Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, March 26, 2025
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78 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.
Tuesday is Texas’ and New Mexico’s measles update day.
Texas measles cases rise to 327. Here is what you need to know.
Next door in New Mexico: 2025 Measles Outbreak Guidance
43 total cases.
The right wing is melting down at the fact that liberals are [finally] doing 110% the same ish that conservatives have been doing for years.
I revel in it. The conservatives are triggered. It’s fun to see incompetent white supremacists whine.
And when it comes to politics, it’s quite clear both that Walz was intentionally sidelined —- and that he’s by far the top candidate in 2028.
Debate going on in Texas’ legislature:
Jewish Texans disagree on how to combat antisemitism in schools during hearing on Senate bill
There is a valid debate here. I suspect, however, this bill is being driven, not by concerns of antisemitism but rather those of far right Christian nationalists.
This is Texas after all.
I love the fact that the administration’s new defense against accusations of incompetence over admitting Jeffrey Goldberg to their top secret group chat is that he wasn’t accidentally invited — he deliberately hacked in.
Of course this is obviously and immediately bullshit — because magically there is no criminal investigation of this treasonous espionage.
But even for those gullible enough to swallow it — how is this any better? “Our top secret war planning was hacked into by some reporter we’ve already called a complete loser. Clearly we’re great at OPSEC!”
A new executive order targets another law firm.
@Scott: Will the curriculum include the history of Nazism?
Am I missing something? After all the reporting about the Signal Leak, it dawned on me that Trump didn’t seem to be in the pipeline for making the decision.
Has this marry band of cutthrotes been given authorization to order air strikes without explicit presidential approval?
@wr:
How would Goldberg even have known of the chat’s existence to have wanted to hack it?
They are just squirting ink like squids to divert and confuse.
@wr:
Trump says it was someone on Waltz’s staff who had Goldberg’s phone number, and that it’s no biggie.
@Kingdaddy: This is just part and parcel of the ongoing attack by the Republican Texas establishment on public schools and public universities. Deeply problematic considering the Texas Republican Party has many antisemitic and pro far-right extremists.
Texas GOP Rejects Ban on Association with Nazis
@Rick DeMent:
Likely Stephen Miller or Susie Wiles were there as Trump’s representation.
@Scott: At the risk of drawing conclusions too quickly, the differing experiences on the Blue side of the TX / NM border seem to be demonstrating in real time the efficacy of the two different approaches to public health. On our side, vaccination outreach is happening in every county along the border with our Red neighbor and the case count has been staying stable.
@Kingdaddy:
Well it worked before…
The Atlantic has published the Signal text chain.
@wr:
In response to the Administration’s answers yesterday, the Atlantic published the whole thing.
Here’s a link with the article
https://x.com/shaneharris/status/1904871582561902963?s=46
@Kingdaddy:
And this is according to them “not classified “?!
We’re in the dumbest timeline.
@Kingdaddy:
Why is Scott Bessent, Secretary of Treasury, part of this? Need to know?
Two things to remember. First, Trump’s real estate lawyer turned diplomat was actually in Russia during the chat. Second, the chat was scheduled to be deleted, contra record keeping rules. They clearly dont apply to the Trump team.
Steve
It makes me absolutely crazy to think that I am more careful about retaining documents for my elected municipal position than a bunch of the highest ranking officials in the US government.
Also, every single one of them who testified yesterday apparently lied under oath. Does lying to Congress under oath still matter, or IOKIYAR?
@Scott: Ten cases believed to be related in far southwestern Kansas. I suppose we’ll eventually get it here in Colorado, although the school districts immediately adjacent to that part of the Kansas border have high vaccination rates.
@Jen:
All Congress can do is refer the cases to the DOJ, who appears not to care.
I think that we should lock all these wizards, Waltz, Hegseth, Vance et al. in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF).
And leave them there!
I miss our old friend Drew/Joe/Guarneri/Connor, the World’s Greatest Businessman. I wish he’d drop by to explain this:
Then he might explain why DJT Stock, once scraping 43.00 a share is now at 20.00 a share.
