Rolling Stone puts toes in Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ land and other stupidities

Why is a mag like Rolling Stone running dreck that can't mention the genocide in Gaza until the last paragraph but CAN talk about "Starbucks socialists rally in support of Islamic extremists"? Judging by his Twitter feed, Mac William Bishop is a Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ guy; he's full-in on the proxy war in Ukraine, for example, and mentions nothing about genocidal actions in Gaza. Per other stories by him on his website, he appears to be a fan of US microaggressions, and presumably of micro-bases by the US military, in sub-Saharan Africa. His bio there seems to confirm the general idea.

In addition, while his bio claims that he's covered Israel, as well as elsewhere in the Middle East, and East Asia, etc.? Of the stories he has posted there, none are about Israel. And, going back eight years, there's nothing about Israel on his Muck Rack. Plus, everything he's written is for US mainstream media.

==

The other stupidity? This piece claiming Havana Ted Cruz is nervous about losing to Colin Allred. Cancun Ted may have been halfway nervous about R.F. no K. Jr. Beto O'Rourke. This time? No. Sadly, the piece is working off a "newsletter" from the Chronic's in-house Substack by a cub reporter who IS a cub reporter, if even much of a reporter.  Seriously, when your bio on that newsletter, which isn't news and also sucks because no comments allowed, says:

Born and raised in Houston, Brooke previously reported for the Vineyard Gazette. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, The New York Times, and the Wikipedia page for "Neckbeard."

You don't have much credibility. But you probably work cheap for Hearst.

Back to the races. In 2020, with Trump arguably being even more unpopular than the 2018 midterm, Big John Cornyn beat ConservaDem M.J. Hegar by 10 percentage points. Between that, Abbott's crushing gubernatorial win in 2022 and Wallbuilder Joe's unpopularity, plus the ongoing Californication of Tex-ass by people from the OC as well as the Bay Area, if iHate Ted wins by less than 10 percentage points, I'd be surprised.

The lies of a Californicating wingnut in Tex-ass

We're just going to spell this out via my set of Tweets, with some added framework:

First, there's the beginning of my take:

A wingnut (presumably from the OC) talks about Californicating Tex-ass and trying to become a Texan. There are some truths but plenty of lies here.
Biggest lie is not really owning up to Californicating. Beyond that?https://t.co/5ZW4uutWm6
1/x

— TheRealSocraticGadfly 🥝☢️🌻🌲 (@real_gadfly) April 2, 2024

I add to it the observation that if you didn't know about Tex-ass humidity in the first place, you're a Dum Fuq right there.

Then we go to her claims that you can see oh so many stars in Tex-ass. (I suppose she's one of those Californicating wingnuts who has been hypnotized by "Deep in the Heart of Texas" from two many two-stepping classes). She also talks about the so many national parks in Texas.

To all that? This:

First, contra .@BridgetPhetasy there's plenty of places to see stars in California: Death Valley, Mojave Natl Preserve, Joshua Tree (east side) Lava Beds for starters.
Related? THIS: "There are tons of national parks to explore" is a fat fucking lie. TX has TWO Natl Parks 2/x

— TheRealSocraticGadfly 🥝☢️🌻🌲 (@real_gadfly) April 2, 2024

And a part two:

National Recreation Areas, National Monuments etc. do not count as "national parks." And, IF they DID, they'd count for California, too, which has far more.
Tex-ass is deficient in public land in general. Big problem. 3/x

— TheRealSocraticGadfly 🥝☢️🌻🌲 (@real_gadfly) April 2, 2024

OK there.

Finally, re her attempt at reverse snootiness, I proffered:

2nd, there's plenty of diversity of thought in California, contra your stereotypes. .@BridgetPhetasy
3rd? I'm sure if you go to the right parks in Austin, or Preston Hollow/Highland Parks in the Metromess, or River Oaks in Helltown you'll find nannies in the parks there, too. 4/x

— TheRealSocraticGadfly 🥝☢️🌻🌲 (@real_gadfly) April 2, 2024

And, there you go. Seriously, not sure about Westlake in Austin or Helltown, but I can speak of the Metromess.

My only remaining question is, is she more a conscious liar, or per my "Deep in the Heart," is she more someone who's been brainwashed?

