monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

In May 2016, Taylor Weyeneth was an undergraduate at St. John’s University in New York, a legal studies student and fraternity member who organized a golf tournament and other events to raise money for veterans and their families.

Less than a year later, at 23, Weyeneth, was a political appointee and rising star at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the White House office responsible for coordinating the federal government’s multibillion dollar anti-drug initiatives and supporting President Trump’s efforts to curb the opioid epidemic. Weyeneth would soon become deputy chief of staff.

His brief biography offers few clues that he would so quickly assume a leading role in the drug policy office, a job recently occupied by a lawyer and a veteran government official. ... ... ...

Chelsea Manning confirms Senate bid

Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst convicted of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, confirmed Sunday that she’s running in Maryland for a Senate seat.

Manning came out as transgender after being sentenced to 35 years in prison. Former President Barack Obama granted Manning clemency before leaving office last year.

Manning recently tweeted out the message “f---k the police” on Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, along with the hashtag #DisarmThePolice.

Manning has also referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as “literally the new gestapo.”

I don't believe Trump is all that conscience at what he does

but Plump, the humor -free idiot

The Wall Street Journal‏Verified account
@WSJ
We have reviewed the audio from our interview with President Trump, as well as the transcript provided by an external service, and stand by what we reported. Here is audio of the portion the White House disputes. http://on.wsj.com/2r4IW2z

AUTHORITARIANISM AND POST-TRUTH POLITICS
In response to the bizarre politics of 2016, the Oxford Dictionaries have selected as the word of the year “post-truth,” a term that highlights how far we’ve come in the eleven years since Stephen Colbert coined “truthiness” for his comedic coverage of the George W. Bush administration. “Truthiness” required that a claim felt true or seemed true; it connoted a concern with at least the appearance of validity that “post-truth” lacks. “Post-truth” is a declaration of baffled uncertainty about how contemporary politics and politicians relate to the facts of the world, with Donald Trump, the President-elect of the United States, as exhibit A.

The renowned and curmudgeonly philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s essay, On Bullshit, has been a frequent point of reference during the campaign, and since the election, for people struggling to grasp Trump’s barely comprehensible volume of untruths. This also applies to that old standby term, “gaslighting,” derived from the play and movie adaptations about a husband seeking to manipulate his wife into doubting the evidence of her own senses with constant subtle denials of the truth. I suspect that gaslighting doesn’t capture much of Trump’s mendacity. Bullshitting does somewhat better, but it masks some of the most dangerously authoritarian elements in Trump’s contempt for truthful speech.

Frum’s new book, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic (out Tuesday from Harper), is a plea for Americans to remain as troubled as he is. He argues that Trump is doing deep damage to the country’s democracy. He excoriates the “appeasers” and “enablers” he says keep Trump afloat. And he calls for alarmed citizens to turn fear into action.

Frum, a senior editor at the Atlantic magazine, spoke to the Star’s Daniel Dale Thursday in Washington. The transcript has been condensed and lightly edited.

Erickson is a conservative blogger and radio host.