Sequels and reboots: Cancel culture vs suckitude culture of capitalism

Yeah, Kelsey Grammer may be a MAGAts member, and said so to the Beeb before Paramount+ folks cut his interview short. But, contra Kuff, that is no less a reason to watch a Frasier reboot than is any show starring politicized Democrat actors of Zionist persuasion who support Genocide Joe's Genocide. (Hold on to that thought.)

If you're worried a reboot will suck or Grammer's too old? Fine. If, like me, you think this is capitalist greed? Fine. (And now, we're going to get to picking back up on that thought.)

That, then is good reason not to watch a Spinal Tap remake, again contra Kuff and in this case, his enthusiasm. Elton John and Paul McCartney? Doing what? Singing "Candle in the COPD Windedness"? Or saying "This one goes to 11 but I still can't hear it without my hearing aids"? But, back to the cancel culture reason, then. Rob Reiner IS a Meathead of duopoly #BlueAnon-ism, retweeting fucktards like Marc Elias with the usual "A vote for Stein/West/RFK Jr is 'really' a vote for Trump," along with blindly supporting the proxy war in Ukraine and of course, the IDF / Biden genocide. No wonder Kuff likes him, as he never ventures outside of Texas state politics and never colors outside the duopoly lines.

Finally, Reiner's also a Meathead JFK conspiracy theorist.

So, fuck off Rob Reiner. And, on this version of cancel culture, Kuff can fuck off too. Shit like this is why Brains laughed at you at times. That said, that was a two-edged sword there. Anyway, he should have stayed on TPA and just snarked at Kuff more on things like this, like I do, and rearranged the weekly Texas Progressives Roundup to his own desire, like I do.

Texas Progressives say: Her name is Kate Cox

On behalf of Kate Cox, fuck the Texas Supreme Court.

With more, Off the Kuff writes about the emergency lawsuit that would have allowed a Dallas woman to get an abortion before Ken Paxton stuck his nose in.

 

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Austin City Council votes to allow denser housing in single-family residential zoning. But, "votes to allow" doesn't mean it will actually happen. There's a whole raft of issues behind this one, nationally. That said, the two opponents and the constituents they represent aren't necessarily "right."

The Texas Historical Commission seems to be following the Texas State Historical Association in having problems with wingnuts.

Kenny Boy and DPS head Steve McCraw continue to hate on Uvalde families.

 

DosCentavos offers up another Thoughts on Viernes. This one is about the latest on COVID and DPS absolving itself.

Fort Worth Diocese Bishop Michael Olson fighting an order of nuns? And Amon G. Carter's granddaughter? Bring it on! I was broadly familiar already with the front story, and also with Bishop Olson's reputation. And, per the story, will Francis the Talking Pope move him on at some point? As of now, hurdling Catholic bureaucracy seems to be an issue.

SocraticGadfly notes how the vaunted Texas economic miracle still really isn't.

 

Genocide Joe's really desperate if the Clintons are going to become a bigger part of his campaign. 

 

And, with a Biden impeachment inquiry started, will BlueAnon like Adam Schiff stop lying about Trump's first impeachment not being political when it clearly was?

Democrat State Sen. Nathan Johnson gets primaried. Good; we need more ConservaDems to face the music.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said that the Houston Police Officer's Union each day has the opportunity to side with candidates and elected officials who fully support democracy. 

 Evil MoPac mourns a tragic day in Austin.

The Dallas Observer talks to abortion supporters about the battles ahead. 

The TSTA Blog closes the door on a wasted year at the Capitol.

And, sorry, Kuff, but this outpost of Texas Progressives doesn't worship at the cult of Fuck You the Beaver. Nor do we run religiously based reflections on Hanukkah that are as much mythical as would be the typical religious leader's reflection on Christmas, especially given the Israel-Hamas war.

RIP Craig Watkins

Saw the story on the front page of the Snooze earlier this week. Wow. Not even 60.

He was indeed a trailblazer, especially on the matter of exonerations of those wrongly convicted, one of the first urban area DAs in the nation to create a prosecutor's integrity division, or similar, to look at such cases.

