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| CRANKY OLD FART'S BROWSER HISTORY #380 [archive] NOV. 9, 2023 |
—Tom Morello's brilliant speech at Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame induction for Rage Against the Machine
Video link
Just Stop Oil protesters smash glass on painting at National Gallery
Working within the system doesn't work. Period. Billionaires own the world's governments, and won't allow any action that might slow the climate catastrophe. illegal stunts like this won't work, either, but it's more fun than writing another damned letter to my damned Congressman.
Or, we could keep 'working within the system', which works like this:
EU poised to water down new car pollution rules after industry lobbying
9/30/23: NLRB judge: Starbucks violated labor law in offering pay raises, benefits to nonunion workers
11/6/23: Starbucks increases US hourly wages and adds other benefits for non-union workers
So Starbucks announces (again) that it's evil. It's barely been a month since the NLRB said it's illegal to do what Starbucks is now doing again.
SAG-AFTRA won’t budge as studios push to own actors’ likenesses in perpetuity
Stuff like like this makes me proud to pirate every film and TV show I watch. It's not simply cheapskatery — it's a political statement.
How big a threat does misinformation pose to democracy?
Big, that's how big.
New York Times and Washington Post yawn at American dictatorship
Nothing to see here.
Move along, move along...
Justices Alito and Thomas stand by the right of domestic abusers to bear arms
Singing by boys’ choir ‘sounds more brilliant’ when girls in audience
Margaret Mead explains: Where civilization begins
Lessons from America's response to crack resonate in the opioid era
The making of A Gnome Named Gnorm
Oneida silverware's religious past
Study finds nation’s poverty growing faster than officials can build prisons [Onion]
• Amusing, Interesting, Outrageous, or Profound
AIOP is my Lemmy page, for anything that's (in my opinion) amusing, interesting, outrageous, or profound. It's mostly a rough draft of this page, but you're invited to stop by.
♫♬ MUSIC ♫
Dark Side of the Moon — Pink Floyd
The Tide is Turning — Roger Waters
❔ MYSTERY LINKS ❔
⚰️ OBITUARIES ⚰️
Dick Drago
MLB pitcher, for the Boston Red Sox
Ying Ki Fung
Paralympic fencing champion
Pat E Johnson
fight choreographer, The Karate Kid
Donald Shebib
film director, Goin' Down the Road
Christopher Tapp
lost 20 years to a wrongful conviction
11/9/2023
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 the AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Chuff, Dirty Blonde Mind, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, Lemmy.world, Looking for My Perfect Sandwich, Miss Miriam's Mirror, Self-love Is My Superpower, Voenix Rising, and anywhere else I've stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.
Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Wynn Bruce, Joey Jo Jo emeritus, Jeff Meyer, 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.
This is my fault, not yours, but I've come to rely on your obits to note deaths of relevant people. Jerry Allison died a year ago August, and I don't recall reading it here. As the drummer with the white boy group that "borrowed" the Bo Diddley beat and made history, he surely should have a bigass obit in important "papers" like this one. I understand. Sometimes people die quietly.
ReplyDeletebump bump bump bump -- bump bump.
John
I plan to die quietly. Mr Allison's death made the papers, though, and I caught it here and linked it there.
DeleteObits intrigue me more and more but I hope to never deserve one.
Thanks for the catch -- sorry for the miss.
Deletejtb
Dear fellow, your fumbles are more fun than many others' best efforts.
DeleteWell slip me some kickback, my hot tip is your number 2 story, and I know you're into number two.
ReplyDeleteIf by my #2 story, you mean bump bump bump bump -- bump bump, that's the Bo Diddley beat, which Bo Diddley first used on one of his first songs, also named "Bo Diddley", and he also used it on several other of his hit records. Lots of people, both black and white, used the Bo Diddley beat on their records after that, but most notably it was used on "Not Fade Away", recorded on May 27, 1957, by Buddy Holly and the Crickets with Jerry Allison on drums pounding out the beat. It wasn't the first crossover in rock history (black music to white music) but was, perhaps, the most notable. Listen to "Bo Diddley" and "Not Fade Away" and you'll hear the beat in both. Of course, the Rolling Stones covered "Not Fade Away" later, complete with the Bo Diddley beat and it became the "A" side of the Stones' first American single. Rock & Roll has many fathers and mothers, and Bo Diddley is certainly one of the fathers.
