James Kunstler, grade A wingnut

For some reason, I thought that behind the climate change doomer stand of Kunstler, and his Peak Oil doomerism — a doomerism that turned out unfounded, even if tight oil fracking was not capitalistic —had vaguely liberal if not even leftist larger political stances. I mean, per me calling him "progressive Ray Kurzweil," he had written for places like Alternet.

Well, I guess they got fooled like me.

Because, per his Substack, with a piece like this, he IS a Grade A wingnut. 

Here's his take on Trump's tariffs:

The response so far is heartening. Many other countries suddenly seek new trade arrangements with the USA, correctly sensing that Mr. Trump means bidness. (This ain’t no Mud Club. . . this ain’t no foolin’ around. . . .) It’s even possible that these readjustments will happen so swiftly that the tariff differentials will be a wash before summer, and everybody will be, at least, on a firm footing, knowing what the clear new rules say. This new disposition of things required forceful incentives to change entrenched, harmful practices

Uh, James, Xi Jinping is showing HE means "bidness" right back. 

And this?

That process starts with deploying real capital — as opposed to Fugazy capital — to re-start businesses and industries.

James, I don't think that the four-times bankrupt Trump knows what real capital is. 

Then, there's this:

The psychopathocracy that drives the Global Left lost more traction last week in its quest to keep all of its old rackets running. Their foot-soldiers in the USA have been defunded effectively by Mr. Musk’s DOGE, starting with the immense network of rackets that were run around the USAID program. The Woke NGOs are no more and the fat paychecks are no longer going out to the nose-ring-for-lunch-bunch who came to infest the DC Beltway — and their satellite offices in Democratic Party controlled cities. Hence, the feeble turn-outs in last weekend’s street actions.

"Pyschopathocracy"? I don't know what that word is. I DO KNOW what "psychobabble" is, from reading it in the quoted paragraph above. 

From there, it's on to antivaxxerism. No, really!

In 2022, [Neil Young] inveighed against Covid vaccine “misinformation” and promoted the shots. Guess, what? You were dead wrong about that, Neil, and now a lot of people are dead and dying because of those vaccines. He has many compadres in showbiz who took the same position against reality.

Oy. 

So, what's behind his past stances?

On climate doomerism, I have no idea. Actually, I sort of do. I think he may have been an early promoter of what The New Republic called "climate cynicism," about which I wrote last week. In the hands of people like a staffer at The Council on Foreign Relations, it morphs from the vulture capitalism betting of climate cynicism into climate nationalism.

On Peak Oil? Probably a Trumpist 1950s manufacturing version of American exceptionalism.

Texas Progressives talk Texas water, Strangeabbott, more

Per Forrest Wilder, Charles Perry's water plan wet dreams (I see what I did) are the stupidest idea in these parts on the subject of water in 50 years or more. Wilder compares it to Tricky Ricky Perry's Trans Texas Corridor. But? The state's judiciary on rulings, and the Lege on bill-making, have done nothing to rein in eminent domain abuse since that time, and water gets more peoples' attention than high speed rail or anything like that.

The Observer talks about Strangeabbott's bare-knuckled (brass-knuckled?) effort to get vouchers past the Texas House.

SocraticGadfly has a full roundup of thoughts on tariffs. First, he salutes a good tariff, one that with loopholes and other things, is still vital‚ the world's first global carbon tariff. Second, he explains why Trump's tariffs, or more, the goal behind them, just won't work. Third, on the more personal side, he wonders how tariffs might affect the world of cameras. 

Off the Kuff reminds us that measles isn't the only infectious disease making a comeback.

Is it really full speed ahead for Texas Central high-speed railroad after Team Trump yanked federal Amtrak funding? Kleinheinz Capital Partners, which is stepping in, sure thinks so, claiming it can have it up and running in seven years. And, I've got beachfront property on Dallas' Trinity River berms for sale.

Vote fraud? Yes, and once again, it's Rethuglicans who are facing the music.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project posted about speaking at the big 50501 protest on Saturday, 4/19, at Houston City Hall.  

Evil MoPac has a more personal reason to hate the Trump Tariffs. 

 G. Elliott Morris demonstrates that Trump's immigration agenda is not actually popular.  

Leslie Rangel went to an abortion conference and came away feeling more strongly about wanting to become a mother.  

Law Dork marks the likely end of civil rights enforcement at this time.  

Mario Carrillo puts the blame for the 2019 El Paso mass shooting where it belongs. 

Rubio: Trump may walk away from Russia-Ukraine peace talks

Shock me, said nobody who knows of Trump's flightiness and microscopic attention span, over what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday, even if it contradicts Veep Bagger Vance.

Now, would Trump continue to not sell much in the way of new arms to Ukraine after that? Or would he reopen the Biden-era spigot? Would he keep sanctions on Russia as is, or try to impose even more new ones, on top of the bit of new ones he did? Most of this is impossible to say. It should be noted that Russia has dangled the possibility for US business deals in front of Team Trump. But, there's no way Putin comes even close to letting Trump do what he wants to do with Ukraine.

That said, there's this bit of hypocrisy from Ukraine's un-re-elected president (tis true, Russiagaters) Volodymyr Zelensky, on the latest Russian attacks:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attacks in a post on X. "This is how Russia began this Good Friday – with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, Shahed's – maiming our people and cities"

Well, sir, even if you pushed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to observe the Gregorian calendar and Catholic feast days, the Russian Orthodox Church doesn't. So, it's not Good Friday in Moscow. Second, if you really care about war crimes, have you stopped stationing Ukrainian artillery and missile batteries near hospitals? On the religious side, past your own country, do you call out Israel for attacks on Gaza during Eid?

As for why Trump might walk away, other than his toddler-age attention span? Putin won't give him the answer he wants. Just like Xi won't on tariffs. Toddler Don can hold his breath until his face turns blue, and this won't change. I mean, Putin hasn't even signed off on the 30-day ceasefire, and from his point, and from a non-NATO/US internationalist viewpoint, rightly so on not signing off.

That said, as with begging Xi to call him, the attention-starved Trump, contra Rubio, may loop back to Putin after all. And, no, the Donald is not a Russian agent. But, Putin knows how to play him like a cheap toy.

Meanwhile, all this plays out in a background of how North Korean soldiery and armaments help for Russia are both getting better. Will the Uki-tankies pay attention, and will their reaction be anything other than "send Zelensky more money"?

North Korea's aid to Russia, detailed

Reuters has an in-depth, interactive piece on how much help, originally in material, then also in manpower, North Korea has been giving Russia.

First, for Uki-tankies talking about how relatively cheap Ukrainian missiles can take down Russian planes? North Korean weapons are far cheaper and can take down NATO-supplied Ukrainian planes!

Second, regarding the current state of alleged peace talks? This, from the Reuters:

By January, around 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded fighting against Ukrainian forces since they first arrived in Kursk in late autumn, according to a South Korean security source. North Korea sent 3,000 more men by mid-February – and the reinforcements were better prepared, said Oleh Shyriaiev, commander of Ukraine’s 225th Separate Assault Regiment, which has been fighting in Kursk.

“They adapted to modern combat conditions,” Shyriaiev recalled.

So, North Koreans are now no longer cannon fodder. And, neither are Russian troops, as missiles and artillery become the preferred weapons in the area around Kursk.

And, based on battlefield feedback, the North Korean troops have improved. And, based on broader battlefield feedback and Russian information feedback, the North Korean missiles have improved — invaluable to its president, Kim Jong Un. If that's not more incentive for the US to push for an end to the war, and for Japan and South Korea to join that push, I don't know what is.

