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?