Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
·
68 comments
OTB relies on its readers to support it. Please consider helping by becoming a monthly contributor through Patreon or making a one-time contribution via PayPal. Thanks for your consideration.
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.
Latino evangelical churches gear up to face possible immigration enforcement in churches (AP)
Maybe the Musk admin will be too busy with fueling Trumpflation via tarriffs — or with causing WW3 by invading Gaza — to raid pro-MAGA churches?
Maybe I missed the discussion of this(?), but apparently, Trump Media has awarded Kash Patel and others millions of dollars in stock awards.
Certainly no conflict of interest there….
@DK: Googling ‘Jews for Hitler’ leads to an actual group who said that Hitler was only against Slavic Jews, not good German Jews.
They were wrong.
Ask Marco what he’s going to do about it.
Watchdog warns Trump’s gutting of USAID leaves $8.2 billion unspent aid with no oversight
One of the things that I find most baffling about our current state of affairs is the apparent willingness to cede power. This is HIGHLY unusual. Over the years, I’ve sat through or witnessed absolutely ridiculous contests of wills just to maintain a smidgen of authority or control. I cannot emphasize how strange it is that Congress is not exercising more of its authority, particularly the Senate. As far as the Supremes go, my guess is that they are waiting for a case.
Some are just not very bright (Sen. Britt, MTG, Tuberville). But the Lindsey Grahams and Mitch McConnells of the Senate HAVE to know that they are potentially permanently hobbling the Senate, and that allowing Musk to run amok is both wrong and dangerous to American interests. Honestly, it almost feels like they are waiting on the sidelines for all of this to collapse. None of it makes sense. And no, I don’t think that they want a dictatorship–that’s Trump’s thing.
Allowing cabinet-level departments to collapse restricts Congressional ability to direct projects to their districts. Allowing Musk–an unelected bureaucrat–access to sensitive systems threatens our safety. There’s something else going on here.
@DK: There was always a simple math problem in the comparative claims that Trump would deport only migrant criminals and that Trump would deport upwards of 10 million. While there are upwards of 10 million here “illegally,” only a small fraction of those would be viewed in any normal parlance as “criminals.” In order to make the numbers, Trump always had to be targeting a huge number of undocumented, but otherwise contributing members of society.
So, let’s see. Trump has said that courts shouldn’t be allowed to overturn his orders and his administration is ignoring the rulings of several courts and obeying none. He has repeatedly said he doesn’t think he will step down at the end of his term. He has installed lawless loyalists in virtually every department and the Vichy Republicans are giving him every cabinet member he wants. And he has let a crazed billionaire run amok in the government.
But let’s talk about the Biden’s regretful, but legal, violation of norms! And throw in Hillary’s emails as a bonus
@Jen: The fact that Graham and McConnell are not idiots makes their abdication of their office and breaking of their oath all the more noxious. Blind loyalty from intellectual dwarfs like Ron Johnson and Tuberville is somewhat understandable, but it is inexcusable from blinded-by-ambition, but smart, guys like Cruz and Rubio. Those are the folks who will be called out by name when future historians explore the demise of the Republican party.
@Joe: It has always been double speak. Trump always railed against immigrants but always seemed to imply that the “dangerous” criminals would be targeted and deported. The goal posts have shifted. All illegal immigrants are considered criminals (the dangerous part now left out) and are targeted.
Hypocrisy abounds. Surely, some minor political noise could be made. Make enough of the little noises and you may be heard.
While spending cuts are in vogue, House chairs seek budget boosts
Anyone still think Biden’s last-minute pardons was such a big deal?
@Jen:
I think they’re the kind of people who prefer to hold on to some amount of power rather than to risk losing it all, for instance by being primaried.
At least now they can continue to pretend that they’re somebody.
I would also assume that they (correctly) recognize that MAGA is now the dominant force in the Republican coalition and that there’s no winning a GOP primary with MAGA against you.
I think it is safe to assume that right now any elected GOP official is either a complete coward or a true believer. Anyone else has left.