Assuming Russia gets much, if not most, of the territory it wants, Uki-tankies holding out for partisan warfare to make life there hell? First, the USSR crushed post-WWII revolutionary attempts in the Ruthenian area added to northwest Ukraine after WWII. Second, the amount of trenches Russia has near today's current borders means that smuggling major material help to partisans will be near-impossible.

Earth Day 55 — we're not making progress

Climate change remains as real as it was five years ago, at the last milestone anniversary.

What also remains as real as then, besides the same guy being in the White House, is Republicans not giving a damn, and Democrats, for the most part, giving just a minor damn while pretending to give a real damn.

In other words, one party continues to cater to hypercapitalist destruction of the earth; the other caters a bit more fretfully, with pinky detached from teacups.

On the right hand of the duopoly's capitalist masters, who are also masters of much of the left hand of the duopoly, I noted a week ago, per a New Republic piece, that banksters and think tanks were just surrendering — or even talking about new money to be made if when we hit 3C. Per that piece, you'd think someone at the Council on Foreign Relations would recognize that climate and climate change doesn't stop at coastlines, and so, "economic nationalism" on climate is impossible, at least in ways they envision.

And, it's all about oil.

In the first of my pieces from 50 years ago, I noted the federal government, when under the left hand of the duopoly, remains complicated at best in restraining oil drilling on federal lands. Under the right hand of the duopoly, it remains unconstrained and unworried. 

In the third, I said that there will still be blood for oil. That's part of Canada's turf wars over coastlines in the Canadian Arctic. It's why both Trump and Biden bombed the Houthis. It's why the Gulf Arab states pretend to care about Palestine, but really, not so much.

This too, beyond the bombing above, is "bipartisan." Remember that the Carter Doctrine is named for someone from the left hand of the duopoly. 

But, the left hand of the duopoly, which stole the Green New Deal from the Green Party, then watered it down, and then didn't pass the watered-down version, doesn't care.

And, speaking of Canada, the "we" not making progress is not just Merikkka. Justin Trudeau and his Liberals are about as wedded to tar sands oil as are the Conservatives. I'm not sure where the NDP stands on climate issues. I know Canadian Greens are as good as U.S. Greens.

 And, the "we" is not just the U.S. and Canada. Remember post-Fukushima, when Chancellor Angela Merkel replaced Germany's nuclear plants with more coal? And today, German carmakers are way behind the curve on both hybrids and EVs.

Ethical and other thoughts on the death of Pope Francis

Francis, who died Monday morning at age 88, was certainly a reformer pope when contrasted with his successor, Benedict XVI. But, how much of a reformer was he? Per the Associated Press's obituary, he really wasn't much of a reformer on the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal. He had a mix of defiance and diffidence for at least the first five years of his pontificate, and I'm not sure he ever really "got it."

On the broader picture, the way he distanced himself from liberation theology in his pre-bishopric days as Argentinian leader of the Jesuits, long before coming a cardinal, also means that "reformer" should be placed in context.

He was a critic of capitalism, yes. But, so too was not only Benedict but John Paul II; Benedict may not have been that vocal, but JPII was at times. Conservative Protestant fundagelicals in the US don't get how much this issue is woven into Catholic teaching. (For that matter, neither do conservative Catholic laity, or maybe the truth is more that they refuse to accept it rather than that they don't get it.) 

As for his legacy? I don't think he really stanched the decline in attendance in Catholicism in the western world, either among more liberal or more conservative attendees. As for the ethical legacy? The sexual abuse scandal still has a degree of haze over the church. Women priests and abortion, though they will be no-go lines for any pope, are alienation for some of the laity. Don't forget that evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala, who called god "the great abortionist," identifies as Catholic.

And, while serving longer than Benedict, it's still an issue how much he reformed the curia and the College of Cardinals. His successor will be no more reforming than him even outside the bright lines on the priesthood and abortion. Don't forget that, including John XXIII's absolution of "the Jews" for the death of Jesus, larger papal antisemitism has yet to be addressed.

On the larger political side?

When St. Ronald of Reagan officially established diplomatic relations with Vatican City, he faced little pushback from fundagelical Protestants on either theological or First Amendment grounds. I was still religiously Lutheran then; I didn’t totally like it on the first basis. Today? I find it abhorrent on First Amendment grounds.

 

The cowards at r/mlb kowtow to Trump again over Dodgers kowtowing

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged here about the r/mlb subreddit hauling down my post about how Trump's tariff's would affect the post-hurricane reconstruction of Tropicana Field in Tampa.

And now? Late last week, when I posted there about this blowtorch piece from The Ringer, about the Dodgers' kowtowing to Trump with their White House visit just after the Trump Adminstration had White-DEI'ed Jack Roosevelt Robinson out of existence, they did the same to it. 

So, here's what I pulled from it.

Among other hammers is quoting Mookie Betts 2020 vs Mookie Betts 2025.

Star outfielder Mookie Betts refused “to make this political” and called the visit “a privilege” ...

When Mookie Betts said in 2020, “We must not get comfortable when the protesting is over,” we can hear it ringing in our ears five years later when he claims a visit to this particular White House, at this particular time, is “just me being with my team”—just a matter of doing what he “felt was best for the Dodgers.”

And, I'd forgotten that Rachel Robinson is still alive, which makes the Dodgers' kowtowing look worse.

Rachel Robinson—the 102-year-old widow of one Jack Roosevelt Robinson—woke up to an affront on her dead husband’s legacy by the very country he served with honor, only to rise a few weeks later and witness not just the utter silence of the league he integrated, but her husband’s old employer specifically fawning over the brute who ordered the whole thing.

And, beyond the Dodgers, of course, Manfred has also been a mouse on this issue.

Give the whole thing a read.

And, yes, per the header .... we should start calling him "Jack," maybe? He used that himself. Rachel called him that. "Jackie" seems like it might often have been a deliberate diminution, a politer way of saying "boy" or something. 

Now, the earlier piece, while about the Trop, was also clearly about Trump's tariffs.

This one? Clearly about the Los Angeles Dodgers. Shit, r/mlb still allows posts about Trevor Bauer. Disgusting. 

 

Cameras and tariffs

I do a lot of nature/wildlife shooting personally, and sports shooting professionally. And, yes, it's professional, even if not for ESPN.

I've been waiting to move from the DSLR world to the mirrorless world. In fact, I've had my eyes on one particular model — Canon's R7, priced new at just over $1K on eBay right now.

That said?

I've been waiting for Canon to get its R7 MarkII out the door, to drive down the R7's price.

Supply chain issues — I presume with the stacked sensor that is supposed to be among changes on the MarkII — delayed what was supposed to be a late 2024 launch.

And now, the tariff wars.

Supposedly, second half of 2025 was to be the new goal. But, with the three-month (for now) "pause" by Trump on most non-Chinese tariffs, I'm thinking Canon (and Sony and anybody else with plans for new model releases this year) HAS TO BE thinking about kicking factories in the butt six ways from Sunday to get at least the start of new product out the door in that window.

Since I'm a Canon guy (with toes of one foot in the Nikon world), let's focus on this.

The R7 MarkII is rumored at about $2K, body only. Depending on what all tariffs it would face after that window closes, $2,500 or more, let alone a full $3K, is going to dent initial sales. And yes, per US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trump has new tariffs planned, before his "pause" expires even, for smartphones and related tech like semiconductors. Cameras will get hit.

And, while the R7 wouldn't fall in my definition of "budget level" mirrorless, and the MarkII certainly wouldn't, budget-level mirrorless (and DSLRs) are made in China. Some camera components are also made there.

