These are direct quotes reproduced in series. They’re only removed from the op-ed for clarity. People need to see that this is exactly what the regime itself is telling the American public in the Iranian Lego propaganda which lambastes and humiliates the American military while conveying our obvious weaknesses.

First, we urgently need a more affordable, more comprehensive approach to countering the drone threat. [...] We need a truly layered defense, one that begins with disrupting drone supply chains and factories, and then uses electronic warfare to stymie drones from afar, deploys interceptor drones and other solutions to defeat drones at a lower cost and reserves pricey advanced missiles for the threats that truly demand them. We must also change how we design, supply and position our forces, including dispersing them more widely and fortifying our bases and infrastructure — both at home and abroad. [...] We also need wider and deeper stockpiles of munitions and the industrial capacity to rapidly replenish them under pressure. [...] We must think seriously about how to deepen our strategic resilience and keep the global economy functioning when an adversary’s strategy hinges on disrupting it. [...] Making the institutional changes to learn these lessons will be hard — but as the Iran war has already demonstrated, doing so is not optional.

That last line is pretty blunt, and it’s what matters. Austin is saying institutional changes are not optional.” Wake up. That’s how big brass is trained to say “what we’re doing isn’t working and we’re losing.”

Do you know where that money goes? […] 3.8 billion dollars a year. That money goes right back to the US to purchase weapon systems. For example, every round of ammo that the IDF shoots is manufactured just outside of where I live in Little Rock Arkansas. The components, a lot of them, for the Iron Dome and the Arrow 3 missile defense systems are manufactured near Camden Arkansas.

Let’s do some work on that. Who manufactures ammunition near Little Rock Arkansas. That would be SIG Sauer. Looking into this it seems others have reported on contracts for weapons between the IDF and SIG Sauer, but it’s still interesting. All the more so when all sources I can find label SIG Sauer as boycott safe.

The other contractor Huckabee references seems to be L3Harris, but they don’t seem to sell products to consumers anyway.

I just saw this property on OpenStreetMap.

Using the satellite imagery, I can see that it’s now got stuff happening in and around it including a not-mapped soccer field in the top right.

This looks familiar. I look at the history for this node.

I remember this. You can see immediately that it was added by EvanCarroll — me. This is an old psychiatry hospital named HopeBridge that had a ton of scandals. I digitized it after it closed as a disused hospital. Now it’s back, but with a soccer field, presumably with different owners. Nothing new there.

I want to update the listing so I go searching for information on the address “5556 Gasmer, Houston TX 77035.” I can’t find anything. I turn to HCAD. I search there. HCAD lists the owner of the property at 5556 GASMER MANAGEMENT LLC.” They’re intentionally trying to keep this anonymous. Fishy. Not the end of the world but this is sketch.

I search on Google Maps which knows them as “Children first residential care Gasmer.” Interesting. No website in their Google Maps listing. Nothing. What kind of hospital relies on word-of-mouth?

There is a website for Children First Inc. But, it’s not clear it’s the right group. The Google Maps listing is for Children First Residential Care. That website is Children First Clinical Care.

Searching for permutations on that name I was able to find this this PDF, which tells me its Project Name “Children First Residential Care - CFRC - Gasmer”. This confirms the address is still “5556 Gasmer Dr., Houston, TX 77035”.

Doing more research on this I find this case filing, and it says this,

GHIRP has been providing legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children in Galveston and Houston since 2020, when the organization was founded. Since the organization opened, our legal services dedicated to unaccompanied immigrant children have expanded each year. In 2020, we provided direct representation to approximately 35 unaccompanied immigrant children. In 2021, GHIRP initiated services in a newly opened ORR facility in Houston (Children's First Residential Care TX Gasmer), providing KYR presentations, intakes, direct representation, social services, and referrals for children who were released to other jurisdictions. In 2023, GHIRP began providing the same legal services to unaccompanied children in a second ORR shelter named LSSS Upbring Krause Children's Center. GHIRP’s direct representation services dedicated to children who are not in custody have also expanded, from 35 cases in our first year of existence (2020) to now serving approximately 300 clients per year (2025). Currently, GHIRP serves a combined annual number of nearly 1,500 children per year, including approximately 1,500 children detained in ORR custody, approximately 300 children receiving direct representation services per year, 120-150 children receiving social services per year, and approximately 35-50 children receiving pro se assistance per year.

• GHIRP = Galveston-Houston Immigration Representation Project

• ORR = Office of Refugee Resettlement

• KYR = Know Your Rights

It turns out this is one of the detention prisons for unaccompanied kids managed by a contractor for the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

I found a secret kid prison in my neighborhood using OpenStreetMap.

I believe a similar story in 2018 was published about these with Amy Goodman’s reporting.

Defunding PBS isn’t very unpopular as far as Republican priorities go. According to a Pew Poll from March 25, 2025, which polled on PBS and NPR,

• A minority — 43% — want to see PBS funded.1

• A minority — 24% — want to see PBS defunded.

• 33% are unsure.

Defunding PBS only trails funding PBS by 20 points! Compare that to the chasm of a 94% disagreement on the Republican coverup and handling of the Epstein files. Still, for me this is alarming. I have a son. He watches material funded by PBS. I understand the visceral desire to save it and the liberal outrage.

Why then am I relatively indifferent to defunding it? I have two reasons. For this I’ll focus on one element of PBS which is probably the most beloved: Sesame Street. The show I personally grew up on. The last 10 years have been peppered with campaigns which have been built around framing the demise of Sesame Street as apocalyptic: take for example this five year old clip from AJ+, “Why There Will Never Be Another Sesame Street.” In this article, I’ll optimistically challenge that narrative.

The Left’s problem with PBS

With regard to PBS, there are two problems facing it today:

• The content doesn’t stand out.

• The ownership of the material doesn’t stand out.

As for the content not standing out: that’s simple: Ms. Rachel is amazing. I don’t have a strong opinion as to what is better for my son: Ms. Rachel, or Sesame Street. Newer material has come along which, even if not better, is comparable.

The other issue is the focal point of my gripe. It is what I see as a critical failure of PBS: the ownership model of the content they fund.

Content Ownership

Now that I’m older and have a child, I want to download Sesame Street for him. I want that to be the only content on his video player. I have funded this content, one may reason it’s mine. However, it’s not, and I can’t do this — legally anyway.

Sesame Street is not in the public domain, and there is no license that would allow me to make use of the content. Like any Tesla or Apple product you’ll never “own” Sesame Street. This is probably a shock, since you pay five million dollars a year to fund it. However, it is what it is. The characters are privately owned. The show is privately owned. PBS only ever obtains a “license” for it. As does HBO, and Netflix.

• I can’t download the episodes.

• I can’t publicly show them.

• I can’t use them in my own products and services.

This is in my opinion crazy. I’m being asked to fund Sesame Workshop — a private franchise — which I have no control over in exchange for very limited access to the material I funded. That access is defined in their “Terms of Use" where they write,

We require users to respect our copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property rights; we enforce those rights.

Their copyrights? Why am I funding the growth of “their copyrights?” How is this different from funding Disney with tax money? Granted, Disney is corporately owned rather than owned by a non-profit, but does it matter? And, if so, why? I don’t want a nicer owner. I want to own it.

How does this propriety play out? Sesame Workshop sues companies for making “knock-off” products available which is capitalist for “more affordable:” a lack of licensing fees makes the product cheaper with the cost-savings rolled back to the consumer. They attempt to control culture by restricting use of references to Sesame Street. And, they issue DMCA takedowns on YouTube for people who share “their” content. While I can’t find any examples of them suing individuals for personal infringement, they could liquidate their entire catalog and sell it to Disney or Lionsgate at any point in time which certainly would prosecute personal infringement.

I’m not trying to make Sesame Worship out to be malicious. On the contrary, they’re at the very least exceptionally transparent2. According to their filings in 2024,

• Their CEO, Stephen Youngwood, makes in excess of 1 million.

• The president makes in excess of $850,000.

• The next 11 highest earners in the organization average $420,000.

It’s interesting how much money there is to be made managing the copyrights and trademarks on the business side for content that we should own.

If it seems abrasive to attack Sesame Street, there is no nice way for Sesame Street to own that which we already paid for. There is no nice way to direct government funds into driving the further growth of an asset portfolio which currently sits at $560 million USD. There is no nice way to take money from PBS licensing when your yearly revenue is $187 million USD.

