He is a very stupid man

I don’t even need to name him, you all know who I am talking about. He’s challenging Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Jasmine Crockett to an IQ test, because he’s decided that the are ‘low IQ individuals’, on some basis. He’s also very racist.

You give her an IQ test. Have her pass the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed. I took– those are really hard. They’re really aptitude tests, I guess in a certain way. But, they’re cognitive tests. Let AOC go against Trump. Let Jasmine go against Trump. I don’t think Jasmine– the first couple of questions are easy, a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe, you know. When you get up to about five or six, and then when you get up to ten and twenty and twenty five, they couldn’t come close to answering any of those questions.

He did not take an IQ test. He took a basic cognitive exam, which is very, very easy to pass, unless you have serious cognitive deficits. I don’t know that he passed it as he claims, because he has obvious age-related cognitive problems, and I doubt that he’s in better mental shape than either of two young healthy women.

He’s making these claims while on a diplomatic trip to Japan, embarrassing us all.

Good god, how much longer do we have to suffer with this fool in charge?

The era of destruction

Deservedly or not, Harvard is the premiere research institution in the US, internationally renowned, magnificently endowed, so it’s shocking that Trump is demolishing our research capabilities nationwide.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for the next two years.

The scale of reductions in the Social Science division was not immediately clear, though several departments in the division experienced decreases over the coming two years ranging from 50 percent to 70 percent.

We’re used to thinking that STEM departments are safe…but no more.

The Organismic and Evolutionary Biology department will shrink its class size by roughly 75 percent to three new Ph.D. students, according to two professors. Molecular and Cellular Biology will reduce its figure to four new students, and Chemistry and Chemical Biology will go down to four or five admits, one of the professors added.

The reduction in admissions slots puts a figure to FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra’s announcement in late September that the school would be admitting Ph.D. students at “significantly reduced levels.” Hoekstra cited uncertainty around research funding and an increase to the endowment tax — which could cost Harvard $300 million per year — as sources of financial pressure.

This isn’t just Harvard — universities across the country are tightening their belts to the point that whole disciplines are getting chopped. How do we recover from this?

All Trump knows how to do is destroy, just like he’s demolishing the east wing of the White House.

That’s symbolic of how this administration will be seen by history: a flag waving over a wrecking crew.

Fire Greg Abbott for pushing right wing ideologies instead of education

Imagine if universities tried to purge conservatives from our faculty. There’d be well-deserved protests from within the university as well as from without. We have strictly enforced policies for our hiring committees to prevent that from happening: our HR instructs us in the rules before every interview. You don’t get to ask candidates about politics, religion, or family matters…you interview exclusively on their qualifications to teach and do research.

This is not the policy when your administration is authoritarian and far right, and Texan.

Gov. Greg Abbott admitted in an X post on Sunday that Texas is purging professors with “leftist ideologies” — and people are not happy.

Abbott’s directive fits into a pattern of faculty changes and government interference on campuses across the state, including the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, and Texas State University.

“Texas is targeting professors who are more focused on pushing leftist ideologies rather than preparing students to lead our nation,” Abbott wrote in his post. “We must end indoctrination and return to education fundamentals at all levels of education.”

They must end indoctrination by purging the universities of people who oppose your ideological indoctrination. That’s blatant. No ideology but our ideology.

He’s a fucking fascist.

“We Asked ‘No Kings’ Protesters What Made Trump A King. They Couldn’t Say.”

I don’t normally read the Daily Wire, but they baited me with that title in an email. It’s classic DW: reduce a complex issue to a single point, challenge a group of people with it, and claim victory when they don’t get a simple answer. It’s what they did with the “what is a woman” question, and it was the entirety of Charlie Kirk’s “debate” strategy. So yes, confront people who aren’t expecting a quiz while point cameras and microphones at them, and most will freeze and be more inarticulate. That doesn’t mean you’ve won something, it means you’ve exploited normal human social awkwardness.

I would answer that he’s flouted the constitution, has essentially declared war on states that don’t support his policies, is capricious and arbitrary in his decisions, and is trying to neutralize the checks and balances of the Republic. I’m sure you all could write whole paragraphs citing his self-serving actions.

But DW goes on to point out the horrors of the No Kings protests. Such violence!

Some protests took unsettling turns. A disturbing video from Chicago shows a middle-aged woman making a gun gesture with her hand and pointing to her neck. Towards the end of the D.C. protest, a chant broke out that “Turning Point has got to go.” Many signs featured rhetoric claiming “Trump was a Nazi” and “ICE = Gestapo.” A small fragment of the protest made the event a family affair with children holding signs such as “Stop Kidnapping People.”

Yes? I don’t get what the concern is about pointing finger guns at your own neck, and I agree that TPUSA is toxic and that there is a strong resonance between the Republican party and Nazis. And please, please, please do stop kidnapping people.

I think the right wing is floundering.

