Leo XIV, show us the money, the Observer says

The Observer, reaching way outside Texas, calls on the Vatican to crack open its $73 billion gold mine. The author is triangulating off Leo XIV's recent "Magnifica Humanitas." The problem, or the reality, is tseveral-fold, without excusing Rome. First, not all of its assets are liquid. Second, at $73 billion, not trillion, that's one-tenth of what Elmo Musk or Bozo Bezos are worth, at least on paper. And, that's just the richest of plutocrats, not the whole schmeer. Third is that the author is privileging the United States, and possibly Mexico, when il papa rules Catholics around the globe.

Fourth, you're asking a man who wears ruby-colored, and perhaps ruby-edged slippers while carrying a gold crozier to do this?

Fifth, many of the assets that would be liquified to get to this point would be bought by plutocrats. That said, if the Vatican were to sell, say, the entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, that alone would bring more than $73 billion.

Sixth, you're asking a religious leader who runs a body that still opposes women in leadership, still opposes  women's reproductive freedoms and other things, to show the world "magnificent humanity" through money alone? 

The latest all things Kenny Boy Paxton as the election nears the finish line

The Monthly says Angela Paxton knows what she's doing without even mentioning the Tammy Wynette angle. Really? (Not on "she knows what she's doing," but on it not invoking the Wynette angle.) More seriously, exactly what IS she doing? Paxton's kind of a boat anchor and the state banned official straight ticket voting by voting machine lever years ago. Does she think Tammy Wynette will play well in the divorce court? Is she looking to a 2028 run for some other office? Hoping for a Strangeabbott appointment to something?  These are all possibilities, and I'm sure others exist; the Monthly explores none of them.

In a longform piece, Chris Hooks discusses snitches — three recorded snippets of Kenny Boy after the GOP midterms, but apparently from at least two different snitchers — bemoaning that he reportedly has no control over his campaign. Well, Ken, when you first decided to commit apparent securities fraud, second decided to diddle someone not named Angela and third decided to stick your head fully up Trump's ass to counter Nos. 1 and 2, you surrendered control. From there, Chris wonders who the leaker/s is/are, and speculates, by their target choices, they're DC insiders pissed the GOP is having to play defense for Paxton rather than pushing Big John Cornyn to the finish line.

Dan Solomon spins on the first and second to talk about the weirdness of new Paxton ads. Solomon's talking only about teevee/streaming ads. This doesn't include the weirdness of Kenny Boy's direct mail flyers, which seem to indicate Commies, led by Uncle Karl himself, are hiding under every small-town bush to push Talarico over the finish line.

Sorry for the wingnuts wanting "proof of life" from Talafreako Talarico while ignoring the person BlueAnon calls Moscow Mitch, but Talarico is alive, well, and back on the campaign trail. 

If Mayes Middleton says he wants to put god back in government, doesn't that mean that Kenny Boy removed god? 

Kenny Boy certainly did NOT remove the grifting, including at least $3.3 million in security detail grifting. 

We're way past the original timetable for the first of three debates allegedly originally planned between Kenny Boy and Talafreako, past the date for the second, and just past the date for the third, with early voting starting next Monday. Conclusion: No debates. Per Dan Solomon talking about Kenny Boy's nervousness even while being asked softball questions in an interview, he's probably decided that looking chicken is less bad than looking like a fuck-up. That said, how, and how well, does Talafreako exploit this? My guess? Not all that well. He said nothing when the first deadline passed, was sick when the second passed, and said nothing Monday when the third passed.

To me, this would be easy. All Talarico has to do is say something like:

I'm leading in the polls and have had a steady lead for the past two weeks. Ken Paxton must really be afraid of something if he won't debate me.

There you are. 

Meanwhile, while he still leads, per a story from Yahoo, the latest MR/Recon poll shows he has slipped back to inside the margin of error, by half a percentage point. More on the poll, which also includes the gov's race, here.

USDA announces record price support payments like it's a good thing

This came out last week:

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced that the Farm Service Agency’s Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) will generate approximately $13.8 billion in gross payments to eligible agricultural producers for the 2025 crop year; the largest annual payout by far since these key safety net programs were established in the 2014 Farm Bill. 

“President Trump has been the biggest champion for American farmers, and today's announcement delivers nearly $14 billion in funding for rural America,” said Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins. “Last July 4th President Trump signed the Working Families Tax Cuts Act into law and today we are acting on it, this will strengthen reference prices to better reflect today’s farm economy. This historic economic support provides producers critical liquidity to cover operating costs, prepare for the next crop year and invest in their operations. Thank you to all the Republicans who unanimously voted for this law and put food security and rural America first.” 

The 2025 crop year stands alone in the history of ARC and PLC since Congress created the programs as key components of the commodity safety net in the Agricultural Act of 2014. Since 2015, no previous crop year has generated payments approaching this level. While ARC and PLC payments total $13.8 billion, producers are reminded that this does not account for payment limitation reductions and the 5.7% sequestration rate required by statute that will be applied to all ARC and PLC payments.

And, no, Brookie, it's NOT a good thing.

It means that, in various ways, our current agricultural system is more and more broken.

It's broken by increasing income disparity in the agriculture world, like elsewhere.

