Social Media Disinformation Really Good At Putting Us On Road To Authoritarianism

So many ways Trump and the GOP are using social media to
create an authoritarian/oligarchial regime for the United States

Last fall, journalist McKay Coppins of The Atlantic, decided to try a little experiment.

He created a Facebook page, not for himself, but for an alter ego. He picked a forgettable name, and posted a profile photo that obscured his face.  He clicked "Like" on the official pages of Donald Trump and his re-election campaign.

Almost immediately the Facebook algorithms prompted him to follow Ann Coulter, Fox and fan pages with titles like "In Trump We Trust." He dutifully followed these groups.

Coppins also wrote, "I also gave my cellphone number to the Trump campaign, and joined a handful of private Facebook groups for MAGA diehards, one of which required an application that seemed designed to screen out interlopers." 

The Facebook feed that Coppins' alter ego established created a new reality of sorts. Coppins watched live, on TV, the impeachment hearings, but on the Facebook page, edited video made the same televised testimony look like an exoneration of Trump.

Pro-Trump propaganda filled the Facebook feed, "Democrats are doing Putin's bidding," "The only message these radical socialists and extremists will understand is a crushing." and so on.

The resulting Atlantic article by Coppins had this startling paragraph:

"I was surprised by the effect it had on me. I'd assumed that my skepticism and media literacy would inoculate me against such distortions. But I soon found myself reflexively questioning every headline. I wasn't that I believed Trump and his boosters were telling the truth. It was that, in this state of heightened suspicion, truth itself - about Ukraine, impeachment, or anything else - felt more and more difficult to locate. With each swipe, the notion of observable reality drifted further out of reach."

If a seasoned, savvy journalist like Coppins felt disoriented, imagine how everybody else feels against this social media onslaught.   His article opens a window on how easy social media, especially bad actors like Facebook, can much more easily allow us to slide into authoritarianism.  Ifyou think it can't happen here, think again.

To an extent, it's already happened, and the apparatus is set up to take us down the road to this evil transition.

Coppins' Atlantic article, "The Billion Dollar Disinformation Campaign To Re-Elect The President," is a long read, but something you should read, scary as it is.

This Facebook full-court press by the Trumpsters is a way of using a megaphone to drown out real truth, or as Coppins puts it, "jamming the signals, sowing confusion." Coppins said scholars call all this "censorship through noise."

Pretty much all political campaigns have their share of spin, half-truths, dog whistles and such.

Trump and his campaign take this to a whole, extremely scary new level.

A important part of this strategy is to first discredit the news media, you know, all the good, but imperfect journalists of the world who actually try to expose the truth, the real truth about everything.   Trump operatives have gone through the social media accounts belonging to hundreds of political journalists, compiling all their posts into dossiers.

Definitely sounds Putinesque, doesn't it?

When a particular news story the Trumps don't like is written by a particular journalist, they and their surrogates flood Facebook and other places with any past social media post the journalist wrote that could be spun as problematic or worse.

This isn't to combat a supposed or real liberal slant in the news media. This effort is to destroy mainstream media altogether.

We're not just talking about the tedious talking heads and columnists at national outfits like the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC and others.

They're after your local newscaster and newspaper. Coppins writes that the Trump campaign will train a "swarm of surrogates  to undermine local TV stations and newspapers. Polls have long fouond that Americans across the political spectrum trust local news more than the national media. If the campaign has its way, that trust will be eroded by November."

Meanwhile, these operatives are creating innocuous looking "news" sites like the Arizona Monitor or The Kalamazoo Times that look like traditional local publications, right down to community notices and school news and events schedules. Only very knowledgeable people, taking a close look at these "newspapers" will find no bylines and no addresses for local offices. And these "newspapers" will have plenty of sophisticated propaganda that sort of looks like news.

The Coppins article goes on about these details, and again, you really should read every word.

For Trump and his fascists minions, it's all about destroying all the the institutions that have held our democracy together for more than two centuries. They really do want to get rid of all the ideals about what makes America America.

That's why Trump is also seemingly pardoning every crooked person he can find, while at the same time punishing good citiziens and patriots.

He and his Republican toadies want to destroy the fact the United States, for all its faults, has been a beacon of freedom for the world.

This is particularly dangerous now as we seem to be at the begining of the Corornavirus pandemic. It's not officially a pandemic, but it's getting worse by the minute.  The whole world needs accurate and timely information to stay healthy, weather the economic crisis this will could bring on, and squash out rumors that could lead to civil unrest.

A lot of the citizenry of this nation seem like they think Trump and the Republicans are boffo for doing lying and trying to establish some sort of weird oligarchy.   They want to punish "the right people," i.e. anyone who is nonwhite and even remotely  liberal.

Sounds great to them.  Just wait until this new autocracy turns their powerand anger on them, for whatever reason.

Cub Scout Booted For Asking Lawmaker Good Constituent Questions

If you wanted any more proof that many (conservative) adults don't want kids to learn anything and keep them stupid, we bring you a Cub Scout in Colorado.  

This young Cub Scout was kicked out of a Colorado den
for the crime of asking a politician about her views
on gun control.

Recently, a Cub Scout den in Broomfield, Colorado hosted a Republican state senator named Vicki Marble for a question and answer session.

The kids ask Marble about gun control, a proposed border wall with Mexico and some racially charged remarks she made in 2013, says 7News, the ABC affiliate in Denver. 

One of the Cub Scouts, Ames Mayfield, was particularly prying with his questions, questioning Marble about her infamous 2013 remarks about African Americans, fried chicken and poverty. (I won't get into those comments, but they were pretty bad.)

During the exchange, Ames had clearly done his homework and his facts were correct, but Marble's weren't. 

Ames then asked a fairly lengthy but good question about gun control.

"I was shocked that you co-sponsored a bill to allow domestic violence offenders to continue to own a gun..... Why on earth would you want someone who beats their wife to have access to a gun?

Decent question, but the Cub Scout den leader cut him off. No question guns, please! Second Amendment! Second Amendment.  And too bad we didn't get to hear Marble's response. Who knows? Maybe she had a good answer. 

Ames's question about gun control was apparently so offensive to the so called leader of this scout pack that he booted Ames from the pack, just days before he would have become a Boy Scout. 

