Counterpunch going in the crapper once again and more

After removing it from my main blogroll, I hadn't even visited it before my July vacation until the end of September.

Ye gads. It's got issues.

Beyond giving the late Ward Churchill a pass on being a pretendian, here's some of the recent "fun."

Wait, wait, here's the start of the fun. Per Counterpunch's search bar, the word "pretendian" isn't even in the entirety of Counterpunch online. Gads.

The DSA Roseys are like anarchists! Wingnuts will take a bong hit off that.  And why do Jeff St. Clair and Joshua Frank have someone who has written for places like the WaPost and Guardian writing for them? This other person gets it more right, without identifying what he's discovered, perhaps because he doesn't know. When I saw him talk about how "caucuses have a level of power within DSA that is absurdly disproportionate to the number of people they represent," I said, he's talking about the Green Party. Caucus-based tribalism is not anarchism.

Speaking of, via surrogates, St. Clair continues hating on the Green Party with running this interesting, or "interesting," takedown obit of David Cobb, via a presumable flunky contributor. (That may be the same person I ran into via Silverstein's "Washington Babylon" revamp. It is and oh no.) You know what? Mine's much better, in part because it doesn't turn into a laughable paean to the DSA Roseys, whom the author claims are more effective than Greens. Beyond that lie, there's others. First, Nader had never officially registered as a Green in 2000, part of the reason for his 2004 party demise. Basically, per this paper, he tried to play footsie, like Jesse the Body Ventura in 2020 and Cornell West in 2024, wanting the nomination on a platter but refusing to engage before that. And(rew)ie Stewart's also a conspiracy theorist on Malcolm X's death.

(Stewart originally ran the piece on that person's [sic] Substack and St. Clair picked it up. Speaking of? Again, fuck you; and I'm sorry that I went out of my way to challenge High Country News for stopping running you as well as Felice Pace and others. And, per my editing of that person's first name? A "transgender woman" would be a woman wearing men's jeans and Carhatts. You're a transgender man, clearly male, Clyde. Or, perhaps better yet, to use that old-time word? You're a transvestite.)

"Pergressuve" John Ferrer gives off the vibes of a Cold War 2.0 Russiaphobe in this piece with the inaccuracy early on of claiming Ukraine has gained territory in 2026. It has, but Russia has gotten more, in areas that were Ukraine-held before this year. Even fucking Ukrainian Pravda admits this. Feffer is a George Soros neolib. Why's he writing for Counterpunch?

Looking outside Counterpunch's pages, Frank has a new book: "Bad Energy." I quote from the editorial blurb on Goodreads: 

In Bad Energy, award-winning journalist Joshua Frank argues that the green energy transition is driven not by an effort to save the planet but by profit incentives. We must stop burning fossil fuels if we have any hope of saving the planet, but the significant, haphazard expansion of green energy in recent years—from large solar projects to wind energy to mining for renewables—has destroyed communities and ecosystems. And worse, renewables simply cannot match our ever-expanding demand for energy, driven in no small part by the rapid proliferation of data centers in the world’s wealthiest nations.

I'm not saying he's all wrong, but that's an oversell at a minimum. 

The first claim? No, something more accurate would be:

The green energy transition, launched as an effort to save the planet, has been taken over by a profit-first focus.

There you go.

Second, you can't have small solar or wind projects. Even without data centers being pushed, pushed, pushed, we need more renewable electricity as is. Conservation might be nice, but, and not wanting to sound like Darth Cheney, by itself, it's not a major part of the answer. 

Third, no, not all such projects have "destroyed ecosystems," and many have actually boosted rural communities. Get out west of the 97th meridian, but before you get to full desert, wind or solar farms have allowed family cattle ranches to stop overgrazing, and thus cut a few cow farts and belches out of the system while at least partially protecting the natural vegetation that still remains. 

Counterpunch has an extract from the book. The last one-third is still partially general environmentalism, but it also steers into NIMBYism. 

Third, Joshua, in January 2025, when you went from Montana to Los Angeles, how did you get there? Flight? Big old Montana gas-guzzling pickup? Midsized car? Hybrid? (Disclosure: I have a 2011 CVPI ex-cop car. It was cheap, but yes, uses more gas than smaller cars. But, because it was cheap, I'll run it until it gets near the point of needing more major repairs.)

The biggest issue, though, is one that I called out eons ago. No consistent editorial direction. It plays out in detail in a variety of issues. Russia-Ukraine is perhaps the biggest current example; besides that Russiagate-sounding piece, you may have others giving more support to Russia withstanding NATO. You may even have someone halfway like Max Blumenthal.

