Rotting From The Head Down

What we are witnessing in Texas right now is a constitutional crisis being orchestrated by activist judges on the Beto-loving Fifteenth Court of Appeals.

Beto said, "f*** the rules," and these unelected justices—Scott Brister, Scott Field, and April Farris—are helping him do…

— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) August 27, 2025

Sore loser always blames the judges. See, e.g., Donald J. Trump.

You think the 15th appeals court judges appointed by Greg Abbott are working for me?

You okay? https://t.co/JXKFO6urUx

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) August 27, 2025

Speaking of rotting:

.@SecKennedy: "I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like. I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today...and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges...and I know that’s not how our children are supposed to look." pic.twitter.com/b8A2OEphav

— CSPAN (@cspan) August 27, 2025

He’s neither a doctor nor a scientist. He’s a lawyer, which makes him think he knows everything.  This could be what he's talking about:

Adipose tissue, or body fat, plays a key role in maintaining our health. It helps to store and supply energy, regulate body temperature, and send hormone signals that affect many body functions. But when a person develops obesity, it leads to expansion of a type of fat called white adipose tissue, along with increased inflammation and metabolic changes.

Mitochondria, the energy-generating structures found within cells, are dynamic—that is, they can fuse, change shape, and divide. These changes affect how much energy mitochondria can burn. Some studies have found that obesity can alter these dynamics and cause mitochondria to fragment, making it more difficult for fat cells to burn energy. This might help explain why it can be hard for people with obesity to lose weight. The breakdown of mitochondria has also been tied to insulin resistance in obesity. And insulin resistance is associated with diabetes and other metabolic conditions. But the underlying connections between obesity, mitochondria, and white fat have been unclear.

Undurprisingly, he got it wrong:

Further analysis showed how RalA activity leads to changes in mitochondria dynamics. The researchers found the same mechanisms in white fat from people. They also found that the activity of a key protein in the process was associated with human obesity. More study will be needed to understand how a high-fat diet raises levels of RalA in white fat in the first place.

“In essence, chronic activation of RalA appears to play a critical role in suppressing energy expenditure in obese adipose tissue,” Saltiel says. “By understanding this mechanism, we’re one step closer to developing targeted therapies that could address weight gain and associated metabolic dysfunctions by increasing fat burning.”