SocraticGadfly

Iran, nukes, Trump, Bibi

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Let's get to the nuttiest thing of the last 72 or so hours first.

That's Larry Johnson's claim Iran either has or is about to have a nuke. And note those two tense agreements, as I quote his first graf:

Pepe Escobar and I received the following intelligence report last Thursday, which was produced by a knowledgeable source with access. I am not reproducing the entire report, but want to highlight the issue of whether or not Iran now has, or soon will have a nuke. Let me emphasize that I firmly support past US intel community assessments that Iran, until now, had no interest in obtaining a nuke.

Even Sy Hersh isn't claiming shit like that.

Speaking of, as I said in restacking?

There’s a BIG difference between "has" and "may have" in the first graf on Iran and nuclear weapons. The rest of Johnson's piece smells highly breathless; at least as “breathless” as some of Sy Hersh’s writings here on Substack.

Yes.

Then, The Dissident linked to it in his own moderately breathless piece.

I had a longer comment/restack on that, to which I added an additional note, only on the restack, referencing his response to my comment. Here you are:

There's a big difference between the header saying Iran "has developed a nuclear weapon" and the subhed saying "Iran MAY Now Actually Develop a Nuclear Weapon." BIG difference.

Johnson at your link also tries to go both ways, using both "has" and "may have" in the first graf.

The rest of Johnson's piece smells highly breathless; at least as “breathless” as some of Sy Hersh’s writings here on Substack. And, it's not the first breathless thing he's uttered here or on You Tube in recent weeks. Or in the past decade.

As co-founder of VIPS, I believe he signed off on the majority report about the 2016 hacking that believed all the "Forensicator" bullshit and that helped goose the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. Per the one comment, Dissident said he'd edited; you wanna tell Larry Johnson to edit as well?

==

The Dissident has since responded to the version of this that was a comment on his site. He further explained the editing while noting Johnson’s claim is “unconfirmed.” The reality is Johnson’s claim is almost certainly fact-free on Iran “May Actually Develop” and totally fact-free on “Has Developed” and there’s no need to have given him the time of day.

And, yes, Larry Johnson is a nutter.

So's Pepe Escobar.

Beyond what I said about Johnson in that note, he also appears to be playing footsie at times with John Helmer of borderline antisemitism fame and other things.

And, as briefly referenced in my response to The Dissident, per a full decade ago and the Seth Rich conspiracy theory, Johnson is a co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, the majority of whom, via Patrick Lawrence, signed off on the Forensicator bullshit, bullshit called out by Duncan Campbell, bullshit that helped goose the Seth Rich conspiracy theory, bullshit for which, AFAIK, Johnson remains unapologetic. Per his Wiki, that would not be the only shark-jumping for which he remains unapologetic.

And, the nutter photo? Of Johnson as defender of Free Dumb? From his website, where the photo's a clickable link to this Free Dumb defender event. James Webb is the closest thing to a non-nutter on non-Nat-Sec Nutsacks™stuff of the names I recognize or took time to google. Man, there's grifting there if they're charginpg $999 a pop and getting people to pay.

Thirty-six hours later, The Dissident checked in with people like Mearsheimer and found out for himself the non-proliferation portion of the facts, which I already knew. I didn't even bother with him, because I knew the nuke angle itself was silly. As John said, Russia and China are opposed to proliferation and Pakistan is not a friend of Iran. John didn't even bother mentioning North Korea. He did note that, also contra Johnson, the idea of exploding a single nuke is itself laughable. You just threw away your deterrent.

There's at least one commenter still defending Johnson on The Dissident's follow-up. Actually, several more than one. One got butt-hurt when I mentioned Johnson's backstory, then said it was above not only his knowledge level but his interest, then got butt-hurt over my nom de plume to boot. I said "got it on you not wanting to learn more" and "I'm crushed."

Contra other commenters there, Ted Postol actually said that Iran could level up its current enriched uranium to bombs-grade for 20-30 weapons in weeks. Personally, I think months is more likely, and I doubt that Iran would actually build out the two-state U235/U238 bomb he describes. (Think of a thermonuclear without the second, fusion, stage.) Other commenters there engaging in a bit of hand-waving on that, too.

Also, re Postol, launching the old-tyme gun-mechanism bomb from a ballastic missile has never been tested.

Also also, two months ago, he was saying 10-11, not 10-20. See here. That said, he blames Biden for not resuming Obama's deal after Trump 1.0 killed it.

Finally, per this piece, there's rumors the Pakistani foreign minister has said something about an Iranian demonstration and more. That right there stresses the need for accurate information, and it also indicates where Johnson's source is. Some blabber either at mid-grade in the ISI, or in some Western intelligence service monitoring the ISI, probably got some info 24 hours early. Besides, the ACTUAL rumor was that Pakistan's foreign minister shared info about Iran's nuke program in general.

Trump and Bibi?

Mearsheimer, June 2, appeared to halfway believe there was some semi-existential break between the two, after Trump gave Netanyahu an F-bomb yelling and told him not to attack Beirut.

Reality? Everybody from Zionist Trump-whisperer Barak Ravid on Axios to PBS have reported that yes, this happens but that both say it's no big deal.

For that matter, what if this was some sort of performance theater?

Boy did I find the nutter on Substack

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 21:45:00 +0000

Samuel Abraham? Muted and will be blocked. A true nutter, this is what he had to say in response to my comment on The Dissident's piece about Tulsi Gabbard when I said Hindutva-fascism WAS the one constant bright line, per my old piece here.

Anyway, here he is

Tulsi was actually a serving CIA psyop officer all the time on the radicalise Hinduism project run by CIA. The CIA Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation created the cult led by a Bengali Shudra with a double ended radicalise and debauch both the west and India aim. These Bengali Shudras ran the humungous Tantrik death destruction debauch drugs cult that ritually sacrificed 2 million human beings while the British were watching and then the same British put them down only to weaponise the Shudra Tantrik gurus as world teachers or Vishwagurus (which is a meme in India now) worldwide to bring Blavatsky Besant and Baileys end of the world total inversion of good and bad and morality and ethics with mass slavery age or NWO. The CIA using the ISI created and funded the University of Jihad in Pakistan to punish the Pashtun tribes for being the rare Indic people unbending to foreign rule like the Punjabis. When you see these malaria fever radicalism in Pakistan and Afghanistan among the Pashtuns it was created using Islamic textbooks financed by the CIA and authored by a white American professor at the University of Nebraska - not a Muslim. These CIA psyop officers are in the business of death destruction and mass deception.

Can't even try to argue with that.

Related? This note:

The Hindu fundamentalist RSS and Muslim fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood were created by the same super witch crooked genius - Helena Blavatsky who literally had roaring adulterous wild sex with the founders of both the Muslim Brotherhood and the progenitor of the Hindu fascist RSS. Haha! -śome wild ass's orgasm they had!

The world is a small place - at least everything including Nazism and Fascism started inside the venomous viper pits between the legs of Helena Blavatsky and her ideological sister Annie Besant. Lucifer does Lucifers things. Nobody fucks the devil for fun!

