W: As I’ve observed before, he seems to lack the imagination for any but the lowest grifts. Like selling high top sneakers with the “well framed” picture of his martyrdom.
I see a Venus orbiter in NASA’s future.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was going to post about that yesterday, then I began to wonder what the many probes sent to Venus found in its atmosphere.
The only mention I found was that the Soviet Venera 8 lander might have detected ammonia. I couldn’t find out at what altitude that might have been.
NASA has sent orbiters to Venus before. At least one Pioneer probe, which dropped four smaller probes into the atmosphere back in the late 70s. And more recently the Magellan orbiter, which mostly conducted radar mapping of the surface.
Now, “life” in this connection will likely be some form of bacteria or other unicellular organisms, maybe some kind of microscopic multicellular ones. If they exist in the clouds or some other atmospheric layer, good luck finding them, much less collecting any for study.
ABC News is reporting that the shooter researched both Trump’s PA appearance and Biden/the Democratic Convention in Chicago. Looking more like a grab at notoriety than any kind of ideological motivation.
Delta is said to be planning to un-bundle premium fares.
No link because 1) it’s not certain and there are no details, and 2) I kind of no longer give much of a damn.
Until there’s some kind of fare re-regulation, airlines will keep on tacking on fees. It strikes me as odd to pay through the nose for a business seat, then pay extra for luggage, lounge access, seat selection, and maybe even for in-flight meals.
Ultra-low cost carriers already do this, kind of. Spirit has one row of wider 2-2 seats with more recline, that cost extra, the Big Front Seat. It’s about the same as domestic first class in most US legacy carriers. The fare includes only the seat. Luggage and food or drink are extra.
I can see lounge access becoming a paid extra, perhaps remaining a “free” perk for those with high status on the frequent flyer program. Many business travelers want to get to the airport less than an hour before departure, and just pass security and get on the plane.
Luggage I’m less sure of. we do lots of same day roundtrips at work, with a stay of two days seen as too long. All domestic. How are transatlantic or transpacific business trips structured? No idea.
Meals might be a stretch A big selling point in premium class is allegedly restaurant quality meals, and near-top shelf booze. On the other hand, try to withstand a 10 or 12 hour trip without any food.
For a change, the click-baity headline does describe the piece well: We built our world for a climate that no longer exists
Not very deep, but very relevant.
I think we’ll become nocturnal. We don’t have to, but I can’t see modern capitalism allowing a long break for the hottest part of the day. In some places, a ten minute break to get water is forbidden.
@Kathy: I am thinking that with new technologies another mission would be able to see more than past missions. Assuming for the moment that it is not microbial life generating the phosphine and ammonia but some new chemical reaction generated by Venus’s extreme environment, that alone would be worth the trip.
There’s a piece in Atlantic by Stuart Stevens that’s getting some attention today> He’s complaining about how the Republican Party has changed, particularly the Ohio Party, since he started working for them. This seems a fairly common genre. Yes, the Party has changed, but do any of these guys ever consider a lot of what they now object to was always present. GOPs have been a pro wealth party forever and they’ve dressed it in lies and faux populism for decades. These guys just chose not to see it.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’ve been pondering means to sample Venus’ atmosphere.
An airship would likely be the best idea. It could sample different altitudes, and possibly do so for several months, as long as it doesn’t get too deep into the atmosphere. It might be equipped with long tubes it could extend to reach deeper parts, too. The challenge would be to maange the pressure.
There are Venus missions in development. One might launch this year.
Going back to yesterday’s discussion about originality in music (and other things): There’s a little record store right up the road from me that I visit frequently. The staffers are an up-to-date version of what you would find in a record store in the 70s – age, probably 19-26. Bright, informed music fanatics.
Whenever I go there, new music that I am not familiar with is playing, and I almost always like it. They all despise Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Adele, etc. It’s not casual dislike; they really do not like the elite artists even a tiny bit.
This does not seem like the “I’m too cool to like the popular stuff” attitude I often saw back in the day. They genuinely hate the lack of originality/spontaniety and the way elite artists suck all the oxygen out of the room, leaving little to none for people that actually are doing creative, original work.
I recently asked a twenty-ish niece what she thought of Swift, Beyonce, et al. She replied, “They’re evil,” with ice in her voice. I had never heard of the artists she named that she likes. There is an interesting undercurrent here. When I was a kid, the best artists were also the most popular, with the obvious example being The Beatles, as well as Dylan, Marvin Gaye, and The Stones, etc. The brilliant ones tended to be adored.
At the moment, I’m listening to a very nearly mint 1967 pressing of “The Hollies Greatest Hits.” The music leaps out of the speakers, exciting, vital, and eternally young. They probably recorded every song on that record in just a few hours.
It seems reports of Bob Menendez’s decency were wildly exaggerated.
Straight from the horse’s mouth: he’s not resigning from the Senate.
He should at least refrain from running for another term. I know he’s lost the primary, but he’s running an independent bid, or so I’ve read. he really shouldn’t.
My brothers have been sending me memes about the Trump assassination attempt, and I’ve decided to reply with things like “You don’t really believe in this Assassination Hoax, do you?” and am now calling people crisis actors.
Is that wrong?
@anjin-san: There are still record stores? Wow.
