What Is This Dangerous Game?

It looks very much like Donald Trump and his allies are stoking violence as a last-ditch response to his election loss. Consider a three examples from Monday and Tuesday.

Fox News host Lou Dobbs interviewed rogue lawyer Sidney Powell. Dobbs said, "This is no longer about just voter fraud or electoral fraud. This is something much bigger." Dobbs then called Trump to take "drastic action" because of "the crimes that have been committed against him and against the American people." (As summarized by CNN's Brian Stelter.)

Lin Wood, an attorney who filed suit to block the certification of election results in Georgia along with former/present? attorney Sidney Powell, tweeted this Tuesday morning: 

Good morning.

Our country is headed to civil war. A war created by 3rd party bad actors for their benefit - not for We The People.

Communist China is leading the nefarious efforts to take away our freedom.

@realDonaldTrump

 should declare martial law.

Looks like Michael Flynn, recently pardoned by Trump, is calling for martial law as well. 

Trump election attorney Joe diGenova, also a Fox personality, had some things to say about Chris Krebs, the Trump appointee responsible for election cybersecurity. Trump fired Krebs recently after Krebs insisted upon the election's security. For his part, Krebs did a compelling 60 Minutes interview in which he accused Trump of undermining democracy. So diGenova:

Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity. That guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.

This is a lawyer who represents the President of the United States. He can say he was using hyperbole. He can say, "Of course, I wasn't threatening anyone." 

But comments like these fit a pattern. Trump supporters have taken arms to state capitols. They have attempted to kidnap governors and stage televised executions of public officials. Trump himself has claimed he had the support of all the tough people. 

Maybe Trump is trying to stage a coup. Maybe he's building up funds to maintain his political influence and run a shadow government: he's raised $150 million for election legal fees, little of which will be spent on legal fees. Maybe he's using his supporters to stir up violence in the streets. We don't know what his game is, but it's dangerous as hell.

In a press conference Tuesday, Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling, a Trump supporter, spoke directly to Trump.

Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it’s not right.

What We're Not Seeing

Not one of us knows whether Trump is laying the foundation for a serious coup attempt or just raising hell because he's desperate. I'm alarmed, in part because some very wise people are apparently just as alarmed.

What I can say: we're not seeing the things we need to see that would reassure us. For every Larry Hogan, Mike DeWine, or other Republican who's saying out loud that the election was fair, Trump lost, and he needs to begin the transition, there are dozens of powerful Republicans calling the election rigged and hundreds keeping mostly quiet. 

The big story Monday: Last week Oklahoma Senator James Lankford said that if Trump didn't allow Biden to receive intelligence briefings by the end of the week, Lankford would step in and make that happen. Since Lankford chairs the committee that oversees the GSA, he'd have some clout.

Apparently somebody got to Jim Lankford. The Wall Street Journal reports that he reversed his strong position over the weekend.

I'm not in a hurry, necessarily, to get Joe Biden these briefings, it's been interesting how the media, the national media, not this network, but others have twisted this term "step in." I happen to chair the committee that oversees GSA, that is the entity that has to be able to make this call.

 He lied. Last week he specifically said

If that's not occurring by Friday, I will step in as well and be able to push and say, this needs to occur.

This is not a good sign. We're not seeing enough good signs, and that should bother us. Because meanwhile Donald Trump is literally stirring up street violence.

And while all that's going on, Georgia' Republican Secretary of State tells us about the pressure he's getting from other Republicans to change the election results there. I said Republican Secretary of State. He called Georgia Rep. Doug Collins a "liar" and a "charlatan" for levying false accusations, and he insinuated that Senator Linseed Lindsey Graham literally suggested tossing all mail-in ballots from certain counties.

Graham also asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures, Raffensperger said.

 Surely Graham wouldn't push something illegal?

Raffensperger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. 

Oh. So while we're telling ourselves it's just a matter of time before Donald Trump heads back to Mar-a-Lago and Joe Biden's dogs make their home on Pennsylvania Avenue, maybe we should pause the premature chicken counting and watch what some really powerful people are doing to our democracy. 

Some of the effects are already evident. Political scientists Vin Arceneaux and Rory Truex have been tracking the opinions of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans concerning this past election, and the results are disturbing. 

Almost half of Republicans don't accept Biden's win as legitimate.

Most Republicans literally don't believe Biden won.

