Link round-up for 19 November 2023
o o o o o
Certain jobs should not be done on windy days.
OK, I want to get off now..... oops.
Cats everywhere!
You can run, but the evil you committed will seek you out.
Now it's experienced.
Next time, get a room.
The fall of a neighborhood boss triggers a series of power struggles.
Watch where you're going, idiot.
Not sure if the judges will award fewer or more points for this.
This is what happens when people drive in the snow. That stuff is no joke.
The difference between a "virtual girlfriend" and a real one is that "going down" refers to something undesirable.
Halloween is a night to party, but it is possible to overdo it.
This is the Department of Fisheries in Hyderabad, India.
Americans display the flag a lot.
What's wrong with human behavior?
".....neither bark nor needle shelters it....."
Traditionalist Catholics are discovering the reality of how their own religion works.
Meet Victor Lustig, arch-con-man of the early twentieth century.
Taylor Swift conquers Jesus in Brazil (though apparently somebody at Fox doesn't know the difference between Spanish and Portuguese). Predictably, some people aren't happy.
Esquire explores the future of book publishing, and it doesn't look good -- even tougher barriers for new writers, stories as "commodities", the same emphasis on "pre-sold" safe properties over originality that has ruined movies.
Nature is full of horrible nasty things.
Stay the hell away from wild animals -- really, from animals generally.
If you want to improve your language skills, try reading novels.
I don't see the problem here -- rage and smashing things is OK but sex isn't?
Republicans are sounding the alarm about an emerging new political colossus -- Taylor Swift and her "abortion army".
Tesla had originally planned to sue anybody who sold its godawful "cybertruck" within a year of buying it.
Some good commentary on trans ideology here.
The MRFF has squelched yet another fundie nutball military officer trying to push his own religion on his subordinates. You're not gonna believe what this guy was trying to do.
This is a clear case of self-defense, and the idiots running Los Angeles need to be voted out.
Burr Deming at Fair and Unbalanced is still recovering from the violent attack he suffered in October.
Here's a list of places to donate to support Israel.
Political blogger Zandar, of Zandar vs the Stupid, has died.
Cartoonist Michael Ramirez pwns the Washington Post for pulling his cartoon about Hamas and human shields (you can see the cartoon at the link).
Despite the overall strength of the economy, meager wage increases and the high cost of living are squeezing most Americans. Many voters blame Biden, which accounts for his current low favorability ratings.
Anti-Zionist but not anti-Semitic?
Don't underestimate the Democrats.
"Despite all of this, we continue."
Careful around wingnuts -- they bite.
Appeasement of narcissists always leads to more demands, not to peace.
The UAW's victory is already having positive ripple effects across the car industry.
The new Nazism infesting our society is being spread by a systematic and well-designed propaganda campaign.
What does "woke" mean?
Several blogs have recently linked to this Reuters story about the KKK endorsing Trump, apparently not noticing that the date is 2016. Be aware that the story is not current.
Multiple sites have reported that the House Republicans got pwned on their "laddered CR" because some of their top priorities were switched from the earlier to the later expiration date. All of these reports trace back to a Daily Kos post which has now been retracted as false.
At least one health-insurance company is using "AI" to override doctors' decisions and wrongfully deny health care.
Elon Musk endorses anti-Semitic conspiratardia, driving even more advertisers and investors away from Twitter. It's part of an ongoing pattern. Now he's threatening to sue. Sounds to me like he's losing it.
When a problem can't be solved, maybe it's wrong to think of it as a problem.
At last someone with a major platform is saying it -- the Democrats' chances of achieving a permanent commanding majority are being ruined by a radical "progressive" fringe obsessed with identity politics.
Americans are gradually losing confidence in science -- a trend which could eventually undermine our country's power and prosperity, both of which depend on the technology science makes possible.
US universities have abjectly failed to confront the pro-genocide rallies on their campuses.
Nikki Haley wants to destroy internet anonymity, thus joining DeSantis and Trump on my "could not vote for under any circumstances" list. Even many Republicans are unhappy, and this blogger speaks for many others I've seen. She and Christie also want to raise the Social Security retirement age.
City Elders, a secretive fundie dominionist network, is gradually being exposed.
Another win from the election -- Elida OH elected a new school board committed to reversing the school district's hated "boys can use the girls' bathroom if they claim to be girls" policy, which had prompted a student walkout a few days before.
