From Pine View Farm

2025 archive

QOTD 0

Plutarch:

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Jim Jones, writing at the Idaho State Journal, notices a pattern (emphasis added).

In a Thanksgiving posting on Truth Social, he vowed to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and end all federal benefits and subsidies for “non-citizens”, adding he would “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or “non-compatible with Western civilization.” If grandpa posted this kind of screed, we’d send him to a home.

The 19 countries targeted were identified in a proclamation issued by Trump in June. They are all poor countries with non-white populations. Although Trump characterizes them as being potentially harmful to “Americans or our national interests,” none of them are in a position to pose a credible threat to the United States. Of interest is the fact that several nations not on the list do have substantial lucrative business relationships with the Trump family and have been at odds with America’s national interests.

Read his entire piece for context.

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Suffer the Children 0

We are again reminded that that’s not scripture.

That’s a Republican family value.

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The Vending Machine 0

Machine labeled

Click for the original image.

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If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0

Just take a lesson from the Squeaker of the House.

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Russian Impulses 0

Via the Las Vegas Sun, Trudy Rubin warns that, to understand Donald Trump’s plan for peace in a piece of Ukraine, we need to follow the money.

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Republican Thought Police . . . 0

. . . Meet the Establishmentarian Thought Police.

(Yeah, I know. There’s a lot of overlap there . . . .)

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QOTD 0

John Barth:

Nothing is intrinsically valuable; the value of everything is attributed to it, assigned to it from outside the thing itself, by people.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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The War Gamer 0

The editorial board of the Japan Times looks at the statements and actions of Pete Hegseth, a Fox News weekend backbencher who somehow has ended up as Secretary of Defense (but who calls himself the Secretary of War), and argues that he is living out

. . . an adolescent’s fantasy about the military.

Follow the link for their reasoning.

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Extra-Special Bonus QOTD 0

Bob Cesca, commenting on how some right-wing commentators have delighted at the suffering inflicted by the Trump maladministraton’s attacks on Venezuelan fishing boats:

That’s the danger of populism–you’re so easily driven by reflecting the whim of the mob.

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Real Big Men 0

Or so they think.

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Actions Speak 0

Frame One:  Donald Trump says,

Click for the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

The hunt for politeness goes on.

A 26-year-old man was killed while hunting in a group of 24 during a “deer drive,” the Pennsylvania Game Commission said.

One wonders, was it the antlers or the fluffy little white tail?

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The Fog Machination 0

Susan Estrich notes that the phrase “the fog of war” doesn’t mean what Pete Hegseth seems to think it means. She points out that

It is not a defense to war crimes.

Follow the link to find out what it really means and how Hegseth is trying to hide himself in a fog of his own making.

(Misplet wrod correxted.)

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QOTD 0

W. E. B. Du Bois:

To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires.

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A Tune for the Times 0

(Warning: Mild language.)

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A step forward? SFGate’s Drew Magary minces no words:

. . . AI is garbage.

Follow the link for more unminced words.

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American Stasi 0

Sam and the crew discuss the elements of white nationalism and racism in the Trump maladministration’s crack down on immigrants brown people.

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