Political Theatre category archive

Raw Story has tips about how to deal with what Driftglass calls “your Crazy Uncle Liberty” when Uncle Liberty insists on peddling Fox News talking points at holiday dinners.

Michael Dearing suggests that tech companies and the government are rewriting the Bill of Rights. Here is his rendering of the current de facto state of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, taken from a presentation by Reed Hundt, “Make No Secrets About It,” November 11, 2014 at Stanford. .

Follow the link; methinks he has a point.

Afterthought:

No, I don’t agree with some of the suggestions for a rewritten version, particularly the bit about a right to “secret arms purchases,” but I do think the larger point is worth considering.

Dick Polman asks, “Immigration showdown: Can the GOP keep its zealots under control?”

I submit that that question has already been answered. Not only is the answer, “No,” it is “No, because the zealots are already in control.“

Via Job’s Anger.

Jim Wright sums in up (follow the link for the full post–you’ll be glad you did):

As expected, Thursday night President Obama announced that he will take unilateral action via executive order to reform the nation’s immigration system.

And as expected, this morning Republicans are going apeshit.

Because going apeshit is the only thing Republicans can agree on.

Graphic via TPM.

Yastreblyansky explains how David Brooks does it.

Andy Borowitz uncovers the Republican Party’s Grand Rand Strategy on immigration:

Appearing with House Speaker John Boehner, McConnell said that, in contrast to President Obama’s “Band-Aid fixes,” the Republican plan would address “the root cause of immigration, which is that the United States is, for the most part, habitable.”

“For years, immigrants have looked to America as a place where their standard of living was bound to improve,” McConnell said. “We’re going to change that.”

Follow the link for the rest.

Via Liberaland.

Juanita Jean.

Remember, a Libertarian is nothing more than a Republican who is ashamed to admit it.

What Noz said.

Wingnuttery loves itself its faked-up fusses, as fakery beats reality every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Via Juanita Jean.

. . . or wishful thinking?

I’m betting on Door #3: Sarcasm.

There’s trouble in River City and it starts with “B” and sounds like bank which is a shot in pool.

A special prosecutor will examine Mayor Will Sessoms’ voting record for conflict-of-interest violations, and his bosses at TowneBank will pay him to stay home while they do the same.

Wednesday’s events occurred days after a Pilot investigation showed that Sessoms voted dozens of times on issues directly benefiting customers of TowneBank, where he serves as a president. Sessoms has not spoken publicly. The bank and local law enforcement announced their decisions before noon.

A special proscutor is needed because the Stolle family, which includes the Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Sheriff, are associated through various relatives with Towne Bank.

I have mixed feelings about this. As tempting as it is to delight in the troubles of any Republican, Mayor Sessoms is not Richard Daley and Virginia Beach has no Tammany Hall. Other than a unfortunate tendency to fall for tall tales spun by developers,* Sessoms is a fairly decent fellow who has served the city–er–adequately.

AFAIC, at worst, he’s a Babbitt with a blind spot.

Addendum, Later That Day:

Heh.

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim and Suffolk Mayor Linda Johnson have resigned from their positions on boards of TowneBank.

A press release today said the decision was made to avoid a perception of a conflict of interest.

Fraim was a member of TowneBank’s board of directors and also served as chairman of the bank’s Norfolk board. Johnson was on the bank’s Suffolk board.

Addendum-Dee-Dum-Dum, the Next Day:

Mayor Sessoms has resigned his positions on three Towne Bank boards of directors.

___________________

*For example.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel explains that no agenda is exactly what the Republican Party has. A nugget:

Republicans reaped the rewards of McConnell’s scorched-earth strategy, obstructing President Obama relentlessly, helping to create the failure that voters would pin on the party in power. But the collateral damage is that the “party of ‘no’ “has no agreement on what is yes.

Reg Henry takes up his scalpal and autopsies the election results; he finds that voters acted quite logically. Of course they did.

A snippet:

But Mr. Obama got the blame for the economy. Of course he did! The voters, being a tad forgetful and open to sneaky suggestion, blamed him and not the party on whose presidential watch the economy actually crashed and burned in 2007 and which has conspired to keep it a smoking ruin ever since, just to make the Democrats look bad.

To make people believe otherwise was a work of Republican genius. It required a complete suspension of facts, context and logic. Up is down, good is bad, blue is red and unreality is reality — and the voters who bothered to show up bought it. That old hack magic had them in their spell.

Then there’s a matter of gridlock. Everybody hates gridlock. We hate paralyzed government, we really do! So why not vote for the Gridlock Oldsters Party so that the gridlock ends? Well, it seemed sensible at the time.

Via Job’s Anger.

Pap and David Haynes examine the legal legacy of King George the Worst.

F. T. Rea puzzles out the fear factor in last week’s elections. A nugget:

Of course, this is hardly the first time for yellow to symbolically speckle the nation’s map in an election year. What was a modern variation on an old tactic in 2014 was the outrageous manner in which terrorism in the Middle East and disease in Western Africa were sensationalized by political flacks and the media, just before mid-term elections. It created a two-headed monster, the stuff of nightmares.

Read the rest and remind yourself: Frightened persons don’t think.