From Pine View Farm

November, 2019 archive

Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Thomas Hills looks at the impeachment inquiry and partisanship and the factors that are contributing to the latter.

Here’s a snippet (emphasis added); follow the link for the rest. It is worth your while.

The psychological research on interpersonal conflict shows that when grievances arise, each side tends to bias the evidence in ways that support their own position. A study by Baumeister and colleagues found that perpetrators and victims basically build dual worlds of facts to justify their opposing positions. Victims see violence towards them as arbitrary and gratuitous and often coming in a long series of injustices. Perpetrators, on the other hand, feel their actions are provoked, justified, and one-off events effectively designed to “correct” imbalances.

The implication may be that no one has objective access to the truth and all sides are equally wrong. However, that is the wrong take-home message.

The “there is no truth” argument is of course exactly what the guilty side of any argument would like you to believe. . . .

Elsewhere in the article, he argues that the roots of this political conflict go back to the Vietnamese War.

I think he’s right about the roots being in a war, but he missed the war by about 100 years.

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The True Believer 0

Man wearing MAGA hat, QAnon tee shirt, and sour look.  Woman bystander asks,

Via Juanita Jean.

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QOTD 0

Lionel Shriver:

Reality doesn’t have to be plausible. Reality can be as preposterous as it pleases.

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The Entitlement Society 0

Bruce Lowery argues that a law suit about a wine-stained $30,000 hand bag denotes a society that’s out of hand. A snippet:

In this case is exposed all the vanity and banality about class and greed and excess, and about the ugliness that lies below the surface of this nation’s well-chronicled “wealth gap,” but is splayed open from time to time, like a shiny pearl, for all to see.

Follow the link for the hard-to-believe details.

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Grepping for Gullibility 0

Writing at Psychology Today Blogs, Christopher Dwyer explores seven reasons why persons fall for fake news and steps to counter them.

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Facebook Frolics 0

Defamatory frolics.

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Misdirection Play, Faux Hunters Dept. 0

Wheel of Fortune type setting with board reading

Via Balloon Juice.

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Tunes for the Times 0

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In It for the Money 0

Shaun Mullen throws the book at John Bolton.

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A Picture Is Worth 0

Goat:  Whatca doing, Pig?  Pig:  I just joined Twitter, but I'm not sure what to do next.  Goat:  Well, you send out a tweet.  (Pig tweets out

Click for the original image.

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QOTD 0

Harry Shearer:

You know what I call early adopters? Beta testers.

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Break Time 0

Off to drink liberally.

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The Beseiged 0

Steven M. takes issue with Bloomberg’s Eli Lake, who argues that the impeachment of Donald Trump makes Trump look weak. Rather, Steven suggests that Donald Trump’s supporters view it otherwise. A snippet:

To his fans, President Trump is both powerful and besieged. Sure, they believe he smites his enemies on a daily basis, but they also believe that his enemies are extraordinarily powerful supervillains who never relent in their campaign to sabotage his presidency (and to sabotage all the good things in America, like the Second Amendment and the Wall).

(snip)

Right-wing voters have been this way for decades. Nixon, Reagan, Gingrich, George W. Bush — no matter how much power they had, there was always a sinister cabal of establishmentarians threatening to bring them down.

I commend the entire piece to your attention.

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Twits on Twitter 0

Twits who can’t get it right.

Afterthought:

Yeah, I know. That’s redundant, ain’t it?

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Facebook Frolics 0

Investigating a frolic.

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Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0

Trumpling a mayor-elect.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness goes to the dogs.

The Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man as 31-year-old Richard Jordan of Chatfield. This happened last Friday around 6:30 p.m. during an argument between Jordan and his girlfriend. It took place inside his residence at the 13,000 Block of Highway 52 SE.

At one point, the woman said she fell to the ground. Deputies said the argument escalated, and the dog tried to protect the woman by nipping at Jordan.

Jordan then allegedly shot the family dog with a 12 gauge shotgun and left the scene. The dog was an 8-year-old pitbull lab mix.

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Virginia Beach Drinking Liberally Today 0

Join us the discuss the recent state and local election or whatever else is on your mind.

When: Thursday, November 14, 6 p. m.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

Read the chapter blog and sign up to have your inbox flooded with one or two emails a month here.

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QOTD 0

Alf Landon:

I would say practical progressive, which means that the Republican party or any political party has got to recognize the problems of a growing and complex industrial civilization. And I don’t think the Republican party is really wide awake to that.

Afterthought:

Ya think?

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Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0

Yet another schoolyard Trumpling.

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