Numbers like that are a five-alarm fire for democracy. Hell, they're bad for Thanksgiving--and a good reason to avoid extended family. And they explain what we're not seeing: Republicans coming out to acknowledge Biden's win.

This is why we need more words like those of National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien. But he's alone.

If there is a new administration, they deserve some time to come in and implement their policies ... if the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner -- and obviously, things look that way now -- we'll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council.

Be Vigilant: This Ain’t Over

Sure, they called Arizona for Biden last night. I know Darth Vader Karl Rove says it’s time for Republicans to acknowledge the election. And yes, the DHS called the election the “most secure ever.” We all love it when Trump legal claims get just laughed out of court. 

None of that rules out the Republicans trying (again) to steal the election. First the theory, then the evidence. The theory is that Trump is an authoritarian who will not cede power unless he’s forced to do so.  He has stirred up millions and millions of followers to believe the election was rigged. I’ve spoken to them. You have too. These are otherwise competent people who also bought into hydroxychloroquine. Notice that key Republicans, like Mike Pompeo and Kevin McCarthy keep saying they don’t expect or they don’t know that Biden will be inaugurated.

It all looks like a storm stirred up to soothe Trump’s bruised ego, maybe an attempt to negotiate some leverage for his safe exit from power. I still think it’s highly likely things won’t escalate beyond this point. 

But vigilance is called for. Two GOP strategists from Michigan are sending up the alert: there’s a GOP scheme to void the popular vote in key states, handing them over to their Republican state legislatures. It would require enormous bad faith, maybe even criminal conduct, but it’s out there. And there are GOP legislators in Pennsylvania who are up for it. 

And here’s the risk. When have these Republicans ever shown the backbone to say no to Trump and his armies of highly dedicated supporters? The longer this lasts, the deeper the division that sets in, the more likely they are to step forward and cross the line.

The GOP committed itself to ruling as a minority years ago. Don’t assume it won’t cross the ultimate line.

I hope I’m wrong.

Happy Veterans' Day

 I was raised in Alabama, surrounded by men I loved and admired (all men in my case) who served in World War 2 and in Vietnam. I stood beside my Uncle Norman, born 1909, who stood ramrod straight when the band played the national anthem for high school football games, often with a tear breaking out and running down his cheek. You don't forget a thing like that. During my lifetime my Uncle Bernie flew active missions over Vietnam. I heard lots of the stories, not all of them grand or heroic.

As liberal as I am, I am a patriot. And I am grateful for our veterans and active service members. 

So let me share two stories. Military.com is reporting that GOP lists of Nevada "criminal" voter fraud cases include hundreds of active service members and family members. One, the wife of an Air Force major, says

To see my integrity challenged, along with other members of the military to be challenged in this way, it is a shock. And to be potentially disenfranchised because of these actions, that's not OK.

Meanwhile, Bill Kristol describes the scene at the Department of Defense as top-level officials, having been fired as retaliation for who knows what, left the building.

A sign of the loyalty-oath atmosphere now at DOD: When Jim Anderson was fired yesterday as Acting Under Secretary for Policy, he was given a "clap-out" as he left the building. The WH called to request names of any political appointees who joined in so they could be fired.

Remember, what Donald Trump is doing—withholding information from the Biden transition and disrupting the Department of Defense—is wreaking the country at an already-vulnerable moment. There’s no patriotism here.

Tell me again why you think Donald Trump loves the military. And tell me why you think he's not a fascist. 

Tell me those things because right now state legislators are contemplating reversing the election results. From Vox reporter Andrew Prokop.

They Really Are a Bunch of Fascists

National Republicans have been fighting democracy for a long time. It did not begin with Trump, though he's certainly released the hounds. He's also brought almost all elected Republicans under his thumb, even the ones who might have cared about democracy at one point in the past. But remember, Citizens United, the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, and voter ID laws go back to when Republicans realized they could not win a democratic election.

What we're seeing now is just whirlwind of all the wind sowing they've been doing. They do not want democracy. They want white power.

Here in Pennsylvania, we have Republican lawmakers trying to open an investigation in to the voting process--they want not to review the election but to meddle with it while it's happening.

In Texas the governor is restricting drop-off spots for mail-in ballots to one location per county. Think how big a Texas county is. Remember that some Texas counties have populations as high as 3 million. One location. They call it an "election security measure."

The state director of Florida Latinos for Trump turns out to be a Proud Boy. Here he is flashing the white power sign with Roger Stone.

