How Hot Is It?

One problem with Trumpism: it feels like it's getting hotter every day. Assaults on democracy big and small raise the pressure, raise the temperature, and it's hard to know when you've crossed the line and headed toward emergency.

There's a reason for that confusion. We crossed the emergency line a long time ago, so everything that happens now feels out of perspective.

Take what's going on in Portland. Unmarked vehicles with unmarked armed men pick people up off the street and detain them. You can't complain because you have no idea who assaulted you. (Yes, that's an assault.) They fire dangerous flash-bangs at totally peaceful protesters. They give ridiculous rationales like it's Soviet block Czechoslovakia. "We sent in the troops because somebody put graffiti on a building." Unconfirmed reports say the same things are happening in other towns.

Making things worse, an internal HHS memo indicated these "federal forces"--

wait a damn minute

what are "federal forces"?--

these "federal forces" weren't trained to deal with protests.

It's like we're living in Putin's Russia, but we won't rise up and squash the outrage.

Or Trump's interview with Fox Reporter Chris Wallace. Wallace fact checks Trump over and over. 

The coronavirus is getting worse; more people are dying. No, says the Black Knight, it's just a flesh wound. Dr. Fauci was too alarmist. 

People should wear masks. “No, I want people to have a certain freedom.... And I don’t believe in that, no. I don’t believe in the statement that if everyone wore a mask, everything disappears.” 

No, Joe Biden doesn't want to defund the police. Yes he does. I have his statement. Can't find defunding the police because it's not there. Well, he wants to defund the police, but he just uses other words.

And like it's 2016, No, I won't commit to honoring the election results. Scary antidemocratic words from a candidate. Outright treason by a president.

But we're all distracted because Trump mentor Roger Stone, fresh off having his prison sentence commuted by Trump, muttered "I can’t believe I’m arguing with this Negro" during an interview with Mo'Kelly. Stone denies it, of course. But there's a long record of Roger Stone's public racism and misogyny. 

Yes, it's essential to protest the stench of white nationalism that assaults us from Donald Trump and his minions. It's also essential to keep our eye on the thermometer. We've got a few months to hold on to this democracy, what's left of it anyway. We'd best be on point.

Meanwhile, read the transcripts available from Chris Wallace's Fox News interview with Donald Trump. It's evident you're dealing with someone at once vicious and uninformed. (So far the transcripts are incomplete.) It's hard to pick a sample more dumbfounding than the rest. I'll offer this.

WALLACE: You said our children are taught in school to hate our country. Where do you see that?

TRUMP: I just look at – I look at school. I watch, I read, look at the stuff. Now they want to change -- 1492, Columbus discovered America. You know, we grew up, you grew up, we all did, that’s what we learned. Now they want to make it the 1619 project. Where did that come from? What does it represent? I don’t even know, so.

WALLACE: It’s slavery.

TRUMP: That’s what they’re saying, but they don’t even know. They just want to make a change. Cancel culture – I hate the term, actually, but I use it

WALLACE: But are they teaching people to hate America?

TRUMP: Oh, I think so yeah, I think so. Look at the professors. Look at what’s going on in the colleges. If a conservative goes on a college – and look, we have as many as them. Excuse me, I think to the best of my knowledge, we’re sitting at the White House and the Oval Office is right behind me. We have as many as them.

Oh.