Political Theatre category archive
Swamp Things 0
Kevin Drum has been keeping track of the Trump’s swamp draining. It ain’t pretty.
Click to see the original image.
Changing the Subject 0
Thom discusses how our compliant corporate media run after shiny things and miss the stories that matter.
Dominance and Submission 0
Josh Marshall continues to explore Donald Trump’s desire for total victory, seeing hints of it in the current kerfuffle over Mitt the Flip as a possibility for Secretary of State (emphasis in the original). A nugget:
Twits on Twitter, Sore Winners Dept. 0
Dick Polman remarks on our thin-skinned Petulant-elect:
(snip)
But alas, we’re talking here about Trump. Which is why, at 3:30 yesterday, he typed this:
In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016
Wow. Trump has inspired me to rethink my life. I now believe I would’ve won the Kentucky Derby if I deduct all the horses that ran ahead of me.
More at the link.
“A Calvacade of Kleptocracy” 0
In related news, Nick Mills is also concerned about the integrity of the press.
(snip)
A free press is the target of dictators, despots and demagogues all over the world. It is possible to be a journalist in a country without a free press, but it’s a dangerous profession. It is not possible for a country without a free press to be a democracy.
“Ur-Fascism” 1
Der Spiegel points out 20th Century fascism manifested itself in many different ways. Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy was different from fascism in Hitler’s Germany was different from fascism in Franco’s Spain and so on. They point to the work of Umberto Eco, who grew up in Mussolini’s Italy, who sought to find commonalities among various fascist regimes and posited a theory of “Ur-Fascism,” the common threads that allowed all of them to be referred to as “fascist.”
They then apply Eco’s theory to Donald Trump’s beliefs and actions. The result is fascinating. Here’s a bit:
Point six states: “Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That was why one of the most typical features of historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.” It would be impossible to more aptly describe Trump’s appeal to his voters.
This is a must-read.
Those Who Forget History . . . . 0
Dick Polman has had it with the lionizing of Fidel Castro. Even granting, as I do, that the government he overthrew was rampant with corruption and Havana was a playground run by the American mafia, Castro has many faults and, especially in the early years, was quite the despot.
A snippet:
That advice was too much even for Khrushchev, who subsequently told Fidel in writing that government leaders can’t allow themselves to be “swept away by the popular feelings of hot-headed elements…If we had refused a reasonable arrangement with the U.S., a war would have left millions of dead and survivors would have blamed their leaders.”
Afterthought:
I remember the Cuban missile crisis, the press conferences on television, the pictures of missile carriers with their missiles at rest, the contemplation of death.
Yes, even kids understand death.
Facebook Frolics 0
What means this term, “responsible”?
Part of the problem is something I’ve remarked on for years. For some fool reason, people will believe stuff they read on a computer monitor when they would not believe the same thing if they read it in the Encyclopedia Britannica or heard it from the mouth of god herself.
Facebook and Twitter do not generate the seeds of stupid, but they sure as hell allow them to spread and flourish in fertile, febrile fields.
In a Nutshell 0
In a long and thoughtful article, Elizabeth Kolsky convincingly argues that the key to Donald Trump’s appeal was not the “Make America Great” portion of his slogan, but rather the “Again.” She posits that he offered what many of his supporters saw as continuity with America’s racist past, rather than change, which means acceptance of its pluralist present. Almost in an aside, she wonders
As it turns out, this is also the key to explaining why 53 percent of white women voted for Trump.
Do please read the rest.
Playbook 0
Yesha Callahan looks back at the tactics of President Obama’s opponents over the last eight years to find ideas as to how to deal with Donald Trump. The result is a six-point strategy.
Here’s the first; follow the link for the rest (emphasis in the original).
Don’t worry about whether it’s true or not. As Obama’s haters have shown us, the key to perpetuating a lie is just to repeat it so many times, people will begin to believe it, whether it’s true or not. Every time you tell an untruth, you must end with, “Look it up!” That alone legitimizes your falsehood. The same way conservatives believe that Mexicans are streaming over the border and taking jobs (even though net immigration from Mexico is negative, meaning that more Mexicans are leaving America than sneaking in), or how Muslims are coming to kill you (although white men have committed more terrorist acts in the U.S. since 9/11), you can create your own falsehood.
All the News that Fits 0
Paul Isom, a professor of journalism, meditates on the spread of and defenses against “fake news,” also known as lies. Among other musings, he offers suggestions about how not to get duped (emphasis added):
But questions persisted. Several had heard from friends, relatives, politicians and others that The New York Times was a biased, untrustworthy news source. How were New York Times stories any more believable than the fake news purveyors?
In response, I showed them a Times piece from Nov. 15 headlined “Steve ‘Turn on the Hate’ Bannon in the White House.” I had first seen it in my Facebook feed, and one of the top comments railed about the story’s liberal bias and, in turn, the Times’ lack of credibility as a news source.
Then I asked the students to notice what was written above and below the headline.
“The Opinion Pages” was most prominent label, along with “Editorial” and “By the Editorial Board.”
Understanding the difference between news and opinion is key to understanding what we’re reading.
In related real news, at Psychology Today Blogs, Romeo Vitali discusses the relationship between social media usage and narcissism. It’s not benign.
Know Them by the Company They Keep 0
In the middle of a longer article about the Petulant Elect’s attempts to intimidate the press, Solomon Jones notes the following, which should be obvious, but seems not to be.
Those actions have consequences, as we’ve seen in the rash of hatred and bigotry that has been unleashed in the wake of Trump’s election. When bigots are emboldened to physically assault women who are wearing a Muslim head covering, or to paint swastikas on walls in Trump’s name, or to threaten black students attending an Ivy League university, America is in danger.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
We are a society of stupid.
Aside:
Ever since I’ve had my little corner of the internet, I’ve standardized embedded media to 500 pixels in width, because, at the time I got it, 800×600 was still a thing. Here’s how I determined the proper settings for this image, which is 640×506 pixels:
Code:
$ echo 500/640*506 | bc -l
395.31250000000000000000
You can’t do that on Windows.
Image via Job’s Anger.