And why oil drilling stocks, which hit a drill, baby drill high on the inauguration of our our Business Lord and Savior, Donald Trump, of ~23,000, now sit at ~18,000.
And why consumer confidence is dropping like a rock, while expectations of inflation are, (sorry), inflating. Summarizing consumer-facing business opinion: Yep, we’re fucked. Not as fucked as Tesla, of course, few corps are as fucked as Tesla which is dead in China, dead in Europe, dead in Canada, and circling the drain right here in the US.
It’s almost as if Trump is bad for business. Shameful and incompetent at foreign and defense policy, disastrous at health and education, deluded culturally, and random, chaotic and incoherent at economics.
I blame Biden.
In a bit of good news, the SC upheld the ghost gun restrictions 7-2 w/Gorsuch writing the majority opinion.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-upholds-biden-regulations-ghost-gun-kits-rcna180991
@Michael Reynolds:
Somewhere, there are contrarians smiling, those that took the felon at his word regarding tariffs and deportations and hedged their investments.
Looking forward to seeing Tesla’s quarterly results.
@Kingdaddy:
Anyone have a gift article they’d care to share?
ETA Immediately saw one on bluesky after posting this. Here: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/signal-group-chat-attack-plans-hegseth-goldberg/682176/?gift=kPTlqn0J1iP9IBZcsdI5IWzhvFf3q4jecuzTA5cASGg&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
And realize now @Min’s link was to a gift article. I’ll stop posting before I’ve finished my coffee, sorry ya’ll.
My wild-eyed, crazy conspiracy theory, which is almost certainly not true but fun nonetheless, is that somebody in the NSA exploited one or more of the phones of the principals, and added Jeffrey Goldberg to the list, in order to let in a little sunshine. They did this because they knew how compromised Signal could be, and wanted to put a stop to its use.
I don’t think this happened.
But its fun.
@Michael Reynolds:
The markets are not exactly cratering, just slowly inching lower. So where is all the support coming from if small investors (i.e., the public) are bearish and fund managers are bailing?
@charontwo:
Apparently it’s retail investors. Given the quasi-religious nature of MAGA I’d guess it’s the same people who bought Trump NFTs and Trump Bibles and Trump trading cards. You know, suckers.
@Kingdaddy:
I didn’t really expect this, even while I suggested it.
@Min:
@Neil Hudelson:
Thanks for the gift links.
@Neil Hudelson: Okay, this article is bonkers.
Oh man. So Defense Sec. Drunkard McGhee texted a detailed strike plan to an unknown number hours before the attack. These pilots could have been killed.
While Gabbard (Director of National
IntelligenceStupidity), Wiles (Chief of Staff), Rubio (Sec. of State), Ratcliffe (CIA Director), Miller (Ghoul), Waltz (National Security Advisor), Bessent (Treasury Sec.), and Vance (Irrelevant Cuck) all looked on with no objection.Bumbling and reckless to say the least. They should all be fired for gross incompetence.
@Jay L Gischer: The Deep State doing the work of angels? As logical as anything!
@Neil Hudelson: Thanks, Neil. I should have posted the gift link.
“We are currently clean on OPSEC”
JFC
I’m sure someone is interested that we had eyes on a guy entering a building that we then leveled. Hopefully that asset is well protected, but I have…doubts
So far, parties in the chat group have done the following:
– Called Goldberg a scum journo
– Said Goldberg is bad at his job
– Denied anything sensitive/classified was discussed
– Noted that the chat went to a personal phone and not the government one they were carrying
– Accused Goldberg of hacking into the chat
– Claimed that calling it “war planning” is just The Worst and it’s actually “attack planning”, You Fucking Moron
They have not discussed:
– Why nobody said “I don’t recognize that person” (incompetent)
– How OPSEC can be “clean” with an unknown party involved (incompetent)
– Why they have a private chat with attack details through Signal (illegal)
– Why any of this is on their private phones (illegal)
– How they’re maintaining these records when they delete after a set time (illegal)
– What was going on in the other referenced chat (likely equally illegal)
– How Goldberg would even know about the chat if he wanted to hack in, unless their OPSEC sucks (incompetent)
– Why the Secretary of the Treasury was involved (???????????????)
