Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Thursday, March 26, 2026
·
23 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.
For our MDF resident Kathy, is Mexico going cashless? I have ties to Iceland and the Baltics where cash, what is that? I also understand more than most Americans the political corruption in Mexico over the decades (I grew up on the border, old friend of mine growing up is high up in Mexicali police today).
https://thecabomag.com/mexico-cashless-gas-tolls-2026/?
I’m so out of date on any of this.
\
So how low can ratings get at CBS before the brass decides that they really need to start making a profit? Also why is CBS news dropping in the ratings, typically right-wing BS has been a rating winner. Could it be that right-wing nuttery has finally saturated to where there are to many channels and not enough deluded eyeballs?
https://www.newscaststudio.com/2026/03/18/cbs-evening-news-ratings-down-326/
@Rick DeMent: “…CBS executives at least partially attribute the dip in ratings to the end of daylight savings time…”
Thank you for some good morning entertainment.
As for the cause, I’m guessing there are 3 things going on: (1) Lots of RW propaganda networks out there; (2) decades of anti-“mainstream media” rhetoric pumped into the very people they’re trying to capture; and (3) messaging that almost exclusively targets the Trump circle jerk.
If I’m a foaming racist and my options are CBS News or Newsmax, I’ll choose the one that gets me riled every time. CBS News might report on something boring and probably won’t even try to pin the blame for natural disasters on brown people. The main audience for CBS News is “academic racists”, who are few and far between.
@Rick DeMent:
I don’t believe the Ellisons care if CBS News makes a profit, the remaining CBS assets are the juice of the deal and will make the profit. Turning CBS News into Pravda is a cost of doing business to get the deal through the felon’s antitrust hedgehogs.
Over the long term Ellison and the oligarchs are looking to gain control of not only the news outlets but also the entertainment outlets to ensure that whatever we see, is approved by them. Ellison has Paramount, WB and Tiktok, Bezos, the WaPo, Musk, Twitter. Eventually they and their ilk will buy up the remaining independent outlets. The last one standing in the US might be the NYT’s, but even the Ochs-Sulzberger will have their price.
@Richard Gardner:
There’s been a push for decades to get people to set up bank accounts and use debit and credit cards. At my old job, back in the 90s, we began to disperse payroll through debit accounts rather than in cash. But the main driver for that was the fees for the armored truck and security personnel to deliver the payroll in cash were too high. Back then, most employees would head to the nearest ATM upon leaving work and withdraw their money.
These days just about everyone gets their salary deposited to a bank account with a debit card*.
As to gas in particular, the law says for gas to be deductible it must be paid for with a debit or credit card, or with a check (this was in the early 2000s) made out to the gas station.
Lately, too, the government’s been promoting a system that allows payments and transfers using QR codes in bank apps. I’ve never used it, and have no idea how popular it is.
I stopped carrying more than a few hundred pesos in cash long, long ago. I use either debit or credit cards for just about everything.
For office expenses like supplies, dinner when we work late, the daily lunch subsidy (about $3.50 these days**), courier services, entry fee payments for government proposals, etc., is all cash.
* There’s a great deal of accommodation the law demands from banks. for instance, there can be no fees for payroll accounts, and changing from one bank to another is free and very easy to do.
** Back when the subsidy started, around 2006, it was closer to $10, and it covered the cost of lunch in any of the really cheap, prix fixe, informal economy places nearby. the value in pesos has not been updated to account for inflation since.
In three hours and 15 minutes Ill be out of rehab.
@Rick DeMent: Scott Lemieux at LGM, There is no material non-liberal audience for mainstream news.
Well, Iran has five points of its own.
I haven’t found a link. Meantime, these two are absolutely unacceptable:
The first one means no attacks on Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, and I suppose others. Get Bibi to agree to this, and I’ll hand over a Noble Peace Price (no typos).
The second is, and rightly should be, unacceptable for everyone. There’s a consensus about territorial waters. Besides, more countries also have shores on the other side of the strait. They ave as much right to it as Iran does.
