Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, March 3, 2026
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55 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).
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BlueSky.
Good to see OTB is online.
We are sacrificing blood and treasure. Iran is striking our embassies. We are Depleting munitions. And leaving ourselves weaker against real enemies, like Beijing. For what? So Fatso can make Netanyahoo and MBS happy?
This is the dumbest military action in our history. F-Troop had nothing on these morons.
Re on yesterday’s AG thread, I guess neither Steven nor Tom saw “Contact.” š
BTW, the gist of Arrival is that time isn’t linear, and learning the Heptapod’s language allows humans to experience non-linear time. That’s ridiculous in two ways. And the movie made a hash out of it by showing the life and times of Amy Adams’ daughter throughout the narrative.
The Iran war explained:
Bibi: Jump!
El Taco: How high?
I actually saw someone bust thru the crossing arm in the short term parking exit at the Eugene airport yesterday. I don’t think she necessarily meant to, she was in a big white van and looked confused as to what was happening….first she pulled right into it, got out, looked like maybe she tried to pay and got an error code, then she got back in the van and gunned it. I saw the arm fly off and land on the ground. She parked for a few seconds, looked at me, then jumped back into the van and screeched off. I was like “Wut just HAPPENED?!” š
Airport police had her pulled over within half a block, so I didn’t have to do anything but laugh. I’m sure it was all on camera.
I was out walking during the eclipse totality period this morning. To me it looked more like a dingy brown than coppery or red.
@charontwo: I had forgotten about this opportunity, but rain was heading into my area so there would have been nothing to see.
@Daryl:
Via Paul Campos at LGM:
@gVOR10:
Remember it’s not a cult.
@charontwo: I got up at 0500 (actually close to my usual awake time) but unfortunately, it was cloudy.
@Daryl:
There is less of a distinction than you think. Iran is becoming China’s cat’s paw, a vehicle for projecting Chinese power.
“Zineb Riboua”
This is a very different take than the claims I see all over the web that this operation only serves Israel and Arab interests, not American.
@gVOR10: Well, that’s interesting. That story just rose to the top of the stack of Memeorandum.
This will please exactly no one.
Top Republican signals Iran supplemental may be coming
@Kathy: I actually liked Arrival quite a bit. I thought of it as a story about how one would learn to communicate with someone very different than one’s self, and then it transformed into a story about how someone might embrace a course of action that they know will end in sadness and loss.
The story is more of a science-fantasy than science-fiction, but that distinction doesn’t really bother me, since I don’t really take the story as an attempt to be literal about something that might really happen. The postulates the movie makes do not seem plausible to me in the slightest. But then, I’m pretty clear that eating a can of spinach doesn’t give me super strength, and I still watched a lot of Popeye.
I know lots of people who are bothered by things the way you are, though.
In lieu of giving any money to Paramount to continue the Trek rewatch*, I began streaming Stargate SG-1 on Netflix (it “premiered” on the service a couple of weeks ago).
It’s a rewatch, too. I saw most of the entire series on reruns** between the late 2000s and early 2010s. Due to the oddities of appointment TV scheduling, conflicting show time slots (remember those?), as well as work and other matters, I don’t think I watched them in any kind of coherent order. It may be nice to see how the story and characters developed.
It’s an odd franchise that has a terrible popcorn movie origin, three TV shows, several direct-to-video movies, and videogames, which nevertheless passes under most people’s radar. One wonders it exists at all.
*Also the latest season of Strange New Worlds, and the very divisive Starfleet Academy show. I may attempt to pirate them.
**In fact, the very first time I saw an ep of SG-1, it happened to be the series finale episode. I had no clue what was going on.
Yesterday I received an email from The Authors Guild, of which I am a member, stating that they would be happy to provide me with a certificate affirming that my books (six novels, one non-fiction) had been “human authored.”
That’s what the certificate says: “Human Authored.” Sweet Jesus.
@CSK:
Can you please prove you are human by clicking on all the boxes that show stoplights?
@charontwo:
That is very interesting. If true then the Chinese have thoroughly outplayed us. Heads they win, tails they also win.
My skepticism comes from the fact that had Trump laid out these ‘facts’ he could have gotten congressional support and earned fairly broad support. So, maybe it’s true, maybe it’s an ex post facto rationalization.
@charontwo:
The Zineb Riboua piece comes off as an ex post facto attempt to justify the war. In none of the statements from the WH DoD or SoS, has used this as a justification. Beyond that it does nothing to explain, why now?
In an interview today w/Ezra Klein ex Obama aide Ben Rhodes, speculated that Bibi has convince the felon to adopt the Israeli “mow the lawn” strategy with regard to Iran. That is, periodically bomb them to destroy infrastructure in the hopes that keeps them down. That has been Israel’s approach Hamas and Hezbollah for decades.
@Jay L. Gischer:
I liked Arrival just fine. Once. I wouldn’t see it again.
