Getting stuck in Big Bend, getting Yankee salvation — even when you're an idiot

If you get stuck in Big Bend, here's the guy who could be your ultimate salvation. And, he's a Yankee from Massachusetts.

That said, despite his big heart, there's info in the story that shows some people don't belong in the back country of one of the largest, and almost surely the second most primitive, of national parks this side of Death Valley. (The Maze district of Canyonlands is still well ahead, and may directly challenge some of the worst of DV, though not being as hot in summer as Big Bend, let alone Death Valley.)

Now, those ... idiots?

This:

In March, four college kids in a Land Cruiser got a flat tire on Black Gap Road, in Big Bend National Park, and were so low on gas that they couldn’t run the air conditioning. The road is technically closed due to flooding damage last year, so the chances were slim that anyone was going to drive by. At 4 p.m. on a 101 degree day, they were able to send a message to one of their dads, who joined several Big Bend Facebook pages and was directed to Cary. By sunset, Cary had contacted them and made a plan to meet up first thing the next morning with gas so they could at least stay cool. All in all, he spent seven hours fixing the tire and helping them get on their way.

First, riffing off the warning at the end of the piece, Land Cruisers DO have a full-sized spare. If you don't know how to access an under-carriage spare tire when you buy or rent such a vehicle, you should familiarize yourself well before driving a place like Black Gap Road, even when it's truly open.

For more on how tough Black Gap Road is? The Park Service notes it is "not maintained and requires 4-wheel drive." More here. Both links have multiple photos.

Second, you shouldn't be an idiot on running that low on gas in a place as big and as remote as Big Bend. I would have known that in college, even with a lot less money than these kids have. And,  yes, money and class are getting mentioned here.

Third, what would you have done without a cellphone signal? (This is likely to lead to a push to put even more cellphone towers — a totally wrong push, of course, and another reason to visit more and more non-national park federal land. The subreddits about national parks sometimes reinforce that idea.)

Fourth, yes, it's a stereotype, but things like this are the reasons stereotypes of Millennials more and more come off like generalizations, not stereotypes.

(Per my take on modern informal logic and its split of the old deductive vs fallacious on arguments into deductive, inductive and fallacious, an observation about a group that's more than 50 percent true, even if not 100 percent true, is a generalization not a stereotype.) 

And, in the case of Big Bend, this is based on personal observations beyond the story. From 2001-11, I went a dozen times, maybe one or two more. It was mainly at Thanksgiving, but I did a couple of Christmastime trips and a couple of spring ones. By, oh, 2007 or so, I considered myself a "veteran." That was not just due to my own hiking and exploring, but also due to listening to the tales and information from veterans in front of me and even super-veterans. (Big Bend, like Death Valley, attracts people like this.)

I got out there once, maybe twice, but I think only once, during the 2012-15 period and after that, not until 2019. The park had changed; they were already then doing reservations for the primitive drive-in sites. I can't remember if they were trying to clamp down on or eliminate dispersed backcountry camping outside of designated sites. (My second or third trip, I backcountry camped in the vicinity of the Marufo Vega trail.) 

Anyway, my first night at the hot springs, I'd already had a day of, between hikes, overhearing millennial types seemingly not interested in the traditions, and other matters, a day of disenchantment. Running into millennials at the springs being frou-frou was the last straw. I wasn't expecting them all to be in the springs nekkid, like the folks possibly from Hippy Hollow my first night at the springs on my first trip. But, I was wishing for them to be other than what they were, that late in the night after dark. 

A look at the nitty-gritty of plugging abandoned oil and gas wells

Inside Climate News reports on the Well Done Foundation, a private entity trying to assist in the work of plugging abandoned wells.

Here's how bad the need is:

In a 2023 peer-reviewed study, researchers led by McGill University civil engineer Mary Kang estimated that 13 percent of Americans—about 4.6 million people—live within about a half-mile of an AOOG well. “These wells have the potential to contaminate water supplies, degrade ecosystems, and emit methane and other air pollutants … present[ing] risks to climate stability and to environmental and human health,” the study stated.

