Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, April 17, 2025
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82 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).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
Just a note to readers that I’m headed out of town shortly, sans laptop, and won’t return until Sunday evening. Posting from me has been light owing to peak period toward the end of the academic year and a long bout of COVID. I hope to be back in swing after next week
@James Joyner: Enjoy your disconnection!
“Krugman”
Students sue Defense Department over book bans in military schools
Not sure how far this can go but glad to see some pain being inflicted back on this administration.
@James Joyner: Travel safe and have fun!
This kind of made me laugh:
‘The Mandalorian’ was actually about a burned-out NCO trying to get his kid to daycare
@James Joyner:
Very sorry to learn about the Covid.
Per the NYT, the IRS is threatening to end Harvard’s tax-exempt status.
@CSK: Also:
DHS threatens to revoke Harvard’s eligibility to host international students unless it turns over disciplinary records
When Republicans continually complained about “weaponization”, you just had to know that “Every accusation is a confession”.
You would think that Harvard would have the legal fire power at its fingertips at its law school. Heck, my attorney daughter said that law students would probably enjoy working on these cases and that’s free labor.
I hope Harvard stands firm and kicks butt.
Any Republican cheering this should remember that churches–particularly those evangelical megachurches–should probably have their nonprofit status revoked, as they’ve been openly campaigning for decades.
Go get ’em Harvard.
@Scott: Well, the good news is that soon no international students will want to come here, so it is kind of an empty threat! (He said, snarkily but kind of seriously).
@Jen:
Make that “Right Fiercely, Harvard.”
@Jen: I had a similar thought. What if the next president revokes the First Baptist Church of Dallas’ tax-exempt status on the grounds that Jim Jeffress has engaged in political activity?
@CSK:
Posted this late last night/early am EDT. Apparently the IRS is jumping in at warp speed. Another feature/bug of living in the PNW.
@Flat Earth Luddite: .
Trump administration asks IRS to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status
Source: The Washington Post
https://search.app/pBLLw
@CSK:
I shouldn’t post before having coffee. Make that “Fight Fiercely, Harvard.”
@Flat Earth Luddite:
Damn, I missed that. Sorry.
Well, this ought to be considerably beyond tacky:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-flew-his-gold-guy-to-washington-to-help-with-white-house-makeover/
I wrote a story years ago called Golden, about a kind of synthetic person on a long, long, long interstellar voyage, who gets treated more like a machine than a woman. It was totally a trans allegory*, mixed with shades of The Bicentennial Man**. It wasn’t much good, though some people who read it commented the opening was a great hook. The opening goes “My name is Golden. I am a human being.”
Anyway, form time to time I wonder what to do with that idea. A throwaway line in the story stated signals from Earth stopped reaching the interstellar ark 73 years into the voyage, but the people were so preoccupied with their internal squabbles about what the ark should do upon reaching its destination, about 127 years later, that they didn’t much care about it.
Yesterday I was thinking about it, and another idea I had about a planet populated solely by robots (not Mars), and something clicked. I immediately wrote a short outline, only a few lines long, and saved it for later use.
Amazing what can come when mindlessly fixing an excel document that should have been done in word…
* I had a few others I never wrote down. One is well overdue for a revisit, because it contains a rather original idea on how aliens might explore the galaxy over time.
** Just about any story where a robot, android, synthetic person (see Heinlein’s Friday), innie etc. is sentient and evidently a person, and should have their rights recognized and respected, will be taken as a rip off of Asimov’s novella.
Although offhand I can’t recall this claim being made when TNG aired The Measure of a Man
@CSK:
Well, there is 8-1 SCOTUS decision to back up removing Harvard’s tax-exempt status for discriminatory behavior
Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983)
And if you don’t believe the antisemitism is sufficient. Harvard has already been found to discriminate on the basis of race
So the question is, has Harvard stopped discriminating of the basis of race or have they just been hoping for a Democrat win to ratify their practices?
I found this interesting. Forward a couple minutes to a rather elaborate musical parody attack on billionaires. I’m seeing small indications that the Left is coalescing around a class-based, eat-the-billionaires message. Colbert isn’t exactly on the cutting edge, but that’s why I find this bit encouraging. We may be coming to a place where the millionaires are leading an assault on the billionaires. This is a good thing.
