2024-04-19 14:00
I had already written this up yesterday, but we now have a new top story!Jesse "the Body" Ventura (because his stanners hate that) now says he can beat Biden and Trump. So? Get No Labels or… Read More
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A skeptical left-liberal's blogging on Texas and national politics, environmentalism, journalism, church-state issues, atheism, more
2024-04-18 14:00
Updating my old name for him, Former Fetus Future Fascist Forever Fuckwad Jonathan Stickland, in conjunction with Matt Rinaldi is venturing into new fields of wingnuttery squared.Lite Guv Da… Read More
2024-04-17 17:23
Harris County Attorney Christian Menafee is ready to take on Kenny Boy Paxton in a legal battle
over the county's guaranteed income. (Kenny Boy should just leave well
enough alone; if Harr… Read More
2024-04-17 14:32
Irian Jaya, or West Papua, per Counterpunch, continues to descend further in its own, Tolstoyean-specific, misery and hell. For the unfamiliar, the western half of the island of the New Guin… Read More
2024-04-17 04:29
Per The Guardian's report on the assurances the US government has offered Julian Assange, they could be, in actuality, "weasel words," per his wife Stella. That is, they could be promises br… Read More
2024-04-16 14:13
Half a dozen years ago and more, I lived in a small town near Waco. H-E-B and Wally were the two groceries, and that Wally was small enough it had no frozen section and only a small refriger… Read More
2024-04-15 18:40
I'm not sure that the NAIA's ban
on post-hormone supplementation transsexual (transgender?) athletes is
totally wrong, to put it mildly. I am sure that sex and gender aren't
the same thin… Read More
2024-04-15 14:00
So says Phil Weiss, founder of Mondoweiss.I don't totally agree. I do agree that all duopoly party US presidents feel some degree of beholden-ness to the Israel lobby. Weiss has the rec… Read More
2024-04-13 15:59
Contra Robert Paxton, who Corey Robin says wrote "the book" on fascism, I reject the idea, espoused by Paxton three years ago, that Jan. 6, 2021 made Trump a fascist.It's not whether the Cap… Read More
2024-04-12 14:01
On my blog post two days ago about how Juan Soto is NOT NOT NOT a "generational talent" wirth $500 million, the fucktards came out hot and heavy on Reddit r/MLB, where I posted this. People… Read More
2024-04-11 14:00
Paula Fredriksen is right
that Jesus was NOT a Palestinian Jew. Palestine as a Roman province did
not exist until after the Second Jewish Revolt. (That said, contra some
Zionists, Greek h… Read More
2024-04-10 19:57
So says a collegiate researcher from a rural site — Colby College in Maine. And, Nicholas Jacobs name-checks people like Amanda Marcotte for misusing his data.Marcotte is herself a pie… Read More
2024-04-10 14:00
His agent, the notorious Scott Boras, wants you to think so, as he talks $500M (non-deferred value) for Soto's next contract (more at The Athletic) after he enters free agency next year. So… Read More
2024-04-09 18:09
At a minimum, per this LA Times piece, Shohei Ohtani looks like a naive sucker for his blind trust in body man/Man Friday/interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.At a maximum, per this story linked withi… Read More
2024-04-08 14:00
This is an extended version of my review of Stephen Vladeck's "The Shadow Docket."The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic by S… Read More
2024-04-06 15:30
Why is a mag like Rolling Stone running dreck
that can't mention the genocide in Gaza until the last paragraph but
CAN talk about "Starbucks socialists rally in support of Islamic
extremi… Read More
2024-04-05 17:51
We're just going to spell this out via my set of Tweets, with some added framework:First, there's the beginning of my take:A wingnut (presumably from the OC) talks about Californicating Tex… Read More
2024-04-05 14:00
The Nation casts a critical eye on Lawrence Wright's new HBO documentary series. And, quite rightly so. Some of the most critical eyeballing by Sam Russek is reserved for Richard Linkla… Read More
2024-04-04 18:32
Nothing else to say about what is the nutgraf takeaway from the story about he and Kamala is a Cop meeting with six Muslim-American representatives at the White House.Another doctor who atte… Read More
2024-04-04 14:00
The Libertarian Party is going broke.
I guess the Mises Mice are good party-wreckers but not party-builders?
