SocraticGadfly

Top blogging of March 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +0000

These were the 10-most-read pieces from last month. As is usual, not all of these were written last month. Those that are older and "evergreen" will be noted as such.

No. 10: "Abortion: A Gordian knot for many liberals" from 2014 dived in depth into how much this is not a black and white issue.

No. 9: My piece about how Edith Hamilton mistranslated one word in Aeschylus famous saying, and then, how Robert F. Kennedy misquoted her deliberately incorrect translation, talked about how this bowdlerized a thought already bad on the issue of theodicy within classical polytheism and made it even worse within Christian monotheism, and how it also is another reason to question to legacies of both Hamilton and Kennedy.

No. 8 was from way back in 2013, and was a shredding review of Chris Stedman's "Faitheist." The book is no better, and, AFAIK, Stedman is no more intellectually honest, 13 years later. I did do teh Google, and see that he is now on Substack, natch. As for what he's writing about? Minnesota nice librul humanism of a sort. He does write about ICE, unavoidable in Minneapolis. He does not have a single word about Gaza and Palestine. Fuck off, even more than before.

No. 7? "Global warming may be speeding up" says it all.

No. 6? A golden oldie from 2006. Again, the title says it all: "Timothy Treadwell WAS really fricking nuts."

No. 5 was about the largely self-inflicted water crisis in Corpus Christi.

No. 4, from early March, was my take on the Iran War at one week. Update now that we're at one month, not one week? Trump's gotten stupider and more Norman Vincent Peale stubborn, and may be getting puppeted a bit by Hegseth. Congressional Democraps may or may not find more cojones after Easter. Ditto to even a smaller degree with Rethuglicans.

No. 3, one week later, was related. It was about red heifers without spot or blemish, including how Israel is slow-walking and suckering Texas ranchers trying to raise them, and it was also about some things the Texas Monthly "shockingly" got wrong on its biblical interpretation.

No. 2, from 2014? Brian Dunning was intellectually dishonest and also legally guilty just a year after Chris Stedman was an intellectually dishonest glory hound and nothing has changed since then.

No. 1 was a March roundup of environmental news, starting with undercounting of methane leaks. We're looking more and more screwed all the time on climate change.

Big Bend gets a physical wall reprieve, for now

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Building the big boondoggling wall through Big Bend — opposed by local-level, actually knowledgeable Republican elected officials, contra state-level MAGAts sucking up to outgoing Ag Commish Sid Vicious Miller — seems to be on hold for now.

Sam Karas, a Rio Grande river guide and sometime reporter for the Big Bend Sentinel, tells the Monthly how breaking the story about the wall originally broke him.

The story notes, which I didn't think of, that arguably a border fence ANYWHERE along the river is illegal under international law:

In 1848, when the United States and Mexico set the slippery boundary between the two countries somewhere in the Rio Grande, the framers of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo wrote that the Rio Grande “shall be free and common to the vessels and citizens of both countries; and neither shall, without the consent of the other, construct any work that may impede or interrupt, in whole or in part, the exercise of this right.” We vessels and citizens had certainly been impeded and interrupted.

Well, there you go. Surprised that argument hasn't been raised more.

The story talks about other wall stupidities in the area, like trying to fence off every ephemeral wash, creek and arroyo that runs into the river.

Karas adds more about how she got wind of the story at The Border Chronicle.

The Observer, with the Chronicle, ties wall building to political resistance.

The Texas Signal discusses the "smart" border walls in general.

Science news — more problems with DNA chimeras

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 16:46:00 +0000

Just a fascinating story here. Imagine that a woman has chimeric egg cells and because of that, she's accused of faking a pregnancy to defraud a state welfare system. I have written before about chimeras, but had never before thought about chimeric egg cells. Per the story, the phenomenon, germ-line chimerism, is little known, and can hit sperm cells as well.

Here's one such story:

One such case involved an American man who learned through a paternity test that he could not be the father of his child, who was conceived via assisted reproduction. He was preparing to sue the clinic, believing himself to be the victim of a semen mix-up, when a more precise test revealed that he in fact shared 25% of his DNA with the child. In other words, he was the child's uncle, genetically speaking. Further research showed that 10% of his sperm contained DNA from a vanished twin brother.

There's a religious side note, too. This gives a further swift kick to Catholic doctrine of ensoulment.

Per the link, there's a new book out about this, and this piece excerpts from that book.

Beyond people allegedly trying to rip off the government, false DNA reports obviously affect criminal justice. Note that chimeras can result from an absorbed embryo of a "fraternal" twin as well as an identical one. So, DNA from a chimera might match a brother or sister more than the person who should be and might be the top suspect.

Here's that, from the book:

The oft-taught equation of "one individual, one genome" fails to capture the full complexity of reality. What seemed a long-established and unshakable certainty, even to me, has turned out to be imperfect knowledge in need of revision. We know too little about our own biology to have blind faith that DNA profiling will always reveal a person's identity or origins.

Our ultimate proof is far from foolproof. Yet it is very often used to determine relationships, prove or disprove paternity, evaluate applications for family reunification, or convict persons otherwise presumed innocent.

Per the story, as with the woman at top? You might face fraud charges, as well as a criminal defense problem. You might face medical health problems that can't readily be identified, such as people discovered to be chimeras when needing a transplant. Then there's blood typing and other issues.

On the science, we know that fetuses can make their mothers into chimeras.

The author, Lisa Barnéoud, notes it's little known how many cases of chimerism exist in general. At least a dozen of specific germ-line cases are known. As I noted years ago about a Carl Zimmer piece, human chimeras, or chimeras plus the somewhat similar phenomenon of "mosaics," probably make up a lot bigger percentage of the population than most people think.

On the metaphysical and religious issues, as I have said before, this just gives a swift kick in the nads to "intelligent designer" claims.

These two issues are also a challenge to the classical "dual-omni" god and starkly raise the problem of evil, as well as challenging Catholic (and other) ensoulment at birth ideas.

Texas Progressives

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 13:18:00 +0000

The Texas Progressive Alliance knows all it needs to know about Mormon wives as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff has one more look at statewide primary voting data.

SocraticGadfly discussed how global warming may be speeding up.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project said the unelected Houston City Attorney gutted major provision of proposed ordinance to regulate city cooperation with ICE. Still, we should advocate for ordinances in good part to organize ourselves locally for challenging days ahead.

Dustin Burrows is a constitutionally illiterate Pander Bear of a different sort than Dannie Goeb; his pet projects for next year's banana republic Lege include trying to get "Little Texas" counties of New Mexico to secede. Anybody with brains knows the NM Lege and Congress would both have to approve.

Levi Asher wants to see more fight against the algorithms that have alienated some young men from Democrats.

The Barbed Wire says that some "self-deportations" are actually homecomings.

The Bloggess reacts to one of her books being banned by New Braunfels ISD. In addition, The Current wants to know what New Braunfels ISD has against Matthew McConaughey.

In the Pink Texas did not attend JD Vance's Austin fundraiser.

The TPA is sad to hear about the closure of The Leader News, a 70-year-old neighborhood newspaper in Houston. We wish them all well with whatever comes next.

Colorado River Compact states continue to fiddle while the climate burns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:12:00 +0000

The seven states of the Compact (or what's left of it) still refuse to come to a deal, as the clock keeps ticking until the expiration date in September.