7News said the Denver area council of the Boy Scouts said it's up to the local organizations to determine who can stay with the Scouts and how can't. The Council said they would look for another den for Ames to join and latest reports say they found one for Ames. 

But Ames is understandably devastated by his getting kicked out. He actually really liked his den leader before he booted Ames. The den leader is not talking to the press.

So, unfortunate life lesson learned: We should not question our elected politicians anymore. Just let them do what they want, and don't hold them to account.

Is this the way we really should be raising kids?

 

A Week Before Alex Jones NBC Interview, Everybody Up In Arms

NBC is set to air Megyn Kelly's interview with this nut
case, Alex Jones on Sunday, triggering a debate on whether
we should give destructive people like this additional exposure. 

To understate the matter, Alex Jones is a big fat nutcase.

He's the impresario of InfoWars, an oddly popular conspiracy theory media empire whose fans seem to include Donald Trump.  

Normally, I wouldn't waste my time filling this blog thingy with Alex Jones stuff, except to laugh at him and mock him, which I have occasionally done.

But everybody's talking about him this week because an NBC interview of him by Megyn Kelly will run on Father's Day.

Jones is famous for, among other things, saying the Sept 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job and the Sandy Hook school shooting, which took the lives of 26 people, mostly young kids,  was fake.

I get the instinct to not give the likes of Jones the national showcase NBC and Kelly offers.

But as Entertainment Weekly notes:

"Kelly herself actually responded to the criticism. When someone tweeted at her that the coverage risks legitimizing Jones and his conspiracies, Kelly responded that Jones has already been legitimized by President Donald Trump, who appeared on Jones' show as a candidate back in December, 2014 and recently granted InfoWars a White House press credential.

'Many don't know him, our job is 2 shine a light,' Kelly tweeted."

So I'll reserve judgement on the interview until I see and hear it.  Then again, I'm not sure I want to listen to anything Alex Jones says, so I'll probably end up skipping it.

The truly scary thing is that a whack job like Jones has been legitimized by the President, who can't seem to handle the concept that fake is not the same thing as true.

Predictably, Jones melted down after his interview with Kelly in a way that would make Trump proud. Jones is a real student of Trump's methods, that's for sure!

As Media Matters reports, here's what Jones is thinking after being interviewed by Kelly, if you can stand it:

"Jones is now suggesting Kelly is aligned with the 'New World Order' globalist conspiracy theory, complaining that she is producing 'fake news' and declaring that she is 'not feminine' but is 'cold, robotic, dead.'"

Alrighty then!

Will Megyn Kelly's interview make America really rebel against Alex Jones, who has made a career of harassing, and encouraging his moron followers, to threaten people who are the subject ofJones' bizarro world view?

Or, will the interview give Jones a wider platform, when he's really just a bug who should be ignored as it crawls back under its rock?

Who knows?

In any event, advertisers are fleeing NBC and its planned Alex Jones interview. Kelly and NBC are getting hammered on social media, and Kelly was dropped from a Sandy Hook fundraiser.

Maybe all this criticism is justified, but we really ought to be constantly piling on that creep Alex Jones.

 

Barring Unfriendly Media From White House Press Event Backfiring Spectacularly

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer really stepped in it
when he barred some media from a press briefing Friday.

The news media and fans of the First Amendment were appalled yesterday when White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer barred the New York Times, CNN, Buzzfeed, Politico and the Los Angeles Times from a news briefing.

Those news organizations have been among the most aggressive in covering Donald Trump's wide and growing range of scandals, not the least of which the administration's ties to Russia.

The move was widely seen as retaliation, but what did it accomplish?

Does anyone in the real world actually know what Spicer told the other media that went into the press briefing? They all reported it, but I don't even know what Spicer's message was, and I'm an avid news junkie.

That's because whatever Spicer had to say was completely lost in the outrage and commentary and yakking and consternation about the press being barred.

All Spicer - and by extension Trump - did was call more attention to the possibly impeachable stuff that's been going on with Russia.

Donald Trump said he would create jobs and in one respect, he's right. CNN says "The Trump White House is a full-employment program for investigative reporters, and they are building an impressive, devastating body of work, thanks to a President who routinely invents facts and utters or tweets outright falsehoods almost daily."

CNN goes on, and I'm in full agreement with this:

"As any seasoned reporter knows, that kind of squealing, with pointless insults, is the sound made by politicians when the truth makes them feel cornered and uncomfortable. Their bleating, in fact, signals that it's time to turn up the heat."

Oh, and that heat is coming on much stronger than the actual meteorological record heat the nation is experiencing.  We, the news consumers, will have to be careful, because in the rush to nail Trump, some media outlets will get it wrong.

But the true facts are slowly emerging, and will continue to do so.

It even seems like Republicans in Congress are starting to get fed up, even though many of them are still kissing Trump's butt.

Still, it was very telling that last night, the very conservative Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, was on "Real Time With Bill Maher" last night saying that Congress should appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Russian influence.

Issa also said that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who is a friend of Issa's, should recuse himself from an investigation, since he's part of the Trump administration.

This of course, is going to get even messier. Trump's true believers - perhaps one quarter of the nation's voting adults - believe Trump's whines that the drumbeat of reports of his corruption is all "fake news"

If the so-called "fake news" leads to Trump's downfall, I worry there will be violence. People are that fired up.

And if anything terrible happens, it will be all Trump's fault, since he's the one who caused this disaster to begin with.

Trump is perhaps the only president that doesn't understand the presidential phrase, "The buck stops here."

Which is ironic, because everything about Trump is about money and status. Boy, is he heading toward a fall.

A Case Study On The Fight Between Alt Right Bullcrap And The Main Stream Media

Um a few people DID misbehave in Germany on New Years Eve
but it wasn't exactly an Islamic fundamentalist insurgency
at Breitbart suggests in this article

Having safely installed their hero Donald Trump as President and secured their man, Steve Bannon as their chief of staff, Breitbart News seems like it has now turned its attention to the upcoming German elections.  

Although they're probably not coordinating with Breitbart, I'm sure Russia is delighted by the wacko right wing "news" site's help.

The latest bit of drama involves a Breitbart "news" article that "informs" us that a mob of Islamic extremists, numbering around 1,000 or so and yelling "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) set a church on fire in the city of Dortmund.

