CRANKY OLD FART
WITH THE NEWS #337
Thursday, July 6, 2023
• Judge won't recuse herself from clergy abuse case, despite donations to the church
• GQ rolled over and showed its belly to David Zaslav
• Greta Thunberg charged with disobeying Swedish police during oil protest
Gotta like that kid.
• Climate change may cause birds to raise fewer young, finds study
• Climate change is turning Hawaii into a giant cesspool — literally
• Black LAPD officer says he was racially profiled by his own department
• Viral video from Wilmington convenience store leads to conviction of former city officer
• Video of deputy slamming woman to ground in Lancaster released by L.A. County Sheriff’s Department
• Republican Senator uses phony Patrick Henry quote to support religious claim
• Trump posted what he said was Obama's address; an armed man was soon arrested there
My browser history
without the porn
• When it comes to misinformation, partisanship overpowers fact-checking, over and over again
• E coli lawyer remembers:
Lessons learned the hard way at Jack-In-the-Box
• Supreme Court's student loan decision has no basis in law, and is kinda sorta illegal itself
• The dark legacy of Dodger Stadium
• How Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" crushed on Joni Mitchell
Mystery links
There's no knowing where you're going
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♫♬ It don't mean a thing ♫
if it don't have that swing
• Bastian's Flight — Klaus Doldinger
• The Big Rock Candy Mountain — Burl Ives
• Mission Impossible (incidental music) — Lalo Shifrin
• The Sins of Memphisto — John Prine
Eventually, everyone
leaves the building
7/6/2023
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.
You must be familiar with the original lyrics of "Big Rock Candy Mountain," yes?
ReplyDeleteThe punk rolled up his big blue eyes
And said to the jocker, "Sandy,
I've hiked and hiked and wandered too,
But I ain't seen any candy.
I've hiked and hiked till my feet are sore
And I'll be damned if I hike any more
To be buggered sore like a hobo's whore
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
Well, that's delightful. Bony Tenet could make it a hit.
DeleteI did know that the song got tidied up a lot before Burl Ives sang it, but my preferred raunchy version doesn't have the hobo's whore.
I have been skeptical of man-made climate change and I am still skeptical, but I can see and feel that something is going on, you don't break all-time records two days in a row. If I was convinced it was a problem to be addressed politicallty tell me, what would you recommend doing?
DeleteWe are living through man-man climate change that'll kill millions and millions of people, and it really doesn't matter whether you're skeptical.
DeleteAlso, it doesn't matter that I'm not.
None of it matters, because what's coming is what's coming. Only way to stop it would be to very harshly rein in giant corporations, cut way back on war, and do all sorts of other things that would drag down the bottom line for GM and Chevron.
There's no chance any of that will happen, so there's no solution.
Seriously, we are seeing the consequences of absolutely unchecked capitalism. I have no problem, in theory, with making money. Like, yeah, sell your widgets across the globe, make a fortune. But pay your share, check your environmental impact, treat your workers well. When the only thing that matters is tomorrow's bottom line and stock price, we land here.
DeleteWell said, Anony.
DeleteThe pinkos and commies think it's treason when I say it, but I think capitalism is the system that works best. It's what I'd favor if my opinion mattered, what I'd order if it did, but capitalism has to be regulated.
If it's not regulated, and regulated for reals, it's hell on earth and it makes earth hell and it makes monsters like Bezos and Schmuckerberg and it's the worst of all possible worsts.
Gimme small-town capitalism, with big city conveniences.
DeleteGoogle logs me out of this blog, my blog, twice daily.
Doug, 6070 (I didn't catch his last name) asked what he could do. Here's what you can do . . . disconnect power and/or gas service to your house for three days. Take all the batteries out of your battery-powered devices. Take the coil out of your car (easier than emptying the gas tank). There's no electricity, but take away the kids' computers and televisions anyway. Don't walk to the store: it won't be open. Now, try to grow enough food to feed your family in, say, the next week or so. Thus concludes the test.
ReplyDeleteA decade ago, we thought this would be a 2070 scenario. It's now looking more like a 2030 to 2040 situation, maybe starting sooner than that. Stockpile canned and long-term-packaged goods and as much potable water as you can. That way your family can live a year instead of a month.
Lights will blink off, one after the other until Earth is just another dark planet with a fucked up sewer system. There are some pessimists who say it will be worse than I've described. I remain an optimist. Something like a million homo sapiens sapiens will remain alive through a combination of agriculture and hunting and gathering. Nobody knows for how long.
John
Whay tou guys are saying is really pessimistic and sad and I am afraid that it's true. I try not to think about it but when I do I don't even know what to say. It's not innocense, like they don't know what they're doing. They know completely, but they would rather have lives of complete comfort and unimagined luxury than give up 10% of that so there could still be a world.
DeleteYou surprise me, John the Basket. Maybe more pessimistic than me, and I'm entirely pessimistic.
DeleteThe thing about the power going out is, we always expect it to come back on, because it always has. When it goes black, you know the 'lectric company will have juice flowing again in a few hours, maybe tomorrow at worst.
That ain't gonna happen, though. When the lights *really* wink out, it's not gonna be a wink, it'll be lights out forever.
Same with food and water shortages. When it happens, we think it'll be temporary, because the authorities will get stuff trucked and trained where it needs to be trucked and trained. That'll be lots less likely when there are lots less trucks, trains, and authorities.
I've been thinking for years that the only bright spot in all the looming catastrophes is that I'll be dead before climate change becomes truly awful.
As you say, though, 2070 is coming a lot faster than the speed of time, and so far my health is holding out. 2040 seems optimist, and 2030 is close enough to see.
Starting to feel like I might still be around as things get noticeably worse. Which could be as soon as this summer.
The rich bastards who own and control everything will feel no pain until they're cornered by an angry mob wielding pitchforks. Soon, I hope, but it'll be a slight vengeance when it comes. It's already too late to save the civilization and culture we grew up in — life as we know it.
DeleteYou've all decided that the world is finished and our grandchildren will have horrible lives. Pessimistic, pessimistic.
DeleteClimate is a big problem, yes, but humans are great at solving problems. Let's all meet here again in fifty years and see who's right.
Glug, glug.
Delete"Climate is a big problem, yes, but humans are great at solving problems"
DeleteBut terrible at preventing them, which would be an indicator of greater intelligence.
As Stanley Kubrick said:
"I've never been certain whether the moral of the Icarus story should only be, as is generally accepted, 'don't try to fly too high,' or whether it might also be thought of as 'forget the wax and feathers, and do a better job on the wings.'"
https://youtu.be/izFBLqfg3hg
>Let's all meet here again in fifty years and see who's right.
DeleteOkay. Let's go back fifty years to 1973, when we were just starting to talk about these issues. And say "Come back in 50 years and see who's right."
You remark, 6070, that "humans are great at solving problems," reminds me of my favorite problem-solver, Tom Midgley. I wrote about him once, so my reply is to re-post that article this morning.
DeleteClaude — I liked the story of Spielberg in the car, too.
DeleteHey, I (finally) finished that Kubrick bio you recommended, by Michael Herr. Jolly good. And short.
More fluids, John. They say more fluids is good for us... glug, glug.
DeleteAnony — Dang tootin'. And the fifty years between now and 2073 will be lots more catastrophic than the fifty years between 1973 and 2023.
Delete