Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, February 12, 2025
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54 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.
Is Trump weakening our Armed Forces? An anecdotal story.
Airmen say ‘people first, mission always’ is falling by the wayside in DEI crackdown
There’s a whole lot more. My question would be. Who is making these decisions? Is it new political appointees or just craven career bureaucrats?
Report: Tesla Cybertruck has higher rate of fire fatalities than the Ford Pinto
And it doesn’t even have a gas tank in the rear.
@Scott:
I think I remember reading something here-no idea if it was a Frontpager, comment, or quote from a link. Managers are deleting programs that could be construed by as DEI, even if it is not.
Oh, good. I’m sure this is fine.
Here is a discussion of trade balances, capital flows and investment that I found enlightening.
Currently relevant in context of Dear Leader’s infatuation with McKinley mercantilism.
“The Overshoot”
Heading:
snip
snip
Eventually gets to discussing more contemporary payment, trade and investment flows/balances.
Hey, let’s insult one of our Middle Eastern allies because why not? King Abdullah of Jordan met with Trump in the Oval Office yesterday and reiterated his country’s position that the Palestinians belong in Gaza and “must not be displaced”. Egypt’s position is pretty much the same.
Trump’s response to the cameras in front of the king?
“We’re going to take it. We’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it. We’re going to get it going eventually, where a lot of jobs are going to be created for the people in the Middle East,” Trump said in the Oval Office, saying his plan would “bring peace” to the region…
Trump said Jordan, as well as Egypt, would ultimately agree to house displaced residents of Gaza. Both countries rely on Washington for economic and military aid. “I believe we’ll have a parcel of land in Jordan. I believe we’ll have a parcel of land in Egypt,” said Trump. “We may have someplace else, but I think when we finish our talks, we’ll have a place where they’re going to live very happily and very safely.”
Here’s one of those pesky facts that few Americans (and definitely not Trump) know: “Jordan is already home to more than 2 million Palestinian refugees in its population of 11 million, their status and number long providing a source of anxiety for the country’s leadership.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/11/trump-jordan-egypt-palestinians
@Not the IT Dept.:
Not just a rude, boorish bully obsessed with dominating, he is also stark raving mad.
He will get worse as the dementia progresses.
@charontwo: I’ll look forward to smarter people than me add their comments on this but isn’t this what happened as a result of the TCJA of 2017? The massive tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations resulted not in real investment in the US as advertised but rather stock buybacks and international investing?
You have got to be shitting me.
https://bsky.app/profile/acyn.bsky.social/post/3lhwn7y7qc32p
Fuck this bullshit cop-out. Motherfucker, you are ripping the government up, you are upending millions of lives, your illegal elimination of USAID is going to lead to many more deaths, you can’t just say “oops, sorry, I was wrong about that.” YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE for making sure what comes out of your festering gob is correct because lives are on the line.
Not that he or any of the Trump-humping cultists give a shit. But still.
Here’s the part that really gets me. Set aside for the moment the wisdom of insulting one of the few really stable allies we have in the Middle East. (I don’t regard Netanyahu as stable by a long shot.)
What on freaking earth does this actually mean?
“We’re going to take it. We’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it. We’re going to get it going eventually, where a lot of jobs are going to be created for the people in the Middle East,”
Sound familiar? It did to me. Remember the Daffy Duck cartoon with the dumb sheepdog? “I will kiss him and love him and squeeze him and hug him and call him George.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPdHaNr0OAY ) Worth watching the whole clip because damn it’s almost scary, right down to the dog’s hairstyle.
So we can definitely say Trump is Looney Tunes.
The pettiness…
Inflation Rises Unexpectedly, Complicating Picture for the Fed (ETA link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/business/inflation-cpi-report-january.html)
+3.0%
Trump is on Truth Social screeching about Biden rn.
@Mikey:
To this point, I have yet to see any actual verification of the widespread “fraud*” that DOGE has claimed to have discovered in most of the agencies** so far.
