In case you hadn't heard, notorious Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín Guzmán, "El Chapo," was captured on Friday by Mexican authorities and Sean Penn, or something like that. Guzmán is wanted for so many things that it would probably take less time to figure out what he hasn't done, including two different escapes from Mexican prisons … Continue reading Rubio v. Rubio: Duh of Justice

I'm a little the worse for wear today, so posting may be light. Luckily, this makes for a timely rerun, what with Iran's decision last week to ban (or re-ban) Iranians from making pilgrimages to Mecca. This is getting a lot of attention, much more than Iran's ban on performing Umrah got last April, no … Continue reading The Iran-Saudi pilgrimage dispute has historical precedent

The UN World Food Program and the International Red Cross/Red Crescent are preparing in the next day or so to deliver about a month's worth of food and other humanitarian supplies to the people of the Syrian town of Madaya, which has been besieged by Syrian government forces since July and hasn't received any outside … Continue reading As close to hell as you can get

This is another one of those "welcome to 2016" pieces, but less snarky, because this really is a story that bears watching for the next few weeks and that could go in a number of directions. Iran is holding two elections on February 26: for the Majles (parliament) and for the Assembly of Experts. Both … Continue reading 2016 is going to be a big year in Iranian politics

So North Korea tested...something, maybe a hydrogen bomb although there's reason to be skeptical about that, but something nuclear, on Wednesday, and Republican candidates are lining up to unload on President Obama and Hillary Clinton over it. Which, hey, it's an election year, this is what happens. But when the talk turns to what any … Continue reading Heavy on criticism, light on solutions

Maine Governor Paul LePage, whom you may remember from such verbal diarrhea as "Hey, kid, I'd like to shoot your dad because of his political cartoons," “I want to find the [Portland] Press Herald building and blow it up," (that's verbatim, though he was talking about a flight simulator, I think), and "President Obama hates … Continue reading Who are you gonna believe, Paul LePage or your lying ears?

Virtually since the Iran nuclear talks began, it's been an article of faith among right-wing deal opponents that the United States is about to shift its Middle Eastern loyalties away from the Saudis and toward the Iranians. This would be Bad, we're told, because it would strengthen a malign regional actor whose muscular foreign interventionism … Continue reading Phantom shift

Continuing in the "hey, go read this while I'm working on something else" vein, check out Elias Isquith's interview at Salon with Mike Lofgren. Lofgren is a former Republican staffer on Capitol Hill who's just written a book called The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government. We … Continue reading The Deep State: it’s not just for Egypt and Turkey anymore