– Whether they actually killed 50+ people to take out a single Houthi bigwig, and how they determined that was “minimizing civilian casualties” (probably a war crime)
– Why they’ve lied repeatedly about all of this under oath, to Congress (illegal)
I don’t think I’ve seen such a whirligig of incompetence and illegality. Just another weekday in the Trump 2 era.
@Scott: Laissez les anti-vax bons temps roullez!
Here’s a handy compilation of all the tales the Trump admin has told about the Jeffrey Goldberg/Signal brouhaha:
http://www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-cant-keep-its-signal-story-straight
@CSK: Oh man, I forgot about Waltz’s “the contact I clicked on had a different name, but JG’s phone number!” Like, maybe that’s one of the reasons not to use Signal, you fuckwit!
@charontwo:
That isn’t exactly comforting.
Grotesque video of ICE kidnapping a Turkish national (legally in the US) for writing an op-ed opposing Israel’s attacks on Palestine:
https://bsky.app/profile/paleofuture.bsky.social/post/3llccznpbvc2r
@ptfe: Wow, that sounds a whole lot like the kind of “phishing” attack the NSA bulletin warning against using Signal mentioned.
I can’t remember which thread it was in, but a few days ago I had an exchange with someone (Jay, maybe?) who said that Senators weren’t as likely as dumb as they seem.
I give you…Congressman Comer, who doesn’t know what editorial standards are.
Granted, this is the House, but still…
This made me darkly laugh.
The lawsuit over Signalgate was just assigned to one of Trump’s least favorite judges
You know, the guy the Government said couldn’t receive info on the Venezuela flights because of …. “state secrets”.
@Jen: Heh.
Well, I didn’t make that claim about Representatives.
And when I said that about Senators, it was a recognition that they will often say the thing that they think connects with the median voter. You know, not too bright.
I have a friend whose father was politically active in Minnesota. He got into a meeting with Hubert Humphrey once. At the beginning Humphrey came off as kind of an airhead, until a staffer said to him, “Senator, this group is smart people”. And there was an apparent change.
I guess I don’t care to claim that Senators are never dumb, so much as I can’t tell that from something they say to the press. I can imagine that acting dumb might well be a political strategy.
Dear lord. Does anyone else think that someone in the WH is like, “huh, we need to move off this Signalgate story, let’s put the big guy in front of a mic” because I cannot for the life of me understand how this can be anything but a diversion tactic because What the Actual F*ck?
@Jen:
You should worry if he ever begins to make sense to you.
on other things, Hell Week part Way Too Many is far worse than envisioned. It turns out I got farther ahead of my work, and I still have tons to do. It hardly seems fair.
@Jen:
Tell me this is a joke. A bad joke.
@Jen: well…President Musk does seem to have a breeder fetish.
@Kathy:
Even for Trump, this is beyond moronic:
“Fertilization. I’m still very proud of it. I don’t care.”
What in the name of fuck does that mean?
@CSK: I expect he’s talking about “free IVF”.
@CSK:
Just the normal selection of a commoner or two to take the blame, not unusual for royal monarchies. Bone Saw had to drag up eight such to punish for killing Khashoggi. They were allowed to forgo decapitation and have their families paid off in exchange prison terms to be served with sealed lips, IIRC.
@Jay L Gischer:
Yeah, I get the IVF/fertilization part, but he said he’s “very proud of it,” and then added, “I don’t care.”
About what?
@CSK: I’m no mind reader, but I expect this is his usual sort of bullshit mendaciousness.
“We’re very proud of it” (of providing free IVF) This is a lie claiming they have advanced it, when they haven’t.
“I don’t care” (some say it’s a bad idea, but he doesn’t care because he is a brave warrior fighting for the people).
It’s all posturing mendaciousness.
@Jay L Gischer:
So why not just say that? I know, I know.
Mike Waltz’s political donations:
Mitt Romney: $5000
Jeb Bush: $2700
John McCain: $450
Donald Trump: $0
@CSK: Everything about this administration is a bad joke. 🙁
@CSK:
I took it to mean that he thinks he invented the word.
