Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, June 11, 2025
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51 comments
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About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor 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
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BlueSky.
A person who I used to format my books when I self-published has passed away. Her name was Kimberly but her nickname was Hitch. Hitch was a year or two older than me and she lived in Arizona. She died last Saturday after a brief illness.
From 2020* to 2023, Hitch formatted my books so customers could buy either paperback or hardcover versions of them. Despite being computer challenged, I successfully** uploaded over two dozen ebooks to Amazon. It was preparing the same books to be available print wise that I found too challenging. Hitch worked for me to overcome that and also freely gave me advice sometimes on how to improve my ebooks. Since I am computer challenged, I’m sure my books gave Hitch more than a few headaches but she never complained. Thanks Hitch for the help and RIP.
*- When I began self-publishing at Amazon in 2014, KDP didn’t sell print versions.
**- My success rate wasn’t 100%. I did badly screw up one ebook but did get it fixed.
Yup, the cool aid is still being consumed.
Getting everything that they voted for.
@Sleeping Dog: The mayor of Hoquiam is reported by the article of having read Art of the Deal and concluding that Trump knew how to negotiate. Hmmm…
@Sleeping Dog: One of the consequences I expect from reorganizing FEMA out of existence is states having to do smaller versions on their own. It will become clear after that just how dependent most rural areas are on the tax revenues from urban/suburban areas. I have a friend in Asheville, North Carolina who bemoans how slowly the recovery from Hurricane Helene has gone. I have pointed out to him that if the rural areas around him were dependent on just the cities in North Carolina to fund the recovery, those cities would probably have just ignored the rural damage.
No amount of gerrymandering will keep the North Carolina Republicans in control of the state legislature once they take the position, “We’ll have to raise taxes on the Research Triangle cities to generate an extra billion dollars for rural recovery.”
Elon Musk appears to be regretting all the mean things he said about Trump last week:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-crawls-back-to-donald-trump-by-saying-he-regrets-his-scathing-attacks-went-too-far/
As I posted earlier, Trump is a WWE ringmaster working his crowd for maximum effect. The peanut gallery approves. Fox News is onboard. As covid proved, the fundamentals governing reality are not swayed by human showmanship. The cost will be high.
@Michael Cain:
The risk for disasters and level of devastation that might require a FEMA response isn’t apportioned evenly throughout the country. Florida, California and perhaps some states along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers might develop their own response teams, but most would wing it and piecemeal responses to the event. I’m sure that here in NH the response would be “eh, too bad,” there is no tax base or desire to create a tax base that could respond.
Add to that redundancy is costly.
Hurricane season will soon be upon us and the vulnerable states are red.
I finished Pantheon yesterday.
Not bad, but I felt like the last two eps covered two seasons, or should have covered two seasons. It felt like they knew they were cancelled early enough to cram an ending. Or at least that would have been the case in the old days of 20+ eps per season. For an 8 ep season, they’d have had to know before season 2 started production, certainly before a single ep was in the can.
So, I’m not saying this is the case, but it feels that way.
What happens at the end, no spoilers, would have benefitted from 3-4 eps of build up laying out all that the characters were doing.
@Sleeping Dog:
I suppose they figure they can Sharpie all the hurricanes to California.
@Rob1: “Say experts” is funny. One expert quoted, the deputy director of government affairs at the ACLU.
@Rob1:
Great article, thanks for sharing.
@Fortune:
So your quibble is with the headline, not with any of the extravagantly authoritarian actions detailed in the article?
@CSK: Actually, Musk just realized that Trump was not a Epstein patron; he was an Einstein supporter. Easy to understand mistake.
@restless:
The troll’s new tactic has been to just blockquote a name and guffaw, hoping to draw ire. Ignore. Sarah’s extensive experience is publicly available and she is indeed an expert, but that doesn’t really matter to the troll. What matters is making a comment section all about the troll.
@CSK:
@Slugger:
Oh, there’s an easy explanation: the little nazi got hurt in his money.
Before Biden’s decline, he said he would not tolerate sanctuary cities
@restless: I disagree with the characterization of the actions as authoritarian, but a cross-examination should begin by pointing out concrete discrepancies.
@Fortune: Yes, a lawyer with extensive background in immigration law and civil rights law who’s discussing…checks notes…immigration and the implications for civil rights.
But “uhhh…she works at the ACLU, she can’t be an expert!” You truly are the laziest motherfucker on the board.
@ptfe: You’re lazier if you couldn’t finish the word expertS, but name-calling doesn’t get us anywhere.
And now, for something completely different.
Nice inflation report.
@CSK: Too bad EACO doesn’t have the same resonance as TACO.
@Fortune:
Which is an expert role. The fact that you don’t personally respect the ACLU or their analysis doesn’t negate the fact that the individual is an expert. Here’s their bio:
For the take of three other experts who are in agreement about the move towards autocracy see this editorial:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-democracy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OE8.acl5.4yPLdnmadlql&smid=url-share
Again, its totally ok to say “I don’t believe anything the ACLU says.” But that’s different than committing the logical fallacy of saying someone isn’t an expert without evidence based solely on the organization they are associated with.
So, El Taco is raising consumer taxes on his own people by a stupid amount, and brags that China will only do so by a less than a fifth.
This does makes him the world’s greatest negotiator, if the world in question is Bizarro World.
@Neil Hudelson: Thanks. That explains some of my confusion about the overall lower-grade trolling here. So sad.
@just nutha:
Try “nazi always chickens out,” and you get NACO. That’s Mexican slang for a person of poor taste, or ignorant, or lacking in manners, or a mix of all these (among others).
It’s not a perfect description of El Naco, but it fits.
@ptfe and Matt Bernius: I think the point that Fortune is not articulating very well is that the title advertises plural experts but relies on only one.
