Scary, bad, evil, radical, dangerous

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville has a daily roundup of the nasty things the nasty guy and his minions are doing. These are just a few of the things in Friday’s report:

The nasty guy wants to close 80% of the sidewalks around the White House and require citizens to pay to protest by charging “event management” costs. Civil liberties groups are watching carefully.

Susan Glasser at the New Yorker listened to all six of the nasty guy’s rallies in October. I couldn’t do that. She thinks the soundbites reported in the news misses the point.

It's the hate, and the sense of actual menace that the President is trying to convey to his supporters. Democrats aren't just wrong in the manner of traditional partisan differences; they are scary, bad, evil, radical, dangerous. Trump and Trump alone stands between his audiences and disaster. I listen because I think we are making a mistake by dismissing him, by pretending the words of the most powerful man in the world are meaningless. They do have consequences. They are many, and they are worrisome.

Jay Michaelson at The Daily Beast sees the highest turnout for the midterm elections in recent history. Yet, voters are likely to encounter an array of voter restrictions.

A review by The Daily Beast found at least five voter-suppression practices in active use today. All are led by Republicans, all have disproportionate effects on non-white populations, and all are rationalized by bogus claims of voter fraud.

In a separate post McEwan highlights a report that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called Senator Elizabeth Warren an “impolite arrogant woman,” and that speaking to her was the “absolutely most insulting conversation I have ever had with anyone.” Can we say misogyny?

That prompted commenter jenn_smithson to add:

I've been noticing this with average, everyday lay-republican folk as well - any pushback, AT ALL, against their noxious ideas or positions and You are the one suddenly being antagonistic, "insulting," uncivil, rude, etc. It's almost as though they sincerely believe that they can hold whatever horrible position they want and should be free from absolutely anyone asking them to think critically about it or point out what a heartless position it is …

And I keep seeing articles and op/eds about how the Dems are so rude and uncivil for calling out the Reps when the Reps are literally trying to shove fascism down our throats, steal from our collective coffers, imprison innocent people fleeing violence we cannot understand in actual concentration camps, supporting and cheering on the abuse and degradation of women - just to name a few! You think calling you out is "insulting"? Well I think you wanting me and my people to DIE is more than just an insult, it's a direct threat so I'll respond to that threat in whatever way will keep as many people safe as possible.

Back in June as the family separation crisis was boiling McEwan wrote:

Donald Trump, with the aid of the nativist scum in his administration and the complicit media, created a problem with the explicit intent of provoking protest that he could abuse to make himself look heroic while actually making a historically significant white supremacist move that will be a lasting shame on this nation.

Note well what she is saying is the nasty guy's method:
* Create a problem and provoke a protest.
* “Fix” the problem and look heroic.
* Keep oppressing people while the media looks away because the problem is “solved.”

McEwan adds now:

My concern was that the executive order was actually an expansion of the administration's nativist policies, designed to appear as though it was fixing the problem of separating families and incarcerating infants and young children; that the purpose was to evade accountability and give the public an excuse to stop paying attention, as the administration quietly escalated its war on immigrants.

That is exactly what has happened.

McEwan quotes a section of a story by Sarah Stillman at the *New Yorker* about five year old Helen from Honduras. Her story is different because Helen crossed the border with Noehmi, her grandmother, while Jeny, her mother, was already established in the US. The two women are having a difficult time extracting Helen from detention. Children have been misclassified and seem to have disappeared. The nasty guy’s administration hasn’t stopped separations, they now do it in the cover of night. But because of the bogus executive order last summer people are no longer paying attention.