I call this an attempt to crush dissent. I guess I’m going to have to protest.
All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Like on Friday, when I’m protesting for science in St Paul.
As part of their program to completely eliminate the federal government, the latest act of random destruction and intellectual vandalism by Musk, Trump, and Co. is the gradual cancellation of national weather forecasting centers.
As my friend
@drshepherd2013.bsky.social
says, asking why we need a National Weather Service when we have apps and the Weather Channel is like asking why we need potato farmers when we can buy fries at McDonalds.
This is going to be very unpopular here in the Midwest. The weather is the primary focus of conversations around these parts!
It might be a matter of more import in southern coastal regions, but they won’t be talking about it — they’ll be dead, or washed out, or fleeing inland.
The eugenicists are back, and they’re having a big splendiferous conference in Austin, Texas this month. It’s called the Natalism Conference, and their theme is that women must have more babies, or we’ll go extinct. Which is not true, by the way — a population that has constant, unlimited growth is going to exceed the carrying capacity of the environment, and is going to crash hard. But OK, this is a conference about reproduction by people who don’t understand biology.
It’s a two day event, and they have 27 ‘speakers’. Actually, it’s a mob of sensationalist, narcissistic weirdos who are going to be disappointed to discover they aren’t the center of attention, and that they will be competing for the spotlight with even freakier people who will be capering and gibbering in their short slice of time on the stage. On the roster are:
Sargon of Akkad. I thought his 15 minutes were up a long time ago.
Razib Khan. Yeah, sorry, he’s got legit academic credentials, but he uses them to push race science.
Scott Yenor. If your mission is to get women to have more babies, why invite this guy who wants to deny education and voting rights to women…oh, wait, that tracks.
Robin Hanson. America’s Creepiest Economist.
Geoffrey Miller. Evolutionary Psychologist who loves the idea of selecting babies for their IQ.
Malcolm and Simone Collins. Silicon Valley neofascists.
Most of the people on the schedule are total unknowns to me, but I think it’s safe to assume that they’re all right-wing assholes. The Guardian has a more thorough breakdown, and it looks like my assumption is valid.
I must admit I’d like to see this guy perform. He adds a certain luster to the lineup.
Sadly, “babygravy9” is not his real name. He has been outed, and his actual legal name is Charles Cornish-Dale.
Cornish-Dale is a figurehead of the rightwing bodybuilding scene, and has been a keen promoter of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. He had nevertheless lived with his mother in sleepy south Dorset during the entirety of his career as a rightwing influencer, according to Hope Not Hate.
Guy, you’ve got to get out of your mother’s basement if you hope to repopulate the world!
I get email from the Democratic party:
PZ,
In just a few weeks, Elon Musk has shown that he is the worst president America’s ever seen.
We have one message for Trump and Musk: We’re coming.
This is a new Democratic Party, and we’re taking the gloves off. We cannot and will not stand for their extreme, harmful agenda and efforts to drag our country back centuries.
We’re in this fight until the very end, but it’s going to take Democrats from every corner of the nation stepping up and joining this movement to defeat Trump and his MAGA cronies.
Then it asks me for money.
I hate it.
They’re going to be running forever on the “TRUMP BAD” idea, aren’t they? Not one specific, positive idea was anywhere in that message. Come on, come right out and tell me you’re going to rescue social security by raising the cap, you’re going to finally get around to a federal law allowing abortion, you’re going to build programs to help immigrants integrate, you’re going to give trans people respect and dignity, you’re going to fully fund the NIH and NSF, you’re going to stand up to Putin and give aid to Ukraine, you’re going to give everyone Medicaid…I can think of so many things I want the American government to do, and the Democrats are afraid to push them. It’s convenient for them to have an undeniably horrible boogeyman in office so they can run against him, get elected, and not have to do anything.
Then I read this list of things a centrist group within the Democratic party calling itself “The Third Way” is proposing. This is coming from a bunch of Clintonesque, Blairite neoliberal stooges who fear socialism — wanna-be Republicans. (This comes from Politico, a conservative rag that is not at all friendly to progressive values, and even they are sneering at this list.)
- The party should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery”;
- Democrats should “ban far-left candidate questionnaires and refuse to participate in forums that create ideological purity tests” and “move away from the dominance of small-dollar donors whose preferences may not align with the broader electorate”;
- They should “push back against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging” ;
- Candidates should “get out of elite circles and into real communities (e.g., tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, churches)”; and
- The party needs to “own the failures of Democratic governance in large cities and commit to improving local government.”
We’re gonna lose again and again and again, aren’t we?
Do these things have oars?
A Norwegian fuel company is refusing to fuel US Navy vessels. I can’t blame them.
