From Pine View Farm

“That Conversation about Race” category archive

Look! Over There! This New Gilded Age Dept. 0

Steve M. dissects the Republican Party’s misdirection play. A snippet:

Its (the Republican Party’s–ed.) main goal was to cut taxes on the rich, cut regulations for big corporations, and slash the social safety net. It’s an agenda that’s not easy to sell to voters — so, over the years, the GOP has distracted voters from this agenda by stirring up anger and hate. The GOP knew that Fox News, talk radio, and right-wing online publications were building party loyalty, and they gave propagandists more or less free rein to make voters angry at immigrants, Black people, white liberals, the media, gay people, feminists, entertainers, and gun-control advocates (that’s a partial list).

Share

The Bad Bunny Hop 0

John Young explains that he watched the Super Bowl Bowl half time show despite having no interest in the game itself (his favorite team didn’t make it) so as to show support for Bad Bunny and disdain for those who claim that that American citizen somehow isn’t American. Here’s a bit of his article:

So I could imagine the self-parody of Turning Point USA “alternative halftime programming” advertised as “celebrating faith, family and freedom.”

“Faith”: Let us venerate the least religious — and most Bible-illiterate, and meanest — president in history, yet one who plays the religious right like a harpsichord.

“Family”: Again, we shall venerate the least family-devoted president in history — bedding multiple beauties with wife No. 3 at home, adjudicated for sexual assault and 34 felonies. Most famous quote: “Grab ‘em by the pussy.” In what chapter of the New Testament is that? Whatever, lead us in song, Kid Rock.

“Freedom”: Three cheers from the MAGA choir for immigration agents as they kill and obliterate God-given rights like habeas corpus and due process. That’s next to godliness if the detainee’s skin is brown.

Share

American Stasi, Reprise 0

Farron comments on the Trump maladministration’s project to build concentration camps and the implications thereof.

Share

American Stasi 0

Title:  DHS Reduces Personnel in Minnesota.  Image:  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, minus one horseman.

Click for the original image.

Share

Apparently, History Isn’t 0

Field wonders why the heck are people acting so surprised that Donald Trump did something racist.

Share

Sheets Creep 0

Donald Trump, dressed in white sheet and hood and holding cell phone displaying the

Click for the original image.

Share

Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

Bob Cesca looks at Donald Trump’s post to “social” media of Barack and Michelle Obama apes and states the obvious that too many ignore, or, worse, deny.

The gist:

And the truth is, racism has always been the iron core of the MAGA movement.

Follow the link for the evidence.

Share

American Stasi 0

Thom says they should be called what they are: not “detention centers,” but “concentration camps.”

Share

Both Sides Don’t, Reprise 0

Title:

Click for the original image.

Share

The Rebel Tell 0

In its editorial calling out the Trump maladministration’s violation of the Constitution in arresting Don Lemon, a journalist, for having the unmitigated gall to practice journalism, my local rag makes this telling observation:

The president also reserves his ugliest invectives for journalists of color, especially female reporters, whom he often decries as “low I.Q.” and worse — terms he never uses when criticizing white reporters.

I commend the entire piece to your attention.

Share

Shrinking Violence 0

Masked man wearing an ICE vest and holding a gun on the couch at a shrink's office.  Man says,

Click for the original image.

Share

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

UGa history professor Stephen Mihm hears the Trump maladministration’s ICE shaking down brown people and hears a rhyme. Here’s a bit:

This is yet another moment when a little history might have helped Donald Trump. The president is apparently blissfully unaware that many attempts to deploy the federal government to impose unpopular policies on an unwilling populace don’t just fail – they end up destroying those foolish enough to wield that power in the first place.

Case in point: the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a deeply unpopular law that effectively radicalized large swaths of the American electorate. It led to widespread civil disobedience, the destruction of a major political party and, thankfully, accelerated the end of slavery itself. Its lessons are ones Republicans should ponder – and fast.

_________________

*Mark Twain.

Share

The Rule of Lawless 0

Home invasions. It’s an American Stasi thing.

And, in more news of the American Stasi. . . .

Share

American Stasi 0

Another woman’s story.

Share

Immunity Impunity 0

My old Philly DL friend Noz has some thoughts on what must be done if the American Stasi is to redirected from their current path of trampling on rights and violating Constitutional protections.

Share

The Good Old Days 0

Man and woman on street corner looking at sign that reads,

Click for the original image.

Share

Republican Thought Police 0

In the midst of a longer article about the Trump maladministration’s attempt to white-wash America’s history, Diane Carman succintly sums up what’s going on:

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum followed through, ordering officials at national parks and historic sites across the country to replace anything that might be upsetting to visitors with “content that focuses on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”

But apparently only the white ones.

Share

American Stasi 0

MIT professor and Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu is not sanguine. A snippet:

Most significantly, however, by granting ICE agents de facto immunity, the Trump administration has given them a green light to ratchet up their violent tactics.

If this violence goes unchecked, it could indeed be a turning point, because it will create a template for other security forces more closely aligned with Trump to use force against any manifestation of opposition. In that case, the slide toward an authoritarian regime could become difficult to reverse, as civil society becomes prostrate in the face of mounting repression and the norms against such crackdowns become steadily eroded.

Already, the two branches of government that are supposed to check the presidency (Congress and the Supreme Court) have proven to be highly solicitous of Trump’s agenda.

Afterthought:

I question his use of the term “Trump’s agenda.” Me-me-me-me may be motivation, but I don’t think it rises to the level of “agenda.”

“Agenda” implies a coherent strategy, not an incoherent one.

Share

A Tune for the Times 0

Share

“She Was Just Following Orders” 0

David hears Kristi Noem say something that rhymes with the Nuremberg trials.

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.