Speaking of Max, from Counterpunch's past of a few years ago, more than today, takes on China in general and Xinjiang in particular are all over the fucking board. And, that's not just in the past. Note this April 2026 piece, of a type with which I would agree. That said? One of the two authors called out, Vijay Prasad, writes for Counterpunch! Although he's not written there about Xinjiang in 2026, he did as recently as two years ago. Maybe St. Clair or Frank finally put an editorial thumb on a scale?

Yes, one can argue you'd like people to think for themselves. You'd also like a magazine of politics and opinion to take an actual stand, though. Wouldn't you?

Top blogging of September 2026

As is normal, these are the 10 most-read pieces last month. They were not necessarily written within the last month, just popular, at least according to Blogger’s stats that may be crashed by bots that Google doesn’t filter out in its modern enshittification, for all I know.

With that, let’s dig in.

No. 10 was from last month as “All Things Paxton …” offered an initial post-Labor Day view of Kenny Boy Paxton’s campaign for the US Senate in Texas.

No. 9? It’s from a dozen years ago, but in the post-Roe Merikkka, surely of interest connected to the 2026 elections. I talked about abortion as a “Gordian knot” for many liberals.

No. 8 was from late August (and also over on Substack) where I asked, somewhat rhetorically, “What if Jason Arday WAS a fraud?” and then delved into how society should address the issues behind that issue. And, yes, it’s a rhetorical, but here, unlike there, I did use the indicative “was,” not the subjunctive “were.”

No. 7? My takedown obit of 2004 Green Party presidential candidate David Keith Cobb. And, yes, with taking an extra day or two of time, it’s much more of a takedown obit than my relatively mild Substack version. (Sidebar: At Counterpunch, one of Jeffrey St. Clair’s flunkies spun another way, using a semi-takedown obit of Cobb to kick the Green Party in general because of St. Ralph of Nader. I will have a separate piece here in a few days about the most recent decline and fall of Counterpunch.)

No. 6? A July Texas Progressives roundup. I talked about how in Tex-ass, data centers have a staged, progressive expansion all planned in advance but don’t tell you.

No. 5? “Clutching pears, without tots, at Lone Star Left.” Short and sweet snark.

No. 4? A mid-August, split in half version of a Texas Progressives roundup, because, doing it my way, I snarked on both halves of the duopoly as the election finish line started coming into vague sight.

No. 3? My talk about Aridzona facing a POSSIBLE! day of water reckoning over BuRec saying it was turning the Colorado River taps down a skoosh. From late August.

No. 2 is from a decade ago, but remains popular, my bidding an RIP farewell to “Actual Flatticus,” aka “the dead and deified god of a cult.”

No. 1? My schadenfreudic (yes, I can invent that adjective) posting a dozen years ago about the conviction of fraudster, grifter, and fuser of skepticism with libertarianism, Brian Dunning. AFAIK, he STILL remains unrepentant, and an Italian-American philosopher’s occasional links to him are mildly disconcerting, though less so than other political issues and far less so than several actual philosophical issues, in the process of being individually covered at my second site at Blogger.

The hell with Gavin Newsom, Xavier Becerra et al

 I'm talking about them signing off on the Paramount-Warner merger last week. 

One additional reason they caved, IMO, beyond Gov. Pothole wanting to be President Pothole and Becerra wanting to succeed him?

I doubt Paramount would have fully left the state. Couldn't afford to. 

But, Larry Ellison probably threatened to play the antisemitism card. 

Or, per Ellison's Oracle hat, he may have made other threats to suing states, like one to a New Mexico data center under development about not paying if it was delayed. Yes, that's Oracle, not Paramount, but he would have tied the two together. 

The fight may not be over, but with California AG Rob Bonta essentially being told to settle? It's not good. That said, the plaintiffs and friends of them, more, who want the suit to go forward, aren't alone in saying this is unenforceable. Read Capital and Main.

That said, the first piece from The Wrap doesn't mention that Bonta himself is running for re-election. He may have been told to settle, but he may have gotten hints. 

 ==

That said, Skydance (Paramount) is getting gifted a colossal turkey with Warner Bros. "Digger." Beyond the merged studio turkey? It couldn't happen to a nicer guy in the acting world than Tom Cruise.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse talks climate change with a callout for Texas, national Democrat apparatchiks

I didn't know Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse was this ardent about climate change and its concerns. His interview with Inside Climate News includes calling out the party apparatchiks on having their heads in the sand and saying climate change isn't a good political issue:

We actually did polling, for instance, in Texas that showed that 92 percent of Texans are concerned about the cost of homeowners insurance. 66 percent of them connect that problem to climate-driven extreme weather. So this is red state, oil patch Texas, and you’ve got more people concerned about the cost of homeowners insurance than own homes in Texas, which shows how big an issue this has become. And fully two-thirds of voters ascribe it to climate-driven extreme weather. So the public is a mile ahead of where the Democratic think tankery and consultant class is.

