2022-07-21 13:11
I still don't think our worry level needs to be as high as Jessica Wildfire had it a month ago, but ...Former FDA head Scott Gottlieb (who pleasantly surprised me there and is one of many no… Read More
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Socraticgadfly Blog
socraticgadfly.blogspot.com
A skeptical left-liberal's blogging on Texas and national politics, environmentalism, journalism, church-state issues, atheism, more
2022-07-20 18:12
SocraticGadfly calls out the "Deep in the Heart" Texas wildlife film for Texas exceptionalism and greenwashing, among other things.Off the Kuff has the first fully post-Dobbs poll to analyze… Read More
2022-07-19 14:49
Several items on the heat wave.First, it's going to be here another full month, in all likelihood, as is the drought. So, ERCOT may still suck, but you need to still conserve.Matter of fac… Read More
2022-07-18 17:14
I would say that the Texas Democratic Party decided to stay with the captain of a sinking ship, but Gilberto Hinojosa never did raise the SS Texas Democrats from the bottom of the Gulf in th… Read More
2022-07-18 01:06
Or, to be more precise, the announcement that is will be here in 2027 is now here. That's straight from the spavined mule's mouth of Muhammad bin Salman, who announced as part of the Biden S… Read More
2022-07-15 16:22
Ed Yong has a good summary of what we know (and don't) about this Omicron subvariant.First, despite an increased number of breakthrough infections on the vaccinated, he notes that this is st… Read More
2022-07-14 19:06
Specifically, a longform at Counterpunch has Noam Chomsky responding to four Ukrainian economists in the US and their previous critique of him, them responding to this response, and basicall… Read More
2022-07-14 13:50
Refuting the lies of Barry GanderAnd lies they are.Some people who read foreign policy stories here are familiar with the Russia-bashing, Cold War mentality, facts-light stories of Barr… Read More
2022-07-13 18:53
First? Post-Dobbs, allegedly (important), vasectomy and tube-tying are surging in red states.That story about the pregnant 10-year-old girl in Ohio reportedly denied an abortion there? I'm… Read More
2022-07-13 14:00
A bit late, but reading was surely slow over the three-day Fourth of July weekend.As usual, not all of the most popular posts were from June. Just, they got read then! In fact, the first two… Read More
2022-07-12 14:00
Uvalde's mayor denied a research report that a city cop had a chance to shoot the Robb Elementary gunman. I suspect we're going to see more and more denials by both local and state officials… Read More
2022-07-11 19:25
Sorry, Texas Observer, but color me meh about this new Texas wildlife video you tout. Ocelots are the only truly rare species to Texas. Egrets? All over the place in multiple species, alon… Read More
2022-07-11 14:00
Warmonger Joe decided to counter high crude prices due to NATO barking at Russia tied to the Russia-Ukraine war thereafter, by opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve floodgates. Problem?… Read More
2022-07-09 17:56
Latest poll from CBS: Abbott's kicking Beto's ass by 55-30 among independents. Now Kuff says "pre-Dobbs," but ignores that, in the run-up to that, after the Supreme Court leak, Dems and Dem… Read More
2022-07-08 14:00
So says a story from late last month in the Guardian. Based on the degree of case undercounting in New York City, it estimated that current nationwide undercounting may be 30-fold. Thirty-FO… Read More
2022-07-07 18:05
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that part of why he launched his "special mission" into Ukraine was to de-Nazify it. Nat-sec But, there's a bigger elephant in the room for Put… Read More
2022-07-07 13:37
That's the takeaway from this TNR piece.Agreeing to fund more fossil fuel exploration abroad, and reneging on previous promises not to, is bad?But why? Germany, especially, got addicted to R… Read More
2022-07-06 14:00
If the Atlanta Fed is right, we're already in a recession.On the other hand, commodities prices have peaked, at least for now. However, that's not necessarily a sign of real-world inflation… Read More
2022-07-05 18:19
Related? Will the Sunset Commission actually do anything to fix the state's polluter in chief, I mean pollution agency in chief, the Texas Association for Environmental Quality, and its repu… Read More
