This paleontologist's lengthy journey through the world of academia left him feeling dejected and craving for change.
About185million years
ago, a plesiosaur met its fate along what is now the Jurassic Coast of
England. Over time, the Earth swallowed the creature’s remains and kept
them hidden for millennia — until Fossil Daddy, a “queer paleontological
father figure on the internet,” found one of its “freaking awesome” bones in 2019.
When
I admit I’m not familiar with the extinct species, Daddy — who prefers
to use his pseudonym for privacy concerns related to his family — tells
me they’re long-necked marine reptiles commonly mistaken for aquatic
dinosaurs. The Loch Ness monster is typically depicted as a plesiosaur,
he adds.
Educational moments play out like this allthetime on
Fossil Daddy’s social media posts, but with one major difference:
They’re usually accompanied by his sculpted arms and hairy, tattooed
chest. (During our video call, he’s covered up with a cozy-looking
fleece sweater.) He’s amassed more than 170,000 followers across four platforms,
so his teaching style seems to be working. “I get this comment pretty
frequently, not verbatim,” Daddy says. “‘The thirst traps brought me in,
but the education kept me here.’”
His fossil digs — both literal excavations but also clever clapbacks to
those who don’t believe in evolution — make up a big part of that
education. As a paleontologist, Daddy often spends days at a time
uncovering ancient fossils that tell the story of how non-human life
evolved on Earth. After the trips, and sometimes during, he posts about
his findings. “When you split a rock down the middle and you find a
fossil, you are the first pair of eyes to ever see this animal — or
plant, or whatever it may be — in hundreds of millions of years,” Daddy
says. “And that never ceases to blow my mind.”
Wednesday, March 8, 2023. Joe Biden needs to do his job and stop
delegating the presidential role to others, Marianne Williamson needs to
get her act and her campaign together or stop wasting everyone's time,
does Marjorie Taylor Green really want to live by her interpretation of
the Bible, and much more.
As we noted in yesterday's snapshot, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III made an unannounced trip to Baghdad.
All this time later, US officials have to sneak into Iraq. REUTERS notes:
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, making an unannounced trip to Iraq
on Tuesday nearly 20 years after the US-led invasion that toppled
Saddam Hussein, said Washington was committed to keeping its military
presence in the country.
The 2003 invasion led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi
civilians and created instability that eventually paved the way for the
rise of Islamic State militants after the US withdrew its forces in
2011.
I'm sorry, Lloyd ran for what office? The American people voted him to be what?
Nothing.
He's nothing.
Why the hell is he making the announcement?
He's
an appointee, he's not been elected anything by the American people,
let alone President of the United States. That's who an announcement
like that needs to come from.
An announcement
that US troops are still going to be in Iraq needs to come from the US
President, not some flunky that no one ever voted for. The secretary?
If DISNEY has a big announcement to make, it's coming from Bob Iger, not Susana Barraza.
The
news itself is disgusting, the manner of delivery was shameful. If Joe
doesn't want to get honest with the people himself, I think he's just
made clear he shouldn't be running for re-election.
Sadly, there doesn't seem to be much choice on the Democratic side.
What's that? Oh, well she's going to need a thicker skin. Marianne Williamson ran for the 2020 Democratic Party
presidential nomination. She did make some strong comments in one
debate. The business woman with no political experience has now announced she is running for the 2024 Democratic
Party presidential nomination. This makes her the first -- and only --
candidate to announce that they're running. Her name came up in
Monday's White House press briefing. She is not amused.
She had a lot of words in the news cycle yesterday.
I supposed we could spend time stringing them together into a coherent statement but I don't work for her.
You're
begging for jokes, Marianne, and I'm trying to be nice to you. You
make a statement several sentences long? Then you issue it as a press
release. It's not anyone's job to do the transcription that you and
your campaign are too lazy to do. Do you have campaign workers or are you just farming it out to your assistant?
Let's go to an actual transcript, this is from Monday's White House press briefing:
Q
All right. And one other topic. Former President Trump said over the
weekend in his CPAC comments mul- — multiple things. One thing he said
to his supporters was, “I am your justice. And for those who have been
wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” Does the White House have
a response to that?
MS.
JEAN-PIERRE: As you know, because of — he is a 2024 candidate and we
are covered here by the Hatch Act, I’m just not going to comment on
those — on the words that he — the speech that he made — the speech this
weekend.
