From Pine View Farm

December, 2017 archive

The Voter Fraud Fraud 0

Well, well, they finally caught a voter fraudster and you’ll never guess who it is (Hint: It’s not an illegal alien or a Democrat).

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QOTD 0

Davy Crockett:

I would rather be politically dead than hypocritically immortalized.

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Decorated 0

Slackware Desktop

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Putting the “Trick” in Trickle-Down 0

Three persons with their arms out.  One says,

Click for the original image.

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If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0

Jay Bookman of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls out Donald Trump’s hypocrisy on freedom of speech. A nugget:

Foremost among those “unalienable rights” are the freedoms of speech and conscience, which is why they are listed first in the Bill of Rights. And while Trump assures us that “no earthly force” can ever take those rights away, he also insists strenuously that NFL owners can and should do exactly that. In Trump’s mind, owners ought to force athletes to stand, against their conscience, and he is more than willing to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to ensure that conformity is enforced.

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Anatomy of an Apology 0

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Republican Economic Theory: A Parable 0

Teacher:  Okay, children!  Pass aroung these styrofoam balls you can use to make your solar system models.  Student, querolously:  Syrofoam balls?   This seems suspiciously extravagant, Ms. Foster.  Donald Trump bursts through door saying,

Via Job’s Anger.

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Wars on Christmas and Mongers of Wars on Christmas 0

In The Hartford Courant, Susan Campbell reminds us that there once was a war on Christmas, and it was waged by Calvinists with a religious agenda, not by wingnuts with a political one. A snippet:

His (the Rev. Lyman Beecher, (father of Harriet Beecher Stowe–ed.) antipathy toward Christmas was not weird for his time. Many Protestants looked askance at Christmas as a papal holiday to be avoided. If they celebrated at all, it was with a piece of candy solemnly handed to the nearest child on Christmas morning. No tree. No lights. No carols.

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Both Sides Not 0

Democratic Donkey reading headline,

Click for the original image.

Afterthought:

“Republican Family Values” has always been a con and a scam.

Republican politicians make “used car dealer” and “real estate developer” look like honorable professions.

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Unquestionable 0

Farron’s source for the story.

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QOTD 0

Fred Astaire:

The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.

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Naked Lunch Conference Room 0

If you honestly cannot figure out whether disrobing in front of co-workers and subordinates or touching their private parts in work settings is improper, The Denver Post’s Kristin Kafer offers some guidance.

In a related article, Tony Norman writes of recognizing privilege.

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All the News that Fits 0

In the Raleigh News and Observer, Edwin M. Yoder, Jr., considers the wasteland that constitutes contemporary news coverage in the United States. An excerpt:

At an end of term party (after leaving journalism, he taught at Washington and Lee–ed.) one of my bright students asked: “Are you aware, sir, that when you mentioned television news you invariably called it ‘the so-called news’?” I was unaware but not surprised. Even with ornaments like Cronkite, Brinkley and Sevareid, all originally schooled in print, the 15- to 30-minute programs offered only superficial glimpses of a complex world. “So-called news” indeed.

In those latter days of print supremacy, few foresaw the chaos generated today by “social media,” which is so often anti-social in effect. Add a twittering president who regards newspapers as “enemies of the people” and applies epithets worthy of a banana-republic caudillo to his critics : “the failing New York Times” and “the lying Washington Post.” Donald Trump is so prolific a source of fables and fantasies that the Post counts them in the hundreds. You needn’t be deeply schooled in psychology to identify his epithets as the projections of his own ingrained hostility to truth.

In a related article, Bella DePaulo attempts a taxonomy of Trumpian lies. A snippet:

As I read through Trump’s lies in the process of categorizing them, I realized I could not limit myself just to the categories of self-serving and kind lies. I had to add the category of cruel lies — lies that hurt other people or disparage or embarrass or belittle them. In the research my colleagues and I did, we found that only 1 or 2 percent of all lies were cruel. That’s why I wasn’t going to bother with them when coding Trump’s lies. . . .

Now let me tell you what I found when I tallied Trump’s cruel lies. Instead of adding up to 1 or 2 percent, as in my previous research, they accounted for 50 percent.

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The Mythbegotten 0

At The Bangor Daily News, Gordon L. Well reviews some of the myths and mythrepresentations surrounding the Republican tax deform bill. Here’s a bit of his article:

Myth 3.

The tax bill was given careful consideration.In fact, the bill was passed in the House and Senate in a hurry, though there was no need to rush. But the GOP wants at least one big legislative win in 2017 to show it was worth turning the entire federal government over to them.

If merely having a bill was more important than what it contained, they will have succeeded. That approach opened the way to all the special interest deals in the middle of the night.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness goes to the dogs.

Barbara Hays, bureau manager at the city-run Norfolk Animal Care Center, said officials initially thought the dog merely had a few puncture wounds, something that happens from time to time. An emergency veterinarian gave Shadow some antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicine.

Then on Monday, Shadow’s left jaw began swelling. A vet found the real culprit: bullets. Two were in her jaw, and she underwent surgery that removed them.

Another bullet fragment just missed Shadow’s spinal cord. “She’s a lucky dog,” Hays said.

Just another day in NRA Paradise.

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Newspeak, GOP Style 0

Plutocrats raiding the U. S. Treasury.  One says to man wearing MAGA hat,

Via Job’s Anger.

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Facebook Frolics 0

Unaccountable frolics.

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Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

Field reports from the field. A snippet:

At a campaign event earlier this year, an audience member asked Moore for his opinion on when the last time America was “great.” Moore responded: “I think it was great at the time when families were united—even though we had slavery—they cared for one another…Our families were strong, our country had a direction.” The individual who asked the question was among the few African-Americans in attendance at the rally, according to the Los Angeles Times. In stating this, Moore seemingly implied he’d be able to overlook the enslavement of other human beings as long as families are “united,”* an interesting perspective from a man accused of repeatedly preying on young girls.

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*Moore made no mention, of course, that enslaved mothers, fathers, and children were routinely separated and sold off to different buyers, nor that enslaved women were not uncommonly used as brood mares to generate more “stock” for slave traders.

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QOTD 0

Dwight D. Eisenhower:

In most communities it is illegal to cry ‘fire’ in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?

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Cavalcade of Stupid 0

Dick Polman reviews this week of Republican antics.

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