Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, August 15, 2024
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57 comments
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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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cartoon:
https://x.com/ArmandDoma/status/1823835355617091589
@charontwo:
I like that one. Captures the whole vibe.
Two time Oscar nominated actress Gena Rowlands has passed away. She was 94. I thought Ms. Rowlands was a good actress but never cared for the movies she made that were directed by her husband John Cassavettes. I found his films far too self indulgent. In fact like Ms Rowlands and remember her better for her one time appearance on Columbo. RIP
I carry no water for Nikki Haley, considering her just another person without principles who has made a success of politics. But I do wonder what is going on in her head right now. In today’s misogynist, racist Republican Party you have to wonder how many were whispering in the background several months ago that she should stop her attacks on Trump because America just wasn’t ready for a dark skinned, middle aged woman as President. And then Harris walks in and sh*ts all over Trump’s invincibility. I hope her “I told you so!” interview from the other day becomes a long running tour. Maybe make it Nikki’s Brat Summer.
Surprise, surprise. Xlon’s generative AI has no filters and does all sorts of nasty things.
The thing is limited to paid subscribers of Xitter. I wouldn’t give Xlon half a penny. But anyone who has access already might try to generate, and post, tons of images of Xlon in ways that would humiliate him, or spread misinformation about him. See if he then still thinks it’s “fun.”
For instance, how about an image of Xlon on all fours, being led on a leash by the Felon?
Hilarious, right?
Headline of the day? Iowa man allegedly shoots his father in face after complaint about smelly feet
@Kathy:
I say someone goes with the classic:
Musk in a motel room with dead girl and a live boy.
@Bill Jempty:
What’s wrong with being self-indulgent? His entire career was built around being independent and beholden to nobody in order to do what he wanted. His milieu is not to my taste, but I’ve never found their work to be boring, especially compared to movies desperate not to be boring, which is often how the real world works.
Variable Vance:
Vance should read the United States Constitution.
I’ll help you with this JD.
The First Amendment applies to the government not private enterprise.
And there is this:
Donald Trump Files Lawsuit Against 20 Media Outlets—Full List
@Mister Bluster: JD Vance is gaslighting.
Also, not content with insulting single women with cats, another Vance interview has surfaced. In this one, he says that the only real function of postmenopausal women is to babysit grandkids.
The Republican ticket, JFC.
The Post has an interesting opinion piece (no subscription necessary) about things US citizens can do to ramp down the growing political and cultural tensions here, primarily between MAGA’s and religious fundamentalists and pretty much everyone else. Long story short – tensions are reduced when people talk and interact, even if their political and cultural views don’t change. The most fascinating thing about the article is the comments. All the most liked ones boil down to, “Yeah, but the trumpers have to change before we can sit down.”
@Mister Bluster: Not to mention, it doesn’t protect things like inciting violence which Trump and many gun nuts do.
@Mister Bluster:
I think a lot of MAGA’s appeal hits on the ‘populism’ of being a rich guy who does what he wants. Plus, their lackeys and lawyers love when they shoot their mouths off. It’s like being Bill ‘Billable Hours’ Ackman. He can afford to throw money around and get sued, and so can Musk and Trump. But you can’t actually incriminate yourself as they do and have a normal life and walk away unscathed. They can’t pay people to blather about free speech after they offended someone at work.
@MarkedMan: I read that piece, and it generally reflects something that I’ve noticed about political leadership over the past few decades. When I was in politics, there was no social media (I am clearly ancient), and for the most part, Democrats and Republicans had to work together to get things accomplished.
With the advent of user-generated content (blogs first, then social media) there has been a trend towards appeasing the base first. In other words, politicians who used to meet the other side halfway and compromise are now more concerned with getting called out directly. They are so afraid of appearing to “meet with the enemy” that they are essentially isolating themselves, playing to very limited crowds, and not doing the work they are supposed to be doing.
This attitude has spilled over into the general population. I do agree that working with and talking to those of opposing viewpoints is a way to de-escalate. But that can only happen when people don’t view talking to “the other side” as some kind of abandonment of principles or sleeping with the enemy.