2022-07-05 14:23
Many environmental organizations engaged in wailing and gnashing of teeth last week Thursday, followed by fundraising appeals, of course.Since Grist isn't the likes of Sierra Club, it didn't… Read More
2022-07-04 18:55
O Say Can You Hear?: A Cultural Biography of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Mark ClagueMy rating: 5 of 5 starsAn interesting, lighter-side at times and rollicking, but deeper at times and wit… Read More
2022-07-01 14:00
Yeah, it's easy to stereotype younger generations. But, when they serve up stupidity on a platter, it's not stereotyping.Via an independent PR rep who regularly emails my newspaper:A recent… Read More
2022-06-30 17:46
Cue up your Paul Harvey dulcet tones.Many media sites, especially across the pond, reported earlier this week on a Feb. 20 call between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President… Read More
2022-06-30 14:27
Per The Hill, I just threw up in Maddow's mouth.As I quote-Tweeted Jeff St. Clair, from whom I heard this, have Merikkka's entertainers ever done this for Iraq? Afghanistan? Yemen?Or, occupi… Read More
2022-06-29 14:00
Texas Green Party gubernatorial candidate Delilah Barrios, a Second Amendment absolutist, has this on her platform:A free people must have the right to bear arms. “Civil Wars happen wh… Read More
2022-06-28 14:00
The new gun control bill is better than nothing, but not THAT much. No age increase to buy assault weapons, let alone no bans, and it punts to courts defining exactly who falls in the "boy… Read More
2022-06-27 13:23
I don't know if Ross Douthat is PERSONALLY challenging the pro-life forces to show they're not a bunch of anti-woman cranks in the wake of Roe being overturned, but he clearly notes, persona… Read More
2022-06-24 14:00
It IS "deeply problematic" in many ways, contra the capitalist grifters for Xi Jinping, like Max Blumenthal, let alone, the Xi Jinping Thought stanners like Howie Hawkins and Margaret Flower… Read More
2022-06-23 14:00
Does abortion traumatize or "wound" many women? A major longitudinal study says probably not, BUT Annie Lowrey at the Atlantic overstates the case; 14 percent feeling sadness five years lat… Read More
2022-06-22 14:00
This Medium piece has the details. The rah-rah NYT blaming Ukrainians for not giving the US enough intelligence after previously swallowing Ukrainian claims lock, stock and barrel. Individua… Read More
2022-06-21 14:00
Meet Dr. Leana Wen, COVID ConservaDem careerist. Is it too harsh to say that the Biden Administration has its own version of "let 'er rip"? I'm not sure. The argument against the "cases don'… Read More
2022-06-20 19:16
If you can't admit you're in the most socialistic state in the nation (you are), or even if you can, but know your neighbors, and more importantly, your state legislature, can't or won't, yo… Read More
2022-06-19 18:43
State GOP conventionThe Trib has a roundup of major platform planks which doesn't even note that the Rethugs shifted even further rightward on adult gay rights. Well, wait, that was in a sec… Read More
2022-06-17 18:30
Wondering just that issue, the Quincy Institute profiles the Institute for the Study of War, the eminences grisé behind Nat-Sec Nutsacks™, and the bottom feeders of information… Read More
2022-06-17 14:00
Tsar Vladimir I reportedly, according to the Washington Examiner, is riffing on Peter the Great and threatening Estonia. But, Tom Rogan, noting that "flypaper" troops from the 82nd Airborne… Read More
2022-06-16 18:50
That's the angle from this piece, which says that 1 in 6 people inherited at least one copy of a Neanderthal gene that makes people more subject to respiratory infections.Color me skeptical… Read More
2022-06-16 17:09
I'm coming closer to unsubscribing from Jessica Wildfire's "OK Doomer" Substack. I saw it via one of her Medium posts a few months back, and signed up for it, just by email address, though… Read More
2022-06-16 13:50
If American companies didn't hand trade and manufacturing secrets to China like blank checks — another part of America's general craptacular kowtowing to China, including trade relatio… Read More
2022-06-15 18:45
Or, per my citing of Idries Shah:To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.Is the truth somewhere in b… Read More
2022-06-15 14:48
