Evil and stupid?

OK, Republicans suck, have wicked intentions, and are wrecking the country. Their one saving grace, the one thing that gives me hope, is that they’re idiots.

Now that they’ve taken over legislatures all over the place, they’ve decided that the proper use of their power is to pass laws against imaginary things they don’t like. Like chemtrails.

Known to less conspiratorially minded as aircraft contrails, or the white vaporous lines streaming out of an airplane’s engines at altitude, chemtrails are a longstanding conspiracy theory.

Believers in chemtrails hold that the aircraft vapor trails that criss-cross skies across the globe every day are deliberately laden with toxins that are using commercial aircraft to spray them on people below, perhaps to enslave them to big pharma, or exert mind control, or sterilize people or even control the weather for nefarious motives.

Despite the outlandishness of the belief and the complete absence of evidence, a 2016 study showed that the idea is held to be “completely true” by 10% of Americans and “somewhat true” by a further 20%-30% of Americans.

At least eight states, including Florida and Tennessee, have now introduced chemtrail-coded legislation to prohibit “geo-engineering” or “weather modification”. Louisiana’s bill, which must pass through the senate before reaching Governor Jeff Landry’s desk, orders the department of environmental quality to record reported chemtrail sightings and pass complaints on to the Louisiana air national guard.

I heartily endorse that they waste their time and energy on laws against non-existent phenomena — it’s much better than their usual hateful nonsense. I’m not sure how they’re going to enforce it, though. Notify the air national guard? To do what? Fly up and make a few contrails of their own?

Of course they have the King and Queen of Stupid backing their futile flailings.

“We are going to stop this crime,” the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, posted on X in August. Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a post before Hurricane Milton struck in October: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” Even Donald Trump has spread the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden is dead and has been replaced by a robotic clone.

To be fair, though, I have to admit that they have recruited a few allies. Would you believe there are Canadian anti-vaxxers? Six kids have been born in Ontario with congenital measles.

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health says six infants have been born with congenital measles since an outbreak began last fall, adding they were infected in the womb through mothers who were not vaccinated.

Dr. Kieran Moore says these infants recovered, but their infections could have been prevented if their mothers had been vaccinated and protected from contracting measles.

Congenital measles can result in severe complications, including inflammation of the brain and death.

Perhaps more benignly, counties in Washington state are passing laws to protect Bigfoot.

Clark County is the latest among a growing list of counties taking steps to protect Washington’s favorite cryptid, Bigfoot. On Tuesday, the county council passed a resolution designating all of Clark County as a refuge for the large, hairy, humanlike creatures.

According to the resolution, read by council Chair Sue Marshall, “legends, sightings and investigations suggest that a bipedal apelike creature known as Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch, may exist in the remote portions of Clark County” and should be protected, if it exists, as “the rareness of sightings indicates an extreme endangered creature.”

Even if Bigfoot isn’t real, the resolution acknowledges the folklore surrounding Bigfoot highlights the need for stewardship of the county’s wild places and natural landscape.

I like the recognition of the importance of the environment, so I can’t be too irate at the waste of time — you know Bigfoot doesn’t exist, right?

Also, this was legislation prompted by elementary school kids, so I’d want to encourage that kind of civic participation.

What’s your excuse, Bobby and Marjorie?

That PR coup went perfectly

Meanwhile, out on the sunny Mediterranean, a small ship carrying a token amount of humanitarian aid and Greta Thunberg sailed to Gaza, protesting the Israeli blockade of Palestine. Israel has seized the ship and arrested all on board for the crime of attempting to deliver food to starving people.

This is exactly what they wanted, you know. A small ship, an unarmed crew, a negligible amount of supplies…the only way they could make a difference is if Israel drew attention to them with this kind of excessive military action. Thunberg is smiling because she successfully provoked the action they wanted.

Rise up!

I went on a news fast this past weekend. I did anything other than read what’s going on in this tyrannical hell hole of a country. Then what happens?

The president of the United States tries to instigate a civil war with California.

ICE thugs targeted Los Angeles and seized hundreds of people for deportation, and the California citizenry responded with protests and interfering with unlawful arrests…so Trump sent in the National Guard, and upon finding that most of the demonstrations were peaceful, decided to blow up the situation. An armed military presence! Tear gas guns! Barricades in the streets!

And then Trump came after Los Angeles.

