Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, March 5, 2025
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78 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).
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BlueSky.
Today is Ash Wednesday. For 31 years Dear Wife fielded phone calls on that day asking when the distribution of ashes is. She’d complain the phone calls would drive her nuts.
Dear Wife is retired now and I’m driving her nuts instead.
“In view of the threats to our freedom and peace on our continent, the rule for our defence now has to be ‘whatever it takes” says Merz.
He has spoken of a need for urgency on German spending in light of “recent decisions by the American government”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c981w25y5wpo
Also,
A $53bn (£41.4 billion) reconstruction plan to rival President Donald Trump’s idea for the US to “take over Gaza” and move out more than two million Palestinians has been approved by Arab leaders at an emergency summit in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjd32xyjg4eo
It seems like the rest of the World is not so happy with Trump’s plans.
And that was before yesterday.
Well, he’s already brought down the price of the stock market.
It’s a most peculiar starting point, but it’s something.
@Kathy:
But what about those eggs!??!
They never stop.
Texas Senate panel advances bill requiring Ten Commandments in classrooms
In just a few short weeks, it is clear that this administration is going all in on corruption and looting of the American people.
I have no confidence that any media or public official will not be distracted by the circus.
How DOGE’s Cuts to the IRS Threaten to Cost More Than DOGE Will Ever Save
In Texas, separation of church and state is only a thing if the Koran or Talmud show up.
@Charley in Cleveland:
I would laugh so hard if Islamic students wanted to exercise their 5 times a day prayer.
Then again:
Air Force Academy’s Muslim cadets denied accommodation during Ramadan: Allegation
Democrat representative accidentally tells the plan
“We are gonna continue to speak lies to his truth, to his stealing and to his cheating.”
Democrat rep Al Green sought to reenact the Caning of Charles Sumner in the House last night
@Scott:
How about an annotated version of the 10 commandments indicating which ones the felon has broken.
I don’t think there’s one about coveting one’s offspring. So he’d be safe on that account.
DOGE Has a Math Problem
The Daily
March 5, 2025
Link to 25 minute radio broadcast.
I heard this report on the radio yesterday, Tuesday, March 5, 2025.
One of the more blatant DOGE “errors” noted in the broadcast is that some contracts DOGE claims to have cancelled were actually cancelled 20 years ago.
@JKB:
Congratulations, you found a clip of someone mis-speaking.
Such a good boy.
Now go ask your mommy for some of your jello, while the adults talk.
@Mister Bluster:
You know what would save over one quarter trillion dollars? Cancelling the Apollo program.
This is not normal.
After two decades in Texas, it is so weird to be able to be proud of my elected officials’ actions.
When Bill Murray realized they framed Nixon. It came about when he saw the lies Woodward had written about John Belushi.
For God’s sake, please stop touching the poisonous toad.
Per the NYT, the Supreme Court has rejected Trump’s attempt to freeze foreign aid.
Well, seems the SCOTUS has decided (barely) that the impoundment control act gets to live and power of purse still belongs to Congress, at least for now.
Supreme Court Denies Bid to Freeze Nearly $2 Billion in Foreign Aid
Of course, Alito had this to say on behalf of the dissenting 4 who want their full on authoritarian dream to come true right now:
“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) $2 billion taxpayer dollars? “ he asked. “The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.”
How dare this mere judge demand their orange king and his musky puppeteer follow the law.
How fun to think we’re just one SCOTUS appointment away from complete abandonment of even the pretense of rule of law. (And by fun, I mean terrifying)
@LongtimeListener: If there’s one person in the Federal government I despise more than His Orangeness, it’s Justice Scalito.
@LongtimeListener: Alito doesn’t have any real principles. It depends on what nationwide injunction he concurs with.
Federal judge in Texas suspends FDA approval of abortion pill
“If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” China’s embassy said on X, reposting a line from a government statement on Tuesday.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gmd3g2nzqo
I don’t remember such a response from China last time Trump went ahead with his “Implement Tariffs” plan.
Is this winning?
@CSK:
How long until he starts ranting on his social media accounts?
@Min:
Tonight, I should think. Isn’t that when he does most of his ranting?
Hey JohnSF why does everyone recoil when I smile at them?
Also, I found at least one crime against humanity in the local Tesco. Also, any reason it was freezing cold in there?
@Beth:
What was the crime against humanity of which you speak?
