THIS WEEK IN (selected) POLITICAL NEWS -- 1/26/17

Friends, this week was rough. I usually try to write at least half of this on Wednesday night. But Wednesday was the worst day ever, and I was in a pit of despair. Hence this week’s very short , very incomplete, 100% Apocalypse Watch TWIPN. Because at this point, Day Six of the Trump administration, every day feels like the coming of the end of the world. I hope to recover somewhat by next week -- one week closer to the end of his term.

Apocalypse Watch: Trump is preparing to bring back torture (along with CIA black sites), asserting now that he “believes” it works, despite the fact that, a few months ago, he told the Times that now-Defense Secretary Mattis had convinced him that torture does not work. That’s because, of course, torture does not work. It’s also illegal.

Apocalypse Watch 2: “The US Department of Agriculture has banned scientists and other employees in its main research division from publicly sharing everything from the summaries of scientific papers to USDA-branded tweets as it starts to adjust to life under the Trump administration, BuzzFeed News has learned.”

Apocalypse Watch 2: Trump’s idea of massive “voter fraud” was sparked by a false, racist anecdote about a famous German golfer. (Oh, and we’re still not investigating Russia’s interference in the election.) (OH, and James Comey is staying on as FBI Director because of course he is.)

Apocalypse Watch 4: Trump on the Iraq War: “Look, it's time. It's been our longest war. We've been in there for 15, 16 years. Nobody even knows what the date is because they don't really know when did we start.” (Hint: I think this is may be a little helpful piece of evidence as to when the war started.)

THIS IS JUST BS: The government has already created and paid for a very effective add reminding people to sign up for health insurance on the exchanges. It’s a good ad! But just because he is an asshole who wants people to suffer and wants government programs to fail, the Trump White House has abruptly pulled the ad. Because god forbit people know they could sign up for insurance until January 31. But guys, it only makes sense: As Rep. Collins (R-NY!!!) said, “He's been elected with a mandate. He's not going to tolerate his employees contradicting and undermining his mandate to get this country going in another direction." Mandate. Right. Wouldn’t want to undermine that mandate. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH KILL ME.

Fun Video of the Week: Alternative facts.