Political Theatre category archive
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.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
At The Seattle Times, John Humnicky hears an echo from the past.
The Radical Reactionary Court 0
Thom follows the money.
All the News that Fits 0
Will Bunch notes the scariest thing about CNN’s Trump Clown Hall*:
That was all too predictable. But here’s what I wasn’t prepared for, and it gutted me.
The applause.
While on the subject, PoliticalProf explains why CNN is in no way responsible for what CNN did.
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*With apologies to Bob Cesca.