My modest proposal is for a national cap on wealth. 10,000 x median net worth (190K at the moment). Let Republicans make the argument that 2 billion isn’t enough. Or that 10,000 times more than a typical household isn’t enough. Let them cry socialism. So long as our message is not anti-success, or even anti-rich but rather that we are opposed to the mentally and morally defective money-hoarders like Musk, Bezos, Thiel et al. Talk about ‘all the good they could do,’ but also de-norm these hoarders as being the equivalent of people who fill their homes with old newspapers and jars of pee.
@JKB: So, did you agree with that ruling? Or is this about “turnabout is fair play”? One is principled, the other is MAGA.
Perhaps all those big law firms that capitulated to Trump put their tits in the proverbial wringer:
“Robert Hubbell”
“Joyce Vance”
@charontwo:
Once you show weakness by giving in to Trump he never stops pressuring you for more concessions.
@charontwo:
I didn’t include it in the blockquote from the Krugman link upthread, but this problem is common to Louis XIV “L’Etat c’est moi” and authoritarian leaders in general, not just Trump – they can always change their mind, agreements with them can not be relied on.
So I went to the University of Michigan, and typically donate to my old school every year. Thus far, to the chagrin of most students amd professors, it seems their strategy is to kowtow to the Trump administration. I’m wondering if I should redirect my donation this year to Harvard or some other school that has a spine.
Astronomers Detect a Possible Signature of Life on a Distant Planet
@Franklin:
I’d go with some other school. Harvard has an endowment, made up of thousands of funds, of around $50 billion. Giving them money, IMO, seems like donating a few buckets of water to the ocean.
Give Harvard all the moral support you can, by all means. but they hardly need any more money.
Oops! Double post. Sorry about that.
@Franklin: Since UM is a state university, wouldn’t Whitmer and co have some influence responding to Trump demands or pressure? Or is everyone in a abusive relationship?
@Neil Hudelson:
As per Kathy’s First Law of Astonishing Finds (First, temper your expectations. Second, temper your expectations. Third, remember to temper your expectations), I will await further developments. I think the same system, when studied with Hubble or some other instrument, showed signs of water vapor, which later turned out to be ammonia.
It’s astonishing we can do spectroscopy on exoplanet atmospheres, but we are in the infant days of such technology. To be sure, it’s a very promising lead which should be followed up, and I think the planet is in the habitable zone of its star (ie at a temperature range that allows for liquid water).
So, wait and see what further observations bring up.
10% of Harvard’s undergrad class is Jewish. 37% are Asian. About 2.5% of US is Jewish and 7% Asian. About 1.5% of Bob Jones students are black. About 14% of US is black. The reality is that Harvard along with 50 or 10 other schools can pick pretty much whatever students they want. They could accept only left handed redheads and still fill the class with qualified students. The difference between a student with an 800 SAT who went to a private school and had extensive test tutoring vs a kid with a 740 who went to a poor rural school is hard to determine but there is a good chance the latter makes a better student/person in the long run.
So when you are taking in students at a rate 4 times what exists in the population it’s a lot harder to claim racism, especially given the ability to select who they want. Bob Jones OTOH, is not a selective school and accepts blacks at a much lower rate than exists in the population. (Also, a Bob Jones daughter was one of my Sunday school teachers. They really were racist.)
Steve
I remember when the Free Abrego Garcia, Karmelo Anthony and “Just Latin Passion against Gringos” Jose Ibarra and Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez crowd cheered the imprisonment of Gonzalo Lira.
I remember when someone would constantly post about the excesses of US Federal Law Enforcement and their violations of the US Constitution, only to turn around and (once again) lick its boots when the person they support is in the White House.
Choosing to consistently publicly demonstrate one’s absolute lack of consistency on deeply held beliefs is a choice.
@Matt Bernius:..thumbs up…
Attempted to reply to your comment but didn’t see a reply prompt.
Clicked on Thumbs Up but it didn’t register however the Reply key appeared. So this is my reply: Thumbs Up.
@Mister Bluster:
Hmm. Is this a clever attempt to discourage responding to jackassery?
@Kathy:
These aliens are clearly blood-thirsty enemies who in time will come after us. Our only hope is to begin preparing now, and consider pre-emptive attacks. Get them before they get us. Let’s see, 120 lightyears, OK, I can’t do math, but if we shoot now we’ll show them – in several millennia – that we cannot be fucked with.
