CRANKY OLD FART
WITH THE NEWS #338

• Musk signs onto letter pledging Tesla’s commitment to China’s “core socialist values” to continue operations in the country
• Robotaxi haters in San Francisco are disabling the driverless vehicles with traffic cones
Excellent. This is tech that’s nowhere near road-ready.
• Film companies demand names of Reddit users who discussed piracy in 2011
Yet another reason to feel no guilt over pirating your motion picture entertainment. • The US is destroying the world’s last (known) chemical weapons stockpile 

• Official has cartoon murals painted over at children’s asylum center — “too welcoming”
The UK apparently hates its immigrants almost as much as America hates ours.• “Unfriendly political environment”: Broward convention cancellations blame Florida as reason for exodus
• Volunteers running Reddit’s BotDefense anti-spam system walk away
My guesstimate is that Reddit — with BotDefense up and running — was at least 20% bots posting articles, and then bots having conversations about those bot-posted articles. Without BotDefense? Yikes.• Here’s BotDefense laying down its defenses • Much controversy over plans for historically-themed International House of Pancakes in historic Fishkill, NY • Tracy Chapman becomes the first black woman to write a #1 country/western single 

• Earth’s average temperature hits all-time high for third consecutive day • Scientists raise alarm over risk of simultaneous global food supply shocks due to climate change
Even regional crop failures would be a crisis, if there are no distant crops to try rushing to the rescue.• 63 cruise ships owned by Carnival Corporation released more toxic sulfur gasses than all the cars in Europe, study says • Climate change is helping this new deadly virus to spread across Europe • Climate change affects different species differently, which could cause havoc if one species does well, but its prey foes extinct 

• New accounts of abuse at federal prison prompt renewed calls for investigation
…which will lead to nobody getting fired or prosecuted, and no meaningful changes.
• Veterinarian sues after Sheriff’s Department covers up police dog’s death in hot patrol cruiser
It’s not even the doggy death that pisses me off, as much as the cover-up. Guess some of us didn’t learn anything from Watergate.• ‘Procedural violations’ found after another Rikers inmate dies
It is obnoxious how many inmates die at the Rikers city jail in New York, and also obnoxious how much nobody seems to give a damn.
• NYPD car chases up massively under Mayor Adams — with sometimes fatal results 

• Seven Republican attorneys general threaten Target over Pride display • Republican Congressman says Barbie movie shows communist China’s influence on Hollywood • Convicted, imprisoned, and pardoned by Trump, Republican ex-Congressman mulls return to Congress • “Don’t Say Gay” Republican lawmaker accused of sexual harassment by two male staffers • My second encounter with the joyful warriors of Moms for Liberty • Republican Senator’s public records law violations just cost his constituents $242,000 

🖯  MY BROWSER HISTORY  🖯• Oil and gas executives want us to accept climate change so they can keep profiteering • A forgotten minor scandal at The New Yorker, remembered 26 years later • And here’s the article they’re talking about
People like that are the only people here • How will today’s science be viewed in a hundred years? • Dobie steam-powered cars • So, are steam-driven cars impractical? 

♫♬  AUDIO  ♫• Bad Moon Rising — Creedence Clearwater Revival • Eminence Front — The Who • Let’s Make the Water Turn Black — Frank Zappa • One Size Fits All — Frank Zappa • The World Isn’t Fair — Randy Newman 

👁  VIDEO  👁• We found and saved 10 years of lost video game history • Matteo Lane: Hair Plugs & Heartache • Kinky Friedman talks about Nelson Mandela 

❔  MYSTERY LINKS  ❔• Click                    
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⚰️  THE DEAD  ⚰️ • Peter Brötzmann

7/8/2023   Cranky Old Fart is annoyed and complains and very occasionally
offers a kindness, along with anything off the internet that’s made me
smile or snarl. All opinions fresh from my ass. Top illustration by Jeff Meyer. Click any image to enlarge. Comments & conversations invited. Tip ‘o the hat to ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf’s, CaptCreate’s Log, Looking for My Perfect Sandwich, One Finger Medical, Two Finger Magical, Miss Miriam’s Mirror, Nebulously Burnished, RanPrieur.com, Voenix Rising, and anywhere else I’ve stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Wynn Bruce,
Joey Jo Jo, John the Basket, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra
special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and
proved that the world isn’t always shitty.