Watch Trump's speeches, with the yelling, the reddened face, the demand for vengeance and you see there's little to distinguish them from what we see at Aryan Nations or other white hate rallies that we all immediately recognize as reprehensible, wrong and frankly terrifying. This isn't 'rough' language or 'hard edged' rhetoric. It's hate speech. Precisely what policy solution Trump is calling for is almost beside the point. Indeed, it wouldn't be hate speech any less if Trump specified no policy solution at all.
This isn't normal. It was normal in the Jim Crow South, as it was in Eastern Europe for centuries. It's not normal in America in the 21st century. And yet it's become normalized. It's a mammoth failure of our political press. But it's not just theirs, ours. It's a collective failure that we're all responsible for."
Marshall also points out that Trump's tactic of trooping victims of violence allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants up to the stage (at the RNC or for this speech) is a tried and true tactic of fascist and Nazi speakers. However real their suffering is, the idea is to create a frenzy of hatred. It's also akin to inspiring a lynch mob.
Speaking of Jim Crow, the WPost has a detailed expose of the racist intent of the Republican-created North Carolina voter restriction law recently blocked by federal courts. The intent to limit black voting couldn't be clearer, as the court said. Now we have the evidence before us. The story references other states as well.
Meanwhile, this Business Insider (!) piece goes into detail on why Trump's Wall won't work, as emphasized by the people closest to the border.
The Trump campaign added another rabid/alt. right conspiracy spinner to its leadership. WPost: David N. Bossie, the veteran conservative operative who has investigated the Clintons for more than two decades, has been named Donald Trump’s deputy campaign manager...The addition of Bossie, who first gained notice in the 1990s as the Republican congressional staffer who aggressively delved into the Clintons’ finances and dealings, is the latest sign that the Trump campaign’s new leadership team is embracing right-wing figures whose ties to the party’s elected leadership have been tenuous or even hostile.
Several stories on Friday referenced growing GOPer establishment disenchantment with Trump, including a rush to follow John McCain in congressional candidates trying to distance themselves from him. An interesting inside the RNC story in the NY Times is another.
And since it's Friday, it's time for the Guardian roundup of Lies Trump Told This Week, extra-large edition.
For election junkies, Politico has an interesting story on Clinton strategy based at the moment on many paths to victory, and working towards a landslide--though by their definition that means matching Obama's 2008 electoral numbers.
Seemingly the only news Friday was the surprise release of the FBI report on its investigation of Clinton's State Department emails, in which it concluded she did nothing illegal. So far reporters haven't found much new of any importance. The general feeling I get is that a less than tech savvy Clinton in a less than up-to-date State Department didn't consider the emails themselves very important, probably because they weren't. Unlike some businesses, diplomacy wasn't carried out chiefly by email.
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