9/11, conspiracy theories and more

This is a pretty highly edited and reorganized version of a recent newspaper column. Paywalls don't exist here on Blogger, but it's enough different from the original that I did not paywall a similar version on Substack. (I almost totally omitted Trump refusing to adhere to Santayana’s dictum about learning from the past — namely, Shrub Bush’s past — and emphasized other things more, namely, the "conspiracy theories" angle.

Two things about 9/11 need to be put up front on this 25^th anniversary.

The first is that 19 hijackers connected to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in a degree that both duopoly parties still try to hide to some degree took control of the two planes that flew into the World Trade Center, the one that was flown into the Pentagon, and the one that passengers force-crashed in Pennsylvania.

Period and end of story. More on that down below. But, no, Mr. Drain the Swamp Trump has no desire to touch this swamp with his Saudi friends and Abraham Accorders involved. Neither did Genocide Joe, after trying briefly to mildly push back against the Bone Saw King, Mohammad bin Salman.

No, it was no false flag, nor similar, “9/11 Falsers,” and that’s what I usually call you. Deal with it.

The two worst conspiracy theories are claims of a false flag controlled demolition and the claim that Mossad or some other agency of the nation of Israel did it.

As for the former? Popular Mechanics’ story, written in 2005 after a preliminary investigation and follow-up report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, explains in detail just how the two jet collisions could have caused what they did, including the collapse of WTC 7. It was eventually included in a larger book about 9/11. Lightly updated, still online, and without a paywall, it’s easily available.

Second, the spooks and snoops of the CIA and NSA? The ones who didn’t figure out Snowden until it was too late, a dozen years later? The ones who missed CIA, NSA and FBI spies, for Russia, Israel and other countries, for years? They couldn’t have pulled off a false flag.

As for the latter? It deserves no more comment. And I consider it antisemitic, not anti-Zionist, at bottom line and in most versions. That's especially with the "dancing Israelis" subtheme, or the "Jews didn't show up to work" subtheme. That said, the "dancing Muslims" claim is just as loathsome.

Within the Middle East, though, beyond Israel and Iraq, the ongoing whitewashing of Saudi Arabian connections should not be forgotten. With Mohammad bin Salman hopping in bed with Trump and vice versa, and Abraham Accords papering over the Middle East and further kicking Palestinians down a shithole, this cannot be emphasized enough. And, the House of Saud will continue to give Palestine the back of its hand for the foreseeable future.

The second main thing is 9/11’s role in conspiracy theorizing in general.

For a younger generation, I think 9/11 has replaced the John F. Kennedy assassination as the most popular conspiracy theory. (Well, that is, other than the “Zionists whacked Jack” asshattery.)

Spoiler alert: Lee Harvey Oswald did it, acting alone, six months after nearly killing Gen. Edwin Walker with the same Carcano rifle. It’s not that hard a shot for a Marine-trained sharpshooter at best rating, especially if you go to the Sixth Floor Museum, or even on the ground at Dealey Plaza and scope the scene. I’ve done all of that, and walked Dealey Plaza many a time, including on a Nov. 22 that fell on Thanksgiving Day.

That said, for some far-righters and a few far-lefters, the far more odious Seth Rich conspiracy theory may also be in the running as the most popular one today. Spoiler alert: The Russkies hacked both DNC and RNC servers. See my long and detailed piece, building off Duncan Campbell, refuting various nutters within “Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity,” refuting Patrick Lawrence (who has never written again for The Nation, good, even though it’s duopoly), and refuting various Greenies within VIPS like Ray McGovern, who was already way behind the 8-ball in my world.

Even more than 9/11, the Internet drove that conspiracy theory, and especially the social media world.

Otherwise, I reject conspiracy theories in general.

First, I know the difference between a conspiracy and a conspiracy theory. Beyond that, which covers specific actual conspiracies as well as conspiracy theories, I wrote about third parties and conspiracy theories. (That, in turn, ties indirectly to my David Keith Cobb obit.)

Otherwise, per the World War II cautionary dictum of “Loose lips sink ships,” most conspiracy theories have way too much faith in the ability of, or the desire to, keep secrets by participants in the alleged conspiracy. Even Saudi involvement in 9/11 partially reflects that, as a lawsuit continues its slow journey. Meanwhile, the pretendian tankies at r/AskHistorians really show they’re not leftists by running flak.