Wowza.

But, he's not just calling out Theosophy.

There's esoteric Nazi conspiracy theories, in another note of his:

Hitler did not write most of his speeches or a word of the Mein Kampf - they were written by the Jesuit "priest" Stempfle. Neither did Marx write a word of the Communist Manifesto - it was written by a committee under the Jesuit "priest" Jan Paul Beckx. Why two mutually exclusive ideologies by the same papal order? The same reason why there is a left and a right in any "democracy" (but not meritocracy). The thesis antithesis = synthesis Pharaonic system of civilisation management called Hermetic Kabbala simply got too murderous and genocidal.

And, he follows Paul Thacker and other nutters, like a guy claiming an assassination conspiracy theory about John Lennon.

I just had to separate this from my normal new list of Substack blocks.

Trump's school privatization tax-credit voucher is flying under the radar

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:10:00 +0000

Shock me that Texas has opted in to this system, that like the current state voucher system, won't directly fund private schools but will instead fund a disbursement system.

There's plenty of room for grift, it should be obvious. That's on top of the grift that Strangeabbott's voucher system already incentivizes.

Then, per the story, there's the question about how declining enrollment will damage public schools. And, here in Tex-ass, that's Katy bar the door time for a TEA takeover.

Data centers: Big win for state-level Democrats in Texas? Nah

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Contra Kuff, I doubt it.

Kuff is talking about this Trib piece; here's another from a month ago.

First, let's note that MOST states, including many more blue ones, don't grant county governments a lot of statutory powers. So, this isn't, nationally, totally a blue vs red deal.

And, there is NO way the Lege is reporting out a constitutional amendment to change that.

Second, here in Tex-ass, one Hood County unincorporated "community" voted down a municipal incorporation effort last year. Per Kuff's piece, it was to give the would-be city more control over a data center Many people in places like that will be fine at bitching about wind farms causing cancer, about "gummint" stealing rights, and about Democraps, rather than incorporate themselves and actually have to pay local property taxes.

Right now, the white collar retirees in these places probably won't even blame Trump for their higher gas prices. (Many farmers actually WILL, on diesel and fertilizer.)

Texas Progressives roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:06:18 +0000

SocraticGadfly had two post-runoff takes, one on The Art of No Deal and the other on Strangeabbott's shrinking coattails.

Off the Kuff shares some post-runoff thoughts.

Letitia Plummer deserves a kudo for taking down Annise Parker in the Dem runoff for Harris County Judge.

The music is playing loudly for Corpus Christi's water problems, loud enough the city can't deny it's hearing it, while it is trying to put a Band-Aid over the band.

Does the Christian Menafee vs Al Green showdown, in the wake of SCOTUS gutting the Voting Rights Act, forshadow more Black-on-Black political battles inside the Democratic Party? The Observer weighs in.

Mike Pence has at least a bit bigger balls on Trump's slush fund than most Rethugs.

Black bookstores in Texas face ugly racial pressure.

Wind has long been ahead of coal for solar electricity in Texas. Now, despite wingnuts, despite Texas law not allowing for rooftop solar being metered back to utilities, solar is moving ahead too.

The Current rounds up the Republican website purge of anti-Paxton attacks.

City of Yes reminds us that no one is ever given the opportunity to vote on highway projects.

Law Dork notes the SPLC’s attempt to get the bogus charges against it dismissed.

G. Elliott Morris deems the Texas Senate election a tossup.

John Cornyn postmortem roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:13:34 +0000

At the Monthly, not only is there not a CD Hooks piece fellating Cornyn one last time, but Ben Rowan offers a skeptic's guide to November, while getting people like Strangeabbott his own self to do some pearl-clutching. He offers this, halfway through:

Everyone I spoke to, in both parties, believes that the national environment is better for Democrats this year than in 2018—Trump is even more unpopular, facing inflation and the Iran war. And they believe Talarico is a better statewide candidate than O’Rourke. At roughly this point in 2018, O’Rourke trailed Cruz in the polls by 5 points. The polling aggregate currently finds Talarico running 1.5 points ahead of Paxton (he leads by as much as 8 in one survey and trails by as much as 2 in another). As one longtime GOP strategist, who requested anonymity given their current position, told me: “This is not a made-up race. You are covering a real race.”

I'm still more skeptical. We'll see. One reason for skepticism is most those polls had Talarico vs a generic Republican, before the runoff. That always favors a "name." Rowan notes that himself, later on.

And, he concludes with:

Even if Ken isn’t actually all that good, most everyone I talked to believed Democrats could still find a way to blow their advantage. After laying out his fantasy of exactly one GOP statewide candidate losing, and explaining how this year there really were signs a Democrat could win, the former Republican legislator caught himself mid-reverie. “Democrats are killing us now,” he started, “but—and I’m going to use a naughty word here, don’t hold it against me—Democrats can f— up a one-car parade.”

Bingo.

Kuff peddles some Kool-Aid on possible GOP defections. I'm not drinking.

Nate Cohn at the NYT talks about Hispanic numbers, ignores the Tex-ass reputation as a nonvoting state.

The Trib fellating John Cornyn? Not surprised.

At the Observer, Justin Miller doesn't fellate him, but does think Kenny Boy Paxton's win is "judgment day" for the Texas GOP. I shall officially laugh on Election Day.

Gus Bova there also salutes James Talarico's chances while noting the Anglo-ness of Dems' top candidates in general.

My initial guess? Talarico runs as close as Beto-Bob vs Havana Ted, 2018, but no closer.

No Green in the race? As I told Kuff, I'm undervoting for sure unless Talarico has a real, full-bore, statement about Gaza. That's at minimum and I'm not holding my breath on that.

Texas primary runoff hot take two: Strangeabbott's shrinking coattails

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 May 2026 13:17:00 +0000

Bo French, a nutter even by Tex-ass GOP standards, defeated incumbent Jim Wright in the Texas Railroad Commission Rethuglican runoff. That's despite Strangeabbott, and others, endorsing Wright.

More on his degree of nuttery and the runoff at Inside Climate News.

Side note: Despite the Monthly wondering if Farris Wilks should be on the side of a milk carton, which led to jokes by me earlier this month, Wilks as well as Tim Dunn, with personal money as well as PAC money, was there for both the original round and the runoff.

And, of course, because that's the way he rolls, Strangeabbott was a big old crow-eating hypocrite after French won:

While the United States’ war in Iran has provided a boost to the Texas oil industry, Abbott warned during a campaign event earlier this month that French’s agenda would “wreck” Texas oil and gas. He went on to say that Republicans can’t assume victory in the general election. “All of these elections are going to be close in November,” he said.

Wednesday morning, Abbott struck a different tone when he congratulated French.

“Republicans are UNITED and ready to win in November to keep Texas, TEXAS!” Abbott wrote on his campaign X account.

Shock me.