I think the TL;DR is : fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
@Richard Gardner:
On highway tolls, it’s been a while since I’ve made use of a highway. There are several different services for prepaid toll cards, but several years ago the law made it mandatory they all work for all tolls in the country, This includes the elevated freeways inside Mexico City.
You do stop if you use one, just for a shorter time. The trust that people won’t try to just pass for free isn’t there. So there’s an arm barring the way, which lifts when the card gets read and the toll is paid.
That’s mildly convenient, besides not having to carry cash. it also allows for one invoice for all tolls, rather than one each per toll segment.
I don’t drive much outside the western parts of town, so I don’t bother with toll cards for the freeways. I just use the toll-free alternatives below the elevated freeway.
@CSK:
Yup, they always keep you to after 1pm so they can bill medicare or insurance for another day.
I had a thought: rotisserie turkey.
There are recipes online for doing it in home rotisserie type gadgets or setups. I was thinking more of cooking millions of dead birds that way, like they do with chicken.
I can see why not. the bird is too big for the average family dinner. Commercial setups for chicken are probably too small. And very likely there aren’t that many turkeys available, certainly not year-round.
Oh well.
Next week is Easter, and we get Friday off. I thought I’d finally get around to making the magic rotisserie chicken stock on the instant pot. Part of the idea is that once the pot is pressurized, the water stops boiling, ergo the stock develops without constant movement cause by steam bubbles.
I think this is correct.
In any case, since finding the video for how to make it, I’ve come cross other videos of people making it. All seem to agree it works and the results are good. We’ll see.
What will I make with the stock? For starters tomato soup. My recipe includes some chicken stock or broth. Later we’ll see. I think good stock is best for lighter soups without many other contributing flavors.
@Sleeping Dog:
My Medicare ran out. I’m paying for this myself. Ouch.
@CSK: Congratulations and welcome home!
@wr:
Thank you!
**********************
After excoriating people who voted by mail, Trump voted by mail in the Florida special election. His reason for so doing? “Because I’m president.”
My brother Pete died recently.
I was 5 years old in August of 1953 when he was born. I remember riding in the back seat of our 1952 Ford with my mom and her letting me hold him on my lap for the ride home from the hospital.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and lived in Southern California for the rest of his life. On one of my visits to his home he took me to Opening Day at Dodger Stadium. We kept in touch by texting back and forth about the Cubs and the Bears.
They just threw the first pitch for Opening Day at Wrigley Field.
I’m missing him bad today.
Damn
I also remember when we were in the bathtub together and I would open the drain and he would scream for my mom to help him because he thought he would go down the drain and I would laugh!
Mean big brother!
@Richard Gardner:
London is fairly cashless as well. Just about everything is tap to pay with your phone.
@CSK:
Time to hit the streets and fight ICE. Congrats.
@CSK:
Ouch. At least you’re out and back home.
I’M OUT, and at my sister’s place. Beth, maybe I can kick some ICE goons with my prosthetic leg. Sort of like a half-assed Bionic Woman.
Headline: Google warns quantum computers could hack encrypted systems by 2029
My immediate thoughts on it:
1) Wasn’t the quantum computer hype killed with AI hype?
2) I wonder if Google is selling an expensive encryption system.
3) I can’t picture hackers with tons of helium and thousands of lasers.
4) Is there even enough helium on Earth to run a significant number of quantum computers? If not, what would be the best way to make lots of it? Fusion, or large amounts of fission byproducts with high alpha particle emissions?
5) We’re altering matter to run computers. Cool!
@Richard Gardner: @Beth:
And even absent a smartphone, you can just pay with a debit card.
Including “contactless”.
It’s been ages (I mean, literally years) since I last used cash at all.
The only exception being a second-hand vinyl record trader in the local market.
He likes cash, lol
Speaking of going cashless, the Treasury dept. will print notes with El Taco’s signature.
@CSK: I’m so glad you’re out! FREEEEDOM, with a bionic leg!
@Gregory Lawrence Brown: Sorry to hear about your brother. 🙁
@Jax:..
Thank you.