From Pine View Farm

January, 2025 archive

Executive Disorders 0

At Above the Law, Joe Patrice points out that Donald Trump’s attempt to halt disbursement of legally appropriate funds by decree executive order is–er–of dubious legality. Here’s a tiny bit of his article:

In case you’re wondering, the 1974 Impoundment Control Act (ICA), yet another good governance statute rooted in America’s Nixon hangover, explicitly bars refusing to spend congressional appropriations like this. But once and future OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta believes the power of the purse is more of a suggestion and that presidents can take money allocated by Congress and say, “Nah, I’m good. I’ll keep this one.”

Afterthought:

Whatever you might say about the price of eggs and gas (here, they have both risen since the election), it seems clear that Trump intends to keep one campaign promise, however flippantly he made it: To be a dictator . . . ..

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This New Gilded Age 0

Title:  The Broligarchy Salute.  Image:  Billionaires giving a Nazi salute to Trump.  Elon Musk says,

Click for the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Yet another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” exposes a child to politeness.

During their investigation, authorities learned a 26-year-old man who lived in the home with the boy’s mother and three other kids, kept a loaded gun under the pillow in the bedroom they all shared, according to the complaint.

The man told police he heard the gunshot after leaving the boy alone in the room to bring a plate into the kitchen, authorities said.

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QOTD 0

Robert A. Heinlein:

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

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Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

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Republican Family Values 0

The Portland Press-Herald’s Victoria Hugo-Vidal debunks de bunk.

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Those “Values Voters” 0

David Masciotra, in the midst of a longer post, makes a trenchant observation:

To applaud Trump and MAGA, one must reject, or at least ignore, values that have regulated American politics and dictated ethical behavior. They are the values of democracy, especially the peaceful transfer of power, the rule of law, acknowledgment of ideological adversaries as legitimate, fidelity to the truth, and the unwavering disapproval of violence as a tool of politics.

Follow the link for context.

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Corporate Carrion Crows 0

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The Party of Flaw and Disorder, Reprise 0

Title:  A Few of the Weapons Used To

Click to view the original image.

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A BLT on Wry 0

At NJ.com, Roy Lehman makes a strong case that the successor to DEI will be BLT. He picks as an one example our (shiver) new Secretary of Defense. Here’s a bit:

Instead of DEI-based vetting, Trump has installed a new system, the “BLT” hiring guide. BLT, in this case, stands for bootlicker, lackey and toady. Under the old guidelines, our new defense secretary would be qualified only if the definition of DEI were drunkenness, egotism and ignorance.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Celebrate your team’s playoff victory with politeness.

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

Spinoza:

It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance.

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Soldier On 0

Mrs. Betty Bowers offers some advice for living in these Trumpled times.

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“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0

On this, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Andy Tix hears a number of disturbing rhymes.

Follow the link for rendition thereof.

________________

*Mark Twain.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

At the Washington Monthly, Garrett Epps dissects the duplicity implicit in Donald Trump’s attempt to despotically single-handedly amend the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Here’s a tiny bit of his article:

For most of us on the sidelines, the outstanding feature of Trump’s order is its cruelty—its deliberate targeting of babies born after February 19, 2025, rendering them stateless and ineligible for the benefits of citizenship most native-born Americans take for granted. Think like a judge, however: from that point of view, the striking defect of the order is simply the crushing weight of legal authority that it purports to sweep aside.

Follow the link for more about a judge’s perspective.

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The Party of Flaw and Disorder 0

At the Des Moines Register, Rekha Basu looks at Donald Trump’s first actions in office and decodes de code (emphasis added):

Amnesty and pardons were given to some 1,600 people who answered his call to protest the 2020 election results — the ones he referred to as “J.6 hostages.” Some members of white nationalist groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, others unaffiliated, they’d stormed the Capitol illegally, in some cases violently. Trump freed them.

At the other end was Trump’s order to dispatch thousands of military troops to the southern border to keep out migrants.

The message: Breach boundaries for me and you’re fine. Do it because you’re fleeing violence or persecution, and we’ll set the troops on you.

Follow the link for the rest of her remarks.

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This New Gilded Age 0

Sam and the crew follow the money to understand why the right-wing wants to get rid of what it–the right–refers to as “the administrative state,” that is, federal regulatory and research agencies established to protect the well-being of the country and its inhabitants. (Disregard the caption in the video below; it misses the gist of the clip.)

Read more »

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Kindred Spirits 0

Two men breaking rocks in the fires of Hell.  One says,

Click for the original image.

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A. Enron 0

Q. What business are Republicans thinking of when they say, “Run the government like a business?”

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QOTD 0

Herman Melville:

Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.

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