Remember back in 2024 when he was taking credit for using the word ‘groceries,’ as if he invented that word too?
@Thomm: Given that Musk is using IVF to try to select the gender of his spawn*, I don’t think that’s a breeder fetish. Fetishes have a sexual component.
It’s eugenics. Plain and simple eugenics. A breeding program, rather than a breeder fetish.
*: we love Vivian for spiting him.
I haven’t checked the news today. Do we have a new national humiliation, or are we still riding high with the Atlantic?
I wonder if Musk has considered selling his semen. Either as a IVF product, or a soft drink.
He’s wearing ridiculous disguises and contributing at countless sperm banks across the country, isn’t he? Or sending out lackeys with vials of his semen to contribute under their own names. Or having his many, many (grown) sons do it either carrying a vial of daddy’s semen, or just diluting the bloodline a bit with their own seed.
I have no evidence that he is doing this, but I have no doubt that he is doing this.
He’s heard about Atilla the Hun, and he has set his target higher.
@CSK:
Maybe he’s been trying to top bleach injections since April 2020?
It gets worse.
Reporting from Der Spiegel
“Mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to top Trump officials including Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth, and Tulsi Gabbard have been found online, revealing an additional grave, previously unknown security breach at the highest levels in Washington.”
I guess it’s just another day in this new “normal” administration.
Probably Tulsi Gabbard won’t know anything about this.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/hegseth-waltz-gabbard-private-data-and-passwords-of-senior-u-s-security-officials-found-online-a-14221f90-e5c2-48e5-bc63-10b705521fb7
@Kathy:
Oh, so that could be an explanation
I can’t even with Trump saying
“I’ll be known as the fertilization president and that’s okay.”
W…TF?
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1904988400211329492?s=46
@Michael Reynolds:
After being laid low with a nasty cold for several days, catching up is really not that much fun.
Idiocy appears to be on an asymptotic track.
We have both the administration top officials talking about real-time military ops on a horribly insecure channel.
And the utter lunacy of the “Mar-a-Lago Accords” fantasy.
It’s difficult to know where to begin with that level of dim-witterty.
“We shall coerce our allies to depreciate the dollar, while obliging them to buy US bonds to finance our debt at favourable rates, and to buy US weapons on a coerced greater defence spend.”
How about: NO?
I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again: the US may be able to compel Europe to spend more on defence and to increase military capability..
But politics is politics: European defence contractors like a pay-day as much as the next guy.
Europe has, generally, since Suez, been prepared to play “mini-me” to DC.
Albeit with France being grumpy about it.
But Europe obliged to be a Power?
That’s a whole different game.
That’s big-time.
Europe’s problem is multiplication of procurement, command and logistic systems, because Europe is NOT a country.
That can change: the European Defence Community has been tabled since the 1950’s.
It can be revived.
And if the US is inclined to go for tariff barrier industrial autarky: that’s been the dream of Paris since the 1950’s.
What does anyone in the US suppose was the POINT of the French nuclear reactor build-out, or the European Coal and Steel Community, or Euratom, ArianeSpace and the ESA, or the European 6th Generation air warfare projects, or European continental agricultural self-sufficiency?
All of these were ameliorated by Germany, UK, and Poland, prioritizing the Atlantic Alliance, and the integration with the US global trading and financial system.
But that is changing, perforce.
Just listen to the recent statements by Merz, Stramer, Tusk, etc: the Trumpian US is burning bridges like a pyromaniac, and what’s worse, is that Vance indicates the change is permanent.
Vance playing footsie with the AfD may seem trivial in the US.
It was a MASSIVE mistake.
The words echoing around the chancelleries of Europe (including the UK):
“De Gaulle was right all along.”
@Min:
My guess he is talking about IVF, or trying to, but the continued progressing of senile dementia is interfering with his ability to use appropriate language.
@Min:
Maybe. Me, I think the combination of solipsism, stupidity, and dementia explain everything.
Perhaps the big flaw in democracy is the same as in economics: people don’t always vote or make purchases/expenses rationally.
On a related note, tariffs on all imported cars are now set at 25%, this includes cars made by US companies, like Ford, in other countries, like Mexico and Canada, often with parts largely made in the US.
