From Pine View Farm

Politics of Hate category archive

“Look in the Mirror, Boy!” 0

This article describes as clear a case of psychological projection as we are ever likely to see.

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

In an article about the mean for the sake of mean that the Trump maladministration is displaying toward immigrants, persons who look like immigrants, and even natural-born American citizens who happen to be brown, Gustavo Arellano hears a rhyme:

Under Noem’s leadership, DHS’ social media campaign has instead produced videos that call undocumented immigrants “the worst of the worst” and depict immigration agents as heroes called by God to confront invading hordes. A recent one even used the theme song to the cartoon version of the Pokémon trading card game – tagline “Gotta catch them all” – to imply going after the mango guy and tamale lady is no different than capturing fictional monsters.

That’s one step away from “The Eternal Jew,” the infamous Nazi propaganda movie that compared Jews to rats and argued they needed to be eradicated.

_____________–

*Mark Twain.

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Separation of Church and State 0

Der Spiegel takes a deep dive into the right-wing they-call-themselves Christians who (rather incongruously, considering Donald Trump’s history) wield great influence in the Trump maladministration. Their findings are not comforting. Here’s a tiny bit from the artilce:

The Christian nationalists among the “Project 2025” authors – many in number – imagined a country full of evangelical Christian families led by a strong patriarch.

(snip)

It sounds a lot more like radicalism than like faith. It is the attempt to turn the clock back by several decades, if not centuries – back to a time when men were still men and conflicts were solved with faith in God and a revolver. Jesus and Jesse James. The resuscitation of a quintessentially American myth. An overtly far-right response to left-wing identity politics seen as overly feminine and moralizing. And, ultimately, it is an attempt to dismantle the rule of law.

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The Trumpling, in One Sentence 0

In a column musing on who will take get saddled with the blame for a (potential at the time the column was written) government shutdown, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier sums up the status quo.

It’s not pretty, but it is where we are.

Right now it’s just a matter of masked, weapons-brandishing federal agents disappearing Americans off the street, people with assault rifles shooting into schools and churches every other week, political assassinations gathering frequency, National Guard troops in the streets, the president threatening to use liberal cities as military training grounds, the government blowing boats out of the water like a drunk with a video game, kneecapping education, research, foreign aid, national health policy, and generally doing everything in its accelerating power to make us dumber, sicker, poorer, less secure, and more fearful every day, and if Trump sat down tonight and signed an executive order allowing him to hit anyone he wanted in the back of the head with a baseball bat, no one would be surprised.

Follow the link for the rest, in which Collier reveals that he is less than optimistic.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Republican Thought Police 0

Rebecca Watson looks at the Republican thought policing currently being exercised at Texas A&M University. (Warning: Mild language.)

Or you can read the transcript.

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

Sometimes, the rhyme is deafening.

Nixon in 1973 holding an

Click for the original image.

___________________

*Mark Twain.

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The Rule of Lawless, Droning On Dept. 0

Title:  Hey Kids!  It's Droney--the friendly MAGA drone.  Frame One:  Little boy:  Droney, we read that you've been seen attacking Venezuelan boats in international waters, killing at least 17 people.  Droney:  Well, sure.  The president says they were drug smugglers.  ALso, the videos are really cool.  Boats go splodey!  It's fantastic content.  Little boy:  But--they could have been interdicted and arrested.  And they you'd have evidence.  Little girl:  They may have been migrants or just fishermen.  Droney:  Eh, drug smugglers, migrants, whatever.  It's a new day of American power, which means the president gets to summarily execute anyone he wants.  The Supreme Court says so.  Little boy:  Are you sure about that?  Droney:  You kids aren't questioning MAGA drones, are you.  Because that's exactly the sort of thing the president does not like.  Little boy:  No, we certainly are not.  Little girl:  Perish the thought.  Droney:  Okay, good.  Well, gotta run.  I've got to track down a late night comedian.  Er, I mean to say, a radical antifa terrorist who also tells jokes.  (Droney flies off.)  Little girl:  He's . . . kidding, right?  Droney (over his shoulder):  Ha ha.  I'll never tell.

