Political Theatre category archive
E. R. 0
Nicholas Kristoff wonders what would happen if Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell were your E. R. doctors.
Rats Abandon Sinking Ships 0
Remember, the behavior of the rats is not predictive of the ship’s eventual sinking. It’s just self-preservation.
Spicing Things Up 0
Alfred Doblin meditates on the short tenure of Shaun Spicer. A snippet:
And a press secretary is only as good as the message he is selling.
Trumpling the Peace Corps 0
Gene Nichols recently visited his daughter, who is a Peace Corps volunteer currently working in Gambia. The experience prompted him to muse on the Peace Corps and the motivation of Peace Corps volunteers in the time of Trump. Here’s a bit:
To our president, they’re chumps. For him, the only reason to deal with a place like Gambia is to exploit its people and resources. Winners take. They use. They grow the bottom line. They produce bigger buildings, larger portfolios. All the world envies them. Character, selflessness and service aren’t part of the framework. They never enter the calculus. They never have.
Trumpling Science 0
A scientist speaks out to express his dismay at the Trump administration’s decision ot ignore facts. A snippet:
Follow the link for the scary part.
Trumpling the Rule of Law 0
Dick Polman reminds us that it can happen here and that, if it does, it’s our own damn fault for not paying attention, as a polity, to the politics. A snippet:
In a way I don’t even blame Trump, because he doesn’t know any better. A poseur with Louis XIV pretensions (“L’etat c’est moi,” said the French king – “I am the state”), Trump has no concept of checks and balances, no respect for America’s enduring democratic institutions, and he’s been dodging accountability his whole life. His one mode is attack; long-dead Roy Cohn, his thug mentor, appears to be dispensing advice via his tooth fillings.
Six Months In 0
Really. Donald Trump’s been President for only six months?
Dick Polman looks back:
(snip)
All this, from a guy with a 36 percent approval rating, by far the worst of any elected president at the six-month mark — but what we’ve learned by now is that he “governs” for that 36 percent, the people who think he’s kickass because he stokes their grievances and hates the same institutions they hate.
Follow the link for the complete article.
All about the Benjamins 0
Shorter Michael-in-Norfolk: Follow the money.
Hoist on the Elmer Gantry 0
Timothy Egan marvels at the unwavering support that evangelical they-call-themselves-Christians have for Donald Trump, a venal vulgarian who makes Bob Guccione look like a choir boy, and concludes
Patriotism is supposed to be the last refuge of scoundrels, but religion surely is a close second.
Follow the link to learn why he says that.
Russian Impulses 0
Josh Marshal thinks the Trump-Russia thing may be even worse than imagined. Me, I don’t know. I’m in a frequent state of “who woulda thunk” over the actions of our President, overwhelmed by the cavalcade of villainy and stupid (or it is the stupid villainy?). But over my years of reading Josh Marshall, I’ve found him a sober and reasonable interpreter of events.
A snippet:
It’s been noted that President Obama spoke for a few minutes one-on-one once with Dmitry Medvedev when he was President or Russia. My understanding is that Medvedev actually speaks decent English; so translation is less of an issue. But no one had any reason to believe that President Obama was compromised by the Russian government or somehow in league with it. We have plenty of reasons to believe that about President Trump. (Is this circular reasoning? No, as I’ll explain in a moment.) I see no plausible explanation for this latest revelation other than President Trump wanting to discuss things with President Putin that he does not want any other American citizen to hear.