NBC reports that Trump administration officials were ordered to "make comments sympathetic to Kyle Rittenhouse," the white Kenosha, Wisconsin shooter who killed two protestors and maimed another. How does that sound in the light of Trump telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by"? For some reason White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany could not bring herself to directly condemn white supremacy in response to a question from a Fox reporter.

So tell me they're not all fascists?

Some Very Bad Ish

While our eyes are focused on the Supreme Court, Donald Trump is rolling out other aspects of an authoritarian agenda, and quickly. Today the DOJ labeled Seattle, Portland, and New York as "anarchist jurisdictions," whateverthefuck that means, as a pretext for withdrawing federal funds. 

In response to FBI Director Christopher Wray saying the Russians at it again, and the CDC saying a vaccine will take a long time, we got this from Trump.

It goes on and on. This week the CDC posted, then pulled down, guidance that said the coronavirus passes not just in droplets but in aerosols--in other words, it spreads way farther than 6 feet, especially in indoor venues. This is bizarre because the WHO was on the case about this months ago. But apparently the CDC can't release scary news.

And it's still about Russia. Asked who he thinks poisoned Alexey Navalny with Russia's nerve agent of choice, Trump just couldn't say Putin. Not even in a whisper. "Uh... we'll talk about that at another time."

Russia, you say? Lawyers for WikiLinks founder Julian Assange told a British court that Trump offered Assange a pardon for clearing up the 2016 Russian interference story. Right? 

This one is probably silly, but Trump's latest campaign is to accuse Joe Biden of taking performance enhancing drugs. I mean, if he can drive a sports car and ride a bicycle, there must be some nefarious explanation, right? He trotted out that line at a Minnesota rally, where he also offered this gem straight from the Nazi Handbook of Modern Nephrology. This one's not so silly. It's damn terrifying.

You have good genes, you know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn't it, don't you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we're so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.

You might say none of these is as big a deal as the Supreme Court. Maybe you're right. But remember, they take advantage of spotlights to do skeevy little things in the dark.

The Things You Said: A Rough Week for Trump

Donald Trump got to do his favorite thing this week, holding a mask-free rally in North Carolina. He tried to announce an election day vaccine, but the drug companies shockingly displayed some integrity and advised caution.

But two things came out this week that deeply hurt Trump. 

First, the Atlantic reported that during his messy trip to France in 2018, Trump refused to visit the graves of Americans who lost their lives in battle, partly because he didn't want the weather to muss his hair and partly because he doesn't respect soldiers who die or suffer serious injury in battle. He referred to American war dead as "losers" and "suckers." Moreover, he asked that military parades exclude wounded veterans because "Nobody wants to see that."

Ouch. For a guy who counts on the military--who won military votes in 2016, this struck a nerve. Trump and his allies lashed out immediately to deny the report.

But Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin confirmed the Atlantic story, along with just about every other major news outlet. Trump called on Fox to fire Griffin, but he also took a very strange line with the military. In a Labor Day press conference Trump trotted out this line:

It's one of the reasons the military  — I'm not saying the military is in love with me; the soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.

All this when Trump's support among the military, commissioned and enlisted, is crumbling. A New Military Times poll has Joe Biden leading Trump by six points among the troops, 43-37. (In October 2016, Trump led Hillary by 20 points in the same poll.) Trump's favorability among the troops is now at -12, the worst of his presidency.

Trump went after the officers because the poll shows that 59 percent of them view Trump unfavorably, as opposed to "only" 47 percent of enlisted personnel. 

The second disaster for Trump involves reporting by Bob Woodward, who has Trump on tape from back in February admitting that he knew how bad the pandemic could get, he knew how deadly Covid-19 was, and yet he played down the threat. With 200,000 Americans dead, this quote won't play well.

I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.

And a new study from the Institute of Labor Economics estimates that the Sturgis, SD, motorcycle rally has led to 250,000 coronavirus infections with estimated public health costs of over $12 billion. Dr. Evil would be impressed.

The corruption continues, of course. We've learned that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy illegally paid employees to donate to Republican candidates when he was still in the business world. And Attorney General William Barr plans to use DOJ resources to defend Trump in a civil case against a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her. You and I are paying Trump's personal legal defenses. And we're getting reports that Trump has discussed holding aid to California during its worst wildfire season ever because it's a blue state.