There are lots of other nits to pick. Like how the people visiting the Heptapod ships are given several vaccines, but not given a couple of weeks for memory B and T cells to develop š
But it was a fine movie, and perhaps the one Villeneuve movie I can recall without excessive beauty shots of deserts.
@Michael Reynolds:
@Sleeping Dog:
Trump is demented, Hegseth is a Christian nutter student of the Revelation of John, and blind pigs can find acorns.
While all hell is breaking loose, it is Primary Day in Texas. Here is the turnout on early voting:
This week’s dish is pasta with chicken in creamy mustard garlic sauce. No sides (too tired, too little time).
I pretty much browned/charred 1.5 onions, and cooked some chicken breast medallions in a pan. For the sauce, liquefy 4 cloves of garlic along with some cottage cheese, some milk, and some Dijon mustard (I didn’t bother to measure anything).
Deglaze the pan with white wine, scrape the fond off the bottom, reduce, add the sauce, and reduce the whole further. Add a little paprika and dry oregano while it reduces. Cut the medallions into bite size pieces, mix with the sauce, onions, and fettucine. Add pasta water as needed to emulsify and reach your preferred consistency.
Tip, perhaps I should have added pasta water to the sauce in the blender to loosen it up a little. Next time.
@Kathy:
I need to re-watch Stargate. I didn’t watch most of the original Stargate, just out of order chunks. But I did watch most/all of Atlantis and Universe. I really liked both of those.
I’ve been wondering lately why they never brought out a new Stargate series. It would make a good mid budget sci-fi show.
Speaking of 90’s tv rewatches, I just started rewatching Buffy. I’ve never actually seen the first season, but I religiously watched 2-7 and Angel. A couple of things really have stood out to me after not having seen it in years:
1. Buffy is just really weird. Younger me never believed that someone as pretty as that would ever not be popular. Older me now understands that she was just ADHD & PTSD weird.
2. Just how over the top obviously Xander was a Joss Whedon stand in.
The rewatch also gave me an “oh shit” moment. My mom used to harrass me constantly about watching Buffy/Angel and would yell at me when I was upset that it didn’t Tivo. I’d also get to eat shit from her because I would frequently misspell “Angel” as “Angle”. Mom used to love to shove how stupid I was was in my face. Great lady.
Anyway, for the last 20 odd years I’ve wondered why Buffy was so important to me then, but seemingly not after. Yeah, realized just how bad I wanted to be her. I wanted to be the weird hot girl that saved the day so bad. Probably contributed to why I don’t remember much between 1996 and 2004.
@Beth:
I saw most of Atlantis, too, in a more ordered fashion. I was really ambivalent about it. there were interesting characters, but it felt a lot like a rethread of the Goa’uld and Ori plots, now with more Ancients and Replicators!*
The show didn’t have a definitive ending. I wondered why they didn’t see the very obvious solution to the Wraith problem, given the magic-level tech and science humans ultimately adopt and manipulate with pulpish ease: genetically modify an animal that will produce whatever the Wraith take from humans, and teach them to farm so they can raise them in large numbers.
Universe I began to see, but the cable channel that carried it kind of stopped showing it for some reason.
The franchise is ripe for a reboot. I wondered whether Amazon would go there after they acquired MGM.
I never saw Buffy, and was only distantly aware of its existence.
*At some point I wonder why I’ve become so cynical, I need to complain snarkily about shows and movie I actually like.
The State Department has issued an evacuation notice for Americans in the Middle East, across 14 countries. They have done this *after* the airspace was closed. Un-f*cking-believable.
“NYT Gift”
@Kathy:
Already in the works and going to shoot in the London area at Shepperton Studios.
@charontwo:
Remember how the Scud hunts went in Gulf War One?
@Scott: I’m going to be watching closely the Talarico-Crockett Senate Primary because of this:
University of Texas Poll: Crockett 56, Talarico 44
Polymarket Prediction Market: Crockett 13% chance of winning, Talarico 88% chance of winning
I know they are two different measures but you’d think there would be close correlation. But no, two completely opposite conclusions.
HEY! HEY!
DONALD J!
HOW MANY KIDS DID YOU KILL TODAY?
@Mu Yixiao:
I’d no idea.
Thanks.
@Jen: Surprise is key to shock and awe. Had the Japanese told all their citizens to flee the US Pearl Harbor wouldn’t have been nearly as awesome.
To some others: China is a competitor, not an enemy…so far.
I was going to post a joke that it’s unfair to ask El Taco why he went to war with Iran, because he doesn’t really know. And then I read Heather Cox Richardson’s latest substack:
Truth is stranger than humor.
…pure and utter nonsense…
@dazedandconfused: I’m guessing you are kidding, because that comparison doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Speaking as a former embassy kid myself, and as someone with friends now stranded in the region, this was badly bungled and puts all of those people in harm’s way.
Senator Tillis, at least, is having absolutely no more of Noem’s nonsense.
@Jen: I just watched that (found it through another source). He started with some apparently-obligatory anti-Dem nonsense, but he really lit into Noem over her terrible leadership. That’s what non-partisan oversight should look like. (Wait until he hears about her boss….)
