Trump keeps up his effort to turn the subject of the day to Baltimore. I've combined tweets that all went up this morning — here, here, here, and here.
He's doubling down after being called a racist for what he tweeted yesterday: "Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!" And: "So sad that Elijah Cummings has been able to do so little for the people of Baltimore. Statistically, Baltimore ranks last in almost every major category. Cummings has done nothing but milk Baltimore dry, but the public is getting wise to the bad job that he is doing!"
Trump is also retweeting video showing degraded living conditions in Baltimore:
Elijah Cummings spends all of his time trying to hurt innocent people through “Oversight.” He does NOTHING for his very poor, very dangerous and very badly run district! Take a look.... #BlacksForTrump2020 https://t.co/seNVESZUht— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019
Trump critics are forced to take the position that it's racist (at least for Trump) to call attention to the poor conditions in a place where black people live. Here are some headlines I'm seeing collected at Memeorandum:
Baltimore Sun: Better to have a few rats than to be one...The Trump critics should know by now that calling Trump racist will not cause him to back down. In fact, this newest reason to call him racist has the tendency to make us forget the last thing that made them call him racist — seriously, I've forgotten! — and to dilute the meaning of the epithet. Trump is pointing at something concrete — living conditions in Baltimore — so news reports will need to show pictures of living conditions in Baltimore and interview residents.
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine: Why Trump Spent His Summer Vacation Sending Racist Tweets
David Zurawik / Baltimore Sun: Trump's Twitter attack on Cummings and Baltimore: undiluted racism and hate — After three years of denouncing President Trump's use of media to attack, denigrate and, yes, spew racist hate, there are days when I think I do not have a drop of vitriol left for Trump and what he's doing to this country.
Peter Baker / New York Times: Trump Assails Congressional Critic, Calling His Majority-Black District a ‘Disgusting’ Rat-Infested ‘Mess’...
I had to stop and think for a while to remember the previous Trump-is-a-racist topic. It was those tweets about Congresswomen who should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came." Actually, that controversy is thematically related to the Baltimore topic: There are some terrible places where people unfortunately live.
So my question is: Who will help... or are Trump and his critics all hammily performing in the age-old theatrical tradition of caring for poor people?
Posts
348 comments:
1 – 200 of 348 Newer› Newest»Having lived in Baltimore, I know Trump is correct.
"The Wire" tells the story of Baltimore rather well.
It is on HBO OnDemand and is available from AmazonPrime.
Sometimes the truth hurts, and in his own clumsy way Trump is pointing out the obvious.
A good place to start would be to ban plastic straws.
I saw 12 year old kids drinking 40s on street corners where the entire block was boarded up -- except liquor stores and churches.
Chuck D sang the lyrics.
“our Nation’s great African American people”
Undiluted racism for sure.
Someone please explain to Nancy Pelosi, who was recently called racist by those in her own party,
Boom! Thank you Squad you just defanged the Dems most cherished attack.
This is a case of maybe he should have said it with a nicer veneer, but everyone knows some cities are more dangerous than others. Either way, the fact it is dangerous is just an opinion anyway, and not a factual statement that can be checked, so, what's everyone all worked up about anyway?
Mainstream Media won’t discuss the substantive issue, they’ll just cry “racist”.
CNN had Brian Stelter on last night. Hard to watch that jelly roll. Same old “this may not be overtly racist itself but it’s more in that pattern of tweets that really shows his racism” or some such garbage.
Trump isn't pandering about caring more but saying that the dems are the evil to focus on, if you actually want to help.
"THAT'S RACIST!" is a poor response against the charges made.
As for Cummings - that is a very expensive suit to be wearing walking around in those neighborhoods.
The Public Enemy song as delivered by Chuck D (singing about Harlem)
"Bust your ass to pay the rent
and lets look at that word-project
another word for experiment
one side of the street is the church
across is a liquor store
both of them keeping us poor
keeping us down..."
I bet Trump will get a bigger share of the black vote than any Republican prez candidate in memory. Will be especially sweet if it’s against Kamala.
I had to stop and think
stop to think
hendiadys
Must see. The BBC did a report just over a year ago on Baltimore, and decided to highlight the comments of this 40 Year Resident who repairs the city's homes, who called it "rat infested".
BBC: This is What Poverty Looks Like (Baltimore) (2:30 trailer)
I wouldn't be surprised if Trump premised his Tweets on this BBC report.
Is the BBC and this 40 year resident racist?
Chuck D. sings. Who knew?
Walk Baltimore politics back a ways, and you're knee deep in the Pelosi family. Does Trump know that?
Shitholes.
The usual suspects are focusing on Trump rhetoric.
"Danger to democracy" says Matt Dowd.
Chris Wallace is in high dudgeon.
Baltimore is dangerous for the residents who live there.
The police stand down after the guy died in the paddy wagon has made things worse.
The mayor stepped down after a scandal involving a book.
How dare Trump state the obvious! This is surely grounds for impeachment.
The Oberlin Alumni Magazine featured Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Black '92
http://www2.oberlin.edu/alummag/spring2015/
just before the Baltimore riots.
Lefties have bad timing because so much that they think is wrong, and some fraction of these things are always touted at a bad time.