Was he perfect? No. The end of the story notes him being sanctioned by the state bar just last month for failing to do the work to get a criminal expunction for a client of his. (That said, was health an issue? The family didn't say why he passed away.)

Was he as bad as Jim Schutze thought on his contempt case? No way, and also, the first time Schutze took a real black eye in my book, though not the last.

Did Schutze's knife help give Dallas County Susan Hawk, much more problematic? Probably.

And, given Schutze's clusterfuck bromance for Amber Guyger, I wonder if part of why he hated on Watkins was because he wasn't deferential enough to cops.

The big thing I've wondered on since his trials (the literal, not figurative) and him eventually getting the boot by Hawk is what would have happened had his political future not been aborted. Beyond the Dallas County Democratic Party, I know that I'm not alone.

The Nation returns to its "goysplaining" vomit with hasbara

As noted by Phil Weiss himself at Mondoweiss, The Nation has published new odiousness by Alexis Grenell, who invoked "goysplaning" not quite two years in relation to similar dreck, as blogged here.

Actually, I called the previous a "screed," vs. "dreck."

No, let's call this one what it is, per the header.

Hasbara. 190 proof.

Anything Hamas did before, during or after Oct. 7, or alleged to have done, comes under Grenell's microscope.

NOTHING either the government of Israel or the IDF did that provoked Oct. 7, nor anything it did afterward, gets a word of mention. But it does strawman on the word and idea of a ceasefire and more.

Meanwhile, Grenell's attacks on the DSA Roseys two years ago as part of that earlier piece I blogged about? I am minded of Harold Meyerson and others dropping out of the DSA a month ago. Though a non-duopolist myself, I still say good riddance to them.

As I tell it regularly on Twitter and in email, for supporting the duopoly, the same applies to The Nation here.

Fuck off collectively, as well as fuck off Grenell.

Top blogging of November (belated)

Again, not all of these posts are from November; they're just the most popular of the last month.

No. 10? Based on a piece from Smithsonian, my takedown on the Ev Psych sexism of "man (the male) the (noble, is usually implied) hunter," vs the female gatherer in the background.

No. 9? Getting tired of Michael Hudson's incorrect biblical exegesis, even if in the service of a noble cause of tackling the world of capitalist debt. This time, though, it's not in such noble service; instead, he tries to explain away the clear words in I Samuel of Yahweh ordering Saul to commit a holocaust, a genocide, of the Amalekites. Coming in the middle of the ongoing Israel-Gaza war, even if he's not stanning for Netanyahu, it's bad optics.

No. 8? Speaking of? Watching oldtimers leave the Democratic Socialists of America and shaking my head, in part because the younger generation won't write blank checks to Bibi.

What would be No. 7 actually has a Dec. 1 date, so it's getting skipped.

No. 6? Fuck Biden and his IRS for politicizing Obamacare. A 180 on normal versions of calling out politicization there, but I don't care. 

No. 5? My mock JFK conspiracy theory, that Mossad assassinated him over Dimona. It actually makes much more scary sense than any real conspiracy theory.

No. 4? Not recent. I said in June of this year that I probably owed Sam Husseini an apology over possible bioengineering of COVID, or at least, experimentation to that end. (I still remain somewhat skeptical, and probably more skeptical than I was when I wrote that. I also add that "bioengineering" is not "bioweaponization," which is where Husseini had been headed.)

No. 3 comes from Texas politics. I first smelled a rat in Pat Fallon himself, when he said he'd leave Congress to run for his old Senate District 30 seat; turns out the rat was Danny Goeb himself, aka Dan Patrick.

No. 2 is also from December, but I'll link it anyway, because #AbandonBiden is totally correct. And, related?

No. 1 is from 2020, when I called out Jesse Singal for hypocritically stanning for the real cancel culture letter in Harper's Magazine. I posted it, IIRC, last month to one of Ken White's Substacks, and later tweeted it directly to cancel culture queen and letter signer Bari Weiss.

On behalf of Kate Cox, fuck the Texas Supreme Court

Kate Cox appeared to have a "win" with a Travis County district court approving her to have a seemingly medically indicated abortion and cutting through the surely deliberate "fog" at the edge of Texas' anti-abortion laws, only for Kenny Boy Paxton to appeal and the Texas Supremes to temporarily agree, even as the clock ticked for Cox.

