Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

How stupid are these people?

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

The lights are all blinking red.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night After Dark Open Thread: Revenge of the Moon Tardigrades

Late Night After Dark Open Thread: Revenge of the Moon Tardigrades

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As some reporters pointed out when that Guardian article appeared, the Moon had already been biologically compromised when the Apollo XI astronauts left behind bags of their… wastes. (Some exobiologist spoilsports claim there were probably tardigrades on the Moon already.) No doubt the would-be schlockmeisters are hard at work scripting already!

Here’s a potential opening scene…


.

Big Horror climax:

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    Jay

    Tardigrades, or water bears, don’t deserve to be photoshopped into Wussolinni, and if you are going to do it, you need to make the gripping and sensing paws much, much smaller.

  2. 2.

    Jay

    My must read for the day:

    People are starting to get really mad at the media for being unable or unwilling to just fucking describe the world as it is like this whole thing where the New York Times looked at what the president said after the two shootings and decided to go with the headline Trump Urges Unity Vs. Racism which is a lie as he did no such thing. After everyone got mad they then changed it to Assailing Hate But Not Guns which doesn’t even mean anything it means less than nothing.

    I just saw a tweet where the person was like “Why do journalists write like they are fumbling around with bags over their heads?” and that is such a perfectly evocative description of the type of clumsy grasping journalistic objectivity we see every day. Every prevaricating prestige journalist is a guy trying to stuff his carry-on into the overhead compartment and the thing won’t fucking fit but he keeps pushing and pushing.

    Go read the whole thing,……

    luke.substack.com/p/yes-i-said-but-always-as-a-tree-way

  4. 4.

    JGabriel

    Wow, the resemblance between a (large) human-sized tardigrade and Donald Trump is: uncanny.

    Jeepers.

  6. 6.

    Jay

    One of my favorite interviews with Toni Morrison. The interviewer asked her when she was going to “substantially” write about white people. Her response? “You can’t understand how powerfully racist that question is, can you?” pic.twitter.com/WFhNMgx7xv— Paul McCallion (@OrangePaulp) August 6, 2019

  7. 7.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    I just watched Section 60, a documentary about the section of Arlington Cemetery where the Iraq and Afghanistan casualties are buried.

    A full of hour of people from all walks of life weeping for their dead loved ones. And George fucking Bush sleeps like a baby.

    I just can’t get my mind around it. Ivanka Trump isn’t the first feckless republican in the White House, not by a long shot.

  8. 8.

    jl

    Listening to a news report about the ICE raids. Trump and some of his flunkies should be shipped off to the Hague, the same day he leaves office, for trial for human rights violations, IMHO. Kids go home after school and both parents gone. Trumpsters blame the people they detained.

    Or, maybe there is a way to get him extradited now while president? IANAL. Any commenters have ideas, let me know.

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    WaPo: ICE didn’t tell anyone about the Mississippi raids because they were afraid Twitler would open his big mouth. They didn’t arrange for social workers to take charge of the children left alone. They did call the schools after the raids had started.

    He added that agents gave those who were arrested access to phones so they could make arrangements for their children.

    About half of those arrested were released by Thursday, officials said, acknowledging that they were not a threat to the public. Many were parents who officials said were released to care for young children — some were driven back to their workplaces and issued a summons to appear before an immigration judge at a later date.

    “This is the only operation I am aware where . . . those released are actually taken back to their original point of detention so they are not stuck 60, 70 miles away,” said D. Michael Hurst Jr., U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi.

    Despite those steps, however, Miles said he could not guarantee that no child was left in a situation where there was no one to take care of them on Wednesday night.

    “To be able to tell you, absolutely, there is no single parent, with no one to take care of [a child], I don’t think I can say that,” Miles said.

    Residents of heavily Latino neighborhoods remained fearful Thursday, McGee said.

    About 15 percent of the district’s 4,300 students are Hispanic or Latino, and 154 of those students stayed home from school Thursday, he added. Teachers, counselors and administrators spent the afternoon making phone calls and going door-to-door to try to convince families that it is safe to go to school.

    Terrorism by government. It is unforgivable.

  10. 10.

    jl

    @Mary G: ” Miles said he could not guarantee that no child was left in a situation where there was no one to take care of them on Wednesday night. ”

    News report I saw showed cases where school was not notified and kids go home and nobody there. I assume even where there was no malice, incompetence took care of the rest. Inexcusable.

  13. 13.

    mrmoshpotato

    The Moon is made of cheese, but because of the tardigrades, it will mutate and eat us!

  14. 14.

