The Blair Witch Hunt Project
Run for your life! The scary urban people wearing Powell’s Books T-shirts and hopped up on artisanal ice cream are rioting in the streets, and the chaos, if not contained, could break through your white picket fence. No one is safe. Board up your windows, pull your children close, and whatever you do, don’t change the channel from Fox News. That’s the imaginary America Donald Trump is looking to create; where he’ll ride in by November to defeat an imaginary enemy as his administration fails to confront the real threat of Covid-19. Ron Brownstein breaks it down in The Atlantic: Trump Is Determined to Split the Country in Two. “In deploying federal forces, Trump appears to be trying to provoke clashes with protesters, which he can use to convince white suburban voters that he’s the last line of defense between them and the chaos allegedly incubating in cities, Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, told me. Referring to the street battle between construction workers and anti-war protesters in Manhattan in 1970, Emanuel said, ‘Trump is trying to create his own hard-hat riot, and they are wearing [law-enforcement] helmets.'” (Too bad there’s not room for all of us in the White House Bunker…)
+ Not scared yet? You will be after you see the bloodthirsty eyes of the members of the Wall of Moms. (I haven’t been this afraid since my proofer RD and I nearly got caught smoking weed in his tree fort.)
+ Don’t buy the idea that this is a political invention, not a real crisis? A post by Donald Trump’s official Facebook account purports to show violence in the US, but it’s really happening in 2014 Ukraine. (What is it with this guy and Ukraine?)
+ The nation’s first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge: “Had I been governor, even now, I would welcome the opportunity to work with any federal agency to reduce crime or lawlessness in the cities. But I would tell you, it would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities.” (It’s been like twenty degrees in hell for more than three years.)
+ WaPo: “Lawmakers and former government officials have intensified calls for federal officers to shed the camouflage and return to wearing uniforms that clearly identify them as law enforcement.” (I suggest they wear orange concealer.)
+ And for an on the scene backgrounder: What You Need To Know About The Battle of Portland.
