From Pine View Farm

This New Gilded Age 0

VIa Boston.com, we learn that the kids are starting to feel that the American dream of the possibility of upward mobility through hard work is but a memory. A snippet:

For Americans, the price of participation is often measured by the cost of a home. And even with two incomes, many people interviewed said homeownership felt ever more distant, particularly in urban areas where most Americans now live.

In 1991, the typical first-time homebuyer was 28 years old. This year, that buyer was 40, according to the National Association of Realtors.

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Recommended Listening 0

Harry Shearer’s interview with Gary Marcus about “the AI illusion and why it isn’t intelligence” on this week’s episode of Le Show.

And in more (quite disgusting) news involving AI.

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QOTD 0

Robert Guillaume, in the voice of Benson DuBois:

There are too many people in this world who spend their lives trying to get away with things.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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A Matter of Perspective 0

Why is Donald Trump trying to steal Greenland from Denmark?

Methinks my old Philly DL friend Noz may have nailed it.

I have always wondered how much of this Greenland obsession is because he is fooled by the distorting effects of the Mercator projection, which makes everything in the far North look much bigger on the map than they actually are.

Follow the link for the rest of his article.

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Disorder in the Court 0

Honest to Betsy, you can’t make this stuff up.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Some polite Facebook frolics.

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Republican Thought Police 0

Atrios provides an example of the exercise of freedom of the surpress.

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The Attraction 0

Frame Five, title,

Via Job’s Anger.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Able to appreciate beauty? Neel Burton, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, points out the, per Kant, it can’t.

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QOTD 0

Blake Edwards:

It’s been my experience that every time I think I know where it’s at, it’s usually somewhere else.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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

In a letter to the editor of the Las Vegas Sun, Kimball Shinkoskey listens to the man who would be king and hears a rhyme from a millennium ago. A couplet:

In its present Trumpian form, the new boundaries established by rogue nations the world over are essentially made permanent without a peace conference and without ongoing international supervision. This more resembles the medieval “right of conquest” of kings.

Follow the link for context.
________________________

*Mark Twain.

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A Bad Spell 0

Methinks they misplet “victimizers.”

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Trumponomics, One More Time 0

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The Name Gamer 0

George Bailey from the film, *It's a Wonderful Life*, looks at a sign and sees that Bedford Falls have been renameed Trumpville.  He asks Clarence the ghost,

Click for the original image.

As I mentioned, like my old dog, he has to spread his taint on everything.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Once again, politeness becomes child’s play,

For once, note seems to have been taken of the difference between “accidental” and negligent.”

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Cui Bono? American Stasi Dept. 0

Who’s making money from the racist crackdown by the New Secesh? Truthout follows the money. A snippet:

In the wake of the major operations in Louisiana and North Carolina, Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies collected and analyzed data from USASpending.gov on more than 50 businesses headquartered in those states who are receiving CBP and ICE contracts for fiscal years 2025-2026. The contracts for companies based in Louisiana and North Carolina total more than $341 million.

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QOTD 0

Stanley Kubrick:

There’s something in the human personality which resents things that are clear, and conversely, something which is attracted to puzzles, enigmas, and allegories.

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And Now for Change of Pace 0

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From Pine View Farm
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