Link round-up for 5 April 2025

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

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Enjoy some bad art from the Middle Ages.

Behold the works of stupid people.

Being a baseball pitcher can be dangerous, apparently.

Don't fall asleep on the job (link from SickoRicko).

This cat is just being an asshole.

Here's how to identify a rural church.

Hey!  Are you a paying passenger?

When trying to stick to exercising, having inspiration helps.

Prepare the artillery -- and fire!

Ready, aim -- and fire!

It's a motorbike schoolbus.

These cartoons are for the birds.

She's very good at handling balls.

Is this what they mean by Apple TV?

Be careful around treadmills, especially if you are an idiot (link from SickoRicko).

A few narrow escapes here.

He put a new skill to use.

This bird must have been a man in a previous life.

He apparently takes passengers.

Zelda lets you know what she wants.

Do you see it now?

It might be impossible to exorcise an atheist ghost.

Just remember to dig up your stuff when you leave.

It's not easy to find your spare keys in the house when all you can see is the inside of the car (this is a bit creepy).

Some unusual interior decorating here.  And this is over-the-top.

Space-related bead art here.

Cas d'intérêt gets some well-deserved recognition.

Kanzi the bonobo, who expanded our understanding of ape intelligence and language ability, has died.  He was 44.

Wild bonobo calls seem to have some features in common with human language.

Infant mortality continues to decline dramatically.  Even in the least-developed countries it's now less than a third of what it was in 1990.

The places where people tend to live the longest have something in common.

US life expectancy lags far behind that of other advanced countries.  Even rich Americans have life expectancies comparable with poor western Europeans.

Good example here of the gulf between "AI" trash and real art.

Interesting Cybertruck fact here.

Windows 11 will soon force you to create an account in order to install it, and will otherwise boss you around more.

Apparently uBlock Origin has stopped working on YouTube for some people.  It still works fine for me, but if you're having a problem, here's a claimed solution.

Here's how to permanently disable and remove all the "AI" features in Firefox.

Don't outsource your mind.

Here are some internet jackasses -- don't be like them (please note:  this blogger prefers not to get political comments).

It was a small gesture of humanity.

The shit just keeps getting shittier.

Public rejection of "AI" is starting to influence corporate behavior.

Flu deaths are on the rise as anti-vax idiocy spreads.  New government policies will make it worse.

Here stands a monument to some brave men.

Links here about how to protect your rights while at a protest.

"It's perfectly normal woman behavior."

French cartoonists take on the mess unfolding in the US.

Since Trump took over the Kennedy center, more and more performers are refusing to appear there.

Only 16% of self-identified Christians in the US believe in the Trinity, a core Christian doctrine.  Only 53% of them believe "that God exists and affects people's lives".  So 47% of Americans who claim to be Christian either don't believe in God or don't believe he affects people's lives?  Recall this link two weeks ago, revealing that 70% of self-identified Catholics in the US support same-sex marriage and 59% support abortion rights.  About two-thirds of Americans claim to be Christian, but are many of them actually Christian in any meaningful sense?

Here's more on the Tesla Day of Action last Saturday, from The Verge and Daily Kos.  See also reports from Rockville MD and Camarillo CA.  Someone set this up at a protest in London.  Tesla stock dropped again after the Day of Action.  Keep up the pressure.

Far-right "militias" such as the Proud Boys turned out to oppose a few of the Tesla protests -- which won't do much for the brand's image.

Tesla's first-quarter sales figures are out, and they're terrible.

Annie Asks You blog assesses Cory Booker's speech.

Idaho has instituted the death penalty for pedos.  It will be interesting to see if there's a sudden exodus of Catholic priests from the state.

83% of Americans, including 78% of Republicans, agree that Trump must obey Supreme Court rulings.  70% oppose impeaching judges for ruling against him.

It's no wonder people are losing respect for their congresscritters and senators when they react to voter concerns by changing the subject and spouting clichés.

Last month, over half of the hate crimes in New York city targeted just one group.

Get back to work, you lazy büngwads.  One vote goes against the boss and everybody just takes the rest of the week off?  No private-sector workforce could get away with this.  If the rules require it, change the rules.  This is ridiculous.

Being a jackass in a public restroom won't accomplish anything.

Could Trump legally finagle a third term?  It's not as clear-cut as you'd think.