Starbucks' Howard Schultz is the latest CEO to beg for white-collar workers to come back to the office. First, regular readers may recollect why I reference Idries Shah. For those that don't… Read More
2022-06-14 14:00
Ronald Reagan, late 1960s, reminds us that White folk carrying guns in public is OK. Not others, and especially not Blacks.Must have been Groundhog Day in Uvalde last week. Uvalde ISD Police… Read More
2022-06-13 18:00
A year ago, you tech neoliberal types spiked the cost of a new house there to more than $600K. Perhaps not as bad as the Bay Area, but I venture worse than Sacramento. And, in your lust for… Read More
2022-06-13 14:00
Via Kuff, who's not an actual environmentalist type except to "own the wingnuts," AFAIK, word is that, contra my early, detailed, and ongoing, pleas for this not to happen, the House, in ove… Read More
2022-06-10 18:53
I recently upgraded on the Canon side to an 800D, the European equivalent of a Rebel T7i. My previous Canon was a T4i that I had replaced almost three years ago with a Nikon D5500, the equiv… Read More
2022-06-09 16:11
Uvalde and related The Trib says that even some Texas GOP donors want something done on gun control — and by Congress, not at the state level — as in things like a red flag law a… Read More
2022-06-08 14:00
MBS is of course Saudi Arabia's "scary motherfucker" (per Phil Mickelson) de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. President Biden says nothing is set in stone, but is planning on… Read More
2022-06-07 15:06
As COVID news slows down, I'm more likely to not post every week. I didn't last week.Per the header, two weeks ago, I noted that many said this was NOT just a blip, the latest surge. And, th… Read More
2022-06-06 14:44
As is the case, not all of these posts may have been FROM May. However, many are.This one was a hit in its first 24 hours, then faded again rapidly. It was about all the things wrong with sm… Read More
2022-06-04 17:54
As we await finding out whether the recently leaked draft Supreme Court ruling on the Mississippi abortion rights law portends a final ruling or not, I decided it was time to revisit one of… Read More
2022-06-03 14:00
Two regional Russian legislators, both Communist Party members, were sacked and called traitors after calling for an end to the war.== Warmonger Joe Biden is clearly not interested in liste… Read More
2022-06-02 18:17
Reuters, referencing a semi-breathless Financial Times piece (and FT itself if you subscribe) should be read carefully.The Saudis will ONLY pump more oil, at least a significant greater amou… Read More
2022-06-02 14:00
The best truth? This is a great roundup of Zelenskyy's corruption. It's all in there — Zelenskyy's general corruption, his connection to Ukrainian oligarchs generally worse than Russia… Read More
2022-06-01 17:56
SocraticGadfly wonders if even any of the Goldilocks Three Bears of Kissinger, Chomsky or the NYT editorial board (plus Pope Francis being more honest about NATO than Biden), will persuade a… Read More
2022-05-31 19:51
The Uvalde cops themselves LIED. That's CLEAR by now. Why does Big Media continue to euphemize about "changing narratives"? I'm with Chris Hooks and others: they simply can't, or won't, wrap… Read More
2022-05-30 22:16
The last 24-48 hours have left me more convinced, barring definite changes on her part, that I won't be voting for Green Party candidate Delilah Barrios for gov, and post-Uvalde, if he… Read More
2022-05-27 13:58
This is NOT just a once in a blue moon, but a once in a blue lunar eclipse that I would agree with Darth Kissinger, Hank the Knife or whatever you will, but ...He's right in specifically cal… Read More
2022-05-26 14:43
So, BA.2.12.1 variant is on the rise, but all the medical experts the Trib talks to say it's less deadly than earlier ones. Seems to me we were told the same about omicron vs delta, and it a… Read More
2022-05-25 14:00
Nathan Robinson interviewed Anatol Lieven, who offered a Realpolitik in the good sense view of the Russia-Ukraine war, starting with Team Biden doubling down on poking the Russian bear with… Read More
2022-05-24 14:00
"Nice" that Houston area ConservaDem Lizzle Fletcher, fresh off mouth-breathing "drill baby drill" now thinks that price gouging isn't a real issue, even though gasoline prices are higher to… Read More
2022-05-22 16:59
Then graduations and graduation speeches are wasted BY the young.This is connected to my post last night about small town values.Hearing small-town, small-county high school grads with their… Read More