Trump is highlighting the failure of the Republican establishment. Detroit happened because the Republicans refused to criticize for fear of being called racist. The utterly predictable response of the media here is as disgusting as it always has been.
This makes me truly respect the man. Challenging the accusations of racism as a cover for evil.
What weakness does he see? He sees a hole and he is driving a truck through it.
Being a builder and developer, Trump has had to negotiate the corruption in many US cities. If he doesn't know the actual villains, he knows how the system works. I expect he's foreshadowing some indictments coming soon. (The previous mayor of Baltimore has recently been arrested for requiring Baltimore schools to buy her book. Did she rollover on someone?)
Blake not Black
Rory said...
Walk Baltimore politics back a ways, and you're knee deep in the Pelosi family. Does Trump know that?
Trump would be well advised to shine a light on the Democratic strongholds in the big cities that Democrats have controlled for generations.
"Lefties have bad timing because so much that they think is wrong"
Lefties, always wrong but never in doubt.
Apparently Bernie called conditions in Baltimore "third world" a few years ago, but that's different, reasons, kthxbye.
"Bernie Sanders likens West Baltimore to 'Third World' country"
By JOHN FRITZE
THE BALTIMORE SUN
DEC 08, 2015
Wasn't Pelosi's father reputed to be the most corrupt mayor of Baltimore?
1. There are pockets in this country that are poor violent urban shitholes.
2. These poor, violent, urban shitholes can be identified (Detroit, Baltimore, DC, East St. Louis, Chicago, parts of beloved Oakland, etc, etc)
3. These poor violent urban shitholes are all run exclusively by Democrats.
4. These poor violent urban shitholes provide lots of Democrat votes to Democrat politicians.
5. Elijah Cummings is a congressman in one particular poor violent urban shithole (Baltimore).
6. If you criticize Cummings for perpetuating the poor violent urban shithole status of Baltimore, well, that's racist!
ps "The Wire" was the best show on television.
Well, we know that Trump is actually helping black people because black unemployment is way down along with total unemployment, he's not just engaging in demagoguery.
The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!
This statement is an example of President Trump's racism.
Democrat infested
Look for the Althouse line of Baltimore tee shirts.
Captain BillyBob:
Least corrupt mayor is like the weakest strongman on the ESPN shows.
At some point they're all pretty strong.
And they're all pretty corrupt.
Daddy Pelosi was precisely as corrupt as the times allowed.
He would have been more corrupt if he could have been.
Caring ABOUT the poor, not caring FOR the poor. Caring FOR the poor would entail doing something to help.
I'm sincerely trying to sort this out. 77
Is it:
1. Racist to assert that Baltimore has excessive poverty drugs and crime, because that is not true?
2. Racist to point out that Baltimore has excessive poverty drugs and crime, even though that is true?
3. Racist to imply that there is a connection between excessive poverty drugs and crime in Baltimore and the fact that Democrats have long controlled the political levers of power in Baltimore? (And if this is it, is this what Trump implied?)
4. Racist to imply that there is a connection between excessive poverty drugs and crime in Baltimore and the fact that blacks make up a significant portion of the power structure in Baltimore? (And if this is it, is this what Trump implied?)
5. Racist to assert that Democrats have spent most of their time and effort since taking the House in 2019 trying to discredit or remove Trump, and relatively little time and effort addressing real problems of the country? (If this is it, is it racist because it's not true? Or racist because it is true but should not be mentioned because black politicians like Cummings have important leadership positions in the Democratic House?)
6. Or is it just racist because "Trump"?
Though there are apparently worse areas in Baltimore they are all in Cummings district. Of course Pelosi is refugee from there as well. Once again Trump makes us uncomfortable by raising the right question. Cummings personal life is not snow white either.
I went to Johns Hopkins Med School grad ceremony in Baltimore in May. GPS took us through rundown, drug infested areas on the way. You could tell it was drug infested by the number of beggars, and rail thin people along the streets. I'm from Philly but I was still surprised at how destitute it looked. At a dinner after the grad ceremony, others also said they had noted the areas too.
h,
It is racist because OrangeManBad.
I couldn't find my cars keys yesterday afternoon.
Want to know why?
OrangeManBad!!
I just moved from Baltimore to Austin, TX for work. I lived 1 mile from Cummings' office. He does not live and work in the city proper. Even he's smart enough to avoid Baltimore.
I thought it was an axiom of Progressive political thought that the prime determinant of the quality of life in a city was the political leadership. So if conditions in a city are bad, the first place to look for the cause is the city government. In Baltimore (and most other large cities across America), that leadership is and has been for decades Democratic.
KheSahn0802,
Cummings wife appears to a criminal.
As does Bernie Sanders' wife.
BBC: This is What Poverty Looks Like (Baltimore) (2:30 trailer)
It's actually titled:
"Baltimore: 'This is what poverty in the US looks like' - BBC News"
as if Baltimore is representative of the US.
Birkel at 8:42: I can't disagree with you ("racist" = OMB). I hope to get a reply from a commenter who truly believes that the Trump tweets are racist and is willing to explain why.
