No Ecocide on Easter Island

Science news:

The people of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, were not the instruments of their own demise, according to new research.

In a comprehensive new study, researchers found that the population of monument-carvers could not possibly have been big enough to collapse under the demands placed on their environment, as has previously been suggested.

The myth of this so-called Rapa Nui "ecocide" – held up for decades as a cautionary tale about overexploitation of natural resources – should be firmly relegated to the bin of outdated theories, scientists now say.

This finding is just the latest in a mounting body of evidence that the Pacific Islander population's decline had nothing to do with their way of living.

Jared Diamond is famous for telling elaborate stories about how the people of Easter Island chopped down all the tree until the island was uninhabitable. I was always skeptical, as the people had no written records.

Famous Freud Critic Died

Evolutionary biology professor Jerry Coyne writes on the death of Sigmund Freud's biggest critic:

And having read a lot of Freud myself, being appalled as a scientist by its empirical vacuity, I agreed with Fred: Freud was simply a charlatan, fabricating theories that were never tested, pretending he had hit on the truth, and stealing ideas from others. As you know, Freud did, and still does, dominated the mindset of Western intellectuals. But Freud was also tendentious, an intellectual thief, and a miscreant in his own life, as well as a cocaine addict whose addiction influenced his work.

The strange thing is that Crews was a literary critic, not a scientist. Why didn't scientists expose Freud for what he was?

“Freud: The Making of an Illusion” was his most ambitious attempt to debunk the myth of Freud as a pioneering genius, drawing on decades of research in scrutinizing Freud’s early career.”

I read many reviews of that book, and virtually all were negative, for they were written by acolytes of Freud, many of whom, lacking a scientific mindset, had no idea that his theories were fabricated, false, or untestable. Even now Freud has a strong grip on the therapy culture, and you can still find expensive analysts who will make you see them several times a week at unbelievable prices. They may mutter a few tepid disavowals of Freud, but their technique is based on Freud’s model. ...

One unlikely cause that he devoted himself to in recent years was to assert the innocence of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach who was convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing young boys and is now in prison.

“I joined the small group of skeptics who have concluded that America’s paramount sexual villain is nothing of the sort,” Professor Crews wrote in one article in 2021, adding, “believe it or not, there isn’t a shred of credible evidence that he ever molested anyone.”

He also went after “recovered memory therapy” in league with his friend Elizabeth Loftus (see my post here, which contains a comment by Fred). That, too, rests on no empirical evidence, but simply on the wish-thinking assertions of therapists and prosecutors.

I agree with all of that. The evidence presented in court against Sandusky was entirely based on recovered memories from those getting large financial settlements for claims.

I think that there is something wrong with the brains of those who believe in Freud. Or who believe in the guilt of Sandusky.

In the Sandusky case, it is not just that the accusers were biased or not credible. The whole story is wildly implausible, and unlike anything that has ever happened. It was a big news story precisely because it was so shocking, but none of it was true.

You would have to believe that an ex-employee was openly sodomizing young boys on the Penn State campus, with the knowledge and tacit approval of the administration and coaching staff. Impossible.

As for Freud, his legacy was promoted mostly by Jews. Freud was a secular Jew, and very much a hero to Jews and Jewish-inspired thinking.

Update: A Coyne comment argues for Sandusky's guilt, based on (1) many accusers; (2) he once used a public shower with an underage boy; and (3) his denial sounded lame.

Yes, there were about a dozen accusers, but they were all based on recovered memories from many years later, contradicting earlier stories. The shower may have been inappropriate, but not at all comparable to criminal sodomy. And we cannot decide guilt based on how he denies it.

But the real scandal is the accusation that the Penn State staff knew about horrible crimes and covered them up. That is absurd, and contrary to all the evidence.

Trump v Biden Debate

The big debate was surprisingly good. Pres. Biden did better than expected, as expectations were low.

Pres. Trump looked Presidential, and explained well how his Presidency was much better than Biden's, and how he will improve things when he takes off.

I was amazed that Biden brought up the "fine people" Charlottesville hoax, and tried to pin other dubious quotes on Trump.

As it stands now, Trump is going to win the election, and probably even win the popular vote.

Abortion was supposed to be Biden's best popular issue, but here is what he said:

The idea that states are able to do this is a little like saying, we’re going to turn civil rights back to the states. Let each state have a different rule.

Look, there’s so many young women who have been – including a young woman who just was murdered and he – he went to the funeral. The idea that she was murdered by a – by –by an immigrant coming in, and they talk about that. But here’s the deal, there’s a lot of young women who are being raped by their – by their in-laws, by their – by their spouses, brothers and sisters, by – just – it’s just – it’s just ridiculous. And they can do nothing about it.

And they tried to arrest them when they cross state lines. ...

BIDEN: I supported Roe v. Wade, which had three trimesters. First time is between a woman and a doctor. Second time is between the doctor and an extreme situation. And a third time is between the doctor – I mean, it’d be between the woman and the state.

The idea that the politicians – that the founders wanted the politicians to be the ones making decisions about women’s health is ridiculous. That’s the last – no politician should be making that decision.

A doctor should be making those decisions. That’s how it should be run. That’s what you’re going to do.

And if I’m elected, I’m going to restore Roe v. Wade.

So his big these is being pro-democracy, but he does not want to allow states to pass laws about abortion. But he also wants a court decision to say that abortion is between a woman and the state, but politicians should have no say. And we need this because young women get raped by their in-laws, spouses, brothers, and sisters.

Wow, that does not even make any sense.

Update: After posting this, I see that many Democrats were disappointed with Biden's incompetence, and are looking for a candidate to replace him. Where have they been? Biden's incompetence has been known for a long time, and Democrats nominated him anyway.

