Friday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, April 3, 2026
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24 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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I normally never read Marc A. Thiessen at WaPo because he is so over-the-top absurd – like the most extreme MAGA conceivable. but this teaser sucked me in:
Curiosity got he best of me:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/04/02/president-trump-iran-war-speech-endgame/
So here it is, in all its delusional excess and vast ignorance:
Seriously? It’s that simple?
This is a real revelation, as I never realized people so delusional are real.
ETA: This just reminds me why I never read this fantasist.
@charontwo:
Thiessen is a propagandist. As such, he has to say something. Doesn’t matter whether it makes sense or if he believes it or not.
The point is that the appropriate sounds are being made.
Orwell:
Arendt:
Moreover, strictly (but also absurdly) speaking, Thiessen is right. Complete all remaining military tasks and no deal will be necessary.
Which means that there is enough there to deflect and distract. So two sides. And that is enough in the modern media environment.
After all, quite a few people are not interested in truth at all. The only thing they want is permission to believe what they already believe.
And that is what Thiessen delivers.
@charontwo:
And how.
If it were possible, not to mention as easy, to do what this person proposes, it would have been done already.
Violence is Thiessen’s porn – done to someone else BY someone else. He couldn’t get enough of the Cheney/Rumsfeld war of choice in Iraq, and now he is drooling over the kind of videos they show Trump every day in which parts of Iran are being blown up. The common thread between Trump and Thiessen is their smug self-confidence that their delusions are reality.
Up early because I couldn’t sleep, so I’ll try to unburden myself by dumping some thoughts on you.
I had an unsettling experience yesterday. I attended my second meeting of a local “Civil War Roundtable”. Twenty or so FL retirees over lunch at a gated community country club. A brief, shallow presentation on Lee’s retreat from Richmond followed by discussion. Somebody mentioned Nathan Bedford Forrest, which led to complaining about a statue of him having been removed. The group president noted that that sort of thing started during the “civil rights crap” and dragged George Floyd into it. “People don’t understand what the Confederate flag stands for”. And then they wandered into how horrible birthright citizenship is. Seemed to be complete consensus in the room except for me, sitting quietly biting my tongue. After Tuesday’s TV talk from Trump I was asking myself how anyone could support such a blatantly stupid, senile, asshole. This Roundtable meeting answered my question.
Then, having gotten up early I read Brad DeLong’s substack from Monday. A day before Trump’s talk, but still valid and the best brief summary of the situation I’ve seen. He quotes one Bret Devereaux:
DeLong adds his own “not views so much as notes”:
Depressing.
Biden had one miserable debate performance and the Dems united to hastily replace him. When do the GOPs act?
@gVOR10:
25 Amendment is a dead letter, can not happen to Trump, ever, because cabinet is filled with avaricious sycophants completely beholden to Trump. Impeachment will not occur while Mike Johnson is Speaker.
So after next January is the earliest even possible.
@gVOR10:
At around $8.02 a gallon.
How does escorting ships work? I understand how convoys with escorting warships worked against U-boats, but how does it work when the attackers have drones and targetting missiles? I guess the escorts would provide expedient pickup of survivors.
@gVOR10:
There was going to be gathering of veterans on April 1st in my neighborhood. Being fairly new, I considered going. But I feared that I would encounter this exact brand of people.
@Slugger:
Remember those arcade games where the ducks streamed past and you shot them, sometimes with wax or cotton cartridge propelled by air or a light beam. Kind of like that, where the escorts and escorted are the ducks and the shooters have more options.
It should be noted that the convoys of WW1 & WW2 suffered significant losses to the Germans and Japanese.
@charontwo:
I recall that Nixon had a secret plan to win in Vietnam. I wish he had let us in on the secret.
Photos Of F-15E Wreckage Emerge Amid Iranian Claims It Shot Down An American Fighter
Tail code LN indicates Lakenheath AB in United Kingdom. F-15E is a two seater, air to ground aircraft.
Time will tell what are the actual facts.
The article has a lot of other assertions and denials and history of other aircraft incidents.
BTW, Trump Job Approval continues its downward march.
At some point his job approval will be baked in and upward motion will be limited.
@Slugger:
If I’m Iran I launch wave drone attacks on Navy ships and exhaust their interceptors. This will force ships back into port to re-arm, putting a strain on an already strained Navy. Then, every few weeks, hit a tanker. Time is on Iran’s side.
@Jay L. Gischer: Nixon’s secret plan turned out to be wait until he was a lame duck and quit.
I am a HUGE fan of the show Derry Girls, and for some reason this reminds me of the episode where the Ukrainians from Chernobyl are visiting and one of them asks why the fighting in Ireland, saying basically “yes, but you are all Christians, just different flavors?”
NEW: The Pentagon today invited more than 3,500 employees to attend a Good Friday service at its in-house chapel.
Except it’s only for Protestants, not Catholics.
ETA: And before anyone adds this, I grew up Catholic and know there’s no *mass* on Good Friday, but there is usually a liturgical service that involves the stations of the cross during Tre Ore, etc.
@gVOR10:
It’s always been about race, and these attitudes fade very slowly, across several generations. Obama was elected probably 3-4 generations before a very large part of this nation might be able to accept a black man as POTUS. Trump shamelessly and stridently represented the back-lash.
