Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

The Atlantic Outlines The Trump Campaign's Disinformation Tactics | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 02/13/20 | 9:36

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President
Atlantic | McKay Coppins | 03/2020

One day last fall, I sat down to create a new Facebook account. I picked a forgettable name, snapped a profile pic with my face obscured, and clicked "Like" on the official pages of Donald Trump and his reelection campaign. Facebook's algorithm prodded me to follow Ann Coulter, Fox Business, and a variety of fan pages with names like "In Trump We Trust." I complied. I also gave my cellphone number to the Trump campaign, and joined a handful of private Facebook groups for MAGA diehards, one of which required an application that seemed designed to screen out interlopers.

The president's reelection campaign was then in the midst of a multimillion-dollar ad blitz aimed at shaping Americans' understanding of the recently launched impeachment proceedings. Thousands of micro-targeted ads had flooded the internet, portraying Trump as a heroic reformer cracking down on foreign corruption while Democrats plotted a coup. That this narrative bore little resemblance to reality seemed only to accelerate its spread. Right-wing websites amplified every claim. Pro-Trump forums teemed with conspiracy theories. An alternate information ecosystem was taking shape around the biggest news story in the country, and I wanted to see it from the inside.

The story that unfurled in my Facebook feed over the next several weeks was, at times, disorienting. There were days when I would watch, live on TV, an impeachment hearing filled with damning testimony about the president's conduct, only to look at my phone later and find a slickly edited video--served up by the Trump campaign--that used out-of-context clips to recast the same testimony as an exoneration. Wait, I caught myself wondering more than once, is that what happened today? ... Read more

Global coronavirus deaths top 1,490
Axios | staff | 021420

A patient who returned from China's Hubei province and is under federal quarantine at the JBSA-Lackland military base in Texas is the 15th person in the U.S. to be infected with the novel coronavirus, the CDC confirmed Thursday.

The big picture: COVID-19 has now killed at least 1,491 people and in mainland China infected nearly 63,832 people, a number the CDC believes is underreported. There are more than 500 cases in 27 other countries and territories.

Last 48 hours | In China: Following the diagnosis changes, the number of cases in Hubei jumped by 14,840 to 48,206 and 242 deaths were recorded in the province, according to the National Health Commission. ... Read more

Sex, Lies and Prenups: Donald Trump's Timeless Wisdom on Love
Politico | Michael Kruse and Jordan Muller | 02/14/20

Donald Trump's many books are ostensibly about business and the business of being him. They are chock-full, too, though, with love advice. There's a good reason for that: To Trump, who presents himself as an expert on everything, love is just another deal -- because love and business are basically the same thing. "Treat each decision," he has counseled, "like a lover."

His countless interviews are rife as well with aphorisms and accrued wisdom about the mysteries of love. Except, for him, it's not actually that mysterious. It all comes down to money. Women are either helping him make it or trying to take it away.

Whether you think America's 45th president is a first-class charmer, a sexual predator, just a crass Casanova or a wounded, stunted narcissist congenitally incapable of anything approaching actual love, one thing is for sure: About women, dating, marriage, commitment or lack thereof, the lascivious, adulterous, thrice-married Trump has had a lot to say. ... Read more