Foreign policy roundup — Robert Kagan denialism and more

Responsible Statecraft has a great and eviscerating interview with Bob Kagan. Highlights include his still-ongoing defense of the Iraq War and claims for its necessity, denial that he's a neocon while (natch) claiming the whole idea is antisemitic and more. He does say US foreign policy is too guided by Islamophobia.

"They Saw it Coming" is a long, hot read by Amerikanets, an up-and-coming hot foreign policy Substack. It's quite interesting, but, given degrees of dislike and or distrust of half the Substacks they follow, I haven't followed them yet. (Kit Klarenberg and Simplicius top that list.) Especially given that said person has been on Substack since 2024, and they write in this depth and don't follow more people raises a bit of an eyebrow.

This Mark Ames tweet is from Aug. 2, but it would confirm that Zelensky's war as PR offensive, or vice versa, has once again failed on the ground, and in the context of Donald J. Trump, though not with mainstream media. That's as Russia figures out how to make cruise missiles cheaper than its old ones, but that can also evade more Ukrainian defenses, per Bloomberg. And, yes, links from Simplicius. Meanwhile, some European media wonder if taste for supporting Ukraine is finally drying up.

THe reality behind the snark of semi-fake bison burgers

Last week at Substack, I wrote this bit of snark about bison burgers at Yellowstone.

Sadly, per a comment I left, the reality is even worse outside of Yellowstone.

The last bit of the snark in the story is courtesy of something I saw on Shitter about 10 days ago. Sprouts, a company I wouldn't have associated with such an idea, has started selling meatballs with lab meat. For some of my latest thoughts on the economics of lab meat (and, the healthiness of plant meat and a callout against Grist on that), go here.

For a callout of neoliberal Mother Jones ignoring some of the costs of lab meat (maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised by Sprouts) go here.

For more yet on the costs of lab meat, go here.

Finally, per the theme of this piece, it should be added that Sprouts' meatballs are primarily plant "meat" with just a dusting of lab meat. Shock me. It's all capitalist turtles, all the way down.

I warned you about Proposition 4 and now the "produced water" shit is about to hit the fan

Proposition 4 being the Texas constitutional amendments 2025 election Proposition 4.

I called out the Trib and librul blog sites like Lone Star Left. I called out Gang Green enviros at the Sierra Club. I called out Suzanne Bellsnyder for being a hypocrite. I called out the Texas Green Party. This year, I called out the Observer.

I said again this year, as I had before the election, that it would be an economic boondoggle as well as environmentally damaging. 

Now, especially on the latter, companies wanting to "recycle" fracking wastewater are pushing, pushing, pushing to go full speed ahead with minimal oversight from TCEQ, as well as minimal discussion of electric needs. Shocked? Why? 

Aridzona's day of water reckoning has come; or has it?

(My Photoshopped version of Glen Canyon Dam, above.)

Or, at least, the day of reckoning has come for the Valley of the Sun. Or has it?

The climate change deniers and minimalists will probably try to poo-poo this, starting with saying it's only for two years. Which moves back to the rhetorical question ending the paragraph above.

But, Aridzona losing one-third of its Colorado River water rights in the next two years, per the official Department of the Interior announcement, is serious. It takes the largest haircut among the three Lower Basin states as the price it paid to get the Central Arizona Project, which delivers water to Phoenix and Tucson.

Per a link in that story and discussion elsewhere, will the state actually sue? If so, between "slim" and "none," what are the odds of success? 

Beyond that, the day of water reckoning isn't enough. Per this New York Times piece:

The river’s flow is diminishing and reservoirs are drying up, but communities and farms still use unsustainable amounts of water.

That's the bottom line. 

Another version?

"The water usage is still too damned high." 

On the suits? The current proposal just makes firm, that same piece says, voluntary offers already on the table. 

Beyond that, as I said 15 years ago, Obama blew a chance to further cut water usage. He could have made Phoenix and Las Vegas recent homebuyers "whole" by letting them out of mortgages if they moved (back) to where the water is — Cleveland, St. Louis, Omaha, et. And, he could have done the same for homebuilders, mortgage brokers etc., to make them whole IF they took a "haircut" on how many houses they could build in places like Phoenix with federal mortgage guarantees. 

