Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, June 18, 2026
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14 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.
Of course Iran should be allowed to have ballistic missiles. Of course the regime should survive because it’s nice now. Of course they should have a domestic nuclear power capability. Of course they should get all their frozen funds back. But they pinkie swear not to build a bomb.
Trump didn’t just bend over and surrender, he handed the IRGC the lube.
Un-fucking-believable.
Russia benefits, the whole Russia-China-Iran-North Korea alliance benefits.
Next up, lose a war to Russia’s little pet Cuba. (Cuba can be the new Vietnam, don’t think he’s run out ofways to wreck the country).
Maybe those people who think Trump works for Russia are on to something? Although we are not supposed to attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.
@Michael Reynolds:
Lame idea of spin to make the deal look good, I got them to start being nice.
The only good part of this deal is everyone gets a good demonstration of what a foolish shithead Binyamin Netanyahu is.
@charontwo:
Well, there’s the whole completist thing: Israel was the very last ally Trump had not fucked. Is there a single nation on the face of the earth that Trump has not betrayed? Oh, right: Russia.
Unfortunately fucking Bibi doesn’t make anything better. It’s not as if cooler heads will now prevail. A weaker, more insecure Israel feeling abandoned – not to mention a more secure Hezbollah – is likely to be even more reckless. If I were in Gaza I would be very afraid because I suspect that now actual genocide will be on the table. The only way forward for the Israeli extremists is a final push for Greater Israel.
All Israel has to do is cut off the water to Gaza. People don’t last long without water. It could all be done within a week.
The thing about being on vacation and not watching cable or over the air TV, is that I’ve no idea at all how the snoozefest is going. If I read no news, I would hardly even know it’s taking place.
Emannuel Macron and myriad Gulf Coast leaders turned in Oscar worthy performances this week by acting like Trump was a respected world leader, and not a senile buffoon.
The Daily Show had a revealing video clip that showed Trump at the G7 spewing stupid shit and Howard Lutnick laughing it up while Marco Rubio stood there stone faced – looking like he’d just been told the family dog had to be put down – and apparently realizing that the Iran fiasco isn’t going to take down just JD Vance.
There was a mad king who turned 80
Some say he was really quite shady
The economy dipped
As he got his ass whipped
In his separate room from the First Lady
@Charley in Cleveland: Rubio looked like he’d rather be receiving a root canal without drugs.
I genuinely wonder why he thought he’d be able to escape this administration unscathed.
@Kathy:
Not that anyone’s asking, but this is a good time to check on the tournament because, as of this morning, each of the 48 teams has played one match. I have only seen parts of a few of the 24 matches so far, but the TV cameras seem to be showing venues relatively full of fans who appear representative of the countries they’re supporting. This, despite reports of FIFA’s astronomical ticket prices and, for the matches in the US, the administration’s conspicuous xenophobia. Now if the white house would just stay away from the rest of the tournament.
@Eusebio: I’ve been very surprised at the number and tenor of the fans, but probably shouldn’t be.
As much as people despise FIFA and would love to boycott this kind of showing for its fealty to corrupt governments (Trump is not the first, remember that they went to Qatar last time), it’s the only game in town and there are literally hundreds of millions (billion+?) of dedicated fans of this sport worldwide. If this were, like, one of 5 major tournaments or something, you might see some shift, but this is The One And Only Big Show for a lot of these teams and players.
Image of Trump standing off by himself at G7 summit:
“Heavy Trump image”
He has been appearing vastly heavier in recent weeks. My experience with seeing congestive heart failure is that water retention can look like fat. So maybe, who knows?
Trump called Jon Ossoff Jon Ossjerkoff,
@charontwo: He was literally gasping when he was trying to talk yesterday, also a sign/symptom associated with congestive heart failure. And yes, he does look heavier, quite suddenly.
Today’s reflecting pool condition update: the algae is still there, and now there are portions of the blue paint peeling up from the bottom. That was $14 million well spent!
So.
Much.
Winning.