By now you've undoubtedly heard the terrible news that a Malaysian Airlines passenger flight was shot down over eastern Ukraine today, killing all 298 people on board. It's not clear who fired the missile that destroyed MH17 on its route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur (or where it was fired from), nor is it clear … Continue reading Tragedy in Ukraine raises stakes

With the deadline to agree, disagree, or agree to spend more time disagreeing coming up fast (four days away), Reuters is reporting that Iran and the P5+1 are trying to reach an agreement on extending the duration of the talks. November's Joint Plan of Action allowed an extension of up to six months, which also … Continue reading John Kerry saw his shadow, so it looks like six more months of talks with Iran

Here's Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) on how Republicans can get womenfolk on their side: But what about the former? It seems like a knowable thing – either Ellmers was "taken completely out of context" or she wasn't. With this in mind, Schow published a second report late yesterday with an audio clip and a lengthy … Continue reading The Republican outreach to women is right on course

Amidst an interesting piece on Arab social media and its focus on what's happening in Gaza, Marc Lynch drops a truth bomb: One other point is clear from following the debates in Arabic on social media. The images out of Gaza look remarkably similar to those out of Aleppo or Homs: The same innocent civilians … Continue reading Why America’s lumbering Middle East hypocrisy really does matter

If you live in Gaza, this is how the IDF warns you that your apartment building is about to be blown up: Because we live in a media environment in which The Newspaper Of Record repeatedly refers to Israeli munitions "finding" their targets, not "killing" those targets or "blowing up entire city blocks": Finds/Kills. Interesting … Continue reading A gentle knock on your roof

Apparently a billionaire venture capitalist (so you know whatever he wants must be a Great Idea) named Timothy Draper has a plan to turn California from one state into six states. In fact, he's just announced that he has collected enough signatures to get the measure onto the 2016 ballot as a referendum. If you … Continue reading The best of intentions

When's the last time we saw an Opinion Leader publicly called out like this over the fact that he's been demonstrably wrong about, oh, pretty much everything he's been saying for the past five years? Maybe Megyn Kelly and her Dick Cheney interview, but that assumes that Cheney is an Opinion Leader, which assumes that … Continue reading Great moments in pundit-shaming

Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of Niall Ferguson and that whole, "I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm straight and white, and also too I am a Master of Twittering, so I must be on to something" thing he does. Dr. Ferguson is very concerned about The Children, … Continue reading Niall Ferguson acknowledges that he’s only talking to white folks

Bob Beckel has a pretty sweet gig. He gets paid probably a pretty damn good wage to go on Fox News, declare that he's a "Democrat" and a "liberal," and then to a pantomime routine where he says horrible things (really horrible) so that Fox's audience can comfortably assume that all liberals and Democrats are … Continue reading Dude, that’s not the preferred nomenclature