2022-06-07 14:49
The "two tiered" (aka apartheid) legal system that Israel has had in the West Bank since 1967, where Jews have civil rights, the ability to vote in Israeli elections, and are subject to the… Read More
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Rubber Hose Blog
upyernoz.blogspot.com
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the place i write stuff and you read it
2022-06-01 14:30
The good news is if the Republicans capture either branch of Congress and launch a bunch of bullshit investigations, the Biden Administration can just ignore all their subpoenas. Because Rep… Read More
2022-05-31 14:20
My marriage is 25 today. Usually I would insert some jokey thing here, but honestly these last 11+ weeks since Noz Jr. died have been really rough. Not on our marriage though. On the contrar… Read More
2022-05-31 13:17
Any realistic assessment of the current political landscape in the U.S. can only lead to the conclusion that no serious gun control effort can be passed in this country. We now have two mass… Read More
2022-05-24 13:56
I've started to see almost everything as a symptom of what I now think is the primary issue of our age: the fact that elites are never held accountable for their actions. You can't explain t… Read More
2022-05-23 15:59
Last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals essentially ruled that the entirety of administrative law is unconstitutional so it could rule against the Biden Administration's SEC.Also last… Read More
2022-05-23 15:46
Why doesn't the Biden Administration tell the Saudis that if it won't increase oil production to ease rising oil prices, the U.S. will cut off all support for MBS's war in Yemen. No more arm… Read More
2022-05-19 17:50
If I had to predict how the Oz-McCormick vote count will go, it is that McCormick will win by a hair. After in-person votes were counted, Oz was ahead by a few thousand votes. But because Oz… Read More
2022-05-13 18:32
I'm also puzzled why the media can't accept that the sitting Lieutenant Governor is not the "establishment candidate" in this race. Is it really just the hoodie?I guess I could get annoyed b… Read More
2022-05-11 12:49
This appears to be at least the fifth different leak out of #SCOTUS related to Dobbs — after the WSJ editorial page, the original Politico leak, CNN, and the Washington Post. (And I ma… Read More
2022-05-11 11:03
Even with an outraged Chief Justice and an ongoing investigation, the Supreme Court is still as full of leaks as the Trump White House Read More
2022-05-10 14:06
I really think that the defining characteristic of our time is the idea that the rich and powerful should never face any consequences, broadly defined to include even any non-polite public c… Read More
2022-05-09 12:36
I realize that a lot of conservatives are slobbering over the prospect that the fall of Roe/Casey will mean that the privacy rights under Griswald v. Connecticut can also be o… Read More
2022-05-07 17:25
I'm glad that Clarence Thomas is worried that respect for institutions, particularly respect for the Supreme Court, is eroding because Thomas is one of the few individuals who can actua… Read More
2022-05-05 13:49
Why would "senior American officials" ever tell the New York Times they are helping Ukrainians kill Russian generals? What U.S. interest does it serve?I am really asking because I want to kn… Read More
2022-05-04 14:04
Things that damage the credibility of the Supreme Court:Bush v. Gore: interfering with an election, first by ordering officials to stop the recount, and then declaring a winner because… Read More
2022-04-28 15:22
State Senator and Pennsylvania Gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano is promising that, if elected governor, he would "reset" voter registration. That is, he would cancel ever Pennsylvania… Read More
2022-04-27 16:36
I understand why Russia wants to penalize Poland and Bulgaria for their support of Ukraine, but honestly, how does it do the Russians any good to insist that they pay for gas in Rubles and t… Read More
2022-04-26 13:09
The only reason anyone would think that migrants bussed to their city is a bad thing is if you are a bigot who hates foreigners Read More
2022-04-23 11:50
But the world’s efforts to let COVID run rampant in the developing world so lots of new variants can develop is still going strong! Read More
2022-04-21 16:45
Years ago I got tired of bloggers who would write these scathing posts about how "the Democrats should hammer Republicans about X. If they just did that, all of the Democrats' electoral prob… Read More
2022-04-16 22:16
The Florida Department of Edumacation has barred 54 math text books from being used in school under the new law that bars books that contain "critical race theory" or other "prohibited… Read More
2022-04-15 12:27
Once again I'm baffled that Democrats are not taking advantage of stuff like this and constantly bringing up the fact that the entire Republican party is too scared and weak to subject any o… Read More
2022-04-11 13:36
S&P says that Russia defaulted on its foreign debt. Normally a country's default is viewed as an economic disaster, because when a country can't pay a foreign lender, other foreign lende… Read More
2022-04-11 13:25