Richard Linklater: Librul squish abetted by squish Lawrence Wright

The Nation casts a critical eye on Lawrence Wright's new HBO documentary series. And, quite rightly so. 

Some of the most critical eyeballing by Sam Russek is reserved for Richard Linklater. Side note: From what I've read about him, and some of his "briefs" work that I've seen, I'm not a big fan. He's a gonzo type person with not much "there" there on his work when you pop open the hood.

But, I digress. 

Let's go to Russek's pretty blistering takedown, to be followed by contrasting it with hagiography from the Texas Observer:

His preferred alternative to death row is life without parole, “because that’s the worst sentence that an individual can have.” 

This is the point of view Linklater adopts. “There are sentencing options like life without parole,” he submits, almost pleadingly, near the end of the episode. Within the structure of the documentary, the death penalty once appeared to be the cruelest part of an impossibly cruel institution. By the end, it has become the only part of the system that, at least for Linklater, could possibly be reformed—and even that isn’t guaranteed. It’s as if he’s already tempered his proposal, certain it will be shot down anyway. Taken on their own, the documentary’s images could argue beyond this rather tepid conclusion, and yet Linklater’s scope appears squeamishly limited. Considering the prison-industrial complex, he tells Wright, “I guess, on one hand, it’s a blessing—it’s the local economy, largely—but it is a bit of a curse.” 

This is putting it lightly. Even if we ended the death penalty tomorrow, Texas’s incarceration rate would still be among the highest in the world—never mind the “accidental” death toll in the state’s prisons. A 2014 report from the Prison Justice League, a prisoner-rights group in Austin, found that in one Huntsville-area prison, disabled prisoners suffered high rates of physical and sexual abuse inflicted by correction officers. Just last summer, at least 41 inmates in Texas died during a heat wave, including a few in Huntsville (more than two-thirds of our prisons have no air-conditioning in most living areas). 

While court-sanctioned murder may be the most outwardly abhorrent piece of our criminal-justice system here in Texas, to remove it while saying little about the many other indignities we visit disproportionately upon poor people behind bars is like smearing lipstick on a pig. History shows that the right will resist practically any “bleeding heart” change to the prison system (though it may be moved on fiscal grounds, provided the system itself remains intact) and is quick to roll back reforms if need be. To limit our political imagination—and thus, political will—based on the whims of the opposition is not only shortsighted but also self-defeating, and it shirks the desperate need to decide what Texas liberalism actually stands for. Is it merely tweaking the worst aspects of an abhorrent system, or something altogether different? Why isn’t it possible to demand more?

Contrast that to the Texas Observer's piece about Linklater's part in the same documentary. Walter C. Long devotes two thirds of his piece to Texas good old boy type name-checking of people he and Linklater both know. Then, re the death penalty itself, after first tying it to patriarchialism, Long says:

You say, “The death penalty takes one tragedy, a murder, and expands the pain and suffering to include so many others, all the people involved in the legal and criminal appeals process that get dragged slowly to the death chamber, all the obligatory witnesses, and all the people with various jobs in the system.” Then you lay bare the moral disengagement that leads to moral injury: “The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifically prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, but what could be more cruel, certainly unusual, than to have to play a part in or witness another person’s murder, however state-sanctioned?”

And? That's it. (The rest of that penultimate graf, plus the ultimate one, talk more about what's wrong with the death penalty, but ... that's it.) Long nowhere mentions Linklater plumping for life without parole as an option. He nowhere mentions Linklater buying into the prison-industrial complex.

Another big old fail from the Observer. To riff on what The Nation doesn't fully grasp, it's also another big old example of the Texas librul version of Texas exceptionalism. Molly Ivins, back all the way to her Observer days, was a prime practitioner. And, the Observer is itself still a practitioner of Texas exceptionalism. This is not the only piece to show that.

That said, and speaking of that, without using the "Texas exceptionalism" phrase, the piece at The Nation does note how Texas librulz beyond Linklater are behind the times:

This is the smothering effect of political loss after loss, which continues to constrict thinking in the series’ next episode, “The Price of Oil.” Alex Stapleton, a biracial “Texan in exile,” returns to Pleasantville, a suburb of the Houston area that she grew up visiting on weekends. ... Today, chemical fires are common there, as are cancer, asthma, and other environmental harms. ... The heightened risk comes with few rewards for Pleasantville. 