And, per the newest reporting on the status of negotiations by Inside Climate News, California and Nevada, at minimum, are pledging to sue. The AP also weighs in, with many of the same talking points about possible lawsuits as the century-old Compact expires in September, the increased likelihood of wildfires, and watering restrictions in places like Denver. But, with the AP speaking, that officially makes it Serious News.

I, like ICN, noted the problems with the deadlock on compact negotiations a month-plus ago.

And, having just gotten back from the greater Lower Colorado area, have experienced the lower-elevation big heat-up already. That, per ICN's story and my knowledge, is not as bad as the heat-up in the Upper Basin combined with the drought. But, it's problematic enough. It means Powell, Mead and reservoirs further downstream on the main stem of the river have started summer evaporation already in early spring. And, though water takes longer to heat up than land, the heating up is happening, and means that when normal summer heat comes, these damned lakes behind their damned dams will be what? Probably 3-5°, or 2-3°C, hotter than normal, meaning they'll evaporate even more quickly.

As for the Upper Basin?

Per the Snowpack site, we're at the worst snow levels in a decade. Now, everybody in the Rockies and Uintas know that late snows can happen. Barring an incredible thermometer flip, though, even if the area DOES get any later spring (or early spring for the mountains) precip, it's going to be rain not snow.

The picture has the details of the 10-year average, but the chart is interactive and will tell you this year is at 60-percent of the 30-year average, another sign this is a long-term drought.

Otherwise, NOAA's 30- and 90-day forecasts offer no hope, albeit slim longer-term precipitation help possibility for a small area from Tucson to El Paso. But that's in the second half of summer, too late for much help, and too far out to be that weighty.

UPDATE: Capital and Main also weighs in. Its focus is on the future of farming in the Imperial Valley.

So, what happens?

In Aridzona, they blame California and alfalfa for Saudi horses grown in-state.

In California, they threaten suits if their first appropriation is threatened. And, Central Valley farmers will continue to attack Gavin Newsom while continuing to give Trump a pass.

Neither follows Nevada's lead in being more aggressive on requiring things like low-flush toilets in new development, renovated commercial development, etc.

Nevada, having done a one-off on conservation, and with the smallest Lower Basin rights, may threaten to sue, but has little angle.

The Upper Basin?

Some governor or legiscritter or Congresscritter will go Vladimir Putin and say that they accept climate change is good and it means more crops can grow up there and so they need to hold on to their water. This is most likely in high-up Wyoming, followed by Utah then the Western Slope in Colorado.

Otherwise?

Utah has somebody to speed up getting water to St. George via the laughable Lake Powell Pipeline — including the laughable claim, as of a year or two ago, that high end on cost would be $2.2 billion. Five times that high is more likely for the LOW end. That said, per ICN 18 months ago, officially, for now, the pipeline is dead.

Colorado has High Plains farmers bickering with Western Slope farmers over cross-Rockies water transfers.

Wyoming, with no people, welcomes warming and pushes a libertarian attitude toward Upper Basin water.

New Mexico, finalizing its Rio Grande water suit settlement with Texas, looks for more cross-basin diversion of its own, slim as what it can do.

Reality Winner still appears less than fully in touch with her own reality

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:30:00 +0000

This is a moderately tweaked and moderately expanded version of my Goodreads review. It's certainly less expanded than many Goodreads reviews that I deem worthy of expansion either here or over at my philosophy and critical thinking site, but I thought it worthy of at least a bit of both.

I Am Not Your Enemy: A Memoir by Reality Winner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.75 stars rounded up, and for the MAGAts who most likely are many of the non-review 2-star ratings, it becomes the first 2-star review. (It goes on my "Meh"shelf but not my "Disappointing" because I wasn't expecting much in the first place.) Speaking of?

This review is coming from a non-duopoly leftist who suffers neither from Trump Derangement Syndrome, NOR from Trump Delusional Syndrome, per the one 1-star reviewer, an apparent MAGAt. I venture her comments represent at least four or five of the non-reviewing 2-star raters.

Rather, it’s someone from the left with Trump Reality Syndrome, who knows Russia hacked both the DNC and RNC computers in 2016, but also knows that its efforts to hack state-level and lower election and voter verification websites were a semi-nothingburger.

I also knew early on that the “Golden Showers” was laughable. Trump is literally shame-less, so even if had had a Golden Shower or four with Russian whores — or pre-marriage with a Slovenian soft-core porn model who came to the US on a fake visa — he could not be blackmailed. (I mean, this is a guy whose granddad pimped whores to miners in the Klondike.)

Per what I wrote shortly after her arrest about Winner’s own stupidity as well as The Intercept’s, I wanted to see if nine years of life had smartened Winner up. On the political issue that led to her arrest, and to her overreading a semi-nothingburger document, it appears not to have done so, as least as judging by silence.

(Beyond the Intercept's belated apology, plenty of other people owe her apologies. Like Michael Steele the British ex-MI6 agent who bought "Golden Showers" hook, line and sinker. Or Jon Chait, with his blathering that Trump has been not just a Russian but a USSR actual "asset" since the time of Gorbachev. None of these apologies, nor a pardon from the USofA government, will ever be forthcoming.)

Also, getting through the early part of the book, and either forgetting or not knowing that she had converted to Judaism or other things, wanted to see if she had any comments on Zionism, and its threat to the US. Nope. None in the whole book, despite Bibi Netanyahu being more of a danger to the US than Vladimir Putin. Yes, not all Jews are Zionists. But, still.

I think Winner has realized she can’t save the world. But, beyond not talking about Zionism, she says nothing about what she thinks today about Russiagate, which means she likely still believes it.

Her last (I guess) attorney? Allison Grinter (Gunter)? The attorney full of crap and lies in the PRO Gainesville case? (This is why I’m a skeptical leftist.) It's kind of fun having a bit of personal connection to a book.

I otherwise have one takeaway about her post-arrest story. In talking about her trial, she claims, without using the exact phrase, that she was not Mirandaed at her initial interrogation and arrest by the FBI. Really? Then why wasn't this raised at trial? Somehow, I think her framing is off. For example, you don't have to be Mirandaed if police indicate in some way, even without shouting it out, that you're free to leave. (Or free to tell them to leave if they're on your property and don't present a warrant.) And, from the way she lays out the scenario, it sure looks like that's what happened.

Otherwise, this is a tale of sadness, sadness in some ways that Winner herself doesn’t seem to grasp.

Her life seems to exemplify a sex-neutral version of the second half of the first of the ten Divarim from Exodus.

“The ‘sins’ of parents visit themselves even unto the third and fourth generation of those that hate me.” Throwing out the ideas of god, whether Yahweh, Jesus, Zeus and the House of Atreus or whatever distributing multigenerational punishments for sin, as secular psychology this is quite true. Winner’s parents were both hurt people who entered college looking to work for CPS, to help hurt people. They probably married each other to heal each other. It certainly didn’t work with Winner’s biological dad, and beyond the “Momface,” a nickname never explained in this no-index (dinged!) book, may not have totally worked with her mom.

Winner was hurt too. There’s the bulimia which pops in out of nowhere and is never explained as to how or why it started. (Hold on to that thought.) There’s what she calls “marking” in federal prison, but which is normally known to counselors as “cutting.” Then there’s the whole psyche, at least before getting out of prison, and certainly before her arrest, as a person who simply cannot stand still, and in a number of ways, simply cannot stand being alone.

