From Pine View Farm

QOTD 0

E. B. White:

I am a member of a party of one, and I live in an age of fear.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

The stupid? Automated.

The Daryl? Missing in action.

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“We Have Grift-Off” 0

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The Casting Grouch 0

The Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini thinks he knows why Donald Trump is filling his maladministration with unqualified Fox News personalities. Here’s a bit of his theory:

Trump doesn’t seem to think of his job as putting together a government, but as auditioning actors to play bit parts in the televised extravaganza of which he is the star.

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Brain Drain Eviction 0

Der Spiegel reports (follow the link for the full report):

Many researchers are looking for a new home because the Trump administration has launched a broadside attack on science in the U.S.

Also, RFK Jr. has hurt fee-fees because anti-science whack-jobs don’t get no respect.

Not that these two items might in any way be related . . . .

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The Lies of the Land 0

Thom dissects how and why big (Republican) lies work and lists a litany of said lies.

As an aside, his arguments are consistent with points made by Vanessa LoBue, whose Psycnology Today article I mentioned yesterday.

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The Plane Truth 0

Title:  Cognitive Test.  Frame One:  Donald Trump points at a picture of a jet gifted him from Qata and says,

Click for the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

We are again reminded that politeness is a family value.

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They Way They Were . . . . 0

At Above the Law, Mark Hermann remembers the past. Here’s one of his misty water-colored memories:

Once upon a time — I’m thinking about during the Clinton administration — Republicans devoutly believed that the character of a president mattered. We had to impeach Clinton; no person of bad character belonged in the White House.

Follow the link for more memories.

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QOTD 0

Margery Allingham:

To be free takes a lot of time and trouble.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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The Disinformation Superhighway 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Vanessa LoBue takes a look at how dis- and misinformation spread on the disinformation superhighway. She notes that researchers have determined the following:

First, they* found that fake news stories were 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than real news stories. Second, they found that it took real news stories 6 times as long to reach 1,500 people as fake ones (Vosoughi et al., 2018). This makes us all incredibly susceptible to believing fake news stories simply by the fact that we’re more likely to hear them, and we typically don’t hear them just once.

She goes on to offer some techniques to avoid falling for fabrications.

I commend her article as a timely read in this disinformation age.

___________________

*Citations at the link.

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A Trumped Up Case 0

At the Washington Monthly, former federal prosecutor James D. Zirin argues that

(i)f there was ever a textbook case of selective prosecution, the Justice Department investigation of New York Attorney General Letitia James appears to be it.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

It seems that some “responsible gun owners” saw fit to celebrate their Mother’s Day family restaurant outings by discharging their pointers of politeness at each other.

We are a broken society.

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A Man-Boy and His Toy Box 0

Or you can read the transcript.

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Fantasy World 0

Yes, Virginia, there is an alternate universe.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Another woman’s story.

For the life of me, I can’t see anything behind this but racism, bigotry, and mean for the sake of mean.

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QOTD 0

Cicero:

Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law.

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Dolly Parting, Reprise 0

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Intellectually enhancing? If you buy that, I got a bridge in Brooklyn that’s for sale.

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