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. 

(Update: And, Russia's own weapons production has increased in both quantity and quality.)

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.