@MarkedMan: So far, it would appear that she’s still hoping for a chance to “rule in hell.” Why she thinks that’s still a possibility is beyond me, though.
@MarkedMan: I don’t think Nicki Haley can see Kamala Harris as “what could have been” any more than some other 78-year-old white guy can see Trump for “what could have been.” Even if Harris proves that it’s not impossible for a dark skinned woman to succeed to the oval office, it doesn’t follow that any dark skinned woman can succeed to the oval office. Beyond that those attributes, there has to be a lot of other factors, whatever they may be. Right now, Harris has them (but see 2020) and Haley does not.
@Modulo Myself:
Have you watched Husbands? That movie goes on forever and taking No Doz before viewing is highly recommended. A Woman Under the Influence is almost as intolerable but is saved by Rowlands.
@MarkedMan: The echo of Glenn Beck’s observation that there’s no point in trying to talk to people who want to destroy America.
@Bill Jempty:
I’ve never found his movies boring, but I get why others might. Anyway, in my opinion, he did what he wanted to do, which was to make powerful movies about normal people without any of the feel of a Hollywood film about normal people.
@Jen: I took what he said as basically, “Yes, we have irreconcilable differences. Here’s what keeps that from turning into civil war.” He accepts the irreconcilable differences. I think of it like a divorce. The goal of going to counseling isn’t to get back together or to determine who was right and who was wrong in this or that instance. The goal and the focus is, “how do we give the kids the best life we can?”, and, “how do we keep from spending all our money on lawyers?”
Anyway, my layman’s opinion about great art is that you can understand why people don’t like it. Except for a few things—Shakespeare’s tragedies and Mozart’s great operas, both of which are pure entertainment—I get why people don’t like, say, a Proust or a Fassbinder. Whereas the dumbest stuff imaginable has a million fans all angry that not everyone appreciates a heartwarming story about two teens who discover only they can save the world.
@charontwo:..cartoon…
Cute. I get most of the references. I can’t read the box next to the “I Heart LBJ” coffee cup. Could be cartoon gibberish. Don’t remember any CBS TV news anchor smoking a pipe on the air. I’m guessing that it’t Truman next to Kennedy on the wall by the staircase.
@Mister Bluster:
It looks like “Werther’s” to me.
@Mister Bluster:
Love the console style radio and Zenith TV, My family’s first TV back in 1948 was a big old console thing with an itty-bitty 12″ picture tube. I definitely read that as Truman on the wall, Truman was the first election I was old enough to be aware of.
@Not the IT Dept.:..Werther’s…
I’ll go with that.
Today, I will learn how to tie a bowtie.
@Mister Bluster: Looks like @Not the IT Dept.: is right. The glasses and bow tie say Truman. I vaguely remember a pipe as part of Walter Cronkite’s image, and Google Images has several pics of him with a pipe, including a cover on TV Guide, but none on air.
@Jen: Which is a reminder of the fragmentation of media. In Cronkite’s era there were three networks, a handful of major newspapers, and about 2-1/2 weekly news magazines. There were any number of fringe characters, but they had trouble finding an audience.
I hope I’m not stepping over any lines with this. I need some feedback on a scene I’m working on, and I thought the OTB commentariat would be able to help. here goes:
“I think I can understand that,” Dr. Green said. “What was it you said the other day? Growing up you were sick of the phrase ‘transcription error’?”
“And how!” Dr. Marina Brook rolled her eyes. “I grew sick of my mom, too, always reminding me of it.” Her voice lowered a little and she mimicked “’It’s odd for a girl to look at the insides of animals, Marina. Well, it might be your transcription error’.” She rolled her eyes again. “I don’t think she ever understood what that means.”
“That’s not what bothers you, is it?”
“No. It bothers me that my parents raised me as a girl, saw me through puberty and into adulthood, and yet my mom doesn’t really think I’m a woman.”
The question is: does it come across that Marina is transgender?
