Link round-up for 21 July 2024

This week the mask slipped and the class war, which has always been the true primary conflict in this country, stood revealed in all its brazen ugliness.  The push to remove Biden is a malignant campaign by the oligarchical parasite class, supported by the mass media they own and the politicians they influence via donations, to destroy a leader whose plans threaten their economic stranglehold on the nation.  The debate was merely a convenient pretext, the talk about "cognitive decline" a noxious cloud of squid ink.  We must not let them succeed.  If even the president cannot survive an attack by these people, no politician for another generation will dare attempt real change.

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Dogs have things their own way.

Some signs of the times here.

She's trying out a cool new look.

Unleash the hounds!

An unusual choice of weapon, but effective.

What a spectacular jump..... oops.

Life in cartoons can be weird.

She just can't resist his extraordinary sex appeal.

The mark of a truly great actor is being able to do a death scene.

These musicians won't disturb you with unwanted noise.

These men drove a car on the Mississippi river, from St Paul to New Orleans.

See a true master of skateboarding show off his skills.

Halloween is already manifesting itself in Manitou Springs CO.

Some great photos of Italy here.

Cas d'intérêt has video of the Utah outback.

Some sort of off-road mobile home?  Here's an airborne one.

Don't be an asshole to the bus driver.  People don't like it.

Here is yet another bizarre abomination from the sea.

See an iconic photo taken, from the photographer's viewpoint.

In the UK, for the last six months, wind power has generated more electricity than all fossil fuels combined.  The British government is committed to increasing wind power capacity further.

Indian elephants sometimes bury their dead.

Earth has certain geological features which were essential to the rise of complex life, but which are extremely rare elsewhere in the universe -- another sign that complex life itself is probably very rare.

Plato considered democracy a flawed system, but I think we can all see the problem with his proposed solution.

Tell Me a Story blog has a diverse image round-up.

Even innocuous things get censored on TV these days -- buy DVDs so you're getting the real thing.

If Trump wins, perhaps we'll modify Mount Rushmore.

Sometimes all the crazy bullshit just gets exhausting.

Elon Musk is still being a clueless asshole at Twitter.  He also loves this crap video.

Savor the wisdom of Donald Trump.

Amazon claims it inspects returned goods before sending them out to new buyers, but apparently their system is shit.

This person exists (but read this too).

People haven't forgotten about Bud Light -- sales continue to decline.

In the UK, a regional experiment with a four-day work week for public-sector employees has been a huge success.

Remember Nancy Green (NSFW blog, requires Blogspot login).

A recent book dissects the issue of corrupt leaders.

Biden calls for a 5% cap on rent hikes for apartments owned by major corporate landlords.  Not surprisingly, the billionaire-owned mass media have been going apeshit, throwing every kind of negativity they can think of at the plan.  Biden also wants to free up some now-useless wasteland in Nevada to build affordable housing.

The law treats the powerful and privileged with kid gloves.

Apparently there's been some kind of global internet glitch since Friday, mainly affecting computers that use the crap Windows 10 operating system.  I stuck with an earlier version and refused to "upgrade", so I haven't noticed any problems.

CNN, MSNBC, and Fox have all seen major declines in viewership, a further sign that most Americans are burned out on election news and are actively avoiding it.  I hope it also reflects a loss of trust in those media due to their craven pushing for Biden to drop out.

According to these parents' lawsuit, an organized gang of perverts kidnapped and brainwashed their son.

Atheist Revolution blog worries about violence against non-religious people if Trump wins.

JD Vance is a jackass.  He won't win any extra voters for Trump.

Some far-right types are unhappy with Vance -- or rather, his wife.

This is not equality.

Religio-wingnuts are freaking out that the first day of the Republican convention closed with a Sikh prayer instead of a Christian one.

The dump-Biden idiocy resembles the "Satanic panic" of the 1980s and similar cases of mass hysteria.  It's a money-driven frenzy (link from Annie).  The politicians calling for him to withdraw have no plan for dealing with the legal chaos that would result (more here).  Democrats should fight to win, not give up before the fight even starts because they're spooked by polls.

Hakeem Jeffries affirms his full support for Biden.  The media that claimed he was doing otherwise were lying.

1,400 black women leaders have posted an open letter in support of Biden.  You too can sign in support, even if you're not black or a woman (I have).  Here are ways to tell Biden and other leaders you want him to stay in.

The Democratic party chairs of the swing states unanimously endorse Biden staying in the race.  There's more good stuff on that site under "Recent Posts" on the right.

One presidential candidate probably does have dementia.

America's billionaires have amassed a combined hoard of six trillion dollars, more than double their total wealth in 2017.  The countless millions of workers who actually created all that wealth, by contrast, have seen little growth in their share of it.

These proposed "Supreme Court reforms" would accomplish nothing.  A code of ethics is meaningless unless there is a fast and unblockable (unlike impeachment) mechanism for removing judges who violate it.  Term limits would do nothing to address the problems now, unless they required all justices who are already past the limit to step down immediately.  Passing a Constitutional amendment is impossible, so there's no point in talking about it.  Congress must enlarge the Court or drastically modify its powers.

On the Trump shooting, there's probably less here than meets the eye.

A moderate Republican (yes, a few still exist) condemns Project 2025.

The Christian nationalists are very unhappy about the watering down (on paper) of forced-birth absolutism in the Republican platform.  This sounds like it could mean real conflict within the right wing, down the road.

The oppression of women, especially under Islam, should be treated as a crime against humanity equivalent to South Africa's apartheid.

There is a war against the Jewish people under way around the world, and recent election results in the UK and France are profoundly bad news.

His form of "activism" matches his rhetoric.

This vile man no longer wields power over traumatized women.

A memorial event for the victims of the 1972 Olympic massacre must be held in secret for fear of attacks by Jew-haters.

The Paris Olympics is shaping up to be a fiasco.

More than a hundred victims of the October 7 attack are filing a lawsuit against UNRWA for its complicity with Hamas's terrorism and mass murder.

Abandoned by the navel-gazing West and betrayed by the UN, Afghan women organize to help each other and keep girls' education alive in secret.

As China's Potemkin economy collapses, millions of workers across the country haven't been paid for months and are beginning to protest.

More links at WAHF and Fair and Unbalanced.

My posts this week:  some truths and inspirations, and why Biden is getting backstabbed from within his own party.

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