Beyond that, Abbott-endorsed Abraham Enriquez lost in the 19th CD runoff and nutter state Sen. Briscoe Cain, also endorsed by Strangeabbott, lost to Alex Mealer. Cain was laughably called a "liberal lightweight" by a super PAC funding Mealer. I'm still not sure how much some PACs and super PACs believe their claims.

Texas primary runoffs hot take: "The Art of No Deal"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Boy, did Cornyn get smoked. No two ways about it.

The Bulwark's piece notes how much of a Pander Bear he had become, complete with Shit from Shitter, on Big John's own account, with the photo. And, that's a full year ago!

Why didn't Trump endorse earlier? Beyond the Bulwark talking about him having bigger fish to fry, I think maybe he thought Paxton didn't need an endorsement.

There's also a third reason. And a fourth reason.

Third? Trump's a frontrunner; he probably read the March primary tea leaves, or had it done for him.

Fourth? Trump likes to see people grovel. And, this runoff election was perfectly teed up for him to make both Cornyn and Paxton "twist slowly in the wind" like Pat Gray at Nixon's hands.

As for Cornyn, and that Pander Bear photo? Call it "The Art of the No Deal."

The Times has more. Beyond Cornyn's race, it notes the Super PAC backing nutter Democrat Congressional candidate Maureen Galindo had GOP ties. If you're a super PAC, you're supposed to cover your tracks better than that.

Just about everybody is talking about how lame-duck GOP senators may stand up more to Trump. Except around the margins, don't hold your breath. It may not even happen that much with the likes of Thomas Massie in the House.

Don't believe me? Believe this piece linked off the Bulwark, titled "Weep Not for Cornyn":

Maybe a grudging, strange new respect will form for Cornyn over the coming months as he joins Senators Cassidy and Tillis in offering the most modest pushback imaginable against our Nero-in-Chief. And then John Cornyn will be forgotten, and to the extent that he is remembered he will vaguely be thought of as that one Texas senator who wasn’t as bad as the other one: not as sleazy as Cruz, not as corrupt as Paxton, etc.

But I don’t think he should get away that easily.

No, it is as important to call out our gutless elected officials as it is to celebrate the brave ones. I hope John Cornyn is remembered for what he is: an incompetent and cowardly senator who put himself before his country.

I texted a politico friend about Cornyn’s coming defeat, and the friend replied that, yes, Cornyn is a victim of the disease that has infected one of our country’s two major parties.

Victim? Oh no. John Cornyn is not and never was a victim. Actually, he has had more agency in our country’s existential fight against Trumpism than roughly 99.999% of Americans. In 2021 there were exactly 100 people who could have put this sad and sorry chapter of American history behind us for good, and in that moment John Cornyn hid behind Mitch McConnell’s skirt, who was himself hiding behind a completely contrived constitutional justification for letting Trump get away with an attempted coup—as if McConnell himself wasn’t the reason the Senate trial was delayed until after January 20.

Fifty-seven United States senators were able to do the right and obvious thing and voted to convict and bar that evil man from ever holding public office again, including seven Republican senators. John Cornyn, however, could not do what his oath of office required.

That's about right. (Added emphasis mine.)

As for James Talarico? I'll give you 94 percent odds, right now, that he doesn't win. That's even with him doing his own Pander Bear to the degree of trying to normalize Cornyn. Anybody who claims the Magnificat in Luke supports reproductive choice will pander about anything.

The only other questions I have are, first, will Talarico lean into, or run away from, already clearly being standard neolib Democrat, and second, will he actually say something on Gaza? I'm pretty sure I already know the answers, and that he'll lose to Paxton in Cornyn style rather than with principles.

No-bid border wall contracts in Big Bend area

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

In addition to the question of whether or not a border wall will actually be built through Big Bend National Park — an issue that currently still SEEMS to be "no" but be skeptical — we have a new issue:

No-bid contracts.

The full (for now) exposure of this dirtiness comes courtesy of a federal lawsuit. A main focus is Tommy Fisher, who built a small section of privately funded wall during Trump 1.0 that drew Der Gruppenführer's scorn then, but his largess now.

That said, the company filing the lawsuit, Posillico, has nowhere near clean skirts on wall-building, let alone wall-building opposition. This is simply another company wanting its share of the grift:

The company has previously built 43 miles of federal wall in South Texas and also won a contract to construct sections of Gov. Greg Abbott’s state border project. The state project experienced many of the same construction delays and cost overruns as Trump’s border wall.

There you are.

The Red Sox make themselves look stupid, give Graham Platner a boost

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 May 2026 16:56:41 +0000

The Boston Red Sox pulled down a Graham Platner ad that, in part, attacked the team for selling out to private equity, tying in with his populist campaign.

As far as the issues at hand? Seeing this story posted by the British newspaper The Independent at r/mlb, it seems there may be a bit of confusion by one Sox fan, and bigger issues by the team.

Basically, we seem to be getting a bit of intimidation by the ownership mixed with an overly aggressive interpretation of trademark law.

First? Per the Boston Herald, the ad in full is on Platner's Shitter account, with the same font. That there says that Platner campaign isn't worried about the intellectual property claim.

Secod, the NESN statement does NOT say what the intellectual property issue is. That's where I see the bit of intimidation coming in.

Also, technically, ONLY the "B" is trademarked, and otherwise, the team name. The font is reportedly hand-drawn and, the Sox would have to prove that is EXACTLY the same font, not a very similar commercially available font.

Above and beyond all that, you can use a trademarked phrase in a political ad, within certain limitations. Here's some basic law. The key thing is, Platner is not implying the team is endorsing him. Far from it. The Sox would have pretty serious uphill sledding if they really thought about pursuing legal action.

HEre you go:

Private equity is taking our homes. It's taking our hospitals. It's taking beloved local businesses and stripping them for parts.

And now private equity is running the Red Sox into the ground.

Our new ad ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/w7LapElpdA
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) May 22, 2026

Let's see what happens next.

Again, per the one Redditor? The NESN statement didn't say WHAT credible concerns. We can assume the font; we can also assume, given that people let this ad get through in the first place, their credibility level isn't that high. The Sox would have been much better off simply refusing the ad in the first place. Somebody didn't eye it, and now they look like idiots.

Otherwise, I wrote two weeks ago about Platner's tattoos and other issues.

Texas Progressives talk Paxton-Cornyn and more

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 May 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Off the Kuff has his fun with the Trump endorsement of the crooked Ken Paxton over the dignity-deprived John Cornyn.

SocraticGadfly offers two timely pieces, one elections-related and the other, on a surface level more humorous but in reality perhaps not. First, he looked at the Trib story on Trump's endorsement of Ken Paxton and saw that one Talarico staffer badly failed Math 101, probably not a good thing or good sign. Secondly, at his Substack, he imagined a graduate of the Class of 2026 facing the world of AI in job hunting.

Hey, Kenny Boy, are you suing the phone company, then USPS, after Discord? I'm no fan of much of modern social media, but these exploitation-abetting lawsuits are ridiculous. If only Kenny Boy would sue tech companies over abetting genocide in Gaza.

