Texas Progressives ready for the start of early voting

Off the Kuff interpreted a poll of Harris County and what level of support James Talarico needs to have there to win statewide. 

SocraticGadfly released his Gadfly slate.

Gadfly also reminds the BlueAnon folks, via the Trib, that Team Red is hitting early voting hard as well, at least on Day 1. Just north of Kuff's Helltown, Montgomery County set a Day 1 turnout record. So did wingnut Ellis County south of Dallas, and also reddish-purple McLennan County (Waco). By the end of this week, some of the demographics mentioned in the Trib's Point 4 will start taking shape. Related? El Paso County, with a large Hispanic population, had its second-highest first-day midterm voting ever, versus 2018, where local son Beto-Bob O'Rourke had his first statewide race, versus Havana Ted Cruz.

Trump doesn't need federal troops at polls for voter repression; all he needs to do is have other states handle new voter registration like Texas DPS, which is being sued over this.

Even the Lite Guv race is heating up, if Danny Goeb is worried enough to mention Vikki Goodwin by name. This is the one statewide race where I said "vote Democrat" on the Gadfly slate.

Talarico personally massively outraised Paxton in the third quarter. Yes, he has to face Elmo's PAC and others that have massively outraised his own PAC support, but still ... will he be spending more of it as he hits the finish line? 

The Monthly talks about how Paxton and Strangeabbott trumped up bogus fraud claims against the East Plano Islamic Center.

Texas Parks and Wildlife is, or was, reportedly looking at selling Boca Chica State Park to Elmo. I'm sure the only, or at least the primary, reason the Nov. 5 agenda got changed is because of Nov. 3. 

A drunken Tex-ass dad fatally shot his daughter, living with his ex-wife in Britain but having come over to visit, at the end of an argument over Trump. He was no-billed after a botched investigation (shock me) and Collin County (shock me) has no interest in re-opening said investigation. 

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project posted about a new well-resourced ICE spy/intelligence service that has Houston on its list of places it will operate.  

The data center oversight that Strangeabbott and Paxton tout? Violations are only $500, so most companies are doing nothing, and for all you and I know, are they even being fined? 

Texas Monthly reviews the most recent "dumbest week ever" in our state's politics.

"Maria Puerto" explains why she sued four members of Students for Life.

The Great God Pan Is Dead finds another example of Jeffrey Epstein's corrosive effect on the art world, some of which have a Houston connection.

Mean Green Cougar Red hopes the Topo Chico shortage of 2026 is finally over.  

Courier Texas summarizes the Ken Paxton audio leaks so far.

Dade Phelan has departing words for fellow Texas Republicans

In confirmation of even Dannie Goeb worried about the Lite Guv race, Matthew McDade "Dade" Phelan, former Speaker of the Texas House says Texas Republicans "are freaking out." Per my piece earlier this week about Elmo's PAC and what's on its direct mail, Phelan calls out this type of advertising stupidity. Talarico's first billboard in my area, on the other hand, talks about health care costs and the percentage of Texans on Medicaid.

Phelan also takes a last shot at how Goeb handled Kenny Boy's impeachment. He adds that, by Patrick doing this and eventually leading to a flawed Paxton getting the Senate nod, it's hurt Republican Senate candidates in other states.

Phelan left open the door for voting for Talarico and said he definitely wouldn't vote for Paxton. Nor for Bo French for Railroad Commish. 

He next brings up the 800-pound gorilla.

Trump is just pushing a lot down on you, and you own it if you’re a Republican. You just do. I’m not a Trump guy. Never have been a Trump guy. If I were running for election, I would be pushing back and calling out all of Trump’s mistakes. But if you’re a Trump supporter, it’s tough to get out from underneath that.

And, of course, zero Texas Rethugs, at least those running for statewide office, have pushed back. 

As for vote results? Without naming any particular races, he said that if the election were to have been held the date of the interview (it published Oct. 14), Republicans would lose statewide races. 

It's a long-form interview worth a read.

Ag Commish race gets sharper elbows

As Clayton Tucker and Nate Sheets tangle for Ag Commish, Tucker finally admits he's a hypocrite for owning Energy Transfer stocks, something I had already called him out for, though it's worse than I thought. Energy Transfer is providing natural gas for a data center in his backyard, per this piece. 

Tucker's response? This:

“Do I plan to divest from Energy Transfer? Probably, yeah,” Tucker said. “Again, when I bought it two or three years ago, I was not aware it was related to AI. But to say you have to completely divest of stocks, I mean, you’re basically telling every American with a 401k to sell 40% of it right now.”

Erm, really?

First, you should know, and probably do, that ethical mutual funds exist. Yes, a 401(k) is usually a company retirement investment, not an individual one, but I'll bet ethical 401(k) accounts also exist. You should pressure your company. 

Second, it appears you actually mean something like a personal mutual fund, albeit structured as a personal 401(k) for retirement. I'm sure such things exist.

Third, you surely knew who Energy Transfer was when you first bought its stocks. 

And, as with Jill Stein, I don't have a problem calling out the hypocrisy. 

As for the data centers themselves? Oh, the irony in the Observer's piece about this race, with Tucker talking about the noise from data centers disturbing livestock. 

Maybe that's one of those claims:

Tucker’s campaign makes walk the line between conspiratorial or, at the very least, dubious. One alarming claim on his website about Flock cameras connecting to personal phones through Bluetooth cites only a Reddit video posted on r/diabetes as evidence. Even anti-Flock activists have called this out as false. And the site’s stated opposition to proposed 765-kilovolt transmission lines in Texas lines warns misleadingly plays up the threat of “electromagnetic radiation.”

Per the Observer story.

And, if we're worried about electromagnetic radiation under high-voltage lines, is Tucker also concerned about 5G cell phones? 

