Ron Johnson, one of the two United States senators representing Wisconsin, has earned a new epithet: BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Senator Ron Johnson incited widespread outrage when he said recently that he would have been more afraid of the rioters who rampaged the Capitol on Jan. 6 had they been members of Black Lives Matter and…
Disinformation
Congress, Conspiracy Theories, Disinformation, Insurrection, Sen. Ron Johnson
Ron Johnson Reads Lies about the Capitol Riot
by JOHN ADAMS •
In for a penny, in for a pound: Sen. Ron Johnson hopes someone will believe that the rioters who marched from a Trump rally to the Capitol on 1.6 weren’t Trump supporters at all. (Most likely, he does not expect rational people to believe this; he hopes to soothe the feelings of the irrational faction…
Conspiracy Theories, Crackpots, Crime, Disinformation, Fellow Traveler, Insurrection, Politics, Sen. Ron Johnson
Ron Johnson: ‘No Enemies to the Right’?
by JOHN ADAMS •
During an interview yesterday, Sen. Ron Johnson declared of the Capitol riot that ‘this didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.’ Tim Elfrink reports that As a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol last month, rioters battered police with a multitude of weapons: metal flagpoles, baseball bats, wrenches and clubs. Many soaked police in caustic…
City, Disinformation, Economy, Employment, Poverty
Unemployment Imagined and Real
by JOHN ADAMS •
National unemployment figures have been undercounting the true number of those unemployed. Rachel Siegel reports Fed chair: Unemployment rate was closer to 10 percent, not 6.3 percent, in January: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said Wednesday that the unemployment rate in January was “close to 10 percent,” significantly higher than the 6.3 percent rate…
Babbittry, Blogging, Boosterism, Culture, Disinformation, Freedom of Speech, Mendacity, Public Relations, Rhetoric
The Power of Refutation
by JOHN ADAMS •
Laura Hazard Owen writes When’s the best time to correct fake news? After someone’s already read it, apparently: Debunking > prebunking. If you want someone to not believe that false or misleading headline they just read, when’s the best time to correct it? We hear a lot about inoculating people against fake news or “prebunking”…
America, Congress, Crime, Disinformation, Insurrection, Medicine, Republicans, Trump, Trumpism
Eyes Averted
by JOHN ADAMS •
As video of Capitol riot played, some GOP senators turned away: Almost every senatorial eye in the chamber was glued to the screens as lead House manager Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) played a 13-minute video depicting the events of Jan. 6 to introduce the impeachment case against Trump — with a few notable exceptions. While the…
Congress, Conspiracy Theories, Crackpots, Disinformation, Mendacity, Sen. Ron Johnson
Ron Johnson Searches for the Real Killer
by JOHN ADAMS •
United States Senator Ron Johnson wonders if, possibly, maybe, perhaps it is Nancy Pelosi who is responsible for the Capitol riot. He doesn’t have any proof for this contention, and after all, he’s only askin’ questions, so don’t ask Johnson for substantiation: “Is this another diversionary operation? Is this meant to deflect away from potentially…
Babbittry, Boosterism, Conflicts of Interest, Culture, Disinformation, Local Government, Mendacity, Negligence, Politics, Public Relations, Reasoning, School District, Self-Dealing, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, Trumpism, University
Consequences, Accountability, Repentance, Redemption
by JOHN ADAMS •
David Frum, writing of Trump & Trumpism in The Conservative Cult of Victimhood, observes that There is no redemption without repentance. There is no repentance without accountability. There is no accountability without consequences. He rightly concludes that for the Trumpists, the absence of a moral order of accountability and repentance has meant that Even as Trump commits…
Disinformation, Mendacity, Trump, Unfit
Fact Checking Trump from Last Night’s Debate: ‘Almost every single thing Trump said during last segment of debate was inaccurate’
by JOHN ADAMS •
2020 Presidential Election, Conspiracy Theories, Disinformation, Facebook, Justice, Law, Presidential race 2020, Social Media
Meanwhile, on Facebook…
by JOHN ADAMS •
Jeremy B. Merrill and Jamiles Lartey report Trump’s Crime and Carnage Ad Blitz Is Going Unanswered on Facebook (‘The president has spent millions on misleading Facebook ads targeting undecided voters, while Joe Biden has been virtually silent’): With unprecedented protests around race and policing dominating the news all summer, it was all but certain criminal justice would emerge as a key…