It's starting to dawn on Republican leaders that forced-birthism is ballot-box poison -- so they're trying to fudge the issue.
Are disabled workers evaluated honestly?
The looming government shutdown was averted because most House Democrats, and some House Republicans, put the good of the country above party loyalty and games-playing, bypassing the flaming nutballs to pass a funding bill -- the same as what happened in September. Some more moderate Republicans are concluding that this will be the only way to get anything done from now on.
A pre-K teacher in New York is promoting anti-Semitism, but the school seems reluctant to investigate.
Amazon's bullying of workers to return to the office is becoming even nastier.
How well are the Democrats doing on political messaging? More here.
When you can't get everything you want, get what you can.
"This is America now? Really?"
The wingnut thug who attacked Paul Pelosi apologized for not doing even more harm.
Hobby Lobby doesn't "cater to" Jewish people.
Chris Christie won't be president or even the Republican nominee, but his campaign nevertheless serves a purpose.
The MSM uses the work of "journalists" who may have collaborated with terrorism.
Overwhelming majorities of Americans, including large majorities of Democrats, support keeping men out of women's spaces, services, and sports. The Democratic party leadership is hugely out of touch on these issues.
"We survived Kristallnacht. We will survive this. All I can do is believe that."
In a rebuke to the recent wave of Nazi marches in our streets, almost three hundred thousand Americans rallied in Washington in support of Israel, including several Congressional leaders.
Ohio Republicans are trying to overthrow the decision of the voters to protect abortion rights, by any means available. The efforts of a few Republicans to bring the party back to reality seem to be falling on deaf ears.
An Arab researcher asks why the world still ignores Jewish suffering.
Something is profoundly wrong when the "global left" rallies in support of genocidal theocracy.
Canada is AWOL or worse in the struggle against the new Nazism.
A woman boxer in Québec withdrew from a fight after being warned, at the last moment, that her opponent was a man.
In both the UK and US, growing numbers of gay people realize they need to break the association with trans ideology, which is eroding all the gains they've made.
"Shine a light on the darkness and let them all come scurrying out."
Placing ideology above science leads to idiocy. This is just as silly as Lysenkoism or creationism.
Perhaps the most stunning anti-Semitism of all is that which views the rape of Jewish women as something to ignore or even justify. These people hate their own civilization, and hate reality.
Who is this "they" in the UK that gets to decide who can found a new political party and who can't? How is that compatible with democracy?
France announced a major rally against anti-Semitism. The "far right" immediately signed up to participate. The far left refused.
Europe is opening a training center in Romania to teach Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s.
We should support Ukraine with frozen Russian assets.
Pro-Russia political forces are on the rise in some countries bordering Ukraine, but they're not quite as dangerous as they seem.
In Russia, mass protests against military conscription are planned for today.
Here's a detailed example of the extreme measures Israel is taking to minimize civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip. Also see Israeli soldiers protect Gaza civilians from Hamas.
"There is no substitute for understanding what our enemies actually want and believe."
Clear up some common misconceptions about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
I'm not losing any sleep over what happens to these people.
She was a Jewish activist for Palestinian rights. Hamas murdered her just like all the others.
Detailed testimony here on the use of sexual violence during the October 7 attack (very disturbing).
Jihadist mass killings are so common that the media barely bother to report them.
Al-Jazeera doesn't want to hear about Palestinian anger at Hamas.
Chinese stocks have lost almost a trillion dollars in value so far this year.
More links at WAHF, Elder of Ziyon, and Angry Bear.
My own posts this week: an image round-up, why you can't trust the MSM, and a battle of classic monsters.
If any links in this round-up are paywalled or require a log-in to view, please let me know so I can avoid linking to that site in the future.
To suggest an item for inclusion in the next link round-up, you can use the e-mail address on the left in my profile, or if you don't want to use e-mail, leave it in a comment to the previous link round-up.
o o o o o
A commenter reported the following about last Sunday's round-up:
"Your 'https ://archive.is/FCMuE' (& similar) links resolve to 'https ://archive.is' and an endless series of 'captchas' on both Firefox & an extension-free instance of Chrome browsers on my pc - am i missing something?"
