A skeptical leftist's, or post-capitalist's, or eco-socialist's blog, including skepticism about leftism (and related things under other labels), but even more about other issues of politics. Free of duopoly and minor party ties. Also, a skeptical look at Gnu Atheism, religion, social sciences, more.
Note: Labels can help describe people but should never be used to pin them to an anthill.
As seen at Washington Babylon and other fine establishments
In a 9-8 full court ruling, the Fifth Circuit upheld Texas law about cramming the Ten Commandments into public schools. Contra Kuff, I am actually kind of shocked. Wingnuts they may be otherwise, but the court has in the past generally been decent on First Amendment issues.
This quote:
“It does not tell churches or synagogues or mosques what to believe or how to worship or whom to employ as priests, rabbis, or imams,” according to the ruling. “It punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments, no matter the reason.”
Is bullshit.
First, it DOES tell children in public schools what they should believe. THAT is the definition of establishment of religion.
Slate notes in detail how it's coercive, riffing on the Supreme Court's support for parental rights in various rulings:
If it’s true that parental rights are so important, then the 5th Circuit has to be wrong in upholding the Texas Ten Commandments law. The court tried to downplay this point by saying that it is just a “poster” and therefore lacks any coercive effect. But posters exist in educational settings so that they can educate. This is not a photo of a kitten saying “Believe in yourself!” A reproduction of a major religious text is bound to have an impact on the classroom experience. What happens when the first student asks a question about that large poster on the wall? If the teacher answers in a manner that showcases approval of the Ten Commandments, won’t the student feel pressured to agree? Or what if the teacher tells the student, as the 5th Circuit suggests, to simply ignore the poster? Could the state then punish the teacher for showing “anti-Christian” bias?
It also notes how it defies Supreme Court precedent:
What’s most remarkable about the decision, though, is not its support for theocracy, but its direct defiance of the Supreme Court. In 1980, justices struck down a law virtually identical to Texas’, forbidding states from placing the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. By flouting this precedent, the 5th Circuit effectively went rogue, daring the Supreme Court to check its brazen disobedience.
That said, that was 1980, Slate. The Roberts Court has overridden precedent left and right. Somewhat in light of that, Slate notes:
What’s most remarkable about the decision, though, is not its support for theocracy, but its direct defiance of the Supreme Court. In 1980, justices struck down a law virtually identical to Texas’, forbidding states from placing the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. By flouting this precedent, the 5th Circuit effectively went rogue, daring the Supreme Court to check its brazen disobedience.
You think the Blind Umpire is really that worried? The only way he and other Catholics get concerned is if the Calvinist/Baptist version, barring graven images, is the only version allowed.
Frankly, per Slate's reference to 2022's Kennedy case, the court might now be looking for a reason to explicitly junk Lemon. We shall see.
And, even if SCOTUS overturns, the damage will have been done.
Population
pressure is real, and much of this construction is driven by state and
county decisions Denton cannot fully control. But the city still holds
levers it is not using. It can prioritize sidewalk and trail funding at
the same level of urgency with which it funds road bonds. It can align
development approvals with transit access rather than car dependence.
And it can ensure that its positions on state-level highway expansion
are consistent with its net-zero commitment.
These
choices have concrete costs. Ground-level ozone is already a documented
crisis in this region, and every additional lane mile compounds it. The
Climate Action Plan already identifies the tools needed to change
course. The question is how consistently those tools are applied in
practice. The orange barrels will eventually come down. The question is
whether Denton will use the years of construction ahead to make
different choices, or simply wait for the next plan to also go unread.
There you are.
Living north of Little D, I find the I-35 expansion in Cooke County totally unnecessary not just for today but beyond, and of course, there's limited mass transit up here.
No really and yes literally. I noticed it myself on vacation last month. I thought I was in Grand Staircase-Escalante or Cascade-Siskyou national monuments, which are respectively, for the not knowing, BLM and USFS lands. I knew it had to be grazing leases and not just inholdings, based on the trail I was on, signage and fencings.
I did the google and got that link above, and it's even more disconcerting
As of five years ago, at least, cows were even allowed in wilderness areas of the preserve, which, unlike the two sites above, is a National Park Service unit.
Ridiculous. What's being preserved?
It's like Dear Leader when he expanded Cascade-Siskyou because "sensitive habitat" and never made any effort to cut down on grazing leases.
The issue is that this (under Clinton) and later actions under Obama and Biden are how Democrat presidents pretend to be environmentalists.
That said, this sign:
Shows larger problems with the NPS. What's blacked out? Why? How many years ago? Will the services that have been blacked out ever be fixed? If not, will NPS ever pay for permanent new signs?
When I saw this, I was reminded of a restaurant bleeding money that starts cutting items from the menu but is too cheap to print new menus to reflect that.
And no, this isn't "all Trump's fault." I am sure the black tape blackouts were done more than 15 months ago.
Also, per friend Lyle Lewis, it's not the only NPS unit with grazing leases still active.
Also not Trump's fault, but the fault of both halves of the duopoly in Congress, which refuse to raise federal grazing rates to match that of private land in the West. About 3 percent of all your Merikkkan beef is grazed on federal land of any sort in its life. About 0.3 percent is grazed on (theoretically) protected federal land. In other words, this wouldn't affect the price of your steak at all.
And, I said both halves of the duopoly?
Look at the related issue of mining, where the government consistently refuses to raise rates and fees for hard-rock mining on federal land. For many, many years, the lead opposition to that was Democratic Sen. Harry Reid. I've long said we need to up both.
Then, there's the issue of inholdings.
A lot of NPS units have them, but Mojave is one of the worst. The boundaries of the preserve, as presented on the park's map as shown on the website and printed on the "trifold" slick brochure have little connection to reality. And, most of the inholdings are ranch land. I originally thought that the shit I saw near the Rings Loop trail was due to inholdings, not grazing leases, until I first checked details of how fences ran and knew it couldn't have been an inholding, then did teh Google and got the link above.
And we haven't even touched on all the National Recreation Areas in the NPS, most of which are damned lakes behind damned dams, all of which violates the Organic Act. I've called them out for this before.