And yet, toward the end of the episode, Stapleton chooses an odd point of critique: “Among the largest oil and gas companies in America, every CEO is white,” she says. “While other industries have been put on blast for their lack of diversity, the oil and gas industry has not had the same reckoning.” Stapleton does add later that her community needs “a seat at the table” as the country “entertains” a green transition, but the only specific action she suggests is increasing the diversity on corporate boards.

There you are. And, this isn't to mention that oil-induced climate change will affect, and is affecting, minorities in the US more in general than the White populace.

The Nation then indicts Wright himself:

Standing at the base of the San Jacinto monument, which memorializes the Texas Revolution, Stapleton and Wright talk with their hands on their hips, contemplating the region’s environmental situation. “America obviously needs an energy source, and this is what it looks like,” Wright says. “I think the more we talk about Texas, the more complicated it seems.” ... Complicated, yes, but can the Bard of Texas not say more? Can infotainment, as it were, not approach these issues with some creative liberty?

Again, there you are.

Side note again? I think Wright is kind of overrated. "Looming Tower" was 3.5 stars. "God Save Texas" was worse than it appears Russek appears to rate it, but for reasons exactly tied to what Russek says above. Namely, Wright's butt-kissing of Shrub Bush in his gubernatorial years.

Bottom line? This is yet one more reason to not give money to the Observer. It needs to repent of the sin of Texas exceptionalism.

Biden lies about seeing pix of dying kids in Gaza

Nothing else to say about what is the nutgraf takeaway from the story about he and Kamala is a Cop meeting with six Muslim-American representatives at the White House.

Another doctor who attended was taken aback when she showed Biden prints of photos of malnourished children and women in Gaza — to which Biden responded that he had seen those images before. The problem, the doctor said, was that she had printed the photos from her own iPhone.

"This speaks volumes to the dismissive nature of the administration when it comes to strong-willed action towards a permanent cease-fire or, at a bare minimum, a red line on the invasion of Rafah," Dr. Nahreen H. Ahmed told NBC News.

Wow. Just wow.

Another doctor walked out.

Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who specializes in emergency medicine, recalled getting emotional when talking about the many Palestinians he cared for, describing the scale of death in the six months since the war began.

“The decision to leave was a personal one,” he told NBC News in a phone interview, explaining he wanted to show the White House that “it was important to recognize the pain and the mourning that my community was in.”

Ahmad stressed that he wanted “to let the administration feel the way that we felt this past six months and kind of get up and walk away from them.”

What needs to happen. More about Ahmad's thought processes, voiced out loud, here:

"It was tough, you know — I wanted to communicate that message, but at the same time, I also wanted it to be clear that up until now — what the White House has done is not sufficient enough," Ahmad said.

That piece has more comment from Dr. Ahmed as well about her phone pix:

"Maybe he didn't mean it that way, but you're the president of the United States, you cannot sit there and be this dismissive of individual pictures of people suffering that are being put in front of you and then tell us all, 'Well, I've seen these before,'" she told NPR.

And about what she perceived his attitude in general as being:

Ahmed said she felt the meeting was "a way to manage the community, to say that we are trying our best, that we hear you," and did not feel like the president was empathetic to their concerns.

Genocide Joe doesn't want to get it.

Further proof?

This was supposed to be an iftar meal for Ramadan with a much larger group of Muslim leaders. No, really. Biden thought they'd all accept his invites.

Many of the invitees, distressed over President Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, said they would not attend an iftar meal with the president on Tuesday evening while so many Palestinians were under siege.

And, so, we wound up with the small meet-and-greet instead. (That NYT piece also covers it.)

Biden's response to calls for an immediate ceasefire? 

"But the hostages." 

Let's talk about that.

Israel's ongoing arrests of West Bank Palestinians, followed by indefinite detention without charges or other legal due process, IS itself hostage taking.

And Biden says nothing

Meanwhile, Karine Jean-Pierre comes off more and more as being almost as much a flunky-toady press secretary as any of Trump's.

