2023-11-30 19:05
Greg Grandin, who wrote THE book on Kissinger, has the best straight-up, news but realism, obituary.With people like Hank the Knife, though, my angle is always for the "takedown" obituary, t… Read More
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Socraticgadfly Blog
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christopher hitchens
months ago
laborhutt
human brain
A skeptical left-liberal's blogging on Texas and national politics, environmentalism, journalism, church-state issues, atheism, more
2023-11-30 15:00
I've called out Hudson before for his apparent belief that the biblical year of jubilee, or the seven-cycle culmination of sabbath years with an extra year to make 50, was actually real. The… Read More
2023-11-29 15:00
Two weeks ago, I blogged about Stein, the Green Party's 2012 and 2016 candidate, jumping back in the race this year after Cornel West did his Lucy van Pelt and pulled away his football. I di… Read More
2023-11-28 15:05
A press release run through the Texas Press Association from Laborhutt said that was the best analogy to explain who they are.Basically, people sign up through Laborhutt to help people in th… Read More
2023-11-27 21:01
The title piece in the headline comes from Mondoweiss. It's a great piece. That said, while it's written specifically about the current situation with Israel, it applies to about all of Amer… Read More
2023-11-27 14:46
I don't know why exactly Joe Biden's new, agent-enhanced IRS decided to scare the hell out of middle-class Americans like me by sending us a letter, months removed from the end of normal tax… Read More
2023-11-24 15:00
Per a piece by Carl Zimmer, we know that there are, at a minimum, more than 3,000 different types of cells in the human brain. This is reinforcement for what I said years ago: That neuroscie… Read More
2023-11-22 18:59
Just dropping tidbits here, including parts of my editorial column from last week for starters.First, it's "lovely" that NY Mag's Intelligencer is platforming a conspiracy theorist
in Scott… Read More
2023-11-22 15:00
We need a new conspiracy theory! And I have one!Israel whacked Jack because he knew too much about Dimona!No, seriously, within the warped thinking of conspiracy theorists, this one is total… Read More
2023-11-21 20:11
It's "nice" that the Trib, and a reporter in Denton who should know better, think that Sherman is "rural" when reporting on the kerfuffle about the transgender student yanked from performing… Read More
2023-11-21 15:34
So, my House Legiscritter, David Spiller, was one of four rural
Republican members of the House, anti-vouchers steadfast through the
regular sesssion of the Texas Lege, and the first three… Read More
2023-11-20 14:43
Today, I'm plenty familiar with Juan de Oñate's barbarity, but, growing up in Gallup, New Mexico, probably about the same time that Deborah Jackson Taffa was growing up in Farmington… Read More
2023-11-17 15:00
Evolutionary psychology, or its parent/uncle, sociobiology, among its more sexist tropes, latched on to the idea first seriously propounded 60 years or so ago that males evolved to hunt, wom… Read More
2023-11-16 20:45
Having been dumb enough not to accept a presumable plea deal from County Attorney Ed Zielinski on the misdemeanor charge of obstructing a major passageway, the PRO Gainesville leadership tri… Read More
2023-11-16 18:41
Jill Stein, seeking a third Green Party presidential nominee, calls for an investigation of Bibi Netanyahu's war crimes, and for Joe Biden's abetting them.One step related to that? The Cente… Read More
2023-11-16 15:00
And even more over Katharine Hayhoe.The last person is not mentioned in a piece by Bob Henson, formerly of Weather Underground, now of Yale Climate Connections, over a battle between Hanson… Read More
2023-11-15 15:00
The LA Times writes about the Californication of Tex-ass, and how, per the old "wherever you go, there you are" pop psychology adage, they're essentially bringing many of California urbaniza… Read More
2023-11-14 19:26