The story goes on to note details of the problem, details well known by many people in the Permian Basin:

Some are relatively inert on their own, but other unplugged wells might vent hydrocarbons like methane, volatile organic compounds like the carcinogen benzene or deadly gases like hydrogen sulfide. Some leak oil, or a brine called “produced water” contaminated with heavy metals, chemicals or radioactivity. Some pollute underground aquifers or nearby surface waters. Others create their own noxious lakes. Changing subterranean conditions can make previously stable AOOG wells vent or leak. 

Wastewater from oil and gas production is typically disposed of by pumping it into spent, adjacent oil and gas wells, but overpressurized underground disposal reservoirs can force it back to the surface where it can disrupt production from other oil and gas wells.

On federal, often BLM land, the problem is that bonding requirements haven't been updated in 40 years. On the state level, in the greater near Southwest, Colorado and New Mexico, though not perfect, are better than Texas in various ways. I don't know about Oklahoma, but wouldn't hold my breath.

That said, since wingnuts like to talk "moral hazard" so much, isn't this work by a private company kind of enabling moral hazard? 

That said, kudos to Curtis Shuck for founding Well Done Foundation and the work it's doing in Oklahoma. And, since a photo is sometimes worth more than 1,000 words, click the link.

RIP Bobby Cox, still getting a roiding pass

The long-time Atlanta Braves (and shorter-time Toronto Blue Jays) manager, voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame a number of years ago, has died at the age of 84.

And, he continues to get a pass on his managing of alleged, certain in my opinion in one case for sure, steroid-using (or other PED-using) players. The two managers voted in with him, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre, have faced much more scrutiny (while pumping out much more denialism). Cox hasn't.

Indeed, ESPN's own story, at the top link, doesn't even mention this, though at that very place, Rick Reilly mentioned all three, and the hypocrisy, when they were voted into Cooperstown.

Why? Maybe it's because, other than the borderline case of Gary Sheffield, Cox didn't manage any clear HOFers, or players with dramatic performances? (As a St. Louis Cardinals fan, I don't think Mark McGwire is a HOFer even with his PED-influenced numbers, but he did have dramatic performances.) But, outside of Barry Bonds, Torre managed both Roger Clemens and A-Rod. Even deducting for the enhancements, all three continue to be shut out by veterans committees in the first two cases, after the BBWAA took a 10-year pass. A-Rod is likely to face the same fate.

Yet the trio of denialist managers plus former commissioner Bud Selig are all in Cooperstown.

It's a big steaming pile of shit.

I think Cox knew, as much as La Russa and Torre, even if Atlanta wasn't as much of a "locus" as Oakland's dugout or that of the Yankees. (The Texas Rangers became another node when Jose Canseco went there but they've not had a HOF manager until Bruce Bochy, who will go in with a Giants hat. And, the Mac/La Russa Cardinals being a possible node has also flown under the radar screen because, of course, that's not the Cardinal Way.)

Riffing off Reilly, by the early 2000s, all three were managerial elder statesmen. Certainly they were after their 2013 elections. Yet all engaged in denialism both before and after. Denialism extends to fans in the case of Cox, per a post on Reddit's r/mlb, where my comments to this end have been massively downvoted.

And, no, "not too soon," either, no more than with a takedown or semi-takedown obit of a politician. 

This piece sounds about right on Putin and Russia

Beyond Putin's "tightening the screws," which we'll get to, first, per Kai Ryssdal (who's actually a neoliberal ass) "let's take a look at the numbers" in this piece from the New Yorker. 

It acknowledges that the Russian economy grew by 4 percent or so in both 2023 and 2024, but saw that rate contract in 2025, and that the economy is actually shrinking 2 percent so far this year. And, per the US definition of two consecutive quarters of contraction, yes, Russia is not quite two months away from officially being in recession.

Not a horrible one, but a recession. 

At the same time, inflation continues to rise. Russia's central bank has its prime rate at 14 percent, nearly double that of the pre-war era.

Ahh, that.

I call the invasion neither justified nor unjustified.

I do call it botched, though.

Contra people who, going beyond condemning NATO to being full apologists for Vlad the Impaler, his original plan was to capture Kiev, which Joshua Yaffa notes in this piece. And by not devoting enough men, machinery or materiel to the original effort, Putin blew it. Period. People like, at least halfway, the problematic Simplicius, who claim that was not the original plan, are lying. There's no way to — and no reason to — put it more politely. Indeed, after that initial January 2025 callout of him at the link in this paragraph, by last fall, I was wondering if he's a Russian disinformation agent. Speaking of, and ignoring what Yaffa rights, that Vlad the Impaler has downsized the regular Victory Day parade on Red Square because of the Ukrainian drone threat, Simplicius plays up Moscow's counterthreat if Kyiv tries something.

