CBS' Nancy Cordes Proves She's A Gullible Idiot By Comparing QAnon Conspiracy Manure to Oliver Stone's 'JFK'

Jackie lurches over the rear of the limo trying to snatch a dislodged fragment of JFK's skull. As Oliver Stone showed in his film 'JFK' the kill shot clearly came from the front, not the rear (where Oswald was alleged to be.)  Thus, one expects the momentum from GK rifle shot to propel blood, skull fragments backwards over trunk, which Jackie's motion supports.

Many in the Beltway- New York Media axis still harbor a grudge at Oliver Stone for his movie 'JFK'. They hysterically assert he "defiled history", "lied about the assassination" and "misled moviegovers".   If any of these clueless morons actually had clue one, they'd see Stone was closer to the truth of what happened that day in November, 1963, than anything the Warren Commission's puppets and tools claim today.

But when I saw and heard CBS' correspondent Nancy Cordes  this morning,  parroting a "professor's" words analogizing  'JFK' to the QAnon conspiracy,  it left me speechless, and dumbfounded.  It also signaled again the corporate media's inability to do critical thinking on the fly, which is worrisome given their inability to cover Trump in the 2016 fiasco election.

Cordes spouted:

"The QAnon conspiracy theories -  as nutty as they sound -  are not even that new.  Some of the theories resemble the plot of Oliver Stone's movie 'JFK' thirty years ago."

Of course, Cordes didn't expatiate on this balderdash. Why? Because there are NO points of comparison, analogy or likeness!    She proves it in her next remark, i.e.

"And yet the professor's polling finds that five to ten percent of Americans actually believe this stuff. That President Trump is this secret crusader working to take down a cannibalistic cabal within government"

But Stone made no reference   to any "cannibalistic" cabal or conspiracy, i.e. which accuses one party of worshipping Satan,  eating babies and committing sex acts on children - as the loopy QAnon nuts believe.  So where is Cordes and her prof getting this baloney? 

Let's also get it very clear from the get go that the assorted horse shit being peddled by these ignoramuses do not qualify as conspiracy theories, they are conspiracy ideations, claptrap or refuse. In  previous blog posts I noted Barbadian psychologist Pat Bannister's categorization of those who invoke conspiracies and how she differentiated them. As part of her construction of a theory of mind, specifically showing the role of lying in young children, she also noted adeptness at detecting lies was linked to accurate detection of real conspiracies.

Dr. Bannister's classification was simple:

1- Conspiracy analysts

2- Conspiracy theorists

3- Conspiracy crackpots or cultists


At the top of the hierarchy were conspiracy analysts, such as Mark Lane, Peter Dale Scott, Harold Weisberg, Richard Charnin and others (like yours truly).  These comprised serious people possessing some measure of intellect who brought their scientific, mathematical and other aptitudes to the investigation of multiple aspects of a putative real conspiracies like Iran-Contra and the JFK assassination.  These people put in real man hours and actually published their work in authoritative media (e.g. BOOKS - real books!) and respected forums as opposed to spreading bunkum through half-assed posts in the lowest dreg regions of the net, like 4chan and 8chan.

All of which latter garbage spawned the nascent QAnon conspiracy psychosis some three years ago, which mind virus left the dregs of 4chan for Youtube, and Facebook, where the virus infected millions more febrile brains.

By contrast, Stone was spot on in his presentation of 'JFK',  for example, the portrayal of the frontal head shot that actually killed the 35th president, which had to come from the grassy knoll.  The proof of the frontal shot was delivered by Parkland surgeon Charles Crenshaw in his book,  Conspiracy of Silence', a pdf version of which is given below.  

http://www.krusch.com/books/kennedy/Conspiracy_Of_Silence.pdf

Excerpt from Preface:

'"Through the years, there have been a thousand instances when I have wanted to shout to the world that the wounds to Kennedy's head and throat that I examined were caused by bullets that struck him from the front, not the back, as the public has been led to believe. Instinctively, I have reached for the telephone many times to call a television station to set the story straight when I heard someone confidently claim that Oswald was the lone gunman from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book De­pository, only to restrain myself-until now."

