Why I still don't give money to Counterpunch

Yes, but, Jeff St. Clair, on your reposting two months ago of a 2019 piece explaining the rigors of your annual major fundraising drive. 

One-quarter of what Counterpunch runs is dreck, like the guy who was (is?) your poet laureate. I've sent stuff that you haven't run, both poetry and prose.

I posted the above as part of a Texas Progressives roundup in early November.

And, then, that same day, St. Clair posts a dreck piece by wingnut James Bovard about Waco and the Branch Davidian standoff. Bovard is flat wrong that ATF outgunned the Davidians. (The FBI is a different story.) From all evidence we have, he is wrong that the National Guard helicopters during the ATF initial raid fired shots at the compound.

Bovard is a wingnut otherwise. Retweeting folks like the Brownstone Institute shows he's a COVID wingnut; the fact that he's an official fellow shows that in spades. His own website shows that 95 percent of what he writes is for the NY Post.

On Waco, I suspect he's trying to grift on the recent release of the Stephan Talty book, which followed the spring Jeff Guinn book. Both links are to my Goodreads reviews, which is part of how I know that, as far as forces on the ground, Davidians outgunned ATF agents.

Otherwise, his piece, and his Twitter replies to me, are filled with a mix of "maybes" and "possiblies," and quotes of people like wingnut former Congresscritter Steve Schiff, a UFO conspiracy theorist, plus strawmanning. On the media, the reality is that the Clinton Administration faced a fair amount of fairly early pushback.

The idea that the FBI "targeted childen" is itself laughable. Anybody who knows the reality knows that Koresh had any and every opportunity to let remaining children go. As for the final FBI assault, since it had nobody inside, and the bugs it had sent in on food were audio-only, it couldn't have known where children were to be targeted. It's also "interesting," in regard to this, where Bovard ends direct quotes in the middle of a sentence. It's another version of quoting someone out of context.

Finally, per both books and repeated investigation? Koresh started the fire. 

And, speaking of books? Per one of his, co-authored with fellow nutters from the Libertarian Institute, he claims that gun-ownership is a "God-given right." Since there is no god, no such rights exist, and certainly not to guns.

So, St. Clair, even if he's not behind the paywall, if you're running this, once again, you don't need my money.

Or, if you're running the dreck of Michael Hudson, totally uninformed about biblical criticism, and close to being a duck-quacking water carrier for Zionism, whether behind a paywall or not? You don't need my money.

Or, other nuttery behind the paywall? This interview of Mitch Horowitz, a hater of modern skepticism because he's a paranormal true believer? Again, Jeff, you want to run him, and behind the paywall? You don't need my money.

Otherwise, the St. Clair-Cockburn slugline of "we welcome all political faiths" may be marginally more true than the Libertarian Party's "neither left nor right," but that's a low bar to clear indeed. To take it it an extreme, you could publish both Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and Stalin's personally edited version of the 1936 show trials and be wrong twice. (I don't know what the Stalinist equivalent of Godwin's Law is, but I just went there with pleasure.)

Is latest hope for Marlin, Texas, fading again? With #txlege related pondering

The Marlin VA hospital in its glory days, or near them. The shuttered facility
was purchased earlier this year on a promise of being re-opened while being
re-purposed for other veterans-related needs, yet nothing has happened so far.
Photo by Waco Tribune/Rod Aydelotte

I had heard a few weeks ago that the old Veterans Administration hospital in Marlin, shuttered for a decade or so, was being reopened.

I wasn't aware that the state of Texas had finally sold this, let alone that it was being reopened.

Well, per various news stories, the idea that Marlin may be returning to an Eisenhower-era or earlier golden age (for white people, at least) seem to be fading more and more. Perhaps the most recent hope shouldn't have been so spit-polished in the first place.

The dream seemed to have hit high tide 18 months or so ago, when Houston's Sterling Real Estate Development made noises about buying both the old VA hospital AND the iconic Falls Hotel (No. 8 Hilton Hotel by date of opening) with the idea of redeveloping the old mineral waters and baths.

Well, it eventually opted to buy just the VA. But its plans to open a portion of that — 30 beds — itself remains behind schedule and drawing more scrutiny.

