Political Theatre category archive
Party Hardly 0
Daniel Ruth wonders, What if they give a party and no one comes?
Conventional Wisdom 0
Warning: In questionable taste, but so is the Republican Convention.
Via Raw Story.
Footnote: No, Tim Tebow won’t be there.
Chris-Crossed: Christie the Cold-Hearted 0
At Northjersey dot com, Valerie Vainieri Huttle highlights Chris Christie’s utter disdain for those most in need. A snippet:
Many of the constituents that benefit from these programs the governor excised have come before the Assembly Human Services Committee with heartbreaking pleas for assistance, pleas that did not fall on deaf ears when we crafted the Democratic budget this year. That is, until it arrived at the governor’s desk.
‘Not worthy’
With the stroke of a pen, the governor told these constituents: You are not worthy.
It’s No (Longer a) Secret 0
Josh Marshall reveals his secret for understanding the Trumpery.
There’s more. Read it.
Aside:
Y’know, I might even watch some of the coverage of next week’s convention.
Words Matter 0
During the time that English grammar was becoming a study, Latin was the language of the educated. I did not understand English grammar until I took two years of Latin, as traditional English grammar is based on trying to squeeze English into the Latin model. It has always been an uneasy fit, as English is fundamentally a language of word order and Latin an inflected language.
(The spurious injunction to never split an infinitive is a bastard offspring of that process, as Latin infinitives are single words and ipso facto cannot be split.)
For example, consider the ablative absolute.
Zero Per Cent 0
Elie Mystal reads a poll and wonders where the coverage went.
The Platform of the Pervy Party 0
The Republican Party is still preoccupied with sex.
Honestly, can’t they think of anything else?
Plus Ca Change 0
Dick Polman surveys the 2016 Republican platform and finds no surprises.
I would venture that the America to which they look back so fondly is not that of the 1950s.
It’s that of the 1850s.
Trump on the Stump . . . 0
. . . at Juanita Jean’s.
Sanity Break 0
No, despite what you may hear, the whole country is not going crazy.
It’s the Republican Party and its dupes, fellow travelers, and symps that are melting down. The rest of us are okay.
Keep that in mind.
No, History Is Not Repeating Itself 3
Persons who were not there are comparing what happened last week (and may continue to happen this and subsequent weeks) to 1968.
I can attest that the only similarity is in the size of the headlines. In 1968, despite the violence and assassinations, there was a feeling of optimism and hope, of persons standing up against the corrupt “system”–a corrupt war, racism and theft of labor, corrupt corporations fouling the air and the water, women subjected by social norms to the whims of men (who were as piggish then as they are now).
The feeling I sense today is desperation and loss, not optimism and hope: Persons attempting to fight off resurgent racism and a militarized “law enforcement” implicitly empowered to execute black and brown folks with impunity; a usurious economy built on leeching the blood from the poor and what’s left of the middle class; a world that will literally drown, becoming engulfed by water as the seas rise from climate change engendered by those willing to sit back and watch the rising tide from their enclaves on the hill; a political establishment held hostage by the forces of reaction, when it’s not actively abetting them.
Other than that, I reckon things are okay.
Shaun Mullen seems slightly more optimistic than I. Here’s a bit of what he wrote; follow the link for the rest:
