Political Theatre category archive
The Virus Is Spreading 2
This can’t be good.
Announcing his decision to stand, the 83-year-old construction entrepreneur said he plans to put his name forward as Austrian president, and that he thinks his former Playboy bunny wife would be a perfect First Lady.
He said he was inspired by the fact that fellow building magnate and outsider Donald Trump had managed to notch a big victory in the US. “I am going to make sure we copy the same voting strategy as Trump,” Lugner said.
‘No Place To Hide 0
Just lie back on the couch. Let your thoughts roam free. Let your digital Candy Crusher tell the good doctor all about yourself . . . .
That information and more is then fed into a vast database containing details about nearly every adult in the United States to build psychological profiles that target individual voters with uncanny accuracy.
Cruz’s sophisticated analytics operation was heralded as key to his victory in Iowa earlier this month — the first proof, his campaign said, that the system has the potential to power him to the nomination.
You have been assimilated.
Afterthought:
Your smartphone is not your friend. It is your enemy, a tool of its corporate masters. Use it with caution.
Before you install an app, look at the permissions it requests. If they appear hinky in any way, don’t install that app.
And what the hell is the deal with Candy Crush anyway? Chess Checkers it’s not.
No Place To Hide 0
Can you really trust your thermostat?
“The Art of the Deal: The Movie” 0
Warning: Long (You can bookmark the source); also, language.
Chris-Crossed 0
It is certainly not true that bullies never prosper–they prosper every day in many ways–but it is true that occasionally a bully gets his comeuppance.
Chris Christie is going home to further mismanage New Jersey. And he did do the country a favor along the way.
And, in other news of Munchkins, Fiorina is finished. She almost ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground, but fortunately she won’t get a chance to do the same to the country. (Never mind what I wrote originally. She deserved it, but it, like she, was beneath the mediocre tone I attempt to set in these electrons.)
Plus Ca Change 2
Shorter Dick Polman: It’s deja vu all over again.
Robot Wars 0
Even as he chuckles at the antics of Rubio supporters vs. Rubio robots, Cenk marvels at the right-wing “Get Out of Jail Free Card.”
Image via Job’s Anger.
Chris-Crossed, I Know You Are but What Am I Dept. 0
Alfred P. Doblin marvels as Chris Christie unleashes his inner bully. A snippet:
Of course, Christie knows that, and that is why he is resorting to schoolyard antics. “And so are you” is not exactly Madison or Jefferson, but when you are 10 or 12, it can pretty much end the conversation. The governor is appealing to the lowest common denominator. The problem with this strategy is that 12-year-old boys cannot vote in a Republican primary.
There was a time when Chris Christie was a rising star, the tell-it-like-it-is public official. I bought that line. If that was ever authentic, I can’t say now, but the governor has chosen to abandon the people of New Jersey and chosen to abandon any pretext of being “the adult in the room.”
Forget the Race; Look at the Racers 0
Chauncey Devega argues that far too much attention is paid to the differences amongst the Republican candidates for the presidential nomination. He find their similarities to be much more important–and troubling. Here’s a bit from his typically long and tightly-reasoned post:
1. That the United States should bomb and kill many thousands of innocent people in the Middle East and elsewhere in order to supposedly stop the spread of ISIS and other terrorist organizations.
2. Torturing suspected terrorists—even though such acts are both immoral and ineffective in retrieving actionable intelligence information—is acceptable.
3. “God’s law” should supersede the United States Constitution.
4. They are anti-science and do not believe that global warming is a real, scientifically proven, empirical fact.
(Follow the link for the rest of the list)
The contemporary Republican Party is a radical political organization that has betrayed the core tenet of “conservatism,” what is a belief in stability in the face of radical change. To that end, movement conservatism seeks to undo the consensus politics of the World War II and post-World War II era because it views the great successes of the New Deal, the Great Society and the civil rights movement(s) as a threat to the excesses of unrestrained capitalism and white male power.
A Toast to “The Smart One” Is Toast
0
Aside:
The surest way to skewer one’s campaign is to make oneself look silly. Enough voters will abide–nay, relish–bigotry, venality, brutality, and hypocrisy to keep a campaign alive; silliness sounds the death knell.
Via Job’s Anger.
If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0
Without taking a stand on Hillary v. Bernie thing, I can nevertheless commend Jane Martin’s musing on double standards in political news coverage to your attention.
The Smart One 0
You could almost feel sorry for him. On second thought, no–no more than he felt compassion for the Schiavos.