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| CRANKY OLD FART'S BROWSER HISTORY #396 [archive] DEC. 20, 2023 |
Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off the state's 2024 primary ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution
This is a dumb ruling — wrong, and a waste of time.
It's wrong, because as much as any decent American should hate Donald Trump, he hasn't been convicted of insurrection. Hello? America? You're innocent until proven guilty, even if you're obviously guilty as sin.
And it's a waste of time, because the US Supreme Court is itself insurrectionist, and will overturn a ruling like this in half a heartbeat, whether or not their action is justified by the facts.
It's a rottenly-written article, too. Gotta read to the 15th paragraph before the coverage even alludes to why Trump has been (temporarily) disqualified, and the word 'insurrection' makes its grand debut in the 16th paragraph. It's almost as if NBC News is reluctant to report the news.
Black woman is criminally charged after a miscarriage
This is so fucked up.
In post-Roe America, women detail agony of being forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term
Have I mentioned? This is so fucked up.
Google Groups ending support for Usenet
If there's one thing you can count on from Google, it's evil, but if
there's a second thing you can count on, it's discontinuing services.
Screw zoning, and bring back the corner grocery
A sex tape is one of the least offensive things to happen in that Senate hearing room
New ownership at Greyhound is selling stations, decimating service
The rise of AI fake news is creating a ‘misinformation superspreader’
Right-wing legislators pass bills that ban the teaching of empathy and care in schools
Some Trump 2020 fake electors have roles in how the 2024 race is run
Pope OKs 'blessings' for same-sex relationships, long as nobody calls them 'marriages'
Confederate Memorial at Arlington Cemetery will be removed despite Republicans' opposition
Update: Judge halts removal of Confederate Memorial at Arlington Cemetery
• 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.
Why I love shoplifting from big corporations
Harry Potter’s stunt double: ‘Breaking my neck made a man of me’
Giuliani was never the good guy or "America's Mayor"; he's always been a loony racist authoritarian
• The Police Problem
All about about ordinary evil cops. Some highlights below:
Cop who vowed to "arrest as many Blacks as I can" blames racism for his firing: lawsuit
Justice Department creates database to track misconduct records by federal law enforcement
I am confident the Justice Department will fuck this up.
45 people have died in L.A. County jails this year
To identify and fire whistleblower cop, Louisiana State Police executed search warrant on Google
♫♬ MUSIC ♫
Bastian's Flight — Klaus Doldinger
You'll Never Walk Alone — Roy Orbison
I'm still jotting notes into my notebook, things to write about later. When I get home from the new job, though, my body and mind have no energy for anything creative.
So I tilt back in the recliner, surf the net to unwind, and
then fall asleep.
For now at least, the blog will mostly be these
news summaries, but I'll try to do some writing on my days off...
12/20/2023
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.
Even gathering and summarizing is a lot of work, even if you're not writing "new material". Take it easy on yourself while you're getting your body "tuned up" in the new job. I strongly suspect everyone will still be here when you get into a sustainable production mode. I certainly will.
ReplyDeleteJohn
Excellent, thanks. It's a mighty small crowd and I'm glad you're in it.
DeleteEvery time I see Mr. Rogers, I think warmly of the decades I spent (and still spend) watching him on TV. Hard to argue with anything he ever said, which is pretty remarkable.
ReplyDeleteThese clips always bring a tear to my eye:
https://www.misterrogers.org/videos/jeff-erlanger/
https://youtu.be/TcNxY4TudXo?si=wSbZB_9ITlpvWnq3
His complete lack of decorum and genuine radiance in the second clip just kills me. Maybe it's all Hollywood BS, but I dunno.
Anyway, he was a bad motherfucker
I saw him on Letterman and he never broke character and I thought he was nuts. Took me years to figure out, Rogers had no character to break. It was never an act. Dude was for real.
DeleteThe ceremony, of course, was Hollywood BS, but Rogers was never Hollywood at all.