The gang that couldn’t shoot straight screws up again

JD Vance and Pete Hegseth know how to hurt Californians: on short notice, they shut down I-5 for four hours while the army fired live ammunition over the freeway. Why, I don’t know — it’s a pointless and risky exercise. Then there was a misfire, and a shell detonated prematurely over the freeway, spattering (harmlessly, fortunately) the police blocking the road with shrapnel.

This is insane.

Why do this at all, other than to let Hegseth flaunt his machismo? And maybe intimidate the citizenry a little bit. Have no fear, the military makes excuses.

A spokesperson for the Marine Corps told CBS News that the incident was under investigation.

“We are aware of the report of a possible airborne detonation of a 155mm artillery round outside the designated impact area during the U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Capabilities Demonstration at Camp Pendleton, CA, Oct. 18,” said a statement from USMC, in part. “The demonstration went through a rigorous safety evaluation, and deliberate layers of redundancy, to ensure the safety of fellow citizens. Following established safety protocols, firing was suspended. No injuries occurred and the demonstration concluded as scheduled. An investigation has been initiated. We are committed to determining the incident’s root cause and applying findings to future missions.”

They did nothing wrong! And they will investigate to find out what happened.

I think what happened is that a pair of incompetent MAGA scoundrels meddled with an exercise to get them to stupidly fire big dangerous guns over the freeway, because they like pushing people around.

Right wing culture is so bad

The right-wingers are now outraged by the announcement that BadBunny will be doing the Superbowl halftime show — he’s a Puerto Rican! He sings in Spanish! It’s Reggaeton, and as we all know, that ain’t real music! They’re torn up with anguish, that the music during halftime may not be twangy country music about pickup trucks and beer and unfaithful women. It’s very sad for them. TPUSA announced that they would host an alternative halftime show, but they haven’t provided any details and haven’t any specific artist they would include.

So someone posted a fake playbill listing an epic bunch of conservative artists. People fell for it.

Kid Rock
Ted Nugent
Travis Tritt
Jason Aldean
Aaron Lewis (of Staind)
John Rich
Lee Greenwood
Forgigato Blow
Featuring a guest appearance from MEASLES

That’s a horrible collection of washed-up freaks and fossils, all packed into an imaginary 20 minute show. I like that special guest, which should have given the game away, but I found people actually asking what band Measles was.

It’s all cope. The conservatives are desperate to capture popular culture, but they aren’t popular, and they don’t understand what’s good about music or entertainment.

All of this reflects what is a small ray of hope in our bleak political moment. MAGA’s relationship with pop culture only has two forms: Complete cluelessness and/or resentment that most people think their taste stinks. This matters, because it’s been a truism on the far-right for decades now that capturing the culture is the key to obtaining their larger political goals. MAGA influencers love to repeat, like parrots, Andrew Breitbart’s motto that “politics is downstream from culture.” The Christian right also has a version of this, which Kirk promoted: The “seven mountains mandate,” which holds that is crucial for conservative Christians to control pop culture. Over the years, untold amounts of money have been poured by right-wing donors and investors into remaking the culture in MAGA’s image, in hopes that will turn American hearts toward authoritarianism and evangelical Christianity.

But they are throwing their money to the wind. As I wrote recently, for all the hype around Kirk’s memorial, the actual event didn’t resonate beyond his existing fanbase. Nearly all the performers hailed from the world of worship music; there was nary a nod to what might resonate with people outside white evangelical subculture. This reflects a reality that the mainstream media ignored in the wake of Kirk’s murder. Even though he was widely known on college campuses, due to the ubiquity of his videos falsely promising to dunk on liberal college kids, he wasn’t well-liked. Although 94% of college students said in a recent survey they had heard of Kirk, a full 70% said they didn’t agree with his views.

Their idea of comedy is Joe Rogan and his stable of half-witted hangers-on. The Daily Wire — Ben Shapiro’s company — had a whole entertainment division to make movies and TV shows (remember Lady Ballers?), and it’s disintegrating as we watch. It’s CEO Jeremy Boreing has stepped down, and right now they’re just a money sink for billionaires. They’re coming out with a fantasy series, The Pendragon Cycle, which the teaser trailer reveals to be a series of set pieces of major battles featuring a dozen extras on each side, long slow character portraits, and guys with beards yelling a lot.

I think it’s going to bomb. Boreing decided to trade in the limp humor of his previous effort for taking himself far too seriously, and that doesn’t work.

The Morris protest march

We had a good turnout, somewhere around 100 people, despite the damp gray morning and intermittent rain. We had one cool cat show up, there was also a dinosaur somewhere in the crowd.

For a gang of anti-American agents of antifa, there was a lot of patriotism on display, with flags everywhere. Mary and I were carrying the new Minnesota flag — a few people asked us what it represented, I guess the update hasn’t gotten to everyone yet.

We also had dogs show up. Everyone despises Trump.

We did have one loudmouthed jerk show up, who raged at us at the top of his lungs, looking positively demented as he screamed about money being spent on foreign countries and the Democratic government shutdown. He was quietly separated from the group and wandered off to die of apoplexy somewhere else, I presume. He apparently worked at the UMM physical plant and was laid off recently, and is very resentful.