@Beth:
I can’t answer your questions, but what was the crime against humanity in Tesco?
@Beth: In the early ’80s I lived in Ann Arbor. I jogged fairly regularly and often met people on the sidewalks and in their yards. We invariably made eye contact and at least nodded, often waved or said a few words. One Thanksgiving we went home to Rockford IL. The weather was unseasonably warm and I jogged there. Ann Arbor is a very upper middle-class suburb with a huge university. Rockford, during the Reagan recession, was the prototype dying Rust Belt town, the model for Roseanne’s fictional Lanford. In Rockford I was feeling vaguely uncomfortable and finally realized it was because I was alone, I wasn’t seeing anyone. I did eventually meet a few people, who averted their gaze. Creepy. But not just a Brit thing.
@Beth:
This is why, setting weather aside, I’m a natural Brit. I don’t smile at people. I am very good at queuing. I am not afflicted by American puritanism as regards drinking. I complain about the weather – all weather, because it’s always wrong. When asked about my day, my answer is never more positive than, ‘not bad.’ I expect disappointment. Sarcasm, irony and piss-taking are my preferred forms of humor. I actually do know a bit about the world outside of the US. And I do not wear baseball caps.
OTOH, not a fan of tea.
@Beth:
@CSK:
I don’t know what was worse: the individual sized snack beans or the cans of 8 hot dogs in brine. Nope, I’m a Chicagoan, it was the canned hotdogs.
Honorable mention goes to the prawn cocktail potato chips, but I knew about those.
@gVOR10:
Rockford still gives off those vibes. I occasionally got sent there for work in the 2010s.
@Michael Reynolds:
I got the queuing thing knocked into me by English dad. I’m, eh “normally” a pretty smiley person and can just start talking to randos cause I can’t shut up. I get these sense that outside of the women with the severe bleach blonde haircuts that’s going to be frowned upon.
Something feels wrong about the cold here today. Like it was 55 and sunny, but didn’t feel like it.
@CSK: So when Trump ignores the order, what happens? The Clerk of the Court comes to the White House to take Trump to jail?
(And how long, if ever, does it take to reinstate the USAID personnel who were ordered home, unemployed, a week or so ago?)
@CSK:
It’s scary that such an obvious conclusion was by 5 to 4. 1 more crank on SCOTUS and democracy is kaput.
@Neil Hudelson: I’m wondering the same thing. Home Plus, my favorite Korean hypermarket, is owned by Tesco.
@Beth:
I’ve vague memories of cocktail wieners and hot dogs sold in cans here long ago. One time for a project we got cans of sausages made with, of all things, squid. That’s a criminal waste of perfectly good metal and brine.
@Beth:
Yeah, those dogs in brine would alarm me. You don’t need me to tell you to keep away from them.
I wonder if Bill Murray realizes that multiple of Nixon’s administrators confessed to what they did, served time for it, and wrote books about it after?
Also, I wonder if Bill Murray wasn’t doing satire.
I read that Marco Rubio is upset because he is being frozen out of foreign policy decisions. This idiot gave up being a US Senator to serve in Trump’s cabinet. What did he think would happen? Trump insulted him repeatedly in the past and Rubio kissed his ass the moment he became president. I give him a year and Trump will kick him to the curb.
@just nutha:
The MAGAs say Trump should just ignore the Supreme Court order.
@Beth: Thanks for the clarification. Home Plus sold neither of those items in Korea, but I can buy both at Safeway in Portland, OR (but don’t care for cold beans* as a snack). I haven’t bought a can of Vienna Sausage in quite a while. Maybe I need to revisit that deficit in my culinary experience.
*Koreans do make roasted black beans for a snack though. They’re pretty tasty.
@Kathy: I’ve eaten squid sausage (actually cuttlefish) sausage, too. It’s not canned in Korea, though; it gets packed into plastic sausage casing. What I never managed to grok was why it’s sold as vegetable sausage, though.
I thought it was tasty and bought it fairly frequently.
@Lucysfootball: “I give him a year and Trump will kick him to the curb.”
If so, I bet Trump waits until after it is too late for Rubio to run for the GOP nomination for Florida Governor. (Although, if Byron Donalds falters between now and then, Trump’s desire to keep Casey DeSantis out could change that)
@CSK: Exactly. Laws work mostly because people agree to obey them (the threat of arrest assisting). The 10 Commandments fail because people mostly don’t agree to.