A petrol giant in Norway has announced a ban on fuel sales to all US forces following Donald Trump’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, it has been reported.
Norwegian firm Haltbakk Bunkers announced it will stop providing fuel to all American forces in Norway as it declared “No fuel to Americans!”. The firm posted on social media to declare its support for Zelensky as it dealt a hammer blow to US President Trump following the heated spat televised from the Oval Office.
It said: “We have today been witnesses to the biggest s***how ever presented “live on tv” by the current American president and his vice president. Huge credit to the president of Ukraine restraining himself and for keeping calm even though USA put on a backstabbing tv show. It made us sick. Short and sweet. As a result, we have decided to immediate STOP as fuel provider to American forces in Norway and their ships calling Norwegian ports.
“No Fuel to Americans! We encourage all Norwegians and Europeans to follow our example. SLAVA UKRAINA”
They also refuse to fuel Russian ships.
This is how Donald Trump weakens the US military, by poisoning our alliances.
Jesus. I am so ashamed of America right now. The spectacle of a couple of American bullies lying to a beleaguered foreign leader is shameful, and it’s going to go down in the history books as one of those moments where this country revealed itself to be on the wrong side. Trump and Vance took turns lying, accusing Zelenskyy of being the one to start the war, of not being sufficiently grateful, right to his face. It’s classic gaslighting.
It also reveals that Trump and Vance are Putin’s stooges.
Zelenskyy: What kind of diplomacy, JD, are you are asking about? What do you mean?
Vance: I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country.
Zelenskyy: Yes, but if you …
Vance: Mr President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the frontlines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president.
Zelenskyy: Have you ever been to Ukraine to see the problems we have?
Vance: I’ve actually watched and seen the stories, and I know what happens is you bring people on a propaganda tour, Mr President.
Do you disagree that you’ve had problems with bringing people in your military, and do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?
Zelenskyy: First of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you. You have nice solutions and don’t feel [it] now, but you will feel it in the future.
Trump: You don’t know that. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.
Zelenskyy: I am not telling you, I am answering …
Vance: That’s exactly what you’re doing …
Trump, raising his voice: You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good and very strong.
Zelenskyy tries to speak.
Trump: You right now are not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having the cards.
You’re gambling with lives of millions of people, you’re gambling with world war three and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country.
Vance: Have you said thank you once?
Zelenskyy: A lot of times.
Vance: No, in this meeting, this entire meeting? Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.
Zelenskyy: Yes, you think that if you will speak very loudly about the war …
Trump: He’s not speaking loud. Your country is in big trouble. No, no, you’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.
Zelenskyy: I know, I know.
Trump: You’re not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out OK, because of us.
Zelenskyy: We are staying strong from the very beginning of the war, we have been alone, and we are saying, I said, thanks.
Trump, speaking over Zelenskyy: You haven’t been alone … We gave you military equipment. Your men are brave, but they had our military. If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks.
Zelenskyy: I heard it from Putin in three days.
Trump: It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this.
Vance: Just say thank you.
Zelenskyy: I said it a lot of times.
Vance: Accept that there are disagreements and let’s go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it in the American media, when you’re wrong. We know that you’re wrong.
Trump: You’re buried there. Your people are dying. You’re running low on soldiers. No, listen … And then you tell us, ‘I don’t want a ceasefire. I don’t want a ceasefire. I want to go and I want this.’
Trump: You’re not acting at all thankful. And that’s not a nice thing. I’ll be honest, that’s not a nice thing.
The whole world has witnessed that disgraceful exchange. America, bully to the world, Putin’s lackey.
My new experimental animal?
A couple of Republicans have introduced a bill in congress to ban all research on animals. All animals, although I’m not sure they understand the breadth of that term. They do helpfully declare that The term ‘‘animal’’ does not include a human
. So, according to the ‘Safeguard Pets, Animals, and Research Ethics Act’
, we’re going to have to shut down all research involving any kind of animal, except humans. They don’t have the first clue what an “animal” is, or how devastating this would be to biomedical research.
Specifically, this legislation would ban animal testing in federal labs, establish a three-year phase-out, rehabilitate and re-home former lab animals, saving taxpayer dollars while enhancing research outcomes, and ensuring accountability and transparency. American taxpayers spend an estimated $20 billion funding experiments here in the US and overseas including in countries with subpar safety conditions in China, Russia, and Iran.
“I am proud to work alongside Congressman Aaron Bean to end the cruel and unnecessary spending on animal experiments that have wasted billions of tax dollars and inhumanely kept hundreds of thousands of innocent animals in captivity to be tortured and sentenced to painful death,” said Congresswoman Malliotakis. “From administering transgender hormone therapy to monkeys to infesting beagles with fleas and drilling into cats’ skulls for so-called ‘research purposes,’ the American taxpayer would be outraged to learn how their money has been spent. As Co-Chair of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus and the Cosmetics Caucus, I am committed to advancing our legislation, promoting humane research alternatives, and ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly.”