@Kathy:
I read a great book, whose title escapes me, about Columbus’s first journey to the Americas, using both Columbus’s and some of his crews’ journals as sources. There was a particular part about crew seeing some drift wood and having to temper their excitement–driftwood is more likely to be found closer to land, but its not unheard of to find it in the middle of the ocean. A few days later, The Bahamas.
Neil’s first law (:-) ): be a skeptic, but be an optimistic one.
@Mister Bluster:
Thanks for the heads up about that. I’m having issues with some of the comment controls too. What browser are you running?
And is anyone else having issues with things not showing up (like the quote button)?
@Kurtz:
It’s largely my best attempt at engaging without engaging. Ultimately, it’s also about pointing out the underlying problems with an individual’s behavior patterns (which isn’t, for the record, an “Ad Hominem” because it’s directly relevant to the underlying argument.. which itself was a non sequitur because the person we are alleged to not care about was in the custody of another country for violating the laws of said country, so the US Consitutional right to due process doesn’t apply).
@Matt Bernius:
No, I meant the upvote requirement for the reply button to appear.
@Franklin: Perhaps take the money you would have donated to U of M and donate that money instead to a local food bank or other social services organization that has lost funding. And do it on behalf of the U of M Alumni Association, so they get the nice card in the mail thanking them for their donation.
@Michael Reynolds:
I hear the rapist has already ordered them deported.
@Neil Hudelson:
Some new finds get trumpeted too early along with a lot of speculation these days. Mostly in discoveries with possible practical applications, but not necessarily. So, FTL neutrinos! room temperature super conductors! cold fusion! (ok, that’s an older one and atypical for its day).
What gets me is the speculation. About 15 years ago I heard of an experiment on antibiotic resistant bacteria. If fed antibiotics, they didn’t notice. If fed carbon nanotubes, all was well. If fed antibiotics inside carbon nanotubes, they died faster than FTL neutrinos (ha ha).
Those were facts. The speculation was that we’d have new, more effective drug delivery methods, or we could vanquish resistant bugs altogether.
15 years later, we haven’t. Why? No idea. the publications that trumpet the Next GREAT Thing seldom do any follow up.
Ergo Kathy’s First Law of Astonishing Finds.
@Matt Bernius:..browser…
When I replied to your above comment that begins: I remember when someone…
I was using my iPhone using the Safari browser.
This post is on my MacBook Air using the Chrome browser and I am finding another digital disparity. None of the comments have a reply key until I drag my cursor over the comment. Then the reply key appears and is functional.
My next test will be to see how this works on Safari on my MacBook Air.
@Mister Bluster:
I just saw the same thing on Chrome on a Windows PC
@Matt Bernius:..MacBoom Air Safari…
Looks and acts the same as the Chrome browser.
Also it is taking extended time for comments to post. At least a minute.
@Franklin: One suggestion would be to send, instead of your usual donation, a dollar bill to UM with an explanation why, and what your normal contribution might be.
Don’t know if it would help, but it couldn’t hurt.
MacBoom™
Just in case Apple gets any ideas…
@Matt Bernius: The reply button doesn’t show up until I touch the post–usually for an up vote, but also if I press the blank space where the reply button should be. I also only get an edit button and timer (since just today, not earlier) if the comment posts quickly–say, almost immediately.
ETA: Correction! I got an edit button for this post, only my 3rd button today over several more posts, even though the post took 30 or 40 seconds. (My screen “timed out” three times during posting.)
I’m on my Android phone so the browser is Google via whatever T-Mobile uses for systems. No visible “reply” button. But I do see reply buttons on SOME, but not all, thread comments.
@Matt Bernius:
If I click anywhere in the white space at the bottom of the comment, the reply button appears.
Once I get the reply button, I can click the up button and have it register.
The comment count on the front page still isn’t updating, though.
iOS 18 18.3.2
I would say donate to Harvard still, despite their $53+ billion endowment. Courage when financially rewarded is contagious.
Does Costco need more of our money? No. But it’s still important right now to drive up Costco’s traffic and profits, signaling to the spineless Trump-sellout cowards at Target, Walmart, McDonald’s etc. that they went with the wrong horse.
We can donate to and shop at more than one place.
Kathy, Choke with hatred on this outrage. I don’t understand how the evil rapist Trump had the self control to not bash all of his Sexual Assault victims heads in with a rock when he was in the throes of “Latin Passion” like Jose Ibarra.
Because Trump is far more evil than Ibarra and deserves a far worse punishment like execution. Jose Ibarra was found by a court to be not guilt of rape.
Only Aggravated battery.