That said, since I've called Trump out for it himself, I have to be careful that I'm not sniffing too much of Arthur Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Idea," and thinking that, if I believe something hard enough, that will make it come true. (Schopenhauer was the predecessor to New Age "manifestation," in a way, as practiced by Marianne Williamson and others. And, sure that she won't run for president a third time, yes, cultists, she does believe in manifestation.)

That that said, I do hope, without believing in manifestation, that I'm right. 

As for going straight for the new? If this rumor about MarkII specs is true, no way I'm paying for a 40M sensor that's also stacked. That puts us at $2,500, not $2,000, without any tariffs. And, getting rid of a mechanical shutter entirely? Not interested in that, unless you find a way to massively increase lifespan.

Heck, I'll take an R10 MarkII if it upgrades enough, and comes out soon enough, and is not much more expensive than a first-gen R7.

I also, per Ken Rockwall, don't like that the R7 doesn't have a pop-up flash, and I'm sure that the MarkII won't.

Give me an R10 MarkII that:

• Keeps the pop-up
• Is a 32.5 sensor, even if not stacked
• Adds in-body image stabilization
• Has a processor upgrade similar to R7 MarkII
• And a few ergonomic tweaks, like moving that AF/MF toggle off the front of the camera, and doesn't put the card slot in the battery door

And I'm good.

I'm better if you get this done sooner rather than later.

Now, what will that run?

So, if an R10 MarkII comes out the same time (let alone sooner) than an R7 MarkII, and has all the above, and is priced at, say, no more than $1,199? I look at it instead of the original R7. 

Part of me wishes I'd considered the Nikon road. But, Ken Rockwall said that Nikon's DSLR  ⇨ mirrorless lens adapter wasn't as good as Canon's. And, for my main telephoto zoom, I saw a lightly used and refurbished Canon 100-400 5.6-8, the non-mirrorless-L series but much more than kit level lens, on eBay and the price was right.

That said, Nikon is behind Canon and way behind Fuji on APS-C mirrorless cameras. Nothing with a sensor bigger than 24meg. Yes, sensor size isn't everything, but for stuff like wildlife photography, it's pretty damned near everything, at least versus blowing money on ever-longer lenses.

Texas Progressives talk Paxton, abortion, more

Off the Kuff has some advice for running against Ken Paxton in the 2026 Senate race. 

SocraticGadfly "eagerly" awaits what will surely be Ken Burns' American exceptionalism version of the American Revolution on PBS.

The Texas GOP's tweaks to abortion law still don't care about women. 

The Barbed Wire has frank advice for anyone who wants to get pregnant in Texas.

El Paso is taking recycled water the next step, with what could be a national first on a direct sewer to tap system. Other areas of Texas need to look at water recycling before the costly, environmentally degradating work of desalinization. (hey also need to look more at conservation. They also, per Cactus Ed Abbey, need to look at growth for growth's sake.

Evil MoPac finishes off its list of 100 fundamental truths about Austin. 

The Eyewall takes a close look at the annual hurricane forecast. 

City of Yes makes the case for single-stair buildings.  

Franklin Strong raises a red alert about a truly terrible anti-library bill.

The Dallas Observer talks to new TDP Chair Kendall Scudder. (And, aside from LGBTQ etc issues, and the fact that Dems should care about the economy and public schools, they don't find out his stance on other issues.)

The real reason Trump's tariffs won't work

And that is, contra his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, yes, buying a bunch of cheap shit IS, or has become, the American way of life.

It started becoming that 40-plus years ago, when Saint Ronald of Reagan first really signed off on not battling protectionism abroad. That said, the first big wave of modern imports was partially Merikkka shooting itself in the foot. At the time of the two oil crises of the 1970s, American small cards were crap. That was halfway acceptable at the time of the 1973-74 oil crisis and Arab partial embargo; at the time of 1979 and Iran, it absolutely was not.

So, Japan kicked American butts. This was primarily due to Big Three intransigence, but UAW workers were about as much at fault.

Skip backward a bit. 

In some ways, I consider JFK the first neoliberal president, not using that totally vaguely, but seriously and at least somewhat narrowly. If not him, it's definitely Jimmy Carter and I've written about that before.

Ronnie? Not really a neolib; nor Poppy Bush.

The Slickster? Absolutely. If James Earl wasn't full blown as a neoliberal, William Jefferson Clinton surely was. Rhodes Scholarship learning and all.

Remember, it was the Slickster who first touted how "engagement" with China would lead to political liberalization. Not!

Beyond that, at least as much as Carter, Clinton and unions weren't always on the same page. It was honestly, under Clinton, that Democrats first started looking really at the "knowledge class" as a basis for politics.

From there, everybody but Trump has been a neoliberal.

OK, along with that?

It's been 17 years since the last minimum wage hike. And, despite my pleas on these pages, Democrats did NOT attach a COLA provision to that last minimum wage hike. That means, contra Bessent, many Merikkkans can't afford to buy more than cheap shit. That's even as the vulture capitalists riding herd on stocks of retailers don't want it any other way.

Second, despite fishing for union support, and some unions dumb enough to give it to him, Trump cares about unions even less than national-level Democrats. He's fine with trashing out the NLRB. And OSHA and workplace safety. Etc., etc.

Safe American factories paying decent wages of course can't compete with China. And, Trump is not about to dish out a COVID-type stimulus specifically targeting lower-income workers to buy items from American factories, even if he did back an increased minimum wage that would slowly kick in.

Trump's tariffs address one symptom of a far bigger problem that he has even less desire of fixing than do Democrats.

Or alleged Trump librul nutters like Batya Ungar Sargon want to admit:

Just when I think Batya Ungar-Sargon can't get any more stupid, she does!
Pro-worker Trump? Really? As he wants to dismantle OSHA and the NLRB?
Anti-war? Guess your Zionism has blinded you to him bombing the hell out of Yemen, supporting genocide and wanting war with Iran. https://t.co/LHO0YWmv5q

— TheRealSocraticGadfly #GLM #PLM 🍉☢️🌻🌲🇵🇸 (@real_gadfly) April 12, 2025

That's in addition to her Zionist and other stupidities, of course.

This is like Ernst Röhm claiming to be a Nazi lefty the day before the Night of the Long Knives.

A carbon tariff? Really? Hot damn

AP Photo, from story below, is from Santos, Brazil.

Call it a tariff, call it a tax. Call it something I've been calling for, for a decade or more.

A global carbon tariff.

It's limited. It's just on global shipping. And, the thresholds are fairly high.

Nonetheless, this is the real deal.  It is indeed a step in the right direction:

“By approving a global fuel standard and greenhouse gas pricing mechanism, the International Maritime Organization took a crucial step to reduce climate impacts from shipping. Member states must now deliver on strengthening the fuel standard over time to more effectively incentivize the sector’s adoption of zero and near-zero fuels, and to ensure a just and equitable energy transition,” said Natacha Stamatiou of the Environmental Defense Fund.

And, it has some additional target areas:

The previous day, delegates approved a proposal to designate an emissions control area in the North-East Atlantic Ocean. Ships traveling through the area will have to abide by more stringent controls on fuels and their engines to reduce pollution. It will cover ships coming into and leave ports in the North Atlantic, such as the United Kingdom, Greenland, France and the Faroe Islands. It will oblige ships from North America, Asia and many other destinations to reduce emissions, said Sian Prior, lead adviser to the Clean Arctic Alliance.

Interesting. 