And, while the Observer's story is about Tucker as populist, and focuses on his would-be ties to Jim Hightower, it notes that nationally, the term applies to everybody from Sheepdogger Bernie Sanders to Dementia Donald Trump. And, yes, some of the claims sound Trumpian, like stuff he's said about wind farms. 

Finally, the story notes that Tucker has been missing an opportunity to talk about farmworkers as well as farms.

Maybe it's not missed but deliberate oversight. We all know Tex-ass is a low-voting state even more than a Republican state, and Hispanic farmworkers, even if citizens eligible to vote, aren't a big voting target. 

Beyond the story, I looked at a few of his Facebook videos. Kind of silly, like the one claiming Folgers was overcharging for coffee. First, the price itself, as marked, is the controlling factor. Probably the price-per-ounce is "wrong" because it wasn't updated when the actual price went up. Second, weights and measures issues aren't under the remit of the Texas Department of Ag anyway. 

Elmo's Tex-ass cluelessness in "helping" Kenny Boy Paxton

If you, like me, live in Tex-ass (yes, that’s how I pronounce it, and no, I didn’t get here as soon as I can, but, for better and for worse, one brother was born here and both paternal great-grandfathers lived various portions of life here) …

You’ve been seeing plenty of shit like this:

In your mailbox.

And, yes, it’s Elmo’s — America PAC from the South African native.

You’ve probably also gotten a shit-ton of phone texts. Mine have been mainly about Kenny Boy, though one or two have been about Strangeabbott and one or two about Dannie Goeb.

Strangeabbott? Think 1964, and I was WAYYY ahead of Jasmine Crockett’s semi-lame “Gov. Hot Wheels.” Per my Blogger tag, the first post was 2014, when he was still just Gov-elect.

For my second post using that tag, I Photoshopped this:

I had additional fund with his Jesuitical lawyerly word-parsing during COVID:

In hindsight, he looks like he’s holding a handful of big-boobed bras, which would of course be a good summary of today’s Texas Rethuglican Party.

Anyway, back to Kenny Boy, whom I call that over the late, great Kenny Boy Ken Lay of Enron.

Seriously?

(I forgot to scan another flyer that, as I said in a note a week or so ago, implies that Commies are about to overrun rural Texas, or rurales Tejas, led by Uncle Karl Marx himself, whose face was on the flyer.)

Seriously?

Yeah, I guess Elmo is appealing to the MAGAts base to do an Angela Paxton and “stand by their man” while holding their nose and voting. This stuff surely doesn’t appeal to independent centrists.

Plus, it makes no sense? “Back to the dugout”? Is this playing on baseball’s postseason, even as Baseball is Dying™, especially in Tex-ass?

I mean, “Bench Talarico” makes more sense. I’d say “Turn out the lights for Talarico, his party is over, Friday night and every night,” riffing on both football and Willie Nelson, but Willie would be MASSIVELY pissed about stealing his copyright, and fake Texan Elmo wouldn’t get either that or the football riff anyway. (That said, why isn’t Talafreako asking Willie if it’s OK for HIM to do that?)

Meanwhile, on those texts? Even though I am not a Democrap, I do an anti-Republican spin on the name of the candidate for whom the PAC is texting, then block after replying. (For instance, one text for Dan Patrick, I mentioned Dannie Goeb’s vasectomy and since it referred to sex and gender issues, asked if they wanted my help going beyond a vasectomy for him.)

Seriously, part 2? This is yet another reason Merikkka is a failing state. Not only do we have plutocratic billionaires putting their thumb on political races without limitation, due to the Supreme Court castrated McCain-Feingold, we have so much of their money sloshing around that it goes into the stupidest of flyers and texts that appeal only to baseline (or brain-flatline) MAGAts.

Seriously, part 3? Where are the Democraps, speaking of?

Talarico the Talafreako, at least recently, had more money than Kenny Boy. His campaign knows direct mail exists. His campaign knows how to harvest cellphone numbers. Ditto for the Guv race, where ConservaDem Gina Hinojosa hopes to unseat Strangeabbott, and the Lite Gov race, where Vikki Goodwin is battling Goeb. Maybe they’re planning a late rush, BUT, early voting started today. It’s like a baseball manager who has his closer inside the fire extinguisher cabinet with “break glass in case of emergency,” then decides that the seventh inning isn’t an emergency as other pitchers melt down. It does you no good on Nov. 4.

I mean, personally, as a well-informed non-duopoly voter who will undervote half the executive and legislative races, who will undervote most judicial races on political science ethics grounds of opposing partisan judicial elections, and who will undervote the 15th Court of Appeals on other political grounds (see footnote at bottom), you couldn’t reach me anyway.

That said, on Monday, I got my first Talafreako text. It talked about Kenny Boy’s blank-check support for data centers and how that will drive electric prices up. Much smarter than texts by Elmo, or any of the other wingnut PACs texting me earlier.

So, I wasn’t as snarky in return. I asked, rhetorically, what Talarico’s stance was on opposing Zionism, then indicated it was rhetorical by saying “I already knew.” (Answer: He’s a squish.) I then said it was too bad there was no Green or independent lefty in the race. If there’s a human reading any of these texts, maybe they’ll figure out my plan to undervote.

So, at least one Dem is in the texting world, or a PAC supporting them is. Where’s the direct mail? 

This goes back to Beto-Bob O’Rourke’s run for governor in 2022. I laughed at him going to Muleshoe. I laugh at statewide Democraps in Texas doing the same, in general, today.

But, Beto-Bob never came to Texoma — not in the flesh, nor in direct mail, or in smartphone texts. And, he probably didn’t go to Muleshoe in direct mail or smartphone texts, either. (This also shows that statewide Dems are just visiting ruraldom to affirm the powers of the county Democratic jefe while extracting a few bucks.)

