https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/status/606243573269413888 Good week for a Joe Biden joke, definitely. Nothing but class, this Cruz fella. UPDATE: Cruz apologizes. Credit where credit is due, this is a pretty good apology, no fuzzy "sorry if anybody was offended" crap. Still have to question the judgment that allowed the joke to be made in the first place.

Look, if you're planning on misgendering Caitlyn Jenner, or any other trans* person for that matter, nobody can stop you. Go nuts. But don't pretend that you're making some great stand for realism, or human society, or that you're being super witty and funny, or that you're revealing anything other than the fact that you're … Continue reading Misgender? I hardly even know her!

One of the many incoherent elements of the modern American right is its simultaneous insistence that America is the greatest, strongest, best country that exists or ever has existed in history, but that it's constantly in danger of total collapse if it gets hit by anything metaphorically stronger than a moderate breeze. Here's Cliff Kincaid, … Continue reading Then it’s not much of a nation, is it?

If you've noticed, I tend to cite Al-Jazeera English and Al-Jazeera America a lot around this place. This is because I think they genuinely do good work in a lot of parts of the world that the American media, with few exceptions, mostly ignores, like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and because they've built up … Continue reading Al Jazeera op-ed tries to help Jabhat al-Nusra rebrand, fails badly

Oddly enough, a scant two weeks after ISIS drove Bashar al-Assad's troops out of Palmyra/Tadmur, Assad's air force is providing close air support for ISIS's offensive in Aleppo Province: The Local Coordination Committees reported confirmation of 83 deaths across the country, with 35 of them in Aleppo Province and 25 in Idlib Province. Significantly, most … Continue reading The enemy of my enemy is my frenemy

Ukraine's Odessa Oblast, home to, yes, that's right, Odessa, Ukraine's third-largest city and most important seaport now that Crimea is in Russian hands, is a region of great concern to Kiev. As you can imagine, it's of great strategic value both to Kiev and to those who might be looking to establish a separate Russian … Continue reading Ukraine’s newest citizen used to be President of Georgia

In my latest piece for LobeLog, I look at the comprehensive failure of the Saudi-led intervention (call it "Operation Decisive Edge," or "Operation Restoring Hope," or both, or neither -- it's all been one big mess) into Yemen, and wonders how much longer the US plans to keep supporting this catastrophe: In the meantime, the … Continue reading My latest at LobeLog: how much longer will the US back Saudi Arabia’s play in Yemen?

There was a report last week by Alaa Latif from the Iraq-focused news site NIQASH to the effect that some Kurds in Iraq, confronted by Islamic extremism in the form of ISIS and experiencing a resurgence of Kurdish nationalism, may be converting to Zoroastrianism. The numbers are unknown and probably not huge, but this is … Continue reading Is ISIS driving people to Zoroastrianism?

ISIS has apparently captured Soran Azaz, in the northern part of Aleppo Province, from a rebel coalition called the Levant Front or Jabhat al-Shamiyah. This puts them in a position to threaten the city of Azaz, only a few miles away, which (if they succeed) would cut one of the main supply lines from Turkey … Continue reading Ominous development in Syria as ISIS advances near Aleppo

I suppose it was easy to see where this Dennis Hastert story was going, but actually watching it get there was still disturbing. I don't know how Illinois law works but it's entirely possible that we're now past the statute of limitations to prosecute Hastert for any crime he may have committed back in the … Continue reading Always assume the worst and you’ll never be disappointed