I’ve become interested in helping disseminate facts. People seem to have difficulty telling fact from fiction on the internet, and while I write fiction currently I thought I might give fact a chance. After all fact has never been more ridiculous. The current political situation is occasionally mind-blowing and seems to redefine stupidity on a daily basis, but in order to be smarter than those who oppose us we must accrue some intelligence. So let’s gather some facts together.
What’s going on in the world today?
We’re in the middle of an ongoing debacle in which Omarosa Manigault-Newman is slowly revealing audiotapes she recorded while working in the White House. Omarosa rose to fame as a popular villain on Trump’s NBC show The Apprentice. She was later hired by Trump as the Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison in the White House. Today’s debate in the media revolves around whether there exists a ‘smoking gun’ audiotape in which our beloved President, Donald Trump, says ‘the n-word’, meaning the worst possible word a white person could ever use with regard to race relations or really anything. (Some claim that it is okay for white people to sing the n-word when they are alone in their cars, as some hip-hop music is too compelling to resist, but on the off chance that we are all secretly being recorded by Omarosa it’s probably best practice to avoid saying it altogether.)
Since the President is theoretically supposed to represent all Americans and some Americans are black the media has decided to use this potential n-word audiotape as a litmus test for Trump’s racism, meaning if it exists then it is proof that Trump is racist. Some argue that Trump had already proven his racism via presidential policy (the Muslim Ban, putting immigrant children in cages), his claims that the Central Park 5 were guilty, or the many times he has insulted black celebrities. So as the media hungers for the n-word tape the White House’s stance that they cannot confirm or deny the tape’s existence seems to be the answer to the question that Trump posed to black voters during the election: “What have you got to lose?“
If that weren’t enough Trump’s campaign has responded by suing Omarosa for breaching a non-disclosure agreement that she signed. The Sword of Damocles seems to be hanging over Trump’s head, whether the danger to his power is the ongoing Mueller investigation or a recording of him offending everyone. Then again, the last time that happened it didn’t seem to hurt his presidential future too badly.
Meanwhile in secondarily scandalous Trump news, former Trump campaign official Paul Manafort’s trial for financial crimes and money laundering is entering the closing arguments phase after the defense rested without calling any witnesses.
And since it’s not getting covered nearly as much as the Trump stuff, here’s your reminder that the Catholic Church systematically carried out and covered up the molestation of children. According to the Associated Press, “hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children — and possibly many more — since the 1950s,” and that’s what the grand jury has gleaned from the available records- meaning the ones that weren’t lost or destroyed.
Matt Shore 