That said, when driving to Hagerman Saturday, Talafreako had a full-size billboard rented, the traditional version, not a digital one. First statewide candidate I’ve seen in our area with that.

So, Talarico is doing at least part of the outreach. Other statewide Dems, at least the two big races, and definitely guv, where Hinojosa has at least some money? 

If you lose, your introspection should start with the few paragraphs above.

And not just on fliers and texts.

Per the above, it’s always fun to bag on Dan Patrick.

That said, in both 2022 and this year (unless something late breaks in the next day or two), Patrick was the ONLY candidate of EITHER party for statewide office to do a statewide, or nearly statewide except the smallest of papers, ad buy via the Texas Press Association. (Tex-ass had just one statewide race in 2024 and neither Havana/Cancun/Calgary Ted Cruz nor Colin Allred bought anything.)

Goeb does say he cares about rural areas, as part of this. That said, if he really cared, he would have fought Strangeabbott on vouchers.

Reminder: My "Gadfly slate" went up last Friday. 

FOOTNOTE: 

My least bad method for judicial selection is a retention election system, and from having been in New Mexico for part of my newspaper career, I know how it works. My second least bad is what Pro Publica recently discussed, the “Missouri method,” where, for at least higher court systems, a nonpartisan panel of lawyers recommends three candidates to the governor, who has to pick from that list.

On the 15th, it’s a clearly politicized court that’s a handout to Rethuglican plutocratic friends. On non-undervoting, one Court of Criminal Appeals slot has a Libertarian candidate who explicitly supports jury nullification. He’ll likely get my vote. Meanwhile, none of the three Democrat candidates will explicitly say, “I oppose the death penalty, and on the CCA, I’ll restrict it as much as possible” or words to that effect.

We actually have a debate in a Texas statewide office — but ...

Hey, we actually had a debate between candidates for a statewide office, as Railroad Commish contenders Jon Rosenthal and Bo French squared off. As for why Rosenthal hasn't raised as much money as previous Dems running for the office? I suspect that Talarico has suck the monetary oxygen out of the room called Texas for other Democrats.

As for the race? This:

The “Drill, Baby, Drill” Democrat, as Rosenthal calls himself, has had to take time away from the issues to address his opponent’s raucous opinions.

Is why I will undervote. 

Rather than explaining to the public what the Railroad Commission does do, Rosenthal, explain what it needs to be doing in an era of climate change. You haven't. This race is ultimately not about you vs Bo French, it's about the Railroad Commission versus the future.

A second debate has reportedly been scheduled. Will it happen? 

The full Gadfly Slate in Texas elections, 2026

First, now more than ever, I'm more and more comfortable with undervoting races rather than voting for someone from the left hand of the duopoly that is "meh." Or a hypocrite.

Let's dig in, going in order of my sample ballot in my corner of Tex-ass.

Senate: Undervote. I'd vote for independent Jade Simmons to play the piano for me — and maybe (yes, making a male observation) tickle my personal ivories. I don't need "centrist" candidates, though. Democrat? Here’s part 1 and part 2 on Talafreako the hypocritico.

Here's a Trib q-and-a with Talarico, Libertarian Ted Brown, and no-show (yes, for an emailed q-and-a) Kenny Boy being filled in from past statements. Statements by Talafreako that stand out? No, we don't need yet more Border Patrol. As for tech surveillance, the BP and the private companies that make it have played Alphonse and Gaston on the non-use of border tech designed to prevent immigrant crossing deaths.

Side note: I fault the Trib for running the absent Paxton's past-derived answers first. 

US House Dist. 26: 20,000 Mules Above the Desert (I see what I did there) couldn't make me vote for Brandon Gill. Libertarian Phil Gray, interestingly, believes in the government using ESG guidelines. Obviously NOT one of the Mises Mice. He also supports Medicare buy-in being offered. But, he spoils himself by being an anti-China Cold War 2.0 guy. And, I can't find an explicit position by either him or Democrat Steven Shook on Palestine and Israel, let alone Russia-Ukraine. Undervote.

Governor: Gina Hinojosa is a ConservaDem on reproductive choice and on other things. Libertarian Pat Gray supports vouchers. No Green here, either. Undervote.

Light Guv: Green Kevin McCormick never answered my emails on where he stood on 2025’s Proposition 4, and the Texas GP's executive committee backing it, per my latest callout of Texas Greens on this issue; I webmail contacted him last month. Three weeks later, no answer. Dem Vikki Goodwin wants to at least partially legalize cannabis, shockingly supports ranked choice voting, at least at local levels, and ALSO has in the past backed Texas joining other states and allowing citizen initiatives. Vote Democrat.

AG: Republican nominee Mayes Middleton is even nuttier than Kenny Boy Paxton. Nathan Johnson is at least somewhat on the left of Texas Democrats. That said, other than running as the anti-Paxton, he offers little. I may undervote; still not decided.

Comptroller? I have proof positive that Democratic Comptroller candidate Sarah Eckhardt is a squish on BDS. Texas Greens are generally dead to me right now over Proposition 4, but I will vote Green Shehla Fahzi in this race. Totally. 

Ag Commish: Democratic candidate Clayton Tucker has a boatload of bad stocks unethical investments, including multiple oil companies. Nate Sheets is a nutter accusing China of "agro-terrorism" and is even stupider than Mayes Middleton. The campaign has a recent interesting twist. Undervote.

Railroad Commish: Bo French is an obvious racist and Jon Rosenthal is anything but. That said, as a leftist, ex-Green and real environmentalist who knows we're in a climate crisis, I don't like that he doesn't talk about that issue himself, nor does he talk about the RRC doing more to promote solar, wind, and even geothermal. He does, like in an Inside Climate News interview, tout carbon capture. Gack. Undervote.