The US Supreme Court ruled today that the biggest charge by teh Biden DoJ against Trump and J6 defendants is bogus, and based on a misinterpretation of the law. So Biden is the one who subverted democracy with the J6 protests, not Trump.

Biden Forces Trans Surgery on Minors

Jesse Singal writes:

Unsealed Court Documents Show That Admiral Rachel Levine Pressured WPATH To Remove Age Guidelines From The Latest Standards Of Care

A head-on collision between science and politics

When the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care Version 8 was released in September 2022, a very strange thing happened: WPATH removed references to minimum age requirements for various medical interventions, describing the change as a “correction” in a notice that now reads, weirdly: “This correction notice has been removed as it referred to a previous version of the article, which was published in error.” Whatever happened, exactly, it’s clear that until late in the game the document did have age minimums until, suddenly, it did not.

The SoC 8 was supposed to have been created via something called the Delphi process. As the document itself explains: “Consensus on the final recommendations was attained using the Delphi process that included all members of the guidelines committee and required that recommendation statements were approved by at least 75% of members.” Suffice it to say that making a sudden, major change so late in the game calls into question whether that process was fully adhered to.

Thanks to a rather remarkable document just unsealed as part of Boe v. Marshall, one of the many American lawsuits over youth gender medicine, we now have a potential explanation for why the age guidelines were removed: direct pressure from assistant secretary for health of the Department of Health and Human Services Admiral Rachel Levine (who is a trans woman herself) and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Levine was born Richard Levine, a Jewish man. He dresses as a woman.

You might hear that science supports gender-affirming treatment, but it is not true. The medical statements have been corrupted by leftist politics.

Singal also posts a good rebuttal to this Scientific American article:

If it seems like things are kind of off these days, you’re not alone. Recently, more than 100,000 people liked a post marking the start of the pandemic that said, “[Four] years ago, this week was the last normal week of our lives.”

Objectively speaking, we are living through a dumpster fire of a historical moment.

No, the world is not objectively bad. It is because things are so good, that a silly flu epidemic caused such hysteria.

Scotland Pakistani Minister famous for anti-White Rant

Scotland news:

As the furore in Scotland grew around the introduction of the Hate Crime Act (introduced by Mr Yousaf during his time in the justice role), the speech surfaced again – and sparked hundreds of reports to police from people who believed the First Minister was in breach of his own law by "stirring up hatred" against white people.

Yes, Scotland was ruled by a White-hater named Humza Yousaf who helped pass a law to criminalize online hate speech. A lot of people thought that he was the worst offender, as he gave this speech in 2020:

I will start and end my speech in the same way – by saying that I am angry. I am angry that in 2020 we are once again confronted with scenes of horrific racial injustice. I am angry that in 2020 we are still dealing with overt racism, subtle racism, institutional racism and structural racism. Whatever form it takes, it is still racism.

Members may well think that as time has moved on, racism has declined and manifestations of overt racism are no longer commonplace. I am afraid that that is not the case. I do not have to cast my mind back particularly far – I suspect that the same is true for Anas Sarwar – to remember somebody calling me “Paki”. ...

There is no black MSP in the Parliament. In a debate about Black Lives Matter, there is not a black voice here, to our shame. I want the last words in the debate to belong to George Floyd, but before I read out his last words, I ask every member here to imagine that these words came from your brother, your father, your son, your cousin or your nephew, while they had a police officer’s knee on their throat for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Here are George Floyd’s last words:

So his examples of racism are (1) Scotland is mostly White; (2) death of George Floyd; and (3) someone once called him a Paki. Some say that Paki is a slur, but it really just means a Pakistani. He is indeed from a Pakistani family.

If Scotland were so racist, it never would have elected a Pakistani.

Black Lesbian Space Witches in Star Wars

The NY Post reports:

The creator of the controversial Disney+ “Star Wars” show “The Acolyte” is pushing back against those who say that her show is “woke” propaganda featuring “lesbian space witches,” slamming the criticism as “reductive.”

Leslye Headland, the “first openly queer person to create” a major Star Wars project as The Hollywood Reporter (THR) described her, spoke to the outlet this week about the backlash the show has gotten for its progressive themes, telling the outlet that she never intended to make a show with an overt political agenda, even if it contains some LGBTQ messaging.

“I don’t believe that I’ve created queer, with a capital Q, content,” Headland told the entertainment outlet.

“Star Wars: The Acolyte” has proven to be one of the most divisive entries in the Star Wars franchise since its debut on Disney’s streaming platform earlier this month. Despite being a hit with critics – it currently features an 85% Rotten Tomatoes rating among professional movie reviewers – it has a 14% audience score, the lowest rating in that category among all Star Wars content.

Wow, that last figure is all you need to know. 85% by critics, 14% by audience. Everyone hates it, except for critics trying to maintain a woke image.

Study shows Wikipedia has Leftist Bias

A new study shows Wikipedia is politically biased to the Left.

No surprise. Tweet:

Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
Wikipedia is a complete bullshit site. It glorifies establishment dogma and those who advocate it, while smearing anyone who questions western institutions.

That's why its co-founder, @lsanger, has urged people not to use it due to ideological bias:

Also anti-White. Here is defines the Caucasian race:

The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid,[a] Europid, or Europoid)[2] is an obsolete racial classification of humans based on a now-disproven theory of biological race.[3][4][5]

It cites this pseudoscientific source:

Humans are not divided biologically into distinct continental types or racial genetic clusters. Instead, the Western concept of race must be understood as a classification system that emerged from, and in support of, European colonialism, oppression, and discrimination. It thus does not have its roots in biological reality, but in policies of discrimination. ...