I checked the archive links and for me they worked normally. If anyone else sees something like what the commenter describes, please let me know.
o o o o o
A Muslim Israeli first responder speaks out about the atrocities in southern Israel.
posted by Infidel753 at 3:13 AM
10 Comments:
Regarding Musk:
I know the MSM and much of social media is SAYING Musk supports anti-Semitism because of a tweet voicing support for a commentator. But this is typical anti-Musk defamation.
What he was saying had to do with big time Jewish donors to Ivy league schools and other organizations supported by these very donors that has helped bring deeply anti-Semitic wokism to the masses. All of sudden, post Oct 7, these same donors are now suspending these donations. What Musk was saying is that these donors themselves have helped bring anti-Semitism to a much more popular level. And he supports the example raised by the commentator about the ADL (Anti Defamation League) claiming X is promoting anti-Semitism with bogus claims about a 'rise' is 'hate speech'. In fact, X is the least social media engine for anti-Semitism because, unlike all the other major social media platforms, it at least offers a clear box that warns readers about the source quality of the posting. Hamas, for example, posted very little on X but utilized TikTok, Instagram, and Meta. In response, X was condemned - business as usual - and its owner Musk vilified once again. Also, the widespread acceptance and promotion by many wealthy Jewish donators and Jewish organization of immigrants who are hostile to the freedoms and rights of US citizens and committed adversaries to western liberal values that have brought them into being, has a consequence that Musk dared to point out. So - rather than deal with this fair criticism of previous actions of support and large sums of money to help foster anti-Semitism - of course the mob took after Musk for saying so and - sure enough - allowed widespread disinformation to take root in the minds of many people as if Musk were anti-Semitic. In other words, if one supports various actions like large and regular donations to institutions and organizations that help to promote hostility against the group identity of the donors themselves, surely one should not be surprised that there could be negative consequences down the road for this incredible stupidity and naivety and be legitimately accused - as the commentator wrote - with helping to bring about these negative consequences. Sure, stop donations now, but understand that these previous donations have played a part, as has the support for bringing in more and more anti-liberal immigrants. Own that. Recognize that responsibility. That is what Musk was agreeing with.
Tildeb: Here is the wording of the tweet Musk endorsed:
Jewish communties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.
I'm deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that [they] support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much.
You want truth said to your face, there it is.
To this, Musk replied, "You have said the actual truth".
It would take some kind of mental contortionist to frame the original tweet as anything other than flagrantly anti-Semitic. Lots of leftists are soft on undesirable immigration; some Jews are and some aren't, but singling out Jews as a group for supporting that is incoherent as an expression of anything other than anti-Semitism, and the accusation that "Jewish communities" as a whole (not even just "some Jews") are promoting hatred against whites is even more flagrant. Musk called all this "the actual truth" without reservation.
If you click on the link "an ongoing pattern", you'll see there have been other examples. Pretty much everyone, including the heavyweights who advertise(d) on Twitter, recognizes this stuff as intolerable bigotry.
Musk is the same general type as Donald Trump -- an arrogant narcissistic bully, probably mentally ill, and so dysfunctional as a human being that he probably couldn't have survived if he hadn't been born into wealth that insulated him from the consequences of his behavior. The only possible defense I can imagine for what he says and does is that he's too mentally and morally defective to quite understand the full implications of it. And I'm not sure I buy even that.
This is why I offered more context, to see the comment about hatred against whites as referring to the progressive ideology taught throughout our education system (in small and large ways) about whites being the dominant and therefore victimizing group. The reference means that the donor Jews who yesterday were promoting this ideology with very large donations to institutions that taught it are Jews today suffering from the consequences of doing so. The commentator in this context was stating what's true. It's also true that Jewish communities long associated with left wing liberalism and well known fighters for the dispossessed (think of the civil rights movement) have by their voting and financial support - like so many throughout the West - enabled the growth of this dialectal hatred by funding this ideology. Once the consequences became focused on the supportive minority group, all of a sudden the ideology laden with dialectic hatred that was once okay if directed elsewhere (hatred of the colonizing 'whites') doesn't seem quite so attractive. Granted, labelling all Jews this way is bigoted but it also contains a certain level of truth. I can identify a large majority of white university educated females as the core believers of progressive ideology, but just because in a tweet I don't carefully separate those who are not with the large majority doesn't mean I am a supporter of the patriarchy or a misogynist. The claim possesses a great deal of truth.
