Friday the 13th Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, March 13, 2026
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22 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).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
Trump is shooting his mouth off in ways that show Iran its path to winning.
Here is how little weak countries beat big strong countries at war, merely by persisting:
“Link1”
“Link2”
Link1:
Link2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/12/kc-135-crash-iraq-iran/
@charontwo: For now, hunkering down is simple.
But I assume the Taliban is why Pete Hegseth keeps spouting his deranged, Branniganian ideas about manly men sacrificing themselves in a manly war with no rules or constraints, because one way to counter the wait-it-out strategy would be deploying ground troops willing to cow occupied towns through whatever means necessary. The far right is convinced that if you just do enough violence to people they consider sub-human or NPCs, you will win. Sadly, Trump and his goon squad are obviously itching to act on that feeling and make all of this a thousand times worse.
@charontwo:
Considering what’s at stake for Iran’s regime and for Trump & co., the incentives to just take the punishment are quite a bit bigger for the Iranians.
Same stupid mistake that Putin made with regards to Ukraine. Except that Russia is willing to take considerable punishment as well, something that Mr. TACO almost certainly won’t.
@drj: @ptfe:
Trump enjoying himself:
“Trump”
Bloodthirsty much?
@charontwo: I keep thinking Trump can’t get any more childish and embarrassing and he keeps proving me wrong. For the millionth time – if Joe Biden, or any other POTUS, had said a tenth of the dumb sh*t that comes out of Trump’s mouth every day, their political career would end and a team of mental health professionals would be assigned. (And Jake Tapper’s head would explode.)
@charontwo:
“unlimited ammunition” is not consistent with other reporting.
“plenty of time”? – remains to be seen.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-glossary-iran-words
@Kingdaddy:
Check out segment 2. here:
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-huge-complete-very-strong-victory-iran-getting-costly
Conclusion: The QQQ (Nasdaq) ETF is one ETF best avoided.
I have been fascinated by Havana Syndrome since the story broke.
60 Minutes aired a segment on it. Anonymous sources from multiple agencies claim that undercover DHS agents purchased a small device that emits pulsed microwave energy from a criminal syndicate in Russia.
@charontwo:
It depends very much on what ammunition is being counted. Missiles of all sorts are a problem. OTOH, the global supply of 500- and 1000-pound versions of the Mk80 bomb family seems essentially unlimited. The US manufacturer of JDAM kits for those bombs has in recent history demonstrated the ability to produce 20,000 kits per year. This is probably sufficient to strike targets within Iran as fast as they can be identified.
Warmonger, child killer REPUBLICAN Donald Trump:
“We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time.”
All the components of Endless war!
Trump doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.
Cooking for this three day weekend will be curtailed by a sudden influx of work. I wanted to try the instant pot rotisserie chicken stock, but won’t have time for that. Instead I’m making chicken chilaquiles with canned chicken, and likely dry fideo soup with turkey chorizo.
What’s a terrible movie with an excellent score — specifically a terrible movie that I haven’t seen, but that’s not a really a useful selection criteria for anyone other than me. But a score that stands up on its own, independent from the film.
My hope is to really get to know that score — to expect every twist and turn of the music, and deeply love it. And then see the absolutely terrible movie utterly and incompetently play out against the music. I just think it would be a fun experience.
I got the idea in my head when Apple Music suggested I listen to the soundtrack to “Star Trek: Nemesis,” but that’s more of a not terrible soundtrack to an absolutely terrible movie that I have seen seen.
A friend suggested “Vampyros Lesbos,” and the soundtrack is excellent, but I can’t imagine this music actually really fitting a movie rather than just being layered on top to try to cover up the movie.
—-
As I tap this out on my little iPad, I realize that I am trying to recreate the magical experience of watching the movie “Zero Hour” — “Airplane!” is a remake of “Zero Hour” so if you know every joke of “Airplane!” then “Zero Hour” is a delightful 90 minutes of anticipation and disappointment.
@Gustopher:
Xanadu
It has one iconic Olivia Newton John song, Magic. The album made more money in sales than the film did at the box office.
@Gustopher: I’ll nominate 633 Squadron. Formulaic WWII movie, heroic flyers, with the requisite American hero and token Irishman, Cockney, Sikh, etc. Per WIKI, “While critics derided the wooden acting and hackneyed plot, and the use of the miscast Mirisch Pictures contract star George Chakiris (as a Norwegian), the aerial scenes were considered spectacular and with Ron Goodwin’s music remained the main attraction.” As I recall the music is largely cribbed from Liszt Le Preludes.
This was 1963, before the “wooden wonder” Mosquito bombers weathered too badly, and they were able to fly a handful for the movie. Fun for us aviation buffs. I’ve walked around one of the planes, which is now in the USAF Museum in Dayton. The Germans were reduced to the usual Messerschmitt Bf 108 (French license built per WIKI) four seat sport plane standing in for Bf 109 fighter.
How about that? Seven in 10 Americans are right.
TL;DR: 72% of Americans think the Taco tariffs have increased prices.
A judge has dismissed the case against Powell and the Fed.
Retribution denied
I heard about this latest AI abomination from Grammarly on Bluesky yesterday.
The gist, the app uses AI to pass itself off as experts in various fields.
Like an AI could come up with Sagan’s musings on a photo of Earth taken by a Voyager probe from very far away?
The narration always gives me goosebumps.
Today trump said the war will end when “I feel it in my bones.”
So…when the spurs are no longer urging him on?
@Michael Cain:
If Iranian high altitude air defence is gone (as seems likely) then the US can strike almost at will, with reasobale precision.
The question is, can the US actually fix the dispersed drone launch teams, and stocks, enough to remove the threat at the Straits of Hormuz?
If the US can open the straits, it may be able to grind down the Iranian governement.
If not, not.