Political Theatre category archive
Fruit Sordid 0
At The Sacramento Bee, Sasha Abramsky discusses how Donald Trump is putting the banana in the republic.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
She’s standing strong on her right to proliferate poop.
More Trumpling at the link.
Russian Impulses 0
Brian Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, stands aghast at what his headline describes as the Trump you-can-laughingly-call-it administration’s “impotence” against Russian interference in U. S. politics (not that the U. S. has ever interfered in someone else’s politics, but that’s another story). I think “complicity” is a better word than “impotence,” but that’s just em.
A snippet:
Mr. Khrushchev, stand down your missiles.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
Mr. Putin, tear down our democracy and we will stand down while you do it.
Which of these statements by the president of the United States is not like the others?
Which of these statements is unlike any sentiment ever expressed by any president of the United States?
The answer is obvious, just as is the fact that the statement I have attributed to President Donald Trump is obviously false. The reality, however, is disturbingly true.
Stray Thought, Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Dept. 0
I once had a history professor (U. S. Early Federal Period) who was fond of noting what he called “the ironies of history.”
Today we are living one such irony.
The U. S. right wing, which has for over 40 years trumpeted the creed that “the federal government can’t be trusted” has succeeded in creating a federal government, one in their own image, mind you, that can’t be trusted.
Land of Plenty 0
Warning: Mild language.
How Low Can Trump Go? 0
Why, all the way to debasement, of course.
Abdicating the Common Good 0
There’s an excellent and entertaining science fiction book series called “Traders Tales” set in a future in which corporations own everything, including planets. (You can find the audio books at Scribl.)
It starts when the narrator’s mother, a college professor employed by the corporation that owns her planet, dies in an accident. As he no longer has a tie the planet, the owning corporation tells him he has to leave, thus starting his journey through space and the experiences that form the series. Refreshingly, the story focuses on day-to-day life aboard a space freighter, not on Star Wars-like war and adventure.
It is not a dystopian tale, as were Brave New World or 1984, but I always found premise to be creepy. Under corporate ownership, as under Republican governance, there is no such thing as the common good; there is only mammon.
Will Bunch suggests those days may be closer than you think.
“Sit Down and Shut Up” 0
The Portland Press-Herald’s Bill Nemitz comments on the gyrations of one Maine school district to justify banning students from participating in any protest against school shootings. A snippet:
(snip)
My guess is those kids would not consider gun violence political at all. To them, and to their still-grieving families and friends, it’s literally a matter of life or gruesome death.
Yet here we have Superintendent Rebar, following a hastily called meeting with the SAD 13 school board on Tuesday, twisting and torturing everything from the First Amendment to basic logic.
Bot Nut 0
Reg Henry waxes poetic.