@Tony W: Yeah, it was reported on Jan 31 that trump media gifted thousands of shares of company stock to Kash Patel and also to Don Jr and four other board members, worth about $800 thousand each, “as consideration for services provided.” That was after the revelation during confirmation hearings that Pam Bondi received about $3 million in trump media shares, which she would sell within 90 days.
It’s to be expected that our bought-and-paid-for Justice Department leaders will bend the law to the will of their benefactor.
@Not the IT Dept.:
Wasn’t that like 20 years ago?.
Feels like it…
There’s only one of three ways this ends:
– Trump chokes on a cheeseburger and we are somehow able to wrest Vance back to obeying the law
– Dictatorship for the foreseeable future
– Impeachment, and even then we have to hope the military will intervene when Trump refuses to leave
@Jen: I harp on this a lot. As Paul O’Neill, W’s treasury guy for a minute, put it, “These are very mean people.”. He said that about the Republican Party twenty years ago. Karl Rove and Co were taking baby steps to that “permanent Republican majority “. Organized crime bought in, especially to elevate the likes of a pliable djt. The meanness and cruelty went to new heights.
It has been reported quite a bit, but never emphasized. Musk doesn’t just threaten careers and livelihoods. Lives are being threatened if greasing palms doesn’t work. djt doesn’t make it a secret he absolutely condones violent means.
These are very mean, vindictive and sadistic thugs and proud of it. Members of Congress have never been in more danger. Hard to get good people to run for office, which is the point. Makes it much cheaper to install a toady in a seat.
The .001% have been funding this with tax cuts for decades and the GOP have enriched themselves and their masters with our money.
Being a billionaire makes it easy to get away with murder, let’s face it.
Well, those backdated pardons covering crimes over more than a decade that weren’t even under investigation sure gave the appearance of impropriety for the Biden family and the lifelong government officials.
Such appearance of impropriety gives credence to the need to go through the government books with fine tuned computer/AI experts who can write the code to unravel the patterns of corruption at USAID and other agencies.
The lighter side of heavy
Could pickled sand dabs become a thing?
Dear Angry Staffer,
Trump is the shoe on the other foot Try to remember what you advocated Biden do/did and keep up.
In other news, at least one Democrat in Congress is calling for Democrats to shutdown the government when the corrupt practice of continuing resolutions expires in March to stop the exposure of the corruption of continuing resolutions and USAID
@JKB:
There were no “back dated crimes” for anyone who was pardoned by Biden. Do you ever tell the truth about anything?
@Not the IT Dept.: He can’t. He belongs to the Cult of Unreality and Alternative Facts. There is no known de-programming method thus far. Resistance is Futile……er….something. 😉
@JKB:
You having a stroke right now, Jakes?
I think I’m going to spend a lot less time here. I’m not up for years of hand-wringing.
As everyone here knows, I spent two decades as a fugitive. Every night I lay in bed imagining – and I have a professional level imagination – all the horrible things that might happen to me in prison. But at no time did I ever imagine that my reaction to an attack, a rape, a shiv, an ultimatum to smuggle drugs, whatever, would be to sit with other prisoners and complain about those bad, bad gang members.
I plotted counterattack. I plotted murder, or its equivalent. If you stick a shiv in a guy’s neck and kill him, you leave the jury and judge very little wiggle room. But stick a shiv in a spine and cripple someone for life, well, that’s what extenuating circumstances are for. That much I share with Trump – hurt me or mine and I’ll find a way. Now, I’m older, but also richer, so I’d probably be better off hiring someone to do the job. OTOH, at age 70, what’s anyone going to do to me that nature isn’t preparing to do?
Anyway, I’ll use what writing skills I have, but that’s a very long game, and Trump will be in the grave before it can bear small fruit. I’ll donate to any Team Blue organization that seems ready and able to throw down. And unless something goes awry or circumstances change dramatically, I’m getting the fuck out of this sick country.
@Michael Reynolds:
Be well, Michael. Get your loved ones to someplace safer and happier.
@Michael Reynolds:..I think I’m going to spend a lot less time here.
This is your call and I respect it.
