From Pine View Farm

April, 2025 archive

A Notion of Immigrants 0

If you get deported by ICE, you can expect to fly the fiendly skies.

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QOTD 0

Max Eastman:

I omit from consideration here the fact that people who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral, but in favor of the status quo.

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“Liberation Day” 0

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Republican Family Values . . . 0

. . . are a malleable thing.

In a longer piece in which he discusses how the MAGA movement is fed by, and feeds on, white nationalism and racism, Field notes an irony:

I saw William Bennett on a political talk show recently and he was making excuses for Donald Trump’s behavior and encouraging him to keep pushing his agenda. The same William Bennett who wrote that the moral failings of Bill Clinton was disqualifying, was now encouraging republicans and those on the right to keep supporting Mr. Trump.

I commend the entire article to you attention.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Bait for the easily bamboozled? Fritz Kessler counsels caution.

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Signal Achievements, Reprise 0

Security expert Bruce Schneier takes a deep dive in signalgate and its implications. In the light of recent events, the whole thing is worth a read. Here’s a tiny little bit.

Smartphones present a similar trade-off. The biggest risk of eavesdropping on a Signal conversation comes from the individual phones that the app is running on. While it’s largely unclear whether the US officials involved had downloaded the app onto personal or government-issued phones—although Witkoff suggested on X that the program was on his “personal devices”—smartphones are consumer devices, not at all suitable for classified US government conversations. An entire industry of spyware companies sells capabilities to remotely hack smartphones for any country willing to pay.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness again becomes child’s play.

We are a society gone insane from lead poisoning of our own doing.

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“Vengeance Is Mine” 0

At the Sacramento Bee, law professor Erwin Chemerinsky looks at Donald Trump’s quest for retribution from law firms that have incurred his wrath. A snippet:

I am convinced that something even more insidious underlies the Trump administration’s actions. In its first months, Trump has issued countless executive orders that violate the Constitution. I believe that his targeting of law firms is to chill them from bringing challenges against his policies and actions. The message to law firms is clear: If they draw the ire of the president, he will exact retribution and put their firms in serious jeopardy.

This is the playbook of a dictator, not a president in a democracy under the rule of law.

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The Old Shell Game 0

Florida Woman.

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QOTD 0

Livy:

A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself.

Afterthought:

But will anyone pay attention?

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