Sidebar: For Jews who conflate anti-Zionism and antisemitism? CAIR says that anti-Muslim incidents last year were the highest in the 30 years it has kept track.

LP going broke and imploding, and other political news

The Libertarian Party is going broke. I guess the Mises Mice are good party-wreckers but not party-builders? Related? Other Libertarians are demanding party chair Angela McArdle resign over this and other clusterfucks. (She's a Mises Mouse.) Her oh-so-snappy response?

When contacted by Independent Political Report to ask if she wanted to comment on the allegations made in the letter, McArdle responded on Thursday evening, declining to address questions and instead replied, "Give my regards to your Luciferian Masters."

About as snappy as a bowl of rice krispies.

(Side note: I don't know why Independent Political Report is one of "those" websites that won't let you copy text. It's a PITA to do a "save as" text files and then open it in Word, but it's doable easily enough, so it's not like they're stopping anything. You also cannot right-click to open individual pieces in new tabs, which is another PITA. If this is being done for the clicks, IPR, well Ghostery has your number.) 

Meanwhile. the LP also may or may not have had its Facebook page hacked by the Russkies or another foreign actor. And, McArdle's reaction is hilarious. Per a commenter at the link, no, Angela, the FBI indeed doesn't even give two shits about the LP.

As I commented there:

Per Jack, it does check out, and the Eff Bee Eye does promise a follow-up response. Assuming the letter is genuine, the feds do not say what, if anything, the hackers did, if it's actual hackers and not just a foreign log-in or whatever.

So, let's all go to the LP's Facebook page and see if it has an posts that might be even more head-scratching than normal in the last six months.

Wait, WAIT!

Did McArdle not talk about Luciferian masters here at the IPR in the request for a party fiscal audit? Would Satan not be a representative of a foreign government? There's your answer, folks; thank me later, Jordan.

Angela is as McAwful as non-relative (I think) Megan McAwful.

I'd said the Green Party was past its best-buy date after the 2020 election season. I held out for four more years than the likes of Brandy Baker and Mark Lause, the latter formally noting the party was dead after 2016 (and Stein's lesser evilism recount, also getting initial mention in that link). I did mention, in a 2016 postmortem, things that needed to be improved. And, they weren't. Add in the various transgender/transsexual issues, which culminated with my saying "a pox on both your houses" (which I say as a non-twosider on this issue in general) and the nuttery of "identity movement Greens" (and don't forget censorship on the GP Facebook group before it was closed) and I am an ex-Green. And kind of hoping for it to implode more.

The Libertarian Party is trying to join it on an accelerated timeline. And, doing a damned good job of it.

For more on that, read this Substack by an ex-Libertarian (who works at Cato, re his bona fides) who escaped when the Mises Mice took over. Part of the value of the piece is documenting HOW the Mises Mice did that takeover. That includes drawing a bright line from Ron Paul's racist Rockwell newsletters.

As for the financial side? This, from that:

More than a fifth of the national party’s dues-paying members have left in the past year. That proportion is probably even greater among those who were active members, participating in campaigns and party business. In short, a party that proclaimed freedom of association as one of its core principles, in the end was destroyed because it was unwilling to exercise that fundamental right.

Yeah, you lose one fifth or more of your donors, you're in trouble.

Update, April 16: MoJo has a long, long form about the history of the LP, which includes noting that the Ron Paul-tards are in many ways the forerunners of the Mises Mice, but that the strains within the LP go even further. In what would make the Mice shit bricks today, the Koch brothers backed a member of the Council on Foreign Relations as presidential nominee in 1984, but when he lost, they moved on from day-to-day interest. Among links to the piece is one from Reason mag, which also says this split is part of a 50-year tension.

Update, May 4: Trump has accepted the Libertarian National Committee's invite to speak at the convention. (But there may be a hitch.) Will that, and the grift the LNC is trying to do off that, be enough to replenish diminished coffers?

==

Denny the Dwarf Kuchinich, after having been fired as Bob Jr's campaign manager several months back for Kennedy nepotism reasons (one of the few in-laws or other relatives of RFK Jr that still tolerates him) is now running for Congress as an independent. In attacking a WHO "global pandemic treaty," he shows why he was willing to work for Bobby in the first place. He compares it to the WTO. What, are we trying to block the importation of cheaper germs?

