Taylor Swift and immigrants drive right wing men to madness

Elon Musk, JD Vance and others are fighting a losing battle to put them in their place.

Marisa Kabas September 12, 2024

Aubrey Plaza, Taylor Swift, Linda Rondstadt

In the flurry of post-debate spin and endorsements you may have missed what is, to my eye, one of the most disgusting things a man has ever said to a woman.

Despite a dominant performance by Vice President Harris followed by the ringing endorsement of Taylor Swift to her 283 million Instagram followers, we were quickly reminded that misogyny will always try to win the day. Elon Musk, a scumbag who needs no introduction, took to his cesspool of a platform in the moments following Swift’s post in an attempt to put her in her place.

(The tweet embed code doesn’t work here; I’m not on Twitter, so I can’t do much. You can see it on Marisa’s page, linked below, or I transcribed it; it is from Mr. Musk, who says, “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life” )

Understanding these 17 words requires a bit of context which I’m loath to repeat but feel duty-bound to explain. (Swift has not made any public comment regarding the tweet so far.)

First, let’s look at Swift’s endorsement of the Harris/Walz campaign. After explaining her process of researching and watching the presidential debate, she wrote:

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.

She then reminded people to register to vote and to vote early if possible, providing links to resources in her Instagram story. And she signed it “With love and hope, Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.” This was, of course, a reference to Trump’s veep candidate JD Vance saying the Democratic party is run by these sorts of women—meaning they couldn’t possibly care about the future of [white] children in this country.

Swift’s endorsement was a seminal moment in the too-close-for-comfort-and-sanity race between Harris and Trump, and one many have been breathlessly waiting for. While a Swift endorsement doesn’t mean everything, it certainly means something to a lot of people: In the 24 hours following her post, 406,000 people had visited Vote.gov via Swift’s custom link.

Now let’s break down Musk’s disgusting tweet piece by piece:

“Fine Taylor”

Right off the bat, I’m pissed. The Taylor in question is obviously Swift, arguably the most famous celebrity in the world. She’s an artist, a brand and an economy all at once. I may not be a Swiftie but I’ll be damned if the most divorced man of all time doesn’t show her a little respect. You’re not on a first name basis with her, you creep. She does not know you. But we’ll get back to that later.

“you win”

Winning implies that Swift willingly entered into some sort of bet or game with Musk, one in which he’s been forced to concede. As far as we know, Swift and Musk have never communicated in any capacity. In fact, as one Twitter user pointed out, Musk has replied to her a number of times over the years to no avail. Nevertheless, he persisted.

“I will give you a child”

This is where things get really dark. As established in the first two points, these two people do not know each other. Yet Musk is offering to impregnate Swift which, again, is not something she has ever expressed wanting. In fact, impregnating someone against their will is a heinous crime.

Musk has long shown that the rules don’t apply to him, and so far he’s right. From tanking the value of every company he’s touched to saying heinous things about immigrants, he remains a free man and a billionaire with no consequences to speak of. He’s the father of at least 12 children with at least three women, one of whom is an executive at Neuralink, his company that creates chips to be implanted in the brains of humans.

(There is a tweet here on the page; the embed code doesn’t work. See below, or here it is transcribed. “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.” )

He quite literally thinks spreading his seed will save humanity, and Musk thinks he’d be doing Swift a favor—saving her life and giving it meaning, even!—by getting her pregnant. For any man to presume such a thing is vile; for a deadbeat dad with a white supremacy problem, it’s unconscionable.

“and guard your cats with my life”

As if being a predatory misogynist wasn’t enough, Musk decided to throw in some casual racism which also served as a callback to one of Trump’s most unhinged moments in the debate. Trump, echoing claims first trumpeted by Vance, furthered the total and complete lie that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating white people’s pets. It started with an accident last year wherein a Haitian migrant drove into a school bus and killed an 11-year-old white boy, sparking a racist backlash against the migrant community that has rapidly grown in Springfield since 2020. The boy’s parents have told Trump and Vance to stop using their son to spread “incessant hate.”