That’s more true than ever in today’s social media world.

Per the World War II cautionary dictum of “Loose lips sink ships,” most conspiracy theories have way too much faith in the ability of, or the desire to, keep secrets by participants in the alleged conspiracy. That’s more true than ever in today’s social media world.

Speaking of? Via Joe Costello, Hunter S. Thompson used that phrase in the last paragraph of his column written in the immediate aftermath.

The lid is on. Loose Lips Sink Ships. Don't say anything that might give aid to The Enemy.

So, was he gonzo? Or was he going over to the dark side? Or rather, was this calling out the dark side? A closer read shows he was calling out the dark side one last time, but with dashes of his gonzo style.

Otherwise? Good old Occam’s Razor, named after the medieval theologian though going back as far as Aristotle, otherwise still holds true, and the average conspiracy theory multiplies ideas way beyond necessity. Speaking of medieval worlds, conspiracy theory in general reminds me of the ancient religious movement called Gnosticism. I wrote about that as further thought vis-a-vis the Seth Rich conspiracy theory’s ongoing legs and related issues. Being a theoretically secret party to insider knowledge is attractive, along with being able to move up the rungs of a movement by becoming devoted to the conspiracy theory cause. In a nation now over the 340 million mark, feeling “in” in such ways surely has its social psychology attractions.

RIP AccommoGreen David Keith Cobb

 Cobb and Ruthi Engelki, 2021, screengrab off a public Facebook post.

Saw the story via Ballot Access News, then went to his Wiki.

"AccommoGreen" is the Green Party version of "ConservaDem" in my book. Here's a search return, since I never created a tag. Another way of putting it is that they're one step left of DSA Roseys. They exist to push Democrats left, first, to focus on the needs of a third party, only second.

Cobb pledged a "safe states" strategy in 2004. That said. St. Ralph of Nader promised the same in 2000, and lied about it. (People like Jeff St. Clair at Counterpunch, still butthurt over the 2004 Green nomination process, won't tell you that, nor will they tell you that Nader isn't that much of an environmentalist, and that he's not at all pro-labor, being in fact a crappy boss. For a whole shitload of reality on St. Ralph of Nader, go here.)

I briefly referenced Cobb in my "hello world" Blogger post, and not much else. 

Otherwise, as a now-ex Green, yes, it's time for a moment of reflection.

The first part is the "if only," per that link.

If only I had started on Blogger, if not a full year earlier, even six months earlier, to write more fully about the Democratic nomination process for president that year. Maybe, like Josh Marshall getting lucky with his pretending to be a New New Democrat or whatever, then spouting bullshit about third parties in 2004 (link rot at my link), I would have had a small bit of "empire." Not his, of course.

I'm not sure which of the "big three" was the most hypocritical. I was banned by Kos (well, frozen out, to be technical, because that's the way the tech world works) for being too Green. Josh didn't have a contributors' forum, but he has shown his not-totally-liberal Zionist colors in the decades since then. Atrios? Good snark, but how much depth did he ever have?

Meanwhile, in the Green world?

AccommoGreen Cobb. He later became an advisor to Gang Green Sierra Club. In 2009, when they were promoting natural gas as the "bridge fuel" and getting payola to do that promoting. Remember that? "Beyond Coal"? Funded by Aubrey McClendon, the disgusting founder of Chesapeake Energy. It ran from 2007-2012; Cobb joined Sierra's "Corporate Accountability Committee" in 2009 as noted. The Liberty Tree Foundation? DSA Rosey types.

Then Cynthia McKinney, for whom I voted with extreme holding of my nose. And, here she is today, Libertarian, and as antisemitic at times, not just anti-Zionist, in good company with the Mises Mice.

Then Jill Stein three runs in four elections, the last one doubling down on her investments hypocrisy.

In between, one run by the earnest Howie Hawkins, generally good, generally too close to the left hand of the duopoly on Russiagate. 

I dropped everything above on Substack to knock something out. I wanted something longer here, after a bit more marination time. I'm not sure how much more I'll let this marinate before I post. 