That said, this isn't new and isn't limited to Mojave. Carsten Lien's excellent book on the history of Olympic has a fair amount of discussion of the dirtiness of the Park Service in general.
SocraticGadfly talks about "Death Valley Days" — the heart of his recent vacation, not a remake of the 1950s black and white TV oater.
Even if ERCOT is off by a factor of two, a doubling, not even a quadrupling, of electric power demand in just six years would be massively alarming.
Will the Texas Medical Board's sanctioning of three doctors over inadequate care for pregnant women with complications, because the doctors were worried about the state's abortion ban, get either the Texas Lege or TMB to further address the issue next year? Probably not. Will yet more OB/GYN docs either quit practice or else leave the state? Possibly.
Ibogaine clinical trials? Sure, cuz Dannie Goeb, alt-medicine, pseudomedicine and ivermectin in the wingnut world. And, per the story, it's likely a boondoggle.
Mondoweiss says that Israhell is rushing to do more West Bank settlements because an opportunity is closing. I am skeptical of Dems, if they regain Congress, cutting off aid pipelines that much, especially if Trump vetoed any bill they were a part of.
Your Local Epidemiologist expounds on EKGs and women's health, with a story line on The Pitt as a starting point.
The Dallas Observer checks in on Fort Worth ISD as it starts its taken-over journey.
Franklin Strong presents the Book Loving Texans' Guide to the May 2026 Elections, which this time allows for more of a focus on good candidates than on bad ones.
I warned you, even before Charles Perry's plan reached constitutional amendment size.
I warned you after the state admitted it didn't know how much water data centers would use.
Beyond the boondoggle, I also warned you that environmental orgs and the Texas Green Party weren't telling you it was also an environmental disaster in the waiting, and also warned you that High Plains farmers and ranchers like Suzanne Bellsnyder needed to look in the mirror and admit, per the bible, "physician, and rancher, heal thyself."
Well, without even talking about Prop 4, we know Tex-ass' water needs are a lot more pricey than we knew earlier:
Texas communities will need to spend $174 billion in the next 50 years to avert a severe water crisis, a new state analysis revealed Thursday. That’s more than double the $80 billion projected four years ago, when the Texas Water Development Board last passed a state water plan.
Oops.
Per a Trib link, Prop 4 would be a drop in the bucket on that, but the Perrys of the world may see it as an invite to shovel more cash.
As I noted on Shitter, and in comment to a good piece of snark on Substack by friend Lyle Lewis?
Earth Day is the day when pseudoenvironmentalists and environmentalists lite pretend to deeply care about environmental issues.
But, it's true?
Look at Jared Huffman, claiming to be an environmentalist, except when it comes to letting cows continue to shit in Point Reyes. Result? Cows drive away tule elk. Ravens eat plover eggs when they run out of worms in cow shit. Park Service ignores the former and ropes off a section of Drake's Beach as critical nesting habitat for the latter rather than addressing the actual problem.
Per a piece I heard on NPR this morning, asking listeners what they saw as the biggest problem?
For me, No. 1 is the climate crisis. And, we're past "climate change." The Colorado River is drying up and will continue to do so the rest of this century. We're on target for 4°C, maybe 5°C, of increased heat from pre-industrial times within 100 years. That's 7-9°F. That latter faces neoliberal climate change Obamiacs like Michael Mann, perhaps worse at times for the cause than climate change deniers.
That said, the climate change deniers don't help. And, in the western US, that means increased wildfires, like the KNP Complex Fire in Sequoia five years ago:
Or the Dixie Fire blowing up in Lassen the same year. I was there the day it blew up.
No. 2 is the Sixth Mass Extinction. Besides megafauna and lesser fauna, globalization and related issues threatens a lot of flora. So does mass monocrop agriculture. The chemicals behind that threaten many birds.
No. 3, as Lyle talks about in that piece and elsewhere, is "overshoot," the overextraction of vital resources. Beyond petroleum, water is an obvious one. Overusing the Colorado River is a clear example. Another, as I said in calling out Suzanne Bellsnyder over Proposition 4, is groundwater — in her case, the Ogallala Aquifer.
No. 4 is what's behind all of this — neoliberal capitalism. That's the bottom line.
So, with Earth Day now 56 years old, we can celebrate accomplishments, like the Endangered Species Act in the US, while at the same time note failures, such as US politicians of both duopoly parties, not just Republicans, undercutting it and other environmental issues when they get in the way of capitalist economics. We can globally note Dear Leader conspiring with Xi Jinping to keep the Paris climate accords entirely voluntary. And, we can note climate change Obamiac scientists overselling Paris in the past.
Don't be fooled again.
That said, a side note or two, riffing on my Earth Day 2016 piece.
National parks not only can get loved to death, they do. This has gotten worse in our COVID and post-COVID world, abetted not only by Trump slashes to federal nature funding, but death by a thousand paper cuts or stasis from Obama and Biden.
Second, Earth Day was founded about urban environmentalism. The record there since 1970 isn't perfect either. But, to be better? Start at home. In cities and towns, pick up trash. Homeowners, businesses and apartment complex owners? Stop overwatering and overfertilizing lawns. Plant native plants. Stop using petroleum-wasting Amazon so much.
Third, lets note that "wilderness" areas don't stay wilderness without management, and at least since not the development of agriculture, but organized pastoral nomads and even large-scale hunter-gatherers, "natural" environments have been managed by humans. Stop calling American Indians "Roussellian noble savages." It tain't so.
Am I perfect on this? No. I just took a big old jet airplane on vacation, per the Sequoia photo. But, I have a reasonable amount of striving. I boycott a few companies over environmental issues, just like others over Israel. I fight the temptation to use artificial intelligence, and its electricity consumption, beyond already being here on the Net. I stay attuned to local nature.
I laughed, and cringed a bit as well, when the Texas Democratic Party executive committee elected ConservaDem Kendall Scudder as party chairman a year ago.
After that, I mocked the Texas Observer for uncritically fellating him, an issue made worse by editor-in-chief Gus Bova personally doing the fellatio.
I laughed more, while doing the critical thinking Bova didn't, when Kendall pissed off a fair amount of TDP leadership and rank and file with his mockable plans to move the party headquarters out of Austin. I'll add now that this smacks of something like Trump's plans for Interior.
