Political Theatre category archive
A Tune for the Times 0
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The Trump Kool-Aid 0
Thom and Dr. Justin A. Frank discuss the similarities between Donald Trump and cult leaders and the source of Trump’s appeal to the Trumpettes.
The Reframing 0
I’m sure you’ve gotten them: fund-raising appeals from candidates or political parties masquerading as surveys and characterized by slanted questions, such as
- Do you believe in truth, justice, and the American way, or are you going to vote for the party that worships Satan and sacrifices tween virgins on the altar of Moloch?
At The Roanoke Times, Dan Casey tells of one such survey he recently received, then attempts to recast the questions so that they reflect reality.
I commend his piece to your attention.
Sacrificial Lambs 0
Solomon Jones wonders, in view of the Dullsa in Tulsa, what lengths Donald Trump will go to in order to get what he wants. (Hint: The answer is “any.”)
A nugget:
In my view, that’s a frightening reflection of Trump’s actual persona. If he could risk the very lives of his most loyal followers by using them as extras in his attempt to mount a political comeback, what would he do to the rest of us for his own personal gain?
(Misplet wrod correxted.)
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
The voter fraudsters aren’t who Republicans want you to think they are.
The report goes on to explain that, through some strange Alice-through-the-Looking-Glass reasoning, this is apparently legal in Indiana because that was their last residence of record in the state. Or something.
Aside:
Many years ago, in my road warrior days, I was sitting in the bar of my favorite hotel in Chicago. At a table close to me, three young whippersnappers in three-piece suits from what was then called the Sears Tower, which was about two blocks away, were discussing impending layoffs at their outfit.
Finally, one of them, as he took a sip (or maybe it was a gulp) of his whiskey, said, “Well, I know one thing. I’m never going back to Indiana.”
I think I now understand why.
It’s Always All about Him 0
Warning: Farron gets a little heated in this commentary.
Things Were Dullsa in Tulsa 0
Ed at Gin and Tacos suggests that bizarre, convoluted theories that K-Pop and TikTok fans somehow affected Donald Trump’s Dullsa in Tulsa miss the more pedestrian and more likely explanation. A snippet:
Follow the link for the rest.
Testing Flailure 0
Donald Trump’s coronavirus testing strategy leads one to conclude that Trump is certain that the answer to this question is must assuredly in the negative:
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?
All the News that Fits 0
Sam and his team discuss Tucker Carlson’s hypocritical fragile white guy pity party.
The Truth Will Out . . . . 0
At the Idaho State Journal, Leonard Hitchcock points out that, from time to time, Donald Trump speaks the truth, to the discomfiture of his dupes, symps, and fellow travelers. A snippet:
So, contrary to the party-line that he supports, which focuses entirely on the “fraud” allegation, Trump admits that mail-in-voting is likely to increase voter participation, and when that happens, Democrats will win. In other words, he has acknowledged that the real reason Republicans have tried, in a variety of ways, to suppress voter participation is that they are afraid of losing elections.
The End of the Common Good 0
Ed at Gin and Tacos is less than sanguine about the ability of Americans to take collective action when collective action is required, say, for example, just to pick one, during a public health emergency. Here’s a bit of his post:
(snip)
And here we are, taking a purely individualistic approach – the do as thou wilt rule – to a basic collective action problem. It is idiotic and nonsensical on the most basic level possible, and here we are. We tried some collective action for a couple weeks, people got bored and business owners got mad because they weren’t able to force their employees back to work and their customers back to shopping, and then we just decided that the collective action problem no longer required collective action. Not that it went away – that it simply wasn’t a thing we needed to plan and execute a collective response to anymore. We didn’t solve the problem so much as we simply decided it is not a problem anymore, or that it is, but we are powerless to stop it, but I guess we aren’t powerless, but ok I guess what we really mean is we just don’t want to.