I will say I wasn't that familiar with his background at the time. (He ran for Texas AG in 2002, and had been legal general counsel to St. Ralph's 2000 run, per the Wiki about his 2004 run.) 

I already knew that he and Libertarian Michael Bednarik — The Man Who Drove Without a License™ — asked for a recount in Ohio in 2004. That wound up bringing conspiracy theory nutters out of the woodwork. Badnarik died four years ago.

More on the reality of Ohio 2004 from Mark Hertsgaard. (Sadly, he's a duopolist Biden greenwasher.) Anyway, I wrote more about the Bob Fitrakis nuttery in that 2004 recount here. Let's also not forget Brad Friedman of the Brad Blog. (This is what started leading to my separation with Brains.)

It also had a semi-bright line to Stein's recount request in 2016. That was bullshit I refused to co-sign. AND, doubled down on that. In turn, Stein started grifting off that. 

Before that, in that same election cycle, Cobb was jumping into bed with Caity Johnstone and her red-black alliances. Fallout from that is when I first started really looking askance at David Bruce Collins as well. (Collins still loves himself some Caity, or at least he did a year or so ago, per his most recent Shits on Shitter.)

Finally, for one last swift kick? Cobb was a 9/11 Falser, or at least a "just asking questions" Falser Lite. The petition he signed was 3 years after, and distributed by the odious 9/11Truth. Plus, since I am both somewhat skeptical and somewhat cynical about him? That was less than two full weeks before the 2004 election. Politics, anybody? The statement/petition isn't a false flag in the narrow sense of "America did it"; it is in the larger sense of insinuating the US government deliberately let this happen.

Most the actual questions are bullshit. (I refuse to link, even with a "no follow.") For example, Flight 77 turned around unnoticed because hijackers turned off its transponder. The Pentagon did not, "supposedly" or actually, have special missile batteries. Yes, the Counterintelligence center said the terror dashboard was "blinking red," but it did not know in advance about the specifics of 9/11. Bush kept reading "My Pet Goat" to avoid mass panic.

(Oh, the rest of that link shows Cobb not a Green any more, or so it appears, but a DSA Rosey. Shock me.) 

This all gets to my Venn diagram in this piece:

 

Can't we get less nutty leftists? 

The answer is, probably not. Actually, the "better" answer is, almost certainly not.

As an ex-Green, looking ahead to the 2028 prez run? I'll take a non-AccommGreen, non-hypocrite. If not, I'll most likely undervote. Voting for Claudia de la Cruz was itself a bit of nose-holding in 2024. 

(Sidebar: Can we once again get less sucky Firefox? I still can't post pictures by URL on Blogger in Fuckfox; I have to use Google. I'll admit I haven't tried Safari on that in a long time.)

One last thought or two going back to 2004, and moving through 2016.

I still didn't know much about the Green ecosystem then. I learned more since then. I'd say it was two-thirds the party trying to screw Ralph, but one-third Ralph had made his own bed, and even invited the screwing. I don't know if Cobb played any personal part in that or not. After all, he might have been playing nice with Ralph and shivving him at the same time. 

On the Stein recounts, and her claiming they weren't plumping for the left hand of the duopoly, even when they were, I see Cobb's AccommoGreen fingerprints on that. I have long seen Stein as some degree of AccommoGreen herself, anyway. 

==

I have posted this, harder-hitting than my Substack piece, as a comment to the Green Party US Substack's RIP piece. We'll see how much I get flamed there, or blocked, or whatever. I made sure to note the 9/11 Falser issue (and I called it that there) because I posted it on Sept. 11. 

Texas Progressives roundup

Off the Kuff provides a Big Bend construction update.  

SocraticGadfly reflects on ethical issues involved with using AI and apps to promote environmentalism, as well as the issue of how much "AI" actually exists.

The Monthly mildly calls out Gina Hinojosa for running an anti-abortion ad in drag, rather than an ad about her trisomy 21 daughter carried to term, that doesn't document how Texas women today can't get the procedure she could have. Back to undervoting that race?

I'll believe that rural voters turn Texas blue as soon as Hispanic voters do. Nice try, Politico. I'll write more on that.

