Open thread

I have not felt the desire to blog the least few days because the news has been so relentlessly depressing. With Israel seeming to be determined to start a war with Iran, Trump and his gang’s assault on immigrants and his use of the National Guard and federal troops to suppress protest, his stupid vanity project of a military parade, and the tragedy of the Air India plane crash, it feels like writing about any single thing is avoiding everything else.

So I invite people to use this post as an open thread to vent about anything they like.

Stephen Pinker slides down the slippery slope of a public intellectual

Stephen Pinker is in the news again, and again, not in a good way.

The Harvard psychologist and bestselling author Steven Pinker appeared on the podcast of Aporia, an outlet whose owners advocate for a revival of race science and have spoken of seeking “legitimation by association” by platforming more mainstream figures.

The appearance underlines past incidents in which Pinker has encountered criticism for his association with advocates of so-called “human biodiversity”, which other academics have called a “rebranding” of racial genetic essentialism and scientific racism.
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Patrik Hermansson, a researcher at UK anti-racism non-profit Hope Not Hate, said that Pinker’s “decision to appear on Aporia, a far-right platform for scientific racism, provides an invaluable service to an extremist outlet by legitimising its content and attracting new followers”.

He added: “By lending his Harvard credentials to Aporia, Pinker contributes to the normalisation and spread of dangerous, discredited ideas.”

This is just the latest controversy that Pinker has found himself in. Just recently he, along with Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne, resigned from the board of the Freedom From Religion Foundation because the foundation removed a blog post by Coyne.
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Musk’s groveling to Trump begins

Like almost all the Republicans who were once critical of Trump for whatever reason, Elon Musk has started his rehabilitation process by groveling to Trump.

Elon Musk is walking back his attacks against President Donald Trump. Just days after a furious barrage of posts on X, the Tesla CEO is trying to make amends.

“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week,” the former director of DOGE wrote in a late-night post on X. “They went too far.”  
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This might be Musk’s second olive branch. On June 8, Musk shared a post from Trump on X, in which the president declared an “invasion” in Los Angeles, proclaiming that it will be “set free.” Musk added two American flag emojis to his repost.

I don’t think this will be enough. Musk will have to make several abject apologies and also praise Trump to get back into his good graces.

Is LA a rehearsal for the nationwide June 14th protests?

The recent flare up in the Los Angeles area caused by ICE agents sweeping up people for deportation without warrants has escalated as Trump has commandeered the California National Guard, over the objection of California governor Gavin Newsom, and also sent in Federal troops, both moves being of highly dubious legality, only supposed to be done in the case of war or a national emergency. The events in Los Angeles are clearly nothing of the sort. What sending those troops in did was inflame the situation and cause even more trouble.

Trump is as usual lying about everything.

Trump and Newsom’s rift continued with ferocity on Tuesday.

Trump, who has suggested Newsom should be arrested, said he spoke to Newsom by phone “a day ago” and told him: “He’s gotta do a better job.”

“There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” Newsom responded on social media. “Americans should be alarmed that a president deploying marines on to our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”

But the local community was uncowed by the presence of heavily armed and militarized personnel in riot gear and masks patrolling the streets and forming barricades. They defied the soldiers. Via Pharyngula I saw this image of a young person with a skateboard insouciantly ignoring whatever projectiles and gas grenades were being fired at him and, after dancing in front of the troops, calmly walked away and gave them the finger.

Just before the previous clip, the skater kid was practically taunting the Border Patrol agents by dancing around their munitions shots.

[image or embed]

— Jeremy Lindenfeld (@jeremotographs.bsky.social) June 7, 2025 at 3:47 PM


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NIH scientists risk careers to stand up for the public good

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have signed a declaration protesting the deep cuts in public health research and sent it to their boss Jay Bhattacharya, the head of the NIH, as well as to RFK, Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services, the cabinet office that oversees the NIH.

Named for the agency’s headquarters location in Maryland, the Bethesda Declaration details upheaval in the world’s premier public health research institution over the course of mere months.

