Political Theatre category archive
“. . . and All the Ships at Sea” 0
Badtux has two posts up about the collision between a USN destroyer and an oil tanker near Singapore.
One addresses the undermanning of Navy ships, a legacy of President George the Worst; the other argues persuasively against the theory that, in some way, the guidance system of one of the ships was hacked. I commend them both to your attention.
Revolving Door 0
Alfred Doblin tries to draw conclusions from the departure of Steve Bannon from the White House. He is not optimistic that it portends substantive or positive changes. A nugget:
Judging from the president’s comments since Charlottesville, in which he has stood up for white supremacists and the Confederacy and, in response to terror attacks in Spain, continued to promote a lie about Gen. John Pershing, pig’s-blood-dipped bullets in the early-20th-century Philippines, and Muslim terrorists, Trump cannot help himself from being Trump. So I have limited hope that the removal of Bannon changes everything. But it is a start.
The Hollow Man 0
E. J. Dionne, no fan of Steve Bannon or Bannon’s politics, nevertheless finds a reason to lament his departure from the Trump administration. He points out that, for all his faults, Bannon at least believes in something, however misguided it may be. A snippet:
Is President Trump a populist or a corporatist?
Is he appealing to white supremacists as a form of political opportunism — or because, deep down, he sympathizes with their views? Is he the hard-core “fire and fury” hawk of his North Korea statements? Or is he actually a noninterventionist who disdains foreign engagement?
The answer to all these questions is: Who knows?
There is absolutely no way of establishing what Trump believes. He says whatever he feels he has to say at any given moment to get attention, strike back at foes, or advance his personal (especially economic) interests.
Freedom of Screech 0
Thom wonders about the limits (and there are already limits, as Thom points out) on freedom of speech.
Cavalcade of Stupid 0
Lance Dotson, a Republican operative from Maine, offers his diagnosis of the Republican Party’s current pathology:
Follow the link for his reasoning.
Protection Money 0
You can’t make this stuff up.
Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles, in an interview with USA TODAY, said more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.
This is what happens when you run the government like one of Danald Trump’s businesses–one bankruptcy after another.
Via Juanita Jean.
Continuous Campaign Cacophony 0
Farron scornfully points out the the Trump administration is already working on deceptive campaign 2020 commercials.
Trial Separation? 0
Several advisory boards to the President have recently resigned en mass as a result of Trump’s embrace of Neo-Nazis and his mealy-mouthed refusal to condemn the Confederate insurgency in Charlottesville, Virginia. Admittedly these groups are largely symbolic, but there is a larger symbolism in their resignations.
At the Washington Monthly, Nancy LeTourneau considers the implications of corporate CEOs’ jump off the Trump ship. A snippet (follow the link for the complete article:
This move brings into focus a growing fissure within the Republican Party. Historically, corporate leaders have been one of the key members of the Republican coalition—along with military hawks and white evangelicals. But some of the cultural issues that define the attachment of evangelicals to the party are the very ones that are driving the corporate world away.
The conventional wisdom is that the Republican Party’s corporate masters have been willing to tolerate the Republican Party’s bigots and culture warriors so long as the corporations get the tax cuts and other breaks they want. It will be curious to see whether Trumpery leads to the dissolution of that uneasy partnership.
Ugly Americans 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., points out the uncomfortable truth: “No, we are not ‘better than this.'”
All That Was Old Is New Again (or Is It?) 0
In an interesting counterpoint, the Bangor Daily News includes two syndicated articles from the Washington Post. One looks at parallels between today’s American fascists and those of the 1930s, while the other argues that there’s something different about today’s American fascists.
I think they are both correct, because the authors are coming at the issue from two different perspectives. One is focusing on the genesis of the fascist resurgence, whereas the other focuses on its essence.
Check them out and see what you think.
Limitations of Statues 0
Thom talks with a caller who asks, if Confederate statues come down, is Mt. Rushmore next. Listen to Thom’s response.
Cloudflareup (Updated) 0
Cloudfare pulls its services from the Neo-Nazi website, The Daily Stormer, even as the Cloudfare CEO expresses qualms about his power to do so. A snippet:
“The Daily Stormer site was bragging on their bulletin boards about how Cloudflare was one of them and that is the opposite of everything we believe,” (Cloudflare CEO Matthew–ed.) Prince said. “That was the tipping point for me.”
Still, Prince said he was not comfortable with the way he exercised his power, describing his choice to withdraw services from the Daily Stormer as arbitrary.
“It was a decision I could make because I’m the CEO of a major internet infrastructure company,” he said. “Having made that decision we now need to talk about why it is so dangerous. No one should have that power.”
Follow the link for more details and for the rest of Prince’s quite thoughtful musings on his own action.
This action makes The Daily Stormer vulnerable to DDoS attacks, which can knock it off the internet. (There is nothing particularly sophisticated about DDoS attacks; they work by overwhelming a site with so many hits that the site eventually becomes unable to respond. In other words, they knock on so many doors so rapidly that the website can’t answer them all and runs away to hide under the bed.)
Addendum, the Next Morning:
In a larger article about the pushback against America’s Neo-Nazis, TPM reports that The Daily Stormer has moved to the Dark Web because it can’t find a hosting provider.
Addendum, Later That Day:
There are other reports that The Daily Stormer now has a dot-ru (for Russia) domain. I have been unable to verify this, and I’m damned sure not exploring the Dark Web.
Silence Speaks 0
In related news, Josh Marshall points out that