Related? Other Libertarians are demanding party chair Angela McArdle
resign ov… Read More
2024-04-03 17:56
Smithsonian Magazine asks a good, and partially rhetorical, question, that is, why isn't dental care considered primary health care?First, as it discusses around the edges, and as I know in… Read More
2024-04-03 14:00
With belated Happy Easter wishes from Our Lord and Savior, Donald J. Trump, let's dig in. First, foreign and foreign policy stuff:At Mondoweiss, Phil Weiss talks about the importance of… Read More
2024-04-02 23:45
The self-righteous idiots at PRO Gainesville appealed their original misdemeanor conviction in Cooke County's county court at law to the state's Seventh Court of Appeals and when they (prett… Read More
2024-04-02 17:27
I "understand" (well, I actually don't want to understand the dude) why quasi-BlueAnon conspiracy theorist, and general batshit crazy conspiracy theorist, Jim Stewartson, believes that Havan… Read More
2024-04-02 14:00
Specifically, contra High Country News' Jonathan Thompson and specifically, banning alfalfa from being irrigated off the Colorado River and tributaries.Two years ago, HCN's editor at large T… Read More
2024-04-01 14:50
April Fool's Day! But, don't get fooled by the MSM.The NYT blames a "post-pandemic malaise" for affecting 2024 electoral politics. Funny, you folks didn't say that in 2022. It wouldn't be an… Read More
2024-03-30 15:22
Yes, Julian Assange was granted the right to appeal his extradition to the US, which the British court said could still eventually happen if the US offered sufficient guarantees of potential… Read More
2024-03-29 14:00
Adjusting emissions to vehicle size
is part of how Dear Leader's EPA killed its own Corporate Average Fuel
Economy, or CAFE, standards. The piece notes that EPA is now, more than a
decade… Read More
2024-03-28 14:54
I have written briefly about Flickr photographer Randy Langstraat before, mainly on Twitter. I have noted his claims to have "captured" sunbursts, which he frames to shoot at the edge o… Read More
2024-03-27 14:05
Reddit may just be the front page of the internet in one way. Its algorithm for what subs it shows me is at least as stupid as Twitter and Fuckbook showing me what accounts I "should" follow… Read More
2024-03-26 19:28
The Texas Medical Board has partially punted on clarifying exceptions to the state's anti-abortion laws. Not surprising, and in this case, I don't totally blame them. At the federal level, a… Read More
2024-03-25 14:04
What else can you call it, per my currently pinned Tweet about this Washington Post story from last Monday? The nutgraf is right at the top:On Oct. 27, three weeks into Israel’s punish… Read More
2024-03-23 16:17
Along with Eric Lipton he is a pseudoscientist on GMOs. (This is not to endorse them, but it's to oppose pseudoscience.)If not an outright antivaxxer, at least a fellow traveler. More here… Read More
2024-03-22 14:19
Instead of boasting about winning the Pennsylvania Green Party primary, shouldn't Jill Stein rather be concerned that she left 25 percent of the vote, and 20 percent of the delegates, on the… Read More
2024-03-21 18:00
Per the Wikipedia page on 2024 Green Party presidential primaries, we have three GP-certified candidates. As for the non-certified candidates, including Randy Toler, rightly "disputed" in hi… Read More
2024-03-21 14:00
Let's lead with that. The Monthly has a story about how a LOT of bands are ditching South by Southwest this year. Why? The U.S. Army being a sponsor and other issues related to the genocide… Read More
2024-03-20 14:00
If Andrew Cockburn is going to do a thin update of his Harper’s piece from a year ago that I refuted at that time, then I shall do the same, as we await the likely inevitable result of… Read More
2024-03-19 18:52
Southwest is seemingly — note that word — getting hoist by its own playbook petard
at Love Field. But is the "seemingly" actually so?No, and that's where we get to the second ha… Read More
2024-03-19 14:12
In my post a week and a half ago about the Supreme Court's Trump v Anderson ruling on ballot access, in his second comment, at one point, Cruxdaemon said:In the Constitution that we all reve… Read More
2024-03-18 15:12
From Off the Kuff, Kuffner in his weekend link dumps posts stuff without comment, and I'm taking silence as assent.The weirdest of a couple of weeks ago? He's got a piece from some sort of "… Read More
