SocraticGadfly

March 18, 2024

Population growtherism and wingnuttery

From Off the Kuff, Kuffner in his weekend link dumps posts stuff without comment, and I'm taking silence as assent.

The weirdest of a couple of weeks ago? He's got a piece from some sort of "population growther." The piece is wrong by not looking at climate change, which we can't "growth" out of, for starters. Interestingly, per the tagline at end, philosopher friend Massimo Pigliucci's sometime co-author Maarten Boudry, but for different reasons, is also a growther. The reasons aren't that much different, and no, Julian Simon hasn't proven Paul Ehrlich wrong. Boudry also doesn't mention climate change, nor do either mention economic equity vs inequity in the world and how that would deplete resources even more. Neither mentions things like species extinction, either.

The reality of what climate change is likely to do to food supply is right here

The piece also, to the degree it touches on immigration, is clueless. Some Hein de Haas is needed.

More alarmingly, Boudry's piece first appeared in Quillette. And, the first piece? Site founder Jason Crawford, in discussing why he founded it, cites favorably libertarian economist Tyler Cowen, then Peter Thiel! (Guess Kuff doesn't read fine print.) In addition, Crawford, tho not the wife-murderer, is full of bullshit of the solutionist variety, as Yevgeny Morozov would call it, or salvific technologism, as I do.

March 16, 2024

Know the truth about Mike Rowe on RFK Jr's Veep list

"Dirty Jobs" Mike Rowe is in the running for one more dirty job, he told NBC, and that would be being on Robert F. Kennedy Jr's Veep shortlist, while also describing Bob Jr's whole vetting process.

More on Rowe, now. He's not an antivaxxer, it's pretty clear from that story.

But, he is a lot more, and not a good lot more, than he revealed otherwise in talking to Bob Jr.

 Meanwhile, Bob Jr., when Rowe basically called him out on that, reverted to the "just asking questions" schtick. Rowe then noted that he's done work for oil companies — 

“The funny thing through all of it was I, I must have reminded him a dozen times that I’m probably not your guy,” Rowe said. “We don’t agree on this. We don’t agree on that. Look, I’m in business with people in the energy business who he’s sued multiple times over the years. And he laughed and said, ‘Yeah, I know that. I just don’t believe I’m going to find anyone who agrees with me on every single thing. And I really like what you stand for.’”

Yeah, but, Bob. You have to have a certain amount of compatibility, unless you totally want to wear the hypocrite choke chain. Maybe you do.

More on Rowe otherwise. He may be a bit of a winger himself. 

Per New Republic, his "Dirty Jobs" don't include things like migrant farm labor or meatpacking — you know, the stuff where minorities, especially immigrants, predominate. Nor things like manual labor service jobs — you know, things like nursing home CNAs, etc. etc.

He's cozied up to the Kochs and done their work well

He's dirty, dirty, dirty on energy issues in general.

He's been interviewed by Reason, not once, not twice, but three times last year, and all by one of Reason's bigger nutters, Nick Gillespie.

Of those three interviews, the first has strawmen, like why kids don't work in high school. The reality is a mix of them being two busy and big biz cutting many of their types of jobs. Gillespie piles on with strawman questions.

The second is a podcast. Not wasting time, beyond what's likely strawmanning in the header. The third? Ditto.

Rowe has also been either grifty enough, or actual Religious Right enough, to work with Trinity Broadcasting. That includes working there with Dave Ramsey, who of course has his own special line of bullshit.

Rowe may not be a full-on Trumpy type, but he shows enough that he could be seen as halfway a kinder, gentler fellow traveler. In other words, pretty much mainstream modern Republican.

March 15, 2024

Democrats assemble anti-third party war room

I'm surprised they're this open about it, but there you are.

They've already got much of the MSM in their pocket, so don't know how much work they'll have to do.

