‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ is a computer programming principle which states that the quality of a system’s output is determined by the quality of its input. It’s also a phrase that speaks to US politics this week.
After a string of good news cycles for the Republican campaign, the Democrats finally believed they had caught a break on Sunday night after the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a joke about Puerto Rico on stage at Trump’s mega-rally in Madison Square Garden in New York. ‘I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now,’ said Hinchcliffe. ‘It’s called Puerto Rico.’ Other speakers made other ill-judged remarks, but the garbage line seemed to stick.
Trump’s hyperbole is half the fun
Hinchcliffe is famous for the sheer offensiveness of his comedy but the Democrats, knowing that nearly a million Puerto Ricans live in swing states, seized on his quip as yet more evidence that Trumpworld is racist.
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