2024-03-16 15:37
"Dirty Jobs" Mike Rowe is in the running for one more dirty job, he told NBC, and that would be being on Robert F. Kennedy Jr's Veep shortlist, while also describing Bob Jr's whole vetting p… Read More
2024-03-15 15:25
I'm surprised they're this open about it, but there you are.They've already got much of the MSM in their pocket, so don't know how much work they'll have to do.I've written about Jill Stein… Read More
2024-03-14 18:28
Here's the LA Times story (the NYT, and major Israeli papers have also written about it), how Guernica Magazine hauled down a piece by Joanna Chen, "From the Edges of a Broken World," still… Read More
2024-03-14 14:42
We'll start this with a primary wrap. The vouchers wingnuts affected SBOE races as well as Texas House races. That's even when Strangeabbott endorsed incumbents. That said, per links on a Ku… Read More
2024-03-13 17:59
At the Monthly, a Kaley Johnson has a story about A&M herpetologist Lee Fitzgerald battling the oil and gas industry to get the dunes sagebrush lizard protected as an endangered species… Read More
2024-03-13 13:47
Seen via Red Satan, the New York Times reports that Mr. Dudebro Antivaxxer and fake Green Ventura are on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vice-presidential shortlist.Red Satan focuses on Rodgers, won… Read More
2024-03-12 14:09
File this under "cluelessness from the field":If you’ve got duopoly primaries like we do here in WA, this is a good way to fill them out pic.twitter.com/pbSM3Sr4kM— Jason Call … Read More
2024-03-11 14:00
First, the steak: Wallbuilder Joe claims he regrets
calling an Ill Eagle an illegal. No he doesn't, but at least some
#BlueAnon will drink that Kool-Aid. Good fucking doorknob, folks;… Read More
2024-03-09 15:39
First, though their election is some time away, it looks like "AMLO," Andrea Merida Lopez Obrador, will be succeeded by someone in the same political vein, former Mexico City governor Claudi… Read More
2024-03-08 15:00
I was blocked by Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat two weeks ago. I discovered that when Jeet Heer was quote tweeting over just how bad of hasbara he was spouting:I remember when the hasbara was b… Read More
2024-03-07 16:48
Income inequality in America is probably EVEN WORSE than even a Piketty says.The State Bar of Texas fined and gave a probated suspension to Starr County DA Gocha Ramirez for his attempt to p… Read More
2024-03-06 18:55
The Green Party's version of "abolish the Fed" is better at start than many L/libertarian nutters' babblings about fiat money. Actually, no, that was pretty much a head fake. It quickly… Read More
2024-03-06 15:00
Unless noted otherwise, all posts are from February.No. 10? A Texas Progressives roundup that began with Christofascist Tim Dunn.No. 9? I didn't start this until March 5 and a post from yest… Read More
2024-03-05 15:00
Six anti-voucher Texas House Republicans have somehow escaped Gov. Greg Abbott endorsing their opponents. No word from Strangeabbott on why. The Trib adds that Abbott's endorsement carries m… Read More
2024-03-05 03:26
First, the 9-0 ruling meant that everybody was on board.The biggie is "inside baseball." As I see it, per that link above from the Guardian, with these quotes:“We conclude that States… Read More
2024-03-04 15:00
All links are to the Texas Tribune.First, climate change is real, it's getting worse, and it's exacerbating an already extant winter wildfire season in West Texas. That said, to expand on th… Read More
2024-03-03 00:18
I'm talking regional, above county level, Rethuglicans, and Democraps where available.I think David Spiller holds on to HD-68. Kerri Kingsberry may win local Cooke County, but not the whole… Read More
2024-03-01 15:31
David Rieff, the sole child of Susan Sontag, is definitely the type of person I'd call a public intellectual.I became Twitter friends with him on a previous account, the one that Elmo's Jack… Read More
2024-02-29 16:07
Happy Leap Day! Rock on!Genocide Joe is probably rocking, if Quinnipiac was right a week ago in its poll stating he's up on Trump 49-45 percent. Not the first time recently QP has had him in… Read More
2024-02-28 14:55
THIS corner of the Texas Progressives Alliance stands in salute to the memory of the late Aaron Bushnell, acting in idealism like the Buddhist monks during the Vietnam War. We also remind #B… Read More