The “hold on to that”? I quote from my review of the book “Bottoms Up” by Kerry Howley, a person Winner touts several times. (The book is actually a 1-star effort, more disorganized and more shallow even than Winner’s own book. )

Winner appears to have had a highly compartmentalized, and highly fragile, psyche, held together and shielded only by a highly disciplined organizational self. That, obviously, was shattered. And, I don’t know if she was put back together again by Humpty Dumpty’s sources. (For instance? The admission of bulimia that shocked her mother? We're never told when it developed. While we read about a new boyfriend every six months, we never have Winner say why — if she even consciously knows why. Nor do we hear more about her sister's apparent long-standing feeling that Reality was often a jarring intrusion into her own life.)

We’re not told that last bit by Winner, either, who is all smiley-faced about her sister throughout the book.

I think Winner is more hurt than she may realize. Maybe she's more hurt than she wants to realize, for that matter.

Bulimia? Cutting? With lesser “tells” of not being able to be alone and having a new boyfriend every six months? Trusting people to the level of gullibility? (There's one or two other things, but those are the biggest.)

I could be wrong, but to me, this is screaming child sexual abuse.

Reality Winner, I deeply hope I'm wrong. I at least as deeply hope that if I am not wrong, you're able to see this past and get help for it.

Even if it's not that, I still think there's something we're not hearing. It's Winner's right not to tell that, but it's also our right to say she's used up her 15 minutes of fame at th at point.

Another round of Reddit blocks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

"_something_anonymous" is a north Texas racist fucktard.

"Texas Patriot" that plus "just our heritage" slavery supporter.

"Big Waleopolis" is an ICE hardliner, and a dudebro if he's talking testosterone replacement.

All three popped up on a now-deleted post, about a guy rocking not just a Confederate flag decal on the rear window of his pickup, but also "1488" and a second Confederate flag flanked by the SS "lightning bolt" runes.

Flip side?

Did the guy who does "This Day in Baseball History" on r/mlb block me? Haven't seen it in two full weeks or more. Maybe he didn't like a pro-Palestinian comment of mine somewhere.

Texas Progessives talk food and more

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

Off the Kuff points to CD23 as both an underrated pickup opportunity and a possible barometer of Democrats' statewide fortunes

SocraticGadfly talks about the Cesar Chavez bombshell and why it didn't totally surprise him.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project reported how far-right Republican Councilmember Twila Carter sent the boss of Houston's police union to stand next to him, because he was taking pictures of public figures in a public place. It was just so stupid. And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

The Texas Observer looks at the influencer factor in the Democratic primary

Your Local Epidemiologist celebrates the legal victory for vaccines.

The Dallas Observer reported on a local public telehealth initiative that went wrong.

Texas Public Opinion Research announced its new project to test policy proposals.

The Barbed Wire tracks a number of Texas LGBTQ+ businesses that have disappeared.

Science news roundup — psychopathy and more

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:07:00 +0000

Is psychopathy — as used as a psychological personality disorder — a "zombie idea," one that won't die despite plenty of research, either "positive" contradicting the idea, or "negative," not returning supporting empirical evidence," showing that it doesn't hold water? Aeon magazine says yes.

Global warming may actually be speeding up

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

No sugarcoating this reporting from Popular Mechanics:

What [Stefan] Rahmstorf, along with fellow co-author and U.S. statistician Grant Foster, discovered was that the world warmed an average rate of 0.35 degrees Celsius in the past decade, a significant increase from the 0.2 degrees Celsius increases typically recorded since 1970. This is obviously worrying, since not only is the planet warming, but the rate at which it’s warming may be accelerating, complicating the timeline for addressing the climate crisis.

Ouch.

The authors explain how they got to this point:

The new finding was made by stripping away natural influences, such as El Niño events, volcanic eruptions, and solar activity, to analyze the underlying rate of warming.

That said, this would further backstop James Hansen's late-2023 findings, viciously attacked by Michael Mann. It would further backstop Peter Brannen's new book.

Per both of them, we have a "good" chance of hitting 5°C within a century.

Is this too high?

PM notes that other scientists have found accelerated warming, but at "just" 0.27 degrees.

Do the math. That's 2.7°C in a century, plus the 1.5 currently, for a total of 4.2. (The 3.5 would get us to 5C.)

Canada's New Democratic Party imploding further into irrelevance

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Canadian Commons Member Lori Idlout last week became the fourth party member since November to jump from the NDP to Mark Carney's Liberals.

This is the direct result of one thing, and that is taking a year — yes, a year! — to elect a new party leader since the disastrous early 2025 election result that forced the resignation of Jagmeet Singh as party leader.

That, in turn, was its own stupidity, prefigured by Singh having the NDP enter into a "service and supply lite" agreement with the Liberals under Justin Trudeau and getting basically nothing in return. More about that from me here.

The first link notes that Canada has by-elections for three ridings on April 13. If Carney wins two, with the four defections, the Liberals have a majority not a plurality. And, that is expected to be likely.

Technically, it will be 10 months, not a full year, as the NDP is currently in the middle of a three-week election process. But, you couldn't schedule this for earlier, when Singh resigned as party leader in May 2025 after the April election? You couldn't decide to move it up when you started having a defector problem?

I'm not sure which is worse, the NDP taking nearly a year for this, or Britain's Your Party defectors from Labour doing the same even as British Greens eat their lunch.

I mean, a theoretical selling point of parliamentary government is its flexibility. Delays like this totally undercut that.

Iran war tidbits update

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Did Israel push Trump to attack precisely to nuke progress in talks about Iran's nuclear program? Judging by comments by Britain's national security advisor, it sure looks like that.

Aluminum joins oil as among essential elements affected by the Iran war as Bahrain shuts down the world's largest smelter.

Mondoweiss wonders about blowback in the Iran War, specifically citing the high price for Israel to run its Iron Dome and indirectly referring to "Arab street" issues in the Gulf states.

Toddler Trump can't stand any news that shows him wrong, as he tries to climb off his ladder, or as I said last week in a Substack note about Drop Site News, pull his ass out of a crack, so calling the media traitors is where we're at now.

When not throwing toddler temper tantrums, the lying that's congenital with him (which is what that Substack note was about) keeps warping into high speed, such as claiming he's talked to one or more former presidents about Iran and they're with him.

Meanwhile, here's an expanded version of my "handwaving and fearmongering" roundup from a few days ago.

I am not totally surprised about the Cesar Chavez bombshell

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 18:00:00 +0000

If you haven't heard, it's statements he committed some sort of child sexual abuse, and also adult sexual assault, including raping Dolores Huerta:

“The first time I was manipulated and pressured into having sex with him, and I didn’t feel I could say no because he was someone that I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement I had already devoted years of my life to,” Huerta said in a statement published online. “The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.”

Wow.

That NBC piece and others ultimately refer to an in-depth New York Times story.

Two other women say they were molested as girls, one of them raped, more than once. It's bad, if you've not read.

Why am I not surprised? Though not even hinting at something like this, a critical bio of Chavez written about 15 years ago, "The Crusades of Cesar Chavez," referenced his authoritarian leadership and other problems.

On Huerta, as for why not earlier? She addressed that; and of course, corporate farm owners would have exploited this, and police certainly would have.

