From Pine View Farm

Republican Lies category archive

Establismentarians, Boebert Is the New Gohmert Dept. 0

At the Idaho State Journal, Nick Gier skewers Lauren Boebert’s fanciful and fabricated claim that the United States Constitution does not–er–establish separation of church and state. He reminds her that

No, Congresswoman Bobert (sic), our founders—conservative and liberal—were wise enough to reject the dangerous idea that your favorite pastor should direct the government.

Follow the link for the wealth of historical evidence that he musters.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

A Texas judge who was dealing with immigration case decided to visit the Texas-Mexico border. What he found was not what we’re being told. Here’s a tiny bit from his article:

What I saw in the courtroom fueled my desire to go to see it for myself. What I found was astonishingly different from the chaos often portrayed in the media and in legal circles. I saw a border that was secure, with helicopters patrolling and law enforcement officers working in an orderly process. Migrants waited for months in Mexican border towns for their turn to legally enter, going through extensive screenings, interviews and sponsor verifications. To call them “illegals” is not only misleading but dismisses the effort and legality of their actions.

Follow the link for some of the lessons he learned.

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Countering Chaos Agents 0

Thom offers some pointers on how to deal with the flood of lies.

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A Legend in His Own Mind 0

Trump: I Have common sense

The Kansas City Star’s Melinda Henneberger: The evidence shows otherwise.

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Republican Family Values 0

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

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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 Privatization Scam 0

Via Cliff’s Edge, Matt Robison and Anne Kim parse the preverication.

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The Fires Liars This Time 0

GOP Elephant standing amongst ruins of California fires says,

Click for the original image and the artist’s commentary.

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The Fires This Time 0

Jimmy Kimmel discusses being in Los Angeles during the fires this time.

Afterthought:

I spent a lot of time in California on business trips.

I must confess, I don’t like California and I agree with Alexander Woollcott about Los Angeles. The Cali scenery is beautiful–especially the high Sierras–but I guess I’m just an east coast guy at heart.

But that doesn’t mean I dislike Californians or wish them ill.

I–all should–contemn those folks who are trying to score political points off the California fires and those who are suffering from them.

But it seems that those who sell hate always finds buyers, because hate sells, for hating is always easier than thinking.

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The Media Is the Message 0

Thom argues that, if you can control the media, you can control the message, and traces the history of Republican efforts to do just that.

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

At the Idaho State Journal, Kim Shinkoskey hears a rhyme. Here’s how he opens his article:

The MAGA movement in America is currently using methods perfected by the Soviet communist movement in Russia.

Follow the link for his evidence.

________________

*Mark Twain.

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“Get Me Rewrite!” 0

At the Des Moines Register, Lyle Miller digs into Republicans’ efforts to portray Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election as a good thing.

I commend his article to your attention.

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The Firestorm of Lies 0

Thom dissects the firestorm of right-wing lies about the California fires.

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Facebook Frolics 0

Sam and the crew dissect the dissimulations of the digital despot.

The EFF also has–er–qualms after a second reading of the Zuckerborg’s new policy. A bit from their post:

(W)e became aware that rather than addressing those historically over-moderated subjects, Meta was taking the opposite tack and—as reported by the Independent—was making targeted changes to its hateful conduct policy that would allow dehumanizing statements to be made about certain vulnerable groups.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

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Making Sense of the Nonsensical 0

At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, David Mills considers Donald Trump’s recent statements about–er–annexing Greenland, Canada and Panama–something that in saner times would be considered shall-we-say somewhat aggressive and warlike.

Mills offers a theory as to why Donald Trump says some of the things he does. Here’s a bit of his article:

Some people . . . try to lead by creating confusion and the fear that follows confusion. They keep everyone else always off-balance because people who are off-balance can’t defend themselves very well or go on the offensive. Being continually off-balance makes them afraid, because they never know when they might fall, or get knocked down.

Many of us have had bosses like that. I think Donald Trump is that kind of boss. He creates confusion and then fear by being so cavalier with the truth.

He may be onto something.

My own theory is simpler.

I don’t think Trump and truth or on speaking terms, but that’s just me.

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Facebook Frolics 0

Shorter Mark Zuckerberg: Facts schmacks.

Here’s a bit from the CNN report:

“Fact checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created,” Zuckerberg said in a video announcing the new policy Tuesday. “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far.”

Zuckerberg, however, acknowledged a “tradeoff” in the new policy, noting more harmful content will appear on the platform as a result of the content moderation changes.

Methinks “politically biased” in the passage above is Zuckerspeak for “keep calling out right-wing lies,” but that’s just me.

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Vaccine Nation 0

At the Des Moines Register, Kimberly Witt remembers her mother’s struggles with polio when she was still a child, before the vaccine existed. She fears that Donald Trump and RFK Jr. will bring those days back.

Here’s tiny piece from her article:

It was 1952, a month before my mom was scheduled to start kindergarten. She was excited to attend her neighborhood country school and planned to walk the half-mile with her friends. But one morning she couldn’t walk down the stairs.

“I was at the top of the stairs crying, and my parents had to carry me down,” my mom recalls. They took her to the doctor where she was diagnosed with paralytic polio.

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Four Years Later . . . . 0

Steve M. looks back at how the right tried to muddy muddied the waters about what actually happened on January 6, 2021.

It’s not pretty.

And, along those lines, PoliticalProf notes an irony.

Afterthought:

As my old professor of the early federal period was fond of saying, “History is irony.”

This is a particularly bitter one.

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Dis Coarse Discourse on the Disinformation Superhighway 0

Steve M. parses how the right-wing spin cycle transforms “missing information” into “misinformation.” A snippet (emphasis added):

Right-wing media figures and influencers have a thousand different ways of making the Republican base angry at their enemies. One important way of making the rubes angry is by accusing the enemies of dishonesty and bad faith just for doing their jobs in an environment where all the facts aren’t known.

Follow the link for evidence.

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All the News that Fits 0

Amy Goodman and Juan González spoke with The Nation’s Chris Lehmann about Donald Trump’s efforts to stifle free speech and silence the press. Lehman notes that this is a long-standing tactic for Trump. Here’s a snippet; follow the link for the full article.

CHRIS LEHMANN: Well, what’s happening is a very clear pattern in Trump’s public life. It actually well antedates his rise to political power. He made a practice of frequently going after journalists for defamation. He famously sued one of his biographers, who wrote in this biography that Trump did not qualify as a billionaire. And in his subsequent deposition, Trump basically said he was a billionaire because he felt like a billionaire. This is a long-standing pattern of just intimidation of the press. And Trump was very open as a private businessperson that that was his aim. He wanted to exert a chilling effect on people doing critical reporting from him.

(Broken link fixed.)

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