* – Note that by fraud, I mean the traditional meaning of “wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain” versus “program spending I don’t like and/or understand.”
** – FWIW, I expect they will find a lot when they dive into Medicaid reimbursements and Pandemic disbursements–that said said, I expect that they will find that because existing Government Auditors have found actual fraud in those areas and new services have been reporting on it for years.
@Not the IT Dept.:
What Arab leaders need to say to the felon before the press is, if he is so eager to resettle the Palestinians, how many will the US take?
@Matt Bernius: Why bother with the heavy lifting of identifying and rooting out fraud when you can just gut and end the program? I mean, you don’t rely on it personally so what’s the fuss.
@Jen: I followed your link and noted that the tight labor market is a pillar in supporting the current fed rate, but, not to worry, once Musk guts the federal work force with all of the follow on losses, we should see plenty of excess capacity in the labor market. These guys are geniuses, I tell you!
@Matt Bernius: Indeed. The only “evidence” of fraud I have seen presented was a list of expenditures allegedly made by USAID that came from the White House and was almost entirely misleading and out-of-context, and some items entirely false (like the $50 million condoms lie).
But the Trumpies don’t care, they take “trust me bro” as gospel truth if it comes from Musk or Trump.
The recent discussions on IDC in medical research reminded me of the 1985 movie ‘Creator’. Peter O’Toole is Dr. Harry Wolper, Nobel Prize winning, eccentric researcher who in his spare time is trying to clone his dead wife.
The moment in university research is when Sid, a younger researcher has gotten Harry sent off to the rural unfunded research facility. A funding official comments on how it is good the facility will be getting research funds and Sid comments that the money is staying on campus. But the official points out they fund people, not places so the money goes with Harry. In the end, Sid is riding along on his bicycle as everyone heads out to the rural facility. Academics follow the money…
Advice from an elderly professor farmed out to a rural research facility that has no research funding, where they are trying to farm out Harry.
@Matt Bernius:
But they don’t have trained auditors looking at these expenses. They have a few code kiddies who frankly do not know what they are looking at (my guess is that this is where the Gaza in Mozambique confusion came from).
These are deeply unserious people, doing a hatchet job and the public is lapping it up because they too, are unlikely to know that there is a province called Gaza in Mozambique, as they’ve only heard of the other Gaza.
@Jen:
Oh, I should have been clear that I think they will find (the existing/documented) issues in those areas because of the entire broken clock being right twice-a-day thing.
The Palestinians have not abandoned their aspirations for sovereignty over the past 80 years of conflict. They have been pushed to the edge by zero sum policy and politics. Why would they give up now? This grand scheme of Trump and Netanyahu will not end the violence. The violence will become even more insidious.
Trump: “We don’t have to threaten, we are above that” —– seriously man, you just threatened three allies in the past three weeks: Canada, Mexico, and Denmark !!!! Proving yet again that Trump is a both a liar, not to be believed, and that he has some serious internal disconnect from his own actions, and from the world at large.
@JKB: I saw that movie. I really liked that movie. I have watched it several times.
AND, I have worked in academia. If you think the plot about funding is true-to-life and would represents a trend in academia, you are demonstrating your ignorance.
I can remember from the 1960’s how the evidence linking smoking with health issues, including cancer was ramping up.
I personally witnessed so many people say that the Surgeon General was an idiot and smoking was good for you. As they puffed away. So many of them developed those exact health problems, too. Thing is, these days that kind of person isn’t satisfied with ruining their own life, they have to ruin other people’s lives, too.
You Lyin’ !!!
Uline imports low wage workers from Mexico, dumps boatloads of money on Trump candidacy, attacks Harris on immigration. This country has a serious wealth + pathology problem. The wealth enables the pathology.
Abject poverty also influences human “pathology.” The preferred “conservative” response to poverty induced crime is to build more prisons and make more laws —- that disproportionately single out the poor.