It is selfish of me to ask but don’t be a total stranger.
This post submitted Tue. Feb. 11, 2025. 9:52am cst
@JKB: “Such appearance of impropriety gives credence to the need to go through the government books with fine tuned computer/AI experts who can write the code to unravel the patterns of corruption at USAID and other agencies.”
Fascinating that a brave keyboard warrior like you who clearly cares so much about corruption has nothing to say about Trump closing all the offices which exist to fight corruption and telling the US Attorneys in New York to stop going after Eric Adams, who has racked up countless accusation of corruption.
Is it only corruption if you can hallucinate a connection to Hunter Biden?
Headline on the AP website;
“Rep. Nancy Mace accuses ex-fiancé and associates of assaulting her and raping others in House speech”
Yet she is an enthusiastic supporter of the serial sexual assaulter in the White House.
“Rape Victims for Rapists”
Someone please make this make sense?
Folks, if you occasionally check out Kevin Drums blog you may or may not be aware that he had to check himself into the hospital and is in pretty rough shape.
He is in my thoughts and prayers and probably should also be in the thoughts of most folks who are regulars on this great site. His multiple myelomas are unfortunately kicking his ass, to be blunt about it.
If you are wondering how a rando like myself knows this, it is because regular readers of Drum know how open he has been with his readers about his struggles with cancer.
Michael, I hope you do not go far from this blog, as it is fun to read posts from intelligent folks like yourself, Mimai, and Andy in the comments section.
@Jen:
Classic collective action problem. We’re in our ninth year of waiting for someone else to step up and take the hit for doing something about Trump. Particularly galling after Dems handed them two impeachments they could have gotten behind.
@Charley in Cleveland:
While I certainly agree with your overall point, I can’t recall much evidence that my ex-senior senator, Little Marco Rubio, is smart.
@JKB:
Man you really don’t know WTF you’re talking about. You just spew forth some meaningless buzzwords and move on.
Do people actually fall for this crap? Do they really believe programming is like the matrix movies and we just stare at meaningless green “code” dripping down a screen?
You don’t need to “write code” to “unravel the patterns of corruption”. Mark one eyeball and basic detective work is all you need.
@Daryl:
Saw that AP article (link below).
As the article states, Mace focused ire on SC Attorney General Alan Wilson, complaining that he failed to investigate her claims. The article notes that Wilson is her likely opponent if she chooses to run for governor of SC. Her announcement of candidacy is anticipated. So there is likely explanation in that.
The AP piece is capped with a photo from last summer’s GOP convention of Mace wearing ginormous “cross” earrings big enough to be worthy of a death metal band. Talk about virtue signaling. And while endorsing a serial predator.
Also:
But, no courage to stand up for women in general.
https://apnews.com/article/nancy-mace-south-carolina-7d831f415ae00d703e30fa6c701f18de
@Not the IT Dept.:
Yes. I still think they were inappropriate abuses of power.
Doesn’t mean I can’t think what is going on in the Trump administration isn’t far worse.
@Jen:
But I also think they don’t not want one.. If a dictatorship is what will keep them in power, they will, with furrowed brow, approve, regretfully.
I still stand on burn the country to the ground if given rule over the ashes. Sad.
@wr:
It finally occurred to me today that what Trusk is doing is precisely “defund the police”, except much bigger and stupider. I thought Republicans were against that…
I guess this is just more confirmation that what they are actually against is preventing n*****-thumping.
Well, it’s the end of an era, folks (well….14 years, anyways). I am no longer the biggest “Fresh Farm Eggs” distributor in the county. I sold 70 of 95 laying hens and two roosters over the weekend. I was gonna get rid of them all, but I can’t stand to not have my buff laced polish rooster around, and he needs some hens (or ho’s, as my daughter calls them 😉 ), and I refuse to buy store bought eggs at any price, so 25 it is.
Whatever am I gonna do with myself?! I’m going to have so much time, not constantly hauling feed, gallons and gallons of water every day, and not delivering eggs!