The Breitbart headline read, "Revealed: 1,000 man mob attack police, set Germany's oldest church alight on New Year's Eve."  The article went on to say the mob was massing around al Qaeda and Islamic flags

Dortmund Police said the reality was a whole lot tamer than what Breitbart envisioned. To me, it's not even news.

Yep, lots of people were out celebrating New Year's Eve in Dortmund. Some of them might have been Muslim.  Some people in the crowd definitely took things too far, but this was also not anything remotely resembling an Islamic extremist insurgency in Germany.

Police said an  average number of  people were arrested for misbehaving on New Year's Eve, the Guardian reports

There's no evidence the crowd was actually celebrating Islamic extremists  in Dortmund. A stray spark from fireworks did cause  a small fire in some netting in construction scaffolding at the church.

The minor blaze was quickly put out. The church, which is not the oldest in Germany, was undamaged, says the Guardian.

Yawn.

My conspiratorial mind thinks Breitbart wanted to help stir up right-wind passions in Germany to help continue the authoritarian march across the globe let by Putin.

I couldn't find the church article on Breitbart, but their front page feature has them apoplectic over a New York Times article this past Sunday that suggested ways to thwart fake news sites.

Third parties and bots often place advertising in web sites, and the business or entity that's being advetised is often unaware of which web sites its on.

This is why ads seem to "follow" you from site to site. Algorthms latch on to your interests, and those ads that target you follow you. Even if you go to websites the advertiser doesn't like.

Those advertisers can, of course, ask to be removed from those sites, and that's what the New York times highlighted.

The New York Times article highlighted a Twitter group called Sleeping Giants that alerts businesses and non-profits that they're being advertised on sites that promote lies, white supremacists or bullying that can inspire attacks on Muslims, women, gays, you name it.

Sleeping Giants has targeted Breitbart in particular lately because "they're the biggest fish," a founder of Sleeping Giants told the New York Times.

Just today, Sleeping Giants crowed that they got the travel booking website Trevago from advertisting at Breitbart.

Of course today, Breitbart countered that it's the New York Times that's the purveryor of fake news.

Breitbart said the New York Times is being hypocritcial because they say they're for press freedom and at the same time they are trying to squelch the journalism of Breitbart.

Though I question whether Breitbart is journalistm, but whatever.

I guess everybody has their own reality now, so nothing is truly fact based. They'll believe whatever they want to believe.

For its part, Breitbart is doubling down on its "reporting" from  Germany (We can't disappoint our rabid readers with a retraction, can we!)

If you read Breitbart's doubling down article in reaction to the take down by main stream media, notice the um, double speak.

The problem is Breitbart is a master at using certain words that incite hate. The Guardian might refer to the people in the city square in Germany as New Year's Eve crowd. Breitbart calls them a "mob."

Breitbart plays with definitions. German police said most of the people in the square were "peaceful" Breitbart says they were not because some were lauching fireworks, and others were "egging" them on.

The video that even Breitbart posts to "prove' their point shows, yes, people illegally launching fireworks, while most in the crowd stand and gawk at the spectacle, at an outdoor party that's gone out of control. To me, gawking is peaceful enough.

Breitbart was also forced to backtrack on the Allahu Akbar shouts. They admit in the follow up that that phrase is about as common as when Christians say "Amen."

As Matt Gertz in Media Matters points out, Breitbart in its original reporting strung three separate facts together to create a false nightmare scenario.

1. There were about 1,000 people in the square.
2. A few of them shouting "Allah Akbar"
3. One person got careless with fireworks, starting a small blaze.

These three facts became this in Breitbart world: "A mob of more than, 1,000 men chanted "Allah Akbar launched fireworks at police and set fire to a historic church."

Bit of a difference, eh?

Breitbart claims its facts were accurate, but Media Matters points out the obvious: You can't string together facts  to create new "facts."

As Gertz wrote: "The relationship that Breitbart claimed existed between those facts is also relevant in terms of whether the story is accurate."

Everybody always accuses their opponent of twisting the facts. Breitbart takes it to a new art form.

I guess it's a war between the misinformation campaign by the likes of Breitbart and the people who want to squelch the misinformation by hitting where it hurts: The revenue stream.

It's a bare knuckle fight that I see going on for a long time.

And it's one of those fights that will make or break the Trump administration, and perhaps American and democracy itself.

Donald Trump Doth Protest Too Much As Russia Tries To Seize America

I hope this isn't reality, but it feels like it lately.

This is beginning to feel like a bad James Bond movie.

It's becoming more and more apparent that Russia, Wikileaks and maybe Trump or his minions are trying to turn the United States into a wholly owned subsidiary of Putin, Inc. 

Unless we get a James Bond-like figure to save the day, I worry that this effort might succeed.

Friday, the nation got more details on the intelligence gathering that shows Russia was trying - and succeeded, apparently - at tilting our elections toward Donald Trump last November. Vladimir Putin was personally involved in some of this, apparently.

We have Trump get his top secret intelligence briefing on the issue, and still insisting that there wasn't much to the intelligence gathering that Russia did this...

Maybe most ominously, we got more evidence that WikiLeaks, far from being a way to prompt government and corporate transparancy world wide, is more like Putin's goon squad.

The news from WikiLeaks kept getting weirder and more ominous Friday.

First, WikiLeaks objected to Thursday leaks detailing parts of the intelligence report on Russia to NBC News. 

WikiLeaks tweeted: "The Obama admin/CIA is illegally funneling TOP SECRET/COMINT information to NBC for political reasons before PEOTUS even gets to read it."

(POETUS refers to President-elect Trump.)

But get this: WikiLeaks was critcizing.......leaks. A little hypocritical maybe? Or was WikiLeaks just ,mad because the NBC leak had the potential to make Trump look bad.

Besides, it appears what got leaked to NBC News Thursday was the declassified version of the intelligence report that was widely released to the public Friday.

Much more ominously, WikiLeaks seemed to issue a warning of a witch hunt against journalists and others who discuss, investigate or report on Russian meddling.

Which is interesting, since Trump himself called reports of Russian influence on the U.S. election as  political witch hunt, prompted by sour grapes among those who lost the election.