People indeed need to mourn that now, if you're a student activist on a UT System campus, the president could eliminate your favorite course. They also need to mourn the lies the regents are telling to try to justify this.

Tarrant County is such a conservative outlier among Texas' largest counties it hates black people to death.

I need to add "future fascist" to my moniker for Jonathan Stickland, whom I have long called "Former Fetus Future Fuckwad."

RIP Barney Frank, Zionist and abettor of the subprime crisis. Is is any wonder that modern neoliberal national Democrats went so deep into mourning?

Houston Democracy Project Blog reported Houston-area activist visited by Secret Service for writing 86 47 in chalk in driveway, has written letter to Todd Blanche asking for money from Trumpâ€™s victimization fund.

The Texas Observer calls Bo French's bid for Railroad Commissioner what it is.

The Current writes their political obituary for dead man walking Sen. John Cornyn.

D Magazine gives you the best story you'll read about Nolan Ryan beating up Robin Ventura.

Evil MoPac learns some things about Austin swingers.

The TPA wishes Texas Public Radio and the San Antonio Report all the best with their new partnership.

Kerrville, the Guadalupe and Camp Mystic: This summer and this fall

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Camp Mystic's head nurse has had her license temporarily suspended, in what looks like it could become a permanent action, more fallout from last year's preventable tragedy. Mystic, of course, has not reopened. The Monthly reports on those that have, and the broader business climate in greater Kerrville. It's interesting that a number of other camp owners and general river businesses agreed to talk to the Monthly only if they didn't ask about Mystic.

Per the end of the piece, about how much of the riverside cleanup on the Guadalupe ripped out a lot of soil-stabilizing vegetation, I wonder what a super El Niño, still projected as likely starting this fall, will bring. As in, new river wreckage? I can definitely see that happening. The question is, how far beyond the river itself will this round of likely major flooding go?

Memorial Day truths from Tad Stoermer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 25 May 2026 17:12:00 +0000

Stoermer, a definite "follow" on Substack, has the honest truth about the Supreme Court's recent Louisiana vs Callais ruling. As I said in a comment:

THIS: including noting Lincoln as “problematic.” (Had he lived out his second term, Lincoln almost certainly would not have vetoed the Freedman’s Bureau renewal bill, and might have avoided a few of Andy Johnson’s fights with Congress, but otherwise, would have done much the same. His “rosewater” WAS the template for Johnson overall.)

In addition, had he lived out his second term, Lincoln would have shown himself to be no better on American Indian issues than any other post-Civil War president.

Finally? He might have wound up with his fingers dipping fairly deeply in the Credit Mobilier cookie jar.

Beyond my comment, Stoermer basically questions the arc of justice quote attributed to Martin Luther King but not original with him:

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

And, while in the truly long term, we may bend it back, will that happen? As Israeli Jews in general increase their racism toward Palestinian Arabs, outside the US as well as inside, we see the reality of human nature show itself all the time.

Now, per David Hume (himself a racist and a cultural bigot) "is" ≠ "ought." Nonetheless, following "is" on various forms of tribalism and xenophobia is always easy mentally.

As for Lincoln? Per my Memorial Day thoughts of a year ago, none of this is surprising to Civil War era historians who are honest about who Honest Abe was. (That said, that's a BIG caveat.)

Let's also remember the facts on who invented Memorial Day and why. With that, wish treason supporters a detailed happy Memorial Day.

The DNC once again shoots itself in the foot; per James Carville: "It's Gaza and Zionism, stupid"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

First, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin didn't want to release the party's internal post-mortem on the 2024 presidential campaign by Kamala Harris, aka Kamala is a Zionist Cop.

That got pushback.

Then, after he did, we see why. "Gaza" and "Palestine" aren't even mentioned, though that — and the DNC's feeble response combined with getting punked by Republicans on this in Michigan above all — is a fair part of why Kamala is a Zionist Cop lost.

Per that piece, it also pretty much dodges looking at Dementia Joe's refusal to step aside.

And, it also doesn't look at whether racism and sexism were factors in Harris' loss. On race? Dear Leader won; was he perceived as post-racial in a way Harris wasn't? (I see what I did there.) Sexism? Might have been a factor indeed, though I don't want to give either Harris' Harridans or Hillbots room to excuse-monger that as an attempt to cover up bad campaigns.

Back to the link, though. Here's Martin:

Martin acknowledged the lack of comprehensive findings, saying that he was “not proud” of the report and cautioned that it would not “meet your standards”. But he added its release was dictated by the public’s need “to trust the Democratic party”

Well, sure they're going to trust you now, in light of all of the above.

Meanwhile, he follows on that first paragraph by further throwing other people under the bus:

When I received the report late last year, it wasn’t ready for primetime. Not even close,” the embattled party chair said in a statement released after the report’s publication. “And because no source material was provided, fixing it would have meant starting over, from the beginning – every conversation, every interview, every data set.

Beyond what it deliberately overlooks, it's loaded with caveats.

Misgivings about the quality and contents of the 192-page document are stated graphically at the beginning and at the top of each page in the form of a disclaimer marked in red, stating: “This document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC. The DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented.”

At the top of EACH PAGE!

And, I've looked via a link to the PDF at Drop Site News's reporting. And, it's not just at the top of every page, it's in a larger font, like New Century Schoolbook bold italic, and in red ink.

Maybe get the Florida wonder, David Hogg, back as a DNC vice chair?

(I'm actually joking in that snark. Per the reality, as I wrote last year, David Hogg would not be the answer to the problem on Gaza. And getting beyond why Harris lost, he wouldn't be the answer on climate change and other things, either.)

Hell, Wikipedia's summary of exit polling is probably more accurate. What does it say?

In all of the below, it has shifts from 2020 to 2024.

Harris lost big on first-time voters.

She lost among non-whites, both with and without college degrees. That reflects the big Hispanic shift to Trump.

She lost the same amount on union and non-union households.

More Harris voters were voting against Trump rather than for her; the opposite is true of Trump. (That said, Martin claims she needed to bring more "negative firepower," per AP's report. I guess he did recognize that she really didn't have much to campaign FOR. And, he apparently hasn't disavowed that.)

Also on that site, in a voter analysis subsection, the Institute for Middle East Understanding, which sharply criticized the lacuna in the post-mortem, per the Guardian link at top, found in their own polling at the end of 2024 that 2020 Biden backers who didn't support Harris in 2024 mentioned "ending Israel's violence in Gaza" as their No. 1 concern. "Immigration" was actually a fairly distant fourth.

The survey also found that 36% of these voters would have been more likely to vote for Harris if she "had pledged to break from President Biden’s policy toward Gaza by promising to withhold additional weapons to Israel for committing human rights abuses against Palestinian civilians.

That said, per the second half of my header, James Carville would never actually admit that.

In fact, from what I can see on Shitter, as of a week ago, he appeared to (still) be conflating anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

Back to Martin. Is it any wonder, per another AP piece, that many Democrat apparatchiks have a crisis of lack of confidence in him? That piece reminds us that Martin pledged to make the 'autopsy" public on his first day as chair.