Beyond that? "Water banking" is semi-fraudulent in my opinion, and in some day will have an unpayable real bill to be paid. Sorry, California's Colorado River water sherpa, but be more honest than this.(At least he admitted California is way behind Nevada on cutting water use, while also saying nothing about WHY it’s way behind.)

Interestingly, on the issue of lawsuits, the first one has been filed — by Nevada. The reason they’re suing? No mandatory cuts for the Upper Basin.

Fully fraudulent? The Big Oil companies as climate denialists, who took a page from Big Tobacco. A new Inside Climate News piece says that Big Oil is responsible for half the Colorado River basin’s water loss in 2014-24 due to climate change causes. 

As for Aridzona? Per the second link, I have little doubt that groundwater pumping will only accelerate more, and that alfalfa farmers will beg the state for monetary help to pay for deeper and deeper wells. Soil subsidence will continue, and homeowners will ask for help on that.

Sadly, a super El Niño may provide enough snowpack for the seven basin states to continue to dodge a long-range new deal on the river. Per this story, that's why we're at where we are now — a two-year imposition by Interior based on a ten-year planning document. 

I've written before, most recently a few months ago, about the reality of the seven Basin states willing to continue to deny reality. 

Of course, Glen Canyon Dam was itself built on a lie, a lie that's inside the visitors' center:

Oops! And, maybe we should call the refusal to be skeptical about the water flow numbers used to create the Colorado River Compact a century ago a lie themselves.

If "water's for fighting over," per the old western bon mot, in modern terms, and contra Kumbaya John Fleck, who doesn't like my comments on his site. it's also for suing over. 

Per Nevada’s lawsuit, another thing Kumbaya John gets wrong is being wedded to the Upper Basin/Lower Basin division. If there’s going to be a lawsuit rumble over basin supply anyway, elect me president and my federal government will knock heads on this issue.

More Talafreako the hypocritico

Building on its revelation a week ago that James Talarico seems to be a hypocrite in his stance on pastors endorsing political candidates from their pulpits, written about here by me, we now have a part two from the Texas Monthly.

Ostensibly, the piece is about what they would want to ask both him and Kenny Boy Paxton in a debate, if one happens, but some of the best "issues" are Talafreako's.

He seems two-faced if not outrightly hypocritical on veganism. But, that's minor.

Sexually-affirming care (that's the word, not "gender-affirming," Monthly) for minors who hold themselves as transsexual (that's the word, not the truncated pronoun "trans") is much bigger. 

At a Pride event in 2023—after the Lege passed SB 14, which banned gender-affirming care for minors—he called the bill “the most dangerous” one of the session, and one that “infuriates me.” In early June, though, after clinching the Senate nomination, he appeared on the podcast of Houston lawyer Dan Cogdell, who served as Paxton’s personal attorney for a number of years. During that appearance, Talarico said, “I oppose gender reassignment surgeries for minors.” Then, when asked about his support for the LGBTQ community on Rachel Maddow’s MS NOW show in early August, his tone shifted yet again: “I don’t think we win by selling people out,” he told the host. “We’re refusing to do that in this campaign.”

Yeah, "code switching." Or worse. 

Texas Progressives talk books and cooking the books

With some reservations but much more scorn, Off the Kuff laughs at Dan Patrick's bizarre obsession with "dirty" books in school libraries.

Franklin Strong at Anger and Clarity has even more. 

SocraticGadfly called out Don Huffines for his immediate politicization of the Comptroller's office.

The state's maternal mortality committee's next report will omit post-Roe pregnancy death. 

If you're on city of Austin municipal electricity, or a rural co-op, guess what? State laws restricting cutoffs during heat alerts don't apply to them and so don't help you. The Observer notes how much this varies from utility to utility.

The Tex-ass Lege and Strangeabbott refuse to even consider serious floodplain building rules and building standard rules, even as more Hill Country type flooding remains likely. The Trib reports.