From Pine View Farm

January, 2023 archive

A Pillow of the Community 0

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The Gaslighting 0

Cartoon satirizing right-wing freak-out over gas stoves.

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The Crypto Con 0

Where were Crockett and Tubbs when Miami needed them?

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Metastatic Malignancy 0

Robert Reich has qualms about Facebook’s Meta’s and Twitter’s decisions to allow Trump back on their platforms. A snippet; follow the link for the rest of his thoughts on this matter.

“The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying — the good, the bad and the ugly — so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box,” wrote Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs and the U.K.’s former deputy prime minister, in a blog post announcing the decision.

With due respect to Nick Clegg, this is rubbish. Trump is far worse than an ugly politician. He’s a dangerous traitor to American democracy.

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Can You Spot the Difference? 0

Frame One:  White guy in car in traffic stop talking on his cell phone says,

Via Job’s Anger.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Just a little friendly politeness . . . .

We are a society of stupid.

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All That Was Old Is New Again 0

At NJ.com, Keith E. Benson points out that the right-wing’s ginned up outrage over critical race theory (which, again, is a graduate-level subject not taught in primary and secondary schools) is part of a long pattern. Here’s a tiny bit of his article:

The decrying of CRT is part of a long American tradition of white backlash that is aided by a well-funded conservative messaging apparatus skilled in amplifying white rage for political gain based on misinformation in efforts to protect whiteness and the societal benefits it provides white Americans.

Under cover of opposing CRT, the right and the racists they wish to rally have gone farther. As noted elsewhere in these electrons, they are using CRT as a smokescreen to whitewash (a most appropriate term) America’s history of slavery and discrimination against and exploitation of black persons and other minorities. They want to go back to teaching the same sort of sanitized history that I was taught in the olden days, when I was a young ‘un, in Virginia’s segregated school system.

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QOTD 0

Sherri S. Tepper:

There is a kind of animal frenzy can be whipped up sometimes among fools and children, often using religion as an excuse for it. When it happens, it is wise to be elsewhere.

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And Now for a Change of Pace 0

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“The Sociopath Party” 0

Thom catalogs the crazy.

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Righteous Outrage 0

MAGA-hatted man says,

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If You Don’t Talk about It, It Didn’t Happen 0

Shevrin Jones decodes Florida Man’s code. A bit of the translation (emphasis added):

American history and African American history are inseparable. This nation was founded, and its economy was based, on the backs of enslaved people. Florida is doing its best to tilt the scales and shut down important, much-needed discussions of race, slavery, stolen lands and undeniable history that have led to where we are as a society today. By promoting education policy defined by repression, the governor and his administration have sent a distinct message: The lives and contributions of African Americans are not pertinent to children’s understanding of the country in which they live.

I commend the entire article to your attention.

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The Crypto Con 0

How it works, spelled out in pictures.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

The hunt for politeness continues.

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Twits Own Twitter 0

A twit who prefers to keep his eyes closed to reality.

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QOTD 0

Karl Krauss:

The tyranny of necessity grants its slaves three kinds of freedom: opinion free from intellect, entertainment free from art, and orgies free from love.

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Unfunny Business 0

David tries to decipher right-wing I-guess-they-call-it humor.

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Immunity Impunity 0

I suspect that I am not alone in avoiding watching the video of five Memphis, Tennessee, police officers murdering Tyre Nichols. I can be aware of it without subjecting myself to experiencing it in a (quasi-)first-hand manner.

Commenters routinely point out that both the victim and the perpetrators were black. Some would use this to argue that racism was not a factor, as if to pretend that America’s history of institutionalized and societal racism somehow does not insidiously affect everyone in some way or another.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Kevin Cokley considers this event and its implications. Here’s a short excerpt (emphasis added); the entire piece is worth you while.

Let’s be clear that just because the police officers are Black does not mean that institutional racism was not involved. One of the lessons we should learn from this is that Black people can be pawns in the perpetuation of institutional racism. This is one of the reasons why focusing on individual acts of racism is an insufficient intervention for ending anti-Black racism. Racism is embedded in institutional culture, policies, and practices. It was acceptable to all five officers to brutalize Tyre and to the other officers who were privy to their actions. This speaks to the culture of policing that is all too prevalent in many police departments.

(Broken link fixed.)

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The Gateway to NRA Paradise 0

Gun store manned by clerk wearing an NRA tee-shirt.  Behind, bodies lying in a pool of blood.

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The Bedrock of All Belief 0

Two passers-by look at a chapel fronted by a sign reading,

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