Trump cabinet members like Brooke Rollins, just like Trump himself, are war-profiteering off the conflict with Iran. 

Trump won't give up on mail ballots; will SCOTUS stop being chickenshit, realize Trump doesn't care for legal niceties, and fully take the bull by the horns? 

The State Bard of Education jumped fully into the Islamophobia tank. 

San Ignacio, southeast of Laredo, is another new border wall battleground. 

Kuff, as a good Democrat trooper, continues to be chickenshit on radio silence about ongoing butt-hurtedness by Jasmine Crockett against James Talarico. 

Fuck no I'm not getting in one of Elmo's Cybercabs. 

Strangeabbott says Trump should give Texas hospitals Medicaid bucks they're supposedly due. But Kenny Boy, although he sued Biden over the same thing, isn't suing Trump.

I'd have more but Kuffner once again didn't mail out his version of a roundup. Keep doing that, Kuff, and I'll stop running you in my version. 

Fact-checking Texas Monthly on Rio Grande water supply

The Monthly never responds on either Hucksterman or Shitter, so when reporter Jack Herrera, on his personal Shitter account, asked for feedback on "The War for the Rio Grande," he got it.

It's good in some ways, but has a mix of errors and Texas exceptionalism hyperbole.

First, if one goes by more than water supply, per American Rivers, neither the Rio Grande nor the Colorado is on the ten most endangered list. (Both have been on its list in the past, the Colorado more often, the Rio Grande more recently, aka last year.)

Second, no, Geronimo didn't flee from Arizona into Chihuahua, it was into Sonora. 

The Colorado gets more headlines because it passes through more states, and more, because a lot more agriculture depends on it than the Rio Grande. So does more urban water supply.

The High Plains, not the small, HIGH-elevation San Luis Valley, is the heart of Colorado's ag industry. The Grand Junction area with its orchard fruits is arguably No. 2.

You're totally right on the 1944 treaty, but could go further. It needs to be redone. 

I disagree with you on not targeting certain crops. Lots of pecans like the ones Rogers grows sell overseas, just like the alfalfa you mentioned going to Saudi Arabia. Yes, Rogers has a market — and outside of Trump tariff stupidity, a lot of that market is in China.

El Paso scientists are right — the drought in the Southwest is expected to last the rest of this century, due to climate change. Water recycling has been done in LA's Southland for what, a decade or more? Here in Texas, Wichita Falls started it a few years ago. Neither one may have as fancy of an operation as El Paso plans, but the concept in action is itself not new. If there's something special and new in El Paso's details, it should have been spelled out more. Saying it's "the first of its kind in the nation" is incomplete at best and possibly inaccurate at worst unless it's massively different from others.

I concluded by telling Herrera what I start with here and I was waiting to see if anything would be different this time on responsiveness. 

=

A second piece, whether prequel or sequel, is better. 

Setting aside Herrera's untruths about the San Luis Valley as the heart of Colorado agriculture (pre-Spanish entrada, it wasn't, either; that would be Colorado's part of the Four Corners) his story about his trip to the headwaters of the Rio Grande is more worth it. I've not hiked to the headwaters myself, but I've been to Creede, and have hiked in American and Yankee basins on the west side of the Continental Divide just above the headwaters.

=

Sidebar: Neither story has the magic phrase "climate change." 

==

Follow-up: A full week later, and no response from Herrera, who's obviously a liar. And, no response from either him or the Monthly on Shitter or Hucksterman. Shock me. I guess Herrera didn't fall far from the Texas Monthly apple tree.

All Things Paxton as 2026 elections hit their post-Labor Day finish line

I see what I did there, NPR.

With Big John Cornyn refusing to help Kenny Boy Paxton in his fundraising get at all, as announced last month, The Eyes of Texas, certainly MAGAts Republican eyes, turned to The Donald.

And Trump's PAC has now shoved $10 million in the Paxton ad buy offering plate, the Trib reports. That said, its subhed gets a framing issue wrong. For Trump, this is ultimately not about this race now being an unexpected key to which duopoly party controls the Senate. Rather, it's about his (hedged) backing of Paxton over Cornyn through the GOP primary and runoff. It's personal. 

That said, the content of the ad buy looks un-Trumpian bland and impersonal. Attacking Talarico over taxes rather than past statements of his like "god is nonbinary"? WTF?

