Zionist false flags are real and related items

By Betar’s own words, you usually can’t go wrong making false flag accusations against the government of Israel or its Zionist apparatchiks and allied organizations abroad.

Betar? The false flags are related to this:

Betar US largely operates out of New York City, and in a video published and then deleted by their official X account, Betar’s members recently advertised their attempts to instigate a confrontation with the volunteers for Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign.

As the story goes on, they talk about burning Qurans and such to do this.

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Meanwhile, in Israel, the masks fall further off, per two pieces by The Dissident.

Ha'aretz admits that the Palestinian Health Ministry has actually UNDERCOUNTED the death rate in Gaza.

And, Ha'aretz earlier admitted that Israel was deliberately killing people at aid stations in Gaza.

And, the Zionist flies flew into comments on both sites, with the lies that The Dissident was antisemitic and that antizionism is antisemitism.

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Conflating antizionism with antisemitism isn't just an American thing, as British native and online friend Paul Braterman notes.

The Observer presents Reality Winner

Something kind of nice, kind of thematic and kind of snarky for the Fourth of July — starting with the Observer's brief interview, which links to a piece Winner wrote at the Wrap.

I agree with restoring voting rights for felons.

That said, the rest of her story?

I long ago called her out for believing in Russiagate. As far as I know, she's never repudiated that. Now, a few L/libertarian types may also believe in it, as do a few leftists of some sort, like Green presidential candidate Howie Hawkins, but, by and large, it's an issue limited to the left hand of the duopoly plus never-trumper Rethuglicans. (That said, Hillary's likely CIA head was among early rejectors.)

I also noted she was naive — she's a Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ contractor and she emails Glennwald from a work email? Really? And, as the above, she overrated the seriousness of what she emailed, too. That second one makes you wonder just who the likes of Fluor and DynCorp hire at times. I am NOT a total fan of the Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ contractor Snowden, just to remind you, and know he's a liar, and that he got suckered by Assange, too.

Sadly, Dementia Joe didn't give her a commutation, even if the now-deblogrolled (and not hugely missed) Counterpunch lied about the 2004 election.

Happy Fourth. Per Ben Franklin, it's an oligarchy not a republic. It was lost long ago, if it ever was fully what Franklin claimed in 1787. It never was a democracy, though, contra Joe Costello.

Nathan J. Robinson channels his inner Peter Singer — for SHRIMP!

Yes, you read that right.

Nathan J. Robinson, via Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla, channels his inner Peter Singer, as in the Australian utilitarian philosopher known for his sometimes strident, occasionally off-putting, takes on animal rights — for the intelligence, and the suffering potential, of shrimp.  The intelligence of squid and octopus is generally overrated and also largely anecdotal. Therefore, extrapolating from them to shrimp is a fail.

Robinson's an interesting person. A Brit expat who launched A Current Affair here in the US (his home base is New Orleans), he's best seen as a DSA Rosey, even if he's not an official member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

In other words, a squishy pseudo-leftist who will chide Democratic Party leaders every 2 or 4 years, but then, presumably, vote for them in the voting booth. He certainly has never talked up third parties, and for that I've called him out at my primary blog and at Shitter. 

Anyway, per the second link, even if Nicholas Humphrey is not all right, I certainly don't think he's close to being all wet. Warm-bloodedness is where to start with animal intelligence.

Linked inside that piece, but getting separately posted now, is the piece on how octopus intelligence is both overrated and often anecdotally assessed. 

Per Daniel Engber's piece, first, there's been cases of fraud on octopus escape abilities. Second, that doesn't mean conscience-type intelligence anyway, as shown by exactly how they, squid, and presumably other cephalopods control their tentacles.

Beyond that, shrimp aren't cephalopods, which are a class within the phylum of molluscs. They're crustaceans, a subphylum within the phylum of arthropods. And, yes, you'll get people talking up spider intelligence. 

They're wrong, too. 

One can still protest what does look like animal cruelty, cutting off one eye of female shrimp to get them to breed better. And? I'd protest cutting out one compound eye of a drone honeybee to get them to pollinate better. Bees aren't intelligent, either, and surely have even less of a sensation of pain than shrimp.  

So, shrimp alfredo? Dine away, unless you're vegetarian, period. Or worried about the environmental issues of farmed shrimp.

Oh, speaking of that? You'll find NOTHING about it in Robinson's article, nor on Zorrilla's website, the Shrimp Welfare Project.

Oops. 

Texas Progressives talk Lege, races, more

Off the Kuff welcomes the first official Democratic candidates for Governor and Senate to their respective races.  Updating Kuff's piece? Allred is now in.

SocraticGadfly notes how, within the Texas Lege, House Democrats seem to be a house divided with a leader not extremely leading.