In Musk’s telling, not only does Swift need to be impregnated to fight against a non-existent population crisis, but her beloved pet cats need protection from the non-existent cat-hungry migrants.

Dave Rubin, a far-right media personality who works for Tenet Media (the company that it was revealed unwittingly worked for the Russian government) managed to somehow take Musk’s threat a step further.

(The tweet embed code doesn’t work. It’s awful, but transcribed, it says, “Dave Rubin asks Taylor Swift to reconsider her endorsement: ‘Taylor Swift, you are a young pretty girl, do you know what the gang members from Venezuela do to young pretty girls? It ain’t pretty!'”. Or, go to Marisa’s page to read; it’s all there.)

The mention of Venezuela was a reference to another anti-immigrant remark Trump made during the debate. Here Rubin deftly combines racism with a rape fantasy, though a different one than Musk had in mind. These are the minds of deeply troubled men.

Following Musk’s post, his estranged daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson bravely posted on Threads about it.

Wilson has recently started speaking out against her father who claimed his child was, in his view, “dead, killed by the woke mind virus,” because she’s transgender. In her first-ever public interview, Wilson told NBC News of Musk in late July, “He was cold. He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic.”

That narcissism reared its ugly head this week, making even his most fervent supporters uneasy.

While far right zealots have the luxury of laughing off Trump, Vance and Musk’s cruelty, the migrant community in Springfield remains at active risk. On Thursday multiple city buildings and schools were forced to shut down after receiving a bomb threat. The Haitian Times reports that some families have been afraid to send their kids to school since they became caught in the racist crosshairs, with cars being vandalized and Haitian residents considering moving elsewhere. This is all despite the fact that, as a PBS Newshour report demonstrated, Springfield’s businesses are thriving thanks to the town’s newest residents.

Meanwhile, the childless cat (and dog) ladies are assembling: From Swift to Stevie Nicks, Linda Rondsadt and Aubrey Plaza, famous women are using their platforms to tell the wannabe dictators of the Republican ticket that they have no control over us or our bodies. Not now, not ever.

And in the coming days as conservatives continue to direct hate at immigrants in Springfield and beyond, it’s incumbent upon those with large followings to stand in solidarity with them—because we’re all fighting the same monsters.

https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/cat-ladies-immigrants-taylor-swift-elon-musk

Reblog from MPS

Midday Palate Cleanser

How fast can a fruit fly walk – scientists built mini treadmills and found out

September 8, 2024 Evrim Yazgin

(I want to guess that it’s the same everywhere, and ask: did they put these treadmills on bananas?)

Fruit flies on treadmills are giving scientists insights into how insects walk in ways that previous, more invasive techniques could not.

Cartoon illustration of an imaginary fruit fly wearing sports apparel and running on a treadmill — Fruit fly on a treadmill. Illustration by Alice C. Gray.

Researchers want to understand how insects’ nervous systems respond to rapid changes underfoot. All animals must navigate potential hazards and changes in terrain, otherwise injury from falls would be likely (send this to your clumsy friend or relative).

Animals as diverse as flies, cockroaches, rats and humans all show similar ways of readjusting after a trip, for example.

Studying how insects adjust their walking will help scientists understand proprioception: how the body continually senses its articulation and movement.

These techniques have been helpful in evaluation and treatment of people, such as stroke patients, who have locomotive issues.

Fly on a treadmill — Graphical abstract. Credit: B G Pratt et al. Current Biology.

University of Washington researchers published in Current Biology their findings when fruit flies – Drosophila melanogaster – were put on specially-designed miniature treadmills.

Fruit flies are a good model for mapping neural locomotion control because they have a compact, fully mapped nervous system. Previous studies have also given scientists a suite of genetic tools to perform precise and specific manipulations of the fly’s nervous system.