Here's the reality:

Earlier this month, the Kremlin announced that this year’s Victory Day parade, held every May 9th in Red Square to commemorate the Soviet victory in the Second World War, which is typically a show of Russian might, would be a modest, small-scale affair. The usual columns of tanks and missile launchers and marching soldiers will be absent—they present too inviting a target for Ukrainian drones. (Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, acknowledged the “terrorist threat.”)

Straight from Putin's horse's mouth. 

Followed by this related in the next paragraph:

Then, on May 4th, multiple news outlets published stories on a leaked report from an unnamed European intelligence agency which describes disorder in the Russian security services over their inability to protect the country from Ukrainian drone attacks and assassination attempts.

Well, there you go. 

I said last fall, at the end of the piece, that I was "snarking" on him being a Russian disinformation agent. Maybe I need to nuance that snark with a bit of seriousness. 

Related to the economy of Russia now being officially in reversal, Russia's attritional gains are slowing down. (Simplicius does handwaving and gaslighting over that.)

That said, while not knowing if asking for less than maximalist demands would actually have led to serious negotiations or not, we know that Putin asking for maximalist demands a year ago tanked that idea totally.

The future? Yeah, per Yaffa, with Prigozhin blown to bits, nobody else is coming after Putin's crown. But, the atherosclerosis of hardening Russian arteries will surely be accompanied by the same symptoms in him. 

Time to list a second round of Substack blocks

This is an update to a piece from last November, about many of my early blocks .

And was sparked by a February piece by The Dissident about the Washington Post claiming antisemitism is behind many Epstein files comments.

One guy posted this Josh Who nutter. I'm not sure if he's antisemitic as well as anti-Zionist, but Josh dude is a generally unhinged wingnut and conspiracy theorist, as his Shitter showed. (He's blocked there, too.) I didn't block the poster. 

One guy posted the already blocked Paolo Kirk. Looking at his feed, Paul Haeder reposts him WAY too much; other things he says has him approaching antisemitism, at least, even if not going as fully over the line as Kirk. That said, when I checked his reads and saw David Irving? That was it. (He also follows the laughable — and conspiracy theorizing — Rainer Shea, the tankie from The People's Republic of Humboldt County.) Ars longior, vita brevis, and bye.

Bill Shannon, spotted on a Dissident piece a few days later. Reads both Hanania and Rufo. And Sailer. Foams at the mouth over "Bolsheviks" and is also a possible COVID minimalist. Bye. 

Paul, a general nut. I would accept his libertarian reads, but Milkshake Andy Ngo and others? Pass.

Lynn2C, wingnut enough to call the ConservaDem who beat Joe Kent a "Leftist." 

Celina101, a Gen Z "commenter on culture" who doesn't publicly disclose being an "alt-white Gen Z commenter." 

Fi666, who liked a comment of mine on The Dissident? Antisemitic, not just anti-Zionist, and some sort of cultural Christianist/decline of the West type. I was suspicious with the "666." Reposting shit like "Vaclav Havel is owned by Big Jews" is a giveaway. They're British anti-immigrant alt-White types.

They're actually neo-Nazi with this:

Jews need to be burned alive. None of this Zyklon B tickbath disinfectant lie. Proper extermination this time. Otherwise we're all fucked.

And this:

I'm glad there's no censorship on here. Except several stacks I follow/ subscribe to were coming up with only a restricted message for a while and won't even load now. So far I've noticed NatSocToday, White Rabbit, and most recently Ava Wolfe. I see a theme here

Shit. Gee, what is "NatSocToday"?

The person posting the Vaclav Havel bullshit? Gemma O'Doherty. Irish traditionalist Catholic, probably of Opus Dei type if not further right. Talks about "Holohoax" so antisemitic. And, yes, Tim O'Neill, that's still in many conservative Catholics' roots. On their personal website and an alleged newspaper, talk about the "Great Reset." 

SF Bay Area Local is a generic Trumptard, but also a MAHA, a generic antivaxxer and other such things. They're also Zionist and Islamophobe. Reposts many name Zionists.

