The story went out pretty much this way. Big bad #trump forced compliant little #Chris to chew on #Meatloaf while the rest of the diners at the White House had less common fare. Most people read the headline and their genes have told them all they need to know. The only hitch is the story, while not being a lie, is an object lesson in the creation of #fake #news The reason it is Fake News is all too clear if you read even a few paragraphs or even a tweet or two. #Trump ordered meatloaf too! I had an inkling.

As a person who has followed Trump since his Birther days, I knew that his idea of luxury was to settle back in his big bed with a plate containing the wonderful dish.

Meatloaf! Of course, I thought it was strange when he could have ordered escargot and other fancy things. But this is a Queens boy and Queens boys of a certain age associate meatloaf with maternal bliss and other psychological triggers. So knowing that the two guys dined on meatloaf at Trump's insistence was OK, copacetic, even cool.

This is how meatloaf can become a monster meme

As it turns out #Christie is the apparent originator of the #meatloaf headline, causing obvious speculation.

Any headline that makes today the story and yesterday a fading memory is gold to Trump.

And inevitably #meatloaf spawns more political speculation as the Trump staff shuffle proceeds.

This is how things work in the era of #fake #news. The story is that Trump and Christie had meatloaf but you will never get beyond the humiliating inference of the headline.

Christie was made to crawl! Now Christie could have said that this was a buddy thing. But the fear of Trump is so great that only an exceptional soul would have the nerve to blurt out the truth. So here in reality we have the headline which is not accurate, not the whole story, in fact a distortion of the reality. And we are left with a consummate Trump win.

Confusion. Yes, if confusion reigns, Trump lives to fight another day.

Christie and meatloaf become one

Here's how it works. Create a new meme every day. Make it the story. Give it a hot referent. Cook it up and it becomes what it is.

Recall that there is still the matter of Trump and Russia. But if this nothing story is allowed to take over our minds we will let the big fish go free. This is how things work in the age of Trump, where fake news is not merely outright lies but the clever use of symbols and connections to create a tapestry that leaves the public scratching its collective head. In the era of fake news the motto should be find a star and keep trained on it. Russia is the star. Meatloaf is the distraction.