The Red Sox make themselves look stupid, give Graham Platner a boost

The Boston Red Sox pulled down a Graham Platner ad that, in part, attacked the team for selling out to private equity, tying in with his populist campaign. 

As far as the issues at hand? Seeing this story posted by the British newspaper The Independent at r/mlb, it seems there may be a bit of confusion by one Sox fan, and bigger issues by the team.

Basically, we seem to be getting a bit of intimidation by the ownership mixed with an overly aggressive interpretation of trademark law.

First? Per the Boston Herald, the ad in full is on Platner's Shitter account, with the same font. That there says that Platner campaign isn't worried about the intellectual property claim.

Secod, the NESN statement does NOT say what the intellectual property issue is. That's where I see the bit of intimidation coming in.

Also, technically, ONLY the "B" is trademarked, and otherwise, the team name. The font is reportedly hand-drawn and, the Sox would have to prove that is EXACTLY the same font, not a very similar commercially available font.

Above and beyond all that, you can use a trademarked phrase in a political ad, within certain limitations. Here's some basic law. The key thing is, Platner is not implying the team is endorsing him. Far from it. The Sox would have pretty serious uphill sledding if they really thought about pursuing legal action. 

HEre you go:

Private equity is taking our homes. It's taking our hospitals. It's taking beloved local businesses and stripping them for parts.

And now private equity is running the Red Sox into the ground.

Our new ad ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/w7LapElpdA

— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) May 22, 2026

Let's see what happens next. 

Again, per the one Redditor? The NESN statement didn't say WHAT credible concerns. We can assume the font; we can also assume, given that people let this ad get through in the first place, their credibility level isn't that high. The Sox would have been much better off simply refusing the ad in the first place. Somebody didn't eye it, and now they look like idiots. 

Otherwise, I wrote two weeks ago about Platner's tattoos and other issues. 

 

 

Texas Progressives talk Paxton-Cornyn and more

Off the Kuff has his fun with the Trump endorsement of the crooked Ken Paxton over the dignity-deprived John Cornyn. 

SocraticGadfly offers two timely pieces, one elections-related and the other, on a surface level more humorous but in reality perhaps not. First, he looked at the Trib story on Trump's endorsement of Ken Paxton and saw that one Talarico staffer badly failed Math 101, probably not a good thing or good sign. Secondly, at his Substack, he imagined a graduate of the Class of 2026 facing the world of AI in job hunting. 

Hey, Kenny Boy, are you suing the phone company, then USPS, after Discord? I'm no fan of much of modern social media, but these exploitation-abetting lawsuits are ridiculous. If only Kenny Boy would sue tech companies over abetting genocide in Gaza.

People indeed need to mourn that now, if you're a student activist on a UT System campus, the president could eliminate your favorite course. They also need to mourn the lies the regents are telling to try to justify this.

Tarrant County is such a conservative outlier among Texas' largest counties it hates black people to death. 

I need to add "future fascist" to my moniker for Jonathan Stickland, whom I have long called "Former Fetus Future Fuckwad." 

RIP Barney Frank, Zionist and abettor of the subprime crisis. Is is any wonder that modern neoliberal national Democrats went so deep into mourning? 

Houston Democracy Project Blog reported Houston-area activist visited by Secret Service for writing 86 47 in chalk in driveway, has written letter to Todd Blanche asking for money from Trump’s victimization fund.

The Texas Observer calls Bo French's bid for Railroad Commissioner what it is.

The Current writes their political obituary for dead man walking Sen. John Cornyn.

D Magazine gives you the best story you'll read about Nolan Ryan beating up Robin Ventura.

Evil MoPac learns some things about Austin swingers.

The TPA wishes Texas Public Radio and the San Antonio Report all the best with their new partnership.

Kerrville, the Guadalupe and Camp Mystic: This summer and this fall

Camp Mystic's head nurse has had her license temporarily suspended, in what looks like it could become a permanent action, more fallout from last year's preventable tragedy. Mystic, of course, has not reopened. The Monthly reports on those that have, and the broader business climate in greater Kerrville. It's interesting that a number of other camp owners and general river businesses agreed to talk to the Monthly only if they didn't ask about Mystic.