The worrisome potential WikiLeaks, went like this, as Ars Technica reports:

"A Friday Twitter post from WikiLeaks' official task force declared intent to build a publicly seachable database revolving around a particular group of people: Verified Twitter accounts.

'We are thinking of making an online database with all verified Twitter accounts & their family/job/financial/housing relationships,' the Friday tweet reads.  A follow-up post sought suggestions fro the public and said the group is 'looking for discrete (father/shareholding/party membership variables that can be put into our AI software."

In short it appears that WikiLeaks might want to intimidate journalists into silence by "doxing" them. That means making their personal information such as home, family etc. public so goons who support  Trump can harass, threaten or even assault journalists or others who criticize Trump.

A very Russian thing to do, don't you think?  Suppress dissent, intimidate critics, stamp out free speech.

And WikiLeaks says they're for the truth? Ha!

I'm not sure what's in store once Trump takes office. Trump's constant dismissiveness of Russian hacking indicates either he wants to partner with Puting to squelched democracy, or more likely, Russia thinks Trump is a chump and has the goods on him.

Either way, this won't end well.

Let's hope people - and the media - fight efforts to stop the spread of information about who is influencing what in America, and holding on to the basics of democracy.

It's interesting that an outfit like WikiLeaks which says they want information freely available now so obviously shilling for such an anti-freedom outfit like Russia.

Once press freedom and freedom of speech is suppressed, which seems to be the effort underway, we all sink under the thumb of oppressive dictators.

I hope the resistance is stronger

Trump keeps calling the news about Russian hacking "a political witch hunt."

Trump appears to have gotten a number of important details wrong about the NBC story. No one “gave” NBC the top-secret report, as Trump claimed. As the NBC story notes, the official quoted by the network never even saw a copy of the intelligence report; he or she just repeated to NBC what someone had said about its findings.

On Friday morning, Trump told The New York Times that the ongoing public interest in possible Russian interference in the presidential election was “a political witch hunt.” He also complained the election-hacking story was getting more attention than other instances where government computers were compromised. These previous hacks, however, did not include releasing the stolen information to the public.

Anti- Ryan Lochte Protest At DWTS Has To Be Stupidest Demonstration Yet

Two idiots under arrest for storming the stage at
"Dancing With The Stars" because Ryan Lochte was there.

I have to say I have absolutely no sympathy, no allegiance to those dopey people who rushed the stage to protest, of all things, Ryan Lochte performing on the show "Dancing With The Stars."

I'm not a fan of Lochte, either, believe me. But that incident on "Dancing With the Stars" that filled the airwaves with fluff and nonsense Tuesday was the dumbest thing ever.

The Lochte DWTS incident seemed to be the most important thing that happened this week, judging from the wall-to-wall coverage on TV and radio.

In case you somehow missed it (lucky you!)  here's the recap:

Lochte, fresh from getting suspended from the U.S. Swim Team for lying about being mugged at a Rio gas station during the Olympics, is on Dancing With the Stars, which had its season debut Monday.

Two men, Sam Sotoodeh, 59, and Barzeen Soroudi, 25, stormed the stage as Lochte finished his dance performance. According to TMZ, the two, having been bailed out of jail after the incident and still wearing their "No Lochte" shirts said they did it because Lochte embarrassed Americans with his Rio antics.

Really? Of all the crises affecting, or might affect America, Lochte is the biggest? Lochte is just a frat boy type doofus who needs to grow up. I seriously don't think he will end up being the downfall of the Republic.

No, this was a publicity stunt by these so-called anti-Lochte protesters, and I guess I'm complicit in their desire for their 15 minutes. . Sotoodeh and Soroudi clearly just wanted to get their names and faces on TV, and they got it.

They mighty also have been lookin for an opportunity to make money on a lawsuit. They had to know DWTS security would tackle them when they rushed the stage and those security guards obliged. (I would have, too.)

Lochte lost sponsorships and a position on the U.S. Swim Team for awhile. He deserved the punishment. However, let's now see if he finally grows up and stops being a man-child.

It's probably time for Sotoodeh and Soroudi to finally grow up, too.

For what it's worth,  here's a video of the incident from "Entertainment Tonight."

Color Commentary Of Strange L.A. Car Chase Is Even Stranger

Mid chase: A battered Mustang leads cops on a very
weird chase through L.A. this week.  

A staple of Los Angeles and L.A. television is the car chase.

Every five minutes or so, somebody steals a car and leads police on a chase through the L.A. basin's freeways and boulevards.

Television news helicopters follow the chases, which always eventually lead to a dramatic arrest.

For some reason they keep televising these things, although they're always the same. At least usually.

There was a weird one this week though, in which a couple of guys lead police in a chase in a Mustang convertable.

From Jalopnik, we get the entire update:

It was a slow speed chase through some unseasonable rain in L.A.  The two guys in the car did do some donuts on a wet overpass halfway through the chase, just for fun.

This being L.A., a TMZ Tour Bus driver appeared to try and  stop the chase by cutting in front of the Mustang on one freeway, but the guys in the car got away.

The color commenntary from is strange, too, as the reporters debate whether the car is a BMW or a Mustang.

Then they tell us this is like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, speculate hows they would stop the chase with their own cars, comment on the alleged lackadaisical incompetence of the cops chasing the Mustang, and, because the chase is so weird and slow, tell us that this is the future car chase under Bernie Sanders.

(By the way, the cops said they were deliberately slow on this because they didnt want to endanger people by flying down the streets and freeways at top speed.)

The television footage is mysteriously interrupted by a brief soundless clip of a backstage interview at American Idol, but we quickly get back to the crisis in question here.

The chase ends when the Mustang parks in the neighborhood, the driver casually gets out and makes a phone call. He and the other guy in the car take selfies and greet friends. People in the neighborhood come out, whip out their cell phones and take pictures.

Seven minutes later, the cops arrive to make an anticlimatic arrest.

The Los Angeles Times identified the driver in the chase as Herschel Reynolds, 20 and his passenger was Isaiah Young, 19. Both face numerous charges, including some related to an alleged burglary that touched off the chase.

Reynolds was apparently trained as a tactical driver for the U.S. Marines, but was "prematurely discharged" under murky circumstances, though it is clear the Marines weren't happy with Reynolds, says the L.A. Times.