Stone's depiction of a clandestine CIA operation mounted against Kennedy was also spot on.   What most infuriated the CIA was Kennedy's willingness - after the Bay of Pigs debacle  (planned and orchestrated by the CIA) -  to exclude them from critical roles,  oversight and assignments as well as reorganizing the agency, e.g.  from the available archive files on Kennedy's response:

"Kennedy went further, creating a Defense Intelligence Agency, responsible to him, and soon mandating all overflights of Cuba be done by the Strategic Air Command, not the CIA. He also defined a list of directives on what the CIA could and could not, do. By the end of 1961, JFK's 'Special Group' had no less than 17 recommendations for the "reorganization and redirection of the CIA"."

Stone's portrayal of Oswald as the patsy in the conspiracy was also spot on.  Most researchers who've delved into this in much more depth than superficial 'buffs' come away with the conviction Oswald was set up as part of ZR/Rifle. A classic decoy.  However,  with the plot now turned against Kennedy. Oswald was likely used as the dupe or decoy so the actual perps (likely Cuban exiles, and trained assassins - from the Army's Ft. Benning Assassin school) could escape .   We also know these assigned mechanics would have used the CIA Assassinations Handbook, available since Operation PBSuccess in 1954, see e.g.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/

As noted in Document 1:

"The idea of forming assassination teams ('K' groups) apparently originated with Castillo Arenas in 1952.  Adopting Castillo Arenas' concept the [  ] chief routinely included two assassination specialists in his training plans.  CIA training for sabotage teams in early 1954 also included creating a 'K' group trained to perform assassinations."

There is no doubt such a 'K' group was set to target Castro under ZR/Rifle (in 1962), but could easily be redirected to target Kennedy in late 1963.  The proof in the pudding was the letter ‘D’ – on the cover sheet of Oswald’s 201 file – indicating a  CIA Staff D  SIGINT or signals intelligence operation run in concert with the National Security Agency or NSA. As pointed out by Peter Dale Scott (Deep Politics Quarterly, Jan. 1994): 

“In 1961, when William Harvey headed Staff D, he was assigned the task of developing the CIA Assassinations Project, ZR/Rifle.”

When ZR/Rifle was turned from targeting Castro to JFK- probably in late 1962 or mid 1963 -  it was all over except for the triangulation of gunfire that took the 35th president out.  Far from being a case of: 'Oh the JFK conspiracy theorists just couldn't handle a nobody taking out Kennedy' - it was instead a case of  'My God! What have we come to as a nation when a sitting president can be dispatched in a veritable coup d'etat?'  The latter was based on intelligent, energized researchers having the guts and will to dig deep into those earlier assassination templates and files. 

For example, the (1975) Church Committee hearings and testimony were critical in establishing the existence of ZR/ Rifle.  Former CIA Director Richard Helms -in one session - spoke to the Committee at length about ZR/Rifle.  When pressed he even identified two hit team members by their code names: WI/ROGUE and QJ/WIN.  He described the former as "a stateless soldier of fortune and a criminal" (Church Committee Report, pp. 43-44) .

He summarized the second in these terse terms (ibid.):

"If you need somebody to carry out murder I guess you had a man who might be prepared to carry it out.”

More compelling still, a direct link of Richards Helms to William Harvey and QJ/WIN appears in a February 19, 1962 memorandum from Helms to Harvey obtained from the Assassination Archives in Washington, D.C.

Since the Assassination "K-Group" for ZR/Rifle would have had multiple members ('mechanics') it would perfectly fit Oliver Stone's portrayal of assassination using three teams in a triangulated crossfire. 

Further,  Stone's  key Pentagon character (played by Donald Sutherland) telling Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner) that the origin of the Vietnam War lay in LBJ's National Security Action Memorandum 273 is also dead on.    

Again, for more on the backstory of LBJ's NSAM -273 check out the information in the link below:

http://www.jfklancer.com/NSAM273.html 

 As Michael Parenti aptly put it (Dirty Truths, p. 156):

“To know the truth about the assassination of John Kennedy is to call into question the state security system and the entire politico-economic order it protects. This is why for over thirty years the corporate-owned press and numerous political leaders have suppressed or attacked the many revelations about the murder unearthed by independent investigators like Mark Lane, Peter Dale Scott, Carl Oglesby, Harold Weisberg, Anthony Summers."