Land Commish: Dawn Buckingham has gone along with Dannie Goeb on politicizing the Alamo. The Land Office does to a degree have a climate change impact, but I'll probably hold my nose to a degree and vote Democrat Benajamin Flores.

State Rep. District 68: Undervote. I think incumbent David Spiller is a hypocrite on his school vouchers flip-flop as well as a wingnut, but, Jasmine Henderson? You're going to have to suffer for the PRO Gainesville stupidities of your sister, as of course she eventually did. 

Judicial races? I have rarely wasted time wading through most of them. To the degree drugs are at issue, I'm OK with supporting others pulling the Libertarian lever if they know the Democrat is not that good.

That said, I will say at least consider Libertarian Mark Ash for CCA Place 3. He supports jury nullification. I can't find his stance on the death penalty, though. Sadly, candidates generally seem to feel that they can't state an opinion on that, as that would be "discussing cases before the court."

That said, more and more, I dislike partisan judicial elections, unless necessary in a retention election system. And on principal, I refuse to vote in Strangeabbott's new 15th Court of Appeals races.

(Another option for at least part of judicial selection is Missouri's, as described by Pro Publica: For appeals courts and the state supreme court, lawyers select a three-candidate group and the governor picks from among the three.)

That said, a final reminder: This Politico piece is right, not in the sense that polling is THAT far off, but in that many MAGAts continue to say "fuck you" to polling in general, or in some cases, may even deliberately lie to pollsters. 

 

 

Texas Progressives talk pre-election updates

Off the Kuff did a quantitative comparison of the polls for Senate and Governor's races in Texas, and found that the latter was closer. 

SocraticGadfly looked at the oil contamination in Johnson County and said it smaked of similar land pollution in North Texas back in the 1990s.

If Mayes Middleton says he wants to put god back in government, doesn't that mean that Kenny Boy removed god?  

South Texas may indeed be moving on from Trump, but I doubt it's moving toward any statewide Democrat. 

Neil at Houston Democracy Project says we’ve had a number of wins at Houston City Council in ‘26 & we’ll do the work for a more progressive and responsive council in ‘27.  

Before becoming a US Senator, Kansas' Roger Marshall was a loan-sharker cosplaying a doctor. 

Faux News has apparently benched Karl Rove for being kind of outspoken. 

Contra non-skeptical leftist, or better, pseudoleftists, like Max Blumenthal, not only did China have forced labor in Xinjiang in the past, it now does again, this time with fish farming. 

 G. Elliott Morris reminds us that the fundamentals are aligned with the polls.

Isabel Latz argues that El Pasoans can’t afford leaders who ignore extreme heat.

Murray Newman eulogizes First Court of Appeals Justice Kristin Guiney. 

Your Local Epidemiologist gives you the facts as they are known about that plague outbreak in Russia. (YLE could have noted that plague is still naturally occurring in the US. But did not. And, the book she points you toward is by nutter Annie Jacobsen.)

Leo XIV, show us the money, the Observer says

The Observer, reaching way outside Texas, calls on the Vatican to crack open its $73 billion gold mine. The author is triangulating off Leo XIV's recent "Magnifica Humanitas." The problem, or the reality, is tseveral-fold, without excusing Rome. First, not all of its assets are liquid. Second, at $73 billion, not trillion, that's one-tenth of what Elmo Musk or Bozo Bezos are worth, at least on paper. And, that's just the richest of plutocrats, not the whole schmeer. Third is that the author is privileging the United States, and possibly Mexico, when il papa rules Catholics around the globe.

Fourth, you're asking a man who wears ruby-colored, and perhaps ruby-edged slippers while carrying a gold crozier to do this?

Fifth, many of the assets that would be liquified to get to this point would be bought by plutocrats. That said, if the Vatican were to sell, say, the entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, that alone would bring more than $73 billion.

Sixth, you're asking a religious leader who runs a body that still opposes women in leadership, still opposes  women's reproductive freedoms and other things, to show the world "magnificent humanity" through money alone? 

The latest all things Kenny Boy Paxton as the election nears the finish line

The Monthly says Angela Paxton knows what she's doing without even mentioning the Tammy Wynette angle. Really? (Not on "she knows what she's doing," but on it not invoking the Wynette angle.) More seriously, exactly what IS she doing? Paxton's kind of a boat anchor and the state banned official straight ticket voting by voting machine lever years ago. Does she think Tammy Wynette will play well in the divorce court? Is she looking to a 2028 run for some other office? Hoping for a Strangeabbott appointment to something?  These are all possibilities, and I'm sure others exist; the Monthly explores none of them.

In a longform piece, Chris Hooks discusses snitches — three recorded snippets of Kenny Boy after the GOP midterms, but apparently from at least two different snitchers — bemoaning that he reportedly has no control over his campaign. Well, Ken, when you first decided to commit apparent securities fraud, second decided to diddle someone not named Angela and third decided to stick your head fully up Trump's ass to counter Nos. 1 and 2, you surrendered control. From there, Chris wonders who the leaker/s is/are, and speculates, by their target choices, they're DC insiders pissed the GOP is having to play defense for Paxton rather than pushing Big John Cornyn to the finish line.

Dan Solomon spins on the first and second to talk about the weirdness of new Paxton ads. Solomon's talking only about teevee/streaming ads. This doesn't include the weirdness of Kenny Boy's direct mail flyers, which seem to indicate Commies, led by Uncle Karl himself, are hiding under every small-town bush to push Talarico over the finish line.

Sorry for the wingnuts wanting "proof of life" from Talafreako Talarico while ignoring the person BlueAnon calls Moscow Mitch, but Talarico is alive, well, and back on the campaign trail. 

If Mayes Middleton says he wants to put god back in government, doesn't that mean that Kenny Boy removed god? 