Now? Per the Trib, we're at the point of the header. Three dozen state Dems want him to not run for re-election.
The letter, signed by a substantial contingent of party insiders,
reflects a persistent level of discontent among Texas Democrats after
changes made by Scudder, including decentralizing the party’s base from
Austin and overhauling staff positions, threw the party into a state of upheaval last fall.
That said, party insiders, such as Executive Director Terri Burk and finance head Vlator Smith, have pushed back hard. And, per the dissidents, even if he didn't run again, you're stuck with him for the almost three years remaining on his current term. Have fun.
Also have to love Kuff taking a full pass on this. (A week later, he still has.)
The Observer talks about
James Talarico's rise starting with his time in Teach for America,
above all noting that it gave him an early and strong networking system.
The piece is also honest about some of the big money that has helped
TFA and its political leadership spinoff, and their support for charter
schools.
TFA’s recruitment, with its many rounds of
interviews and an ostensible audition, promises to field an annual crop
of future leaders in education. For most participants, their plans
involve this short stint in the classroom before heading off to work in
law, campus administration, policymaking, business, or the sprawling
tentacles of the nonprofit industrial complex. TFA is less a teacher
preparation program than it is a finishing school for future
decision-makers in the multilayered technocracy of education policy, one
dominated by elites who have historically boosted charter-school
expansion. I am a rarity in that I still teach in the city and campus
where I did my TFA stint.
The big names include
Netflix' Reed Hastings and LinkedIn's Reed Hoffman, Walton family heirs
and former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Read the whole thing, and
realize that, if elected, while Talarico will be an agent of change from
John Cornyn, he will NOT be an agent of change from standard neoliberal
Democracy.
This article is based in fair part on an interview that Never Trumper Conway, now running for Congress as a Democrat for Congress, had with the New Republic, and in part on the latest development of my thoughts on the general stupidity of both Never Trumps and Blue MAGA about the 25th Amendment.
Conway's stupidity is reflected in the extended subhed for the story:
Conway, the former GOPer turned Trump critic who’s running for Congress as a Democrat, lays out his case that Republicans will eventually have no choice but to remove the president before his term ends.
Sure they'll have choices, George. That starts with the remaining portion of the part continuing to cower in fear, or however you phrase it.
Let's do simple math.
For the next Congress, after the midterms, to remove President Donald J. Trump from office by the one means that is a Congressional prerogative — impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate — would require one-sixth (approximately) of Republicans in the Senate to vote aye for conviction. (Impeachment itself needs a simple majority.) Trump could launch a tactical nuke at Iran and that wouldn't happen.
Rethuglicans talking anonymously to Politico is not the same as Rethuglicans casting a record vote, and thinking that, even if they've done good head-counting on paper, an ultimate vote like this is actual nut-cutting, not more academic head-counting.
Also, re the Anon Y. Mice talking to Politico, with summer vacations coming soon and other items, getting the creaky wheels of Congress to go through and complete the whole process before the November election day? Not happening. (That said, the Politico piece, linked by the TNR, is general bitching; not one of the Mice, let alone a named Trump flunky, mentions actually getting rid of him.)
Conway then raises Option B:
And you see it also in a lot of the Republican influencers—the Megyn Kellys, the Joe Rogans, and the Tucker Carlsons of the world. They’re basically talking about the 25th Amendment now.
Well, as someone who swatted that down, repeatedly, during Trump's first term, let's look at the actual amendment (Wiki link) again.
The first two sections are about the Veep explicitly becoming president, then the process to get a new Veep, so not relevant here. The third is about a president declaring himself temporarily constrained; it's been invoked more than once during serious presidential medical procedures.
So, to the "nut graf" of Section 4? In reality, it's more convoluted than most people think, and to the degree Congress might have to become involved, has higher hurdles than impeachment and trial.
Let's dig in:
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department [sic][note 2][7] or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
OK, several things.
One, on the political side, unless Trump clearly has a memory-loss dementia, does Bagger Vance have the balls to initiate this process. You know better than that, and Conway should know better; if he doesn't, he has less business being in Congress than Eric Swallowell. (sic)
Basically, in anything short of a clear memory-loss type dementia, or a clear brain injury similar in level to JFK's but with a president still living, the 25th Amendment essentially requires a coup d'etat against the president by the vice president, per the first paragraph.
Per the first half of the second paragraph, it requires them to hold their own feet to the fire against an enraged president.
And should that play out, beyond the impeachment process, there's the higher hurdle of how a veep and fellow plotters must convince two thirds of BOTH houses of Congress they're right.
And, that process plays out over 21 days, plenty of time for plenty of machinations.
Behind all this, and deliberately left vague in the framing of the amendment, what constitutes being "unable to discharge the powers and duties of [the] office," or "inability"?
Back to Conway:
They have a guy who—they’ve overlooked his mental disorders in the past, dismissed them. They’ve overlooked his lies, they’ve overlooked his depravity. They’ve overlooked the fact that he is basically an adjudicated sexual abuser, that he’s a convicted criminal. They overlook these things because it served their purposes. It no longer serves their purposes.
None of those are "inability." You, and some Anon Y. Mice in the GOP, and plenty of Blue MAGA, might not like HOW Trump is "discharging," but that's not the same as "inability."
Left unaddressed is what if a president fights his way back into power, but then looks worse? There's nothing to stop a veep, with Cabinet backing, to go down this road again. And, there's nothing to stop a president from fighting it again.
I'll quote more Conway, the next paragraph after the previous quote, which ties to that, and other political issues:
And in terms of what happens in the U.S. Senate—which we can get back to, and why that matters, of course—the Senate is full of cowards. The Republican senators are cowards and they’ve been afraid of Trump.
Yeah, one-sixth of the Senate (plus one-sixth of the House, which Conway doesn't mention and which shows his ignorance of the actual 25th Amendment) ain't doing that.
I modify that. Later in the piece, Conway indicates his knowledge:
We need to, basically, I think we need to possibly even put criminal sanctions in place for people who refuse to spend the money in accordance with Congress’s will. And there’s also—I talked about this even before I launched the campaign—we need to create that advisory body to act as the judge of whether the president is fit to continue in office, and replace the cabinet.