Trump does more than just talk...and despite the ill-advised fed interest rate hikes.
"The Trump economy continues to boom, a new government report showed Friday, defying the consistently pessimistic and inaccurate predictions of liberal economists.
The good economic news is bad news for Democratic partisans, who are hoping and praying for a recession. They know the better our economy performs, the worse the odds are that a Democrat will defeat President Trump in the 2020 election and the worse Democrats will do in House and Senate races.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that the U.S. gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the second quarter of the year – significantly higher than the 1.8 percent most so-called experts had predicted."
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andy-puzder-trump-economy-is-booming-great-news-for-america-bad-news-for-desperate-dems
Randy Newman wrote a song about how bad Baltimore is... back in 1977.
And they hide their faces
And they hide their eyes
Cause the city's dyin'
And they don't know why
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it's hard just to live
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it's hard just to live, just to live
Baltimore
Beat up little seagull
On a marble stair
Tryin' to find the ocean
Lookin' everywhere
Hard times in the city
In a hard town by the sea
Ain't nowhere to run to
There ain't nothin' here for free
Waitin' for a train
Drunk lyin' on the sidewalk
Sleepin' in the rain
Oh Baltimore
Man it's hard just to live
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it's hard just to life, just to live
Get my sister Sandy
And my little brother Ray
Buy a big old wagon
To haul us all away
Live out in the country
Where the mountain's high
Never comin' back here
'Til the day I die
"Who will help..." The help has to start with the voters of Baltimore. If they can't change then no one will be able to deliver lasting help.
Can anyone name a city in America where the government is focused on the lives of its citizens? Municipal government exists to serve those who run it, those who work for it, those who grift from it. Major cities are the places in which you have to fight city hall in order to do something productive. God help you if you want to help poor people by employing them in a private enterprise.
I'm seeing collected at Memeorandum:
I like the way they say vile things about Trump because Trump said vile things about whatever; judged by his own standards, David Zurawik is merely expressing his own undiluted racism and hate.
Baltimore On Most Rat-Infested Cities List Again: Orkin
h,
The thought is that because white people have privilege any criticism of a POC is necessarily a racist thing. From that vantage point, no comment - however innocently intended - should be interpreted from the perspective of the listener. If the POC objects, whether they are the person at whom the comment was directed or a random passerby (including a white 'white knight'), then the comment is racist.
That is the philosophical position the Left has assumed.
It's asinine.
Bernie decided to weigh in on this. In 2015.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-sanders-baltimore-20151207-story.html
Maybe the most brutal trick Trump pulled against the Republican establishment was to get its supporters thinking, OK, they talk a good game, but do they deliver? Are things getting better? Or are they mainly looking after themselves?
If he can get any significant number of black voters asking that about their pols, the effect could be, well, yuge.
When Bernie said that Baltimore was like a third world country (in 2015), the Main Stream Media and the mouths of the Democratic party yawned.....That's why most of us are yawning over their hatred today.
Speaking as a former constituent of Tom Harkin* I think that we need a law that says that you have to live in your district. If you won't live there; Why should you represent it?
Tom Harkin* Senator from Iowa.
Primary residence: Alexandria Virginia
Secondary residence: British (BRITISH!) Virgin Islands
Post Office Box: Hotel Fort Des Moines, Des Moines Iowa
The City of Baltimore is expressing it's undiluted racism and hate towards Norwayians, Norwayans, er, Norway guys and Hispanics: The most common rat in Baltimore is the Norway rat also known as the Brown Rat.
I bet Trump will get a bigger share of the black vote than any Republican prez candidate in memory.
That is what this is all about.
Democrats are terrified that Trump may get 10% or better of the Black vote. It would be almost as bad if Black voters did not turn out in great numbers in 2020 because they don't hate Trump.
Hence, Democrats have to convince Blacks that Trump is a racist. He knows it and is making them look foolish.
"Baltimore On Most Rat-Infested Cities List Again: Orkin"
NY city is #3, but surely we all can agree that Washington DC should be at the top of the list.
Walk Baltimore politics back a ways, and you're knee deep in the Pelosi family. Does Trump know that?
of course he does. Every single time he does this, it draws the media spotlight to some situation he wants. His goal is to keep the Dems confused, fighting amongst themselves, and then making the lunatics the face of the party.
Here Pelosi has to choose: defend her father's legacy and admit things were better under the Old White Guy, thereby affirming Trump and her position as racist?
or does she sell Cummings as terrific, show there's no daylight between him and the standard of the Dem Party, and allow Trump to find more and more examples of how the Dems have screwed the blacks in B'more?
I'm glad I have a Baltimore tag. It lets me look back and see how Baltimore has cropped up in the news from time to time. The last time before this was when the mayor had to resign (over a scam involving children's books).
"The City of Baltimore is expressing it's undiluted racism and hate towards Norwayians, Norwayans, er, Norway guys and Hispanics: The most common rat in Baltimore is the Norway rat also known as the Brown Rat."
Whereas in Washington DC. the most common and lowest form of rat is the democrat politician.
Birkel: If Trump (and Reps) win in 2020, I expect that the postmortems (what is the plural of postmortem?) will prominently feature the question of defining racism so broadly as to cover anything with which the (liberal) speaker disagrees.
