Why was a politico speaking at the Texas Press Association convention?

Specifically, per page 6 of the July Texas Press Messenger, I'm talking about state Sen. Charles Perry, who was given the unchallenged open mic time to promote the water plan constitutional amendment he authored.

Beyond the actual problems with Perry's amendment (and it has them, and I'll be voting against), is the ethics problem. NO politico should get free, unchallenged airtime at ANY state's — or national — newspaper convention on a specific political issue.

Period. 

As for those problems?

No. 1, as I noted early this summer, is that it doesn't regulate groundwater pumping. 

No. 2 and related is that it doesn't really say anything about conservation. 

Forest Wilder at the Monthly threw it way under the bus this spring. 

A few takeaways:

Perry, a Lubbock Republican, envisions a multibillion-dollar statewide “water grid” to make sure Texas never worries about the resource again. He is proposing investing in desalinating salty Gulf water, cleaning up the chemical-laden fracking water used to coax oil from the ground in the Permian Basin, and injecting fresh water underground for later use.

Yeah, produced water, chemical-laced even after cleanup, and often radiation-laced, too.

The price? (This was about Perry's overall big dream, not just the amendment, but still):

The whole shebang could cost $162 billion, according to an estimate by the Texas Water Infrastructure Network (TXWIN), a trade association. That’s a staggering figure—about equal to the state’s total annual spending. And it dwarfs the $80 billion worth of projects recommended by the state’s own official water plan, last updated in 2022.

He didn't tout THAT at TPA. 

He also didn't talk to Wilder for his article. 

BlueAnon opinion media continues to hold on to Russiagate

Old news, from several days ago, but, here's my non-duopoly take.

Mother Jones insists that the release of information from late-Obama era Director of National Intelligence John Brennan's investigation into his agency's research into what became known as Russiagate, by current DNI Tulsi Gabbard, is misinformation. 

Per the Federalist (no leftist sites popped up on Memeorandum), here's the reality, as they interpret it, about her release:

The experts did not disagree that Russia had continued its practice of attempting to sow chaos in presidential elections. They believed the intelligence indicated Russia sought to weaken presumptive winner Hillary Clinton and those efforts may have indirectly helped Trump. But they were concerned about the lack of evidence for the claim that became a cornerstone of the Russia collusion narrative, in which Trump was accused of conspiring with Russia to steal the 2016 election.

 That's about right.

The big picture reality? 

Prigozhin's Internet Research Agency, via various names, hacked both RNC and DNC computers, started both pro-Clinton and pro-Trump fake Facebook groups and more. 

Gabbard's release, and Mollie Hemingway's piece, do NOT promote the Seth Rich conspiracy theory or anything like that. 

Update, Aug. 6: That said, it is arguable Gabbard should have redacted her release better, per NBC. At this point, Gabbard is officially Just.Another.Politician.™, Trumptard division.

Brainworm Bobby may have some small bit of good

Per unlicensed pseudo-medical practitioners trying to kill people by injecting them with peptides, we need more of this, but with some actual "success," per a Swiftian modest proposal.

Having a great die-off for people in their late 50s might make "Social Security a Bit More Semi-Healthy Again."

You can't die before your early 50s at the earliest. You need to pay those FICA taxes for decades.

You can't die after age 67 and your FRA for Social Security; you don't need to drain money from the system.

But, within a 15-year sweet spot? Knock yourselves out, or do more than knocking yourselves out. 

Texas Progressives offer special session thoughts

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes Congress a long, long recess as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff reviewed July campaign finance reports for members of Congress.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project spoke at Houston City Council about Houston’s working with ICE. The current city policy is “We just take you to the box car. We have no idea where the box car goes.”

The Current reports that more than half of people ICE arrested in San Antonio since Trump took office have no criminal history.

Texas 2036 lists the constitutional amendments that will be on your November ballot.

Your Local Epidemiologist mourns the slow death of the NIH and the scientific research it enables.

El Paso Matters documents the effect of the Trump NPR cuts on El Paso's public radio station.

Law Dork shows why SCOTUS Republicans are like ICE agents.

Therese Odell recaps the whole South Park/Trump thing.

The Texas Signal warns about the zombie return of the anti-trans bathroom bill.

Joe Costello CAN help himself, but won't

Going beyond previous recent idiocies, he's now become a stanner for the Grayzone in general, and both Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate by name.

For your imformation, Joe, Max has been a flunky for Xi Jinping on the Uyghur labor camps and also for Dictator Danny Ortega in Nicaragua, ignoring real journalists in both the US and Nicaragua, as well as Human Rights Watch, in the process.

 Aaron, per Ken Silverstein, got bruises on his nose from where then Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's minders led him about by the nose. Per that piece, I am still not sure that Aaron isn't a Seth Rich conspiracy theorist. Also per that piece, though a fair amount of Russiagate was DNC bullshit, the Putin-Prigozhin SVR, or Internet Research Agency, DID hack its computers, and the RNC's as well.

Finally, per that link, Aaron, at least, is a duopolist in terms of electoral politics, and I suspect Joe still is as well.

 One more add: Aaron, and while I'm here, Mark Ames as well, and probably Max, tho I didn't check as much, ran Tulsi Gabbard up the flagpole and saluted her in the run-up to the 2020 Dem primaries. 

Fuck off; you've really, really, really gone downhill in the last month or two and I am about to unsub. 

And, Joe, could you really have done THAT much in the past? You don't even have a Wiki page. 

Alt-history: Ford chooses a different Veep in 1974

Per Jeff Toobin's solid "The Pardon," new President Gerald Ford had three people he was considering as vice president in late summer 1974. The first was Rocky, his actual choice, who was already supporting a Nixon pardon, Toobin notes. The second? Wiki says it was Howard Baker, not even mentioned by Toobin, who lists Rogers Morton, John Rhodes and Bill Brock as others in the top five along with ...

Poppy Bush.

Not a semi-wingnut like Reagan, Bush nonetheless was conservative enough, and had moved enough to the right in the previous half-dozen years, that he would have been "palatable" to the conservative wing of the GOP in a way Rockefeller was not. Hold on to that.

If Ford still loses in 1976, nonetheless, Bush is in a better position for 1980 than he was in reality.

That said, remember Ford dropped Rocky in 1976 and replaced him with Bob Dole to shore up relations with conservatives after Reagan's strong challenge. What if having Bush there all along lets Ford defeat Reagan earlier and not kowtow? Maybe he wins.

Relevant to Toobin's book, what if Bush cautions Ford to hold off? He was head of the RNC at the time, and could have offered Ford advice in that direction. Maybe that, too, eventually releasing a pardon shortly after the midterms, which helps Ford's 1975-76 agenda, helps him win.

With Ford in for a full term, maybe there's no Iranian hostage situation.

Bush holds off Reagan making another run in 1980 and Reaganism is dead.

I do not think Reagan would have accepted a Ford offer. That would have precluded his run in 1976, for all practical purposes, and would have left him in a different position in 1980, especially after a Ford win. 

That said, Wiki says Howard Baker was Ford's third option, not Reagan. 

Baker would have been problematic if his ex parte conversations with Nixon ever came to light.