Humans share the vast majority (99.9%) of our DNA in common.

Nearly all of that DNA is also shared with apes, and yet we are different from apes.

To be more meaningful, it could tell us how much DNA is shared among European Caucasians, and then tell us how much is shared with Orientals and African Negroes. It does not, because there is indeed a genomic basis for separating the races.

Liberal Males are Low in Testosterone

Edward Dutton writes:

We all know of the stereotype of the “Soy Boy;” the effeminate male with the most progressive possible views who smiles with his mouth open. An internet meme, the Soy Boy embodies so much about the stereotypical liberal male. He is physically weak, he allows himself to dominated by females, he is ultra-Woke; he is low in testosterone. But is this really the case? Most stereotypes contain at least a grain of truth, and a growing body of research indicates that this one contains very much more than that.

As I have discussed in my book The Past is a Future Country: The Coming Conservative Demographic Revolution, a great deal of Wokeness involves being extremely socially conformist. Left-wing people are high in anxiety (as are females compared to males) [Mental Illness and the Left, By E. Kirkegaard, Mankind Quarterly, 2020], which means they fear a fair fight, so they attain status covertly via virtue-signalling. In a leftist society, this means competitively signalling their adherence to liberal values; concern with “Equality” and “Harm Avoidance.”

In fact, more general research has found that in religious societies “extrinsic religiousness” (outward religious conformity) is associated with anxiety [Primary personality trait correlates of religious practice and orientation, By P. Hills et al., Personality and Individual Differences, 2004]. With its Pride Month, emotional public displays, dogmas, martyrs (such as George Floyd) and dominance of all institutions, it can reasonably be argued that Wokeness is a kind of replacement religion.

We would, therefore, expect the Woke to be low in testosterone.

He then goes on to cite studies showing that the stereotypes are true.

I think Wokism should be regarded as a religion. And people joining the religion can be explained by psychological traits.

Believe the Story that Serves your Purpose

Interview:

Steven Pinker: Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things

Pinker is enjoyable to listen to, as he specks very precisely, and with evidence to back up what he says. He is so good that an interview almost sounds as if he is reading from a book.

That is why I was surprised at this:

for most of History you the the documentary 13:09 record the uh the forensics the ballistics you know all that the zapruder film none of that was available and 13:17 so uh it almost was as we would say kind of an academic exercise what really happened because you know no one could 13:22 know yeah um if no one could know then should you believe anything no you believe the story that serves the 13:28 greater moral purpose whether the moral purpose is exposing the 13:33 um corrupt powerful forces that dominate us or um expose the the nefarious 13:41 conspiracy or they teach the young the right moral values

He has a lot of sensible things to say about being duped by misinformation, and following Enlightenment values of Truth. But when it comes to what to believe, when evidence is inssufficient, he says to "believe the story that serves the greater moral purpose"!

That's sounds like something a cult leader might say, not a famous and distinguished Harvard professor who is a leading proponent of rationalism.

Trump and the Post-Shame Society

Axios essay:

America is reaching the pinnacle of a post-shame society forged by Donald Trump and reinforced by powerful patrons.

Why it matters: Nearly 50 years after Richard Nixon resigned before ever being charged with a crime, the GOP is a month away from nominating a convicted felon to be president. Polls suggest the race is extremely close.

The big picture: While he may represent the most extreme example, Trump isn't the only one who has realized a lack of shame can be a crucial survival skill. ...

Between the lines: The "never back down" phenomenon has spread to corners of the business world in recent years — led primarily by Elon Musk. ...

The bottom line: If Watergate happened in 2024, there's every chance Nixon would have hung in there.

I think Pres. Nixon should have hung in there. Everybody thinks he was guilty, but nobody can say what he was guilty of. I always thought his biggest crime was obstruction of justice, by telling the FBI that the Watergate break-in was a CIA operation But most of the burglars were CIA operatives, and the FBI is under the Executive Branch, so I think the President can tell the FBI whatever he wants. I do not see why it is a crime.

Axios refers to the Guilt–shame–fear spectrum of cultures:

In cultural anthropology, the distinction between a guilt society or guilt culture, shame society or shame culture, and a fear society or culture of fear, has been used to categorize different cultures.[1] The differences can apply to how behavior is governed with respect to government laws, business rules, or social etiquette. This classification has been applied especially to what anthropologist Ruth Benedict called "apollonian" societies, sorting them according to the emotions they use to control individuals (especially children) and maintaining social order, swaying them into norm obedience and conformity.[2]

America has always been a guilt society. Immigrants from Asia, Africa, and the Arab World are nearly always shame-based, and do not assimilate even after several generations.

The guilt mechanism is vastly superior to shame and fear. If you want proof, just ask parents who have tried these three methods. For example:

Shame is a uniquely painful emotion. Unlike guilt, which is linked to specific actions and therefore serves as an effective behavior modification tool, shame is universal. It makes us feel bad about ourselves as people in ways that can lead to self-harm and severe physical effects. When someone feels shame, their heart rate increases, their body temperature elevates, and their muscles contract. Shame-filled people lose sleep and their appetites, becoming irritable, sick, and prone to drug and alcohol abuse. This is all very bad news for parents of young children, who research suggests are neurologically vulnerable to feelings of shame during the first two years of their children’s lives. Why are we wired this way? Because we inherit our shame and because we’re all too willing to entertain the notion that we’re bad parents.

Using guilt teaches kids to think for themselves, and to develop autonomy and responsibility.

