Baltimore is one of those cities in the 21st C that’s becoming very, very gentrified. What Rump is referring to reminds me of shades of THE WIRE but that idea of Baltimore is slowly ebbing away or at the least, becoming smaller. (If you’re on Twitter, check out what happened to writer David Simon) It sounds as if it’s a similar deal to NYC. Some have parts (not all) become so horribly gentrified, if you were a long time resident (as I am) you barely recognize many areas.
With Rump, it’s a combination of racism (anywhere you have PoC you have garbage) and remembering a place that just doesn’t exist anymore.
It seems pretty clear that since Trump refuses to behave as a President, people will refuse to give him the respect inherent to that hallowed Office that he has desecrated. The Baltimore Sun editorial is remarkable in its denunciation of the most powerful man in the country and unfortunately, quite necessary. Trump is a hateful person who sows division and discord wherever he goes for his own benefit.
Also, even Obama who has stayed largely quiet, indirectly called out Trump over his racism.
As much as I loathe the ever-escalating incendiary rhetoric from the WH, and the correspondingly incendiary responses from those it has attacked, I know from personal experience that sometimes the only way to deal with a bully is hit back, as hard as possible.
This should always - always - be the pic TPM uses when it feels it must present a pic of Shithead in all his balding, triple-chinned, gaping maw, hate encircled eyes.
While I can begrudgingly forgive the ignorant, ill informed, bought into 30 years of HRC propaganda voters in 2016, anyone who still supports, or even tolerates, this sick fuck is him/herself a full-blown racist who must be permanently shunned from civil society.
Oh, but I keep hearing from 45 voters the recitation of all 45 has achieved: making peace with North Korea, tax cuts for all, securing our borders, lowest black unemployment rate EVAH(as if that makes a difference to any of his devotees), making Americans feel proud of their government again, bringing scads of jobs back to this country, standing up for us abroad, getting steel made in America again, etc., etc., ad nauseum. I think they’ve got paid hacks to put this litany on every news comment section. The latest I read on an article posted by the Economist.
making peace with North Korea, tax cuts for all, securing our borders, lowest black unemployment rate EVAH(as if that makes a difference to any of his devotees), making Americans feel proud of their government again, bringing scads of jobs back to this country, standing up for us abroad, getting steel made in America again, etc.,
And all those things are illusions. His followers have been told that these things have happened/are happening and they believe it more than anything. NOTHING you could say to them will change their belief. They have to believe it because they imbue Rump with super powers of White people to “make things happen.” Even the most cursory investigation shows all those things to be what they are: a big pile of BS.
How I wish Jack Germond was still around at the Baltimore Sun to call him out.
In the 70’s through the 90’s the local Gannet paper where I grew up in Westchester carried him on the op ed page.
The demographic that supports Trump falls into two broad categories:
Those with enough money that they don’t feel like they have to give a shit.
Those who want (and perhaps need) to believe the lie. If you’ve ever spent any time with pseudo-Christian folks - the biblical cherry-pickers who believe Jesus looked European and hates gays - you’ll note that they spend a lot of time trying to convince themselves of this nonsense. When you lie to yourself every day, it’s easier to lie to others.
I don’t see an easy fix to either of these social diseases…