When former Marlin mayor Elizabeth Nelson, who will gold-plate as well as spit-polish about anything she can in trying to find a positive attitude, and is on a Marlin board representing Sterling's plans, starts making noise in public, you know something isn't right. Or certainly seems that way.

According to SRED subsidiary Operation ReLaunch, a vehicle created just for this, at least part of the VA was already supposed to be reopened months ago. And, that's ALL that's on the website. The website is set up for more, but that's ALL it has.

A Houston newspaper friend didn't have any additional details to report.

And, searching for "Sterling Real Estate Development" only returns one page of Google hits, and they're not all for that company, even. Also, none of the listings on that one page of hits is a company website for the parent company, vs. that single Operation ReLaunch page. Somebody's flying under the radar, and it looks like the state of Texas was so tired of a white elephant that it got rid of it, no matter what.

I find it more interesting yet that NONE of the news stories I have read mention ANY "principals" in SRED. Not a person from the company is quoted by name, or even indirectly quoted by name, in a single story. Nor is any reference made to why the state, along with state Rep. Kyle Kacal and state Sen. Brian Birdwell, made the decision to sell to this particular entity.

And that's not all on the news coverage or lack of.

Looking at both the Waco Trib and KWTX-TV, which has been the main teevee outlet on the situation, besides no names and no coments from SRED folks, we're missing the following:
1. What price did the Texas General Land Office sell the building for? (This is a state agency; if nobody told you at the time, it's time for an Open Records Act request.)
2. What was the asking price at the time? (That may not be on any record, but somebody may talk.)
3. Does the Falls County Appraisal District have an appraised value for the site, both now that it's private property, but also when the state owned it?
4. If there's a significant difference between 1 and 2, above all, and maybe 1 and 3, why?
5. If something pans out on 4, how much did either state Rep. Kyle Kacal or state Sen. Brian Birdwell facilitate this price drop?
6. Related to 5, if you get names of principals at SRED, have any of those names made some campaign contributions? Had any lobbying-type visits to state House or Senate committees on which one or the other of those two gentlemen serve? FYI, Birdwell served this past Lege as chair of the Select Committee on State Real Property Data Collection; I'm sure this committee has interactions with the GLO. Sounds like a place to start right there. He was also on the Senate's State Affairs Committee.

Ditto on these talking points if anybody from the Houston Chronicle picks up a thread on this due to the Houston-based nature of SRED.

The local paper in Marlin? It's behind a paywall, but since it hasn't even had a full-time, on-site editor for several months, probably has nothing on this.

And, no, I'm not being cynical. I'm just being properly skeptical on all of this.

People in Marlin have been critical of Chris Martinez for not doing more with the hotel. But maybe the reason the deal with the developer fell through is that he did more due diligence or exercised more scrutiny.

==

I've contacted folks from both the non-Marlin papers, and the TV station, mentioned above. We'll see what, if anything, results.

#TwinPeaksShooting video shows Cossacks armed for #Bandidos bear

These are among bikes at Twin Peaks restaurant
that may face asset forfeiture proceedings.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune

As the Waco police start asset forfeiture procedures against bikers in the wake of last month’s Twin Peaks shooting, we’re learning more bits and pieces, and starting to connect a few of those jigsaw pieces, about what happened — and why.

Per that story from the Waco Tribune, here’s some of that latest.

First, this confirms what I've read in various sources, that the Bandidos and Cossacks have been at it with each other since an Abilene stabbing in 2013. Indeed, two Cossacks stabbed there were at the May 17 melee in Waco.

Early this year, other incidents happened.

Then, an April 16 incident at Twin Peaks, followed by another a week later in its parking lot was surely what led the Waco PD to issue its last appeal to the Twin Peaks owner.

Here’s what the police have constructed about May 17:

Viewing videos from Twin Peaks and Don Carlos, police say they were able to see several Cossacks reach under their vests and appear to adjust their weapons or check their weapons. They had handguns and knives as they walked around the patio, and officers said they also could see Bandidos, Machateros and Caballeros members standing along the perimeter of the parking lot. 

As another group of Bandidos arrived in the Twin Peaks parking lot, several Cossacks, Bogatyrs and Scimitars climbed over the patio railing and went toward the Bandidos.
“Several of the Cossacks pulled their weapons, including handguns, as they stood on the patio and exited the patio,” the affidavits say. 

