From Pine View Farm

July, 2020 archive

The Rule of Lawless 0

What Atrios said.

Experiments fail, even noble ones.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Republican Family Values, Suffer the Children Dept. 0

AZCentral’s Elvia Diaz wants to know what ICE is doing to the children.

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Taken to the Cleaners, Reprise 0

Scott Martelle follows the money.

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Taken to the Cleaners 0

David follows the money (Warning: 20 second ad at the beginning).

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Strategizing in These Viral Times 0

Donald Trump and Dr. Fauci arm wrestling on a table labeled

Click for the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness takes a hike.

A Missouri hiker who was carrying a loaded handgun in his backpack was accidentally shot July 19 when he set the pack down on a rock and the gun discharged.

Musical NotesGuns and stupid, guns and stupid,
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you, brother,
You can’t have one without the other.

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Dis Coarse Discourse 0

Driftglass points out that it’s not a level playing field.

(Syntax error fixed.)

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QOTD 0

Phil Donahue:

To a journalist, good news is often not news at all.

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“But It’s the Only Possible Explanation . . . .” 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Jade Wu takes a look at why persons are susceptible to conspiracy theories and how said theories take root. Here’s one of the reasons she offers as to the latter factor (emphasis in the original); follow the link for the complete article and citations.

2. It’s not about the specific content. You may think how well a conspiracy theory takes root in someone’s mind depends on how credible the theory is, but content really isn’t that important here. Whether someone adopts a conspiracy theory or not depends more on their overall proneness to believe in conspiracies in the first place.

(snip)

In other words, the act of believing in conspiracy theories is its own fuel. The more we believe in one, the more likely we are to believe in others, even if they’re contradictory.

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Facebook Frolics 0

Unmasked frolics.

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The Disinformation Superhighway 0

The Denver Post, in an AP article, explores the role of “social” media in promoting anti-social behavior in these viral times.

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“An Armed Society is a Polite Society” 0

Be polite to our furry friends.

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All the News that Fits 0

Steven M. looks askance at the slanted news coverage emanating from (primarily) right-wing news corporations (I’m not talking about Twitter twits or Facebook frolickers or wacky websites here), particularly Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting.

But that’s only part of the story.

Con artists cannot succeed without easy marks, and the United States has more than its share of persons willing to believe anything that props up their prejudices and bolsters their bigotry, despite the evidence of objective reality, sometimes despite the evidence of their own eyes.

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Nowhere To Go 0

PoliticalProf.

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Maskless Malarkey 0

Two men sitting on bench, one wearing a mask and one not.  The one without a mask says,

Click to view the original image.

In related news, my local rag ran an article yesterday about how to counter arguments advanced by those who willfully endanger others refuse to wear masks.

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QOTD 0

Marcus Tullius Cicero:

Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Don’t be packing when you’re tacking.

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“Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV” 0

Donald Trump holds up paper dolls which he has cut from the U. S. Constitution as doctor checks off block on a

Via The Bob Cesca Show Blog.

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“Smart” Homes, Dumb Home Owners 0

I wouldn’t have one of those “smart speakers” in my home on a bet.

If Big Data wants to spy on me, they can do it the old fashioned way and peer through my windows, but I will damned if I voluntarily invite their monitoring devices into my house. Heck, it’s difficult enough to fend them off in my web browser.

(I learned of this news story because I listen to Le Show and you should to.)

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