Here's one loophole of sorts:

One major issue during the meetings was the way the fee would be charged. More than 60 countries entered the negotiations pushing for a simple tax charged per metric ton of emissions. They were led by Pacific island nations, whose very existence is threatened by climate change.

Other countries with sizable maritime fleets — notably China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Africa — wanted a credit trading model instead of a fixed levy. Finally, a compromise between the two models was reached. The compromise is in the ambition of the measure, since the fee is not a universal levy on all emissions.

I guess it was necessary, and perhaps can be tweaked in the future. 

And? It was reached outside of the auspices of the UN, and with the US refusing to participate. Here's The Donald and minions:

The United States didn’t participate in the negotiations in London and urged other governments to oppose the emission measures being considered. The Trump administration said it would reject any efforts to impose economic measures against its ships based on emissions or fuel choice, which it said would burden the sector and drive inflation. It threatened possible reciprocal measures if any fees are charged.

Trump would actually be dumb enough to do this. The carbon shipping tariff serves as a de facto tariff on China, since we're a massive importer, and is one allowed under WTO rules, but Trump would be dumb enough to shoot himself in the foot. 

The NYT notes no other country followed the US out the door. Not even China with its massive shipping fleet and massive amount of exporting. So, Trump's attempts to derail this will surely fail:

“The U.S. is just one country and that one country cannot derail this entire process,” said Faig Abbasov, shipping director for Transport and Environment, a European advocacy group that has pushed for measures to clean up the maritime industry. “This will be first binding decision that will force shipping companies to decarbonize and switch to alternative fuels.”

The NYT adds that the fees apply to ships of all countries, no matter where registered or how flagged.

Now, such a tariff has lost some of its bite with the tariff wars started by Trump 1.0, largely continued by Biden, and now escalated by Trump 2.0. It's still better than nothing. 

And, we should also curb our enthusiasm in other ways until this plays out. After all, nearly 15 years ago, the Environmental Defense Fund touting this carbon shipping tariff in the first pull quote was touting how much good carbon cap and trade would do. (And, its economist in the piece was saying that we needed to ultimately change lifestyles.)

Nonetheless, it’s a start. And, since global shipping makes up 3 percent of carbon emissions, nipping it in the bud any little bit helps. A little bit.

And, beyond The Donald, per my piece yesterday, the International Maritime Organization also enacted this tariff even as many hypercapitalists are engaging in ever more climate cynicism.

Texas DSHS trying to have its Brainworm Bobby cake and eat it too on measles

US measles cases are now over 700, with more than 500 in Texas, and the outbreaks in New Mexico and Oklahoma, and at least part of that now in Kansas, all traceable to Gaines County, Texas. 

And, ugh. DSHS is trying to cozy up to Brainworm Bobby while keeping its distance at the same time. Its latest statement on the outbreak warns about Vitamin A toxicity while saying that a "healthcare provider" can still recommend it as part of "supportive therapy." 

Who's a "healthcare provider"? What is "supportive therapy"? Those are Mack Truck sized loopholes.

Climate realism or climate cynicism?

The New Republic transitions quickly from calling it the former to calling it the latter, businesses and think tanks ditching the baseline idea of the Paris accords and accepting that we're not just going to hit 2C, we're going to hit 3C or more.

It's all about capitalism, even more than TNR shows.

First, Paris was always just aspirational Jell-O, as I wrote at the time. And, two people made sure it would be just that — Xi Jinping and .... Merikkka's Dear Leader. Why? Capitalism.

What does this mean?

First, banksters, hedge funds and others, pivoting from backing decarbonization, which they never really backed, and carbon offsets and other such kabuki theater pretendianism on fighting climate change, to touting investments in air conditioning and other such businesses.

Second, especially as more and more countries eye a selective isolationism or increased efforts at autarky, it means upping the ramparts against climate destruction from outside the doors. And, TNR notes that think tanks as "venerable" as the Council on Foreign Relations are signing off on at least some of this.

This:

The brand of climate cynicism being voiced by the Council on Foreign Relations is more novel. In an essay outlining the founding principles of the Climate Realism Initiative, Varun Sivarum—the program’s director and a former top aide to Biden-era U.S. climate envoy John Kerry—describes a zero-sum, catastrophically climate-changed world where “other countries will single-mindedly prioritize their own interests” and the United States should do the same. Facing climate-fueled mass migration “of at least hundreds of millions of climate refugees [that] could upend the international order, and increasingly grisly natural disasters,” the U.S. “should provide the support it can, cooperate with countries on building resilience capabilities, and protect its borders,” as well as “prepare for global competition for resources and military positioning that is intensifying in the melting Arctic.”

As emissions continue to rise from emerging economies, Sivarum calls on policymakers to treat climate change as a “top national security priority—on the level of averting nuclear war and engaging in great-power competition with China,” working with allies to penalize countries whose emissions continue to rise. Acknowledging that such an approach is “fundamentally unfair,” Sivarum makes the case for an America First climate policy. “Nevertheless, the fact is that foreign emissions are endangering the American homeland,” he argues. “Every tool of the U.S. and allies’ arsenals, spanning diplomatic and economic coercion to military might, should be on the table.”

Donald Trump and his top allies don’t seem to think climate change is real, or that it’s a bad thing. But as the White House threatens to invade Greenland for its minerals and disappears people into Salvadoran prisons, it’s helping to build precisely the kinds of climate resilience that the Council on Foreign Relations—with its roster of Biden and Obama White House alumni—seems to be championing. Bleak as warming projections are, a planet where governments and businesses fight to the death for their own profitable share of a hotter, more chaotic planet is bleaker still.

What it really means is that, as income inequality looks to rise even more in both developed and upper-tier developing nations, is that, within countries, the poor and the precariat will get screwed even more, while being exploited in the name of economic nationalism.

What it means for me personally as far as political activism, is that this remains, or increases, as another reason to say "fuck the Democrats" as well as "fuck the Republicans."

No, Trump didn't "cave" on tariffs — and Xi won't either

To update what I posted on Substack yesterday? (Where we know Trump's list of 50 or 75 or 247 countries that want to talk turkey is a lie?)

Trump did not remove his pre-April tariffs in general.

And, he didn't remove ANY of his tariffs on China.

And, he made clear Thursday morning that the tariff rate on China is now at 145 percent. China, as of yesterday, had fired back up to 84 percent plus blacklisting a number of US companies. And today, Friday? It's gone up to 125 percent. And now, Vietnam is trying to cordon itself off from China. Still won't help the American shoe industry as Vietnam got socked with its own tariffs, though that's among those that have been suspended, for now.

It's why the Dow went back in the tank yesterday morning.

Ergo, contra Mark Ames, who claimed on Shitter Wednesday evening that Trump got rolled, no such thing has happened. Wishing that Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Idea" were true, as I noted over there with Trump (and Hitler and Stalin) t'aint so means it's not so for Ames, or others thinking along this line.

Add in the fact that House GOP wingnuts squared caved to Trump yesterday only underscores this. 

The likes of Ames should know better on this, too.

Besides, according to his own staff, if he was "semi-rolled," it was the bond market, not the stock market. 

Friday's stock market whipsawed, but many experts said, don't get in if you don't have to.

It will plunge again as Trump'x belief that Chinese president Xi Jinping needs to cave to him by picking up the phone ain't happening. Here's that Dum Fuq saying that "You are proud, but you need to be less proud than me," to read between the lines.

“China wants to make a deal. They just don’t know how quite to go about it,” Trump said on Wednesday during an event at the White House. “You know, it’s one of those things they don’t know quite – They’re proud people.”

