From Pine View Farm

Culture Warriors category archive

Republican Thought Police 0

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The Pettiest Officers 0

Andreas Kluth examines the maliciousness of what he calls “the petty purges of Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio” and concluces that

If this administration really thinks that national security is threatened by a refueling vessel named after a gay sailor, it deserves to enter history books as not just petty, but dangerously so.

Follow the link for his path to that conclusion.

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If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0

Red-hatted man in pickup truck festooned with the Stars and Bars and Trump flags yells at a protestor,

Click for the original image.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Seth notes that Donald Trump’s pogrom against immigrants appears to be less popular than he might have expected.

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The Trumpled Citizenship Test 0

Two ICE agents taking a brown-skinned man into custody.  The man says,

Via Job’s Anger.

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Republican Thought Police 0

The Arizona Republic’s Laurie Roberts writes about Arizona’ state Superintendent of Schools Tom Horne, who’s position on a history book that contains actual history can be summarized as “I haven’t read the book, and you shouldn’t either.”

I commend her article to your attention.

Aside:

As one who trained as an historian, I find today’s Republican Party’s efforts to claim that history wasn’t to be particularly offensive. And stupid. And insidiously, invidiously harmful to the polity.

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Masked Marauders 0

Thom argues that Trump has given a green light to racists to act like racists.

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

At the Washington Monthly, Garrett Epps hears a rhyme:

Trump’s experiment in rapid national disassembly echoes America’s near-death experiment in the years before the Civil War. In the past few days, we have passed what might be called the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 mark.

The struggle in the 1850s arose out of the federal government’s determination to return Black Americans to slavery (via the Fugitive Slave Act–ed.) even after they had escaped to the free North. What is happening on the streets of American cities—and most particularly, now, on the streets of Los Angeles—carries uncanny echoes of that decade-long battle, which ended in secession and Civil War.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

__________________

*Mark Twain.

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A Trumpled Taxonomy 0

Title:  A Field Guide to Civil Unrest, 2nd Edition.  Image:  Frame One;  Qanon Shaman and red-hatted man holding sign reading,

Via Job’s Anger.

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One Thing Is Not Like the Other Thing, Reprise 0

At AL.com, Jared Margulies, Emily Wittman, Janek Wasserman, and Luke Herrine, Jewish faculty members at the University of Alabama, argue that conflating opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza with antisemitism, as Alabama senator Katie Britt recently did, is a misdirection play. Given dis coarse discourse, methinks it a timely and worthwhile read. Here’s a tiny bit from early in the article:

We cannot help but feel Senator Britt’s Op-Ed is an act of misdirection. On the one hand, she ignores by far the most important source of antisemitism in the United States: the ever-growing support for open Jew hatred in her own Republican party. On the other hand, the Senator consistently conflates criticism of Israel and solidarity with Palestinian resistance with antisemitism. Taken together, the Op-Ed uses legitimate concern about antisemitism in America to argue for policies that will enable more antisemitic violence here in the United States while violently cracking down on righteous opposition to Israel’s ongoing genocide, including opposition expressed by Jews like us.

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The Re-Christening 0

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth smashes a bottle of chamgagne across the bow of the renamed USNS Harvey Milk, now named the USNS Bigot.

Via Job’s Anger.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Farron argues that Stephen Miller is upset because there’s no there there.

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One Thing Is Not Like the Other Thing 0

Wearing a mask to protect your health and slow the spread of a pandemic is not the same thing as wearing a mask to hide your identity while violating persons’ Constitutional rights, regardless of what some pipsqueak pol who’s in way over his head might say.

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Separation of Posers 0

Sam and the crew dissect Donald Trump’s feud with Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

At the Tampa Bay Times, John Hill debunks de bunk. A snippet (emphasis added):

If anything, the state looks foolish for having cried wolf about the need for a statewide immigration crackdown. Supporters sold the Florida law as a way to help the Trump administration deport people here illegally who committed violent crimes. At least 79 people have been arrested since Florida’s law went into effect, but only two were charged with a violent crime. Nearly a third have been charged with only an immigration offense. For dozens, their only alleged crime was driving without a license or a seat belt, or with expired tags. Sounds like a normal day on Florida’s roads to me.

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Space Debris 0

Title:  Mission Accomplished.  Image:  Missile labeled

Click to view the original image.

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“If We Don’t Talk about It, Then It Must Not Have Happened” 0

The Trump maladministration’s attempt to expurgate America’s history of the parts is doesn’t like continues apace.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Sam and the crew note that persons are starting to push back at ICE and its brown shirt tactics.

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“But It’s One of Them 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, psychology professor Todd Nelson considers why persons are so susceptible to prejudice–that is, prejudging others–and offers some suggestions as to how not to fall into the prejudice trap. Given that dis coarse discourse seems flooded by merchants of hate, I found it a timely read.

Here’s a tiny bit:

We are born with an innate tendency to automatically categorize things (Gardner 1985; Ramsey et al, 2004). That is very helpful and helps us move through life by not needing to analyze every object we see to determine what it is and what its function is. Automatic categorization helps us instantly make those judgments. The problem comes when we bring that to people. People aren’t homogeneous, based on a single feature or even several features. If I see a skinny man with glasses, I can’t assume he is an introvert who likes to read.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Sam and the crew dissect ICE’s new catch-22.

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