From Pine View Farm

QOTD 0

Charles A. Kupchan:

Far from paving the way for a halcyon future of prosperity and stability, the digital era promises to usher in as profound a political and social transformation as that wrought by the arrival of the industrial age.

Afterthought:

He wrote that in 2002. Methinks he was onto something.

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A Tune for the Times 0

And it should be no surprise that Trump figuratively shot the messenger.

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Republican Family Values 0

They don’t seem to apply to families.

At the Detroit Free-Press, Debbie Dingell, who represents Michigan’s Sixth Congressional District, looks at the harm the Trump maladministration is doing to Americans’ health and health care. A snippet:

Not only are we the only industrialized nation that doesn’t guarantee all of its citizens health care, we just enacted the biggest cuts to health coverage in history through President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which Republicans passed without a single vote from Democrats.

An estimated 17 million people could lose their health care as a direct result. And premiums for everyone will go up. Without enhanced premium tax credits for ACA marketplace plans, more healthy people will drop coverage, making the risk pool sicker on average and more expensive to insure.

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Courting Disaster 0

Thom discusses the Trump maladministration’s attack on an impartial federal judiciary and the impllications thereof.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

It would appear that, when you give sadists power, sadism is the logical outcome.

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The Update 0

Title:  The Four Freedoms 2025.  Frame One:  Freedom of speech . . . if you don't say anything mean about Trump.  Frame Two:  Freedom of worship . . . if you're a Christian.  Frame Three:  Freedom from want . . . if you're a billionaire.  Frame Four:  Freedom from fear . . . if you're a straight white guy.

Click for the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

They found politeness is a parking space.

“Our victim was unhappy with the way the defendant parked his car on his street, that he didn’t park close enough to the next car. I guess he felt that there was more room he should’ve pulled up,” said Bernhardt.

Police say the two initially walked away from each other, but Floyd came back. The victim used bear spray on Floyd and investigators say that’s when Floyd pulled out a gun and fired three shots as the victim ran into an alley.

We are a broken society.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Truthful? Pigs. Wings.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Timothy Cook (no relation to Tim Apple) offers a four-step process for tricking AI into revealing its biases and fabrications.

Given the hype and hyperbole about these robotic search engines and given how many browsers and websites are trying to hornswoggle us into letting AI bots do our thinking for us, it is a worthwhile read.

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QOTD 0

Germaine Greer:

Human beings have an inalienable right to invent themselves; when that right is pre-empted it is called brain-washing.

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Get Me Rewrite! 0

Mr. Newberger envisions a Trumpled Smithsonian.

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Republican Family Values 0

Yet more evidence that mean for the sake of mean is a Republican family value.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Ring of Fire looks at some of the latest racist and bigoted antics out of Florida.

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The Environmental Protection Polluting Agency 0

Cartoon lampooning how the Trump administration is turning the EPA into the Environmental Pollution Agency.

Click to view the original image.

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Establishmentarians 0

Methinks the editorial board of the Las Vegas Sun makes some good points in advocating that establishmentarians who want to use the government to conduct their inquisitions should pay to play.

Me, I’m a disestablishmentarian. I believe that established churches should be disestablished.

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Republican Thought Police 0

Via WHYY, the AP looks at how the Republican thought police are leaning on learning.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society’ 0

Yet another case of politeness on the pavement.

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QOTD 0

Hunter S. Thompson:

If you consider the great journalists in history, you don’t see too many objective journalists on that list. H. L. Mencken was not objective. Mike Royko, who just died. I. F. Stone was not objective. Mark Twain was not objective. I don’t quite understand this worship of objectivity in journalism. Now, just flat-out lying is different from being subjective.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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

At the Washington Monthly, Roger Kerson makes a strong case that “Musk” rhymes with “Ford.”

________________–

*Mark Twain.

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Dis Coarse Discourse 0

Does this call to mind of anyone in the news?

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From Pine View Farm
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