Texas Progessives talk food and more

Off the Kuff points to CD23 as both an underrated pickup opportunity and a possible barometer of Democrats' statewide fortunes

  SocraticGadfly talks about the Cesar Chavez bombshell and why it didn't totally surprise him.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project reported how far-right Republican Councilmember Twila Carter sent the boss of Houston's police union to stand next to him, because he was taking pictures of public figures in a public place. It was just so stupid. And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

 The Texas Observer looks at the influencer factor in the Democratic primary

 Your Local Epidemiologist celebrates the legal victory for vaccines.

The Dallas Observer reported on a local public telehealth initiative that went wrong.

Texas Public Opinion Research announced its new project to test policy proposals.

The Barbed Wire tracks a number of Texas LGBTQ+ businesses that have disappeared.

Science news roundup — psychopathy and more

Is psychopathy — as used as a psychological personality disorder — a "zombie idea," one that won't die despite plenty of research, either "positive" contradicting the idea, or "negative," not returning supporting empirical evidence," showing that it doesn't hold water? Aeon magazine says yes. 

Global warming may actually be speeding up

No sugarcoating this reporting from Popular Mechanics:

What [Stefan] Rahmstorf, along with fellow co-author and U.S. statistician Grant Foster, discovered was that the world warmed an average rate of 0.35 degrees Celsius in the past decade, a significant increase from the 0.2 degrees Celsius increases typically recorded since 1970. This is obviously worrying, since not only is the planet warming, but the rate at which it’s warming may be accelerating, complicating the timeline for addressing the climate crisis.

Ouch.

The authors explain how they got to this point: 

The new finding was made by stripping away natural influences, such as El Niño events, volcanic eruptions, and solar activity, to analyze the underlying rate of warming.

That said, this would further backstop James Hansen's late-2023 findings, viciously attacked by Michael Mann. It would further backstop Peter Brannen's new book.

Per both of them, we have a "good" chance of hitting 5°C within a century. 

Is this too high? 

PM notes that other scientists have found accelerated warming, but at "just" 0.27 degrees.

Do the math. That's 2.7°C in a century, plus the 1.5 currently, for a total of 4.2. (The 3.5 would get us to 5C.)