I think this might be a little bit racist

Little bit. Maybe. You think?

Trump posted this pointless racist meme portraying the Obamas as apes, because they’re black. Get it? That’s all it is, Barack and Michelle Obama in the bodies of apes, no commentary, no criticism, no context. And it had about 10,000 likes as of this posting.

This is an ancient slur. I remember my John Bircher relative showing me a crude caricature of a gorilla with arrows and captions explaining, incorrectly, how gorillas and black folk were similar, and laughing over it. I didn’t laugh. I told him it was anatomically incorrect and that it was just hateful.

That’s our president, the hateful, stupid bigot.

By the way, the creator of this image was the same guy, xerias_x, who made another AI clip that Trump reposted, of Trump flying a fighter jet and dumping loads of poop on protesters. Real brilliant stuff.

Basic scientific understanding should squelch these ideas

Did you think the claims of moon landing hoaxers absurd?

Perhaps the flat earth conspiracies filled you with contempt?

Prepare yourself for the latest lunacy.

A theory claiming that Earth will lose gravity for seven seconds on August 12, 2026, has made the rounds on social media, sparking confusion and speculation. The claim originated from a so-called leaked document named Project Anchor, which began circulating online in late 2024. Posts suggested the U.S. space agency was secretly preparing for a short-lived gravitational anomaly that could lift people and objects into the air before violently bringing them back down.

You would be well-advised to nail your shoes to the floor on August 12, if you believe that nonsense.

At the center of the claim was a fabricated NASA initiative reportedly named Project Anchor, with a proposed budget of 89 billion dollars. The theory claimed the agency was preparing for a gravitational anomaly expected on August 12, 2026, at 14:33 UTC. According to content shared on now-deleted Instagram accounts, this so-called anomaly would cause anything not firmly secured to float several meters in the air before crashing back down.

The narrative was unusually detailed for a hoax. It broke down the seven seconds of supposed weightlessness step by step. In the first two seconds, people and objects would lift. By seconds three and four, they would rise up to 15 or 20 meters. By second five, panic would break out. By second seven, gravity would return, bringing a deadly descent.

How would NASA make such a specific, detailed prediction of an unprecedented event completely outside the bounds of physics?

In the absence of a credible, reputable skeptic organization, I guess we’re going to get all of our science from TikTok from now on.

Jeffrey Epstein thought he was mostly innocent. So did Noam Chomsky.

Warning: More crap from the Epstein files coming in, and it is truly nauseating. This one includes a lengthy rationalization for Jeffrey Epstein’s behavior, written by Jeffrey Epstein in the third person. We have this email because Epstein wrote to Noam Chomsky (Noam Chomsky!) asking him to critique it.

Im considering submitting this to the oped of the wash post id like your thoughts

Sweetheart deal!” So goes the attack on the resolution of the more than a decade
ago federal investigation involving our client Jeffrey Epstein. The attack is
profoundly misplaced, supported neither by the law nor the facts. Nor is it supported
by the structure of our constitutional republic. To the contrary, Jeffrey was subjected
to an extremely aggressive federal intrusion into what would typically be considered
a quintessentially local criminal matter in south
Florida. The offense investigated — at its core, sexual favors for hire — has long
been treated as a matter entrusted to laws of the several States, not the federal
government. The conduct — for which Jeffrey took full responsibility — was a
classic state offense and was treated exactly that way by able, honest prosecutors in
Palm Beach County. Nevertheless, without a request from the state prosecutors, the
federal government intervened. For their own opportunistic reasons, many are now
criticizing the federal decision-makers at the time, including now-Secretary of Labor
Alex Acosta (then-United States Attorney in south Florida), for not going far enough.
The critics are wrong on the facts and the law. They also ignore a fact going to the
heart of fundamental fairness: In the decade since paying his debt to society, Jeffrey
Epstein has led a life characterized by responsible citizenship, numerous acts of
generosity and good deeds.

So…a guy who has a massage table in his living room, who recruits high school girls for daily masturbation sessions, sees himself as living a life characterized by responsible citizenship, numerous acts of generosity and good deeds. He doesn’t say what the good deeds are, and most of all, he doesn’t explain where he got the huge amounts of money he used to fund his self-aggrandizing charities.

