Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, April 11, 2026
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23 comments
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
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BlueSky.
Interesting take on the Taco war: The US has profited itself out of the war business.
I link to this piece atLGM about JD in Hungary and Christian nationalists mostly to support Dr T’s argument a day or two ago about multiple parties. With multiple parties the Christian Nationalists would hopefully be a small party off in the corner of congress hoping to trade a few votes for occasional support from the Corporatist Party. Or maybe an even smaller holier than the pope Catholic Nationalist party led by JD and a small Evangelical Nationalist Party led by John Thune, warily cooperating with each other on some issues. At least they’d be identifiable as what they are.
@Kathy: Interesting video. I think he’s largely right about the current situation, we need a cease fire because we’re out of missiles. Well, that and Trump realizing he’d stepped in it. And we can’t resupply in a few weeks. IMHO he’s also right that neoliberalism is a curse on the world. But just-in-time manufacturing emerged independent of neoliberalism. JIT is driven by big data, modern transportation, and a drive for manufacturing efficiency and profit that long predates neoliberalism. (Big data when it started. Feeding an assembly line is small data by modern standards.)
From what I’ve read, and observed somewhat peripherally myself, there is also a big problem with military and political culture. Project management on big, high tech, programs is a ticket to promotion. Managing an idle assembly line and supply chain with a reserve capacity to make Tomahawk missiles is not. Getting a plant in your district with jobs making engines for Tomahawks is a coup. Getting an idle plant is not. Stockpiling unused long-lead components gets no promotions or votes. In WWII we had time to convert assembly lines and build plants from scratch. That no longer seems to be the way war works.
A notable example is our inability to restock Ukraine with 155mm shells. A 1940s technology (except maybe fuses). But there’s reluctance to spend money on a plant that would hopefully be idle after a year or two.
Some of this may be legacy from cold war thinking. There really wasn’t much point to having idle capacity to rapidly restock Minuteman nuclear armed ICBMs after we shot off the initial few hundred. (We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when.) Or to build replacements for B-52s lost after dropping nuclear bombs. Nor much need even to restock rifle bullets.
Luddite poking his head up out of his cave deep in the bowels of suburbia, and hoping this has already been noted by my colleagues at OTB:
Apparently irony (while in the ICU) is not yet dead.
With a ginormous h/t to Cracker (commenting from his super secret UnderBridge Troll HQ ™)
Personally, I’m visualizing shooting a performance under show lights…
(A musician friend said he imagines seeing that guitar on stage on acid or molly, but that’s too much for me)
@gVOR10:
The other big difference between WWII and today is the level of technological complexity. While not simple by any menas, WWII era factories and weapons, and tanks and planes and ships, were much simpler and used fewer components than they do today. So they were faster to set up and operate.
You see the same issues in other industries. Like how the 747 was designed, built, tested, and certified in far less time than it took to certify a modification to the 777. Design began in 2011, and it’s still not certified. Part of the delay can be attributed to the 737 MAX problems, but not all of it.
@gVOR10:
This is a key reason to want more parties. It provides better information signals to the population.
@gVOR10:
From the video…
While I basically get what he means from context, I sought out a textbook definition of neoliberalism, which he repeatedly blames for the hollowing out of U.S. defense production. From Wikipedia:
Maybe it’s not a good idea to try to run government like a business.
In the case of the current (recent?) war, the administration must’ve known that their plan would deplete limited quantities of high-value, long-lead time weapons in order to hit a shitload of targets using long stand-off distances and air power only. That was a choice, made as though they could foresee little need for large numbers of cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and anti-missile interceptors for the rest of this presidency and the next one. The war in Ukraine has given us time to adjust our strategy while providing aid to our ally, and we certainly could’ve done more in the last four years. But I thought 155mm shells were somewhat of a success story—as reported by NPR in 2024,
Which is still just a fraction of the shells produced monthly by Russia at that time, but there was also a $400M modernization project underway at the Scranton plant.
@Flat Earth Luddite: Those guitars are beautiful. Wave to Cracker under his bridge.
Anyone else been following the story about a Trump administration flunky threatening the Vatican?
https://www.vox.com/politics/485418/pentagon-iran-trump-vatican-threaten-pope-leo-avignon-maga
All very disputed right now, but I expect a statement at some point that undersecretary Colby was not explicitly instructed to ominously bring up the Avignon Papacy.
@Eusebio:
I’m sure the professional officers in the Pentagon knew the state of the ordnance supply, and how whether it was sufficient to achieve the war aims (assuming here were any). What the so-called administration knew, must have been very different, and this include the secretary of war crimes.
The next worst thing to a military that isn’t subordinated to the civilian authorities, is one that’s obedient to incompetent, delusional civilian authorities.
I’ve a feeling El Taco had to get a ceasefire, or expose the troops to missile and drone attacks that they wouldn’t be able to repel as effectively as they had to date, due to having expended too many interceptors. Perhaps also a shortage of long range and stand-off missiles like the Tomahawk. Remember some of these munitions were being removed from other areas, like Asia? It takes a while to sail from there to the Persian Gulf…
So, even the ceasefire might be a ploy to allow them to rearm.
We’ll know in a few years, when those who bravely opposed the regime from the inside by compliance grow a spine and get a juicy tell-all book contract.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
I will always chime in to talk guitars! And to honor Cracker, who is remembered if not missed 😉
PRS guitars aren’t really my thing, but I can definitely appreciate the craft. And the style.
