Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, December 11, 2024
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51 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).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
President Biden says it was ‘stupid’ not to put name on COVID checks like Trump did (USA Today)
Biden — addressing critics, voters and history — defends his economy (WaPo)
@DK:
One of my criticisms of Biden, his administration and Dems in DC, was they never were loud and proud about the accomplishments of the first 2 years. Projects that were funded by the infrastructure bill should have tagged with a memorable name that the project was happening because of the Biden amendment.
Dems rely too much on assuming that the press will cover their successes, but to the extent they are covered, the voters don’t pay attention.
Biden’s promise was a return to normalcy in the presidency, unfortunately that normalcy was representative of 50 years ago. Yes, Biden’s name should have been on the checks and all those infracture projects and manufacturing seed money should have had the tag, Brought to you by Biden bucks. Instead we got Bidenomics.
Biden and the Harris candidacy represent the wet dreams of D party centrists. The D consultant class has zero perspective on the wild desire of everyone outside the DC bubble to change the setup of the system… funny how quick it’s memory-holed that Obama was a change candidate also.
Running around with Cheney, not trumpeting accomplishments, playing patty-cakes with the conservative Republican media… this might have worked in 1986, but no chance in 2024.
@Sleeping Dog:
GOPs are very good at manipulating the press, who seem eager to be manipulated. I have no idea if Trump was, for instance, serious about Matt Gaetz for AG, but it got Trump in the papers every morning and got the press lots of clicks.
@DK:..checkmate…
What checks? The Economic Impact Payment that I received was a direct deposit into my bank checking account. I assume that my deposit information was ripped from the IRS since I have been using electronic filing for several years. How many paper checks with Chump’s name on them were actually sent out? I suspect a voter impressed by such hype would already be a Republican rube.
Clicked on the provided USA Today link to read the item and was greeted with a video of
President Biden lighting the White House Christmas Tree.
Kill a tree for Jesus’s birthday! A great Christian tradition!
To an extent, the R’s advantage is that they have their own press, Faux News and he Faux network of local stations are effectively Pravda for the R’s. Add to that Stirling and Sinclair that is happy to parrot R talking points and you quickly get to the situation where a viewpoint becomes a reality.
Add to that, they have now captured on-line news delivery/discussion through both pod casts and social media. Yes lots of it is disinformation, but it isn’t countered and an alternate view isn’t presented so listener/readers accept it as accurate.
Yes the mainstream press obsesses about fairness and engages in bothsiderism, but they are nearly irrelevant outside of DC, state capitals and a handful of media markets.
I’m sure the courts can’t wait to get into the business of deciding what is a “sincerely held religious belief”.
Increased Christianity in schools opens the door to Satanic Temple education programs
Sure, Ron. Just wait.
@Scott:
Well, they could take the Flying Spaghetti Monster out of retirement. Have you been touched by His Noodley Appendage? If so, you’re a true Pastafarian! Praise the sauce!
Third Count a Charm: Riggs Wins North Carolina Supreme Court Race
Here’s my question why is it they think the hand recount is more accurate? While machines can be wrong they are typically consistently in that same way. I would view any hand recount that was different from the machine count to be the suspect number. The same thing happened in the Arizona hand recount counted more votes for Biden.
In my opinion, there is no way humans can count that many pieces of paper and not screw it up.
@Scott:
I’ve pondered founding a religion that worships the Four Fundamental Forces (Strong, Weak, Gravitational. Electromagnetic), as their Effects and Interactions determine everything about the Universe.
I’m stuck on what role Fundamental Particles would play.
If Christians are intent on promoting their Hocus-Pocus like the fairy tale that is Genesis in public schools I will advocate for the teaching of Darwin and Natural Selection in Sunday Schools across the land.
You know, level playing field and all that.
Combining the two subjects, what if the left is effective at communicating, but only their hatred of Christianity.
@Fortune:
“I was Donald Trump’s closest friend for ten years.” – Jeff Epstein on fascist paedo Trump
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” – rapist Trump on his pedo bestie Epstein.
And then crotchgrabbing felon Trump nominated drug-addicted statutory rapist Matt Gaetz to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
The right is effective at communicating their fake Christianity, full of hatemongering hypocrites who love assaulting women and diddling children — from Catholic priests, to Republican political figures, to an endless stream of Protestant church leaders.
No wonder white youth are fleeing white churches in droves, away from these gross, rapey frauds. Christian? Lol much of the evangelical movement is now just a thinly-disguised front for NAMBLA, MAGA, and the KKK. Phony af
@DK: Yes, that’s the stuff I mean.