Even collaborators will be betrayed.

See normal people react to billionaire Trumpazoid Howard Lutnick's disgusting bullshit about Social Security.  Lutnick is now trying to backpedal.

There is no innate right to trample on everyone else's rights.

Today is the day of the planned "Hands Off" nationwide protests.  Blogger Rade organized a protest in Rhode Island, only to see some participants back out due to fear of retaliation (but see my comment there on why such fears are probably unjustified).

A federal judge has ruled that Alabama can't prosecute people for helping women travel out of state for abortions.

The Trumpified CDC is hiding information about the measles outbreak and fudging the truth about vaccines.

Don't fly American Airlines until they fix their attitude about women passengers.

RFK Jr is hard at work buggering up the Department of Health and Human Services.

Politico is reporting that Elon Musk will soon leave his role in the government.  The Trump administration has denied the report, but Musk himself has recently suggested the same.

Red-district voters express their fury at no-show congresscritters in "empty chair" town halls across the country.

Interesting analysis here of what Trump is doing.  In the long run it's not even in the interest of the super-rich; he may get them some more tax breaks, but he's also trying to destroy the structure of predictable government policy and the rule of law on which capitalism depends.  "If you want to chuckle ruefully to yourself, think about all of the corporate executives who were mad at Joe Biden because he wanted mildly higher taxes and the right of unions to exist and therefore supported Donald Trump, who is busy replacing the world's most sophisticated corporate legal regime with a system in which you must grovel at his toes in a ridiculous red hat in order to get anything done."  Trump isn't playing 3D chess; he's not carrying out some master plan to turn the US into Nazi Germany.  He's just what he appears to be -- a petty little bully obsessed with vendettas against perceived enemies, probably suffering from dementia, and perhaps literally insane.

Paul Krugman basically concurs.

Free speech must be protected, even for the vilest opinions.

Trump's tariffs are very likely to cause a depression.  They're based on absolutely illogical nonsense.  Here's a scathing assessment by The Economist magazine in the UK.  Congress needs to act -- some Senate Republicans are trying to do so, but there's no sign of movement in the House yet.

Here are some basics on how trade actually works, and why the tariffs make no sense.

A right-wing group is suing to stop the tariffs.

Canada is responding with an ad campaign in US swing states.

California is trying to work around the tariffs and negotiate separate trade deals on its own.

This may be why the tariffs target some uninhabited islands.

Portland's mayor is trying to force work-from-home employees back to the office, provoking a huge backlash.  The previous mayor tried the same thing.  These asshole politicians seem determined to prove that they're no friends of the workers.

A Republican proposal to abolish Oregon's vote-by-mail system is provoking heavily negative public comment.  It has no chance of passing anyway, given the large Democratic majorities in our state legislature.

Interesting and disturbing info here on leaving Mormonism.

The new chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus wants the Democratic party to re-connect with working-class concerns and emphasize economic populism.

Here's what it's like aboard ICE's charter deportation flights.

Voters in Louisiana rejected four Republican-backed amendments to the state constitution, by large margins.

Trump's blundering, bullying, and failures are ruining his "strong man" image.

West Virginia farmers are feeling the impact of Trumpist spending cuts.

JK Rowling has worked hard to bring Britain back to sanity, and it's becoming clear that she's won the fight.

More Jew-hatred in Amsterdam, with little sign of pushback.  These people are sick.

Greenlanders would lose big if they traded Danish rule for American.

Sweden has committed to a new $1.6 billion military aid package for Ukraine.  The country has donated $8 billion in total so far.

For the first time since World War II, Germany is deploying troops near Russia's border, to bolster the defense of Lithuania.

In France, unlike here, leaders who commit crimes receive penalties.

For now, American-made munitions are still being put to good use by Ukraine.

US and Israeli airstrikes have destroyed most of the Houthi jihadists' missile arsenal.

More links at Red State Blues, WAHF, and Chop Wood Carry Water.

My posts this week:  The Tesla Day of Action, an image round-up, a video on tariffs, a brief note on Crawford's win, and some tips on frequently-confused words.

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Much thanks to those who leave supportive comments on my posts or link to them from your own blogs.  You're a big part of what keeps me going here.

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His mind is going.  He sounds like a toddler throwing tantrums.