2024-02-27 18:41
That's even as they sometimes battle each other.Per this piece,
many of the wingnuts-squared who are running against wingnuts for state
House seats, and with the endorsement of Abbott and/… Read More
2024-02-27 15:30
It's become a commonplace in the last week for people on Twitter to call Eylon Levy, one of the nation of Israel's (as in official government) top hasbara blatherers, the "Goebbels of Gaza."… Read More
2024-02-26 18:51
John Scalzi fellates BlueSky,
while ignoring that "blocking" there sounds no different than blocking
on Twitter, and that BlueSky was a project of "Blue Balls Ice Bath" Jack
Dorsey when h… Read More
2024-02-26 14:50
By succession, I'm talking succession to The Protectorate that eventually was established in 1650s England to replace the beheaded King Charles 1. And, that means the succession to Oliver Cr… Read More
2024-02-23 19:03
Nine months or so after the Reddit "strike" (and ensuing hypocrisy by the moderators at r/NBA and perhaps elsewhere) over Reddit putting the dinero squeeze on third-party mobile apps in lead… Read More
2024-02-23 15:00
I wound up being somewhat disappointed by Jeff Goodell's new-of-2023 book "The Heat Will Kill You First."I'd read "Big Coal" years ago and thought it was great. I'd heard some good reviews a… Read More
2024-02-22 15:00
First, the America as failed/-ing state is, I think, going to become a semi-regular, occasional, series of blogging.Second, as is my wont, it will look beyond twosiderism to some degree. It… Read More
2024-02-21 19:14
More incomparable work by Ivan Katchanovski, this time in the German mag Junge Welt, or Young World.I offer Google Translate's English, in full:Headline: "False flag action by Ukrainian fasc… Read More
2024-02-21 16:00
Just in time for primary season, in the Monthly, Russell Gold profiles Christofascist Tim Dunn. One thing new to me? He's on the board of directors of the company that runs the Ballotpedia w… Read More
2024-02-21 14:00
#AbandonBiden is the hashtag that started trending late last year among Muslim-Americans, especially those of the Democratic donor class. See the background in this post.And now we're going… Read More
2024-02-20 18:54
Josh Marshall, as all the #BlueAnon vervently faithful know, as well as leftists like me, is proprietor of Talking Points Memo, one of the top Blue MAGA go to sites for news analysis.Well, t… Read More
2024-02-20 16:59
Independent Political Report says a new "Liberal Party" is forming. It's some state parties from the old Libertarian Party, pre-Mises Mice takeover. Per the piece, and contra what the founde… Read More
2024-02-19 19:22
Judge Andrea Beall rejected
Kenny Boy Paxton's "I murdered my parents, now I'm an orphan" claim
that his constitutional right to a speedy trial in his security fraud
case had been violate… Read More
2024-02-19 15:00
RFK Jr.'s SuperPAC blew $7 million on that controversial Super Bowl ad (I wasn't watching, but heard about it), only to piss off his own family.
We probably should say "piss off his own fam… Read More
2024-02-17 18:44
Cornel West, finally disabused of his cluelessness of how hard it is to get presidential ballot access as an independent candidate running outside any party, and obviously having burned his… Read More
2024-02-16 16:58
First, the background.I've read Marc Reisner's "Cadillac Desert" (second and sadly last edition due to his untimely death) 10 or more times, with a heavily highlighted, underlined, and margi… Read More
2024-02-15 15:00
Norman Solomon wonders if Nancy Pelosi's smear job against pro-Palestianian protestors isn't part of once again reviving Russiagate for the 2024 elections. (Don't forget the NYT went down th… Read More
2024-02-13 18:13
By Monmouth, I'm talking about the 1st Duke of Monmouth, aka James Scott, aka the oldest bastard of England and Scotland's (no UK then, remember!) King Charles II.I was inspired to this by a… Read More
2024-02-12 19:10
This is going to be fun.China Ben-Hur is special counsel Robert K. Hur. The WaPost reports that, among examples of what he saw as Biden's failing memory was that he couldn't remember the sta… Read More
2024-02-12 15:00
THAT is the bigger reality than just a record-setting January.Yes, the neoliberal wing of climate change scientists, or climate change Obamiacs as I call them, the Michael Manns and Katharin… Read More