With Joe Biden over 50% in most national polls--territory Hillary Clinton never visited--it's gonna be very, very hard for Trump to redeem his chances. Largely because of things he's said himself.

Just Makin Ish Up Now

Donald Trump has always been a liar. He's always made stuff up. We knew that before he ran for president, before he was a birther even. Sports journalist Rick O'Reilly named it for what it was back in 2004.

But we're in a new moment with this race thing. Trump wants you to believe that entire cities are convulsed with violence when that simply isn't the case. Last week I was in a conversation with someone I truly love. Some of it went something like this.

He: I was talking with a friend from Portland last night, and he said everything's pretty much normal. The rioting is just about three blocks.

I: I know that. It's being reported all over the place, and I have friends in Portland too. 

He: Yeah, but nobody really cares how many Blacks are killing each other in Chicago. There are all these riots, but nobody's doing anything about Chicago.

It's chilling, the effect Fox News has on people. And Trump is counting on it. 

In an interview with Laura Ingraham last night, Trump went into full-on Nazi/Stalinist/Trumpist fabrication mode. Here are samples, provided by CNN.

Portland has been burning for many years. For decades, it's been burning, but now it's gotten to a point they don't want to do -- I watched the mayor try and get in with these people.

 Having said you'd be surprised who controls Joe Biden, Trump followed up: People that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows.

We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that. They're on a plane.... I'll tell you sometime, but it's under investigation right now. But they came from a certain city, and this person was coming to the Republican National Convention. And there were like seven people on the plane like this person and then a lot of people were on the plane to do big damage. 

It's not just Trump, it's administration policy. In Kenosha today Attorney General William Barr said that "prior to the rioting in the city last week, federal agents stationed in Chicago picked up information that 'violent instigators' from California, Washington state and Chicago were traveling to Kenosha to carry out attacks against law enforcement." (Quotation not from Barr himself but a paraphrase by ABC's Alex Mallin.)

Clearly we're at the "They'll make up anything" stage when it comes to stirring up racial animosity. And people believe it. Two months to go, and it's getting nothing but uglier. 

By the way, in Kenosha today Trump asked where Rance Priebus was. You know, Trump's FIRST chief of staff? "Where's my Rance?"

Uglier and Uglier, Redux

We don't know how bad things will get. We know they'll get worse, much worse, as Donald Trump and his minions desperately try to save his election chances. We know racism will play a massive role in the story. We know our souls will be tried.

Protests continue in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after police fired seven rounds into the back of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was unarmed and presenting no threat. It looks like Blake will live with paralysis. His three sons witnessed the shooting from close range.

While people are protesting police violence, let's remember that Donald Trump has emboldened police violence. In 2017 he offered this encouragement to an audience of police members:

Please don't be too nice. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? You can take the hand away, OK?

Wednesday night a 17 year-old decided to "protect" Kenosha from the protesters. Armed with an AR-15, he wound up killing two people and maiming a third. 

The shooter, who wanted to be a police officer and identified himself as a pro-police vigilante, was a big Trump supporter. He may have been part of a group of armed people who asked Kenosha officials to deputize them--so there are more like him.

And let me say this plainly: this white boy walked right by police with his rifle across his body after a shooting while people shouted at police that he was the killer. Walked right by. Police had already tossed water bottles to the kid and other vigilantes, thanking them for their support--after curfew.

But here's what's scary. The right wing is rushing to defend this kid who rushed into conflict with a deadly weapon. Fox luminaries Tucker Carlson and Ann Coulter publicly expressed their sympathies for the shooter, Coulter tweeting, "I want him as my president."

These people realize public violence gives Trump a shot. Kellyanne Conway said so:

The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order.

This is a strong signal that things are intensifying. Coulter is a Trump critic. But she's also a racist menace. When you have public figures expressing support for a vigilante murderer, you're looking at a plan to stir up violence. That's where we are.

Flashing Red Lights

Let's say you're visiting the NASA Command Center in Houston during a space launch. You notice a flashing warning signal coming from a technician's computer screen. The technician gets activated, and you know a problem needs to be solved. But then two, three, four other screens light up, and pandelirium ensues. You go from concerned to scared. It's one thing to address a problem on a space mission. That's complicated enough. But what chance do you have when multiple problems flare up at the same time?

That's Donald Trump's presidency. Way too many flashing red lights. And today was one of those days.