The commons, or die

Change the dynamic a bit, and my reception would be totally different. If we owned the characters and the franchise collectively then public educators could use, modify, and adapt the characters as they’d see fit. If I could download the episodes legally, I could host and stream the episodes internally in my house. I could take them on road trips without needing an internet connection. Everything about my assessment would change. Then we’d be justifying an investment rather than a subscription. I would love to see open text books, coloring books, and interactive material made with Sesame Street characters; I have none of that because it’s not ours.

All of these issues raised are remedied with the Creative Commons licenses. If Sesame Street was licensed under CC-SA-BY, you could remix, modify, and share the content that you’re funding. But, as Americans, we can be even more demanding than that. We have a category for things that all Americans own in common, the “public domain.” Things we fund should immediately be placed in it. Not held by a private non-profit holding company.

Conclusion

I want my country to own the children’s shows we fund. For five million dollars a year, we should be working towards that. Not funding a cartel of Elmo via Sesame Workshop, or “The Fred Rogers Company” (the similar non-profit holding firm for Mr. Rogers). We shouldn’t be putting ourselves in a position to perpetually license the content we already funded. It’s unacceptable, and we should demand more.

The last time we lost a beloved resource owned by a private entity which time has shown no one would miss was Britannica. Britannica was an Encyclopedia owned by the University of Chicago. It was one of many that you could purchase in print, and digitally. In the 1990s, every middle school, high school, and library owned both formats. A single copy cost $1,500. A subscription (still sold) runs $199/year. If you feel an Encyclopedia is necessary for education, imagine forcing all educational institutions to license or buy a copy. Worse, imagine a world where public schools were sued for recording and distributing content owned by the publisher of Britannica. This was the state of affairs.

Now we all have Wikipedia. Individuals made the investment to create an Encyclopedia which we all own. You can copy it, edit it, modify it, use it in your educational materials, talk about it in anyway you’d like, reproduce it (fully), download it and host it offline. For all its shortcomings, it’s ours. I wouldn’t go back to Britannica even if they stopped charging. This is the mode of ownership PBS needs to embrace. We need to bid Big Bird farewell. He needs to go the way of Britannica.

Is this really even worth talking about? Probably not. I am being idealistic. Moreover, if my only choice is my dollar in the hands of big-Big Bird, or my dollar in the hands of Israel’s genocide-industrial complex, I’ll go with The Bird.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:7-29.0.0

I had a call at 1:00 PM on a Tuesday: I was terminated. I had seen it coming for a while. Something about it aggravated my back pain. 😉 Before 5:00 pm that day I had purchased an $1,800 Herman Miller chair. This is my story.

An idiot’s guide to an FSA

A Flexible Spending Account or FSA restricts what you can spend your money on in exchange for getting an income tax deduction on that money. For example with a Health Care FSA or HCFSA, if you spend $1,000 a year on medical expenses and are in a 25% tax bracket, you can put $1,000 in your FSA and save the income tax on it ($250). There is one catch: whatever you don’t spend you lose. Keep in mind the following.

• An HCFSA is funded in advance at the start of the year. All of your FSA funds are available on the first of January.

• Every pay check the company claws back the respective amount from your wages.

• When you leave or depart the company your FSA money is refunded back to the corporation.

  • If you leave before the end of the year and the FSA is exhausted, you’ve won.

  • If you leave before the end of the year and there is money in the FSA, the company may have won.

• At the end of the year, subject to the whims of the administrator and the company they may roll over $650; they may not. I have been bitten by this.

• When you depart the company you may or may not have a “grace period.” That may or may not be documented in your plan. Rely on this at your own peril.

Let’s take a look at the first three points with a graph, here we assume the FSA is set to $365 a year for simplicity.

The green shows you when you’re “in the green:” when most of the money in your FSA is advanced to you. You win if you spend into the green. The blue is the natural clawing back process.

Now let’s say you were terminated 60 days in.

In the above scenario, they can’t possibly recover the full amount available because you were terminated early. But that green is still yours, even if just for the day, week, or month.

A Dependent Care FSA (DCFSA) isn’t funded in advance. But, it serves a similar purpose except for your kids. You can put up to $5,000/yr in it and everyone should. The same stipulation applies: if you’re terminated the company gets to keep the money you’ve allocated in the fund for your kids. Something about this seems especially evil. It is literally a corporation expropriating your kids’ medical funds.

When you’re fired, deplete the funds

When you find yourself terminated, the clock is ticking: act fast.

• Put in a claim for the DCFSA funds. Even if it’s just part of the month’s daycare. Use it!

• Spend your FSA funds. You’re going to lose them if not

  • Do you have back pain? If so, anything ergonomic can be considered a necessary part of your treatment. Maybe you have back pain. If not, consider asking about necessary prevention; but, you probably have back pain.

  • Do you have a Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) if so, consider an ergonomic mechanical keyboard. Only if, of course, your doctor finds it to be a necessary part of your treatment — which I am sure he will. If not, consider asking about whether or not it’s necessary to prevent RSI.

  • Have you been losing muscle mass, any strength training equipment can be considered necessary for “physical therapy”? If not, consider asking about prevention; but, you probably have a reduction in muscle mass.

  • Are you obese? If you are, a treadmill can assist in solving this problem. If not, consider asking about prevention; but, you probably would be healthier if you had the necessary equipment to adhere to physical therapy routine.

• You can use the FSAFeds site to determine what is an eligible expense.

How do you do this?

• Immediately schedule a physician visit. Get your physical.

• Bring a “Letter of Medical Necessity” (legal term) or a “Certification of Medical Necessity” (my specific FSA provider’s form). If your FSA provider has neither, you can use the Letter of Medical Necessity on fsafeds.gov.

• Talk about your problems with your doctor.

• Ask about treatment, and get them to fill out and sign the “Letter of Medical Necessity” or a “Certification of Medical Necessity.” It should name your condition and treatment explicitly.

• Make the purchase on credit.

• Get a detailed invoice.

• File with FSA provider a claim that includes the invoice and letter.

How I handled getting fired

• Terminated at 1 pm

• Doctors appointment scheduled at 3:20 pm

• Chair ordered at 4:00 pm, cost $1,791.54

• Claim filed for reimbursement at 4:30 pm

Follow Up

In case there is any question about if this worked, it did! I can’t say it’ll work for you; but, I can say as a matter of fact it worked for me.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:07-24.0.0

We got a floor vote on cutting some of the Israel’s gross military aid. Obviously it failed, and that’s where I am picking this up.

Content of the Amendment

This is what was actually voted on “amendment numbered 114”,

114. An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Greene of Georgia or 
                 Her Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes

Strike section 8067 (page 92, beginning on line 12 through 
page 93, line 13).

It’s one line: “Strike section 8067.” It’s appropriately titled — nothing incendiary. This is Section 8067,

Sec. 8067. Of the amounts appropriated in this Act under the headings “Procurement, Defense-Wide” and “Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide”, $500,000,000 shall be for the Israeli Cooperative Programs: Provided, That of this amount, $60,000,000 shall be for the Secretary of Defense to provide to the Government of Israel for the procurement of the Iron Dome defense system to counter short-range rocket threats, subject to the U.S.-Israel Iron Dome Procurement Agreement; $127,000,000 shall be for the Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense (SRBMD) program, including cruise missile defense research and development under the SRBMD program; $40,000,000 shall be for co-production activities of SRBMD systems in the United States and in Israel to meet Israel’s defense requirements consistent with each nation’s laws, regulations, and procedures, subject to the U.S.-Israeli co-production agreement for SRBMD; $100,000,000 shall be for an upper-tier component to the Israeli Missile Defense Architecture, of which $100,000,000 shall be for co-production activities of Arrow 3 Upper Tier systems in the United States and in Israel to meet Israel’s defense requirements consistent with each nation’s laws, regulations, and procedures, subject to the U.S.-Israeli co-production agreement for Arrow 3 Upper Tier; and $173,000,000 shall be for the Arrow System Improvement Program including development of a long range, ground and airborne, detection suite.

The tldr, this is what it looks like

60  Million Iron Dome
127 Million Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense (SRBMD)
40  Million SRBMD production
100 Million for Israel’s Arrow 3 production
173 Million Arrow System Improvement Program
====
500 Million

And she wants to scrap that, saving the USA 500 million.

Reception

And this was the reception,

Seriously, again AOC butchered this?

They’re not all in the Epstein files. But that is how bought the US House of Representatives is. Now let’s give a shout out to those souls with backbone, principles, and a moral compass. It’s short, brace yourself.

