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 favor of the aid, but knew his conference wasn't on board and he was willing to play politics with it until it became clear how dire the Ukrainian's battlefield situation is without American aid. But if that is true, if he really supports Ukraine in his heart, then how does he justify monkeying around with it for all these months? People died because of that monkeying. If he is now pushing through aid because ..read more

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 consequences, they stupidly assumed that killing a bunch of Iranian military officers in a diplomatic building wouldn't be a big deal or generate a serious Iranian response. That was delusional. So bad that even a casual observer like me noticed that Israel had crossed a new line. In retrospect, even Israeli officials are privately admitting (gift) they miscalculated when they attacked Damascus. So eve ..read more

 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 would allow him to participate remotely at the moment. He was struck with amnesia and is wandering D.C. not realizing he is a Justice of the Supreme Court as his clerks frantically search for him. Harlan Crow flew him off on a fancy junket to a place where he could not participate remotely (OTOH, what billionaire's getaway doesn't have decent wifi?) He's too busy plotting with Ginny to overthrow the govern ..read more

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 parties can be really destabilizing for Europe and they tend to be against stuff that Russia doesn't like, like aid to Ukraine. But the confusing thing is why the far right would be so willing to accept Russian funding. If you were a far right German nationalist, you think that Germany and/or the German people are the best, and generally want Germany to stand on its own too feet. Doesn't accepting funding f ..read more

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 wonder if that is a record for a sitting governor. The three reservations she is barred from is the Pine Ridge reservation (Ogala Sioux), the Cheyenne River reservation (Cheyenne Sioux), and now the Standing Rock reservation (Standing Rock Sioux). But looking at the map there are still a lot of reservations she could still be banned from ..read more

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, everyone would expect the country with the bombed consulate to retaliate. Retaliation in those circumstances is not just expected, it is portrayed as just. So if Italy bombed the French consulate in Germany to get some mafia figure who was supposedly hiding there, the international community would deem Italy to be a pariah state. And if France vowed to retaliate against Italy, it would be viewed as justice, no ..read more

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

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 bomb a diplomatic complex in Syria. Embassies and consulates are supposed to be off-limits, even for countries you hate. It was Iran's takeover the U.S. embassy in Tehran that first got it the "rogue nation label." The U.S. bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, but they insisted it was an accident. It still got a lot of blowback from it. But Israel intentionally bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus ..read more

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 to see how awful having a pair of brothers run the State Department and the CIA at the same time during the height of the Cold War ..read more

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 at one when we start visiting dealerships even though we are definitely focusing our search on plug in electric vehicles ..read more