Traditionally, researchers have studied insect locomotion either free walking or tethered.

Tethered insects have a small camera mounted on a stick attached to their backs. Unsurprisingly, this method is not the most comfortable for the insect, but an advantage of this approach is that it allows the fly’s movements on 3D surfaces to be studied.

“One disadvantage of studying locomotion in tethered flies is that their posture is constrained and normal ground reaction forces may be disrupted, which could affect walking kinematics,” the authors of the new study write.

Enter the Drosophila’s very own treadmill.

The researchers were able to track fly walking over long periods of time. Split-belt treadmills were used to investigate how the flies reacted to belts with different speeds on either side of the body.

Without the burden of a tethered camera, the flies were able to strut their stuff freely.

“At the extremes, flies on the treadmill were able to sustain walking at a max belt speed of 40 mm/s and surpassed an instantaneous walking velocity of 50 mm/s [about 0.18km/h], which is the fastest walking speed ever reported for Drosophila melanogaster,” the researchers say. (snip-MORE)

https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/biology/fruit-flies-insect-walking-treadmill/

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

(These fill me with wonder almost every day. There are far worse ways to start the day!)

2024 September 8
M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
Image Credit: Subaru (NAOJ), Hubble (NASA/ESA), Mayall (NSF);
Processing & Copyright: R. Gendler & R. Croman

Explanation: The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye is M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy. Even at some two and a half million light-years distant, this immense spiral galaxy — spanning over 200,000 light years — is visible, although as a faint, nebulous cloud in the constellation Andromeda. A bright yellow nucleus, dark winding dust lanes, and expansive spiral arms dotted with blue star clusters and red nebulae, are recorded in this stunning telescopic image which combines data from orbiting Hubble with ground-based images from Subaru and Mayall. In only about 5 billion years, the Andromeda galaxy may be even easier to see — as it will likely span the entire night sky — just before it merges with, or passes right by, our Milky Way Galaxy.

Teachers & Students: Ideas for using APOD in the classroom
Tomorrow’s picture: dark moon, red planet

Peace & Justice History for 9/7:

(Really!)

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september7

ABC’s Bird Library ›

Rhinoceros Auklet

“Unicorn Puffin”

Rhinoceros Auklet

True Facts: How Snakes Move

Talking climate doesn’t ruin Great Barrier Reef tourism

September 5, 2024 Ellen Phiddian

(Well, go figure!)

Coral underwater — Bleached coral. Credit: Yolanda Waters

Telling tourists on the Great Barrier Reef about climate change doesn’t negatively affect their trip, according to a new study.

Instead, finds the research, it could be a good avenue to promote climate action for people who wouldn’t otherwise be engaged.

The study, done by a team of Queensland researchers, is published in People and Nature.

“Tourism operators are getting more engaged in learning how they can spread more awareness, given the state of the Reef and how urgent it’s getting,” says lead author Dr Yolanda Waters, an environmental social scientist at the University of Queensland.

“But they still have these concerns – what if it ruins people’s day? People pay a lot of money to go to the Reef.”

The team tested this concern by surveying 656 visitors on a variety of Reef tours that either did or didn’t mention climate change.

Waters tells Cosmos that her background working in Great Barrier Reef tourism provided the stimulus for the research.

“I used to work on the boats out of Cairns, and I went through these experiences of tourists asking questions and not really feeling equipped to answer them,” she says.

“There is this real feeling: how do we talk about this in a way that doesn’t negatively affect the industry?”

Person with snorkel next to large fish — Dr Yolanda Waters (right) on the Great Barrier Reef. Credit: Yolanda Waters

The researchers joined forces with 5 Reef tour operators in north Queensland to set up the experiment.

“We tried to get a range of different operators out of Cairns and Townsville, because we were also testing if it depends on the type of experience, the type of boat, if it’s 300 people or a smaller trip,” says Waters.

The researchers and tour staff developed control and experimental climate trips for each tour.

