2024-04-24 14:10
It looks like the UK is proceeding with its ridiculous send asylum seekers to Rwanda plan. I wish someone would pay attention to what the plan might do to Rwanda. While I don't pay clos… Read More
Blog Directory > Politics Blogs > Government Blogs > rubber hose government Blog >
2024-04-20 13:11
I don't really know why Mike Johnson is suddenly pushing through aid to Ukraine after blocking it for all these months. The only explanation that makes any sense to me is he really is in fav… Read More
2024-04-19 13:52
They did it. Israel apparently attacked a military base in Isfahan. The consensus of foreign affairs bobbleheads seems to be that because the attack was small it signals that Israel is… Read More
2024-04-18 14:24
Let me get this straight: Israel attacked the Iranian consulate in Damascus, which it technically Iranian soil. Because they have slaughtered so many Persians over the year without serious c… Read More
2024-04-15 18:21
Possible reasons why Justice Thomas skipped work today:He's dead.He has some other really serious debilitating health crisis.He is just regular sick but is not in a condition that woul… Read More
2024-04-15 12:36
Russian funding of far-right nationalist parties in Europe has been a thing for a while (gift link). But I'm still struck by how odd it is. I get why Russia would do it. The far right p… Read More
2024-04-12 13:49
A third Native American tribe with a reservation in South Dakota has banned Governor Kristi Noem from their land. She is now barred from approximately ten percent of the state's land area. I… Read More
2024-04-11 20:06
This is another example of how Iran is not treated like other countries. If a "regular country" (meaning a country in the "developed world") had its consulate bombed by another country, ever… Read More
2024-04-08 11:52
We drove to Rochester NY to get in the path of totality this time. It better not be cloudy! (Ron Howard's voice: it is cloudy) Read More
2024-04-03 12:56
I realize there's a lot of awful coming out of the conflict in the Middle East, but I'm somewhat surprised that Israel isn't receiving any real blowback from their decision to intentionally… Read More
2024-04-02 17:22
I'm impressed that House Republicans managed to find someone to name Dulles Airport after who is actually worse that John Foster Dulles.(Incidentally, this is a good book, if you want t… Read More
2024-04-01 15:16
Mrs. Noz and I will probably replace our car later this year. If you asked me three years ago what my next car might be, I probably would have said I would get a Tesla. Now I won't even look… Read More
2024-03-28 12:50
The New York Times has a front page article (gift article link) about the sophisticated racial recognition technology that Israel uses to find people to detain in Gaza. The article star… Read More
2024-03-25 19:36
This only comes up when the Islamic State Khorasan does something awful so it always seems petty for me to raise the issue, but why does the press always call them ISIS-K?“ISIS&rd&hell…Read More
2024-03-22 01:14
One silver lining to having the Republican Party dominated by a greedy narcissist, is he might suck up all the money that could be used to defend vulnerable Republican seats in Congress Read More
2024-03-08 21:05
In the 20+(!!!!!) years that I have run this taco stand, I have not been very consistent about anything. Remember when I never used capital letters? Or when I had this weird February 15th Tu… Read More
2024-03-05 14:52
Before the Supreme Court ruling yesterday that forced Colorado to put Trump back on its primary ballot, I thought two things about the case:If you look at the language of the Fourteenth… Read More
2024-02-29 17:53
If I was a Michigan voter, I might have voted "uncommitted" yesterday to send a message to Biden about his Gaza policy. I still would vote for Biden over Trump in the general, of course. But… Read More
2024-02-29 14:22
It's worth remembering that "presidential immunity", the concept, is completely made up. There is nothing about presidential immunity in the Constitution. Congressional immunity exists, it's… Read More
2024-02-16 17:40
I want to take this opportunity to announce that I, upyernoz, who never had a serious shot at ever being President, will not run for President of the United States this year Read More
2024-02-11 18:04
What I find so fascinating about Trump's latest comments about how he would encourage Russia to attack any NATO ally who doesn't pay:Trump still has no idea what NATO is. Way back in 2… Read More
2024-02-10 18:04
Given the reaction of even the pro-peace friends and relatives I have in my life, I'm not surprised at all that J Street has largely supported Israel's war in Gaza. What I don't get is why s… Read More
2024-02-05 14:45
I have no idea what a fair and humane solution to deal with the high number of people showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border might be. But it seems like everything that I ever hear proposed is… Read More
2024-02-02 14:47
As I've said before, if Iran does not have full control over those militant groups in other countries, they are not "proxies."What is interesting is how "intelligence officials" in the U.S… Read More
2024-01-26 19:09
That's the logical consequence of these Republican governor's position. Then again, since when do GOP governors think about logical consequences? Read More
