Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, April 28, 2026
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21 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.
May 1st is International Labor Day, known here as Día Del Trabajo. This is an official holiday, meaning by law you have to give employees a paid day off, or pay them double if they have to work.
In Mexico, people largely feel it’s ironic to celebrate labor by not working.
Me, I plan to rest.
It seems Hell Week is finally nearing the end. If so, I may take a tranche of vacation from May 11th to the 23rd. I need to get back to writing.
Popehat has excerpted part of the criminal complaint against Cole Allen, and it contains rather high levels of passive voice. Probably not wise to judge this early, but it sure sounds like the Secret Service agent was a victim of friendly fire.
@Jen:
It should be easy to determine this. A shotgun fires pellets and a handgun fires bullets. So what was the SS officer hit with?
BTW, a part states Allen was shot at multiple times, but wasn’t shot. So all the shots missed him? And that Allen fell to the ground. Why, if no bullets reached him?
In the case of Adolf vs Altman, I judge Altman to be the lesser evil.
Reminder: the lesser evil is still evil.
@Kathy: Altman showed up in person during jury selection, according to a bbc reporter who was there. Mr Earnest Eyes humbles himself to prospective jurors while Elmo couldn’t be bothered sends a message. Altman is a smooth operator
James Comey just got indicted by the DOJ again.
@CSK:
What did he didn’t do now?
@Kathy:
It was that pic he posted on Instagram with “8647” spelled out in sea shells.
@CSK:
And yet there’s no article, that I know of, in the federal criminal code that provides for malicious persecution of political enemies.
Any judge but Aileen Cannon will dismiss it out of hand. The burden of proof isn’t just way too high, it’s ludicrous. Did Mr. Comey intend to threaten Trump’s life? Prove it. Case over.
OTOH, I expect this to be the birth of many memes.
8647.
@Kathy:
Trump purports to believe that the seashell message constitutes a request to assassinate him.
@CSK: It’s nice that he continues to suffer for putting his fingers on the scale in 2016.
There are lots of gross injustices in this world, I’m glad he gets a few.
@CSK:
In fairness that is the usual way to engage a hitman. Shellogram.
@Michael Reynolds:
Let’s see them meet their burden without being able to cross examine Comey.
@Gustopher:
It’s the principle of the thing.
@CSK:
El Taco purports to believe foreign countries pay the import taxes imposed on American importers, too.
@Gustopher:
I’m sure Trump will take solace in the fact that he’s requiring that his image and signature be plastered all over the front of U.S. passports.
My first reaction was they’d never get this Comey 8647 past a grand jury. But apparently they din in NC. I suppose this will go to court in NC, but I still don’t expect it to get tossed quickly. Beyond that, DOJ lawyers need to get disbarred for this crap.
Can DOJ lawyers be sued as individuals for egregious acts of harassment that an ethical lawyer would have stopped?
@CSK: Based on a photo Comey had of some sea shells arraigned to spell “8647”, but “86” is merely a call for disqualification, not a death threat. The stupid…it burrrnz!
My first thought: “So what’s in the news cycle the Trumpies want everybody distracted from at the moment?”, so many choices.
ETA: I just realized that by typing “8647” I have threatened the life of the POTUS. Damn!
@Kathy: principle-shrimpcicle. Any time DOJ lawyers spend hounding Comey is less time they can spend harassing someone else. They have a wide variety of people they hate — trans kids, queer folk, brown people, women, Jews, “antisemites,” … if they want to go after well connected and well defended white men who used to support them… great. Court time is a finite resource.
In an ideal world, the DOJ wouldn’t be a wildly corrupt organization bent on political vengeance and hurting people for crimes they didn’t do, but we don’t live in that world. Comey can defend himself. Plus, he deserves to suffer.
I’ll take what pleasure I can in this. Comey can suffer. I’ll enjoy that while deploring the rest.
And the DOJ flunkies doing this should be disbarred, and this is a lot clearer an injustice than other cases, which makes it easier to pursue in the future.
Meanwhile, the FCC is upset about a Melania Trump joke and is reviewing ABC broadcast licenses, and Apple is shutting down the first unionized Apple Store, because unions are scary.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/28/apple-closes-first-union-store-maryland
——
The shrimpcicle would be a disgusting frozen treat.
So they are saying that 86 means to kill? I actually had a boss many years ago who used 86 on a regular basis as in “we have to 86 these bonuses for a program where we paid bonuses for claims free years that started adding up to ridiculous amounts”. Get rid of? Would never use the term 8647, I just want the pos to not be POTUS anymore. My preferred way would be for him to stroke out while eating Mickey Ds, hopefully in front of dignitaries (they deserve a good laugh for having to deal with him as an equal). Then he can he veg out, so once a day the Ivanka Eric and Don Jr. get to argue with each other over who had to clean the Donald today.
This clip really gave me a chuckle.
@Lucys Football:
Alas, El Taco can no longer die a natural death.
If he were to die of a stroke, heart attack, embolism, cancer, COVID, pneumonia, necrotizing fasciitis, some other infection, broken hip, or plain old age, especially between now and January 2029, his deplorables will claim he was murdered.