@Fortune:
Believing in the first ten words of the first amendment in the Bill of Rights is not the same as “hatred of Christianity.”
Why do conservatives hate the first amendment so much?
@Fortune:
What’s the stuff you mean? Pointing out that so-called Christians do un-Christian things quite often is – somehow anti-Christian? Well, how conveeeenient as Church Lady used to say.
Being a Christian is one of those walk-the-talk things that you don’t get to claim just by announcing you are one. You got to actually conduct your life according to its precepts. It’s not some kind of “no one can criticize me because I’m claiming to be a Christian” card you can play when you hear something you don’t want to.
Now do you get it, mis-fortune?
@Not the IT Dept.:
What about somebody on this forum comparing Roman Catholics getting communion to cannibalism?
@Bill Jempty:I was raised Catholic and can safely say that the most bigoted anti-Catholic things I ever heard came from the mouths of self declared “Christians”.
@Bill Jempty: What about somebody on this forum comparing Roman Catholics getting communion to cannibalism?
What about it? I’m Catholic and I certainly don’t see that as some kind of attack.
Seriously, Christianity survived for over 2,000 years – being thrown to the lions and burned at the stake by the Romans, forced underground to the catacombs, facing oppression in any number of societies around the world – and if it were as fragile as many American Christians claim it is, it never would have survived.
All of that real abuse and martyrdom bred tough believers, and they would have laughed at Americans whining “Wah! Wah! Wah! – somebody said something mean about me!!!! My fee-fees are hurt! Wah! Wah! Wah!”
My advice (you’ll pardon the expression) for those Americans is to grow the hell up already.
The Amazing Kreskin, 89, has died. RIP.
“I hate religious people. They lie and sin. Religious people don’t listen to me when I’m being reasonable. They don’t trust me. They don’t trust me because they’re stupid.”
@Jen:
Because it’s the amendment that allows people to talk back to their “betters”.
@Bill Jempty:
Cannibalism means consuming another of one’s own species. If the host transforms into the flesh and blood of a person, then those taking it are consuming the flesh and blood of one of their species. Cannibalism.
It’s not actual cannibalism, because the host, however it’s made, does not become human flesh and/or blood. it’s just broken down in the gut like other carbohydrates. So call it ritual cannibalism.
Just got a notice from WGN TV that FB and other Meta sites are experiencing a massive outage.
Of course I had to try my FB log in and got this message:
Fortunately Cat Videos, Lauren Jumps and Dan McClellan are all on YouTube so I won’t go into withdrawals any time soon.
My worst nightmare is an OTB crash.
@Fortune:
All right, Mis-Fortune, what’s the source of this apparent quote? Although I’m pretty sure you invented it. Remember, every time you tell a lie you make baby Jesus cry?
@Not the IT Dept.: It was a paraphrase, like the way you paraphrase my name except mine addresses a point and doesn’t make me look juvenile.
@Fortune:
No, you use quotation marks for a quote – get it, quotation marks?
And yes, it does make you look juvenile. Cry-baby.
@Mister Bluster:
My Facebook is fine. Strange.
@Mister Bluster:
@CSK:
Someone at the office was saying Whattsap is either down or intermittent.
Maybe it’s karma 😀
Christopher Wray has resigned as director of the FBI. ETA: He’s announced his plan to resign at the end of Biden’s term.
@CSK: Not immediately, he will serve until the end of Biden’s term.
@CSK:..@Kathy: FB…
Just successfully logged in to FB.
@Mikey:
I know. I edited my post to reflect that. A news source jumped the gun initially.
According to Politico, Trump will be named Time magazine’s Person of the Year.
Wasn’t that one of his dearest wishes?
@Bill Jempty: It’s actually ritual cannibalism unless you truly believe in transubstantiation. So if you are a Missouri synod Lutheran its cannibalism, if you are Wisconsin synod it’s just a ritual.
If I were to say here that it’s a person’s behavior that makes them a problem, not their identity, or their beliefs, would that strike a chord, or would it not?
@gVOR10: not long after the election, Chris Cillizza posted on Threads that a reader had asked him the following question: “Deep down, are you and other political journalists happy that Trump won? Harris, like Biden, is not nearly as entertaining or controversial.”
Cillizza’s response was basically, hell, yeah! He wrote, “Trump is a rating and clicks machine… that fact will keep mainstream media afloat for another four years.”
link
@Jay L Gischer:
Honestly I don’t see any other valid way to judge people.
