A skeptical leftist's, or post-capitalist's, or eco-socialist's blog, including skepticism about leftism (and related things under other labels), but even more about other issues of politics. Free of duopoly and minor party ties. Also, a skeptical look at Gnu Atheism, religion, social sciences, more.
Note: Labels can help describe people but should never be used to pin them to an anthill.
As seen at Washington Babylon and other fine establishments
The Observer talks about
James Talarico's rise starting with his time in Teach for America,
above all noting that it gave him an early and strong networking system.
The piece is also honest about some of the big money that has helped
TFA and its political leadership spinoff, and their support for charter
schools.
TFA’s recruitment, with its many rounds of
interviews and an ostensible audition, promises to field an annual crop
of future leaders in education. For most participants, their plans
involve this short stint in the classroom before heading off to work in
law, campus administration, policymaking, business, or the sprawling
tentacles of the nonprofit industrial complex. TFA is less a teacher
preparation program than it is a finishing school for future
decision-makers in the multilayered technocracy of education policy, one
dominated by elites who have historically boosted charter-school
expansion. I am a rarity in that I still teach in the city and campus
where I did my TFA stint.
The big names include
Netflix' Reed Hastings and LinkedIn's Reed Hoffman, Walton family heirs
and former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Read the whole thing, and
realize that, if elected, while Talarico will be an agent of change from
John Cornyn, he will NOT be an agent of change from standard neoliberal
Democracy.
This article is based in fair part on an interview that Never Trumper Conway, now running for Congress as a Democrat for Congress, had with the New Republic, and in part on the latest development of my thoughts on the general stupidity of both Never Trumps and Blue MAGA about the 25th Amendment.
Conway's stupidity is reflected in the extended subhed for the story:
Conway, the former GOPer turned Trump critic who’s running for Congress as a Democrat, lays out his case that Republicans will eventually have no choice but to remove the president before his term ends.
Sure they'll have choices, George. That starts with the remaining portion of the part continuing to cower in fear, or however you phrase it.
Let's do simple math.
For the next Congress, after the midterms, to remove President Donald J. Trump from office by the one means that is a Congressional prerogative — impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate — would require one-sixth (approximately) of Republicans in the Senate to vote aye for conviction. (Impeachment itself needs a simple majority.) Trump could launch a tactical nuke at Iran and that wouldn't happen.
Rethuglicans talking anonymously to Politico is not the same as Rethuglicans casting a record vote, and thinking that, even if they've done good head-counting on paper, an ultimate vote like this is actual nut-cutting, not more academic head-counting.
Also, re the Anon Y. Mice talking to Politico, with summer vacations coming soon and other items, getting the creaky wheels of Congress to go through and complete the whole process before the November election day? Not happening. (That said, the Politico piece, linked by the TNR, is general bitching; not one of the Mice, let alone a named Trump flunky, mentions actually getting rid of him.)
Conway then raises Option B:
And you see it also in a lot of the Republican influencers—the Megyn Kellys, the Joe Rogans, and the Tucker Carlsons of the world. They’re basically talking about the 25th Amendment now.
Well, as someone who swatted that down, repeatedly, during Trump's first term, let's look at the actual amendment (Wiki link) again.
The first two sections are about the Veep explicitly becoming president, then the process to get a new Veep, so not relevant here. The third is about a president declaring himself temporarily constrained; it's been invoked more than once during serious presidential medical procedures.
So, to the "nut graf" of Section 4? In reality, it's more convoluted than most people think, and to the degree Congress might have to become involved, has higher hurdles than impeachment and trial.
Let's dig in:
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 [sic][note 2][7] 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.
OK, several things.
One, on the political side, unless Trump clearly has a memory-loss dementia, does Bagger Vance have the balls to initiate this process. You know better than that, and Conway should know better; if he doesn't, he has less business being in Congress than Eric Swallowell. (sic)
Basically, in anything short of a clear memory-loss type dementia, or a clear brain injury similar in level to JFK's but with a president still living, the 25th Amendment essentially requires a coup d'etat against the president by the vice president, per the first paragraph.
Per the first half of the second paragraph, it requires them to hold their own feet to the fire against an enraged president.
And should that play out, beyond the impeachment process, there's the higher hurdle of how a veep and fellow plotters must convince two thirds of BOTH houses of Congress they're right.
And, that process plays out over 21 days, plenty of time for plenty of machinations.
