Top blogging of September

As normal, these were the 10 most read pieces in September. Not all of them were written in September; older pieces that have temporarily become "evergreen" will be described with a bit more detail. And, since I usually write this out a couple of days in advance, this was as of Oct. 2.

We'll cut to the chase and do No. 1 and 2 first, then do the Letterman-style countdown for the others.

At No. 1, I said that another shoe partially dropped at Southwest Airlines, in a partial cave-in to the vulture capitalists at Elliott Investment Management.

No. 2 was the backstory to that, that another shoe was about to drop.

No. 10 was a third-party update including Brainworm Bobby's dropping out.

No. 9? My take on the pseudo-Trots and actual Zionist genocide supporters at the Socialist Workers Party.

No. 3, to skip, was related, an Aug. 30 third-party update, signal posted by Cort Greene, a diehard member of the SWP cult.

No. 8? Going meta, it was the top blogging of August. Among items trending in that was that third party update, Photoshop-skewering Shepard Fairey, mocking Scott Ritter and more.

No. 7? I noted that Grist and Fast Company had sharply divergent takes on the present and future of "fake food"; Grist's take makes me wonder if it's not playing Yevgeny Morozov's "solutionism," or what I call "salvific technologism."

No. 6? Inspired by a subreddit, my rhetorical question about if US national parks should have free entrance gets a firm no from me.

No. 5? Back to electoral politics, as the Texas Trib had a semi-failure in its look at independent voters.

No. 4? I looked at how the Twitterverse (where I no longer am) was quick to weaponize anti-Chinese thought, and otherwise spread misinformation, on the Israeli booby-trapped pagers.

Enforcement by private suit OK in Tex-ass but not California?

In the case of Tex-ass, I'm talking about its pre-Dobbs law that allowed private residents to sue over abortion and abortion assistance, still being used by a few wingnut ex-boyfriends who are almost certainly being bankrolled by people with some connection to Farris Wilks and Tim Dunn. That was the law that SCOTUS essentially punted on pre-Dobbs and has never, in reality, done a final revisitation.

Well, California passed a similar law over "election deepfake" videos, but a federal district judge struck it down as unconstitutional. Per John A. Mendez, maybe the law is "a hammer instead of a scalpel," but maybe more than a scalpel is needed. Frankly, this is just another example of how the federal judiciary is behind the curve, and arguably falls further behind the curve all the time, in matters related to the online world.

Christopher Kohls, the plaintiff? His deepfake that was among those that prompted the law is so nutters that Elmo signal-boosted him on Twitter.

As for First Amendment worries? The laws in question include an "actual malice" standard and a "materiality" standard. Is it borderline? I'll agree. Is it way out of bounds? I'll disagree. And, maybe First Amendment scholars, stalwarts and activist groups aren't all that much ahead of the federal judiciary.

Science: Climate change, roses, talking primates, more

Climate change, and its ongoing worsening, leads Matthew Huber to look seriously at many issues. They include how accurate climate models will be decades out (contra Katharine Hayhoe and Michael Mann, he thinks they're "undercounting"), just how much "resilience" the average human body has and more. 

On this issue politically? Besides remembering that, to the degree Democrats pretend to be serious about climate change (Republicans don't even do that), their answers are neoliberal and ignore class-based issues, which Huber discusses.

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If you've hiked in the US Southwest very much, you've probably seen or heard "Don't bust the crust." If you understand why, you'll probably be interested to read about attempts to grow man-made biocrust.

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One gene is why a rose pricks you. Can it be reverse engineered?

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Can chimps speak? New study of old video adds fuel to the debate.

Can't we have better independent and third-party campaign coverage?

The two best blog-type sites out there that I am aware of are Bill Redpath and Richard Winger's Ballot Access News, and Independent Political Report.

Neither has comment moderation. Neither uses IP addresses or other things to block anybody, AFAIK.

BAN has long been run over by troll-type commenters who aren't even funny.

IPR has this "Nuña," about whom I've commented before, who's now more and more at BAN. He's some type of alt-right, alt-white paleoconservative, and a proven liar (and an Islamophobe with that). And, he's made what I consider a veiled threat. And, I've told Jordan at IPR about it. It has been hauled down, and they're going to look at their bigger policy issues.

I've seen this rodeo before at places like High Country News, which semi-caved to the wingers on their website, but then eventually turned off comments there, but still allows them on their Facebook page.

Look at Mondoweiss. It has a formal username policy, and it will ban you by IP if you break any of its rules.

OTOH, this shows that, despite many ardent third party protestors that "many people agree with us," uh, no they don't. Sadly, definitely not so on the left.

Texas Progressives talk election thoughts

SocraticGadfly does an early breakout of his "Gadfly slate" for president and says "vote for the Commie."

