More people who should have remained silent.

Person number 1: This guy:

TRUMP SUPPORTER: "It’s not like he sleeps in till noon and goes golfing every weekend, like the last president did" https://t.co/W0qvqosOsU

— Laurie Kilmartin (@anylaurie16) November 8, 2017

Oh, for the love of . . . this is why we can't have nice things.

Del Signore is by his own admission not a person who’s focused on policy specifics.

Whaaaaat? A Trump supporter who isn't up on policy specifics? Say it ain't so!

Del Signore is by his own admission not a person who’s focused on policy specifics. A short, stout genial man who wears gold chains around his neck and rings on both pinkies,

Because it's important to him to look as much as possible like an ethnic stereotype.

Oh, it's not working. He looks more like William Conrad!

Everybody I talk to,” he said, “realizes it’s not Trump who’s dragging his feet. Trump’s probably the most diligent, hardest-working president we’ve ever had in our lifetimes.

 

Oh my God, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! Mr. Golf-Every-Weekend? Oh, yeah, he's the James Brown of presidenting!I mean, my God when you think of all the effort that goes into the shit-Tweeting alone!

It’s not like he sleeps in till noon and goes golfing every weekend, like the last president did.”

 

The fuck you just say? 

Where the fuck would you even get that? Other than just going "well, one's white and one's black, so the lazy one must be the black guy, right?"

I stopped him, informing him that, yes, Barack Obama liked to golf, but Trump in fact does golf a lot, too—more, in fact.
Del Signore was surprised to hear this.
“Does he?” he said.
“Yes,” I said.
He did not linger on this topic, smiling and changing the subject with a quip. “If I was married to his wife,” Del Signore said, “I don’t think I’d go anywhere.”

REALLY? You really just had no idea that the guy who's on the golf course every Friday thru Sunday, the guy who owns golf courses all over the world, iyou just had no idae that THAT guy might enjoy golf? Seriously?

And it's telling how as soon as the golf talk stops fitting into your preconceived narrative about who is and isn't lazy, the subject is glibly changed and the golf is just no longer of interest.

And as for the whole "if i was married to his wife. . ." thing. First of all, if you were married to a woman who despises you and is can't wait for you to finally die so she can inherit your money, you'd probably not want to spend so much time with her. Although you'd probably be enough of a decent human being to spend at least some time with your juvenile son, but that's because you're a better person than Cheeto Mussolini. And she is quite right to despise this despicable shit-goblin.

He added: “Some of these things are like that thing he said to Billy, Billy Bob, Billy Bud”—searching, unsuccessfully, for the name Billy Bush—“on the bus, that comment he made.” Del Signore shrugged. “He’s a human male. I’m glad he wasn’t saying, ‘Hey, I like little boys.’ You know? So he’s not perfect.”

Hey, he's not so bad. I mean, he's not a pederast!

 So where would he be getting so misinformed? Hmm, I wonder. . . .

Del Signore said he’s been following politics far more than before because of Trump. Trump, he said, is just “more interesting.” So now he likes watching the news. “Ninety-nine percent of the time I watch Fox,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll be sitting there listening to all this Fox stuff, and I’ll say, ‘Maybe they aren’t right, maybe I’ll flip to CNN’—but every time I’ve found that Fox has been correct, and CNN is definitely fake news.”

I hear all this bullshit that feeds into my pre-existing prejudices and then I think maybe I should check another source, so I flip to CNN and they say something that doesn't feed my bigoted preconceptions, so ipso facto FOX is real and the other is fake.


Person number two: This lady.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa.—Pam Schilling is the reason Donald Trump is the president. . .
 She once had a union job packing meat at a grocery store, and then had to settle for less money at Walmart. Now she’s 60 and retired, and last year, in April, as Trump’s shocking political ascent became impossible to ignore, Schilling’s 32-year-old son died of a heroin overdose. She found needles in the pockets of the clothes he wore to work in the mines before he got laid off.

Desperate for change, Schilling, like so many other once reliable Democrats in these parts, responded enthusiastically to what Trump was saying—building a wall on the Mexican border, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, bringing back jobs in steel and coal.

Right, because it was totally the Mexican Immigrants who busted the unions, brought Wal-Mart to town, and shut down the coal mines. Well, the Mexicans and Medicare expansion. That's a lethal combination!