I wonder how Trump's efforts to free A$AP Rocky are going.
Don't know why that thought just popped into my head.
"I'm glad I have a Baltimore tag. It lets me look back and see how Baltimore has cropped up in the news from time to time. The last time before this was when the mayor had to resign (over a scam involving children's books)."
I think for most of us, it's becoming more and more obvious of how good Trump has been for our country.
A good place to start would be to ban plastic straws.
Banning straws really cleaned up San Francisco.
Baltimore’s Deputy Police Commissioner was held up at gun point last week.
In Baltimore
When I was a child Life magazine did pictorials about squalor in the segregated south. I guess that was racist.
h,
Not in the places it matter for Leftist Collectivist Power. Namely, on college campi (riffing off your pluralization rumination) they WILL double down on theories of choosing pronouns, identity politics, and male privilege. There will be - AND CANNOT BE - any reconsideration of these points. Bankruptcy and large lawsuit losses has yet to focus Leftists on their internal contradictions.
The cognitive dissonance is simply too powerful.
The press might grant a couple of days of chin stroking. But then they'll return, like a dog to its vomit, to where they are comfortable.
"Racist" is all the Dems' have. Dems have no "there", there. Shootin' blanks! Usin' cap guns!
A good place to start would be to ban plastic straws.
Hoping to find a spurious connection between straw-banning and some measure of well-being, I found some funny fake news ....
06.01.18 Here are the U.S. cities that have banned plastic straws so far
"Vancouver".
They list several other cities with uncommented links, implying they have banned plastic straws, but none actually have. Such are the ways of Fake News.
This is probably good politics on the part of Trump.
Politics however is only marginally connected to reality.
The truth is quite a lot more complex, and for the most part cannot be discussed in public, in the US.
- Not to excuse politicians, but the people usually get the leadership they deserve.
The leadership can contribute to the corruption and decadence of the people, but at best the negative feedback loop has a much larger upward than downward component.
- Most of the factors contributing to the prosperity or otherwise of a city, with rare and extreme exceptions (Detroit for instance, and possibly Baltimore) are beyond the reach and scope of local government. San Francisco for instance is not massively wealthy because of the quality of the local government, but because it is the pleasaunce of a great number of very wealthy people, drawn there or its environs due to nature and history, and of course a vast number of their servants and courtiers. Its local goverment therefore has great scope for whimsical behavior. Circumstances dominate.
Nancy Pelosi neė d'Alesandro in Baltimore.
Paul Pelosi born and raised in San Francisco.
In 1968, I shipped out of the Seafarers' International Union (SIU) hiring hall on Lloyd Street. It was a few months after the riots but the National Guardsmen were still deployed. Downtown was completely burned out especially Howard Street. Washington, DC, was horrible along seventh and fourteenth; but, nothing compared to the devastation in Baltimore.
I returned 2003-2005 working as a hospital chaplain at Sinai and Northwest hospitals while taking a year long chaplaincy program at The Johns Hopkins Medical School. I had to go through the same streets to Hopkins several times a week. Wonderful subway but exiting into the same streets STILL boarded up and burned out.
Lloyd Street was an old Jewish area with a beautiful shul still there although the abandoned, barely used despite much renovation. The merchants and the community left to Pikesville shortly after the riots and those neighborhoods were abandoned. Hopkins gobbled up a vast area of tenement blocks. In 2005, they were still abandoned, boarded up hulks.
Baltimore fire department used to practice there and a few firefighter films were shot on location complete with practice fires.
It's a complete disgrace. Old timers compare then (2003-5) to the old Boston Boss Curley days or NYC's Tammany Hall. I imagine that across the "color spectrum" there are many in Baltimore who have been waiting for someone to clean house. Maryland politics has been a disgrace long before Marvin Mandel; it is worse now.
Bravo Trump.
Someone needs to tell Trump about the Overton Window. He repeatedly talks about forbidden topics and expands our national discourse.
"The Overton window is the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse, also known as the window of discourse. The term is named after Joseph P. Overton, who stated that an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within this range, rather than on politicians' individual preferences.[1][2] According to Overton, the window contains the range of policies that a politician can recommend without appearing too extreme to gain or keep public office in the current climate of public opinion."
Carving out safe districts for politicians to be elected from is an open invitation for corruption.
Safety for the citizens lie in balanced districts so the rascals keep each other in check.
The ancient Chinese approach to such problems was, besides the ordinary extremities of cruelty to offenders of all kinds and the occasional massive extermination campaigns (of people, not rats), was to officially proclaim the standards of vitue and propriety, which were conducive of social order.
That is, traditional Confucian morality.
That last part, adjusting for culture of course, has been missing in US governance for several decades now. And to be fair, in the "West" generally.
Tomorrow POTUS will watch new episode of Fox and Friends and tweet something new crazy and AA will post rationalization.
David Simon of The Wire isn't doing himself any favors suggesting Trump would soil himself with fear if he got out of his car in Baltimore.
"The Overton window is the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse, also known as the window of discourse. The term is named after Joseph P. Overton, who stated that an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within this range, rather than on politicians' individual preferences.[1][2] According to Overton, the window contains the range of policies that a politician can recommend without appearing too extreme to gain or keep public office in the current climate of public opinion.""
