Donald can’t handle reality | Tom Camfield

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“LOCK HER UP!” the partisan crowd chanted Wednesday night — during a typical mask-free Donald Trump rally in Minnesota. By mid-day Friday he was confined to Walter Reed medical center being treated for coronavirus.

In Minnesota (10 electoral votes), Trump said the state (which has a large Somalian population) would be turned into a “refugee camp” by his presidential opponent Joe Biden. “It is Joe Biden’s plan to inundate your state with a historic flood of refugees.” he bellowed with his usual inanity.

Turning (again) to the subject of Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, Trump asked, “What is going on with Omar? I’ve been reading these reports for two years about how corrupt and crooked she is. Let’s get with it! “ (What reports?) He suggested she wasn’t a true citizen because of her roots. He also has repeated false claims that she has been active in a ballot-harvesting scheme.

As more than 210,000 Americans have died on behalf of unsuccessful economic recovery, with more to follow, I won’t be writing anything sympathetic about Donald Trump. He pretty much summed up his mask-less self-absorbed attitude early in August (coronavirus deaths then “only” about 150,000) with the dismissal: “It is what it is.” And with the Washington Post having logged some 20,000 or 25,000 lies by Donald over the past four years, let’s give his conveniently-timed personal battle with coronavirus another couple of weeks before we apply it to the upcoming election.

Opinion columnist Maureen Dowd in the New York Times observed Saturday “. . . As president, he has created a bubble within his bubble, keeping out science and anything that made him look bad. He has played a dangerous game of alchemizing wishes to facts, pretending that he was a strong leader, pretending that the virus will magically disappear and that it ‘affects virtually nobody,’ pretending that we don’t have to wear masks, pretending that dicey remedies could work, pretending that the vaccine is right around the corner. Now, in a moment that feels biblical, the implacable virus has come to his door . . .”

Racism also seems to have been on the rise in recent years. White supremacy. We can keep Donald in the major-headline news politically by calling attention to a New York Times story, also Oct. 2 , around the time his virus infection was making its presence known. “The Trump administration said it would cut its already rock-bottom refugee admittances deep into record territory for the upcoming year as President Donald Trump returned to his anti-immigrant themes in the closing month of his reelection campaign . . .” from the 110,000 slots that President Barack Obama approved in 2016 to Trump’s 18,000 for last year, to just 15,000 for the fiscal year which began last Thursday.

“The president and his political advisers . . . believe that the largely successful effort to seal off the country from asylum-seekers and refugees fleeing persecution, war and violence is a winning campaign issue . . . “

They seem to be wrong.

Meanwhile, closing the borders, building walls, etc. tie in nicely with the white supremacy Donald mistakenly assumes to be an American majority. Give him a black office-holder who who strongly disagrees with his egocentric view of our society and you have someone such as Ilhan Omar. No matter that she fled violence in Somalia at age 8, has been a legal citizen for 20 years, etc. No natter that Donald’s third wife, Melania Knavs, was born in 1970 in Slovenia (Yugoslavia) and became a U.S. citizens just 14 years ago. On Aug. 9, 2018, Melania’s parents became U.S. citizens.

OTHER ODDS & ENDS — Sept 11: A reporter for The New York Times was kicked out of a rally for Donald Trump in Michigan, after noting on social media that many of the president’s supporters were not wearing masks or keeping their distance despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kentucky’s Senator Mitch McConnell accused his opponent Amy McGrath (press release) of potentially backing out of an October debate. But according to his opponent, the real issue is the incumbent senator’s refusal to participate in an event with a female moderator. So partially in support of a truthful press, I sent along a financial dog to take part in the fight that is Amy McGrath’s campaign. McConnell’s release stated “Sen. Mitch McConnell has not participated in a debate in Kentucky where the candidates took questions from a female moderator in nearly 25 years, and he continues to resist allowing women to host debates."