But then, he has all the “facts,” and he’s going to go on and on about his view of the truth. Sorry, this is long.

Here are the true key facts: Jeffrey Epstein, a successful self-made businessman
with no prior criminal history whatsoever, engaged in illegal conduct that
amounted to solicitation of prostitution. That conduct was wrong and a violation of
Florida state law. Although no coercion, violence, alcohol, drugs or the like were
involved, some of the women he paid were under the age of 18. Those facts were
carefully assessed by experienced state sex crime prosecutors who aggressively
enforce state criminal laws. No one turned a blind eye to potential offenses to the
public order. To the contrary, the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office conducted an
extensive fifteen-month investigation, led by the chief of the Sex Crimes Division.
Mr. Epstein was then indicted by the state grand jury on a single felony count of
solicitation of prostitution.

During that intense investigation, the state prosecutors extensively gathered and
analyzed the evidence, met face-to-face with many of the asserted victims,
considered their credibility — or lack thereof — and considered the extent of
exculpatory evidence, including sworn testimony from many that they lied about
being eighteen years old to be allowed into Mr. Epstein’s home. After months of
negotiations, the state prosecutors believed they had reached a reasoned resolution
of the matter that vindicated the public interest — a resolution entirely consistent with
that of cases involving other similarly-situated defendants. The system worked as it
should have.
Then, in came the feds. The United States Attorneys Office extensively and
aggressively investigated whether Mr. Epstein had engaged in a commercial human
trafficking ring, targeted minors, or used the internet or traveled interstate in the
process. But that’s not what this was and that’s not what happened. That is
precisely why the federal authorities’ ultimate decision to defer prosecution to the
state was the right one.
However, the federally-demanded resolution was not without conditions. The federal
prosecutors insisted on various unorthodox requirements that Mr. Epstein’s
experienced defense team had never seen imposed on any defendant anywhere.
Under the federally-forced deal, Jeffrey was required to request that the state
prosecutors demand the imposition of a thirty-month sentence that included both jail
time and the strictest conditions of probation: lifetime sex-offender registration. Those
draconian measures were far more than warranted by the state grand jury’s
indictment and would not have otherwise been required under the previously agreedupon state disposition. As part of this highly unusual deal, the government required
Jeffrey to pay for a highly experienced group of attomeys to bring claims against him
on behalf of a government list of asserted victims. Jeffrey was required to waive the
right to challenge those claims without being provided the asserted victim’s identities
by the government until after he was incarcerated. Importantly, the feds’ decision to
decline prosecution in deference to the state in exchange for these extraordinary
requirements was reviewed and approved at the multiple levels of the U.S.
Department of Justice. Jeffrey took full responsibility, complied with the feds’
demands, served his sentence, and in the process was treated exactly the same
(including his time served) as any other state-incarcerated individuals. His conduct
while in custody was exemplary, and so characterized by the state custodial
authorities.
Jeffrey Epstein has paid his debt to society. The challenges to his Agreement with
the Government must also be understood as challenges to the millions Mr. Epstein
paid to the asserted victims and their lawyers pursuant to that agreement. Amongst
the beneficiaries of the Epstein-Federal Government Agreement were the many
victims who collectively received many millions as a result of the conditions imposed
on Mr. Epstein that prevented him from meaningfully contesting civil liability —
moneys that would be at issue if requests to invalidate the agreement were granted.
Our nation faces vitally important challenges, many involving the treatment of women
and basic human dignity. Voices are rightly being raised speaking truth to power,
especially about women in the workplace. But Jeffrey’s offenses of yesteryear,
which were entirely outside of the workplace, have long since been redressed by the
criminal justice system. He fully and faithfully has performed every promise and
obligation required of him by state and federal authorities. In the spirit of the
bedrock American belief in second chances and fundamental fairness, that chapter in
Jeffrey’s otherwise-productive and charitable life should be allowed to close once
and for all.

Again, what productive and charitable life? He’s a rich fuck with no discernible source of income living a life of excess and perversion, pretending to be a victim of an out-of-control state that caught him in one crime, in which he’d been tricked by a woman who said she was over 18.