“What Fauci did to beagles and other animals is disgusting. The federal government needs to get out of the business of torturing Snoopy. I am proud to join Congresswoman Malliotakis in introducing the SPARE Act.” said Congressman Bean.
Of course she brought up transgender hormones, Fauci, and saving money, the current Republican shibboleths. I can’t believe this would ever pass into real legislation, but I don’t know…congress and the president have been pushing some insane stuff lately. If it did become the law of the land, you can kiss most biological research goodbye.
Welp, I guess I better go release my spiders and all those fruit flies. Then I’ll go raid the local orphanages for small children I can still legally use in my experiments, before my colleagues get the same clever idea.
Come on, wake up. Trump has posted an AI-generated rendering of his peace plan for Gaza. It’s insane.
I also think Trump might have been played. If you freeze the above clip at the 0:31 second mark, you’ll get a glimpse of scantily clad belly dancers wiggling on a beach. They’ve got beards.
If you watch the whole thing <shudder> you’ll see why it would appeal to a narcissist — it’s got a giant golden statue of a surprisingly slim Trump, and gift shops full of nothing but golden statuettes of Trump. It reminded me of that giant statue of Saddam Hussein.
That’s what egotistical tyrants do.
Please, can we topple him now, even before the statues go up?
Look at all the money these universities keep in their endowments! Why do they need federal grant money at all?
Harvard is sitting on a dragon’s hoard of $52 billion, amounting to over $2 million per student. Why do they even charge tuition? Why should the federal government subsidize research at an institution already rolling in money?
Here’s a very good answer.
Despite the common terminology, there is not “an endowment” at universities large or small. The endowment is not a single pool of money, waiting to be used for whatever purpose the university deems fit, such as financial emergencies. In reality, the endowment is a collection of thousands of funds representing gifts from particular donors with a legal agreement attached. These gifts are generally for something specific: scholarships, support for a named department or center, or research on a particular disease. Moreover, the principal of the endowment can’t legally be spent down. A condition of the gift is that it is held to generate future income.
Harvard is a very old university and you could argue that their endowment is the product of inherited wealth — the rich get richer year after year. But they can’t touch the core endowment, only the profits generated by it, and even some of that gets reinvested in the endowment, where it’s locked away forever.
The article looks at a newer university, the University of Michigan, with it’s $19 billion endowment.
Let’s take the University of Michigan, where I work, as an example. It has one of the largest public university endowments, at $19.2 billion. Roughly three-quarters is legally restricted for specific purposes established by donors. Distributions from the endowment are spent in a variety of areas, with 28% going to student financial aid—sometimes quite generally, sometimes for very specific awards—25% to patient care at the hospital, and 15% to research. So while the unrestricted portion of the endowment does allow some room for maneuvering, most of “the endowment” cannot just be redirected to compensate for a reduction in NIH support for overhead costs or other federal cuts. Michigan estimates that the proposed change in NIH funding would create a $181 million annual hole in its budget. The endowment might help cover some of those costs in the short run, but it cannot fill the hole.
My alma mater didn’t make the list — the University of Washington endowment is “only” $5.5 billion, while the University of Oregon has $1.6 billion. The University of Minnesota has $5.9 billion. None of that money can be redirected to cover indirect costs, by law.
And how much money are these universities going to lose by the savage beancounters who plan to slash indirect costs to 15%?
Ouch. The UW is going to have an $86 million shortfall. All the major research universities are looking at budget cuts on the order of $100 million. Where’s that money going to come from? Not their endowments, we already determined that. Not from state funding — we’re all operating on shoestrings there already.
I guess in the process of destroying the federal government, American education and scientific research are going to be collateral damage.
Yesterday, I was wondering what Elon Musk would do with 3 million emails describing what every federal worker did last week. We didn’t have to wait long, we now know what the plan was.
Responses to the Elon Musk-directed email to government employees about what work they had accomplished in the last week are expected to be fed into an artificial intelligence system to determine whether those jobs are necessary, according to three sources with knowledge of the system.
The information will go into an LLM (Large Language Model), an advanced AI system that looks at huge amounts of text data to understand, generate and process human language, the sources said. The AI system will determine whether someone’s work is mission-critical or not.
Nice. Big Brother AI is going to analyze your email to determine whether you should be fired or not.
Trump & Musk don’t care what you write. They’re looking for pretexts to dismantle the federal government.