This is one of the big differences between Christendom and the rest of the world, and the difference has persisted for a millennium. I suspect that it is in the genes now, as Westerners are much more individualistic than Asians, whether religious or not. It is a good reason for Europe and USA to not allow immigration from shame-based societies.

White House goes full Queer

Find more at 13 Photos of Queer Joy & Celebration at White House Pride Month Event.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden welcomed a sizeable, diverse crowd to the White House on Saturday to celebrate Pride Month and show his administration's stance on LGBTQ+ rights.

That flag is not the Pride (rainbow) Flag. It is the Progressive Pride Flag.

Black is for Black people. Brown is for Brown people. White is not for White people.

The arrow-like symbol is supposed to show BIPOCs and trans/queer people taking over everyone.

The flag is a symbol of hatred against straight Whites. It should not be on any government building. Pres. Biden's statement does not say what they are proud about, but tells everyone "to wave their flags of pride high."

More on the Death of George Floyd

I have previously posted arguments for and against police guilt in the death of George Floyd, such as here and here. This is a followup.

Coleman Hughes writes:

In January, I wrote an essay for The Free Press provoked by a new documentary called The Fall of Minneapolis. In the essay, I argued that Derek Chauvin’s conviction for felony murder in the case of George Floyd was erroneous. There was reasonable doubt, I argued, on two elements of the crime: felony assault and cause of death. Furthermore, I argued that the fairness of the trial was compromised by jury bias, by fears for personal safety in the event of Chauvin’s acquittal, and by a more general fear of rioting in the event of an acquittal. In response to my piece, Radley Balko, a former Washington Post columnist who focuses on criminal justice and civil liberties issues, wrote a three-part response on his Substack, as well as a shorter “update” post between parts two and three. He has also written a follow-up piece in The UnPopulist, summarizing his arguments.

I remain convinced that Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose, and that the police followed procedures that were reasonable and consistent with their training.

You might read the above articles and disagree, but I still do not see how any reasonable person can conclude that this case proves that the world is systemically racist against Blacks, requiring drastic remedies. It that were true, where are the other examples? Why isn't there a convincing one?

The case triggered a national madness, and even an international madness.

I can understand someone thinking that the cops might have handled the situation better, with better medical knowledge. But there is something wrong with the brain of anyone thinking that the cops murdered Floyd.

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign

When liberals complain about online misinformation, their biggest gripes are election and vaccine info.

Reuters reports:

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.

The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.

Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for China is the virus.

California bans telling Child Names to Parents

California policy is to induce/support schoolchildren to be LGBTQ, and to hide is from their parents.

Liberty Justice Center announced:

In an announcement issued on May 22, elected California representatives proposed new legislation to ban parental notification policies that have been lawfully adopted by school boards across California. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond joined the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus to prohibit parental notification policies that require school administrators to inform parents if their children ask to be referred to a name or pronouns that differ from their gender at birth or to access sex-segregated school programs or bathrooms for the opposite gender.

Now the law has passed:

SECTION 1. This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act or SAFETY Act. ...

(f) LGBTQ+ pupils have the right to express themselves freely at school without fear, punishment, or retaliation, including that teachers or administrators might “out” them without their permission. Policies that require outing pupils without their consent violate pupils’ rights to privacy and self-determination. ...

220.5. (a) A school district, county office of education, charter school, state special school for the blind or the deaf, or a member of the governing board of a school district or county office of education or a member of the governing body of a charter school, shall not enact or enforce any policy, rule, or administrative regulation that would require an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent, unless otherwise required by state or federal law.

They claim that this is just enforcement of existing non-discrimination laws.

California schoolchildren cannot legally have sexual relations until age 18, so normally they would keep their sexual fantasies to themselves. The schools have nothing to do with that.

This law concerns kids who cross-dress, use odd pronouns, adopt a new name, and expect everyone at school to respect their queer sexual identity. And they also expect the school to hide this information from the parents.

There is no good reason for any school to hide information from parents. A priest should keep quiet about what was said in a confessional, but this law is about open behavior that the school is openly catering to.

One excuse is that LGBTQ kids are often suicidal, and therefore related info must be handled with care. This is all the more reason to tell the parents.

The policy is driving kids to suicide, and hiding it from the parents.

AG Garland must be removed

News:

Attorney General Merrick Garland slammed the “conspiracy theories” being pushed that the Justice Department is being weaponized against former President Donald Trump as both “dangerous to democracy” and to personnel.

In an editorial for the Washington Post on Tuesday, Garland said that in recent weeks, there had been “an escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work.”

We need more attacks on Garland's DoJ.

He has used the DoJ to prosecute Pres. Biden's political enemies.

He has targeted Whites, Christians, and right-wingers, instead of real criminals.

He has refused a Congress subpoena, while sending Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon to prison for doing the same thing.

He has gotten gag orders against Donald Trump, in order to interfere with his campaigning.

The latest incident is Garland covering up a recording that shows Biden is incompetent to hold office, or even to stand trial for his crimes.

Garland took great offense to being linked to the NY state prosecution of Trump, but he pointedly refused to deny that the prosecutors have been communicating. He only claimed that an email search showed that there were no high-level emails that had not been deleted.

Gender Identity is a Fiction

USA Today reports:

Last year, the state of Florida banned gender-affirming care to transgender people under 18 and restricted it for adults in one of several measures from Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican state legislators that targeted the state's LGBTQ+ population.

On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked most of it.

"Florida has adopted a statute and rules that ban gender-affirming care for minors, even when medically appropriate. The ban is unconstitutional," Tallahassee-based Senior U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle wrote in his order.

"Gender identity is real," Hinkle said, pointing out that all major medical associations support it and that even the defendants, speaking through their attorneys, admitted it.