    Jay

    These claims are naïve at best and dishonest at worst. On July 17, 2017, during a Charlottesville City Council meeting, I handed an extensive and detailed dossier to city authorities documenting the threats being made by those planning to attend Unite the Right. One militia man posted on Facebook, “I can assure you there will be beatings at the August event.” Of Black Lives Matter activists, he promised that his fellow militia members “will finish them all off.” On the neo-Nazi media portal Daily Stormer, user Exterminajudios (Exterminate Jews) posted, “Antifa and [N-words] will be out in force. We need some military guys there to crack skulls.”

    Emily of the State, first of her name, breaker of chains, on how the White Supremacists in Government, refuse to take White Supremacy as a threat to Democracy,

    slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/terry-mcauliffe-charlottesville-unite-right-racist-rally-anti-fa…

  15. 15.

    Jay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Tardigrages are extremophiles, have survived every earth extiction, may have been “seeded” on earth by comets, are colonists,

    And the ARC sent them up there with a mass of human dna, and a shitload of human technical, scientific and literature.

  18. 18.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay:

    may have been “seeded” on earth by comets

    Say what? Tardigrade: Evolutionary history says nothing like that?

    There are multiple lines of evidence that tardigrades are secondarily miniaturized from a larger ancestor,[78] probably a lobopodian and perhaps resembling Aysheaia, which many analyses place close to the divergence of the tardigrade lineage.[79][80]

    An alternative hypotheses derives tactopoda from a grade encompassing dinocaridids and Opabinia.[81]

  20. 20.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    @Steve in the ATL:

    So sorry to see this so late; I fell down an Iraq war rabbit hole:(

    Definitely email me at my screen name at gmail; am so exited to get some inside info. Thanks so much!

  21. 21.

    ola azul

    @Jay:

    Well, maybe. Long’s the scriptdoctors don’t turnem into fucking carebear ewoks.

    How you been, btw? Churning out some timely n inneresting newsbits.

  24. 24.

    Jay

    -Rich folks hire undocumented workers on the cheap-Rich folks fund the election of other rich folks-Rich folks fund fake populism to make low paid people hate the workers hired on the cheap-Rich folks "enforce the law" but they only hurt the people who were hired on the cheap— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) August 9, 2019

  25. 25.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay: Uh, it’s a stretch to claim that that article adduces any evidence that tardigrades came from outer space. But also, if they did, there’d be DNA evidence of enormous differences compared to Earth-evolved life. And AFAICT, there isn’t that.

  29. 29.

    ola azul

    @jl:

    ” Miles said he could not guarantee that no child was left in a situation where there was no one to take care of them on Wednesday night. ”

    When I first started to read that, I were thinking, “what in the ever-lovin’-fuck does Miles Davis have to do with …”

    Momentary blip, figgered the raid-guy must be named Miles.

    But it put me to mind of a lil vignette heard on Terry Gross’ joint yesterday (if mem’ry serves). Photog was bein interviewed, n he was recounting how being unobtrusive and not crushing the vibe was part of the secret to his success. Then he tells a story ’bout how he was taking snaps of Miles playing at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen (been there! woo-hoo!), and he was packing a Leica. Apparently SLR Leica’s is smaller-bodied and makes a much more demur *click* vs. a Canon or a Nikon that makes a louder *clack*. So he’s shutterbugging away, and apparently (after having lied — and adorably apologized on-air to his mother — to get his way into the venue: “Uh, I’ma photog for Jet mag” sez he) there was a Danish photog packing a Nikon who reckoned he’d start clacking away during an intimate solo.

    Miles disconnected his blower n emptied the spit-valve onto the Danish noisemaker, and then turns n sez to the Leica guy: “You can stay.”

  30. 30.

    Anne Laurie

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Uh, it’s a stretch to claim that that article adduces any evidence that tardigrades came from outer space. But also, if they did, there’d be DNA evidence of enormous differences compared to Earth-evolved life. And AFAICT, there isn’t that.

    As I read it, the other way around: There just *might* have been tardigrades on the moon already, survivors from catastrophic events bouncing Earth detritus at its satellite.

  31. 31.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Anne Laurie: This would, again, have left significant imprints on their DNA — both b/c of time passing, and b/c the Moon doesn’t have its own magnetosphere — and hence, should have been detectable.

    This is Velikovsky-level thinking. I mean …. c’mon, man. There’s no -evidence-.

  32. 32.

    ola azul

    ‘Nuther lil vignette:

    Went to co-op where I’ma member to getta shower. Sliced my hand with a grinder today (good news: cauterized!; bad news, splits n bleeds ever-fucking-time I bends my knuckle; it’s hell to be clumsy).

