Brave New World According to Trump

Summary: Here anthropologist Maximilian Forte announces the death of liberalism. Hillary’s defeat, despite its massive financing and support by America’s major institutions, was a sign. The ineffective street festivals of Occupy Wall Street and the Women’s March are signs. The lack of meaningful response to the revelations about NSA surveillance is a sign, as was the ineffective widespread perjuries and murders by police. It has died of exhaustion, ground down by the implacable opposition and fantastic resources of the 1% — and our indifference. But every political philosophy is a phoenix. It will rise again, eventually. An anthropologist announces the death of liberalism Fabius Maximus



Via BC as Trump Knows Better Than You Do

Cate Blanchett mocks Donald Trump on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon

‘Alternative Facts’ Is The Perfect Euphemism For The Age Of Trump

Katy Waldman: “For one thing, the phrase calls to mind the snake-oil salesmanship that has animated Trump’s rise to power.” (Waldman cites the ’70s term alternative medicine.) ” The modifier’s connotation of gutsy, even glamorous independence also lends credibility to the rogue alt-right … Most of all, alternative facts evokes a total alienation from – and disinterest in – objective truth.”

After Trump’s CIA Visit, Lookups Of The Word ‘Claque’ Spiked

As Merriam-Webster observes, “Claque means ‘a group hired to applaud at a performance’ or ‘a group of sycophants.'”

Thomas Friedman — oracular New York Times columnist, bard of the C-suite, irrepressible fount of thought leadership — has a new mantra: “Naïveté is the new realism"

Newsweek: “Senior Trump administration staffers, including Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner, Sean Spicer and Steve Bannon, have active accounts on a Republican National Committee (RNC) email system, Newsweek has learned. The system (rnchq.org) is the same one the George W. Bush administration was accused of using to evade transparency rules after claiming to have “lost” 22 million emails. Making use of separate political email accounts at the White House is not illegal

Donald Trump signs executive order enabling construction of US-Mexico border wall

 

Fred Nile denied visa for Donald Trump inauguration, deemed a 'security threat'

 

The Protected, Privileged Establishment vs. The Working Class Charles Hugh Smith  

 

  Meet the leader of a billionaires’ club determined to stop Trump from destroying the world Quartz (Joe H). As long as they are discussing these issues on a yacht, and not in Detroit or Flint or Youngstown and seeing how the locals live and (gah) eating the local food, it’s hard to see them as serious.