2024-01-18 13:46
What exactly is the "border deal" that Biden has negotiated with Senate Republicans in exchange for aid to Ukraine? What changes will it make to the law? And what additional changes to Mike… Read More
2024-01-16 21:25
Congressman Matt Rosendal tells the press that he blames Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's staff for the deal that Johnson is making with Democrats to keep the government from shutting dow… Read More
2024-01-16 15:15
As I said before, there is a non-zero chance that Trump will die or be completely incapacitated before the general election, allowing someone else to slip in as the Republican nominee, at le… Read More
2024-01-15 13:45
Why is anyone paying any attention to the Iowa caucus this year? All the American news sources I follow are awash with breathless stories about a horse race that doesn't even exist. We… Read More
2024-01-14 15:07
For years one of my pet issues is the widespread assumption that any time a shia group does anything bad in the world they must be doing it as a proxy for Iran. In the past I've referre… Read More
2024-01-10 15:38
I can't tell if the Saudi government is as delusional (gift article) as the Biden Administration about what the current government of Israel would actually ever allow to happen, or if M… Read More
2024-01-08 02:43
I try to follow Central Asian news, at least broadly speaking. I don't think it's really possible for to ever really understand the politics of a foreign country, especially if you did not g… Read More
2024-01-01 05:01
It's that time again! A new year! Breathe deep that new year smell. It's also when make a bunch of half-assed predictions, post them on the internet for everyone to see, so that later everyo… Read More
2024-01-01 04:59
The ball has dropped over Times Square, which can only mean one thing: it's time to grade the predictions I made at the beginning of the year! It's a New Years present that everyone can use… Read More
2023-12-21 19:24
And unless there is a long-term ceasefire, it's going to get worse.This is a completely unsurprising result of the war in Gaza. If you take a territory that is already dependent on internati… Read More
2023-12-20 14:01
I know this story is supposed to be about a rich racist baby having a rich racist baby temper tantrum on the social media platform he is personally destroying because of a company's business… Read More
2023-12-15 16:13
link:The rancorous politics of the Israel-Hamas war have put immense pressure on leaders to issue statements on the conflict, even if such statements have little effect Read More
2023-12-12 17:50
Now that the GOP is dedicated to condemning any speech that is sympathetic to Palestinians as anti-semitic, I wonder if anyone will ask them what they think about Donald Trump's buddy callin… Read More
2023-12-11 13:52
I was surprised by how much of this I agree with Read More
2023-12-07 14:38
For a while now it has become apparent that the Republicans were going to block military aid to Ukraine. It has been interesting to watch how the GOP has steadily transformed from a party th… Read More
2023-12-05 19:13
So let me get this straight: Several weeks ago House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would release "uncensored" security footage from the Capitol on January 6th to support the arguments fr… Read More
2023-12-05 13:56
It's been a year since ChatGPT was released to the public and everyone started pretending that a chatbot based on a bigger data set counts as "A.I." Now that we have all1 had a chance to pla… Read More
2023-11-29 16:29
I think the really rough thing about the current Israel/Gaza conflict, different from all the others in the past 16 years, is that it is hard to imagine a way that it will end that is plausi… Read More
2023-11-28 14:53
Hey look, another trip around the sun.I usually try to make some reference to the significance of my new age number when I write these posts. But what can I say about 54? "Hey look, I'm now… Read More
2023-11-26 14:41
The New York Times has this big front-page article that tries to figure out why the Israeli attack on Gaza has had such a phenomenally high civilian death toll. It's full of shocking statist… Read More
2023-11-18 14:29
It's weird how little I have posted about the Israel/Gaza situation here, especially considering how much I have thought about it. It just happened to get really busy with my work right arou… Read More
2023-11-14 17:56
I think the simple reason that the public widely believes that inflation is high now even though it has been at a roughly average rate for over a year is because they are mixing up inflation… Read More
2023-10-29 23:27
During the Iraq War we heard a lot about it, and it drove me crazy because I could not see how it was a crescent. The New York Times revived the phrase today, and I'm still not seeing i… Read More
2023-10-25 13:41
Everyone should mention, again and again and again, that the Republican Party is completely unable to govern.Biden and the Democrats definitely have their problems. But at least if you vote… Read More
2023-10-24 14:40
I keep hearing that the state of the world is unusually terrible at the moment. But I wonder if that is really true.It is almost certainly true in terms of climate change. That just gets wor… Read More
