Don’t use these posters

Are you ready for the big No Kings protest on Saturday? Are you making signs? I have to tell you that you shouldn’t use these as ideas for posters.

Those are sarcasm. Sarcasm doesn’t work in a protest sign. Short, simple, clear messages are much more effective.

Keep in mind that conservatives do not understand sarcasm or irony or even humor. This, for example, is a real poster put out by the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

“Foreign invaders”…is that what we’re calling the people who are working so hard in our farm fields right now? Are the children of immigrants also called “foreign invaders”?

You know, that looks nothing like Steven Miller — he can’t grow that kind of hair on his ratty little face.

It’s not just me

Mano Singham is on the anti-Pinker train.

But if you claim to be of the left and yet find yourself frequently being criticized by others on the left but not by those on the right, and if you find yourself being repeatedly invited by those whose views you strongly disagree with and being quoted approvingly by them, it may be good for you to pause and reflect on why that might be so, and not simply dismiss your critics as being dogmatic and irrational.

The trigger here is Pinker’s flirting with the racist scum on Aporia, but it’s been a frequent issue in his career. He’s a faux leftist, and it shows.

I guess I’m supposed to be relieved

I got a note from our university advocate at the capitol, announcing the completion of the Minnesota state budget. Is it good news? I don’t know. It’s not great news, that’s for sure.

The higher education bill maintains current funding for the University of Minnesota’s core operations in the next biennium. The capital investment (also called bonding) bill provides $60 million in bonding to repair and renew existing University of Minnesota buildings across the state. The transportation bill provides $8 million from the general fund for safety improvement to Washington Avenue Bridge. These bills have been sent to the governor, who is expected to sign them as part of the special session agreement.

Although the funding for core operations amounts to a 3.5% reduction when adjusted for inflation, we recognize it was a tough budget year at the State Capitol. UMN Advocates minimized cuts and secured a bonding bill despite narrow partisan divides by helping legislators understand the statewide value of the University.

The legislature held the line. The budget was already skin-tight and our bones were showing, so we’re going to have to cinch it up a little tighter, but it could have been so much worse. But have you ever heard of the Minnesota starvation experiment?

During World War Two, conscientious objectors in the US and the UK were asked to volunteer for medical research. In one project in the US, young men were starved for six months to help experts decide how to treat victims of mass starvation in Europe.

Do we need to repeat it? Really?

Sad news for fans of the Newsboys and the God’s Not Dead movies

onstage during the 6th Annual KLOVE Fan Awards at The Grand Ole Opry on May 27, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee.

I’m sure there are many of you here, who listen to Christian Rock and watch cheesy apologetics movies, but you could have predicted this. Michael Tait, lead singer of the Newsboys, has…

No, he hasn’t died. It’s the other thing you could have predicted.

…has confessed to cocaine use, drinking, sexual abuse, and grooming.

After meeting Tait at a concert in 2004, a then-22-year-old worship musician said he was invited twice to visit Tait’s home in Nashville, Tennessee, despite living eight hours away, according to the report. During the second visit, the musician said, Tait exposed his genitals and touched the musician’s anal area without consent. The musician told The Roys Report he initially thought Tait’s actions were an “anomaly.”

An “anomaly”. I think maybe this unnamed worship musician was remarkably naive.

Years later, a 22-year-old touring musician with the Chris Sligh band, which opened for the Newsboys in 2010, was befriended by Tait, despite Tait being 21 years older. The Chris Sligh bandmate alleged that in January 2011, Tait assaulted him after inviting him to his home and providing him with alcohol. The musician said he woke in the early morning to Tait kissing him and touching his genitals. He told The Roys Report he saw Tait as “basically the top of the food chain” in the Christian music industry.

The pattern reportedly repeated in 2014. A 22-year-old crew member said that after a night of drinking, Tait offered him cocaine. He later woke up to Tait touching his genitals over his clothes, he said according to The Roys Report.