The Democrats,

• Al Green (rep for the most Jewish district in Houston)

• Summer Lee

• Rashida Tlaib

• Ilhan Omar

And the Republicans,

• Thomas Massie

What the f*

Can you believe it, 6 people voting for that simple amendment to save us $500 million? Here is a bold ass statement,

Marjorie Taylor Greene on the most important issue — literally World Peace and opposing the military industrial complex — is left of 207 Democrats, and every Republican except Thomas Massie.

And not just that, but to recap this was the headline when, in 2021, when AOC was put to task on funding the Iron Dome. This time she didn’t even cry. We don’t even get crocodile tears.

Let’s compare the two,

• AOC failed us on the vote. This time she didn’t even cry about it, but instead wrote a boring attempt to rationalize it.

• Marjorie Taylor Greene surprised us on the vote

• Marjorie Taylor Greene drove the defund-Israel vanguard in the house by putting forward the amendment

Hats off to you MTG. You get an Evan point for this one. I may even have to retire my Jewish space lasers.

Response from AOC

Probably written by ChatGPT with a prompt of “pretend your pro-Palestinian”

But seriously, give the Israelis money to produce missile interceptors, that'll literally enable them to safely conduct a genocide in a figurative Iron Dome! You can’t make this up.

I know MTG isn’t actually to the left of AOC on everything. And that’s an understatement. Comment below if you enjoy the headline.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:7-18.0.1

Reddit is a network of communities. These communities are called subreddits. This article addresses two of them: r/Texas, and r/politics.

Bad Moderation at r/Texas

Immediately after posting my map

Your post from texas was removed because of: 'No Reposting'

Hi u/EvanCarroll, We have countless maps available, this one is extremely similar. Not to mention you’re soliciting views for your sub stack.

Reposting? It was original content. I appealed, and said

There is no other map available that shows where the cabins are located and what their names are. That's the only map. And I'm comparing it to the New York Times map in the blog entry you removed.

The mod was resistant and replied,

There are half a dozen over the past few days, it’s completely redundant at this point.

It’s important to point out that the rules do substantiate the mod’s opinion against reposting. But it’s not a repost. I literally created and it required auditing brochures and logos in pictures from 1995. There was nothing like it.

We went back and forth a bit. This post is the one the mod said I was duplicating. It’s an areal photo. I’m obviously not copying that.

Their photo doesn’t name any of the cabins. In fact they’re not even visible there — the cabins are hidden behind the treeline. This is the map I produced, click to expand

By any means, when I pointed this is what I was told.

to be frank you shouldn’t be soliciting our sub trying to get views on your sub stack

Reddit and the bias against community work

First, “soliciting?” Can you imagine telling someone doing something for free for the community that they’re soliciting? What am I trying to sell? Influence on the merits of my best-in-class contribution to the open-source OpenStreetMap? And even if that’s your frame, so what? What’s wrong with "trying to get views.” That’s just a slimy way of saying I’m trying to give back my contribution to people who may be interested in it. Reddit is after all first and foremost a link-aggregator.

Moreover, what makes for a better world,

• The Corporate MSM mode of production,

  1. Corporate media hires cartographer to make a crap map

  2. Map is produced

  3. Map is used in an article which is typically paywalled

  4. And then it’s promoted by some nerd in PR using a corporate account because no one subscribes to that garbage. This is currently what’s happening anyway. The MSM is promoting their own posts on their front page from corporates accounts. It’s naked self-promotion,

     • Post by /u/nbcnews

     • Post by /u/ExpressNews - expressnews.com is owned by Hearst

     • Post by u/MySA_dot_com - mysa.com is owned by Hearst

     • Post u/Houston_Chronicle - houstonchronicle.com is owned by Hearst

     • Post by u/peoplesmagazine - owned by Dotdash Meredith

• Or, this mode of production.

  1. Something interests me, and driven by passion I write about.

  2. Everything is released as CC-BY-SA. I contribute to open source projects to produce content, like OpenStreetMap.

  3. I do all the work myself.

  4. I publish all of my work on Substack for free. I have no paid content. Nothing is paywalled.

  5. I share this content in a very targeted fashion with others interested in the topic.

  And the result is superior quality! I mean come on, look at those maps I made. I’m a schmuck running circles around the NYT.

Unfortunately, I get greeted often with hostility on reddit. I’ve similarly had submissions to r/politics removed for no reason other than a proclamation that Substack is a “personal blog site" and in violation of their rule.

And, it’s not just Reddit

As any of my readers know, I vote almost exclusively Green Party. They’ve had my vote in every presidential election since 2012. But even the Green Party Discord has been infected with this kind of “moderation”,

I subsequently gave the moderators a link to this article — updated with the substance above — and I was warned that on the next violation of the “no self-promotion” rule I would be banned. I know when I’m not welcome; and, that was the end of my involvement with the party I previously blockwalked for. If it’s “self-promotion” to seek political engagement from party members on Discord talking about the very topic I am writing on, what is when I blockwalk for them and knock on doors uninvited seeking support for their candidates?

Not to dwell too much but my local Linux Users Group’s Discord has twice as many people (1k+) and is quite possibly more active in the #politics channel. When Houston’s local Linux group is better at building a political community than the Green Party USA, we’ve got problems.

Conclusion

This is how Reddit dies, and online community at large. Does Reddit (et. al) want to piss off the community by excluding the most passionate members who have elevated themselves to contributors on select topics, merely because they have other day jobs?

What Reddit needs to do is prohibit all rules against self-promotion. Not because these rules are wrong in what they’re trying to achieve, but because the implementation of them fosters toxicity, and exclusivity, and leaves too much room for self-interest from traditional media.

This kind of bad community moderation, mixed with a corporate culture of indifference to bad community moderation feels a lot like Stack Exchange. Members of the community and individual contributors should not be put into confrontation with moderators on bizzare grounds like “soliciting” and “promotion.” These elements should be things that the community handles naturally with technical input garnered from upvotes and downvotes.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:7-8.1.1. Updated to add example of Green Party Discord.

In this document you can see the location of Camp Mystic Guadalupe River location at 2689 Highway 39 along with 15 structures that are supposed to removed from the SFHA: Special Flood Hazard Area. The SFHA is colloquially called the “100-year floodplain.” This is the region which has at least a one-in-four chance of flooding during a 30-year mortgage.

These itemized structures at Camp Mystic Guadalupe River are are all in the 100 year flood zone. You can see these structures are flagged in the SFHA in 2019.

14 06 0124a 480419

97.3KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

This comes from a document that I have verified is FEMA with Case 14-06-0124A. Below is the FEMA map of the camp. The blue here — the kids Cabins — they were all in or around the 2011 SFHA.

It’s interesting just how little you’d have to move those cabins to make them substantially less flood-prone. That blue band goes right through them.

Camp Mystic Crystal Lake

Camp Mystic Crystal Lake also has structures in the flood zone. These are in case 19-06-4012A. In fact, Crystal Lake opened in 2020 and also has all of its cabins in the 100 year flood zone.

19 06 4012a 480419

31.4KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

You can see the Crystal Lake flood map here,

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:7-8.0.0

Unsatisfied with one vague map, the New York Times, put out a second aerial map with even less data and with deceptfully labeled “Cabin on the Flats,” which actually includes all the cabins they’re not showing behind the tree line.

I found their maps to vague; I wanted to do better. I used OpenStreetMap and some quick cross referencing of the Camp Mystic brochures and other news data and I came up with this,

Viola. Now you can see every building. The yellow outline is the flats which is where the campers were. You can see my digitized contributions on Open Street Maps. But here is an image generate from it without any satellite imagery.

Log in if you want to see the total campsite digitized (or most of it anyway).

Now when the news mentions Bubble Inn you can quickly find it. This is the cabin which had all of 13 of the girls which inhabited it swept away in flood waters. You can read more about that in the coverage by the New York Post.

If you want to see both camps together the Camp Mystic Guadalupe River, and Camp Mystic Cypress Lake, then here is a map for you! (Requested in pvmsg)

The highlighted area is the “Cabin on the Flats” of Camp Mystic Guadalupe River. Compare that to the label the NYT placed above.

Here is a copy of the USGS 3D Elevation map of the region. You can see the cabins for the kids are square in the river’s trough.

I overlaid it with the digitized buildings.

Also worth pointing out that there is an extinct creek that some sources show running right through the camp site called Edmunson Creek. This is an overlay on the USGS The National Map Topographic.