2022-05-21 20:22
At one time in MeriKKKa, supposedly, good old law-abiding, god-fearing White folks, the menfolk half, took their hats off when inside.Not any more.At a graduation ceremony at a rural outpost… Read More
2022-05-20 19:08
At The Nation, Gregg Gonsalves demolishes this claim.Unfortunately, he doesn't look at the politics behind this, especially the politics behind the CDC's officially backing the "cases don't… Read More
2022-05-20 14:00
And not from a parishioner.With a private as well as public high school in my current newspaper bailiwick, I occasionally, as in once a year, have to stick my head inside the local Catholic… Read More
2022-05-19 14:00
Per a presumably accurate translation, Putin's May 9 Victory Day speech went kind of flat. Rehashing of old tropes. No actual declaration of war nor deeper incitement to patriotism. Kind of… Read More
2022-05-18 15:41
A good overall piece by STAT, with snooty marketing behind it, caught my eye last week and I didn't get it in last week's roundup of COVID news.First, the good takeaways, good in terms of in… Read More
2022-05-17 18:35
The slash in the header is because this blogger distinguishes between transgender and transsexual, as does the National Institutes of Health. Several state rulings related to that in the pas… Read More
2022-05-17 14:00
538 has good polling details on how much Americans support abortion AT what stage of a pregnancy and WITH what restrictions. Pro-choice people, even if not "abortion on demand" types, should… Read More
2022-05-16 14:00
So, ERCOT tells people here in Tex-ass to keep their thermostats at 78 degrees this last weekend because several power plants were offline for summerization? Can't ERCOT either get thes… Read More
2022-05-14 05:34
Note the following resolution, adopted last month at the state convention: "A disciplinary list should be created and composed of the names of individuals who are not in good standing with… Read More
2022-05-13 14:00
Last week, after blogging my piece calling The Squad as really The Fraud for embracing Biden's Ukrainian warmongering bill, I twice Tweeted the link to David Sirota and his latest online new… Read More
2022-05-12 14:00
Back after a week off on the theme to various notes for this week.Katharine J. Wu says that Omicron's numerous variants and mutability have put paid to herd immunity. But, she says we can st… Read More
2022-05-11 18:40
Via a Twitter friend, I saw this great paper by a Canadian academic that addresses the reality of all those issues.One thing the bipartisan foreign policy establishment and its fellow travel… Read More
2022-05-11 14:00
The magazine, in talking about what a name means behind Western place names (and going into colonialism behind that, natch) asks a Navajo for the native name of the San Francisco Peaks.And… Read More
2022-05-10 18:32
The Northern Ireland wing of Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist political party, won a plurality in Northern Ireland local parliamentary elections Saturday. I don't know if somebody will coali… Read More
2022-05-10 14:00
Off the Kuff reminds us that Texas Republicans are way out of step with public opinion on abortion. Stace lectures us all regarding taking advantage of Democratic majorities before it'… Read More
2022-05-09 18:19
In light of the SCOTUS leak, the Trib reports that 78 percent of Texans think abortion should be allowed in some form. Bold is very necessary on this issue; here's the poll, which does not p… Read More
2022-05-09 13:52
I reported last month that the latest UN IPCC climate crisis report says that without strenuous human action, we're likely to hit 3C — nearly 6F for Americans — of climate temper… Read More
2022-05-07 14:30
Notes from a primary runoff candidates forum held Thursday.It’s “nice” that Cooke County Republican Women’s invocation person supports #StartTheSteal and at the same… Read More
2022-05-06 14:00
Yes, I wound up with a third different "main idea" on the war this week, so, three threads. Here's the third, with some ancillary thoughts as well.Nice story at the Atlantic by Peter Pomeran… Read More
2022-05-05 18:18
Ilhan Omar, AOC, and the rest of the Squad are officially frauds. See this embedded Tweet on Omar's claims versus reality.How it started How it’s going pic.twitter.com/M9lbcjK… Read More
2022-05-05 14:00
