Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Wednesday, June 3, 2026
·
20 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.
Still utterly corrupt.
Trump to Drop $1.8 Billion Fund in IRS Deal, Keeps Tax Probe Ban
A long article on the intersection of the Iran War, international finance, and digital currency. A lot I still do not understand. But I feel we need to.
The Toll Booth at the Throat of World Trade
@Scott: Absolutely corrupt. However, I’m not sure this will fly. When the agreement first came out, one of the lawyers I follow on BlueSky noted that the agreement did not have a severability clause in it. I have no idea if that matters for this exact scenario, but it is telling that they didn’t remember to include something so very basic.
@Jen: The whole thing was/is legally suspect, from the settlement that sprang forth from the fear the judge was on the verge of dismissing this frivolous, sanction-worthy fraud upon the court, to Blanche adding the part about current and future IRS immunity for Trump and the Trump Org. Blanche’s law license should be yanked, and the lawyers who represented the IRS should, at a minimum, be sanctioned.
Scott Pelley has been fired by CBS.
I just read someone on BlueSky who referred to Trump as The Count of Mostly Crisco and this is going to make me giggle all day.
I accept the light where I can find it.
@Jen:
Priceless.
Fat in a can.
Taco trade opportunity? More madness from the orange toddler? Clueless “policy” from shitty people with shitty values?
All of the above.
@Scott: It’s a shame the fund is gone, since I really wanted Kilmer Abrego Garcia to apply for relief — he even has a judge finding that the DoJ was engaged in malicious prosecution.
Meanwhile, there is this:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/03/columbia-jewish-faculty-protests-settlement-fund
@Kathy:
And yet, Trump and others continue extensive, deep connections with Dubai.
I guess this means Mitch would vote to confirm Pulte, followed by an explanation on why Pulte is unqualified.
Ok, since he voted against confirming Gabard, this is most unfair. But I don’t owe Mitch any fairness.
This is how the press should call out El Taco’s blatant lies.
Headline: Trump(sic) tells blatant lies about Iran nuclear deal struck during Obama administration, claiming it ‘gave them a nuclear weapon’
Here’s the start of the text of the JCPOA (emphasis added):
I think I’ll negotiate a deal with the US, whereby I promise never to try to acquire a trillion dollars.
@Kathy: SCOTUS failed to spell it out so a 4 year old could understand: THE PRESIDENT CAN’T LEVY TARIFFS. ONLY CONGRESS CAN DO THAT.
See Art. 1. sec 8, US Constitution. A pretextual “national emergency” doesn’t cut it. Where’s Congress? Where’s the effin’ media?
@Charley in Cleveland:
Congress is braving the orange tantrum by removing the $1 billion provision for the hitler bunker for the Epstein ballroom. This makes them the bravest congress ever!!1111!!
The press is probably learning how best to kiss the orange ass.
On other things, I asked Gemini to do a short synopsis of the Rama books. If I were to grade it, I’d give it a C, maybe a D. It got the gist right, bur omitted a lot of information. It also made some strange errors, like calling a solar survey ship a starship, referring to the Octospiders as “musical” (spoiler alert: they lack a sense of hearing).
When I corrected some errors, it made new ones. Same when I corrected the new errors. In its typical sycophantic way, it praised me for knowing the books well.
So, more errors, making things up, and trying to flatter me, gets it an F.
Over at LGM Paul Campos cites some interesting, and kind of hopeful, pieces. He quotes Seva Gunitsky,
Ned Resinkoff,
And Paul Krugman,
Campos concludes,
I hope these guys are right. It’s always seemed like Trump’s only saving grace is his incompetence. And the incompetence inherent in an authoritarian regime.
@Kathy: I’ve been wondering if the laws coming into existence which ban teens and pre-teens from social media might one day be extended to banning elderly people who are obviously suffering from dementia from social media as well. It would seem a step which can’t come soon enough…
It’s fun to watch AIPAC repeatedly step on rakes trying to find something, anything that will stop Platner.
I refuse to live in a world where there’s different standards for Republicans and Democrats. Fact: Susan Collins married her husband [and had an extramarital affair w him for many years] before he had divorced his wife who was in the middle of dying from cancer. Given that, the most recent So-Called Scandal of Platner consensually sexting six women is… not exactly the hit piece they think it is. It is, however, telling that many Democrats including several Biden staffers would rather lose to Collins than sit on their hands and simply not emit random nonsense about Platner. It’s also telling that the Democrats all out in front of this most recent silliness are as if by magic the very ones most in the tank for both Israel and Trump. Fetterman might as well shift to R before his term is up because he has negative chances of getting re-elected.
Also, if Platner had ever been a Nazi then why are Republicans protesting outside his office? If this was actually true, maga would support him. It’s almost like everything Republicans say is hypocritical.
@dazedandconfused:
In an aviation podcast, of all places, one the hosts came up with an additional idea for why it’s positive to ban children and teens from data mining apps. Namely that we all did stupid things growing up, but were not able to post them in fakebook or xitter and have them follow us like a blight the rest of our lives.
It would be good to ban or restrict LLM use, but that’s going to be harder. They’re already being pushed for education. I suppose that could work, if used properly. I’ve found talking at an AI can help me focus my ideas. Essentially it’s talking to myself and getting some web-scraped data along.
Also sometimes I get bored at work, and it’s something to do…
Trump is planning to nominate Todd Blanche as Attorney General, according to multiple news outlets. From ABC News,