A year later, the local unemployment rate has ticked down, and activity in a few coal mines has ticked up. Beyond that, though, not much has changed—at least not for the better. Johnstown and the surrounding region are struggling in the same ways and for the same reasons. The drug problem is just as bad. “There’s nothing good in the area,” Schilling said the other day in her living room. “I don’t have anything good to say about anything in this area. It’s sad.”

Well, it's too little too late, but at least she realized her mistake and. . . wait, there's more?

“I don’t have anything good to say about anything in this area. It’s sad.” Even so, her backing for Trump is utterly undiminished: “I’m a supporter of him, 100 percent.”

Why? Seriously, why?

“I think he’s doing a great job, and I just wish the hell they’d leave him alone and let him do it,” Schilling said. “He shouldn’t have to take any shit from anybody.”

 

 Right. . . because that's totally how a democracy works. Everyone just shuts the fuck up and lets the president do whatever he wants to do and he does NOT have to put up with any of your stupid criticism! How dare you question the Dear Leader?

Pictured: Good Americans leaving the President alone and letting him do his job 

and not giving him any shit.

Person number three: this business owner.

At Johnstown’s JWF Industries, a 450-employee manufacturing company, business hasn’t gone up this year, owner Bill Polacek told me, but he’s expecting a 30 percent jump next year. He chalks that up to Trump and his “pro-business” “mood.”

 

 Oh, his MOOD! Yes, of course, it's the MOOD that drives business.  Ask any economist, it's all about what sort of mood the president is in.

 

And, you know, it's got to be one of them "pro-business" moods that are so rare among American Presidents. I mean, just look at the last guy what with his um, bailing out the car companies, and uh. . . TARP and, you know, all that "boo, down with business" stuff, right?

Also, everyone knows it takes a full year for the president's "mood" to take effect. First year: NO effect. Second year: 30 percent increase! Third year:  I don't know, but you know it's gotta be good.

 But even this optimistic stance highlights some of the deep-seated troubles here. “Right now, if I could find 150 people, I’d put them to work,” Polacek said. He needs machinists. He needs welders. “But it’s hard to find people,” he said—people with the requisite skills, people who can pass a drug test.

But, but. . .the MOOD!

“We just don’t have the workforce,” said Liston, the city manager. “If they are employable, and have a skill set, basically they already moved out of the area.”

 Yeah, but. . . what about the MOOD? Don't underestimate the MOOD!

Polacek, a lifelong Johnstown resident and one of the city’s few remaining business titans, was a staunch supporter of Trump. He has been largely pleased with his performance as president so far, he said, but Polacek does wish Trump would try to be more bipartisan and more deliberative—and also that he and his administration would pay as much attention to Johnstown now as he did during the campaign.

Boy, I am so pleased with what the president's been doing so far. I just wish he would do the EXACT OPPOSITE OF EVERYTHING HE'S BEEN DOING SO FAR!!!!!

“We’ve been trying to reach out to him to say, ‘Hey, remember us? We need help here,’” he told me. “That’s my only frustration. I’d just like to tell Trump, ‘Hello? We’re still here. We’re ready for you.’”

You know, if I did have one slight quibble with what the president is doing, I guess I'd say that I would prefer that he do SOMETHING to help us instead of doing NOTHING  to help us. Other than that, I just couldn't be more pleased with his performance!

For three decades, Johnstown had a powerful friend on Capitol Hill in Rep. Jack Murtha, who steered millions in pork-barrel money to his hometown from his seat on the House Appropriations Committee. But Murtha died in 2010, and earmarks have been banned. Now, the seat is held by a Republican backbencher named Keith Rothfus. “We have not had an influx of any federal money that has assisted us since January,” Liston said. Even just a part of the $1 trillion infrastructure package that Trump once talked about would help considerably, he added.

You know, I just don't get it. We voted for all these Republicans, a party whose entire governing philosophy is "the government is not here to help you," and who think that federal spending is the unforgivable sin, yet somehow we aren't getting any monies from the federal government. We used to have a Democrat as our Congressman and we got lots of federal monies to help us with stuff. I just can't figure what happened!

People who should have remained silent and been thought the fool

People who should have remained silent and been thought the fool:

Person # 1 : Mark Wahlberg.

Mark Wahlberg says he prayed to God for forgiveness for 'Boogie Nights'

Standing next to Cardinal Blase Cupich on Friday night in Chicago, Wahlberg, a committed Catholic, told Chicago Inc., "I just always hope that God is a movie fan and also forgiving, because I've made some poor choices in my past."

