Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, October 22, 2025
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40 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).
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It occurred to me the the BBB passed earlier in the year included a hike in the Debt ceiling to 41.1 trillion $$$. Government shut downs are bad. But defaulting on the US debt would be catastrophic. Absent the immediate deadline of default it seems to me that Democrats could hold the line in this shutdown for a while longer then they might be willing to if the full faith and credit of the US dollar was on the line.
Clearly Trump didn’t want to have to negotiate the Debt ceiling during his term with the ticking time bomb of a default rattling around (well it was more likely his doners didn’t want it.. I think he would be just fine with defaulting because he can’t imagine the blowback that it would cause and he has done it before with his vast Business acumen). But with the new higher ceiling that’s not as much of a problem.
My question is, did the Republicans make a tactical error in bumping up the debt limit so high? This shut down could go on a lot longer now that the full faith and credit of the US is not hanging in the balance. I mean even Chuck Roy voted for the 5 Trillion hike in the ceiling so it’s not like they don’t understand the implications.
Oh and one more thing … How long do you think the Republican house came stary out of session to prevent having to swear in the AZ Rep? Sure they are avoiding the Epstein thing, but do they honestly think this thing will die down before they are forced back into session?
@Rick DeMent: Long. If Trump gets away with spending unappropriated funds, and he’s clearly moving in that direction, indefinitely.
Mike Johnson, like Karoline Leavitt and JD Vance, has mastered the art of straight face lying. Johnson has surpassed the others by acting both befuddled and offended by the question he is NOT answering.
Trump ‘s administrative claim ( where he seeking restitution of 230 million) raises and interesting side effect.
It would seem that all those who have been detained by ICE or Homeland but later no charges filed or charges dismissed should be filing restitution claims for reputational injury and legal fees.
Arrival. Humanoid robots are here. A spate of links with observations:
AI-powered soldiers: Are humanoid robots the future of warfare?
The war in Ukraine has accelerated development adaptation of robotic weapontry. Legions of humanoid “warfighters” cannot be far behind. San Francisco startup hopes to land Dept. of War contracts for such.
Humanoid Robots Headed to War? I Went Hands-On With the Phantom MK1
Check out the embedded video demonstrating the robot’s “baby steps,” keeping in mind that the manufacturer (Foundation) is only a year old.
But pay particular attention to the interview segment with CEO/founder Sankaet Pathak.
His rationalizations as to why mass automation may not be so bad are breathtakingly aspirational if not downright silly. For example: maybe, just maybe the proliferation of a robotic class of production will actually produce more occupations for humans from an expansion of new markets.
Let’s unpack this. We deploy mass robotics to radically reduce labor (costs), which will be offset by maybe generating more labor (costs)?
BUT, if that doesn’t happen (as CEO Pathak is unsure of the future his technology will unleash) he defaults to the vague reassurance meme typically offered by his tech cohorts — Universal Basic Income — because, as he points out, the alternative is societal “mutiny.” Which presumably would be bad for his lot. Which perhaps is why robotic soldiers are on the drawing board. The tech/finance Masters of the Universe will need their own private armies, not requiring salaries, vacations, or healthcare.
Read more about Phantom MK1 in the 2026 Humanoid Robot Market Report.
On our doorstep. A marketplace Humanoid Guide with specs and pricing. Tomorrow today.
Amazon Plans to Replace 600,000 Human Workers With Robots, Report Says
Yeah, but if you and your tech-no-cized cohorts generate mass reductions of workforce, who’s going to buy all your crap?
Oh right, Universal Basic Income — in a political environment that chokes on the idea of giving hungry children school lunches.
All of that humanoid robotics depends on this: Artificial Intelligence
Hundreds of Power Players, From Steve Wozniak to Steve Bannon, Just Signed a Letter Calling for Prohibition on Development of AI Superintelligence
I wanna know: who’s in charge here! NOBODY.
As the interview with CEO Pathak in the first piece above illustrates, these geniuses have no idea, and no compunction, to understand the impact of the technology they are rolling out en masse, nor planning mitigation of harmful outcomes. There’s no oversight. Exactly as the “libertarian” mindsets that populate tech ownership intended, placing their proxies in high government office.
Laxity may have worked well in the wild west, but 8 billion people are now surviving on a lower margin of resources per capita. The margin of error is thinning and the time compression generated by accelerated change is squeezing our abilility to respond.
@Rob1:
That’s true of about all technologies. Ford did not foresee traffic and pollution. Thomas Midgley Jr. gave no thought about a poisonous metal additive for gasoline to prevent engine knock. I bet the list extends to the first time a hominid flaked a rock to cut something.
The industrial revolution is held up as an example that massive job losses on the altar of increased production leads to job gains in other fields. The condition of early industrial laborers, both in factories and in the slums they lived in, tend to be glossed over. The union actions and legal reforms to limit working hours, improve labor conditions, and increase wages, tend to be ignored.