For comedy, this is the level of detail you get with Google. If you’re interested to learn more about mapping and how you can contribute, comment below and I’ll write more about OpenStreetMap.

I have follow up to this article where I write about the poor reception I got on r/Texas and my general experiences on Reddit. I have another article about Camp Mystic entitled “Camp Mystic, cabins, and the 100 year flood plane”

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:7-7.0.0

I am skeptical of electoral reform. All of my articles thus far have been critical of the Democrats. However, I believe Mamdani has given us enough to justify our trust. Obama and AOC were relatively unaccomplished before they entered the limelight. It’s worth pointing out that Mamdani does not fit that bill. You do not have to “wait and see” to the same degree.

Family and upbringing

I don’t believe pedigree determines anything, however Mamdani’s family has clear political lines,

• His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a Harvard-educated academic serving as a Professor of Anthropology and Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University. His topics of interest include colonialism, and racial capitalism. He was interviewed by Mondoweiss in 2014. There are certainly elements of this interview that I would dismiss as fanciful liberalism but there is no mistaking Mahmood’s dedication to anti-Zionism and a single state solution,

  The lesson for Palestine and Israel, is that historic Palestine can be a homeland for Jews but not for Jews only. Jews can have a homeland in historic Palestine. but not a state.

  Like Zohran, his father was also politically active. In April 2007 he reflected on his own experiences as a student activist in the Ugandan Sunday Vision having been arrested in civil rights bussing campaigns while on a student visa. His tenure as a professor is also peppered with support for BDS and Palestine.

• His mother, Mira Nair, is a famed director and a vocal proponent of BDS.

  • In 2013, citing BDS, she turned down an invitation to be guest of honor at the Haifa Film Festival, this was covered in Haaretz too.

  • She signed onto a letter to get the Israeli and loud-Zionist Gal Godet removed as presenter of the Academy Awards.

  • Nair has an exhaustive list of her own accomplishments at Faces of Palestine.

I would caution anyone using pedigree to support an assessment of a candidate. But suffice it to say the Mamdani family has been pretty consistent on the topic of Palestine and anti-colonialism.

College: BDS, and SJP

Before entering electoral politics on the left those with passion and commitment should have a resume of organizing and mobilizing. Mamdani doesn’t stand out in this, but he certainly checks the box. While enrolled at Bowdoin College around 2014, Mamdani founded a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. During this time,

• American Studies Association (ASA) endorsed BDS.

• Predictably, Mamdani pushed for Bowdoin College to endorse BDS.

• On December 24, 2013, Bowdoin College President Barry Mills penned a statement distancing itself from ASA and the boycott.

• In response to Mills statement,

  • Memdani penned the response by SJP on January 10, 2014.

  • And, circulated a petition which is still available online. This petition would grow to 50+ students, and 2 professors by January 24.

All that to say, Mamdani was active in college. After college, in 2017, he played a role in the NYC Assemblyman campaign of Khader El-Yateem for District 43, alongside Linda Sarsour. El-Yateem supported BDS in his run.

Mamdani’s history

To contextualize Mamdani’s actions we have to review his tenure as an Assemblyman for New York City’s 34th district. In NYC Assemblyman are elected for two years. Mamdani won three elections in 2020, 2022, and 2024. Elections are held in November; and, Mamdani can be assumed to have been campaigning in October and in November. Mamdani assumed office on January 1, 2021, having announced his candidacy in October 2019, and having won his first election in 2020.

• Fresh into his first term, on May 11, 2021, Mamdani was seen leading BDS chants in front of the Israeli consulate. He is quoted as having said

  We have elected officials paid for trips to Israel […] They are going there paid for by your tax dollars. […] they show up at the Israel Day parade and they say, `We stand in solidarity,' […] We want to let them know that there are three letters that we have as an answer to what is happening in Palestine. It’s BDS.

  Consistent with his values he showed up on the streets and confronted elected officials in front of the Israeli embassy. He called on others to “put pressure on every single elected official.” Showing up with the people to be wind in the sails is not merely talk. It’s action. You can see the video here,

• On June 3, 2021, Mamdani was giving an interview with Muslim Democratic Club of New York (MDC-NY) on BDS. The majority of the linked video is a panel discussion but Mamdani speaks for the first five minutes and recalls a story talking to Jerry of Ben and Jerry about BDS. He says he wanted to see them pull out of the occupied territories and grocery stores operating in Israeli settlements. He spoke not just for his constituents but for himself. He pushes for BDS to be a demand for support by progressive Muslims. If true, using his influence to pressure CEOs at panel discussions is certainly not merely words. The very act of getting a chance to speak to Jerry of Ben & Jerry’s likely required dropping his earned title as NYC Assemblyman.
  

  This interview with MDC-NY is interesting because Mamdani postures himself in the role of the electoral vanguard. The background here is that often Muslims endorse other Muslims that are silent on BDS. He use BDS, and rightfully so, to divide the pool of candidates that should receive support from Muslims by stating that the members should “demand that you must [support BDS], and if not that is not enough.” Speaking of Palestine he says at 4:09, “it can not be considered an optional struggle, it has to be considered one that is make or break for us to […] believe in candidates.”

• In November 2, 2021, Mamdani signed onto a demand letter addressed to Biden condemning Israeli’s crackdown against human rights groups, including Defense for Children International – Palestine, Al Haq, Addameer, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees. Only State Senator Jabari Brisport, and Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes also signed the letter.

• In May 31, 2023, Mamdani tweeted support of Fatima Mousa Mohammad who made remarks at CUNY which were slandered by the Board of Trustees and Chancellor as antisemitic.

• The day after the October 7 attacks, Mamdani tweeted a call for an end to Israeli apartheid and an end to the occupation. Mamdani omitted any mention of Hamas and choose to focus the root causes.

• On October 13, 2023, Mamdani was arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

• In November of 2023, Mamdani pressured President Biden for a ceasefire, and followed it up with a five day hunger strike.

• On November 30, 2023, Mamdani uses the word “genocide” for the first time to describe the situation in Gaza. AOC wouldn’t utilize the term until late March 2024. His use of the term would increase sharply with Israel’s brutality, and he would go on to using the term on cable news.

• In March of 2024, Mamdani ran in charity event for UNRWA called the Gaza 5k.

Legislative Accomplishments

Mamdani both withdrew support that was previously given to Israel by his predecessor, and used his position to try advance the cause.

• In the 2025-2026, Assemblyman Mamdani sponsored Assembly Bill A6101 named “Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence act.” It was described as,

  prohibit not-for-profit corporations from engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity; allows for recovery of a civil penalty by the state attorney general; creates a private right of action for violations.

  Unfortunately, this bill failed in committee. But we can’t fault Mamdani for that. While I would have liked it to have a similar bill introduced in the prior two terms

• Refused to sign a letter “Congratulating State of Israel on the Anniversary of its establishment and reaffirming the bonds of friendship, cooperation, and shared values between the people of the State of New York and Israel.” This bill proclaims Israel has a commitment or strives for peace. He’s refused to sign many times: K00509 in 2025, K02195 in 2024, K00354 in 2023, K00823 in 2022. K00209 in 2021.

The Obama Juxtaposition

• College: In 1979-1981, Obama was reportedly an anti-apartheid activist at Occidental College. It was in this movement, Obama would reportedly give his first speech. I wouldn’t challenge Obama’s bona fides with regard to apartheid. Mamdani has followed a similar parallel with the liberation of Palestine.

• Family: Obama’s father, however radical and based, was only in his life for one month when he was 10 years old, and he died when Obama was 21. It’s clear Mamdani’s immediate family has a history fighting for the recognition of Palestine and Palestinian liberation.

• While elected:

  • Mamdani organized people outside of the NYC Assembly. He joined organizations to lend his support. He worked in his capacity as a local Assemblyman to push a legislative agenda that had international elements that he clearly organized and supported other organizations, like JVP.

  • Obama did nothing except support the most blasé liberal agenda. It’s clear that Obama, once elected, showed little desire to join the working class where it was, and no desire to lead it or support it in struggle.

Conclusion

Even when it comes to words, Mamdani is different. Words come in two flavors: descriptive, and prescriptive. Obama was a master of the descriptive words “every person deserves a right to healthcare.” But with Mamdani, we see prescriptive words. Mamdani is explicitly telling you to withdraw support of candidates that ignore Palestine, and even more ambitiously that refuse to support BDS. Prescriptive words are acts of organization. Descriptive words fall short of that.