To quote Poppy Bush?

Not.Gonna.Happen.

Paxton vs Cornyn: Is it close to being officially on?

One event from last week bumps the odds to 90 percent that it's on. 

Another bit of news drops that to 70 percent.

The bump up is related to what looks like bad news for Kenny Boy.

Paxton, per a NYT interview in Dallas, has already talked to people close to The Donald about getting his kiss of anointment. In fact, he had to be reminded by a "campaign" advisor that he hasn't officially announced his campaign yet.

The bad news?

Paxton's aides get $6.6 million in whistleblower suit is the story. Of course, he's appealing it. It wouldn't really hurt him in a 2026 U.S. Senate general election, but in a primary against Big John Cornyn, it will be a lead anchor. Maybe.

That said, per The Barbed Wire, if NYT's grab of internal GOP polling is accurate, will Cornyn even run? 

It puts Paxton ahead of Cornyn right now. 

Given the change in administration, Cornyn's early 2024 jibe to Paxton about running from jail is now moot. And mute.

Cornyn will be 76 years old next year. That's actually not old by the standards of the gerontocracy of the current US Senate. But, he's watched Mitch McConnell fall apart over the past 12 months. Betty Crocker Diane Feinstein die in office. Other members age out more and more.

So, given those polling numbers, it drops back to 70 percent.

If Big John pulls out early enough, does anybody else major jump in? Sid Miller might. Former Land Commish Jerry Patterson might pull a contrarian run. Bushies in Texas, whether family members or otherwise? Not a chance.

And then, who runs to replace Kenny Boy?

Not major, but John Bash has announced his candidacy for AG.

Texas Progressives talk vouchers, special elections, more

Off the Kuff encourages the filing of lawsuits to force a CD18 special election onto the calendar. 

SocraticGadfly talks about how Trump's tariffs and other actions could and will affect pro sports teams. 

We're getting closer to vouchers, with House tweaks to SB2 largely cosmetic, as are further increases to the WADA.

The TSTA Blog scoffs at the notion that the fight for vouchers is somehow a "civil rights" matter.

Elmo Musk is the latest beneficiary of the Lege's ongoing efforts to undermine local control of more and more issues.

Havana Ted is trying to put daylight between himself and The Donald over tariffs, while still leaving plenty of room to butt-kiss as deemed necessary.

No, Trib, you cannot backdate worries over Trump tariffs to late 2024. Rather, it was already likely then that momentum was building for a recession.

The political bottom line of this piece on Dallas tenant lawyer Mark Melton is "why does El Paso Democrat Joe Moody hate tenants?" I get Angie Button and the other Republicans, but, since Moody refused to talk to the Monthly, "he hates tenants."

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project reported on his remarks to the crowd of 6000 at the 50501 protest at Houston City Hall. Houston City Council must join the fight for our freedom.

Texas Monthly takes an Austin-centric view of the Tesla Takedown.  

Evil MoPac gives his next batch of Austin Truths.

 Deceleration reports on the very high cost of cleaning of Texas' fracking water.  

Mean Green Cougar Red has a bit of good news about monarch butterflies.

New confabulations from Ken Burns — the American Revolution

I was calling out Ken Burns for promoting American exceptionalism in his PBS documentaries (mockumentaries?) more than 15 years ago. That piece is a roundup of some of the worst of his issues, which I'll tackle in a minute.

But, the photo above, from this Pro Publica piece not actually focused on Ken Burns, but rather on Clarence Thomas, is proof positive of him as that "Empire Whisperer." 

Kudos to Pro Publica for noting in the caption that Koch has financed Burns' movies. He's also financed other things via "The David H. Koch Fund for Science," which long ago pressured PBS to tone down anything it said about climate change.

The latest egregiousness? Burns telling the BBC that he really does talk about the dark side of American history. Besides being bought off by the Kochs, which includes that David Koch apparently bought Burns' silence about the carcinogenic power of petrochemicals, this is simply not true. 

For starters, that link also notes him writing American Indians out of the picture in his librulz-acclaimed National Parks series. And, written out they are. (Also, national parks are not America's greatest idea; the First Amendment is.)

His Vietnam miniseries? A shitload of bland pro-Americanism. I mean, he doesn't interview Daniel Ellsberg, gets Tonkin Gulf wrong, ignores the imperialism and more.

He got both Roosevelts wrong in that mini-series. Well, more, he got the legends of both right, and everything that the legends obscure, wrong. 

He omitted Reconstruction as part of his Civil War series, getting back to the top link, pulling the same switcheroo that White folks both north and south of the Mason-Dixon did at the (in)famous 25th anniversary of Gettysburg.

In all of these things, he's been very White. He didn't talk about how much of the New Deal was Whites-only; he didn't talk as much as he could have about minority contributions to WWII; he didn't at all look at racial issues on Vietnam.

And now, per that Beeb link? He's going to do an American Revolution miniseries to cash in on the semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary? And, yes, cash in it shall be.

Let's start with this:

Burns doesn't gloss over the uncomfortable parts of US history, pointing out that, for him, being patriotic doesn't mean erasing the past; for instance, the fact that Benjamin Franklin owned slaves. "He knew it was wrong, and he kept doing it," Burns says.

Really? All of the above says this ain't so true. So, Ken, I won't hold my breath over whether or not you mention the Somerset decision as a possible factor in the revolution. I won't hold my breath looking for Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment of escaped slaves.

Will you talk about the tragedy many American Indian groups faced over loyalties, above all the Iroquois Confederacy? Probably not. Speaking of slaves, will you cover the aftermath of the Revolution and the likes of Lafayette expressing dismay that Americans weren't doing more to move beyond slavery? Hah, I jest.

Then there's his pop-American historiography:

On the subject of history, Burns says he does not subscribe to the popular view that it is always doomed to repeat itself, deferring to the opinion of the 19th-Century Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," was Santanya's comment, in reference to the Holocaust. "It's [a] lovely phrase you'd wish would be true," says Burns. He also points to the famous quote that is attributed to US author Mark Twain: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does often rhyme."

Really? As I type, Donald Trump is denying that Smoot-Hawley tariffs contributed to the Depression and his sheeple all believe him. 

Beyond that, Twain and Santayana aren't in opposition. Twain was being snarky, first. Second, Twain didn't say that; it's first attributed in 1970. Third, even if he HAD said that, it wouldn't have been in opposition to Santayana, who clearly said "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," something entirely different from some "eternal recurrence" idea.

His "10th inning" add-on to "Baseball" was meh and included hero-worship of racist commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

Even when he's not actually wrong, whether for racist reasons or not, watching Burns, I once noted, is like eating stereotypical Chinese food. 

That said, per the Beeb interview, and to riff on a phrase uttered about FDR?

If he's working on a miniseries about Dear Leader Obama, "The man and the hour have met!"

Or, per NBC, that's "Must not see TV!"

Second child dies from measles as Brainworm Bobby tries to poison others

We now have a second confirmed measles death in Texas, on top of the one in New Mexico; known Texas measles cases likely will be over 500 by the time you read this.

Related? The Trib profiles Lubbock's public health director, Dr. Katherine Wells, including her noting this has a feeling similar to COVID, including the nutters rebelling against public health measures.

Per the profile story, coming just ahead of Brainworm Bobby's visit on Sunday, he caused this:

A Lubbock’s children hospital is now treating children with severe measles who also suffer from vitamin A toxicity. This comes after Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update the measles guidance to promote the vitamin’s use, which most health experts object to. The Trump administration is eliminating pandemic-era grants that were used to boost the department’s response to the measles outbreak, including paying for employees. And Wells is navigating what could arguably be an even more delicate line than COVID — managing the outbreak of an eradicated, preventable disease, with a worn-out staff and a growing distrust from the public.