But? Sure, it's easy for the likes of Dan Pfeiffer to criticize him. But, they'll stay inside the left hand of the duopoly, and also ignore that Dear Leader being a Nice Polite Republicrap is part of why Democrats are where they are.

Meanwhile, the Never Trumper Rethugs like Rick Wilson or The Bulwark will never talk about the Gazan elephant in the room.

That said, a Bulwark piece asks how relevant is a DNC today? That then said, after Trump shuffles off, how relevant will an RNC be?

Texas Progressives

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 May 2026 17:48:00 +0000

Off the Kuff presented interviews with Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green in advance of the Democratic primary runoff.

SocraticGadfly had fun mocking Trump, the UFO-heads, Trevor Lawrence aka Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Rod Dreher all in one piece.

It's official, and shock me it's him among the wingnuts on the Supreme Court: Clarence Thomas invoked the hoary old Comstock Act in wanting to uphold the Fifth Circuit on Texas' mifepristone law.

RIP Gwen Farrell Adair, "Nurse Gwen" (and others) from M*A*S*H.

The Monthly says you should go to Marble Falls for art, not just cream pies (which are overrated IMO).

CD Hooks discusses Strangeabbott muscling Grand Prairie over Eid while overlooking the 2024 inverse of the True Texas confab at the Fort Worth Botanical Garden.

VD Hooks is OK with Bernie (while surely still hating Greens, along with fellow Monthly writer Forrest Wilder.)

In a blind taste test, could you really tell a Fredericksburg peach from a Palisade one (the most common touted Colorado one)? For that matter, could you tell it from one from Parker County, Clay County or Deep East Texas? I doubt it, Texas Monthly, and I've had roadside-type peaches from all those locations (well, Stonewall to be precise, not Fredericksburg) other than Clay County.

Customs and Border Patrol said earlier in May they wouldn't build a wall through Big Bend. So, WHY has a contract been awarded? CBP ain't talking, meaning that, until further notice, its head, Rodney Scott, should be considered a liar. Related? Team Trump is suing the Diocese of Las Cruces to get Catholic-owned border land in El Paso.

Houston Democracy Project Blog reported the solid Panzarella over Hellyar win in Houston City Council District C, was a strong rejection of Hellyar's police union endorsement. The work of making HPOU endorsement toxic for Democrats seeking municipal election in 2027 is well underway. Please join this effort.

The Eyewall takes an early look at the summer's hurricane forecast.

The Current finds that not everyone in Boerne is happy to be the site of a new Bravo show.

The Dallas Observer reports on another lawsuit filed in Hood County against a very noisy cryptominer.

City of Yes explains why social media is not a town square and what we need to do to get real town squares back.

The Texas Signal warns about private equity capture of OB/GYN care.

Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt needs to stop drinking period

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

And, if she needs a massive legal banhammer dropped on her after her second DUI, rather than what looks like codding of a diversion program after her first arrest — one that she never should have been given, IMO, and that she may have violated anyway, that's what needs to happen.

Beyond Kuff? Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt seems to have a clear alcohol abuse problem. (From my history in media, a person in their 50s or older getting multiple DUIs is a problem indeed. It may indicate a long chronic behavior abetted by others. It may indicate massive age-related changes that increase susceptibility. In either case, the age means it may be harder to change behavior.

Yes, the piece I linked is the NY Post via an aggregator. But it has the facts on the ground.

Here's why she shouldn't have gotten diversion the first time.

Wyatt was previously booked on a driving while intoxicated charge in 2023 and recorded a blood-alcohol concentration of .365% – more than four times the legal limit of .08, according to KPRC.

IMO, a diversion program is meant for someone with, say, a BAC of 0.12 and no priors. Even with no priors, her blood alcohol level should have disqualified her.

That said, did she actually complete the diversion? Well, maybe not:

But she was accused of not installing an ignition interlock device on her car, according to her case report.

An installed interlock would have prevented her second arrest. It would have prevented her from further damaging her own life and being a further danger to the public. If so, and her attorney wants to fight, I hope the failure to install the interlock gets brought up time and time and time again until he surrenders, too. That includes reviving the original case and charge, of course.

And, if Wyatt had a mini-stroke in her past, and other cardiovascular health problems? That shouldn't be used as an excuse, but rather seen as yet more reason for Wyatt to stop drinking, and for other people to say this.

By not providing all the details about her past history, and with other comments, Kuff comes halfway close to enabling her. I'm sure there are other people who have been fully enabling her.

Trump endorses Paxton; bad framing by the Texas Tribune; stupidity by Talarico camp

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 May 2026 02:30:35 +0000

Yes, the first two days of early voting are in the can, but Rethuglicans still like day-of election day voting more than Democraps, so Trump's endorsement of Kenny Boy over Big John Cornyn has plenty of potential election effect.

And, it really does, as his Pure Gall cutout from the Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ world just beat Thomas Massie by 10 percentage points in Kentucky tonight, after toppling Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy a week earlier.

Per the Trib at the top link:

In teasing the endorsement Tuesday morning, Trump said he’s “had my mind made up for a long time.”

Typical Trump bullshit, of course. The easy refudiation then is, "Then why didn't you make the endorsement a long time ago?"

Trump probably got showed some Kentucky 4th District polling that showed Gallrein was up on Massie and so Trump figured he could look like kingmaker in the Texas Senate race now.

The Trib then claims that Trump is making the endorsement now because he thinks Dem nominee James Talarico is a weak candidate. Only problem is that the quote of Trump's they cite is from March.

They're not the only ones screwing up.

A Talarico spox said:

“With all the baggage, it’s no wonder that one-in-four John Cornyn voters say they’ll vote for James Talarico if Paxton is the nominee,” SMP spokesperson Lauren French said.

In reality, the poll said 4 percent, not 1-in-4, and that's actually lower than with Paxton backers. The poll also said Paxton was comfortably ahead, as of a month ago. And, that's not just one poll. See here.

Frankly, I can see how this plays out. Paxton gets the nomination, Talarico and campaign team think this gives them an edge, and instead, they get their ass kicked in November.

Meanwhile, Kenny Boy has another office scandal, this one over a plea deal giving a child sex abuser a misdemeanor.

Kelly Board (Foust): An undercover operative on Shitter?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 May 2026 19:09:00 +0000

And, by undercover, I mean for one country not named the United States and not part of any Cold War 2.0 animus. Three guesses and the first two don't count.

This Kelly Board (Foust) attacked Drop Site News for its noting that a US federal judge had suspending US sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

She said, in her response, that "she's still under lawsuit, a fraud and a liar." I in turn called Board a fraud and a liar.

The reality is that Albanese, who is NOT American, or British, and don't forget that constitutional jurisprudence in Italy is not the same as in Anglo-American law, said she was a lawyer although she's never taken a bar exam. She does have a law degree.

