Bye, Nolan Arenado, as the Chaim Bloom lovefest continues with many Cards fans

Yesterday, the Cardinals made their third major trade of the offseason, sending long-time third-sacker Nolan Arenado to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

In turn, the Cards are eating either $26M or $31M of his remaining salary. (Passan's piece was unclear if the $31M the Cards are sending west includes the $5M the Rockies were paying in 2026 or not.)

In exchange? ONE prospect. Jack Martinez was an eighth-round draft pick of the Snakes in 2025. He did not play minor league ball in 2025 after being drafted out of Aridzona State, MLBTR confirms, itself not a good sign. His signing bonus being one-third less than his slot for his draft position is also not a good sign.

It's the third straight, and worst IMO, payment deal as part of a trade, that new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom has made this offseason.

He gave the Red Sox $8M as part of the trade of Willson Contreras, and $20M as part of the Sonny Gray deal.

With Gray, that's even though he had just one year (2026) left, plus a team option/$5M buyout for 2027. In other words, Bloom paid 50 percent of his remaining salary and got a so-so return. Now, even if the Rox' $5M is part of that $31M, you have the Cards still paying $26M of the $37M not covered by the Rockies, or 70 percent the remaining total. So, we went from less than 25 percent to 50 to 70. Good thing the team has no more older veterans; Bloom might pay 90 cents on the dollar to trade them.

Lots of fans on the Cardinals' subreddit continue the lovefest for new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, saying he's getting things done that John Mozeliak couldn't.

Well, first, all three players had one more year left on contracts a year ago.

Second, especially with Arenado, when it became clear a full rebuild was ahead, he lowered his standards on what other teams he would accept trades to.

Third and most relevant, Mo wasn't bribing other teams to the degree Bloom is.  

North Dallas burbs are largely right about DART but have wrong replacement idea

North Dallas suburbs largely inhabited by upper middle class whites (with exception of Irving) want to exit DART because their residents don't use it enough. Snark aside, I'm halfway sympathetic. The problem isn't DART per se; it's US mass transit in general.

We need more routes run with smaller buses. Yes, you heard me right. Take those 24-passenger or whatever buses used in smaller transit agencies. Make them — especially if hybrid or all-electric — the backbone of your service. Use your larger, 56-passenger or however big they are, buses only for "express" routes that stop no more frequently than once a mile, if that. And, unless your light rail system has good ridership, while not gutting it, don't invest new money in it, certainly not in route expansion. 

European and Asian countries mock most US mass transit because it's ill-designed, when it is, but rarely, funded adequately. They're right. 

That said, the upper-middle class whites who run places like Plano have the wrong answer:

[T]he cities want their money back so they can try their hand at providing public transit the way they think may be more suitable for their communities. The main idea: ditching traditional buses in favor of taxpayer-funded ride-hailing services run by the cities themselves.

First, Uber and Lyft are private companies. So, you'd be subsidizing them, and "picking winners and losers," which is supposed to be anathema to conservative politicos.

This part of the answer?

Officials in Plano and Irving have pitched replacing regular bus service with “microtransit” — smaller buses or shuttles that can be hailed on-demand like an Uber or Lyft ride. DART already operates such a service called GoLink, including in Plano and Irving. Arlington, which isn’t a DART member and is the nation’s largest city without traditional public transit, also employs such a service. Plano and Irving officials want to go all in on microtransit, arguing it’s a better fit for suburban residents than standard buses.

Well, you should be getting DART to do that under the current arrangement, but without the on-demand angle. Regular routes, run even more frequently, but while making the large buses express routes only.

That's because, by itself, microtransit isn't the answer, even if Arlington, home of Under Ten Americans and Jethroworld, thinks it is. See this:

Microtransit is usually thought of as a last-mile service to get riders from a transit stop to their final destination, not a substitute for regular bus service, transportation experts said. Microtransit services also tend to cost more per rider than a fixed bus route, Freemark said.

And try to realize that. 

Second, Uber, Lyft, et al NOT, by definition, "mass" transit. How hard is that to understand, unless, per the old bon mot, you're paid to not understand? 

That said, what's really the issue is that local sales taxes that go to DART block these cities from implementing the 4B recreational development sales tax, and state taxation issues in general. 

Negotiations with DART are ongoing. Let's hope both sides have brains for both today and tomorrow. 