It addresses the termination of 2,100 research grants valued at more than $12 billion and some of the human costs that have resulted, such as cutting off medication regimens to participants in clinical trials or leaving them with unmonitored device implants.

In one case, an NIH-supported study of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis in Haiti had to be stopped, ceasing antibiotic treatment mid-course for patients.

In a number of cases, trials that were mostly completed were rendered useless without the money to finish and analyze the work, the letter says. “Ending a $5 million research study when it is 80% complete does not save $1 million,” it says, “it wastes $4 million.”

Jenna Norton, who oversees health disparity research at the agency’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, recently appeared at a forum by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., to talk about what’s happening at the NIH.

At the event, she masked to conceal her identity. Now the mask is off. She was a lead organizer of the declaration.

“I want people to know how bad things are at NIH,” Norton told The Associated Press.
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Employees from all 27 NIH institutes and centers gave their support to the declaration. Most who signed are intimately involved with evaluating and overseeing extramural research grants.

The letter asserts “NIH trials are being halted without regard to participant safety” and the agency is shirking commitments to trial participants who “braved personal risk to give the incredible gift of biological samples, understanding that their generosity would fuel scientific discovery and improve health.”

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A club for people like me

I tend not to do anything that others would find interesting. Many of the acquaintances of my age like to do things like travel, go dancing, see films, eat out, and so on. I, on the other hand, forego such excitement and enjoy being at home by myself, with just occasional interactions with other people. You could call me a dull person.

So I was interested in this article that spoke of a Dull Men’s Club that has apparently several million members online.

In this club, they wear their dullness with pride. The duller the better. This is where the nerds of the world unite.

“Posts that contain bitmoji-avatar-things are far too exciting, and will probably get deleted,” warn the rules of the Dull Men’s Club (Australian branch).
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This is the place for quirky hobbies, obscure interests, the examination of small, ordinary things. It is a place to celebrate the mundane, the quotidian. It is a gentle antidote to pouting influencers and the often toxic internet; a bastion of civility; a polite clarion call to reclaim the ordinary. Above all, it is whimsical, deeply ironic, self-effacing and sarcastic humour.

There is an art to being both dull and droll. “It’s tongue-in-cheek humour,” says founder Grover Click (a pseudonym chosen for its dullness). “A safe place to comment on daily things.”Exclamation marks, he says, “are far too exciting.” (On his site, ridicule is against the rules, as is politics, religion, and swearing.)
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It all started in New York in the early 1980s. Click, now 85, and his friends were sitting at the long bar of the New York Athletic club reading magazine articles about boxing, fencing, judo and wrestling. “One of my mates said, ‘Dude, we don’t do any of those things.’” They had to face it. They were dull. They decided to embrace their dullness.

As a joke, they started The Dull Men’s Club, which involved some very silly, dull activities. They chartered a tour bus but didn’t go anywhere. “We toured the bus. We walked around the outside of the bus a few times. And the driver explained the tyre pressures and turned on the windscreen wipers.”
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Much of the minutiae of life gets on members’ nerves, as does poor workmanship. Five hundred amused comments followed a post about coat hangers inserted into hoops on rails in hotel rooms. “That would keep me up all night,” said one person.

The over or under toilet paper debate raged (politely) for two and a half weeks. Then there was the dismantling of electronic appliances. Or photographing post boxes, the ranking of every animated movie from one to 100 – 100 being “dull and pointless”. Members judge the speed of other people’s windscreen wipers against their own, or in the case of Australia’s Simon Molina, stuff as many used toilet rolls as possible inside another. “It’s extremely dull.” There was the late John Richards who founded the Apostrophe Protection Society and 94-year-old Lee Maxwell who has fully restored 1,400 antique washing machines – that no one will ever use.

I probably won’t join this group. It may be too intense for me.

Reading the article, though, reminded me of this sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

A plague on both their houses

The fight between Trump and Musk is lasting longer than I expected. This article describes the leverage that each has and the harm that each can do to the other.