When this came out last year, Zionist sites like UN Watch (it is) started a lawfare campaign against her. (It is.) I can't prove deliberation, so I won't call her a liar. I definitely don't call her a fraud.

Ms. Whoever (don't know if that's her real name, blue check and all and hold on to that thought, aside) then got snooty. And, like she's not a real defender of "free Palestine," no matter her claims

She replied:

Total liar and support of killing an entire population and their right to exist.

And then the snooty:

Sounds botish and very ignorant in your not requested reply to me.

OK, now.

First the first. You claim to support a free Palestine, but free for WHOM? Yes, you make an occasional callout response to either Bibi's official Shitter or the Israeli foreign ministry's, but it's not that strong. And, you claim Albanese is supporting genocide against Israel. I didn't think to include that in first response back, which was mainly snark about not realizing I needed her permission to respond.

Let's get back to that.

The first pull quote, "support" instead of "supporting" seems a bit off.

Then, to pick up the thread from above? Lots of blue checks don't follow that many people, so under 200 following is not a big deal. But, a blue check on Shitter, on Shitter since 2019, with under 100 followers? Seems a bit off. She also has no posts, but only replies. (She's not a porn bot, which of course all do that.)

She responded to me, May 14, before my full callout May 15 of "free Palestine for WHOM" with this:

Francesca is a fraud and a liar. She has undermined UN rules, lied, and abused power. This lawsuit isn’t about a UN Watch, this is about her facing consequences that have gone unchecked for far too long. This just enables her to sit in front of a jury, finally. And pay her respected part - and then some.

OK, as with the "support" vs "supporting" above, something seems just a bit off on English usage, like the "respected part." This ignores that it's a lie that Albanese has undermined rules or abused power, of course.

Her profile bio also seems just a bit "off," as if she used AI to help fill it out:

I’m like a historian of people, places, and events; including: strong points. It’s not here though.

But, one would thing that an Israeli operative would knock out the English just as well as their operatives speak flawless Arabic in person. So maybe I should think of the Cold War 2.0 angle more. Anyway, a bot calling me "botish" would be hypocritical, assuming she's one herself. Also, as a native English speaker, I'd spell it "bottish."

As for the blue check? After Elmo changed the rules, it doesn't mean that's a "verified" account. And, out of curiosity, I checked. A blue checkmark can hide their checkmark; they can't hide tweets, though. A person who's not a porn bot, but has been on Twitter nearly seven years and only replies, never posts for themselves is some kind of nefarious person.

That said, I googled her "@" as well as her Twitter handle. The third response on very slim returns was this TWStalker account for a Knesset member's page, one who tweets entirely in Hebrew. Replies aren't shown unless you click on individual posts. She is not a follower or followed, though.

THAT then said, would Mossad or another Israeli intelligence agency maybe get a developing world Zionist, emigrated to the US, to post this? Or have an Israeli deliberately slightly mangle stuff? Remember that, before the emigration of Russian Jews, they would have learned these tricks from both the Tsarist Okhrana (though those would all be dead) and various Soviet intelligence agencies.

I've spent enough time on that; I'm not going down the Jessica Wildfire rabbit hole.

The 25th Amendment solution, or non-solution, republished with response to Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 May 2026 04:56:38 +0000

NOTE, May 21, 2026: I am REpublishing this after Blogger said it was "unpublishing" it because it allegedly violated community guidelines. I was just given a link to all community guidelines without saying WHAT guideline was violated. That's more gaslighting than Elmo and his minions on Shitter.

There is NO adult content here. There is LESS THAN NO child exploitation or abuse. Nothing dangerous that I can tell, and certainly nothing illegal. (Describing a hypothetical-only quasi-coup under the 25 Amendment is certainly not illegal.) Skipping down the list, there is no misleading comment related to democratic principles, or to other things. Nothing deceptive, fraudulent or scammy. No harassment; it's legitimate talk of Trump's psychiatric background.

I got an email about this as well, from a "no-reply" Blogger account, which had no more explanation than the note on Blogger.

That said, fuckers on Blogger? I'm also copy-pasting this to Substack. Per the email, I'll click your link. I'll also copy-paste it here, anew. How's them apples?

If it was the one dead link I removed, you're still shitheads for not telling me yourself.

Good old Rusty Douthat is proposing that we look at the 25th Amendment, rather than the impeachment process, as a way of dethroning President Trump.

Update: Proving that Peter Principleship stupidity is bipartisan for inside-the-Beltway / Acela Corridor pundits, Richard Cohen halfway makes the same call, though he doesn't go full Douthat.

Beyond my continuing to reject the idea of a Trump-Putin conspiracy, I do agree with Douthat that Trump probably hasn't risen to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors" prescribed by the Constitutional impeachment process in part because he's too dumb to do that.

So, yes, let's look at the 25th Amendment.

Section 4 is the applicable portion:

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Several thoughts.

First, this is an invitation to a quasi-coup by a savvy Veep. Mike Pence is certainly more savvy than Trump. And, people like Rusty Douthat would greatly prefer him. In fact, I've half-jokingly tweeted that Trump tapped Pence as sort of a hostage against Congressional Democrats.

You just have to round up half the cabinet, plus one, and say, "Voila, I'm the acting president."

Then, if Trump contests it?

Oops, you're back to a quasi-impeachment setting.

Two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress.

So, first, for this quasi-coup to succeed, Pence has to be a good vote-organizer, and a good vote-counter along with that.

Second, Members of Congress must have gonads nearly as big as they would for impeachment. Charles Cooke at National Review talks about the "psychic shock" of invoking the amendment. He's primarily referring to Trump voters, but this must also be extended to Congress, whose members in general like the daylight of responsibility about as much as cockroaches.

Third, it seems pretty clear this provides for a JFK-type situation, as Cooke also notes; in fact, it was in the wake of his assassination, and wonders about where U.S. leadership would have been at had Lee Harvey Oswald not killed him, but, say, the head shot did permanently incapacitate him, that the amendment were passed.

In this case, even for the initial coup, let alone two-thirds of Congress, Pence would have to get a psychiatrist sign off on a mental health evaluation. First, is Trump "diminished" in that sense? Probably not. Is he an idiot? Yes.

(Sidebar and addendum: If a threat of the 25th Amendment could be used to force Trump to take ADHD meds [dead link removed], if that's what he needs, well, in that limited sense, it might work. But, the threat has to be credible in the first place.)

And, Oliver Wendell Holmes, from the Supreme Court bench, long ago spoke about the rights of America to have idiotic laws and, presumably and tacitly behind that, idiotic government officials.

For example:

I always say, as you know, that if my fellow citizens want to go to Hell I will help them. It's my job.

And, unless something is unconstitutional, judges theoretically rule by statute, then common law.

So, no, Rusty, it's a non-solution. And I think you know that. Basically, you're trying to fart in already stinking bath water and pretend you're giving us a bubble bath.

There's also this sidebar, written about impeachment but also applicable to use of the 25th Amendment. What if it fails? You think Trump is stark raving mad NOW? To add to that, Bruce Bartlett notes that Faux News et al would likely have shielded Nixon today while sheepdogging Congressional Republicans.