With #ForceTheVote the people demanded AOC withdraw support from Pelosi pending a floor vote on Medicare for All. The demand was for Pelosi to simply vote the principles she spoke. Mamdani doesn’t merely have a track record consistent with rhetoric; he similarly demands that people withdraw support from politicians that deviate from the agenda. He answers the demand placed upon him, and reinforces the demand placed upon others. This is two orders of magnitude away from AOC.

You could write an exhaustive analysis like this on any topic, and on any politician. But if your topic is opposing genocide, Mamdani is nothing like AOC, and Obama. This is a conclusion I share with Norm Finkelstein. He’s already proven on this topic. On Palestine, he represents the most progressive positions of any elected official. I’m not sure what more you could ask of a NYC Assemblyman. Until given a reason otherwise, I would trust his record. His actions are a satisfactory justification.

See also

You may find this article interesting, also following Mamdani on the topic of Palestine,

Dialectics of Decline

A Crushing Blow To Zionism

Read more

10 months ago · 86 likes · 20 comments · Scarlet

From 1999 until 2003, I was in Quest High School in Houston, Texas. I saw the Twin Towers fall during those years. I lived the aftermath of it as the world changed.

Almost as if planned, Congress had passed just months prior to 9/11 a sketchy piece of legislation called “No Child Left Behind” or the NCLB. The goal of this legislation was to incentivize and penalize schools based on performance. Rather than investing more into schools that were underperforming, the NCLB would remove funds to penalize the school for underperforming and incentivize performing schools with additional funds: this was sold as a “market approach” to public schooling. The bill carried one noteworthy pernicious rider in Section 9528, an awkward provision that allowed the military to gain access to students

SAME ACCESS TO STUDENTS- Each local educational agency receiving assistance under this Act shall provide military recruiters the same access to secondary school students as is provided generally to post secondary educational institutions or to prospective employers of those students.

This effectively made it a requirement for schools to permit the military to recruit as a condition for funding. I saw this play out. I remember the recruiters setting up tables in the library. I remember them coming into the cafeteria to talk to students. I remember them joining groups of students anytime we had a conversation they felt could be hijacked, or that they could inject their presence into.

This requirement to grant access to schools stacks with the billions the US military spends every year on advertising. Together these empower the perpetual wars without needing congressional authorization. Wars that utilize volition, advertising, and access don’t require the direct intervention of congress like wars that demand coerced enlistment.

My story

At that time, I was in a group of 15 at the school that was overseen by a teacher Julie Ward. Mrs. Ward clearly didn't approve of the military being in the school — that much was clear. I never knew much of her politics aside from this. She one time told me I could tell the recruiters anything I wanted. It was very clearly a wink and nod to oppose their presence. A lot of kids at that time got the same message in one way or another, and some kids didn’t need to be primed.

One such kid, JP, certainly got the message and knew what was going on. JP was clearly in the punk clique -- something I had no relation too. But unlike many in high school, for him punk wasn't merely about hair, style, or music. It was about challenging authority. I was never a close friend, but when it came to cutting through state propaganda, self-education, and challenging authority JP executed the role masterfully.

I remember quite a few interactions with recruiters and JP. It certainly made for good entertainment. I’ll never forget one time the recruiters were trying to sell patriotic duty and the moral track record of the USA, and JP kept refocusing the conversation on the nuking and firebombing of Japan, and the bombing of Dresden. While the facts of the referenced atrocities speak for themselves it was truly a cluster fuck watching the recruiters get wrecked by a high school kid who wasn’t afraid to say they’re not the good guys, and that signing up was an tacit declaration that you were willing to kill the innocent for country. JP dutifully blunted their propaganda and stymied their progress.

One of the reasons these interactions between the military (accustomed to veneration) and JP were memorable is because only one party wanted the interaction: JP. In the same sense that I am certain the school would have expelled the military if they could and it was the military imposing itself on the school, JP was able to extend that dynamic back to them. I had seen people disagree with authority before, but in such cases the disagreements were cordial and didn’t threaten the goals of authority. But with recruiters and JP, the goal wasn’t resolving the disagreement. It was thwarting their attempts. He knew they couldn’t address the problem. It was about declaring events as indefensible, sidetracking their goal of recruitment, and challenging their claim to a moral authority. He could be counted on to repeat this as necessary.

The here and now

While the NCLB is long gone, the Obama-era replacement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) had a similar rider in Section 8025,

SAME ACCESS TO STUDENTS.—Each local educational agency receiving assistance under this Act shall provide military recruiters the same access to secondary school students as is provided to institutions of higher education or to prospective employers of those students.

What I was first in experiencing is now the standard, and we’re now open about the effects, according to Rand

Access to high schools is among the most effective methods available to military recruiters to reach potential recruits.

This goes to show the relationship between military recruitment and high schools hasn’t changed for the better. In fact, if anything new efforts are set to make it worse with a proposed statutory display of propaganda in response to the Army and Air Force struggling and failing to meet recruitment goals.

So here are my takeaways,

• If the USA is serious about a war with Iran, I fully expect military recruiters to once again infest high schools in record numbers. They’ve retained statutory access.

• Teachers that oppose war should work NOW to protect their students by creating a herd immunity to the meat grinder. You know it’s coming. Make the play book clear. Cultivate an environment of skepticism and a willingness to push back on the perceived authority of grunts in uniform.

After the democrats lost power, I was asked the same question. On further examination my old explanation had flaws.

The foundation of the question

Let me start off by saying this, I don’t need to defend the targeting of my criticism to be consistent. My positions are as follows,

• I didn’t vote for Trump, nor Biden.

• I never endorsed Trump, nor Biden

• I am not a Republican, nor a Democrat.

These positions have never for a moment changed. So, if true to these foundations, and I criticize the Democrats more, so what? I don’t owe it to the Democrats to criticize Trump more because they lost. But on the surface it seems reasonable to conclude that I should.

A revised justification

Without doubt you should punch up and criticize those with power. This is fundamental. However, it’s not that simple. The reason, on closer examination, is very apparent. To the extent that either party could be reformed to be acceptable, the only party that I participate in reforming to any degree is the Democrats.

I don’t particularly pride myself having endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2012 (yes, that’s right), 2016, and in 2020; but, I did. Anyone more willing to take the knee after knowingly getting screwed is unlikely to play a substantive role in reforming a political party. However, I found Bernie Sanders acceptable and a sufficient deviation from the Democrats at large to warrant support. I’ve never felt that way about a Republican. Over the years I’ve supported Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, “the squad”, and Al Green. All of them Democrats. I have an estate in the Democrats when they don’t have power. I want to support some of them, but that desire does not rise to the level of accepting the candidates they put forward, like Kamala, HRC, and Trump.

But I do participate. I vote in the Democratic primary, and likely always will.

When I see things the Democrats are doing which are setting up MAGA for a third term like,

• Voiding the election of David Hogg who barely a reformist at all.

• Nominating a chairman who extols the virtues of “good billionaires.”

• Allowing Hakeem Jeffries to continue the Pelosi legacy as House Minority Leader

• Allowing Chuck Schumer to push for an Iran war by trying to scuttle Trump’s “side deal” to negotiate a peace

There is no symmetry to these kinds of criticism for Republicans when they’re functioning as resistance. When the Democrats have power, and the Republicans are in resistance

• I don’t care who Republicans pick as a chairperson. I honestly have no idea who their chairperson was the past decade.

• I don’t care if they ban reformists from their party (as they tried to do when they tried to lock out MAGA in 2016.)

• I don’t care if they advocate war. In fact, I just assume they will generally do that as a party.

Conclusion

I criticise the Democrats more because I am invested in their ability to resist and produce an acceptable candidate. That’s different from being a Democrat or supporting them regardless of who they nominate. You should take from this the opposite of what you sought to conclude: the criticism is not because I want Democrats to lose. It’s because I want them to win. I want them to turn their back on war, austerity, and corporate money.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:6-3.1.0

The Global Trade Deficit was cut in half in one month.
That s**t is crazy.

Clearly, that has become a right-wing narrative. The White House is all in on it too

• TRADE DEFICIT NARROWS: It was the largest monthly decline in the trade deficit on record.

  • CNBC: “We cut it in HALF!? … This really does underscore how the movement of goods and services has really changed due to a variety of tariff-related issues.”

Let’s look at the actual numbers.

For the past 3 years the trade deficit has been growing at 60-90 Billion a month.