Gee, AOC et al, while calling out Democraps' New New Left for being anti-woke or whatever, don't do that on climate change, unlike this. 

Speaking of? He specifically mentions that in Florida (the state he discusses next after the pull quote above) that the Democrats' candidate for governor is running specifically on climate change concerns. Missing by their absence from his piece are Ginojosa or Talarico.

He looks cautiously ahead to the next Senate, where, with a change of power, he could be heading the Environment and Public Works Committee. 

Texas Progressives have a pre-election run-up

Off the Kuff eagerly awaits the outcome of Rep. Vikki Goodwin's complaint against Dan Patrick for his illegal AI deepfake ads. 

SocraticGadfly talked about which Republicans have and have not called out Bo French and about Texas Monthly writing a clickbait article on this.

Mondoweiss has all the dirt on Robert Kraft's decades-long massive support of Israeli Zionism.

Where's the beef, prices that is? Could be going even higher. Why? Because of ICE, per various Southern Plains livestock associations. Possible hidden lining? People eat less of the climate-wrecking bovine meat.

The Observer reports on what could be Santa Ana's last stand — the one-n is for the wildlife refuge in the Valley. 

The Monthly looks under the hood of evangelical Christian TEA Commish Mike Morath's takeover of Fort Worth ISD, and notes how Senate Bill 1882 has charter school control (read: evangelicals or Catholics) under its own hood.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project spoke at City Council about possible city application for Trump Justice Department Model Cities funds. Accepting these funds would tie HPD to Trump immigration & racial policies. It goes as far as policing "loitering."

The Tech Edvocate does a deep dive on why the oil and gas industry has stood by Bo French.

The Dallas Observer writes about AI-powered cameras on Dallas garbage trucks, and how few citations for alleged code violations have resulted from them.

Steve Vladeck untangles what the Eighth Circuit did in their bizarre Missouri redistricting ruling.

The Current has a look at the first segment of the border wall being built on private property in Big Bend.

Fetterman says he could take Senate Democrats hostage after midterms

John Fetterman lied about his political self at the Texas Tribune's annual Trib Fest, and probably didn't get much pushback. Even worse, he's indicated he could hold Pennsylvania and national Senatorial Democrats hostage after the midterm elections.

In a statement earlier this month, Fetterman said he would “still be the 51st vote that I ran on” if Democrats take the Senate, referring to the tie-breaking vote. But closing out the festival, he said speculation about the next Congress was irrelevant until after the November election. “Wait till the midterms. See what I do,” Fetterman said. “Let’s revisit after the midterm and see what happens if I happen to be 51.”

Great: Dems will have another Yachtsman Joe Manchin in their midst, and will probably coddle him as much as Manchin.

Meanwhile, as part of the hostage-taking, he's already all but daring Dems to expel him from the party, as part of a longer conversation, that starts with just how much he has one foot in the Keystone State GOP tank, starting here:

Nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania Democrats view Fetterman unfavorably, according to a poll conducted last month by The New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena University. Although Pennsylvania Republicans view him more favorably than they do their GOP senator, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, Fetterman said he has “no path as a Republican.”

Then this:

Fetterman’s trip to Texas comes less than three weeks after he introduced McCormick in a surprise video at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas.

OK now. 

Now this:

It's like he's daring them. 

“If the Democratic Party votes me out or expels me, they’re always entitled to do that,” he continued.

He also had a telling Freudian slip, when asked by an audience member, but NOT the moderator, why he didn't flip:

“Because I’m a lifelong Republican,” he said, raising his hand to his head, embarrassed after he realized the slip. “I guarantee you that will break through. That will get clipped.”

Oops. 

Meanwhile, even while daring Democrats to boot him, he's taking Republican money as I type, and he's not up for re-election this year.

Another fundraising email sent this month from the gopsquad handle came with Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah listed as the sender. It was focused on Fetterman, and began, “I just got an email from John. He's basically a Republican now.”

Oy.

Already in July, he was getting big bucks from Tex-ass Republican Harlan Crow. 

But Dems, even if they had a two-seat Senate majority, wouldn't have the balls to boot him.