As for why now? She's clearing the slate of life at age 95.

As for why not later than the 1970s but earlier than now? The UFW and la familia:

A handful of Mr. Chavez’s relatives and former U.F.W. leaders have been aware for years about various allegations of sexual misconduct, but there is no evidence that they made efforts to fully investigate the accusations, acknowledge the victims or apologize to them. Instead, many of the women say they were discouraged from speaking out in order to preserve Mr. Chavez’s public image.

There you go.

Chavez has long been dead, but his legacy has to be preserved. The book is rated at under 4 stars on Goodreads, probably in part for that reason.

That said, the NYT notes that Pawel's "Crusades" and one other bio referenced other sex issues of Chavez:

Elements of Mr. Chavez’s extramarital affairs with adult women were chronicled in at least two biographies, Matt Garcia’s “From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement,” published in 2012, and Miriam Pawel’s “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography,” published in 2014.

And, the Times went beyond that:

While Mr. Chavez had eight children with his wife, Helen Chavez, the Times investigation showed that he also fathered at least four children with three other women. Two of these children and other family members were interviewed and confirmed the relationship. Additionally, 23andMe match results were reviewed for the four children, and they confirmed Mr. Chavez’s biological ties in each case.

That's why it was low-rated.

And, while Huerta's allegations have not been verified, Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas have both talked to multiple people over a period of years.

And, reportedly, one of Huerta's kids with Chavez came from that rape of her.

Basically, Chavez' La Paz site came off to me in Pawel's book as a quasi-Jonestown. (Chavez, when wearing the aviator shades, even looks a bit like a Hispanic Jim Jones.) The book even notes, as does Garcia's, that he borrowed tools from Synanon.

As for the fears of reaction? Yeah, with Strangeabbott officially saying the state will not observe March 31 this year as Cesar Chavez Day and he would ask next year's Lege to permanently kill it, that's why.

Texas Progressives talk Leqaa Kordia and more

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 13:41:00 +0000

A third federal judge has ordered Leqaa Kordia released on bond. And she is FREE. Remember, Kuff and Aquino among Tex-ass "Pergressuves" probably don't even know her name.

Off the Kuff says that if the number of primary votes cast in a Congressional district is indicative of that district's leanings, the Republicans may be in for a rude surprise in November.

SocraticGadfly offers up a roundup of environmental news, including methane undercounts.

Lula won't allow a Trump neo-Nazi envoy to enter Brasil.

Texas now faces its second lawsuit over excluding Islamic schools from the vouchers program.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project posted that Houston No Kings organizers made clear they don’t work with HPD & that there are many 3/28 No Kings protests across the Houston-region.

The Texas Observer tells of the Abilene high school librarian who fought back against Moms for Liberty.

The Current previews John Cornyn's latest attack ad against Ken Paxton.

The Barbed Wire checks in with some Asian-American business owners to see how things are going.

Deceleration would like for Stephen Miller to be the next Trump flunky to go.

D Magazine checks in on the state of play for sports betting in Texas.

Law Dork documents the latest Justice Department atrocities.

Qahim Rashid says the Democratic Party "war" is not progressives vs moderates but youth vs gerontocracy.

Unpacking Joe Kent's resignation

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 13:00:00 +0000

The big news, seen via The Dissident?

Joe Kent has resigned as Trump's head of counterintelligence, the guy who runs the National Counterterrorism Center.

Several thoughts.

First, per the Tweet/Shit on Shitter by Kent, that link above, even Looney Laura Loomer has enough brains on this one to dig up an old Shit and show him to be more than a bit of a hypocrite, arguably. Go read all the responses; it’s the old chimps eating a human face.

In the letter he does claim "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation." He says that the US had essentially neutralized Iran since Trump's 2020 assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Loomer calls up a September 2024 Shit of his, after the domestic assassination attempt on Trump, in which Kent says:

Iran has been after Trump since January of 2020, when he ordered the targeted killing of the terrorist Qasem Soleimani.

Dead to rights.

Well, not totally human.

Per his Wikipedia page, Kent is kind of a political whore. If he had really had integrity and less whoredom for political office, whether elective or appointive, he would never have taken the counterterrorism job in the first place. But, he decided to whore himself out.

And, he's obviously not well-read, either. Per James Bamford, Israhell was very much behind Trump's 2016 election, and his 2020 bid for re-election, too. (And surely, 2024, though Bamford's book came out in 2023.) I'm sorry your wife was killed in an arguably stupid war — setting aside whether it was "Israel-manufactured" or not —, but you had five-plus years since then to be reflective, and you still took this job.

And, you still stayed on this job after the start of the war. (That said, contra the Blue Anon yappers, you quit before anybody quit Team Biden after Oct. 7, 2023 and his blank checks to Israel.)

Now, in terms of the war, pivoting from him to Demented Donald? How does he spin this one? Not very well, I'm sure.

And, our answer came in quickly. Like Demented Don's wont, it involved no pause for actual thought.

Before we get to Trump's response, let us note Kent claimed that Trump had been duped by a "misinformation campaign." No mention of names, but we all know he's talking about Satanyahu, the person formerly known on Shitter as Netanyahu, as he did mention "high-ranking Israeli officials." I love it, and am stealing it, while also being pissed I didn't think of it myself. (But, it also includes the self-inflicted wounds mentioned above.)

Now, Demento Don:

Trump later told reporters "it’s a good thing that he’s out because he said Iran was not a threat. Every country recognized Iran was a threat."

Shock me. Actually fairly low on his bluster scale. (And, per Loony Laura Loomer, Joe Kent claimed Iran was a threat 18 months or so ago, and presumably felt the same way when taking Trump's job offer.)

Meanwhile, at Vox, Zack Beauchamp says we shouldn't align ourselves with other claims in Kent's letter to Trump, either. And, for this, you have to look at Bamford, you have to look at Kent's own background, and take this all in.

You also have to look at what came in Kent's letter after "high-ranking Israeli officials," which was:

[I]nfluential members of the American media ...

Now, that's not necessarily accusing them of being all Zionist. And, it's not antisemitic. Nonetheless, that, plus the other things I mention, lead us to Beauchamp.

Here's Beauchamp:

In fact, Trump has been hawkish on Iran for decades. Back in the 1980s, he called for troop deployments to the country and a US-led campaign to seize control over Iranian oil. In his first term, he tore up a nuclear deal designed to prevent war and assassinated a top Iranian military leader.

Moreover, Israeli leaders have lobbied every president in the 21st century to go to war in Iran; Trump is the only one who said yes. This suggests the key variable is less Israeli power over US foreign policy generally than the specific preference set and worldview of this president.

I think he protests a bit too much. But maybe not too too much.

Beauchamp then reminds us that we were in Syria in 2019 when Shannon Kent was killed was under President Trump.

I think a Candace Owens running with this letter is indeed antisemitic. I think that there may be some people already crafting a "framing story" for when the finale of this war indeed turns stupid. I know Kent has himself flirted with white nationalists.

But, I don't think this is all about antisemitism in Republican opposition to the war. Also, whether Kent is right or wrong on his framing, one can say that intervention in Syria was, if not "manufactured" by Israel, then at least "pushed" by it and not be antisemitic.