He’s asking Noam Chomsky if he should publish it. Chomsky tells him no, for various reasons.

It’s a powerful and convincing statement, but my feeling is that it would not be wise to submit it for
publication. Taking the stance of a reader who comes to the matter from afresh, perhaps having
heard some rumors but knowing nothing, the reaction I suspect will be of the “where there’s smoke
there’s fire” kind. Few are willing to think through the arguments and factual details or to try to
adjudicate conflicting claims. I’ve seen this happen over and over on other matters — many years of
having been accused of Holocaust denial, for example.. Ugly and bitter as it is, I suspect the best
course now is not to stir the pot by raising the issue publicly, opening the door to charges and
accusations that can no doubt be answered in the court of logic and fairness — but that’s not the
public domain, where innuendo and suspicion and accusation reign.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, that’s the way it looks to me, in part on the basis of experience.
The great work that you have been doing speaks for itself. My feeling is that you should keep at it,
and simply develop a thick skin to fend off whatever ugliness breaks through now and then,
diminishing over time.
Noam

Great work, my ass. Chomsky is sucking up to a rich patron here, nothing more. Epstein’s crimes were not the product of innuendo and suspicion, but were actually victimizations of women and girls that he used and discarded.

Chomsky makes it worse.

Cultures unfortunately can be swept by craziness. Nazism for example. Or the Great Awakening.
We’re in one of those phases now. If there’s a charge, it’s true, in fact True. Any response is
“mansplaining,” another power play, reinforcing the charge. You’ve seen I’m sure what happened to
Lawrence. Full and complete response, amounts to zero. Isn’t even considered. It’s like trying to
discuss rationally with religious fanatics.
Noam

Poor Lawrence Krauss, a victim of a feminism that is comparable to Nazism.

My opinion of Noam Chomsky has just plummetted down into the basement. Fuck you, Noam.

So much tea spilled

EPIC! Rebecca Watson openly reveals all the behind-the-scenes scandals behind Epstein, Krauss, Shermer, Dawkins, Brockman, and the whole of the skeptic-atheist sphere, and she posts all the documentation. It’s good to see all the sexism and abuse that was going on since 2011 laid bare.

I was aware of most of this stuff at the time, and it was what led to me staggering, shell-shocked and disillusioned, from the whole atheist movement, and leaves me feeling still scarred now in 2026. I was there when it was quietly revealed that Dawkins had a string of mistresses that he then set up in leadership positions at various atheist and skeptic organizations, tainting the entire community. And now, reputations are torched, the whole damn thing has been set on fire.

Lawrence Krauss was an amazingly stupid, bumbling idiot who was the center of the exposure, but Jesus, Richard Dawkins wrecked the entirety of the New Atheism that he initially inspired. Christ, what a shitshow.

Internationally humiliated

I just learned that one of the featured talks in the US Pavilion at Davos (I detest Davos anyway) is titled Did God Take The World’s First Selfie in 33 A.D. It’s about the Shroud of Turin, which some gullible adherents think is a genuine artifact from Jesus’ time, rather than a medieval fake used to gouge money out of Christian pilgrims.

I can’t even.

This is what the United States of America looks like to the rest of the world: a nation of rubes and yokels.

I’m a board member at the local theater!

I’m doing my part to support the Morris Theatre — I volunteered to serve on the board. That also means I’ll do occasional work in concessions or as a projectionist, so do stop by for a good movie sometime.

The theater is struggling — it’s losing money, I think about $2000 per year, and there are pending maintenance issues that need to be handled eventually. I’m happy to help out, and there are suggestions to increase community involvement, which I think is going to be the trick to eventually make it profitable.

I play no role in booking, unfortunately for me. There was some discussion at the meeting of how to get better movies shown. I am relieved to see that Melania is not on the list of future showings! There was a suggestion that we get more Christian movies, and get direct involvement from local pastors and congregations, but despite the fact that I think that would be a disaster that ultimately would kill the theater, I kept my face shut. I can be a team player, sometimes.