Due to The Hatch Act, she's not commenting. Wise move. Much later in the briefing, this exchange took place:
Q Okay. And then, just real quick —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah.
Q
— I know you’re probably going to say Hatch Act is restricting you in
this, but is the President annoyed, frustrated with Marianne Williamson
for jumping in the race ahead of him? Did he want to clear field to run
against the Republican nominee in 2024?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Just not tracking that. I mean, if I had a — what is it called? — a little — a little globe here —
Q Crystal ball.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: — a crystal ball that I can tell you. But I — I —
Q A Magic 8 Ball.
MS.
JEAN-PIERRE: A Magic 8 Ball, whatever. (Laughter.) If I could feel
her aura. I just — (laughter) — I just don’t have anything. I just
don’t have anything to share on that.
(Laughs.) Gosh, you guys are making me laugh now. (Laughter.)
Is it respectful?
No,
it's not. Guess what, SNL mocked you repeatedly in 2020. No one has
to take you seriously. No one owes that to you. The spokesperson and
the press were being silly.
It
really wasn't the end of the world. And you should be glad they were
talking about things that don't have anything to do with you (you've
never spoken or written of crystal balls) and not about your 'medical'
belief on AIDS, for example. I think, honestly, that will kill your campaign if the
press decides to go there. It's all in the head, right, Marianne? Just
need that positive thinking -- COURSE OF MIRACLES and all that. You're
one of Oprah's spiritual advisors -- so was Jeremiah Wright. Don't
think either of you have earned all that much respect in the eyes of many Americans.
You want respect? Get your act together and issue an actual statement and not a Tweet. Issue it and post at your campaign website.
Marianne Williamson 2024 | Official Presidential Campaign Website
Create a new beginning. Support profound, positive, peaceful change in America for generations to come. Marianne...
If you don't take yourself seriously, don't whine that others refuse to.
Again, I
could assemble a statement based upon media reports. But that's not my
job. And let me make clear for this presidential cycle: I don't care.
"I'm
ignored." "I'm shunted to the side." "I'm . . ." Just shut up. Every
presidential election cycle I have wasted my time treating everyone
equal. Even handsy John Edwards got treated equal until he dropped out
and then I noted it wasn't a surprise that he'd cheat on Elizabeth. While he
was in the race, I hinted but never wrote about the pass that he seemed
to think I would enjoy and that he seemed to think was how you 'reward'
a donor. I was not impressed and, in real life, I wasn't silent. Told
Elizabeth she needed to lock him in the backyard and put him on a
leash.
I'm done with
pathetic candidates who say they want to be president but go a whole
week or two without a single press release, video or even Tweet. I'm
sick of having to dig around to include your campaign when we note other
presidential campaigns -- usually daily in the snapshots.
I'm done. And I'm also done covering everything equally.
We're
in the midst of a war on LGBTQ+ people. Saturday, I believe it was
Saturday, some vets for Trump sent a press release. In the past, I
would've posted it. I would've seen it as information people needed to
be aware of. I'm not there now. Donald attacked the LGBTQ+ community.
Done with it.
Don't
care about your Libertarian campaigns. Done with those. (The only
exception being Adam Kokesh. He did so much with regards to Iraq that I
will always note him.)
Don't care about any Jill Stein campaign. What a loser.
We
were supposed to, for example, infer that presidential candidate was against wars -- infer
since neither she nor her campaign -- in 2012 or 2016 -- could note the
ongoing wars.
I'm not interested in your fake assery. If I do start to cover a 2024 campaign and they start fake assing, I'm done.
Not
going to cover any WSWS candidate because they don't run serious
campaigns. If you're not talking about real issues and trying to get
them into the campaign conversation by using your own media platform,
I'm not wasting time doing it for you.
I've had with these lazy candidates that I'm expected to coddle and baby just because I believe in fairness.
Done.
It's over.
Run
a real campaign if you want to be covered. Jill Steins, Dario Hunters,
et al, you can continue to waste your own time but I'll be damned if I'm
going to let you ever again waste mine. You whine very good after the
fact, you just don't know how to run.
If Howie Hawkins runs, we'll note it.
He ran a real campaign in 2020. And find one Green Party candidate that has ever done what he did after the election.
Disappear?
No, that's what all the others did.
Howie
has spent every week raising real issues on YOUTUBE. He continued his
campaign channel and has not tried to play like he's the little brother
of the Democratic Party. He's addressed real issues and he's done that
at least once a week -- sometimes more than that. If the Green Party
ever expects to get anywhere in the United States, it needs to have that
kind of drive.