Beyond that, Syria under the Assads was long seen as an ally of Iran and a conduit for Iran to work with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Beauchamp either knows that and is protesting too much, or doesn't know that and should shut up. That's rhetorical; I know he knows this. So, why is he doing something that is gaslighting, or at least halfway there?

The Dissident, in his second piece about Kent's resignation yesterday, in large part focusing on Beauchamp, reminded us of what Seth Harp said in the must-read "The Fort Bragg Cartel":

Washington’s efforts to overthrow Assad, who, like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi, was an outspoken and belligerent foe of Israel, redoubled amid the Arab Spring protests. One of the most expensive CIA programs in history, a billion-dollar fiasco code-named Timber Sycamore, plowed thousands of tons of guns and ammo fresh from German and American factories into Syria. ... Chief among the Sunni extremist groups that benefited from the instability in Syria and the flood of black-market arms into the country was the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known by the acronym ISIS.

There's that.

Also undercutting Beauchamp? Klippenstein weighs in. Re the current war?

It is true that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agitated for war, but the Israeli military is operating more and more of one mind with the U.S. military. The two countries have shared a common war plan against Iran since the Biden administration. That level of cooperation has solidified under Trump, driven more by a true affinity and affection for the technologically and operationally sophisticated friend than anything Donald Trump (or Benjamin Netanyahu) has ordered.

There you go. He doesn't mention what Kent says on Syria, or Kent's odious personal background, but talks about larger objections to the war in both parties.

He does agree with me that this is inside baseball. On that? How Kemp phrases the letter?

Finally, was this a smear attempt? Max Blumenthal indicates so, noting that Beauchamp was once co-president of "Brown Students for Israel," an avowedly Zionist organization:

Brown Students for Israel aims to be a big-tent community united by the belief in Israel’s right to exist as a state for the Jewish people in all or part of their ancestral homeland. By hosting Israeli cultural events, organizing political programming that reflects a range of pro-Israel perspectives, and commemorating Israeli days of significance, BSI aims to create a place for Zionists — and those curious about Zionism — to connect, celebrate, and engage with one another.

Also, Zack was an intern for Andrew Sullivan (yeah, that guy) when Sully was still at The Daily Beast. Was he forced to intern for him? Probably not.

As for where Beauchamp stands? Per his own essay at Vox, it would be as a liberal Zionist, I think. But, even before Oct. 7, 2023, one-time liberal Zionists like Peter Beinart realized that modern Israel — and not just Bibi — had narrowed the grounds for that so much as to make it purely aspirational. Beauchamp, assuming he identifies with his essay, obviously doesn't agree, all the more so since it was written after the attacks.

Here's a good critique of his piece, and how unrealistic the idea is given current Israel, not just the middle-aged and older ruling class, but even more, younger Israelis.

The real, real issue was raised by Beauchamp but not pursued more fully by him — the idea that Trump is an empty vessel.

This is a tool to allow MAGA loyalists, Trumptards, whatever, to maintain allegiance to Trump while calling out specific actions of him. It doesn't have to be Israel who's called out. It could next be Volodymyr Zelensky and the nation of Ukraine, if Trump asks for big new defense spending. It could be the prime minister of Denmark or the EU's Ursula von der Leyen if Trump formally agrees to take his hands off Greenland.

In other words, you have members of a cult enabling Trump, or the idea of Trump, or the eikon or idol of Trump, because they're still afraid of Trump, and the rest of the cult.

That said, even Klippenstein may have "bit" a little, or at least not questioned someone else advancing that same idea:

“For a Hegseth who only wants the ‘warrior’ answer, Israeli swagger and combat competence is catnip,” the officer says.

The source adds that while Trump loves a winner, and he loves action, it is Hegseth and his “impetuousness” that pushes the relentless destroy-the-target, no-rules. no-quarter style of warfare that has unfolded.

Isn't that doing what Kent did? I mean, we all know that "impetuous" is Trump's middle name. Trump has no rules, but will give quarter if you punch back enough and others don't support him. And that's where we are right now.

Is Kent a rat deserting a sinking ship? As of March 11, 17 percent of Republicans said Trump was prioritizing Israeli interests over American ones. Per the Beeb, and other polling a day or two later, 90 percent of self-professed MAGAts were still backing the war.

I otherwise quote from the AP about the reality of what this means:

A special forces combat veteran with ties to right-wing extremists, Kent was considered as much of a loyalist as Trump could have in the government’s top counterterrorism post.

That's about right. Nobody on the left should be running Joe Kent up the flagpole and saluting him. He's a 2020 election "truther," palled around with white nationalists and is a COVID semi-denialist or worse.

Would China really buy yuan-denominationed Iranian oil?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

The possibility of that is the claim by European Business Magazine, seen via The Bulwark.

A senior Iranian official has told CNN that Tehran is considering allowing a limited number of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz — but only if cargo is traded in Chinese yuan, not US dollars. The condition, if formalised, would represent the most significant challenge to the petrodollar system in its fifty-two-year history, striking at the financial architecture that underpins American global power rather than at US military assets.

Color me HIGHLY skeptical of China actually doing this. For 20 years now, it’s run like hell from any situation, event, or financial control or stipulation that would put the yuan “on the spot” as anything close to a backup global reserve currency. President Xi Jinping may be indulging the Iranians in talk but that is likely all.

It's true, per EBN, that sanctioned Russian oil is denominated in yuan when not in rubles, but that's the exception that doesn't challenge the rule.

On the other hand? This:

Since 28 February, between 11.7 and 16.5 million barrels of Iranian crude have transited the Strait to China via shadow fleet under IRGC protection while every other nation’s shipping is locked out. China pays in yuan. China’s tankers move freely. X The architecture for a parallel yuan-denominated energy corridor already exists and is already operating.

On the third hand, that's why Trump is talking about attacking Kharg Island. I doubt Xi wants directly involved in the middle of that.

In any case, EBN caveats the piece at the end by noting China's financial system isn't ready yet to fully eat this whale anyway. That said, though, if anything close to this happened? Or even if some version of the current situation continues — as we see now what the help is that Trump is begging for from Xi, and he doesn't get it? Yes, it would be the biggest dollar erosion since Vietnam and post-Vietnam inflation mingled with the US going off the gold standard.

German Greens as neo-Nazi kamerads

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Per Moss Robeson on Substack?

Don’t let US and Israel Zionazis attack on Iran distract you from Germany above all, with the US and the rest of NATO continuing to coddle Ukrainian neo-Nazis of Azov and other groups. Also note the number of Germans, many of them German Greens, volunteering for service in Ukraine.

The Munich Security Conference drew many of "the usual suspects" from outside Germany, like David Betrayus Petraeus, Chrystia "no, my Ukrainian ancestors weren't like that" Freeland and Killary Clinton, even, were there.

But, the biggie? This:

Sergei Sumlenny is a German information warrior from Russia who “fights” for Ukraine, and now the “Azov Lobby.” Like many Azov supporters in Germany, he is linked to the Green Party. Last year, Sumlenny arranged a trip to the German parliament for Valery Horishny, a neo-Nazi pagan senior sergeant in the Azov Corps who has written poetry dedicated to Adolf Hitler.

Green parties in Europe in general, as well as Elizabeth May and her one-person band of Canadian Greens, have long been in the tank for Ukraine. (Many of them have been half-squishes on Gaza, even.)