At the Monthly, Dan Solomon snarks on the Trump official endorsement that accompanied the ad buy. 

Elmo just dropped a quarter-mil. Chump change for him, and chump change for what Kenny Boy actually needs. 

Meanwhile, Kenny Boy appears to have violated U.S. Senate Ethics Committee wealth and assets disclosure rules. Shock me. Nothing will happen until after the election, if anything happens then. Before the election, the SEC won't even send an official warning letter.

This one deserves an extended pull quote to show how bad it is:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appears to have violated federal ethics law in significant ways when filing recent disclosures of his assets and liabilities, creating confusion about his net worth and holdings, a review by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found. 

Among them: Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, reported owning seven homes but said he earned no income from any. Yet all but one was listed for rent during the reporting periods, and some current residents and neighbors at those addresses confirmed that the properties were rented, the news organizations found. Receiving income and not reporting it is a violation of federal disclosure law, three ethics experts said. 

Additionally, Paxton did not disclose mortgages for three condos at a Utah golf resort that federal law requires him to list as liabilities if they are not personal residences. 

He also valued his stake in a vacant plot of Texas land at up to $50,000 on last year’s filing, but his business partner told the newsrooms Paxton’s share for years has been worth about $1 million. Federal financial disclosure law requires property to be listed at fair market value. 

The apparent errors and omissions the newsrooms found obscure the extent of Paxton’s income streams, assets and debt, making it difficult for voters to make sense of his finances as they mull whether to support him in November’s election, the ethics experts said.

Shocked? Not me. And I'm certain it's deliberate, not sloppiness, regarding the next paragraph after the pull quote.

It's also stupid, whether stupidity born of sloppiness or of arrogance, because it triggered this story. Yes, as the story notes, if he wins, it makes it harder to track Senate conflicts of interest. But first, he has to win. 

But, per the end of the story, here's how you know he's off the hook, other than for stupidity:

The ethics committee did not respond to requests for comment. Candidates or senators who willingly falsify financial disclosures can be fined up to $50,000 or prosecuted for making a false statement to the government, a felony. The committee rarely investigates senators and has not formally sanctioned a member in 19 years.

Bingo. The Senate, contra the House, maintains this level of false collegiality.

Top blogging of August 2026

As is normal, not all of these were written last month. Rather, per Blogger's sometimes-dubious stats, they reportedly were the most popular for last month.

No. 10 was from not too far away, in July. It was an update on the unethical moderators at the r/AskHistorians subreddit, who it turns out are pretendian leftists. 

No. 9, from last month, asked "What if Jason Arday WERE a fraud"? 

No. 8, from late 2023, was a roundup of thoughts on the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling, broken trust between leftist Israelis and Palestinians, and Putin punking Western sanctions.

No. 7, a Texas Progressives roundup from late July. (More and more, the term "progressives" is of course tohu w'vohu.) 

No. 6, my splitting of a Texas Progressives roundup from August, where I actually called out, myself, both halves of the duopoly, specifically both Kenny Boy Paxton and Talafreako Talarico.

No. 5, an oldie but goodie from 2014, my gloating over skeptic, and libertarian fusing his libertarian politics with skepticism, Brian Dunning, found guilty of wire fraud. 

No. 4? Trending because I posted it recently on the r/DeathValleyNP sub-Reddit, my piece about Steve Curry getting himself killed because he chose to hike Golden Canyon in midday sun in July 2023 — at the age of 71. At age 62, this spring, when in Death Valley during the big hottening up in late March, when Furnace Creek was hitting 110 some days, I paced myself in the afternoon.

No. 3 was from 2024 and was an extended review of Steve Vladeck's book "The Shadow Docket." Gee, why is that trending again? 

No. 2, even more than the Dunning one, is a synopsis, which due to timing, turned into a semi-takedown obit, of Alan Smithee, aka Actual Flatticus, IRL Chris Chopin, whom I still suspect of being a poseur of some sort, if. not controlled opposition.

No. 1? From 2018, a callout of the hypocrisy and lies of Sema Hernandez, who had challenged R.F. Beto-Bob O'Rourke for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Texas that spring.