For a little context, Marina is a vertebrate biologist. The “transcription error” is explained later in the story (XX chromosomes with an SRY gene in the second one). Dr. Green is a squid-like alien physicist.
@MarkedMan: A divorce is a good analogy, I think. Taking that example further, it’s a lot easier when those who surround you have that same mindset, rather than friends and family constantly trash-talking your ex. Basically, family/peer group will contribute to the success or failure of the approach.
@Michael Reynolds:..
Maybe thiswill help!
@MarkedMan: Apparently you have to create a WaPo account even to read a gift story now. At least, that’s what the panel covering the article told me.
@Kathy: Unless you give the background to “transcription error” earlier in the story I don’t think many will get it. Even after the “doesn’t really think I’m a woman” made me realize it was a transgender character, I still didn’t get the transcription error reference.
If what you want to do is make the audience wonder about what the transcription error reference is going to turn out to be, then maybe, “I grew sick of my mom, too, always reminding me of it whenever I acted like a boy instead of a girl”
@Kathy: No. Based on that one selection, I would not know that Marina is transgender. But unless she is specifically identified as such, I might never come to any conclusion about it. I’m not big on looking for nuance, which is probably why I see some of Michael Chabon’s gay characters as unnecessarily performative.
@MarkedMan: Ah! “Transcription error” has no meaning for me at all, and at 62 my mom introduced me as “her baby” and in a private conversation told me that she hoped I would find someone “to take care of me” shortly before she passed away. I read “as a woman” to be “as an adult.” As I noted earlier, I’m not concerned much with nuance in what I read. And also not big on sci-fi.
@Michael Reynolds: It’s the same as tying your shoelaces. When I was learning I practiced by tying on my shin so that I could see how the ends of the tie formed the bow.
WaPo is reporting that the Ukraine assault into Russia is much bigger than previously thought, with as many as 30,000 troops amassed for the invasion, and a separate ongoing assault in Belgorod to the south.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/08/15/russia-ukraine-kursk-captured-soldiers/
@just nutha: Huh. I haven’t seen that before. Can you try this link and let me know what you see? And this one from the Times?
@Michael Reynolds:
No, I won’t, I’m ordering a pre-tied one.
@a country lawyer:
You underestimate both my dyspraxia and my impatience.
@MarkedMan:
The link from the NYT works fine for me. The WaPo says I have to create an account to redeem the article.
@MarkedMan: The “this link” took me to what appears to be a front page or sub-front page WaPo titled “War in Ukraine.” The NYT link to me to an article with a title starting “Ukraine’s Incursion into Russia…” with color photographs.
@charontwo:..TeeVee…
I was born in January of 1948. Don’t know if there was a TV in the house when I was brought home from the hospital but there might have been. One of my early memories of TV is when I watched newsreels of the tanks in the Korean War (June 1950-July 1953) rumble through the battlefield. I doubt that I remember anything from age 2 however I was 5 before the war ended. I do remember asking my parents about war. “There are bad people in the world.” is what they told me.
One of my early life crisis of loyalty was when the big kid down the block (the same one who told me that there was no Santa Claus) told me about a new TV show. The Mickey Mouse Club. I was a fan of Howdy Doody that was on another channel at the same time. I really did not want to give up Buffalo Bob and Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring. I was really attached to the wooden puppets. After much prodding and my friend telling me that Howdy was yesterday’s news I switched channels.
Must have been the mouse ears and the cute girls because I was instantly hooked! I never went back!
@Michael J Reynolds: As long as you don’t buy one that clips directly to the collar, no one should notice until everyone’s blotto and the other guys in the room are untying their ties while you aren’t. Is a bow tie absolutely necessary? There are other sorts of formal-wear ties available. Of course, it’s been almost 40 years now since I last wore evening wear, so the answer could well be “no” for that question.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Still no edit button. My last sentence will make more sense if readers change the “no” to a “yes.”
@CSK: Bummer about the WaPo. By any chance are you using a privacy based browser?
@MarkedMan:
@just nutha:
The transcription error isn’t important. I could take it out entirely*.
