On matches and performance art - Katie Rogers in NYT:

‘“These are so appalling they’re a form of performance art,” Michael Waldman, the president of the Brennan Center for Justice, said in an interview, reflecting on Mr. Trump’s choices and their fitness for their jobs.
This parade of loyalists is Mr. Trump’s first show of force to Senate Republicans, who will be under immense pressure to either confirm his nominee or sidestep that process altogether. But it is also something of a denial-of-service attack against one of the checks on the presidency: Mr. Trump has insisted that the next Senate majority leader allow for recess appointments, which would grant him the ability to unilaterally install cabinet members.
That newly elected leader, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, told reporters on Wednesday that the Senate would “explore all options” to make sure Mr. Trump’s nominees “get moved and that they get moved quickly.”’

(…)

‘In selecting Mr. Gaetz and a cast of other loyalists, Mr. Trump is trying to ensure that he can leave the levers of the federal government to people who ultimately answer to him. In this group, there is no Jeff Sessions, who was forced out as attorney general during Mr. Trump’s first term because he recused himself from the Russia inquiry.’

(…)

‘“There are all sorts of things going on inside those agencies that we’re not going to be able to see, that are really important to the integrity and the smooth functioning of American life,” Mr. O’Brien [a longtime biographer of Mr. Trump] said. “And they’re going to be in there with matches, seeing what, what catches fire first.”’

Read the article here.

Sessions from rightwing thug to a possible saint. Same thing happened with people like Cheney and Bush. It didn’t help much, at least if the goal is to win elections.

Democracy is theater and more and more the theater has become a spectacle.

Enough philosophers have said things about the spectacle, many of them were French, but that’s probably coincidence.

More performance art, a special kind of performance art is coming.

But please keep in mind that the Starr report was already performance art. Powell’s presentation to the UN was performance art.

This has a long tradition.

But I’m willing to acknowledge that the performance art that is coming will beat Powell and Starr and the others.

The spectacle will replace being.