But, the German Greens? I suspect something völkish is part of what we have here. Per Horishny, neo-völkish is indeed a deal. It's usually in the far right, like the original pre-World War I movement in Germany. But, sometimes, that old horseshoe theory is indeed real.

Let's not stop there:

At 11am, a junior sergeant in the 1st Azov Corps and lieutenant from the 2nd Khartia Corps spoke with the Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany and German MP Jeanne Dillschneider (from the Green Party) about “Defining the European way of drone warfare – Lessons from Ukraine for NATO and Europe.”

So, it's official party position.

Iran War early fallout, plus fearmongering and handwaving

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:18:00 +0000

The world currently produces 100 million barrels of oil per day.

Let us say that the Iran War shuts the spigots on 10 percent of that, or 10 million barrels per day.

Trump's release of 172 million barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve in the US, plus the International Energy Administration's announcement of 400 million barrels of release from global reserves, detailed here, is 57 days of relief. (That's if the two releases are separate; if not, 40 days.) More on the IEA move here; if you're wondering, that would be one-third of its reserve. If Iranian damage to Gulf Arab refineries is severe enough, that won't be easily replenished. The US reserve has about 415 million barrels, per CNBC. So, this would be about 45 percent.

Is Trump still hoping he can force Iran's ruling regime to collapse? Won't happen.

The end of the month until the US can escort tankers? That 10 million barrels of damage by Iran might be small.

UPDATE: The actual amount of oil going through Hormuz is about 20 million barrels of day. Currently, trans-Arabia pipelines, beyond what they already carry, cannot handle more than about 6 million additional barrels at best. See here for more.

"Iranian drones could strike California!" Change "Iranian" to "Japanese," "drones" to "submarines," and we're right back in 1942. Only this is surely Trump Admin rumor-mongering with even less basis in fact, targeting California cuz California.

As for the fallout? It's more than oil prices, at least in Merikkka. How direct the connection is, I don't know, but mortgage rates are going up in Middle America. Homeowners will notice that soon after gas prices.

Since Sen. Mark Kelly has beat the rap on his unlawful orders comment, due to this thing called the First Amendment, does he think Trump has issued unlawful orders to start the Iran war? You're pretty quiet, Mark. Well, you did say something about how the Senate needs to return to Washington and do its duty, but you're otherwise quiet.

Meanwhile, the car ramming of the Dearborn synagogue? Without condoning it? Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. Blowback, even when indirect, is still blowback. Non-Zionist Jews as well as goys have been warning against this since Oct. 7, 2023.

Bobby Kennedy, Edith Hamilton and Aeschylus — wrongness compounded, perhaps deliberately

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Bobby Kennedy's quotation of Aeschylus on the night of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death is probably one of his greatest known moments. It has flickered in and out of my mind through the years, and came to my starker attention recently. On the divine? It's bullshit, really, whether classical Greece's panoply or Aeschylus going henotheistic, on one hand, or Kennedy's Christian god on the other.

Anyway, here it is:

"In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

First, per several sites, the Edith Hamilton translation is "despite," not "despair." Aeschylus is slightly less bullshitting than RFK with "despite." The original idea doubles down on "against our will." Bobby's sounds more poignant.

But, neither is true. In the Christian dual-omni god world of Bobby, this runs straight on into the problem of evil, Aeschylus' original or his misremembered version equally so. A god who can't teach wisdom outside of suicides or homicides is either less than omnipotent or less than omnibenevolent.

That said, of course, Hamilton herself mistranslated the last word. In Aeschylus, it's, to give the whole phrase, "the awful grace of the gods."

For more on that, and other problems with Hamilton's translation, go here. I quote author Tara Wanda Milligan:

Even more than this, it is perhaps Hamilton’s reconstruction of Athenian tragedy, Americanized to focus on individual “poetically transmuted pain,” that appealed to Robert F. Kennedy. Hallett says that tragedy as conceived by Hamilton, a school headmistress with a master’s degree in classics but no further training, “focused intensely on individual suffering, democratic to the extent that it equalizes, and minimizes differences among, individuals who suffer and exult in their suffering.” A man of forty-two who had witnessed both his elder brothers die unexpectedly (Joe Jr. died while fighting in World War II), Kennedy needed solace and founded it in Hamilton’s writing. “Reading the Greeks was Jackie’s idea but something Bobby was ready for,” writes biographer Evan Thomas, adding that Aeschylus’s words “seemed to be speaking directly to Bobby.”

Going past that, the author notes that Hamilton misconstrues Hellenic Greek tragedy in general. Indeed, the Americanization is tragedy as individualized pathos.

While that's not "the problem of evil," per se, and it's not "theodicy," it is A problem of evil of sorts.

Go back to World War II, where African-American combat deaths, or service short of death, received less valourous recognition than that of Whites. Or look at "Drunken" Ira Hayes.

But, that issue goes yet deeper.

And I quote her again:

Donald Lateiner, professor of classics at Ohio Wesleyan, says that Hamilton’s notion of Athenian democracy, which overlooks its oppressive and hierarchical qualities and use of slavery, could serve as a sort of justification for American anti-communist foreign policy during the Cold War. That Robert, who served as his brother’s attorney general and enforcer during John’s presidency, found Hamilton’s depiction of Athens inspiring is unsurprising. “The Kennedys found in Edith Hamilton someone who presented a way of conceiving of American power that gave them some cache of the ancient democracy but also found justification for the use of power in the promotion of an ideology of democracy,” Lateiner says. Kennedy, therefore, was an ideal embodiment and champion of Hamilton’s conception of tragedy, and, conversely, Hamilton’s rendering of Athens provided a template for Kennedy to project his longing on—a nostalgia for an existence that never existed, a sort of left-leaning version of the #MAGA moment that took hold of Americans in 2016.

Ouch. Right?

Well, not so "ouch" for those who know the real RFK. That's especially true for those of us who know that in the 1968 primaries, he threw elbows at Clean Gene McCarthy, and also, in California, in a debate shortly before his assassination, opposed moving public housing in Los Angeles out to Orange County, while McCarthy supported it, noted in the link below. It's also not so ouch for those of us who know, re our current geopolitics, that he was a Zionist (contra overblown anti-Zionist conspiracy theories about Jack's assassination).

And, as far as the Kennedy take on Hamilton's take on Greece, another way of putting it is that "the grandeur of the Fourth Rome" was being covered with the lipstick of "the glory of Greece."

In other words? American Exceptionalism 101.

Coming up: One red heifer, without blemish or spot?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:35:00 +0000

Per the old bible verse of Numbers 19:2, Texas Monthly reports on the efforts of rancher Jerome Urbanosky and businessman Byron Stinson to raise just such animals. (Another rancher, Ty Davenport, eventually has his ranch looped in by Stinson, too.)

Stinson is a Christian Zionist wingnut. Urbanosky raises Santa Gertrudis, which caught his eye. The story says Stinson also looked at Red Angus.

The entire red heifer and purification water ceremony is in Numbers 19. Not all Christian Zionists, nor all religiously Orthodox Jewish Zionists, believe the red heifer is necessary to build a new Jewish temple, but many do. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are generally non-Zionist to outrightly anti-Zionist; their stances on temple rebuilding in general as well as the need for a red heifer can vary. Within Christianity, amillennial Christians reject the entire temple rebuilding nuttery as being necessary to bring on the apocalypse. On paper, this is the official stance of Catholicism, Orthodoxy and all mainline Protestant churches. In reality, it's not so clearcut among the laity. Outside of this, postmillennialists also generally reject this.

