The GOP wants you to be afraid, be very afraid. Trump wants you to pay attention anything other than the activity the Kremlin is doing for him and the GOP. Especially if you (still) live in the suburbs. And then Trump reveals his inner narcissist from the 1980s still afraid of the 1960s… Trump needs those voters’ fears, even if they’re now fears of COVID-19.

Trump now repeatedly mentions the 1950s but clearly only wants to keep the 2016 base together even as everything as moved on. Even anti-modernism moves forward, however glacially in history. Trump thinks that somehow no one can remember that Putin was a KGB officer who practiced his craft in East Germany.

x barely veiled and *very dated* racial code, too: many of the suburbs that have rejected Trump are not the overwhelmingly white, city-hating communities they might have been in the 1980shttps://t.co/DPwkaC0VK3Ã¢ÂÂ Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT) July 16, 2020

x This is pure, uncut racism. I mean, thereÃ¢ÂÂs no wiggle room in what heÃ¢ÂÂs saying. You canÃ¢ÂÂt support this man and say you arenÃ¢ÂÂt racist. ItÃ¢ÂÂs a logical fallacy. https://t.co/dYiVGs6Pgz

Ã¢ÂÂ Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) July 17, 2020

x It would be a real American tragedy is this book sold more copies than 'Art of the Deal'…

— BMC (@steelydanbmc25) July 16, 2020

Mental health professionals have a 'duty to warn' about a leader who may be unfit to serve. Otto Kernberg, a psychoanalyst specializing in borderline personalities, defined malignant narcissism as having four components: narcissism, paranoia, antisocial personality and sadism. Trump exhibits all four. www.usatoday.com/… JONATHAN V. LAST at the Bulwark: x Oh my, JVL is mad. Ã¢ÂÂThe problem, you see, is not the 137,234 dead Americans. ItÃ¢ÂÂs that Republicans might lose an election.Ã¢ÂÂ https://t.co/AMroHLVo9t

Ã¢ÂÂ Shannon Last (@shannon_last) July 16, 2020

President Trump’s coronavirus management ratings have been plummeting (67% disapproved in an ABC/Ipsos poll last week) and if a better public-relations plan is in the works, it’s not apparent. . . .

The problem is that the White House seems to have given up on projecting any consistent virus message, and the descent into internal sniping amplifies a perception of dysfunction that is politically damaging.

The media are propagating the view that the U.S. is a coronavirus basket case. In fact, the per-capita death rate remains lower than that of some major countries in Western Europe. . . .

Mr. Trump’s messaging has caromed from saying the virus isn’t a problem, to the economy must shut down to crush it, to the economy must open and everything will soon go back to normal, to barely talking about it at all as cases rise. . . .

This is a mess, and if it continues Republicans will be routed in November. . . .

Today President Trump’s opponents can depict the White House as resigned, lacking direction, and more eager to disparage medical authorities than rally them to implement the Administration’s strategy. Time is running out to change that perception.

What reality do the Wall Street Journal editors live in?

Because nothing in this piece—not one single line—addresses the reality of the world as it exists.

Instead, they are fixated on secondary, tertiary, and quaternary concerns: Public relations. Messaging. The media. Depictions. Perceptions.

The real world is the one that matters.

thebulwark.com/…

x CDC Removes Then Restores COVID-19 Hospitalization Data to Its Website: https://t.co/TkIrMY4VX7 pic.twitter.com/geHgyDJXXh Ã¢ÂÂ The Root (@TheRoot) July 16, 2020

— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) July 16, 2020

More payoffs:

x Trump wonÃ¢ÂÂt sign a COVID-19 relief bill unless it has a tax cut for the rich

https://t.co/jbUMSpsc1h

— Raw Story (@RawStory) July 16, 2020

x ….therefore we will hack into your computers and steal your vaccine. https://t.co/iwnPADxb9a

Ã¢ÂÂ Michael Carpenter (@mikercarpenter) July 16, 2020

x Stryker APCs on the streets of America. There is no way this doesnÃ¢ÂÂt backfire.

Ã¢ÂÂ Captain Acab (@Mr_Kroppy) July 16, 2020

x The absurdity on top of absurdity of people abusing the Ã¢ÂÂI have a medical condition that prevents me from wearing a maskÃ¢ÂÂ is the naked disregard for the medical conditions of the rest of us Ã¢ÂÂ like being vulnerable to the virus: pic.twitter.com/EV6hfuyPhk

— Hamza Shaban (@hshaban) July 16, 2020

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