In reality?

1. It would not "surrender sovereignty." 
2. It's based on already existing WHO-generated agreements.

Or, per the link above:

It would be only the second such health accord after the 2003 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a treaty which aims to reduce smoking via taxation and rules on labelling and advertising. 

However, the proposed pandemic treaty has come under fire on social media, mostly from right-wing critics warning it could lead to countries ceding authority to the WHO. The body strongly refutes this, stressing that governments are leading the negotiations and are free to reject the accord.

If anything, at least if enforced, it would point at China's secretiveness on All Things COVID, if anything.

Denny the Dwarf, as nutters as ever. And, while not quite a Bernie ⇒  Trump guy like that Goodman dude, he is a Bernie (I assume) ⇒  RFK Jr. dude.

As for the Bob Jr. tie otherwise? Denny IS an "antivaxxer under other color." (My phrase.) Or maybe just a straight-up one, being that blatant an enabler of Bob Jr.

Dental care as health care

Smithsonian Magazine asks a good, and partially rhetorical, question, that is, why isn't dental care considered primary health care?

First, as it discusses around the edges, and as I know in detail, it is NOT because Merikkka doesn't have national health care. Without exception, from the countries I have looked at within the modern contries that have some sort of national health care system, dental care is often not covered at all. When it is covered, that coverage is only for minor children, or minors plus senior citizens. Normal adults still aren't covered.

Second, the reality beyond that is that dental care should be considered as such, even as Smithsonian notes it's starting to happen. The inflammation theory of disease notes that a fair amount of inflammation begins in our gums when we don't floss often, let alone at all.

The list of connections between oral health and systemic health—conditions that affect the entire body—is remarkable. For starters, three common dental issues—cavities, tooth loss and periodontal disease—are all associated with heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

The piece goes on to name two major guilty factors besides high sugar diets, and they're two things you should really quit (and yes, quit, on both). They're tobacco and alcohol. (Yes, quit that, too, and don't believe the red wine industry's bullshit.)

And again, failure by the medical industry to adequately connect these dots is not limited to the United States.

Texas Progressives talk this and that on Gaza and Texas

With belated Happy Easter wishes from Our Lord and Savior, Donald J. Trump, let's dig in. 

First, foreign and foreign policy stuff:

At Mondoweiss, Phil Weiss talks about the importance of Chuck Schumer even hinting at maybe conditioning arms sales to Israel, including how it's fractured the Israel lobby and given liberal Zionists cover against their more conservative (hasbara spouting) kin.

On Israel-Gaza, a la the Watergate phrase, SocraticGadfly wants to know "what did the president know and when did he know it?"

Per MasterCard? Paying $500,000 a ticket to hear three Democrat warmongers grift, including Dear Leader tell antiwar protestors, in essence, to STFU? #Priceless

At The Nation, James Bamford says that the 1979 Israel-South Africa nuclear test (it was, despite Carter's later attempt to spin it away) and Israel's general rogue and proliferator status on nuclear weapons REQUIRE a cutoff of US aid.

All about (what was wrong with) Joe Lieberman, from a special edition of Jeff St. Clair's Roaming Charges. The funniest part of this is that Gore picked Lieberman (on the recommendation of TNR's Zionist Marty Peretz) to win Flori-duh and of course that didn't happen. St. Clair notes it was also a further deterrent from the Slickster campaigning for Gore.

==

Now, more domestic and local stuff:

Justice sometimes does happen! Crystal Mason acquitted on vote fraud charges. 

Off the Kuff has a first look and a second look at the now-concluded securities fraud case against Ken Paxton. Related?  Evil MoPac has six suggestions for appropriate community service tasks for Ken Paxton.

Ted Cruz's ongoing and big ethical dodge — his paid podcast — gets detailed scrutiny. Beyond the ethics and the bucks, the time that Lazy Ted takes out of being a senator to being a podcaster is also an issue.

Related? The Texas Ethics Commission could require "influencers" to declare when politicos are paying them for their influencing. Call me back when A. This actually happens and B. If it does, what teeth the TEC puts, or doesn't put, into the measure.