First, all day long Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, was flashing lights about the intelligence his committee was receiving on Russian election interference in 2020. Yes, Blumenthal's a Democrat, but he's usually fairly measured.

Tactics & techniques described frighteningly in this global report make past Russian disruption look quaint & rudimentary—like child’s play.

So 2016 was bad, but it was just child's play compared to what the Russians are already cooking up. But he can't share it because it's classified.

Then the Republicans announce that Trump may make his Republican Party nomination acceptance speech from the Rose Garden, almost surely an illegal use of government resources for campaign purposes according to the Hatch Act. Asked about that today, Trump replied:

There is no Hatch Act because it doesn't pertain to the president.

He's not entirely wrong. There are certainly technicalities. But we've never had a president use the White House as a campaign prop in the ways Trump does.

Earlier in the day, Trump was saying vote by mail is okay in Republican-run states because they're managed well, but no way in Democratic states. He : 

You'll never know who the winner is, but the winner's going to be me.

How comforting, right? The Russians are cheating, but the Republicans don't want us to know. And Trump is cheating. So it's all good. 

Of course we're still in a pandemic. As his press conference was ending, more news broke out: for the first time, Facebook took down a Trump post because it was, well, a lie. Trump told Fox News that children are "almost immune" from Covid-19, then posted the clip on social media. Facebook and Twitter both took it down.

During today's coronavirus press briefing Trump had already said, "“It’s going away. It’ll go away. Things go away."

Poof. Like magic.

One more item. Yesterday, and with zero evidence, Trump told reporters the massive explosion in Beirut was likely a terrorist attack. It's hard to overestimate the irresponsibility of this claim, which Trump attributed to generals. As experts began ruling out that theory, today Trump lowered his claim essentially to, some people say this, and some people say that. That left it to Defense Secretary Mark Esper--how does he still have a job?--to correct Trump: although the US is "still getting information on what happened," "most believe" the explosion "was an accident, as reported."

In some ways Trump is dumber than a box of rocks. But do not underestimate him. 

1. Maybe he's dumb in some ways, but he still has a certain kind of crocodile intelligence that allows him to amass power and money. He's still considered charismatic by his followers.
2. Trump is surrounded by people who are less stupid and quite strategic. They give him advice.
3. Republican politicians are terrified of Trump and will back him up on every point. 
4. Sometimes it's accidental. And sometimes it's strategic. But every day Trump sets off so many fires that nobody can keep up. That makes him very dangerous.

Update: Reports indicate that Deutsche Bank has complied with NY prosecutors, sending them Trump's financial records. 

"Extensive and Protracted Criminal Conduct"

Seeking Donald Trump's tax records, New York DA Cyrus Vance cited public reports of "extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization." According to a court filing,

These reports describe transactions involving individual and corporate actors based in New York County, but whose conduct at times extended beyond New York’s borders. This possible criminal activity occurred within the applicable statutes of limitations, particularly if the transactions involved a continuing pattern of conduct.

Prosecutors 

cited several newspaper articles, including one in the Washington Post examining allegations that Trump had a practice of sending out financial statements to potential business partners and banks that inflated the worth of his properties by claiming they were bigger or more potentially lucrative than they were.

It really is about the corruption, which continues through government even now.

Deutsche Bank is conducting an internal investigation of the banker who supplied "favorable" loans to Trump and to Jared Kushner, including why said banker bought a $1.5 million apartment from a company partially owned by Kushner.

In June Trump thanked Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn for blocking legislation that would require campaigns to report receiving foreign assistance. 

After the Senate refused to act on Trump's nomination of retired Gen. Anthony Tata as Defense undersecretary for policy, Trump simply appointed him as "the official Performing the Duties of...."

Trump is using the coronavirus to advance the concerns of his super-rich cronies. 

All skeevy, all the time. 

It's taken the pandemic to sour key supporters on Trump, opening the space for people to see just how corrupt his government is. In current pandemic news,

• Today the FDA "revoked the emergency use authorization (EUA) that allowed for chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine."
• Barron Trump's private school announced online-only learning for the time being while Trump cajoles schools into opening. 
• Most alarming, yesterday Dr. Deborah Birx told CNN's Dana Bash that we're in a world of hurt. "What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It's into the rural as equal urban areas." She even advised people who live with elderly relatives to wear masks in the home.
• Finally, just read this by an Arizona public school superintendent. 