Taylor Swift may well be more of a millennial thing than a Gen Z thing. When I was working for a bookstore with a bunch of millennials a few years back, they were all Swifties.
Also, when you were growing up the best artists were the Velvet Underground, and they were not popular.
(It’s always baffling to me how they were roughly contemporaries of the Beatles and Dylan, starting just two or three years later. They sound so much more modern.)
@gVOR10:
This question used to occur to me quite frequently. I worked in Republican politics in the early to mid-90s, and very quickly realized that the rank-and-file had a different sense of what the Party was versus the people with whom I interacted on the leadership/structural side. It’s very much a retelling of Jurassic Park, I think. Leadership spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to secure the votes they needed to reach X/Y/Z goal or objective (the ability to control redistricting was paramount) they grabbed whatever coalition they could, and in doing so transferred a lot of messaging power to the Christian Coalition and Pro-Life groups (these were very separate up until they weren’t). In short, they ended up with a manifestation of Jeff Goldblum’s quote: “You spent so much time wondering if you could, you never stopped to think if you should.”
The element was always present, yes. But they always had the arrogance to think it was theirs to control.
@Gustopher:
Maybe. Maybe not.
Don’t stop.
@Gustopher:
I’ve been thinking about that.
Last time I bought any kind of music, was a CD in 2005, because the secret santa office thing was to get someone else a CD they might like. I forget what I bought. It was a store called MixUp. They sold CDs, DVDs, and some audio and video gear (mostly DVD players and all-in-one audio systems).
I was curious to know whether it’s still around. It is, but it has changed. Now it’s called iShop MixUp. They still sell CDs and DVDs, but their main business is selling new and second-hand smart phones, mostly iPhones ,and related accessories as well as other Apple hardware.
I don’t know I’d call it a record store.
Bob Newhart, 94, has died. RIP. A funny, funny man.
@Gustopher:
There are still record stores? Wow.
Lots of them in the Bay Area, two in particular that I like. Not hitting them as much as I used to as my collection now includes most of my “must have” records.
As for The Velvets, great group, hugely influential. I have been a Lou Reed fan since way back. That being said, I am not sure I would go as far as “best”. My point is that the bands/artists at the top of the food chain back then were often brilliant, which is a lot more than I can say for today’s crop of chart toppers.
@CSK: I just saw that. I’m not very familiar with his work outside of the two versions of the Bob Newhart Show, but damn I remember those being hilarious! Can’t wait to see/hear his funniest bits over the next couple days.
Lou Dobbs is dead at 78. (Same age as me and Trump). The landlord dislikes speaking ill of the dead, so I’ll content myself with saying goodbye. Love Dobbs is dead. Good. Bye.
@Gustopher:
Not really contemporaries. When the Velvets were formed, The Beatles were close to being done and Dylan had completely changed the idea of what could be accomplished lyrically. At that point, they and Dylan had vastly expanded the conceptual universe that popular music existed in, and its musical palaette. They generally raised the bar to much greater heights that were it was when they started. Every artist that followed benefited.
@Gustopher:
Amazing, you’re doing the Mother’s work.
@Franklin:
I only saw his latter show. The earlier one was before my time. In fact, I needed someone to explain the last scene of the series finale of Newhart.
He appeared a few times on The Big Bang Theory as a down on his luck former host of a kids science show on TV, which both Sheldon and Leonard had been fans of. In fact, that’s what got him an Emmy at last, in 2013.
@Kathy: One of my formative memories is watching the original Bob Newhart show, where he is explaining to his patient that when the patients neighbor asked him to feed his hamster, he didn’t mean to feed his hamster to a snake.
My entire sense of humor was formed right there.
Get your assassination sneakers!
I’m reminded of a DS9 ep that takes place largely on the Ferengi home world. In particular that everything carries a price tag. I recall a scene where Quark ascends many floors on a building using the stairs. When he gets to the office he’s visiting:
Quark: Have you seen the price for the elevator? I gotta sit down! (moves towards a chair)
Ferengi functionary: Sitting is ten bars of latinum.
Quark: I’ll just stand, then.
Ferengi functionary: Standing is five bars.
Show your Convicted Felon you support him! Only $399!!11!!!
@Kathy: @Kathy:
Newhart’s show with Suzanne Pleshette was very funny and had a great supporting cast. Check it out.
Odds and ends as I wait for quitting time…
The latest of Kathy’s First Laws: you can’t settle an argument about the future until the future becomes the past.
Related to: don’t confuse your future narrative, no matter how detailed, with prophecy.
The one great virtue of relying on streaming for TV, is that it’s much easier to put on the next ep of Prodigy, or the last ep of The Acolyte, and not run even a slight risk of catching even a femtosecond* of the GQP’s Several Minutes Hate.
@anjin-san:
I’m more intrigued right now by his comedy albums.
* Approximately the time it would take light to travel the width of a virus.
According to Bloomberg, Mar-a-Lago is raising its initiation fee to one million dollars.
@Franklin:
The album “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” pretty much invented the comedy LP as a genre, paving the way for George Carlin, Bill Cosby, Cheech & Chong, and many others. Genius from start to finish. The driver’s ed sketch is timeless.
@DrDaveT:
I was going to mention that album. Timeless indeed.