Because Musk has been targeted by the liberal left as a racist and bigot (because he assumes the ideological guilt of being white and rich and male) we are subjected to a barrage of assertions that all of this is true and known. Up until a few years ago, Musk was a huge supporter of the left with very progressive values that he still holds. But as he became more successful, he has been attacked more and more and more for these 'crimes' and I think he's getting fed up with the bullshit. That's why he bought Twitter.
Yes, Musk is autistic and so one must recognize that he is more than likely to say and do things that seem antisocial or awkward or uncomfortable or even cruel. But he is absolutely dedicated to improving humanity by engineering into being a future that serves mankind. I almost never hear any praise for this principled dedication and it requires very close adherence to what is true in reality. That's why he says what he says and does what he does. So although there will be many examples of Musk being a dickwad, beyond these examples will be a body of work that unequivocally couldn't give two shits about humanity's race, colour, political allegiance, religion, ethnicity, sex, whatever. He's concerned about getting stuff to work. And that requires recognizing that what's true matters. I wish he would concentrate on what he does best rather than what he does poorly but then he wouldn't be Musk and we wouldn't have Tesla, SpaceX, Xcom, Neurolinks, the Boring Company, Optimus, or Domo, and we wouldn't have these technologies linked to an interstellar future.
Oh, for fuck's sake. This is sheer desperate rationalization. That tweet doesn't need "context" and analysis to determine whether it's anti-Semitic any more than a pile of pig shit needs paragraphs of hairsplitting to figure out whether it stinks or not. It's perfectly clear on the face of it.
Musk gets targeted as a bigot because he obviously is a bigot, at least as far as Jews are concerned. If he used to be on the left, that's not inconsistent with being a rabid anti-Semite. The Nazi rallies with Palestinian flags, celebrating mass murder of Jews, which we've seen all over the country since October 7, consist mostly of people generally viewed as "leftist".
I don't accept Musk being autistic (if he is) as an excuse for being an asshole. Other autistic people I've seen on the net don't come across that way at all. Musk, like Trump, is just an asshole. Frankly you sound like a Trumpist -- making excuses for what everyone else can see is a nasty, stupid man who happened to be born lucky.
The world would be far better off without Musk's exploding-car company, his exploding-rocket company, his idiotic delusions, and all the rest of it. The billions being wasted on all that nonsense might be in competent hands being spent on something actually useful.
Finally, please note point four.
This is interesting, and informative. I like this post, thank you for sharing this eye-opening information. Wishing you all the best, have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!
Rabies is a big deal. My daughter was bitten by a neighbors cat when she was three years old. Animal control came and took the cat for 2 weeks and made the owner vaccinate the cat for rabies before they could get the cat back.
Thank you for adding one of my posts o your list.
Dellgirl: Thanks! And you also.
Mary K: It's a terrifying disease. I wish people could get it through their heads that the real world is not a petting zoo and that "cute" feral animals are mostly potential disease vectors. They're endangering others as well as themselves.
Infidel, I'm grateful for your visit to my blog and for the comment you left on my post. Your feedback inspires me to keep creating content.
The Esquire item about the downward trends in book publishing took me back in time: in my freelancing years, I was active in an organization for journalists and authors, where the difficulties with book publishing were a constant topic. I think there's been linear descent since then. Very unfortunate, particularly since the commodifying, via Amazon et al, appears to be picking up the slack.
I was glad to see the list of organizations for donations to Israel. Though private donations should be augmenting the federal funding that House Republicans are holding up to date, individual donations to Israel--and to Ukraine (https://u24.gov.ua is the President Zelenskyy fund)--are clearly helpful. Those interested should not think small donations are irrelevant; they make a difference.
I was also glad to see your strong response to the strange and tortuous attempt to depict Elon Musk as a victim, rather than the blatantly antisemitic and white supremacist demagogue he is.
And thank you for the links to my posts on messaging and the "bluing of America."
Dellgirl: Glad to provide encouragement!
Annie: It's depressing what commodification is doing to the arts in general. Well, we still have the older works that were created before it got like this.
Certainly small donations can add up to make a difference. We do need to get aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan unstuck, but a lot of Republicans do support those, and the Democrats seem to be adept at handling that kind of problem.
Elon Musk gets more loathsome every time he appears in the news, it seems.
Thanks for your posts!
Post a Comment
<< Home