Did you guys know that Melania is chairing a UN conference? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WdWpc9qUEHs&pp=ygUebWVsYW5pYSBhdCB1biBzZWN1cml0eSBjb3VuY2ls0gcJCa4KAYcqIYzv
Her ability to speak English is worse than my Momās. Mom was raised with Polish and Yiddish, was a SAH mom for most part but sewed and did alterations. I would think that a billionaireās wife would have access to language coaches.
@charontwo:
Zineb Riboua gives a nice presentation of some facts associated with Iran’s ballistic missile program, but in her analysis is determined to warp reality in order to shit all over the JCPOA. In addition to being an advocate for making the perfect be the enemy of the good, she blames the JCPOA and “the decade that followed” it for Iran’s recent strides in missile production (with China’s assistance), despite the fact that trump undermined the JCPOA less than two years after it took effect and withdrew altogether a few months after that.
And as @Michael Reynolds: and @Sleeping Dog: commented, her analysis may be/seems to be an ex post facto attempt to justify the war.
@Jen:
I have a sneaking suspicion that the start of war was accelerated, at least by some days.
That intelligence indicated the gathering of leaders witth Khamenei at his compound, and the Israelis decided to “take the shot”.
That would fit in with the comments of Trump, Hegseth and Rubio indicating the US deciding it had to commence operations beacuse Isreal had inititiated.
https://jonathanlarsen.substack.com/p/us-troops-were-told-iran-war-is-for
More at the linky.
And furthermore, tapas are henceforth freedom bar snacks!!1!!11
TL;DR: EL Taco wants to cut off trade with Spain, because it won’t let him use bases he has not yet asked to use.
I think it has to do more with the opinion Spain’s president has on the Iran war.
@JohnSF: Agreed. Shows exactly how much they give a sh!t about embassy and consulate staff. The US Embassy in Jerusalem posted on X saying “The…Embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist in Americans departing Israel,” and that it can’t make any recommendations or guarantee the safety of anyone who wants to leave.
I’m very angry. When I was growing up, some of the locations we lived in were places where we knew going in that a 24-hour evacuation order might be issued. We were limited, by weight, what we could take with us to those countries. And my parents were aware that it could be dangerous. But there was always a tacit, if not explicit, understanding that the government they were serving would do what it could to get families out safely.
Rubio should be forced to answer some questions. ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ is not a strategy, nor is it an appropriate response.
@Jen: We condemn the Japanese for pulling a sneak attack while negotiations are underway but we routinely do it now. We can’t be international outlaw sneak attackers and whining about inherent risks to embassy staff at the same time, can we?
@dazedandconfused:
Right. Just f*ck all of those families. Are you really serious about this? You know that WWII was 85 YEARS ago, right? Maybe, just maybe, leaving career employees and their families stranded isn’t okay.
@JohnSF:
How does that fit with the reporting that MBS had been begging Fatso to attack for days?
Is it that all three had the intel about this meeting for a while? Fatso still looks submissive.
I thought he was the āpeacemaker?ā
None of this makes any sense.
If I were as visible as Fatso is Iād think twice before hunting another leader.
@Jen:
Reporting isn’t advocacy. The men who have to conduct the attack have families too. Most of them, anyway.
@JohnSF:
A couple of days ago I had a sneaking suspicion ā but no facts to support it ā that the negotiations were only a ruse to lull Iranian leaders into complacency and perhaps prompt them to get together to hash out a proposal response. Iām open to being disabused of this suspicion.
@dazedandconfused: You realize that the soldiers currently deployed in the attack are NOT from bases in the region, right? Yes, they have families. Here, stateside, mostly. The families of our armed forces are not deployed to combat areas, or many foreign bases.
@Jen:
I’m merely explaining the why of the decision to not early evac the fams of diplos. I thought it risible myself, we should be honor bound to adhere to international conventions for going to war, but we clearly are no longer an honorable nation. I believe Trump and Keggie are deliberately killing anyone who could actually surrender right now in hopes of fomenting the chaos of revolution within Iran. I guess I only have so much outrage to spend.
“Family” goes both ways. Those men in the cockpits are family to someone too, for the most part. Will not their people at home suffer if they die? Would not they suffer more if they die due to someone tipping their attack?
In war, doesn’t everybody get to say “Think of those poor families!”?
The misnamed DOJ has un-dropped the appeal of the unconstitutional capitulation order issued by El Taco.
Jello Tacos are disgusting.
@charontwo:
Maybe that story is less than solid:
“Link”
Well, the White House did manage to prioritize getting a bunch of MAGA “influencers” out apparently.
@dazedandconfused: You don’t need to explain to me the “why” of the decision not to evacuate the families of embassy staff (it’s not just “the families of diplos”–there are teachers and embassy staff and hundreds of other non-diplomatic personnel there). I already know “why.” It’s this ready-fire-aim nonsense of this administration. It’s unconscionable.