Behind all this, and deliberately left vague in the framing of the amendment, what constitutes being "unable to discharge the powers and duties of [the] office," or "inability"?
Back to Conway:
They have a guy who—they’ve overlooked his mental disorders in the past, dismissed them. They’ve overlooked his lies, they’ve overlooked his depravity. They’ve overlooked the fact that he is basically an adjudicated sexual abuser, that he’s a convicted criminal. They overlook these things because it served their purposes. It no longer serves their purposes.
None of those are "inability." You, and some Anon Y. Mice in the GOP, and plenty of Blue MAGA, might not like HOW Trump is "discharging," but that's not the same as "inability."
Left unaddressed is what if a president fights his way back into power, but then looks worse? There's nothing to stop a veep, with Cabinet backing, to go down this road again. And, there's nothing to stop a president from fighting it again.
I'll quote more Conway, the next paragraph after the previous quote, which ties to that, and other political issues:
And in terms of what happens in the U.S. Senate—which we can get back to, and why that matters, of course—the Senate is full of cowards. The Republican senators are cowards and they’ve been afraid of Trump.
Yeah, one-sixth of the Senate (plus one-sixth of the House, which Conway doesn't mention and which shows his ignorance of the actual 25th Amendment) ain't doing that.
I modify that. Later in the piece, Conway indicates his knowledge:
We need to, basically, I think we need to possibly even put criminal sanctions in place for people who refuse to spend the money in accordance with Congress’s will. And there’s also—I talked about this even before I launched the campaign—we need to create that advisory body to act as the judge of whether the president is fit to continue in office, and replace the cabinet.
Yeah. The Washington solution — Congress punting responsibility to a committee, in hopes the problem goes away or resolves itself in 21 days. At the same time, there's more ignorance. Such a body ONLY gets a bite at the apple of the president, not the cabinet, and only comes into play when the veep gets a majority of the cabinet to tell Congress the president isn't fit, if that's what Conway meant. If it just means replacing the cabinet as who makes the call? It still requires the veep to start the process.
Note that "AND" word at the start of Section 4 carefully. Section 4 of the 25th Amendment is inoperable without the participation of the sitting vice president.
And, if you think Bagger Vance has the balls for that? You're really a fucking idiot.
Finally, as for Conway and other Never Trumpers, whether still Republican or now ex-Republican? No sympathy. Trump was a serial liar, a racist, a thug with Mafia ties and a publicly admitted sexual predator before he was elected the first time.
==
The 25th Amendment is limited in another way, directly connected to the JFK assassination that inspired it, and that itself could inspire some evil genius to do particular acts. Say that, in Dallas 1963, Oswald's first shots are pretty much as they happened, but the third shot is, say, 1 cm higher. Jack Kennedy survives but is pretty much brain dead. Say that Oswald gets off a fourth shot, or even fourth and fifth, and then takes out LBJ in his car, and he's stone cold dead.
There IS NO Veep to start the 25th Amendment process, and a brain-dead president is unable to nominate one.
In short, while the 25th Amendment is better than nothing, it's not that good.
It also, for people who worship at either the originalist or liberal originalist, King James Version or New King James Version, of the Constitution of the United States, shows the structural failure of the strong-presidential system of government, at least in the US. (France has an impeachment process similar to the US, but a Google says nothing like a 25th Amendment. That said, like the 25th, it involves a two-thirds vote of BOTH Assembly and Senate, and per Le Monde, is at least as convoluted as the 25th.)
In the UK? If similar were happening? Tories would be looking for a no-confidence vote and trying to round up sufficient Labor, Lib Dems and others in the Commons for a simple majority vote.
Both Bagger Vance and a Catholic priest flunky of Bari Weiss, Gerald Murray, think they know more about the theology of just war and related issues than does Pope Leo XIV.
Bagger Vance is of course fine with authoritarian religious hierarchy as long as its headed by AI Jeebus, Donald Jesus Trump.
“I think it's very, very important for the Pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” Vance said.
There you are. If you can't teach from The Book of Armaments, Chapter 5, about counting to three before lobbing a Holy MOAB of the Pentagon at Tehran:
You need to shut up, Leo.
Jokes about AI Jeebus aside, that IS where we're at.
Trump lying, which he does as soon as he wakes up, and claiming he thought that was a doctor.
As I said when first posting the link, Vance doesn't even have the excuse of dementia.
He then gets worse, with a laughable self-own:
Vance said the pontiff should be as careful talking about theology as the vice president is when talking about public policy.