The carpetbagging (you are) CD-4 Texas Congresscritter is not running for re-election.OK, that of itself no big deal.But wanting to get back his old Texas Senate District 30 seat?THAT is a b… Read More
2023-11-14 15:28
A bunch of DSA oldtimers like Harold Meyerson and Peter Dreier say they're leaving the organization, primarily because it's too strong in support of Hamas, but also because it has other puri… Read More
2023-11-13 19:44
After Cornel West did his Lucy
van Pelt and pulled the football away from the Green Party to run for president as an independent instead, 2012 and 2016 GP presidential nominee and her… Read More
2023-11-13 15:00
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has of course been an antivaxxer of long standing. But, he's far worse than that.Bob Jr. is also a Cold War 2.0 Cold Warrior, per this Tweet,
getting a boner for the p… Read More
2023-11-11 16:22
I grew up in Gallup, New Mexico, where the late Medal of Honor winner was born and lived all his life outside his military service time. As the feature part of a newspaper Veterans Day speci… Read More
2023-11-10 15:00
Multiple new items on homo sapiens in the news, some directly or indirectly via Carl Zimmer.First, we have more confirmation
for those human footprints at White Sands National Park and thei… Read More
2023-11-09 18:08
Reminder: Texas Progressives stand with Gaza despite Genocide Joe and despite an Israeli cabinet member's talk of nukes. BlueAnon may have thought I was talking about Wallbuilders' Dav… Read More
2023-11-09 15:00
This week's Roundup is split into two parts, with this first part focused on the death of vouchers in the just-ended special session of the Texas Legislature and what the future might hold.R… Read More
2023-11-08 19:00
For me, there's no reason for sodium in soda, whether as salt or as sodium benzoate used as a preservative. Livestrong has more, starting with that it can be antifungal, and this may, theore… Read More
2023-11-08 15:00
He's basically up shit creek on further big bucks from the US government, as Israel-Gaza sucks the oxygen out of the room. Plus, if new wingnut-squared Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is h… Read More
2023-11-07 20:43
Dear Leader has said "nobody's hands are clean."
He didn't explicitly include his own, and like some fellow leftist
types, it would be easy to scoff at him talking around an issue, as the… Read More
2023-11-07 19:00
PsyPost is often interesting, sometimes good. And, occasionally crap. And, on my blogroll. (For now.)When I saw the piece Friday morning with the header "Left-wing antihierarchical aggressio… Read More
2023-11-06 15:00
In the wake of Cornel West announcing a month ago that he would abandon his bid for the Green Party nomination and instead run as an independent because Jill Stein and friends wouldn't clear… Read More
2023-11-04 14:00
As is normal, these may not all be FROM October, and I'll note those that are not.As usual, reverse order from 10 to 1 with the appropriate drumroll at the end.No 10 was a Texas Progressives… Read More
2023-11-03 14:00
Since the relatively abrupt resignation of Peter Daou as his campaign manager a week ago, Cornel West needed to do something about that.And, he has, albeit more with smoke, mirrors and marke… Read More
2023-11-02 15:08
Learn about Speaker Mike Johnson, Christian nationalist.Off the Kuff expresses his Mayoral thoughts about John Whitmire and Sheila Jackson Lee. Stace makes his unpaid for, no membership… Read More
2023-11-01 18:14
A month ago, I wrote about
the planned leak of RFK Jr.'s big announcement for Oct. 9, which is, of
course, today, and the leak indicating that he will indeed run as an
independent. And, n… Read More
2023-11-01 14:02
Credit where credit is due to Elon Musk IF he follows through on his promise. Last Saturday, Musk said
he would extend Starlink connectivity to internationally recognized aid
organizations… Read More
2023-10-31 14:00
Have microbes been found inside of cancerous tumors? Maybe, maybe not.