You know, there were five God’s Not Dead movies released between 2014 and 2024. Tait has been the lead singer since 2009. But he was so sincere in those movies.

I saved the worst revelation for last.

Tait is also known for his conservative politics. In 2016, he endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for president before supporting Donald Trump. Tait signed a letter opposing Trump’s 2019 impeachment and was a performer at a January 2020 Evangelicals for Trump concert.

Unbelievable. Such a good Christian.

Don’t worry, I’m sure there will be a redemption tour.

I curse the day he was born

May he die alone, wallowing in shit and the knowledge that the world despises him.

His “birthday parade” brings dishonor to the nation, and tarnishes the history of the army.

On 14 June, go to your local No Kings demonstration. Raise your fists and tell the world that the tyrant must fall, along with his whole corrupt family and administrators. Don’t let them get back up, either!

I don’t care much for the Bible, but Jeremiah 20 seems appropriated.

Cursed be the day I was born!
May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
who made him very glad, saying,
“A child is born to you—a son!”
May that man be like the towns
the Lord overthrew without pity.
May he hear wailing in the morning,
a battle cry at noon.
For he did not kill me in the womb,
with my mother as my grave,
her womb enlarged forever.
Why did I ever come out of the womb
to see trouble and sorrow
and to end my days in shame?

The mystery is how anyone falls for it

This is a spot-on summary of fascism, and jesus christ, but it sounds familiar to this American.

It’s a gross political pathology, always doomed to failure, so how did it take over this country?

It feels like we need a diagnosis of Rapid Onset Fascism here, but I also know it’s been festering for a long time in a dunghill of racism and religious dogma and American exceptionalism and the myth of rugged individualism.

Meanwhile, Christopher Rufo has a plan.

Third, the president should direct federal agencies to create a hard-soft, or visible-invisible, approach to riot control. In public, the National Guard should mobilize with enough manpower to smother the protests and avoid protracted conflict or hand-to-hand combat, which carries with it the highest level of risk. At the same time, as we saw demonstrated in Portland, Oregon, during the George Floyd riots, the agencies should dispatch unmarked vans to follow key agitators and snatch them from the streets while the media are not looking. The most effective riot controlis to take movement leaders off the field, infiltrate their networks, disrupt the flow of funding, and roll them up in federal investigations. Denying the Left trained protest leaders now will create a strong precedent for the rest of the president’s term.

Does anyone have any objections to unmarked vans full of men wearing masks snatching people off the street? Anyone?

They let Tom Cotton write another op-ed

It got published on the WSJ opinion page, so you know it’s garbage. It turns out he’s a real chickenhawk…but we all knew that already.

The article begins,

Violent insurrectionists turned areas of Los Angeles into lawless hellscapes over the weekend, with anarchists setting fire to vehicles, throwing scooters and debris at police, and looting businesses—all while waving foreign flags.

We can stop right there. I’ve heard this before, about Minneapolis, another lawless hellscape. There are people who still claim that Minneapolis was burned to the ground by rioters, but I can drive into the city and see it thriving. This is a common game played by the far right: take any protest against authoritarian rule, no matter how peaceful, and inflate it into apocalyptic chaos. It’s a contrived casus belli, where the the war is targeted against the poor, the working class, and non-white people. Don’t listen to Tom Cotton, the WSJ, or Fox News, and instead read what actual residents say.

The crowd in Grand Park, and at a handful of downtown hotspots on Monday, mixed intense anger at Huerta’s detention, the immigration raids he was protesting when he was injured and arrested, and the presence of National Guard troops at the Roybal Federal Building, with determination, pride and even joy. You could see mini-reunions break out in the crowd, people reconnecting to join in common purpose. (I had a couple of these moments myself.) Los Angeles has thus far emerged from four days of protest with a clear set of goals: driving ICE, the National Guard, and apparently now the Marines from the city and county. And there’s a sense of this as a beginning, a cross between an organizing kickoff and a backyard barbeque, complete with the ubiquitous bacon-wrapped hot dog carts, manned by migrants as well.

