From Pine View Farm

Political Theatre category archive

Russian Impulses 0

Thom wonders why Trump hung a picture of Putin in the White House.

Share

A Tune for the Times 0

From the Youtube page:

There are obviously lots of angles to this story, and it’s dangerous to wade into things without knowing how they will play out. So we waited to see if anything positive might emerge after the initial assassination of the despicable Khamenei (whose name was in an early draft of a chorus), and what the Trump administration/regime’s purported rationale was … and over subsequent days as we watched the grotesque media performances by Hegseth, the missiles killing children not just tyrants, and the escalation of damage and casualties without any sign of a coherent policy or endgame, we made the song about how it’s dangerous to wade into things without knowing how they’re going to play out.

Share

War and Mongers of War, One More Time 0

Series of victory posters:  Frame One:  Pete Hegseth says,

Click for the original image.

Share

Just Deserts, Reprise 0

Warning: Mild language.

Share

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

Via The Japan Times, Princeton University professor Harold James hears a rhyme with a British accent. Here’s a bit from his article:

But while the U.K. does offer a cautionary tale, it is not the one MAGA has in mind. Rather than indulging in anti-immigration culture wars, Trump and his followers’ time would be better spent examining how Britain struggled with the loss of global preeminence. No other country’s recent past offers a clearer preview of America’s potential future.

Note that he said “potential” future. Methinks his piece offers some hints as to how to make that potential impotent.

______________

*Mark Twain.

Share

Who Coulda Knowed? 0

Well, for that matter, anyone who was paying attention.

Share

The Lake Effect, the Rule of Lawless Dept. 0

At Above the Law, Liz Dye notes that

Right now would be a really good time for the US to have a direct line to speak to the Iranian people. A radio station, broadcasting directly into Iran from a friendly Gulf state like, say … Kuwait.

But we don’t because Arizona’s perennial loser Kari Lake pulled the plug last year on most of Radio Farda, which previously broadcast news in Farsi into Iran, along with much of Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the multiple outlets that fall under the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

She goes on to discuss a federal judge’s ruling that Lake’s doing so was illegal and unconstitutional. Follow the link to find out why.

(Broken link fixed.)

Share

A Tune for the Times 0

Share

Collateral Damage 0

Farron discusses how the Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill” has harmed health care.

Share

The Grand Plan 0

Donald Trump stands beneath a banner holding two thumbs up.  The banner reads, Whatever the MISSION is, I'll tell you when it's ACCOMPLISHED.

Click for the original image.

Afterthought:

I never anticipated in my wildest dreams that I would find myself a citizen of a rogue state.

Share

Republican Family Values 0

Picture of Donald Trump and a teenaged girl captioned,

Via Job’s Anger.

Share

A Tune for the Times 0

Share

True Deceiver, True Believers 0

Two men at a bar.  Man One:  Trump promised not to get us into any wars, then he goes to war with Iran.  Man Two:  He said he'd release the Epstein files, but, instead, he's hideing them.   Man One:  And, instead of draining the swamp, he's made it his persons fishing hole.  Man Two:  Say!  Has he been playing us fro fools all allong?  Man One:  Naw, It's Biden's fault.  Man Two:  Effin' Binde.  Bartender thinks,

Via Job’s Anger.

Share

Mullen It Over 0

Seth takes a closer look at Trump’s replacing Kristi Noem with Markwayne Mullen and the chaotic incompetence associated therewith.

Share

A Lesson Unlearnt 0

Methinks that the Trump maladministration is unaware of this distinction.

Share

The Rule of Lawless 0

Pam Bondi: La loi, c’est moi.

Share

The Intellectual Property Thief 0

Share

“There Is No Plan” 0

Mary Trump offers her take on why Trump mongered a war.

Share

The Rule of Lawless 0

Writing at the Psychology Today website, Chester H. Sunde argues that the writings of Plato can help us understand today. The whole article is quite interesting, but this bit, in which Sunde lists Plato’s hierarchy of governments, caught my eye:

Plato’s five-regime model in Books VIII and IX (of the Republic–ed.) describes how constitutions deteriorate: from aristokratia (governance by reason) through timokratia (governance by spirited honor-seeking), oligarkhia (governance by wealth-appetite), demokratia (governance by undiscriminating desire), and finally tyrannis (governance by lawless appetite). Each represents a different faculty occupying what Plato calls “the psyche’s throne” (553c-d). The tyrannical constitution is the bottom of the sequence. There is nowhere lower to go.

Where are we on the scale?

Read more »

Share

Republican Thought Police 0

At Above the Law, Joe Patrice explains what “best qualified applicant” means under the Trump maladministration. A snippet:

Anyway, in 2026, the Trump administration is conducting 1L job interviews with a White House official sitting in to vet the political loyalty of each candidate.

An email sent to Liberty University School of Law students over the weekend lays out, in refreshingly unvarnished terms, what the administration’s hiring pipeline actually looks like. And it’s exactly as bad as everyone suspected:

Share
From Pine View Farm
Privacy Policy

This website does not track you.

It contains no private information. It does not drop persistent cookies, does not collect data other than incoming ip addresses and page views (the internet is a public place), and certainly does not collect and sell your information to others.

Some sites that I link to may try to track you, but that's between you and them, not you and me.

I do collect statistics, but I use a simple stand-alone Wordpress plugin, not third-party services such as Google Analitics over which I have no control.

Finally, this is website is a hobby. It's a hobby in which I am deeply invested, about which I care deeply, and which has enabled me to learn a lot about computers and computing, but it is still ultimately an avocation, not a vocation; it is certainly not a money-making enterprise (unless you click the "Donate" button--go ahead, you can be the first!).

I appreciate your visiting this site, and I desire not to violate your trust.