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| CRANKY OLD FART'S BROWSER HISTORY #389 [archive] DEC. 2, 2023 |
UAE oil CEO Sultan Al Jaber uses his role as UN climate summit president to push fossil fuel deals
All these COP conferences are mighty monuments to the world's increasingly hot air. Important agreements will be reached to battle the climate catastrophe, but once sealed with signatures and champagne, the agreements will be ignored, as always.
COP, you know, stands for Conference of the Parties, and the parties are legendary.
Nobody attending gives more than a perfunctory half-hoot about anything but attending, getting a nice photo op from their best angle, enjoying the fine meals and good sex and seeing all their old buddies from the previous 27 Conferences of the Parties.
When they've finished accomplishing nothing, they'll hug and kiss and squeeze each others' butt-cheeks and say, "See you at COP29!"
As the world burns ...
LGBTQ+ teens won a $10,000 grant for a safe space at their school. The School Board sent the money back.
Because, you see, certain kids should have no safe space anywhere.
Fine print bombshell – share information which “undermines trust in government”, face jail
I missed most of Yes, Minister, but this seems a fine mix of Monty Python’s Flying Circus with The Thick of It.
Appeals court tells Texas to remove anti-migrant death buoys, in setback at border for Abbott
Until it's overturned on appeal, which it will be, the Republicans
running Texas are no longer allowed to float death buoys to slice up
migrants in the Rio Grande — assuming, which seems unlikely, that
Republicans still have to obey court orders.
Metro deploys outreach teams at Burien station to aid passengers in need
News from Seattle, my home town: It says here, "Burien Transit Center is staffed seven days a week, morning and night," with social workers reaching out to help the homeless. There's no housing to offer, of course, because that would cost serious money, but these helper-teams have a supply van, and hand out help-packets that contain cotton gloves, hand warmers, granola bars, and drinks.
That's not much, but it's better than nothing.
And yet, almost every time I go anywhere on the bus, I wait for a transfer at the Burien Transit Center. When I was employed, I was there daily. Now I'm there a few days every week, "morning and night." I've spent at least hundreds of hours at Burien Transit Center, seen countless lost souls being generally ignored or lightly hassled by transit security guards.
But never have I ever seen even a hint of the help described in this article.
The Times coverage is not a flat-out lie; only fools believe that's how media works. I'm sure the reporter is accurately reporting what was told to him, by people who probably believe what they said, but somewhere along the line someone's being seriously snookered.
This program does not exist, at least not at anywhere near the scale described.
Wikipedia editor who first noted Henry Kissinger's death has become an 'instant legend'
Excerpt: Wikipedia users are celebrating the first user to edit Henry Kissinger’s Wikipedia page after the widely-hated American statesman and war criminal was announced dead on Wednesday at the age of 100.
“I’m now forever the girl who changed 'is' to 'was' on Henry Kissinger’s Wikipedia article,” reads the bio of the Wikipedia user Asticky, who updated her bio after editing Kissinger’s page on 8:46 PM EST on Wednesday. Since then, dozens of users have responded with messages of support and congratulations to Asticky on being the first to edit the page. ...
Rep Adam Smith (D-Washington) says his home was vandalized by Gaza ceasefire supporters
This is an outrage, certainly, but on the scale of Gaza atrocities, it's a pimple on Congressman Smith's expanding bald spot.
Pro-Palestine protester self-immolates outside Atlanta’s Israeli consulate
Top Republican liar expelled from Congress
This isn't good news. First, Santos was funny, so I'll miss the
laughs, but more importantly, this particular shit-head was elected, and
being elected ought to mean he's in Congress. The power of the House to expel
members at will or whim is one of many Constitutional mistakes.
That said, did you notice that a majority of Republicans, 112 of 222, voted not to expel their legendary liar who's never told the truth?
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Arizona wingnut Republicans are prosecuted for refusing to certify 2022 election results
“Want to sleep with bedbugs?” To which my reply is normally: “How nice is the hotel?”
• 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 ♫
All I Think About Is You — Harry Nilsson
Trouble Every Day — Frank Zappa
⚰️ OBITUARIES ⚰️
John Byrne
writer, Tutti Frutti
Elliott Erwitt
witty photographer
Helen Halpin
actress, dancer
Helen Halyard
challenged Shirley Chisholm from the left
Shane MacGowan
rocker, The Pogues
Sandra Day O’Connor
US Supreme Court Justice
Bronka Sundstrom
Holocaust survivor, mountain-climber
Vassilis Vassilikos
author, *Z*
12/2/2023
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.
Despite the comedy I won't miss Santos. We still have a trial coming up so he won't go far, but I find something repulsive about his countenance. It's not that he's a liar, he just has the vibe of a man who would gleefully evict a kitten. I think it was Gore Vidal that once described someone as having "the eyes of a failed rapist" and that sorta works too.
ReplyDeleteThere was a recent story about how Christian Nationalists have taken over "Young Republican" clubs everywhere, including even in NYC. Some public scene culminated with Santos trying to join them at some MAGA Fest. They made it clear that his homosexuality disgusted them and he spent the night in a corner by himself, pretending not to notice them mocking him.
Papa will be mad: I guess that was Hemingway describing Wyndham Lewis, British painter, writer and one-time fan of Adolf Hitler:
Delete"Under the black hat, when I had first seen them, the eyes had been those of an unsuccessful rapist."
That is the exact definition, I think, of "a sick burn."
DeleteI figure it we gotta have bad guys, give me ridiculous over-the-top bad guys like Santos. Or Trump. It's terrifying to think what a fascist demagogue like Trump could accomplish if he *wasn't* so obviously a Bond villain. Imagine if he had all the same monstrous ideas but a soft touch and a winning smile like Reagan. A Republican with brains would be the absolute end of America.
I've often thought the same. The guy I campaigned for in 2004 was Valedictorian of his class AND a Rhodes Scholar, obtaining additional postgrad degrees in philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford. Trump can't read a teleprompter and literally can't read. There's high quality video of him trying to read a page in court. His Dad bought him a four year degree and he can't read. Thank god.
DeleteJohn
I don't want to give you an assignment for the class, but I'd love to see that video of Trump reading out loud.
DeleteThere was a kid I remember and sorta liked who could barely read, so of course the teacher often made him read out loud, and I felt sorry for him. So far as I know that kid never tried to destroy America so please let me laugh at Trump.
Bummer but thanks. I've briefly tried searching for it, but trump reading yields like a billion results. Have I mentioned lately that I hate that guy?
Delete