From Pine View Farm

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Platform 2025 2024 0

In 2020, the Republican Party did not adopt a platform, This year, they have, and, as David points out, it is absolutely disconnected from reality nuts. (Warning: Short commercial at the end.)

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Fly the Fiendly Skies 0

They get fiendlier every day.

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This New Gilded Age 0

At Above the Law, Olga V. Mack talks with Richard Finkelman of the Berkley Research Group about the recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta finding Google guilty of monopolistic practices.

Given the extent to which we rely search engines and Big Tech in our daily lives, I think it a worthwhile read.

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Stray Question 0

If Donald Trump were Pinocchio, just how long would his nose be?

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Facebook Frolics 0

Dis coarse discourse just keeps getting coarser.

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QOTD 0

W. E. B. Du Bois:

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.

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Recommended Reading 0

If you are a mystery buff, as I am, you might want to take look at Alison Golden’s cozies.

When it comes to tight plots, Agatha Christie she’s not, but she brings her characters to life.

The only nit I have to pick is that she seems to think that “all right” is one word, misplet as “alright.”

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A Case of Whine 0

Tom Hilton notes that characterizing today’s Republican Party as “weird” seems to have gained a foothold. Nevertheless, he thinks another “W” word might also be appropriate (emphasis in the original).

But I’m wondering if there might also be gold in another, more Trump-specific line of attack. Because the thing is, Trump is just really, really whiny.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

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Pinball Lizard 0

Martin Schram looks at Donald Trump’s recent Mar-a-Lago they-called-it-a press conference and gets transported to the past. An excerpt:

Trump performed much like those steel pinballs that bounced and banged off spring-cushioned blobs beneath the glass tops of those flashing, clanging bar game machines that were all the rage in the last century. Trump bounced and banged from one false claim to nasty name calling to fake statistics to feel-good promises and then back to the next false claim.

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

At the Portland Press-Herald, Michael Jones makes a declaration of hearing a most resounding rhyme.

_________________

*Mark Twain.

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Genius at Work 0

Man and woman standing at mailbox.  Man says to woman,

Click to view the original image.

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Twits on Twitter X Offenders 0

Sam listened to Elon Musk “interview” Donald Trump so we don’t have to.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society’ 0

Another case of neighborly politeness.

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Groundwork 0

Bernie Sanders argues that, in pretending that Kamala Harris’s crowds do not exist, Donald Trump is gearing up for big lie redux. Here’s a bit:

Sanders argued there is a “method” to Trump’s “madness.”

“Clearly, and dangerously, what Trump is doing is laying the groundwork for rejecting the election results if he loses. If you can convince your supporters that thousands of people who attended a televised rally do not exist, it will not be hard to convince them that the election returns in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and elsewhere are ‘fake’ and ‘fraudulent,’” Sanders wrote.

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QOTD 0

Martin Buber:

I do, indeed, close my door at times and surrender myself to a book, but only because I can open the door again and see a human face looking at me.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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“But It’s the Only Possible Explanation” 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Matthew J. Sharps explores some of the factors that lead persons to see conspiracies where none exist. Given the debased state of dis coarse discourse, I find it a timely read. A snippet:

One major answer lies in the concept of apophenia, the detection of patterns which simply do not exist among apparently related phenomena. Although sometimes more random, these patterns are frequently based on our prior frameworks for understanding. There is a related perceptual process, pareidolia, in which meaningful images, especially faces, can turn up where they do not in fact exist. A person might see a smiling face in the two fried eggs (for the eyes) and the bent strip of bacon (for the mouth) on a breakfast plate. Others might see an alien spaceship in the planet Venus (the celestial object most mistaken for a UFO/UAP); and if those individuals have prior beliefs in a flying-saucer-infested world, it may not be too difficult for them to believe in platoons of Federal Klingons at Area 51, or in their free-range counterparts under Mount Shasta.

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Patriot Gamers 0

David Hyde has had enough.

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“But They All Look Alike” 0

(Warning: short commercial at the end. And our cats prefer kibbles. Honest to Betsy, I can open a can of tuna and they couldn’t care less.)

I’m a Southern boy.

I grew up under Jim Crow and went to segregated schools. I was there when they were desegregated.

You really can’t get much more racist than “they all look alike.”

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A Size Matter 0

Trump plane in airport surrounded by on-lookers.  One voice from the plane says,

Click for the original image.

At NJ.com, Kevin Manahan has commentary.

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