Kenny Boy certainly did NOT remove the grifting, including at least $3.3 million in security detail grifting. 

We're way past the original timetable for the first of three debates allegedly originally planned between Kenny Boy and Talafreako, past the date for the second, and just past the date for the third, with early voting starting next Monday. Conclusion: No debates. Per Dan Solomon talking about Kenny Boy's nervousness even while being asked softball questions in an interview, he's probably decided that looking chicken is less bad than looking like a fuck-up. That said, how, and how well, does Talafreako exploit this? My guess? Not all that well. He said nothing when the first deadline passed, was sick when the second passed, and said nothing Monday when the third passed.

To me, this would be easy. All Talarico has to do is say something like:

I'm leading in the polls and have had a steady lead for the past two weeks. Ken Paxton must really be afraid of something if he won't debate me.

There you are. 

Meanwhile, while he still leads, per a story from Yahoo, the latest MR/Recon poll shows he has slipped back to inside the margin of error, by half a percentage point. More on the poll, which also includes the gov's race, here.

USDA announces record price support payments like it's a good thing

This came out last week:

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced that the Farm Service Agency’s Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) will generate approximately $13.8 billion in gross payments to eligible agricultural producers for the 2025 crop year; the largest annual payout by far since these key safety net programs were established in the 2014 Farm Bill. 

“President Trump has been the biggest champion for American farmers, and today's announcement delivers nearly $14 billion in funding for rural America,” said Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins. “Last July 4th President Trump signed the Working Families Tax Cuts Act into law and today we are acting on it, this will strengthen reference prices to better reflect today’s farm economy. This historic economic support provides producers critical liquidity to cover operating costs, prepare for the next crop year and invest in their operations. Thank you to all the Republicans who unanimously voted for this law and put food security and rural America first.” 

The 2025 crop year stands alone in the history of ARC and PLC since Congress created the programs as key components of the commodity safety net in the Agricultural Act of 2014. Since 2015, no previous crop year has generated payments approaching this level. While ARC and PLC payments total $13.8 billion, producers are reminded that this does not account for payment limitation reductions and the 5.7% sequestration rate required by statute that will be applied to all ARC and PLC payments.

And, no, Brookie, it's NOT a good thing.

It means that, in various ways, our current agricultural system is more and more broken.

It's broken by increasing income disparity in the agriculture world, like elsewhere.

It's broken by bribery to accept fallout from Trump's tariffs.

It's broken by a system with structural problems, such as dairy price supports versus Canada's provincial quota system, which was already being attacked by Trump 1.0.

And, of course, it's broken by climate change. 

Wrong national parks move, Congress

So, Chiricahua National Monument, which gets only 60,000 visitors a year, is going to be upgraded to a national park?

WHY?

First, contra the tourism pushers (Grand Junction, Colorado area with Colorado National Monument comes immediately to mind), yes, an upgrade does cost money, and not just changing the signs.

You want this because you think an upgrade to national park status will bring more tourists.

And, assuming it does? That means the upgraded national park has to hire more rangers, both for general assistance, and for things that national parks visitors expect, like interpretive programs, evening ranger presentations and such. It has to hire more roads and facilities maintenance staff for the increased wear and tear. It has to hire more law enforcement rangers for increased problems.

And?

That all costs money.

Stop lying.

Second, doing this while still refusing to address a massive maintenance backlog, an issue on which Democraps are 75 percent as bad as Rethuglicans, is a mix of hypocrisy and abuse of the National Park Service. 

And, it's more proof that the left hand of the duopoly doesn't really care about real environmental, ecological and land management issues. 

Johnson County oil pollution story smacks of the 1990s

The Observer has a folo to a piece a few months ago about a Johnson County residential development being built on an oilfield waste dump site. The new piece looks at how little legal recourse new homeowners may have, and also about how both state and private business agencies that should be able to provide legal liability answers refuse to do so, and about how the Railroad Commission has refused to test the site.

The story is disgusting, especially with the mention of arsenic. I am reminded of the infamous Voluntary Purchasing Groups of the 1990s and their use of arsenic compounds, federally- and state-licensed in agriculture only for cotton desiccation, as part of general-purpose weedkillers, and not telling neighboring farms and ranches that the air out of their smokestacks west of Bonham might have arsenic.

This story peaked at the time a Democrat-turned-Republican state senator, Rick Perry, decided to challenge Jim Hightower as Ag Commish. Politics got involved there; Perry's campaign staff allegedly told VPG to stall out the investigation until after November 1994, because he would win.

He did and the rest is history. 

The two stories have other parallels. Residents in the area in the 1990s accused the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, today's Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, of going in the tank like the RRC seems to have done on this.

Voluntary Purchasing Groups, or VPG, is the organization that also has, or had, an EPA Superfund site near Commerce. 

Texas Progressives talk pre-election politics

Off the Kuff interviewed four Legislative candidates: Sara McGee, Odus Evbagharu, Stefanie Bord, and Darlene Breaux. 

SocraticGadfly had two election-related posts. First, he noted that, at the Trib Fest, John Fetterman seemed to be threatening to take Senate Democrats hostage after the midterms. Second, he wrote about Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's callout of Texas and national Democrats for not talking more about climate change.

New York Times/Siena is the latest poll giving Talarico both a lead over Paxton outside the margin of polling error, and a majority, not a plurality. I predict that, after another poll or two like this, by Oct. 15 and no later, the National Republican Senatorial Committee pulls the plug on Kenny Boy. 

Hypocrite Angela Paxton "stands by her man" Kenny Boy in the election while continuing to plow fully speed ahead on the divorce. Can she talk about baking cookies? (The Trib story lies by claiming most recent polls are within the margin of error when, in this particular race, they're not. Clickbait?)