Shockingly, the Monthly gets several things wrong.

First, technically, it's to enter the tabernacle, not the temple. TM quotes Numbers 19 as saying "temple"; it does not.

Second, as with much of Numbers, there's no indication on how much this was ideal and aspirational vs being real, per Yonathan Adler's book.

Third, it was for general purification as much as anything.

Fourth, there's no indication in either the Tanakh or the New Testament that it was specifically necessary for temple rebuilding. (The Monthly does note that Orthodox Judaism sees a temple already ready to come down from heaven; see also Revelation.)

Yitshak Mamo, Stinson's partner, is an ultra-Zionist Israel settler colonialist nutter.

Related to that, the Monthly does tell you this:

Urbanosky told me he knew “doodley-squat” about the significance of a perfect red heifer. “You’re Christian, and they’re Jews,” Urbanosky said to Stinson. “So when the Temple gets built, who’s coming back, Jesus or the Jewish messiah?”

There you go. Millennialist Christian Zionist and Zionist Jews figure that, like other things, they'll fight it out after they kill the last Palestinian and finish making Eretz Israel Arab-rein.

Cut to the chase: Five heifers eventually got sent to Israel in 2022. (The Monthly and other sites have reported on this before.) Hamas noticed and mentioned this in early 2024, after the start of the current intifada; and the Israeli rabbi who will have the last word on making the purity call says they're not.)

According to [Rabbi Joshua] Wander, Rabbi Azria Ariel, of the Temple Institute, is the world’s foremost authority on the red heifer and perhaps the only figure with the clout to compel the necessary consensus to move forward. Ariel wasn’t satisfied with the candidates. “At this moment, it is unclear whether we have in our possession in Israel a red heifer that is verifiably kosher and suited for the ceremony,” Ariel announced in March 2025. One of the five heifers had sprouted white hairs; another grew warts on the side of its neck.

There you are. Perhaps it's a stall tactic, too.

It gets nuttier from there, with Stinson eventually finding some Israeli Jews, including an alleged priest raised for this moment, to do a practice red heifer ceremony. From there, Stinson goes MAHA with the ashes.

The author does note that the claims of Stinson and his ilk are rejected by mainstream scholars, but not until the last paragraph.

Texas Progressives talk votes, Iran

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

Off the Kuff did his initial analyses of the 2026 primaries.

SocraticGadfly had a roundup of coverage, reaction and issues with the first week of war in Iran, including callouts both of most mainstream media coverage and of actions and reactions by much of both duopoly political parties.

Steve Toth and his backers surely can't handle the truth, per Dan Crenshaw, but Dan? You're not a reliable dispenser of it yourself. Have fun playing your tiny violin in the corner.

Calhoun County GOP officials, because of hand-counting ballots, missed a state-mandated reporting deadline. Will any local officials actually be subjected to the Class B misdemeanor penalty prescribed by law? The Secretary of State's office punted, saying any legal action is in the hands of the county attorney's discretion.

Will banning institutional investors from buying homes stop a housing shortage and price-gouging? Shock me that the dude representing Redfin doesn't think so. Shock me more that he presents institutional investors as fighting housing segregation. Pontificating aside, he's right that more housing is needed.

Daniel Lubetzky, the guy who created the Kind health and hiking bars, wants to improve healthcare. Like Mark Cuban, the guy he followed on Shark Tank, his ideas here are incrementalist and at the edges. Will they be achieved? If so, will they be better than nothing? Probably no on the first, maybe on the second, just like his liberal semi-Zionism that was behind Kind's founding.

Forrest Wilder talked about the newest revival of "Will Texas Turn Blue?" G. Elliott Morris says "yes," at least on Luke 1 says Abort It Pander Bear James Talarico.

Were votes deliberately suppressed in Dallas County? Per The Barbed Wire, I would say no by local GOP offices, no by the Secretary of State, but maybe yes by Kenny Boy Paxton and the Texas Supremes.

The Observer covers the weirdest primary upset — Dallas County DA John Creuzot's stunning loss.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said with the primary over, we can get back to the more essential business of organizing ourselves and in his case, continuing to ignore Palestinians.

Audubon Texas is urging everyone to turn off all non-essential nighttime lighting on buildings and other structures from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. each night, to help migratory birds get where they're going.

Bay Area Houston hopes you weren't fooled by phony endorsement slates.

Pete von der Haar has seen this movie before.

The Lone Star Project reminds us that John Cornyn is in a bad position no matter what happens with the possible Trump endorsement.

Environmental news roundup — methane undercounts and more

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

If drillers and frackers in Colorado are undercounting methane emissions — and they are — you know that's the case in Tex-ass.

A unique aerial measurement campaign found that emission inventories compiled by energy companies to account for planet-warming methane leaking from equipment on Colorado oil and gas production sites undercount such pollutants by at least two times.

Yeah, I'm sure it is more than that here.

A Midland federal judge officially agreed with delisting the lesser prairie chicken in a lawsuit by environmental organizations against the pseudoenvironmental US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The decline in bird populations is accelerating:

Birds in the United States are not only declining, but they are declining faster, especially in areas with intensive agriculture, according to new research. Overall drops in bird population, measured from 1987 to 2021, were sharpest in warm and warming areas, suggesting that climate change may play a role.

Well, that would be my part of the world. The NYT piece, discussing a new study in Science, notes correlation is not causation, but still.

US environmental scientists and others have independently released a report on the state of global nature health that Trump killed shortly after entering the White House. As for Team Trump claiming in response that killing this was strengthening Merikkka's edge in research and development? Er, why are so many European PhDs going back to Europe, then>

What's next from and vis-a-vis Iran?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

First, in the week ahead, we will find out whether President Masoud Pezeshkian or Iran's remaining top mullahs, even without an appointed successor to Grand Ayatollah and Supreme Leader Khamenei, have more control in the country, I do believe. That's in part as divisions seem to be arising between Pezeshkian and other avenues of leadership over targeting the Gulf Arab states. More on that here.

That said, Iran can target "Israel abroad," just as Israel has targeted "Iran abroad" in Hezbullah. Or the US abroad, and I don't mean US military bases in Gulf Arab states. It's done this, or tried this, all before, per the Atlantic.

THAT said, would Trump really be dumb enough to send ground troops to Iran, after mocking Shrub Bush for Iraq, and starting the Afghanistan withdrawal process? Dumb enough or egotistical enough, he would. At a minimum, he's not ruled it out.

THAT that said, per Palestine Will Be Free, is Trump stupid enough to listen to junior grade Zionist neocons in Merikkka and the likes of Naftali Bennett, if not Bibi himself, and do something to Turkey? Speaking of, how craven will Turkish President for Life it seems Reccep Tayyip Erdogan look over the next week?

What will NOT be next is Trump admitting any responsibility for killing at least 175 kids in a school bombing. What will also NOT be next is capitalists discontinuing betting on war. What will also also NOT be next is Trump admitting Netanyahu played him for a fool rather than him refusing to green-light an Israel-only attack. (The Dissident's Internet Archive link to a WaPost piece kept resending me to "captchas" time after time and never would load.)

Finally, in all of this, don't forget about Noam Chomsky as militarist.

