January, 2017 archive
One Thing Is Not Like the Other Thing 0
In related news, Solomon Jones finds inspiration in an unlikely place (follow the link for the complete article):
They must stand up, red-faced and outraged, and shout that now-infamous phrase.
“You lie!”
Forward into the Past! 0
Der Spiegel’s Holger Stark takes a long and complex look at the forces that fed Trumpery. Here’s a nugget.
With his diabolical instinct for the country’s political mood, Trump captured this shift on campaign evenings like the one in Burlington, distilling it to a single maxim that warmed the hearts of many in the United States: “America First.”
The article is well worth the ten minutes you will spend reading it.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Still well under 300k.
(snip)
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, declined to 245,500, the lowest since 1973, from 247,500 in the prior week.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits increased by 41,000 to 2.1 million in the week ended Jan. 14. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.5 percent. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
A Dutch Treat 0
Via Balloon Juice.
Afterthought:
I suspect that this is not atypical of international perception of the Trumpling of America, he said in a convoluted manner.
NDA 0
Non-Disclosure Agreements are common in business, so as to protect proprietary information. I once had to sign one, even though I was a very small fry, promising not to disclose any of my employer’s secrets about their patented and copyrighted products.
Government is different, as, at least in theory, government employees work for the people, not for a private person. In contrast, Donald Trump reportedly had many of his campaign officials sign MDAs and may even have demanded that government employees do so, as he seems to be approaching his new job (this is just my own opinion, now) as if he had been elected God Emperor of Dune or something.
“Under the anti-gag provision, agencies cannot impose nondisclosure agreements and policies that fail to include required language that informs employees that their statutory right to blow the whistle supersedes the terms and conditions of the nondisclosure agreement or policy,” the OSC press release said.
Frankly, I consider it highly unlikely that he will pay any heed to this at all.
More at the link.
“Facts Are What People Think” 0
The Des Moines Register’s Rekha Basu explores the Trumpling of reality. A snippet:
(Snip anecdote about an email exchange with a reader)
Here’s my plea to the public, Trump supporters and all: Please understand that when reporters push back for the truth, they are not acting out of some pro-Hillary agenda but in defense of transparency. It should be important to everyone, whether or not we agree with certain policies, that decisions taken are based on real facts. In fact, if Trump’s supporters insist he tell the truth, then journalists wouldn’t feel as obligated to do that clean-up work.
Image via Job’s Anger.
A Modest Proposal 0
Daniel Ruth offers a plan for a cease-fire in the White House War on Facts. Here’s a bit:
The solution is obvious. Give the president and his team all the fake news they want.
Really now, how hard would it be for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today to print a few hundred special copies every day solely to be delivered to the White House and filled with glowing, cooked-up stories and editorials extolling the brilliance, the vision and the magnificence of the Trump administration?
Imagine all of the stories in tribute to the Caesar of the West Wing. All of Trump’s favorite sports teams would always win. Every policy would be a stroke of pure genius. And everywhere the president went it would always be 80 degrees and sunny. And while you may think the Trumps are the first family to move into the White House in quite some time without a pet dog, you can’t deny that unicorn grazing on the South Lawn is a thing of beauty.
Facebook Frolics 0
One more time: the internet is a public place. If you cuss someone out online, everyone’s going to hear you.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
A polite society is a clean society.
“Zacharias Smart” seems like a bit of a misnomer, does it not?
The stupid. It burns.
QOTD 0
Jules Verne:
Poets are like proverbs: you can always find one to contradict another.
Update: The missing link has been found.
Press Conference
0
Tony Norman has more. Here’s a snippet from his article:
This indifference is what the Trump administration is counting on. The multiple daily outrages via Twitter, or at a White House briefing, or in a dark presidential speech or uttered on a Sunday talk show will quickly consume the public’s finite allotment of outrage. This can only lead to more indifference and a glassy-eyed boredom that will not serve us well when long-term assaults against every one of our democratic institutions begin in earnest.
