Political Theatre category archive
A Question of Egonomics 0
Does this remind you of anyone in the news?
Those Who Forget History . . . 0
. . . are condemned to condemn themselves to repeat it.
Lead Poisoned 0
Anna Clark, reporter at ProPublica covering issues in the MidWest, discusses her recent reporting on the Flint water crisis, 10 years later.
Learn more here.
Vaccine Nation 0
A prescription for peril:
The stupid. It burns.
Sycophantic Supplicating Surrogates, Reprise 0
Seth takes a closer look at Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert getting heckled outside the Manhattan criminal courthouse where they appeared along with several other MAGA weirdos in support of Trump.
Sycophantic Supplicating Surrogates 0
Sam and the crew discuss how Trump manipulates his marionettes to mouth his malice.
At AL.com, Kyle Whitfield takes an in-depth look at one of said sycophantic supplicating surrogates.
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
At the Des Moines Register, Dr. Greg Ganske, a retired Republican congressman and physician, discusses the dangers posed by AI, deepfakes, and other lies to our polity; he goes on to suggest some strategies for defending against deception on the Disinformation Superhighway. I have a few quibbles with some of remarks he makes in passing, but I think his piece is timely and well worth a read.
Here’s a summary of his suggestions (emphasis in the original):
- Develop a critical mindset. Napoleon once said, “Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.” If you see a suspicious post like the one cited at the beginning of this piece, be skeptical and check the original source. . . .
- Find out if a source is reliable by asking some questions. “About us” pages are easy to fake. Make sure you know the source really exists; find out if the story really came from them. . . .
- Check the facts and quotes from the experts in the story and beware of statistics. The old saying goes, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Statistics can be manipulated to bolster both sides of an argument if taken out of context. . . .
I would add one suggestion:
Don’t rely on “social” media as a source of news (or, for that matter, information of any sort). If you see something on “social” media, verify it elsewhere, because “social” media isn’t.
Wo-Wo-Wo-Wo That Wildwood Daze 0
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier offers commentary.
Aside:
Many years ago, when I lived in northern Delaware and worked in Philly, we had some great Wildwood Days of our own during summer vacations.
The Lake Effect 0
An excerpt:
It is mind-blowing how lucrative it is to be a Republican nutbag.