None of the backup docs and sources (including Dr. Charles Crenshaw's book)  I've provided here, i.e. showing Stone's 'JFK' was on target in outlining  that conspiracy's major aspects,  has any remote resemblance to the QAnon horse manure.   Why?  Because there are NO legitimate documents that exist to support QAnon's wild, psychotic claims.  Something Nancy Cordes ought to have known before mindlessly parroting nonsense in her opening CBS News segment.  

See Also:

Bannon’s indictment confirms that the American right is made up of con artists


And:

• Let's Get This Straight: QAnon Are Conspiracy Cra...

And:

The GOP is a refuge for bigots and wackos

And:

‘They like Me Very Much’: Trump Gives a Horrifying Answer When Pressed on QAnon

Excerpt:

"The conspiracy theory behind the QAnon movement holds that Trump is secretly working to dismantle a satanic child trafficking ring at the upper echelons of society. It is completely out of touch reality,"

American Tinderbox - Blame White Nationalists & The QAnon- "Boogaloo" Extremists Fomenting Riots To Launch a Civil War

THESE are the renegades the Feds ought to be looking at as chaos is unleashed in American cities. These Right wing racist savages - lower image from Charlottesville in Aug. 2017,  chanting "Jews will not replace us!"-  have been itching to start a race war since Charlottesville and before.

One can understand why Janice would be suspicious after watching AG Bill Barr's performance two nights ago, blabbering about the violence accompanying many of the George Floyd protests: "In many cases it appears the violence is driven by anarchic and left wing extremist groups".  Unwilling to pin the tail on the actual messengers of mayhem:  right wing extremists using the upheaval, chaos and violence to hijack the peaceful protests for their own ends.    With the reporting by Vice News overnight, that:

"Far Right extremists are hoping to turn the George Floyd protests into a new Civil War."

Janice had her first evidence that her suspicions were correct, and it is the Right and its dregs (e.g. from 4chan, 8chan, Boogaloo Bois, militias  etc.- such as stormed the Minnesota state house two months ago) behind all the havoc and using the civil protests as a "human shield". I agree with her totally and also that the Swine -in -chief and his toady Barr are trying to callously exploit these events to propound a "law and order" meme to help Trump get re-elected.  

And what do we find Trump doing in the midst of this national agony, with millions of citizens suffering -   over 104,000 deaths from the pandemic, 40 million unemployed, no more stimulus money and facing home evictions in a month?  Is he trying to assuage the pain and bring the country together? Hell no, he's acting the part of the vicious, vile, verminous rat he is, e.g


Firing off a series of tweets at Minnesota's response, vowing "shootings" will soon be done, ridiculing protesters outside his gated mansion at the White House,  and warning them that "vicious dogs will be released."  Thereby putting himself in the same role as the infamous AL sheriff Bull Connor-   who used fire hoses and vicious dogs on peaceful marching men, women and children in Birmingham over 50 years ago.   Only this time going one better than Connor and bragging "there will be some of the most ominous weapons ever seen" - i.e. if protesters attempt to breach the WH fence to get at him.  See also:

America is at a low ebb, shaken by multiple blows, and Trump adds to the distress

 Janice is also aware, of course, of German history and how -when Hitler and the Nazis came to power - they had blamed "Jews, leftists, socialists and unions" for  ongoing civil unrest and violent mayhem and riots that struck German cities in the waning days of the Weimar Republic.  But most of those were incited by Hitler's S.A. (Sturm Abteilung) terror squads.

Ian Kershaw in his magnificent account of Hitler’s rise to power (‘Hitler Nemesis’) noted that Germany's 1930-31 Weimar Republic constituted a weak democracy which had little or no control over the most radical Rightists, especially Hitler’s NSDAP party. They would regularly beat Marxists, socialists, and any leftists on the streets while holding up signs that read: “Tot dem Marxem!” (Death to Marxists!)  (Recall on Thursday, Trump himself Tweeted out a video of a supporter saying, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”)

My good fortune has been that on two occasions - one in August of 1978, the other in May of 1985-   I was able to meet and talk with actual flesh and blood Germans from the WWII era: one who had been a member of Hitler Youth (forced to at the point of a gun to his mother's head), and two others who had fought for the most fearsome army on the continent - the German Wehrmacht. At different times, they used their own photographs, films and archives to show me just what Hitler and Nazis were about. Looking back on the content of those archival films I see the same echoes now in our present condition, including mass unemployment, riots, and mayhem.