The spasms of defiance, impressive though they may be, are scattered. Practically the entirety of the city is going about its business, blissfully unaware of what’s mainly taking place within a five-block radius. Even from block to block you could encounter nothing, followed by a combination of cries of “¡Chinga la migra!” (“Fuck the border patrol!”) and Tejano music. And while lingering images of burnt-out self-driving Waymo cars continue to play out on television and social media, the mood and spirit on Monday was overwhelmingly peaceful. The tensest standoff was led by clergy.

I didn’t know hellscapes featured bacon-wrapped hot dog carts! I don’t eat either bacon or hot dogs, so maybe that’s the horror Tom Cotton is whining about. Fortunately, alternatives are available.

A crowd of a few hundred protesters had marched along the bridge over the 101 Freeway and toward the historic El Pueblo de Los Angeles, a public park featuring a gazebo and a statue of King Carlos III of Spain. Just as the protesters had taken root on the gazebo and begun chanting, a massive semi-trailer rolled up, with a five-piece Tejano band in the bed of the truck. The band, Los Jornaleros del Norte, is made up of day laborers; the lead singer had a “Fuck ICE” shirt on, while a man holding another hybrid U.S./Mexico flag hung off the back. And the entire crowd shifted its attention to cheer raucously along to the music.

Suddenly, the protest had transformed into a celebration of the culture of Los Angeles and the roots from which it came. People waved their signs in time with the music and beamed as they danced and sang their free expression. Representatives of Homeboy Bakery, a local business that employs former gang members and at-risk youth (“Nothing stops a bullet like a job” is their motto), started giving out scones and pastries. Others handed out water.

Tejano bands and free scones? That’s more like it. Tom Cotton wants to end that.

The solution now is the same as I said then: an overwhelming show of force to end the riots.

Here’s a slogan in response, painted on the Edward Roybal Federal Building:

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty

All eugenicists are incompetent geneticists

It’s more of a pathetic squeak.

Dave Futrelle found something provocative: a new type of guy (and he has lots of opinions about breeding). It’s an out-and-proud eugenicist, one who doesn’t seem to know very much about genetics, but he has written an unfinished app called Seekia, a genetics aware mate discovery network with the goal to help humanity mate in a genetics aware manner. It makes many grand claims about being able to compare your genetic constitution to that of a potential mate, and calculate the likelihood of healthy offspring. It is not at all clear where it’s getting genetic information from, so the premise is dubious, but also the app announces that it is incomplete, and cannot actually connect to the internet, so its conclusions are entirely imaginary. Furthermore, you can’t directly download the silly thing: you have to download the source code, and compile it for yourself.

No, I’m not going to do that.

Anyway, Futrelle had many examples of claims made by the creator of Seekia on Bluesky that were entertainingly demented, but Bluesky’s censorship police seems to have deleted them. Damn you, Bluesky! No, wait, that’s actually one of the good features of Bluesky, that weird stupid racist garbage is less likely to survive. Maybe he should use Twitter.

Do not be dismayed by all the “Post not found, it may have been deleted” announcements all over the We Hunted the Mammoth article. The creator of Seekia, Simon Sarasova, has helpfully archived his posts on his own web page, so you can still be entertained by his stupid thoughts. What would you do without this insight?

Obesity is an enormous problem which harms billions of people.

Obesity causes people to be uglier, less mobile, less healthy, less capable of having sex, and less able to enact virtue in the world.

Humanity should use eugenic techniques to reduce the prevalence of obesity.

The world would be a better place without obesity.

The answer is eugenics. Or what about this problem?

Stupid people are worse at driving cars.

Humanity should use eugenic techniques to make people more intelligent and better at driving cars.

The world would be a better place with fewer car accidents.

Cool. Instead of traffic tickets, the police will just send a medical team to your house to sterilize your children, I guess. They’ll also check those children to enforce gender norms.

Humanity should use eugenic techniques to reduce the prevalence of gender dysphoria disorder.