Poor choices? That's one way of putting it. I can certainly think of some "choices" you've made that you might want God to forgive you for.

"'Boogie Nights' is up there at the top of the list."

Whaaaaaaa?????
I mean, granted, Boogie Nights was a pretty crappy movie, but the TOP of the list? I gotta think that if the Good Lord is reading your Nice and Naughty list, Boogie Nights has to be pretty far down there, below throwing rocks at black children, knocking out a Vietnamese man with a wooden club, punching a second Vietnamese man so hard he lost an eye, and for a lifetime of homophobia.

And also Transformers. Seriously, what the fuck was that about?

Today, he clarified his remarks which seems completely unnecessary, but whatever.

He then commented that the discussion about Boogie Nights began when someone asked if he would accept a similar type of role now. "I don't know if that would make my wife [Rhea Durham] all that comfortable," Wahlberg noted. "I don't want to compromise my artistic integrity

Bahahahahahaha!! "Artistic integrity," he says! As he's promoting Daddy's Home 2 with equally odious co-star Mel "sugar tits" Gibson.!


Person # 2:Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton



(Artist's rendition)

Just hours after a mass shooting left at least 26 people dead at a small Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, state Attorney General Ken Paxton appeared on Fox News. His message to Texans: Bring a gun to church.

First the FOX News host asks Paxton this bizarre question:

“As a Texan, as a father, can you wrap your brain around what we’re learning today, that children were killed, children were shot, the 14-year-old daughter of the pastor was killed in this type of attack? 

As if children being murdered with guns wasn't an everyday fucking occurrence in this god-forsaken country!
Oh my God, the mind just reels at the idea of children being shot down with military-style weaponry! Who could have thought that something so unimaginable could happen in America? I mean, other than the Sandy Hook parents, they probably could imagine that. Or the Columbine parents. Or the parents of the six-year-old murdered in Aurora.  Or the parents of the 5 and 7 year-old girls who were shot dead TWO FUCKING DAYS EARLIER IN MABANK, TX!

As a country, what do we do? How can we get our arms around this and stop this insanity?” Fox News anchor Eric Shawn asked Paxton. 

WE KNOW WHAT TO DO! Australia has given us the template. Australia has put a stop to these kinds of mass shootings, which used to happen fairly regularly there. 
If nothing else, you can just look at how many of these fucking massacres we had while the assault weapons ban was in place compared to our current-day situation where mass shootings are so frequent that there needs to be a certain number of victims to even make the news. We know what to do, we've just decided not to do it. We've chosen to wring our hands and pretend that there's just nothing that can be done.

 “All I can say is, you know, in Texas at least we have the opportunity to have concealed-carry, And so if it’s a place where somebody has the ability to carry, there’s always the opportunity that gunman will be taken out before he has the opportunity to kill very many people,” Paxton replied.

 

 AAAAAAUUUUUGHHHH!!!

 How many times do these people have to trot out this thoroughly stupid fantasy?
Do you think John McClane is going to be seated in one of the pews the next time a maniac walks in and opens fire?
Here's a little math for you. The shooter shot right around 50 people, about half of whom survived. Police estimate that he fired about 350 rounds. So this guy, who is not in fear for his life, is a cold-blooded killer with no one shooting at him, misses the vast majority of his shots. And he's got a whole church-full of targets. Now imagine you, Paxton, are concealed-carrying at church when a gunman walks in and opens fire. You're going to have the biggest spike of adrenaline you've ever felt in your life. You're going to be scared and confused and overwhelmed by your fight-or-flight response. What are the odds that you're able to hit the shooter? Considering that, under similar circumstances, trained law enforcement officers miss most of their shots. How likely is it that you actually manage to take down this lunatic who, by the way, is wearing a bullet-proof vest, so it's gonna have to be a perfect headshot.

What are the odds that, in this high-stress situation, you don't end up missing and hitting an innocent? What are the odds that you do anything besides raise the body count?

Now imagine this. It's Texas, so half the congregation is strapped. You pop up to return fire at the gunman. Now the next good guy with a gun sees two guys firing weapons. Is he going to know which one to shoot at? Will the third good guy? When the police arrive, will they know which of the guys throwing shots across the narthex are the good ones?

He agreed that carrying a gun to church can seem unnatural and that’s why many people don’t do it.  But, Paxton argued, we need to be “arming some of the parishioners or the congregation so that they can respond if something like this, when something like this happens again.”

"We've had shootings in churches for, you know, for forever," Paxton said. "It's going to happen again."

