From Pine View Farm

2019 archive

Twits on Twitter 0

The Rude One comments on our Out-of-Control-Twit-in-Chief (warning: rudeness).

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All that Was Old Is New Again 0

At the San Francisco Chronicle, Robert Reich argues that the new Gilded Age needs a new trust-buster. A snippet:

America’s first Gilded Age began in the late 19th century with a raft of innovations — railroads, steel production, oil extraction — but culminated in mammoth trusts run by “robber barons” such as J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and William H. (“The public be damned!”) Vanderbilt.

The answer then was to bust up the railroad, oil and steel monopolies.

We’re now in a second Gilded Age — ushered in by semiconductors, software and the internet — that has spawned a handful of high-tech behemoths and a new set of barons such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

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QOTD 0

Dorothy Sayers, in the voice of Lord Peter Wimsey:

I know what an Act to make things simpler means. It means that the persons who drew it up don’t understand it themselves and that every one of its clauses needs a law-suit to disentangle it.

Sayers, Dorothy, Unnatural Death (New York: Avon, 1964), p. 137.

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Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0

Electro-Trumpled in Blue.

Via The Root.

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The King of Facebook Frolics 0

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Stray Question 0

Who was the bright light who decided that mattresses no longer need to have handles on the sides?

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Thoughts and Prey-ers. 0

Title:  Bold Action vs. Thoughts and Prayers.  Frame One:  Prime Minister of New Zealand saying,

Click for the original image.

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Pest Control 0

How I responded to a request for a political donation via a text:

Me, I do my contributing by mail. For every text I receive requesting a contribution, I will deduct one dollar from my next contribution. Go away.

Fingers-crossed–I haven’t heard for that particular outfit since, and it’s been about a month.

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Originalist Sin 0

Elie Mystal.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

If you are so unfortunate as to be involved in a vehicular incident, it is essential that you comport yourself most courteously.

The incident occurred on the evening of March 15 when a truck being driven by Olsen collided with the bumper of another car while traveling on Tope Road. After both cars pulled off the road, several minutes passed before Olsen left the scene in his truck, according to Investigator Bobby Crowdis with the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office.

The victim was able to follow Olsen and get his tag number, but was forced to stop when Olsen parked his truck and blocked both lanes of Hwy. 54 just outside Luthersville. Olsen then got out of his truck and began firing around 20 shots from his AR-15 in the direction of the victim, Crowdis said.

Words fail me.

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QOTD 0

David Lloyd George:

The most dangerous thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two jumps.

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Call Him the Bag Man 0

Honest to Pete, you can’t make this stuff up.

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“A Globalized Ideology of Hate” 0

Thom interviews New York Times reporter Wajahat Ali about the roots of the Christchurch massacre.

Read Ali’s New York Times article.

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Twits on Twitter 0

Litigious twits.

Via Badtux.

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Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0

A reverse Trumpling:

Kimberley A. Johnson tells of going to Best Buy and meeting a Sikh and of how relieved he was to learn that she is not a Trumpette.

Read more »

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Dis Coarse Discourse, Consider the Source Dept. 0

Two newspaper stands, one labeled

Click for the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness is child’s play. Again.

Two brothers were playing with a shotgun, believing it wasn’t loaded, according to Sgt. Melody Gray with Unified Police Department.

(snip)

“Our 16-year-old victim had that gun in his hand and pointed the gun at himself and unfortunately shot himself and he is deceased,” Gray said. The other brother involved was 17.

My Daddy taught me that always to assume a gun was loaded unless I verified for myself that it wasn’t. He always stored his .22 with the bolt open so you knew the chamber was empty. And he taught me that guns are not toys.

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Facebook Frolics 0

No news is no news.

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QOTD 0

William Finnegan:

For billionaires who cannot buy good press, there is the option of buying the press.

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News of the Whirl 0

Frame One:  Title:  Life in the Stupid-verse, an Endlessly Ongoing Series.  Frame Two:  Dispatches from the Meritocracy (Man says,

Click for the original image.

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