We know that cancer is a constellation of diseases, and at least some,
per the HPV vaccine, are caused by infectious… Read More
2023-10-30 16:27
The Libertarian platform
talks about people owning their own bodies, it does NOT explicitly tie
that to "reproductive choice" or "abortion." Neither is mentioned in the
platform. An… Read More
2023-10-27 19:16
Peter Daou had this to say to people questioning him on his announcement yesterday on leaving the Cornel West presidential campaign as its campaign manager, discussed by me in an update to b… Read More
2023-10-27 07:09
I was planning on posting this a week or two ago, but a variety of other things giving me a full blogging plate made me wait. And West's announcement that he was ditching the Greens to run i… Read More
2023-10-26 18:56
I've hit multiple paywalls in the past week from both Seymour Hersh and Patrick Cockburn.And, I'm sure if I were a paid subscriber, below the fold (their paywall "folds" have been set at wel… Read More
2023-10-26 14:00
Or totally tasty, for that matter.Four years ago, I blogged about the Genetic Literacy Project touting the wonders of the Impossible Burger, and how healthy it supposedly is.And now, I have… Read More
2023-10-25 18:25
Other untrue metaphysics to come?For the second time in a month, the Observer seems to be touting
religion as a get-out-of-jail card (literally), ignoring that secular
people, including se… Read More
2023-10-25 14:00
As shown in the Louisiana governor's race, Black Democratic backing for Warmonger Joe is getting softer. There, turnout was way down; nationwide, Biden's percentage of support is softening… Read More
2023-10-25 02:28
Gym Jordan withdrew from chasing the brass ring yesterday, after losing his third vote, then getting dumped by the House GOP caucus, and at least half a dozen people,
including Pete Session… Read More
2023-10-25 01:55
The Socialist Party USA (an actual political party of actual socialists, not a "lite" interest group within the Democratic Party) has its presidential and vice presidential nominee, per Twit… Read More
2023-10-24 18:30
Small town rural America is generally bullshit as a myth,
unless, per the link, you're an American Indian living on a
Southwestern pueblo or a larger, still semi-isolated non-puebloan trib… Read More
2023-10-23 17:55
Rural House Rethuglicans have tentatively halfway caved on school vouchers, passing a combo bill
of vouchers-lite vs the Senate Bill 1, plus public school aid lite vs
SB 2, that Strangeabb… Read More
2023-10-23 14:00
When I posted a few weeks ago
about why Texans should vote "no," or even more loudly, "NO," on just
about all the constitutional amendments on next month's ballot, I
promised to do more i… Read More
2023-10-22 21:04
I heard a bit of his speech from the Oval on my radio while driving home, then read about it more.And, he's full of shit.On the radio, he said this would keep troops out of harm's way.That's… Read More
2023-10-21 04:30
When I posted a few weeks ago
about why Texans should vote "no," or even more loudly, "NO," on just
about all the constitutional amendments on next month's ballot, I
promised to do more i… Read More
2023-10-19 14:00
This corner of the Texas Progressives stands with Palestine as we bring you this week's Roundup, personally curated. The Trib writes about the vouchers bill the Senate just passed. Contra Br… Read More
2023-10-18 13:44
Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence by James Bamford
My rating: 5 of 5 starsMUST read if you're not in the US duopoly political… Read More
2023-10-17 14:00
Now, he's got the Texas-New Mexico state line wired, as well as the Rio Grande where Texas borders various Mexican states. More here. As I said on Twitter, pretty soon, Wallbuilder Joe will… Read More
2023-10-16 17:24
When I posted a few weeks ago about why Texans should vote "no," or even more loudly, "NO," on just about all the constitutional amendments on next month's ballot, I promised to do more in-d… Read More
2023-10-13 18:47
The "3P" agency, which touts the value of private-public partnerships (hence the shorthand) on things like government developed/based/organized construction projects and such, puts out a wee… Read More
2023-10-13 13:33
A couple of weeks ago, Seymour Hersh wrote on Substack: "A YEAR OF LYING ABOUT NORD STREAM" (sic on the all caps).And, my title, without the screaming all-caps header, is because it was eigh… Read More
2023-10-12 18:00
Via Twitter, per Tarrant Greens, Houston Greens have been party disaffiliated as of last year's state party meeting. I assume that Greater Houston Area Greens is the local, as its Twitt… Read More
2023-10-12 14:00