Let's move to the present. In her latest NY Times column Michelle Goldberg wrote:

"But if America feels like a tinderbox at the moment, it’s not just because of pressure coming from the dispossessed. On Wednesday, the journalists Robert Evans and Jason Wilson published a fascinating and disturbing look at the “boogaloo” movement — “an extremely online update of the militia movement” — on the investigative website Bellingcat. “The ‘boogaloo Bois’ expect, even hope, that the warmer weather will bring armed confrontations with law enforcement, and will build momentum towards a new civil war in the United States,” Evans and Wilson write. They add, “In a divided, destabilized post-coronavirus landscape, they could well contribute to widespread violence in the streets of American cities.”

This is exactly what we are seeing now.  Echoing these insights, Mia Bloom on her blog Justsecurity notes:

 "Former FBI agent and CNN commentator, Josh Campbell wrote, that Minnesota “authorities have been monitoring alleged criminals online, including postings by suspected white supremacists trying to incite violence.”

Most disturbing:

"The accelerationists, if you have never heard the term, are an extreme subset of white nationalism whose goal is to bring about chaos and destruction. The basic tenet of accelerationism argues that since Western governments are inherently corrupt, the best (and only) thing supremacists can do is to accelerate the end of society by sowing chaos and aggravating political tensions. “Accelerationist ideas have been cited in mass shooters’ manifestos — explicitly, in the case of the New Zealand killer — and are frequently referenced in white supremacist web forums and chat rooms,” Zack Beauchamp explained.

White Supremacists pretending to host a protest to honor George Floyd on Facebook to whip up violence in San Diego were posted on the BLMSD social media warning people not to go and that it was a white supremacist organized rally. People attending demonstrations remarked on the fact that the demographics were wrong, in places like Oakland where the majority of the destruction was perpetrated by young Caucasian men has inspired not just people on social media but reporting in the mainstream"

Of course we also cannot ignore the possibility that agent provocateurs could be at work as well, such as from within the ranks of the police assigned to the protests.  (As pointed out by Joy Reid this morning in relation to an incident in NYC).  We also read from Mia Bloom's account:

"Experts on political violence (and not just Qanon conspiracy theorists) shared stories on social media that the May 27 looting and arson at AutoZone by an unidentified man in a gas mask carrying an open umbrella (dubbed #umbrellaman) was not necessarily a protester but could be an agent provocateur or member of the police. In video posted to YouTube, while this man smashed windows with a hammer, protesters at the scene accused him of being an outsider and began to film him.

According to reporting in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “The man’s actions were so odd that other rioters in the area paused their own protests to call him out and began filming. “Are you a f—ing cop?” someone else can be heard yelling to the man as he disappeared from view.”

As in the 1960s it appears we are faced with fakes, double fakes, insidious skullduggery and the hijacking of protests  by those who firmly believe "the Great Replacement"  Rightist codswallop.  All this to aid their agenda by compounding violence and deflecting attention. The FBI's Cointelpro  comes to mind, which infiltrated left groups from 1956- 1971 and in many cases saw agents inciting incidents in the midst of normally lawful protests, like against the Vietnam War.  In one secret 1968 memo - since exposed via FOIA release-  Hoover made no bones about the motivation:

"To expose, disrupt and otherwise neutralize the activities of various New Left organizations. We must frustrate every effort of these groups and individuals to consolidate their forces or to recruit new or faithful adherents.”

It very much appears that Trump and Barr are resorting to the same tactics now, and Trump himself keeps pouring more gasoline on the simmering fires that could explode if we are not careful - as well as perceptive.  A lesson the Weimar Germans learned too late.  