==

Sidebar: This is yet another argument for parliamentary, or at least quasi-parliamentary, government. (A Donald Trump would have never risen to run the GOP. Unfortunately, a Paul Ryan might have, and a Hillary Clinton almost certainly would have headed the Democratic Party. Of course, quasi-parliamentary government would theoretically provide more openings for third parties.)

And, I also think Rusty knows THAT.

Per my review of "Frozen Republic," the real answer is constitutional reform that goes well beyond eliminating the Electoral College. All of this is badly, badly needed.

Sidebar 2: This is the second blog post in a row where I've had to note the Peter Principle class of inside-the-Beltway, Acela Corridor "journalists" has limited understanding of the U.S. Constitution. That's not to mention the Texas Legislature's ongoing cluelessness, mixed with willfulness, about that document.

==

Update, Feb. 14, 2019: It's clear that Andrew McCabe knows little about how the 25th Amendment operates, as far as who invokes it, and what it can and cannot do. Ergo, I'll still assume it's more likely that he, not Rod Rosenstein, is lying about the idea of invoking it.

AOC running for prez? Neoliberal Overton windows coming up; Stephen A? Barf me

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 May 2026 16:29:28 +0000

Type your summary here Type rest of the post here

Well, in talking with The Ax, David Axelrod, last week, she certainly left the door open.

Given that she's already been part of stealing the Green New Deal from the Green Party, then watering it down, backed off cow farts to eat burgers and other things, how much more neoliberal will her Overton Window shift be?

That said, of the 19 listed candidates for Democrats that USA Yesterday (have to make up a nickname, even though, as when it was still Gannett, it's Craphouse that wags that dog), many will not run.

Mark Kelly will, if nothing else, not want to put wife Gabby Giffords through this, I think.

"Hawaii Gov. Josh Green." No, really?

Stephen A. Smith? He talks out of both sides of his mouth so much (last week, a day after saying that Wembanyama should be suspended for Game 5 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, he saluted the NBA for NOT suspending him) he could try to run for both duopoly parties' nomination at the same time. Speaking of, USA Yesterday ignores how much he cuddles up to Republicans.

Amy Klobuchar? After her 2020 disaster?

Tim Walz? Tarnished.

Josh Shapiro? Too ardent a Zionist for many Democrat voters, even if elites try to push him.

Mayor Pete? Don't think so.

Marge shoots down Trump UFO release with Jewish space lasers but misses the likes of Rod Dreher

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 May 2026 16:08:00 +0000

I see what I did there.

Marge of course being Trevor Lawrence, aka Marjorie Taylor Greene. Trump being Trump.

The UFO release, which is totally bullshit, is this.

What she said?

Former representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, took to social media to deride the release, calling it “‘look at the shiny object’ propaganda” while the administration waged foreign wars.

“Unless they roll out live aliens and test demo UFOs or actually admit what we know this really is then I have way better things to do on this Friday,” she wrote.

True.

Note for Rod Dreher and his off the wall Religious Right friends who think this is actually demons?

Even if Rod doesn't believe this bullshit:

There has been for decades a group within the government called the “Collins Elite” — Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians in the intelligence world who know that UFOs are real, but who believe they are demonic, and who have been fighting disclosure.

Putting it on paper just gives it more credibility.

Besides, you used the word "know," at least of the UFOs, if not of the claim that they're demonic. He further indicates he believes the organization does exist, and with another chance to deny that aliens have been found, and that they're actually demons, once again won't say no.

It gets worse from there. Dreher conflates anti-zionism and antisemitism, then claims this is a sign of the "end times" while also getting into supersessionism, and per my comparing him to Paul Kingsnorth, actually mentions "The Machine."

Listen to Marge, and haul Beelzebub to JPL or some other science research lab and let's test!

Let's start even before that? Digital camera or smartphone? The actual memory card to look at the original photo. (Ditto for film and negatives.) That's part of how you be actually skeptical about UFOs, skeptical enough to realize it's laughable that actual aliens would be visiting us. When not laughable, it's incredibly ego-solipsistic, aka narcissistic, on the part of the claimant.

Roswell? Nah, an actual military conspiracy (for "obvious" Cold War reasons) trumps an alien visit conspiracy theory, one that, like Christian gospels, accumulates an ever bigger patina or tarnish (take your pick) of legend with each "telephone"-like expansion of the original.

Besides, UFO fundagelicals like Daniel Brito never honestly look at economics, energy expenditure, and many other things. Per a second follow-up to that, as well as what I mentioned in the original, they also never discuss lies and confabulations, recycling material already proven to be fake, grifting, helping others grift, and more.

Texas Progressives

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 May 2026 18:37:00 +0000

Off the Kuff interprets a pro-Cornyn election projection that assumes Republicans are already in deep doo-doo for November in Texas.

SocraticGadfly did some light numbers-crunching and wondered if all of Texas' big metros really need to kowtow to Strangeabbott on the issue of ICE non-collaboration vs state grant funding cutoffs.

The Trib has a follow-up on Strangeabbott's thuggery, now being put in the service of Islamophobia, of course. It notes he's being doing this for more than a decade.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project reports on a conversation with a Houston City Councilmemberwho flipped on the ICE ordinance, and asks at what point will we advocate for freedom against our authoritarian/ white supremacist state and federal governments.

If you get stuck in Big Bend, here's the guy who could be your ultimate salvation.

Speaking of? The Border Patrol has officially abandoned plans to run a border wall through the park.

Vo must go?

There's a new McMurtry bio; the Observer reviews. Let's hope it's better than the previous one.

El Paso Matters told how delays and gaps in reporting on measles statistics made the response to it much more difficult.

Deceleration reports on how Texas cities are gearing up to deal with rising heat.

The TSTA Blog advises you to trust Thomas Jefferson on the question of religion in public schools, and not Dan Patrick.

The Dallas Observer does the grim task of documenting all of the mass shootings so far this year in Texas.

For different listening, this episode of the Care and Feeding podcast, featuring Houston's Mandy Giles, founder and CEO of Parents of Trans Youth, with some advice for a listener about their nonbinary child.

Graham Platner's tattoo (and other things)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 May 2026 14:24:00 +0000

I'm not wasting massive time on it. And, I'm only providing one link as a direct reference link — Snopes. Then two other backgrounders plus an image.

I broadly agree on two things.

One is that, unless we have a much better photo than an underlit video-grab from more than a decade ago, it's hard to say how closely his tattoo resembled the Totenkopf.

And, that — the Totenkopf — is the second link. Not to justify it, today, but it has a pre-Nazi and even a pre-German past.

And, not even a past! The Royal Lancers in the UK use their own version of it today.

As for him not knowing what it meant?

Quite possible. How much does the average 22-year-old or whatever Marine enlisted man who has not gone past high school level know about this imagery, versus of course the swastika. For all you doing callouts, was the Totenkopf covered in your high school world history class? Did you know what it was before you decided this was a good opportunity to dogpile on him?

