Political Theatre category archive
The Carolina Coup d’Etat, Evaluation 0
Failing the test:
Indeed, North Carolina does so poorly on the measures of legal framework and voter registration, that on those indicators we rank alongside Iran and Venezuela. When it comes to the integrity of the voting district boundaries no country has ever received as low a score as the 7/100 North Carolina received. North Carolina is not only the worst state in the USA for unfair districting but the worst entity in the world ever analyzed by the Electoral Integrity Project.
Today’s Republican Party is a vile and loathsome thing.
Cthulu would quail at the sight of it.
Twits on Twitter 0
On my heavens. The update that Juanita Jean posted after I first read this post is absolutely insanely chilling.
I shall have to stop eating mushrooms. They remind me of Trumpian clouds.
Tunes for the Times 0
And now a big hand for Questionable Mark and the Austerians!
Gaming the Numbers Game 0
Dick Polman does the math.
Precedented 0
At the San Franscisco Chronicle, Bob Egelko speaks with historians who are looking for historical parallels with Donald Trump. Here’s what one had to say:
Rakove said the closest comparison might be Richard Nixon, who famously told an interviewer in 1977 — three years after resigning from office — that “when the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” But Nixon at least knew what the laws were when he ordered a cover-up of the Watergate break-in, he said.
Follow the link for more from a Trumpled parallel universe.
The Fakery Factory 0
In a column syndicated at the Portland Press Herald, Anne Applebaum, who was once herself a victim of a false news story originating in Russia, tries to understand why “fake news” has become a thing. She suspects that there is more to it than the lies and lying liars who propagate them or the gullible who gobble them up. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
The problem also lay with Hillary Clinton, who was hardly a trusted figure to begin with.
But it is also true that we are living through a global media revolution, that people are hearing and digesting political information in brand-new ways and that nobody yet understands the consequences.
Facts Are What People Think 2
Zandar cites a study that shows over half of Republicans thinks that Donald Trump won the popular vote, when in fact it lost it by approximately three million; he finds this disconnect from reality disturbing. A snippet:
It was never about jobs, or the economy, or the facts. It was about assembling like-minded individuals into an army to destroy those unlike them. It’s the definition of a cult.
The Cult now in fact rules the entire federal government, and most states. When the reality of the damage that they cause settles in, the Cult will simply convince America that the Others are the problem. The Others have to go. The rest of you? Join the Cult or else.
Twilight Zone of the Vanities 0
Rekha Basu shares her nightmare of a Gordon Gekko world:.
Follow the link for the rest, if you dare.
Carolina Coup d’Etat, Reprise 0
This is really quite appalling. One can make a convincing argument that today’s Republican Party no longer believes in truth, justice, or the American way.
Chaos in the Cabinet 0
I reckon that it is fitting that a reality show star would assemble a reality show cabinet full of cranks, nutcases, has-beens, and never-weres, calculated to cause maximum chaos while creating continuing crises for each succeeding episode.
Image via Job’s Anger.