Oh no, I agree with Nancy Mace!

The latest scandal: Kristi Noem’s husband, Bryan Noem, has been revealed to be a cross-dresser by the Daily Mail. That’s a terrible source, but it’s been confirmed by others that he was a member of an online fetish community.

“Ms. Noem is devastated. The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time,” Kristi Noem’s representatives told The New York Post.

Why be devastated? It’s her husband with whom she has had three children, so she had to have known something…except I guess she may have been distracted by her own cos-playing as ICE Barbie, and her dalliance with Lewandowski. Maybe she should try this kind of play with her partner?

Of course, there’s the usually baseless whining that it made her vulnerable to blackmail by foreign agents, but has that ever been a real thing? There are gay people working within the Trump administration, so that doesn’t scare anyone anymore — I’m sure there are others who have their own peculiar (to a straight Republican, anyway) behaviors. Let them all hang out!

I am mildly distressed by the fact that I might share an opinion with crazy Nancy Mace, though.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) posted that the news was personal matter and a distraction from other “priorities.”

I agree, it’s a personal matter, and I wouldn’t hold that against either Noem. I have other priorities, like seeing corrupt fascists chased out of the government.

All millionaires are welcome to leave Grandmother Mountain’s domain

I’ve got a lot of family in Washington state, and now the governor has slammed them all with a massive new tax.

Governor Bob Ferguson signed a new tax on income over $1 million into law, affecting less than half of one percent of Washington residents while aiming to provide relief to millions, the governor said in a release.

Senate Bill 6346, known as the Millionaires’ Tax, does not apply to income under $1 million.

“It does not tax the first million dollars. If you’re fortunate to earn $900,000 in the year, you will not be taxed under this legislation,” Gov. Ferguson said before signing the bill. “So for example, if you make $1.2 million in income in single-year, you pay taxes on the $200,000 over the 1 million that you made”

Oh. Wait. I don’t think anyone in my family makes a million dollars a year. They won’t notice this tax at all. But you know what they might notice?

The legislation funds free breakfast and lunch for every K-12 student, expands the Working Families Tax Credit to 460,000 new working families and reduces or eliminates the B&O tax for an additional 138,000 small businesses.

The bill also invests more than $320 million into affordable childcare in the first full biennium and eliminates sales tax on diapers, over-the-counter drugs and hygiene products.

There are some novel objections raised against this policy.

Furthermore, Todd Myers from the Washington Policy Center explained that future legal challenges could come down to the question of whether income constitutes property under the constitution.

In 1933, the Washington State Supreme Court struck down a graduated income tax 5-4. The majority ruled that income is property and cannot be subjected to an unequal tax.

I did not know that! I knew there was no income tax in the state when I lived there, which was nice, but that instead we had that damned ubiquitous sales tax that afflicted all of us sort of equally, which was not nice — if you were rich, you didn’t care about paying an extra 6 cents on a dollar, but it was terrible if you were a kid earning a little spending money by mowing lawns. If you’re concerned about inequality, why would you ever impose a sales tax? I’m all in favor of an unequal tax that hurts rich people a little more.

Then there’s a familiar argument.

Legislators and community members also raised concerns about the potential for millionaires to leave Washington.

Strangely, they never do leave. The things that make a state or a city an attractive place to live are still appealing, and millionaires aren’t really hurt by losing a few pennies on a dollar. They’re not going to want to leave Seattle to live in Pocatello, Idaho (nothing wrong with Pocatello, but it lacks the amenities of Seattle). If they do want to leave, though…bye bye, have a nice trip, you won’t be missed.

What can we do to get a version of this law in Minnesota?

The Future of Education!

It’s Pure Genius! Check out the website, but be sure to put on your sunglasses first.

In case you can’t tell, this is a satire site mocking all these nobodies who are selling “education” as a commodity without bothering with the “teaching” part — that’s hard, you know, but marketing degrees and the illusion of skills is a good way to make money.

The hints are pretty broad, beyond just the glaringly ugly design. Complete your bachelor’s degree in a single day with our efficient learning is a good clue, as is Double Points During Crises: War, shootings, natural disasters? Learn how to stay focused on what matters. Bragging about Essays Harvested and extracting premium intelligence with their AI reveals the real purpose of these kinds of sites. They’re made of AI Slop for the purpose of generating more AI Slop.

There’s a lot more money in selling web nonsense than actually doing the hard work of teaching.

There’s a sane reply, and there’s the batshit crazy reply

Let’s begin with the mundane, normal response, because this is how I’d reply. Obama said in an interview that he believed aliens existed.

…former President Obama piqued the interest of many Americans when he said on a separate podcast last month that aliens were “real,” but he had not seen them, and they were not being held at Area 51.

Obama attempted to walk back his comments the next day, saying that he “saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us.”

“I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention, let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” Obama said in a post on Instagram.

That’s not “walking back,” that’s just clarifying a statement that he had initially assumed no one would be nuts enough to misinterpret. I also believe that there almost certainly alien intelligent organisms somewhere in the immense universe. There’s nothing magical about life, or intelligence. But I agree with Obama that there is no evidence of aliens, and that it is only a hypothetical likelihood.

Every scientist I know would agree with it. Typically, only some religious cranks argue that it’s not possible for aliens to exist. Of course, there are other cranks who argue that aliens have been visiting us already.

President Trump pledged a few days later to direct the Department of Defense and other agencies to release their files about UFOs and “alien and extraterrestrial life” to the public, citing the “tremendous” interest.

He previously told reporters he did not know if aliens were real and that he “may get him out of trouble” by declassifying records, referring to Obama.