Trump is definitely expanding our horizons, in addition to providing more and more windows of opportunity.
Allegations of diversity have progressed as a projected condition.
As for Cummings - that is a very expensive suit to be wearing walking around in those neighborhoods.
He probably has men, with guns, serving self-defense, in the best case, and intimidation, in the worst case.
David Simon of The Wire isn't doing himself any favors suggesting Trump would soil himself with fear if he got out of his car in Baltimore.
It's illegal to say anything negative about Hillary and about anyone D- with chocolate skin color.
The corrupt and empty democratic party offer hope and savior, but they never deliver. But please, do vote for the D, because soon they really will deliver. Next time. Promise.
start focusing on our Country! This statement is an example of President Trump's racism.
Emigration reform (e.g. good neighbor protocol) to mitigate the progress of immigration reform. Rehabilitation, reconciliation, and revitalization as a focus for development in America, irrespective of diversity.
What is crazy about this readering?
An expansion on your thought is required, under these circumstances.
It is an implicit challenge to debate. However there is no debate forthcoming.
It is a common, but, to me, still inexplicable inability to engage.
Trump is fearless. Race is the third rail of American life and he has grabbed it.
proclaim the standards of vitue and propriety, which were conducive of social order. That is, traditional Confucian morality.
Conservation and development based on principles is one approach. The alternative is a monotonic change and divergence to a state of postmortem reconciliation.
You notice that now that we have someone else actually talking about and bringing up the these issues, everyone on the left switched instantly from, "we need to have a national conversation" to "you're a racist for taking about that"?
The worst part isn't the harm or neglect he's done to his district, it's that he tries to do the same to the rest of the country.
The Trump election has exposed a lot of little liberal minds, petty and corrupt journalists/democrats.
urban dem politicians live rich rich lives, benefitting while their communities are tanking.
Catastrophic anthropogenic climate change sustained through redistributive change. They like their high density democratic buckets.
The Wire had some good characters but was basically Stuff White People Like
"Trump is fearless. Race is the third rail of American life and he has grabbed it."
And if you're going to be fearless, you'd better be smart and Trump is smart.
Tomorrow POTUS will watch new episode of Fox and Friends and tweet something new crazy and AA will post rationalization.
You do know that AA is a traditional liberal, don't you?
The David Simon tweet is a classic, thank you Tina Trent!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/racist-moron-trump-would-wet-himself-if-he-visited-baltimore-wire-creator-david-simon-says/ar-AAEXUFT#page=2
Illogic and irony, neatly illustrated. Or perhaps it is a simple attempt at creating a firewall against his own side turning on him.
The result of a bubble-vision, or perhaps it is just self-defense against the political fallout of the near-documentary of this situation he has made into his career. He has to protect his media property after all. It would not do to have the bien-pensants reconsider "The Wire" as conservative propaganda, and ban it.
He is in an uncomfortable position.
It's kind of hard to ever have racial healing when the democrats have to use the charge of racism to get black voters pissed off enough to get out and vote for the democrats.
Trump is not afraid to criticize a low performer. It does not matter if they are white, black, brown, Asian, etc... it is not a matter of race, or creed, or sexual orientation... and low performer is a low performer and deserves to be FIRED.
That is not being racist, that is being truthful.
Simon made a lot of money exploiting the dramatization of the violence and corruption of Baltimore.
Baltimore is as violent and corrupt as ever. But Simon is wealthy.
Simon is an exploiter. Typical White Boy
My limited impressions of Baltimore:
- Francis Scott Key witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry and writing the Star Spangle Banner
- Johnny Unitas throwing TDS to John Mackey
-Brooks Robinson at third
-Barry Levinson movies looking at the bygone years in “Diner” and “Avalon”
THEN
“The Wire”
I haven’t seen anything in the news (nor in my limited personal encounters with the city) to refute “The Wire”s view of Baltimore and confirm that the days of those older impressions are “gone and ain’t coming back”
Who will help?
First, who can help? What can Trump do? Not much, except spotlight the problem and the corruption. He has done so. What can Cummings do? More,directly. He can help root out corruption, and misappropriation with his staff and his local organization. He won’t, and we know why.
If members of congress spent more time in their own districts, they might start caring about the shitholes they've helped perpetuate. Baltimore is but one of many examples.
"There are some terrible places where people unfortunately live."
Would you prefer they lived where you live?
"He is a racist!", they tweeted from the safety and comfort of their upper-middle class lives. Nancy Pelosi stepped from her mansion to repeat the message to the eager, capitalist, advertising dollar-hungry press.
Having in their minds thusly discharged their duty to the poor, their self-righteous pride being easily gratified, they returned to their sheltered lives of privilege and excess, while the poor continue to weep And this has continued decade by decade.
I write this from a pew in a church in East Detroit. Half a block to our east are empty lots and burned out houses. The tumult and civic sermons and prognosticating in our "public dialogue" will have no effect this week in this neighborhood. Likely no effect this month or this year.
But I don't despair. Help is coming.