In his usual violation of at least spirit if not the letter of fair use regulations through his massive block-quoting, Kuff blogs about a new piece in the New Orleans Times-Picayune talking… Read More
2022-05-04 19:39
In a snippet from a much longer interview posted by Glennwald, Noam Chomsky not only doubles down on a stance of his since the start of the war — a negotiated peace, with which I heart… Read More
2022-05-04 13:44
These were the most read posts of last month by readers. As normal, not all of them are from last month. Older ones will be marked as such.No. 1 was from last month, based on new information… Read More
2022-05-03 16:00
Ross Ramsey tries to have his brisket and eat it too, fellating Texas exceptionalism while at the same time talking about all the things Texas needs to be fixed to be exceptional. I won't mi… Read More
2022-05-03 11:00
In case you haven't died or lost Internet access, it's this leak. And, this is going to attack people in both duopoly parties, so let's start with Bernie SandersGee Bernie, why didn't you as… Read More
2022-05-02 18:27
Dallas College, the old DCCCD, seems to be imploding, the Dallas Observer reports. (Long read) The DO says it's not all due to the consolidation, which was needed in some ways (I had no id… Read More
2022-04-30 18:00
That, in the header, is Jessica Wildfire's take. She notes that vaccine protection is continuing to wane, that more and more people have long COVID, that children appear more vulnerable that… Read More
2022-04-29 14:41
Patrick Cockburn says neither side will "win," and that it looks more like Syria and that if we recognize that, the sooner we get to negotiations.Ed Luttwak also weighs in on how to get to n… Read More
2022-04-28 13:30
So much Russia-Ukraine news, including one bigly item from last night, I split the update into two.Let's jump in.==Guess we may have to talk about Polish and Bulgarian tankies as well as th… Read More
2022-04-27 13:26
Texas' Green Party gubernatorial candidate was on Ryan Knight's podcast recently.A few thoughts.First, the Lege is who passes constitutional amendments to send to the public, and they need a… Read More
2022-04-26 13:38
To start this week's Roundup, I cannot recommend enough this piece by Jessica Wildfire. It's a bit hyperbolic on COVID, as no, not each new variant is worse than the previous. But, it's good… Read More
2022-04-25 14:00
I saw this call for a "gas boycott" from Earth Day to May Day in my email last Friday.Here's what the call is for:We must hit profiteers where they feel it. Let’s slow the cash flow th… Read More
2022-04-23 15:00
Not quite two weeks ago, I wrote a post about the dangers of Russia-cancelling. I linked at the sports stats site Hockey Reference to Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitols, as a Russian a… Read More
2022-04-22 14:00
That's my take on Orlando Figes' "A People's Tragedy," about the Russian Revolutions, plus the run-up to them starting with the coronation of Nicholas II, and more importantly for this blog… Read More
2022-04-21 18:00
I seem to have cheesed off the old Miami Gator Campbell last night with this tweet.Yeah, if anything, Geoff strikes me as a down the line bipartisan foreign policy establishment blank chec… Read More
2022-04-21 14:00
In a long new piece, NY Mag gets a number of things right, including but by no means limited to rejecting China's official coronavirus death claims. Part of what it gets right is the correct… Read More
2022-04-20 21:33
First? Fuck Google.Googul and its Nazgul nowhere define what "exploits, dismisses or condones" means. Does that mean anything in the US that doesn't conform to the bipartisan foreign policy… Read More
2022-04-20 16:32
The first and second are tied. A semi-incompetent US district judge in Florida, Kathryn Kimball Mazelle, on Tuesday presumed she knew more than SCOTUS and four appeals courts and said that… Read More
2022-04-19 15:49
Ill Eagles are generally grateful for Strangeabbott's free bus ride to DC. And, it's based on lies (of course) about Biden being some sort of border sugar daddy. So, too, is Strange's border… Read More
2022-04-14 18:32
The TSTA Blog has some straight answers to why there's a teacher shortage. And it says teacher pay is No. 1, at $7K below the national average.OTOH, outside of possibly Austin, the Tex… Read More
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