From Pine View Farm

February, 2025 archive

A Tune for the Times 0

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Vaccine Nation 0

In an article at the Washington Monthly, Bill Scher admits that he is less than sanguine about the Republican Party’s decision to abandon medical science. Here’s a tiny bit of his article (emphasis added):

Trump’s ability to escape lasting blame for his disastrous pandemic response has led Republicans to make quackery a pillar of the party. Support for childhood vaccination among Republicans has plummeted, which helps explain why a measles outbreak in rural Texas has already killed one child. Across the country, GOP lawmakers have enacted a raft of legislation weakening vaccine mandates. And, of course, Trump and nearly every Senate Republican placed the nation’s most significant source of public health misinformation at the head of the Department of Health and Human Services: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Fears that the Kennedy appointment will lead to dire public health consequences ratcheted up this week with the abrupt cancellation of an annual Food and Drug Administration meeting necessary to select strains for the next flu season vaccine.

Sabotaging the flu vaccine will kill people.

(Broken link fixed.)

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The Agent of Chaos 0

At the Idaho State Journal, Kim Shinkoskey asks a question, then he answers it:

Have you ever heard of the phrase “domestic tranquility” in the writings of our nation’s founders? Today, Trump is aiming for domestic chaos . . . .

Follow the reasons for his answer.

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DOGE Bull 0

David lists the lies. (Warning: Short commercial at the end.)

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Establishmentarians 0

In a letter to the editor of the Portland Press Herald, the Rev. Dr. Douglas Nielsen suggests that America’s far-right evangelical they-call-themselves Christians may have mistaken an identity.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Party with politeness.

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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“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0

Michael in Norfolk perceives a rhyme in the news. A snippet:

If one studies how Hitler and the Nazi regime came to control news outlets and shut down independent media outlets, in addition to threats and intimidation, newspapers and journals had their office attacked and ransacked as a means of silencing them. Now, as we see America sliding towards oligarchy or even dictatorship, similar threats are being made . . . .

__________________

*Mark Twain.

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QOTD 0

Jeff Rich:

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

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Meta: Blogroll 0

I have removed a few sites which seem to have blog-faded from the blogroll. And I’ve added a new one.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Sauce for the Gander 0

Caption:  If Elon answered his own email.  Image:  Elon Musd faces a computer screen displaying the words,

Via Job’s Anger.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Emma talks with Syracuse University professor Austin Kocher about our immigration system is “brokent by design” and about the racism that underlies much anti-immigration feelings.

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Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

Frame One:  Donald Trump says,

Click for the original image.

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The Car Splotter 0

Florida Woman.

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This New Gilded Age 0

Robert Reich fears that the existence of independent regulatory agencies may be in the crosshairs of today’s Robber Barons, aided and abetted by the Trump (mal)administration and the Supreme Supremacist Court.

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True Believers 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Diane E Dreher discusses the research of psychiatrist Paul Holinger on the psychological reasons why persons may be attracted to extremist groups. Given dis coarse discourse, I think offers a valuable perspective.

Here’s a bit:

Extremist groups today offer emotionally distressed people an emotional home. They give these people a reason for what they feel, a sense of belonging, cohesion, and an outlet for their rage. Dr. Holinger also explains that extremist groups offer people someone to blame for their poor conditions, for “in order to be in this violent group, you’ve got to have an enemy.”

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QOTD 0

Anthony Trollope:

No man thinks there is much ado about nothing when the ado is about himself.

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Russian Impulses 0

Michael in Norfolk has more.

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Fiefdom of the Press 0

Person labeled

Click for the original image.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

In a longer article about how certain California Republican congresspersons have been–er–taken aback by negative reactions to Donald Trump’s pogrom crusade against immigrants, SFGate quotes a “social” media user who methinks sums it up succintly:

“This is not ‘common sense reform,’” one person commented under an Instagram video of Jones expressing his support for the bill. “This is bigotry wrapped with a bow.”

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