Lotsa Rethuglicans will be looking for VPNs after the US Supremes said Texas' pornsite age verification law passed constitutional muster. That said, 404 Media notes the ultimate target is free speech in general and because sexually suggestive is internet clickbait, that could be a wide dragnet. That includes the ultra-odious Mike Lee wanting to redefine pornography. Via The Barbed Wire, the 19th also has thoughts.

Texas Supremes said that the United Methodist Church can officially fight Southern Methodist's plans to set itself apart from the body on governance. SMU is the site of Perkins School of Theology, an official UMC seminary, among other things.

Maybe Cornyn was partially right about being primaried by Kenny Boy. Though Paxton himself is not named, current and former staff have flung dueling lawsuits at each other.

R.F. O'Rourke shared a Texas Democrat forum stage with Joaquin Castro (NOT running for state office anytime soon, Dems or Trib-hypers) and James Talerico (ditto). I doubt any of the three is challenging Terry Virts to run against Cornyn or Paxton. Interesting that Colin Allred, supposably interested in another Senate run and mentioned as such at that Virts link, wasn't at the Alamo City forum.

The Southern Association, that accredits colleges and universities in the South, is too librul, cuz DEI allegedly, so A&M is joining with university systems in other states to create a new system. The Aggies of A N M (correct Aggie spelling) say they're not leaving Southern. Note that the Tea Sippers aren't joining this movement.

Beyonce is getting dragged for being a Black capitalist imperialist and I'm here for it.

Evil MoPac confesses five unpopular Texas opinions. (Totally right about Blue Bell; half wrong about In-n-Out.)

The Lone Star Project has a mid-year review for Texas media. (Some things true; others straight-up Democrat propaganda.)

The Texas Signal marks three years of Dobbs. 

 Therese Odell is having 2017 flashbacks. 

 Law Dork wades into the astonishingly birthright citizenship debacle from SCOTUS.

Sorry again, Joe Costello, and again

Joe Costello loses me a lesser bit here, in this piece, where he claims that there is no real difference between a democracy and a republic and that James Madison made it all up.

Yes, republican Rome had the plebian assembly or council, but long before Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus got offed, it was moving toward becoming more and more a glorified debating society more than anything else. Their deaths confirmed that. 

There's other "issues" with the idea of Republican Rome as a democracy.

First, the tribal assemblies, which elected a number of Roman officials at the height of the Republic, per that Wiki page, were "cracked and packed," to use a modern political term I know Costello used, to have the urban poor deliberately under-represented. 

Second, the plebian council, also per Wiki, had no political power until the creation of the plebian tribunes. And, that piece also notes that, in the late Republic, Sulla neutered it officially. As noted above, this had already happened de facto; Sulla just made it de jure.

Wiki's long backgrounder piece on the constitution of the Roman Republic provides yet more info.

No, Joe, it was a republic not a democracy, and per the Latin words "res publica" rather than a Latin borrowing at any time of the concept or the actual word "demos" from the Greek, it was called that for a reason.

Update: Costello doubles down with a Fourth of July piece, one that references an Australian journalist here in the States, who in turn cites the book "Roman Republics." 

The thesis of the book is that there was no single Roman Republic. I have ZERO problem with that idea, and kind of indicated that same idea in my original writing here, with the two Wiki links. John Ruehl's building on that? The last of the five "plebian revolts" occurred only halfway through the history of Republican Rome, so he's writing off half of it to prove a point, and he also ignores that the tribal assemblies were "cracked and packed."

And? Still doesn't prove that a republic is a democracy, Joe. Here in the US, Corey Robin — and other US political scientists — talk about a series of American political systems, with us, per Robin, stuck on a not-fully resolved Sixth System right now. 

And? While that idea, or similar ones from other people, show that the US hasn't had a "single" republic itself, none of that proves the US is or was a democracy, either.

Update: Joe apparently doesn't think the murder of either of the Gracchus brothers was political violence, as he claims that started with Sulla, which was nearly 50 years after Tiberius Gracchus became tribune. For more, see this piece on Wiki, which includes the idea of five different republics, not a bad place to start thought, at least.

You're losing me more and more, Joe. 

Ten Commandments in Texas schools — poorly focused first lawsuit

Yes, it's nice that interfaith leaders have sued the state.

And, their personal concerns about the state teaching their kids morality are noted.

But, as a real get-on-and-ride vehicle? 

This ain't it.

Nowhere, from what I can tell from the Trib story, do they raise the REAL issue:

WHOSE Ten Commandments?

Setting aside the definitely different Jewish and Samaritan versions, are we talking

The Catholic / Anglican-Episcopalian / Orthodox / (and some other Christians) version?

The Lutheran version?

The Calvinist / Anabapist version?

This is like trying to shove coerced school prayer into Texas and dueling between a "Jesus, we just want to ..." Baptist prayer and a Catholic asking everybody to pray the rosary.

I didn't need Wiki to tell me any of this, but if you do (and we know the Lege does) here you go.