I'm glad I don't live in L.A. The weirdness is too much, even or me.

Here's the video clips with the commentary from television anchors and reporters:

Is Donald Trump The Sign Of The Apocalypse?

Is Donald Trump so popular because America lost its way?  

You gotta hand it to Donald Trump. He's simultaneously turned himself both into a national crisis and the Great Buffoon Of The Day. And, to many, a savior.

Half the country is scared to death that he might actually become president and ruin the nation and the world. I'm pretty much in the camp.

The other half want him to do all the outrageous things he proposes, because it's "fighting back" against all that they see is wrong with the world.

There doesn't appear to be a way out of this standoff.

Getting Serious About Trump:

Trump had a great Super Tuesday primary. Google searches of the phrase "How to move to Canada" increased by 1,500 percent late Tuesday night as the results came in.  The government of Canada's immigration page experienced delays under the load of presumably mostly Americans looking at it, the Montreal Gazette reported. 

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to build a wall along the United States southern border to keep illegal immigrants from Mexico out. So many Americans might want to move to Mexico to flee Trump that it might be Mexico that builds that border wall.

Hey, if that happens, at least Mexico would pay for it, fulfilling one of Trump's campaign promises.

More seriously, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, writing in the Washington Post, said just the threat of a Trump presidency could well badly damage both the national and global economy.

Summers went so far as to call Trump a threat to American democracy with his authoritarian viewpoints.

He wrote:

"The economy is already growing at a sub-two percent rate in substantial part because of a lack of confidence in a weak world economy. A growing sense that a protectionist demagogue could soon become president of the United States would surely introduce great uncertainty at home and abroad.

The resulting increase in risk premiums might well be enough to tip a fragile U.S. economy into recession. And a concern that the U.S. was becoming protectionist and isolationist could easily undermine confidence in many emerging markets and set off a financial crisis."

I know in my head I've started thinking about spending less money and trying to horde as much cash as I can to stave off what is to my mind the inevitable Great Trump Economic Depression if he's elected president.

Rise Of The Authoritarians:

There's an incredible amount of commentary floating around as to whose fault it is that somebody like Trump could capture the imagination of so many Americans.

The hard question is how to reverse this. It won't be easy.

One major reason why Trump is so popular is that so many people have lost trust in most institutions and the "establishment." Which means not many people are going to listen to the likes of Lawrence Summers and abandon their infatuation with Trump.

And sorry, Mitt Romney, they're not going to listen to you, either. 

Vox this week had a long but fascinating piece on how big picture fear and uncertainty and societal change can bring out the authoritarian in a large segment of the American public.

Vox cited the work of Karen Stenner, author of the book "The Authoritarian Dynamic."

Vox reported:

"According to Stenner's theory, there is a certain subset of people who hold latent authoritarian tendencies. These tendencies can be triggered or 'activated" by the perception of physical threats or by destabilizing social change, leading those individuals to desire policies and leaders that we might more colloquially call authoritarian.

Authoritarians prioritize social order and hierarchies, which bring a sense of control to a chaotic world. Challenges to that order - diversity, influx of outsiders, breakdown of the old order - are experienced as personally threatening because they risk upending the status quo order they equate with basic security. 

There's certainly a drumbeat of big changes in threats we're all hearing about, amplified by the 24 hour news cycle, cable TV shoutfests, zillions of radio shock jocks and social media that scream all kinds of dire news and warnings.

Some of the changes and upheavals are good:  Gay people can now marry in the United States. The Black Lives Matter movement is putting a spotlight on racial injustice and the excesses of some police forces. Authoritarians equate police with social order, so even objections to police shootings of unarmed citizens is equated with a breakdown of social order.

Other changes are indeed threatening to all of us. Rising income inequality is threatening everyone's livelihood, except for the elites, which were the ones who were suppose to maintain social order. They're not anymore, which encourages the authoritarians. Money in politics, and inaction by Congress do the same thing.

You can see why the world seems to have turned upside down and inside out, especially from the perspective of white lower and middle income men, who are really being buffeted from all sides.

Ever notice how many white male faces you see at Trump rallies? I don't think that's a coincidence.

This Won't End Soon

Here's the intractable problem:  Even if the Trump candidacy implodes, the nation is ripe to embrace some other demagogue. The "Trump problem" isn't going to go away if Trump goes away, as Vox notes.

So-called establishment Republicans are in a tizzy, because they fear Trump will be the Republican nominee, and might not win the presidency because of his crazy ideas. Sure, Trump, with all his excesses, might open the door for Hillary Clinton or even Bernie Sanders to win the White House.

But there's still a chance Trump could win. Or, because I don't see signs of our nation's upheaval and resentment among its citizens going away anytime soon,  another dangerous authoritarian overlord type, one that's less of a clown than Trump, could become President in 2020, or 2024.

Yeah, I'll keep laughing at Trump's buffoonery, but meanwhile, I, like Summers, am fearful of some authoritarian jerk, be in Trump or someone else, taking power.

We've gotten into this mess because leaders don't lead, the idea of making money while maintaining a sense of ethics and fairness has gotten quaint, and many members of the media value ratings more than responsibility, and let every wacko commandeer the microphone.

No wonder so many people are pissed off and would go so far as to vote for Trump. In embracing a crazy person, they're screaming for some sanity in this nation.

All You Need To Say About Mass Shootings Is Right Here

Front page of today's New York Daily News.

Click on the image to embiggen it:

Trump Is Trumping Everything In An All Trump All The Time World

Donald Trump is clickbait and a media ratings winner.
So we get all Trump All The Time.  on

Last night, CNN was scheduled to air what I thought might be a pretty interesting program. Anderson Cooper, the network's flagship personality, was going to do a 10-year retrospective of Hurricane Katrina.

Cooper was going to check in on the people still trying to rebuild their lives, examine their struggles and their triumphs.

Nobody got to see it. The show was trumped by Donald Trump.

Yep, Donald Trump was holding a news conference, so CNN postponed Cooper's Katrina show until tonight. Unless of course Trump holds another news conference, in which case the Katrina piece will be postponed again. Possibly until the 20th anniversary of Katrina.

I know I'm contributing to the problem by writing this, but since when does Donald Trump become the main focus of everything?