Scimitars moved to the front entrance of the patio, appearing to take a “rear guard” position for the Cossacks, the documents allege. 

A Bandido nearly struck a Cossack with his motorcycle in the parking lot. Members of both groups converged and a Bandido punched a Cossack in the face. 

“Several Bandidos and Cossacks pulled out guns and knives, and shot and stabbed each other,” the records show.

So, they were ready to rumble indeed. And, there's such a thing as "Tasing Knuckles"? Wow.

That said, this does undercut the Washington Post story by an unnamed Cossack who claimed some Bandido from East Texas invited them to the May meeting to bury the hatchet. On this angle, the Cossacks were simply determined to crash the meeting when it was moved up to Waco. (The May 17 biker confederation meeting had been, like previous ones, scheduled for Austin.)

That, in turn, leads to the old “why,” or more specifically,  “cui bono”? Simple answer? This anonymous Cossack is probably pretty high in its hierarchy; he is, after all, president of a local chapter. He’s already trying to craft a narrative, for when trials start, about “poor innocent Cossacks.” As in this:

The Cossack, president of a North Texas chapter of the motorcycle gang, asked not to be identified because he is now in hiding and said he fears for his life. He is a rare eye-witness speaking publicly about the Waco massacre, one of the worst eruptions of biker-gang violence in U.S. history.

Of course he’s in hiding. He’s probably in hiding because, to once again compare bikers to mobsters, he ordered this hit. He’s afraid the Bandidos will kill him for sure. If not that, he knows that he could be charged with capital murder himself, and so, he’s afraid of arrest.

I said, in blogging, that it had the ring of truth to it. Well, I ‘ll pretty much withdraw that. I think it still has the ring of truth in that this was a deliberate, pre-meditated event. But, a lot of the premeditation seems to have been on the Cossacks’ part.

Let’s see if the Washington Post does a follow-up. Probably not. The two reporters appear to have gotten punked. (As did I, a little bit, for not being more critical of the story at the time.) That said, for people who know Cossack structure, it's probably not too hard to figure out who he is. So, the arrest part of his fears are probably something he can't avoid.

Finally, note that this is part of asset forfeiture proceedings.

I oppose, on principle, pre-trial asset forfeitures. The Fourth Amendment says we’re supposed to be “secure in (our) persons, houses, papers, and effects.” Combine that with a legal presumption of innocence, and asset forfeiture proceedings shouldn’t start until after a conviction. Unfortunately, our law-and-order Supreme Court has ruled otherwise.

That said, to further deflate conspiracy theorists, the story also notes that 75 percent of the 177 arrestees have gone through bond reduction hearings. Not all of them have been successful, but they've had their day in bond court. And more than 60 people detained on May 17 were not arrested.

Conspiracy theories continue to abound about #TwinPeaks shooting

Most these conspiracy theories started among hardcore libertarians, bikers, or gun nuts. Unfortunately, as I'm discovering, more and more progressives are buying the idea that the Waco Police Department "set up" the bikers who met at the Twin Peaks Restaurant on May 17.

First, bikers were firing at other bikers first. That's not just Waco PD claims; one biker firing at another was caught on video; read the story as well as seeing the video footage in this account. Second, per a Cossack who wants to stay anonymous, for obvious reasons, the whole event was a set-up by the Bandidos.

Second, if it really were a set-up, why didn't Waco PD have 40 cops there instead of 14? Why didn't it kill 30 people instead of the 9 it allegedly did kill?

Survey says: Because it wasn't a set-up.

Update, June 18: Survey does say that the Cossacks came loaded for bear.)

Survey says that conspiracy thinkers will say: Because this was all part of the conspiracy.

Yes, the Waco PD did do a pretty broad dragnet on its arrests. And yes, local judges, at the prompting of a hang-em-high DA who has Texas' fifth-worst record, by county, for pretrial detention time, set bonds high. But, a little more than half the arrested are now free on bond, most with reductions from the original $1 million to $100K, $50K or even $25K. Judges are trying to speed this up even more. And, that's as those who are in jail engage in deliberate monkey-wrenching as jailhouse lawyers.