@MarkedMan:
I’ve never been able to hate Catholics or that church because I came to respect some of the individuals I’ve met who were either regular Catholic priests or Jesuit ones. They must run some kind of education program for those guys. Hard, yet empathetic, and with that comes street-smarts and intuition on when to set aside the dogma. I saw them really reach a few of the hardest teens in Oakland. Made a difference in their lives through just plain hard work and a deep understanding of human nature, which earns respect anywhere.
Will I ever be a Catholic? No. But when a Catholic priest speaks I will always listen, at least for a bit. Ya never know, might be something pretty deep there.
BlueAnon: Worst than Tim Walz, Pete Hegesth lied about being accepted to West Point.
West Point spokespersons on the record: “According to the admissions office – Hegseth had not applied for admission to the U.S. Military Academy…Absolutely 100%. Because he never opened a file.”
Corporate Press covers it up because of a Rathergate level smear with forged letter of acceptance signed by West Point Superintendent, Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, US Army.
Hegseth should have used the police standard response of no comment, waited the story to be published and allow the Democrats echo chamber to propagate it.
J6 running and fleeing coward Tom Cotton retaliated against the West Point whistle blower and is working on witchhunt congressional hearings
@Kathy:
Except the medieaval Christian doctrine being that the flesh and blood of Christ were not human but divine substances.
So there’s that.
@Mister Bluster:
Personally, I look forward for equal teaching of Hindu accounts of the creation, and the polytheistic nature of the divine, for added lol-ery
“Teach the controversy! NO, NOT LIKE THAT!”
@JohnSF: “Body and blood, soul and divinity”
@CSK: @Mikey: Looks like he picked up the message from the “Tabs” post video clips just fine.
@Jay L Gischer: I think it depends on which person(s) you’re talking about. Just like always.
@JohnSF: The thing that is most interesting to this relatively hard-core Fundy separatist is that the liturgical denominations (one of which I am a member of) are the leaders of the all scripture is metaphorical parade where I’ve lived–except in this point. On this point, the “take scripture literally” (wherever you can twist it to be literal) camp are the ones finding the metaphor. In the independent Baptist tradition I come from, holding the metaphor all the way to denying that the Eucharist is a sacrament (of which we don’t believe in any). Fun stuff!
Actor Michael Cole and Baseball player Rocky Colavito passed away. They were 84 and 91 respectively.
Cole was one of the stars of The Mod Squad. I never watched that show but just writing this post makes the show’s theme music play in my head.
Colavito was home run hitter mostly for the Cleveland Indians and Detroit. His trade to Detroit for Harvey Keunn is called the Curse of Rocky Colavito but attributing the downfall of the Indians, a perennial first division team from the 20’s to the 50’s, to that trade is wrong. The Indians despite a second place finish in 1959 were already in decline. Cleveland’s troubles started in the mid 50’s with personnel moves like not signing Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio plus, putting another Hall of Famer on waivers- Hoyt Wilhelm, trading Roger Maris, and lastly their very successful manager Al Lopez leaving town at the end of the 1956 season. Colavito’s trade just before the 1960 season began was just one piece of the puzzle.
RIP Rocky and Michael
@Scott:
So it’s pretty fundamental that U.S. courts don’t resolve religious disputes and, given that it’s clear that the Republicans/Right want to make their religious choices paramount, I’m dying to see how we actually get there and what happens when we do.
On the first point: I have serious, deeply held, religious beliefs, that can be boiled down to “the Moon and my ancestors said I have to dance naked under the full Moon and that I need to take these substances in a ritual fashion* to commune better”. I am very serious about this. Does that mean I’m exempt from your secular drug laws?
On the second point, I’m not a Christian and have never been baptized and even I know there’s what, half a dozen major and hundreds of minor Christianities. Which one is the one everyone has to follow? Cause I suspect when it gets down to it, there’s gonna be a big ass fight between the Catholics and Evangelicals (after they get done fighting themselves).
*seriously, I pray to the Mother to keep me safe, keep my friends safe, allow me to see, and to let her guide me. It’s unstructured and I wish I had better sources of pre-Christian religions in Britain, but I make do.
@Fortune:
I read this a “Body, Blood & Soil”. Took me a couple seconds to figure out I was reading it wrong.
@JohnSF:
Didn’t that involve a tiny iota or something many are still fighting over?
@Beth:
Anyone who identifies (loudly, publicly, and constantly) about being a “Christian” as opposed to, say, a Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, Catholic, etc. is bound to be a major pain in the ass, at best.
@Beth: You pointed out the fatal flaw in the left’s reasoning about this. The right isn’t trying to establish any particular religion so there can’t be a First Amendment problem. Establishing a religion means endorsing one set of beliefs and practices.