Political Theatre category archive
Flint-Hearted 0
Emails reveal the poisonous callousness of Rick Snyder and his Republican cohorts to the poisoning of the people of Flint, Michigan.
What did come through, however, was the Snyder administration’s callous dismissal of complaints from the people of Flint, who had been complaining of foul-smelling, brownish water for some time—water that turned out to contain high levels of dangerous, poisonous lead, coliform and even fecal bacteria—saying they were overly concerned with “aesthetics.”
A Sept. 25, 2015, email from Snyder’s Chief of Staff, Dennis Muchmore, to the governor is perhaps most damning, accusing the people of Flint of using their children’s lead exposure as a “political football.”
Follow the link, but, mind you, you’ll have trouble reading it all the way through.
Hey! Rubio! 0
Daniel Ruth points out that consistency is not the hobgobblin of that little mind:
Now Rubio has joined the chorus of hand-wringers, promising that if he is elected president, “We’re going to be America again.” Just what that means isn’t entirely clear, since America always has been America.
Details at the link.
A Night at the Improv 0
David Hadju offers grudging admiration for Donald Trump’s ability to make stuff up on the fly. A snippet:
The audience oohed and aahed, clearly impressed by Fortner’s creative ingenuity, and the drama of the moment got me thinking about Donald Trump. I should make clear here that I am anything but a Trump supporter. In fact, I find his wild and volatile, xenophobic, hate-fueled rhetoric loathsome and terrifying. I have never understood any aspect of his appeal—until the night at the Appel Room, when it struck me that the very wildness and volatility of Trump’s performances in campaign rallies, debates, and television interviews do not look to everyone like liabilities. They come across as strengths to his admirers. Like Sullivan Fortner and every other musician skilled in the art of extemporaneous invention, Donald Trump is, in his way, an improviser—in a perverse sense, a jazz candidate.
Words without End 0
In related news, Reg Henry decides to recant his previous statements and praise Donald Trump:
Of course, I meant this comparison in the nicest possible way. It was my way of saying that Mr. Trump always looks sharp and dressed for success.
He really is the smartest man on the planet, but don’t take my word for it — ask him. In fact, you don’t have to ask him because he regularly volunteers the information.
Return of Beyond the Palin 0
Will Bunch is fed up with the political-entertainment complex. A bit from his article:
There may come a day, a couple of years from now, when our national parks are ringed with oil wells and America is embroiled in a war in the Middle East that’s even more pointless than the wars that came before it, when all the laughter will die in sorrow and folks will wonder what the hell just happened.
Follow the link for more.
Also, be sure to read Jim Wright’s take. Here’s a bit from it:
Sarah Palin’s Donald Trump endorsement speech was in fact a brilliant summation of the modern GOP.
Dis Coarse Discourse, He’s a President, Not a Dictator Dept. 0
Have you noticed that folks who talk about what President Obama hasn’t done almost never mention what Republicans have been doing?
Chris-Crossed 0
Mike Kelly considers Chris Christie’s State of the State quite revealing–not about New Jersey, but about Christie. A snippet:
Some people return, carrying old burdens and wounded memories. Others return to revel in some measure of glory.
Still others return with a re-invented narrative – a view of their past that is not even remotely grounded in reality and, of course, a view of their future that seems equally misguided.
This is Chris Christie.
Follow the link for the bill of particulars.
“A Nation of Immigrants” 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., speaking of Nikki Haley’s delusional response to the State of the Union address, in which she said, “When you’ve got immigrants who are coming here legally, we’ve never in the history of this country passed any laws or done anything based on race or religion.” Here’s a list from his article:
The Naturalization Act of 1790, which extended citizenship to “any alien, being a free white person … “?
Or the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, whose title and intent are self-explanatory?
Or the Immigration Act of 1917, which banned immigrants from East Asia and the Pacific?
Or Ozawa v. U.S., the 1922 Supreme Court decision which declared that Japanese immigrants could not be naturalized?
Or U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind, the 1923 high court ruling which said people from India – like Haley’s parents – could not become naturalized citizens?
One more time: The history of American immigration laws is a narrative of canonizing racism, and the lies Americans tell themselves does not change that. The willingness of Americans to gainsay their history, though, says much about the human desire capacity for denying reality.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
Amongst collective nouns, there’s a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows, a pod of whales.
I propose a new collective: A bray of Trumps.