Yeah. The Washington solution — Congress punting responsibility to a committee, in hopes the problem goes away or resolves itself in 21 days. At the same time, there's more ignorance. Such a body ONLY gets a bite at the apple of the president, not the cabinet, and only comes into play when the veep gets a majority of the cabinet to tell Congress the president isn't fit, if that's what Conway meant. If it just means replacing the cabinet as who makes the call? It still requires the veep to start the process.
Note that "AND" word at the start of Section 4 carefully. Section 4 of the 25th Amendment is inoperable without the participation of the sitting vice president.
And, if you think Bagger Vance has the balls for that? You're really a fucking idiot.
Finally, as for Conway and other Never Trumpers, whether still Republican or now ex-Republican? No sympathy. Trump was a serial liar, a racist, a thug with Mafia ties and a publicly admitted sexual predator before he was elected the first time.
==
The 25th Amendment is limited in another way, directly connected to the JFK assassination that inspired it, and that itself could inspire some evil genius to do particular acts. Say that, in Dallas 1963, Oswald's first shots are pretty much as they happened, but the third shot is, say, 1 cm higher. Jack Kennedy survives but is pretty much brain dead. Say that Oswald gets off a fourth shot, or even fourth and fifth, and then takes out LBJ in his car, and he's stone cold dead.
There IS NO Veep to start the 25th Amendment process, and a brain-dead president is unable to nominate one.
In short, while the 25th Amendment is better than nothing, it's not that good.
It also, for people who worship at either the originalist or liberal originalist, King James Version or New King James Version, of the Constitution of the United States, shows the structural failure of the strong-presidential system of government, at least in the US. (France has an impeachment process similar to the US, but a Google says nothing like a 25th Amendment. That said, like the 25th, it involves a two-thirds vote of BOTH Assembly and Senate, and per Le Monde, is at least as convoluted as the 25th.)
In the UK? If similar were happening? Tories would be looking for a no-confidence vote and trying to round up sufficient Labor, Lib Dems and others in the Commons for a simple majority vote.
Both Bagger Vance and a Catholic priest flunky of Bari Weiss, Gerald Murray, think they know more about the theology of just war and related issues than does Pope Leo XIV.
Bagger Vance is of course fine with authoritarian religious hierarchy as long as its headed by AI Jeebus, Donald Jesus Trump.
“I think it's very, very important for the Pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” Vance said.
There you are. If you can't teach from The Book of Armaments, Chapter 5, about counting to three before lobbing a Holy MOAB of the Pentagon at Tehran:
You need to shut up, Leo.
Jokes about AI Jeebus aside, that IS where we're at.
Trump lying, which he does as soon as he wakes up, and claiming he thought that was a doctor.
As I said when first posting the link, Vance doesn't even have the excuse of dementia.
He then gets worse, with a laughable self-own:
Vance said the pontiff should be as careful talking about theology as the vice president is when talking about public policy.
Really? You're as careful about that as you would be about not checking wind direction before peeing outdoors.
And, beyond Bagger, other elected Rethuglicans, by not calling the piece blasphemy, enable him:
"I know he's trying to be funny, but it was a foolish post," said GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who has been a critic of some of the president's policies. "I saw a lot of Republicans commenting in it last night. Some saying he's just trolling, and others saying it's anti-Christian. When you divide your own party it is self destructive. To me it was a gaudy and juvenile post."
And, yes, Religious Right wingnuts, if they were true to theology (back to YOU, Bagger) would call Trump's AI Jeebus for the blasphemy it is.
One person actually did:
"The media is paying attention to podcastistan breaking with Trump over Iran," conservative podcaster Erick Erickson wrote on X. "What they really should be paying attention to are the Christian Trump supporters who have stood with him through Iran, who are waking up to his blasphemy."
There you are.
So, re Bagger, if Satanyahu is the actual Satan of Tel Aviv, then Bagger is the Satan whisperer in Trump's ear, and of course Trump is not telling either one of them to get behind him.
Now, off to Fr. Murray, himself no Brother Maynard.
Eliminating a nuclear threat from a determined enemy is a noble reason to make war.
He doubles down shortly before the paywall:
The United States and Israel undertook the attack on Iran principally to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.
Anybody who knows the truth about Iran knows that it has never actually sought a nuclear weapon. Anybody who knows the truth of the current situation knows that Iran avowed that in the negotiations before Trump started the Iran war at the behest of Satanyahu.
Even if Iran has one-half metric ton of 60-percent enriched uranium, and even if it would not take that much more work to enrich to 90 percent, you still have to convert that uranium hexafluoride to metal. You have to have, even for a crude U-235 "gun" bomb, the assembly mechanism. You have to have a bomb big enough and an airplane big enough, if you're doing that old method, or a missile big enough, for delivery.
Israel, on the other hand, already 20 years ago had missiles that could deliver a nuclear warhead anywhere in the Middle East. And, that's from a US government-funded organization that writes the bare bones about Israel, but attacked Iraq at the run-up to the Iraq war, and now Iran.
As for why Iran has enriched to the 60-percent mark? The US-Israel dynamic duo brought this on.
Leo is probably thinking something along the lines of "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest," if Fr. Murray is even on his radar screen.
This is Murray's first piece for Bari Weiss's Zionists, but his profile page notes he's already a commentater for Fox News. He's also a commentator for EWTN, which Pope Francis accused of bad-mouthing him. For the unfamiliar, Eternal Word Television Network is the Catholic equivalent of a conservative evangelical, but not fundamentalist, Protestant television network.
But party leaders say once they’re back home, the conversation shifts dramatically. In interviews, many state party chairs, candidates and elected officials did not name AIPAC or Israel funding as a top-three concern they’re hearing from rank-and-file voters. Instead, it’s the nuts and bolts of the economy that are weighing down their constituencies, they say, with the cost of housing and food and the availability of health care all top of mind.
Really? Inflation isn't caused in part by high gas prices caused by a war against Iran waged at the instigation of Israel? And, at least part of your grassroots constituents know that.