Third, this is part of broader issues, though.

As I've told others, although I vote Green because it's the only left-liberal option here in Texas, this is part of why I'm not an official member of the Green Party. Too much anti-vaxxerism (though a lot of that runs around in libertarian circles, too, like Orange County, California), and too much anti-GMO-ism, among other things.

The GP 2012 platform says that farms and ranches should convert to organic, (as part of broader ag issues that, if all implemented, at once, would probably cut our food production 20 percent) which would mean it's officially anti-GMO, presumably in part for conspiracy thinking reasons.

On medicine, it officially supports "alternative" medicine as well as .. well, as well as medicine! Alternative medicine, when I'm in an extra-snarky mood, I call pseudo-medicine. It's either tested and confirmed of value, tested and disconfirmed, or not tested. Categories two and three are not medicine.

Specifically, these items of GP-endorsed pseudomedicine:

Chronic conditions are often best cured by alternative medicine. We support the teaching, funding and practice of holistic health approaches and as appropriate, the use of complementary and alternative therapies such as herbal medicines, homeopathy, naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine and other healing approaches.

(Previous Green platforms also mentioned Ayurvedic techniques by name.)

I cut third parties more slack, because the American system is stacked against them. But, that doesn't mean I have to join them while voting for their candidates.

And, this isn't something new. I blogged about Greens and agriculture three years ago. Besides, Grist, a national respected strong, in-depth environmental magazine, shot down most GMO myths a year ago. That said, I've had people say Grist is "on the take." Which just proves there's no arguing with conspiracy theorists.

Or, I blogged earlier this week about the dumb idea that banksters are mysteriously dying in massive numbers. (I guess the idea is that their higher-ups are killing them off before they spill all the beans on yet-uncovered financial shenanigans.)

That said, at least any progressive types who are conspiracy thinking are being open about this.

Even if "not even wrong," per Wolfgang Pauli.

Have I believed any conspiracy theories? Once, on a lesser one, yes.

At one time, I believed that Sarah Palin was not Trig Palin's mom.

That said, first note that "at one time" in italics. When I had a better plausible explanation, as suggested in part by someone else (the not Trig's mom was originally suggested entirely by other people), I ran with that. I actually found two better plausible explanations, and they're not mutually exclusive.

I also noted on this blog that I had abandoned that original idea; in fact, on my own, even before officially abandoning it, I was finding it less likely. And, I actually read something from a fairly big conservative blogger (blind hogs and acorns, if you will), that was part of my final abandonment of that issue.

Which I also publicly noted on this blog.

That said, Sarah Palin acted a lot more weird and suspicious than the Waco PD. And, if you don't believe that, then we're past the point of reasoning together. And, while my next statement may be in part self-rationalizing behavior, given what I said about Sarah Palin vs the Waco PD, and the amount of detail publicly reported about the shooting fallout vs. the Trig Palin birth fallout, this is a conspiracy theory that's more easily corrected.

Will it be?

Quasi-looping-reference intended, call me skeptical. Being skeptical about the McLennan County DA, with a known, provable hang-em-high reputation, is one thing. I am myself, to some degree, though less than others.

The murder by cop? No.

And, that's not the first time for me. I was very skeptical about the worst claims against Darren Brown in Ferguson, while giving more credence to those about the Ferguson PD in general, or even the whole city apparatus.

Know what? Then-Attorney General Eric Holder ultimately agreed.

And,  yes, sometime in the near future, I'll probably do a rewrite of this to focus further on left-liberal conspiracy thinking. It happens. And not just with the items I mentioned above. Certain elements of the far left, as well as the libertarian-type far right, worry about things like contrails, too.

And, it's not just the far-left or far-right. It's the far-nonrational in general.

Folks, in my day job as a newspaper editor, I've seen plenty of conspiracy theories about police in particular and local governments in general.

Do I give a kneejerk rejection? No. I investigate.

That said, only a couple have come even close to having actual fire behind the alleged smoke. Most were neither empirically nor psychologically plausible.

But, because Homo sapiens wasn't built to be a slow-thinking, cogitating animal, we don't do it well.

I don't claim to do it perfectly, myself.

I DO claim to be committed to continuing to improve at it.

