Month: November 2016
Fake News Writer Claims Responsibility for Trump Win
Honestly, people are definitely dumber. They just keep passing stuff around. Nobody fact-checks anything anymore — I mean, that’s how Trump got elected. He just said whatever he wanted, and people believed everything, and when the things he said turned out not to be true, people didn’t care because they’d already accepted it. It’s real scary. I’ve never seen anything like it. … My sites were picked up by Trump supporters all the time. I think Trump is in the White House because of me. His followers don’t fact-check anything — they’ll post everything, believe anything. His campaign manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist.
— From an interview in the Washington Post with Paul Horner, a guy who makes $120K a year writing fake news that gets shared on social media.
The Greeks have a Word for Donald’s Emerging Administration
The Greeks have a word for the emerging Trump Administration: kakistocracy. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as a ‘government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.’ Webster’s is simpler: ‘government by the worst people.’
— Ryan Lizza in the New Yorker
Donald Will Learn that Governing Is Different from Running
Trump has spent the last year controlling the narrative. He’s lost it. Oh, and by the way, Trump is about to face a new normal. He spent the year worrying about crowd sizes and rallies. That delivered him the presidency. But now a single senator could stymie his plans. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said yesterday that he would do anything in his power to stop John Bolton from being secretary of state. All he has to do is place a hold on his nomination, and Trump has to grovel to his former rival. And this isn’t even coming from Democrats yet!
<2>— Playbook
Majority of Democratic Representatives Call for Bannon’s Ouster
169
Number of House Democrats who signed a letter urging Donald Trump to rescind his appointment of Stephen Bannon to a senior White House post, calling the Breitbart boss “a purveyor of anti-Semitism, misogyny and racism,” Politico reports. From the letter: “Millions of Americans have expressed fear and concern about how they will be treated by the Trump Administration and your appointment of Mr. Bannon only exacerbates and validates their concerns.”
White Supremacy Euphemism Generator for Journalists
Reading recent coverage of Donald Trump’s friends on the far right, it struck me that even when people pander to the idea Western culture’s wellbeing is inseparable from European ethnicity, they somehow avoid being called white nationalists or supremacists by journalists.
Generate some creative headlines here.
A Wall Wouldn’t Help
What I want is a secure border, whether it’s a wall or a fence, however you do it. I want to to know who’s coming into our country because I don’t want another Pulse attack.”
— Gov. Rick Scott (GOP/Tea-Fla.), commenting on how incoming Pres. Donald Trump should handle border security. Scott, whose state experienced the country’s deadliest mass shooting and hate crime at Pulse Nightclub, is apparently unaware that the shooter, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, was an American born in Hyde Park, N.Y.
Rogers Victim of ‘Stalinesque Purge’ of Trump Transition Team
Two sources close to Mike Rogers, who was ousted from the Trump transition team, told NBC News that he had been the victim of what one called a “Stalinesque purge,” from the transition of people close to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who left Friday. It was unclear which other aides close to Christie had also been forced out.
Pence Pushing for Email Secrecy
Now that the presidential campaign and most of the furor over Hillary Clinton’s email scandal are behind us, the Pence administration is going to court to argue for its own brand of email secrecy. The administration is fighting to conceal the contents of an email sent to Gov. Mike Pence by a political ally. That email is being sought by a prominent Democratic labor lawyer who says he wants to expose waste in the Republican administration. … But legal experts fear the stakes may be much higher than mere politics because the decision could remove a judicial branch check on executive power and limit a citizen’s right to know what the government is doing and how it spends taxpayer dollars.
— Indianapolis Star
Underprepared and Overpaid
It’s hard right now to express much mirth,
When we’re looking at four years of hell on earth.
With a pandering sneer to the blue collars,
For salary, Trump says he’ll just take a dollar.
But even at that, it’s unlikely we’ll get our money’s worth.
