Political Theatre category archive
ISIS, Origins Issue 0
Thom explains how ISIS arose from the Neoliberal paradise resulting from President George the Worst’s Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq.
Civil Rights Movement, Act Two 0
At the Ashland, Oregon, Daily Tidings, Herb Rothschild posits that we are seeing a second Civil Rights Movement. Whereas the first was directed at legally-enforced discrimination (Jim Crow laws, segregated public institutions, red-lining neighborhoods and the like), this one is directed at gaining social equality, that is, equality in deed, not just in word.*
Just as the first Civil Rights Movement engendered opposition, so too has this one, as the Republican Party has become little more than the Party of the New Secesh. An excerpt:
This year is shaping up to be for the second struggle what 1964-1965 was for the first. On one side, Republican officials at every level have been openly combative since a black person was elected president. Now their George Wallace has emerged, and this time they’ve embraced him. Hate speech and hate crimes are increasing. In April the Southern Poverty Law Center published research indicating the Trump campaign is inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in U.S. classrooms nationwide. On the other side, graphic exposure by phone cameras has made routine police violence against people of color no longer tolerable and sparked renewed grassroots activism.Do please read the rest.
Image via Michael-in-Norfolk.
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*The actual extent to which “equality in word,” as opposed to “equality in deed,” has been achieved, of course, is arguable and has been spotty, at best.
It is not just chance that, until the rise of Donald Trump, though, racists have been restricted to speaking in code since the 1970s. Now they’ve dropped the codes as they rally for racism.
Slants on the News 0
Daniel Ruth marvels at the unfairness of the news coverage of Donald Trump. A bit:
The Art of the Troll 0
At The Guardian, David Sax makes a convincing argument that Donald Trump is trolling the electorate. A nugget:
Elsewhere, Christopher J. Richter considers how Trump’s experience on “reality” television has molded his behavior.
Long-Term Goals? 0
Thom and Jared Yates Sexton wonder whether Trump is looking beyond the campaign to a media venture, sort of like this:
I don’t buy it.
I don’t think that Trump is capable of “plans,” at least not as most of us understand the term.
If he were, he’d not have left a trail of broken dreams and failed businesses.
“Regrets, I’ve Had a Few . . . .” 0
Dick Polman notes that Donald Trump has recently contradicted himself and claims to have “regrets.” Mr. Polman wonder just what exactly Trump regrets. To help make the choice easier, he compiles a partial list:
True Confessions 0
Jim Jenkins tells all:
Follow the link for the jarring revelations.
The Privatization Scam 0
Some good news:
Deputy attorney general Sally Yates announced the decision in a memo to Thomas Kane, the acting director of the federal prisons bureau, which was published on the justice department’s website.
(snip)
Yates said in her memo that research had found private prisons “simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources” and “do not save substantially on costs” either. Essential government education and training programs for prisoners “have proved difficult to replicate and outsource” in the private sector, she said.
Once More into the Breach 0
If you want a sane discussion of the DNC email leaks and similar hacks by persons who
- know how email and networks work,
- are not grinding political axes, and
- can explain stuff good,
listen to the latest episode of The Sunday Morning Linux Review.
Never What It Said It Was 0
Francis Wilkinson points out that Teabaggery has never been about what it claims to be about.
It is not a tax revolt; it is a tax grab.
A snippet (emphasis added):
Until Donald Trump came along.
Trump, whose genuine populist instincts appear unconscious of, and unencumbered by, American history, dispensed with the tri-corner hats. His offer required no validation from neo-colonials, no resort to hallowed principles of limited government. Trump’s deal was straight up: He would secure the government programs — Social Security, Medicare — that benefit older, whiter Tea Party voters while chasing younger, browner Americans away from the public trough. He would even clear out of the country anyone who failed to prove citizenship.
More at the link.
“Extreme Vetting” 0
PoliticalProf offers a preview of Donald Trump’s “extreme vetting” of immigrants.
