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.

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.