I wish others would make that same claim. No matter their political stance, no matter their religious beliefs, no matter other things.

Related to that, sometimes I get in a mood, or a mindframe, where I blog more about sports. Or about science. Or about something else.

I feel the need to blog more about skeptical issues likely popping up in the future.

#TwinPeaksShooting – separate Waco PD from McLennan DA Abel Reyna

In skepticism, rightful skepticism, but even more, beyond skepticism, even if not full-blown conspiracy thinking, about the Twin Peaks restaurant shooting in Waco on May 17, I realize a lot of people are conflating the actions of the Waco Police Department at the time, and in its investigation afterward, with that of judicial and prosecutorial officials in McLennan County.

So, first, let's stipulate one thing.

Police do not set bond levels; judges do.

Police often push for the highest possible initial charges, and prosecutors may goose that more. However, a justice of the peace, the normal bail-setter, while he or she works off a "bail book," has the discretion of going lower — or higher — than the book recommends for charge X.

And, on about ALL crimes in McLennan County, it's a horror show, and one orchestrated by District Attorney Abel Reyna.

McLennan County has the fourth-highest incarceration level in the state. Per a blog by local lawyer Michelle Tuegel, referencing an article by The Dallas Morning News, the county has a higher incarceration rate than Putin's Russia.

So, this is about Abel Reyna. It's not about the Waco PD. Nor is it only about the bikers. They're just in the current crosshairs, and in great numbers.

And, it's not about the McLennan County Commissioners Court, either. Reyna, like the four commissioners and the county judge, is an elected official. If he can get judges to grant "hang em high" bail, and that overcrowds the jail, and strains the county budget, all the commissioners can do is make sure the county jail budget is big enough to avoid a failed state jail inspection.

And, trust me, the commissioners court there has complained, or at least raised eyebrows, before.

I agree totally that Justice of the Peace Pete Peterson spoke extralegally when he talked about using bonds to "send a message." I also agree that not scheduling some probable cause hearings until Aug. 6, and in conjunction with Reyna, is of dubious legality. However, I disagree that he was wrong in not holding individual bond hearings. The way I read the bail chapter of the code of criminal proceedings, I see nothing that specifies individual hearings are the only method allowed. The fact that it consistently uses "defendant" in the singular is proof of nothing.

That said, progress has been made on bond reduction hearings. Primarily as a result of that, about 60 percent of the original arrestees had bonded out as of June 10. Bonds for most of those who bonded out had been reduced from the original $1 million to $100,000, $50,000, $25,000, or even $10 or $15,000.

Related to some of this? First, bonds for "engaging in organized criminal activity" are, yes, usually lower. However, they're not usually associated with a presumed murder or even capital murder in the background. Second, here's some backgrounder from the state DA's association on issues related to trying OCA cases.

That said, a few arrestees who sought reduced bonds have not gotten them, including a few who still bonded out. That alone should indicate that while this was a dragnet arrest, albeit one done at least somewhat in necessity, it wasn't totally wrong.

And, as for some of them originally arrested, if you saw the Cossacks arriving and "your hearts sunk," why didn't you leave, or at least try to? After all, the "heart-sinker" saw this a full hour before the fight reportedly broke out. Oh, and the heart-sinker also allegedly was an open Bandidos supporter.

That, in turn, would be good reason to deny an anonymous Cossack's claim that they weren't trying to crash the meeting, rather that this was a false invitation to peace talks gone bad. And, since police confirm the first three dead were all Cossacks, I still think the informant's story rings largely true.

People who conspiratorize (my blog, my neologism) want to talk about what the police aren't telling us. While they have the legal right to say nothing, or to spout misinformation if not under oath, I'd rather talk more about what some of the bikers, and some of their lawyers, aren't telling us. Also contra some bikers' attorneys

As for what the police can tell us? They've already said that, due to the amount of fire and other things, ballistics tests could take months.

Finally, as for people who want to conspiratorize that this was a police turkey shoot — why didn't Waco PD bring 30 or 40 officers, not 14? Why didn't it kill 30 bikers, not the less than 9 (since it didn't kill all 9) than it actually did?

This is why rational, "slow" thinking takes time. This blog post didn't write itself in 10 minutes.

Thanks for reading.