Both extremes: wealth and poverty impact the well being of our society. But wealth leverages the pathogy of an individual, projecting impact upon an entire nation, its legal framework, its norms, its governance. We have to come to terms with this.
In other news, an utterly unqualified Russian asset was just confirmed by the supine, useless Senate as America’s Director of National Intelligence.
Putin and Assad are popping champagne corks in Moscow today. The rest of us are fucked.
The picture says it all:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/lawrence-odonnell-musk-humiliates-trump-in-most-powerless-image-ever/
@JKB:
Hilarious that JKB here bases his world-view and logic on a 40 year old comedy/science fiction film. Of course we all know how un-serious he/she is.
Interesting discussion on how to handle bad faith argumentation. Immediatly thought this commentariot would appreciate. It focuses on upholding proper discussion principles, but in specific ways. The focus is on Just-Asking-Questions Sealion types.
https://miniver.blogspot.com/2024/08/my-protocol-for-dealing-with-sealions.html
@Daryl: You and Jay are reading a lot more into that post than I did. I didn’t think it had a point, let alone expressed a worldview.
Lincoln was born today, in 1809.
The incompetent and unfit Sec of Defense Pete Hegseth just basically surrendered Ukraine to the Russians.
Hegseth says Ukraine cannot expect return to old borders, NATO membership
One, why is this administration giving up a negotiating position even before negotiations begin?
Two, why is the Sec of Defense discussing foreign negotiations instead of at least the Sec of State. He is out of his depth.
What’s next? A declaration of peace in our times?
I heard this and just called and yelled at Cornyn and Cruz for putting this bozo in this position.
@Scott:
President Doughboy is also signaling surrender, by beginning negotiations with Putin but excluding Ukraine. WTF is up with that? Is this how things are now? Vlad simply tells Diaper Donnie how things are going to be? Certainly no one thinks Donnie is going to stand up to Putin?
@Scott:
The competition is fierce, but I’ve considered him to be the most dangerous cabinet pick. The responsibility of the position is immense. And he’s not only profoundly unqualified, but the Dunning-Kruger effect is especially strong with that one–his overconfidence could prove disastrous.
@CSK: He’s on Luna witness list as having information about presidential assassination attempts.
I genuinely feel awful for Ukraine. This is a massive abdication of responsibility on our part, all to serve Trump’s fealty to Putin.
As it turns out, I have been considering a return to Ukraines 2019 borders a very unlikely outcome. If borders approximating the current battle lines came with NATO membership, that was going to be enough.
Now, what Ukraine is going to need to do is demonstrate a nuclear weapons capability.
Trump has been made Chair of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, according to the NYT. Renee Fleming has quit as artistic advisor in response to this. So has Ben Folds.
Susie Wiles and Dan Scavino will replace some of the ousted board members.
@CSK: WTF. A president’s chief of staff has that kind of time?
Unbelievable.
On a break from the dusk of the newest dark ages, I’ve been getting a lot of offers from several banks for personal loans (pre-approved!), as well as payment plans for a couple of credit cards.
I’ve done this before, and it rarely ends well. One time the loan was sold to another bank, and they pestered me for months trying to get me to borrow more.
The idea is to borrow money at lower interest and use it to pay credit card debt. That seems sensible, even a no-brainer. You’re stuck with interest payments for years, may as well get lower payments, right?
In theory… In practice, in a job like mine when large(ish) amounts of money are often urgently needed on very short notice, and reimbursements can take a long time for various reasons (that’s a rant for another day), I tend to get it by taking it out of a credit card and then get stuck with that for anywhere from a week to several months. So, I tend to wind up worse off.
And yet, I’m still dragging around some debt from the hospital stay in 2021, not to mention the increases in health insurance premiums (due to greedflation).
So, I’m thinking I should take one of these loans, and shred my credit cards.
@Jen:
No.
