Politics Daily: Trump & Treason | Did Silicon Valley Create Donald Trump?

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Silicon Valley Meets Its Biggest Creation: Donald Trump Vanity Fair

For years, Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park featured a rectangular sign that reflected the ambition and spirit of Mark Zuckerberg and his legions of dedicated employees. It read, in bold, red lettering, “Move Fast and Break Things.” Twitter had a similar poster that hung in its San Francisco office, noting “Let’s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow.” These mantras aren’t an anomaly in Silicon Valley’s playground-like campuses. Cubicles, hallways, cafeterias, and meeting rooms are festooned with Rockne-esque white-board-style slogans such as “Done Is Better Than Perfect” or “Fortune Favors the Bold,” or “Don’t Bury Your Failures, Let Them Inspire You.”

These maxims have their value, and they have helped inspire a wealth-generation machine unlike any other in human history. But moving too fast can come with consequences, especially when the mantra is heeded by young people who are often still in their 20s and 30s. In fact, the tech industry’s adherence to an ideology of rapid acceleration helps explain why America finds itself in its current predicament, with hackers reportedly involved in swaying our election and a growing acceptance of xenophobia spreading across the nation. Perhaps many of the people who convened at Trump Tower were so focused on those mottos that they did not realize an outcome they might create.

Donald Trump raises specter of treason The Boston Globe

In a damning op-ed John Shattuck lays out the particulars of a treasonous act against the American government and Trump's refusal to buy into the conclusions of America's intelligence agencies that Russia interfered with the American election.

The federal crime of treason is committed by a person “owing allegiance to the United States who . . . adheres to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort,” and misprision of treason is committed by a person “having knowledge of the commission of any treason [who] conceals and does not disclose” the crime. By denigrating or seeking to prevent an investigation of the Russian cyberattack Trump is giving aid or comfort to an enemy of the United States, a crime that is enhanced if the fourth explanation applies — that he is in fact seeking to cover up his staff’s or his own involvement in or prior knowledge of the attack.

ExxonMobil helped defeat Russia sanctions bill Politico

ExxonMobil successfully lobbied against the STAND for Ukraine Act, a bill that would have converted into law for five years President Obama's punishing measures against Russia for annexing Crimea. With the Senate refusing to act on the bill, proposed Secy of State Rex Tillerson is posed to roll back sanctions and relaunch a deal he made with Russia that is worth a staggering amount of money to ExxonMobile and Putin himself.

More reading:

Donald Trump and the Rise of Alt-Reality Media Politico Magazine

The Donald Trump Appointment Tracker Marie Claire

Devon Terrell Nails a Young Barack Obama In 'Barry' Now Playing on Netflix

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Australian actor Devon Terrell landed his Netflix role of a young Barack Obama with his first audition. Vikram Gandi's 'Barry' tells the story of a young Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya who struggles to fit in. In 'Barry', writes Vogue, "we get a glimpse of the young person who became Obama -- the chain-smoking Columbia University undergrad living in Harlem in 1981." The film opened yesterday on Netflix.

Did your perception of Obama change at all after playing him?
I really just have a deeper understanding of the man. In so many ways, I look at the story and I think, How did that young man become Barack Obama, the President of the United States of America? And then in many ways I look at him and see that he’s been through so much adversity and demanded so much of himself that, of course, he became a leader. In many ways, I understood him better as a person. But as an outsider, I’ve always looked up to him as a family man and someone who stands by his values and morals. He’s someone whom I hope to grow up to be like. He’s always striving for more. I really admire the man.

Diversity Gets Major Uplift On US Fashion Magazine Covers Reports Fashionista

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Fashionista beat me to the topic of diversity on US magazine covers. I was about to praise Vogue US for featuring women of color three months in a row -- November 2016-January 2017.

Fashionista has tracked diversity on magazine covers in-depth for several years, and finally we are celebrating some progress.

This time last year, we reported a disappointing statistic: That diversity on the covers of 10 leading U.S. fashion publications — Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, InStyle, Nylon, Teen Vogue, Vogue and W — did not improve in 2015 from 2014. In 2015, 27 of 136 covers featured people of color* while the year before, 27 of 137 did. It was an improvement, technically, but only from 19.7 percent to 19.8 percent. 

In 2016, however, there have been sizable lifts in cover star diversity across the board. For consistency's sake, we reviewed the covers from the same titles we looked at in 2015 — all 147 of them. And we found that 53 of 147 covers — or 36 percent — starred people of color*, as compared to 2015's 19.8 percent. That's a 16.9 percent rise.

AOC gives Vogue US a sound round of applause for featuring three inspiring women of color in a row: Lupita Nyong'o, Michelle Obama and 'Loving' star and Golden Globe nominee Ruth Negga. See their editorials, covers and interviews.

Vogue US January 2017: Ruth Negga

Interview and Editorial

Vogue US December 2016: Michelle Obama

Editorial and Anne's commentary about Michelle Obama's mission to educate girls worldwide.

Vogue US November 2016: Lupita Nyong'o

Editorial and Anne's rich rieview of Lupita's trip to Kenya.

Blockbuster House of Dior Exhibit Opens In Melbourne, Australia August 25, 2017

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The House of Dior turned to Australia for the first presentation of a complete collection outside of Paris. The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia will commemorate the 1948 showing in Sydney, Australia as part of its 2017 exhibition 'The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture.'

The upcoming exhibition, which is has been organized collaboratively by the museum and Christian Dior Couture, is a celebration of the House of Dior’s 70th anniversary. It will feature over 140 designs created between 1947 and today, highlighting the work of its head designers Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons, and Maria Grazia Chiuri (the company’s first female creative director, hired in July), not to mention Christian Dior himself, who died suddenly in 1957.

The exhibition will open on August 25, 2017 and run until November 7, 2017.