The US Media Circus & Trump, as seen from abroad

People attending Trump's Presidential Inauguration

Since I kept a close eye on the US Presidential Election, especially for an Italian, but I didn’t report of the events unfolding from the actual election itself on November 9 to yesterday’s Presidential Inauguration, many fellow foreigners may now ask: what happened during this transition? The short answer is “not much”.     The Trump team was busy putting together a cabinet that seems quite solid and trying to keep the promise of bringing a new approach to politics. Case in point, Trump nominated Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and this move was widely criticized because Pruitt himself previously sued the EPA (alongside many other…

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Trump is the answer to Obama

Barack Obama looking out of the window at the White House; the shiny figure of Donald Trump emerging

Today is the last day in office for President Obama. It’s been more than 2 months since the election, and yet his supporters are still moping and complaining because Trump won.   In many ways, Donald Trump is the exact opposite of Barack Obama: a reaction if you will. In other aspects, though, he’s a natural successor: another pop icon, the type of personality that could win after Obama paved the way for this new approach to politics and popularity.   Here’s some quick points to raise about their similarities and differences.         New media and the young vote. Barack was able to prevail over a decrepit adversary like…

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Why problems are either very easy or very hard

Natural hurdles, human hurdles.   Did you notice? It’s quite uncommon to face medium difficulty problems. In your everyday life you are sometimes tasked to solve issues that seem impossible to come to grips with. There are mysteries that seem way bigger than our puny minds. We often get to comment on issues that on the contrary appear quite easy to deal with, and you are left wondering why people are still struggling with them. But you rarely seem to encounter intermediate level problems. How come?   Let’s put down some examples (I’ll alienate some readers in the process).   Producing a new vaccine requires an excellent research team and years of work, and…

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Behold: a hoax buster in total anti-Trump meltdown

How to ruin your reputation. Paolo Attivissimo is a tech journalist and a semi-celebrity; he’s by far the most prominent debunker in the Italian language web. His work to dispel myths and conspiracy theories is well known and appreciated (including by yours truly): among other things, he and his collaborators created websites dedicated to debunking  9/11 conspiracy theories, or the Moonlanding hoaxes (in Italian). Well, he just became unhinged. A few days ago, he published an embarrassing, painful-to-read article against Donald Trump. Here it is (in Italian): FAQ: perché ce l’ho con Trump presidente? Perché sono un debunker (FAQ: why am I mad at President Trump? Because I’m a debunker). Its’ just pathetic: he sounds…

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It’s all Putin’s fault! (Shameless)

What can you say? It’s ludicrous. Problem is, all those journalists are serious, and lots of people still listen to them.   Hillary Clinton is ranting about a “vast right-wing conspiracy” since 1998. It’s one of her recurring circus acts. I’d say now it’s a good time: it would be advisable to finally let her go. She’s an ex. And yet, here she was, again on TV, railing against those damn fake news that caused Trump’s victory. Obviously the mainstream media were indignant and eager to follow her advice, calling for a new form of censorship-under-a-different-name, against all those unauthorized voices spreading lies all over the internet. Of course the same mainstream media…

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The day when FiveThirtyEight and the pollsters bombed

Trump won, 538 experts lost.

This is a story of people looking down on you. More than that, this is a story of fake scientific data and deception. This is about those who tried to control the result of the election. And lost anyway. I’ve been dreaming of writing this very article for months. All those experts, day after day condescendingly belittling people like me, who wouldn’t be convinced to accept the reality of their data…   Now it’s time for a little revenge. A sweet opportunity to unload all the frustration of the last months. They won’t mind: they still have all the clout and visibility in the world, plus they have all the…

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Don’t do as I did

Dice thrown over a stairwell

Bragging about betting on Trump: setting a bad example   As you may already know, in 2015 I bet on Donald Trump. I feel uneasy about my telling the entire world that I did. Of course that’s how I can boast that I understood the Trump phenomenon long before the vast majority of observers. But I’m also sending a disturbing signal in favor of gambling: placing bets on an event, then imagining yourself enjoying an unexpected, resounding victory. The thing is, you hear a lot about the rare success stories, not so much about the countless losses. The House in the end is the only winner. But many people get…

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Let me gloat. Trump won. I won!

As you may or may not know, in July 2015 I bet on Trump’s victory. Today, thanks to Donald Trump’s triumph, I won more than enough money to cover all the expenses incurred during the a recent tour trip to the USA that me and my wife took in September. I dubbed it “Our Donald Trump Trip” for obvious reasons.   Now I feel the need to celebrate the victory.   (All photos are © 2016 Alessandro Grasso.)   Thanks Donald!   It’s been a hell of a ride. Even if I’m living in Italy I followed the election very closely; not just because this was set to be the…

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Clinton email scandals? Much ado about everything

Democratic Party Election Strategy in 8 years increments

And so we got to Election Day. Americans have been served useful distractions by a complacent media machine. Anyone who wanted to, had the opportunity to catch wind of the multiple Clinton scandals, granted; but the details are often too intricate for the average person’s attention span. Confusion→ uncertainty→ irrelevance. And if you lean Democrat, journalists give you plenty of excuses to banish the uncomfortable thought.   The idea was to sell a stripped down message: Hillary is a woman (!) and is supposed to be about all the usual Democratic Party policies. That’s it. And they pushed the narrative that her opponent was allegedly vulgar, racist, sexist and dangerous,…

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#LoveTrumpsHate made right

Love Trumps Hate: Trump Loves, Clinton Hates, Trump Trumps

Love trumps hate. Ok, let’s say it’s stipulated. #LoveTrumpsHate is a silly, simplistic slogan used by the Clinton Campaign. Please enjoy their hilarious play on words based on the name of Donald Trump. But if you examine it carefully, it works perfectly only if you read it the other way around. Let’s make a deal: I bet if you follow through my reasoning, you’ll agree I’ve surprised you, and you never saw things this way. You can comment below re: your changing your mind or not. Trump loves   Trumps loves himself immensely. I believe the entire world agrees on this bit. But the process doesn’t stop there. Then his…

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Here’s why I bet on Trump. In 2015.

Donald Trump, the President Americans deserve

As I said yesterday, Donald Trump will win the Presidency. This article is still about letting you come to terms with such reality. I put money where my mouth was. Ok, I’m not a US citizen so I cannot vote for Donald Trump. Next best thing, I bet money on his victory! It was in July 2015: 16 months ago. I caught wind of the fact that Trump, a man I barely knew something about, had launched his campaign for the Presidency. Up to that point I considered him a minor nuisance, one of those vapid tv celebrities slash narcissistic yet funny looking guy slash megalomaniac entrepreneur. I saw him…

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Trump won next Tuesday’s election

people endorsing Clinton and Trump. Notice Chuck Norris

Come to terms with it. Ok, this is a public service post; it won’t get to many people but I hope it will help some friends to soften the blow. Better get used to it gradually. Initially you’ll probably mumble, with a condescending air, that there are too many idiots (myself included) insisting on a Trump victory. Then you’ll begin to realize, feeling a cold sweat, that maybe they are not really idiots… And then afterwards… Uh oh…! Ooops, it happened…     Chuck Norris: when he gets to the polling station, suddenly all the within a 500 miles range spontaneously self-combust. Seriously, this is not about the joke meme…

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