“It really depended on the boat and the type of trip,” says Waters.

“The operators let us work with their staff and design one trip that had no information about climate change specifically – they still had their regular information about marine life and regular day-to-day operations.

“And on other trips, they let us work with the staff to make sure climate change was very clearly incorporated throughout the day.”

This might include marine biologists’ presentations addressing climate change, videos, and posters.

“On the trip back, I went around and surveyed as many tourists as I could,” says Waters.

Visitors were asked to complete a 5-minute paper survey asking about their experience of the trip, and their engagement with climate change.

The researchers found that trips mentioning climate didn’t have a significant effect on visitors’ experiences.

“There was no overall effect on satisfaction,” says Waters.

People on both trips were interested in learning more about climate change.

“A lot of them wanted to have a chat about it, especially on days where there was no climate information on the boat – people noticed,” says Waters.

But people on trips with climate information weren’t any more likely to be spurred to action on climate change.

“We found that the climate information did increase people’s awareness about the threat, that information did get across to people, but we found that didn’t really translate to people’s willingness to do something when they went home,” says Waters.

This means that the information about climate change could be tweaked to be more solutions-focussed, according to the researchers.

“Our conclusion out of this, which aligns with some of the other research we’ve been doing, is that if tourism is to be this beacon of engaging people with climate change, it can’t just be talking about threats – people really want to know about solutions,” says Waters.

“Most people have no idea how they can help stop the ocean boiling. So that was the opportunity we identified.”

The research comes shortly after the release of the 2024 Great Barrier Reef Outlook report by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which is compiled every 5 years.

The report found that, while parts of the Reef had declined and parts had improved, the overall state of the Reef remained “poor” and climate change was rapidly closing the window to preserve its health.

The researchers say in their paper that the tourism industry has an opportunity to promote action on climate change, provided it uses the right strategies.

“Two million people visit the Reef every year,” points out Waters. She adds that tourists often place a high amount of trust in the information given to them by guides.

“This is the right place and time to do it, but if tourism wants to really embrace the role, they need to start tailoring those talks and those education materials around solutions and actions that people can take home with them.”

Waters says the tourism operators the team worked with were “very receptive” to the study.

“I think tourism really does want to be on board,” she says.

“Tourism has to change, no matter what happens. And I think they’re starting to really recognise that.”

Shot of boat above water and coral underwater — Credit: Yolanda Waters

https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/climate/climate-great-barrier-reef-tourism/

Monkeys give each other names too

This is so cool!

September 4, 2024 Evrim Yazgin

Marmosets do something that only humans, dolphins and elephants have been known to do: give each other names.

Two marmoset monkeys — Mother and daughter marmoset monkeys named Bhumi and Belle. Credit: David Omer’s Lab.

“Phee-calls” – a specific vocal call – used to identify and communicate between individual marmosets are described in new research published in the journal Science. Listen:

https://players.brightcove.net/5483960636001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6361433757112

There are 22 species of marmoset native to South America and occasionally spotted in Central America. The generally live in small family groups of 2 to 8 individuals.

The common marmoset weighs just a few hundred grams and is about 19cm tall. They are easily recognised by their large, white ear tuffs.

Naming other individuals is a highly advanced cognitive skill in social animals. Interestingly, our closest evolutionary relatives, non-human primates, have until now appeared to lack this ability.

Researchers uncovered the phee-calls in marmosets by recording their conversations.

They found that, not only do the little monkeys use phee-calls to address specific individuals, they are also able to tell when a call was directed at them and responded more accurately when it was.

“This discovery highlights the complexity of social communication among marmosets,” explains study lead and senior author David Omer from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “These calls are not just used for self-localisation, as previously thought – marmosets use these specific calls to label and address specific individuals.”

The researchers also noticed marmosets within a family group used similar vocal labels to address different individuals. Adult marmosets were even able to learn the names of individuals they weren’t related to by blood.