I mean, later on, the story even directly calls out national Democraps' lie by omission:
During recent focus groups observed by NBC News (produced by Syracuse University and the research firms Engagious and Sago), Democrats in Michigan and Maine voiced significant criticism of Israel’s government around its conduct in the war with Hamas in Gaza, with a handful calling Israel’s actions “genocide.”
The lies were called out more explicitly by one of their own Congresscritters, for doorknob's sake! THIS:
Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., said she polled her own district after the contentious March primary, and her internal survey showed 80% of respondents had heard of AIPAC. “It’s higher than some members of Congress’ name ID in their own districts,” she said.
Ramirez, of Chicago, said the average voter in her district is mostly concerned about the cost of gas and groceries as well as immigration enforcement overreach. But the “more informed voter,” she said, is agitating against any Democratic alliance with AIPAC. She said DNC leaders would be wise to reconsider how its handling the issue, particularly as it attempts to cultivate a younger generation of leaders.
Denial is a river that doesn't just flow through 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I guess. Neither is peeing on someone's leg and telling them it's raining.
It's called gaslighting, like that by the Democratic Majority for Israel that I told to fuck off on Substack:
“We’re pleased that the DNC Rules Committee rejected a set of divisive, anti-Israel resolutions. These measures would be a gift to Republicans, would further fracture our party, and do nothing to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to peace," Democratic Majority for Israel president and CEO Brian Romick said in a statement. "The DNC and party advocates need to keep focus where it belongs — on building a united Democratic Party that can win back Congress this November.”
It's "divisive" because Zionist genocidalists make it so while appealing to duopoly tribalism.
There you are. And, it's why I said "duopoly exit" on Substack while telling Romick et al to fuck off.
Not the TV show, nor the 20 Mule Team brand of borax that sponsored it, but we'll tie that in soon enough.
I got two and a half days of recent spring vacation time crammed into Death Valley. It was the first time I had been there in a decade. That trip, I think, had just two days even. And, before that, although some part of my mind says I had a brief visit, photo albums show the last visit before that was three days in 2006.
It was time. It was more than time.
Dayum, I shot a LOT of photos there and created a LOT of small albums.
And, I shot a decent amount of video, too.
I think I finally really realized how much I had missed not being there for a full decade on Day 3 of my visit, when I got to Keane Wonder Mine and saw a pair of chuckwallas getting ready to do the "muskrat love." I'd seen chuckwallas, or a lone male, once before, 20 years ago — at Keane Wonder Mine.
Oh, my god.
With that, let's dig in, with albums in general order, and a pullout picture from some of them to whet your appetite.
Badwater Day 1. I came in from Pahrump, Nevada, in part to squeeze in every molecule I could of Nevada-priced gas. The side benefit was coming in to Badwater quicker this way, with one of the lovely shots that I like shooting where a highway invites you into the scene.
I had no idea that the reincarnation of the prehistoric Lake Manly was still in place, but there it was. Heaven or nearly so; one of those "I've seen this and can die in peace moments" while embracing the heat, at about 105.5°F, or 41.5°C at 3:30-4 p.m., as the massive heat wave that had started a week earlier was not dissipating yet.
I was reminded of ice floes at salt crystals emerged from the drying, evaporating lake. The stylized photo shows that.
Day 2 started in Mosaic Canyon. I got there early in the morning to get strong colors when the sun was still largely below the canyon rim. One close-up photo in the album will show the actual mosaic nature.
Salt Creek to see desert pupfish. Here's one of those critters:
While dodging deerfly-like biting flies, I also saw a birding lifer, a pipit. Photos of it and the contrast of Salt Creek, saltier than the ocean, with the bits of green that grow along it, are in the album.
Next on the agenda? Harmony Borax Works, complete with "20 mule team" wagons and the borax refining ruins. The photo shows it with part of Mustard Canyon's colors in the background.
In the album, I've got two descriptor signs giving you the lay of the land.
If that's not enough, here's a narrative video:
And, after that? It was off to the West Side Road, on the west side of Badwater Basin.
It's amazing how the various salts can color the water, like various chemical compounds can color the rocks and sand in "painted desert" fashion. Here's the album.
Then, back to Badwater itself, looking for different angles than Day 1. Here's the results.
It was even hotter than the day before?
"How hot was it?" per old Tonight Show joke?
This:
At the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, official National Weather Service measurement, 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 25.
To cool off? Climb to nearly 6,000 feet, or 1,800 meters, of elevation, to Dante's View, where I had never been before. I got a very good sunset — not quite great, because of lack of clouds — with a high-level view of Lake Manly:
And, it was 30 degrees F cooler. And windy, windy, as the video will attest.
Getting into the spirit of desert photography, I decided to start the morning going out to the original well at Death Valley once enough Anglos started setting there. The well was eventually marked with a stovepipe, so travelers would find it and it wouldn't be hidden by blowing sand. Stovepipe well? Yes, that's now Stovepipe Wells village.
Next, after some putzing around in the area around the Hells Gate highway intersection, it was off to the Keene Wonder Mine. God, what a blast. Second time in my life to see chuckwallas. First time? Solo male 20 years ago, right on this spot, after hiking up the mountainside to the top of the ore tramway. I think at this point I was realizing just how much I'd missed Death Valley in not being here in a decade.
And, here's a male-female pair getting ready to do the muskrat love:
Then, off to Titus Canyon. To hike, not drive through by car. This semi-slot canyon is an iconic place within Death Valley. One photo will show you why:
From here, it's a mad dash back out of the park to the east, to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
Why? Well, the possibility of seeking spring migratory waterfowl, though birding there, even with allowances for cramming in just 90 minutes or a little more of pre-sunset time, wasn't that good.
But, also to see this:
As in, a very, very rare Amargosa pupfish. Given low light conditions and other things, not bad.
The full album has information and links on the nuttery that led to this becoming an NWR.
==
How did I deal with the heat, some may wonder? That's especially since I'm not 21 or even 41 any more.
First, on my first and second days, I did shorter hiking, especially from noon-5 pm, than on Day 3. Titus Canyon, especially in the shade, was probably 2.5 miles/4 km or a bit more round trip. And, after 5 p.m. day 3, at the wildlife refuge, I did at least that much.