@Beth: When you’ve found your footing in the land of beans and cold, I recommend an excursion to Holland, where you can also enjoy beans and cold, plus a variety of new and exciting grocery store finds.
I am not a lawyer, and I would really appreciate corrections/clarifications from someone who does:
I ithink the courts can hold lower officials in contempt, fine them, and throw them in jail, if they do not obey the court order to pay the bills.
I do not think contempt is something that the President can pardon. It isn’t exactly a crime, after all. It is a tool that a judge may use to enforce order and compliance within his courtroom.
Of course, we will see more court cases. We might see US Marshalls in a staredown with FBI agents. I don’t know where this is going.
@Beth:
I occasionally visit family in Rockford. It still gave off those vibes last spring.
@just nutha: When stationed in Japan in the 80s, a street vendor treat was roasted cuttlefish on a wood skewer aka squid on a stick. I stuck with the yakitori (chicken skewers) and quail eggs.
One thing that gets little mention is how thing will work out in a nuclear multipolar world, once the felon gets done bashing America’s allies.
there has always been a measure of resentment and outright anti-American feeling in Europe, the latter mostly on left wing parties. But overall European countries have been uniformly friendly to the US, even when they declined support in its most wild adventures (like Iraq), and have by and large followed America’s leadership.
This will not continue when America abandons Europe, especially if Ukraine is made to sign on to a bad “peace” deal without US security guarantees.
Trade wars will only hasten the process.
I won’t predict how things will go, because no one really knows. But the felon’s turn towards imperialism and territorial aggrandizement may make for conflict. Consider the rapist so-called administration is threatening two NATO members already. He may later develop an appetite for European overseas territories or former colonies that maintain friendly relations with their former overlords.
Take the Guyanan territory the little Venezuelan trump covets. Suppose the felon decides to short circuit that issue by taking it for himself (lots of oil). What would the UK do? I wouldn’t place any bets on the Royal Navy against the US Navy in the South Atlantic, but it’s not exactly a sure thing for the latter.
Then there’s the whole issue of nukes. I don’t think any rational regime would use them except if they faced a real, immediate existential threat. But I don’t think the felon’s regime is rational. He might just threaten to nuke Copenhagen to get Greenland, or Ottawa or Toronto to get Canada. I’m under no illusion that France or the UK would threaten retaliation if he carried through this threat, NATO or no NATO, but I might be wrong.
@Kathy
It seems like Macron at least is saying it clearly, Europe must be ready to defend itself.
““We have prepared a plan for peace in Ukraine. I want to believe the US will be at our side, but we also have to be ready if the United States is no longer by our side.”
https://x.com/EdKrassen/status/1897356100368056696
This is the original in french:
https://x.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1897361567198667192
I expect, that’s the position that the EU will take very soon.
I loooooove going through grocery stores in other countries. When we do “self catering cottage” stays* in the UK, I always spend way too much time in Tesco.
The best are the supermarchés in France. So many fun things to try! Individual chocolate mousse cups that actually taste good! Fabulous cheese!
I do hope you are acclimating Beth, despite the lack of smiles. For those you may well need to travel to Scotland (but not the Outer Hebrides, they are very un-smiley).
* These are basically AirBnBs, but they are booked locally. We tend to do this if we need to be in one area for a while.
@Min:
I’ve been reading it on The Guardian.
Macron is saying Russia is the danger, which it is, and America will not back Europe up, which is a good bet at this point. that’s a positive development. And I suppose his worries are more along the lines of Moldova, Finland, and the Baltics.
That’s good. and Europe should let Mad Vlad know they will send troops if he invades nay of them (which he won’t be in a position to do for some years).
My worry is what happens when Europe has to confront a hostile, rather than an indifferent, America, either in Europe or elsewhere if it moves against European interests.
And let’s not forget Canada. NATO still stands and so does Article V, I assume even if a NATO country is the aggressor.
@Jen:
Me too. I also love visiting groceries in other parts of the U.S. as well.
Dagnabbit, for a brief bit of time Kevin Drum was posting on his blog again, but he posted a health update yesterday that everything is getting worse.
Please remember to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
@Jen:
I’m sure I will acclimatize at some point soon. The upshot of my goblin brain is that once I make a decision I just go. I actually feel a lot better today in a lot of ways than I have. Not having the constant “oh fuck what did the president do now” buzzing in my head is nice.