Update: Further exhibiting his full blown psychosis, ignorance and incompetence in this crisis, Dotard fulminated that "we will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization".   To jog memories, this was the activist group -  NOT an organization with a clear structure that can be penalized under law- that came to the aid  of numerous Charlottesville citizens in August, 2017.  As I wrote in my Aug. 16 post:

Rev. Traci Blackmon  related on MSNBC  how African-Americans singing a hymn  near an entrance in Emancipation Park were set upon by the White racist loons and goons who proceeded to beat and mace them. As Rev. Blackmon put it, "the only thing that saved them was the intervention of Antifa and other protesters" - one of whom drove the racist louts back using a spray can and a match - effectively engineering a mini flame thrower. 

One can surmise from this that if Dotard Donnie Bonespurs had his way, those elderly black Americans singing their hymns would have been bashed senseless.  Much like this racist loon did to one Antifa member trying to save a fellow  protester that day:

See also:

White supremacy groups are hoping to leverage George Floyd's death into their longed-for 'race war' 

And:

Far-right 'Boogaloo Bois' fanning flames of chaos in Minnesota protests, officials claim

And:

Peace & Justice

Chaos Does Not Have to Destroy Us

And:

Peace & Justice

How Much Violence and Destruction is Enough for Depraved American Leaders and Their Subjects?

And:

• Trump is imploding in real time. The damage may be unrecoverable

And:

Social Justice and Activism

Eruptions of Rage in Minneapolis and across the US over the Cop Murder of George Floyd are Uprisings, Not 'Riots'

by Dave Lindorff | May 31, 2020 - 5:09am | permalink

Why Be Amazed That A Racist Administration Would Snub An Accord To Curb Hate Speech?

The recent news that the Trump Racist and Criminal White House - a nest of vipers if ever there was one - snubbed the Christchurch Call, should not shock anyone. The "Christchurch Call", for those unaware, was an accord signed by nine nations Wednesday in response to the murderous attack on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand that left 51 dead.

One would have thought all civilized nations with interests in curbing extremist vitriol online would have signed on the 3-page agreement sponsored by New Zealand Premier Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron.

But not Trump and the U.S.   The Trump White House stated that "while it agrees with the overarching message" of the initiative, it "isn't currently in a position to join the endorsement".  These are weasel words for asserting it fully intends to protect hate speech, such as emanates from the dregs of the net, like 8chan, 4chan and similar cesspools.

Just put the speech under the banner of "free speech" and anything goes, and besides Trump can then get to applaud his top pals amongst the Nazis and KKK as worthy of respect.

I mean, when you have former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke applauding your spiel it's a no brainer that you're on the freaking WRONG side of history. Worse, you're cheering the Nazis and KKK, White Nationalists on by referring to them as "some very fine people".  This is what Herr Drumpf did back in August of 2017 after the Charlottesville violence with racists beating the holy hell our of protesters, e.g.


As well as thousands of cheering jeering Nazis and Confederates parading proudly, gratified to emerge from the hate woodwork after Trump had ascended to Fuhrer.


Trump's extremist minions march in Charlottesville, VA in Aug. 2017.

So why be surprised the Trump criminal vermin would refuse to sign on to an accord that would seek to curb hate speech, and the sort of verbal vomit that egged on the perpetrators of the slaughter in New Zealand as well as last year in the U.S. e.g. in the Tree of Life massacre.

According to the  corporate media the U.S. stance simply "points to how ideological differences on the role of government and the primacy of free expression complicate efforts to rein in extreme content on social media".    But I have a different take more in line with the signatories: that the U.S. leadership no longer possesses the moral compass to distinguish right from wrong, and hence is unable to differentiate hate speech from free speech. In effect, in the Trumpite Nazis' minds the two are now conflated, and woe betide anyone who tries to bring heat down on the Trump base for their bigoted memes.

Am I being too hard on Trump and his retinue of fascists, bigots and lawbreakers? Judge for yourselves after Trump delivered his "very fine people"  spiel and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke responded:   "Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa.”

Righto - the "leftist terrorists" who protected elderly African-Americans singing "this little light of mine" from being clubbed to death and maced by white supremacist thugs who also pointed guns at their heads.

Back to the Christchurch accord:  it  takes aim at  online terror, extremist rhetoric, and anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim content. In other words, anything that can trigger terror attacks such as the one in N.Z. where we know the Aussie mass killer had live streamed his murderous acts to appeal to the denizens of 8chan for their approval.