We're not teaching Plato at A&M

Plato is off the philosophy course list at A&M because he somehow might say something anti-wingnut about race or gender:

Professor Martin Peterson submitted his syllabus for PHIL 111, Contemporary Moral Issues, for review Dec. 22. On Tuesday, his department head told him he had two options: remove the modules on race ideology and gender ideology, including readings from Plato, or be reassigned to teach a noncore philosophy course. The email, obtained by the Tribune, gave Peterson until the close of business Wednesday to decide. Peterson responded that he would revise the syllabus, saying he plans to replace the Plato readings with lectures on free speech and academic freedom.

Then, A&M regents came up with this spin:

In a statement to the Tribune, A&M said the decision did not amount to a ban on teaching Plato and that other sections of the same course that include Plato – but do not include modules on race and gender ideology – had been approved.

Sure now. 

As many may recognize, per Literary Hub, "The Symposium," with its multiple sexes (not genders, LitHub, see Wikipedia) as far of its human origin story is the trouble spot. Its relatively open celebration of pederasty is also surely an issue. 

Is Willie Nelson a Pretendian?

Yeah, a lot of Texans may shoot me for even venturing this, and Willie doesn't shove his alleged American Indian ancestry in your face, let alone try to grift off it, that I'm aware of.

Nonetheless, let's take a look at the nutgrafs of this Observer piece about Willie and Native American golf courses.

Some, including me, count Cut ‘N Putt, purchased in 1979, as yet another early Native-owned course. Willie Nelson, after all, was twice named Outstanding Indian of The Year by the American Indian Exposition. In 2014, he and Neil Young were presented with buffalo robes for their work with Farm Aid and the Keystone Pipeline protests by the Oceti Sakowin, Ponca, and Omaha nations. 

But, as it is for others who believe they have Native roots in Arkansas and Texas (the states where Willie’s family lived), proof can be elusive. Nelson is on record saying his mother—Myrle Marie Greenhaw Harvey Nelson—was three-quarters Cherokee. 

In the Story of Texas, the Bullock Texas State History Museum reports this as fact. In an interview reported in The Encyclopedia of Arkansas, however, Nelson’s mother’s sister, Sybil Greenhaw Young (1923–1999), claimed it was her mother, Bertha Greenhaw (Willie’s grandmother), who was three-quarters Cherokee. In the same interview, Young also said her grandmother (Willie’s great-grandmother) was “full-blooded Cherokee” and that Willie’s great-grandfather was “half Cherokee and half Irish.” The encyclopedia separately reports that while Cherokees were known to live in that same area, Willie’s maternal grandparents were listed in U.S. Census records as white. 

I know that due to small size, and small money in part due to shooting itself in the foot in various ways, the Observer might not be able to investigate this too much, and, that Mark Wagner is not a regular contributing writer (it's actually his first piece), but still. That said, Wagner supplies the answer himself

None of these ancestors appear in the Dawes Rolls, a historic federal record from 1909 to 1914 that documented the enrollment of members of five tribes including Cherokees, and neither they nor Willie have ever been a citizen of the federally recognized Cherokee Nation, which enjoys tribal sovereignty and determines its own membership. Willie himself was born the year before the The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the New Deal act (written by John Collier) that led most tribal constitutions in ensuing decades to develop a criteria for claiming Native heritage. 

Given this history, and considering the social milieu that Willie came out of, it is perhaps not surprising that the Greenhaws and Nelsons did not formally demonstrate descent from an enrolled ancestor. Nevertheless, as late as a 2024 interview with Robert Sheer, Nelson again recounted the family stories that establish, for him, his mother’s Cherokee ancestry. Given this, the accolades from the tribes themselves, and Willie’s embrace of Native causes, I include Cut ‘N Putt as an early Native-owned golf course and one worth our pilgrimage.

The answer is that a lot of non-identitarian librulz continue to give librul icons a pass on pretendianism. Sadly, he continues to get a certain amount of a pass on it. I think even pretendian-hunting individuals and websites give people like Nelson a pass if they're not grifting and they're simpatico with American Indian causes.

As for the why? Well, Willie's white family roots are in Arkansas, just like another country music legend who had a disturbed younger adult life and was also a pretendian. I'm of course talking about Johnny Cash.

In both cases, more with their family ancestors than themselves, perhaps, I think the claim was a way of adding a bit of spice to a life that was otherwise straight up "poor white" — or other terms you can insert. Many others in Arkansas, and Oklahoma, were or are in the same ship.

Leqaa Kordia remains a political prisoner here in Texas over Palestine, even as some progressives ignore her

Unfortunately, too many Texas "progressive" bloggers still won't write about anything related to Israel and Gaza, whether because of timidity, or outright Zionism, and therefore won't tell you a thing about Kordia, imprisoned at the Prarieland Detention Center in North Tex-ass since last March.

Here's her story:

The last remaining Columbia University protester left in confinement, Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia, has been in detention since her arrest in March 2025 after accidentally overstaying her student visa. 

