Outside the Beltway

Lazy Sunday Morning Tabs

Steven L. Taylor · Sunday, March 22, 2026 · 1 comment

Via The Hill: Heritage president: MAGA tensions over Iran war ‘good’.
Via The Atlantic: Not So Fast, Bill Maher. I guess that dinner didn’t work out for Bill after all.
By Tom Schaler at Public Notice: House Republicans are heading for the exits.
Via the NYT: Hegseth Invokes Divine Purpose to Justify Military Might.
Via CNN: The Strait of Hormuz is about more than just oil. It feeds 100 million people.
Via ProPublica: As Trump Demands Voter Data, This Fiercely Independent Red State Says No.
María de los Ángeles Torres writing in the NYT: This Isn’t What Cubans Have Been Fighting For.
Via Politico: Roberts defends Supreme Court against Trump attacks.
Via TNR: Watch Mike Johnson Struggle to Name Even One Example of Voter Fraud.
Via the NYT: The Weather Is Getting Wilder, and Some See a Dire Signal in the Data.

FILED UNDER: Tab Clearing, Bill Maher, CNN, data, House Republicans, Iran, MAGA, POLITICO, Red State, The Atlantic, TNR, Trump, Voter Fraud

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

charontwo says:

Sunday, 22 March 2026 at 08:23

Regarding the topic of food (etc.) getting in to the gulf states, I posted this yesterday:

Looking ahead, long term, the Gulf Arab states will need to bite the bullet and build pipelines, roads, railroads to the west, relying on getting out and in through the Gulf of Oman will be just too much of a risk.

The key words being “long term.”

I got this response, which kind of missed my point:

The time to do so is simply not available, if a hostile Iran continues to control the straits.

Both the US and Israel have made quite enormous strategic f@ckup here, and even Trump attempting to declare victory and depart is not going to alter that.

Which missed my point, which I admit was not all that clear.

This is not the first time Iran has closed the strait, it did it several decades ago.

So after the present crisis is resolved, in 2 months or 6 months or whenever the food runs out and something must have been done – Iran will still be there, still controlling the strait, still occupying the entire north shores of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

So there is nothing to stop Iran from doing this again 5 years from now or 8 years from now or whenever. This is untenable, there needs to be other ways to get stuff in and out. Which means building more pipelines and roads.

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Lazy Sunday Morning Tabs

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