From Pine View Farm

Too Venal for Words category archive

WWJD? 0

Not this.

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The Rule of Lawless 0

Donald Trump, wearing robes of royalty and holding a bottle labeled

Click for the original image.

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Be It Resolved . . . . 0

Title:  New Year's Resolutions.  Frame One:  Woman says,

Click to view the original image.

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The Electric (Car) Bugaloo 0

Nikolai Tesla must be rolling over in his grave with embarrassment to have his name associated with this outfit.

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“Vengeance Is Ours,” Saith Republicans 0

At The Colorado Sun, Mike Littwin tries to make sense of the nonsensical. A snippet:

With no smoking gun — with, in fact, no actual evidence whatsoever of high crimes and/or misdemeanors on Biden’s part — House Republicans voted to make the inquiry official anyway because, well, they could. And that’s even though some of the Trump fanboys at Fox News have been forced to admit that, uh, we got nothin’.

So why the official inquiry? Let’s go with the two most obvious reasons. One, because Donald Trump wants it. Two, because Johnson and his team, who can’t seem to do much of anything else, including passing bills to aid an embattled ally fighting off the Russians, felt they had to do something to justify their phoney-baloney jobs.

(Missing link found.)

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The Eyes Have It 0

FLorida Man.

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The Crypto Con 0

Michael Hiltzik, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, has had enough.

. . . it’s impossible to escape the conclusion that as an asset class, crypto is so infected with criminal behavior and so lacking in useful purpose that the only proper regulatory approach is to eradicate it.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

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Argle Bargle 0

At Above the Law, Liz Dye looks at the latest I-guess-you-have-to-call-them arguments and tries to make sense out of the senseless. What it boils down to, natch, is attempting to use the law to argue that Donald Trump is exempt from the law.

A sample:

This jiujitsu logic comes from Trump’s reply in support of his motion to dismiss the DC case for selective and vindictive prosecution. Never before has a president been prosecuted for crimes, he argues. Ipso facto propter hoc, selective prosecution! Trump conveniently ignores the hundreds of other January 6 plaintiffs who have been prosecuted, many under the same obstruction and conspiracy statutes he’s charged with here. None of those weirdos is president, right?

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The Carnappers 0

Persons in Philly who overstay their metered parking by the teeniest bit are now getting barnacle bills.

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Courting Disaster, Reprise 0

PoliticalProf.

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Facebook Frolics 0

A Tennessee police department found out the hard way that, even though a frolicker posts something stupid and disrespectful and insipid, it ain’t inherently a crime.

We are becoming an uncivil society. And “social” media is accelerating our desce–oh, never mind.

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Disorder in the Court 0

It’s enough to make you gagged.

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Motion Sickness 0

At Above the Law, Liz Dye catalogs the crazy in three motions Donald Trump’s attorneys filed with the D. C. federal court in his election interference case.

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Real Big Men 0

Even bigger stupid.

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Spoiling the System 0

Lindsay M. Chervinsky looks at Donald Trump’s plans to effectively destroy the civil service and replace career civil servants with his dupes, symps, and fellow travelers.

This plan would reproduce the spoils system’s worst corruption, grift, and inefficiencies. The spoils system is the colloquial term for the period from roughly 1828 to 1883 when political appointees were doled out government positions in return for their vote and political loyalty. To the victory of the presidential election went the extensive and lucrative “spoils.” Under the spoils system, most federal positions were political appointees, from post office managers to customs house collectors to clerks in the executive departments. Party bosses granted these positions as rewards to loyal operatives and used them as cudgels to force supporters to toe the party line.

Much more at the link.

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Republican Thought Police 0

Afterthought:

Many years ago, when I was a young ‘un just a couple of years into my first real job (as opposed to summer jobs), my then girl friend and I had occasion to visit an apartment occupied by two young men.

I remember that she was rather taken aback when she saw that there was only one bed in the apartment.

But, really, they were just being who they were, and they were harming nobody.

Who does it harm to just let let persons be who they are in the privacy of their own homes?

As an aside, I can attest that no marriage of mine has ever been harmed by anything that happened in a same sex bedroom.

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Flying the Fiendlier Skies 0

Robert Reich explores why traveling by airline has become so unpleasant. He lists five reasons; here’s one of them (emphasis in the original):

Number 3: Exploiting Workers

While their jobs have become more difficult, many flight attendants haven’t had a raise in years.

And a lot of their hardest work is totally unpaid, because most flight attendants don’t get paid during the boarding process. They’re off the clock until the plane’s doors close.

And if the flight is delayed, those are often extra hours for no extra money.

Again, this mirrors trends in the overall economy, where too many workers are pushed into unpaid overtime or made to do work or be on call during their off hours.

Follow the link for a detailed exploration of the other four.

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The Surveillance Society 0

Notice that I did not say “surveillance state.”

I said “surveillance society.”

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Republican Family Values 0

Suffer the children appears to be a Republican Family Value.

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Selling Snake Oil on the Disinformation Superhighway 0

Rebecca Watson parses the piffle.

or you can read the transcript.

And, while touring the Disinformation Superhighway . . . .

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