I’m quite partial to koa wood — for lots of reasons. Just last week, I was eyeing a Taylor Builders Edition K24ce* in a local shop.
The owner came over, took it down, handed it to me. Then grabbed a Martin Oahu for himself and said “Laten we gaan jammen.”
I can’t say that I fully honored the Taylor, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t dishonor it. Or the shop.
Random moments that remind one that life can be pretty ok. Schol to you and Cracker!
*6000 euro (gulp)
@Eusebio: Yes, like most political terms, “neoliberalism” is loosely defined. It seems to basically come down to free market capitalism and not much else. Just worry about efficiency and profits and devil take the hindmost. Friedman, Hayek, and industry lobbyists. As I said, it’s evil, but I don’t know it’s more than marginally responsible for the Iran farce.
Lawfare has a piece on The Revenge of Rumsfeld’s Fourth Quadrant. Rumsfeld spoke of knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. The post speaks of Hormuz as an “unknown known”. Something we knew, but failed to take into account . Same would apply to missile depletion.
And yes, ramping up shell production at Scranton is an achievement. And I see the Army thinks they may get to a million a year. Two or three years after the need arose, and now subject to Trump’s whims.
Recently rediscovered John Cale’s Fragments Of A Rainy Season and it’s either genius or terrible or both.
Like this performance of “Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend” that features bizarre pronunciation (the rolled r is “prowl” is a choice) and ends in strangled screams.
https://youtu.be/he-7WlJ7cPM
I can think of no other album that has fallen out of my rotation so many times only to be rediscovered and enjoyed until it is inevitably exiled again for overbearingly smug artsyness.
——
It does contain a very nice live performance of his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” — pretty much every cover of “Hallelujah” is a cover of Cale’s cover, or Jeff Buckley’s cover of Cale’s cover, rather than referencing the original song.
If only Cale had covered “Jazz Police” or something else instead, we would not be living in a world where “Hallelujah” ends up in everything from Shrek to Watchmen to The West Wing to Zach Snyder’s Justice League to General Hospital to…
We may just need a moratorium of “Hallelujah.”
I propose replacing them all with increasingly shitty covers of “Jazz Police”
https://youtu.be/j7YebrCuqsU
It’s brilliant in its own way. (“Jazz Police are talking to my niece!”, “Stick another turtle on the fire, guys like me are wild for turtle meat.”)
@gVOR10:
In Mexico, it meant opening up to international trade, loosening onerous business regulations (aka opportunities for corrupt officials to shake down businesses), privatizing businesses like the phone company and the banks, and a few other things.
At least, as first implemented from 1988 to 1994 by president Salinas. Later it became the catch-all term for the opposition to vilify the government for any failings or problems.
@Kathy:
A contemporary comparison… During WWII, a P-51 fighter — usually considered the best overall American air-superiority fighter from the war — cost ~$700,000 in 2025 dollars. The current premier fighter, the F-35, costs ~$80,000,000 per copy.
@Michael Cain:
I suppose increased costs are part an parcel of increased complexity.
The P-51 was aluminum and steel, mostly. The F-35 is largely made of composites. The latter are not only more expensive, but far more labor intensive as well.
Oh, and taxes are lower these days…
@Gustopher:
@Mimai:
Grazzi. Cracker and Luddite are currently touring as the UnderBridge Trolls™ Revue. Think Waldorf and Astoria from The Muppet show with significantly more cursing and a darker world view. Remember our motto, “these are truly excellent times to be a cranky old dude.”
@Gustopher:
My dawg, that’s even worse than the cover “inna godda da disco” by The Nuns From Outer Space. Wowsers!
@Kathy: He’s quite wrong. We have massive stocks of large bombs that can be cheaply JDAMed for precision and we don’t even need precision. We could carpet bomb like we did in Nam. Turn Tehran into a Gaza in about 48 hours, more or less. The US could theoretically mobilize a several million man army and take the place too.
What is stopping that isn’t lack of ability, it’s lack of will. Trump’s negligence in selling it to the US public limits his options in the same way Putin’s failure to do that prior to Feb of 22 has prevented him from full mobilization of the Russian people. Trump is in an even worst spot, as he depends on popularity for his powers in ways that Putin doesn’t. Putin doesn’t have to worry about being lame-ducked by the Russian voters.
@Gustopher:
That sounds right, except for all of those “Hallelujah” covers that for some reason leave out the emotional ebb and flow present in those two covers and in Cohen’s original.
@dazedandconfused:
I’m, talking about a lack of defensive weapons, as well as the long range missiles.
Bombs can replace the latter, and I’m sure there has been aerial attacks on Iran as well as stand-off missile attacks. But bombs won’t replace the defensive antimissile and antidrone weapons.
@Kathy: Sorry, but his assertion that this war can’t be waged without high tech missiles is wrong. This assertion we can not continue fighting without them is also wrong. Patently so.
@dazedandconfused:
I don’t recall exactly what assertions were made in the video, but the comments here seem to be in agreement. Given the U.S. and Israeli aerial supremacy over Iran, large numbers of cheaper precision guided munitions could be used if this war were to continue. Even Russia has been able to employ cheaper accurate bombs in their campaign of terrorism against Ukraine, even though they trail us technologically in PGMs and do not have aerial superiority over Ukraine.
But, as noted in your linked article, there is reasonable concern over the depletion of standoff missiles that may be needed to keep strategic adversaries in check.