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CITYWATCH TODAY--So the ghastly MAGA buffoon just kicked off his re-election campaign in Orlando, a town which this month also marks the three-year-anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shootings, the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall, and Juneteenth, the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of U.S. slavery.
With breathtaking cognitive dissonance, Trump lumbered in bringing lies - "100,000" people in the 17,000-person, perfectly apt Amway Center - crowds of old fat blindingly white people chanting "Lock Her Up!" because wow these people are stupid, and a crew of Nazis and Proud Boys flashing white power signs and chanting "Pinochet Was Right!" "When America sends its people to Orlando, they’re not sending their best," wrote Betty Bowers. "They’re sending people that have lots of problems.
They’re bringing racism. They're bringing xenophobia. They’re ignorant. And some, I assume, are good people." Given the diversity of both Florida and Orlando, wrote another un-fan, "This isn't a rally - it's a Klan meeting." From another, "Today, thousands of people are traveling to Orlando to visit a Magical Kingdom of Make Believe. Meanwhile, thousands of others are going to Disney World."
Happily, Trump was met with "quintessential Orlando: rooted love, unity, resilience, some fun, and zero place for hate," vowing "Together against Trump we will #WinWithLove" with a raucous rally flying Trump's "gaseous orange twin," the Baby Trump blimp. He was also met with his own undocumented workers calling him out - "We're here (to) tell the truth" - dismal polling numbers - all six Democratic front-runners beat him - and a blistering editorial from the Orlando Sentinel, the city's largest paper that for decades has endorsed Republicans. This singularly evil time around, it offered a damning non-endorsement, urging Americans to please vote for anyone but Trump. "Some readers will wonder how we could possibly eliminate a candidate so far before an election, and before knowing the identity of his opponent," they wrote.
"There's no point in pretending we would ever recommend that readers vote for Trump." Citing his documented 10,000-plus lies to date, the paper cites his "assault on truth (as) the great casualty of this presidency, followed closely by his war on decency."
They list his insults, "middle-school taunts," incapacity for empathy or remorse, abuses of power, treasonous impulses. They'd maybe back Romney, or Kasich, or even Trump if he cured cancer or, as likely, "changed the essence of who he is (he won’t)." Otherwise, no. "We can do better," they write. "We have to do better."
(CityWatch guest columnist Abby Zimet writes for Common Dreams .. where this perspective was first posted.)
-cw