Alyssa Edwards introduces herself to Ken Paxton.  

G. Elliott Morris understands the reasons Dems in Texas and elsewhere are still leery of what polls are saying, but insists the blue wave is coming. 

Federal judge issues injunction blocking all border work in Big Bend and says plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits. 

Some cities and counties are betting that Strangeabbott's 90-day pause on Flock camera funding is indeed the political stunt that it is and keeping up as many as they can, or getting extensions. 

Those bazillions Tex-ass voters approved for new state parks on the 2023 constitutional amendments? Congrats on getting your (checks notes) 1-square-mile new state park at Lake Palestine.

Further pandering to senior citizen homeowners on property taxes, with Dannie Goeb wanting to reduce the age limit to 55, shows what's wrong with Tex-ass' tax system, its school finance system, and the state structurally. And, too many ConservaDems play along. Most these seniors are better off than I am at near-seniorhood. 

Neil at Houston Democracy Project reported on City Hall developments. City for the moment not applying for Trump DOJ Model Cities grant that would tie HPD to bigoted & authoritarian goals of federal government & arrogant, pompous Chris Brown remains employed at $127,000 yearly, 15 hour weekly city job. 

The Current finds another example of Brandon Herrera being an absolute piece of garbage.

City of Yes does a deep dive into Austin's housing and real estate market.

Steve Vladeck calls the SCOTUS third-country removal order "profoundly ugly".

"Librul" Eugene, Oregon, wants to charge $2.5 million for a public information request about a cop. I think that, when it comes to cops, many "librul" cities are like this.

A sad presidential election in Brazil. Jailed coup-plotting former president Jair Bolsonero's son vs. incumbent Lula, now 80 and who either couldn't get anybody good to succeed him or else has become enamored of power.  The race is going to a runoff.

Pass The Loot: Jim Bakker is dead

We all know that's what PTL actually stood for. (Unless, in the case of Jessica Hahn, it also stood for Pussy That Lives.)

Anyway, the man is dead. USA Today, almost as dead, has a photo roundup. This is not going on my other site, as Bakker was not a theologian or a biblical critic. He was a stereotypical conservative charismatic evangelical TV preacher who could fake cry on command.

Looking through the photos, he seems like some mix, facially, in hindsight, of parts of Howard Cosell, parts of Herve Villechaize, part Reagan economic Svengali David Stockman, and parts of I don't know what. 

And, of course, he was part of a Venn diagram intersection three fakes. His fake emotions (but real felonious grift, as Wiki notes), Jessica Hahn's fake boobs (and other plastic surgery) and Tammy Faye's fake face, though, overall, she was the most real of the three. 

The fakery in the televangelist and megachurch world's gotten slicker today, but it's not gotten any better morally. 

And, we can't forget that Hahn hung out for a while with Sam Kinison, himself an ex-Pentecostal preacher. I thought he was funny in college, but in reality, he's just a Pentecostal preacher with full-on yelling, not shouting, a dirtier mouth than Lenny Bruce (per Phil Hartman playing Frank Sinatra, you don't have to go blue), and too many racial jokes. And, I didn't know he was hit by a truck at 3 and that gave him epilepsy, and other brain issues.

While I'm here, contra the plastic surgery link, I've never believed Hahn's claim that Bakker drugged her to initiate sex. All the other stuff in that Chicago Trib interview indicates that, per the old bon mot, Jim Bakker diddled her before she became a virgin.

And, with all but Hahn dead, and for her, her getting affection or attention dead, this sordid triangle with additional subpoints is itself dead. 

==

Yikes, I didn't realize Bakker had gotten into bed, metaphorically speaking, with My Pillows coke-sniffer Mike Lindell. 

Counterpunch going in the crapper once again and more

After removing it from my main blogroll, I hadn't even visited it before my July vacation until the end of September.

Ye gads. It's got issues.

Beyond giving the late Ward Churchill a pass on being a pretendian, here's some of the recent "fun."

Wait, wait, here's the start of the fun. Per Counterpunch's search bar, the word "pretendian" isn't even in the entirety of Counterpunch online. Gads.

The DSA Roseys are like anarchists! Wingnuts will take a bong hit off that.  And why do Jeff St. Clair and Joshua Frank have someone who has written for places like the WaPost and Guardian writing for them? This other person gets it more right, without identifying what he's discovered, perhaps because he doesn't know. When I saw him talk about how "caucuses have a level of power within DSA that is absurdly disproportionate to the number of people they represent," I said, he's talking about the Green Party. Caucus-based tribalism is not anarchism.

Speaking of, via surrogates, St. Clair continues hating on the Green Party with running this interesting, or "interesting," takedown obit of David Cobb, via a presumable flunky contributor. (That may be the same person I ran into via Silverstein's "Washington Babylon" revamp. It is and oh no.) You know what? Mine's much better, in part because it doesn't turn into a laughable paean to the DSA Roseys, whom the author claims are more effective than Greens. Beyond that lie, there's others. First, Nader had never officially registered as a Green in 2000, part of the reason for his 2004 party demise. Basically, per this paper, he tried to play footsie, like Jesse the Body Ventura in 2020 and Cornell West in 2024, wanting the nomination on a platter but refusing to engage before that. And(rew)ie Stewart's also a conspiracy theorist on Malcolm X's death.

(Stewart originally ran the piece on that person's [sic] Substack and St. Clair picked it up. Speaking of? Again, fuck you; and I'm sorry that I went out of my way to challenge High Country News for stopping running you as well as Felice Pace and others. And, per my editing of that person's first name? A "transgender woman" would be a woman wearing men's jeans and Carhatts. You're a transgender man, clearly male, Clyde. Or, perhaps better yet, to use that old-time word? You're a transvestite.)