Yeah, I can see GM rushing to close plants in Canada and Mexico and setting up in non-union Dumbf*ckistan, on the off chance the felon doesn’t change his mind, or the delusion his tariffs will outlast his wreck of a term (if he should finish it).
Does it take more or less than four years to set up several large, complex manufacturing plants, even in Dumbf*ckistan?
@JohnSF:
As a British subject, how much did that hurt?
Emanuel Macron is the Leader of the Free World. The French are going to be really insufferable.
@Kathy:
On the plus side, I had Carvanna give me a quote on my Mercedes. (It’s a 2020 with 6,000 miles, I never drive it.) They gave me a number. Then wrote two weeks later to give me a higher number. As new German steel becomes more expensive, used German steel becomes a better bargain.
@Kathy:
This is the flaw in The Rapist’s logic. Inflation and unemployment hurt right now; a new factory job is years away.
@Michael Reynolds:
Like removing teeth with f@cking claw hammer.
The odd thing being, the British mostly championed De Gaulle against Roosevelt’s rather silly antagonism.
(One of FDR’s few blind spots; a great man, but once he developed a personal animus, that tended to be that)
Much thanks did we get from either side for it.
In retrospect, De Gaulle had a point: if the UK was determined to cleave to the US, it undermined the French strategy for Europe.
But De Gaulle was stymied anyway.
Adenauer and the rest of the the German political elite (after the collapse of the “neutralists” in the SPD) were firmly Atlanticist.
And the French themselves had torpedoed the European Defence Community before De Gaulle returned to power.
And De Gaulle himself blocked the “federalization” moves of the EEC.
That is why Merz’s recent statements are so important, and strangely being minimised by a lot UK and US commentators.
A CDU/CSU Chancellor is both indicating the Atlantic Alliance is creaking, and going for a trillion euro re-armament budget.
The world has changed.
An effective Macron/Merz/Meloni/Tusk coordination in Europe is massive.
Note how Orban was told, in effect, to sit down and shut up, at the recent summit.
@JohnSF:
Dating ourselves with this reference, eh?
But yes, he was right, and Europe is deservedly tired of playing Deputy Barney to America’s Sheriff Andy
@Michael Reynolds:
No change there, then. 😉
I still have occasional inclinations to move to France, become a French citizen, and make being insufferable an art form.
(I love France, and despite my Britishness, I rather like the French)
@Flat Earth Luddite:
I didn’t mind us playing deputy, so long as the Sheriff ain’t out there on hooch, hookers, and coke, doing deals with the mob, and pandering to the Klan.
At that point I tends to get a bit testy.
@Michael Reynolds:
@JohnSF:
The French are showing quite the clever and entrepreneurial spirit regarding US scientists.
NYT story
A quick look at the admin Signal messaging stuff re Yemen:
It indicates the US had real-time targeting info on Houthi leaders.
And now that will be GONE.
And quite possibly the agents concerned will be.
What a f@cking shambles.
And the US doesn’t even get an effective decapitation strike out of it.
The Israelis must be gawping in dismay at this level of incompetence.
@Michael Reynolds:
I may post later about what things were like in Mexico under a high tariff regime.
Instead now I’ll point to the looming threat of tariffs on drugs and pharmaceuticals, especially from Ireland. That will certainly bring down prices and make everyone happy. You can live without eggs. You can’t live without heart medication.
On the plus side, a really bad recession might flip enough seats in the Senate to convict and remove the rapist. Long shot. Long, long, long shot. I know. And likely not worth a bad recession. But if one is going to happen because the felon is too stupid to know how stupid he is, well, better something good come off it.
You could add shifts at existing plants, just need to find workers.
But what if J D Vance is President 2 years from now and tariffs are massively unpopular apart from being really stupid? (Trump does look to be massively deteriorating mentally, maybe sell-by date is coming)? Meanwhile, people will be putting off buying cars if they can, new or used, made anywhere. I guess if it’s a consolation, car dealers are a massively Republican constituency.
From an AOC fund-raising text:
I think this is the most profitable path forward.