Political Theatre category archive
Stray Thought 0
“Yes, but will it hold up in court?” is no longer a valid rhetorical question.
We have seen that, with the application of enough juice for a long enough time to the correct vulnerable points, anything, regardless of legality or morality, will hold up in court.
The Party’s Over . . . 0
Thom argues that the Republican Party of Eisenhower, Dirksen, and, yes, even Reagan, is no more. It’s been replaced by a xenophobic racist establishmentarian personality cult.
News You Can Lose 0
There’s an old saying that “no news is good news.”
At Psychology Today Blogs, Arthur Dobrin argues that too much news is bad news. A snippit:
Follow the link for his suggestions as to how to keep up to date without being driven up a wall.
The Privatization Scam 0
Arizona’s state budget is in big trouble because of the privatization scam. That’s something you can voucher on.
Here’s a bit of the report from ProPublica:
But as it turns out, the parents most likely to apply for these vouchers are the ones who were already sending their kids to private school or homeschooling. They use the dollars to subsidize what they were already paying for.
Much more at the link.
“There Is No Auto-Pilot Setting for Democracy” 0
Seth points out that previous generations have had to fight to protect democracy and that, now, it’s our turn. He notes that what we don’t need are the “opportunistic purveyors of paranois, suspicion, and fear, who have already rushed to fill the void with incendiary conspiracy theories and lies.”
Aside:
I got three texts purporting to be from J. D. Vance yestoday. (Why he would text me, I have no idea, but, each time, I blocked the number.)
Each one addressed me as “Patriot.”
Coming from the likes of him, that word becomes an insult.
Myth Buster 0
In the course of a longer article how, in evaluating candidates for office, we need to look at the big picture when evaluating candidates for office, the Portland Press-Herald’s Victoria Hugo-Vidal makes a trenchant observation (emphasis added):
Follow the link for context.
Immunity Impunity
0
Der Spiegel talks with Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe about the Supreme Supremacist Court’s recent decision granting Donald Trump “presidential immunity” for “official acts.” Professor Tribe finds the decision to be–er–of questionable legitimacy.
It is a timely and disturbing read. Here’s a tiny bit of it (emphasis in the original):
Tribe: My colleagues in the government department are exactly right. It is a dangerous phenomenon. Minorities are entitled to protection in every respect. But no minority should be able to run roughshod over the majority. After all, it is not a minority of the oppressed that has gained such power in our system. It is the minority of those with the greatest wealth and the best connections. And they are now running the show in a way that is very dangerous to our democracy.
“Corruption without Consequence” 0
Sam and the crew discuss AOC’s speech about abuse of power by Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and the rest of today’s Supreme Supremacist Court.
A Tune for the Times 0
Mangy comments on the Youtube page:
Nobody does ‘snowflake’ quite as well as Donald Trump. There is no issue out there in which Trump can’t figure out a way to paint himself as the victim. Women’s rights? Trump’s suffered because of it. Global warming? Trump’s unjustly victimized by talk of it. Gay rights? Trump’s chances for success are hindered by it. The metric system? Trump says it was designed to make him look fat. Gravity? Just a theory meant to keep Trump down. With all the melting down that Trump does, Mangy Fetlocks thought he deserved a song.