"Pergressuve" John Ferrer gives off the vibes of a Cold War 2.0 Russiaphobe in this piece with the inaccuracy early on of claiming Ukraine has gained territory in 2026. It has, but Russia has gotten more, in areas that were Ukraine-held before this year. Even fucking Ukrainian Pravda admits this. Feffer is a George Soros neolib. Why's he writing for Counterpunch?

Looking outside Counterpunch's pages, Frank has a new book: "Bad Energy." I quote from the editorial blurb on Goodreads: 

In Bad Energy, award-winning journalist Joshua Frank argues that the green energy transition is driven not by an effort to save the planet but by profit incentives. We must stop burning fossil fuels if we have any hope of saving the planet, but the significant, haphazard expansion of green energy in recent years—from large solar projects to wind energy to mining for renewables—has destroyed communities and ecosystems. And worse, renewables simply cannot match our ever-expanding demand for energy, driven in no small part by the rapid proliferation of data centers in the world’s wealthiest nations.

I'm not saying he's all wrong, but that's an oversell at a minimum. 

The first claim? No, something more accurate would be:

The green energy transition, launched as an effort to save the planet, has been taken over by a profit-first focus.

There you go.

Second, you can't have small solar or wind projects. Even without data centers being pushed, pushed, pushed, we need more renewable electricity as is. Conservation might be nice, but, and not wanting to sound like Darth Cheney, by itself, it's not a major part of the answer. 

Third, no, not all such projects have "destroyed ecosystems," and many have actually boosted rural communities. Get out west of the 97th meridian, but before you get to full desert, wind or solar farms have allowed family cattle ranches to stop overgrazing, and thus cut a few cow farts and belches out of the system while at least partially protecting the natural vegetation that still remains. 

Counterpunch has an extract from the book. The last one-third is still partially general environmentalism, but it also steers into NIMBYism. 

Third, Joshua, in January 2025, when you went from Montana to Los Angeles, how did you get there? Flight? Big old Montana gas-guzzling pickup? Midsized car? Hybrid? (Disclosure: I have a 2011 CVPI ex-cop car. It was cheap, but yes, uses more gas than smaller cars. But, because it was cheap, I'll run it until it gets near the point of needing more major repairs.)

The biggest issue, though, is one that I called out eons ago. No consistent editorial direction. It plays out in detail in a variety of issues. Russia-Ukraine is perhaps the biggest current example; besides that Russiagate-sounding piece, you may have others giving more support to Russia withstanding NATO. You may even have someone halfway like Max Blumenthal.

Speaking of Max, from Counterpunch's past of a few years ago, more than today, takes on China in general and Xinjiang in particular are all over the fucking board. And, that's not just in the past. Note this April 2026 piece, of a type with which I would agree. That said? One of the two authors called out, Vijay Prasad, writes for Counterpunch! Although he's not written there about Xinjiang in 2026, he did as recently as two years ago. Maybe St. Clair or Frank finally put an editorial thumb on a scale?

Yes, one can argue you'd like people to think for themselves. You'd also like a magazine of politics and opinion to take an actual stand, though. Wouldn't you?

Top blogging of September 2026

As is normal, these are the 10 most-read pieces last month. They were not necessarily written within the last month, just popular, at least according to Blogger’s stats that may be crashed by bots that Google doesn’t filter out in its modern enshittification, for all I know.

With that, let’s dig in.

No. 10 was from last month as “All Things Paxton …” offered an initial post-Labor Day view of Kenny Boy Paxton’s campaign for the US Senate in Texas.

No. 9? It’s from a dozen years ago, but in the post-Roe Merikkka, surely of interest connected to the 2026 elections. I talked about abortion as a “Gordian knot” for many liberals.

No. 8 was from late August (and also over on Substack) where I asked, somewhat rhetorically, “What if Jason Arday WAS a fraud?” and then delved into how society should address the issues behind that issue. And, yes, it’s a rhetorical, but here, unlike there, I did use the indicative “was,” not the subjunctive “were.”

No. 7? My takedown obit of 2004 Green Party presidential candidate David Keith Cobb. And, yes, with taking an extra day or two of time, it’s much more of a takedown obit than my relatively mild Substack version. (Sidebar: At Counterpunch, one of Jeffrey St. Clair’s flunkies spun another way, using a semi-takedown obit of Cobb to kick the Green Party in general because of St. Ralph of Nader. I will have a separate piece here in a few days about the most recent decline and fall of Counterpunch.)

No. 6? A July Texas Progressives roundup. I talked about how in Tex-ass, data centers have a staged, progressive expansion all planned in advance but don’t tell you.

No. 5? “Clutching pears, without tots, at Lone Star Left.” Short and sweet snark.

No. 4? A mid-August, split in half version of a Texas Progressives roundup, because, doing it my way, I snarked on both halves of the duopoly as the election finish line started coming into vague sight.

No. 3? My talk about Aridzona facing a POSSIBLE! day of water reckoning over BuRec saying it was turning the Colorado River taps down a skoosh. From late August.

No. 2 is from a decade ago, but remains popular, my bidding an RIP farewell to “Actual Flatticus,” aka “the dead and deified god of a cult.”

No. 1? My schadenfreudic (yes, I can invent that adjective) posting a dozen years ago about the conviction of fraudster, grifter, and fuser of skepticism with libertarianism, Brian Dunning. AFAIK, he STILL remains unrepentant, and an Italian-American philosopher’s occasional links to him are mildly disconcerting, though less so than other political issues and far less so than several actual philosophical issues, in the process of being individually covered at my second site at Blogger.

The hell with Gavin Newsom, Xavier Becerra et al

 I'm talking about them signing off on the Paramount-Warner merger last week. 

One additional reason they caved, IMO, beyond Gov. Pothole wanting to be President Pothole and Becerra wanting to succeed him?