GUN MURDERS ARE NOT NATURAL DISASTERS. THEY ARE PREVENTABLE. Not every single one, obviously. But it is just the nadir of depraved indifference to act as if mass shootings are just a part of life that we have to deal with, like earthquakes in California or hurricanes in Florida.

So, because Paxton and pretty much every other Republican (and far too many Democrats) are on the payroll of the NRA, an organization with more blood on it's hands that ISIS, every American is just supposed to live with the knowledge that we can just be murdered at any moment, anywhere, for any reason. Or for no reason. We all just have to accept the fact that any one of us can have our lives snatched away any time some asshole with an AK decides that today is the day. We're just supposed to accept that everyday life in America is to be lived like a Jason Bourne movie. Whenever we enter a business, a public space, a house of worship, we should be scanning for escape routes, figuring out the most likely place a killer might make entry, planning how to take the shot that saves our lives and the lives of our friends and families. This is supposed to be the new normal? We're just supposed to accept this?

Never!
We need to drum out every politician that has taken one dollar of the NRA's blood money.
We need to make the NRA's endorsement into the stigma that it would be in a sane society.
Taking a donation from the NRA needs to be treated with the same level of disgust as taking money from the Klan.
If someone you know tells you they are an NRA member,you should react with the same level of revulsion as if they had claimed membership in NAMBLA.
Anyone who puts the profits of gun manufacturers and the tender feelings of Second Amendment absolutists above the ability of regular people to live their lives without the constant fear of violence and death should be showered with opprobrium and banished from decent society.

Okay, I got a little off-track there, but my point was Ken Paxton, it would have been better for you to have remained silent and been thought the fool than to have spoken up and removed all doubt.
Also, go fuck yourself.

Halloween Dance Party!

Oh, shut up John Boehner!

You know, I really figured we'd heard the last of John Boehner. What reason could anyone have to ever interview him or put him on camera or ask his opinion about anything? He was gone. We were rid of him. And no matter how much everyone despises Paul Ryan, no one wants him back. B

But for some reason, some Politico reporter felt like it was a good idea to help Boehner rehabilitate his image and put the blame for America's current political state on, well, pretty much everyone except John Boehner.

Boehner worries about the deepening fissures in American society. But he sees Trump as more of a symptom than the cause of what is a longer arc of social and ideological alienation, fueled by talk radio and Fox News on the right and MSNBC and social media on the left.

 

No. Do not do that. Do not pretend that MSNBC is somehow the left-wing analogue to FOX. Do a good portion of MSNBC programs come from a "liberal" point of view? Sure. But you can not compare them to FOX. Sure, Rachel Maddow and, um, I can't think of any other MSNBC hosts, but Maddow et al definitely approach the news from a center-left perspective. But MSNBC also begins their broadcasting day with what, like 5 hours of former Gincrichista Republican Joe Scarborough who, despite his current personal beef with Il Douche, has always always always approached every story from a right-wing perspective.


Contrast that with the parallel alternative-fact universe that FOX has constructed, where truth means nothing, facts are optional and advancing the agenda overrides any concerns about ethics, morals or common decency. What parallel is there at MSNBC for the conspiracy-therory-mongering  that goes on daily at FOX? Who has MSNBC had on their programs that compares to the king and queen of birtherism Orly Taitz and Cheeto Mussolini? How long after everyone had seen President Obama's actual legal official birth certificate did they keep trotting those two out to pretend that it had yet to be seen? And how much airtime does MSNBC devote to anything remotely similar to the bullshit you hear every day on FOX about every already-debunked theory from Fast & Furious to Uranium One? They are not similar networks, there is no comparison, stop spreading this bullshit!

“People thought in ’09, ’10, ’11, that the country couldn’t be divided more. And you go back to Obama’s campaign in 2008, you know, he was talking about the divide and healing the country and all of that. And some would argue on the right that he did more to divide the country than to unite it. I kind of reject that notion.”

 Wow! really? You're really going to admit that it was not President Barack "bend over backwards to compromise" Obama who was responsible for dividing the country? You're actually going to admit that this lies at the doorstep of the right? Well, I'm impressed!

Why is that? “Because it wasn’t him!” Boehner replies. “It was modern-day media, and social media, that kept pushing people further right and further left.

