Political Theatre category archive

Juanita Jean.

Remember, a Libertarian is nothing more than a Republican who is ashamed to admit it.

What Noz said.

Wingnuttery loves itself its faked-up fusses, as fakery beats reality every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Via Juanita Jean.

. . . or wishful thinking?

I’m betting on Door #3: Sarcasm.

There’s trouble in River City and it starts with “B” and sounds like bank which is a shot in pool.

A special prosecutor will examine Mayor Will Sessoms’ voting record for conflict-of-interest violations, and his bosses at TowneBank will pay him to stay home while they do the same.

Wednesday’s events occurred days after a Pilot investigation showed that Sessoms voted dozens of times on issues directly benefiting customers of TowneBank, where he serves as a president. Sessoms has not spoken publicly. The bank and local law enforcement announced their decisions before noon.

A special proscutor is needed because the Stolle family, which includes the Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Sheriff, are associated through various relatives with Towne Bank.

I have mixed feelings about this. As tempting as it is to delight in the troubles of any Republican, Mayor Sessoms is not Richard Daley and Virginia Beach has no Tammany Hall. Other than a unfortunate tendency to fall for tall tales spun by developers,* Sessoms is a fairly decent fellow who has served the city–er–adequately.

AFAIC, at worst, he’s a Babbitt with a blind spot.

Addendum, Later That Day:

Heh.

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim and Suffolk Mayor Linda Johnson have resigned from their positions on boards of TowneBank.

A press release today said the decision was made to avoid a perception of a conflict of interest.

Fraim was a member of TowneBank’s board of directors and also served as chairman of the bank’s Norfolk board. Johnson was on the bank’s Suffolk board.

Addendum-Dee-Dum-Dum, the Next Day:

Mayor Sessoms has resigned his positions on three Towne Bank boards of directors.

___________________

*For example.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel explains that no agenda is exactly what the Republican Party has. A nugget:

Republicans reaped the rewards of McConnell’s scorched-earth strategy, obstructing President Obama relentlessly, helping to create the failure that voters would pin on the party in power. But the collateral damage is that the “party of ‘no’ “has no agreement on what is yes.

Reg Henry takes up his scalpal and autopsies the election results; he finds that voters acted quite logically. Of course they did.

A snippet:

But Mr. Obama got the blame for the economy. Of course he did! The voters, being a tad forgetful and open to sneaky suggestion, blamed him and not the party on whose presidential watch the economy actually crashed and burned in 2007 and which has conspired to keep it a smoking ruin ever since, just to make the Democrats look bad.

To make people believe otherwise was a work of Republican genius. It required a complete suspension of facts, context and logic. Up is down, good is bad, blue is red and unreality is reality — and the voters who bothered to show up bought it. That old hack magic had them in their spell.

Then there’s a matter of gridlock. Everybody hates gridlock. We hate paralyzed government, we really do! So why not vote for the Gridlock Oldsters Party so that the gridlock ends? Well, it seemed sensible at the time.

Via Job’s Anger.

Pap and David Haynes examine the legal legacy of King George the Worst.

F. T. Rea puzzles out the fear factor in last week’s elections. A nugget:

Of course, this is hardly the first time for yellow to symbolically speckle the nation’s map in an election year. What was a modern variation on an old tactic in 2014 was the outrageous manner in which terrorism in the Middle East and disease in Western Africa were sensationalized by political flacks and the media, just before mid-term elections. It created a two-headed monster, the stuff of nightmares.

Read the rest and remind yourself: Frightened persons don’t think.

Shaun Mullen finds a parable in a dog park.

Leonard Pitts, Jr.:

The Democrats had nothing to say and said it ineptly, running from the achievements of recent years — the Affordable Care Act, falling unemployment rates, a soaring stock market — and the president who presided over them like Usain Bolt from a house fire, defending themselves from Republican attack about as effectively as the Iraqi Army defends Iraq. Which is to say, not very.

The party presented no compelling argument for itself. It didn’t just lack the courage of its convictions; it also lacked its convictions.

The Republicans also had nothing to say, but they said it loudly and with great certitude: “Obama caused Ebola! Obama caused ISIS! Obama is going to give your job to an illegal! GOP: 2014!”

Now the leaders of both parties are spouting the usual cliches about finding ways to work together. And anyone who believes that will happen probably also believes singing an insurance company jingle will make your agent magically appear.

Read the rest.

The Gloomy Historian tries to parse the why the election turned out the way it did. A nugget:

Sometimes the question is posed as such; why are Democrats so good at governing and so lousy at campaigning, while Republicans are so good at campaigning and lousy at governing?

Follow the link for his theory.

In other shocking news, developers run this town.

Via Job’s Anger.

If you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, jump ahead to the 6:45 minute mark, where Cenk talks about the implications for scientific research.

Werner Herzog’s Bear spots the winner (emphasis added):

What about the people who didn’t vote? Not only do they outnumber the number of Republican and Democratic voters, they outnumbered all voters period. This means that yet again, the Didn’t Vote Party swept the midterms. It amazes me that elections which will determine all kinds of policy and will have a profound effect (especially on the state level) on so many people saw much fewer than half the voters show up.