Natural disasters increase domestic violence? So do heat waves. In other words, climate change is a family danger. Paging our "pro-family" Republicans!

The Trib/ProPublica offer a two-year update on all things Uvalde.

Montgomery County Commissioners Court has green-lighted the possibility of public library book bans.

Some Texas Rethugs may be playing with fire by hating on H-E-B head Charles Butt.

Pythons instead of pork for dinner table meat? Interesting. And, I had never before thought about the cold-blooded angle. Without maintaining a constant internal body heat, snakes (and other reptiles) are more efficient food processors.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said U.S. Rep. Allred must include obligations of Democratic Party elected officials in who must help win what he terms "The most important election in U.S history." 

The Austin Chronicle reported that the Texas Maternal Mortality Task Force has never included deaths related to abortion or the lack of access to abortion in its totals.

Your Local Epidemiologist notes that two now-retracted medical studies were key aspects of recent SCOTUS cases.  

Space City Weather takes an early look at the forthcoming hurricane season. 

The Current informs us of this year's Gathering Of The Kyles, held as usual in the city of Kyle, with a goal of breaking the record for largest number of Kyles in one place.

There IS NO "Great Texas Eclipse." 

Brief update on PRO Gainesville hypocrisy and ACLU of Texas hypocrisy

The self-righteous idiots at PRO Gainesville appealed their original misdemeanor conviction in Cooke County's county court at law to the state's Seventh Court of Appeals and when they (pretty summarily) lost that, were dumb enough to appeal again to the state's Court of Criminal Appeals.

Part of the reason for the appeal? Claims of ineffective counsel for them by their legal beagle, Alison Grinter. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas signed off on this claim in leading them (I see it as "leading them" in the sense of "leading them on") in their appeal.

Just one TINY problem. Grinter was one of the lawyers who helped Crystal Mason get her vote fraud conviction overturned.

So which is it, ACLU of Texas? Is Grinter an idiot or a genius?

Per the original case, there's other reasons to dislike Grinter.

It still doesn't belay the massive hypocrisy of the ACLU of Texas

Nat-Sec Nutsacks, BlueAnon and pseudoleftists have Havana Syndrome

I "understand" (well, I actually don't want to understand the dude) why quasi-BlueAnon conspiracy theorist, and general batshit crazy conspiracy theorist, Jim Stewartson, believes that Havana Syndrome is "real." Here's a non-crazy (sort of, he's a cell phone radiation nutter) BlueAnon type who thinks the same.

I certainly "understand" the Nat-Sec Nutsacks, the professional ones, want to believe that Havana Syndrome is real, not only the ones who talked to "60 Minutes" but the avid retweeters. This is Cold War 2.0 stuff, whether Moscow gets blamed more or Beijing. And, Greg Edgreen is exactly that. Here's another in Twitter drag, whatever his ALLEGED "three-letter agency" was.

Because of why they're suffering, and the fact that they thing an illness being psychogenic, or psychosomatic, means they're crazy, I get why sufferers want to believe it's real.

The "pseudoleftists," though? And yes, they're out there. This guy, from the non-Merikkkan division; even more as a Beijing fellator. I've seen American ones, too.

All wrong!

IT IS psychogenic/psychosomatic. Post-mortem is right. except for "60 Minutes" trolling for ratings. And, Robert Bartholemew, co-author of the "post-mortem," as well as others, were on the trail three years ago. Per one story about that, it's also Cold War 2.0-mongering by calling it "Havana Syndrome," as the World Health Organization officially advises against giving illnesses geography-based or country-based naming.

I think one problem, re the sufferers, is that people think that identifying an illness as psychosomatic means they're being told the symptoms aren't real. No, they're very real, including on Havana Syndrome, and that's per a neurology professor. I have little doubt that, besides the sufferers, their lawyers are confused.

Perhaps identifying it with the label of "functional neurological disorder" might reduce stigma, per the excellent book by Suzanne O'Sullivan.

The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness by Suzanne O'Sullivan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A simply great, and straightforward, book on psychosomatic illness, or functional neurological disorder, as O'Sullivan notes the more modern term is.