2023-10-16 12:43
There are a lot of reasons to feel sorry for the people of Afghanistan. But it was really terrible luck to suffer a major earthquake on the same day that there was a huge attack in Israel. I… Read More
2023-10-10 18:28
I've long thought that social media, while always terrible, is at its worst when there is a hot war between Israelis and Palestinians. But these last few days have been really terrible. I me… Read More
2023-10-05 12:03
The MAGA weirdos are floating Trump's name, and Trump has signaled back that he is open to it. But while I bet some whack-o-doodles will put in his name (as some did in the last speake… Read More
2023-10-01 17:23
At least I think that is what this means.Having a majority means having the votes to pass what you want. There may be more Republicans than Democrats in the House, but Republicans are… Read More
2023-09-26 17:14
I'm glad that the FCC will reinstate net neutrality. But does anyone know if I can read an examination of how the internet changed after the Trump FCC repealed net neutrality in 2017? My imp… Read More
2023-09-25 18:23
It's not really a "labor renaissance" unless union membership rates start noticeably going up Read More
2023-09-22 14:20
I've been wondering about fall-out from Russia's stalled invasion of Ukraine on other parts of the former Soviet space. There have been plenty of signs that Russia was losing influence over… Read More
2023-09-20 16:17
Biden's presidency has been much better than I expected (admittedly I had low expectations and supported him almost entirely because he wasn't Trump), but this is a phenomenally bad id… Read More
2023-09-13 17:36
I've been thinking about all of these lawsuits to exclude Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. I mentioned before that I think Trump should be excluded if you t… Read More
2023-09-11 16:12
For a while, on this date, there would be a ton of "never forget 9/11" stuff. That has largely faded. That doesn't mean that people forgot. Maybe it just sunk in that you don't have to yell… Read More
2023-09-05 15:00
I think it's pretty clear that Trump should be disqualified from running for President under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. I mean, if some obscure wacko is legally barred from being… Read More
2023-08-28 12:39
I has been clear for a while that Trump has used campaign donations he receives to pay his legal expenses. I'm not sure if that's legal, but it is pretty clear that if it is illegal no one i… Read More
2023-08-24 11:34
That's the best new acronym I could come up with now that the block formerly known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) decided to add 6 new members (Argentina, Egypt, Ethio… Read More
2023-08-23 20:32
I'm in a cell signal dead zone in the wilds of Cape Briton Island. But the spot where I'm sitting at the moment has wifi, so I could catch up on the news. In addition to all the real stuff t… Read More
2023-08-22 12:08
The BRICS block of nations (which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is considering whether to admit other countries to its group. A ton of other countries want in, c… Read More
2023-08-21 11:30
In ye olden days I would write about my travels here. During my Uzbekistan (2003),Syria (2005), and Egypt (2007) trips this place practically turned into a travelogue. But now I barely menti… Read More
2023-08-17 13:03
Trump is an outlier on a lot of scales. But as a lawyer I am struck by he is an off-the-charts level terrible client.And that's not even counting his refusal to pay legal fees! Or his lawyer… Read More
2023-08-16 15:00
I don't really follow economic news that much. But I see enough to know that economic numbers for China are really bad these days. I think the biggest tell is the fact that China has been re… Read More
2023-08-15 12:37
All the chatter about how "Trump won't be able to pardon himself on the Georgia criminal charges" reinforces the emerging prevailing wisdom that Trump will pardon himself of the federal… Read More
2023-08-14 18:37
There's a front page NYT article today titled "Indictments Became a Political Asset for Trump." The article notes that with each indictment and arraignment in Trump's various criminal cases… Read More
2023-08-13 13:02
I don't understand what the "guessing game" is exactly.Trump said he won't sign a pledge to support whoever is the GOP presidential nominee earlier this week (essentially reiterat… Read More
2023-08-07 13:04
Trump's legal team goes with the Sideshow Bob defense Read More
2023-08-02 20:03
I know people have counted Trump out before, and I definitely did not expect him to win in 2016. So I definitely could be wrong this time. But I just don't see how Trump can carry on a presi… Read More
2023-08-02 19:53
Hey everyone, Booman and Brendan have a new podcast called The Progress Podcast! The first episode is available on Spotify and (hopefully) soon on Apple podcast. There's even a shout-ou… Read More
2023-07-31 12:48
Another poll showing Trump is completely dominating the GOP presidential nominee field. So why are so many people running?The only answer that makes any sense to me is that they are running… Read More
2023-07-17 16:53
Even 2+ years later we are still learning more, even stupider, details of the Trump presidency Read More