Over the past few weeks I have been sort of following the French elections. The coverage in the U.S. was pretty scant until the last few days. But throughout the election season I would rank… Read More
2022-04-04 13:21
Trump's new social media app, Truth Social, is failing Downloads from the app store are down, engagement stats are low, and people are complaining online about how the app doesn't work… Read More
2022-03-25 18:23
Just to add to this, Amy Coney Barrett should also recuse herself in any case involving the January 6th insurrection. When Justice Barrett was appointed, Trump openly stated that Barrett nee… Read More
2022-03-25 18:07
I absolutely agree that Justice Thomas needs to recuse himself from all cases related to the 2020 election. But if this isn't grounds for resignation, I don't know what is.Also, I do not exp… Read More
2022-03-23 11:02
This is one of the least important thing going on right now, but I'm kinda pissed off that the new variant is called "BA.2." If you have a system for naming variants, stick with that system!… Read More
2022-03-21 17:14
I very rarely post about my personal life here. It used to a bit more, but once we adopted Noz Jr. in 2010, I got even more private about that stuff.Noz Jr. died unexpectedly on March 13. It… Read More
2022-03-09 16:53
I've been thinking about where the line is between Russian sanctions, and bigoted backlash against Russian people. Sanctions usually just target a foreign government, its leaders, and that f… Read More
2022-03-07 16:46
One possible long-term effect of the war in Ukraine is it might end the popular understanding that Russia is a major economic or military power. For years commentators have mentioned that Ru… Read More
2022-03-02 03:08
I almost missed doing my annual "the SOTU sux" post because I barely knew it was happening today. Everything has been so overshadowed by You-Crane, I almost missed it entirely. In fact, it I… Read More
2022-03-01 14:26
I've also wondered what Russia's off-ramp could possibly be for the conflict in Ukraine. I mean they could stop it today if the Russian military just stopped shooting and started leaving. Bu… Read More
2022-02-28 17:09
Since 2014, Putin has been doing his best to make the Russian economy sanction-proof. It won't completely work. The sanctions that are being imposed this week will hurt the Russian economy… Read More
2022-02-26 22:05
Stories about Russian tanks running out of gas reminds me of a conversation I had with a relative in 2010. That was during my "Kazakhstan year", but at one point I was back in the U.S… Read More
2022-02-25 18:28
I'm really glad that Poland is letting fleeing Ukrainians in, but it is quite a contrast to how the Poles treated Afghans who showed up at their border just a few months ago Read More
2022-02-25 18:15
I agree that even if the "crippling sanctions" that have been promised are imposed on Russia for invading Ukraine are actually put into place there is no real chance that will get Russia to… Read More
2022-02-24 14:43
Moscow seems to have seriously expected large numbers of Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their weapons and abandon their posts. I don’t know what will happen if and when the occupation… Read More
2022-02-22 16:35
1. I don't think there was ever any real chance that the U.S. President could have stopped Putin from invading Ukraine if he wanted to, no matter who is President. So the talk by the usual s… Read More
2022-02-22 14:29
The writers who starts a piece with the words "nobody wants war" are invariably the ones who want war Read More
2022-02-21 19:56
The Community for Democracy and the Rights of Nations is about to get two new members! Read More
2022-02-15 16:39
This would have a better chance of success if they dropped the dots over the "u."Lot's of countries have changed their name in recent years (e.g. Czechia, eSwatini) but those changes rarely… Read More
2022-02-13 14:57
One thing is clear, we are not allowed to call this apartheid:The settlers benefit from a two-tier legal system in which settlers who commit violence are rarely punished, while Palestinian s… Read More
2022-02-11 18:42
Russia is holding military drills on the border of Ukraine:Moscow described all the drills as legal under international law, and promised that Russian troops would leave Belarus after the ex… Read More
2022-02-07 14:18
For some reason the comment link is not always appearing at the end of my posts. You can always comment to anything I write. I never turn off comments to any post. There's just some quirk in… Read More
Maybe Human Beings Aren't Able To Keep Up Serious Disease Mitigation Efforts For More Than Two Years
2022-02-06 18:39
The end of the Flu Pandemic 100 years ago:Most histories of the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide say it ended in the summer of 1919 when a third wave… Read More
2022-02-03 18:22
This post is pretty interesting. The author tries to figure out what I've been wondering about myself: have the disproportionate COVID deaths in "red" areas been big enough to make a differe… Read More
2022-02-03 14:51
This Politico piece is based entirely on a faulty premise. Chief Justice John Roberts does not "genuinely believe that the Supreme Court should be above partisanship." The only reason t… Read More
2022-02-02 14:34