"12 My people—children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your leaders mislead you, and confuse the course of your paths.
13 The LORD rises to argue his case; he stands to judge the peoples.
14 The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: It is *you* who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in *your* houses.
15 What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord GOD of hosts.
It's downright racist to avoid calling out a POC just because he/she is a POC. As BleachBit observes, any POC with a D after his/her name is sacrosanct. Cummings and his wife are corrupt and she has used a private charity to enrich herself. Nice pair!
This CNN guy starts crying (2:20) because he knows people who live in Baltimore and it's so awful for them.
If Trump had a way of communicating that did not start with a fist in the face, he'd be a slam dunk for re-election. However, though he's right on this, his presentation is horrible. But let's go over some facts:
The last Republican Mayor of the following cities. These cities are either currently cesspools or working on becoming a first class cesspool, complete with rats, homeless, human feces, and diseases not seen since the early 1900s or...the dark ages. The children born into these communities are brought into world that is full of drugs, crime, single-parent homes, and schools filled with fearful and not very good teachers. Our war to straighten out this country starts with what we do in these cities. It starts with the kids. It starts with their education. But that's another story for another blog. The Dems have held power in these cities, and with the black community for decades. The quality of their work is on display in every one of these cities. Why anyone would keep giving their vote to those who keep them in this cycle is beyond me. But, the answer is: The Republicans, as tone-deaf as any party ever was, has given them little reason to change their vote. Seems like it should be easy.
Last Republican Mayor in the following cities:
Detroit: 1957
Chicago: 1931
Baltimore: 1966
Newark: 1953
St. Louis: 1949
Philadelphia: 1952
Oakland: 1977
Seattle: 1969
San Francisco: 1964
Portland: 1980
Los Angeles: 2001
h,
You can observe mccullough above if you want to know how the Leftist Collectivists will respond.
(And I am holding aside the allegation that mccullough is a Leftist.)
As Trump points out, the real question is why is Baltimore so bad when people like Cummings have been given so much $$$ over the years, and have been in charge for 60 years.
When's the last time a Republican was mayor of Baltimore? Answer - 1967. And they've had a black mayor since 2007.
The party of Jim Crow and Bull Connor call Trump racist. What a laugh.
And...
"What's he doing? Forcing a new narrative as election time kicks in, making Democrats have to address the reality that they have been in power for decades in one-party blue districts and cities, and they have left those districts smoking ruins, rat-infested hellholes, "places no human being would want to live," complete with live-action shots. The video of the Baltimore resident decrying the Democratic area's neglect is absolutely deadly.
Obviously, Trump's aim is to cut deep into the black vote, by laying the blame for the decayed urban cities many are forced to live in, on Democrats and forcing them to defend that record."
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/07/the_baltimore_ambush_trump_forces_democrats_to_defend_the_indefensible_again.html#ixzz5uz8am6Fy
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Temujin,
I have a much more thorough list.
Look at Memphis, Birmingham, and Charleston or Columbia, SC if you want to see one-party rule.
Since the 1880s!!
Since Reconstruction!!
Colorado Springs is the only city with a long-time Republican mayor.
Only major city, I should say.
Baltimore used to be known for Mencken John Hopkins, and its crab dishes. It had almost a million people in 1950, which made it one of the top 10 cities in the USA.
Cummings is a complete idiot, and he's probably corrupt as hell, as Trump hints.
>>“our Nation’s great African American people”
Uh...what?...
I'll add to that list. Last Republican Mayor of:
New Orleans: 1872
Flint, MI: 1928
Cleveland: 1989
Youngstown, OH: 1977
It goes on and on. One party rule is a death knell for its citizenry. Check out California in about 8 years.
IfTrump had a way of communicating that did not start with a fist in the face...
Temujin, spot on!
readering has the typical leftist take on life. No insight. No self awareness.
Cummings is following in the footsteps of John Conyers, even to the felonious wife,
Mayor Lightfoot is taking the same path in Chicago but as a lesbian.
"Last Republican Mayor in the following cities:"
Occam's Razor.
We know Democrats love their voter fraud.
Common sense says if you're going to invest in committing large scale voter fraud, you'll get the biggest bang for your buck in the most densely populated areas, i.e., large cities.
As a bonus for the Democrats, in any city that has a large minority population, you can deflect any investigation of said voter fraud by screaming "Racist!". Which always, always, always works.
We can see in these cities that once the Democrats get a hold of the power structure in a given area, they can corrupt the electoral system so thoroughly that they can go 70 years without losing an election despite abysmal track records.
The Democrats are hard at work at going national with this strategy. The next time they reacquire power will be the last time they need to do so. And even on a national level, anyone who looks too closely at their voter fraud will be called "Racist!". Because that always, always, always works.
"Cummings is a complete idiot, and he's probably corrupt as hell, "
He's a black politician from Baltimore. Of course, he's corrupt but not as much of an idiot as those constituents whose own corruption elected him.
or are Trump and his critics all hammily performing in the age-old theatrical tradition of caring for poor people?
Why not? The Democrats have been doing it since at least FDR.