I did feel a touch slightly woozy, to be honest, late afternoon of Day 2; that was when hiking the Natural Bridge trail, if but briefly, then getting out and doing short hiking for better photo angles in a brief album of Artists Palette. It was as much sitting in a vehicle (even with air conditioning generally turned off) but then getting up from a sitting position, getting outside into that heat, and starting to move. (I still at times, at a height of 6-5 or 1.95 meters, have postural hypotension and the heat surely aggravates that whenever I have it.) So, I would stop for a minute and take an extra slug of water before moving on. Ten years ago, and certainly 20, I might have tried to do more — while presumably having some sense of pacing still.
Now, I'll use the climate of Death Valley to transition into a bit about its natural history and geology.
Other than the evaporative humidity of Lake Manly, especially at these temperatures, Death Valley is not just dry, it's VERY dry. In addition to fame for often being the hottest point on the planet, and containing the lowest spot in North America, it's there with the Atacama Desert, Saudi Arabia's Empty Quarter and a couple of other spots for driest place, going by relative humidity. (As Lake Manly shows, it does get a full 2 inches/50 mm of rain per year on average even at Badwater.)
The love of Death Valley is in large part the love of geology. And, Death Valley is one of the best places in the world to look at so many different gnarly metamorphic rocks!
That geology is also why it's so dry. Four mountain ranges in all stand between the actual valley and the Pacific Ocean to the west. In the main Sierra Nevada, Mount Whitney at 14,494 feet, or 4418 meters, is about 55 miles or so due west of Badwater. The Panamint Mountains, the easternmost of the four? Telescope Peak (still snowcapped at top in photo and video from Badwater Day 2) is 11,043 feet, or 3366 meters, and only 15 miles, or 25 km, west of Badwater Basin.
On the mountains? The highest ones on the east side, like that Dante's View or higher, can get up to 6500 feet or 2000 meters. So, a pressure system that would come in from the east can't bring much rain either.
On the geology, it's an extreme example of the entire "Basin and Range province," all slip-strike type faulting, then collapses on fault lines, in the period between the formation of the Rocky Mountains and that of the Sierra Nevada. Beyond embracing the general existential nature, it's just a fascinating place to stare at rocks in all sorts of different light levels.
So, on an unseasonable 110F in late March, or a semi-normal 125F in July? Your relative humidity will not just be below 20 percent. It will probably be below 15 percent, and maybe down to a flat 10 percent.
And that, combined with no shade from no trees, is how an extreme desert can kill. You lose water not just from perspiration, but respiration out your lungs.
It's also why the third wagon on the borax train was a water wagon. Even with mules' conservativism with water versus horses, you needed to haul that much for them, plus the people driving the wagon.
As for the ruggedness of the rock in general, California has some other good sites for that, like Point Reyes, but nothing compares overall to Death Valley. Big Bend here in Texas is the one other larger-scale landscape that's halfway in the same ballpark.
Get an overview of the now-open Palo Pinto Mountains State Park.
Yes, it's too bad the NM Lege gets nothing more than a per diem. But also yes, paying NM Legiscritters $64K a year as though they were working a serious full-time job is laughable. I hope voters there reject that in November.
Elmo Musk wants part of a national wildlife refuge; the exchange would also include a bit of the Palmito Battlefield National Historic Site. Sadly, the Barbed Wire, which linked to that story, was too late; comment period expired March 31.
For 53 state House Democrats, a question: Was it worth it being fined more than $8K each for your walkout last summer? Bonus question for those of you talking about not paying: Will it be worth it to have your member budget cut 30 percent next year, at least if you can't prove Dannie Goeb right?
The State Board of Ed still wants to force public school kids to read the bible, and yeah, with background of Kelly Hancock being sued over vouchers, this is a First Amendment suit waiting to happen.
Will pigs fly? The CCA overturned a death sentence.
This is an update and expansion on updates to my piece last week, the one about Trump TACOing on his planned war crimes against Iran.
With the breakdown of talks, Trump says he will blockade Hormuz, now underway, and based that threat on a lie, the lie that Iran had "promised" to
reopen it. Will this bring him into a direct collision with China? That
might just be called a half-lie, given Iran's and the United States'
differing interpretations of what was agreed to before the talks in
Islamabad.
Claiming other states will help with the blockade is an even
bigger, and fuller, lie, though. It's one that in Britain, Der Starmer has already rejected.
And, did two US vessels already sail
through, early Sunday time in Iran, per the story
on the talks failing? I kind o doubt that one, too, especially since the claim comes from Trump's Zionist flunky in the media, Barak Ravid. Then there's the
lie by implication that this blockade would happen immediately, when in
reality, Trump admitted Sunday morning US time to Maria Bartiromo that it wasn't so.
Later Sunday, Trump them said it wasn't the Strait, just Iranian ports that would be blockaded. Good luck with even that.
In an April 13 piece,
Mearsheimer says that not only with the blockade not work physically in
the way Trump claims, but that economically, it will actually
backfire.
First of all, if Washington establishmentarians like the idea, there must be something seriously wrong with it
Bingo.
The piece also reminds us, which the normal Nat-sec Nutsacks™ like Dennis Ross, quoted, don't, that this itself illegal under international law. Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations, with his international control idea for the strait, is wanting to further violate international law.
==
A major part of the breakdown? Iran claims that Israel's newest strikes on Lebanon are a violation, per this AP story.
Therefore, it has closed Hormuz again. It has also said that any
reopening will be under the management of its military. That said, Trump
and "Glory be to Satan" Pete Hegseth claim Lebanon is not part of any
cease-fire. Meanwhile, Trump and Karoline Unchristian Leavitt (she
refuses to adopt her husband's surname like a good submissive married
Christian woman) appear to disagree on what to think about Iran's
earlier 10-point proposal.
THAT then said, Iran's Supreme National
Security Council is dreaming if it thinks the US has agreed to
compensate it for war damages.
So, per Mearsheimer, myself and
many others, yes, Trump has his ass in a crack. But, not necessarily as
deep a crack as Iran thinks.