The. problem for Musk is that Trump has all the levers of government (especially the justice department) and a pliant Republican party at his disposal. Forced to choose between getting Trump’s endorsement and MAGA support for their election efforts and Musk’s money, they will opt for Trump. The fact that Musk spent $25 million on the race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court seat only to have his chosen candidate lose by double digits will make them think that he is a paper tiger and that his threats to fund opposing candidates in the primaries and general election (or even start a new political party) may not amount to as much as alienating Trump.

Musk mainly has his money (although that is considerable), his social media platform Twitter/X, and the companies like SpaceX and Starlink that the government is dependent upon. While Musk can harm the government by withdrawing the Dragon space program from NASA and not providing Starlink services to various parts of the world (like Ukraine), he will also be hurting himself since they provide a huge source of revenue in the form of government contracts. Meanwhile Trump does not give a damn about who else Musk hurts, even if he targets major US government programs. He only cares about his own power and money and ego.
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What NOT to do if you are late for your flight

Suppose you arrive at the airport too late to board your flight and it has just left the gate. What should you do?

Normal people will kick themselves for being late and then either rebook for a later flight or just go home. But John Charles Robinson had an idea: Call in a bomb threat and have the flight delayed so that he could still board it.

According to a criminal complaint filed June 6 in U.S. District Court in Detroit, the bomb threat that led to a Spirit Airlines flight being evacuated and delayed by six hours at Metro Airport on Thursday, June 5, was a hoax. The person behind the hoax, the complaint says, is 23-year-old John Charles Robinson, of Monroe, who prosecutors say was headed to Los Angeles on Thursday morning when he missed his 7 a.m. Spirit Airlines flight and was told at the gate that he had to rebook.

Robinson, though, had another idea in mind: call in a bomb threat with the hopes of the flight being delayed long enough so that he could still make it on the plane, court records state.
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The investigation found no bombs on the airplane, or in any luggage.

But what authorities would eventually discover was a hoax, with cellphone records leading the FBI to Robinson, who had rebooked a 6:28 p.m. flight to Los Angeles.

But he didn’t make that flight either.

Robinson did arrive at the terminal on time, only FBI agents showed up to interview him.

According to the complaint, Robinson initially denied making any phone calls to Spirit Airlines. Though after he gave consent to have his cellphone searched, the complaint states, the agents discovered the hoax.

Robinson then reportedly fessed up:

“(He) stated that he made the call with the hope that it would delay the flight long enough for him to make it in time so he would not have to take a different flight,” the complaint states.

It boggles the mind that anyone would think that calling in a fake bomb threat was a good solution to being too late for a flight. Apart from seriously inconveniencing all the other passengers and crew on his flight as well as the knock-on delays for other flights, who these days does not know that calling in a fake bomb threat will result in serious trouble with the law?

Note that Robinson is just 23 years old, so file this story under the category of “Young men tend to do really stupid things”.

Finally! Kilmar Ábrego García (and another) returned after illegal deportations

When El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele visited the White House, he and Trump seemed to be treating the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, who had been wrongly deported by Trump to that country and was being held in a controversial mega-prison, as a joke. Trump coyly said that there was nothing he could do since Ábrego García was now under the jurisdiction of Bukele, and Bukele in turn said that he would not be released, despite demands from a US federal judge that he be returned. Then suddenly today, Ábrego García was brought back.

But that is not the end of his ordeal. The attorney general Pam Bondi has said that he faces criminal charges here.

In a press briefing on Friday, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said that a federal grand jury in Tennessee had indicted the 29-year-old father on counts of illegally smuggling undocumented people as well as of conspiracy to commit that crime.
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In a statement to the Hill on Friday, Ábrego García’s lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg accused the Trump administration of having “disappeared” his client “to a foreign prison in violation of a court order”.

“Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him,” he added.

Sandoval-Moshenberg also said: “This shows that they were playing games with the court all along. Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished – not after.”

Sandoval-Moshenberg said the White House’s treatment of his client was “an abuse of power, not justice”. He called on Ábrego García to face the same immigration judge who had previously granted him a federal protection order against deportation to El Salvador “to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent” there.
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Ábrego García also had no criminal record in the US before the indictment announced on Friday, according to court documents.

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