DeleteIs that the question you were asking, or did I misunderstand?
John
I think you misunderstood, Dr John. 14-3=11 sent a link to a minor monkeywrenching item, which became my #2 headline above. Pretty sure that's the reference.
DeleteI've #2 twice already today. Perks of old age.
I've been working on a #2 for two days. Problems of old age, although I blame my repeated failures on colonialism, exploitation and racism. And I've signed every comment I've made for the two years I've been commenting.
Deletejohnthebasket
On what I know is your favorite subject, : it is not “normal” for the Middle East to be “constantly at war”. Muslims are not more inclined to violence and “barbarism”.
ReplyDeleteIt's that way because of a century of colonialism, exploitation, and racism. The word “Middle East” itself stems from those very injustices.
I am finding this fascinating, and still ruminating on it.
DeleteIs it true? Was the pre-Middle East a relatively peaceful place, akin to America before the whites?
It's so far from true it's beyond false. The Web is full of history. I'm not going to take an hour to get all the dates and all the empires and nation states straight in time. Start with the Greeks and Egyptians and move forward. Manure.
Deletejohnthebasket
Since the days of Catal Huyuk (about 8,000 years ago), the only reasonable land route between Europe/Asia and Africa went right through the fertile crescent -- right through the present day state of Israel. Every significant empire of the region has fought over control of that route, although as shipbuilding and marine navigation became more sophisticated, it became less of a pain in the ass to just cross the Mediterranean. Nonetheless, if you had a large army with large materiel like trebuchets and siege engines, the land route through what is now called the middle east was still attractive and an important route to hold. Many ancient battles were fought there. It certainly wasn't the most peaceful place in the Old World.
Deletejohnthebasket
I'm sure Anynymous's heart is in the right place, but no fairy tales please. The Middle East has always been an angry place full of big wars and little wars, the Arabs stuck to their tribes and hated all the other tribes, and when riled up any of them would be happy to chop your head off. Read up on your Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran. Syrian Kings/Khedives, Turkish governors, then various Arab Islamic states, then the Byzantines, then the Romans, the Ptolemaic Greeks, then Persians.
DeleteThen came the discovery of oil in the early 1900s, and immediately came the western powers. To do business the western way they required nations, so lines were drawn in the sand and instead of hating each other (or more accurately in addition to) now the hatred is for the west. Dropping Israel into the sand sure added to the eternal anger.
Until Britain and America and later Israel came, it was their hornet's nest and the killing was for each other. Now and forever they'd probably rather kill white people & Jews. It is worse than it was, fucking shit-tons worse, it'll onlyy get worse. No end to it ever, so long as there are white people and Jews to be killed, and they're never leaving so the killing will continue until there's nobody left to kill. When possible, they will take the killing to us, so brace for more 9/11s. Film at 11, every night, forever and ever, all brought to you by oil.
OK, thanks both. I stand somewhat educated but no more interested. Amidst an eternally cascading series of wrongs, I do wish America was neutral instead of always pro-killing, but I'm 6,500 miles away and there are much nearer atrocities I'm ignoring as well.
DeleteCrossroads of the world, cradle of civilization, and the land of a thousand wars. War, yeah lots. Peace, yeah lots. Even the grandest horrors of the Ottoman Empires tho were simply nothing compared with this morning in Gaza.
DeleteTerrorism is a crime and needs to be punished as a crime. America and Israel prefer to punish anyone who looks kinda like the perps, and a lot of people look kinda like the perps.
DeleteAnyone myself included who's not getting arrested isn't taking the climate catastrophe seriously enough.
ReplyDeleteSome of us thoroughly understand that this is the end, but understand that getting arrested would be futile. It's the end, whether I'm arrested or not.
Delete