From Pine View Farm

2016 archive

Left Uncovered 0

Dick Polman considers a story that he considers woefully underreported: An actual factual story, not a “cloud” of conjecture that “casts a shadow,” a story of cash on the barrel head.

Three years ago, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the family’s nonprofit charity, gave a $25,000 campaign contribution to a group that flacked for Florida attorney general Pam Bondi. That donation was illegal, because nonprofits are barred by the IRS from giving money to political campaigns. And at the time the illegal donation was made, Bondi was deciding whether to go to bat for all the Floridians who had been allegedly bilked by the phony Trump University. Should she join the State of New York’s class action lawsuit, or not?

Trump’s foundation sent the money to Bondi. A month later, Bondi decided not to prosecute . . . .

Meanwhile, Josh Marshall points out that, when it comes to Donald Trump, the corporate media seems to think that his word is his Bondi:

I was curious to see whether there was any renewed attention to the Trump/Bondi story this morning. Alas, the answer appears to be: not really. There are some passing references to it. But it mainly seems limited to ‘This came up. Trump says it’s all good.’ And on to the next story.

Follow the links for more.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness means that families do things together. For example, they go on spontaneous family outings.

Logan Police Chief Tyson Budge said a 5-year-old boy apparently got hold of a loaded hunting rifle about 8 p.m. Monday. The firearm discharged, the bullet striking the boy’s 13-month-old brother in the foot.

Police said a 911 call reporting a shooting came from residents below the second floor unit of a multi-family apartment building near 500 East and 500 North. The callers told police that soon after the gunshot, two adults ran from the unit above them with a child in their arms.

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Charitable Contributions 0

There’s a reason I mark the New York Times’s emails* trying to sell me a subscription as “spam.”

__________________

*I know how they got my old email address. I had the bad judgement to register for an account once, before I realized that any outfit that pays Tom Friedman money has no discernment. How they got my new one . . . .

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Drinking Liberally Virginia Beach Thursday 0

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere. (I’ll be talking about the Chapter Leaders Conference week before last in Philly.

When: Thursday, September 8, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

More here.

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QOTD 0

Emily Post:

Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.

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I Can Never Remember Birthdays 2

This blog turned 11 last week and I didn’t notice.

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Twits on Twitter 0

Twits who make stuff up.

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Reaching Beyond the Grave 0

You can’t make this stuff up.

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Outreach 0

Title:  Minority Outreach.  Image:  Donald Trump in in tee-shirt wearing chains and baggy jeans to black couple in street who are shrinking away from him:  Yo, Crooked Hillary's a bigot, know what I'm sayin'.  Fist bump?

Via Job’s Anger.

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Just in Time for Labor Day 0

Theft of labor.

It’s a thing.

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QOTD 0

Harry Emerson Fosdick:

The tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst.

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No Place To Hide 0

Read those permissions carefully, folks. If they think they can get away with it, they will try to get away with it.

The Golden State Warriors have been sued by a bunch of fans who claim the basketball team’s mobile app is eavesdropping on them.

The suit [PDF], filed with the Northern California District Court this week, alleges that the Android and iOS versions of the Golden State Warriors App can track and record audio from the handset’s microphone without user notification or permission.

According to the complaint, the app, developed by Signal360, can potentially wirelessly detect so-called beacons in stores to work where you’ve been shopping, and can potentially use the handset’s microphone to pick up signals within the audio of TV adverts, music and broadcasts that are inaudible to the human ear in order to serve them targeting advertisements.

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Know Them by the Company They Keep 0

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Dis Coarse Discourse 0

At The Roanoke Times, Demetri Telionis examines how the age of communication became the age of miscommunication.

I have two comments:

Telionis falls into the trap of what driftglass calls “both-siderism” in attempting to portray MSNBC as somehow a leftie equivalent of Fox News. There is no leftie Joe Scarborough at Fox; that MSNBC gives Joe Scarborough a highly-paid sinecure ipso facto removes it from being “the liberal network,” even if it does have some mildly liberal commentators in the evening line-up.

The answer to the question at the end is, “No.”

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Easy Mark 0

Republican Elephant on street, surrounded by purses labeled

Via Job’s Anger.

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If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0

Frame One:  White Man Criticizes America:  Donald Trump says,


Click for the original image.

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Some Things Never Change 0

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Inclownpetent 0

No doubt you’ve noticed that the evil clowns are back. At Psychology Today Blogs, Robert Bartholomew grapples with the phenomenon. A snippet:

Since the early 80s, there have been several localized rumor-panics in North America and Europe involving sightings of phantom clowns attempting to kidnap children. They have also been referred to as Killer Clowns and Kidnapping Clowns. At first glance, it would be tempting to think that there may be a group of criminals dressing up as clowns. Yet, when you examine the reports, a curious trend appears: they are almost never caught, and vanish into the shadows. There is also a lack of tangible evidence. All police have to go on is eyewitness testimony, which is notoriously unreliable, especially given that most witnesses are children. Another curious fact is that the children always seem to get away. The clowns appear totally incompetent.

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The Snaring Economy 0

Gypsy cabs.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has upheld an $11,364,736 fine, the largest in its history, against Uber for running an unlicensed taxi operation and obstructing attempts to investigate the firm.

(snip)

“We do not take lightly the fact that the civil penalty imposed in this case is the largest in this Commission’s history,” the chairman and vice chairman of the PUC said in a joint statement. “However, the reason the penalty is so large is because we were faced with an unprecedented number of violations committed by Uber.”

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QOTD 0

Joanna Lumley (as Dolly Bantry in There’s a Body in the Library).

Men do rather think that the world revolves around them. It gets so exhausting pretending they are right.

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