She visits several sites to see modern such cases in action, or in a couple of cases, at their tale end or afterward. Some involve a few individuals, but others involve larger groups. She notes that in such cases, it's not mass psychogenic illness, but mass sociogenic — the group is part of the induction.

Especially with groups, she notes people don't want to accept such prognoses, because they find it shaming and believe that this is a claim they are "faking it." O'Sullivan notes that is not the case, while also noting officials making pronouncements of psychogenic illness often don't explain that in particular and don't present the diagnosis well in general.

And so, alternative explanations are sought, such as in traditionalist religion in some cases, or things like antivaxxer conspiracies in others. [Or now, Cold War 2.0 nonsense.] With individuals, sometimes it's outside society that doesn't want to accept a psychogenic illness identification because they know it's an indictment of wider society. Here, O'Sullivan's first case, children of asylum seekers in Sweden who have had their asylum claims rejected at least once, and many the maximum three times, exhibiting "resignation syndrome" (also displayed elsewhere) come to mind. The Swedish doctor in the book, at least, clearly doesn't want to accept that these children are reacting to their parents' asylum claims being rejected, their internalization of their parents' fear, etc.

View all my reviews

The pseudoleftists and Nat-Sec Nutsacks? Either not confused about what psychosomatic means, and willfully lying, or without even thinking one way or the other, willfully lying. Lying for where their bread is buttered.

Contra High Country News, yes, banning alfalfa IS the answer

Specifically, contra High Country News' Jonathan Thompson and specifically, banning alfalfa from being irrigated off the Colorado River and tributaries.

Two years ago, HCN's editor at large Thompson claimed, straight up: 

So, banning alfalfa is not the answer.

And, I fired back at him.

Last year, a year later, the NYT of all people weighed in with a story on the Colorado's woes, that noted that livestock feed off all types uses a bit over half of total Colorado River basin usage.

And now, the LA Times, with more regional skin in the game than New York has, drops the hammer even harder. Alfalfa and other hay by itself — no corn, no milo, no other feedstocks — uses one-third the total water usage in the Colorado River basin.

And, more specific to the HCN plaint by Johnny Peace, who was looking at the San Juan River drainage in southwest Colorado? This:

In the upper basin states — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico — cattle-feed crops consumed 90% of all water used by irrigated agriculture on average.

Nails it.

Sadly, some of the researchers, like Brian Richter, while they get the math right:

“We need to get very serious about shifting to a different mixture of crops, and we need to reduce the overall footprint, the acreage of land, that is being used for farmland,” Richter said.

Miss the political science. This:

Richter said that as a scientist, he is reluctant to tell people what to eat, and thinks everyone should “act on their conscience.”

Is just wrong. The personally:

“Personally, once I started this research, I gave up beef consumption altogether,” Richter said.

Is nice. (I'm at near-zero on beef, and only modest-moderate amounts of pork.)

But, the other part? Wrong.

We use scientific information all the time to tell people not to do stuff. We use it, in another issue related to climate change, for private insurers to jack rates as hurricane and wildfire dangers increase.

Richter does get this right:

As the region’s water managers continue negotiating long-term approaches for reducing water use, Richter said it will be vital to create a fund with federal and state support to help farmers change crops or retire some cropland.

In other words, putting alfalfa on a glide path to extinction in the Colorado River drainage.

But, we should only do that in combo with other things, like the SEC requiring the ag sector overall to account for carbon emissions.

AND, in terms of the matter at hand? Contra that neoliberal nutter John Fleck, IMO, the new, post-2026 Colorado River Compact needs to get rid of the "Upper Basin" / "Lower Basin" division. Fleck, like Thompson, is also an alfalfa lover, per that second link.

To put it another way? Thompson needs to read Lyle Lewis' "Racing to Extinction." Amazon reviews here.

==

And, it's on the other side of the Rockies, on the High Plains, but, Thompson, there's a replacement that's gaining popularity. Grow millet.

Presidential and election briefs — April Fool's version

April Fool's Day! But, don't get fooled by the MSM.

The NYT blames a "post-pandemic malaise" for affecting 2024 electoral politics. Funny, you folks didn't say that in 2022. It wouldn't be anything like two craptacular presidential candidates, would it? Funnier yet, The Atlantic spouts its version of the same dreck and specifically talks about it affecting Genocide Joe. (By date stamp, it was actually earlier.) There you go — MSM tribalism and incestuousness on trends hard at work.