On the morning of Monday, Dec. 11, Cox left the state, according to her legal backers at the Center for Reproductive Rights, saying she couldn't wait any longer. As I said in a retweet, Kenny Boy will argue her case is moot, but per the link, her lawyers, rightfully and righteously, want it argued out.

Meanwhile, in a clear conflict of interest? Justice John Devine (NOT "divine"!) brags on camera about his many arrests for harassing women at clinics.

And, was part of the Supreme Court that gave the back of the hand to Cox late Monday, and, as the piece notes, indicated it will take a narrow reading of the state law in the future. 

Meanwhile, I saw Ann Coulter talking about trisomy 18 on Twitter, and a number of #BlueAnon saying, "If you've lost Ann Coulter," while a few persons responded or quote-tweeted with words to the effect of "Ann Coulter knew this could happen; fuck that bitch." And, that's my thought and my sentiment.

Texas Democrats, Texas Greens, opportunity and challenge (updated)

Every two years here in Tex-ass we hear talk about "turn Texas blue."

And, every two years, Skipper Gilberto Hinojosa and the crew of Gilligans on SS Texas Democrats fail once again.

That said, part of "turn Texas blue" is having blue chessmen on the board.

For the upcoming March 5 primary?

No candidate for Texas Supreme Court, Place 6. There IS a primary for Place 2. I'm not sure who filed first, but, apparently whoever filed second didn't check, is stubborn, and/or didn't want to spend new fees on moving to another race.

Even worse? 

No Democrap is challenging piece of crap Sharon Keller as presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Place 8 incumbent Michelle Slaughter also has no challenger.

And, that leads us to Texas Greens' opening.

In the past, the GP has hit its 2 percent ceiling to keep ballot access by running in either a CCA or state Supremes race where no Democrat was in. Yes, there's the new rules on ballot access fees and such, but still. Surely some Green can scrape up either the money or the signatures for an opportunity like this, especially with 2024 and 2026 being the last years of currently guaranteed ballot access.

Back to Skipper Hinojosa and his little buddies.

Below the statewide level? No candidate in my SBOE, District 11. Nobody in Tarrant County, the heart of the district, could be encouraged to run? OK.

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Sadly, Supreme Court Place 6 and all CCA places do have Democratic challengers after all. The Texas Secretary of State's office is known for having late updates, and this is clearly one of those cases.

Mimi Swartz deep-dives the Paxton impeachment trial

Swartz shows in detail why she's still the queen bee of Texas political media. (I had originally headered the piece "Swartz goes behind the scenes," but there's really not a bunch of previously off the record dish now going on background. It's still good, but it's not the queen bee's knees, either. And, the Monthly's "inside story" header led me to expect more in the way of on-background dish.)

First takeaway? As of closing arguments, Tony Buzbee and others of Kenny Boy's team of legal beagles thought there was a good chance he'd be nailed on at least one charge. (Oh, contra the either lying or idiotic Drew Springer, impeachment at the Tex-ass as well as federal level is clearly a civil not criminal charge, so you either knew or should have known what standard of truth applied.)

Next, this, about Kenny Boy himself, his "user" mentality toward others, and his greater confidence than his legal team.

On neither day did the attorney general take much notice of his Senate loyalists swiveling in their hardwood chairs, nor did he appear to give even a wink or a nod, much less a chaste kiss, to the wife he had betrayed. Paxton’s expression—always a bit lopsided because of a damaged eye—was bland. He looked like a man waiting for a bus.

Can't write that up better.

Third is the total non-transparency of "total transparency" promiser Danny Goeb, of course. That starts with him hand-picking the committee to advise him on trial rules.

And his hypocrisy to go with.

Patrick also made clear that he wanted to get the trial over with pronto. He set it to commence roughly three months after the release of the rules, a compressed window that called to mind Patrick’s complaint that the House had rushed to impeach Paxton.

But I digress. I will add his unilateral decision to keep both Kenny Boy and mistress Laura Olson off the witness stand, rather than putting them there, if only to plead the Fifth, was horseshit.