Anticipate attacks on liberals and liberal values to ratchet up to a higher fever pitch in order to distract from the schism, and pull the gullible minions back into cadence step.
@Kathy:
About that whole “TACO” thing hung on Trump: he’ll back down in the face of real power, and then compensate by turning on full throttle toward the powerless, like immigrant families and refugees and pregnant women. He exhibits cowardice with an overlay of sadism.
How “Christians” justify supporting this misanthrope, is a twisted act of rationalization and completely undermines any claimed moral authority.
@Slugger: @Kathy:
According to the NYPost, Trump isn’t ruling out a reconciliation with Musk, but says it isn’t a priority.
@Rob1: It doesn’t matter, it was never about describing Trump, it was about mocking him.
Geez. Sly Stone dies, and now Brian Wilson. Two of the most innovative songwriters ever, both coincidentally becoming recluses.
I wonder who the third will be?
@CSK:
Translation: he’s holding out for a lot more money.
Brian Wilson passed away
https://pitchfork.com/news/the-beach-boys-brian-wilson-dies-at-82/
@Franklin:..I wonder who the third will be?
Brian Wilson is the third. Dominican composer, trumpet player, and singer Cheo Zorrilla, 75, died June 8, 2025 of a stroke.
@JKB: Before Trump’s decline, he said Democrats were better for the economy.
@Connor: You still haven’t provided evidence for your declaration the other day that Kilmar Abrego Garcia visited El Salvador 100 times while under a blocked deportation order.
Or are you ready to admit your lack of credibility?
@Franklin: This is sad. Wilson is one of my musical heroes. There’s something jarring about a guy who once defined teenage culture dying of old age. But c’est la vie. Time is undefeated.
I can remember being asked once, “Stones or Beatles?”
I replied, “The Beach Boys, of course.”
@DK:
I’m with you.
@Franklin: Sly was great. A lot more going on there than just popularly consumed funkadelic.
Exciting news! Trump has a trade deal with China! Yay!
And you know it’s not just bullshit because the stock market. . . um. . . yeah, laid there like a beached whale. I imagine the MAGAts are celebrating the great dealmaker. But the money yawns.
@DK:
I can’t recall the reference. If it is incorrect I stand corrected. But embedded here is the actual indictment. It references 100 trips from TX to Maryland. Maybe a conflicted Cowboys Ravens fan.
https://www.mediaite.com/crime/heres-the-criminal-indictment-awaiting-kilmar-abrego-garcia-when-he-returns-to-the-u-s/
Not quite just a “Maryland dad.” And if you want to die on the hill of miscreants like this, be my guest. You guys seem intent on destroying the Dem party.
The court will sort it out now.
@Neil Hudelson:
Yeah, I know. But at least he replied with a more substantial comment.
I’m not sure it’s worth continuing the conversation, though, if he doesn’t see the authoritarianism inherent in the president stepping outside the constitutional limits of his role by overriding congressional legislation and ignoring court orders.
The constitution created a representative democracy with three branches – a three legged stool. If one leg cuts off the other two, is it still even a stool?
The entire 12-member board of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship program has resigned in protest of Trump.
Seven hundred Marines have arrived in Los Angeles.
@Connor:
You wrote the following here:
Last I checked, El Salvador isn’t in Texas. And further, the fact you wrote “I guess “Maryland dads” get homesick a lot.” suggest you didn’t just have a brainfart and somehow mistook “El Salvador” for “Texas.”
But man you sounded so sure you were right and it was going to own us libs when you wrote it.
Not checking your facts before posting really diminishes you.
The hill we want to die on is due process as promised by the Constitution. Clearly that’s something–like getting your facts straight before you post–you don’t care about.
@Matt Bernius: He needs to either read more closely to begin with or lie better, I dunno which tho. Either way, he backtracked, so chalk up a “win,” I guess (assuming that there’s any winning to be had while 100 or so other “mistakes” are still there).
@JKB:
That was 20 years ago. You’re trying to justify the horror that is taking place today with THAT? Somehow suggesting that Briden would condone suspension of due process & habeus corpus, send marines into the cities, override the state governor authority, deport American citizens, send masked agent/provocateurs to violently confront peaceful protesters? Totally B.S.
@Connor:
From your own Mediaite link:
@Connor:
Cause we all know how the Republican Party of convicted pedophile Denny Hastert, drug addled weirdo Musk, and sex trafficking crackhead Matt Gaetz is opposed to miscreants. Lol
I missed where Andry Romero and Kilmar Garcia incited the Jan 6 terror attack. And I’m guessing neither is in the Epstein files. Wasn’t Hitler-admiring rapist Trump supposed to release those? Hmm.
MAGA won the White House by 1.47% percent, lost a House seat, and just got railed in the most expensive state court race ever, but the establishment media narrative has them convinced their opposition faces destruction. Explains the fascist overreach causing this:
June 11, 2025 – Majority Of Voters Oppose GOP Budget Bill; Trump Job Approval: 38%, His Handling Of Russia – Ukraine War Lowest Among List Of Issues (Quinnipiac)
Good luck.
A spot of good(ish) news to break up a dreary day: Harvey Weinstein got convicted of one charge in his retrial.
In an odd development, he was acquitted of one charge, and a third one is pending, with the jury scheduled to resume deliberations on it.
@DK:
Well, yeah, but Trump only said that in 2004 because the economy has, in fact, generally done better with Ds in control.
IIRC a few years ago Krugman did a column on this and said the correlation seemed clear, but he didn’t see clear reasons for it in economic policy. My speculation is it’s small ball in the agencies and a lesser tendency to do not strictly economic stupid stuff like start wars and respond badly to COVID.