Marianne's
starting out a joke. It doesn't help that Krystal Ball felt the need to
spit on everyone while screaming, "GROW UP!" You first, Krystal, you
first. People like her never grasp how their drama and flame wars
impact their candidate and impact how people see the candidate.
"Is it about any woman who speaks out of turn."
Marianne's quoted saying that and insisting that she's running as a woman.
Huh?
Were you previously non-binary? How else would you, a cis gender woman, run for office if not as a woman?
I can't wrap my functional brain around your vast stupidity.
It
appears she just kept throwing around the term "woman" because she
wanted to draw attention to the fact that while others would take on a
political rival for office, she's going to be petty and go after an
underling. If that's not the case, that's why you
issue a full statement in text form, so that if you're words are
misconstrued -- intentionally or accidentally, your supporters can find
out exactly what you were saying.
You
clearly jumped the gun announcing a campaign that is non-functional at
present. Stop embarrassing yourself on the national stage -- meaning:
Get your act together or drop out of the race.
I
thought you were embarrassing, Marianne. I've just been told, as I dictate this, that on
your campaign site on "Issues," you don't even have war listed. Or
peace. Because you're a [insert curse word of choice here] idiot.
I
have no interest in your race at all. The US has been starting wars
for decades now and not finishing them. If you can't address that,
you're not fit to run as the 'alternative' to Joe Biden -- Joe who at
least ended the Afghanistan War.
If you need another perspective on Marianne, you can refer to THE VANGUARD clip below.
Gavin
and Zac are trying to make her happen. I'm not. If she wants to get
her act together and actually run a real campaign, she might be of
value. I'm not aware of how her whining "I am woman" in that inept
manner is helping anyone. Is she calling out the collapse of
reproductive rights? No. Is she offering a way out of these forever
wars? No. She's wasting her time.
Let's note her Tweet.
First
off, I'm not sure that selective editing of the spokesperson words
qualifies as 'respectful.' But let's note her defender. She might seem
like kind of a joke but so did --
Who do you
think your audience is? I didn't vote for Reagan and I didn't vote for
Donald. Nor would I ever. So telling me "seriously" that she could be
another Donald or Ronnie isn't winning me to your side, they weren't
qualified.
Second, Ronald Reagan wasn't "a
retired cowboy movie star." As an actor, you're your most famous role.
That's not a cowboy. On film, it's BEDTIME FOR BONZO or THE HASTY
HEART -- and those aren't cowboys. Maybe HELLCATS OF THE NAVY.
Certainly, the most watched film he made was his small role in Bette
Davis' DARK VICTORY.
Third, when he ran for
the presidency, he was a former two term governor of the state of
California. Though not a film role, that's kind of a big credit to have
on your resume.
Marianne's followers are coming off as stupid as she is.
And where there is stupidity, there is MTG.
Yesterday, Majorie Taylor Greene took her sad, unhappy
and pathetic life (that divorce really isn't helping) to the floor of
the House of Representatives to rage against drag queens because they
are, after all, much, much prettier than her. Sweat dripping from the
oversized pores of her pock marked face, Marjorie yelled that God didn't
make mistakes. Prior the emergence of Marjorie Taylor Greene on the
public stage, I would've agreed with that statement. Now? I mean, look
at her. Poor thing. If God doesn't make mistakes, Marjorie, what was
your marriage? And if you're so enthralled with the words of the Bible,
why are you divorcing? Doesn't that make you an adulteress, Marjorie?
That is what Matthew 5: 31 through 32 says. And, Marjorie, isn't the
Bible very clear on what happens to adulteresses? Stoning, I believe.
Am I wrong, Marjorie?
You
want to bring your interpretation of religion into America's House of
Representatives? Fine. Let me know when to show up with rocks and pass
them out to your peers so they can stone you. It's what God wants -
right, Marjorie?
I expect
Marjorie to be a good little Christian soldier and stand there patiently
while Lauren Boebert and Marjorie's other fellow Christian illiterates
take the time to stone her.
The Bible is not a buffet, Marjorie. If you're going to be a strict interpreter of it then live by the page, die by the page.
Of course, she won't.
She's
a hypocrite who wants mercy for herself but the harshest punishment for
anyone else. I need to know who the fools are that keep voting this
monster into Congress. She's not representing you and she's not working
for you. If you honestly embrace the hate she's preaching, you better
grasp that the country long ago passed you by.
