From Pine View Farm

Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

Bird labeled

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Another “responsible gun owner” allows a child access to a portable phallus . . .

A 6-year-old boy died Tuesday following an accidental shooting at a Montgomery County residence, according to police.

. . . and another news report fails to twig to the difference between “accidental” and “negligent.”.

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

At the Washington Monthly, Robert J. Shapiro reads the writings of Hannah Arendt and hears a rhyme. A snippet:

MAGA is not the first mass movement to endorse violence in the service of its leader’s aspirations. If history is a valuable guide to understanding this moment, the most penetrating historical analysis is, famously, Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, which has been widely discussed since Trump rose to power.

(snip)

Her 1951 analysis of the movements that propelled the rise of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes begins with the insight that their followers were not a typical interest group seeking benefits or rights. Instead, they’re individuals who feel that recent disruptive societal changes cost them their status and are brought together by a charismatic leader who exploits their shared sense of injury.

The leader of these movements offers lies to explain why his followers lost their place, claims he can restore it given enough power, and, equally important, manipulates his followers’ anger to support violence committed at his behest.

I commend the entire article to your attention.

____________________-

*Mark Twain.

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The Rule of Lawless 0

At Above the Law, Joe Patrice reports on the Trump maladministration decision to dumb down the Judge Advocate General by excluding graduates from law schools that refuse to bow down to Donald Trump.

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QOTD 0

Angela Davis:

Prisons do not disappear problems, they disappear human beings. And the practice of disappearing vast numbers of people from poor, immigrant and racially marginalized communities has literally become big business.

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All the News that Fits 0

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The American Devolution 0

Title:  If today's Republicans wwer around in 1776.  Image:  Mike Johnson and man labled

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Over and Over Again 0

Via the Las Vegas Sun, Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Eric Foster argues that he sees a pattern in Donald Trump’s history.

I think he’s onto something. Go see for yourself.

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This New Gilded Age 0

Theft of labor. It’s a thing.

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Republican Thought Police 0

Apparently, Kansas Republicans believe that, if schools don’t teach abour America’s history of slavery, segregation, racial discrimination, and bigotry, then, well, it must have never happened.

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How Stuff Works: The Crypto Con 0

Non Sequitur pictures the process.

Afterthought:

If Carlo Ponzi were alive today, he’d be selling crypto and NFTs.

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Devolution 0

The Rude One is not sanguine.

(Warning: Rudeness.)

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QOTD 0

St. Jerome:

Opulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, then by his predecessor.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Secure? Security maven Bruce Schneier notes that

Unlike traditional computing systems that strictly separate executable code from user data, LLMs process all input—whether it is a system command, a user’s email, or a retrieved document—as a single, undifferentiated sequence of tokens. There is no architectural boundary to enforce a distinction between trusted instructions and untrusted data. Consequently, a malicious instruction embedded in a seemingly harmless document is processed with the same authority as a system command.

Click to read the whole article.

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American Stasi 0

Via Boston.com, one man, whose only offense was overstaying his visa and marrying an American woman, tells his story. Here’s a tiny bit:

Culleton told an Irish radio station about his detention at the ERO East Montana ICE Detention Camp in El Paso, Texas, describing poor sanitation and hygiene at the facility along with rampant sickness.

“It’s like a modern day concentration camp. We’ve got no human rights down here,” Culleton said. “People are starving, people are sick, people are tired … It’s just hell down here. Hell on earth. I wouldn’t wish it on any human being at all.”

Follow the link for the full account, including, natch, the Trump maladministration’s claims that, au contraire my sweet, staying in their camps is akin to vacationing at a Hilton or a Marriott.

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Precedented 0

In a letter to the editor of my local rag, David Campbell compiles an impressive list of almost a dozen presidential precedents for the actions of the head of the Trump maladministration.

Here’s one presidential precedent; follow the link for the rest.

Like Trump, many presidents were overtly racist. Twelve were slaveholders. President Woodrow Wilson screened “The Birth of a Nation,” glorifying the KKK.

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Republican Thought Police 0

Michael in Norfolk points out that now they’re coming for your “social” media posts.

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Typhoid Mary Measles Bobby 0

Picture of cigaret burning in ashtray labeled

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And, in more news of Meales Bobby . . . .

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

It appears that politeness is not longer just going to for the dogs.

Now it’s also going to for the cats.

We are a broken society.

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