Good morning, good crowd, we did our part in the wave of protests sweeping across the country.

Evil isn’t just banal, it’s also petty and childish

Greta Thunberg has been released from Israeli captivity, and she talks about her capture. What’s surprising is just how childishly stupid and misogynistic the Israeli soldiers were.

Her red suitcase lies in the hall. “Whore Greta” someone has written in large black letters. Around the text: an Israeli flag and an erect penis.
The bag was confiscated by the Israeli military from the boat – and returned to her like this. She laughs.
– They’re like five-year-olds!

She was not allowed to wear her T-shirt with “Free Palestine” on it and was ordered to change, she explains. She put on an orange one with the text “Decolonize” instead.

– And then I put on my frog hat. When I’m about to get off the boat, there are a bunch of police officers waiting for me. They grab me, pull me to the ground, and throw an Israeli flag over me.

Here, everything goes “from zero to a hundred,” several witnesses describe – the violence escalates.

Greta Thunberg describes how she is dragged to a paved area fenced in with iron fences. This is a protracted scene that lasts for over six hours, according to Greta, and is confirmed by several participants in the flotilla that Aftonbladet talks to.

– It was kind of dystopian. I saw maybe 50 people sitting in a row on their knees with handcuffs and their foreheads against the ground.

Greta gets up from the sofa and lies down, showing the position on the striped living room rug.

– They dragged me to the opposite side from where the others were sitting, and I had the flag around me the whole time. They hit and kicked me.

Greta laughs.

– Then they ripped off my frog hat, threw it on the ground, stomped and kicked it, and kind of threw a tantrum.

– They moved me very brutally to a corner that I was turned towards. ‘A special place for a special lady’, they said. And then they had learned ‘Lilla hora’ (Little whore) and ‘Hora Greta’ (Whore Greta) in Swedish, which they repeated all the time.

Every time someone looked up from the ground, they were knocked back down to the ground, Greta and the other Swedes recount. In the corner where Greta was sitting, the police placed a flag.

– The flag was placed so that it would touch me. When it fluttered and touched me, they shouted ‘Don’t touch the flag’ and kicked me in the side. After a while, my hands were tied with cable ties, very tightly. A bunch of guards lined up to take selfies with me while I was sitting like that.

They’re like spoiled children. Unprofessional and eminently mockable. You might think it’s because these are young soldiers, with the mentality of a college freshman at best, but even the older, unwiser senior politicians are like that.

This smug asshole

Suddenly, the far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered the area and stood in front of everyone, Greta recounts.

– He shouted, ’You are terrorists. You want to kill Jewish babies.’ Those who shouted back were taken aside and beaten. They were thrown to the ground and beaten. But I could only see it out of the corner of my eye, because every time I lifted my head from the ground, I was kicked by the guard standing next to me.

They were humanitarians, who wanted to deliver aid to Palestinian children.

The US has given over $20 billion in aid to Israel in the last two years. It’s past time to turn off the faucet — no more aid to these immature thugs, ever. Force them to learn how to live with their neighbors in a civilized manner.

The things we do for our kids

I’m back! We went to Madison, Wisconsin for our granddaughter’s 7th birthday, and also for brats (vegetarian style) and cheese curds and the fall colors and Kwik-Trip and all that Wisconsin stuff, but also, unfortunately, for a 7 hour drive each way, which was not fun. It was worth it, though, we wish we could see our kids more often, but most likely we won’t be seeing any of our children for another year, since winter is about to clamp down and trap us at home for a while.

Next weekend, we have closer plans. The No Kings rally is taking place right here in Morris on Saturday. You know, that communist antifa plot? The administration has it’s own characterization of the event.

n criticizing the rallies, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, No Kings means no paychecks. No paychecks and no government.

I guess we’ll be poor if we don’t have any kings.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated separately that the expected millions of attendees will be part of antifa, paid protesters. It begs the question (of) who’s funding it.

Except that we’ll be paid for protesting! Or will we? I didn’t get a check for the last one.

I don’t think it’s at all a question who’s funding it. Even far-right wackos have noticed some data.

The name, on its face, is unobjectionable, even vaguely noble: “No Kings.” Americans, after all, did declare independence from one. But the historical overtones here mask something more recent and considerably less authentic. For all its revolutionary rhetoric, the ‘No Kings’ protest movement is not a spontaneous uprising of civic-minded dissidents. It is a coordinated, well-funded, tightly stage-managed campaign, backed by nearly 200 far-left NGOs, labor unions, and donor networks, many of which are directly tied to the Democratic Party’s power infrastructure. It operates not from the street, but from the spreadsheet.

200 far-left NGOs, labor unions, and donor networks? Why, that sounds like a distributed grass roots network with many donors. The organization actually lists all their donors, and doesn’t pay protesters.

I didn’t use a spreadsheet to figure out that I have to oppose this president and his incompetent cronies. I’m doing it for my kids.