The exceptional months are December, January, February, and March. These months represent the post-election fears and the Trump administration. What happened during these months is clear.

• Trump scared people into buying more stuff ahead of the tariffs. You can see that here.

• Retailers engaged in stock piling to get a competitive edge and limit their risk.

So when Routers says, “goods trade gap contracted 46.0% to $87.6 billion last month.” They don’t mean to say Trump did anything good. They mean the hysteria over tariffs is gone. Trump chickened out. Warehouses are full. And levels have returned to something more reasonable.

And that “more reasonable” isn’t something to hang your hat on. You can spin it a different way. Even with the additional Trump tariffs that remain and the removal of the di minimis exemption, the USA trade deficit grew 19% more in April than it did in October of 2024 (up from 73.73 B).

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:6-3.0.0

There was a Jewish steakhouse in Meyerland Texas named Genesis Steakhouse which to put it lightly I always found off-putting. It had a page dedicated to the differences between Kosher and Halal where they provide some useful information which, while somewhat interesting, seemed both out of place and bizarre. Genesis reasons you can source gelatin and enzymes from swine and still be kosher — I have no idea whether this is true. They combine pork enzymes and pork gelatin, with kosher wine to create an argument which distinguishes kosher from halal and concludes with,

Muslims in non-Muslim countries should strive to follow the Islamic injunctions in their diet (as well as in every walk of life) and establish their own businesses and institutions to cater to the needs of the Muslim Ummah. By doing so, not only the identity of the Muslims will be preserved, but they will be recognized and respected for their beliefs and practices.

The Jewsplaing Halal bit is at the least very bizarre. But my problems with this go deeper. Telling others — like Muslims — to establish their own businesses to preserve their own identity is apartheid-esque rhetoric that I want nothing to do with. As a Jew, I wouldn’t patronize a Christian shop that for any reason told me to “create my own businesses and institutions.” In the same vein, I don’t expect Muslims to patronize shops that tell them to do that either. I enjoy diversity and integration, and this is not the world I want to perpetuate.1

However, it’s amusing that the substance behind this directive is very explicitly pork gelatin, pork enzymes, and kosher alcohol. It would seem very easy for even the most devout Muslim to get a steak at a steakhouse without those ingredients: “medium-rare ribeye no cheese, please don’t cook it with kosher alcohol.” I’m not chef — but this doesn’t sound like rocket science. It’s also how I like my steaks. Instead, the message was clear Genesis assumed the most hard-line interpretation of Islamic dietary laws, and told Muslims to fuck right off and create their own businesses and institutions.

Fish gate, and Jew squabbles

On Jan 27, 2025 Genesis Steakhouse lost it’s Kosher Certification. The accounts here are pretty scattered. It seems the owner claims it’s about the failure to account for fish stating

HKA Rabbi Nosson Dubin entered the restaurant and asked Goldstein to produce an invoice for a package of fileted fish he found in the restaurant’s freezer. […] Without talking to those employees, he was unable to link an invoice to that specific package of frozen fish filets.

Previously unbeknownst to me, the invoice for fish must act as an affirmative defense that the fish were purchased from a kosher source. It’s apparently a defense you have the be able to make at all times when called upon by the certifying religious authority. However, on Facebook we find the rumor mill giving us something with more meat on the bone. The claim is elevated from procedural and accounting, to having been busted with non-kosher fish and on multiple occasions,

Which seems to be in alignment with JVH Online,

A source with knowledge of the situation told the JHV that there were multiple food violations and the governing boards had no choice but to revoke the license of the restaurant, which is located at 80 Braeswood Square.

But this is explicitly denied by someone who is later revealed to be family, Ultimately the religious sanctioning body called Houston Kashruth Association (HKA) withdrew their approval of Genesis Steakhouse — and they’re staying tight lipped about their reasoning, saying little more than this

After extensive deliberation and consultation, the Vaad Harabanim (rabbinic council) that oversees kosher certification for HKA has made the challenging decision to terminate HKA’s contract with Genesis Steakhouse & Wine Bar and withdraw HKA’s kosher certification

And this from Facebook

As part of HKA’s standard written operating procedures (which each merchant understands and agrees to uphold in electing to become certified), we share alerts of certifications, terminations and food products found in retail stores in as close to real time as possible. We do not publicly disclose specific infractions or why a termination decision was made in order to protect merchants or individuals from lashon harah (evil speech).

One of the comments there summarizes it all pretty well,

A truly disappointing and nebulous response from the HKA that did nothing to explain itself or address what led to its abrupt decision to decertify Genesis Steakhouse […]

Whatever the reason, HKA went dirty ass gangster on the verdict. Check out their website: they dedicated a whole popup to Genesis Steakhouse. You can’t see anything on their page or retrieve any information without closing out of the popup.

According to the the CultureMap article,

Goldstein acknowledges that not being certified has already hurt his business. He claims to have lost $500,000 in private dinners and catering contracts since the HKA announced its decision last week.

Oy vey, $500,000 lost. I guess the gofundme has a lot of work to do. I didn’t realize there was that much moolah in a stamp certifying beef isn’t swine. This left the steakhouse in a tough position.

• Abandon their old clientele, or

• Try to undermine the authority of HKA. Perhaps, I’m wrong, but the way I read this HKA decides what is kosher for the Elite Super-duper Jews in Houston. And, that regional religious authority isn’t easily challenged.

I do have to say after following the comments on the Facebook thread, this one appeals to my sense of dank,

are you serious man [HKA] sounds like gambino family running things

The Revenge of the Sith Steakhouse

I think most businesses would pivot, but Genesis did the awesome and went to fight HKA. They said,

Since inception, our goal has always been to uphold the highest level of kashruth, but we will no longer be bullied with senseless regulatory reform and increased fees.

Further, they sought to undermine HKA with an external certification. This gets them one point for interesting internet drama, from their Facebook post on Feb 9, 2025,

Genesis Steakhouse and Wine Bar is proud to announce that we have successfully upgraded our kosher certification to the more stringent Beit Yosef standard, setting a new benchmark for kosher dining in the state of Texas.

Ouch, poor HKA. Genesis counters with a left. They went super-Jewy with a new certification that takes into account “halachic rulings based on Sephardic tradition.” Also from the above linked post,

Unlike standard glatt kosher which ensures that meat is free of adhesions in the lungs a Beit Yosef certification enforces additional stringencies to meet the highest standards of Jewish law.

Shots fired. Those weak liberal Jews stopping at ensuring meat is “free of adhesions in the lungs.” Hilarious.

Kosher is Rocket Science

In case you’re wondering what “additional stringencies” mean there is a whole page devoted to it which Genesis links. Interestingly, I don’t think Genesis read the page. Saving you 9,000 million words and adding bullet points

• If the lung was found to be free of adhesions after the shochet’s bedikos, the animal is deemed to be Beis Yosef Glatt kosher. Beis Yosef Glatt typically2 means that there were no adhesions to the lungs at all.

• Glatt kosher means that any adhesions found were exceptionally thin (like a sewing thread) and the adhesion peeled off easily, leaving no hole in the lung wall, and the adhesionless lung passed the air/water test.

• Kosher means that the lung had adhesions which were thicker or wider in nature; however, upon removal they did not leave any hole in the lung wall and the lung passed the air/water test.

From my reading of the source material, if they went from Glatt Kosher to Beit Yosef Glatt Kosher, they went from meat with possible adhesions that “peeled off easily” to adhesion-free which would make the Facebook post factually incorrect. This is what the Facebook post said,

Unlike standard glatt kosher which ensures that meat is free of adhesions in the lungs

It seems that “glatt kosher” does not ensure that and only Beit Yosef Glatt Kosher does. But whatever. I’m no authority. Who am I to critique these warring tribes of kosher certification and the restaurant that lost half a mil for failing to appease them? I don’t get the drama here even after trying. But I’m writing about a venue that felt it necessary to elucidate the finer points of Halal and Zabiha in juxtaposition to its prior certification by HKA of Glatt kosher; so I would expect them to do a better job of explaining this.

The Houston War of Kosher

The obvious question was: how would this play out? Would the Houston community accept this? Nope. From their post on April 17, 2025

After 12 incredible years, it is with heavy hearts that we announce the closing of Genesis Steakhouse & Wine Bar. Our final day of service will be April 30th.

More great Facebook drama though. The comments are gold.

While the Houston Jewish food mafia won this battle you will win the War. Keep your head up. We will be there to support you in any of your next endeavors.