Trump hates Baltimore, MD, USA. Send him back to Scotland (for now part of UK. They used to call it England)
"So my question is: Who will help... or are Trump and his critics all hammily performing in the age-old theatrical tradition of caring for poor people?"
Trump has already helped. What have his critics done?
Anyway, for progs the poor are just another tool. Where would they be without them?
Well, mark me down as someone who wants his President to fight back, and to even throw the first punch if he feels threatened. Kick 'em in the nuts, Trump!
This was the Baltimore Sun's Op-ed response: “Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.”
This is being cheered by all the Liberal MSM. Its hilarious how they spend half their time posing as the oh, so superior "above it all" types who worry about "that Vulgar Mr. Trump" and the other half, throwing gutter insults at him.
Let's put it this way for folks (I'm sure Cook will chime in) who want to argue there's no evidence of the kind of voter fraud I'm talking about. Assume, hypothetically, that one party in this country was completely devoted to committing voter fraud as widely as possible, with complete impunity. What you would expect to see is that party completely dominate in the densest population centers for decades, if not centuries. Which is *exactly* the current state of affairs. Occam's Razor. Mass locked-in voter fraud by one party is a very simple explanation for the current voting patterns, with Democrat votes all being so concentrated in large urban centers. Give me another explanation that is anywhere near that simple.
Notice that "Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset" has been completely forgotten? Mitch should thank Trump, since he's responsible. Mitch, of course refused to defend himself, and would still be under attack - except Trump.
It’s from the tweet, Ice Nine.
I think that we need a law that says that you have to live in your district. If you won't live there; Why should you represent it?
"Representatives must be at least 25 years old, be a citizen of the United States for seven years, and live in the state they represent. Senators must be at least 30 years old, be a citizen for nine years, and live in the state they represent."
The next time they reacquire power will be the last time they need to do so. And even on a national level, anyone who looks too closely at their voter fraud will be called "Racist!". Because that always, always, always works.
They will repeat the experience of California in the rest of the Country.
Assume, hypothetically, that one party in this country was completely devoted to committing voter fraud as widely as possible, with complete impunity. What you would expect to see is that party completely dominate in the densest population centers for decades, if not centuries.
You would also expect that party to oppose voting ID and investigations of voter fraud.
"Representatives must be at least 25 years old, be a citizen of the United States for seven years, and live in the state they represent. Senators must be at least 30 years old, be a citizen for nine years, and live in the state they represent."
yes! that's what Post Office Boxes are for
Tom Harkin's OFFICIAL residence was the PO BOX at the Hotel Fort Des Moines
Of course, he didn't LIVE IN the PO Box, just like he didn't LIVE IN Iowa
He ONLY had two houses, on in Virginia, and the other in the British Virgin Islands
His only presence in the state was that PO Box; which, in the eyes of the law, was sufficent
Trump hates Baltimore, MD, USA. Send him back to Scotland (for now part of UK. They used to call it England)
That is desperately lacking in cleverness, readering.
I have no doubt that you can do better with a little more effort.
Democrats aren’t interested in people. It’s all about politics - everything! They see dogged devotion to the narrative and ad hominem attacks on “the other” as the way to political power.
Blogger readering said...
Trump hates Baltimore, MD, USA. Send him back to Scotland (for now part of UK. They used to call it England)
As I said. Zero self awareness.
The tears of the D-hack press.
How embarrassing.
Here is the last Republican mayor of Louisville and Louisville is breaking the record each year in the number of murders in the city, little Chicago.
Kenneth A. Schmied, December 1965-December 1969-Republican
Trump should go to Baltimore and speak directly its citizens and ask them what they need to improve their lives.
They told us RBG is a human dynamo and that Mueller, using the steel trap logic of his mind, presented a clear and persuasive case for impeachment. Now they tell us that Baltimore is a terrific place to live. It's good we have the media. Otherwise people would jump to the kind of erroneous conclusions that Trump makes.
"Trump critics are forced to take the position that it's racist (at least for Trump) to call attention to the poor conditions in a place where black people live."
No. it's racist to describe those condition using the language he used. When he's talking about places with poor conditions where the residents are primarily white -- like West Virginia -- he doesn't use that language.
Doesn't it get tiresome defending this idiot?
Ugly rhetoric from a POTUS.
I think this is going to be a winner for Trump. Let him have a rally in north St. Louis and let the nation see the horrible decay there. Let him call out the Democrats who preside over it. I think he will pull a good amount of votes from the black community for telling the truth.
Blogger FrankiM said...
Ugly rhetoric from a POTUS.
Whereas Baltimore is beautiful, eh ?
“Doesn't it get tiresome defending this idiot?”
Apparently not.
Above, Daniel Jackson has an interesting and informative comment about his personal history in Baltimore.
It's great for West coast folks like me who haven't spent any time in Baltimore.
I could probably write a similar history about Oakland, CA, where I spent a lot of time.
There's one notable difference, though. In Oakland, since 1980, the black population has dropped from 47% to 25% of the City.
Let me repeat that - nearly half of Oakland blacks have left.
Why?
The housing prices. SF housing is the most expensive in the nation. It increases the prices of all cities around it. Yuppies from SF can't buy a house, so they flee to Oakland. And black homeowners in Oakland have cashed in their profits - and moved out. And very few new blacks are moving in.