From there, it's two trial strategies. Dick DeGuerin and Rusty Hardin running this like a typical civil case trial, vs Buzbee blatantly appealing to the Mucus and Brad Parscale world of social media to pressure Senate Rethuglicans.

Meanwhile, Patrick disallowing certain information to be entered into evidence was more horseshit. At that point, I wonder why was Buzbee worried?

On the "no real dish"? Swarz says Patrick reportedly took two phone calls during Senate jury deliberations, from senators, but has no info on what they were about.

She does have some other leakage:

Bettencourt was also spotted the night before closing arguments at 24 Diner with senators Bob Hall and Donna Campbell, as well as three other Paxton loyalists, sharing a friendly dinner with supposedly undecided senator Charles Perry. “When they took Perry out to dinner, I started to be very concerned,” said one senator, who did not wish to be identified for fear of retaliation.

Again, not bad, but nothing earthshaking. (Perhaps, after Goeb is dead and buried, or ditto for Christofascist Tim Dunn) we'll get more. Or when Texas Democrats flip the Senate, but maybe not then, which will almost certainly not happen until Goeb is dead and buried anyway.

More shit and more antisemitism from John Helmer

The more shit? The claims that Boris Yeltsin's replacement by Vladimir Putin was "another US operation through the oligarchs." 

Really, dude? Anybody who knows anything knows that Yeltsin, after kicking Anatoly Chubais to the curb on his own, made the deal to not only name Putin as the next prime minister but to get ready to retire in exchange for Putin not prosecuting his family for their part in the Yeltsin-era grifting. Mary Elise Sarotte discusses this in her great book, "Not One Inch," but I suspect that the Yob from Down Under dismisses her thought purely because she's a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. More on that book and its background in my Mikhail Gorbachev obituary.

Although Putin hadn't been that high on the KGB ascendancy in the old USSR, he nonetheless would have been high enough that, Russian oligarchs or not, American leaders would not have wanted him to be the next president.

In this sense, Helmer is also like Consortium News was starting to become before Bob Parry died, like Mark Ames occasionally has been in the past, or like Counterpunch on occasion: adopting a reflexive anti-Americanism on anything of US foreign policy.

Next on the stupidity? His claim that depleted uranium is a weapon of mass destruction. He undercuts himself in his own post, when he actually notes that DU has been, at least in the past, part of the armor of American tanks, and between this and munitions dust, injures American troops. It is not to excuse the use of DU as a weapon on my part, but simply to call Helmer out on this.

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The antisemitism? It's subtle, but from this person who knows that anti-Zionism is not antiesemitism, but who has also called out Helmer before for conspiracy theorizing tangential to this, it's there.

In the new material? First, referencing Oleg Deripaska first among the oligarchs in that top link. Then, on a piece on the death of Henry Kissinger, and Kissinger's long-standing sucking-up to Putin, just throwing in Mikhail Khodorkovsky. (Of course, by modern Jewish reckoning of descent, Khodorkovsky isn't actually Jewish, but Helmer surely wouldn't let something trivial like that stand in the way of a good story.) Then, we have a piece about the US, EU and G7 trying to boot Russia from the Kimberly Process consortium of diamond mining countries. Naturally, in Helmer's world view, this was driven by a Jewish diamond cabal, another antisemitic stereotype. The effort to boot Russia from Kimberly? Real. The claim that it's driven by a Jewish diamond cabal, not just another step in US sanctions against Russia? Loathsome.

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On both these issues, per old friend Idries Shah:

The flip side of that is a tangent on Ockham's Razor. Unnecessarily multiplying sides beyond two, or, beyond three, more so, to a conspiracy theory and racism tangential fourth or fifth side, adds again to the difficulty of properly addressing the issue.

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Finally, on the antisemitism? Lest on Twitter (again, as he's tried before) Helmer tries to strawman or gaslight me with handwaving over the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, or lest one of his fanbois (not sure how many he has) tries that?

I've got Mondoweiss on my blogroll here. I follow it and Norman Finkelstein on Twitter. I follow Norman on Substack.

Don't even try that.