From Pine View Farm

Trumpling History 0

Family in the Smithsonian in an exhibit room adorned with stocks, whips, shackles, nooses, and the like.  Man reads from legend,

Click for the original image.

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The Bill of Particulars 0

At Above the Law, the actions of the Trump maladministration lead Mark Hermann to ask a question:

. . . does the president have, and do we really want him to have, unfettered power to coerce anybody, anywhere, for any reason at all?

Follow the link for the list of Trump’s actions which made him pose that question.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Another “responsible gun owner.”

Another exposed portable phallus.

Another child.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Writing at the Inky, Jenice Armstrong finds herself dismayed the Trump maladministration’s attempts to retaliate against Congresswoman LaMonica McIver for trying to do her job.

No summary of excerpt can capture the scope and nuance of Armstrong’s piece. Just go read it.

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QOTD 0

Ronald Firbank:

The world is so disgracefully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain.

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A Tune for the Times 0

From the Youtube page:

This may not be one of Paul Simon’s most successful songs, but it was a fun vibe to work up at the start of a new school year – getting instruments out for the first time since a summer holiday. The original was the second single from the album “Paul Simon” (released 1972) and the inscrutable story in the lyrics is set in the Queens neighbourhood where he grew up. By coincidence, it was apparently performed with Stephen Colbert in 2015 on The Late Show – the programme that this week tore into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s record and showed some of his fiery testimony in the Senate, an episode which also made it into European news coverage (story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c….

Needless to say, the world is watching with alarm the compromising of America’s public health systems, including the dismantling of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) – which has now lost its chief medical officer, director of immunisation, and director of emerging diseases (among many others) – while misinformation spreads, rates of vaccine uptake plummet, new outbreaks of measles kill again, and some states gallop headlong towards removing mandates that had the overwhelming backing of the scientific and medical communities.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A tool for learning? At Psychology Today Blogs, Michael Hogan warns us that “(o)ver-reliance on AI risks eroding students’ knowledge and skill development through reduced cognitive effort.”

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The Interview 0

At the Portland Press-Herald, R. Mark Bernstein asks, “If you needed a job done, would you hire a person with this resume?”

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The Crypto Con Artists 0

Emma talks with Molly White, crypto and tech industry researcher, about the Trump family’s participation in the crypto con and about the larger con that is crypto.

You can visit Molly White’s website.

Aside:

Emma uses the phrase “cryto industry.” I guess, if an industry can be based on thin air and maintained by wishful thinking, that might be a valid phras–oh, never mind.

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Truth in Relabeling 0

Image One:  Department of Defense renamed to Department of War.  Image Two:  Department of Health and Human Services renamed to Department of War on Science.  Image Three:  Department of Justice renmaed Department of War on Democrats.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” exposes his portable phallus to a child.

Musical NotesGuns and stupid, guns and stupid.
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you brother,
You can’t have one without the other.

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Responsible Fiscals 0

C&L follows the money,

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QOTD 0

C. Wright Mills:

People with advantages are loath to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Suffer the Children 0

As we know, that’s not scripture. That’s a Republican family value. To illustrate:

Former USAID staffer Karen Van Roekel, writing at the Des Moines Register, is dismayed at the mean for the sake of mean in the Trump maladministration’s decision to shut down that agency. A snippet (emphasis added):

My colleagues and I struggled to make sense of criticisms from people with no knowledge of our work who claimed these were “wasteful,” ineffective programs rife with “mismanagement.” USAID staff all swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States, not to any one party or ideology. Our collective accomplishments were documented on USAID’s website for the world to see until it was blacked out by this administration. The Lancet, a respected medical journal, credits USAID with having saved 90 million lives, 30 million of whom were children less than 5 years of age. How can saving lives at that scale be considered ineffective?

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What’s in a Name? 0

According the Steve M. quite a bit. Speaking of bits, here’s a bit from his article:

The naming of wars can be politicized. Some American Southerners have rejected the name “Civil War” for the conflict fought on U.S. soil starting in 1861, preferring to call it “the War Between the States” or “the War of Northern Aggression.” Russians call World War II “the Great Patriotic War.”

If we call Trump’s urban invasions a war, we should give the war its correct name: the War on Democrats. That’s literally what it is.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

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Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

Sam talks with Ari Berman about how John Roberts’s Supreme Supremacist Court has been working to gut the Voting Rights Act that, per the Encyclopedia Britannica, “aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States.”

America’s original sin of chattel slavery continues to take its toll.

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“ICEBlock” 0

Caption:  Muriel's practical application of iceblock.  Image:  Man sunbathing at the beach.  woman says to him,

Click to view the original image.

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Crowd Control, Republican Thought Police Dept. 0

U. S. Tennis Association to broadcasters: If persons boo Trump, don’t tell anyone.

Vie Joe My God.

Afterthought:

I guess they don’t want to hurt Donald Trump’s tender fee-fees.

If only Donald Trump showed such any concern for anyone else’s tender fee-fees.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” performs random acts of politeness.

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