This is a really good sign, suggesting that Putin realizes that actually invading Ukraine would be a disaster for Russia that would not serve its interest (or Putin's personal interest) in t… Read More
2022-01-26 15:06
I know I am repeating myself, but it is really striking how none of Russia's demands to avoid a Russian invasion of Ukraine are directed to Ukraine. The Ukrainian government has been t… Read More
2022-01-24 01:01
I'm still not 100% sure that Russia will invade Ukraine, but if it does, what is most revealing is the fact that Russia has made zero demands on Ukraine to avoid invasion. It's dispute isn't… Read More
2022-01-22 12:20
Reading this story the day after this story made me laugh. Read More
2022-01-21 16:43
Wouldn't they also need to include Sinema in this too?Honestly, if I were a Senate leader what I would do is take the original BBB bill (the biggest one, before they started pairing it down)… Read More
2022-01-20 14:03
Justice Thomas dissented without further comment in the Court's decision not to block the January 6th Congressional Investigation from getting Trump's papers.I wonder if those papers wi… Read More
2022-01-17 18:22
Back in the dark ages of blogging "the schools!" was a shorthand for the pro-Iraq War people's insistence that the war was not the disaster it clearly was turning out to be, because the U.S… Read More
2022-01-16 16:14
I think what some are not getting when they dismiss criticism of the current highly politicized Supreme Court by noting that the Court has always been highly political is that the current Co… Read More
2022-01-15 16:33
My initial thinking about how the crisis in Kazakhstan will affect the crisis in Ukraine has completely flipped. Ten days ago, I thought that Kazakhstan may have saved Ukraine, meaning the t… Read More
2022-01-14 20:28
Suspected Russian hackers brought down several Ukrainian government web sites today. On one of those sites, the hackers left the message "be afraid and expect the worst." Meanwhile there is… Read More
2022-01-14 12:58
Tickets.kz is back to spamming me about buying train and plane tickets in Kazakhstan Read More
2022-01-13 21:00
Does anyone have any doubt that if the Trump Administration had issued its own OSHA "vaccinate or test" mandate for private employers, the Supreme Court would have upheld it 9-0? Read More
2022-01-12 18:13
There are 330 million people in the United States. So if Mike Lindell really has proof that 300 million Americans were involved in election fraud to install Biden as President, he's talking… Read More
2022-01-12 16:18
I wasn't expecting Tokayev to openly turn on his predecessor like this, or make such a strong statement about corruption. The Kazakhstani power structure is held up by the rich oligarchs. I… Read More
2022-01-06 14:46
I'm still greeting with silence from all my friends in Kazakhstan in response to my messages. The internet blackout seems to still be in place.But in my attempts to scour the internet for sc… Read More
2022-01-05 22:53
Escalation in #Kazakhstan as government says 8 members of security forces killed and 317 injured in unrest https://t.co/z8sdBc2Agc + Tokayev claims international terrorists (not clear who) f… Read More
2022-01-05 18:51
To anyone who knows me, or anyone who has just read this blog for a while, it will come as no surprise that I am trying my best to follow the news from Kazakhstan today. I can't reach any of… Read More
2022-01-01 05:01
Continuing my longstanding beginning-of-the-year tradition, I will post a bunch of predictions so at the end of 2022, we can all look back and see how full of shit I am. As usual, the follow… Read More
2022-01-01 04:59
It's that time again! The most wonderful time of the year when I look back at all the predictions I posted at the beginning of the year so I could appreciate just how bad I am at predicting… Read More
2021-12-29 17:50
As someone who remembers the post-9/11 oughts pretty well, it is really remarkable how little reaction the string of mass killings by rightwing radicals has prompted in the media and among p… Read More
2021-12-22 21:27
Once again, I'm not wishing COVID on anyone, but these guys insisting they have anthrax after doing an activity that is likely to expose their unvaccinated asses to COVID and as they experie… Read More
2021-12-17 21:07
Why was Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly even asked to testify about the effectiveness of masks in preventing spread of COVID on airlines? He is not an expert on virology, or the effectiven… Read More
2021-12-17 15:12
If Omicron "spreads quickly everywhere it lands" and it has already landed in the U.S., why are we still banning flights to and from southern Africa?The ban never made sense. By the time it… Read More
2021-12-15 14:44
I listened to the first installment of the "An Oral History of the Blogosphere" series on the LGM podcast, and I gotta say it was pretty disappointing. I was hoping it would be framed… Read More
2021-12-13 15:48
This is just about stupid symbolism, but Jesus Christ, how embarrassing it is that the U.S. feels it has to tip-toe around Beijing's sensitive issues at a summit for democracies that China w… Read More
2021-12-11 13:08
I realize the American statement spun the issue as being about Nicaraguan democracy, but it's really weird for the U.S. to criticize Nicaragua's switch from recognizing Taiwan to recognizing… Read More