And isn’t it fun to check this out? Once busted, Trump deleted his ridiculous tweet.

 

 

Hold On to Your Democracy

Every day is a new shock or an aftershock from a day before. The center of our attention now has to lie with voting.

The big threat today is Trump's attack on the US Postal Service. Recent decisions by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a huge Trump donor, have slowed down deliveries, leading to a backlog. Alarm bells are going off, alerting us to the threat that Trump may be undermining mail-in voting in an attempt to skew election results. During a pandemic, no less.

There's a context for this fear. Trump is doing everything he can to undermine the legitimacy of the election.

A little over a week ago Donald Trump started the shenanigans by threatening not to honor the election results "if" he loses. Asked by Congress, Attorney General William Barr offered no assurances to the contrary--he'll leave office "if the results are clear"--and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held Trump's back as well. 

Then Trump tweeted the suggestion that we might postpone the election due to the coronavirus. Some commentators maintain we shouldn't be anxious, since the Constitution doesn't allow Trump to make that call. I'm not so sure. Congressional Republicans generally haven't stood up to Trump on such matters, and his action could undermine the election's credibility. Remarkably, Steven Calabrisi, co-founder of the Federalist Society, spoke out to declare Trump's tweet both fascistic and impeachable. Those were his words. 

We need to be vigilant about voting. The White House is laughing about it. Today Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany condemned the Hong Kong government for delaying their election. One day after Trump threatened our own election.

Making things worse, the DHS indicates foreign enemies could "mislead" the public based on unproven claims of voter fraud--like those promoted by Trump and Barr. (Just seen on CNN.)

On the horizon: Vanity Fair has a big story on the vanishing of Jared Kushner's big push to promote a national testing plan. The big stink: the White House decided the pandemic was a blue state problem. According to one source, 

The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy.

We already knew Trump was letting blue state folks die because he said out loud that he wouldn't fulfill requests from blue state governors. Maybe some die-hard Trumpsters won't care, but most Americans won't stand for a government that chooses who lives and dies according to voting patterns. 

We'll see. The CDC says we're gonna lose 30,000 more Americans in the next 3 weeks. 

A Racist Fog

You know what happened yesterday? The COVID Tracking Project reported that coronavirus cases may be flattening again, but: 

Once again, the state data on current COVID-19 hospitalizations is unstable. CA, SC, and TX have all posted notices stating their hosp. data is incomplete because of the HHS changeover. We’ve maintained the freeze on their hospitalization data again. More on that tomorrow.

In other words, the Trump administration's determination to shift data from the CDC to the Department of Health and Human Services is doing just what we feared: making it harder to understand the full scope of the pandemic's devastation. 

The official death count is nearing 150,000. We know there are more, simply because we have what they call "excess deaths" on the books. 

And since Donald Trump's poll numbers are down, he needs distractions. One of his go-to distractions is race. 

Sure enough, Trump indicated he won't show up in person to pay his respects to the deceased Member of Congress and civil rights hero John Lewis. Possible explanations abound, including that Lewis was a vocal critic of Trump, but one sure effect of the decision is to signal to his racist followers that Trump just doesn't give a flip about Lewis.

But that's petty stuff for Trump. His new line is that he's gonna protect the suburbs from "those people." By all accounts the United States would be better off if we distributed affordable housing more broadly. I won't go into it. But Trump?

That's right. "Those people" are a threat. You'll be "bothered." You'd have "crime." And by the way, the AFFH is not an Obama rule. It goes back to 1968.

Prominent Trumpians couldn't wait to pile on to the racism distraction wagon. Senator Tom Cotton described American slavery as a "necessary evil." And Trump evangelical Eric Metaxas, who sure enough knows better, tweeted that Jesus was white--and therefore white supremacy can't be a problem.

It's easy to pass off Trumpism as a clown show. Jealous that the Washington Nationals invited Dr. Anthony Fauci to toss the Opening Day first pitch, Trump announced that he'd had to decline the Yankees offer to do the same.

(Remember, Trump was roundly booed when he showed up for a Washington game last year.) 

Trump had not been invited. He is scheduled to throw the first pitch at a game in August.

So you might be tempted to write all off as tomfoolery. But remember: Tom Cotton went to Harvard. Eric Metaxas went to Yale. And there's a totalitarian playbook about how to help your guy. They make mistakes, but when you see coordinating messages, guess what? 

They're coordinating messages.