Really? You're as careful about that as you would be about not checking wind direction before peeing outdoors.
And, beyond Bagger, other elected Rethuglicans, by not calling the piece blasphemy, enable him:
"I know he's trying to be funny, but it was a foolish post," said GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who has been a critic of some of the president's policies. "I saw a lot of Republicans commenting in it last night. Some saying he's just trolling, and others saying it's anti-Christian. When you divide your own party it is self destructive. To me it was a gaudy and juvenile post."
And, yes, Religious Right wingnuts, if they were true to theology (back to YOU, Bagger) would call Trump's AI Jeebus for the blasphemy it is.
One person actually did:
"The media is paying attention to podcastistan breaking with Trump over Iran," conservative podcaster Erick Erickson wrote on X. "What they really should be paying attention to are the Christian Trump supporters who have stood with him through Iran, who are waking up to his blasphemy."
There you are.
So, re Bagger, if Satanyahu is the actual Satan of Tel Aviv, then Bagger is the Satan whisperer in Trump's ear, and of course Trump is not telling either one of them to get behind him.
Now, off to Fr. Murray, himself no Brother Maynard.
Eliminating a nuclear threat from a determined enemy is a noble reason to make war.
He doubles down shortly before the paywall:
The United States and Israel undertook the attack on Iran principally to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.
Anybody who knows the truth about Iran knows that it has never actually sought a nuclear weapon. Anybody who knows the truth of the current situation knows that Iran avowed that in the negotiations before Trump started the Iran war at the behest of Satanyahu.
Even if Iran has one-half metric ton of 60-percent enriched uranium, and even if it would not take that much more work to enrich to 90 percent, you still have to convert that uranium hexafluoride to metal. You have to have, even for a crude U-235 "gun" bomb, the assembly mechanism. You have to have a bomb big enough and an airplane big enough, if you're doing that old method, or a missile big enough, for delivery.
Israel, on the other hand, already 20 years ago had missiles that could deliver a nuclear warhead anywhere in the Middle East. And, that's from a US government-funded organization that writes the bare bones about Israel, but attacked Iraq at the run-up to the Iraq war, and now Iran.
As for why Iran has enriched to the 60-percent mark? The US-Israel dynamic duo brought this on.
Leo is probably thinking something along the lines of "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest," if Fr. Murray is even on his radar screen.
This is Murray's first piece for Bari Weiss's Zionists, but his profile page notes he's already a commentater for Fox News. He's also a commentator for EWTN, which Pope Francis accused of bad-mouthing him. For the unfamiliar, Eternal Word Television Network is the Catholic equivalent of a conservative evangelical, but not fundamentalist, Protestant television network.
But party leaders say once they’re back home, the conversation shifts dramatically. In interviews, many state party chairs, candidates and elected officials did not name AIPAC or Israel funding as a top-three concern they’re hearing from rank-and-file voters. Instead, it’s the nuts and bolts of the economy that are weighing down their constituencies, they say, with the cost of housing and food and the availability of health care all top of mind.
Really? Inflation isn't caused in part by high gas prices caused by a war against Iran waged at the instigation of Israel? And, at least part of your grassroots constituents know that.
I mean, later on, the story even directly calls out national Democraps' lie by omission:
During recent focus groups observed by NBC News (produced by Syracuse University and the research firms Engagious and Sago), Democrats in Michigan and Maine voiced significant criticism of Israel’s government around its conduct in the war with Hamas in Gaza, with a handful calling Israel’s actions “genocide.”
The lies were called out more explicitly by one of their own Congresscritters, for doorknob's sake! THIS:
Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., said she polled her own district after the contentious March primary, and her internal survey showed 80% of respondents had heard of AIPAC. “It’s higher than some members of Congress’ name ID in their own districts,” she said.
Ramirez, of Chicago, said the average voter in her district is mostly concerned about the cost of gas and groceries as well as immigration enforcement overreach. But the “more informed voter,” she said, is agitating against any Democratic alliance with AIPAC. She said DNC leaders would be wise to reconsider how its handling the issue, particularly as it attempts to cultivate a younger generation of leaders.
Denial is a river that doesn't just flow through 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I guess. Neither is peeing on someone's leg and telling them it's raining.