Sure, he's clickbait and he's a ratings bonanza for the news networks. Everybody wants to see and hear the next stupid thing Trump says next, and wants to marvel at the mystery as to why so many people still want him to be president.

We get an endless loop. The networks and media correctly perceive their audience wants more of Trump. So they give it to them. And Trump delivers. So people want more. And we get more. On and on it goes.

I don't know when or how we'll manage to get off this Trump train. Will people finally, somehow get sick of him? Trump knows that he can only step up the game to hold the audience interest. He's a showman, after all.

Which is why he's been constantly flogging his distaste for Megyn Kelly long after anybody else would have just moved on. He'll say more outrageous things to keep the audience perked up.

Meanwhile, we're not hearing much from the other candidates, because they don't know how to play to an entertainment audience. They play to a political audience. Since it's all Trump all the time, none of us get a chance to know what else is going on.

Trump the entertainer trumps everything. Including Anderson Cooper's Hurricane Katrina report. All we get is breathless updates on Hurricane Donald.

I just hope we collective realize Trump is all bluster, no brains before he gets to a position of being dangerous, like President of the United States.

Duracell Batteries Tugging On Heart Strings?

You need batteries for those flashlights as you make your way home in the dark from tonight's Fourth of July fireworks display?

Go get some Duracell batteries. But before you do, watch their ad. Somehow, a battery ad managed to make me a little weepy.

A little girl receives a special Teddy bear from
her father in a charming new Duracell ad. 

Most advertisements annoy me, so when I find one that's actually kinda compelling, I highlight it.

In the Duracell ad, which you can watch below, a man deployed overseas sends his daughter back home a teddy bear. The bear has recorded message from Dad that plays when the daughter squeezes the bear.

Everytime she gives Teddy a squeeze,  her father's voice comes out and says, "I love you, baby girl"

This goes on for awhile. The ad demonstrates how long Duracell batteries are supposed to last and how important they are.

The Duracell ad is based on a true story. Apparently, people with Duracell were doing market research in peoples' homes when they encountered this arrangement.

At one place, they asked the kids to bring out their favorite battery operated toys. They expected things like toy cars and such, but a girl brought out a teddy bear that had her father's voice.

It turned out Dad was Robert Nilson, a Navy air traffic controller, who put together a battery powered teddy bear to play messages from him to his daughter, says television station WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama.

Nilson said the Duracell ad is pretty close to reality.

Though the Nilson family experienced the scenario in the Duracell ad, , actors stand in for the scene during the commercial, of course.

Here's the sweet ad:

Kirby Delauter Wants Permission Before Media Publishes His Name. Now Kirby Delauter Is This Week's Big Internet Meme.

People are laughing at Kirby
Delauter because Kirby Delauter
does not want Kirby Delauter's
name published anywhere unless
Kirby Delauter grants permission
for the use of the name "Kirby Delauter"  

UPDATE: 

After a 24 hour media storm, in which Kirby Delauter was in EVERY news outlet, he's apparently come to his senses about demanding that people ask him permission before mentioning his name in a news story.

Here's what he said today in a news release:

"I thought I had long ago learned the lesson of waiting 24 hours before I hit the send key, but apparently, I didn't learn that lesson as well as I should have....

Of course, as I am an elected official, the Frederick News-Post has the right to use my name in any article related to the running of the county --that comes with the job.

So yes, my statement to the Frederick News-Post regarding the use of my name was wrong and inappropriate. I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong."

Well, good. We've got that straightened out.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION: 

Like it or not, if you're a politician from local city councilor on up to President of the United States, your name is going to get in the paper. Or any media for that matter.

You might like the coverage you get. You might hate it. But you're name is going to be in the paper.

According to the Frederick (Maryland) News-Post, Frederick County Councilman Kirby Delauter decided, hey, First Amendment, Smirst Amendment.

Anybody has the right to print a name in the media, as long as they're not being libelous. But Delauter decided the News-Post's coverage of him was unfair, so he demanded they ask his permission before even mentioning him anywhere in the publication. 

Now Kirby Delauter says he's going to sue the paper because the paper put his name in a story anyway.

Kirby Delauter! Kirby Delauter! Kirby Delauter!

Oh, sorry, I got carried away there with my First Amendment enthusiasm. My bad.

Kirby Delauter learned today that if you want to keep your name out of the media, you don't demand that people keep your name out of the media. #KirbyDelauter was among the Top 10 most trending hashtags on Twitter Tuesday evening.

The popularity of the name "Kirby Delauter" really got underway when the Frederick News-Post decided to have fun with a little editorial highlighting how ridiculous Kirby Delauter is for demanding publications ask his permission before mentioning his name.

The paper has trolled Delauter in the most fun way with an editorial headline: "Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter."

The editorial goes on to mention him by name 27 times. Plus the first letter of each paragraph in the editorial spells out "Kirby Delauter."

Here's the Facebook exchange, since
deleted, of the exchange between
Kirby Delauter and a Frederick, Maryland
News-Post reporter. Click on the image
to make it bigger and more readable.  

The paper speculated, tongues firmly in cheek, that they could get around Delauter's edict by giving him sort of a hip hop name like K-Del.

Or just change letters around to make him Sherbert Deluder, Derby Kelauter or Shirley Delaughter.

Of course, the editorial made its serious point:

"Kirby Delauter's ignorance of what journalism is and does is no joke and illustrates one disturbing aspect too prevalent in conservatives' beliefs: That the media are all-liberal stooges hell bent on pursuing some fictional leftwing agenda."

As Washington Post blogger Eugene Volokh put it: "Uh, Council Member: In our country, newspapers are actually allowed to write about elected officials (and others) without their permission. It's an avant garde experiment, to be sure, but we've had some success with it. You know that whole First Amendment thing."

Back to the Frederick News-Post editorial:

"Enough. Seriously. What's Kirby Delauter going to do? Sue everyone who's making fun of him on Twitter using the #kirbydelauter hashtag or on Facebook? Boy, his attorney will be able to retire off that."

Kirby Delauter's attorney is going to be extremely busy, since most major media outlets in the nation have picked up this story. Even the BBC is covering it. And there's a Kirby Delauter parody Twitter account. He's being skewered on Facebook, too. 

So many Kirby Delauter jokes and parodies!  

