'We're Here and They're Not'

[Zorro]

Could Trump and his convention have been more puerile?

By Frank Bruni

I’m so relieved that the pandemic is over! I’d somehow missed that news, but then I watched the Republican National Convention, culminating in President Trump’s big speech, and learned that with his swift, muscular action, he’d pretty much vanquished the “China virus.” I learned that the economic toll of it was fast receding and would be a blurry memory soon.

I learned that it’s now perfectly safe for hundreds of people to sit cheek by jowl without masks, because that’s what they did in order to bathe the president in applause and chants of “four more years.” I learned that anyone who says different is just being a hater. But Trump is a lover. I learned that, too.

How to reconcile that with the viciousness of much of his remarks, which were as grounded in reality as a Tolkien novel and about as long? I’m stumped.

But I’m impressed: that he claimed such big-heartedness while showing such small-mindedness; that he twisted facts with such abandon and in such abundance; that he again trotted out that nonsense about having done more for Black Americans than any president since Abraham Lincoln; that he disparaged Joe Biden for not “following the science” about Covid-19 when he, Trump, mused about injections of bleach and vouched recklessly for hydroxychloroquine.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opinion/sunday/trump-rnc-speech.html

[yankee87]

1. Jaws Redux

The water is fine. Everyone jump in the water. A million new unemployment claims per week. 180,000 Americans dead. Racial strife throughout the country.
But hey MAGA/KAGA/KKK/OATHKEEPERS/3%/BUGABOOBOYS/NAZIS/TRUMPANEEZE/PUTIN