But a pretend president would have a pretend chief of staff, no?
@Jen:
I’m really looking forward to reading about all the performances by D list stars.
One fine day the nazi in chief walks into the oval office, and is shocked to see the felon with heavy bandages over both ears.
“Lackey!” nazi exclaims in surprise. “What happened to you?”
“Burns,” felon replies sullenly.
“On both ears, Lackey? How did that happen?”
“Melania was showing me a new ironing board,” felon explains,” my phone rang, and I picked up the iron by mistake.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. But how did you burn the other ear?”
“When I tried to call 911.”
@Kathy:
I sort of did this last year. I had a ton of credit card debt on two cards that wasn’t going anywhere and a small personal loan through a credit union I bank at. I knew I had at least two large checks coming up so I used one to pay down one of the cards significantly and then refinanced the personal loan and combined it with that card. Once everything cleared I IMMEDIATELY called and had my credit limit reduced to $1000. It was a Home Depot card and I figured it might be useful in a small emergency and $1000 is relatively easy to pay off. For the next one I paid that down as much as I could, then when that cleared I called and reduced the limit to $500 more than the balance. Then every month since I’ve paid off a large chunk then reduced the limit. I think I owe like $1,500 on it now. I’ll pay that off and close it before I leave.
I realized that 1. Contemporary credit scores are bullshit to keep us at the slot machine and I don’t care what mine is, 2. Credit cards have basically become slot machines and I don’t think even people that work there realize that. When I called to cut my limit the first time they were like “what about your credit score!!!” I was like “what good is a credit score if you can’t get out of debt?” And they made a noise that sounded like “oh fuck”.
I’ve been thinking about Titus Andronicus lately. Shakespeare’s most popular play in his lifetime, and a fabulous movie by Julie Taylor with Anthony Hopkins in the lead.
It’s about a war hero — a fundamentally conservative man, an institutionalist and an institution unto himself — returning to Rome around the choosing of a new Caesar. There is the old Caesar’s son, a complete lunatic, and the nephew, a young upstart.
Tradition ties Titus’s hands, as he has faith in the system and the norms. He backs the lunatic, and that is decisive. And he keeps backing that lunatic, and showing fealty, every time when he could have made a difference.
And then hilarity ensues.
And by hilarity I mean a complete disaster, but with lots of puns and jokes. (“Unhand me” he says, a few scenes before having his hand cut off, etc)
Not sure why it keeps popping into my head these days. The movie version is a beautifully shot movie, perhaps that’s all it is.
Many people think it’s Shakespeare’s worst play, so it’s probably just the costuming and photography of the movie.
It also has the most gratuitous use of the Matrix-style freeze and spin special effects, here with a glob of spit in the air. That alone makes it worth watching.
@Matt Bernius:
People who fire Inspectors General and criminal investigators are not looking FIND fraud. They are hoping to keep it hidden. Any and all accompanying cries of “Squirrel!” should be interpreted accordingly.
@CSK: It’ll be interesting to see who the Kennedy Center honors this year. 🙁
@Matt Bernius:
@DrDaveT:
They’ll find any spending they don’t like and call it fraud.
Just like they label all undocumented immigrants criminals.
@Beth:
I’ve never tried to get the limit reduced. I can’t say exactly why…
Credit scores here are handled largely by a private company. By law, they must provide a free credit report to anyone who asks, up to twice per year. I get bombarded with emails from them. I’ve no idea what they want to sell, because I almost never read them before deletion.
@Scott:
@Eusebio:
And that’s not all Hegseth said, by a long chalk.
Passing a little unnoticed due the understandable focus on Ukraine, there is this:
That will have set the alarms off in every foreign and defence ministry in Europe.
Response from UK Defence Secretary Healey:
Now there are words very carefully open to varying interpretations.
As also was the statement by French Defence Minister Lecornu:
Full speed ahead to the end of the Atlantic Alliance, it would seem.
