Political Theatre category archive

Via Delaware Liberal.

Foxy twits.

Twitter is a colossal waste of electrons.

As Will Bunch points out, some bodies seem to count more than others.

The default position of the resident curmudgeon at my local rag is that “other people can’t have nice things.” Rarely–only very occasionally–does she deviate.

Generally, though, when she tackles a public issue, the conclusion is forgone. Only the path to it is in question.

This time, it’s about children who want an education.

Ta-Nehisi Coates argues that we need a better class of racists.

The problem with Cliven Bundy isn’t that he is a racist but that he is an oafish racist. He invokes the crudest stereotypes, like cotton picking. This makes white people feel bad. The elegant racist knows how to injure non-white people while never summoning the specter of white guilt. Elegant racism requires plausible deniability, as when Reagan just happened to stumble into the Neshoba County fair and mention state’s rights. Oafish racism leaves no escape hatch, as when Trent Lott praised Strom Thurmond’s singularly segregationist candidacy.

Elegant racism is invisible, supple, and enduring. It disguises itself in the national vocabulary, avoids epithets and didacticism. Grace is the singular marker of elegant racism. One should never underestimate the touch needed to, say, injure the voting rights of black people without ever saying their names. Elegant racism lives at the border of white shame. Elegant racism was the poll tax. Elegant racism is voter-ID laws.

Tony Norman notices something.

Because modern racists lack the courage of their convictions, racism has retreated into the shadows where it only emerges in the form of faux pas. Like so many things in American life, racism has been dumbed down and sissified, but it is still very much with us.

There was a time when racism was this nation’s greatest export. As Richard Pryor once said, immigrants would come to this country and not know a word of English except the “n-word,” which usually made them feel like full-fledged Americans the first time they used it. They at least had black folks to look down on after leaving the old country.

These days, the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court insist that racism is no longer a factor in American life. Sure, that’s incredibly ignorant and racist — but it’s the sneaky kind of racism that’s in vogue today. The justices know better, but they’re interpreting law in these mean and congenitally stupid times.

Even Photoshopped images of the first family as monkeys, or rows of watermelon patches on the White House lawn, are considered more tasteless than racist by the conservative apparatchiks who pass them around in email chain letters. After all, everyone knows racism is dead . . . .

Remember this: When bigots complain about “political correctness,” what they mean is that they can no longer wave their bigot flags without someone calling them out.

Warning: Language.

Bruce Ackerman fears that the arc of moral justice cited by Martin Luther King, Jr., in one of his most famous quotations, is in retreat.

. . . the arc of justice is now once again in sharp decline, during America’s Second Gilded Age.

The Supreme Court is playing a leading role in this act of betrayal. Just as the 19th century court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which would have banned discrimination in public accommodations and transportation, the Roberts court has struck down key provisions of the modern Voting Rights Act. What is more, it keeps chipping away at other basic principles established during the civil rights era, as in last week’s decision on affirmative action in university admissions. If these dynamics continue, the annual celebration of Martin Luther King Day will turn into a tragic recital of his lost legacy.

The San Jose Mercury-News reports that house flipping is making a comeback, no doubt because it worked out so well the last time.

Below the fold because it autoplays on some systems.

Read more »

Via C&L.

Ta-Nehisi Coates asks the question.

How would the Nevada standoff be different if the rancher were black? American history has already answered that question.

Follow the link for the answer.

(Hint: The answer is written in the blood of black folks.)

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Will Bunch explains, “T-t-t-that’s all, folks.”

My local rag tells the story of a fighter pilot who dared to reveal a safety hazard in the F-22. Now he’s in the Catch-22, the best catch there is.

Here’s the intro:

The Air Force has spent tens of millions of dollars over the past two years correcting problems with its premier jet fighter – issues that Capt. Joshua Wilson helped expose by speaking up, both to his bosses and on national television.

Since then, Wilson’s career as an F-22 Raptor pilot has stalled. A member of the Virginia Air National Guard’s 149th Fighter Squadron, Wilson hasn’t been permitted to fly the jet since early 2012. He’s fighting disciplinary actions that he sees as retribution for going public.

Whatever else happens, the military can always be counted on the protect its own brass.

Read the rest and tell your friends.

Laurie Roberts, in a larger article about Welfare Cowboy Cliven Bundy, espies the Secesh in the Southwest:

Our (Arizona’s–ed.) Legislature is filled with people who long for the good old days when states seceded from the union. Every year, we see bills declaring all EPA regulations null and void in Arizona and bills declaring federal gun laws null and void in Arizona and bills requiring federal agents to check in with county sheriffs before they try to enforce federal law in Arizona.

There’s the always-popular biennial effort to declare Arizona a sovereign state, which is code for we want control of federal land so we can eliminate all those vexing environmental regulations aimed at assuring clean water and clear air and such.

Read the rest.

Shaun Mullen explains the con:

In 2010, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie singlehandedly killed a planned $8.7 billion commuter train tunnel under the Hudson River that virtually everyone else believed would ensure the future health of the New York region’s economy. Christie argued that it was just too damned expensive for the frugal times in which he governed, an argument that held little water then and has now sprung a ginormous leak.

This is because it turns out that Christie planned all along to use New Jersey’s share of tunnel construction dough to bail out the state’s highway and bridge system, which under his “leadership” had been driven deeply into debt.

Follow the link for more about this and other issues. You will be glad you did.