Now that the man is running as an independent (good-bye, good luck, and you're not getting my vote, in all likelihood), what's up for Greens?At the time of West's announcement, Jill Stein, w… Read More
2023-10-11 18:00
Lufkin Legiscritter Trent Ashby is begging voters to support growth for growth's sake (much of the Texas "economic miracle" along with Ill Eagles and earl), the theology of the cancer cell… Read More
2023-10-11 14:00
Last week, Independent Political Report ran a piece about former Michigan Congresscritter Justin Amash's announcement that he was removing himself from consideration for the 2024 Libertarian… Read More
2023-10-10 18:00
First, here in the US, it's "amazing" how many librulz who hate Putin also hate Palestinians, as we discuss the Hamas attack. Many of them, like many neocons and the Religious Right, repeat… Read More
2023-10-10 14:00
Wayne (Not A) Christian, head of the Texas Railroad Commission, is following the decade-plus old steps of former Texas Comptroller Susan Combs and hating on the dunes sagebrush lizard, which… Read More
2023-10-09 18:04
Electric vehicles may actually need MORE automotive labor man-hours than internal-combustion engine ones, and the claims the other way appear to be nothing more than urban manufacturing lege… Read More
2023-10-09 14:06
Ten days ago, I wrote about the planned leak of RFK Jr.'s big announcement for Oct. 9, which is, of course, today, and the leak indicating that he will indeed run as an independent.I noted… Read More
2023-10-07 14:30
Gay and lesbian sex DOES have evolutionary benefits in the animal world, contra the old "Darwinian paradox."AC can be made more climate friendly, or less climate unfriendly. A big part of th… Read More
2023-10-06 17:43
Between West leaving the Green Party for an independent run and RFK leaving the Dems for the same, presumably without making a move to the Libertarian Party, President Joe Biden has dodged t… Read More
2023-10-06 14:00
And, nuttery it is, not only as a conspiracy theory, but Hersh's apparent first ax-grinding against the Navy Seals, as I noted when first discussing his Nord Stream nuttery, or even more, th… Read More
2023-10-05 20:46
Cornel West's announement today he was ditching the Greens to run independent has me scratching my head, to say the least.I
said, a couple of months ago, when West decided to run as a… Read More
2023-10-05 18:00
Started this a couple of days late, but here we go. Again, these are not all from September, but the top 10 by viewership for the month. Old posts will be indicated as such.No. 10? I called… Read More
2023-10-05 05:46
I think I'm going to do more "bare links" plus minimal commentary bulletin board stuff like this, on this and other political issues, from now through the election next year.Anyway, first?Wa… Read More
2023-10-04 15:42
Not with the lowest attendance at a playoff game in more than 100 years. (I also have to "love" that the Trop has a listed playoff capacity of just 26K because the Rays cover up seats becaus… Read More
2023-10-04 14:00
SocraticGadfly offers up a trio of national and international presidential-related items. He starts with Ralph Nader jumping into the lesser evilism tank, goes to an overview of Trump suing… Read More
2023-10-03 15:01
No, not the COVID vaccine, but the scientists who first developed the idea of using messenger RNA as a transmission vector in a vaccine. #Schadenfreude for the antivaxxers in general and Dr… Read More
2023-10-02 14:00
I'm talking about the Senate dress code, or now lack thereof, and now returned again, flap.Clothes may make the man, or woman; they do, also make the class distinctions.And? If you don't wan… Read More
2023-09-30 19:19
Interesting, but not totally surprising, and also not totally smart to make this move.Given that he's already talked to Libertarian Party chair Angela McArdle, his growing frustration with t… Read More
2023-09-29 18:41
That would be, of course, former president Donald Trump, suing former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, he of the "Steele Dossier" and the alleged but non-existent "piss tape" and other artifa… Read More
2023-09-29 14:19
She shouldn't have run for re-election her last time, and wouldn't have won her primary had the California Democratic Party not cleared the decks for her. Shades of Hillary Clinton in 2016 a… Read More
2023-09-28 18:35
Off the Kuff brings you a look at the Constitutional amendments on the ballot, including the one you should definitely vote against. SocraticGadfly calls Dan Patrick's bluff on impeachm… Read More
2023-09-28 15:25
Via Independent Political Report, I did not have Ralph Nader openly plumping for the lesser evilism of the right hand of the duopoly. That's even though, given his broad political history (s… Read More