I doubt Paramount would have fully left the state. Couldn't afford to. 

But, Larry Ellison probably threatened to play the antisemitism card. 

Or, per Ellison's Oracle hat, he may have made other threats to suing states, like one to a New Mexico data center under development about not paying if it was delayed. Yes, that's Oracle, not Paramount, but he would have tied the two together. 

The fight may not be over, but with California AG Rob Bonta essentially being told to settle? It's not good. That said, the plaintiffs and friends of them, more, who want the suit to go forward, aren't alone in saying this is unenforceable. Read Capital and Main.

That said, the first piece from The Wrap doesn't mention that Bonta himself is running for re-election. He may have been told to settle, but he may have gotten hints. 

 ==

That said, Skydance (Paramount) is getting gifted a colossal turkey with Warner Bros. "Digger." Beyond the merged studio turkey? It couldn't happen to a nicer guy in the acting world than Tom Cruise.

==

More on Gov. Pothole's sellout to the wining and dining Oracle of Zionism here. 

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse talks climate change with a callout for Texas, national Democrat apparatchiks

I didn't know Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse was this ardent about climate change and its concerns. His interview with Inside Climate News includes calling out the party apparatchiks on having their heads in the sand and saying climate change isn't a good political issue:

We actually did polling, for instance, in Texas that showed that 92 percent of Texans are concerned about the cost of homeowners insurance. 66 percent of them connect that problem to climate-driven extreme weather. So this is red state, oil patch Texas, and you’ve got more people concerned about the cost of homeowners insurance than own homes in Texas, which shows how big an issue this has become. And fully two-thirds of voters ascribe it to climate-driven extreme weather. So the public is a mile ahead of where the Democratic think tankery and consultant class is.

Gee, AOC et al, while calling out Democraps' New New Left for being anti-woke or whatever, don't do that on climate change, unlike this. 

Speaking of? He specifically mentions that in Florida (the state he discusses next after the pull quote above) that the Democrats' candidate for governor is running specifically on climate change concerns. Missing by their absence from his piece are Ginojosa or Talarico.

He looks cautiously ahead to the next Senate, where, with a change of power, he could be heading the Environment and Public Works Committee. 

Texas Progressives have a pre-election run-up

Off the Kuff eagerly awaits the outcome of Rep. Vikki Goodwin's complaint against Dan Patrick for his illegal AI deepfake ads. 

SocraticGadfly talked about which Republicans have and have not called out Bo French and about Texas Monthly writing a clickbait article on this.

Mondoweiss has all the dirt on Robert Kraft's decades-long massive support of Israeli Zionism.

Where's the beef, prices that is? Could be going even higher. Why? Because of ICE, per various Southern Plains livestock associations. Possible hidden lining? People eat less of the climate-wrecking bovine meat.

The Observer reports on what could be Santa Ana's last stand — the one-n is for the wildlife refuge in the Valley. 

The Monthly looks under the hood of evangelical Christian TEA Commish Mike Morath's takeover of Fort Worth ISD, and notes how Senate Bill 1882 has charter school control (read: evangelicals or Catholics) under its own hood.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project spoke at City Council about possible city application for Trump Justice Department Model Cities funds. Accepting these funds would tie HPD to Trump immigration & racial policies. It goes as far as policing "loitering."

The Tech Edvocate does a deep dive on why the oil and gas industry has stood by Bo French.

The Dallas Observer writes about AI-powered cameras on Dallas garbage trucks, and how few citations for alleged code violations have resulted from them.

Steve Vladeck untangles what the Eighth Circuit did in their bizarre Missouri redistricting ruling.

The Current has a look at the first segment of the border wall being built on private property in Big Bend.

Fetterman says he could take Senate Democrats hostage after midterms

John Fetterman lied about his political self at the Texas Tribune's annual Trib Fest, and probably didn't get much pushback. Even worse, he's indicated he could hold Pennsylvania and national Senatorial Democrats hostage after the midterm elections.

In a statement earlier this month, Fetterman said he would “still be the 51st vote that I ran on” if Democrats take the Senate, referring to the tie-breaking vote. But closing out the festival, he said speculation about the next Congress was irrelevant until after the November election. “Wait till the midterms. See what I do,” Fetterman said. “Let’s revisit after the midterm and see what happens if I happen to be 51.”

Great: Dems will have another Yachtsman Joe Manchin in their midst, and will probably coddle him as much as Manchin.

Meanwhile, as part of the hostage-taking, he's already all but daring Dems to expel him from the party, as part of a longer conversation, that starts with just how much he has one foot in the Keystone State GOP tank, starting here:

Nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania Democrats view Fetterman unfavorably, according to a poll conducted last month by The New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena University. Although Pennsylvania Republicans view him more favorably than they do their GOP senator, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, Fetterman said he has “no path as a Republican.”

Then this:

Fetterman’s trip to Texas comes less than three weeks after he introduced McCormick in a surprise video at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas.

OK now. 

Now this:

It's like he's daring them. 

“If the Democratic Party votes me out or expels me, they’re always entitled to do that,” he continued.

He also had a telling Freudian slip, when asked by an audience member, but NOT the moderator, why he didn't flip:

“Because I’m a lifelong Republican,” he said, raising his hand to his head, embarrassed after he realized the slip. “I guarantee you that will break through. That will get clipped.”

Oops. 

Meanwhile, even while daring Democrats to boot him, he's taking Republican money as I type, and he's not up for re-election this year.

Another fundraising email sent this month from the gopsquad handle came with Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah listed as the sender. It was focused on Fetterman, and began, “I just got an email from John. He's basically a Republican now.”

Oy.

Already in July, he was getting big bucks from Tex-ass Republican Harlan Crow. 

But Dems, even if they had a two-seat Senate majority, wouldn't have the balls to boot him.