From Pine View Farm

July, 2022 archive

Twits on Twitter 0

Yet more racist twits, these ones reacting to Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas’s condemnation of the Supreme Supremacist Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade:

Lucas, who has amassed a strong following on Twitter, is no stranger to social media feuds — but this was different. These messages carried powerful images and words of racism and violence against Blacks, so Lucas, who is Black, reported them to the authorities. And now she has additional security officers when she attends public events.

“This is stuff I haven’t seen since” the civil rights movement, she said.

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QOTD 0

Zachary Taylor:

If elected, I would not be the mere president of a party–I would endeavor to act independent of party domination and should feel bound to administer the government untrammeled by party schemes.

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A Tune for the Times 0

Mangy comments at the Youtube page:

America leads the world in one category in which no one else would desire that leadership, mass shootings. By making weapons of war available to damn near everyone, we provide significant numbers of unstable folks with the ability to kill large numbers of people with stunning efficiency, all to prop up gun manufacturers’ profits, which is shared through lobbyists with politicians for their complicity in the sales scheme.

Elsewhere, Michael in Norfolk observes that we are becoming a nation of hostages.

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Tell Them What They Want To Hear 0

Jeff Shapiro writes of Virginia Governor Trumpkin’s–er–loose relationship with consistency, particularly as regards his position on abortion. A snippet (emphasis added); follow the link for the evidence.

Youngkin’s rhetorical gymnastics — on an issue that might put out of reach for his party Luria’s and two other Democrat-held suburban congressional seats — do not conceal a reality: He refuses to deal straight with Virginians, the majority of whom favored Roe v. Wade. We know Youngkin stands to the right on abortion, but how far right depends on his audience.

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“A Republic, If You Can Keep It” 0

PoliticalProf.

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“Ban Ladders” 0

David discusses the ridiculous pretzel logic that gun nuts use to pretend that the proliferation of firearms is in no way related to the proliferation of persons using firearms to randomly rub out large numbers of persons (warning: short commercial at the end).

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Courting Disaster, Conflict of Amendments Dept. 0

At the Hartford Courant, Samuel Teixeira suggests that there is a logical flaw in Samuel Alito’s reasoning in his decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (Of course, the moral flaw is obvious, but the law and morality are only occasionally related.)

Here’s a bit from hit article:

Sadly, beyond rewriting the history of 1866 and reviving the position originally adopted by the 14th Amendment’s opponents, Justice Alito ignores — and explicitly violates — the original constitutional limits on the Court set forth in the Ninth Amendment. Just 21 words, it reads: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

The Ninth Amendment effectively makes unconstitutional just one method of construing — interpreting –– the Constitution: an interpretation that denies or disparages a right because other rights are explicitly enumerated –– listed.

Teixeira’s reasoning is interesting, perhaps even correct, but irrelevant.

Alito’s opinion was not based on logic or reasoning and certainly not on precedent. It was based on dogma, and the arguments he made in it are nothing more than Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes for “because we can.”

(Broken link fixed.)

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A Question of Identity 0

You can’t make this stuff up.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Celebrate your favorite team’s victory with politeness.

We are a society of stupid.

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QOTD 0

Chris Hedges:

The relationship between those who are constantly watched and tracked and those who watch and track them is the relationship between masters and slaves.

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American Taliban 0

Preacher sporting halo says to woman,

Click for the original image.

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Whitewashing History 0

Georgia is among the states that have outlawed teaching truthful American history. At the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Maureen Downey writes of the dilemma that teachers face now that said law has gone into effect in Georgia. A snippet:

Georgia teachers return to K-12 classrooms next month restrained by a new state law that mandates avoidance of divisive concepts that cause students “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of his or her race.”

Never mind that there are many chapters of U.S. history that should cause anguish — the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre where Colorado cavalrymen slaughtered Native American women and children, the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court Plessy v. Ferguson decision that legalized “separate but equal,” the 1906 Atlanta race riot where 5,000 rampaging white men and boys murdered at least 25 Black Atlantans going about their daily lives and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses, and the forced relocation and incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

Under the new divisive concepts law, a Georgia parent could complain that a teacher’s comments during a discussion of the Atlanta race riot crossed into what the bill defines as “‘race scapegoating, assigning fault or blame to a race.” Such a complaint could land the school system in front of the state Board of Education facing sanctions.

Follow the link for a discussion of possible strategies that teachers can use to avoid falling prey to the proponents of prevarication about the past.

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Supreme Court: Rules Are for Other People 0

Joe Patrice explains.

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Courting Disaster, Creeping Theocracy Dept. 0

Sam and his crew dissect the slow-moving theocratic coup.

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Courting Disaster 0

Donald Trump's face painted in red, white, and blue. Trump is wearing a QAnon Shaman hat sporting horns labeled

Click to view the original image.

Michael in Norfolk is concerned about a court run amok, and rightly so.

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Played by the Misdirection Player 0

Image:  Plutocrat looking at two persons fighting inside an aquarium.  Caption:  They get you fighting a culture war to stop you from fighting a class war.

Via Yellowdoggranny.

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Hot Dog Hijinks 0

Florida Man.

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QOTD 0

Peter Davison, in the voice of Albert Campion:

If you are a very wealthy man, you don’t do your own stealing. You don’t do your own anything; otherwise there’s very little point in being wealthy.

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Courting Disaster, Dreams in the Witch House* Dept. 0

Frame One, captioned

Click for the original image.

__________________________

*With apologies to H. P. Lovecraft.

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The Pessimist 0

Field is not sanguine.

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