Political Theatre category archive

Via The Bob Cesca Show Blog.

Let the Booman explain.

Will Bunch looks at the latest evidence of the Trump family’s Russian impulses–the report by the New York Times that Donald Trump, Jr., colluded with Russian sources in the search for material to use against Hillary Clinton. Here’s how he starts his piece:

There’s a scene from a classic kids’ flick that I haven’t been able to get out of my head since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States last November. It’s from “The Lion King,” Disney’s African plains cartoon romp about evil, ambition, resistance and finally redemption. The darkest point in the film comes when the young lion hero Simba’s father King Mufasa has just died and Mufasa’s corrupt and incompetent brother Scar (who’d secretly colluded in Mufasa’s untimely demise) assumes the throne. Scar, backed by the scummiest creatures in the animal kingdom, promises that “out of the ashes of this tragedy, we shall rise to greet the dawning of a new era……in which lion and hyena come together, in a great and glorious future!”

In related news, Josh Marshall muses . . . .

Alan Caron likens Republicans to crazy uncles who find themselves suddenly in power. He draws an analogy:

Both the uncles and the imitators distrust people who know a lot about something, thinking them biased. But they have confidence in others who know almost nothing about anything, but say it loudly and simply. To them, rumors, conspiracies and worst-case scenarios are real, while the work of trained, professional journalists, scientists and historians is fake news.

The movement reminds me of that dog, in the neighborhood, that chases the bus every day, but never catches it. This year, they caught the bus, and they’ve clamped onto the bumper, but they haven’t the faintest idea what to do next. They’d rather go back to the chasing part.

Follow the link for the rest.

In related news . . . .

Leonard Pitts, Jr., points out the “political polarization” in the United States has but one author. A snippet:

We are not, after all, divided because Americans pulled back from the center and retreated into extremism.

No, we are divided because one party did. And it wasn’t the Democrats.

Our political thinking being as fixedly bipolar as it is, many people will read the foregoing as an endorsement of the Democratic Party. It emphatically is not. Democrats are very often disorderly, disputatious, and downright dumb, not to mention stunningly bad at deciding and conveying what they stand for.

In other words, they are pretty much what they were 30 years ago. The same cannot be said of the GOP.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

We are so screwed.

Via Juanita Jean.

Dick Polman takes a look at a recent New Yorker article about the National Inquirer, because inquiring minds want to know. Here’s a nugget from Polman’s comments:

The timing of this New Yorker article couldn’t be better. Remember last week, when Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski said that the Enquirer recently ginned up a trashy story about them, and that the White House promised to get the story killed if Joe and Mika apologized for their critical remarks about Trump? The White House denied the blackmail allegation, but it rang a bell when I read the new article. Ten years ago, the Enquirer was preparing to run a sex tryst story about Tiger Woods, but it agreed to kill the story after Woods agreed to pose for the cover of Men’s Fitness, another magazine owned by Pecker’s company.

My own opinion about tabloids is this: I can understand why persons sometimes read them, just as I understand why some persons like schlocky horror films. Schlock sells.

What I don’t understand is why persons believe them.

James F. Burns points out the there is one “trickle-down” that actually t-r-i-c-k-l-e-s down, very very slowly.

Tony Norman looks the notorious Wrestlemania Tweet and finds it an appropriate analogy for the Trump presidency:

Instead of meditating on the meaning of Bunker Hill and Yorktown, Fort Sumter and Gettysburg, Antietam and Little Bighorn, Midway and Normandy, Mr. Trump chose to highlight “Wrestlemania 23,” a night of World Wrestling Entertainment tomfoolery he participated in a decade ago.

The doctored video probably wasn’t intended as such, but there hasn’t been a more astute metaphor for the emptiness and triviality of the Trump presidency than using an old snippet from a fake wrestling match as a commentary on the media. A fake sport promoting fake news from a president widely considered to be fake.

Josh Marshall offers some sensible and well-reasoned thoughts on the recent outing of a Reddit troll known for hate-full and racist posts.

There can be good reason to fear clowns.

Reka Basu reads the Declaration of Independence and recognizes a familiar figure in the text.