Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
·
31 comments
OTB relies on its readers to support it. Please consider helping by becoming a monthly contributor through Patreon or making a one-time contribution via PayPal. Thanks for your consideration.
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.
I really hate the nights my brain won’t shut down.
Thought for the day for everyone here from me. Take care of each other, and be kind to yourself.
@Flat Earth Luddite: Happens to me. Not sure if it’s more frequent because of age or because I can see the country’s being sold off for scrap. I find a couple aspirin and a cup of hot chocolate help on my “wired” nights.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
@gVOR10:
Happens to me sometimes also; in particular, wake up in the early hours and then can’t get back to sleep.
Until about half a an hour before I’m due to get up, at which point I can’t keep my eyes open.
🙁
Credit where it is due: Gov. Ayotte has vetoed seven bills from the Republican legislature here in NH, including a book removal bill that would have criminalized school librarians, and another that would have required businesses and organizations to separate people by biological gender.
The numbers are very close in the House, so the vetoes are very unlikely to face an override threat. A small, small ray of sanity.
@JohnSF:
Maddening, isn’t it?
This morning on “Truth” Social, Trump has debuted a new framing: “the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,” which he equates with all the other supposed “hoaxes” he’s been victimized by for the past decade.
It’s really amazing how quickly we went from “the Epstein files are on my desk” to “this whole Epstein thing is a hoax created by the Democrats.”
@Mikey: IIRC Reynolds has talked about conservatives lacking imagination. I sometimes question it because they’re able to create such imaginative rationalizations. But then I see them so slow to come up with something, as in this case. Maybe they really do lack imagination.
This is actually a pretty good rationalization, shifting blame to the deep state and Democrats, which his base will readily accept. I expect that Trump et al will come up with another few “explanations”, some contradictory. Hannah Arendt was right, the goal is not to make the gullible believe any particular lie, but to believe “everything and nothing”. FOX “News” has been deathly quiet about Epstein lately. They need a party line or three to get behind.
@gVOR10:
The party line is to shut up about Epstein. That’s why you’re hearing nothing about it from Fox or any of the other propaganda outlets.
As Jordan Klepper pointed out on the Daily Show, the new line is that Obama and Comey created the Epstein list (you know, the one which doesn’t exist and yet is on Pam Bondi’s desk) and then kept it secret in hopes that some day Trump would release it himself. Are MAGAts that dumb? Yes, they are. They’re brain-dead culties.
But there’s more than the hardcore cult at play here. And some – not many but some – Trump voters might not be quite stupid enough. They’re nowhere near suspecting that they’ve been lied to for decades and that as a consequence their brains are mush, but let’s take what we can get.
@gVOR10:
Josh Johnson in the first five minutes of this clip explains the problem: Trump did not think his lies through far enough. Like a child lying to his parents never gets to the second or third level. That is lack of imagination. And it’s not that they have no imagination, it’s just that they’re very bad at imagining. The only thing they can imagine is a bullshit version of the past, corrupted nostalgia.
Empathy is part of imagination and they have no empathy beyond themselves and their immediate circle. It’s the I-hate-gays-wait-my-kid-is-gay? syndrome. But you can’t really write a story without the ability to see beyond yourself. See: The Fountainhead.
It feels like a slow day at the Open Forum.
I can only conclude we’re all still collectively stunned Stellan Skarsgård wasn’t nominated for an Emmy.
@Kathy: I don’t know about anyone else, but I am finding myself mentally and physically exhaused from the firehose of shit running through our national discourse. I didn’t even doomscroll last night, I just went to bed at 7 and watched mindless tv til I was tired enough to sleep.
Sometimes I just can’t even, with these people. It’s utterly depressing thinking about all the things they are gleefully destroying, and the long-term effects.
@Kathy:
The entire cast each individually deserves a nom.
Somewhat related, I finally watched Anora last night. That film convinced me there needs to be a “Best Casting” award at the Oscars. Every person in it, whether they had two words or two hours worth of lines, played it absolutely perfectly. There were no small roles nor small actors in it.
@gVOR10:
While a significant part is no doubt due to age and existential dread, a major part for me is the side effects from all the chemotherapy. The Platinum based chemo drugs are wonderful at killing cancer, but they do a lot of nerve damage, especially to peripheral nerves. After a decade in remission, sitting on the deck with a drink and a cigar waiting for the meds to kick in is a familiar routine.
ETA
@JohnSF:
@Steven L. Taylor:
Oh seriously maddening. Wish I was the only one , but happy to share with you cool kids.
@Jax:
I watched an ep of The Studio last night.
The premise is a studio executive, Matt Remick gets promoted to head of the studio (the fictional Continental Pictures), and struggles between his love of good movies and the need to make good box office returns. The first ep, IMO, was the best. I won’t say much about it because spoilers, but I think I can safely say it involves a Kool-Aid movie (!) and Martin Scorsese (not necessarily related to each other).
The premise sounds like a drama, but it’s a comedy (as you can surmise from the non-spoiler comments above). Matt is a shallow, needy, obsessive, cowardly jerk, but he’s not quite an a-hole. Mostly he tries to be nice, even while asserting privilege and screwing things up.
A lot of actors and directors make appearances playing themselves.
Today in dementia, Trump forgets that he appointed Powell as Fed Chair, and says that Biden did.
https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3lu3uz7dsjs2f
Bloomberg is reporting that Trump is going to fire Powell. Just to throw my bet into the pot I predict that SCOTUS will find it is OK for him to do it. They will mealymouth it to say something like it’s a not general finding and it may not apply to other presidents, but Trump can do whatever he wants.