What does he mean by saying it is real? I read the order.

With extraordinarily rare exceptions not at issue here, every person is born with external sex characteristics, male or female, and chromosomes that match. As the person goes through life, the person also has a gender identity — a deeply felt internal sense of being male or female.11 For more than 99% of people, the external sex characteristics and chromosomes — the determinants of what this order calls the person’s natal sex — match the person’s gender identity.12

The elephant in the room should be noted at the outset. Gender identity is real. The record makes this clear. The defendants, speaking through their attorneys, have admitted it.14 At least one defense expert also has admitted it.15

As far as I can see, the claim "is real" is not based on any scientific or medical facts. It is not clear that any male has a deep internal sense of being female, or vice-versa.

For some, the denial that transgender identity is real — the opposition to transgender individuals and to their freedom to live their lives — is not different in kind or intensity from the animus that has attended racism and misogyny, less as time has passed but still today. And some transgender opponents invoke religion to support their position, just as some once invoked religion to support their racism or misogyny. Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs. But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender. In time, discrimination against transgender individuals will diminish, just as racism and misogyny have diminished. To paraphrase a civil-rights advocate from an earlier time, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

The judge is not applying any text in the Constitution or any other law. It is just based on his own ideas about trends in justice.

So what is this evidence of animus, comparable to enslaving Blacks?

This record includes overwhelming evidence that the House sponsors and a significant number of other House members were motivated by anti-transgender animus. ...

Perhaps the best evidence of this is another statute passed on the very same day as the statute at issue here. Florida Statutes § 1000.071(1) declares it the “policy” of every Florida public school from kindergarten through twelfth grade that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s [natal] sex.” Under Florida Statutes § 1000.071(3), an “employee or contractor of a public K-12 educational institution may not provide to a student his or her preferred personal title or pronouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to his or her [natal] sex.” So a high school teacher, for example, who has lived and been known as a woman, but who, unbeknownst to her students or others at the school, is a natal male, must be called “Mr.,” not “Ms.” The only possible purpose for a legislative mandate outing such a teacher is animus against transgenders. A majority of both houses and the Governor signed off.

So that is the animus that is just like Black slavery. Calling a male teacher "Mr."

No, it is confusing and disruptive for cross-dresser teachers to impose their sexual fantasies on students.

There is no clause in the Constitution saying that no one can ever be motivated by animus. And it is legal, so far, for a school to block cross-dressers from using the classroom for their drag shows.

Trump-haters Paranoid about Retribution

It is rare to hear any pro-Trump views on NPR Rad. The latest one-hour episode of This American Life actually squeezed in a couple of minutes at the end.

Come Retribution

Donald Trump has talked about taking retribution on his enemies since the early days of his 2024 presidential campaign. After his conviction last week in New York, his talk intensified. We try to understand what his retribution might look like by speaking with people who have the most to lose in a second Trump administration: people who believe Trump will be coming for them.

Most of the show tracked Trump-haters who were paranoid about Trump seeking retribution. They all vindictively attacked and tried to jail Trump for bogus political reasons, and they feared Trump would do the same to them. A couple talked about leaving the country to evade justice.

Listening to this would give the impression that Trump was going to send them all to concentration camps.

This is all delusional, as Trump was President for four years, and did not prosecute any of this political enemeies. Biden has prosecuted dozens.

At the end of the episode, the show tried to find some Trump supporters who were motivated by this sort of revenge. But it could not find any. It as

I started talking to people, asking everyone, what are the top things you want from Trump if he's back in office, curious if they'd say revenge.

Voter 1 - Inflation to go down, lower inflation, gas prices, migrants, the borders closed. ...

Notice what never came up-- retribution. ...

another guy I met had flown in from Indiana to support Trump during the trial. That's passion.

Zoe Chace Would you be comfortable with Trump using the levers of the federal government against his political enemies? Like, he's talked about going after the Biden crime family, or he's talked about going after the radical AGs, radical prosecutors. Would you be comfortable with that coming from him?

Jason King No, my preference would be that as soon as Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 47th president that he pardons himself and he pardons Joe Biden.

Zoe Chace Well, Joe Biden's not on trial right now.

Jason King No, he's not on trial now. But I would like him to issue a pardon for the crimes that he has done, rather than prosecuting him, so that no one could prosecute him.

Zoe Chace I see. If Trump becomes president, you just want to move on.

Jason King Yes.

Zoe Chace Retribution doesn't seem to be motivating these Trump voters

I expect that Trump probably will pardon Hunter Biden.

The idea of retribution strikes a nerve because everyone knows these Trump prosecutions are bogus. But Trump is all about Making America Great Again, and that means stopping the political prosecutions of bogus crimes.

By comparison, the Italy prime minister is suing a historian for calling her a “neo-Nazi at heart”. If that were a crime in the USA, a lot of Trump-haters would be in jail.

Parental Correlations Prove Nothing

SciAm reports:

Empathy can help people build strong friendships and close family ties. A new study reinforces the power of teaching and practicing empathy, especially during adolescence.

New results from a long-term study published in the journal Child Development found that teens who received “empathic care” from their mother (the only parent included in the study) were able to pay it forward and show empathy to their close friends. The research further suggests that parental empathy is passed down from generation to generation: teenagers who developed empathy skills were more likely to have healthy adult relationships and a supportive parenting style with their own children more than a decade later.

No, this does not show any value to empathy in parenting.

It just shows a correlation between mothers and children. Such correlations might be entirely explained by genes. There is no way a study like this can show that a parenting strategy is beneficial.

Cathy Young has Kooky Conspiracy Theories

The ex-Moslem Somali Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes:

The question, of course, is who is doing the subverting. Who is trying to unravel America and the West? ...