It also helps that I’ve been here a couple of times and got to either stay a significant amount of time, or meet up with distant family, so it wasn’t just tourist stuff. I also had a funhouse mirror sort of dad who was English, but also INCREDIBLY RACIST against the English (and Irish and Scottish). But not the saintly Welsh. In his own stupid, half-assed way, he tried to raise me to be English, but again he hated the English and well, my goblin brain wasn’t going to retain much of that.
Today has been kinda wild. So, I normally don’t do a whole lot of long term planning or set up. My brain doesn’t work like that. This time around I did way more preparation that I usually do. One of the important things I did was porting my main cell/work number over to Ring Central (which seems to be working well, it’s got a lot of over programery crap, but it seems to be set up to just work from the get go). Anyway, once they took the number, I went back to Verizon prepaid plan that I was told several times would work long enough for me to get set up with a regular plan.
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Got off the plane to no phone, no data and just a screenshot of some crappy directions. It was nice that the Elizabeth Line was the first train I got on here. Anyway, I made it to Hackney but had no idea where to go. A guy who had just started at the station looked up the address on his phone and I took a picture of his screen. I then trudged about with about 140 pounds of luggage in three bags, one of which was failing and would randomly flip over. I wandered around until a disagreeable mailman pointed the way. I’ve spent the rest of the day shell shocked and feeling like I was in a boat. A friend helped me get an esim set up so I have data for tomorrow. Now to find a phone plan and a place to live.
A photographer caught an exciting encounter between a bald eagle and a Canadian goose.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/05/canada-goose-bald-eagle-political-symbolism
Hayden Haynes, Mike Johnson’s chief of staff, was arrested on DUI charges after Trump’s speech last night.
Peter Gabriel’s “The Barry Williams Show” popped up on my playlist. When it debuted 20+ years ago, I liked what the song had to say, but I thought Gabriel was being a bit too thuddingly obvious in execution.
I’ve since changed my opinion. Americans aren’t good at subtlety. It should have been painfully obvious how many people were poisoning themselves with the lurid, cynical ethos of reality TV. And it wasn’t confined to the television screen. The toxins leaked into our culture in a lot of places, especially politics.
In case you haven’t seen the official video in a while, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLGkpFXiMOg
It is nice to see some of our government ministers pointing out that of course Canadians are booing the American anthem at hockey games. We are getting pretty sick of this 51st state nonsense. I just hope that the non-Trump supporters know none of this is directed at them.
A quick tip for the Trump negotiators – if you are asking us to give up 5 years of life expectancy by becoming American maybe lead with a better offer than lower taxes and more guns.
@Kathy:
I fear that Canada may have to make a choice sometime in the next three years. Are they going to be part of Trump’s North American Empire? Part of the EU and whatever defense agreement emerges there w/o the US? Or try to go some independent route like Switzerland?
@Pete S: I find the 51st state nonsense just SO VERY annoying. Kristi Noem pulled that ish when she was at a library in Vermont that has the border running through the library. Apparently, they are considering forcing the library to put in another door, and the director very calmly pointed out that right now, they only have to track traffic from one entrance. If they add another, it gets much harder.
I really, really despise the mindset/childishness of the fools in this administration.
@CSK: Well, they can’t argue he was targeted for arrest. He HIT a Capitol police car.
@Pete S:
So you don’t find crippling medical debt and ever more open bigotry appealing?
@Michael Cain:
I think Canada could inflict heavy losses on an armed US invasion, even if they’d ultimately lost the war.
IMO, any European defense policy ought to include Canada. Given how things are going, it wouldn’t hurt Canada to increase the size of their armed forces, host European ships and troops, and maybe take cover under France’s nuclear umbrella (though they should be able to produce nukes of their own in a couple of years if they start soon and invest enough money). It would benefit Europe to have a presence in North America, too.
@Jen:
So far the MAGAs are pretending it didn’t happen.
But then again, if you’re a MAGA, you believe the Capitol cops are evil and frame everyone.
@CSK:
It would be better if he hadn’t driven but I would question the judgement of any Republican who wasn’t drinking in despair after last night’s performance
@Pete S:
Well, he could have been drinking to celebrate Trump’s great triumph,
I suppose this belongs under the category of “Water is still wet”, but…
RFK is spreading bad medical advice.
