5
"Russia Was Framed For The DNC Leaks!"
In March 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller released the conclusions of his investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election -- and if so, whether the Trump campaign had knowingly took part in it. On the former charge, Mueller found that yes, Russia tried to influence the election for its own ends. However, he wasn't able to present a smoking gun to show this was done with cooperation from the campaign, though he did state "that the investigation did not establish particular facts does not mean there was no evidence of those facts."
These findings pleased no one. Especially not liberals, who had spent two years writing fanfiction about how the republic was going to be saved by Swole Mueller.
Mascot BooksIn lieu of a congressional hearing, he wrestles the minority whip in a steel cage.
Conservatives also weren't happy, but for an entirely different reason: CrowdStrike. This was the byword for a popular conspiracy theory that's been making the rounds in MAGA Land since the early days of the Trump presidency. The idea is that Russia was framed for the cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee by a cybersecurity firm called CrowdStrike on the orders of, dun dun dunnn, the Democratic National Committee ... who themselves were working with, dunn dunn dunnnnnn, Ukraine, which wanted to swing the election for Hillary Clinton in order to get revenge on Russia for killing thousands of Ukrainians since 2014.
The proof of this multi-dimensional chess game? The fact after its servers were hacked, the DNC wouldn't allow the FBI to examine them. After all, this would have given the FBI the opportunity to discover that CrowdStrike, not Russia, was behind the hack. Also important to note? One of the co-founders of CrowdStrike, Dmitri Alperovitch, is Ukrainian. Chessmate, libs!
... Except absolutely none of that is true. The DNC provided a copy of all its server data to the FBI (along with several other intelligence agencies). Alperovitch is an American citizen whose family defected from Russia to the U.S. during the Cold War.
By 2017, the right-wing conspiracy machine was promoting CrowdStrike as an alternative to the then-recently-announced Mueller investigation. It soon found a permanent home among the delusional dipshits haunting 8chan and /r/The_Donald, convicted felon Roger Stone, and, um, Donald Trump. He claims that the server contains the "missing" emails of Hillary Clinton, as well as other mythical objects, like his father's love.
4
"The Royal Baby Is A Fraud!"
Meghan Markle is proving to be a major headache for the British tabloids. Being the island that helped invent colonialism, they can't seem to get over the fact that she's mixed-race. As a result, the headlines about her regularly run the gamut from "she's full of rich and exotic flavor" to "how dare she be [vague dog whistle] on the taxpayer's penny."
The Daily MailExhibit N, if you will.