“Houston Jewish Food Mafia.” This is great.

The Return of the Sith Steakhouse

So what is Palpatine’s Porkless Proteinbar going to do? Rebrand of course, except now they’re out of the kosher business entirely.

They went from,

Despite the upheaval, Genesis Steakhouse remains committed to providing high-quality kosher food and serving as a trusted space for the Jewish community.

To abandoning all kashrut certifications in three months. But who blames them? I can only imagine the amount of stress this whole situation must cause a restaurateur. If I was Goldstein, I’d be halfway through the shahada and finding a new source of cheese. I’m not sure how far off he is, after all what does he call the new place after Genesis? “Exodus.” The new venue is named “Exodus Bar and Grill.” The CultureMap article goes on to say,

Operating as a non-kosher restaurant comes with some notable advantages compared to operating a kosher establishment. Most importantly, the restaurant will be open on Friday nights and during the day on Saturday, which is strictly forbidden by the HKA. In addition, non-kosher meat is less expensive than kosher meat, which means Exodus’ menu will offer a lower price point than Genesis did. Exodus will be able to serve dishes that mix meat and dairy such as a chicken alfredo pasta, a cheeseburger, or even something as simple as mashed potatoes with butter. Finally, it will also serve non-kosher ingredients like shrimp and other shellfish.

Glorious. Here is the kicker though…

Jewish diners who prefer a kosher steak or kosher chicken will still be able to get it at Exodus for an additional fee. Goldstein says those items will be cooked in separate pans and served on different plates with different utensils than non-kosher dishes. Since some kosher mindful Jewish people already follow those standards at other restaurants, Goldstein thinks they’ll appreciate being able to dine that way at Exodus.

Good on the new Exodus Steakhouse. That’s the right attitude. I mean, I don’t understand why he doesn’t release the HKA correspondence and blow the whistle on the failures that caused the loss of the HKA certification, and their demands. But, I really like the attempt here to continue to accommodate the dietary needs of Jews.

Irony, my love

And this gets me back to my moral problem with Genesis Steakhouse. Why is that you’ll go out of your way as a non-Kosher restaurant to cater to “mindful Jewish people” with “different plates,” “different utensils,” and “kosher meats” but you told all Muslims to “establish their own businesses and institutions” over far less substantive discrepancy (pork gelatin, pork enzymes, and kosher wine)? Isn’t it interesting that you couldn’t similarly offer up a steak at a steakhouse to Muslims under those terms.

The irony of telling Muslims to “establish their own businesses and institutions” while the Jews in Houston — your community — disaffect having determined you were not their “own business and institution.” With more irony: making a lot of drama about enzymes and gelatin to deter Muslim patronage while now trying to retain Jews that hold kosher ignoring that the venue will now be selling shrimp, shellfish, and cheeseburgers. And, on the sabbath.

And that’s the most I’ve ever written about a restaurant I have no desire to go to.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:5-19.0.0

The first dealership you stop at has a bunch of cars but each one has a bad engine and cosmetic defects. The second dealership you stop at similarly has a bunch of cars and each with a bad engine. You ask the second dealership why you should buy one of their cars, and they point out their vehicles have fewer cosmetic defects than the other dealership you visited. That is certainly true. Frustrated you find yourself at yet another dealership. This one actually has working cars. Unfortunately, they don’t accept money. It’s not clear business. You don’t have to spend a dollar, but you can only enter a free sweepstakes for a real car with a working engine.

What do you do?

If your issue is stopping genocide or even any other issue in the myriad of issues that the parties fail to distinguish themselves on, this is the American presidential election. There isn’t an anti-genocide candidate. And that’s the issue without which I can not endorse. A candidate who is genocidal is not a candidate I’m interested in, in the same way a car without an engine is not a car I’m interested in.

That’s why I vote for the Green Party. It’s a sweepstakes, but better. Because unlike a sweepstakes the more people that play, the more likely you are to win.

If you happen to think that being anti-genocide isn’t as fundamental a qualification as an engine is to a car then I leave you with this question to convince me otherwise,

Name one thing that Trump has done that was worse than continuing to enable the same genocide in Gaza that Biden enabled.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:5-8.0.0

• Remote and arbitrary code execution

• Arbitrary file exfiltration

That’s what it does by design. Claude has the ability to read any files on your disk and execute any code that a remote LLM decides is a good idea. They call this “claude-cli”. And while it probably takes the title for my favorite use case of remote code execution, I think we should take the security implications of it seriously.

Solution

Introducing claude-podman finally you don’t have to trust Bezos and Google! Claude podman runs claude code in a rootless podman container which

• Limits the file access of claude-code to

  • The current working directory

  • The claude configuration files

• Limits code execution to node:current-alpine

As a rootless container running as non-root user, claude-podman is a maximally secure way of running claude-code within a container: claude-code can’t even self-update! Even if it gets root, it’s still in a container. And even if it breaks out of the container it only has access to running as a regular process which makes it no more risky than it’s normal deployment mode which everyone except the elite few is likely using.

Find the repo here: https://github.com/EvanCarroll/claude-podman

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:5-2.0.0

One such product is the beautiful oauth2-proxy. I found it and loved the interface. I even contributed to solve a bug in the Helm manifest. It supports multiple authentication providers.

After getting everything working with Google SSO, I added an additional provider: the LinkedIn provider I configured a LinkedIn provider with the new configuration format called “Alpha Config.” The configuration took and validated, but I couldn’t see any difference in the login page. The end points also didn’t respond as I would have thought when trying to target a different provider. Turns out, oauth-proxy does NOT support multiple providers at the same time.

The reason for this confusion is because they updated only the configuration file format (Alpha Config) to support multiple providers. They built some future-proofing by making the provider in the new format an array and calling it providers, but they do nothing with the non-primary provider. Ouch. All that work chasing this solution and it’s a dead end.

Nothing in the docs clearly owned this shortcoming. But in this case, it’s very important to document what you can’t do. Especially when your users will expect it. The feature request for Multiple Providers was opened in 2020. It has 63 upvotes. The last PR on that feature landed in 2021. This is probably not getting fixed any time soon. Time to go back to the drawing board.

I submitted a PR to document this, which was since accepted. Hopefully it saves someone a headache.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:4-27.0.0

• Audit the entire server to figure out what’s the hold up

• Guess about what could be a dependency

• Try to delete the thing

  • If that fails, remove associated “finalizers” and try again or restart the process

  • if it succeeds you’re done.

Removing a chart dependency on cert-manager

I had a declared cert-manager as an optional dependency in a helm chart. This worked well when I was just running everything as one app on Kubernetes within that chart, but it apparently violated some conventions with Kubernetes. I went to migrate cert-manager out of the chart and I couldn’t.

My first step was to simply uninstall the chart, and delete the namespace. Ideally, this would be facilitated by helm with a `—purge` command. But everything in Kubernetes is more difficult. Uninstalling the chart and deleting the namespace didn’t work though because the dependency installed crds: a crd is a custom resource. They’re not installed in the namespace, but they’re “maintained by Helm.” Those crds weren’t cleaned up. Cleaning them up is documented, but it’s cute watching agentic AI figure this out the hard way.

● Bash(kubectl get crd certificaterequests.cert-manager.io -o yaml | grep -A5 'metadata:' | grep -E …
      'labels:|annotations:|name:' | head -10)
  ⎿    annotations:
         meta.helm.sh/release-name: ACME
             f:annotations:
               f:meta.helm.sh/release-name: {}

● The issue is clear now. The CRDs are owned by the "ACME" Helm release, which is causing the conflict when you try to install cert-manager in its own namespace.