2023-07-13 13:17
I have been to many collective bargaining sessions over the years. But somehow the idea of sitting at a table to negotiate with Fran Drescher is absurd in a way I can't fully get my hea… Read More
2023-07-09 12:52
Aside from Justice Thomas' blatant corruption, there is something funny about an organization called "The Horatio Alger Society" that functionally gives unearned perks to conservative elites… Read More
2023-06-13 13:03
The Chinese-Saudi summit1 is being touted as a sign of waning American influence. But look at the sign in the photo. At some point U.S. power and influence really will wane. And you will kno… Read More
2023-06-12 15:15
Drawing Judge Cannon to preside over Trump's criminal charges is a disaster. But there is an open question whether her behavior will change after being slammed by the Eleventh Circuit i… Read More
2023-06-07 14:04
A bunch of rightwing nut jobs in the House of Representatives were pissed off that Speaker McCarthy passed the debt ceiling bill last week. They claim that McCarthy broke a deal they had whe… Read More
2023-06-06 13:12
...now do Trump.Trump will turn 77 next week. If he is elected to .the presidency in 2024, he would be sworn in when he is 78.5 in January 2025, and he would be turning 81 in June 2027… Read More
2023-06-06 12:52
I think about this a lot. Especially since Noz Jr. died, the casual mention that X number of people died in some incident in the news immediately makes me think of all the people connected t… Read More
2023-06-01 13:28
Why are so many Republicans running for the Presidential nomination when everyone knows that Trump will trounce them all? Okay maybe DeSantis has been so puffed up by the national media that… Read More
2023-05-21 14:40
That was something that Trump would repeat ad infinitum, and his supporters would just as mindlessly echo. But they never seemed to appreciate just how low a bar there is for “evidence… Read More
2023-05-19 14:03
This couldn’t happen here because the current Supreme Court majority has effectively legalized bribery. If money is speech, then bribing officials is just free speech Read More
2023-05-11 12:40
George Santos' scandals just get weirder and weirder. Running for Congress (or any political office) means putting yourself in the public's eye. Sure, sometimes the press doesn't pay attenti… Read More
2023-05-09 13:07
The debt ceiling showdown is really frustrating. Take this what happens now after we hit the debt ceiling piece. It treats the Biden administration's only option is to stop paying… Read More
2023-04-27 19:43
Nikki Haley says that Biden living to age 86, which is how old he would be at the end of his second term if reelected, is "not something that I think is likely."Joe Biden is 80 years old now… Read More
2023-04-27 13:13
For years the only time that a Republican was fairly tolerant on gay issues was when the Republican had a close family member who was gay. Dick Cheney is the best example.So it really says s… Read More
2023-04-24 13:26
It's worthless to ding Xi's China for hypocrisy. They don't care.And yet, it is hard to get past China's decision to effectively (although unofficially) back Russia in its war against Ukrain… Read More
2023-04-21 20:27
I agree with a lot of this Foreign Affairs piece1 about how the 2-state solution is based on a fantasy that no longer is viable based on current conditions in Israel/Palestine. The arti… Read More
2023-04-19 14:37
This piece is exactly right. Sure, it would have been great if Dominion's lawsuit went to trial and the likes of Sean Hannity testified under oath about how he is a big fat liar, followed by… Read More
2023-04-10 13:05
Our news is so nationalized, people do not pay a whole lot of attention to state legislatures. For example, I know the name of my state senator and state representative, but only because I m… Read More
2023-04-06 13:16
The day that Janet Protasiewic won her spot on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, tilting the chamber's majority in favor of liberals and restoring hope that maybe the state can break free from th… Read More
2023-04-05 13:29
It seems like every new application that comes out is called "A.I." these days. Maybe it's just me, but really sophisticated chatbots or programs that can make videos based on a description… Read More
2023-04-04 13:00
The NYT notes the overhyping of Trump's travel to New York City yesterday:Donald J. Trump traveled to New York from Florida on Monday to face arraignment in the first indictment of a former… Read More
2023-04-02 13:26
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a guy who was once excluded from service in the Israeli army because he was too racist, is now the Minister for National Security in Netanyahu's government. He is proposing… Read More
2023-04-01 17:04
This seems like a complete no-brainer. If Saudi Arabia wants help getting nuclear power without any of the normal "conditions that are intended to prevent it from developing nuclea… Read More
2023-03-26 20:26
I'm in San Francisco. I've been here before a few times, but it has been a really long time since my last visit? "How long?" people have asked me. How the fuck should I know? The a… Read More
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