 

 Yes, the Dems got pushed so far to the left that they nominated the epitome of middling moderate incremental centrism, Hillary Rodham Clinton. They totally went just as far left as conservatives die when they nominated an unqualified unintelligent malignant narcissist with fascistic tendencies and a history of racism and misogyny to be their David Duke-endorsed standard bearer.

He continues: “I always liked Rush [Limbaugh]. When I went to Palm Beach I would always meet with Rush and we’d go play golf. But you know, who was that right-wing guy, [Mark] Levin? He went really crazy right and got a big audience, and he dragged [Sean] Hannity to the dark side. He dragged Rush to the dark side. 

 

 What the fuck? Are you seriously going to sit there and pretend that there was a time when Limbaugh and Hannity were NOT huge right-wing assholes? Dragged them to the dark side? That's like saying that when Ted Bundy arrived in Hell, he really  had a bad influence on Satan. Satan used to be a cool guy, but he's really gotten kinda dark lately.

 

 What happened to you, man? You used to be cool.

And these guys—I used to talk to them all the time. And suddenly they’re beating the living shit out of me.” Boehner, seated in his favorite recliner, lights another cigarette.

Ooooohhhh, now I get it. The difference isn't they used to be decent human beings then they turned into dicks. The difference is they used to be dicks to OTHER people, then they turned on you. Now it makes sense.

“I had a conversation with Hannity, probably about the beginning of 2015. I called him and said, ‘Listen, you’re nuts.’ We had this really blunt conversation. Things were better for a few months, and then it got back to being the same-old, same-old. Because I wasn’t going to be a right-wing idiot.”

Oh, no. Not you. Not a right-wing idiot.



You know, just because you can find guys who are nuttier doesn't mean you're not a nut. Just because there are guys who are righter-wing and idioticer doesn't mean you aren't a right-wing idiot. I mean, it's like just because there are guys out there who are bigger drunks than you doesn't make you not a drunk. Just because you were willing to allow the government to function, just because you were willing to settle for getting 90% of what you want, doesn't mean you're not a right-wing idiot. It just means the Freedom Caucus is baboon-ass crazy.

Boehner believes Americans are ill-informed because of their retreat into media echo chambers, one of two incurable causes of the country’s polarization. Another is inextricably related: the unwillingness of lawmakers to collaborate across the aisle, for fear of recriminations from the base. Boehner says the fact he and Obama golfed together only once—and agreed that it was usually better for him to sneak into the White House—speaks to how the two parties punish compromise

No. The "two parties" don't punish compromise. ONE party does that. The party whose network brought a washed-up brain-damaged drunkard of a country singer on to compare your round of golf with Obama to "Netanyahu golfing with Hitler." There is ONE party that is infested with loony billionaires who will fund primary challengers to any member who dares think of compromise. You know this.

You know how I know you know this?

Boehner often felt more welcome among Democrats than he did within his own party. When he made his retirement announcement, he told me, Obama called him and said, “Boehner, you can’t do this, man. I’m gonna miss you.” Biden feels the same way. “The only way we’re going to get this back together again,” he says, “is with some more John Boehners.”

So I don't know where you get off pretending that both parties are equally polarizing or disdainful of compromise or whatever.

The starkest divide in recent Washington has been between longtime pols like Boehner and Biden who yearn for a more amicable time, and newcomers who view the bitter acrimony of the Bush and Obama years as normal. The fever might have broken in 2016, Boehner says. But the parties chose the two most polarizing nominees in modern history.

For fuck sake!

I mean. . . one candidate bragged about committing sexual assault. One candidate said that Mexicans are rapists and criminals. One candidate promised to commit war crimes.One candidate urged violence at his rallies.  And somehow the other candidate, the epitome of moderation, is somehow equally polarizing? I mean, yes, there are a lot of people who hate Hillary Rodham Clinton. I am not one of them, but I know a lot of people do. Mainly because conservatives have spent the past 25 y years demonizing her at every turn. And the press has been all too eager to pile on. ( The Clinton Rules)
So ONE party nominated the most polarizing figure imaginable, and that same party has spent years painting the other candidate as polarizing, even though she is the poster girl for middling moderates. And we're supposed to pretend that both parties are guilty of polarization?

Good News!

Good News! Someone has finally figured out how to end the problem of sexual harassment!

All we have to do is kick all the trans people out of the military, see, and then. . . wait. That can't be right, can it?

