Link round-up for 14 June 2020

Various interesting stuff I ran across on the net over the last week.

o o o o o

It is the love that dare not speak its name.

Horse (and zebra) time.

These kittens are thirsty.

Pride month is for gay cats too.

A woman confronts a persistent would-be watch thief.

When you visit the zoo, don't miss this exhibit.

Dance, dance (NSFW).

Lockdown or no, the facility is still in use.

Here are some Norwegian mobile homes.

Witness a daring rescue mission.

Learn how to perform a redneck vasectomy, along with other quips.

It's a real cathouse.

Trump's new "law and order" slogan provokes mockery.

The view from afar (found via Neko Random).

Trump dominates the battle space.

Stupid stupidity is stupid.

If you have a few dollars to spare, Mary at Dark Thoughts is still working on getting a car for her cancer-afflicted husband's appointments.

Here's a review of Mark Twain's "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven", a story that couldn't be published until 41 years after it was written.

When will they use the safeword?

Hands tell a person's history.

Here are some organizations worthy of support.

They want you stupid and ignorant.

".....and if they ever figure that out....."

No, being religious is not good for your sex life.

Here's a useful warning for victims of tear gas.

Bob Felton is back online with some miscellaneous observations.

Don't come between the cops and their donuts.

A mixed-race family encounters bizarre harassment in Washington state (found via Fair and Unbalanced).

There's something odd about city spending patterns.

Fundies fight to ensure that the anti-lynching bill won't protect gays.

The rot goes deep in the NYPD.

It's full steam ahead with Trump's super-spreader rallies.

Christianity promotes evasion of responsibility.

Natural selection is still at work.

An incel self-pwns while plotting an act of femicide.

Moline Skeptics assesses the latest anti-vax conspiratardia.

A former cop describes how the system turns good cops bad.  Another discusses police culture, and what might work to change things.

The virus doesn't care if we're "fatigued".

It's not the first time.

Enough with the Naziistic talk of sacrificing the elderly to the pandemic.

Here's a massive database of hundreds of police-brutality incidents during the recent protests (found via Lo Imprescindible).

Should Trump have opened that Bible?  Maybe not.

JK Rowling won't back down from defending the need for women-only spaces.  Her full post on the issue is this week's must-read link. You won't find hate or prejudice here, but sober and legitimate concerns which her critics won't address -- because they can't.

The new surges of covid-19 are pushing some jurisdictions to consider a return to lockdown, notably Houston and North Carolina.  Things are getting worse in my own state, though we're still much less hard-hit than some.  Mississippi looks like a disaster in the making.  There's bad news from Florida as well.

Wingnut rhetorical pushback against peaceful protest is looking pretty feeble.

Huge round-up of (mostly political) news items here.

The economy isn't going to recover quickly.

Barrage of false claims, weird limited vocabulary -- yep, we know who said this.

The wingnutosphere plumbs new depths of lunacy in response to the Floyd protests.

"Defund the police" is a dumb slogan which shows we need better messaging.

A Kentucky church that threatened to sue over lockdown rules now has a covid-19 outbreak.

"Fuck your First Amendment."

Trump positions himself as the leader of resistance to cultural change.  Good luck with that.

Police reform is now the consensus position.  Police unions will be a major obstacle, but the real debate is over.  Camden NJ has already enacted major reforms (found via Hackwhackers).

We should not honor traitors.

The US hasn't beaten covid-19 -- we've just given up.  We wasted the time the lockdowns bought at such cost.

Archbishop (and flaming nutball) Carlo Viganò writes a fan letter to Trump.  You can read full text of the thing here.

Science is fighting back against creationism in US schools, and slowly making progress.

For two-thirds of the world's population, renewable energy is now the cheapest option.

Dogs are a potential new weapon against the pandemic.

Mysterious green moss balls migrate across glaciers.

Don't be hasty to re-open the border with a disease-infested country.

Nazi beauty pageants are a thing, apparently.

Peter Norman paid a steep price for his anti-racist stance.

Australia stands up to bullying from the world's most powerful gangster regime.

Belgium is starting to address its many statues honoring one of the worst mass murderers in world history.

After political pressure and a court ruling, the Brazilian government has restored the covid-19 data it took down.

Think we have it bad?  Check out Russian politics.

Indian actors' support for US anti-racism protests highlights a curious feature of India's culture.

Pakistan's covid-19 surge has been so bad that the WHO says it needs to return to lockdown.  The government is hiring workers laid off due to the pandemic for a massive tree-planting project.

Remember that there's a serious and growing threat out there.

Beijing goes under partial lockdown after a new outbreak.

In China, Uighurs can be convicted in sham trials of ridiculous offenses like quitting smoking.

How much do black lives matter where the oppressor is also black?

My state's Republican Senate candidate is a QAnon qrackpot.

Mistress Borghese has a message for non-voters.

There's a better way to ask Republican senators about Trump.

Don't get complacent about Biden's huge poll lead (it's registered voters not likely voters, for one thing).

Trump's campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter about CNN's poll.  They're rattled.

Republicans are getting nervous about Texas.

Vote-by-mail works.

Here's more detail on the accusations against Lindsey Graham (NSFW images).

Recent events strongly suggest the military wouldn't support a Trump coup.  His behavior is undermining his support among veterans.

More links here.