newyorkinstinct

I take it you only want the read more to work? Text and images do not link?
post this in blog page settings advanced code injection.  
<style> thumbnail-container { pointer-events: none !important; } <style>

Try this in custom css, remove the other code first from blog page. Your hyperlink url is offsite so it makes a bit trickier.  
.summary-thumbnail-container { pointer-events: none !important; }

We need to narrow it down a bit:
.blog-item-summary-thumbnail-container { pointer-events: none !important; }