CRANKY OLD FART
WITH THE NEWS
#340 [archive]
• Bank of America to pay $250M in refunds, fines over customer abuses
Google tells me BofA’s net worth is around $228-billion, so these fines and refunds add up to about 1/10th of 1% of the company’s value.
What does the bank get for that money? No charges against anyone involved in at least tens of thousands of felonies, which by the way seem quite similar to many thousands of earlier felonies nobody at the bank was charged with, in 2014 and 2022.
If I committed tens of thousands of felonies, repeatedly, could I get BofA’s deal? I’m worth about $5,000, including my life savings and everything I own, so I’d have to pay a $5 fine.• Judge won’t block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard
It’s the completely expected triumph of the big guy, again.
• Tumblr says it’s going to ‘fix’ its ‘core experience’ to appeal to new users
At
first click, I expected to rewrite the headline as, “Tumblr
announces plan to follow Twitter and Reddit toward self-destruction,”
but guess what? Tumbler’s strategy makes sense.
They’re redesigning the user interface, to make the site easier to use, which
sounds smart. There are half a dozen Tumblr pages I visit
regularly and like, but I’ve never even been
able to figure out how to post a comment on Tumblr.• Google is testing its medical AI chatbot at the Mayo Clinic
Once
the tests are done and the AI is installed and in use everywhere, will
seeing a “chatbot doctor” be more affordable for ordinary folks than
seeing a real doctor?
Damned doubtful, I think. AI will be a big savings for health insurance companies, but cost the same $35 co-pay for patients. • Amazon claims it isn’t a “very large online platform” to evade EU rules • Vice ran out of money (for everyone except its executives) • HCA Healthcare data breach exposes information of 11 million patients • Twitter beats out Threads for coveted Taliban endorsement • Colorado commies protest Christian anti-gay coffee house
• Deadly flooding hits several countries; scientists say this will be increasingly common • Climate change bringing more than heat — malaria and dengue on the rise • Underground climate change could crack foundations and warp subway tracks • The climate is changing in a hurry • Climate change is increasing the number of “1,000-year” storms, like the one that just hit New York and Vermont
• Connecticut
troopers wrote thousands of fake traffic tickets to fake white people,
to reduce its preponderance of tickets issued to actual black people • Rapist deputy gets 90 days, plus probation • Police chief is suspended with pay during investigation nobody will talk about
• New Jersey cop convicted of manslaughter in deadly car chase shooting • Police in Ontario fight to keep their names secret after killing (another) man in mental health crisis • LAPD officers fatally shoot woman armed with a dumbbell bar
• Two Placer County sheriff deputies arrested for sexual crimes within 48-hour window • Cop who turned off bodycam before slamming man’s head into glass wall is convicted after store security footage is revealed • Police chief who became a serial arsonist is sentenced to life terms, plus 75 years • Houston police sued for allegedly hogtying, racially profiling Latino man • Sheriff had years of complaints about corruption and dysfunction… from his deputies
• Abortion activists are dealing with violent, gendered threats, most of which come from men • Missing
guy who made unsubstantiated claims that Joe & Hunter Biden are
crooks is charged with acting as an unregistered agent for the Chinese
government, trafficking weapons, lying to federal agents • Trump says Biden is a cokehead • UFOs can “fly underwater and defy physics,” claims Republican Congressman alleging cover-up
• While supporting racism, Senator Tommy Tuberville claims to oppose it • Arizona Republicans invite wingnut anti-Semite to address college students • Trump blasts Nevada – a 2024 swing state – as “disgraceful” after reporter embarrasses him
🖯 MY BROWSER HISTORY 🖯• Why was Benjamin Franklin’s basement filled with skeletons? • McDonald’s supersized failures, from McTrains to McPlanes & beyond • Ranking supermarket chains
♫♬ AUDIO ♫• Bloody Well Right — Supertramp • Fly Too High — Janis Ian • Leaving on a Jet Plane — Peter Paul & Mary • My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama — Frank Zappa • Think — Aretha Franklin
👁 VIDEO 👁• Wes Anderson visits a video store • This guy wants to be a bus driver • Sand bubbler crabs make tiny sand balls
❔ MYSTERY LINKS ❔• Click
• Click
• Click • Click • Click
⚰️ THE DEAD ⚰️ • Mike Batayeh • Manny Coto • Andrea Evans • Minnie Bruce Pratt
7/11/2023
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, Spock Variety Hour, 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.
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