While You Were Offline: Boycott McDonald's! Boycott Hawaii! Hell, Boycott Everything!

Earlier this week, Rachel Maddow got a scoop: President Trump's tax returns. OK, two pages of his tax return from 2005, but still. It was a big deal—mostly because she announced it on Twitter and then made the internet wait for almost an hour and a half (an hour and a half!) before giving up the goods. Folks were so busy being annoyed about the delay they almost missed a chance to weigh in on the possibility of a Matrix reboot. We would never leave you hanging that long, even if we do understand why Maddow took her time. Want to know what you might have missed online over the past seven days? Read on.

What Happened: You can't always get what you want, especially if what you want is breaking news in 30 minutes or less.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: Tuesday evening, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow managed to take over the entire internet with one simple tweet:

People were, to be blunt, a little excited about just what that could mean. (And maybe a little skeptical, as well.) Just what could be revealed when Maddow got behind the desk?

The Daily Beast actually had the information online before Maddow's show began, but that didn't seem to deter people from eagerly waiting for Rachel to drop the hammer. And waiting. And waiting.

And in the end, what was learned? Well, that he would only have paid 3.5 percent in federal taxes if it wasn't for the alternative minimum tax, which, funny story, is something he plans to abolish. Oh, and perhaps Chinese investors played a huge part in his financial fortunes that year.

Because Maddow failed to take down the president (and did so in a slow, measured manner), she was pilloried by many, including Stephen Colbert.

But the episode was a massive ratings hit, getting more than 4 million viewers—a new high for the show. Maddow also defended her coverage of the story, saying "if people like me or don’t like me, I will have a better or worse chance of making friends with them somewhere down the road—at a cocktail party I won’t go to."
The Takeaway: Take it away, Billy Eichner!

What Happened: After a federal judge blocked the second travel ban from the Trump administration, the internet felt the need to respond.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: Late Wednesday, a federal judge in Hawaii issued a freeze of the second executive order from the Trump administration seeking to halt entry into the US for people coming from six majority-Muslim countries. The restraining order of course made headlines across the internet, and also sparked at least one theory about what was going on. (Said theory had originally run on the Independent Journalism Review, but was quickly pulled by editors for being too out there; the fact that it ran at all caused one reporter to quit in protest.)

Perhaps the most surreal response to the ruling, however, was watching the backlash online, which was directed at both the judge who made the ruling and the state of Hawaii itself.

Actually, the idea that supporters of the ban would boycott Hawaii was welcome news for many.

The Takeaway: These are probably not the kind of travel restrictions the administration wanted, huh?

What Happened: Someone got control of the McDonald's Twitter feed and said some very not-nice things to President Trump.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: It was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it event. For less than half an hour, the official McDonald's Twitter account had a pinned tweet with some harsh words for the current US president. Soon, though, it was deleted.

It was an unexpected occurrence, to say the least. Thankfully, it happened on the always restrained, understated platform of Twitter, which can be relied upon to react responsibly to such events.

The tweet didn't go unnoticed by mainstream media, which just had to share it. Thankfully, McDonald's could explain everything:

Compromised? But by whom?

Meanwhile, McDonald's was about to get the Hawaii treatment.

The Takeaway: You can always count on fast-food Twitter to keep things interesting.

What Happened: The Trump administration released its proposed budget for next year and it is pretty frugal.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: Details of the Trump administration's proposed 2018 budget started to appear this week, promising considerable hardships for many Americans. Amongst the cuts: Both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities would be defunded entirely and the EPA and State Department would see their budgets slashed as well. Some doubt that the budget will pass as proposed, but when Office of Management and Budget chief Mick Mulvaney defended the proposal to the press, he made an extraordinary claim concerning a plan to defund the Meals on Wheels program. Namely, that it doesn't show "results." Twitter?

To the surprise of no one, Mulvaney's comments went far and wide, presumably because of their indefensibility.
The Takeaway: Well, at least there isn't an obvious way of spinning this story, using a photo of someone closely connected to the current administra—oh, wait.

What Happened: Sometimes something ends up so viral that it sticks around for quite some time.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: At the tail end of last week, the doom and gloom of the world around us was lightened, just briefly, by this video:

It's some kids running amok at an inopportune time? Who couldn't relate to that?!

As the mainstream media picked up on the story, one thing became clear: It wasn't going away.

Indeed, this week saw a second wave of interest, heralded by a statement by the family, followed by a press conference that once again went viral—all because of the internet's love of one little girl

The Takeaway: Where is this family's fame going to go in its third week? Who knows, but some people are already thinking long-term.

https://twitter.com/TheDaiLlew/status/842049231317794816