Geez o fucking Pete. Vitamin A overdoses can kill you. 

Meanwhile, Wells had her hands full during the latter stages of COVID dealing with nutters not just in the general public but the mayor and one other member of the Lubbock City Council. 

On Brainworm Bobby's visit, he said he has "developed bonds" with area Mennonites. Of course he has; antivaxxers of a feather flock together. It's also "interesting" that, while out in Gaines County, he did NOT attend a news conference being held by the CDC.

That said, he did shat on Shitter Sunday to support vaccination via his official account. To which I said:

If you really believe "the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine" then why are you pushing Vitamin A, which has sent multiple kids to the hospital with Vitamin A poisoning? You look like you're trying to straddle the "sides" of science & stupidity

He has since doubled down on his mix of pseudoscience and arrogance, claiming that his measles protocol should be a model for the world.

What else IS there to say?

Well, Brainworm Bobby, unless he resists, has been asked to say more by Louisiana U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, both on pushing vaccines and on talking to his Senate committee.

Top blogging of March 2025

As is normal, these most popular posts of last month weren't necessarily written IN March. That will be noted as needed.

In No. 10, knowing Tibet's history, I encouraged readers not to shed too many tears (whether crocodile or real) for the Dalai Lama.

At No. 9, from February, Quorum Report's Harvey Kronburg was semi-pissed off. (I assume he still is.)

At No. 8, also from February, I expressed some skepticism over Sy Hersh's claims the US had a mole inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology. (Since then, Sy's been Captain Obvious on several Trump-related posts that are two or three days behind the curve.)

No. 7? From January, my "blogroll update in progress" piece still rides high. (I have done some updating of moving older to newer; among stuff I've yet to move and may not, I miss Independent Political Report very little, and Counterpunch and Ballot-Access News not a lot more, nationally, and Kuff no more at the state level.)

No. 6? A late-January Texas Progressives roundup, which covered Dustin Burrows' start as state Speaker and other things.

No. 5? Speaking indirectly of Kuff? Also from January, a piece about the BlueAnon Nazi mods at r/Texas banning me.

No. 4? From late February, another TP Roundup, this one on measles and Southwest Airlines, among other things.

No. 3? From February, my riffing on David Schenck to call for real Texas judicial reform.

No. 2? The end of an era at Southwest Airlines. (Since then, I've heard from a pilot acquaintance that he doesn't like the changes and that that's very likely nowhere near a solo opinion.)

No. 1? With an ongoing bullet? Part of a semi-ongoing series about The Resistance 2.0, this being its desire to relitigate Russiagate 1.0, in part because they believe that Zelensky really is Churchill. (For a roundup of all my posts on this so far, with additional notes on each, here's my Substack piece.)

Trump's tariffs will affect pro sports, too — note to sports subreddits etc

As I first noted yesterday in a post at Reddit's r/mlb subreddit that moderators deleted — with my best guess being that they're afraid of looking political — repairs to the hurricane-shredded roof at the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field could be affected by Trump's tariffs. 

Per ESPN, on the decision by the St. Petersburg City Council voting $22.5 million to repair the roof, which must be fixed before other repairs can be done:

Under the proposed timeline, the roof installation will take about 10 months. The unique membrane system is fabricated in Germany and assembled in China, Quintana said, adding that officials are examining how President Donald Trump's new tariffs might affect the cost.

Again, I don't know, but IF that's why the post was deleted, it's pretty chickenshit. It may be an auto-delete, in that moderators have the sub automatically haul down anything with "Trump" in it. Still sad, if not totally chickenshit, if that's so.

Let's note that Canada has an MLB team. Multiple MiLB teams. Besides tariffs, various US-Canada tussles could have a pro baseball effect. Ditto on the NBA and NHL. Issues like visas for MLB's and MiLB's many Caribbean players, for example.

Besides, that was the third pull quote from the story, not the first.

As for the issue there? I copy-pasted, with added notes, and a link to the original r/MLB post, to my subreddit. I'm not enough of a Reddit genius to know if tagging a sub does anything other than a URL link, as in, does it give mods a heads-up or not?

And, I keep saying I should be on Reddit less. One more of its Farmville-style awards, and, at least as far as posting, and possibly commenting on larger subs, too, I still plan on making that happen.

Texas Progressives – national and international level

I've broken out a few items from this week's Roundup to run separately.

Trump claims he can run for a third term (and hold it if elected), and contra previous comments, this one doesn't seem like trollery. Given the way SCOTUS currently stands, absolutely five votes are against him and almost certainly Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. I seriously wouldn't be surprised if Thomas and Alito would agree he has such a loophole.

Gene Hackman's family wants a blanket exemption from New Mexico open records law. So far, other than pictures of the house not being released to the public, they're not getting it.

When Chuck Schumer has lost Josh Marshall, he's really up the creek. As a good left-neolib, Josh calls him out for procedural reasons as much as anything. That said, Schumer sounds like he's totally disorganized and simply not ready to take on Trump 2.0. But, since Democraps stand on procedure, there will be no move to unseat him as minority leader for the next two years

 

Of COURSE Colin Allred is sucking up to Never Trumpers, aka Bushies, for 2026

Last year's ConservaDem (he is) failed Senate candidate says he'll decide this summer whether or not to run again next year against Big John Cornyn — or Kenny Boy Paxton, or whoever is a successful enough RINO hunter to primary Big John out of office. (Cornyn is nowhere near a RINO, of course.)

Per the story, Allred announced a possible run when talking to the Dallas Snooze before meeting with the Bushies, which we all know who the Never Trumper Rethuglicans in Tex-ass are. (I saw this via Kuffner, who of course loves the idea.) I'm sure the SS Texas Democratic Minnow's new skipper, fellow ConservaDem Kendall Scudder, would also like this idea.

I do have to "love" Allred's spinning about why he lost last year.

“It was a tough election,” Allred said at the forum. “In a lot of ways, it was an election that was dominated by things that were not about the candidates … there was a malaise. There was an atmosphere that was difficult to punch through.”

No, no "malaise."

GenocideJoe broke his one term promise, refused to step aside when it looked like he was clearly also DementiaJoe, did so too late for anything other than a coronation of his Veep, Kamala is a Zionist Cop, and watched her run a crappy campaign her own self.

All that while both of them pissed off alleged pergressuve Democrat apparatchiks and leftish but not actual leftist independents.

Texas Progressives — state level; special elections, stings and more

Off the Kuff saw the failure to call a May special election for CD18 coming. 

SocraticGadfly wonders how someone like Coppell ISD's superintendent can get nailed by a sting video in 2025.

Nuclear power to treat oilfield "produced water" to theoretically make it usable for agriculture? Gee, what could go wrong with that idea? The correct answer is, like with much of Aridzona, etc.? Admit that anthropogenic climate change is real, it's too expensive to get water to farm most your crops, and move.

Kenny Boy Paxton's office is investigating an insurance company accused of spying on journalists, among other things. Paxton probably wants their secrets.

The bill that purports to clarify Texas' anti-abortion law may NOT fully clear up what exceptions are allowable, despite many elected state Dems jumping on the bandwagon. There's also other "backdoor" problems with the legislation. Don't forget that this is a Senate bill, not a House one.

Texas Republicans love to hate inflation, as do national Republicans, except when it allows them to cover their tracks on whether they've really increased school funding or not.

Measles cases now at 400 (officially) and still rising.

