November 15, 2016

“Social media in the era of Trump is essentially Leningrad, 1979.” Gary Shteyngart on the difficulties of telling whether today’s Twitter trolls are amateurs in St. Petersburg, Florida, or professionals in St. Petersburg, Russia. / The New Yorker

Detroit pitcher Michael Fulmer just won the AL Rookie of the Year, but he’s spending his offseason working 10-hour days as a plumber. / detroitnews.com, freep.com

“Let’s be honest—internet and cellphone are basic utilities now. If you earn minimum wage in America, you will work more than two months a year just to pay for basic data expenses.” Data isn’t actually expensive to cell companies. Why do we let them charge working people a couple months’ worth of income for it? / Medium

Political journalist, inspirational figure, one of our favorite television journalists, Gwen Ifill died yesterday at the age of 61. / NPR

“Over my dead body will a wall be built. I don’t wish to die but I do wish to work together with people so we can truly protect the homeland of this place they call the United States of America. Not only for our people but for the American people.” A Native American tribe whose reservation crosses 75 miles into the border with Mexico will be one of many human obstacles in the way of Trump’s stupid fucking wall. / KJZZ

In addition to being a formerly Democratic “bottom feeder” billionaire investor, and one of Trump’s reported two choices for Secretary of the Treasury, Wilbur Ross is a very nasty person, as recounted by former financial reporter Kevin Roose: / New York

“This is a man whose career has been marked by prosecutorial excesses, knee-jerk defenses of abusive cops, and an affinity for using the power of his political offices to get vengeance on his enemies.” As Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani oversaw the implementation of stop-and-frisk; attacked freedom of assembly, speech, and artistic expression; and used tools of city government to attack his enemies. He will be a nightmarish attorney general. / The Washington Post

A useful guide broken out by executive actions, legislation, international obligations, federal agencies, and little things like Common Core and Syrian refugees: “Twenty Things Donald Trump Said He Wanted to Get Rid of as President.” / The New York Times

Among the best post-Trump artworks so far must be the new album from A Tribe Called Quest, including “The Donald,” which is all about Phife. / Pitchfork

Yesterday we found out that Facebook really has been worried about fake news all along—but they’re even more worried about appearing to be anti-conservative. They have the tools to shut down fake news, but backlash against Trending News’ alleged bias led the company to shelve an algorithm update that would downrank fake news. / NPR, Gizmodo

“When Mic shared a story about convicted rapist Brock Turner on its own Facebook page, it gathered about 7,700 reactions and was shared 4,400 times. When Takei shared that same story the next day, it got nearly three times as many reactions—over 22,000—and drove over 5,000 shares.” Facebook cut down on publishers’ “reach,” so they had to rely on celebrities to relay the news. It’s a strategy with mixed results. / Digiday

“For Mark Zuckerberg to say that less than 1% of news on Facebook is a hoax is a little like saying that less than 1% of your brain is malignant cancer. It’s not the 1% but the malignancy. It sounds like things are 99% okay, but it’s actually a very bad diagnosis.” Paul Ford, wise as ever, on Facebook’s news problem. / Track Changes

A Slate journalist covering LGBT issues posted the death threats that people were sending him on Facebook. The threats were real, but the company said posting them violated community standards. / Slate

The day before the election, 20% of all political tweets were made by bots. We need to engage deeply and quickly with the reality of algorithmic democracy. / fastcodesign.com

If the election weren’t such a shitshow we’d probably be a lot more alarmed about the fact that Russia just shut down LinkedIn for failing to store data on Russian servers. / http

The top Google result for “final election results” is a random, very fake blog that claims Trump won the popular vote. / New York

At the time of her death yesterday, at age 61, Gwen Ifill had become one of the most trusted voices in media—no small feat in a world unused to listening to women of color. Her résumé was beyond impressive. / YouTube

Perhaps useful for Mr. Trump, as he woos federal employees: From 1942, a LIFE magazine guide to proper kissing. / Vintage Everyday

Masha Gesse, Russian-born journalist and author of a biography of Putin, lays down six rules for salvaging sanity. They are: 1. / The New York Review of Books

“By refusing to engage with the world as it is, by seeing in every political disaster an opportunity to indulge in escapism and dime-store nostalgia, pop-culture liberals overlook the very real horrors already looming for swaths of the population, including those who have never seen Doctor Who.” Popular culture this election season: personally uplifting but politically useless. / The Baffler

Try not to see political echoes here. From the series “How to Dad.” / YouTube

“You heard all these things about how terrible they are: Not only will they gouge your eyes out, but they’ll somehow tell their cohorts to go after your family. I became extremely hateful and spiteful.” Military psychiatrists and mental health professionals tasked with handling Guantánamo detainees were barred from asking necessary questions about interrogations and were poisoned against their own patients by their supervisors. / The New York Times

1. Nonfiction: Excerpt from the new Michael Lewis book about the Israel psychologists who were behind much of the science in Moneyball. / Vanity Fair

2. Humor: “My grandma had just died, and Mike was my rock. He was there for me when I cried, and he was the only ninja skilled enough to avenge her murder.” / The New Yorker

3. Poem: Angel Nafis’s new “Ghazal for Becoming Your Own Country” / poetryfoundation.org

4. Art: Leonard Cohen talking on night radio in 1974—animated. / YouTube

You’ll be going about your day, trying to be positive, optimistic, and forward-thinking about this election, and then... / YouTube