Monday Morning additions:

First, Trump continues to show this war is as Netanyahu's lackey, saying Bibi will be in on on peace talks.

Second, we have dueling UN resolutions as the Israeli-US lackeys among Gulf Arab states laughably expect Russia to also pick their side.

Third, and huge, Ms. Unchristian, Karoline Leavitt, refuses to rule out a military draft.

Fourth, with Ayatollah Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, elected to succeed him, and beyond the smears of Graeme Wood at the Atlantic (not linking) aside, it appears that President Pezeshkian has been shunted aside as far as having final say-so on attacking Gulf Arab states and that will actually ramp up.

As for Wood? Dishonest over Russia-Ukraine four years ago. When I got to the graywall-paywall on his piece about Khamenei fils, I was barfing. Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ scribe. The dood IS a member of the CFR.

Corpus Christi burns through most its water as local officials fiddle

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Inside Climate News reports on how Corpus Christi may face a water emergency within months and run out of water within a year. We're going to see if the anti-environmental Proposition 4 is worth the paper it was written on, or if it's even ready to be implemented. The story notes that a full-scale version of the problem will affect refineries that make the jet fuel for Texas' airports.

How bad? Bad:

Depletion of this region’s reservoirs would lead to “controlled depression” for the local economy, “mass unemployment” and “industrial total shutdown,” according to a two-page report by Don Roach, former assistant general manager of the San Patricio Municipal Water District, which supplies many of the region’s large industrial water users.

He's not the only voice saying this. Here's the guy who used to run the port, and before that ran the port at Long Beach, California:

“The impacts are going to be felt tremendously through the state, if not internationally,” said Sean Strawbridge, former CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, the nation’s top port for crude oil exports, in a 40-minute interview Thursday. “This should be no surprise to anybody. We were talking about this over a decade ago.”

Oh, he agrees with Roach.

That said, per the old saying, Corpus Christi's problem is just the tip of the Texas iceberg:

“This waiting disaster is under the radar for the rest of the state,” said Roach, who worked 20 years at the water district and retired in 2014. “We hear nothing from the Texas politicians about the seriousness of the situation or any state plan to mitigate it.”

Ouch.

Speaking of? Corpus' mayor and city manager both refused to talk to Inside Climate News. Their public information manager had an emailed statement about "five year drought" that itself refused to admit that climate change is part of that drought.

That city manager, Peter Zanoni, has been there since 2019, before the five-year drought, and apparently like an ostrich with his head in the sand, per a former city staffer:

James Dodson, a former director of Corpus Christi’s water department who retired this year as a private consultant and was involved in several of those projects, disagreed. He said residents and officials “are crazy not to be panicking.”

“It’s the very worst scenario that I’ve ever seen,” said Dodson, who oversaw a historic expansion of Corpus Christi’s water supply in the 1990s. “It’s going to be an economic disaster.”

Speaking of the anti-environmental Prop 4? This, also from Dodson:

For years, he said, the city dismissed repeated opportunities to develop groundwater import projects as it maintained a singular and fruitless focus on desalination. That includes projects that the city only recently scrambled to get started. Dodson doubted any will materialize in time.

The story notes elsewhere that pursing desal nearly wrecked Corpus Christi financially.

It's not just the likes of Zanoni who are fiddling while Corpus burns (through its water). Over to you, Gov. Strangeabbott:

A spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Andrew Mahaleris, didn’t address specific comments about an impending water catastrophe or disruption of the state economy. In an emailed statement, he said: “Corpus Christi is an important economic driver not only for Texas but also the nation. The State of Texas has made significant investments into ensuring the Corpus Christi area has the water resources it needs to serve citizens and industry alike.” He added that the governor “will continue working with the legislature to ensure Texans have a safe, reliable water supply for the next fifty years.”

You're full of shit.

Read the whole thing. You should be getting more panicky yourself. (All of the above is just from the first half of the piece.)

The background to all of this is the city cutting blank water supply checks to the refineries, who remain immune from most emergency-declaration water throttling, whenever that might happen, and have done nothing in the way of prep on their own, like private desal plants.

The Iran War so far — calling out both duopoly parties and the MSM

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:32:00 +0000

First, per Klippenstein, and contra many Democraps as well as Rethuglicans (he calls out both), it's a war.

Mondoweiss notes the lamestream media, whether calling it a war or not, is lining up as cheerleaders. It then doubled down, and said that even people who know about previous such cheerleading are shocked by how blatant it is this time.

As The Dissident notes, Iran was prepared for an attempt to force regime change by assassinating Ayatollah Khamenei and adds the likely backfiring effect in that this will increase the likelihood it builds a bomb.

Per another Klip? I said that Trump cut off both his balls, and gave one to Netanyahu and the Zionists and the other to the U.S. military version of the Deep State.

Trump now wants to try to get Kurdish militias involved, which risks Iraq and/or Turkey attacking them.

As for the results? Let's quote the dean of foreign policy realists, John Mearsheimer:

Remember that in the Vietnam War, the US won virtually every battle and lost the war.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Meanwhile, former Air Force Academy would-be flyboy Paul Skenes is a disgusting militarist.

As for the Gulf Arab states getting attacked? As Palestine Will Be Free notes, they brought this on themselves, and Merikkka is going to hang them out to dry just as much as the Gulf Cooperation Council has hung out both Hamas and the rest of Gaza, and Abu Mazen and the rest of the West Bank, to dry. A new post there notes many of them are talking about yanking money from their sovereign wealth funds out of the US to pay for the economic damage Iran has already caused. If a quarter of what's threatened actually happens, it's recession time.

As for Merikkka's Zionist genocide enabling NATO toadies in the UK, France and Germany?

The leaders of France, Germany and the UK issued a joint statement Sunday that appeared to indicate they may get involved directly with the U.S.-Israeli war. “We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source,” they wrote. “We have agreed to work together with the US and allies in the region on this matter.“

Fuck 'em.

That's even as Israel has now barred the Al-Aqsa Mosque, during Ramadan no less.

Merikkkans on the street, meanwhile, are worried about high gas prices — prices that have jumped 50 cents a gallon in a matter of days. Dottering Donald the Zionist has staff, like chief of staff Susie Wiles, worried about the fallout even as they continue warmongering:

President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is telling his advisers to bring ideas to the Oval Office to lower gasoline prices in the wake of the U.S. attack on Iran, according to two energy industry executives familiar with the conversations.

The White House is “looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices,” said one of the executives, who was granted anonymity to describe internal administration discussions.

What's coming, coal gasification? The old Fischer-Tropsch process? Don't you laugh; somebody will surely mention it.

Meanwhile, per Bruce Schneier?

Remember, both American Zionist fellators of Israel, and anti-Zionists as a caution note, if Israel can hack traffic cameras in Iran, just maybe it can do the same in Merikkka.

Only 53 Democraps in the House voted against calling Iran the world's leading sponsor of state terrorism. ALL Rethuglicans except 3 non-voters voted yes, as did 157 Democraps.

The real answer, of course, is Merikkka is the world's leading sponsor of state terrorism. And, No. 2? No hints.

Update: Whether on accident or deliberately, Iran's Dena, sunk by the US sub, was taking part in a US-coordinated military exercise when it was off the coast of India. TNR notes the exercise required ships to be unarmed, so the start of the preceding sentence is purely rhetorical.

Update, March 10: Here's what might happen in days ahead.