Tony Perkins: Men harass women because there are trans people in the military

Hmm, sounds a bit fishy, but if the star of Psycho and Fear Strikes Out thinks that. . . oh, wait. It's the other one, isn't it. The actual psycho,

Perkins appeared on “Washington Watch” on Tuesday, commenting on a USA Today report about a two-star army general who had been fired for sending inappropriate texts to the wife of another soldier. While he disavowed the behavior, he blamed the presence of LGBT service members in the armed forces as a reason for the general having a weakened moral code. 

Ooh, way to go Washingto Week! What a get! Was David Duke not available? Or Dylan Roof? I mean, as long as we're going to have hate-mongers on as guests, why not just invite Donald Sterling to debate Mel Gibson?

“I think this is wrong, but who says it’s wrong? The military code of conduct? True, but that also said that homosexuality is wrong, but that prohibition is no longer being enforced. In fact, people are punished for not celebrating homosexuality,” Perkins said. “Same was true of transgenderism.”

Perkins continued, “That’s where the moral confusion comes from. People think, ‘Well, maybe I can get away with it because they can get away with that. That’s acceptable today, maybe I can do this.” He added, “When we deny there is a moral law and a moral lawgiver, it leads to confusion and chaos, and we’ve seen this increasingly within the ranks of our nation’s military.”

Oh my God! Why hadn't anyone ever thought of this before? All we have to do is go back to those halcyon days before the ban on LGBT soldiers was lifted and then presto! No more sexual harassment, no more sexual assault, no more. . .

Oh, wait.

But, surely prior to the end of DADT, surely there were no . . .

God damn it!


Okay, well this is good news anyway - Michele Bachmann has finally put to rest the age-old question of whether the Bible is true!

Michele Bachmann: Every archeological find in history proves the bible is true

Speaking at the Value Voters Summit this Friday, former Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann spent almost her entire time at the podium preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, even calling on attendees of the political conference to accept Jesus as their lord and savior.

“You know the remarkable thing — when you read the bible, every archeology find that’s ever come forward has only proved the authenticity of the bible.”

Well, that settles it! I mean, when you look at these archeological finds . .

Just as it's written in the Book of, um, Pharaohs?

How can you deny the veracity of the Biblical  accounts once you've seen visible proof like this:

They're right out of St Paul's first letter to the Mandarins!

Hmm, okay. Maybe that's not quite the news I was expecting. But this is sure to be good news - Mike Pence has figured out how to fix America's taxes and stuff.

Pence to billionaires: Use your “stature” to make employees support a tax hike on themselves

By Alison R. Parker   |

Pence offered sycophantic praise to the wealthy business owners and donors in the room, thanking them for “what [they] do every day to renew the promise of America” and insisting that their “generosity has made a difference all across America.”

Yes, renewing America by sending factory jobs to China, tech jobs to India, and the profits to the Caymans! 

"We need you to reach out, use your voice. Use the stature that you enjoy in your communities and your state and all across this country to share the opportunity that we have with this tax relief legislation. You talk to your employees, talk to your suppliers, your fellow business leaders to get them on board. And of course, we need you to talk to your elected officials about just how important this moment is in the life of this nation. Tell everyone you can that America needs this tax cut, and America needs it now."

I mean, sure it's probably not legal to try to influence your employees politically, but why should that matter? The important thing is that the very richest among us are still having to pay some taxes and this is our chance to put an end to that injustice! Will it increase the deficit? The deficit that we spent the years 1992-2000 and 2008-2016 in a petulant tizzy about? Oh my yes! But on the other hand. . . um. . . You know. . . America needs it? And by America I, of course, mean the donor class.  Will it help ordinary Americans?

Okay, but this story is undoubtedly a complete positive with no downside. Facebook is taking steps to address the problem of "Fake News."

Facebook said it would started working with fact-checking websites such as Snopes and PolitiFact in the US last December, who follow a code of principles approved by the US’s Poynter Institute, a journalism school. Facebook users can flag stories they think are false, which Facebook then circulates to these partners (it pays them for the service). If fact-checkers find it to be false, users who subsequently try to share the story on Facebook see a warning telling them it has been disputed.

See? Nothing bad! Only good. Only good news in this story, Facebook is doing the responsible thing and letting people know when they are sharing bullshit as actual news stories. So that's that and no need to read any further!

Well, maybe just one more sentence.

In its newest attempt to stem the flood of fake news and conspiracy theories online, Facebook plans to sign up a conservative US magazine, the Weekly Standard, as a fact-checking partner, according to several people briefed on talks between the two companies.

Oh well. Sorry. I guess everything is still terrible.