monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

[...]
Paddy Power, the Irish gambling website known for its over-the-top marketing stunts, says wagers associated with Mr. Trump have been more popular than any other novelty bets it has offered in the last year, including bets associated with Britain’s referendum on whether to leave the European Union.

Now, Paddy Power is hiring a “head of Trump betting” to oversee bets related to the American president and his administration.
[...]

Senator Ted Cruz took Democrats to task during Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing: “A decade ago, Judge Gorsuch was confirmed by this committee for the Federal Court of Appeals by a voice vote. He was likewise confirmed by the entire United States Senate by a voice vote without a single Democrat speaking a word of opposition.”

He continues, “What has changed? … In the decade since, [Judge Gorsuch] has had an objectively exemplary record. By any measure, he has shown himself to be even more worthy of the bipartisan support he received back then.”

Trump is delivering, fundamentally, what the business community wants: a light regulatory touch, a business-friendly Supreme Court, and progress toward a big tax cut. Gun rights enthusiasts, abortion opponents, and other key Republican-aligned interest groups can say the same. Some of Trump’s antics may be counterproductive to their goals, others may be helpful — putting a populist gloss on a fundamentally business-oriented agenda — but it’s always the case that Trump in power is better than the alternative.

That means turning a blind eye to Trump’s financial conflicts of interest, erratic behavior, and dishonesty while accepting his various doses of xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racism as the electioneering gambits that deliver the goods. It’s a bit of a dishonorable bargain, and it runs the risk of ending in some kind of massive war or other catastrophe. But from the standpoint of the Republican establishment and the business community, it’s not a crazy calculation.

If you gambled - what would you choose?

A spokesman for the company said: “The role is for an initial three months because, let’s face it, it’s hard to see Donald Trump lasting that long.”

In 2010 there was some speculation that the Enquirer might receive a Pulitzer Prize for its investigation of Edwards.

In the 1990s, salacious details of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair were first made public by the Enquirer.

The Enquirer additionally scooped other media outlets during the O. J. Simpson murder trial: when a distinctive footprint from a Bruno Magli shoe was found at the crime scene, Simpson vehemently denied owning such a shoe. The Enquirer, however, published two photos showing Simpson wearing Bruno Magli shoes.

In 2001, the Enquirer uncovered that the Rev. Jesse Jackson had an illegitimate child.

In 2003, the Enquirer published a story claiming that Rush Limbaugh was addicted to painkillers. Law enforcement authorities in Florida later confirmed that Limbaugh was under investigation, and Limbaugh later admitted the addiction and checked himself into a drug rehabilitation facility.

In 2006, the Enquirer was the first newspaper to reveal that O. J. Simpson had written a book, If I Did It. The story was immediately denied by Simpson's lawyer, but was confirmed by release of the book one month later.

In 2008, the Enquirer reported the marital troubles of Mel Gibson and Billy Joel, both of whom announced their divorces several months later.

In January 2009, the Enquirer ran a story claiming that pop star Michael Jackson was gravely ill and had "six months to live." Just under six months later, in June 2009, Jackson went into cardiac arrest and died in Los Angeles. In September 2009, the Enquirer broke the story of Jackson's final resting place, Forest Lawn.

Two months later, just before Tiger Woods' auto accident near his Florida home, the Enquirer was the first to allege that he was having an extramarital affair. Shortly after this report, several other women came forward in other publications alleging affairs with Woods, who eventually admitted to having been unfaithful to his wife, Elin Woods.

In February 2011 the Enquirer published a story claiming that Steve Jobs had only six weeks to live because of cancer. Jobs died October 5 of that year, more than 7 months after the reports.

In February 2012, the Enquirer published a photo of Whitney Houston in an open casket on its front page. The previous week, it had posted an article showing her having collapsed from a cocaine and alcohol binge during her world tour and claiming that she only had five years to live, two days after she was found dead in her room.

Donald Trump and the rise of tribal epistemology
Journalism cannot be neutral toward a threat to the conditions that make it possible.

Back in November 2009, as the Obama backlash was just gathering steam, Rush Limbaugh devoted a segment of his radio program to “Climategate.”

...No fewer than five separate investigations later cleared the scientists of any wrongdoing, but by then, for a large class of right-wing media consumers, it was already settled history, part of shared lore.

It pushed Limbaugh to new rhetorical heights.