“I came here as a tourist, and I changed my visa to student visa. And later, after about six years, I received kind of bad advice from a friend,” Kordia said. “Not intentionally, of course. But I dropped out of school thinking that I had lawful status in the United States.” 

Since her arrest, an immigration judge has twice ordered her release, deeming her eligible for bail. Despite this, repeated filings with the Board of Immigration Appeals have left Kordia in a state of continuous legal limbo. If deported, Kordia will be turned over to the Israeli government, which has killed almost 200 members of her family during the genocide in Gaza. 

Kordia’s experience in detention has reportedly been wrought with pain and hardship. According to her lawyer’s statements and court filings, Kordia has been sleeping on a thin mattress in a facility currently overcrowded while refusing to provide religious accommodations. The filings also say Kordia suffered a skin rash amid unsanitary conditions.

Besides Mondoweiss, Kordia and her plight have also been featured on Democracy Now and elsewhere. 

But, no, certain "pergressuves" don't write about her. They're well-enough informed otherwise, since at least one story was written about her before in Texas media, namely The Barbed Wire, back in October 2025, as I noted at the time in a Texas Progressives roundup.

I haven't named names, but people know who they are. 

I haven't named names in a piece submitted to a Roundup. But, next time, I can. One of you has an easy-to-use search box on your site, so that's how I know you've said nothing. 

That's despite this, also from the Mondoweiss link at top:

On December 5, a group of U.S. Senators, including Cory Booker, Nellie Pou, LaMonica McIver, Andy Kim, Chris Van Hollen, and Bonnie Watson Coleman, submitted a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. 

“As the record shows, [Kordia] has broken no laws and has been convicted of no crimes. Her only ‘offenses’ were an honest mistake that caused her to inadvertently lose her legal status and that she participated in a peaceful, nonviolent demonstration to mourn her loved ones and honor their lives,” the letter reads. 

“Rather than punishing speech protected by the First Amendment, this Administration should be defending it, particularly when the individual is acting peacefully, has no criminal history and poses no threat to national security or public safety. We urge you to follow the recommendations of both a Magistrate Judge and an Immigration Judge and immediately release Ms. Kordia.” 

As Kordia spent her birthday and the holidays in detention, her legal team was hoping for a decision on either her asylum or habeas case, which are both awaiting further action from the court, so that she could be freed in time for family celebrations. As no decision was made, her case currently remains at a standstill. 

“Leqaa has marked another holiday and now a birthday in ICE detention, her punishment for daring to speak up in support of Palestinian rights. Her continued detention in the face of two rulings from an immigration judge that she could be released could not be clearer evidence of retaliation. We continue to hope for a swift decision in her habeas. In the meantime, Leqaa and others suffer in an overcrowded facility, deprived of basic dignities,” said Amal Thabateh, another one of Kordia’s lawyers and staff attorney with the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) Project at Columbia University. 

Kordia’s case has attracted the attention of activists, journalists, and human rights advocates, earning her story wide coverage following initial apprehension to reach out to the media.

Are you more Zionist than Cory Booker? Is your outrage against ICE limited to violations of Hispanic human rights and not inclusive of Palestinian human rights violations?

J'accuse, per Zola. 

(And, I'm sure Kuff didn't even read this, even though it was submitted for this week's Texas Progressives Roundup. Ditto Neil Aquino, who loves to talk about weekly protests at John Cornyn's office, but doesn't ask if any of the Democrat Congresscritters in greater Helltown, like Training Wheels Jasmine Crockett in the Metromess, are Zionist or Zionist-lite.) 

Texas Progressives enter 2026

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes you a better 2026 than whatever 2025 was as it brings you this week's roundup. 

 Off the Kuff cheered as Ken Paxton got blocked again from his latest attempt to harass local prosecutors.  

SocraticGadfly offered up his fake New Year's resolutions and wishes for others. 

Neil at Houston Democracy Project said there will be two local protests Tuesday, 1/6, to mark 5th anniversary of insurrection attempt. The next protest is when you organize it. 

The Texas Observer rounded up its most read stories from 2025. 

 Law Dork pushed back on a dumb narrative about SCOTUS criticism.  

Your Local Epidemiologist found twenty public health wins from 2025.  

The Barbed Wire has a measured view of New Year's resolutions.

The Dallas Observer reports on a possible new ICE detention facility in Dallas County.

OK Magazine informs us that the Trump wax figure at Louis Tussaud's Waxworks in San Antonio had to be taken down because too many people were abusing it. This is not a Texas blog but we had to give this a mention, so here we are.