Texas' "right to farm" law may not include raising Spanish hogs inside a city limits.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project said Whitmire sent 11 HPD units to modest, calm protest about bike lanes. What will be HPD's response when we are on streets for our basic rights this Saturday, April 5?

Nonsequiteuse updates her earlier advice on how to stay safe at protests.

Evil MoPac presents the first items on their list of 100 Fundamental Austin Truths.

The Current has some bad news for San Antonio in the Trump-Canada trade war.

Bayour City Sludge shows that nobody likes Briscoe Cain.

UT alum Luke Winkie explains Signalgate from the frat boy perspective.

Texas Dems elect ConservaDem Kendall Scudder as state party chairman

So, Texas Democrats have gone from finally getting Gilberto Hinojosa to walk the plank from the water-treading SS Texas Democrats Minnow to this, Scudder getting elected in a highly contested race? (Interesting the TDP uses instant-runoff voting; now, along with stopping your effort to keep Greens off the ballot, maybe support it in state races?)

ConservaDem Kendall Scudder is, and I first met him seven or eight years ago. Riding Beto Bob's coattails then promoting Matthew McConaughey to run for gov is proof of that. More proof? In 2022, Kendall, in the DMN interviewing him for his state senate primary, said both parties had moved too far from the center.

As for his plans?

He wants the party to pay attention to areas he says it has previously written off, like rural communities, and put a priority on Spanish-language communications.

Wrote off rural Democrats? Did you forget about Beto, or Beat-0, in Muleshoe, which also involved his being a general PanderBear?

The reality is that rural Democrats, as in county-level political organizations, have long written themselves off. Those that aren't totally moribund welcomed Beto in Muleshoe for a bit of recognition in turn for a bit of his low-level grifting. That's in counties that even have a county level organization. Many don't, and the state party admits this.

And, Scudder, you served on the state party executive committee. You know this.

One other thing on Scudder, per my ConservaDem link? He bragged on his podcast about having a concealed carry permit, even with living in the Metromess. And yes, I saw it as bragging.

That, in turn, ties back to my post Friday: "With Texas Democrats, who needs Texas Republicans," as one part of that was about a majority of Senate Dems voting to get even tougher on the death penalty. In the DMN interview, Scudder wasn't asked about the death penalty. However, one of the other four candidates in that same state Senate race, Charles Gearing, twice volunteered his opposition to the death penalty, under the same question, about criminal justice reform. Maybe the fact that one of Scudder's three (step)-parents worked for either a county jail or TDCJ, as a correctional officer, per his website campaigning to replace Hinojosa, indicates he might tilt toward frying people, even if that was the dad his mom divorced. This would probably tie to his concealed carry permit, too. As would his being a "volunteer in patrol" with the Dallas PD. A more righty junior Jim Schutze? Gack.

I've done plenty of teh Google and can't find his stance. In addition to all of the above, IMO, if he actually opposed the death penalty he would have volunteered that info somewhere. 

I also don't know his position on Zionism and Palestine.

One-third trollingly, two-thirds seriously, I rhetorically asked about this on Shitter Monday night. Non-rhetorically, I asked Texas Progressive Caucus on Hucksterman, and Texas Democrats on Shitter. The purpose there is to see if THEY know, more than to get the answers themselves, since I already indicated I think I know what they are.

And, 24 hours later, neither has answered me.

So, contra Michelle Davis at Lone Star Left, in my world, Kendall Scudder is NOT a "pergressuve." Well, he surely is on LGBTQAI (If we're doing alphabet soup, I'm adding "Incel") issues, but not likely other than that. 

But, Jim Hightower supported him, because he has know-how and can raise bucks. Careful, Jim, or you'll find yourself in the neighborhood of yellow stripes and dead armadillos.

I mean, sexual orientation issues and abortion are important. So is combating US imperialism (Russia-Ukraine and NATO) and Israeli imperialism. So is real action, not fake action, on climate change. (Remember, in 2022, Beto-Bob discovered the religion of "drill, baby, drill.")

Scudder DOES know about running for office. Huntsville city council, multiple times. State Senate. The new elected member slot on Dallas County Appraisal District. Now this, and I'm probably missing something. In short, he's a permacandidate. Will he use the party chairmanship to run for office again at some point?

RIP Grandma Carole Keeton Strayhorn Rylander

RIP Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn Grandma. A symbol — one of four — of Tex-ass politics in the 2006 gubernatorial race, all of whom eventually shot themselves in the foot politically. (Libertarians had a candidate and there was a write-in, but they don't count.)

I wrote about the campaign at the time it was breaking out.

She herself? Siring future Texas GOP progeny by her first husband while eventually exemplifying Texas and national GOP hypocrisy by becoming a three-time divorcee.

Kinky Friedman? Couldn't stop cracking jokes long enough to get serious, despite advisors from then-Minnesota Governor Jesse The Body Ventura helping him out — before most quit. Frankly, I think Kinky was afraid of the possibility of winning, as I noted at his death.

Chris Bell? Eventually showed how much of a ConservaDem he is, despite Progress Texas anointing him, and that his ethics schtick was bullshit. More here, from his own mouth, on his shallowness.

Tricky Ricky Perry? Failed presidential runs and getting high on back pain meds while being tough on drugs.

Sadly, sites like "Reform" Austin (really?) have non-takedown encomium obits.

With Texas Senate Democrats, who needs Texas Republicans?

More than half of Democrats in the Texas Senate earlier this week joined Dannie Goeb and all Republicans in supporting SB 990, which gets even more ghoulish about the death penalty in the Pointy Abandoned Object State.

For the unaware, the bill now means that killing a 10-15 year old becomes capital murder, even without another crime. It also gives prosecutors, despite their 96 percent conviction rate on crimes in Tex-ass in general, "enhanced tools." Fourth degree instead of third? It also "closes legal loopholes and gaps." Like, "Hey, he's 9 years, 364 days old, or 15 years, 1 day old?" What stupidity. 

Stupidity and concern-trolling and virtue-signaling that 6 of 11 Senate Democrats voted FOR.

Before that, apparently ALL Senate Dems joined Rethuglicans in saying that K-12 public school teachers MUST tell their students about the "unique" evils of Communism.

What? They can't teach both sides, like the Southlake Carroll administrator telling teachers there to talk about "opposing views" on the Holocaust?

In reality, because SB 24 doesn't mention fascism (let alone capitalism) it's virtue signaling on those grounds alone.

It's also virtue signaling, because of what I said yesterday about national-level Democrats, that it doesn't mention Zionism.

Maybe I should be quiet, before Dan-o brings up another bill about Islamo-terrorism.

The death penalty — the US isn't totally an outlier

First, off to those nice polite Canadians.

Canada doesn't actually have the death penalty. It got rid of it long ago. But, via David Moscrop at Substack? A majority of Canadians wish they had it.

In this year’s survey, just over half of Canadians (53 per cent, down five points since 2023) think the death penalty is “sometimes” appropriate. About one in four (26 per cent, up one point) say it is “never” appropriate, while 14 per cent (up five points) say it is “always” appropriate.

Interestingly, per the story, that's a marginal decline from 2020, but not a real decline:

Starting in 2020, Research Co. and Glacier Media have asked Canadians annually about their views on the death penalty for murder. Although our country eliminated this possibility in July 1976, we have consistently seen about half of Canadians voicing support for reinstating capital punishment.

Also interestingly, that 53 percent doesn't exactly match with:

Lest one thinks, from what Americans know of politics north of the border from south of the border, this isn't all Conservatives. 