I do hope the US administration and Republicans various enjoy the likely consequences of the European market for big-ticket arms sales withering away, and Europe being busy washing its hair, if things go sideways in the Far East.
Not to mention the consequences of any implementation of Trump’s “plan” for Gaza.
@JohnSF:
This might be a stupid thought, but what do you think it would take for the UK to reintegrate with the EU. Like, I understand there would be all sorts of issue. I’m mostly curious about what it would take for London and Brussels (and Paris & Berlin) to look at each other and say “Brentrace!”
Like, eventually, like in the next couple of months, the turds (egg prices, avian flu, inflation, TB outbreak, Measles outbreak) hitting the fan are going to turn in to a torrent of sloppy joes (Musk, the unknowns of what the Codeboys are doing, Patel, Jr, Gabbard) that is going to swamp everything. This doesn’t have a happy soft landing.
@Kathy:
I started doing it after I paid off a particularly useless card (a Best Buy Visa) and before I knew it they had raised my limit and I had filled it up again. That’s when I realized I was never going to get my spending under control. I’m fairly certain the Credit Cards know this and in a functional society we would regulate the shit out of them, but instead we are a deeply unserious people lead by buttholes and idiots.
At this point the whole edifice is shot through with bullet holes and cockroaches. I was thinking about that today when I got kicked out of the stupidest phone tree while trying to call my kid’s Dr. We’ve cut everything to the bone so that the rich can get richer and now nothing works and everyone knows it, but we pretend we don’t very well.
@Beth:
What Starmer and the rest of the key Labour leadership will be focused on is the polling in the Brexit majority Labour constituencies where Reform is second place.
In particular, the polling among Labour/Reform “winnables” who voted for Brexit.
Rejoining the EU is a non-starter; the EU won’t offer terms anything like the previous membership arrangements.
Customs Union and/or Single Market are also problematic: SM involves “free movement of labour”, which detonates the media, which in turn riles up the anti-immigration inclined voters I mentioned.
SM/CU are projects for a possible second term, not for this Parliament.
Otoh, there are obvious economic needs and strategic benefits, which may well be sell-able, or just doa-able under the radar, for things like regulatory alignment to minimise border checks, defence project co-operation, science, education exchanges, etc.
One interesting straw in the wind: Nigel Farage has come out against the Trump/Hegseth line on Ukraine. I suspect he realises that Musk has queered his pitch re Trump; and that even among Reform voters, once Trump’s policies start getting an impact, nationalists are gonna nationalist.
@Beth:
I’ve made it a habit to use the debit card, in order to avoid accumulating more debt. It works most of the time, but an unexpected expense or two has me tapping the credit cards for groceries sometimes.
@just nutha:
My $$$’s on a certain “celebrity actor,” one Donald J Trump for his starring role in “Death of a Nation.”
I sorta fucked up on a situation where I was cool and friends with both parts of a couple. Jennifer was my work friend and Shane was my close friend too.
I sent Jennifer, my work friend a link to Jennifer Save Me by Golden Smog.
It never got to be a thing with them, but I think I inadvertently overstepped. It’s a very passionate song. Didn’t mean to, but I think I overstepped. I could see how it could be misinterpreted. I sent it to her because her name was Jennifer. I wasn’t macking, I swear.
I explained best I could. Shane forgave me. There wasn’t much to forgive, my aim was “hey, have you heard this?”. I was a groomsman at their wedding.
Damn good song, Jennifer Save Me.
Still, awesome shit.
@Beth:
What happens if you don’t?
People always want to say that failure isn’t an option, but it always is. The consequences might be bad, and one should consider that, but sometimes even that is pretty much nothing.
Credit cards have a predatory side to them — they want to turn you into a regular revenue stream of usurious interest. And part of the reason they charge such high interest is allegedly to cover the people who don’t pay. So, what if you’re that people? It would kind of serve them right, wouldn’t it?