From Pine View Farm

A Questioning of Identity 0

The stupid. It burns.

The hate. It rages.

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The Crypto Con in This New Gilded Age 0

Here’s the lede, via Truthout. Follow the link for the details

A Bitcoin advocacy group pushing President-elect Donald Trump to stockpile massive amounts of cryptocurrency and state-level efforts to do the same is run by fossil fuel operatives fighting to eliminate environmental regulations, including the author of the Project 2025 proposal to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency.

Not that those pushing crypto might have any ulterior motives . . . .

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Donald Trump, the Tantrum Yogi 0

At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jim Lenkner makes a strong and disturbing case that we–at least, some of us–have devolved into a nation of tantrum-throwing three-year olds. He points to Donald Trump’s pardoning of the January 6th insurrectionists as an example:

Pardoning most of the rioters may be justified if it was rendered as an action of healing. Instead, our president created greater division, and sanctioned violence as a means to get what you want.

There is no contrition. Instead, we learned that violence is okay if it is for my cause. Stopping our government from performing its duties is okay if we smash and attack like toddlers for what we think is “mine.” And, we must never say I’m sorry. Contrition is for losers.

I can pick a few nits with some of his remarks, but methinks he makes some good points.

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Republican Family Values 0

Jesus stands on the Mount saying,

Image via Michael in Norfolk, who has commentary.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Police said the boy was with an 11-year-old friend when they threw a snowball at a car.

That was when the car turned around and shot the 12-year-old multiple times, according to police.

Lieutenant Aaron Boisvert said, “Thank God [his injuries were] non-life-threatening. Could’ve been a lot worse.”

We are society suffering from self-inflicted lead poisoning.

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The Clueless Crew 0

Methinks my old friend from my Philly days has pretty much put his finger on major part of the problem.

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Twits Own Twitter X Offenders 0

You can’t make this stuff up.

Words fail me.

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QOTD 0

Alexis de Tocqueville:

“The will of the nation” is one of those expressions which have been most profusely abused by the wily and the despotic of every age.

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The Creeping Crawling Chaos Agent (Updated) 0

Addendum:

Speaking of cults . . . .

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Republican Family Values 0

Yet another exhibit in the pile of evidence that mean for the sake of mean is a Republican family value.

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The Rule of Lawless 0

Donald Trump letting January 6th insurrectionists out of prison.  As they storm out of the prison, they trample over GOP Elephant labeled

Click to view the original image.

At the Tampa Bay Times, retired DEA agent Robert Mazur shares his thoughts.

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The Grift of Grab, Reprise 0

Seth tells us what we can expect for the next four (only four, if we’re lucky) years.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

And, as we all know, a polite society is a clean society.

One more time, “responsible gun owner” is an oxymoron.

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Facebook Frolics 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Michael Patrick Lynch argues that, given the reach of Facebook and its sister “social” media apps, the Zuckerborg’s decision to eschew fact-checking has serious implications for the future of democracy. He cites Hanna Arendt:

As philosopher Hannah Arendt observed in The Origins of Totalitarianism, authoritarian propaganda thrives on “extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion, fact depends entirely on the power of the man who can fabricate it” (Arendt, 1951). In other words, it is in an authoritarian’s self-interest to undermine the idea that anyone else besides themselves can “fact-check” or say what’s true and what’s false.

Follow the link for his arguments.

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Repeat Offender 0

Florida Man.

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QOTD 0

sundialsvcs, in a post at Linux Questions:

There is no “I” in “AI”!

Aside:

I have been a member of LQ for almost two decades. In my opinion, it is the friendliest Linux place on the inner webs.

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The Grift of Grab 0

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Humpty-Dumpties 0

Shorter PoliticalProf: To right-wingers, the Constitution means what they want it to mean.

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Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

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Signings of the Times, Rule of Lawless Dept. 0

I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that, if Donald Trump thinks he can single-handedly amend the Constitution by executive order, the rule of law may be on shaky ground under his sewership.

Along those lines, AL.com’s Roy S. Johnson looks at Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order signature spasm and finds himself less than impressed. A snippet:

I’m not sure any single signature made us better — let alone great.

He renamed a body of water and a mountain (snore); contradicted his own “efficiency” quest by ordering all federal workers into the office; poured white-out over all references to diversity, equity and inclusion in the federal government, resuscitated the government-sanctioned murder (the death penalty); did a Simone Biles-backflip with TikTok; yanked us from vital international organizations; tried to pour more white-out on the birthright constitutional amendment; and pen-swiped a lot of jargon-salad decrees declaring “protection,” “America first,” and various “emergencies” allowing him potentially to weaponize the U.S. military against, well, any of us.

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