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Trump Epstein
On Tuesday, August 5, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department for files from the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.. The committee also issued subpoenas to former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and eight former law enforcement officials. Trump has denied knowing about Epstein’s crimes; when Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019 Trump declared himself “not a fan” and claimed he had not spoken to Epstein since 2004.
Reporting by the Miami Herald and the Wall Street Journal suggests that the supposed falling out may have occurred not in 2004, but three years later. A Mar-a-Lago member told reporters that Trump shut Epstein out of the club after he “harassed the daughter of a member.” According to this account Trump was concerned that the prevalence of such behavior at his property would damage the Trump brand.
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The Awful Alliterative Bill
On July 3, just hours before Trump’s vaunted deadline of July 4, the House of Representatives passed the 900-page domestic spending bill that Trump had christened with an alliterative name that we will not dignify here. The bill passed with all but two Republicans voting for it, and all Democrats voting against. Key elements of the bill include extending tax cuts passed in 2017 during the first Trump administration, new tax cuts for income on tips and overtime, and increased funding for defense and so-called border security. It also cuts approximately $1 trillion from Medicaid, and more from other government assistance to the poor. It phases out tax credits passed during the Biden administration for clean energy projects. And it increases the federal debt limit to $5 trillion “a measure Republicans are typically unwilling to support,” in the words of the New York Times, but “necessary to avert a federal default later this year.”
Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV
Up until a few days ago when the Court of International Trade ruled that Trump did not have the authority to impose broad tariffs on US trading partners1, one of the noisiest news stories was the release of the book titled Original Sin, by CNN news anchor Jake Tapper and British journalist Alex Thomson. As its subtitle conveniently informs us, the book claims to document “President Biden’s decline, its cover-up, and his disastrous choice to run again.” The “original sin,” in the authors’ view, Axios’s Mike Allen tells us, was Biden’s decision to run again. Setting aside Democratic party insiders such as Jaime Harrison and Jake Sullivan disputing key claims made in the book, and setting aside the sloppy and unclear appropriation of a term that theologians have debated since at least the time of St. Augustine, I would assert that the bigger story is Trump’s very public cognitive deterioration and its effect on what passes for policy in the current administration.
The Poxy Morons
Today we start with a review of policies and procedures that are at cross purposes in the Trump administration. That leads to a discussion of a more general conflict between the beliefs underlying pronatalist policies on the one hand, which promote more babies, and the public health contrarianism of RFK Jr and his minions, which seem to want only people with certain traits to survive. We review some research on natalism and misogyny, and their connection to insecure masculinity, and then take a quick look at some of the influences on Trump, Musk, and RFK Jr. growing up. Finally we suggest what may connect the divergent views of population.
Injecting the Economy With Bleach
As I write this, Wall Street stock indexes have dropped to levels they haven’t hit since the COVID days of 2020. This is in response to Trump’s Rose Garden chat April 2 where he introduced his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on more than 180 countries. Although only Congress can set taxes, Trade Promotion Authority laws originally enacted in 1974 acknowledge the role of the executive branch in actually negotiating trade agreements. Trump imposed the tariffs without Congress’ participation by invoking the 1977 International Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA).
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Checkpoint March 15, 2025
The firehosing and resilience targeting continue. Though not always strictly disinformation, the barrage of sometimes contradictory news and announcements about changes to government services and regulations that people rely on has comparable effects. If you haven’t read disinformation researcher Brooke Binkowski’s series on How to Fight Disinformation do yourself a favor and set aside some time to read it. It was written between 2020 and 2022 and its focus is primarily climate-change related, but many of the players and certainly the same techniques make an appearance, and the parallels to the current situation are extensive.
One reason I mention firehosing and resilience targeting is that it is a challenge to choose a topic to focus on in the current information environment. This week the events that probably received the most media attention (news, social, etc.) were the machinations in Congress surrounding the budget.
Trump Take Egg
As of February 20 Trump had signed more than 70 executive orders, according to NBC News. While an executive order can’t write a new law, it can instruct federal agencies how to implement existing laws. The sheer volume of executive orders, and the language used to frame the issues addressed have evoked parallels to the disinformation technique of “firehosing,” in which the public is barraged with information from many sources. It is a side-effect of the orders themselves, but there is an element of resilience-targeting as the administration seeks to overwhelm communities and keep them vulnerable.
Meanwhile, the analysts at ABC’s 538 website show Trump’s disapproval increasing nearly 6% since inauguration....
Checkpoint February 11, 2025
As the first post after Trump II inauguration this will be a little different from our recent articles. It’s a bit of patchwork rather than a true narrative thread – partly because of the firehose of executive actions and other activities, which were intended to be disorienting (and were). First we address the disinformation that there is no resistance to the administration’s anti-democratic behavior. In fact, resistance has taken the form of virtual and in-person rallies, communications to Congress, numerous lawsuits, etc. Then we recap some recommendations for coping with these “Tryin’ Times.”
2024: A Campaign of Disinformation
This article starts with a sample of disinformation through history, from Roman times to the George W. Bush era. Next is a review of the taxonomy of disinformation, followed by a look at its deployment by the Trump campaign and the political right wing. A survey of recent academic research into the mechanisms of disinformation is next, and we conclude with some questions for the future.