From Pine View Farm

May, 2017 archive

Promises, Promises 0

Seth Meyers discusses how Donald Trump’s budget proposal violates his campaign promises about about health care, social security, etc., and wonders what would happen if Donald Trump the candidate met Donald Trump the president.

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Birds of a Feather 0

Donald Trump, the King of Saudi Arabia, and the Egyption dictator all cozied around the


Click for the original image.

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Dupes, Symps, and Fellow Travelers 0

It is quite possible, disturbingly well within the realm of possibility, that one of the dupes has been identified.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

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Twits on Twitter 0

Shorter Chris Freind: You can’t believe this twit.

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QOTD 0

Daniel J. Boorstin:

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.

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Down the Black Rabbit Hole 0

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BFFs 0

Title:  Sunset.  Image:  Donald Trump and Valdimir Putin in bathtubs side-by-side touching fingers and staring at a setting sun labeled


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Dick Polman has more. Here’s how he starts; follow the link for the rest:

It’s amazing how the Capitol Hill Republicans continue to beclown themselves in the service of Donald Trump. The more they try to minimize Kremlingate — as they did again yesterday, while questioning former CIA director John Brennan — the more they soil themselves.

Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, Brennan gave us the fullest public accounting thus far of Russia’s “aggressive” and “multifaceted” penetration of the ’16 presidential election — and he spoke openly of Russia’s “contacts and interactions” with people in the Trump campaign. We should thank the Republican committee members for making that possible, because it was their hapless questioning that prompted Brennan’s candor.

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All the News that Fits 0

Via Raw Story.

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No There There 0

Leonard Pitts, Jr., sums up contemporary “conservatism.”

One longs for an intellectually vibrant marketplace of ideas, but there is nothing intellectual or vibrant about what these days passes for conservatism. That once robust ideology has been shriveled by an intellectual dishonesty so profound that the same people who tirelessly investigated Barack Obama’s birth certificate and inveighed against his choice of mustard can look at the mountain of malfeasance rising from the White House and say with a shrug and all evident sincerity, “What evidence?”

The one constant in contemporary conservatism is adherence to what seems to be its core principle: Mean for the sake of mean.

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No Place To Hide 0

A columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle sums up Alexa (and all those other “digital assistants”).

“C’mon Caille, we can train her and everything. And she was a gift!”

“So was the Trojan Horse.”

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Looking for Little Marco 0

Daniel Ruth points out that it’s easier for members of Marco Rubio’s constituency to find Waldo than it is for them to find Little Marco.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Be polite to your pick-up.

An off-duty New York City corrections officer has accidentally shot himself and a woman after he dropped his gun while talking to her in a bar.

The officer was speaking to an unidentified woman Tuesday night when he dropped his gun and it went off, hitting one of his fingers and the woman’s foot.

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GOP Health (Don’t Call It) Care 0

Today’s Republican Party is a vile and loathsome thing.

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QOTD 0

Philo:

Those who give hoping to be rewarded with honor are not giving, they are bargaining.

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Take a Break 0

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Signs of the Times 0

Seal of the President of the United States displaying


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“Unpresidented” 0

Der Spiegel takes a look at Donald Trump’s first three months in office. What they see is not pretty. A nugget (emphasis added):

On Wednesday, a few hours before the special counsel was set loose on him, Donald Trump was standing before the graduates of the Coast Guard Academy. He was supposed to hold an inspiring talk, to spread a positive message, as one does at graduation speeches. Instead, he once again spoke about himself. “Over the course of your life, you will find that things are not always fair,” he said to the graduating students. “Look at the way I’ve been treated, especially by the media,” Trump said. “No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly.

“No politician in history. Not Nelson Mandela. Not Mahatma Gandhi, not John F. Kennedy. Him. There stood a billionaire, inhabiting the most powerful office in the world, complaining about how unfair the world was. Because there seems to be one rule with Donald Trump: He is never to blame, even though almost everything currently happening to him is his fault.

Do read the rest.

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Old Wine In Neo Bottles 0

Thom summarizes the history and failure of Neo-Liberalism, in particular its role in molding oligarchies.

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Trumpling the Separation of Powers 0

Jill Abramson discerns a disturbing drift towards despotism. An excerpt:

America’s founding fathers were deathly afraid of centralised, absolute power. This is why the government they structured had three equal branches, and plenty of checks and balances. And the first amendment is first for a reason. Freedom of the press is guaranteed because the founders envisaged the press as a bulwark against absolute power. This goes to the heart of who we are, and what we might become.

This is American law for dummies, but Trump gives no indication of knowing its basic tenets. Fundamentals bear repeating. No one in the United States has absolute power or an absolute right to do anything that violates the constitution. But apparent violations seem to be occurring almost daily.

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Facebook Frolics 0

Secessionist frolics.

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