National
DL Open Thread Monday, Jan. 29, 2024
Did Hamas intend to set off a region-wide war with its Oct. 7 attack? It seems they did whether they meant to or not. Now three U.S. soldiers in Jordan have been killed in a drone strike. Biden has vowed retaliation “at a time of our choosing” against the Iranian-backed militia that took credit for […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024
Donald Trump won the New Hampshire primary, but in a way that allows any interpretation of the data you like. He got 54.6% to Nikki Haley’s 43.1%, which is far from a landslide. But the Northeastern state was probably Haley’s best chance at a victory. Or was it? Haley has vowed to stay in the […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024
The surest sign that Trump is off his termite-infested rocker: The months-long effort to portray Biden as senile, when of course it’s Trump whose feeble mind is splintering. Last night Trump gave a highly technical description of Israel’s anti-missile defense system: “And they calmly walk to us, and ding, ding, ding, ding, boom, whoosh, boom. […]
DL Open Thread Monday, January 22, 2024
A week ago, Ron DeSantis said his second-place finish in the caucuses punched his ticket out of Iowa. To be fair, he didn’t say where he was going. Turns out it’s home. Best line about it: DeSantis should have been forced to carry his non-viable campaign to term. I suppose this doesn’t matter, because research […]
DL Open Thread: Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024
Dems To Pick Up House Seat In Louisiana. Not even the Rethugs had any choice but to support this: Louisiana’s Legislature has passed a new congressional map, brushing off opposition from the Bayou State’s own Speaker Mike Johnson and positioning Democrats to pick up an additional seat in the midterms. The Louisiana Legislature finalized the […]
DL Open Thread Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024
Are Republicans capable of empathy? As my Magic 8-Ball says, signs point to no. First example: Testimony from a Pennsylvania woman whose son died in a school shooting last year. She testified in Harrisburg in favor of a proposed gun-control measure and was horrified that many lawmakers ignored her to watch their cellphones, and a […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024
What is Israel doing? Is it genocide? Ethnic cleansing? Forced migration? A crime against humanity? Such distinctions don’t matter. Even those who support Israel are in agreement: It’s wrong. But it won’t end until Benjamin Netanyahu is removed from power. The source problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. In Israel, two things are simultaneously true: Very few […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024
I mentioned this the other day: The media is more interested in narrative than facts. The Iowa caucuses provide a perfect example. Donald Trump won. That’s news, but of the dog bites man sort – everyone knew he would. But that’s not a very compelling narrative, so political reporters gave us others, based mostly on […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Jan. 15, 2024
As the seige of Gaza reached 100 days over the weekend, Netanyahu said, “No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anyone else.” I wish Biden would take that as a challenge, because I know just how he could stop them. Meanwhile, the Houthis in Yemen launched an […]
Song of the Day 1/14: John Lennon, “Instant Karma!”
Remember Bill O’Reilly, the Fox News blowhard? You probably haven’t thought about him in a long time – Fox News 86’d him back in 2017 over his long history of sexual harassment lawsuits, and he’s struggled to find an audience ever since. He’s still out there, though, and the other day he floated back into […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024
For most people the record-breaking heat of 2023 wasn’t surprising – only Republicans pretend not to know about global warming – but it was to scientists, because the increase was greater than known processes would allow for. Something else is going on, and climate scientists don’t know what it is or might be. If 2023 was […]
DL Open Thread Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024
It appears the Biden administration is hellbent on implementing the Saudi-Israeli agreements forged under the Trump administration through the efforts of one Brett McGurk (yes, I’m well aware that sounds like a name Dr. Seuss made up). McGurk is pushing a plan to reconstruct a post-war Gaza through a joint Saudi-Israeli effort that still wouldn’t […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024
The Israeli attempt to wipe out Hamas has brought widespread condemnation, but since calls on conscience are doing nothing to dissuade Netanyahu from his murderous course. So the focus of criticism seems to have shifted toward worries about the war widening to the entire region, with the new Axis of Evil shaping up as Iran, […]
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