    Emerging fresh as a daisy, I goes to the common area where there’s 3 couches n a telebitchin set. Fox-motherfucking-news is on, with three bedraggled commercial fisherfolk sittin’ there awaiting hotful deliverance of they laundry. Apparently (I thinks) this Miles guys is bein’ interviewed by one a the two boobs onna couch (Kilmeade?), and he’s fellating Trump ’bout how he’s sucha lawn-order champeen.

    So I turns to the boys n asks: “Anyone gotta problem is I change the channel?” Nobody did. So I puts it on MSNBC, and immediate-like, the boys in chorus sez: “Oh, man, thanks.”

    They all hated Fox News but, not knowing e/o, they’s all apparently too timid to sez so.

  33. 33.

    Duane

    @MomSense: I’m with you. Governmental terrorism. It’s a crime against humanity and a disgrace to our nation.
    This government is an enemy of the people.

  35. 35.

    ola azul

    @SectionH:

    Hear you.

    We live inna benighted “first they came for …” epoch. It’d be really fucking helpful if the juvenile theater-critic press would grok to that reality.

    Decent fucking human beings could really use, if not an institutional ally in the press, at least not an evil-abetting enemy.

  36. 36.

    TS (the original)

    @Jay: The interviewer is Australian – Jana Wendt – the US doesn’t hold all the cards in relation to white privilege and racism. Many Australians had issue with Wendt’s journalism “style”.

  37. 37.

    SectionH

    @ola azul: Good for you.

    We always try to get TVs set to Fox changed if we’re stuck somewhere with a damn TV on. We usually suggest the Weather Channel to whoever has control – hey, most often it’s a hotel lounge, where odds are most people are gonna be miles and miles away by evening, and the weather elsewhere might be relevant, or they might wonder what the weather is at home… failing that, some sports channel. Much easier to get them to change the channel than turn the stupid thing off… but we always make our opinion of Fox clear first, so they’re almost always happy to “compromise.” Wimpy? Maybe, but it shuts Fox off for a while.

  38. 38.

    SectionH

    @ola azul: YES.

    Mr S read an interesting Emptywheel blog post earlier, and I’m hoping to see a bit more about the topic: who the owners, etc of the companies ICE raided in MS were (hint: it’s complicated, but maybe more Democrats/furriners on boards of companies, maybe Chinese owner of one? ) I’m not up for chasing stuff down tonight, but you might want to keep an eye on that slant. Cause if it’s true, it doesn’t bode well.

  39. 39.

    ola azul

    @SectionH:

    Wimpy? Maybe, but it shuts Fox off for a while.

    Never allow “discretion is the better part of valor” to be mistaken for wimpy. Seriously.

    Will say: Have had three guns drawn on me in my lifetime: one was a drug-buy, one was my old man (inna case a mistaken identity), and one was on the docks of Pelican onna lonesome dark night where I could easy have had my head blown off cuz I’ma idiot. Not bereft of situational awareness, exactly, more flying a lil too close to the sun. (Was holding that John McCain is a lotta things, but dropping napalm on Vietnamese villagers don’t make him a war hero.)

    It’sa beautiful world out there, but it’s also a dangerous one. Peeps is crazy. Shit escalates, specially stupid shit with stupid people. Woudn’t you feel silly to get shot over changing the television station?

    Sometimes I wish I could shut my fucking mouth, to be honest. (Sometimes I even can! Will say the McCain experience mos def made an impression!)

  41. 41.

    ola azul

    @Patricia Kayden:

    “Attacking” black Americans seems a little overwrought. Will say: Think he should go, cuz he’s a know-nothing entitled douchebro, but my sense (might be wrong!) is his privilege, and its concomitant narrow-mindedness, blinds him to his myopia.

    Expect Weisman is a lot like that interviewer cited above who asked Toni Morrison when she was gonna write “substantially” about white folk.

    Weisman don’t know what he don’t know, which is reason enough for him to go.

    imo

  44. 44.

    ola azul

    May I forward a maxim that just occurs?

    The empathy-challenged ever n allus don’t know what they don’t know.

    Por ejemplo: Jen Rubin. She elicits cheers from the commentariat but for-fuck’s-sakes, did it REALLY take “Jews will not replace us!” chants from a buncha peckerwoods to make an impression upon her? Apparently, yes.

    Best I can tell, this was her awakening. Which, OK, fine — you got there. Good for you.

    But it allus amazes me how lotsa folks (most esp. conservatives) don’t never have their hearts bestirred until they are directly affected in some way.

    This, to me, is an immense failure of emotive imagination.