Per the end of the piece, about how much of the riverside cleanup on the Guadalupe ripped out a lot of soil-stabilizing vegetation, I wonder what a super El Niño, still projected as likely starting this fall, will bring. As in, new river wreckage? I can definitely see that happening. The question is, how far beyond the river itself will this round of likely major flooding go?

Memorial Day truths from Tad Stoermer

Stoermer, a definite "follow" on Substack, has the honest truth about the Supreme Court's recent Louisiana vs Callais ruling. As I said in a comment:

THIS: including noting Lincoln as “problematic.” (Had he lived out his second term, Lincoln almost certainly would not have vetoed the Freedman’s Bureau renewal bill, and might have avoided a few of Andy Johnson’s fights with Congress, but otherwise, would have done much the same. His “rosewater” WAS the template for Johnson overall.) 

In addition, had he lived out his second term, Lincoln would have shown himself to be no better on American Indian issues than any other post-Civil War president. 

Finally? He might have wound up with his fingers dipping fairly deeply in the Credit Mobilier cookie jar.

Beyond my comment, Stoermer basically questions the arc of justice quote attributed to Martin Luther King but not original with him:

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

And, while in the truly long term, we may bend it back, will that happen? As Israeli Jews in general increase their racism toward Palestinian Arabs, outside the US as well as inside, we see the reality of human nature show itself all the time.

Now, per David Hume (himself a racist and a cultural bigot) "is" ≠ "ought." Nonetheless, following "is" on various forms of tribalism and xenophobia is always easy mentally. 

As for Lincoln? Per my Memorial Day thoughts of a year ago, none of this is surprising to Civil War era historians who are honest about who Honest Abe was. (That said, that's a BIG caveat.) 

Let's also remember the facts on who invented Memorial Day and why.  With that, wish treason supporters a detailed happy Memorial Day.

The DNC once again shoots itself in the foot; per James Carville: "It's Gaza and Zionism, stupid"

First, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin didn't want to release the party's internal post-mortem on the 2024 presidential campaign by Kamala Harris, aka Kamala is a Zionist Cop.

That got pushback.

Then, after he did, we see why. "Gaza" and "Palestine" aren't even mentioned, though that — and the DNC's feeble response combined with getting punked by Republicans on this in Michigan above all — is a fair part of why Kamala is a Zionist Cop lost. 

Per that piece, it also pretty much dodges looking at Dementia Joe's refusal to step aside. 

And, it also doesn't look at whether racism and sexism were factors in Harris' loss. On race? Dear Leader won; was he perceived as post-racial in a way Harris wasn't? (I see what I did there.) Sexism? Might have been a factor indeed, though I don't want to give either Harris' Harridans or Hillbots room to excuse-monger that as an attempt to cover up bad campaigns.

Back to the link, though. Here's Martin:

Martin acknowledged the lack of comprehensive findings, saying that he was “not proud” of the report and cautioned that it would not “meet your standards”. But he added its release was dictated by the public’s need “to trust the Democratic party”

Well, sure they're going to trust you now, in light of all of the above.

Meanwhile, he follows on that first paragraph by further throwing other people under the bus:

When I received the report late last year, it wasn’t ready for primetime. Not even close,” the embattled party chair said in a statement released after the report’s publication. “And because no source material was provided, fixing it would have meant starting over, from the beginning – every conversation, every interview, every data set.

Beyond what it deliberately overlooks, it's loaded with caveats. 

Misgivings about the quality and contents of the 192-page document are stated graphically at the beginning and at the top of each page in the form of a disclaimer marked in red, stating: “This document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC. The DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented.”

At the top of EACH PAGE!

And, I've looked via a link to the PDF at Drop Site News's reporting. And, it's not just at the top of every page, it's in a larger font, like New Century Schoolbook bold italic, and in red ink.

Maybe get the Florida wonder, David Hogg, back as a DNC vice chair? 

(I'm actually joking in that snark. Per the reality, as I wrote last year, David Hogg would not be the answer to the problem on Gaza. And getting beyond why Harris lost, he wouldn't be the answer on climate change and other things, either.) 

Hell, Wikipedia's summary of exit polling is probably more accurate. What does it say?