==
Second, via The Dissident, negative views of Israel in the US have increased since the start of the war, per Pew Research. A big takeaway? Probably in part from the "manosphere," 57 percent of Republicans 18-49 now have negative views of Israel.
Also via The Dissident, Daniel Levy said on Democracy Now
that Trump must be made of less serious stuff than previous presidents,
being dragged into this war by Netanyahu. Per Hegseth probably being
behind the "glory be to god" of Trump's one Lies Social blast, how much
did Bibi triangulate off him?
Breaking off talks, and lying about nuclear weapons being the cause of the Iran war, and of the end of talks, show that Trump remains Satanyahu's sock puppet.
==
Will Trump go beyond a blockade, as in boots on the ground?
Not unless he's a bigger idiot than he has shown himself to be, even for himself.
Via Jeff St. Clair's installment last week of his Friday Roaming Charges, climate change, despite being denied by Trump, may be another reason he wants an early exit from the Iran War:
And,
US troops would be weighted down with much more kit than their Iranian
counterparts. In addition, how would US machinery like the craptacular,
sucktacular F-35 perform in these conditions?
That said, while the Pentagon may be thinking of this, would this actually sway Trump?
==
Also, per Jeff, how
are Conservative Cafeteria Catholics in the US accepting, or rejecting,
Pope Leo XIV's statements on the war to date, including, though not by name, the callout of the likes of Hegseth and also Trump's "Glory be to god"? His latest callout includes "the idolatry of the self." Gee, who is THAT about? Yes, per the unChristian Karoline Levitt, US Catholics broke for Trump in 2024, but not by a huge margin, and I suspect he's underwater on them today.
Since then, Trump has attacked Leo, claiming he's "soft on crime" (really? other than past financial crimes, what crimes are there in the Vatican?) and also once again lying about how the war on Iran is about nuclear weapons.
==
CNN says China is going to supply air defense systems to Iran. I told you who benefited from the two weeks, didn't I, in that original story? That said, Chinese Foreign Ministry spox Guo Jiakun says that's totally untrue. If they're laundered through third parties, per the next graf?
Specifically,
if true, it's MANPAD shoulder-launched missiles like the one that shot
down the F-15. In further shades of Afghanistan, US intelligence claims
the sales will be laundered through third-party countries.
Per the Responsible Statecraft piece above? Would China really escort its own tankers with the Chinese Navy? Boy, I'd find that hard to believe. That said, RS notes that Trump has an already-delayed meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping set for early May. Delaying it again would be a spicy Szechuan TACO.
That's of course Lite Guv Dan Patrick, that Dannie Goeb.
Yours truly's take on Goeb's lament, at the Trib?
I think this is a mix of trying to low-key kneecap Kenny Boy Paxton
before the primary runoff with Big John Cornyn, shaking the money trees
for yet more moolah, and real worry, especially should Paxton prevail.
First, he's speaking specifically about the Texas Huose, meaning that this is a callout to Speaker Dustin Burrows. Remember that Goeb is quick with a side-eye, followed by being quick with a shiv.
Second, this is all contingent on whether or not the loser of the Senate runoff endorses the winner.
It's not clear how much Goeb is worried about Paxton as standard-bearer should he win and Big John endorse. BUT? Per point the first, it's a side-eye to Kenny Boy should he win, with endorsement, and a shiv should he lose and not endorse.
So, pre-runoff result, it's 20 percent actual worry, 30 percent shaking the money tree and 50 percent the rest. Don't be fooled into thinking Danny Boy is that alarmist.
Two snapshots, which I will explain in more detail, in all likelihood, over at Substack.
First, the major drought that hit the Colorado River basin from the start of the year on, if not already late last year, was massively exacerbated, in terms of snow water, by the major heat-up in March.
As a result? The Upper Colorado is down to just 25 percent of its median normal on snowpack water equivalent. For people unfamiliar with what this means, normally, there's snow melting in the upper Rockies in May and June that's filling the river, and more importantly, the river's damned lakes behind its damned dams, above all Lake Powell behind Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam.
There will be little to no such snow this year. What snow is currently left will probably not be bulked up by any major new snowfall before the end of this month. The snow still left was already heated up, as was the surrounding ground, now snow-bare, and therefore it will melt off earlier.
This is going to be problematic, especially for Powell.
How problematic?
EVERY dam has one red-line point that even a few non-Westerners may have heard of: Dead pool, also the title of a book by James Powell about Lake Powell. That's the point where what's left of water in a damned lake is below the outlet holes in a dam. Short of drilling new holes, that means what you have is something that's in the process of becoming a big silty mud puddle, absent major new water input.
Hydroelectric dams have a second red-line point. That's called "power pool."
That's where water in a lake falls below the top of penstock openings in a dam — the penstocks that feed turbines that generate electricity. This is problematic in two ways. One is the loss of electricity itself. The second is that the penstocks must be monitored for things like cavitation, should something like a major flash flood hit the lake and its drainage area and threaten to send lots of water through air-open feedways. Cavitation is what happened to Glen Canyon Dam's emergency water feed holes in the early 1980s when it had no choice but to draw down water as rapidly as possible. Marc Reisner discussed that in "Cadillac Desert."
That leads to our second issue.
Per BuRec, the old Bureau of Reclamation itself, there's a good chance Powell hits power pool by this August, even as the current Colorado River Compact ends later this year and the squabbling over renewal is only heating up. For government bureaucrats to issue a worry this openly pessimistic is huge.
In March, before the big heat-up, BuRec said Powell might hit power pool
by this December. With that heat-up, it's advanced that to August.
Before the Compact expired and also, for Phoenicians of Aridzona, before
the summer expires. That means no more cheap electricity for AC in 105
or 110 F heat.
Per the story, they have two main options. First is opening the gates at Flaming Gorge Dam on the Green River, the Colorado's main tributary, as much as possible. Flaming Gorge Reservoir is in northeast Utah and backs into southwest Wyoming. Both states oppose maximum drawdown but probably have little choice. Second is cutting the release of water out of Powell to Mead to the minimum allowable.
But outside agencies say even that won't be enough:
“Those two tools taken together at those levels are not sufficient to prevent Lake Powell from going below 3,500, according to these most recent forecasts,” said Anne Castle, a senior fellow at the University of Colorado’s Getches-Wilkinson Center.