I had the story done more than halfway, and the fact that Marina is trans at first came up in the middle. Then I realized that was the wrong thing to do. Having Marina defined as transgender earlier worked better (for spoiler reasons I’ll omit).
The problem is the first scene involves Marina and Green discussing her choice of landing site. They’re close friends, and it would be odd for her to tell him she’s trans. A close friend would know that already.
So, rewrite.
*Basically it’s minimalism, but not really relevant.
@Kathy:
The excerpt makes her sound more intersex than trans (although she could also be trans as well)
@MarkedMan:
Nope. Just regular old Chrome.
@Kathy: A lot of people have weighed in on “transcription error,” so I will give you a bit of entirely unasked-for advice (that I give to about 80% of my students): If the character you’re writing is a 13 year-old girl, then it is entirely appropriate that she expresses her emotions by rolling her eyes. If she is meant to be older or more sophisticated than that, you should look for a subtler manner of self-expression. For an adult, eye-rolling is just a step above sticking out her tongue…
@Stormy Dragon:
An XX pair with an SRY gene would make her intersex at the genetic level. The rest depends on how the condition presents itself. I may have mentioned a time or eight million that biology is messy.
@wr:
I appreciate the advice.
But (you knew this was coming), if I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen an adult roll their eyes, including me, I’d have enough to buy a supreme court justice.
Today is International Apostrophe Day!
’tis true.
(Link SFW.)
@Kathy: I may be dim, but I don’t get “my parents raised me as a girl, saw me through puberty and into adulthood, and yet my mom doesn’t really think I’m a woman.” It reads like “mom still sees me as a kid” which is a pretty universal experience. And “puberty” is just a weird word that I don’t think I have ever casually used in conversation.
Also, even knowing that it is a trans thing, the use of “transcription error” makes it sound like there’s something wrong with her that makes her trans.
And, remember, I started with “I may be dim” — take all of this with that in mind.
Since Dr. Green is an alien squid, could she just sense/see/smell the estrogen cream/shot/whatever-they-have-in-the-future? Something less awful than “you always smell good after you do your trans thing to remain trans, like a squidworld squid forest after the squid rain leave puddles of squid ink. Also, I think you need to get your hover car’s hover oil changed.”
What would Zoidberg do? He would dump exposition about humans from his alien perspective.
@Gustopher:
It’s well established Zoidberg cannot be trusted to treat humans*.
The rest has a lot of context and background missing. The squid-like aliens in this story are formally called Aquatics, and they live underwater. They get around in wheeled tanks in dry environments.
@Mister Bluster: Then let us celebrate our late, great friend @Teve Story! He did so love him some….apostrophii? Apostrophe plural? Whatever, I miss him.
@Kathy: Yeah, for it presumably being futuristic sci-fi, I wouldn’t know what transcription error might refer to. As you said, I’d understand that I’d find that out later. So then the sentence about her mom not seeing her as a woman came across to me as purely about adulthood. [Caveat: I’m not great at picking up clues.]
Personally, I have no problem with the usage of the word ‘puberty’. It was used in my family growing up, and Marina seems to be confiding in the squid scientist who would clearly understand the term. I feel it’s more technical than casual, but certainly not obscure.
@Franklin:
Transcription error is something that can happen when DNA replicates. There are kinds of error correcting mechanisms, largely enzymes, but these sometimes fail (have I mentioned biology is messy?). The molecule has been evolving for literally billions of years, and had grown quite good at replicating itself.
Anyway, many errors are completely inconsequential, but you can have things like an SRY gene from a Y chromosome land on an X chromosome (see my post above for the link). That’s the transcription error.
@Kathy:
If your character presented female at birth, was raised female, and still identifies as female as an adult, then she’s not trans, regardless of “how the condition presents itself”. This is a common misconception that intersex people are some sort of subset of trans, when they’re completely disjoint. Most trans people are not intersex and most intersex people are not trans.
@Stormy Dragon:
I didn’t say “regardless”. I said “The rest depends on how the condition presents itself.” If Marina were born with apparently normal male genitals, she’d be assigned male at birth.