Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, December 11, 2025
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2 comments
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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).
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BlueSky.
Former MLB player George Altman has passed away. He was 92. Altman played professionally in MLB, The Negro Leagues, and Japan which gave him a unique career. He was a dangerous hitter who twice played for the National League All-star team. Altman MLB playing days were too early for me to remember. I do know Altman well from my SOM baseball playing.
Three of the seasons I have finished, 1960-62, were Altman’s prime years. RIP
Here is a good explainer on the atmospheric rivers (this one is a Pineapple Express = warm tropical water) that is focused to my area near Seattle. Look at the picture of the plume of warm water aimed here (in the Twitter insert). https://komonews.com/news/local/pineapple-express-northwest-meteorologist-bomb-cyclones-was-flooding-atmospheric-riving-mit-scientists-927-hurricane-carolinas-mudslides-lowlands
This is a major plume of water 100-400 miles wide that just dumps like a fire hose. A similar storm pattern during the Civil War was aimed at California and the Central Valley was flooded for 6+ months (impacted funding of the Civil War for the Union – Gold) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1862 ” The event dumped an equivalent of 10 feet (3.0 m) of precipitation in California, in the form of rain and snow, over a period of 43 days ” But no, this hasn’t happened before, must be Global Warming. Also see Southern California winter of 1968-89, and the Columbus Day Storm of 1962 in the PNW (typhoon) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day_storm_of_1962 Extreme weather events happen. This isn’t new. But apparently it is the worst ever (not).