I've written about Jill Stein myself already, for legit concern reasons, not for #BlueAnon Yashar Ali hitjob reasons. But, I'll defend her against #Russiagate bullshit, or other untrue stuff, per this from the top link:
“There is some Jill Stein hangover,” Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge, a Democratic opposition research group, said referring to the 2016 Green Party nominee who was seen as a spoiler in places like Michigan. “A lot of people, including me, regret that we didn’t go after her further.”
And, how much "further" can you go? "She's Putin's agent" was slander or libel, depending on spoken vs written, pure and simple. But, I have no doubt the proxy war warmongers will bring back "Putin's puppet" stupidity. After all, they revived Russiagate for the 2022 midterms, with the help of the New York Times. And Nancy Pelosi, the Goebbels of San Francisco, has already claimed that Putin is behind Palestinian protestors. (Will she switch that to China over the TikTok ban bill, which is, IMO, clearly a bill of attainder? Weirdly, those who voted against it and others talk about free speech, but nobody mentions the bill of attainder angle. Interestingly, the 15 Rethugs who voted against it are the most Trumpy, after his flip-flop.)

That said, I think Bob Jr., even if he is still likely to get more votes from Trumpers, or ex-Trumpers who aren't Project Lincoln types, is the top worry. No Labels appears to be No. 2.

The piece comes from NBC's longtime political hack, Alex Seitz-Wald. Clintonista hack, to be more specific. Anti-BernieBro. Expect puff pieces galore on the wonders of this war room as it starts up; expect hasbara.

March 14, 2024

Thoughts: Guernica's scrub of "From the Edges of a Broken World"

Here's the LA Times story (the NYT, and major Israeli papers have also written about it), how Guernica Magazine hauled down a piece by Joanna Chen, "From the Edges of a Broken World," still available at the Internet Archive. (This also shows what bullshit that lawsuit against the Archive was.)

More than a dozen staff for the all-volunteer mag (about) resigned before it was taken town, on grounds it was too Zionist. Here's what fueled the outrage:

I phoned friends to find out how they were doing. Some had sons serving in the army in the south; others were struggling to keep going. A neighbor told me she was trying to calm her children, who were frightened by the sound of warplanes flying over the house day and night. I tell them these are good booms. She grimaced, and I understood the subtext, that the Israeli army was bombing Gaza.

Italics (reversed here) about "good booms" are in the original. (No idea if that was Chen's original idea, or an editorial decision.)

Thoughts below.

I've read the piece. It's arguable it has some degree of Zionism. I think the intensity of the reaction was over the top, but the reaction itself, I do not. To me, I don't see the problem so much in what's in the story itself as what's missed in the framing. In other words, Chen talks about working for "Road to Recovery," but says nothing, at least in this piece about how and why the government of Israel has made Road for Recovery necessary. She does later note "harassment by Israeli settlers" of West Bank Palestinians, at least, which is not nothing. But, I have no idea where she stood on BDS. (More on that below.) I have no idea if she had any involvement with protests against the Israeli government.

So, I think I would have to more agree than disagree, at a minimum, with this:

In her critique of the essay, April Zhu, former senior editor for interviews, wrote the essay starts “from a place that ostensibly acknowledges the ‘shared humanity’ of Palestinians and Israelis, yet fails or refuses to trace the shape of power — in this case, a violent, imperialist, colonial power — that makes the systematic and historic dehumanization of Palestinians ... a non-issue.”

That's not a strident reaction. Maybe others are more so, but hers is not.

I do see, per Twitter links at the LAT piece, a bigger problem — and a greater degree of Zionism — in the smears launched against the protestors.

Other writers accused activists who attacked Chen’s essay of “bareknuckled antisemitism” and Guernica of “taking its cue from Joe McCarthy and MAGA book burners.”

McCarthyite? Really? No, that would be Bari Weiss and a fair percentage of other signers of the infamous Harper's letter. Ditto on a fair chunk of that fair chunk being MAGAts.

That said, per this Atlantic piece, Guernica's hands aren't free of past blood itself, even if it didn't run the particular offensive Alice Walker items in its pages. On the other hand to that, author Phil Klay seems to decry only one side of intolerance on the issue, and not the tweets I saw.  And, there's no claim that any of Walker's seemingly anti-Semitic poems or thoughts were run by Guernica. So, a partial red herring, or hand-waving, even if not total. And, if you want to go there, anyway, Phil Klay and others? Have you stopped reading T.S. Eliot? I did a decade ago.