In fact, one of the ways Claude does this is simple.

kubectl get crd | grep cert-manager

kubectl delete crd certificaterequests.cert-manager.io certificates.cert-manager.io  challenges.acme.cert-manager.io clusterissuers.cert-manager.io issuers.cert-manager.io orders.acme.cert-manager.io --ignore-not-found

That command just hangs… this is where I would be in over my head. Claude tries this next

kubectl get challenges.acme.cert-manager.io --all-namespaces

At this point, I’ll be honest. I don’t even know what this command does. News to me, you can get a challenge to a cert and it’s represented as a crd. From here, it knows it needs to delete the challenge,

kubectl delete challenges.acme.cert-manager.io -n coworkunion coworkunion-prometheus-tls-cert-1-1841491659-3150586538

Will that work? Of course not, because it’s Kubernetes, and it’s too stupid to include a —force flag. Next up, Claude knows it needs to remove the finalizers. Finalizers are hooks that have to return success before a resource can be cleaned up. How does it do that? Maybe there is a convenient flag like kubectl delete —ignore-finalizers that would function like —force but it would be more fine grained? Of course not, it’s Kubernetes. Removing the finalizers on the command line looks like this,

kubectl get crd challenges.acme.cert-manager.io -o json | jq '.metadata.finalizers = null' | kubectl  replace --raw /apis/apiextensions.k8s.io/v1/customresourcedefinitions/challenges.acme.cert-manager.io  -f -

Of course, if any human wrote code like that on the command line they’d be insane so let’s look at it

• kubectl get crd challenges.acme.cert-manager.io -o json

  Get everything about the crd as json. This for reference shows a finalizer for “customresourcecleanup.apiextensions.k8s.io” which is probably what the documentation is referring to when it says,

  If the namespace has been marked for deletion without deleting the cert-manager installation first, the namespace may become stuck in a terminating state. This is typically due to the fact that the APIService resource still exists however the webhook is no longer running so is no longer reachable. To resolve this, ensure you have run the above commands correctly, and if you're still experiencing issues then run:

• jq '.metadata.finalizers = null'

  Remove just the finalizers value from the metadata, effectively deleting the hook. Return the whole documented as JSON.

• kubectl replace --raw /apis/apiextensions.k8s.io/v1/customresourcedefinitions/challenges.acme.cert-manager.io -f -

  This is command like patch, but that focuses on the difference.

Why did it write that in such a way? No idea. It’s probably the same as this,

kubectl patch crd challenges.acme.cert-manager.io -p '{"metadata":{"finalizers":null}}' --type=merge

Which is what I did after I got sick of watching it show off. That removed the finalizer which made possible to delete the last crd.

But you can’t deny that it’s amusing and entertaining see how it solves these problems without reading the docs.

Addendum for the tribal

Just want to reiterate,

1. I knew about the docs before I ran the LLM. This was only to see how it would go about figuring this out as a learning exercise. That note was always in there.

2. This is not abnormal. Most every piece of software that I’ve used is “caveat emptor”. You can remove an rpm ignoring it’s normally blocking hooks with rpm -e —noscripts you can remove a package in Debian that is in an inconsistent state with dpkg --force-remove-reinstreq where normally dpkg would want to reinstall the package thinking that a reinstallation will allow an uninstallation. But sometimes the package needs to be removed in order for an installation to work, and so it’s there!

3. This bug isn’t rare. It’s common. It’s in the *Frequently* Asked Questions for cert-manager.

4. This is not about security. It’s about convenience. I can remove something by manually removing finalizers and dependent resources. If I can do it, there should be a command to do what I’m doing automatically. It’s not complex. The argument here is whether or not it should be convenient.

Take care. Hope you enjoyed the adventure.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:4-26.0.0

• The liberals, perhaps merely because Trump is in office with no plan to reclaim power.

• The conservatives because of the uncontested rise of China.

• The left, because wealth inequality is unmaintainable.

• Economists because domestic economic growth isn’t sustainable.

Etc. Perhaps they’re all wrong, but let’s assume for a second the premise is correct. Why is it that people think, like Rome, the collapse of the American world order and Empire will take 400 years? This is a bizarre conclusion.

One method of coming to this long-sundown is to assume the empire is dead when the GDP (PPP) per capita of its nearest peer competitor exceeds its own. In other words, when the average Chinese person makes more than the average American.

Granted that’s a ceiling because at that point, we’re all getting up and moving to China. But that seems bizarre to me.

Equally bizarre would be to look at the GDP (PPP) where China has already surpassed the United States. The United States is still unquestionably the global hegemon.

So what measure decides when the collapse is complete? And how far away is it? No idea. However, the height of British power was 1890-1910. Somewhere thereabout it controlled 1/4 of the world, and was more powerful than the next couple of nation states combined.

• 20 years later it couldn’t hold its own against Germany.

• 60 years later it was a joke of an old empire known for Monty Python.

For another example of an expedient demise look at the USSR. This could go downhill much faster than people assume.1 From my perspective, if I thought economic conditions provided for a certain retirement, I would at the very least be considering the what-ifs there. Imagine getting caught up in an ex-Soviet country when the economic powers determine you need to undergo Shock Therapy.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:4-20.0.0

Reaction to Brian Thompson’s Death

I went digging and look what I found:

Former U.S. President George W. Bush,

this momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones

Former U.S President Bill Clinton,

profoundly important moment for people all over the world who want to build a common future of peace, freedom, and cooperation for our children

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,

overwhelmed with gratitude and continue[s] to be amazed at what our [Luigi] has achieved

Geraldo Rivera on Fox News,

He’s a schmuck. He’s a bum. He’s a killer. […] We hate him. […] Happy days. Happy days everybody. This is the greatest. This is the greatest night of my career.

Oops, that was Osama bin Laden

Except of course it wasn’t Thompson’s death that these politicians and pundits were rejoicing in. It was Osama bin Laden.

You know what no one took into account? Osama bin Laden’s 20-26 children and his three wives. Why did not a single person bemoan the death of this family man? It’s almost as if nothing about having kids means you’re a good person. For comparison, Thompson had only two kids: that’s less than 10% the amount of kids. But yet, this is supposed to change our narrative? And he had only one wife, that’s two whole wives away from Osama bin Laden.

And it’s not just the public that doesn’t care about the dead’s family life, our judicial system doesn’t care either. Capital punishment is available to prosecutors at the federal level. Luigi Mangione himself is facing the death penalty. That charge would remain even if Luigi had fathered children — it’s not even taken into account.

The Reaction to Thompson’s death

Compare that to this cringe worthy response to Brian Thompson’s death by Sean Hannity where he tries to grill Taylor Lorenz,

What part of this United Healthcare CEO being a father and a husband don’t you understand? And what part of you having a choice of what healthcare provider you choose to deal with or not do you not understand? You don’t have to go with United. You don’t have to go with Blue Cross.

More central, Hannity uses this recurring theme about “feeling joy” as if it’s some kind of gotcha.

Why would any human being with a conscious and soul be joyful over an assassination of any person? Why would anyone be joyful over that?

That’s what I want to look at here.

The Morality of Taking Joy in Brian Thompson’s Death

I don’t care whether or not people refuse to celebrate the death of others. If you don’t, that’s fine; but, I don’t think you’re better than me. Celebrating the death of evil people is pretty core to humanity. Judaism has Purim where Jews eat (Hamantaschen) cookies that are symbolic of the dead King Haman’s ears. In the UK they have Guy Fawkes Night where they burn an effigy to the man they’re responsible for killing. Good Friday is basically celebrating Jesus’s death, lest you confuse that with his rebirth — it’s celebrated a few days later with Easter.

The logic of this is pretty simple too,

• If you can celebrate any task being completed.

• And if death can be the completion of a task.

• You can celebrate death!

All the same rules apply whether in the case of punishment, or as a precursor to reincarnation. People like Sean Hannity understand this. They’re just disingenuous. Here was Hannity’s reaction to al-Baghadi’s death.

“Baghdadi was no scholar. He was a radical Islamic extremist, an evil as S.O.B.," Hannity said. "He got cornered by members of the toughest, greatest military heroes on the face of this Earth and then blew himself up like the coward he is. And Baghdadi is, I'm pretty certain, rotting in hell as we speak."

And good on Hannity. He’s spot on there. Why would anyone want to deny someone the ability to celebrate the death of the leader of ISIS? The same can said for the above quotes about Osama bin Laden.

However, I felt joy in Thompson’s death too. What’s wrong with that? It’s not like any of these guys mentioned faced a criminal trial. They’re all extrajudicial assassinations. As if I can’t sing to the same tune, and simply talk about whether or not someone’s death makes the world a better place, and if so, celebrate it. Don’t fall into this trap of letting conservatives tone police you. Don’t play into it. They’re all triggered and spewing this reactionary Christian virtue signaling nonsense. Humanity is replete with its celebrations of the deaths of evil doers. Double down. Personally, I feel joy when all bad people die. Brian Thompson was a bad person. He was a killer. He had kids. I feel bad for his kids, and the kids of all parents who kill. However, in the boldest way possible,

While for legal reasons I would never encourage vigilantism and don’t even believe Luigi did it, I took the greatest amount of joy legally permitted in Thompson’s death. Good riddance.

Scientific Journal of Objective Truths and Proof 2025:4-18.1.0