From Pine View Farm

2025 archive

And Now for a Musical Intelude 0

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Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

The spirit of George Wallace lives on in today’s Republican Party.

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The Efficiency Expert 0

In the midst of a flood, Elon Musk holds a chain saw labeled

Via Job’s Anger.

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Election Defiers 0

Thom talks with Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State for Michigan, about what it was like when armed Trump supporters turned up at her house because Trump lost the 2020 election and about what may motivate such extremism.

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Hmmmm. Seems Sort of Familiar. 0

Does this remind you of anyone in the news?

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society’ 0

More politeness on the pavement.

Yessiree Bob, selling all them guns sure does make persons more polite, don’t it.

(Shhhhh. We won’t talk about the ROI for the Mongers of Death.)

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Birds of a Feather . . . 0

. . . flock together.

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QOTD 0

Lionel Trilling:

Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.

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The Climates They Are a-Changing 0

And pretending oherwise won’t make it go away.

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A Divider, Not a Uniter 0

E. J. Montini.

Just read it.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Susceptible to suggestion? We’ll find out.

Security expert Bruce Schneier reports that “(a)cademic papers were found to contain hidden instructions to LLMs.”

One example he provides is an implanted instruction for “no negative reviews.” Follow the link for more examples and a link to the original study.

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Deportation Nation 0

Farron discusses the Trump maladministration’s plan plot to denaturalize naturalized citizens because they have the unmitigated gall to exercise their rights as American citizens.

Ironically, my local media celebrated a naturalization ceremony at Fort Monroe that took place on the Fourth.

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Sneak Preview: Trump’s UFC Cage Match 0

Caption:  Alligator Alcatraz.  Image:  Uncle Sam trapped in a cell being approached by alligators labeled

Click for the original image.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Laura A. Cariola explores how media portrayals affect our notion of immigrants. She focuses on British studies, as she is British, but I suspect her findings are equally applicable here, as the Trump maladministration persists in demonizing every other it can target.

Here’s a bit:

Ryan and Tonkiss (2022) explored a combined visual analysis of British tabloid newspaper coverage of refugees. Their findings showed that men are portrayed through a criminal lens, with the vast majority of lone adult men depicted as police mugshots, within a courtroom setting, with handcuffs, and words such as “criminal,” “suspicious,” and “guilty.” In contrast, refugee women were depicted with children at a campsite or inside a tent, thus positioning women as maternal, passive, and vulnerable, and infusing a sense of genuineness of their refugee status compared to the representations of men. These gendered representations highlight the dichotomous representation by oversimplifying complex lived experiences between “good” refugees who are deserving of protection and “bad” refugees who are a threat to national security and social order.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Yet another “responsible gun owner” fondles his portable phallus and sends himself and a child to the hospital upon its–er–discharge.

Musical NotesGuns and stupid, guns and stupid.
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you brother,
You can’t have one without the other.

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QOTD 0

Sue Grafton:

Ideas are easy. It’s the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Devolution 0

We’re living in a movie.

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Suffer the Children 0

Remember, that’s not scripture.

That’s a Republican family value.

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News You Could Lose 0

At AL.com, Kyle Whitmire notes that some government officials and agencies, including the Trump maladministration, are suddenly interested in freedom of repress. He gives several examples of government threats against reporter for, well, reporting.

Here’s a tiny excerpt, in which he talks about Trump’s threatening to sue news agencies for reporting that his bombing of Iran may not have been the glorious shattering victory that he claimed it to be (emphasis added):

Iran knows whether we blew up its nuclear program. They don’t need anybody to tell them. There’s no state secret lost by the New York Times and CNN reporting on what was in the Iran intelligence report, which has now been roughly corroborated by the United Nations. The reason the Trump Administration is upset is because the report contradicts what the president wants the public to believe. It embarrasses him.

Follow the link for the rest.

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