This morning I attended an event held by the Atlantic Council, called "US-Iran Relations: Past, Present, and Future," that dealt, oddly enough, with US-Iran relations. I know, right? It was a discussion with Hossein Mousavian, a former Iranian diplomat and current professor at Princeton, and John Marks, the founder of an NGO called Search for … Continue reading Talking US-Iran relations at LobeLog

Watching the escalation of the right-wing response to the Bergdahl case, from "why isn't Obama doing anything to free this guy, doesn't he know that we never leave a man behind?" to "why did Obama negotiate with terrorists like this?" to "why did Obama trade Taliban prisoners in exchange for this deserter who should have … Continue reading L’Affaire Bergdahl

My newest looks at the recent Ukrainian presidential election, which saw the legacies of the failed, corrupt, ineffective, neoliberal Yushchenko and Yanukovych regimes swept aside and replaced by...a neoliberal candy billionaire who served in both the Yushchenko and Yanukovych cabinets. Now that's Change You Can Believe In, and the rapidly escalating violence in the eastern … Continue reading Elections and escalating violence in Ukraine, my latest at LobeLog

A member of Egypt's election committee released the committee's turnout figures for the first two days of Egypt's two three day presidential election, and they're better than earlier estimates but still not good: Tareq al-Shibl, a member of the election committee, was quoted by al Ahram, a state-run newspaper, as saying that more than 21 … Continue reading Egypt’s neverending election, continued

Tomorrow, Egyptians will go to the polls on day three of their two-day presidential election, because in the Glorious Sisi Era, the numbers 2 and 3 are interchangeable. The coronation election of President-for-life Sisi was expected to right Egypt's ship of state after the troubles of the past three years or so, setting Egypt back … Continue reading Egypt: when low voter turnout is probably OK

I'm always a little surprised to read about something Michael Kinsley wrote, in a "oh, yeah, that guy" kind of way. When I was a kid I remember Kinsley as being the archetype of the public liberal, especially since he was on Crossfire (I was a weird kid, OK?), but I couldn't tell you the … Continue reading Michael Kinsley, and other things that are incompatible with the term “liberal”

Nuclear waste drums are exploding in New Mexico because somebody decided to switch Los Alamos's brand of kitty litter: In February, a 55-gallon drum of radioactive waste burst open inside America's only nuclear dump, in New Mexico. Now investigators believe the cause may have been a pet store purchase gone bad. "It was the wrong … Continue reading The search for an organic nuclear waste disposal method continues

This is a couple of days old, but I penned a response to a speech given about a week ago in Kiev by neocon (or neocon fellow traveler, at any rate) Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of Even The Liberal New Republic. Wieseltier has never met a military action that he wasn't happy to send other … Continue reading Leon Wieseltier gives Ukraine a rewrite, at LobeLog

A couple of weeks ago, a few 20-somethings in Iran got it in their heads to record a YouTube video with six of them dancing to Pharrell Williams's "Happy." The video went moderately viral and got about 160,000 views before it was made private a few days ago. Why was it made private, you ask? … Continue reading How to suppress a viral video, the Iranian way, at LobeLog

I'm normally a lot quicker on the uptake with these things, so I feel bad that I'm only just acknowledging the massive and devastating flooding that has hit Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia over the past several days. It's the worst flooding the region has suffered in at least 120 years, leaving 40 dead and tens of … Continue reading Where to donate for Balkans relief