This is a classic example of the Streisand Effect, named for the time Barbra Strisand tried to stop people from photographing her Malibu home.

Her efforts garnered lots of attention and suddenly the whole world heard about it, and was laughing at the attempts.

Now, though, we're all paying attention to Kirby Delauter, who at this rate is going to be more famous in the Internet than Kim Kardashian.

As long as Kirby Delauter doesn't post a photo of his butt on the Internet like Kardashian did, I'm happy.

Thanks, Kirby Delauter for entertaining us today.

Media: ESPN's Stuart Scott Passes Away, ESPN Reports The News In Classiest Way Possible

ESPN's Stuart Scott died today, and the sports network
he worked for broke the news in the classiest way possible.  

Stuart Scott, the popular and extremely busy host of a variety of ESPN's programming died this weekend at the age of 49.   

Tributes are pouring in, of course, as he was a engaging, smart, terrific reporter and commentator.

Like every other news outlet, ESPN today had to report the news of Scott's passing. That had to be terribly difficult, since Scott was a colleague of the people who work there.

Through tears, ESPN's Hannah Storm broke the news in the most graceful and classiest way possible.

Rich Eisen, who Scott referred to as his "TV wife" because they co-anchored shows so much, also gave a beautiful tribute to Scott.

I hate to be so cold and technical when talking about somebody's passing, but when ESPN became part of the story today, they could not have handled it in a better way than they did.

Watch Hannah Storm's tribute from today on ESPN:

SCOTUSBlog Gleefully Trolls The Trolls.

An on line site that reports on the Supreme Court is getting a lot of hate today. Because people are too clueless to distinguish between the Supreme Court and SCOTUSblog, which is the news site.

I'm sure many people in social media will never
get it, but SCOTUSblog is NOT part of the U.S.
Supreme Court.  

A quick, and I mean very quick, glance at their profile reveals that SCOTUS blog, or @SCOTUSblog on Twitter, is a site that offers news and analysis of what the US. Supreme Court is up to.

They're the go-to place if you want to know the ins and outs of what the High Court is doing and what their rulings mean for you and me.

But I guess social media is the land in which everybody likes to yell but nobody knows who they're yelling at.

On Twitter, people have been firing away at SCOTUSblog, yelling and screaming at them for the "ruling" they issued today saying privately held businesses like Hobby Lobby can withhold insurance coverage for contraceptives, based on their religious faith.

Of course, it was the Supreme Court that made the ruling, not SCOTUSblog, and as far as I know the Supreme Court doesn't keep a blog. But if you have to yell at somebody, might as well yell at someone who just reported on the decision, but otherwise had nothing to do with it.

What's wrong with these people? Yeah, I know there are similar sounding names on social media like Twitter, or people pretend they are someone or something they are not, but really.

So, the fine reporters at SCOTUSblog, who are only trying to help us understand what the Supreme Court did, are an outfit that "sided with the crazies" and treat women like second class citizens.

I bet the people who work at SCOTUS blog wish they had the kind of power the Supreme Court does.

At least SCOTUSblog is having fun with peoples' stupidity. Responding to someone who Tweeted: "You disgust me," SCOTUSblog responded, "But you complete us."

Someone else asked SCOTUSblog: "When will you start honoring the constitution." SCOTUSblog responded. "When you start reading our description."

Touche!!

Now, social media is alive with the correctors, the media outlets and such (like me!) that are trying to give people a clue. REPEAT!, they're saying. SCOTUSblog is NOT part of the Supreme Court.  wise up, doofuses!

But the yellers and trolls will have none of it.

Says one person, clueless upset that SCOTUSblog is having fun with the ignorant, and not part of the Supremes: "The passive aggressive way @SCOTUSblog is answering right now is horrible considering the position they just put women in. Not okay."

What's not okay is the people who are continuing with their willful ignorance. It's the American Way!!

On the bright side, this is surely making LOTS of people click on SCOTUSblog to see what all the fuss is about. It can't help the blog's bottom line, no?

Why Did Nancy Grace Tell The Dad His Missing Kid Was Found Instead Of The Police?

I think we've reached full Truman Show horror.  

How did Nancy Grace learn the missing kid was
found before the kid's dad did? 

I say that because Nancy Grace, the haranguing HLN host, informed a father, live on the air last night, that his son who had been missing for 11 days had been found alive.

The Truman Show, you might remember, was that Jim Carrey movie in which a man is unwittingly the subject of a reality TV show and his wife, friends and neighbors are all in on the ruse.

The movie was a meditation on how the media could ultimately exploit someone to the extreme. 

So now we have Nancy Grace ambushing a guy by telling him his son had been found.  She then bombarded the stunned dad with a lot of questions, which he definitely seemed unprepared to answer, given the news he'd just received.

Hey, anything for ratings, right?

Now, I don't want the media to censor itself. The more information the better. And the public is served by informing us what the circumstances were with this kid. But the Grace episode was more about entertainment and gawking, not information.

And what about the police? I certainly expect law enforcement to be fully transparent in their investigations, and to let the public know exactly what is going on in terms of public safety.  

Charles Bothuell, 12, was found after
being missing 11 days. Lots of murky
circumstances surrounding how they
found him, and who knew what, when.  

But what happened to protocol here? Typically, when police learn something significant in an investigation, they inform the immediate family first, then tell the public what's going on.

How did Nancy Grace know the kid was found before the kid's father had any clue?  Did police feel like they were more beholden to Nancy Grace than the kid or his family?

Is it the job of police to help the public, or help Nancy Grace get a ratings coup?  

We don't know the full circumstances of this missing kid case yet. I'd like to hear more of an explanation from the police.

It is odd that he was found in his basement after people had been searching high and low for him for a week and a half, and had already searched the basement.

If the father is somehow culpable, I hope they charge him with a crime. If he is not guilty of anything, I hope that police, and especially Nancy Grace, go out of their way to make sure we all know that. 

However, if the father is innocent, will that be reported? Or maybe not, because the ratings associated with a report about an innocent dad would not be high enough to keep advertisers happy.

Proof That All Local TV Is The Same

Anybody who has spent evenings in hotel rooms as they flit from one American city to the other on business knows that all local television news broadcasts seem the same.

Invasion of the body snatchers? All these news anchors
say the exact same thing.  

