From Pine View Farm

Political Theatre category archive

Chris Quixote 0

Chris Christie says,

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Aside:

It says something about today’s Republican Party that it makes Chris Christie look, as my old doctor would say about test results, “within normal limits.”

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Believe Them When They Tell You Who They Are, Reprise 0

Florida Man’s Freudian slip.

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Precedented 0

Donald Trump, holding a cell phone, stands before a painting of a laughing Richard Nixon.  Voice on cell phone says,

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Poisoned Pavement 0

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The Lake Effect 0

The Arizona Republic’s Laurie Roberts suggests that Kari Lake quite by accident picked the right theme song.

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Believe It When They Tell You Who They Are 0

I was stopped at a light yesterday next to car with a bumper sticker that read

DEPLORABLE.

I shall take him at his word.

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A Divider, Not a Uniter 0

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Sound Familiar? 0

Thom offers a definition of fascism from the U. S. Department of War during World War II. A snippet;

Fascism is government of the few, for the few.

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Overloaded 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, the Hospital, Health, and Addiction Workers Group argues that, thanks to cell phones, tablets, 24-hour “news” channels, and the like, we are overloaded with news. Indeed, I would add that much of what passes for broadcast “news” coverage is not information about things that have happened–that’s news–it’s opinion and even mis- and disinformation (think Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems) masquerading as opinion.

They point out that

It’s one thing to be informed, quite another to be constantly alarmed.

Follow the link for some suggestions for reaching a healthy balance between being informed and being panicked.

Aside:

I avoid television news completely (except when there’s a snowstorm).

I read the local rag and visit various news web sites–mostly legitimate newspapers–and don’t subscribe to news alerts on my “devices” (I do subscribe to various RSS feeds, but they lie there quietly until I choose to look at them). I also spend large portions of the day away from news; heck, I don’t even like to listen to the one-minute hourly NPR headline summary on my local classical music station.

Being informed without being overloaded is depressing enough these days, thank you very much.

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Fiefdom of Religion, Reprise 0

Sam and his crew talk with Will Sommer, politics reporter for The Daily Beast, about who buys into QAnon and why.

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Fiefdom of Religion 0

Michael in Norfolk has an interesting theory as to why Republicans have started to attack public schools and public school teachers.

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The Coarse in the Discourse 0

Three buildings labeled

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One more time, “social” media isn’t.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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A Picture Is Worth 0

Picture of veterans' cemetary.  Voice rises from one of the graves saying,

Via Job’s Anger.

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Durham’s Bull 0

The Washington Monthly’s Margaret Carlson reports that Republicans plan to keep stirring the empty pot.

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Responsible Fiscals 0

I submit that tanking the nation’s economy out of spite–they know they can’t get their way through negotiation and compromise–cannot be considered an act of fiscal responsibility, especially from the party that brags however mendaciously that it is the party of fiscal responsibility.

Tattered dollar bill with QAnon Shaman's picture in the middle.  QAnon Shaman says,

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know Them by the Company They Keep Out 0

Methinks my old friend Noz makes a good point.

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The Disinformation Superhighway 0

Who funds the fusillade of falsehoods?

At the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Paul Wagman follows the money and finds an internet advertising company named Decide, which appears to be in it for the Benjamins. A snippet:

In recent months, some of the nation’s most prominent polluters of the information ecosphere have finally begun to face consequences for their conspiracy theories and assorted lies. Alex Jones has been fined more than $1.4 billion for insisting that the massacre of young children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut never took place. Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million for its lies about the company’s voting machines. And James Hoft, publisher of the Gateway Pundit website, is a defendant in both a Dominion-related suit in Denver and in a separate defamation case in his hometown of St. Louis.

But a St. Louis company that for several years has helped make these kinds of far-right websites viable — a company that helps to finance them while at the same time making money off of them — continues to operate here without the slightest repercussions.

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The Playbook 0

Does this remind you of anyone’s campaign tactics?

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A Tune for the Times 0

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