    But what is ever *more* motherfucking exasperating, is when (usually conservative) some dolt *only* gets the one very specific way in which their life is affected. “Oh, my daughter’s a queer! Well, I’ pro-queer!” —-> and nuttin else.

    The examples of this are legion. (Dick “What’s-Wrong-With-Queers?” Cheney is an excellent example.)

    I oft wonder: Is it inability or is it unwilingness?

    (Guess it doesn’t really matter, but still can’t hep myself from wondering.)

  45. 45.

    low-tech cyclist

    Our response to tardigrades on the moon should involve 30-50 feral hogs. They’d stomp all those little critters within 3-5 minutes.

  47. 47.

    SectionH

    @ola azul: Thanks, sincerely. It’s ok, I know only too well how to keep my head down.

    @ola azul: Blech. Yes. An hour or so ago, I posted this comment on FYFb: “I think the mark of a Republican is to finally “get” something because it has affected them personally. And never ever until then. HIS daughter could have been in danger. His kid came out as gay. Their child has a handicap.”

    I had to point this out to actual Democrats. RL friends. Jeebus. They were all about some R Ohio guy who’s now gonna back some minimum gun control measure. Well whoop-dee-do. If something can be passed that makes a tiny dent in gun violence with their votes in there, great, but no one should ever imagine it isn’t still all about Them.

    “I oft wonder: Is it inability or is it unwillingness?”

    Given how fast some of them learn when it hits home… and how short their ability to apply the one lesson they learned anywhere else, I don’t much care.

  48. 48.

    SectionH

    @prostratedragon: the hospital? Sorry, no. Was there some TV changing going on? (Otherwise, I don’t know the reference, but I haven’t left San Diego since last November, so probably not).

    I am going to rsn sleep now, so catch you later.

  49. 49.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chetan Murthy: Sounds like one of the Wickramasinghe group’s claims. Every few years they make a splash with some goofy new paper about how some class of Earth lifeforms came from outer space. Wickramasinghe thinks cold viruses come from space.

  50. 50.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Anne Laurie:

    As I read it, the other way around: There just *might* have been tardigrades on the moon already, survivors from catastrophic events bouncing Earth detritus at its satellite.

    Yes, the moon itself formed from debris left over from a giant impactor (Mars sized) a few hundred million years after the initial formation of the Earth. After the Earth cooled down and the dust settled (so to speak), there have been “large” impactors, where “large” means a few to several km in size. While these impacts can have devastating consequences (ask the dinosaurs), it is not possible for the ejected debris to escape Earth owing to the strong gravity. On the other hand, a few rocks from the Moon have been found on Earth, but in this case the Moon’s gravity is much weaker than Earth’s. Hence the claim that there could be life forms on the Moon that arrived prior to the Apollo missions is in the category of “being wrong would be an improvement”.

  51. 51.

    StringOnAStick

    @SectionH: What I read is that the workers at these plants had sued over things that discrimination, being charged to go use the toilet, etc.; the usual shit boss stuff. They workers won, and now ICE raided them. Interesting coincidence.

  52. 52.

    StringOnAStick

    @ola azul: I have an older half sister who is hardcore S Baptist, “line the gays up and shoot them all” is a direct quote from her about 20 years ago, so you know: filled with the love of Jeebus. Guess who’s youngest son is now an out gay male? Poor kid was forced into 4 years at Bob Jones U, where my sister was always bragging how the girls were after him because he’s good looking with a great sense of humor. At my mother’s funeral last summer when the Episcopal pastor commented that she knew a lot of the audience was SB, he called out “recovering!”. The only reason we could score an Episcopal pastor (mom was unchurched and pastors are getting picky about doing funeral services in such situations) was the sister of this nice young man bailed on her SB background and went to her husband’s church, after also spending 4 years at Bob Jones U. I was amazed that she is still a loving mom to her gay son since I quite frankly didn’t think she was capable of accepting that. I don’t blame him for moving 5 hours away though.

    The truly sad fact is the only other child is the oldest son, who joined the Army 6 weeks before 9-11 to avoid being sent to Bob Jones; thanks to the things he was exposed to in that first wave into Iraq, he is currently in the terminal stages of brain cancer. I do remember being shocked when my sister said things like “who knows why we are in this war” about Iraq 10 years ago, but of course that was right after her son’s brain cancer was diagnosed. Up until that point she was 150% supportive of Dubya and all his Middle East misadventures. Right wingers can’t have any empathy for a non-typically conservative opinion or person until shit hits them directly; it’s a collective lack of empathy that requires some serious smack in the head to get their attention.

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