Aggravated assault with intent to rape. False imprisonment.
First this seemed funny. The nazi in chief will blow up other people’s rockets? Without building them? Preposterous 😀
But then there’s this bit: “…build and launch 400 to more than 1,000 satellites circling the globe to sense missiles and track their movement, sources said.
A separate fleet of 200 attack satellites armed with missiles or lasers would then bring enemy missiles down, three of the sources said.”
Uh-hu. Wasn’t this the Star Wars Program (aka Strategic Defense Initiative), pursued on and off since St. Ronnie’s first term over 40 years ago? Are there even lasers which can fit a satellite and take down missiles flying at hypersonic speeds?
Ah, but then we find: “One of the sources familiar with the talks described them as “a departure from the usual acquisition process. There’s an attitude that the national security and defense community has to be sensitive and deferential to Elon Musk because of his role in the government.”
Oh, it’s a payoff to donor! How much will the rapist take in kickbacks?
@JKB:
Wow…you got the Bob Jones talking point from the cult office really quite quickly.
Harvard compared to Bob Jones U…what’s next? Comparing the fraudulent Trump U to MIT?
I believe Harvard’s Jewish population is about 4x the general population.
Try again, troll.
(so much for my ignorer-status)
When my youngest daughter was little and just started saying big words that she would occasionally get wrong, she came up to me and said our new kitten had “angry shoes” and showed me a scratch on her arm. It took me a minute, then I realized “anger issues” is what she meant. The kitten has anger issues. Angry shoes is much funnier, though. 😉
Somebody around here has some angry shoes.
@Kathy:
I wish some smart journalist would create a database with all of Musk’s income streams from the US Government.
From what I read many of the agencies he has cut are now contributing to his bottom line.
Eg: DOGE made cuts at FAA and Musk is now providing services for the FAA.
But as the Stepford Wife Press Secretary said;
Of course he will.
So, I’ve managed to fuck myself pretty badly.
There appears to be some debate and confusion about how this actually plays out, but it appears to me that trans people can’t use any bathroom. My partner is making me go to a party tomorrow cause I’m suicidal and shit. I have to ask them what bathroom I can use and not get in trouble. And maybe there’s nothing they can do and I can stay as long as I can hold my bladder. I’ve sent messages to two clubs today asking what I can do or should I stay home.
Like what the fuck does this mean? We’re not women, we’re not men, we’re some weird terrible third thing that deserve segregation.
This is some horrific shit beyond what I had imagined. You’re there we see you, we can’t discriminate against you because you’re dirty little freaks, except you are dirty little freaks, so we get to segregate you. Because there’s men! There’s women! And there’s dirty little freaks.
Just remember women, this is going to happen to you next.
@Beth:
I’ve canceled our plans to live in the UK – I’m not going to live where my daughter can’t be treated like a human being. Now pursuing Spanish or Portuguese digital nomad visas because somehow Spain is more progressive than the UK.
I have an immigration lawyer in the UK if you need a reference, not that I see what she can do for you.
The temporary solution is going to be anathema: present as a dude when in public. That’s what they want, to shove you back in the closet.
And fuck that demagogue JK Rowling.
@Jax: “Angry shoes” would also work for a cat’s claws/paws.
I love it when kids say these kinds of things that make you think “okay, that actually works better than what I was going to say…”
@Matt Bernius: ” I’m having issues with some of the comment controls too.”
I’m finding my reply button appears only when I move my cursor near the space where it should be…
@wr: Ugh, should have read the whole thread before replying. Sorry for the repetition!
@Beth:
I saw this piece in The Guardian earlier today, painting a less pessimistic picture:
FWIW, the author is a lawyer and a trans woman.
@Paul L.: “Kathy, Choke with hatred on this outrage.”
You really need to leave now.
You have long been among the most vile and despicable of our trolls, but threatening violence against one of the regular posters is outrageous and worthy of permanent banning.
Moderators?
@wr:
I could have sworn Dean Emeritus Taylor bounced Paul L. weeks if not months ago, but it seems I was mistaken.
@wr:
Thanks.
I should reiterate that I do not read the various trolls’ posts. I saw they posted, but did not read a word of it. So I’d no idea what they said until you brought it up.
Knowing now they threatened me, I still don’t feel any need to read their ravings.
But I really appreciate the support.
Interesting and progressive definition
of threatening violence.
Feminist Jill Filipovic
How is my wish of Choking on your own hatred a threat or violence?
