Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, March 18, 2026
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27 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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Jackson-Kavanaugh tensions surface in candid exchange over Supreme Court ‘shadow docket’ (Fox News, 10 March)
The Supreme Court Just Heeded One of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Sharpest Dissents (Mark Joseph Stern @ Slate, 17 March)
She’s one of Biden’s better decisions.
@Scott:
Just a follow up from yesterday’s post on the Texas Senate race. To recap: Yesterday was the last day either John Cornyn or Ken Paxton could withdraw their name from the runoff ballot (runoff is 26 May). Now that Trump has not endorsed one or the other both will be on the ballot. It promises to be very expensive and very ugly. Sit back and enjoy.
Cornyn, Paxton decline to withdraw from Texas Senate runoff ballot as deadline passes
I am so rooting for injuries.
I take some enjoyment out of the fact that Trump pleaded for help with the Strait of Hormuz, and everybody told him to get fucked. Imagining his toddler-brain tantrum pleases me.
If only he weren’t the President of the United States of America.
@DK: By allowing policies that have irreversible results or consequences, it is illogical to allow them to go into effect if there is a possibility of reversal. Once implemented, the deed is done and no matter what the court ultimately decides it is a fait accompli.
That is not judging; it is legislating from the bench.
How long will it be before RFK Jr comes out and praises our detained immigrants for strengthening our collective nation’s immune system?
136 measles cases reported in Texas so far this year, most of them in federal detention centers
Venezuela has defeated the USA.
The USA’s big guns were largely silent, while the Venezuelans came through in the clutch to secure a late victory.
So we’ll be spared the team visit to what remains of the White House. Unless, that is, Team Venezuela gets the WH invite so they can get their pictures taken while wearing “maga style” Venezuela ball caps.
How soon will it be before the Golden Dome program will collapse of its own weight and cost?
Just like Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.
Pentagon’s Golden Dome Cost Estimate Grows to $185 Billion
It will be a couple of years just to define the requirements. And, BTW, the estimates are not bottom-up estimates based on actual potential designs but rather parametric cost estimates which have low confidence levels for accuracy.
Some alternate reporting re the Iran war:
“Paul Musgrave“
Sen. Rand Paul is handing Markwayne’s @ss to him. I have to admit I agree with Sen. Paul, why *should* someone with such anger management issues be put in charge of DHS? Not the right role model, indeed.
@Eusebio:
Yeah, but they had illegalimmigrantnarcoteroristcommunists on their team!
@Eusebio:
Trump has already congratulated them. One key to some of Venezuela’s late-tournament wins was their manager previously negotiating a relaxation of the restrictions on how MLB pitchers could be used that only applied to Venezuela. Figure Trump has to love that.
@Scott:
It’s one of those things that sound good, but are incredibly hard to implement, carry massive costs, and probably won’t be as effective as those proposing them think.
@Jen: Anger issues + not too bright = typical Trump appointee.
@Jen: I really hate that events are forcing me now to occasionally agree with Rand Paul.
@gVOR10:
Even an asshole is right twice a day.
On other things, I made chilaquiles in red salsa with chicken, and fideos (aka very thin, very short noodles) with turkey chorizo.
I tend to cut corners when pressed for time or tired (this time both). So I used pre-cooked chicken (left over samples from work). the protein content, I assume, is intact, but the texture isn’t quite right.
The pasta, though, was a lot better. I flattened the chorizo (it’s like a thick, short hot dog) so I could thoroughly brown it, and seasoned it with paprika as it cooked. Then I added chopped onions and sauteed them. Finished off by adding broth and the fideos. these cook really fast, in like four minutes once the broth boils.
The downside is the microwave at work broke and hasn’t been repaired or replaced yet. So I had my lunch cold yesterday.
There’s a lunch room two floors up where they have microwaves, but hauling the food up and down the stairs to wind up with something lukewarm isn’t a big improvement over room temperature. So I spared myself the effort.
The big news today is that Israel bombed the biggest natural gas field in Iran. The Mullahs have threatened to attack oil and gas facilities in other Gulf countries.