Steve
@Kathy: I started “The Studio” when it first came out and found it OK. Then we watched a few episodes last night and laughed a lot. I think my problem is that Seth Rogen just irritates the heck out of me. I put Owen Wilson in the same category which is why “Stick” is just OK with me while the rest of the family likes it.
@steve222:
I’m rooting for bank failures.
For what it’s worth, I think Trump is working himself up towards firing Powell. I think he just needs to get good and frothy and then someone is going to set him off and then he’ll fire Powell. I also suspect that Powell won’t contest the firing; he doesn’t seem like the kinda guy that would fight. My hope is that Trump does fire Powell and replaces him with an absolute lunatic.
I’m fairly confident the only thing that will get it through people’s heads that Trump and the Republicans are evil idiots is an absolute hard crash. Republicans have escaped the consequences of their ideology for long enough. Let’s just have it.
@Scott:
I’ve no feelings about Rogen one way or the other. I’m not familiar with his work, either. The first I recall hearing about him was when he appeared on Mythbusters (Green Hornet “myths”). I’ve pretty much seen The Studio (8 eps), and parts of Green Hornet. In both he’s a well-intentioned jerk.
On intriguing news we’ll probably never hear about again: Orcas now and then attempt to give some of their food to humans
This is odd in that wild predators don’t often do things like this. But it might be interesting to find out whether orcas do the same with other ocean denizens, say dolphins or other predators. Domesticated predators, like cats, do it all the time.
A couple months ago I bought my first ever Brand New truck. I could’ve bought new before, but I don’t really give a fig about what I drive and you just get so much more bang for your buck for used. But strangely the brand new models of the truck I wanted were all a few grand cheaper than any used model I could find. I must say, the bells and whistles on a new car are really amazing when your last car was from the previous millennium.
Anyway at 4,996 miles I was just side swiped by a double long flat bed trying to turn down a two lane side street. Put a nice long gash down the driver’s side.
Dude driving it pulled over immediately. He was on duty and the owner of his work showed up 10 minutes later. They are handling it all very well.
Still, it feels like buying a new pair of white patent leather boots and immediately stepping in horse shit.
@steve222:
@Beth:
Thing about the Fed is, the decisions are made by the board collectively, not by the Chairman alone.
Replacing the entire board would entail completely overriding all the relevant statutes and court decisions.
And, perhaps more importantly, abrogating the privileges of the corporate banks re the regional Feds.
It’s posssible that the administration might get Congress and the Supreme Court to permit him to do so.
The probable consequences, however, then depend on people rather less amenable to political pressure.
I can’t think of a quicker way to get a general market panic, both in shares and bonds.
@Beth:
@JohnSF:
What I wonder is whether things like a dollar crash or a US debt default would have consequences like the 1930s depression, or more like the Crisis of the Third Century, or the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 470s.
@Kathy:
I would imagine the orcas could be curious. AFAIK, every critter in the sea flees from a pack of orcas, so an odd critter that shows no fear, which those divers would seem, should spark curiosity, of not amazement…at least initially.
You know, I still can’t believe that Musk and his DOGE project were allowed to shutter whole Departments and eliminate programs and grants that were established and funded by way of the Constitutionally prescribed method of Congressionally approved authorization.
Oh wait, I can believe it, because Congressional Republicans liked the carnage they saw and realized that they didn’t have to take the heat for any of the unpopular budget and program cuts, and they weren’t going to heve to discuss any of it either. No going on the record necessary. These Republicans were happy to let Elon take the heat.
Also a very special thanks goes to Chief Justice Roberts for letting Trump be the Unitary Executive that was previously a theoretical construct. Somehow I don’t think that this Supreme Court will be as supportive and permissive should a Democratic president come to power. In fact, we already know this because they wouldn’t let Biden forgive Student Loan debt by fiat, while they let Trump do virtually anything he wants by fiat.
@dazedandconfused:
Maybe they’re orca scientists trying to find out whether we’re sentient 🙂
Animals have more sense than we usually credit them with. Orcas often do share food with others in their pod. This is a much more common behavior among social predators. It may be they don’t like to let food go to waste, and absent any other hungry orcas they offer prey to humans if they happen to be around.
@Beth: Have you seen how swollen Trump’s ankles are? And the persistent bruising on the back of his hand, often with poorly matched* makeup hiding it?
I’m cautiously optimistic that the unhealthy octogenarian aspect will run its course, and that the leftover fascists will devour each other.
Seems less worse than bank crashes at least.
Seriously, in pictures of him sitting at FIFA (he stole the trophy?!?) his ankles are as wide as the widest part of his calf. That’s either leg braces, or something seriously wrong. I’m not buying into people diagnosing him from afar and saying “he has X and will die on August 7th from it,” but “unhealthy octogenarian getting aggressive care for something” seems a lot more plausible than really thick socks and bruising from racketball or something.
Maybe he has polio. I hear RFKJr is trying to bring it back.
*: is Trump colorblind? Is that why he makes himself orange?
@Gustopher:
IV’s are often inserted in the back of the hand, and it causes bruising. Just sayin’.
@JohnSF:
Apparently the TACO truck has pulled up and he no longer intends to fire Powell. Who he forgot that he, Trump, appointed. Being a stable genius and all.
@al Ameda: Nobody’s going to stop Trump from firing Jerome Powell, and then the whole board if his nominated stooge doesn’t immediately lower interest rates to soothe Trump’s falling poll ratings. The guardrails are gone.
I’m with Beth. We won’t get anywhere unless he REALLY crashes shit. The stove really has to be burning hot, and they need to touch it. It’s unfortunate everybody else will have to, too.