TL;DR: it will be bad at first, then it will get worse. Much later, things may improve.
The idea of Trump suing the DOJ stumps me. He runs/owns the DOJ. They do whatever he tells them. So if he sues the DOJ they just say ” you’re right boss, you win” and he collects. It’s hard to think of anything more obviously corrupt and I bet there really isn’t any law against it, just norms which dont do zilch in stopping Trump.
Steve
@steve222:
Trump says he’d have final say on money he seeks over past federal investigations into his conduct
This from the guy who said his net worth fluxuates with how he feels. Trump always has a speciousness with truth and numbers. We need to see the receipts.
@steve222:
Yes, it’s obviously corrupt. And I say let him proceed. He doesn’t appear to buying favors or protection, or trying to influence a foreign election with U.S. taxpayer funds in this case. He’s just saying that he controls the Justice Department and it must decide to give him money. Let his congressional allies try do defend that in the next two election seasons, and what they did or didn’t do to rein in his corruption in their oversight role.
@Rob1: I think the future of warfare is not humanoid robots but drones of myriad shapes and sizes performing all the functions of humans at war. The drones would be under human control with enough AI on board to react to immediate threats faster than the distant drone operator reactions but not completely autonomous. AI fighters, bombers and mobile ground and sea units make much better sense than Terminators. Note the Ukrainian’s development of drones so far in their war.
@steve222: Remember that quaint time, maybe a few years ago now, when it was expected that the White House and the DOJ would never talk to each other because of the obvious conflict of interest? The GOP got the vapors when Bill Clinton met with the AG on a plane for ten minutes, fer cripe’s sake. (Sigh.)
For the second day in a row, Jonathan Last has written in his newsletter about the need for the next Democratic president to demolish the monstrous trump ballroom and restore the White House’s east wing and grounds:
He went on to ask where a Democratic president would get funding for the project, which he answered by pointing out that 7 million people attended No Kings protests, and those people would give to the cause. I would certainly support it, and think that a lot of others would as well.
I wish people would stop using words like construction, re-construction, remodeling, or demolition to describe what’s been happening to the White House. It’s a desecration.
@Kingdaddy:
He’s just finishing what bin Laden started on 9/11.
I’ve been thinking about the president’s (plenary) pardon power. As I understand it, this power was directly derived from the British Monarch’s “divine rights”, conferred by God.
I tend to look at the president’s pardon power to nullification of the jury process.
Turning this on it’s head, if the US President has power to nullify the jury process by this divine right, why couldn’t the President just declare a person guilty and sentence that person WITHOUT a trial by jury?
(BTW, Tom Jefferson was wary of this “monarchical” power, but proposals to limit it — such as requiring Senate approval — were rejected.)
@Mr. Prosser:
That might the current thinking, but there are no boundaries to this beyond the current physicality of the technology itself, and certainly none proposed by those riding high on the wave of opportunity. It’s one step at a time. And then move the lines in favor of profits.
Seriously man, their vaguely offered solution to social disruption of their invention is Universal Basic Income. Nothing will stop the potential of self enrichment.
@Eusebio:
Why not repurpose it as a facility supporting a myriad liberal social programs. Right there next to the Oval Office? Just desserts.
A 90,000 square foot Trump ballroom attached to a 55,000 White House. A Trump triumphal arch overshadowing the Lincoln Monument. Gigantic banners of his face on D.C. public buildings.
True expession of narcisstic personality disorder. I, me, my.
There still may be room for a golf course, with some additional demolition and acquisition.
I finally realized what was meant by “unitary executive” –
when the government is “unitary” with the Congress, Supreme Court, and the presidency held by the same party, then the president can do whatever he wants and will not be held accountable.
Therefore, even the election of a democratic Congress and president won’t change anything, since the supreme court is there to block any “un unified” government.
And so we have Mitch McConnell’s permanent republican government
@Rob1:
Name it the Barack Hussein Obama Center for DEI Advancement.
But it’s big. It could also house the Dr. Anthony Fauci Office for Vaccine Development; and to boot the Kamala Devi Harris Center for Gender Equality.
And the whole complex would be known as The Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. White House Annex
@reid:
It was never about about propriety. It’s about winning.
@Kathy: Great ideas!
@Rob1:
Golf course? Arlington national cemetery!
“Just have to get rid of the people.”
@Rob1:
That. For GOP pols (including Justices) and their funders it’s always and only been about winning. It pays homage to much of history in which elections were mostly about which gang would get patronage and loot the treasury. But now it’s reached even the GOP voters who want nothing except to own the libs.
@dazedandconfused:
Remember he had the mother of his loins’ desire buried at a golf club.
The additional snark is left as an exercise for the student.
@dazedandconfused: In The Loved One Jonathan Winters as the owner of a CA cemetery finds out what the land is worth for a residential development,
He started offering re-internment in space.
@Rob1:
I would also advocate raising like $200 or so to dig a hole in the surrounding grounds and build a tiny shack around it, to be known as the Donald Trump (sic) Memorial Latrine.