Conan O'Brien recently proved that. He offered a montage of clips from local newscasts, all reporting on Christmas season buying patterns.

Looks like they're all just reading handouts, rather than investing in finding out what the real local stories are. I guess if most stations are owned by just a few media conglomerates, this is what you get.

Watching the clip, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. You won't either. Here it is:

Yep, That Twerking Video In My Screed Last Week Was Fake, As I Said

Some of you might remember my screed last week declaring twerking a dead fad.

I stand by that, but not by a vow I made to myself to never talk about twerking again.

Jimmy Kimmel fessing up with
the stunt woman who helped him make
the fake twerking video that went viral last week.  

In last week's screed, I said a video of a twerking disaster that went viral was probably fake.

I was right again. Just for the record, the fiery twerking disaster was a sketch produced by Jimmy Kimmel. 

He 'fessed up to the "deception" last night on his show.

The woman who twerked, fell and burst into flames in the video was a professional stuntwoman.

Kimmel said he just put the video out there without promoting it, to see if it would go viral. It did. He and I are amazed at how many media outlets reported on the video at face value, without even mentioning that it could be a fake.

Um, you can't believe everything you read on the Internet, folks.

Yeah. I'm twerking madly right now as I type this. It's true! It's on the Internet, so it's true!

Kimmel said he hopes his fake twerking disaster video will end twerking forever.

I can't agree with you more, Jimmy!

But it turns out twerking isn't a new fad. I found this great video on BoingBoing of a woman twerking in 1910. Seriously!  To be honest, it's probably the only twerking video I'll ever like

Watch and see if you agree:

How To Make Karma Smile On A Dunkin Donuts Clerk

Abid Adar, 18, was a hero of the Internet last week and it's easy to see why.

He was the victim of eight minutes of abuse by one Taylor Chapman, 27.  It all started when Chapman said that during a stop at the Dunkin Donuts the night before, they didn't give her a receipt.

This guy endured an
8 minute racist rant from
an idiot who thought it was
the end of the world
because Dunkin Donuts
didn't give her a receipt.

Apparently, if you don't get a receipt at Dunkin Donuts,  you get free food as compensation.

Well Chapman was outraged! She'll show Dunkin Donuts! So she lit into Adar with a racist, over the top screed about not getting her receipt, and recorded it on her smart phone, apparently thinking her insanity would galvanize the public against Dunkin Donuts' alleged failure to provide a receipt, and strike a blow for consumers' rights everywhere.

Or something like that.  At least a lot of people watched her video, even if everybody ended up hating her.

Chapman's screed lasted a good eight minutes, which probably felt like eight years to our buddy Abid

Through it all, we see Abid staying completely calm, apologizing for Dunkin Donuts supposedly outrageous behavior and telling Chapman politely that she can whatever she ordered the night before totally free of charge. And he kept smiling graciously.

You'd think the guy was Ghandi or something.

For those who can't take the entire eight minutes of Taylor's escapades, here's a helpful review of the top moments of her video, which gives you the gist of where she was coming from. (She seems to say Mars. I say Pluto)

Chapman became so vilified that she took down her Facebook post. Before signing off of the public pages of Facebook, Chapman had this parting shot:

"Fuck off losers. I was exposing racism and raising awarness. (sic)  And I know you were thinking exactly what I said. So fuck off weaklings."

Yeah, Abid and his coworkers were being racists because they were forced to listen to a racist screed. Makes perfect sense.  Me and everyone else were thinking what a moron you are, Taylor. Is that what you were thinking about yourself?

Meanwhile, Dunkin Donuts said it will help contribute to Adar's educational pursuits, because he acted so professionally in the face of Taylor's wrath.

 He wants to be a doctor, so he could use the cash. Medical school is expensive, and the eight bucks an hour he is earning at Dunkin Donuts probably won't entirely pay for his education.   A zillion people have commented to him and through social media about what a good guy he is. And he is a saint. I would have slugged Taylor.

This not very bright woman went off on
a huge rant at a Dunkin Donuts, making
her one of the world's most hated people. 

He wants to be a doctor He should probably become a psychiatrist. He could have a full time job just working on his tormentor Chapman's issues.

Meanwhile, for her efforts, Chapman got fired from a job at a marketing firm, which makes sense since marketing companies like to generate positive PR, not the kind of stuff she did at Dunkin Donuts.

For good measure, her former company posted a strange video to YouTube, with unflattering pictures of Chapman, recordings of people calling in to the company to demand she be fired, and a statement from I guess the head of the marketing firm saying, "Taylor Chapman, you are fired."

The marketing guy also says "Hell hath no fury like the Internet."

I'll say. The Internet is bursting at the seams with anger at Taylor and what is to say the least her idiocy.

All this is a great example of how public shaming has really taken off on the Internet. It seems to be how we communicate these days.  Taylor intended to publicly shame Dunkin Donuts and its employees, earning fame and fortune on line in the process, as others have done.

But she was playing with fire and her own stupidity. The tables were turned on Taylor and she's the target of public shaming.

Now, Taylor knows what it feels like to get an over the top onslaught from all us wonderful folks on the Internet. The question is: Is Taylor smart enough to learn her lesson?

At least Abid, the Dunkin Donuts employee who chose the best option by pretty much keeping his mouth shut, is winning. Seems like he could offer many of us a lesson in civility and how not to overshare.

If you're a lawyer who advertises in a newspaper, complete with your picture, it's probably not a good idea to get arrested.

Screen grab of the mugshot, and the ad, of
lawyer Thomas Lee Edwards in the Gainsville Sun
(click on image to make it bigger)

I say that because the Gainesville (Fla.) Sun, in its online edition, had the mug shot of one Thomas Lee Edwards, arrested for drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident and other alleged misdeeds.

On the same page as the smiling mug shot of Edwards under arrest, was an advertisement for his law firm, Schackow, Macadante & Edwards, according to Gawker.

Well, at least he got his mug in two places on one page, I guess that increases the advertising saturation for his firm. Or not.

When I checked late Monday morning, I saw that the ad for Edwards' law firm had been removed from the paper's mugshot web page.

While preparing for a defense, at least Edwards has an advantage. He can act as his own lawyer, thereby avoiding all those pesky attorneys fees.