Click to view the original image.

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Republican Family Values 0

Title:  Rage at the Ragged.  Frame One, captioned

Via Job’s Anger.

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Twits on Twitter X Offenders 0

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Republican Thought Police 0

In the course of a longer article about recent events at Texas A&M University, Mary Ellen Klas summarizes the tactics of the Republican thought police (emphasis added):

Texas, like Florida before it, has steadily adopted an authoritarian approach to higher education. The goal is to target a marginalized group or racial minority whose ideas the Republicans in power find undesirable and use them as a cudgel to justify bringing state universities more firmly under governmental control. In the last year, the Lone Star State began enforcing a patchwork of policies aimed at purging diversity, equity and inclusion programs at state universities. It abolished independent faculty senates with faculty councils controlled by the governor’s appointees. And it banned a vague array of “expressive activity” and demonstrations on campuses.

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Occupation Nation, Reprise 0

Sam and the crew discuss the tactics of the occupiers. (Warning: There’s language in some of the video clips that they show.)

Afterthought:

Late in his life, my father said to me, “I’m glad those days are over.”

He was referring to the days of racism and segregation during which he and later I as Southern boys were raised.

But they’re not over. They may have been in abeyance for a while, but they are most certainly back with crosses burning.

America’s original sin of chattel slavery and the racist mythology created to rationalize it continue to exact their toll.

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The Enemies List 0

Grung_e_Gene decodes de code.

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Occupation Nation 0

At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Daniel Oppenheimer offers some thoughts as to how to respond if when Donald Trump orders the National Guard to invade your city.

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The Rule of Flaw 0

Donald Trump carrying his enemies list and a bucket of paint walking past the Department of Justice, now renamed the Department of Just Me.

Click to view the original image.

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Devolution 0

Michael in Norfolk makes a frighteningly convincing case that the United States is going bananas banana republic.

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A Tune for the Times 0

From the Youtube page:

We couldn’t find any lobster costumes, and a whirling freestyle in the middle of a school week was not gonna happen. So – with some extra input from a few media sources to cover instrumental sections – this is our parody rendition of “Under the Sea”, one of our old Disney favourites for its sheer joy and energy. It was composed by Alan Menken (with cracking lyrics by Howard Ashman) for the 1989 animated “The Little Mermaid” and won an Oscar. Of course, the calypso lobster’s forlorn plea for an alternative path falls on deaf ears. Which brings us to free speech.

It’s been a scary time in lots of ways in the US, with the temperature cranked up again by shocking murders and reckless responses, and sadly now the First Amendment (for decades a place of some bipartisan accord) seems to be creaking. As we were working on the arrangement, we learned that Jimmy Kimmel’s show had been reinstated by Disney – which is great news, having loved meeting him in 2020 albeit under bizarre pandemic circumstances – though we gather that much is still unclear about how the matter is going to play out. Here’s hoping that enough uproar is generated that Trump and co. think again about making their predictable/alarming move on limiting freedom of expression.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

It seems that the Trump maladministration is committed to exercising undue process of lawless.

And we are again reminded that mean for the sake of mean is a Republican family value.

(Syntax error fixed.)

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Free Trumpled Speech, One More Time 0

Ring of Fire looks at Donald Trump’s campaign to silence anyone who criticizes him. (Warning: Mild language.)

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Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

At the Detroit Free-Press, Randy Essex reminds us that

Since colonial times, America’s white ruling class has worked to instill fear of “others.” The landed elite recognized early on that if poor whites found common cause with native and Black people, free and enslaved, those landed elites were in trouble.

He goes on to argue that this, well, let’s call it “Southern Strategy,” is still being pursued and that Donald Trump’s bogus claims that cities are rife with crime (which is Trumpian code for “full of black and brown persons”) is an updated tactic of said “Southern Strategy.”

I commend his article to your attention.

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