From Pine View Farm

Too Venal for Words category archive

The Other Plucker 0

Frame One, captioned

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This New Gilded Age (Updated) 0

Elon Musk standing in front of a pile of moneybags labeled

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Addendum:

Per Balloon Juice, Mike Lucovich is now banned from Xitter because of this cartoon.

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It Can Happen Here 0

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley Law School, argues that it is, indeed, already happening here.

He notes that

If one were to design a path to authoritarian rule, it would be what we have seen in the first weeks of the Trump administration. For my book “No Democracy Lasts Forever,” I studied how democracies die and are replaced by authoritarian regimes. Almost always the rulers are elected rather than coming to power through a coup, and then they consolidate authority and silence their critics.

He goes on to list several specific indicators that we are seeing this process right here right now right before our eyes.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

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

Trudy Rubin hears a rhyme.

It must be free verse, as somehow “Donald Trump” manages to rhyme with “Neville Chamberlain.”

_________________

*Mark Twain.

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Parental Frights 0

Florida Man.

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Fly the Fiendly Skies 0

They get fiendlier every day.

We are a broken society.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Echoes of Immorality 0

For some fool reason, this article seems to remind me of someone in the news.

I wonder just who it could be?

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The Unelected Co-Conspirator, Reprise 0

Thom Hartmann talks with Representative Mark Pocan about possible motivations for Elon Musk’s recent DOGEy actions.

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Vaccine Nation 0

At the confirmation hearings for RFK Jr., Senators Measles, Polio, Smallpox and Disinformation all vote

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A Tune for the Times 0

A short tune about Donald Trump’s reaction to the Washington–I refuse to call it “Reagan”–National Airport crash.

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The Crypto Con 0

Jacob Silverman talks with Sam and Emma about the growing threat of greater US government involvement in crypto, with state and local governments pondering active investments in the scam-centric industry, and how a Trump presidency will likely expedite that.

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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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The Crypto Con 0

Everyone’s getting into the act.

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Know Them by the Company They Keep 0

As cynical as I have become been made, I must admit that this rather takes me aback.

I expect that my father, who was in the Ardennes, would be appalled.

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Where Is She Now? 0

Florida Man wanted to know.

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The Rule of Flaw 0

A Solomonic ruling rooted in Cannon law.

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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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The Lizard of Oz 0

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Kashing It In 0

Mrs. Betty Bowers looks into why Donald Trump wants Kash Patel to run the FBI.

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