It's called gaslighting, like that by the Democratic Majority for Israel that I told to fuck off on Substack:
“We’re pleased that the DNC Rules Committee rejected a set of divisive, anti-Israel resolutions. These measures would be a gift to Republicans, would further fracture our party, and do nothing to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to peace," Democratic Majority for Israel president and CEO Brian Romick said in a statement. "The DNC and party advocates need to keep focus where it belongs — on building a united Democratic Party that can win back Congress this November.”
It's "divisive" because Zionist genocidalists make it so while appealing to duopoly tribalism.
There you are. And, it's why I said "duopoly exit" on Substack while telling Romick et al to fuck off.
Not the TV show, nor the 20 Mule Team brand of borax that sponsored it, but we'll tie that in soon enough.
I got two and a half days of recent spring vacation time crammed into Death Valley. It was the first time I had been there in a decade. That trip, I think, had just two days even. And, before that, although some part of my mind says I had a brief visit, photo albums show the last visit before that was three days in 2006.
It was time. It was more than time.
Dayum, I shot a LOT of photos there and created a LOT of small albums.
And, I shot a decent amount of video, too.
I think I finally really realized how much I had missed not being there for a full decade on Day 3 of my visit, when I got to Keane Wonder Mine and saw a pair of chuckwallas getting ready to do the "muskrat love." I'd seen chuckwallas, or a lone male, once before, 20 years ago — at Keane Wonder Mine.
Oh, my god.
With that, let's dig in, with albums in general order, and a pullout picture from some of them to whet your appetite.
Badwater Day 1. I came in from Pahrump, Nevada, in part to squeeze in every molecule I could of Nevada-priced gas. The side benefit was coming in to Badwater quicker this way, with one of the lovely shots that I like shooting where a highway invites you into the scene.
I had no idea that the reincarnation of the prehistoric Lake Manly was still in place, but there it was. Heaven or nearly so; one of those "I've seen this and can die in peace moments" while embracing the heat, at about 105.5°F, or 41.5°C at 3:30-4 p.m., as the massive heat wave that had started a week earlier was not dissipating yet.
I was reminded of ice floes at salt crystals emerged from the drying, evaporating lake. The stylized photo shows that.
Day 2 started in Mosaic Canyon. I got there early in the morning to get strong colors when the sun was still largely below the canyon rim. One close-up photo in the album will show the actual mosaic nature.
Salt Creek to see desert pupfish. Here's one of those critters:
While dodging deerfly-like biting flies, I also saw a birding lifer, a pipit. Photos of it and the contrast of Salt Creek, saltier than the ocean, with the bits of green that grow along it, are in the album.
Next on the agenda? Harmony Borax Works, complete with "20 mule team" wagons and the borax refining ruins. The photo shows it with part of Mustard Canyon's colors in the background.
In the album, I've got two descriptor signs giving you the lay of the land.
If that's not enough, here's a narrative video:
And, after that? It was off to the West Side Road, on the west side of Badwater Basin.
It's amazing how the various salts can color the water, like various chemical compounds can color the rocks and sand in "painted desert" fashion. Here's the album.
Then, back to Badwater itself, looking for different angles than Day 1. Here's the results.
It was even hotter than the day before?
"How hot was it?" per old Tonight Show joke?
This:
At the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, official National Weather Service measurement, 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 25.
To cool off? Climb to nearly 6,000 feet, or 1,800 meters, of elevation, to Dante's View, where I had never been before. I got a very good sunset — not quite great, because of lack of clouds — with a high-level view of Lake Manly:
And, it was 30 degrees F cooler. And windy, windy, as the video will attest.
Getting into the spirit of desert photography, I decided to start the morning going out to the original well at Death Valley once enough Anglos started setting there. The well was eventually marked with a stovepipe, so travelers would find it and it wouldn't be hidden by blowing sand. Stovepipe well? Yes, that's now Stovepipe Wells village.
Next, after some putzing around in the area around the Hells Gate highway intersection, it was off to the Keene Wonder Mine. God, what a blast. Second time in my life to see chuckwallas. First time? Solo male 20 years ago, right on this spot, after hiking up the mountainside to the top of the ore tramway. I think at this point I was realizing just how much I'd missed Death Valley in not being here in a decade.
And, here's a male-female pair getting ready to do the muskrat love:
Then, off to Titus Canyon. To hike, not drive through by car. This semi-slot canyon is an iconic place within Death Valley. One photo will show you why:
From here, it's a mad dash back out of the park to the east, to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
Why? Well, the possibility of seeking spring migratory waterfowl, though birding there, even with allowances for cramming in just 90 minutes or a little more of pre-sunset time, wasn't that good.
