DDD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY JAN/05/1017

THE MAIN EVENTS

• In the case of whether or not Russia was involved in either the hacking of, or the subsequent management of the use of, confidential communication from the DNC, Trump is choosing to believe an Australo-Swedish sex crime fugitive over the guys who found and killed Osama bin Laden. Because Hannity. It's going to be an interesting couple of years leading up to impeachment, you can be sure of that.
• After their attempts to hobble the Office for Congressional Ethics suffered a sure-to-be temporary setback, House Republicans have now set their sites on dismantling the Affordable Care Act, even as another million Americans--including many who had no idea that "Obamacare" and "the Affordable Care Act" are one and the same--sign up for it.
• The New York Police Department has released statistics showing that last year was the safest their city had been in decades. How long do you think before Trump tries to take credit for that accomplishment, too?

A DEEPER DIVE

• If you were in Trump's shoes, how would you go about trying to shake long held suspicions that your business endeavors have intimate ties to organized crime? How about ringing in the New Year with convicted felon (and associate of deceased mob boss John Gotti) Joey "No Socks" Cinque by your side? Yeah... that oughta clear the air.
• It's still early in the month, so maybe you haven't hit your New York Times paywall yet. With that in mind, here's a link to an in-depth investigation into how Putin's Russia has networked with and emboldened a rising Far Right in Europe. Considering Russia's history, the idea of them siding with Nazis is both baffling and horrifying.
• The above graphic is a little bit of nonsensical comedy yer old pal Jerky whipped up a few years back for the Daily Dirt. I basically swiped one of those paper place mats from my local Chinese buffet, scanned it, and came up with some new cocktail names and recipes. Hard to imagine they used to pay me to come up with this shit, ain't it? Anyhoo, if you're having trouble reading the text, just click on the image to enlarge it.

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Green's Dictionary of Slang is the impressive culmination of over a decade of research leading to the creation of a gorgeous (and expensive) three volume set covering "500 years of the vulgar tongue". The dictionary is an attractive three-volume, hard-bound set. But it comes at a price. $264 for a used edition. $600 for a new one. But guess what? The entire contents of the book have been made available online by the publisher, completely free of charge! Whether you're a student or a writer doing research or just someone fascinated by language, this is an incredible resource that you'd be a fool not to bookmark and check back with on a semi-regular basis. They even have a podcast! Which makes me think... Hmmm...

2. The Toronto Star's oddly moniker'd Vinay Menon has written an excellent op-ed piece about FOX News' Bill O'Reilly's reaction to the entertainment industry's all but unanimous decision to stay away from Trump's inauguration. It begins, in part:

After the year we just had, if you were hoping for at least one week of cultural détente, a slivered reprieve from the tribal warfare on cable news, the Fox News host was having none of it. His reactionary rage is immune to calendar change. ...  He wished his viewers a perfunctory “Happy New Year” with the grimacing smile of a man who just banged his funny bone while overreacting to a knock-knock joke. Then he got down to business: “Donald Trump’s inauguration.” 

“There are wide reports that many entertainers are frightened to perform at the inaugural festivities on January 20th,” said O’Reilly, striking a tone between Walter Cronkite and Ron Burgundy. “Hard to pin down, but the roster of performers today is scant.” 

Indeed. The roster is so laughably scant, it would fail to impress guests at a high-end Bar Mitzvah. It so far includes “some of The Rockettes,” “the Mormon Tabernacle Choir” and “Jackie Evancho of America’s Got Talent,” said O’Reilly, stumbling over that last name like his teleprompter was suddenly transmitting in hieroglyphics. 

He added the Beach Boys and Alabama to the “unconfirmed” side of the festivities before repeating his unconfirmed thesis: “Also, not confirmed are some entertainers who reportedly believe if they show up at the inauguration, it will hurt their careers.” 

Then came this: “The harsh truth is that there is reverse McCarthyism going on in the entertainment industry. Remember that in the 1950s, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy started accusing people in Hollywood of being communist. That led to a black list where people were not hired because McCarthy smeared them. It seems anti-Trump zealots may be doing the same thing.” 

An unsubstantiated charge of “reverse McCarthyism.” This is the kind of year it will be for Hollywood, which along with academia, has long been a bête noire for conservatives. The difference now is that Trump’s water carriers, like O’Reilly, are acutely aware the president-elect is obsessed with the ebb and flow of entertainment around his exalted name.

Menon's editorial gets even better, going into hilarious detail about O'Reilly's post-monologue exchange with crusty neocon fossil Charles Krauthammer, which didn't quite go the way O'Reilly was expecting, to put it mildly. Something Menon was too polite to mention, however, is that O'Reilly was stinking drunk. Or is yer old pal Jerky seeing things? Here's video of O'Reilly's rant. Drunk or sober? YOU decide!

3. Which brings us to our old pal, Keith Olbermann. Yes, he can be extreme. And yes, he's obviously angry, and indignant, and even a little bit out of his mind at this point. And I know a lot of people on "our side" tend to think "WE don't want to be like FOX News!" Right? Because what did that ever get the Bad Guys, other than an unobstructed 8-year rampage of corruption, cronyism, and being lied into collusion with war crimes under Preznit Dubya, followed by an 8-year rampage of obstruction and race-based invective against an all-too-gentlemanly Democratic President, followed by the conservative movement's absolute NADIR in the form of Trump?  So you know what? Maybe we need a few more extreme, angry, indignant voices like Keith Olbermann's if the USA has got any hope of coming out on the other side of this horrific national experiment in chaos theory in one piece. Plus, he's fun to watch! 

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"He will never be my president because he doesn't read books, can't write more than a sentence or two at a time, has no strong loyalties beyond himself, is more insular than any New Yorker I ever knew, and because I don't see anything admirable or honorable about him. The disaffected white blue-collar workers elected a Fifth Avenue tycoon to rescue them from the elitists -- fine, I get that -- but they could've chosen a better tycoon. One who served in the military or attends church or reads history, loves opera, sails a boat -- something -- anything -- raises llamas, plays the oboe, runs a 5K race now and then, has close friends from childhood. I look at him and there's nothing there."

- Gotta love Garrison Keillor, the Minnesota Madman who just can't help but speak his truth.

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DDD EXTRAS

• If you're interested in finding out what kinds of weird crap happened on this day in history, echoing down through the ages, then check in with the DDD's sister-site, the Useless Eater Blog, every day, for an update! Coming soon: Book reviews and breakdowns covering the latest and greatest in conspiracy theory, secret society, and parapolitical writing! Keep your eyes peeled!

THE TAKEAWAY

Be sure to check out all the links in today's edition... There's gold in them thar links!