2024-02-10 15:30
The Nation, home of virulent duopoly upholders and third-party haters such as John Nichols? Yes.Indeed, it is Green Party hater Nichols himself who wrote earlier this week, with this headlin… Read More
2024-02-09 15:07
Caught snatches of the live argumentation in front of the Supreme Court on NPR. Here's one of the stories from Thursday. SCOTUSBlog has more.A few thoughts, with an intro before that.First… Read More
2024-02-09 06:43
Via Ballot Access News, first, Bob Jr. told Robert Smerconish, per Newsweek, that he's eyeing seeking the Libertarian nomination. Second, also via BAN, both Bob Jr. and West are s… Read More
2024-02-08 15:07
Cooke County Republican Women had
another candidate forum Feb. 1, and it was a doozy. The House
District 68 race features a wingnut incumbent vs a wingnuts squared,
wingnuts on steroids or w… Read More
2024-02-07 18:01
First, I think it's kind of funny that Wallbuilder Joe has either actually pissed off, or else, more likely, caused major loss of face at home, to Mexico's President Andrés Manuel L&o&hell…Read More
2024-02-07 15:11
Off the Kuff writes about the Supreme Court of Texas hearing the appeal on the gender affirming care ban and putting a temporary pause on Ken Paxton's depositions. SocraticGadfly looke… Read More
2024-02-06 20:35
Great piece about the hooey from NY Mag's Intelligencer, much of it focused on "journalist" UFO pusher Leslie Kean. When I saw the bits about her and psychics, I was already thinking of one… Read More
2024-02-06 15:00
All posts in the 10 most read of January actually were from last month.No. 10? A personal roundup of oil and gas pollution and infrastructure issues.Ninth? A Texas Progressives roundup of ea… Read More
2024-02-05 15:53
Cooke County Republican Women had
another candidate forum Feb. 1, and it was a doozy.
First, it allowed candidates in
contested races who weren't part of the forum to speak briefly.
Doug Rob… Read More
2024-02-04 19:34
That's my take on his Twitter post with Texas Senate letterhead letter asking Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, aka Danny Goeb, if AG Kenny Boy Paxton's impeachment trial in the Senate can be re-o… Read More
2024-02-02 15:00
I recently was interviewed by a recruiter. (Whom I may name here at some point later.)Asked about why did I leave job X after 2.5 years, job Y after 1.5, job Z after 2, etc.First,
as I note… Read More
2024-02-01 15:00
Reminder that more than three people
are seeking the Democratic nomination to run against Ted Cruz, and that
several of the "second tier" candidates, like Thierry Tchenko, are NOT
"vanity… Read More
2024-01-31 19:00
Texas GOP Vice Chair Dana Myers is challenging jefe Matt Rinaldi for the leadership role over Rinaldi's ties to Defend Texas Liberty/Nick Fuentes. That said? The Austin Chronicle… Read More
2024-01-31 15:00
SocraticGadfly says that, contra Ryan Burge, the climate change minimizer/denier "gap" is ultimately religious-irreligious, not political as even Burge's own data show. Off the Kuff int… Read More
2024-01-30 15:00
I had heard the news about that so-called pseudo-pharmacy in the White House last Friday, but didn't pay attention until I saw Ambien trending on Twitter and #BlueAnon bagging on Ronny Jacks… Read More
2024-01-30 00:32
Per the Guardian, discussed also at Raw Story, a group of 25 US Civil War and Reconstruction historians back the Colorado Supreme Court removing Donald Trump from the ballot, in an amicus br… Read More
2024-01-26 15:00
Harper's has a deep dive
on truck driving and driver training school, or, as one economist calls
it, "a sweatshop on wheels." It touches on the issue of the romance of
trucking for people… Read More
2024-01-25 20:09
At one time, I thought getting rid of downvote buttons on social media sites was a bad thing. I even argued with others about that.I stand corrected.The downvote is hugely abused by people o… Read More
2024-01-24 18:34
There's no other way to put it than the headline. The PRO Gainesville saga has been going on for three-plus years now. And, not content to lose a Class A misdemeanor case locally, a tri… Read More
2024-01-24 15:30
Biden now has a leg back up on Abbott in one area: the DOJ report on Uvalde, releasing more information about the clusterfuck that Strangeabbott continues to do his best to try to hide. Kuff… Read More
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