Off the Kuff analyzed a new poll of Bexar County to see what it might tell us about the state as a whole. 

A federal judge put on hold parts of 2023's SB 1 that deal with state attempts to control (intimidate?) so-called vote harvesting. 

Eliazar Cisneros was the lone person convicted in the 2020 Trump Train driving harassment case. In the court of moral affairs, all were guilty as shit. In the court of the court, Cisneros may win on appeal.

Ken Paxton lost his suit against the State Fair of Texas' gun ban at Fair Park. Kuff has a good roundup of all the coverage, which includes the ScoTx note that Paxton didn't even really lay out much of a legal case. 

Paxton continues to legally harass non-profits helping migrants.

The Trib, the AP, and PBS' Frontline jointly take a real look at the border. It's not bad as far as it goes, but the story doesn't at all investigate what's behind Mexican enforcement of its southern border and other things.

The Trib interviews Amarillo Mayor Cole Stanley about his steering the city council away from adopting an abortion travel ban.

Unions inside prisons — for the inmates? Yes, really, including in Texas. And, the Observer explains why they're needed in all the states of Merikkka.

Kelcy Warren, feudal lord of Energy Transfer, is now working to be a shithole about the National Labor Relations Board.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said John Whitmire, Rodney Ellis & Carol Alvarado have every opportunity to fight for democracy & support Texas Democrats in 2024.  

Texas 2036 looks at the state of mental health.

Reform Austin reminds us who Corey DeAngelis is. 

 Law Dork reports on the latest hearing in the Llano County public library book ban case, in which forced birth zealot Jonathan Mitchell claimed that public libraries only exist "as a matter of grace".  

Your Local Epidemiologist asks why so many Americans expected a perfect COVID-19 vaccine.

Southwest's last cave-in to Elliott Investment Management wasn't enough but it won't do more (for now)

Several things came up at and in relationship to Southwest's Investor Day on Sept. 26.

First, some of the flight side stuff.

The biggie, for me, though not No. 1 in the CNN story? Both my checked bags will continue to fly free!

“The company believes any change in the current policy… would drive down demand and far outweigh any revenue gains created by imposing and collecting bag fees,” it said Thursday.

Jordan also told investors in July that charging for bags would delay the time it takes to load the planes as passengers seek a place to store carry-on bags they are now checking. The airline said Thursday part of its plan to improve profitability is to further improve its turn-around time when planes are on the ground.

This story has more details on the cost split. Southwest said it could take in $1.5 million in gross revenue, but at the cost of $1.8 million in expenses. That, then, is a no-brainer.

Second is that, though reservability for assigned seats will start next year, the actual practice won't begin until 2026.

Also per that first link, Southwest will start doing some sort of flight partnering or code sharing with foreign airlines. Given its limited, Caribbean focused (and that only after acquiring Air Tran) international offerings, it should have done this long ago. But, not being on Travelocity and Expedia limited that. No details at the link of the specifics on this. So, yeah, Elliott isn't all wrong. Sad it took a vulture capitalist to get this done.

They still should fix their reservation system and currency issues so as to offer their own flights to Canada. This is really sad. They don't have to fly everywhere, but let's say Calgary and Edmonton, both for tourists and for Dallas, Houston and Denver awl bidness folks to visit their Canadian counterparts is a no-brainer. Toronto and Ottawa, for business and political travel. Maybe Montreal. Wouldn't add more. Given their American basis, would definitely not add Quebec City and would be hesitant even on Montreal, re language issues.

On the non-flight side?

Per that second link, David Singer, head vulture at Elliott, said the changes still aren't enough and said he still is looking at a shareholder meeting, which Elliott's 10 percent ownership stake allows him to call.

More on that, and on the poison pill defense Southwest has, at my link of a month ago. Problem is, Southwest allows any investor above 10 percent to call the shareholder meeting, but the poison pill of a stock buyback offer, doesn't kick in until 12.5 percent.

That said, per the first and second links, Southwest did an internal stock buyback in the run-up to the investors day.

More here from Southwest PR.

And, in other Southwest news, it's taking San Antonio to court over an alleged bait and switch on terminal improvements.

Mondoweiss agrees with me on the "uncommitted" movement

I said in June that "Listen to America" co-director Lexie Zeidan was lying to herself (as were fellow organization members), lying to readers / followers / political public, or lying to both, when telling Mondoweiss' Michael Arria that they weren't committing to third parties but could still pressure Biden (this was before he withdrew).

Mondoweiss' Ethan Eblaghie has a follow-up. The title is the tale: "The Uncommitted Movement has failed because it refused to punish Democrats."

Here's the nutgras from Eblaghie, who appears to be a member of the movement himself.

