From Pine View Farm

Political Theatre category archive

A Tune for the Times 0

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Irresponsible Fiscals 0

Farron argues persuasively that repeated threats of government shutdowns, plus an actual government shutdown, are ipso facto proof that today’s Republican Party is incapable of governance. (Warning: Mild language.)

But, as I pointed out earlier, governance is not their concern.

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The Trumpling, in One Sentence 0

In a column musing on who will take get saddled with the blame for a (potential at the time the column was written) government shutdown, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier sums up the status quo.

It’s not pretty, but it is where we are.

Right now it’s just a matter of masked, weapons-brandishing federal agents disappearing Americans off the street, people with assault rifles shooting into schools and churches every other week, political assassinations gathering frequency, National Guard troops in the streets, the president threatening to use liberal cities as military training grounds, the government blowing boats out of the water like a drunk with a video game, kneecapping education, research, foreign aid, national health policy, and generally doing everything in its accelerating power to make us dumber, sicker, poorer, less secure, and more fearful every day, and if Trump sat down tonight and signed an executive order allowing him to hit anyone he wanted in the back of the head with a baseball bat, no one would be surprised.

Follow the link for the rest, in which Collier reveals that he is less than optimistic.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0

Sometimes, the rhyme is deafening.

Nixon in 1973 holding an

Click for the original image.

___________________

*Mark Twain.

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Stray Thought 0

Today’s Republican Party does not want to govern.

It wants to dictate.

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A Legend in His Own Mind, Reprise 0

In the midst of a longer article considering how we might resist the Trump maladministration’s march towards dictatorship, Timothy Snyder makes what I find a most appropriate observation:

In Trump’s paradigm, this is all a reality show and we are merely inconsequential extras without lines forever in the background.

Follow the link for context.

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News You Can Lose 0

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The Chaos Agent at Work 0

From the Youtube page:

Seth takes a closer look at the president posting an AI video of himself and threatening to send troops to yet another American city.

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The Chaos Agent 0

In a letter to the editor of the Las Vegas Sun, Dr. Richard A. French expresses some concerns about the effect that the Trump maladministration is having on the nation and the polity.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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A Legend in His Own Mind 0

Brahma Chellaney takes a look at Donald Trump’s claim that he has ended seven wars and reminds us that

Trump’s claim to have ended seven “unendable” wars is best understood as a case study in self-delusion. Branding is not leadership. Real peace depends on leaders who know the difference. But in Trump’s world, peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of applause.

I commend the entire article to your attention.

And, while we’re on the subject of leadership . . . .

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If Past Were Precedent 0

Title:  If Former Presidents were Trump-like.  Image One:  Abraham Lincoln says,

Click to view the original image.

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The Enemies List 0

Grung_e_Gene decodes de code.

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Occupation Nation 0

At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Daniel Oppenheimer offers some thoughts as to how to respond if when Donald Trump orders the National Guard to invade your city.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0

Trudy Rubin hears a rhyme in Donald Trump’s efforts to silence his critics. A snippet:

Trump is following a pattern clearly marked out by the Kremlin — and perhaps even more relevantly by Turkey, where journalists and academics are prosecuted for “insulting the president” — and by Hungary, led by Trump pal Viktor Orbán.

_______________

*Mark Twain.

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The Rule of Flaw 0

Donald Trump carrying his enemies list and a bucket of paint walking past the Department of Justice, now renamed the Department of Just Me.

Click to view the original image.

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Escalation 0

From the Youtube page:

Seth takes a closer look at MAGA Republicans and Fox News hosts speculating that there was a nefarious conspiracy to stop Trump’s escalator at the United Nations.

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The Privatization Scam 0

At the Idaho State Journal, Randy Stapilus voices his opposition to a bill designed to use public money under the guise of “tax credits” to support private schools. In the course of it, almost as an aside, he makes this observation. Methinks it an important point often overlooked in dis coarse discourse:

Private schools are there for private purposes, not public ones.

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