I realized we were gonna have a problem with my daughter giving them ALL up when we were catching chickens and she was like “You can’t take that one, that’s Golden Wonder Boy’s favorite ho!” I was unaware that Wonder Boy HAD ho’s, he pretty much lived in the corner because the other roosters chased him all the time if he came out. He thinks he’s cock of the walk now that he’s the only rooster. 🙂
Link to an image of a buff laced polish rooster. I mean, just look at him! He makes me laugh every day!
https://www.cacklehatchery.com/product/buff-laced-polish/
The worlds richest conman is posting about SS fraud…so SS payments will likely start being delayed.
@Daryl:
My wife and I discussed the other night that nothing will blow up in Musk/the felon’s face like effin around in SS and either causing the payments not to go out or go out with incorrect amounts.
@Sleeping Dog: One hopes so, but so many reasonable seeming hopes have been dashed. One begins to wonder if there’s any limit to the gullibility of MAGA.
@Jen: The only think I can think of is that there is a debt ceiling limit extension coming up, and pretty soon.
As for Graham, he has previously talked about “staying relevant”, but is he relevant now? Have we seen anything about Trump playing golf with Graham, or consulting with Graham?
McConnell voted against the Hegseth nomination, so that’s something.
@Jax: I personally despise chickens. Not because I had to care for maybe a dozen as a 10 year old. I had to haul a big water can about 50 yards from the faucet and it invariably got me wet. Also, I had to go through the corral where my sister’s horse was. Blaze thought I was a fun to harass and chase around the corral, though she never hurt me.
The final straw was when my older sister thought it was funny to lock me in the coop and force me to crawl out through the holes meant for chickens. This happened more than once, with an older cousin in collusion with my sister.
However, I am well aware of people liking having chickens around. That rooster is a ruffled fancy, for sure. Thanks for that post. I needed that.
PS. Do you know how when you got the high score on an arcade video game, you could put in your initials so the game could display your awesomeness? For multiple decades, I would put in “JAX” because I misspelled my name the first time, and decided I liked it.
@Jay L Gischer: Ha! That’s actually how I got my nickname. Nobody could pronounce my name right the way it was spelled, Jax was the closest approximation. Hell, even my own parents were calling me Jax by the time I was 18. 😉
I do love my Golden Wonder Boy. He’s like a little dose of happy every time I look at him. His personality is also pretty funny, he’s neurotic as fuck. Most polish chickens are, honestly. He’s pretty hilarious, though, instead of running when something scares him (everything is scary to polish, their head feathers really limit their sight), he hops straight up and down. Never seen one do that.
@Jax: You’re getting out at the wrong time! — for your customers. (But perhaps not for you).
@Jay L Gischer: Indeed, something. My take is a calculated move to gull people into thinking “Well, he’s not all bad.” YMMV.
And of course, no one is all bad, true enough. In aggregate though, McConnell comes close enough for me. Again, YMMV.
@just nutha: Well, as many differences as we have, and as unhappy I am about thinks like the Garland nominations, I also note that McConnell is pretty closely aligned with me on NatSec issues.
He supports Ukraine and NATO strongly, for instance. He has said that he thinks presidents should not have absolute immunity as well. I’m not campaigning for the guy, just taking note. And no, I have no idea where this is going.
I tell ya, I’m actually wondering whether I should support the CA secession initiative.
trump’s decided he’s going to ban paper straws and low-flow toilets. LED light bulbs next on the list.
@Rob1: Probably why I didn’t have any trouble charging what I did per hen. I only had one guy try to haggle with me on the pricing, I had to point out that the value of a hen that’s laying RIGHT NOW, given the price of eggs, I could probably ask a lot more and people would pay it.
@Michael Reynolds:
Sorry (for me) that.
Hate to see you go, but I understand.
Please Please check in with us, even if it is just to point out how misguided some us are,
I may not agree with you on all things, but I really like your style and turn of phrase.
Be well, Adios Amigo.
What? He’s going to keep CFLs? Is he a leftist commie?
@Scott:
Please. That should be leftist commie GLOBALIST.
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) has introduced a bill to rename Greenland “Red, White, and Blueland.”