This is not rocket science and as my psychologist niece Shayl put it the M.O. is clear: "Most of the domestic terrorists promote themselves and their propaganda online and use it to basically radicalize others, create copycats and mainstream their memes and ideologies."

At the meeting Wednesday all the main G7 nations agreed the accord needed to be implemented to shut down extremist voices.  The only country that diverged - in the name of "protecting free speech" (actually protecting hate speech)- was the United States.   As one on site media observer noted last night on 'All In':

"Everyone's jaw dropped. It was then clear the president of the United States - who refused to disavow his Nazi and white nationalist supporters- now had made it official to the rest of the world. That is, he is unwilling to fight hate and terror online."

What was the big deal, the big problem in signing? Who knows? The accord simply incorporated signed commitments to act from signatory governments and tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google - owner of Youtube.  The promises include the creation of a crisis plan for sharing information in the event of a terrorist attack.  Also important are the commitments of companies (like Google and Facebook) to prevent the live streaming of any domestic terror butchery or any other displays that might spread violent extremism. 

Sadly, we know other memes the Trumpies may have listened to are similar to what appeared in a TIME essay ('Hate Can't Be Blocked', May 19, p.25).  That essay, by Alex Krasodomski-Jones,  claimed it was "impossible" to totally snuff out hate speech given it would always emerge someplace - maybe in darkness (dark web) - where its propagators could still feed off it.  Maybe.  But at least it would be sequestered from the more open public square where it might infect susceptible minds.  

What was most revolting to me is when the author claimed:

"There's a lot to learn from sites like 8chan, alongside the violent extremism"

He argues this is given "they are among the most innovative and forceful drivers of cultural change and politics online for the last decade."

Yeah, but seriously, one need not go to a landfill to excavate the waste from porto-potties to learn how bad waste and its contamination can be. 

He also inbsists we need to learn (governments, that is), how and why extremist communities thrive in online spaces and "how they can brought back into the fold."  This again, isn't like general relativity.   More education, including in basic ethics, is needed at all levels for a largely amoral populace that thrives on seeing anyone different as "the other" and open to persecution.  In the meantime, we need to control the spread of the incipient mind viruses like we would Measles or Avian flu.  We also know the setting of moral-ethical standards begins at the top, so we need an election (next year) to change this vile current occupation by nationalists and know nothings.  Ethicist and author Marilynne Robinson is correct that we need to re-examine ourselves.  That includes the basis for voting choices. We can't simply base them on reaping better 401k balances.

We also know other nations - like Germany - take such viral mind infection seriously.  Thus, as my German friend Reinhardt noted when I last saw him in Garmisch 6 years ago, one can get years in prison for displaying swastikas or engaging in holocaust denial. 

I am not saying the U.S. need go that far, but it could at least be a signatory to an accord that embodies acceptance of basic human decency, and making an effort to control the dissemination of pathological propaganda and mind viruses online.  Especially given social media platforms are among the most powerful agents for radicalization today.  

 It's either that, or we are faced with ever more domestic terror and mass slaughters.  Meanwhile, the Canadians signing onto the accord were very clear on where they wish to go and are unafraid to over regulate if need be. Better to err on the side of over regulation than have mass slaughter such as in New Zealand and the Tree of Life Synagogue in the U.S.

See also:

Peace & Justice

What Happens When Conspiracy Theories Go Mainstream?

by Ilana Novick | May 17, 2019 - 6:47am | permalink

Excerpt:

"Sometimes, however, theories escape the confines of online message boards and social media and turn dangerous, even fatal. No one laughed when a man named Edgar Welch drove from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., and fired shots at innocent people in a pizzeria because he was a “believer in Pizzagate,” a theory spread by people like right-wing radio show host Alex Jones that Hillary Clinton and her close advisers ran a pedophilia ring out of the pizzeria’s basement. There also was no laughter when James Alex Fields drove his car into a crowd at a 2017 white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, Va., killing anti-racist protester Heather Heyer.

As journalist Anna Merlan explains in her new book, “Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power,” “While conspiracy theories are as old as the country itself, there is something new at work: people who peddle lies and half-truths have come to prominence, fame, and power as never before,” thanks to the Trump administration’s outward embrace of some of their biggest boosters."