There you are.
Also, at a water height still slightly above power pool, the story notes, damage to the dam is possible.
For more on power pool and dead pool, complete with graphics, go here.
BuRec promises another update later this month and you'll get more from me.
Longer term? The "panic button" has always been that one of the two dams has to die, and per private entities like Glen Canyon Institute, Glen Canyon Dam has always been the preferred option in the big picture, though the option vociferously opposed in Aridzona.
Now, per BuRec, Congress has technically said no to that idea.
Because of the many significant benefits provided by Lake Powell, Congress continues to include a direct prohibition concerning any planning actions or expenditure of public funds related to consideration or actions toward draining Lake Powell. Former Reclamation Commissioner, John W. Keys III said, "Previous administrations of both political parties, as well as the U.S. Congress, have said that Glen Canyon Dam is here to stay because it is serving millions of people in the Southwestern United States. Congress, through the passage of the Grand Canyon Protection Act of 1992, clearly stated that the dam and reservoir have a place in the tapestry of the country." Reclamation is committed to operating Glen Canyon Dam in accordance with the Law of the River and all applicable environmental laws.
But, not all of Congress nor all of Trump's Norman Vincent Peale can get rid of this reality.
On electric juice, about all of Glen Canyon Dam's goes to Aridzona, while Mead's generally goes to California and Nevada. That Glen Canyon juice not only runs the AC in Phoenix, but pushes Central Arizona Project water uphill from the lower Colorado to farms in southern Arizona, and cities in greater Phoenix and Tucson.
BuRec's apparent pessimism is itself a shocker. Per another story from the Salt Lake Trib, the bureau usually pulls its punches on Colorado River water supply issues.
If you live there, like my sis and brother-in-law, really, you should be moving. Really really, you should already have moved.
Saving black lace cactus is nice; can't anybody involved with that stop the dirty coal lignite mining that threatens them as well? And, why can't people also devote this attention to the dunes sagebrush lizard?
Goodbye to Houston meteorologist Matt Lanza, Robin to Eric Berger's Batman, and goodbye to your love for an Ike Dike that won't do everything you claim.
The Observer has a story about past, present and future of renewable energy in Texas, and doesn't discuss whether or not any of the anti-renewables people quoted in the story, or others, are overgrazing their land right now, or will be in the future with ongoing climate change. Just another failure from a magazine that often punches sideways.
Per the Dissident Monday, following up on his Sunday piece, Trump's "48 hours or else" was his second in two weeks to Iran.
And, the "or else" didn't happen the first time. So that's why Iran didn't budge the second time.
Krugman claimed Saturday that Trump wouldn't TACO. Yeah, Paul, but he already did. Even if Hegseth was behind his "Glory be to god," Trump could still TACO.
Iran? Yes, the Strait of Hormuz gets opened — but only if you pay a toll, whether to Iran or Oman. (How much Iran will crowd Oman, and related factors, remains to be seen.)
Klipp said, a couple of hours before the deadline, that Trump was afraid. Whether that or other things, I don't know.
The bigger picture?
China is laughing all the way to the bank, or all the way to the electric recharging station, as Trump gets ever more stupid and mendacious over Iran. Of course, like the US looking at Europe after World War II, China may not want the US economy to go TOO much into the crapper.
They should be. Iran shot down that F-15 US plane with a shoulder-fired missile.
WHAT?
Like we gave the Afghan mujahideen 40 years ago?
Damn we're idiots.
Update, April 8: Iran claims that Israel's newest strikes on Lebanon are a violation, per this AP story. Therefore, it has closed Hormuz again. It has also said that any reopening will be under the management of its military. That said, Trump and "Glory be to Satan" Pete Hegseth claim Lebanon is not part of any cease-fire. Meanwhile, Trump and Karoline Unchristian Leavitt (she refuses to adopt her husband's surname like a good submissive married Christian woman) appear to disagree on what to think about Iran's earlier 10-point proposal.
THAT then said, Iran's Supreme National Security Council is dreaming if it thinks the US has agreed to compensate it for war damages.
So, per Mearsheimer, myself and many others, yes, Trump has his ass in a crack. But, not necessarily as deep a crack as Iran thinks.
Second, via The Dissident, negative views of Israel in the US have increased since the start of the war, per Pew Research. A big takeaway? Probably in part from the "manosphere," 57 percent of Republicans 18-49 now have negative views of Israel.
Also via The Dissident, Daniel Levy said on Democracy Now that Trump must be made of less serious stuff than previous presidents, being dragged into this war by Netanyahu. Per Hegseth probably being behind the "glory be to god" of Trump's one Lies Social blast, how much did Bibi triangulate off him?
==
Update, April 10: Via Jeff St. Clair's installment this week of his Friday Roaming Charges, climate change, despite being denied by Trump, may be another reason he wants an early exit from the Iran War:
And, US troops would be weighted down with much more kit than their Iranian counterparts. In addition, how would US machinery like the craptacular, sucktacular F-35 perform in these conditions?
Also, per Jeff, how are Conservative Cafeteria Catholics in the US accepting, or rejecting, Pope Leo XIV's statements on the war to date?
==
Update, April 11: CNN says China is going to supply air defense systems to Iran. I told you who benefited from the two weeks, didn't I?
Specifically, if true, it's MANPAD shoulder-launched missiles like the one that shot down the F-15. In further shades of Afghanistan, US intelligence claims the sales will be laundered through third-party countries.
==
Update, April 12: Trump says he will blockade Hormuz, and based that threat on a lie, the lie that Iran had "promised" to reopen it. Will this bring him into a direct collision with China? That might just be called a half-lie, given Iran's and the United States' differing interpretations of what was agreed to before the talks in Islamabad. Claiming other states will help with the blockade is an even bigger, and fuller, lie, though. And, did two US vessels already sail through, early Sunday time in Iran, per the story on the talks failing? I kind o doubt that one, too. Then there's the lie by implication that this blockade would happen immediately, when in reality, Trump admitted Sunday morning US time to Maria Bartiromo that it ain't so.