The first: American Marxists. This category includes old card-carrying communists, red-diaper baby socialists, antifa anarchists, and many of whom we now call woke. ...

The second force is the radical Islamists, who are riding the coattails of the communists to power. A good example is the Muslim Brotherhood and its many tentacles. ...

The third force is the Chinese Communist Party. ...

What unites these enemies? On the surface, they have little in common. ... But they have wisely chosen the same common enemy: the West.

She does not mention the Jews, but Cathy Young, an ex-Russian Jewish Trump-hater, has apparently deduced that woke American Marxist is a codeword for Jewish Leftist. Young writes:

THE LATEST SENSATION in the “heterodox” media ecosystem is a long essay by celebrated author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali titled “We Have Been Subverted.” Bari Weiss, whose Free Press website published it this week, touted it as “one of the year’s most important essays.” Ali’s husband, British historian Niall Ferguson, called it “essential.” Several tweets linking to the essay went viral.

In fact, the essay is notable mainly for one thing: it represents a startling plunge, for Ali and evidently for the Free Press, into outright, unabashed conspiracy theory.

The core of Ali’s argument is that much of today’s social and cultural turmoil in the United States and more generally in Western countries — or, at least, the destabilizing trends on the left — are the product of deliberate anti-Western subversion.

Wow, Ali explicitly says that these forces are not conspiring.

Apparently Ali hit a nerve. Young does not even try to deny Ali's main arguments. I guess Young thinks that Jews legitimately want to destroy the West, and so criticizes talking about it as a conspiracy theory.

Young also attack Trump all the time, and her criticisms are on this same childish level. Name-calling, and no substance.

The Top Ranked Male Supremacists

Diverting Hate is a US DHS funded organization to subvert hateful social media channel by placing ads to distract followers.

Some of those channels have been demonetized, making ad placement impossible.

Here is some discussion:

The Male Supremacy Scale, created by a PERIL researcher, is a 15-item scale to “measure” Male Supremacy which was implemented in the Diverting Hate program to test the efficacy of diversion campaigns. The report confirms that 11 large Manosphere influencers were targeted by diversion campaigns on YouTube. In the study, the team analyzed content and assigned it a quantitative extremism score according to the Male Supremacy Scale.

The leading male supremacist channel is SandMan, a MGTOW advocate. MGTOW means he avoid personal relationships with women.

Here is a typical Sandman podcast, where he discusses female teachers seducing their underage students.

What exactly is the complaint? If Sandman is such a terrible person to women, then shouldn't women be happy that he does not bother them or have anything to do with him?

Rollo Tomassi’s The Rational Male is the fourth worst male supremacist. Now he is a happily married man.

Here is how they measure Male Supremacy:

The scale has 15 items across the three sub-scales. Anti-Feminism
1. Feminism is about hating men
2. Modern society prioritizes women over men
3. Feminists are unattractive
4. Women use feminism to gain an unfair advantage over men
5. Feminists are seeking to control men

Female Dishonesty in Relationships
6. If a man commits to a woman in a romantic relationship, she gets the upper hand.
7. In a relationship, women are less trustworthy than men
8. Men in romantic relationships need to be constantly on guard for cheating
9. Women have a biological drive to cheat on their partners
10. You can’t trust women to be faithful in relationships

Women Like Alphas 11. Women are biologically driven to seek out the highest status man possible
12. Women cannot help being attracted to rich men
13. Women cannot help but be attracted to those who are higher in status than they are
14. Women are not attracted to men who have a low social status
15. Women are attracted to high-status men

These are just observations. They are true to some extent.

These supposed male supremacists do not even agree on many of these points. In particular, the MGTOWs, the blue-pillers, the PUAs, and the TradCons all have different views. They do not hate women; they either avoid women or seek better relationships with them.

The blue pillers, in particular, believe that there are natural differences between men and women, and seek to understand those differences better.

And they are all outnumbered by feminist views online, by about 100x.

Trying to explain racial differences in running

WSJ op-ed:

Why Are the Top U.S. Women Sprinters Black and the Top Marathoners White?

A longstanding racial division can be traced to the culture of athletics at women’s colleges in the early 20th century. ...

In fact, since women first ran at the Olympics in 1928, the vast majority of sprinters representing the U.S. have been Black. In the 40 years since distance events were added for women, the vast majority of those runners for the U.S. have been white. Why?

The disparity can be traced back to the culture of women’s athletics in the early 20th century. ...

This essay is adapted from Maggie Mertens’s new book, “Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women,” which will be published on June 18 by Algonquin Books.

This is the looney land of the race deniers.

If you say there is no such thing as race, then obvious racial differences become very hard to explain. They start making up crazy stories, such as saying that someone loses a competition today because of a lack of role models a century ago.

Some people are naturally better at some tasks. It is as simple as that.

Why Sacks is Backing President Trump

David Sacks tweets:

But today I am giving my endorsement to our 45th President, Donald J. Trump, to be our 47th President. My reasons rest on four main issues that I think are vital to American prosperity, security, and stability – issues where the Biden administration has veered badly off course and where I believe President Trump can lead us back. ...

The voters have experienced four years of President Trump and four years of President Biden. In tech, we call this an A/B test. With respect to economic policy, foreign policy, border policy, and legal fairness, Trump performed better. He is the President who deserves a second term.

It is not a close call. The Biden Presidency has been one of the worst ever.

The four big issues are:

1. The Economy
2. Foreign Policy / Ukraine War
3. The Border
4. Lawfare

Any of these would be enough to vote against Biden. While Biden stil has the support of the elites, hardly anyone defends him on these points. Instead they babble about how Trump is the new Hitler.