The White House registered the domain names “Alien.gov” and “Aliens.gov” earlier this month, drawing speculation that information could be released soon.

I eagerly await the news from aliens.gov. Not holding my breath though.

And then there are the total wackos who believe aliens exist, but that they are supernatural beings.

JD Vance, the vice-president of the United States, said this weekend that he considers aliens to be “demons”.

With the war in Iran continuing, petrol and grocery prices soaring, and chaos continuing at US airports as a partial government shutdown endures, Vance appeared on the conservative Benny Show podcast, released on Saturday, to promise that he would spend time looking into what he called his “obsession” with UFOs and extraterrestrial visitors.

Johnson, who bills his show as the place for “cutting, behind-the-scenes insight into the global conflict for freedom”, wondered if Vance, who has been noticeably quiet about Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East that he is said to oppose, had yet looked at any of the files about unidentified flying objects – known these days as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) – which the president has promised to release.

“I actually haven’t,” Vance replied, mustering significantly more enthusiasm than for any previous question about the US-Israel military strikes on Iran.

“I have not been able to spend enough time on this, but I am going to. Trust me, I’m obsessed with this.”

This is inarguable evidence that the intellectual ability of our political leaders declined precipitously between Obama and Vance.

Let’s make sure looney JD never gets to the presidency, OK?

Now I know what they do at faculty meetings on the humanities/social sciences side of campus

They’re planning armageddon.

The floating text for this cartoon reads, “Anyone who thinks the humanities makes people more expansive should spend four minutes in an English department meeting.” It’s too true. I would never go over to the other side of my campus for one of their meetings, but here in the sciences building we have a statistician as chair who bangs through the meeting agenda on a tight schedule and doesn’t permit too much digression. We’re scared of the anarchy in the English department.

I don’t want to try to imagine what’s happening in the Art or Music departments. I’m pretty sure it involves other-worldly horrors and ritualistic chanting.

They never learn

Republicans have received so much bad press about racists and Nazis in their ranks that you’d think they’d learn and try to avoid more controversial members, but they can’t. Look at who was appointed as director of the College Republicans.

The newly appointed College Republicans of America political director Kai Schwemmer has made racist, antisemitic, homophobic and sexist statements while espousing extremist rightwing views on abortion, a Guardian review of livestream recordings can reveal.

Schwemmer said he would accept a world in which slavery was legal if abortion was criminalised, describes himself as “very much an anti universal suffrage guy” and accepts a supporter’s description of him as “our Mormon Nick Fuentes” – referring to the white nationalist influencer whose platform he streamed on for years.

Somehow, I am not surprised — we have a chapter of the College Republicans on our campus, and they occasionally get in the news for being assholes. You’d think, though, that they’d at least try to present themselves as sober, serious conservatives. That’s not what a modern Republican is anymore though. The Republican Party is a hate group. This appointment was not a mistake, it’s who they are.

One thing I wonder, though, is who appointed this jerk? The stories don’t say. All the attention is focussed on this stupid hateful young man, but I imagine there’s some wealthy, cigar-smoking bigwig somewhere in the works that thought appointing a misogynistic racist to run a student organization was a fine idea.

A good protest

Joan Baez! Bruce Springsteen! Jane Fonda! Tom Morello! That was some of the entertainment at the massive St Paul No Kings protest yesterday. I’ve heard estimates as high as 100,000 in attendance. Unfortunately, Ted Nugent couldn’t make it. We couldn’t make it either, that was a 3 hour drive away from us.

I attended the rally in Morris. (Forgive the terrible photo.)

It wasn’t organized in a way that lends itself to grand panoramic photos. We didn’t march — we we were spread out around a couple of major intersections in town. About 150 people showed up, a good number for our small town.

I then drove out to an even smaller town: Cyrus, Minnesota, population 300.

Between 30 and 40 people were waving signs at that one.

Our numbers look tiny compared to the huge crowds in the big cities, but what was most heartening was the response. Cars were driving by, and I did see one guy flip us off, but mostly we got positive affirmations, with drivers waving at us or honking their horns. At times it was just one long continuous ‘beep beep’ as car after car saluted us.

I think maybe most of the country is fed up with Mr Trump and his idiot lackeys.

We did have some conversations about the point of all this, since it wasn’t going to lead to direct change. People had different answers: one was to show other people that they aren’t alone, another was to foster organization, another was to just piss off MAGA. All good answers, I think, so we’ll have to keep it up. I also learned that there is a weekly demonstration in Morris, every Tuesday at 4:30 on 5th and Atlantic…so I’ll have to try to make it to some of those.

My sharpie is ready

In yet another fit of petty vanity, Donald Trump wants to put his name on all of our paper money.

Would someone translate that from the Black Speech of Morgoth for the rest of us?
Don’t speak it aloud, though, I’m pretty sure it would summon calamity.

The U.S. Treasury Department plans to put President Donald Trump’s signature on all new U.S. paper currency, the agency announced on Thursday.

The move would be a first for a sitting president, since traditionally, U.S. paper currency carries the signatures of the Treasury Secretary and the Treasurer, not the president.

It’s the latest instance of Trump putting his name and likeness on American cultural institutions, following his renaming of the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships, among other tributes.

I can’t chisel his name off the Kennedy Center or the Institute of Peace, but I have an easy solution when he tries to scribble on the money in my wallet: I’ll scribble back. Every bill I get is going to have his name redacted. I’ve heard where some people are planning to add editorial comment, for instance, writing “PEDO” after his name. I don’t think I’ll be alone.

I don’t think the Treasury Department is prepared for the reality that all their paper money is going to be defaced very quickly.