The World That's Coming

Your value at Gawker is defined by how well your interests line up with those of the people in power. When you have the same predilections, the same fascinations as someone, you are obviously going to speak to them more; you’re going to become closer, and you’re going to trust them more.

You may not like their methods. You may not like that they cross the line. But they get results. And if you get in their way, you’re going down!

First, the initial reporting was sloppy. At a minimum Politico’s political reporters should have consulted with their peers who cover the military. Better, they should have consulted historians. (Best would be both of course.) Second, the counter-arguments and defenses from outraged conservatives in Carson’s camp were even sloppier. Even worse: in some cases these arguments, especially those from Carson’s own campaign, definitively (if accidentally) undo his own accounts. Third and finally, Ben Carson has a real and serious problem with the actual and undisputable history surrounding what he said. At best he told and continues to tell a story which demonstrates that he has a horrible memory, and cannot even remember basic facts (verifiable facts, as I will show) about his own history. More likely, the historical evidence appears to demonstrate that he is, indeed, an outright liar who has been fooling people with a self-created fabulist fictional story. Worst of all, it is a story about his own past designed to make himself look better at the utter expense of the truth.

And he made a lot of money telling that false story.

But Obama’s two White House terms have papered over an enormous hollowing out of the Democratic Party. Since his election in 2008, Democrats have lost more than 900 seats in state legislatures nationwide, 69 seats in the House, 13 in the Senate and 12 governorships.

Justifying their latest loss — in the Kentucky governor’s race last week — the Democratic Governors Association blamed the “unexpected headwinds of Trump-mania” and declared it to be “the Year of the Outsider.”

And yet the party is poised to nominate the ultimate insider: someone who has actually lived inside the White House before, a former senator, secretary of state and first lady.

“She’s a wrong nominee in a wrong year and they’re about to coronate her,” said Henry Barbour, the Republican National Committeeman from Mississippi and influential party strategist. “And that’s good for Republicans.”

Even if you do not think you ever had a twin, there are many other ways you might be invaded by another human’s cells. It’s possible, for instance, that you started off as two foetuses in the womb, but the twins merged during early development. Since it occurs at such an early age of development, the cells can become incorporated into the tissue and seem to develop normally, yet they are carrying another person’s genetic blueprint. “You look like one person, but you have the cells of another person in you – effectively, you have always been two people,” says Kramer.

Just to appear on Saturday Night Live is seen as an act of self-deprecation. (“I can take a joke,” Trump said during his monologue.) But Trump should get no credit for being self-effacing. SNL’s impersonation of him, its understanding of him, carries no bite. Yes, he’s a ridiculous personality beloved by drunk uncles everywhere, but Trump knows and loves this about himself. SNL made multiple cracks about Trump’s racism during the episode: Larry David called him racist during the monologue, a sketch about Trump’s tweets ended with a remark about black people, and Weekend Update’s Michael Che skewered the guy “hosting this show” for getting Che’s “negro senses” tingling with the subtitle of his book “Making America Great Again.” But this is perfect for Trump, who gets to affably take his punches for being racist, which only makes his racism appear less virulent, a boon to him and his voters.