The problem with Christian movies is that are all bad fucking movies. Without even considering the ideology behind them, they are technically awful and intellectually stupid. They make Marvel movies look like works of genius. I saw God’s Not Dead at the Morris Theatre, and it made me ashamed to live in this community (it also made bank, disgracefully, so I can see where some would look on it as a good thing). If the theater resorted to exploiting dogma for profit, though, I’d have to resign.

No worries right now, though. I hope I can help make the theater a communal success that enriches the lives of our citizens.

Grading day

All of my students are above average, and handsome, too

The students have survived their first genetics exam, everyone passed, hooray! Now I have to figure out went wrong in the problems they missed, and shore up their weaknesses in the next week.

First thing I notice is that they are rock solid on simple Mendelian genetics, but that’s not a surprise. Mendelian genetics is dead easy, which is why I have to roll my eyes when I see racists and eugenicists babbling out terms from high school genetics — it’s all the later, more sophisticated stuff that trips them up every time. Getting cocky about the basics is a sure way to fail when reality makes its ugly appearance.

What I really have to work on are probability and statistics. Some of the students are unclear on what a p value implies, and they’re getting tripped up by simple things, like the binomial theorem. I had no idea when I got my biology degree that I’d end up having to teach math!

(Really simple math, too. High school teachers, make sure your students are aware that biology is not a math-free discipline!)

The Minnesota governor race will be a blend of boring and insane

We had our caucuses this week, which started with an unfortunate announcement: Walz has stepped down and will not be running for governor. Who will run, who will win?

On the DFL side, it’s a cakewalk. Amy Klobuchar, our senator, is running for governor, and the party caucuses approved by giving her 79% of the vote. She’s OK, she won’t propose anything radical, even though we need radical right now. I feel like we’ve had an anointing of the status quo. I’ll vote for her, no question.

On the Republican side, we’re getting the crazy.

Republican house speaker Lisa Demuth actually won the caucus straw polls and is likely to be the leading candidate. Kendall Qualls came in second. Mike Lindell was in third place, but you know he’s going to be trotting around the state, speaking like the lunatic he is, and will draw lots of public attention and maybe get a Trump endorsement.

Lindell is not going to win. He’s not in this to win. He’s in it for the grift.

Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, spent more than half the money he raised for his campaign last year buying copies of his book, according to Minnesota Campaign Finance Board data released Tuesday.

That’s right. He’s taking in any donations and using it to buy copies of his book, which launders the money into his own pocket. What a deal.

At least it’s another reason Lindell doesn’t have a chance of winning.

Don’t believe Tom Homan

He claims he is already reducing ICE presence in Minneapolis, that he’s getting cooperation from county jails, and that they aren’t harassing random citizens anymore.

White House border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday that he’s immediately pulling 700 federal agents from Minnesota, citing “productive discussions” with state and local officials and “unprecedented cooperation” from county jails.

The Trump administration official, who recently took over Operation Metro Surge, said the reduction in agents is the result of “smarter enforcement, not less enforcement.” He pledged to continue to enforce immigration laws, with the goal of helping the president “achieve mass deportations.”

I can believe that they have reduced the number of ICE agents, but it still leaves 2000, outnumbering local police.

Working with the counties is a good idea, except then they’re only going to pick up immigrants that have committed a crime. They won’t achieve their deportation quotas that way, so I don’t believe a word of it. We do have red counties that would eagerly turn over any brown people that were arrested for jaywalking or murder, but then, why would we need any ICE at all?

Operations have become more efficient through coordination with county jails that are allowing ICE to take custody of undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes before they’re released into the community, according to Homan.

“Rather than having whole teams out looking for a criminal alien who was just released, now we have one agent at that jail picking that person up. That, and the operation has been successful in the number of arrests, so the target list is reducing.”

Homan can’t resist threatening us with another ultimatum.

He added that his goal is a “complete drawdown” as soon as possible, but again said the end of Operation Metro Surge is “largely contingent upon the end of the illegal and threatening activities against ICE and its federal partners that we’re seeing in the community.”

NO.

Protesting is not an illegal activity, and we’ll continue to oppose the criminal and racist goal of achieving “mass deportations”. We like our immigrant neighbors, we are most of us descended from immigrants, we don’t share Stephen Miller’s horrific white nationalist vision, so get the fuck out of here.