https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/06/06/get-ready-for-a-brutal-election-about-trumps-racism-and-authoritarianism/?utm_term=.8cc54b9d92ad

Get ready for a brutal election about Trump’s racism and authoritarianism

THE MORNING PLUM:

Remember when Republicans were going to make their tax cut the centerpiece of their strategy for the midterm elections? That plan is no longer operative. The new plan: Bet that President Trump’s race-baiting attacks on Democrats for coddling immigrant gang members, and on football players protesting systemic racism, energize the GOP and Trumpist base just enough to enable Republicans to hold on.

There are multiple reasons why this may get much, much worse, in effect producing a midterm election that is to no small degree a referendum on Trump’s racism and authoritarianism.

Last night’s results out of multiple states confirm that the hot takes pronouncing Democrats dead and buried were premature. Democrats appear to have avoided getting locked out of any House races in California. They nominated strong candidates in New Jersey, meaning they have retained numerous pickup opportunities in both states. Democrats also flipped a state Senate district in Missouri in a landslide, swinging it by more than 20 points, suggesting that maybe the tightening generic House ballot, while certainly a cause for worry, isn’t the only metric that matters.

Meanwhile, this morning, the Washington Examiner’s David Drucker reports that Republicans are increasingly planning to rely on Trump’s culture-war attacks — particularly those involving MS-13 and football players kneeling during the national anthem — to goose the base in the midterms:

Trump’s habit of ignoring the economic message preferred by House and Senate Republicans in favor of the culture war tropes that propelled him to the White House is increasingly seen as an asset. Though provocative, the president’s rhetoric resonates with the base, offering Republicans a vehicle for matching the Democrats’ critical voter enthusiasm edge.

The Examiner notes that Republicans are privately cheering Trump for claiming that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) loves MS-13. And as GOP consultant Brad Todd put it, Republicans believe that “cultural cudgels” like Trump’s attacks on African American football players as anti-American and anti-military are “all upside for him.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2018/06/06/president-trumps-fake-patriotism/?utm_term=.69e416804971

Because reality in 2018 is indistinguishable from ham-handed parody, here is what happened this week.

Only a few of the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles were going to show up at the White House to meet the president, so the White House emitted a Very Strongly Worded Statement saying that the Eagles had been disinvited because they were not willing to respect the national anthem. No, the statement said, the president could not bear to see the flag and the troops and this amber grain-waving land so sorely disrespected, so therefore they would be having an afternoon of patriotic singing and troop saluting with no Philadelphia Eagles whatsoever, just regular eagles, if any were available, that fans of the sports franchise (or White House staff) would be free to attend (whichever filled the venue in a lifelike manner first).

And then what happened? If you guessed “they had an afternoon whose only purpose was to showcase the president’s sterling and remarkable patriotism, which was far, far better than any Philadelphia Eagle could hope to have, in which they sang ‘God Bless America’ and President Trump did not seem to remember all the words,” you would be correct.


The incident poses the same problem as most Trump-era incidents, in which what actually occurred is more ridiculous than anything you could liken it to. This is more palpably absurd than if the president had decided to declare Tuesday Good Speling day. It is like if the first lady decided that her pet issue would be stopping people from being mean to other people online. No, it is like if the president had a special event expressly to exhibit what True Patriots Singing looked like and failed to sing some of the words to “God Bless America,” a song with 47 words, nine of which are just “God bless America” repeated three times.

https://twitter.com/JoeNBC/status/1004370400959229952

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1004359335399641089

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5813917/Trump-reassures-Melania-people-love-honey-going-twitter-rant-fake-news.html

Kenneth Cole Deletes Tweet Calling Kate Spade ‘An Inspiring Accessory’
“I realized there may have been room for misinterpretation,” the designer said after the backlash.

Kenneth Cole deleted a tweet calling fellow designer Kate Spade “an inspiring accessory” after her death on Tuesday, People magazine reported.

Cole absorbed backlash for his awkward tribute amid an outpouring of grief for Spade, who died at age 55 in an apparent suicide.

“She alone didn’t change the handbag world but she was an inspiring accessory,” Cole wrote in his original tweet.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kenneth-cole-kate-spade-death-accessory_us_5b17a2a0e4b09578259d2829

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-brock-turner-recall-20180606-story.html

California voters made history Tuesday, recalling a judge for the first time since 1932.

Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky was tossed from office, the latest legacy from the Brock Turner case. Turner was a Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexual assault. Persky’s sentencing of Brock stirred national outrage, and the recall effort.

Q: What was the Turner case about?

Turner attacked an unconscious woman behind a garbage bin on the Palo Alto university's campus in January 2015.

At his sentencing, the Ohio native faced up to 14 years in prison. Prosecutors sought a six-year prison term.

Persky opted for the lighter prison term and also sentenced Turner to three years of probation. At the time, he said a lengthier penalty would have a "severe impact" on Turner.

Public criticism of the sentence escalated when the unidentified victim's 12-page, single-spaced letter that she read aloud in court went viral after it was published by the media. She excoriated the judge for giving Turner "a soft time-out, a mockery of the [seriousness] of the assaults."

when he was the one who started the "fake news' speculation about Obama's birth country. Even Dailymail points out the hypocrisy.

'The Fake News Media has been so unfair, and vicious, to my wife and our great First Lady, Melania. During her recovery from surgery they reported everything from near death, to facelift, to left the W.H. (and me) for N.Y. or Virginia, to abuse. All Fake, she is doing really well!' Trump wrote.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5812675/Trump-flames-fake-claims-Melania-vanished-face-lift-near-death.html

On Tuesday, newly released internal emails showed Pruitt had ordered an aide to set up a call with the chairman of Chick-fil-A to discuss the administrator’s wife, Marlyn Pruitt, becoming a franchisee of the growing fast-food chain. Pruitt never completed the application, but the call raised concerns about the “misuse of public office,” Don Fox, who was head of the federal Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration, told The Washington Post.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-pruitt-scandals_us_5b16ef35e4b0734a99385b09

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/us/kids-bulletproof-shield-school.html?module=WatchingPortal®ion=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=4&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2018%2F06%2F05%2Fus%2Fkids-bulletproof-shield-school.html&eventName=Watching-article-click

As the school year wound down this week at St. Cornelius Catholic School in Chadds Ford, Pa., eighth-grade students were handed a gift meant to prepare them for their transition to high school — a bullet-resistant shield that can fit in their backpacks.

“It is their life now, which is very sad,” Barbara Rosini, the school principal, said in an interview on Tuesday. “But if it is something that will help keep our kids, or any child or any adult, safe, that is unfortunately where we are now.”

“I never thought I would need this,” Jacob Nicosia, one of the students graduating on Tuesday, told a local television station during the distribution event on Monday.

The small private school in a small semirural community west of Philadelphia, with several hundred students from prekindergarten through middle school, is not alone in its attempt to address the multiple school shootings over the years.

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In an assembly on Monday, Mr. Vito presented the shields, which were tested at military laboratories and are known as SafeShields, to 15 students and 25 faculty members. A shield would not resist an AR-15 bullet, but it has been tested to stop handgun bullets and shotgun shells, as well as provide protection against stabbing, he said in an interview.

Mr. Vito’s 14-year-old daughter is among those graduating on Tuesday who received the donated SafeShields. Made of a Kevlar composite, they measure about 10 inches by 12 inches and weigh about as much as two eight-ounce cans of soda.

“Sadly, this is the sign of the times,” Mr. Vito said. “The parents have to take responsibility for their child’s safety.”

Event. Done only to enrage the base against Black folks. Trump is good at that