A lesser-name Zionist, but also hard-right, if not full Trumptard? Roy Ben-Tzvi. 

Richard Jaffee? Garden-variety Zionist liar. 

John B? General fucking "anti-woke" idiot. Drinks MAGAts Kool-Aid,

CG? Generic antivaxxer and generic genocidalist wingnut. 

Now, that all said? Substack's blocking system ain't that good.

One person claimed that the person blocked can still see you. Taint so, looking at people who have blocked me.

That said, the biggest problem is, contra both Shitter and Fuckbook, it's one-way. If someone has blocked me, I can't block them back. 

Update about "OK Doomer," aka "Jessica Wildfire""

I've written before about the "OK Doomer" nutter and my guess on her background, here in Part 1 and a follow-up here in Part 2.

Curiosity led me to teh Google, about what she might be up to recently. 

She's off Medium and now at a new place called "The Sentinel Intelligence." Her "about" pretty much confirmed old sleuthing. PhD college English prof. To update my pieces above, she got the tenure she was chasing. (She still has her Substack, where I'm blocked, after an interaction that came after I wrote the two pieces above.)

She's also still grifting, getting some non-profit fund founded in 2021 on her side.

The details of the financial relationship aren't mentioned at either site but there you are. She has a 2.0 version of her survivor prepping guide as part of that:

Her current project, Project C, is an illustrated survival manual — a practical guide to homesteading, preparedness, and self-sufficiency for a world where the systems we take for granted may not hold. AKET provides sustained support for Jessica's work because a voice this clear, this honest, and this useful should not have to fight for survival in the economics of independent writing.

OK now.

That confirms my part 2 above, that she's grifting off the prepper world, offering a more librul version of that than you usually find. One of the five coauthors at her Substack explicitly identifies as a prepper.

As for the couple behind that Alfred Kobacker and Elizabeth Trimble Fund? His father started a shoe store in Ohio that he eventually sold to Payless, per his obit. (There's NO "about" on the fund's website.)

She also occasionally admits she's wrong, or more likely, doesn't like getting called out; she deleted the "we're running out of food" piece that I linked to in both part 1 and part 2.

She doesn't care a lot about one big geopolitical event. She wrote in early November 2023 to claim that the start of Israel's genocide in Gaza was about oil and gas. Wrong. And, she also apparently is, or was, sympathetic to Zionism:

Let's start with a couple of chilling facts. The war in Gaza has nothing to do with democracy or human rights. It also has nothing to do with Israel's right to defend itself. Until yesterday, that's what I thought.

Ouch. Yet more reason not to like her. (A search finds "Zionism" nowhere on her site, and this is the last piece she wrote about Gaza.)  Two of the other five "contributors" there wrote before that, in more detail, but not that much more.

She did get tenure, per this piece, but says "she gave it up." Contra several items? You got paid in summer; it's part of your contract. You just don't get paid EXTRA in summer. And colleges, unlike high schools, have LONG had summer sessions.

The pay? It's about what I would have guessed for someone at either assistant professor or associate professor rank at a second-tier state university in a Southern state. As for the drop in enrollment? Happening at K-12 everywhere, including first-ring suburbs of the Metromess here in Tex-ass. It's a second "baby bust," following with about expected timing after a dropoff from the original Baby Boom hit colleges in the middle 1980s.

That said, this doesn't tell the full story.

She doesn't work the entire summer. She may work parts of it, but not the entire summer. And, "writing books and articles"? After you have tenure and don't have to worry about publish or perish, that's not part of your job anyway. It's something chosen.

Then, she actually BITCHES about students taking independent studies. I guess you long ago stopped being very idealistic as a prof.

She also, at a state university, was in the state employees' pension system. Not a lot of people have on-the-job pensions any more, and of those that do, a lot of them aren't a defined-benefit pension, which I am guessing hers is. She also probably has better health insurance than the typical private-sector employee. 

She's right that universities generally aren't librul. They're certainly not leftist.

Oh, as of a year ago, she was still being a Doomer on COVID. And, she claims to be a quasi-clairvoyant "disaster whisperer"; that's where the phrase "sentinel intelligence" for her website comes from.

OK, the other co-contributors at her Substack? One thinks the Democratic Party invented the "Green New Deal." Green Party nowhere mentioned.