“What this fraud, what the uncovering of this hoax exposes,” he said, “is the corruption that exists between government and academia and science and the media. Science has been corrupted. We know the media has been corrupted for a long time. Academia has been corrupted. None of what they do is real. It’s all lies!”

He called these institutions — government, academia, science, and media — the “Four Corners of Deceit.”

He and his listeners, he said, live in a world apart.

Quote:

We live in two universes. One universe is a lie. One universe is an entire lie. Everything run, dominated, and controlled by the left here and around the world is a lie. The other universe is where we are, and that’s where reality reigns supreme and we deal with it. And seldom do these two universes ever overlap.

This is not just run-of-the-mill ranting. It expresses something profound about the worldview of conservative media and its audience, something the mainstream media has ignored, denied, or waved away for many years.

In Limbaugh’s view, the core institutions and norms of American democracy have been irredeemably corrupted by an alien enemy. Their claims to transpartisan authority — authority that that applies equally to all political factions and parties — are fraudulent. There are no transpartisan authorities; there is only zero-sum competition between tribes, the left and right. Two universes.

One obvious implication of this view is that only one’s own tribe can be trusted. (Who wants to trust a “universe of lies”?)

Let's not start the baby seals and blow jobs again!!

If you read anything today, make it this.

Quote:

Donald Trump and the rise of tribal epistemology
Journalism cannot be neutral toward a threat to the conditions that make it possible.

Back in November 2009, as the Obama backlash was just gathering steam, Rush Limbaugh devoted a segment of his radio program to “Climategate.”

...No fewer than five separate investigations later cleared the scientists of any wrongdoing, but by then, for a large class of right-wing media consumers, it was already settled history, part of shared lore.


It pushed Limbaugh to new rhetorical heights.

“What this fraud, what the uncovering of this hoax exposes,” he said, “is the corruption that exists between government and academia and science and the media. Science has been corrupted. We know the media has been corrupted for a long time. Academia has been corrupted. None of what they do is real. It’s all lies!”

He called these institutions — government, academia, science, and media — the “Four Corners of Deceit.”

He and his listeners, he said, live in a world apart.

Quote:

We live in two universes. One universe is a lie. One universe is an entire lie. Everything run, dominated, and controlled by the left here and around the world is a lie. The other universe is where we are, and that’s where reality reigns supreme and we deal with it. And seldom do these two universes ever overlap.

This is not just run-of-the-mill ranting. It expresses something profound about the worldview of conservative media and its audience, something the mainstream media has ignored, denied, or waved away for many years.

In Limbaugh’s view, the core institutions and norms of American democracy have been irredeemably corrupted by an alien enemy. Their claims to transpartisan authority — authority that that applies equally to all political factions and parties — are fraudulent. There are no transpartisan authorities; there is only zero-sum competition between tribes, the left and right. Two universes.

One obvious implication of this view is that only one’s own tribe can be trusted. (Who wants to trust a “universe of lies”?)

Vox - More here
I've been yelling about this for years. It's my belief that there are two phenomena which present the greatest danger to American democracy and liberty - the power and influence of the Koch operations and this isolation of the rightwing base in a distinct and propagandist media universe. These two phenomena are related and intertwined but they are most profitably understood separately.

Quote:

Senator Ted Cruz took Democrats to task during Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing: “A decade ago, Judge Gorsuch was confirmed by this committee for the Federal Court of Appeals by a voice vote. He was likewise confirmed by the entire United States Senate by a voice vote without a single Democrat speaking a word of opposition.”


He continues, “What has changed? … In the decade since, [Judge Gorsuch] has had an objectively exemplary record. By any measure, he has shown himself to be even more worthy of the bipartisan support he received back then.”

Um...the difference is that this nomination is for the Supreme Court.

Duh.

Merrick Garland had a respectable level of Republican support when he was confirmed in 1997. What changed?

Quote:

Let's not start the baby seals and blow jobs again!!

With all these sex videos and pics from US marines, these days it's more about the NAVY seals and blow jobs...

Right. And for every rape committed by an immigrant, let's compare the number of rapes of young women committed by high school and college sports dudes. Or committed within the US military.

Except that the choice of Judge Garland was the perfect example of Biden's suggestion that a vacancy opening near the time of an election required the choice of a moderate candidate acceptable to the opposition party.

You're going to actually try to pull this ****?

What the **** is wrong with you?!

Ah...Boys will be boys...