Conservative voters in 2021 are more likely to endorse this course of action (69 per cent) than counterparts who voted for the Liberal Party (56 per cent) or the New Democratic Party (49 per cent).

I guess Greens don't count in Canadian polling any more than in US polling. (Canada has no real equivalent of the US Libertarian Party. In Europe, people who identify as libertarian there think that US L/libertarians are fucking nuts, and they're right.)

There's also one other point, that we'll get to in more detail in a minute.

The intriguing fluctuations on this question are related to ethnic origin. While 31 per cent of Canadians of European descent believe the death penalty is “never” appropriate, the proportions are lower among respondents whose origins are Indigenous (20 per cent), South Asian (15 per cent) and East Asian (10 per cent).

Really? Yes.

Japan is one of four democracies, or alleged ones, that still has the death penalty. Per Wiki, it's executed 98 people this century. Aside from the US, those other countries are Singapore (shock) and Taiwan. It's also still on the books in South Korea, but on hiatus there since 1998.

And, I don't think I need to spell out the ethnicity of those places.

Now, the 98 in Japan is far fewer than the 1,018 in the US this century. 

That then said, what prompted this is that Japan, in at least one case, has shown that it can be as egregious in prosecutorial misconduct in a murder trial as in the US.

Zionist Dems trying to "own" Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, John Ratcliffe

Yeah, for shits and giggles, its "fun" watching Senate Democrats call out the trio of the Department of Defense Drunkards, Department of National Intelligence Israeliness, and Central Intelligence Agency, respectively over Hegseth's — or somebody else's — looping Jonah Goldberg into a Signal chat. (It would have been overkill to do the "Intelligence" strikethrough a second time.) A kudo, with surprise, to Goldberg for having the Atlantic run the basics of what he had.

But? John Warner, Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, Jimmy Gomez in the House?

All Zionists.

All cutters of blank checks for #GenocideJoe and Kamala is a Zionist Cop over the genocide in Gaza — a genocide to which the Houthis reacted with their Red Sea maritime patrols.

In other words, these Zionist Democrats are the reason that Trump and his national security advisor Mike Waltz — the person who reportedly actually screwed the pooch — are making war plans against Yemen.

And, for #BlueAnon on Shitter? "Whiskileaks" may sound funny as a trending item, but, since Mike Waltz — who now has been shown to have left a Venmo account unsecured — is the problem, not Hegseth, it's another swing and a miss.

Oh, and since the Nat-sec Nutsacks™ class within Blue Anon hated the actual Wikileaks long before Julian Assange rightly earned hatred over Seth Rich conspiracy theory promotion, it's a swing and a miss that way, too. 

On the more serious side? Waltz is a Green Beret, Bronze Stars, not going through life "(fat), drunk and stupid," etc., the level of incompetence is more scary than if it were him rather than Hegseth.

Also on the more serious side, which the Zionists in national Democrats' contingent will also NOT like? The clusterfuck, called Signalgate now by many of them, or Signalghazi by Brian Beutler, had one good thing — it outed an Israeli spy. 

That said, per Beutler? The real issue is the one of administrative competence in general — and Trump cluelessness in general, like on not knowing about US troops dead in Lithuania.

Consider this to also be a post about The Resistance 2.0, to the degree it, as a subset of BlueAnon, applauds these callouts in Congressional testimony while ignoring the hypocrisy.

Texas Progressives talk foreign policy, abortion, measles

Off the Kuff says to be very skeptical of the arrests for allegedly performing illegal abortions announced by Ken Paxton, as all we have so far is Paxton's word for it. 

SocraticGadfly dives deep on a couple of foreign affairs issues, first looking at the at least eight sides in the Russia-Ukraine war, then looking at post-1949 Tibet-China history and the US role in it, even as a new book by the Dalai Lama ups the stakes there. 

Health experts say it could take a full year to fully contain the West Texas measles outbreak.

A judge has stricken down multiple components of 2023's SB1 on mail ballots.

Speaking of unconstitutionality, SB 2880, the Lege's latest attempt to suppress mifepristone usage and related things, almost certainly is that.

TDCJ allegedly falsified prison temperature logs? Shock me.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project noted the Houstonian who came to Council about HPD’s collaboration with ICE despite Whitmire saying that would not happen. Of course you can be disappeared to El Salvador for dissent.

Reform Austin highlights concerns that measles has on human immune systems.

The Barbed Wire observes that Texas is a testing ground for anti-abortion policies.

In the Pink feels like we're trapped in the Upside Down. 

City of Yes had a positive experience with a driverless Waymo, but doesn't want cities to learn the wrong lessons about them.

Religious beliefs and vaccination exemptions

 Yes, I know that Anabaptist types like Mennonites aren't Calvinist per se, but many of them hold to the same rigid determinism, as do the parents of the child who was the first measles death in West Texas a few weeks ago.

The child's parents make that clear.

The Texas parents of an unvaccinated 6-year-old girl who died from measles Feb. 26 told the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense in a video released Monday that the experience did not convince them that vaccination against measles was necessary.

“She says they would still say ‘Don’t do the shots,’” an unidentified translator for the parents said. “They think it’s not as bad as the media is making it out to be.”

The West Texas measles outbreak, the biggest in the state in 30 years, has infected more than 270 people and hospitalizing dozens of them. Public health officials have repeatedly told Texans that studies have time and time again shown that the safest and most effective way to avoid contracting the very infectious, life-threatening disease is to vaccinate with the measles-mumps-rubella shot.

The couple, members of a Mennonite community in Gaines County with traditionally low vaccination rates, spoke on camera in both English and Low German to CHD Executive Director Polly Tommey and CHD Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker.

“It was her time on Earth,” the translator said the parents told her. “They believe she’s better off where she is now.”

What do you say in response to that?

It's hard, but not THAT hard theologically, as I will address on my other blog site.

For here?

For the parents not keeping children home when unvaccinated, this is an infliction of their religious belief on others. Parents who don't believe their children are predestined to get measles, and have their kids vaccinated, shouldn't have to deal with a "breakthrough" case. Nor should they have to deal with more generalized school disruptions.

Nor, to be blunt, should they have to deal with, for the public eye, pretending sympathy for another family they may not feel in reality.

And, they shouldn't have to.

Especially when, reading between the lines of Covenant Hospital's statement, these parents are willing to lie for their religion.

And, with that sort of lying, they surely don't care about endangering others.

Which they are.

Health experts say it could take a full year to fully contain the West Texas measles outbreak:

“This demonstrates that this (vaccine exemption) policy puts the community, the county, and surrounding states at risk because of how contagious this disease is,” said Glenn Fennelly, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases and assistant vice president of global health at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. “We are running the risk of threatening global stability.”

There you go.

That said, per that same piece, is this all about religion or not? One person says no:

Katherine Wells, director of public health for the City of Lubbock, during a Tuesday meeting of the Big Cities Health Coalition, a national organization for large metropolitan health departments ... said efforts to increase the vaccination rates in Gaines County, which is about 70 miles from Lubbock, and the surrounding region have been slow as trust in the government has seemingly reached an all-time low.

“We are seeing, just like the rest of Americans, this community has seen a lot of stories about vaccines causing autism, and that is leading to a lot of this vaccine hesitancy, not religion,” she said.

But, putting the cloak of religion on non-religious beliefs is an all-American pastime. 

Beyond religious issues, here in Tex-ass, as the piece notes, is state Republicans continuing to gut local control of local issues. Seminole ISD doesn't have the power to close local schools, for example.

On this and related issues, Texas gets unfavorably compared with New Mexico.