Winter Solstice Forum

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Steven L. Taylor
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.

Comments

  1. Richard Gardner says:

    Because Lincoln won the war (think about that big picture)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbsKx3skgtM

    (I knew Alice Stewart, as in audience, went to her memorial service. )

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  2. Kathy says:

    Once upon a time there was an airline much loved by many of its customers, which made a profit every year for 47 years, until the trump pandemic hit all airlines in the world. Too be sure, this airline had some odd practices that limited its prospects and growth. They had to buy another airline merely to be abe to offer international travel (really), and in 2022 their outdated systems crashed and led to massive flight cancellations over several days.

    Then along came the gallant knights of Elliot Investment Management, who were very concerned over the poor, battered airline’s stock price. So they bought large amounts of stock, enough to get seats at the airline’s board where they could work their magic financial tools and fore changes to the airline’s operations to help the pitiful stock to rise.

    The airline resisted the knights’ wisdom, but the pressure was too much to bear. Eventually they began to fleece their customers with fees for seat assignments, and then with fees for luggage, something the airline had avoided doing for many, many years, bucking industry trends.

    Bu the knights of Elliot proved right, and the stock rose in price.

    And so, the knights of Elliot began to sell their shares at a profit. Not all of them, and not all at once, but their mission of predatory equity is nearing an end, and soon they’ll leave Southwest changed beyond recognition to fend for itself.

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  3. Scott says:

    Yes, we are already in a police state.

    A mysterious Texas surveillance network told police to search his truck. Watch how it went wrong.

    It was a sunny mid-March morning in 2022 when Alek Schott headed home to Houston from Carrizo Springs, near the Mexico border. He had just finished a training for his pipeline supply company and dropped a carpool colleague off at the local Holiday Inn where she’d stayed the previous night. He turned on his dash camera and started driving.

    About an hour into the trip, a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy parked on the east side of Interstate 35 flipped on his lights and followed Schott’s truck to the shoulder. He’d seen the pickup drift over the yellow line, he explained, a violation of state traffic laws.

    What Schott, who has no criminal history, couldn’t have known is that he had been tagged as a potential lawbreaker by a vast and mysterious surveillance system along the South Texas region’s roadways. A network of cameras scanning license plates of passing vehicles had crunched the data in real time and determined that the details of his trip — a quick excursion to the border with a woman dropped off at a hotel — suggested smuggling behavior.

    Bexar County sheriff’s deputies acknowledged waiting for Schott’s black pickup to drive by after receiving an intelligence report via an anonymous WhatsApp chat that flagged his travel pattern as suspicious.

    The Bexar deputies couldn’t identify anyone in the group or where the information came from, other than they understood it was generated by a team working out of a dedicated intelligence facility.

    It’s a long article but describes the surveillance system, the dishonesty of local police, and basic abuse of any laws, rules, or procedures.

    Happy Sunday.

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  4. Scott says:

    Don’t believe that immigration courts are run impartially. Makes a mockery of our judicial system.

    Military lawyer swiftly fired after defying Trump deportation push

    A U.S. Army Reserve lawyer detailed as a federal immigration judge has been fired barely a month into the job after granting asylum at a high rate out of step with the Trump administration’s mass deportation goals, The Associated Press has learned.

    Christopher Day began hearing cases in late October as a temporary judge at the immigration court in Annandale, Virginia. He was fired around Dec. 2, the National Association of Immigration Judges confirmed.

    Of the 11 cases he concluded in November, he granted asylum or some other type of relief allowing the migrant to remain in the United States a total of six times, according to federal data analyzed by Mobile Pathways, a San Francisco-based non profit.

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  5. Richard Gardner says:

    For something positive, I suggest you you say, Alexa, play Pentatonix Christmas. Fantastic A Capella group. That they are mostly gay isn’t a factor to me except for the current BS, their music is great. Enjoy.

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