Fueling the fury was the brutality with which federal agents had approached its targets, including a clothing manufacturer in Los Angeles’s garment district, and Home Depot in the Westlake district and a warehouse in South Los Angeles. The arrests were carried out without judicial warrants, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – advocates say that more than 200 people were taken.

Lawyers reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been holding detained families in the basements of federal immigration facilities, separating children and mothers from their fathers. Agents have refused access to attorneys and family members, according to the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef).

As masked immigration officers ripped workers away from their jobs, other agents in riot gear attacked protesters with tear gas and flash bang grenades, escalating a handful of isolated demonstrations into a clash that roiled the city and spurred several hundred to join the protest.

Look at those brave bastards! They’re armed with cameras, flags, and signs, and they’re up against these guys:

Meanwhile, here in rural Minnesota, it was a quiet weekend, a bit on the cool side with occasional rain. I didn’t see any masked ICE gestapo, or any troops in military gear. We hear about occasional flare-ups in Minneapolis, usually driven by those ICE assholes trying to arrest workers, but nothing here.

I still stand with those heroes in Los Angeles.

A familiar story told again

The pre-Cambrian animal rollover: A micro-evolutionary event becomes a major macro-evolutionary distinction in 600 million years.

At 10am Central tomorrow morning, you can watch this video about the dorsal-ventral inversion of key signaling molecules in the developing embryo. Or you can watch it on Patreon right now if you’re a member.

This is a discussion of this paper:
De Robertis EM, Tejeda-Munoz N (2022) Evo-Devo of Urbilateria and its larval forms. Developmental Biology 487:10-20.

I show up in two videos, but listen to them for the other guys

I was interviewed by Michael Beverly last week. It’s a two-parter, and I appear only at the end of this first video, which is mainly Dan Stern Cardinale and Jay Bundy talking about the problem of creationism. It’s good. You can bail out when they introduce me, because they were much too generous in their praise and I was cringing the whole time.

I contribute more in the second half…wait, that’s worse. Why am I recommending these videos in the first place? My appearance isn’t a good addition.

At least Michael Beverly is a good interviewer, and it’s always worthwhile to listen to Jay and Dan.

The perils of spinelessness

Santa Ono was hoping to be appointed to the presidency of the University of Florida. I have sad news.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ono’s presidency was shot down in a 6-10 vote by the Florida Board of Governors, the governing board for the state’s university system. The move was made after prominent Florida conservatives questioned Ono’s past support of DEI and alleged inaction on combating antisemitism.

He was formerly the president of the University of Michigan. He wasn’t well liked there, either.

University leaders, faculty and alumni took aim at Ono for various reasons, from his decisions to curb DEI efforts on the Ann Arbor campus to his crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protesters to alleging he too easily changes his views on issues.

He seems to have been a wishy-washy Trumpian.

Ono oversaw cuts to the university’s long-standing diversity, equity and inclusion programs. This includes March moves to discontinue UM’s DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan and close its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Office for Health Equity and Inclusion.
…
Ono also saw criticism from both sides on his handling of pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitism on the Ann Arbor campus. At least 50 people have been arrested in connection with pro-Palestine protesting at the Ann Arbor university since October 2023.

I’m a bit exasperated with this predictable rhetorical trick of claiming that protesting a genocide is “anti-semitic”. I don’t think murdering civilians is a standard Jewish value.

I finally get to try out this toy

I collected my first spider egg sac of the summer — see, that means summer is finally here — and I got to load up the egg incubator.

Some of you might protest that that’s a device design for chicken eggs, but that’s just what Big Chicken wants you to think. It’s calibrated for 28°C and 65% humidity, which is perfect for spiders, and I also bought some decorative plastic ovoids from a craft store that might, from a distance, look a bit like chicken eggs, but I’m putting spider egg sacs in them.

I’m just saying, next time you crack an egg for your breakfast, you might be surprised at what comes swarming out.

Slap fight!

The spoiled brats are fighting. Musk went there:

Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate, Musk said in a post on X. He added: Such ingratitude.

Oh no! Tainting Trump’s victory is one of those things that’ll really piss him off.

So Trump fired back.

The Trump-Musk relationship may yet get worse. Hours after the feud kicked off, Trump threatened to punish Musk, posting on Truth Social: The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.

Not so fast! Musk is happy to punch himself in the face to spite Trump.

In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately

Are you not entertained?

The only good thing to come out of this will be the spectacle of their fan bases splitting and starting their own slapfights.