In reality? Inflation is still above pre-COVID levels. Workforce participation rates are still below pre-COVID levels. Income inequality has continued to increase slightly. And, if you want a new job, a new home, or a new car that requires a move to a tight housing market? Still no bueño. Biden would like you to compare now to the worst of COVID, and see what a genius he is, but that likely isn't happening. As I said on Twitter to Zachary D. Carter? Inflation is still above pre-COVID levels and unemployment has started creeping up again. 

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April Fool! 

RFK Jr., after fooling CNN and the rest of the MSM with a list of alleged Veep candidates that didn't include the one eventually rumored, did indeed pick that person, Nicole Shanahan, almost as deep in the antivaxxer derpity as he is himself. Since Genocide Bob is paralleled by Genocide Joe and Genocide Don, and Trump, despite his MAGAts, brags on the COVID vaccines because, yes, they started rolling out while he was still president, is apparently willing to make this a centerpiece of his campaign. 

April Fools, self made at the time:

“RFK Jr. is a radical leftist—an environmental whack job who loves EV mandates, wants to end gasoline powered engines. He’s no Independent. RFK Jr. is an AOC lover and opposes really any human advancement, preferring that we all live in caves by candlelight, except of course supports charging stations for your $150,000 electric car that can only drive a few miles before dying just like his presidential campaign,” Trump’s communications director said.

I guess The Donald's "the truth is what I say it is" has infected all the new staffers he hired at the RNC. Maybe it was a prerequisite? I was half-joking, but half-serious, when I typed that out. Apparently, at least on the election fraud lies, it IS a prerequisite.

The DNC says Bob Jr. nominated her for her money. 

I say, given the goo-goo description he offered of her, his current wife, Cheryl Hines, should watch out. Didja get a pre-nup? A BlueAnon on Twitter agrees, noting Bob Jr. has cheated on both his previous wives. And, he cheated WITH Hines while in the marriage before theirs. TNR has much more, although it comes off as halfway giving him a Robert Sapolsky "Determined" pass with talk of him being "heir to the family sex-addition gene."

That said, per Politico, is this a lead-up to ditching the indy campaign and planting his flag in the Libertarian Party? Weirder things have happened. Per Libertarian bitching about him not really being antiwar, maybe the new Mises Mice are OK with that, at least on genocide by Israel.

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April Fool! You should be this far ahead!

Yes, I've bagged on Jill Stein for not divesting of her mutual funds that have oil, tobacco and DEFENSE stocks. The latter is especially important post 10/7. And, AFAIK, she's never looked at how well, or how poorly, those companies do on BDS issues, speaking of 10/7.

That said, she has qualified for federal matching funds (some of which will pay off 2016 campaign debt caused by changes in FEC rules that she probably should have dealt with better in the first place).

That said, with Bob Jr. clearly more and more of a wingnut and Cornel West more and more of a WTF, she's still the most visible option on the left, even if not the best.

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April Clue!(lessness)

Yes, indeed, why HASN'T Genocide Joe contacted Chris Christie? Or Larry Hogan? Or other semi-never Trumpers? 

I reached out to every current Republican lawmaker who has refused to commit to Trump in the general election. Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) Mitt Romney (Utah), Todd Young (Indiana), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) all said the same: they’ve not heard from Biden. “It is surprising,” Collins told me. “It’s especially surprising because President Biden does understand the Senate, he has personal relationships with some of us.”

Now is the time (speaking purely in chess match / horse race terms). True that most of them come from states where they might not be a lot of help, but still. Besides that? As Martin notes, they're not likely to endorse him, but, if they could at least be made into neutrals, that's enough.

The piece is also funny for a side note:

Joe Biden was also the one who as vice president did so much of the outreach to members of Congress, governors and mayors. And, if we’re being honest, Biden was the person who was frustrated that the detached president he served wasn’t more willing to use the power of the office to woo their fellow office-holders.

And, that's totally true about the Ice King, Dear Leader.

Biden IS now targeting Nikki Haley voters, but that's far different from talking to her — or to any of the above.