In all of the below, it has shifts from 2020 to 2024. 

Harris lost big on first-time voters. 

She lost among non-whites, both with and without college degrees. That reflects the big Hispanic shift to Trump.

She lost the same amount on union and non-union households.

More Harris voters were voting against Trump rather than for her; the opposite is true of Trump. (That said, Martin claims she needed to bring more "negative firepower," per AP's report. I guess he did recognize that she really didn't have much to campaign FOR. And, he apparently hasn't disavowed that.)

Also on that site, in a voter analysis subsection, the Institute for Middle East Understanding, which sharply criticized the lacuna in the post-mortem, per the Guardian link at top, found in their own polling at the end of 2024 that 2020 Biden backers who didn't support Harris in 2024 mentioned "ending Israel's violence in Gaza" as their No. 1 concern. "Immigration" was actually a fairly distant fourth.

The survey also found that 36% of these voters would have been more likely to vote for Harris if she "had pledged to break from President Biden’s policy toward Gaza by promising to withhold additional weapons to Israel for committing human rights abuses against Palestinian civilians.

That said, per the second half of my header, James Carville would never actually admit that. 

In fact, from what I can see on Shitter, as of a week ago, he appeared to (still) be conflating anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

Back to Martin. Is it any wonder, per another AP piece, that many Democrat apparatchiks have a crisis of lack of confidence in him? That piece reminds us that Martin pledged to make the 'autopsy" public on his first day as chair.

But? Sure, it's easy for the likes of Dan Pfeiffer to criticize him. But, they'll stay inside the left hand of the duopoly, and also ignore that Dear Leader being a Nice Polite Republicrap is part of why Democrats are where they are. 

Meanwhile, the Never Trumper Rethugs like Rick Wilson or The Bulwark will never talk about the Gazan elephant in the room.

That said, a Bulwark piece asks how relevant is a DNC today? That then said, after Trump shuffles off, how relevant will an RNC be? 

Texas Progressives

Off the Kuff presented interviews with Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green in advance of the Democratic primary runoff. 

SocraticGadfly had fun mocking Trump, the UFO-heads, Trevor Lawrence aka Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Rod Dreher all in one piece.

It's official, and shock me it's him among the wingnuts on the Supreme Court: Clarence Thomas invoked the hoary old Comstock Act in wanting to uphold the Fifth Circuit on Texas' mifepristone law. 

RIP Gwen Farrell Adair, "Nurse Gwen" (and others) from M*A*S*H.

The Monthly says you should go to Marble Falls for art, not just cream pies (which are overrated IMO). 

CD Hooks discusses Strangeabbott muscling Grand Prairie over Eid while overlooking the 2024 inverse of the True Texas confab at the Fort Worth Botanical Garden. 

VD Hooks is OK with Bernie (while surely still hating Greens, along with fellow Monthly writer Forrest Wilder.) 

In a blind taste test, could you really tell a Fredericksburg peach from a Palisade one (the most common touted Colorado one)? For that matter, could you tell it from one from Parker County, Clay County or Deep East Texas? I doubt it, Texas Monthly, and I've had roadside-type peaches from all those locations (well, Stonewall to be precise, not Fredericksburg) other than Clay County.

Customs and Border Patrol said earlier in May they wouldn't build a wall through Big Bend. So, WHY has a contract been awarded? CBP ain't talking, meaning that, until further notice, its head, Rodney Scott, should be considered a liar. Related? Team Trump is suing the Diocese of Las Cruces to get Catholic-owned border land in El Paso.

Houston Democracy Project Blog reported the solid Panzarella over Hellyar win in Houston City Council District C, was a strong rejection of Hellyar's police union endorsement. The work of making HPOU endorsement toxic for Democrats seeking municipal election in 2027 is well underway. Please join this effort.

The Eyewall takes an early look at the summer's hurricane forecast.

The Current finds that not everyone in Boerne is happy to be the site of a new Bravo show.

The Dallas Observer reports on another lawsuit filed in Hood County against a very noisy cryptominer.

City of Yes explains why social media is not a town square and what we need to do to get real town squares back.

The Texas Signal warns about private equity capture of OB/GYN care.