From Pine View Farm

July, 2022 archive

The Snaring Economy 0

Former Uber executive outs Uber’s duplicity.

Uber is nothing more than gypsy cabs with an app.

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QOTD 0

Susan Ertz:

Parsons always seem to be specially horrified about things like sunbathing and naked bodies. They don’t mind poverty and misery and cruelty to animals nearly as much.

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The Stealing Process 0

MAGA-hatted man says,

Click for the original image.

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It’s Bubblicious 0

Steve M. wonders whether just maybe Republicans are high on their own lies.

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If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0

At the Portland Press-Herald, Victoria Hugo-Vidal takes a look at the Supreme Supremacist Court’s recent abrogation of Roe v. Wade. It is a thoughtful and well-reasoned article, but one bit leapt out at me as highlighting the misogyny and arrogance underlying that decision:

You’ll notice nobody ever proposes punishing men who get their jollies.

Follow the link for the rest.

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The American Weight 0

Family lying beneath American flag riddled with bullet holes and with bullets flying about.  Mother says,

Click to view the original image.

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Suffer the Children 0

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Twits on Twitter 0

Hate-full twits.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Yet another accidental negligent shooting, yet another life cut short.

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QOTD 0

Barbara G. Walker:

Is it really true that religion makes people more kindly, generous, or loving? History tends to disprove this. The worst wars, the most vicious Inquisitions, the cruelest pogroms and persecutions, were both fomented and supported by religion.

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Vaccine Nation 0

Former Disney employees are suing Disney over its mask mandates.

Here’s what one of them is reported to have said in applying for an exemption (emphasis added) from the mask requirement:

In his request for an exemption, Cribb wrote, “trusting in ‘science’ has never gotten me anywhere and will get many people sick or killed with an experimental poison,” records show.

Aside:

Obviously, this person lives in a cave and walks everywhere and doesn’t use air conditioning or a cell phone or go to a doctor when sick. All those involve that thing that has never gotten him anywhere.

Follow the link for more stupid.

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“But It’s the Only Possible Explanation” 0

University of Pennsylvania professor Donovan Schaefer analyzes the appeal of conspiracy theories. He notes that they have existed for centuries, but that this appears to be their golden age (which I would attribute to the internet and “social” media and persons who believe what they read on a computer screen simply because it’s on a computer screen, but that’s just me). Here’s a bit from his piece (emphasis added):

One of the most exciting parts of a conspiracy theory is that it makes everything makes sense. We all know the pleasure of solving a puzzle: the “click” of satisfaction when you complete a Wordle, crossword or sudoku. But of course, the whole point of games is that they simplify things. Detective shows are the same: All the clues are right there on the screen.

But what if the whole world were like that? In essence, that’s the illusion of conspiracy theory. All the answers are there, and everything fits with everything else. The big players are sinister and devious – but not as smart as you.

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A Stalk in the Park 0

Public park with persons going about their business.  In the foreground, a man wearing a hat labeled

Click for the original image.

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Democracy Plutocracy 0

A member of the European Parliament argues that the United States is a failing state.

His arguments are difficult to counter, as one of our two major political parties has dedicated itself, not to democracy, but to minority rule at any cost.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Yet another random act of politeness.

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Craven Imagers 0

Mrs. Betty Bowers lampoons the Christofascists’ claim that “America is a Christian nation.”

Aside:

Religious fervor has waxed and waned over the course of America’s history, but seldom has America’s religious fervor seemed so poisonous and hate-full as it is today.

Video via C&L.

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The Warning 0

Title:  Red Flag Warning.  Image:  Capitol Building and NRA Buildings both waving huge red flags.  One passer-by says to another,

Click for the original image.

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QOTD 0

Jeremy Taylor:

Men are apt to prefer a prosperous error to an afflicted truth.

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Crass Roots Organizations 0

Maurice T. Cunningham looks at the “grass roots’ of the right-wing “Moms for Liberty” and finds that those roots are anything but what they are claimed to be. A snippet:

I pay attention when a new “parents” or “moms” group bursts upon the education/politics scene. I exposed the millions in dark money behind Families for Excellent Schools during a 2016 charter schools ballot question campaign in Massachusetts. New groups like Moms for Liberty are just as transparently Astroturf — a group that claims to be grassroots but is actually artificial turf.

Follow the link for the evidence.

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The Medicine Show 0

At The American Scholar, Colin Dickey reports on the fantastically lucrative patent medicine industry. It is a fascinating read. Here’s bit:

“These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” (Quote from the disclaimer printed in fine print on the labels of the products–ed.)

The dietary supplement industry, of which Moon Juice is just one small portion, sells (according to one estimate) some $35 billion in products per year to consumers in the United States alone. Brands with names like Nature’s Bounty and Purity Products advertise everything from squid oil to chromium to the monkey head mushroom, and all of it is made possible by those two sentences—repeated over and over again, printed on millions of labels in tiny fonts, ritually intoned until their meaning has been obliterated.

Barnum was wrong.

There’s more than one born every minute.

(Spellink erorrs correxted.)

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