And, that would be one thing enough if he got it at a bar near an American base.

Instead, he's in Croatia getting drunk in a bar with fellow Marines. Did ANY of them know what this symbol meant?

Or rather, per pre-WWII Germany and today's Royal Lancers, did it just look cool?

Likely the latter, though not as cool as the Royal Lancers.

Meanwhile, an ultra-Orthodox retweeting racist Richard Hanania to try to "own the Zionists" or whatever he was doing is on pretty shaky ground doing a callout of Platner, then getting indignant when I called them a Zionist. Lie down with fleas ...

Now, as for the Croatian tattoo shop owner? Given the Ustashe in World War II, complete with a Croatian SS unit (founded before the 1st Galician of modern Russia-Ukraine infamy) followed by the right-wing thuggery of Franjo Tudjman as first leader of post-independence Croatia, I have little doubt they knew at least the general history of the Totenkopf.

This is not to say that I don't find Graham Platner troubling.

Obviously, I can't read all his deleted Reddit posts. They were written years later. For someone who claims they were leftist by then, a certain amount of them cut against that grain. And, yes, PTSD is serious and real. But, per the Latin bon mot, "in vino veritas," PTSD doesn't necessarily cause an "alt-persona" to arise.

This also show that he's a political novice. Experienced candidates running for something as high as a US Senate seat do "oppo research" on themselves to find out in advance what opponents might dig up, and to be prepared in advance.

I didn't think to check his Wiki much in advance. I'm as troubled by the fact that his family was moneyed enough to send him to an elite prep school like Hotchkiss as anything else, even if he got financial aid. Did he get booted, though? That's not the only high school he attended. The other is also private, originally Catholic but now nonreligious.

British local elections: winners and losers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 May 2026 16:08:00 +0000

A brief hot take on who won and lost last week in British local elections.

Losers:

1. Der Starmer. Yes, that's what I call him. If you recognize the bad pun and like it, pass it on. If you don't like it, that's on you. If you don't get it, sorry.

2. Your Party, or as Paul Braterman called it, My Party, aka Jezza Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. What, you can't be a formally organized party to field local candidates yet? Yikes.

3. Zionists. On Shitter, by Sunday, they were already flinging the same false antisemitism claims that once got hurled at Corbyn at ..

1. Green Party and leader and leader Zack Polanski, who actually is Jewish and I hope has sharper elbows that he throws more vigorously than Corbyn. (Beyond being a wet noodle on the attacks against him, Corbyn's lie to the Labour caucus meeting about allegedly giving a vigorous defense to Remain is another reason I have low, low regard for him. He made his own bed long ago.) Indeed, Polanski is more truly Jewish in some ways than his Zionist attackers — one of whom on Shitter, in response to me called Corbyn a "trot."

2. Gordon Brown. If Der Starmer's response to the shellacking includes resurrecting your political corpse, Gordo, you're a winner.

3. British politics. If Corbyn and Sultana can't get their shit together, the GP is already moving forward and providing an actual option on the left. We'll see what tea leaves to read out of the King's Speech today, otherwise: Starmer's one of those passive-aggressive types who won't step down without a shove and without breaking at least one deal. Would Labour backbencher anger at him rise enough for a confidence vote if he attempted to block it within the party?

Even keel

1. Nigel Farage and Reform. Other than Zionist rabbis inviting Farage and his antisemitic past to address them while excluding Polanski (and showing themselves to be big losers), they're not winners. Don't believe claims otherwise from the likes of the Beeb.

Getting stuck in Big Bend, getting Yankee salvation — even when you're an idiot

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

If you get stuck in Big Bend, here's the guy who could be your ultimate salvation. And, he's a Yankee from Massachusetts.

That said, despite his big heart, there's info in the story that shows some people don't belong in the back country of one of the largest, and almost surely the second most primitive, of national parks this side of Death Valley. (The Maze district of Canyonlands is still well ahead, and may directly challenge some of the worst of DV, though not being as hot in summer as Big Bend, let alone Death Valley.)

Now, those ... idiots?

This:

In March, four college kids in a Land Cruiser got a flat tire on Black Gap Road, in Big Bend National Park, and were so low on gas that they couldn’t run the air conditioning. The road is technically closed due to flooding damage last year, so the chances were slim that anyone was going to drive by. At 4 p.m. on a 101 degree day, they were able to send a message to one of their dads, who joined several Big Bend Facebook pages and was directed to Cary. By sunset, Cary had contacted them and made a plan to meet up first thing the next morning with gas so they could at least stay cool. All in all, he spent seven hours fixing the tire and helping them get on their way.

First, riffing off the warning at the end of the piece, Land Cruisers DO have a full-sized spare. If you don't know how to access an under-carriage spare tire when you buy or rent such a vehicle, you should familiarize yourself well before driving a place like Black Gap Road, even when it's truly open.

For more on how tough Black Gap Road is? The Park Service notes it is "not maintained and requires 4-wheel drive." More here. Both links have multiple photos.

Second, you shouldn't be an idiot on running that low on gas in a place as big and as remote as Big Bend. I would have known that in college, even with a lot less money than these kids have. And, yes, money and class are getting mentioned here.

Third, what would you have done without a cellphone signal? (This is likely to lead to a push to put even more cellphone towers — a totally wrong push, of course, and another reason to visit more and more non-national park federal land. The subreddits about national parks sometimes reinforce that idea.)

Fourth, yes, it's a stereotype, but things like this are the reasons stereotypes of Millennials more and more come off like generalizations, not stereotypes.

(Per my take on modern informal logic and its split of the old deductive vs fallacious on arguments into deductive, inductive and fallacious, an observation about a group that's more than 50 percent true, even if not 100 percent true, is a generalization not a stereotype.)

And, in the case of Big Bend, this is based on personal observations beyond the story. From 2001-11, I went a dozen times, maybe one or two more. It was mainly at Thanksgiving, but I did a couple of Christmastime trips and a couple of spring ones. By, oh, 2007 or so, I considered myself a "veteran." That was not just due to my own hiking and exploring, but also due to listening to the tales and information from veterans in front of me and even super-veterans. (Big Bend, like Death Valley, attracts people like this.)

I got out there once, maybe twice, but I think only once, during the 2012-15 period and after that, not until 2019. The park had changed; they were already then doing reservations for the primitive drive-in sites. I can't remember if they were trying to clamp down on or eliminate dispersed backcountry camping outside of designated sites. (My second or third trip, I backcountry camped in the vicinity of the Marufo Vega trail.)

Anyway, my first night at the hot springs, I'd already had a day of, between hikes, overhearing millennial types seemingly not interested in the traditions, and other matters, a day of disenchantment. Running into millennials at the springs being frou-frou was the last straw. I wasn't expecting them all to be in the springs nekkid, like the folks possibly from Hippy Hollow my first night at the springs on my first trip. But, I was wishing for them to be other than what they were, that late in the night after dark.