The world would be a better place without gender dysphoria disorder.

He’s also fond of quoting the Unabomber and Stefan Molyneux. But those are all short, social media style posts — to really see deeply into his shallow thoughts, you have to read his blog. Here’s an excerpt from one of his articles, Why Race Extinction Matters, so you can better understand why maybe responsible social networks are undermining his ability to spread his message.

Modern transportation technology has facilitated the spread of all human races to all regions of the world. This has accelerated the rate of interracial breeding, and has thus accelerated the rate of change in humanity’s appearance. I posit that global population growth and modern widespread human race mixing have both increased the total quantity of races. Novel combinations of races are being bred into existence.

Many modern human races are at risk of going extinct. Both the increased prevalence of interracial breeding and global fertility collapse are contributing to the risk of race extinction. Without intervention, all modern human races will eventually go extinct due to evolution, which gradually changes each race until their old traits disappear. For example, modern humans look very different from humans who lived 100,000 years ago.

Seekia is a race aware mate discovery network I created. Users can share their racial information in their profiles and filter prospective mates based on their race and the calculated race of their offspring.

One of Seekia’s goals is to help prevent race extinctions by helping members of modern endangered human races to meet and have children.

I don’t think he understands the terms “race,” “extinction,” or “genetics,” while simultaneously being obsessed with race, extinction, and genetics. Also with beauty, circumcision, acne, driving, baldness, female body hair, penis size, and obesity.

He fits right into the Manosphere. Although…does the manosphere still exist? You don’t hear much about it anymore.

My sentiments exactly

Here. Read this essay.

Much has been made of an alleged “crisis of masculinity” among America’s young men. This sort of sweeping cultural proclamation should always make you skeptical. As an angle, it is catnip because everyone can fill in its details based on their own lives, and male writers, in particular, can use it as a launching pad to subtly cast themselves as the sort of well-developed masculine figure who might—now that you mention it—serve as a good role model.

I don’t know about all of that. What I do know is that if you are looking for negative role models for masculine virtue, there is an easy way to find them. They are employed by ICE. They are employed by the Department of Homeland Security. They are employed by the sprawling and unaccountable security state, and right now, they are out on the streets of our cities, snatching up mothers and infiltrating elementary schools. There is much to be said about the political processes that deployed these men, and the chain of socioeconomic failures that placed our nation in the position we find ourselves. But there is another important thing to be said directly to the men who go to work every day and don the tactical vests and facemasks and act like the willing gestapo agents of our idiot political leader: You guys are fucking cowards.

Tough guy? No. Straight up fucking coward, man. Pathetic. Jesus. Have some self-respect.

Exactly. Tough guys don’t wear masks and rough up working class people on the street. And they don’t follow the orders of America’s psycho version of Goebbels like these petty thugs on a power trip.

The Wall Street Journal reported on a meeting last month where Stephen Miller summoned ICE’s leadership to a meeting where he demanded that federal agents lower their standards and “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,” outside of 7-11 or wherever. “‘Who here thinks they can do it?’ Miller said, asking for a show of hands.” The outcome of that demand can be seen in the ongoing terrorization of immigrants happening across the country.

Now, Stephen Miller is a little rat-faced Nazi bitch. Since his youth just about everyone around him has despised him because he has always been a miserable racist little shit whose evil heart is manifested in his detestable rodent-like visage. Knowing that, I like to imagine all those big, bad, ICE agents, manly men, so macho, shifting uncomfortably around a conference room table as they are harangued by that psychotic little bureaucrat, and then rushing out to kidnap working men from a Home Depot parking lot in order to demonstrate to their master, Stephen Bitch Ass Miller, how good they are at being America’s new gestapo.

You want to see real bravery? Click here. There’s the hero we need.

Twitchy, puffed up, goofy ass cops. No amount of guns and steroids and tear gas will ever make you cool. Fuck off, losers.

In case you’re looking for role models, here’s another one.

California is creating absolute legends.