Political Theatre category archive
All That Was Old Is New Again, Reichstag Fire Dept. 0
Thom is not optimistic.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
In The Roanoke Times, John Ketwig recalls yet another little-mentioned time when the United States had an active Nazi movement, back before the prefix “neo” would have been germane.
I shall not attempt to excerpt or summarize it. Just go there.
The Screening Process 0
Honest to Pete and Betsy both, you can’t make this stuff up.
Trump in Translation 0
Dick Polman deciphers the hieroglyphics.
Parallels of History (Updated) 0
Paul Krugman see similarities between Trump and Caligula.
Writing a week later, Nicholas Kristoff suggests that Caligula comes off looking pretty good in the comparison.
Addendum, Early the Next Day:
Meanwhile, some buffoon at Forbes asserts that Caligula was a Democrat.
Words fail me.
Truth-in-Labeling 2
Writing at the Colorado Springs Gazette, Ari Armstrong points out that words matter. An excerpt:
(snip)
Neo-Nazis are quite happy to be called “far right” because of the seeming implication that they have something in common with my “center right” friends. But they have nothing in common. Being a racist is not a more extreme version of being for low taxes (or the like); logically the two things have nothing to do with each other.
“. . . and All the Ships at Sea” 0
Badtux has two posts up about the collision between a USN destroyer and an oil tanker near Singapore.
One addresses the undermanning of Navy ships, a legacy of President George the Worst; the other argues persuasively against the theory that, in some way, the guidance system of one of the ships was hacked. I commend them both to your attention.
Revolving Door 0
Alfred Doblin tries to draw conclusions from the departure of Steve Bannon from the White House. He is not optimistic that it portends substantive or positive changes. A nugget:
Judging from the president’s comments since Charlottesville, in which he has stood up for white supremacists and the Confederacy and, in response to terror attacks in Spain, continued to promote a lie about Gen. John Pershing, pig’s-blood-dipped bullets in the early-20th-century Philippines, and Muslim terrorists, Trump cannot help himself from being Trump. So I have limited hope that the removal of Bannon changes everything. But it is a start.
The Hollow Man 0
E. J. Dionne, no fan of Steve Bannon or Bannon’s politics, nevertheless finds a reason to lament his departure from the Trump administration. He points out that, for all his faults, Bannon at least believes in something, however misguided it may be. A snippet:
Is President Trump a populist or a corporatist?
Is he appealing to white supremacists as a form of political opportunism — or because, deep down, he sympathizes with their views? Is he the hard-core “fire and fury” hawk of his North Korea statements? Or is he actually a noninterventionist who disdains foreign engagement?
The answer to all these questions is: Who knows?
There is absolutely no way of establishing what Trump believes. He says whatever he feels he has to say at any given moment to get attention, strike back at foes, or advance his personal (especially economic) interests.
Freedom of Screech 0
Thom wonders about the limits (and there are already limits, as Thom points out) on freedom of speech.
Cavalcade of Stupid 0
Lance Dotson, a Republican operative from Maine, offers his diagnosis of the Republican Party’s current pathology:
Follow the link for his reasoning.
Protection Money 0
You can’t make this stuff up.
Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles, in an interview with USA TODAY, said more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.
This is what happens when you run the government like one of Danald Trump’s businesses–one bankruptcy after another.
Via Juanita Jean.
Continuous Campaign Cacophony 0
Farron scornfully points out the the Trump administration is already working on deceptive campaign 2020 commercials.
Trial Separation? 0
Several advisory boards to the President have recently resigned en mass as a result of Trump’s embrace of Neo-Nazis and his mealy-mouthed refusal to condemn the Confederate insurgency in Charlottesville, Virginia. Admittedly these groups are largely symbolic, but there is a larger symbolism in their resignations.
At the Washington Monthly, Nancy LeTourneau considers the implications of corporate CEOs’ jump off the Trump ship. A snippet (follow the link for the complete article:
This move brings into focus a growing fissure within the Republican Party. Historically, corporate leaders have been one of the key members of the Republican coalition—along with military hawks and white evangelicals. But some of the cultural issues that define the attachment of evangelicals to the party are the very ones that are driving the corporate world away.
The conventional wisdom is that the Republican Party’s corporate masters have been willing to tolerate the Republican Party’s bigots and culture warriors so long as the corporations get the tax cuts and other breaks they want. It will be curious to see whether Trumpery leads to the dissolution of that uneasy partnership.