Speaking of poems, she has published four books of translation. All are from Hebrew, from Israeli Jews. So, while she translates both Hebrew and Arabic for conversational and other needs, she's only done it in Hebrew for book-length professional reasons. (She has one book since then, and the Jewish Book Council has more, including noting her Hebrew translation to English. So, any Arabic translating is only Arabic → Hebrew and daily conversational level? If not sold a bill of goods, maybe I've been mispresented one?

Contra Chen not serving in the IDF as a badge of bona fides? Lots of Israelis dodge IDF service, not even counting the ultra-Orthodox types that get exempted. Nowhere that I have read are we told WHY she didn't serve.

And, contra Jonathan Adler at Reason, this is not cancel culture, certainly not compared to original cancel culture queen Bari Weiss. Adler's a never-Trumper type Republican business libertarian, Federalist Society guy, etc. Anti-BDS. Clearly anti-BDS and wrong about it being wrong.

"They'll know you by your enemies" is not always a cliche.

And, per Idries Shah's twosider quote?


Many things in life don't have "complete" solutions, no matter if someone with a utilitarian "view from nowhere" sees every side. And, sometimes, while there are more than two sides, the additional sides get squeezed. Maybe, to look at it fractally, the third and additional sides are only 0.25 sides or something.

Finally, this also reinforces the thoughts I wrote a week ago about "Didn't you used to be David Rieff?"

Texas Progressives offer primary wrap, more

We'll start this with a primary wrap.

The vouchers wingnuts affected SBOE races as well as Texas House races. That's even when Strangeabbott endorsed incumbents. That said, per links on a Kuff post, whether it's SBOE incumbents or House incumbents losing, I have no sympathy, as you benefited from dark money, lies and half-lies before yourselves.

Rethuglicans outpaced Democraps by a 5-2 margin in Texas primary voting. Maybe having Genocide Joe topping the primary ballot, with ConservaDem Colin Allred No. 2, didn't help, contra the likes of ConservaDem commenter Greg Summerlin.

At the Monthly, Forrest Wilder offers a big-picture overview of the GOP side of the primary. He correctly notes that Phelan has served as more of a "speed bump than a guardrail" against the Abbott-Patrick-Dunn steamroller. But, even that could disappear. And, with that 5-2 primary differential, not be replaced. 

The Texas Signal gave their primary recap. 

The Observer counts the Republican bodies after their grim and bloody Primary Day, with a scathing take on Abbott's lies on his "anti-endorsements" as well as the response lies by some of the rural House Republicans he targeted.

Off the Kuff has some initial thoughts on the 2024 primaries, and evaluated the polls that were done before them.

Beyond his submitted posting, Kuff separately lists SEVENTEEN state House districts he thinks Dems have some odds of swinging. Sure, as soon as Gilberto Hinojosa's demographic wave hits.

==

Kenny Boy Paxton, in his role as Tex-ass AG, not in his personal role, lost again in court last week, this time over a Biden immigration program. The Trumpy federal judge ruled he didn't have standing.

Is anybody shocked that a former cop turned PI whitewashed the Uvalde Police Department? That said, per a commenter on Kuff's post about this? If any of the bitching Uvalde parents pulled the lever for Abbott and other Rethuglicans? Look in the mirror first.

Xcel Energy admits it screwed the pooch in the Smokehouse Fire but claims it's not LEGALLY responsible, as in, it denies it was negligent. Uh, sure, and I can't believe company lawyers even let the initial statement go forward; I would have kept radio silence longer. State law requires utilities be prepared for emergencies. This, from the Trib, is key:

Even without knowing the fire’s exact cause, experts say the Panhandle fire shows utilities need to be ready for more extreme weather. This could be a challenge in a state where discussing climate change is often taboo.

That said, California law is probably more stringent on the climate change issue than it is here in Tex-ass, and that hasn't stopped PG&E from having its lines start all sorts of fires there.

SocraticGadfly offers up a variety of thoughts on the SCOTUS ruling in Trump v Colorado. 