Must not erase history.
@Rob1: Yes, that’s crystal clear by now. The egregious hypocrisy and the fact that they don’t seem to pay much of a price for it is still shocking.
Today’s History Lesson
October 22, 1962
President John F. Kennedy addresses the nation on the discovery of missile sites in Cuba.
I was 14 years old and in Junior High School in October 1962. I remember working in my father’s donut shop in the evening in Danville, Illinois and listening to news reports over the radio that nuclear missiles were on alert ready to be launched at Cuba. I remember saying to myself something like “All I can do is wait and see what happens.”
I just spooked myself when I saw the picture of the Atlas Missile out of its silo when I read this article. Hangover from 63 years ago?
@Rob1: “Why not repurpose it as a facility supporting a myriad liberal social programs.”
Turn it into a Planned Parenthood clinic!
@Rob1:
Believe me, I’ve had similar thoughts. If it could be moved away from the White House, then sure. But it will be in the way of the east wing restoration. And the demolition of the Trump-Epstein Ballroom will be part of the national healing process. Save nothing — the building and all interior features and fixtures can be crushed and landfilled.
I’ve been thinking about the AI bubble.
If it is a bubble.
Krugman claims spending on AI is about the only thing keeping the US economy out of recession. employment seems to be stagnant. Not many people have been laid off, but not many jobs are being created either. The sense is that jobs are few and hard to find. A lot of people feel on edge that their job will vanish, and they won’t find a new one.
The thing about bubbles is that they wipe out a lot of value when they pop, provided a lot of money has been invested on the object causing the bubble. The dot com and housing bubbles are good examples. The former, though, which comes up a lot in regards to AI, did succeed in the basics of online commerce and other internet businesses and services. The latter, though, just made tons of money disappear, with little to show for it.
So, how much money is being invested in AI companies and in development of AI products (like Copilot integration in MS Office and such), and more important by whom.
There’s some inbreeding, so to speak, going on in AI. Like Nvidia sells Open AI chips, but also invests in it (which means they get discounted chips in effect?). Then, too, everybody and their pet dog seems to have an LLM online. I don’t even keep track any more.
And how does it pop? An IPO gone wrong? A big investor rushing to cash out? Some kind of AI disaster worse than what we’ve seen to date?
Update:
White House’s entire East Wing to be demolished ‘within days,’ officials say
Harry Litman @harrylitman.bsky.social
what an arrogant bastard. he first said it wouldn’t touch the East Wing.
Twas as much arrogance as it was lying. Serial lying.
If I were a Senate candidate for Maine, I might check to see if I had a giant Nazi symbol tattooed on my chest first. Maybe not be a former Blackrock contractor, if I could help it.
Just idle thoughts.
Planter might have grown a lot since then, but… there are 100 Senators out of 340M people, and they tend to stick around for decades if they win once. Maybe there’s someone else. Maine isn’t a huge state, but last I checked there were more than two dozen people, so I think there’s a decent chance that there is someone with decent enough policies, some kind of track record, and who doesn’t hobble their campaign with “Maine Kampf”. And who hasn’t praised Socialism on Reddit, before denouncing it. Someone with a bit more consistency.
It would be different if he had been in the state government for a decade or so and built up a record. But this dude just screams “disillusioned middle aged white guy” and that can swing rightward at the drop of a hat.
Or QAnon. Or whatever the lefty version is. 9/11 Truther?
I don’t love the idea of the 80 year old former governor either, but at least she has a track record, has successfully hidden her Nazi tattoos (if she has any), and will be term limited by actuarial tables.
——
Platner did announce that he had the tattoo covered with a new one — some Celtic thing involving wolves. At least it’s not weird Norse glyphs.
@Kathy: it also matters whether it is real money or speculative money. A lot of the investments are stock swaps, so who knows. There’s a lot of corporate incest going around.
Nvidia has been investing real money into AI companies that then buy Nvidia chips, which pushes up Nvidia stock… just pumping that bubble up.
@Rob1:
This is really bad, and I hope it gets some more general backlash.
And I’d look to see what furniture and artifacts from the east wing wind up at Mar a Lardo.
@Gustopher:
The issue would be who else is buying Nvidia stock because it’s on a never-ending rise to infinity, and what happens if/when the stock comes down. And the same for other companies involved in the bubble. Those building the data centers, for instance.
BTW, it occurs to me the bubble may pop if the hungry hungry data centers crash the electric grid.
@Rob1:
I see from your first link that the project cost went up from about $250 million last week to “about $300 million” today, according to trump. It makes one wonder how much money the private donors have promised, and what he plans do with the surplus funds…or about a shortfall in funds as the cost of his wanna palace project keeps going up.
@Eusebio: I wouldn’t be surprised if this is just Phase I. The West Wing disappears in Phase II, and by completion of Phase III we have Versailles. That’s Trump’s MO, incremental “groping” before anyone objects.