2021-12-06 14:43
I keep reading that the three big questions about the Omicron variant are:How contagious it is (i.e. whether it is more or less contagious than the currently dominant Delta variant).How dang… Read More
2021-12-02 14:47
This is gonna be fun:Dr. Mehmet Oz, a celebrity physician known as the host of the “Dr. Oz Show,” announced on Tuesday that he would run for Senate in Pennsylvania, jumping into… Read More
2021-11-28 18:09
New variants are a normal part of there being a virus. You can minimize the number of new variants by reducing the number of people with active infections (in this case that would mean vacci… Read More
2021-11-28 17:36
I now have as many years as there are cards in a standard deck.I guess this coming year is the joker.Previously: 51 50 49 48 47 46, 45, 44, 43, 4… Read More
2021-11-19 15:49
I know a lot of people who have been frustrated that almost one year into Biden's term, Louis DeJoy is still postmaster general. The problem is that the USPS's governing structure is designe… Read More
2021-11-18 13:58
Second Stamp Day is the least appreciated of all the official Rubber Hose Holidays.For history buffs: The Original Day, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017… Read More
2021-11-11 14:22
The best move the EU can do to resolve this crisis is to just let in all 4,000 refugees. They could then be resettle them across Europe, and the EU could broadcast images of refugees living… Read More
2021-11-08 18:16
The key fact missing from this article about the quiz: On Monday, WGNO reported that a Sacramento-area school district is under fire for a strange multiple-choice question on a history qui… Read More
2021-11-04 12:42
When Democrats don't do well in an election why are all the post-mortem stories the same every time? It's always about how the Democrats need to cater more to moderates and blah blah blah. R… Read More
2021-11-03 13:52
Hey sorry for neglecting the blog these past few weeks. The funny thing is that I got COVID (it ended up being a mild breakthrough case), but I first got sick on October 12, so as you can se… Read More
2021-10-21 11:17
Periodic reminder that America still has a zombie troop presence in Syria that occasionally gets droned and rocketed while deployed in pursuit of absolutely no strategic objective whatsoever… Read More
2021-10-20 16:08
How can this possibly do anything to help Facebook? Read More
2021-10-20 13:23
One surprise in the 2020 election was that Trump gained ground with Latino voters. Latinos are one of the fastest growing populations in the U.S. While the Latino (or Hispanic or Latin… Read More
2021-10-15 15:37
Why do news articles keep referring to Senator Sinema as "the moderate Arizona Democrat"? She isn't publicizing her views on anything. "What does Kirsten Sinema want" has become a common tit… Read More
2021-10-12 19:07
Now that they have had a long weekend to work on it, there is absolutely no reason they can't file legal action to enforce the subpoenas today.Seriously, if they are going to do it, why… Read More
2021-10-08 15:21
This is great news! Congress finally has a rock-solid way to hold Steve Bannon into account. All the House Committee has to do is file a legal action to enforce the subpoena.Like do it today… Read More
2021-10-08 15:12
I got bored with writing the "look how stupid Republicans are" posts long ago. Years ago, I wondered why seemingly non-stupid Republicans seemed to be posturing to make their party the party… Read More
2021-10-06 13:10
Every lawyer who does litigation has had a witness who ignores all their instructions and wrecks their case, so my sympathies to Joe Sibley for trying to represent the worst attorney in Amer… Read More
2021-10-04 13:12
I hope the Amarosa arbitration decision does open the flood gates, but I never understood why the Trump Administration relied so much on non-disclosure agreements throughout their presidenti… Read More
2021-09-27 13:17
I know it's ghoulish, but I have occasionally wondered whether COVID death rates will actually make a difference in future elections.The basic truth is that Trump-supporting States have tend… Read More
2021-09-23 13:45
My latest idea for a new bounty law is if New York passed its own bounty law creating a cause of action against anyone who files a lawsuit under the Texas Abortion bounty law (or any other c… Read More
2021-09-22 14:55
I don't understand why savvy political knowers are all mad at the Senate Parliamentarian. Sure, she makes these judgment calls about what can be passed that has severe policy consequences. B… Read More
2021-09-15 13:42
Political gerrymandering is horrible. It undermines democracy and locks in leaders who can't really get elected in their community. I strongly favor doing everything we can to get rid of it… Read More
2021-09-15 13:42
The woman profiled in this article is a good example of what I was saying here. Ms. Piccioni got a J&J shot last year. More recently she decided she needed a booster (even though no boos… Read More
2021-09-10 17:27
Almost three months ago, I noted that the gap between the "partially vaccinated" and "fully vaccinated" numbers in PA were not closing as fast as one would expect them to. For J&J recipi… Read More
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