It's broken by bribery to accept fallout from Trump's tariffs.

It's broken by a system with structural problems, such as dairy price supports versus Canada's provincial quota system, which was already being attacked by Trump 1.0.

And, of course, it's broken by climate change. 

Wrong national parks move, Congress

So, Chiricahua National Monument, which gets only 60,000 visitors a year, is going to be upgraded to a national park?

WHY?

First, contra the tourism pushers (Grand Junction, Colorado area with Colorado National Monument comes immediately to mind), yes, an upgrade does cost money, and not just changing the signs.

You want this because you think an upgrade to national park status will bring more tourists.

And, assuming it does? That means the upgraded national park has to hire more rangers, both for general assistance, and for things that national parks visitors expect, like interpretive programs, evening ranger presentations and such. It has to hire more roads and facilities maintenance staff for the increased wear and tear. It has to hire more law enforcement rangers for increased problems.

And?

That all costs money.

Stop lying.

Second, doing this while still refusing to address a massive maintenance backlog, an issue on which Democraps are 75 percent as bad as Rethuglicans, is a mix of hypocrisy and abuse of the National Park Service. 

And, it's more proof that the left hand of the duopoly doesn't really care about real environmental, ecological and land management issues. 

Johnson County oil pollution story smacks of the 1990s

The Observer has a folo to a piece a few months ago about a Johnson County residential development being built on an oilfield waste dump site. The new piece looks at how little legal recourse new homeowners may have, and also about how both state and private business agencies that should be able to provide legal liability answers refuse to do so, and about how the Railroad Commission has refused to test the site.

The story is disgusting, especially with the mention of arsenic. I am reminded of the infamous Voluntary Purchasing Groups of the 1990s and their use of arsenic compounds, federally- and state-licensed in agriculture only for cotton desiccation, as part of general-purpose weedkillers, and not telling neighboring farms and ranches that the air out of their smokestacks west of Bonham might have arsenic.

This story peaked at the time a Democrat-turned-Republican state senator, Rick Perry, decided to challenge Jim Hightower as Ag Commish. Politics got involved there; Perry's campaign staff allegedly told VPG to stall out the investigation until after November 1994, because he would win.

He did and the rest is history. 

The two stories have other parallels. Residents in the area in the 1990s accused the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, today's Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, of going in the tank like the RRC seems to have done on this.

Voluntary Purchasing Groups, or VPG, is the organization that also has, or had, an EPA Superfund site near Commerce. 

Texas Progressives talk pre-election politics

Off the Kuff interviewed four Legislative candidates: Sara McGee, Odus Evbagharu, Stefanie Bord, and Darlene Breaux. 

SocraticGadfly had two election-related posts. First, he noted that, at the Trib Fest, John Fetterman seemed to be threatening to take Senate Democrats hostage after the midterms. Second, he wrote about Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's callout of Texas and national Democrats for not talking more about climate change.

New York Times/Siena is the latest poll giving Talarico both a lead over Paxton outside the margin of polling error, and a majority, not a plurality. I predict that, after another poll or two like this, by Oct. 15 and no later, the National Republican Senatorial Committee pulls the plug on Kenny Boy. 

Hypocrite Angela Paxton "stands by her man" Kenny Boy in the election while continuing to plow fully speed ahead on the divorce. Can she talk about baking cookies? (The Trib story lies by claiming most recent polls are within the margin of error when, in this particular race, they're not. Clickbait?)

Alyssa Edwards introduces herself to Ken Paxton.  

G. Elliott Morris understands the reasons Dems in Texas and elsewhere are still leery of what polls are saying, but insists the blue wave is coming. 

Federal judge issues injunction blocking all border work in Big Bend and says plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits. 

Some cities and counties are betting that Strangeabbott's 90-day pause on Flock camera funding is indeed the political stunt that it is and keeping up as many as they can, or getting extensions. 

Those bazillions Tex-ass voters approved for new state parks on the 2023 constitutional amendments? Congrats on getting your (checks notes) 1-square-mile new state park at Lake Palestine.

Further pandering to senior citizen homeowners on property taxes, with Dannie Goeb wanting to reduce the age limit to 55, shows what's wrong with Tex-ass' tax system, its school finance system, and the state structurally. And, too many ConservaDems play along. Most these seniors are better off than I am at near-seniorhood. 

Neil at Houston Democracy Project reported on City Hall developments. City for the moment not applying for Trump DOJ Model Cities grant that would tie HPD to bigoted & authoritarian goals of federal government & arrogant, pompous Chris Brown remains employed at $127,000 yearly, 15 hour weekly city job. 

The Current finds another example of Brandon Herrera being an absolute piece of garbage.

City of Yes does a deep dive into Austin's housing and real estate market.

Steve Vladeck calls the SCOTUS third-country removal order "profoundly ugly".

"Librul" Eugene, Oregon, wants to charge $2.5 million for a public information request about a cop. I think that, when it comes to cops, many "librul" cities are like this.

A sad presidential election in Brazil. Jailed coup-plotting former president Jair Bolsonero's son vs. incumbent Lula, now 80 and who either couldn't get anybody good to succeed him or else has become enamored of power.  The race is going to a runoff.