Every headline I read nowadays would be considered far too ham-fisted for satirical fiction. 

The Trump administration is prohibiting seven words or phrases from appearing in any documents for next year’s budget at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Washington Post reports:

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Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

The CDC staffers were not given an explanation for why these words and phrases are being banned.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the White House is at least partially populated by the sort of dreary trolls one encounters in internet comment sections. The aggrieved lulz of the dull. The peevish president and his sinister minions can be terrifying, but much of the time they are merely tedious.

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