He is not physically capable of lasting four more years in office, and would leave us with an even worse Kamala Harris.

Here is some Ann Coulter sarcasm:

I have it on the authority of New York Times guest editorialist Norm Eisen that Trump’s 34 felony convictions concern “profoundly serious” crimes. But one point I’m still not clear on is how Trump was supposed to describe his payments to Stormy Daniels. That is, after all, the heart of the case: Trump committed felonies by recording the payment to Daniels — made through his lawyer Michael Cohen — as a “legal expense,” thus creating a “false business record.” How was he supposed to describe it? ...

“Hush money payment to a porn star who was threatening to claim we had sex — a claim as false as the Trump Tower doorman’s allegation I had an illegitimate child with an employee, which is so false that even the media admitit’s false — for the exclusive purpose of hiding the porn star’s (false) claim from the electorate, so that they would vote for me, even though they did vote for me, despite seeing a video one month before the election of me bragging about grabbing women ‘by the p*ssy.’ The Daniels allegation, however, I believe would have pushed them over the edge, so I used my own money to pay Daniels not to lie about me, much like the $30,000 that was paid to the lying doorman.”

If he’d said that, District Attorney Alvin Bragg would have been forced to say, BINGO! That’s exactly what I and The New York Times wanted you to write in your internal business records. Free to go, Mr. Trump.

Good point. If people really think that the 2016 voters had a right to know about the Daniels allegation, did they also have a right to know about the Doorman's allegation of an illegitimate child?

A NY Democrat candidate wants to send Trump supporters to re-education camps:

"Even if we were to have a resounding blue wave come through, as many of us would like, putting it all back together again after we’ve gone through this MAGA nightmare and re-educating basically, which, that sounds like a rather, a re-education camp. I don’t think we really want call it that," she said during the Zoom townhall. "I’m sure we can find another way to phrase it."

The True Story of Jogging while Black

Ann Coulter writes:

If you follow the news, you know that Arbery was the innocent black jogger chased down by three racist rednecks in Georgia and shot dead merely for “jogging while black.”

Arbery’s killers, Travis and Gregory McMichael, were convicted in about six minutes and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. Plus 20 years, just to be safe. Eight months later, they got bonus life sentences in separate federal hate crimes prosecutions. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., who happened to be there, got 35 years (state) plus life (federal).

Quite a turnabout for a case that three prosecutors refused to take after concluding there was no crime.

This is old news, but still an amazing example of how the news and courts favor Blacks.

Arbery was a Black criminal suspect who tried to kill a couple of White who confronted him, and died in the strugle. Possible the Whites acted on weak evidence, but they do not belong in prison. Coulter has new details on the injustice.

In another story, Ty Cobb and other great baseball players are being replace by Black minor leaguers in the record books.

Law Professor cannot explain the Verdict

Law professor Lawrence Tribe quotes:

In 2016, Donald Trump seemed to pull an inside straight by narrowly winning Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin while losing the popular vote by three million. We now know, Trump committed 34 felonies to win that election.

Without these crimes, he seems almost certain to have lost to Hillary Clinton.

What is missing from these posts and articles is any explanation of what those crimes were.

Would voters in those three states been swayed by allegation of a ten-year-old affair? I doubt it.

The Deep State did plant false stories in 2016 about how Trump was a Russian agent, and in 2020 about how the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian misinformation.

Update: Reason ridicules Tribe:

Since those 34 felonies involved falsified business records that were produced in 2017, Tribe's claim is logically impossible. Yet his gloss on the former president's New York conviction echoes similarly puzzling claims by many smart and ostensibly well-informed observers. In their eagerness to embrace the prosecution's dubious "election fraud" narrative, they nonsensically assert that Trump retroactively ensured his 2016 victory by disguising a 2017 hush-money reimbursement as payment for legal services. ...

Yet according to a May 30 Washington Post editorial, the jury found Trump "guilty of felony falsification of business records in order to influence the 2016 election." A New York Times editorial published the same day likewise claimed the jury found Trump "guilty of falsifying business records to prevent voters from learning about a sexual encounter that he believed would have been politically damaging." Barring time travel, of course, nothing Trump did in 2017 could have "influence[d] the 2016 election" or "prevent[ed] voters from learning about" that "sexual encounter" before they cast their ballots.

These people certainly know better. Why are they saying such obvious falsehoods?

It is not enough for them to say that Trump lies about the 2020 election being stolen. They want to tell lies to trick people into thinking that Trump stole the 2016 election.

The New York Election Law

The press sometimes describes the Trump conviction as falsifying records to cover up illegal influence on the 2016.

Here is the NY law of which Trump's records were supposedly concealing a violation:

§ 17-152. Conspiracy to promote or prevent election. Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

What kind of crazy law is this? And Trump did not have to violate it, but just 4 jurors thinking that he intended to. What are the elements of this crime? How is this a crime?

What did Trump do, promote an election? Prevent an election?

I say 4 jurors because Trump could have been convicted by 4 jurors thinking Trump intended to shelter Cohen from a campaign finance violation, 4 jurors thinking Trump intended to evade taxes in some unspecified way, and 4 thinking Trump intended to violate the above law.

What is Biden Proud of?

Pres. Joe Bidenn officially tweeted::

For generations, LGBTQI+ Americans have summoned the courage to live proudly – even when it meant putting their lives at risk.

This Pride Month, we recommit to realizing the promise of America for all, to celebrating LGBTQI+ people, and to taking pride in the example they set.

Hppay Pride Month

I am wondering what exactly he means by this. What example is being set by homosexual acts? Why should we all be proud of those examples?

