Barack Obama’s Composite Girlfriends

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A bizarre right-wing contretemps has blown up over Barack Obama’s admission that some of the characters in his memoir, Dreams From My Father, are composites. Why bizarre? Because right in the introduction to the book, he says, “some of the characters that appear are composites.”

But here’s the really bizarre part. It’s easy to see how you might have missed this. Or maybe not remember it. But these days, it’s not like you have to reread the book cover to cover to see if Obama ever mentioned this. You just go to Amazon, click “Look Inside,” and search for composite. That’s it. I sort of assume that conservatives don’t appreciate looking too much like idiots, so what explains not bothering with even this minimal level of scrutiny? Leave your best guess in comments.

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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