Link round-up for 27 December 2020

Please consider donating or otherwise helping the Georgia runoff effort at these links -- Fair Fight, Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock.  At this point Fair Fight, with its emphasis on voter registration and turnout, may be your best bet.

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Obey the sign, if you can.

Debra She Who Seeks looks at Santa's job.

Happy Boxing Day.

Watch video of a daring prison escape.

Three wise men see a star in the east.

Any true cat would just take this as a challenge.

Arguably, Trump already has airports named after him.

Rawknrobyn has a poem for Santa (NSFW).

Some cats just get cardboard boxes.  Others get castles.

Esme's Cloud has a tale of a routine police investigation that goes bizarrely awry.

Canadians recall accidental visits to the US.

Big Bad Bald Bastard embraces the spirit of Trumpy Christmas.

You can still find a use for an advent calendar.

The domino effect goes vertical.

These are not alien spaceships.

You don't notice the craziness when it's familiar.

This Australian has sensible priorities and a flair for showmanship (found via Hackwhackers).

Vagabond Scholar's Jon Swift blog round-up for 2020 is posted -- "the best posts of the year, chosen by the bloggers themselves".

"Because it worked."

Photos here from Salamanca, Mexico.

Cas d'intérêt looks at how French became a world language, and where the "purest" French is found today (it isn't France).

Civil Commotion observes the winter solstice.

Miss Cellania has a big list of best-book lists.

Darwinfish 2 presses on with the quixotic but necessary struggle to debunk wingnut bullshit.

Donate here to help the hungry.

Non-religious voters are becoming an important force in US politics.

Learn to understand and deal with people who suffer from chronic pain.

Reminder -- blue America is productive America.

Pat Robertson's loopy religious "university" hires a worthy dean for its school of government.

Dumbest Trump election lawsuit of all, at least according to several lawyers.

YouTube allegedly hosts thousands of disgusting animal-cruelty videos.

If you think wearing a mask is tyranny.....

The US Capitol starts taking out the garbage.

Facebook group here on autism and the police.

Punctuation matters.

XKCD's election map shows the real distribution of voters.  No, it isn't possible to split the US into two countries for the two sides.

JK Rowling gets some recognition for her courage.

Green Eagle makes the case that behavior can qualify as treason even without a state of war.

You know a Democratic administration is coming when Republicans suddenly start talking about the debt again.

Objective reality exists, and trying to deny it is madness.

When Trump's term ends, three women with lawsuits will be waiting for him.  There will also be a wave of subpoenas.  But what if he refuses to leave the White House?

The stock market is high, but probably not overvalued.

Free expression gets a win in Texas.

No, Democrats' resistance to the outcome of the 2016 election wasn't similar to what Republicans are doing now.

A bully plays the victim, not very plausibly.

Insiders say a California megachurch is pressuring its congregation and staff to keep quiet about a covid-19 outbreak.

36% of Americans believe the election was stolen.  That's bad, but it's not "almost half" as some outlets are lamenting.

One person went to work sick, seven people died.  A Mississippi atheist seethes at the denialists' stupidity.  Don't be fooled -- the pandemic is real.

Hey Georgians, if you want a $2,000 stimulus check, here's what to do.

Biden needs to show he can fight, even if he doesn't always win.

Who needs a mask when you've got an imaginary friend?

The stimulus bill includes an upgrade of US internet access, but far more needs to be done.

The Psy of Life looks at why Trumpanzees stand by their man.

This is what it's like working in healthcare now.

George Mason anticipated Trump's pardon frenzy -- in 1788.  The killers of Ali Kinani are among those pardoned.  More here.

Insuring the Catholic Church is a losing proposition.

"A modern, industrialized nation..... cannot survive being driven by its dumbest and cruelest elements. It just can't. People like that are always going to be part of the scenery, but if we don't find a way to push them back to the margins, and stop being responsive to every dumb thing they do and say and react to, it's going to be a long, ugly road down."

The New York Post's slimy effort to slut-shame a paramedic backfires as she fights back and wins support.

Trump is losing his mind.  His antics have triggered infighting among Republicans.

In a medical emergency, gender confusion can be dangerous.

There can be no "common ground" with a party of open sedition and fascism.

Fox backs down from some of its bullshit -- under threat of a lawsuit.  Then there's this guy.

There are important differences between categories that exist in objective reality and those created by human assertion.

The world is in much better shape than you think.

Meet the Latvians, an introverted and creative people.

Consider supporting the heroic rats who help clear mines in poor countries.

The Saudi regime is asking Trump to make its caudillo immune from US lawsuits relating to its various murders.  Meanwhile, women's-rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul is facing twenty years in prison.

It's people in Muslim countries, not Westerners, who lead the fight against Islamic terrorism.

An exiled Pakistani human-rights activist has been found dead in Toronto, the second such mysterious death this year.

The covid-19 outbreak illustrates how China's fascist regime uses trolls and thuggery to control what its subjects see on the internet.  The US has taken a subtle but effective step against the regime's technological power.

Here's some more detail on that possible radio signal from Proxima Centauri.

Annie Asks You looks at the potential of CRISPR, the new gene-editing technology.

More links here.

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In case you missed it -- last week I posted on the coming covid-19 explosion, some parody songs for the Trump gang, and the madness of religio-wingnuts as their prophecies of Trump's re-election fail.

[1,438 days down, 24 to go until the inauguration of a real president.]