Here is a Natinoal Geographic movie on Pride. Again, no clue about what they are proud of.

My conclusion is the word "pride" is intended to be irony. They are deeply embarrassed to say what they do, and what they are supposedly proud about.

The Vax Gap

The USA is splitting along identity politics lines, and now we have a vax gap. The NY Post reports:

Former President Donald Trump holds a dominating 47-point lead over Joe Biden among un-jabbed voters and those who never completed a full vaccine course, according to a new poll.

The former president received the backing of 63% of voters who never received the jab or didn’t complete the initial Modera/Pfizer vaccine course, the Schoen-Cooperman survey showed.

Voters who didn’t get the covid vaccine overwhelmingly prefer Trump, a new poll shows. Robert Miller

President Biden collected just 16% of the unvaxxed/one jab vote.

Surprisingly Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a diehard vaccine skeptic — took just 12% of that group.

The same trends held among voters who received a full vaccination but never followed up with any boosters.

Pres. Trump was headed towards reelection in 2020, until covid wrecked our economy and way of life. Fast-tracking a covid vaccine was one of Trump's biggest accomplishment, but the CDC, FDA, and press conspired to conceal the progress until after the election. The Democrats convinced the voters that Trump's negligence had killed 300,000 Americans.

Now, with four years of hindsight, the picture is a lot different. More people died under Biden.

The covid pademic was really just a bad flu season, except to the elderly with multiple co-morbidities. Covid itself did not do any damage to the economy. It was the government overreaction to it that was so disastrous. Countries like Sweden without the lockdowns had fewer excess deaths. Nealy all of the counter-measures, such as social distancing, hand-washing, masks, and vaccines, were useless or counter-productive. They made things worse.

It would have been better to rapidly release the vaccines for the high-risk elderly population, and forget about it for everyone else.

Now those who refused the vaccine are voting for Trump. Why, when he was the chief vaccine proponent?

Trump did not support the vaccine mandates. Biden did, and so did the new Libertarian Party nominee.

The vaccine mandates were a test of the Leftist nanny state. Could medical decisions be forced on you, just because some official govt committee of experts recommends them? Even when they violate science and common sense?

These same experts say that a man can become a woman, or that a man can give birth to a baby. And race is socially constructed. And George Floyd was murdered by systemic racism. Biden voters accept this nonsense like sheep.

The unvaccined represent the last Americans who think for themselves, and want the freedom to make their own decisions. And they are voting for Trump.

Biden oversaw nearly a million COVID deaths and unprecedented covid-relief spending, widely viewed as contributing to inflation today.

The unvaxxed faced particularly extreme challenges. In New York City, they were banished from bars, restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues. City employees who refused to get the jab were fired. Even private businesses were ordered to ensure employees were vaccinated. What do you think? Be the first to comment.

One unvaxxed city employee — who managed to slip through the net — said he liked RFK but was backing Trump anyway.

“I’m probably voting for Trump due to the lawfare used against him which cannot be allowed in this country,” the employee said.

To him, the Biden lawfare against Trump is like the covid overreaction that got people like him fired. Biden must be stopped, if we are to be a free nation.

Black Thugs still rule South Africa

News:

outh Africa's ruling party has lost its majority, putting President Cyril Ramaphosa under pressure to form a coalition government as the polls close in the country's election.

With nearly all votes reported and counted, Ramaphosa and his African National Congress now 40% of the national vote, the party's lowest vote total since its inception in 1994.

The ANC collected 58% of the vote in South Africa's previous election on the way to securing a majority government.

Everyone claimed that ending apartheid in South Africa would bring justice and democracy. The truth has been the opposite.

South Africa has had one-party rule by corrupt and incompetent ANC leaders. The country was better off with White rule.

More and more, public figures use the democracy to mean one party Black rule, exterminated White folks, and throwing political enemies like Donald Trump in jail.

Mindreading Jurors have not told us Trump's Crime

I jus learned that the NY Trump judge is a South American!

The judge will probably order probation conditions designed to interfere with the election as much as possible.

Whatever you think of Pres. Trump, we should not have a Colombian deciding our next President Everyone who goes along with this, from Pres. Biden on down, is an enemy of American justice.

It is funny to see the press try to descrive the conviction on one sentence. They cannot do it. The essential charge was that his office recorded transactions as legal expenses, and they were falsified to cover up at least one of 3 possible unproved crimes, campaign finance, cheating voters, and tax evasion.

The important point is that he was not convicted of paying hush money, or interfering with the election, or misleading voters, or tax evasion, or anything like that. The jury found that Trump intended to cover up a crime, but there is no finding as to what that crime was. No one knows.

Maybe some jurors will speak up and tell us, but none have so far.

The case follows the pattern where Trump-haters investigate him for years looking for wrongdoing, fail, and end up accusing him of intent to commit some nebulous crime.

That is what happened in both the first and second impeachments. No direct evidence of a crime, and not even any direct evidence of intent, but somehow the mindreading Trump-haters claim to know what he was thinking.

Maybe that should have been a jury voir dire question: Do you believe in mindreading?

I used to regularly post here the evil effects of faulty mindreading. It explains much of what is wrong with our society.

The funny think about Trump is that he is exactly what he appears to be. More so that any other politician. He says what he means and he means what he says. There is no need to apply any mindreading skills.

There is a mental illness that a lot of people have, where they cannot take anything on face value. They cannot understand straightforward language, and jump to conclusion about everything meaning something else. Some even say that such behavior is neurotypical, and they are rattled by those who are more direct.

I am not saying that Trump has autism. He does not. But I think that he is hated for some of the same reasons that people with high-functioning autism are hated.