Such vocalisations may help marmosets in dense rainforest habitats where visibility is limited.

Baby marmoset monkey named Bareket. Credit: David Omer’s Lab.

“Marmosets live in small monogamous family groups and take care of their young together, much like humans do,” says Omer. “These similarities suggest that they faced comparable evolutionary social challenges to our early pre-linguistic ancestors, which might have led them to develop similar communicating methods.”

Understanding how social communication developed in marmosets could help explain human language evolution.

In the Spring edition of Cosmos Magazine, Drew Rooke looks at the prospects of talking to whales, and Amalyah Hart looks at insect consciousness. Out September 26.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animals/marmoset-monkey-names/

ICONIC 9LIVES SPOKESCAT MORRIS LAUNCHES PRESIDENTIAL BID TO PROMOTE “PAWS-ITIVITY.” COULD YOUR PET BE HIS RUNNING MATE?

First, it is absolutely a promotion for 9Lives kitty stuff and the shelter charity to which they’re contributing. I’m mainly posting this for the video; the ad ran while a mahjong game was loading on Shockwave. I’d never seen it before, and it’s cool, even though it’s an ad. Scottie’s kitties might also like it, along with anyone else kitty- or not kitty-related. I always loved Morris! To skip the blahblahblah and see the video, just scroll down.

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If your cat or dog is chosen to be Morris’ Vice President, you’ll choose which animal shelter will receive a $35,000 donation, estimated to be worth half a million 9Lives meals

LAKEVILLE, Minn., Aug. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Earlier today, Morris, the legendary 9Lives spokescat, announced he’s once again running for President of the United States of America. He has already run for President on three separate occasions in 1988, 1992 and 2012. Fourth time’s the charm! Morris believes that meow is the time to bring his presidential hopes back into the spotlight and put renewed focus on the importance of pet adoption.

Morris the 9Lives spokescat is uniting everyone in the animal world – even cats and dogs – to help shelter pets during his presidential run.

Photo Credit: 9Lives — Morris the 9Lives spokescat is uniting everyone in the animal world – even cats and dogs – to help shelter pets during his presidential run. Photo Credit: 9Lives

As he spreads his message of paws-itivity, Morris is eagerly on the hunt for a running mate – any cat or dog who shares his belief in The Good Life is invited to apply! If you think your pet has what it takes, visit www.MorrisforPresident.com to submit your nomination.*

The winner will receive a $1,000 prize and the chance to choose which animal shelter will receive a $35,000 donation from 9Lives – estimated to be worth half a million 9Lives meals. Internet sensation Doug the Pug will be serving as Morris’ Campaign Manager to help with his VP search.

As a bona fide rescue cat success story himself, Morris is an advo-cat for pets in need. In fact, he’s conceived five paw-licies to help all pets live The Good Life:

RIGHT TO PROSPURR
Every pet deserves a good home, good health and good food. “Meow’s the time” to find fur-ever families for all shelter pets.
BE PAW-SITIVE
Morris envisions a world where anything is paws-ible – even cats and dogs getting along.
DOMESTIC PAW-LICY
Morris promises to keep the “CAT” in DOMESTI-CAT-ED. How will he do it? By taking cat naps 24/7.
DECLAW RIDICULOUS CAT LAWS
Morris will declaw every law that stops cats from living their best nine lives. “No yowling after 9pm?” You gotta be kitten me.
THE RIGHT CATITUDE
Morris believes in fostering a world of purrrr-fect harmony for all pets.

“Since becoming the 9Lives spokescat in 1968, my true purrrrr-pose in life has been to promote cat adoption and make it easier for humans to give cats a comfortable life with plenty of tasty, nutritious food,” said Morris the Cat. “I was a shelter cat myself before my rise to stardom. As President, I won’t quit until every cat out there is living The Good Life!”

For more information about Morris the Cat and 9Lives, head to www.9Lives.com. (snip)