Lacking any internal mechanisms for decision-making, the Uncommitted National Movement defaulted to an unacknowledged cadre of spokespeople, such as Waleed Shahid, Lexis Dena Zeidan, and Asma Mohammed, among others, like Layla and Abbas. These individuals were not subject to democratic control, setting the political lines of a movement over 740,000 people strong entirely unchecked by the many grassroots organizers that supported the campaign.

While uncommitted leaders in many states, like Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have raised calls for voters to reject Harris entirely in the general election, the Uncommitted National Movement took a conciliatory approach, giving Harris ample time to engage with our demands after the convention and failing to commit to withholding their support for her even in the absence of her compliance.

Again, lines up with what I said in June.

And, here's the play-out:

In continuing to attempt to move Harris, we must reconcile the Uncommitted National Movement’s refusal to make good on the threat with the size of the voting base behind us, and determine how to make Harris feel more threatened by the anti-war movement against her. Abdicating the best card in our hand – our collective tactical vote – means we no longer have any leverage.

Urging voters to oppose Trump, putting the cart before the horse, means that, on a fundamental level, we accept that the horrific genocide in Gaza and the US-funded murder of over 40,000 Palestinians, is not a red line in this election. On a political level, it means that a small cadre of unelected and unaccountable spokespeople have bartered away what remains of our hand without the input of our state leaders and a thorough, winning analysis of what comes next for the robust movement for an arms embargo on Israel in the United States.

Again, what I said in June.

Going BEYOND Eblaghie, it's why I suspected Jill Stein passed on choosing a Michigander, especially an Arab-American Michigander, as her Veep. She's going down the lesser evilism route herself. And, as I said there, anybody who knows Stein knows this is nothing new.

The St. Louis Cardinals suck and the New York Times called them out

The John Mozeliak/Bill DeWitt Cardinals emperor has no clothes. That's been obvious for some time, but The New York Times/Athletic just MASSIVELY called them out. Here's the nut grafs, about one-quarter in:

“We’re in trouble,” one team employee said. “This is not easily fixable within the next year, or year after. This is going to take some time.

“I don’t know how this was f—ed up so bad over the last few years.” ...

“It’s broken,” one staffer said. “Our system is broken in a way. How it got there, I don’t know.”

The big question is, how much difference will it make?

When you have nutters on r/cardinals like u/holdmywong saying this team could have a better winning mark than the 2006 World Series winners, all while ignoring things like the Pythagorean of this year vs that, and the fact that everybody not a "junior Mo" knows the facts, or you have people like u/milyabe saying "Cardinal Way" like Bernie Miklasz 2010 (who I called out at the time), and then protesting they didn't say it was unique? it could take a LONG time.

Seriously? Mo's going to be as "unobtrusive" as possible until the end of next year and his expected retirement. Likely successor Chaim Bloom? We know what he was like in Boston. (He wasn't as horrible as his worst detractors say, but he wasn't nearly as good as his most ardent defenders claim.) And, Bill DeWitt III's vague noises this summer about wanting taxpayer money for stadium tweaks?

Yeah, the piece notes Bloom was good in Tampa. But that was a decade ago. More general managers and presidents of baseball operations — even some owners — are more grounded in the analytics world today. That issue applies here in St. Louie, too:

(H)igh-profile success almost always ensures that other organizations take notice, and eventually rivals built similar analytical models. Over time, a key difference emerged: Other clubs invested more in their models than the Cardinals were investing in theirs. As innovation spread through the industry the Cardinals stagnated. Their advantage began to slip.

There you go, Bloom.

And, Mo is straddling two horses. 

(A)ccording to people familiar with the organization’s business decisions, Mozeliak has been operating with a set amount of money to split between the Cardinals’ entire baseball operations department, and the front office has repeatedly chosen to invest in the big-league team. Those decisions resulted in repeated cuts to player development, both stateside and in Latin America.

So, this is really Bill DeWitt, per Miklasz, not putting a crowbar in DeWallet. Now, one wonders if to some degree this is like the Dallas Cowboys, where Stephen Jones restrains Daddy Jethro Jerry. 

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Update, Sept. 30: Chaim Bloom has officially been named Mo's successor for 2026. Also of note? GM Mike Girsch got shoved in a fancy broom closet with the title of "vice president of special operations."

Several posts related to it at the r/Cardinals subreddit.

This one rightly wonders how much more of a leash Bloom will have than Mo did.

This one, from a Red Sox fan, splits the diff on Bloom's over/under.

Via a third, Bob Nightengale, after discussing who he thinks should be given this year's MLB awards, looks hard at the Cardinals' future. He thinks they will go semi-full rebuild, starting with shopping Sonny Gray. It's said that the Cards, acting like a low-ball team, would try to trade Gray to the low-ball Reds. He also notes the Brew Crew are interested in Goldy.