Author: Mike Rothschild

Writer and researcher specializing in conspiracy theories, politics, history, and fringe beliefs.

The Nullification Eagle Will Not Save Us

Mike Rothschild

Donald Trump is the President of the United States.

Yeah, I know.

But no matter what you think of that fact, the fact remains that it is a fact. He was elected by a majority in the Electoral College, and his election was certified by Congress. He was sworn in, and in that moment, his arc as president fell under an umbrella of laws set down by the writers of the Constitution, and refined over the centuries.

There are five ways for a president to lose their status as president. They can:

  • be voted out of office in the ensuing election
  • resign
  • die in office
  • be impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate
  • be removed by the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet via the 25th Amendment

Donald Trump will be in office unless one of these things happens.

Or, maybe the Supreme Court will just nullify the whole thing as Trump is buried under a blizzard of indictments and arrest warrants.

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The Questions We Dare Not Ask

Mike Rothschild

This week, a juicy and horrifying story from Vanity Fair portrayed President Trump as a man quickly and graphically spiraling out of alignment with reality.

The story described President Trump as isolating himself behind a wall of Fox News bullshit, consumed by darkness.  At one point, the piece describes a conversation Trump had with Steve Bannon, who described the risks of Trump being removed from office by a majority of the cabinet via the 25th Amendment. As one of the more troubling nuggets in the story claims,

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The Second Shooter Security Blanket

Mike Rothschild1 Comment

A few days ago, I wrote about how the vast majority of the inevitable conspiracy theories about the Las Vegas terrorist attack weren’t worth the time or trouble to debunk.

Naturally, the flow of conspiracies and allegations about the attack has only gotten worse.

Thanks to the totally unfounded “intel” posted on social media by “citizen journalists” who all want you to give them money, the internet has determined what actually happened and what “they” don’t want you to know.

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Debunking Las Vegas Shooting Conspiracy Theories

Mike Rothschild3 Comments

You probably clicked on this thinking you’d find a lengthy, heavily-researched debunking of all of the conspiracy theories and rumors that immediately sprung up after last night’s horrific terrorist attack in Las Vegas.

I bet you were also thinking that once you’ve read it, you’ll be armed with the information you need to face down the legions of trolls, shit-stirrers, cranks, and grief ghouls out there gumming up social media during a time of crisis and mourning.

Unfortunately, you won’t be, because I’m not doing that.

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Trump, the NFL, and the Streisand Effect

Mike Rothschild

In 2003, Barbra Streisand sued a photographer taking pictures for an endeavor called the California Coastal Records project. Meant to document the erosion of the state’s beaches, the CCRP took one photo approximately every 500 feet all up and down California’s coast.

One of those pictures showed a particularly ritzy part of the Malibu coast, which happened to house Streisand’s mansion. The picture had been downloaded six times before Streisand’s suit, which alleged that the CCRP had violated her privacy, demanded the image be suppressed. The publicity brought by the suit brought a massive spotlight to the image, and it was downloaded nearly half-a-million times over the next month. In attempting to erase the image, Streisand brought it far more attention than it ever would have had otherwise.

This “Streisand Effect” is now cited whenever an attempt to stamp out information only makes that information more available.

Over the weekend, President Trump employed a version of the Streisand Effect to bring a massive spotlight to something that, before, had almost totally faded away from the public eye: NFL players taking a knee during the singing of the National Anthem.

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