@Beth:
I was sent to Houston in 2012 to get a signature from the CFO on a very important, very urgent document. I was told my cell phone would work (this was pre-smartphone days for me), which was important as I had to call the CFO to find out where he was.
I had to call the office collect from a payphone at the airport to get them to get the phone to actually work. That took a while, but fortunately there was no hurry.
Then I found out how much a cab would cost, figured I’d have to pay for the trip back, and concluded I’d been better off renting a car for the day. It was ok, as it was company money.
I actually enjoyed the trip. Two flights on a type I’d never flown before (an Embraer regional jet), and a chance to raid a bookstore in the hours waiting for the return flight. And a whole weekday without real work.
@Jen:
I just shows that every three years they can come up with a new joke. And I love that for them. You can’t just identify as an attack helicopter forever, you need fresh material.
In three more years, maybe they will come up with a funny joke.
@Kathy:
Why would the US invade, versus total blockade? Assuming the SCOTUS, Congress, and the US military support GOP minority rule for the next 30 years, “Explain to your grandchildren how you chose to be free but poor” is a viable strategy. The current US Navy, designed to hold Atlantic and Pacific logistics open to refight WWII, can certainly isolate Canada.
Yes, it’s a bad afternoon.
We have no ambassador to Canada, but Canada should kick out someone. Anyone.
Maybe not even connected to the embassy.
@Beth: glad you’re having fun.
Have you considered adopting an atrocious, fake US accent and convincing everyone that there really are Americans who sound like that? Add in some folksy sayings — “ain’t seen nothing like that in a mule’s honeymoon”, “well I’ll be a child bride…”, “that’s got more sticky bits than a porcupine orgy”, “well I’ll be a drunken redneck”, etc.
At least a “bugger me with a badger… people say that here, right? Oh, god damn it, my best buds Jessum, Caleb and Jebediah were messing with me, weren’t they? Motherrrrrrfucckker.”
California officials encouraging residents to eat invasive rodents
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/05/california-nutria-rodents
If this does not have a “Nutria Are Nutritious” ad campaign I will be very disappointed.
@Michael Cain:
I hadn’t considered a blockade.
Thinking about it, what keeps it from becoming a war? Would the US Navy fire on ships from third countries and Maersk? Who knows. What if some come with Royal Navy escorts?
A warning from NATO not to try a blockade might or might not be effective in preventing one.
It’s a rotten mess the felon’s steering the world towards.
The nazi in chief dislikes empathy.
In the words of the eminent blanket philosopher Linus van Pelt: “I love humanity. It’s people I can’t stand.”
@Kathy:
I’ve known a few like that. They loooove humanity. They treat individual people like shit.
@CSK:
And they very likely use their selfless love of humanity as moral license to hurt actual humans.
You know, as though humanity were not a collection of individual people.
@Kathy:
Yup.
@Scott:..“When prayer was taken out of our schools, things started to go downhill in America.”
Things started going downhill in America in 1954 when the words under god were added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Today, in news of the dumb. Drugs are bad, kids. Very, very bad. I honestly about fell out of my chair reading that she….called the cops on the cops “harassing her” in her car……
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/03/05/evanston-woman-accused-of-driving-off-with-arresting-cops-in-her-truck/?fbclid=IwY2xjawI16R9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHeczeWpKyHv3k4pNlvSt5uvyXd1YQejeLy5hKwfV46UBX8vZXjScA5YD8w_aem_wR7hCl-sGs74z5DkJf8uHg
@Jen:
Well, someone has to (allegedly) hit a police car while (allegedly) DUI. Luddite’s too old and obese to get beaten with a nightstick and tossed in the back of a squad car anymore.
@Beth: probably too late to mention, but Google Fi which is about 25-35 per month, depending on your data usage, doesn’t charge anything extra for Europe. At least not in EU (specifically Romania in my case), and I assume also not in UK.
The free Google Voice number is very useful when travelling to Europe, I use it all the time when talking to friends/relatives in the US.
Until you figure out a permanent solution, it doesn’t hurt to buy a prepaid card. In Romania, Orange and Vodafone (which are pan-European companies) offer prepaid cards with something like 100 GB of data, for only 5 euros (probably double or triple in the UK, but still a good deal), but they expire in 1 month unless you renew them. You can then use your phone as a hotspot, and not worry about data usage even for things like Netflix. I haven’t had much time for streaming myself, mostly using it for my remote job at the moment, and some YouTube channels in my free time.