Stace gives his view on President Biden's South Texas support. But after the SOTU, he also gave a few thoughts on Biden's "illegal" flub. I was going to comment on the latter, that Biden's regret wasn't real. I passed, knowing I'm the only real non-duopoly leftist in TPA. But, Stace, in the former, looks at Mando Perez-Serrato only as Latino. Kuff at least looks at his Palestinian support, although he doesn't comment on it. And, Stace talks about the "Abandon Biden" in Michigan, apparently  unaware it was higher yet in Minnesota and higher than that yet in Hawaii.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project says take Republicans at face value when they say they'll take democracy.

Law Dork digs into the drag ban at West Texas A&M. 

The Austin Chronicle analyzes Travis County DA Jose Garza's primary win.  

Grits for Breakfast tries to make sense of where criminal justice reform is now. 

Nonsequiteuse reminds Harris County that it gets to (and has to) vote twice in May. 

Josh Cohen, known as Ettingermentum on Twitter, offers a wrap on why Trump is doing ... er not too badly? (And he's right; Trump is winning the election, per polls, except the weird Quinnipiac.)

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is buying up private data about you and me left and right.

==

We will wrap with observations on a trio of pieces from the most recent "Weekend Link Dump" from Charles Kuffner, since I sometimes crib from there for my own version of the weekly Roundup.

First, the just weird. Kuff posts stuff without comment, and I'm taking silence as assent. He's some sort of "population growther." (The piece is wrong by not looking at climate change, which we can't "growth" out of, for starters. Interestingly, per the tagline at end, philosopher friend Massimo Pigliucci's sometime co-author Maarten Boudry, but for different reasons, is also a growther. And, I've got a breakout for a separate blog post.)

Second, the half-wrong. Kuff posts a piece from a Kos staffer (not just a momma's basement contributor) claiming there is no constitutional requirement for a State of the Union response.

I had to do two comments, because I misread, and because I'm naturally suspicious of the duopoly-based Kos, and I thought the guy was first talking about SOTU itself.

Yes, there's no constitutional requirement for a response. But, SOTU itself has become ever more politicized, especially since the start of live broadcasting it on teevee. Let future presidents go back to the Jefferson-Taft idea of submitting a written report, and then call out anybody in media who gives a live video response time. Besides that, no REAL opposition — Greens, Libertarians, PSL, etc. — ever is given a live response time at all, so fuck off Kos.

Third, Kuff pays to read a subscribers-only newsletter from Zionist Josh Marshall, founder of Talking Points Memo? Nuff ced.


March 13, 2024

Partial punch-pulling on the dunes sagebrush lizard

At the Monthly, a Kaley Johnson has a story about A&M herpetologist Lee Fitzgerald battling the oil and gas industry to get the dunes sagebrush lizard protected as an endangered species. But, it's missing a fair amount, that doesn't really get into all the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Yea, it mentions folks like the Railroad Commission as part of the battle. (I have more, about RRC head Wayne [Not a] Christian's strident opposition to listing last year.)

It ignores former Comptroller Susan Combs fake protection shenanigans.

It TOTALLY ignores national-level US Fish and Wildlife Service stinking to high heaven on this issue. (It does mention USFWS dropping its Endangered Species Act proposal, but not WHY.) It ignores USFWS' ultimate boss, Dear Leader's first Interior Secretary, Kenny Salazar, aiding and abetting that. That, in turn is important because on federal lands, ie, the New Mexico portion of the Permian Basin, "Environmentalist Joe" has green-lighted more federal oil leases than did Donald Trump. (The story does mention Dear Leader himself essentially throwing shade on lizard protection.)

It also doesn't discuss how FWS is really less an environmental agency and more a "gun and rod" group.

The Monthly story isn't bad, overall, but, until it can suss out where FWS currently stands, it's incomplete. That said, I sadly think Fitzgerald's pessimism is warranted.

(I Tweeted my old link to the Monthly, and Johnson, but with the low signal-to-noise ratio, have yet to hear back. So, I posted on Hucksterman as well; can't even find a "contact" link on their web.)

Related? High Country News has not one but two stories on Joy Nicholopoulos, who retaliated against Gary Mowat in this; the second is directly related to that. Wait, there's a third about her gutting aplomado falcon protections in New Mexico, and (shock me) doing so for largely political reasons.

Add this further into the mix: Funding cuts to FWS (along with BLM and USFS).