I'm still kinda pissed that PBS yanked reruns of the show just a few years after Rogers' death, a major stupidity that continues to this day. I guess some stations air reruns in off hours, but MRR is better and more pertinent to kids of 2023 than anything else they air and it ought to be on seven days a week in easily-accessible kid-watching hours, on every station.
Deletehttps://archive.org/details/@rogersn35
DeleteI watched a few black-and-whites and a few later ones, and that's quality TV, man. For kids or for anyone.
DeleteI suppose MisterRogers (rendered variously) was teaching kids lessons about human interaction. But he was --sub rosa -- demonstrating a way to live in the world. Very few people can do it and every government argues against it. It's what drove Leonard Cohen to live at the Mount Baldy Zen Center for nearly five years at a time he "should" have been touring to promote the meager sales of his albums. Few of us get even a whiff of it, but MisterRogers' way of life is available, and targeting young people before they get tangled up in the bullshit of what we absurdly call civilization is at least a way to create a smallish army of good. They'll be crushed of course, but they will have seen and demonstrated the way.
ReplyDeleteJohn
This is something that angers me. I know of no kiddie show currently on the air that makes better children who become better people. But Mister Rogers was widely off the air and has remained so since only a few years after he died. PBS doublecross.
Delete... Probably because the audience wasn't as eager to send big funding for shows already made.
DeleteI thought Reading Rainbow was a good show, though I was well past its intended age when it first aired.
DeleteI've heard good things, but never watched even a moment of it. Did he just talk about books he'd read?
DeleteHere's Trump, rent-free in my head. I hate him but he fascinates me.
ReplyDeleteThrough the media they control, the Republican elite spent decades transforming their base into conspiratorial, counterfactual nitwits so they could persuade them that "Climate change isn't real!" and "Rich people shouldn't pay taxes!" and "Poor people deserve their poverty!" and "Greatest health care in the world!" and "Libruls are lunatics!"
Then along comes Trump, a well-known swindler who spoke the words that were meant to be silent, exploited the willful ignorance that was created, and took their nitwit army right out from under them. It's maybe the only smart thing Trump has ever done, or he just lucked into it, but remember he was PAYING people to be extras at his campaign events, until he said he wanted to take protesters out back and "beat the shit" out of them. That was the moment he became the nitwits' messiah, and he still is and always will be.
Most of the Republicans in charge, your John Roberts and Mitch McConnells and Mitt Romneys, have been quietly fuming ever since. Trump makes them feel dirty, and he's taken over their long grift, but he's useful and keeps the nitwits voting Republican so we will never be rid of him, and anything done to 'punish' him only makes him more a God to the nitwits, and the only thing standing between Trump and the end of America is … Joie Biden.
I have nothing much to say to this but I sure don't disagree. I'd forgotten that he was paying people to be props at his rallies, before turning the stupid up full blast. Stupid, evil, and/or ignorant are the only reasons to vote for any Republican.
DeleteYour logic seems sound, so what to do? I've volunteered as a campaign worker in four presidential elections (for one of which I took a three month unpaid leave which pissed off my company and my boss) none of which my candidate won (but I don't regret volunteering). The 2024 presidential elections will be decided in about six to eight swing states by people who don't vote in every election. We need to get them registered and get their asses to the polls or to the post office or to a ballot collection point. I have a friend who volunteered in 2020, and his job was to call a list of these people provided by the Democratic Party, and encourage them to vote for Biden and whoever his running mate is. I have found most of the people in my state Democratic Party to be pretty nice and quite reasonable. They're just happy to have help. As I discovered, some of them are assholes, but that just comes with the territory. In any case, the party would welcome your call.
ReplyDeleteI'm tired of the argument that the parties are about the same. They're clearly not.
John
I worked mostly on issue campaigns when I was young and idealistic, initiatives and referendums, and did some doorknocking for John Anderson. I didn't regret it then and don't now, but I'll never do it again. Too much time and effort, for very close to zero return except the feel-good vibe. I'm too wretched to feel the feel-good vibe any more.
Delete