Political Theatre category archive
The Lake Effect 0
The Arizona Republic’s Laurie Roberts suggests that Kari Lake quite by accident picked the right theme song.
Believe It When They Tell You Who They Are 0
I was stopped at a light yesterday next to car with a bumper sticker that read
DEPLORABLE.
I shall take him at his word.
Sound Familiar? 0
Thom offers a definition of fascism from the U. S. Department of War during World War II. A snippet;
Fascism is government of the few, for the few.
Overloaded 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, the Hospital, Health, and Addiction Workers Group argues that, thanks to cell phones, tablets, 24-hour “news” channels, and the like, we are overloaded with news. Indeed, I would add that much of what passes for broadcast “news” coverage is not information about things that have happened–that’s news–it’s opinion and even mis- and disinformation (think Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems) masquerading as opinion.
They point out that
It’s one thing to be informed, quite another to be constantly alarmed.
Follow the link for some suggestions for reaching a healthy balance between being informed and being panicked.
Aside:
I avoid television news completely (except when there’s a snowstorm).
I read the local rag and visit various news web sites–mostly legitimate newspapers–and don’t subscribe to news alerts on my “devices” (I do subscribe to various RSS feeds, but they lie there quietly until I choose to look at them). I also spend large portions of the day away from news; heck, I don’t even like to listen to the one-minute hourly NPR headline summary on my local classical music station.
Being informed without being overloaded is depressing enough these days, thank you very much.
Fiefdom of Religion, Reprise 0
Sam and his crew talk with Will Sommer, politics reporter for The Daily Beast, about who buys into QAnon and why.
Fiefdom of Religion 0
Michael in Norfolk has an interesting theory as to why Republicans have started to attack public schools and public school teachers.
Durham’s Bull 0
The Washington Monthly’s Margaret Carlson reports that Republicans plan to keep stirring the empty pot.
Responsible Fiscals 0
I submit that tanking the nation’s economy out of spite–they know they can’t get their way through negotiation and compromise–cannot be considered an act of fiscal responsibility, especially from the party that brags however mendaciously that it is the party of fiscal responsibility.
know Them by the Company They Keep Out 0
Methinks my old friend Noz makes a good point.
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
Who funds the fusillade of falsehoods?
At the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Paul Wagman follows the money and finds an internet advertising company named Decide, which appears to be in it for the Benjamins. A snippet:
But a St. Louis company that for several years has helped make these kinds of far-right websites viable — a company that helps to finance them while at the same time making money off of them — continues to operate here without the slightest repercussions.
The Playbook 0
Does this remind you of anyone’s campaign tactics?
A Fearsome Foursome 0
Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously catalogued “the four freedoms” in a speech in 1941 (follow the link for the complete text):
The first is freedom of speech and expression . . . .
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way . . . .
The third is freedom from want . . . .
The fourth is freedom from fear . . . .
Now comes Jamelle Bouie to catalog Republicans’ “four freedoms,” as betrayed by their deeds.
Here’s Bouie’s list; follow the link for his reasoning:
There are, I think, four freedoms we can glean from the Republican program.There is the freedom to control — to restrict the bodily autonomy of women and repress the existence of anyone who does not conform to traditional gender roles.
There is the freedom to exploit — to allow the owners of business and capital to weaken labor and take advantage of workers as they see fit.
There is the freedom to censor — to suppress ideas that challenge and threaten the ideologies of the ruling class.
And there is the freedom to menace — to carry weapons wherever you please, to brandish them in public, to turn the right of self-defense into a right to threaten other people.
Roosevelt’s four freedoms were the building blocks of a humane society — a social democratic aspiration for egalitarians then and now. These Republican freedoms are also building blocks not of a humane society but of a rigid and hierarchical one in which you can either dominate or be dominated.
H/T to Balloon Juice.