If they do, and there follows a tit for tat escalation, we’ll begin remembering the 2008 financial collapse as the good old days.
BTW, if El Taco either takes or bombs Iran’s oil terminal island, I’m sure Iran will go all out to damage/destroy oil production around the Gulf.
And we don’t know exactly why this war is taking place, except as a means for Bibi to keep avoiding prison.
@Kathy:
It looks like the gas field strike was meant (as it’s not used for exports) to atteack Irans domestic gas supply, and gas fuelled electrial generation.
Also distillates from the gas purification are apparntly a major source of Iran’s petrol supply.
ASs for Kharg Island, it’s nuts.
An amphibious operation there means the support ships have to transit Hormuz, so rather putting the cart before the horse.
The alternative of a purely airborne operation is rather worryingly vulnerable to MANPADS.
And in any case, it’s all pointless: if the US wants to cut off Iranian oil exports, the US Navy can simply intercept the tankers in the Arabian Sea.
As if Swastikars weren’t bad enough, they’re also liable to burn in a crash and trap the occupants inside.
The office were I work has doors with electronic locks that require a key card or fingerprint to open. All are configured in a way that if the fire alarm goes off, the locks disconnect and all doors can be opened freely.
You’d think the car company run by the world’s richest bigot could do at least that well.
@JohnSF:
What part of all this mess isn’t nuts? Beginning with starting a war when you’re close to a negotiated agreement. That’s about as good a definition of not negotiating in good faith as definitions get.
Without any warning, we got an all hands mail from corporate saying measles shots would be available today from 3 to 5.
I’ve been thinking about getting one since 2021, when I saw that antivaxxers were on the rise. I recall thinking that it’s easier to oppose all vaccines rather than just the COVID shot, so we’d lose herd immunity to diseases that were eradicated regionally, or had become very rare.
In particular I was worried about measles. For one thing, it’s far more dangerous for adults than for children (though it can be pretty bad for children). For another, even if you recover, measles causes something called immune amnesia, where you lose immunity acquired long ago*.
It wasn’t that easy to find, and even doctors assured me I didn’t need one if I had been vaccinated in childhood. then the outbreaks began, and it became impossible to get.
Thing is the government bought large amounts of it, and started massive vaccination campaigns, mostly for children. This is the right course of action. If now they are offering it to office workers and others, it means the campaigns are largely done, and there are left over stocks. Best to apply them to as may other people as possible.
*It’s not exactly known how this happens. One theory I’ve read about is that measles does a number on memory T cells.
Damned if I can think of anything.
(Unless my name happened to Benjamin Netanyahu.)
@JohnSF:
Ah, something for the 2,500 Marines currently in transit from the western Pacific to do. Not the interception per se, but you need some sort of prize crew to put on those ships. The USS Tripoli carries several of the various Stallion type heavy-lift helicopters.
Two hundred billion for the Iran war here, a trillion or two for the Taco dome, and pretty soon you’re talking real money!
But it’s ok. Most of that money will go to corporations, and eventually pump up their share value. This increases the wealth of the very rich. That’s the whole point, right?
All money to the oligarchs!
It seems the Russians may be sending a tanker to Cuba. Many problems with that, but one comes to mind: we don’t have John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, we have fucking Trump and Putin. There is a non-zero chance these two fuckwits could blunder their way into a nuclear war.
@Michael Reynolds:
Over oil? I hardly think that’s likely.
Besides, it’s Mad Vlad, El Taco’s owner. Sure he’s been helping the Iranians with intel, and he’s said some very harsh words about the US war/not war, but he’s also raking in windfall oil profits and had sanctions temporarily and partially eased.
And maybe there’s a pee tape.
BTW, the vaccine I got was for measles and rubella, I’d heard of it, but didn’t know it was in wide use. Also, it’s made with weakened virus and, I assume, an adjuvant (something that riles up the innate immune system).
@JohnSF:
Have you got any sense of this rumor of a coup in Moscow?