But, also to see this:
As in, a very, very rare Amargosa pupfish. Given low light conditions and other things, not bad.
The full album has information and links on the nuttery that led to this becoming an NWR.
==
How did I deal with the heat, some may wonder? That's especially since I'm not 21 or even 41 any more.
First, on my first and second days, I did shorter hiking, especially from noon-5 pm, than on Day 3. Titus Canyon, especially in the shade, was probably 2.5 miles/4 km or a bit more round trip. And, after 5 p.m. day 3, at the wildlife refuge, I did at least that much.
I did feel a touch slightly woozy, to be honest, late afternoon of Day 2; that was when hiking the Natural Bridge trail, if but briefly, then getting out and doing short hiking for better photo angles in a brief album of Artists Palette. It was as much sitting in a vehicle (even with air conditioning generally turned off) but then getting up from a sitting position, getting outside into that heat, and starting to move. (I still at times, at a height of 6-5 or 1.95 meters, have postural hypotension and the heat surely aggravates that whenever I have it.) So, I would stop for a minute and take an extra slug of water before moving on. Ten years ago, and certainly 20, I might have tried to do more — while presumably having some sense of pacing still.
Now, I'll use the climate of Death Valley to transition into a bit about its natural history and geology.
Other than the evaporative humidity of Lake Manly, especially at these temperatures, Death Valley is not just dry, it's VERY dry. In addition to fame for often being the hottest point on the planet, and containing the lowest spot in North America, it's there with the Atacama Desert, Saudi Arabia's Empty Quarter and a couple of other spots for driest place, going by relative humidity. (As Lake Manly shows, it does get a full 2 inches/50 mm of rain per year on average even at Badwater.)
The love of Death Valley is in large part the love of geology. And, Death Valley is one of the best places in the world to look at so many different gnarly metamorphic rocks!
That geology is also why it's so dry. Four mountain ranges in all stand between the actual valley and the Pacific Ocean to the west. In the main Sierra Nevada, Mount Whitney at 14,494 feet, or 4418 meters, is about 55 miles or so due west of Badwater. The Panamint Mountains, the easternmost of the four? Telescope Peak (still snowcapped at top in photo and video from Badwater Day 2) is 11,043 feet, or 3366 meters, and only 15 miles, or 25 km, west of Badwater Basin.
On the mountains? The highest ones on the east side, like that Dante's View or higher, can get up to 6500 feet or 2000 meters. So, a pressure system that would come in from the east can't bring much rain either.
On the geology, it's an extreme example of the entire "Basin and Range province," all slip-strike type faulting, then collapses on fault lines, in the period between the formation of the Rocky Mountains and that of the Sierra Nevada. Beyond embracing the general existential nature, it's just a fascinating place to stare at rocks in all sorts of different light levels.
So, on an unseasonable 110F in late March, or a semi-normal 125F in July? Your relative humidity will not just be below 20 percent. It will probably be below 15 percent, and maybe down to a flat 10 percent.
And that, combined with no shade from no trees, is how an extreme desert can kill. You lose water not just from perspiration, but respiration out your lungs.
It's also why the third wagon on the borax train was a water wagon. Even with mules' conservativism with water versus horses, you needed to haul that much for them, plus the people driving the wagon.
As for the ruggedness of the rock in general, California has some other good sites for that, like Point Reyes, but nothing compares overall to Death Valley. Big Bend here in Texas is the one other larger-scale landscape that's halfway in the same ballpark.
Get an overview of the now-open Palo Pinto Mountains State Park.
Yes, it's too bad the NM Lege gets nothing more than a per diem. But also yes, paying NM Legiscritters $64K a year as though they were working a serious full-time job is laughable. I hope voters there reject that in November.
Elmo Musk wants part of a national wildlife refuge; the exchange would also include a bit of the Palmito Battlefield National Historic Site. Sadly, the Barbed Wire, which linked to that story, was too late; comment period expired March 31.
For 53 state House Democrats, a question: Was it worth it being fined more than $8K each for your walkout last summer? Bonus question for those of you talking about not paying: Will it be worth it to have your member budget cut 30 percent next year, at least if you can't prove Dannie Goeb right?
The State Board of Ed still wants to force public school kids to read the bible, and yeah, with background of Kelly Hancock being sued over vouchers, this is a First Amendment suit waiting to happen.
Will pigs fly? The CCA overturned a death sentence.