2023-09-27 19:28
Yes, r/politics, the alleged all US political news website (it's not, I have experience of that), which is really, with many posts, little more than a #BlueAnon circle jerk.Take this one, ab… Read More
2023-09-27 18:00
Dems in the Lege talk about "weak consensus"
in the party (shock me) ahead of Strangeabbott's special session on
school vouchers. I'll await the turd-polishing by state-level #BlueAnon
pu… Read More
2023-09-26 17:46
Probably not.First, as with previous boosters, they're not really "indicated" for anybody under 65. The Conversation analyzes the new COVID vaccine. What they may not tell you is that COVID… Read More
2023-09-26 14:00
Dade "Dade" Phelan, Texas House Speaker, said "the fix was in from the start" in an op-ed he wrote for his hometown Beaumont Enterprise. That, in turn, set off not only Dan Patrick Goeb hims… Read More
2023-09-25 14:00
Well, actually the president, not the king, but you know what I mean.Last week, the Associated Press had a piece about the looming government shutdown. As part of that, it had a graphic of p… Read More
2023-09-23 14:34
I was calling out Ken Burns for promoting American exceptionalism in his PBS documentaries (mockumentaries?) more than 15 years ago.But, the photo above, from this Pro Publica piece not actu… Read More
2023-09-22 13:49
If this announcement, and the Texas Tribune's huzzahs and handsprings over it, doesn't sum up the Trib, as well as my feelings over it, what could?The Trib thinks Yachtsman Joe Manchin will… Read More
2023-09-21 18:24
He boasts about his use of Rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to try to boot Trump off the ballot.But, he downplays one thing.The Rule grants a preliminary injunction or a tempo… Read More
2023-09-21 14:00
Off the Kuff documents the conclusion of the Paxton impeachment trial, and then reacts to the verdict. (My own take on the verdict is here.)SocraticGadfly offers up reviews of two politics-t… Read More
2023-09-20 17:37
Yet more, from Harper's,
on how, after early post-election promises, how Zelensky refused to
further confront corruption (being faced down by oligarchs that had
helped get him elected) an… Read More
2023-09-20 14:29
Her austerity moves after the Great Recession, even years after, even to the point of nearly tanking all the PIIGS, and definitely tanking Greece, have been assessed and reassesed plenty.No… Read More
2023-09-19 13:18
I mean, in reality, the Lege has been cutting home rule rights for years. The plastic bags issue. The fracking in city limits issue. And, in both those cases and others, Tex-ass courts have… Read More
2023-09-18 18:39
Saturday, after the last vote in the Ken Paxton impeachment trial, Lite Guv Danny Goeb said he wants the Texas Constitution amended on impeachment-related issues.Fine.Let's start with one TH… Read More
2023-09-18 14:30
Don't mourn the death of Zeus,
the world's tallest dog, for the wrong reasons. Rather, mourn that
we're creating inbred purebred dogs that die before their fourth
birthday. Mourn that we'… Read More
2023-09-16 18:13
If even a Robert Nichols voted to acquit on about half of the 16 counts ...And, if even one-third of Democrats voted to acquit on Article 8, why were even here for half these charges? Why we… Read More
2023-09-16 13:35
So, Dr. Leana Wen reportedly has COVID for the third time, and a column where she talks about lingering pneumonia but does not actually use the word COVID about herself is being used by COVI… Read More
2023-09-15 14:00
A week ago, I talked about "The worst GOP nightmare for both 2024 and 2028." It of course centered on former president Donald Trump's multiple criminal indictments, how they are not affectin… Read More
2023-09-14 13:51
A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan by Michael Kazin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was on about page 120, the run-up to the 1904 Democratic convention, when the light bulb turned on… Read More
2023-09-13 18:38
Per Lizzie Warren, who took an ax, and gave a Cherokee 40 whacks, vs. wingnut trollmeister farm owner Elon Musk, on Ukraine and Starlink?First, to go beyond Josh Marshall responding to a slo… Read More
2023-09-13 14:00
First, the Paxton trial. Per my updates added to last week's "final overview" piece, I correct my previous "three weeks" guesstimate to a month or so. More Klyde Warrens in the Metromess? Th… Read More
2023-09-12 18:45
A week ago, I wrote about that Cochrane Review study of early this year that didn't claim all that much and certainly didn't claim what its Great Barrington-associated lead author said it di… Read More
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