JFC.
The pettiness of it all.
It will go down as one of our biggest, most costly foreign policy blunders, if we allow Russia to regain its feet, and the West loses Ukraine to Russia. Ranking right up there with George Bush Jr’s invasion of Iraq in 2002.
Trump sounds like he’s opening bidding. “What’s in it for ME?”
@Daryl: I believe the stated response to identifying any fraud in a program is to shut the whole agency down in a day and promise to dismantle the agency or, if necessary, review it later.
@Rob1: Disclosure, I haven’t read the article (the guilt counter on the Guardian site…), but how does having holidays on the Google calendar = “unsustainable”? I note, for instance, that Cinco de Mayo is still on my Google calendar, but the indicator of Women’s History Month (March) is gone, along with others.
How does having a small note on a date, on a calendar, affect them?
@Rob1:
Of course today that HAS to be Trump’s “brilliant idea”, but several days ago it was reported that Zelenskyy was the one who first offered it in an attempt to appeal to Trump’s accountant soul. However, it was supposed to be simply priority as a customer.
It appears that Trump is now claiming he wants the minerals as compensation for war spending. Always trying to screw someone, he is. Still thinks the US government is a business too. I suppose that’s what it’s rapidly becoming under Trump.
@Jen:
The Google spokesperson said that some countries complained that their occasions were being ignored, and that it wasn’t “sustainable or scalable” to keep track of all the occasions.
@CSK: Eh, I am not buying it. If they can display “Gulf of America” in some locations but not others, they could figure it out. Malicious compliance, IMHO.
@Jen:
Next they’ll be surprised the internet’s on computers now 😉
On a very serious note, the coup against America is well underway.
When can we expect the counter-coup? Democracy isn’t going to win int eh courts. I mean, most lawsuits will likely be successful, but they felon and nazi are already ignoring court rulings and outright court orders and injunctions. And they’ll keep doing as they want until and unless someone stops them.
I posted right here how Biden should have used his presidential immunity, in two different ways, to keep this from happening (though I admit I didn’t imagine it would be this bad*). I didn’t expect him to do anything about it, and he didn’t disappoint me.
Now what?
*I expected the felon would try to enact the full Project 1939, but through Congress, not through a coup. Marx erred in implying the farce follows the tragedy. This time it was the other way around.
@CSK: “Holy Freedom Fries, Batman! This is the stupidest thing I’ve heard in a long time!”
ETA: And then, 2 or 3 clicks down, Google says something not as inane, merely as disingenuous. Are we really going to start a “who can say the stupidest sh!t” contest now? Will anyone overtake Trump?
@Jen: @Just nutha ignint cracker:
Oh, it’s bullshit. No doubt about that.
@CSK: With their Dear Leader as dictator the R’s of Congress are free of all obligations except keeping ink in their rubber-stamp pad and owning the libs with trolling.
@Sleeping Dog:
Agreed.
Inevitable.
Meanwhile, over here in Red Land, people are sharing posts about Ivermectin shots that will cure…..brain tumors. I shit you not, they’re showing the injectable cattle and swine shots and telling each other how to dose by….animal weight.
I mean, I guess….Darwin? Maybe I should stop trying to talk them out of it…….
@Jax: It really feels like the Trump supporters have gone a bit…rogue. My husband has been told the following in a fairly narrow time period: that the IRS will be eliminated next and everyone will be on a flat tax, that ethanol is being banned, and various other nutty things. They already seemed, uh, off-kilter, but lately they are pulling some very weird things out of the collective hat.
@Jax: Aye the crunchy moms are suggesting ivermectin for basically everything now. Ivermectin seems to be taking over from colloidal silver as a cure all. Might even consider it a rival to chiropractor fixing everything. There’s the usual onions in weird places like the socks to absorb “toxins”.
I have no idea how these people think. Why they think a chiropractor can solve an infants poop problem etc.
When I was younger and more naive I was convinced the power of the internet would destroy ignorance and stupidity. I had no idea at the time it would just give the nuts the ability to amplify each other..