TOP OF THE NEWS:
- How The Bizarre Conspiracy Theory Behind "Pizzagate" Was Spread (BuzzFeed) "'Pizzagate' claims that Democratic operatives placing orders at Comet Ping Pong were actually using code to talk about underage prostitutes. This strange and convoluted conspiracy theory, which also involves allegations of occult rituals, has its origins in false accusations about the Clintons that began spreading in late October. The original theory claimed that the Clintons and other government figures were involved in a global human trafficking and pedophilia ring. Keep in mind as we go down the rabbit hole that no law enforcement agency has said anything about these crazy claims. There is no evidence to back them up. The claims have been concocted and are being spread to misinform people."
- Listen to: Fake News Surge Pins D.C. Pizzeria As Home To Child-Trafficking (NPR) "But within many of these conspiratorial online communities, they were at least taking this seriously."
- At a D.C. pizzeria, the dangers of fakenews just got all to real (WaPo) "An entire D.C. neighborhood was on lockdown Sunday because some dope with a gun believed a fake news story that wildly and wrongly linked a neighborhood pizzeria to a child sex ring. He told police that he had come to the restaurant to 'self-investigate' a false election-related conspiracy theory that linked Hillary Clinton to the child sex ring. But he wasn’t the only dope who was roped into this. A week before the presidential election, the son of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — the man President-elect Donald Trump has chosen as his national security adviser — shared the Comet Ping Pong conspiracy story. Days later, the retired general himself tweeted a hashtag referring to another fake news story that accused Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, of satanic rituals using bodily fluids." and Michael Flynn’s tweet wasn’t actually about #PizzaGate, but his son is now defending the baseless conspiracy theory (WaPo) and A harsh truth about fake news: Some people are super gullible (WaPo)
- Watch: HyperNormalisation (YouTube) "A 2016 BBC documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis. In the film, Curtis argues that since the 1970s, governments, financiers, and technological utopians have given up on the complex 'real world' and built a simple 'fake world' that is run by corporations and kept stable by politicians.
BUSINESS:
- Trump Could Roll Back $1.7 Billion Worth of Dodd-Frank Regulations (Breitbart) "None of the rules would completely repeal Dodd-Frank – any core changes to the law would have to be approved by Congress – but they add up to a significant amount of work. The proposed rules would cost $1.7 billion and require 1.2 million compliance hours from the financial sector."
- Trump is about to inherit the 'strongest overall job market in a generation' (Business Insider)
HEALTH:
- A New Low for Cigarette Smoking (NYT) "The latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that an estimated 36.5 million adults in the United States currently smoke cigarettes. For the first time since record keeping began 50 years ago, the number of Americans who smoke cigarettes has dropped below 40 million."
NEWS:
- Trump’s Threat to the Constitution (NYT) "In our nation, power is shared, checked and balanced precisely to thwart would-be autocrats. But as we become desensitized to the notion that Mr. Trump is the ultimate authority, we may attribute less importance to the laws, norms and principles that uphold our system of government, which protects our rights. Most dangerously, we devalue our own worth and that of our fellow Americans. We can no longer assume that all Americans understand the origins of their rights and the importance of liberal democracy. We need a new era of civic engagement that will reawaken us to the cause of liberty and equality. That engagement must extend to ensuring that our elected representatives uphold the Constitution, in deed and discourse — even if doing so puts them at odds with their party. We cannot allow Mr. Trump to normalize the idea that he is the ultimate arbiter of our rights."
POLITICS:
- Under Trump, red states are finally going to be able to turn themselves into poor, unhealthy paradises (WaPo) "Why are voters in states that pay a disproportionately large share of federal taxes, and benefit from a disproportionately small share of federal spending, so upset about the prospect of a cut in taxes and federal spending? Data compiled by the Pew Charitable Trust found 10 states that receive less than a dollar back for every dollar they send to Washington: Delaware, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. And here are the states that get more than $2 back for every $1 in taxes paid: Mississippi, New Mexico, West Virginia, Hawaii, South Carolina, Alabama, Maine, Montana, Alaska, Virginia, Arizona, Idaho, Kentucky and Vermont. You don’t have to be a political scientist to see the blue state/red state pattern here. Red state voters may talk a good game about small government and low taxes, but in reality they are socialist moochers. Rather than wallowing in the hypocrisy of all this, however, Democrats should see the opportunity here — an opportunity to turn the Republican program to their selfish advantage and create the kind of society where people look out for each other and business interests are not allowed to run roughshod over workers and consumers."
- Austria Rejects Far-Right Presidential Candidate Norbert Hofer (NYT)
TECHNOLOGY:
- Uber Bets on Artificial Intelligence With Acquisition and New Lab (NYT) "With the Geometric Intelligence deal, Uber, which is now valued at close to $70 billion, said it hoped that Dr. Marcus’s team could harness the wealth of data it collects from the millions of daily Uber rides. The company wants to use the data to make major advances in how computers behind self-driving vehicles think and make decisions on the road."
- Amazon’s new grocery store will let you pick items off shelves and walk out without paying (Re/code) "Customers need only to scan their phone using the new Amazon Go app on the way into the store, and their Amazon account will be charged for items taken."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Here’s Where Donald Trump Gets His News (BuzzFeed) "Our analysis revealed a media ecosystem that appears to largely reinforce and affirm the views publicly expressed by Trump and his closest advisers. The news stories Trump tweets share several characteristics: 1) They often favor sensationalism over facts and reporting; 2) They frequently echo direct quotes from Trump himself or his closest advisers; and 3) They routinely malign his enemies and vindicate his most controversial opinions."
Sign up for email distribution of the Day's Most Compelling News below or by visiting Top of the News
No comments:
Post a Comment