The movie Blazing Saddles had a happy ending. The sheriff accomplished something good and the people rallied around him. A happy fantasy, because the way things really work accomplishments incite more rage, not less. Everything else becomes secondary. Recall the Tea Bagger marching on Washington in outrage over healthcare reform? Seemed so illogical, but it wasn’t.
With each advance there will be a backlash, but things will not be the same. 100 years ago we would have had most of them openly saying what was bugging them is those negros, today they feel compelled to hide it. Progress.
@charontwo:
My main question is, where can I score some of what Thiessen is smoking?
Because that stuff obviously allows you to live in a happy fantasy land.
And I could really do with that right now.
But back in sober reality, it’s utterly f@cking delulu.
To put it mildly.
Is this guy actually supposed to be serious analyst?
(Honest question; never heard of the damn fool before now, afaicr.)
@gVOR10:
De Long generally perceptive on the basics, but overlooking some major aspects of all this.
There is also the Bab el Mandeb; and the Iranian roles in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.
And the relation of those to refugee pressures on Turkey and Europe.
The JCPOA was obviously the least-worst route; but would require modifiaction, because Iran was both violating it, and gaming it.
Hence the (little noted) increasing European annoyance with Iran’s ploys.
The sensible policy would have been to work from JCPOA to a more intrusive inspection system, to tell Iran to stop playing silly buggers about using a “sub-weapons” level to negotiate acceptance of their support for proxies hitting Israel, and if Iran refused, to assemble an enforcement coalition.
But Trump just had to bin JCPOA “because Obama”.
The damn fool that he is.
@Michael Reynolds:
The problem is, current warships are mostly configured to deal with a relatively few “ship-killer” missiles. Not larger numbers of drones.
Ironically, a lot of early post-WW2 ships with radar guided AA-guns would likely have been better suited to the task.
But those we don’t have, right now.
Oopsie.
Also ironically, iirc the Iowa class battleships had exactly such, plus the armour capable of shrugging off drone hits.
So did the Royal Navy Tiger class cruisers, for that matter.
It will take a fair bit of effort to convert modern destroyer types to be so capable.
Certainly not in time to effect the current problem in the Straits.
(A bit of bias here perhaps: I always did love the Tiger class 🙂 )
Meanwhile, Trump continues to screech his demands for allies to send ships to play “missile sponge” in the Straits.
F@ck off, Donald.
There’s not a single allied govenment that will do so, or would survive the parliamentary and popular revolt if they tried.
@Sleeping Dog: As I think more about this problem, perhaps the breaking of Enigma codes did as much as any Navy escort ships. BTW, who will pay for the escorts?
@Sleeping Dog:
An uncle of mine was in the Royal Navy in WW2.
Served in destroyers on both Malta and Arctic convoy escort runs.
He was fortunate; he survived both.
Many did not.
The Straits of Hormuz look likely to be even worse, if Iranian missile and drone fire cannot be suppressed.
And how to do that short of a major land force operation looks tricky.
The Germans never even attempted to try to pass major forces via the Straits of Gibraltar.
They did do one major speed run via the Dover Straits, and were rather lucky.
No allied navy is going to stick ships in the Straits to play “missile sponge” to rescue Trump from his folly. Still more when that would do sod all to actually resolve the problem.
A few points on his excellency’s budget proposal.
Navy Shipbuilding budget of $65.8B. Who is going to do the building? The infrastructure isn’t there and everything is behind schedule and throwing more money doesn’t magically add more dry docks to build ships in. The only possible bright spot is Philadelphia Shipyard that was recently acquired by Hanwha of Korea, maybe bringing some Korean “can do” (and refusing change orders?). Meanwhile we’ve all see the ads during baseball games to “Build Submarines” at Electric Boat (General Dynamics) = there also isn’t the skilled manpower, much more skilled needed than in 1944. https://news.usni.org/2026/04/03/pentagons-new-65-8b-shipbuilding-request-is-highest-since-1962
Alcatraz – our appearance over substance guy wants $152M to turn it back into a prison to “serve as a symbol of law, order, and justice.” $152M is basic planning money (not sure if this is even enough to get to “30% design” – planning for a promenade in my town is $14-17M (about 2 miles @ 12 ft wide) but very complicated with unstable slope issues), zero dollars to actually do anything (est has swelled to over $150M). No water, no sewer (currently barged off – old days just dumped into the Bay). Just a guess is he remembers Ryker’s Island growing up in NYC and thinks island = prison. Plus the movie “Birdman of Alcatrez (played the night before his 1st tweet on the subject). Plus this will “get” Nancy Pelosi. https://www.oann.com/newsroom/trump-seeks-152m-to-rebuild-and-reopen-alcatraz-after-60-years-of-closure/
This is all “magical thinking” but I’m not sure of the variety, Latin America (100 Years of Solitude) or Hollywood (Field of Dreams). Deus ex machina required (and hope I haven’t mixed my metaphors).
I’m sure there is some military office (it used to be in Mass. because this is where all the fabric for uniforms came from in 1880) busy designing the campaign ribbon for Epic Fury. I bet you know who will butt in because be knows aesthetics. Will it have some gold?