Pure commie breadtuber tankie BS Argument.
@wr:
While I understand and to a degree agree with you, I’m against banning on the grounds that it’s easier to identify the enemy in front of you. I’ve been stabbed in the back earlier in my life, but never when I could see the blade coming.
@Paul L.:
You really come across as a weak, pathetic excuse for a human being. Hopefully that’s not the real you.
@Matt Bernius:
Last night on my T-Mobile phone and first thing this am, I was having the problem of my posts/responses not appearing until after the time to edit expired. Today’s version of Luddite’s first world problem is also the hidden reply button. But Luddite shall overcome! Thanks again for your work on the site!!!!!!!!!
@Beth:
No, you haven’t fucked yourself. The fuckery is entirely the responsibility of small-minded people who are frightened of imaginary frights.
You keep being the joy you are. The world would be immesurably poorer (& sadder) without you.
It’s time to put Paul on ignore. James and Steven have, I believe, made clear that they would like us to ignore the trolls. No one enjoys bitch-slapping these assholes more than I do, but I am complying on the grounds that this is James’ and Steven’s house, we are guests, they have a right to set ground rules.
We need to protect our children from trans people in bathrooms so that they can die from lung cancer and preventable communicable disease!
@Daryl:
I’ve come across estimates of $30-$35 billion.
Now, some of that came from tax credits for EVs. A lot more for XpaceS contracts. As disgusting as it is, I’m compelled to say XpaceS does offer a reliable launch service. Whether or not the nazi’s company charges real prices is unknown. For all I know, he’s losing money on every launch, and needs Xtarlink to either make money or break even. Now he’s selling Xtarlink services to the government.
As to conflicts of interest, he can’t have one. it’s not like Texla blows up rockets or XpaceS makes unsafe, shoddy EVs. Is it?
@wr:..Ugh…
Earlier Matt Bernius asked “…is anyone else having issues…”.
I don’t see your comment as repetition.
Looks like you are responding to Matt’s inquiry.
I missed all of this from a few days ago.
Jack Dorsey said, “delete all IP law” on X
Musk replied, “I agree”
I think there is room for reform. But it’s not as simple as delete it.
Dorsey, for his part, claims that there are better models for compensating artists. Fine.
It’s clear why Musk wants this.
But another deluded clown, Chris Messina, went full stupid:
Imprisoning human beings is the same as punishing companies whose ‘intelligent’ (currently) software products poach the work of human artists.
Call me when these software/hardware products can suffer, then we can figure out at what point they should be considered the same as a biological entity.
Aside: Messina is described as an “inventor” on wiki. What is his invention? He proposed the concept of the hashtag. I don’t consider that an invention, sorry. Useful? Yes. Groundbreaking stroke of genius? No.
@Paul L.:
When you’re right, you’re right. Credit where due.
More of this, please.
https://x.com/HillaryClinton/status/1912599448028606953
@Kurtz:
So, I write a novel or story or screenplay and send it to a publisher, magazine or studio. they love it, they want to publish it or produce it. So they claim they wrote it and go ahead with it, and pay me nothing because all I have is intellectual property that’s no longer protected.
Oh, I should self publish? Sure. Then anyone who notices any success in sales can copy it and claim authorship and self publish.
And would this include trademarks? How about putting the Texla logo on estrogen pills?
@Flat Earth Luddite: I had no idea what he was saying. It sounded like his usual semi-coherent gibberish only with the anger dialed up. Thanx for the clarification.
@Kathy:
When you submit something send a copy to yourself by certified mail. Establish proof.
@Michael Reynolds: I love how you can claim the high moral ground of declaring you compliance with the ignore pseudo-suggestion without actually complying or ignoring. You’d fit in with a lot of evangelicals and fundies I’ve known over the years.
@Daryl: Unless I’m missing something, the proof is worthless if there are no IP laws. That’s Kathy’s point, right?
Said another way, since I can’t edit my comment today: what good is proving it is your intellectual property if there are no laws about protecting intellectual property?
@Paul L.:
Friend, seek help. It’s not too late. You can do this.
Kilmar Ábrego García is not dead, and got to meet with Senator Van Hollen.
This may be the first indication that the Trump “deport people to a hellhole to rot and die” plan is beginning to falter under public scrutiny. I like to be hopeful.
@Kathy: “But I really appreciate the support.”
Always!
@just nutha:
WTF are you talking about?