From Pine View Farm

Mammon category archive

Training Day 0

Giant one-eyed monster labeled

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The Crypto Con 0

Title:  Post-Holidays blues for a crypto-broker.  Image:  Man sitting in front of fireplace staring at an empty Christmas stocking.  Woman says,

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“An Exercise of Market Power,” This New Gilded Age Dept. 0

Sam and the crew talk with David Dayen about a recent antitrust jury trial in which Google was found guilty.

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The Privatization Scam 0

Sam and the crew dissect the deception behind the duplicity behind the double-talk.

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Republican Family Values 0

Old Man 2023 prepares to exist.  Baby 2024, carrying a meat cleaver, turns away from him towards a meat processing plant, saying,

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Vampire Capitalists 0

Rebecca Watson warns that hedge funds are coming for your medical care.

Or you can read the transcript.

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“A Christmas Carol,” Redux 0

Scrooge, American style.

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For Services Rendered 0

Title:  Secret Santa.  Image:  Clarence Thoms stands on is front walk looking a a giant RV bearing a tag labeled

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The Electric (Car) Bugaloo 0

Nikolai Tesla must be rolling over in his grave with embarrassment to have his name associated with this outfit.

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Twits Own Twitter X Offenders 0

John Oliver profiles Elon Musk (warning: mild language).

Via C&L, which has commentary.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

In the course of a longer article debunking a rumor that AI bots are being “trained” on DropBox documents, security expert Bruce Schneier observes (emphasis added)

It seems not to be true. Dropbox isn’t sharing all of your documents with OpenAI. But here’s the problem: we don’t trust OpenAI. We don’t trust tech corporations. And—to be fair—corporations in general. We have no reason to.

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And Round and Round We Go 0

It would seem that Donald Trump’s lawyers’ strategy can be summed up as, “If at first you don’t succeed, do the same thing harder.”

From Above the Law:

On Friday, defense lawyers in the former president’s civil fraud case in New York filed a fifth motion for directed verdict repeating again the same arguments they’ve been making for two years without success.

    Trump never lied on his financial statements. Or if he lied, he had an “ironclad disclaimer clause” that immunized him from prosecution. And nobody was hurt by his fake finances, it’s a victimless crime. Anyway how can there be a “lie” about subjective valuations, it’s all vibes, man. Plus Michael Cohen is a liar, and the state has no authority to bring this case. Also, if the original loan is outside the statute of limitations, then all the annual statements of finance submitted to the lender are time-barred. So, please don’t murder the Trump Org?

Justice Arthur Engoron wasn’t persuaded the first 1,000 times Trump made these arguments, and he didn’t break his streak yesterday. Although, honestly he seemed a little bored with the whole thing.

Aside:

Methinks the point isn’t to win the motion; it’s to delay the arguments.

Delay has always been Trump’s primary strategy when someone wants to call him to account.

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Courting Disaster 0

The hustling hustler.

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The Crypto Con 0

Couple standing at tax prep office to man behind desk.  Wife says,

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Courting Disaster 0

Gene Collier, writing at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, fears that the current Supreme Supremacist Court is forsaking the rule of law for the rule of flaw. A snippet:

The Court’s ability to grasp what is plainly and legally obvious, you might remember, is another foundational American pillar that ain’t what it used to be.

Follow the link to see why he said that.

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Courting Disaster 0

Robert Reich gives his take on the take.

Or you can read the transcript.

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“Greedflation” and This New Gilded Age 0

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The Chosen 0

Mike Johnson stands behind a podium labeled

Via Job’s Anger.

Aside:

Today’s Republican Party is a vile and loathsome thing.

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A Picture Is Worth 0

At the climate conference in Dubai, oil executives basking in oil and oil riches at the Dubai as other listen to a lecture on stopping the use of fossil fuels.

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Our Polite Society 0

Thom discusses America’s most exceptional exceptionalism.

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