But like most big inner cities, there are several pockets which are no-go zones for obvious reasons.
Trump is a fucking genius at times. Who else could have figured out a way to get the media to argue that Baltimore isn't a shithole? I think Trump, if he wanted to, could get the media arguing that water isn't wet- they are that fucking stupid.
Doesn't it get tiresome defending this idiot?
Well, we know who you voted for.
“Trump should go to Baltimore and speak directly its citizens and ask them what they need to improve their lives.”
Excellent idea! Let him reach out and show America what a good and decent, caring leader he could be if he tried.
I see we have some new commenters with blank profiles.
Inga?
Self-appointed welcome committee.
Never underestimate Trump.
Don't forget, if Trump wanted to he could wipe Baltimore off the face of the earth.
I was just sitting around thinking that if a Leftist Collectivist who hates me would just come around to explain why I am wrong that I would change my core beliefs.
Thanks, FrankiM.
readering,
You misspelled Swalwell.
It’s a straight-up play for Black votes. Blacks are far more cynical about politics than White folks. Sure, Black folks want whatever goodies may be on offer, but that’s what gets Democrats the Black vote. I don’t think they’re moved by the pearl-clutching. “This is how some Black people are forced to live” will come across differently to Black people, regardless of the White Democrat spin.
I lived on the north side of Chicago when I was in graduate school at Northwestern from 1988 to 1992 (on Bryn Mawr avenue 5 blocks from the lake). At the time, my oldest sister was an undergrad then law student at University of Chicago. Most of the time when I visited her, we stayed within the boundaries of the U of C campus, but we did at times have to venture beyond those boundaries to reach other places further west and south. I can tell you no one would would want to live in such areas, much less raise a family there. Block after block of boarded up and/or burnt out houses. And this was 30 years ago, it has only gotten worse and spread in the city of my birth.
I was mostly raised in eastern Kentucky, where my parents were born. However, my father's family decamped to Chicago (Cicero) in the early 60s, and he followed there with my mother in 1965. Both I and my oldest sister were born there. By 1990, when my grandmother and her husband moved to Florida, their neighborhood had already become a slum, with hookers and drug dealers staying out on the street playing music all night long. I haven't been back there since to Cicero, but I can't imagine it has improved.
They don't need fraud in local general elections because the Republican voters have moved out. It's for the Democratic primaries if the incumbent is known to be vulnerable or retiring.
So my question is: Who will help... or are Trump and his critics all hammily performing in the age-old theatrical tradition of caring for poor people?
@Althouse, I utterly reject your notion that Trump is "hammily performing in the age-old theatrical tradition of caring for poor people." I think he really does care, however to an unreconstructed 70s era liberal such as you, "caring" about poor people equates to government programs and government handouts. Open your mind to considering the possibility that there's a better way to care, and that is by providing jobs and clean, safe streets, and other such necessities of life.
As to Cummings, the Maryland 7th Congressional District is one of those very odd-shaped districts that would be decried as obvious Gerrymandering if the Republicans drew it up, but merely good politics since it was drawn up by Democrats. It reaches westward from downtown Baltimore through the poorest parts of the city and out through relatively affluent suburbs along Interstate 70 almost halfway to Frederick, with a second large block of affluent suburbs and more rural areas that is barely connected to the rest of the 7th by a narrow corridor. Most of the 7th is a nice place to live but the southeaster part of the district is pure Hell.
>>“our Nation’s great African American people”
Uh...what?...
Mattman26 said...
It’s from the tweet, Ice Nine.
Yes, I know. It is that ridiculous notion expressed in the tweet to which I am referring. (Yes, I also know that he is simply buttering up Black voters.)
Well over 30 years ago I lived in Maryland. I loved the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Took the family and visitors several times. Plus there were some great area restaurants and funky shops.
I would not go there with an armed guard. Would never drag loved ones near the place.
I haven't changed. Baltimore has.
Ugly rhetoric from a POTUS.
How so?
Are we supposed to pretend that our inner cities are veritable Paradises?
The ugly rhetoric is coming from you guys. Even if you live in a leftist bible, you know that it is your ugly rhetoric.
Works Every Time: TRUMP Gets Democrats to Defend Rat-infested Baltimore Trash Dump
-Gateway Pundit
Heh.
I can't wait for Spartacus to start lipping off, and Trump tweets about Newark.
Leftist bubble turned into leftist bible.
Spellcheck does some amazing things, at times.
The debates ought to be interesting. Normally, no politician is allowed to utter a single word about helping 'other' people while in the City of Detroit without promising to spend a bazillion dollars on Detroit first.
"As to Cummings, the Maryland 7th Congressional District is one of those very odd-shaped districts that would be decried as obvious Gerrymandering if the Republicans drew it up." Just about every member of the black caucus comes from a minority majority district. This form of American apartheid is loved by both parties.
What's Trump doing? Forcing a new narrative as election time kicks in, making Democrats have to address the reality that they have been in power for decades in one-party blue districts and cities, and they have left those districts smoking ruins, rat-infested hellholes, "places no human being would want to live," complete with live-action shots. The video of the Baltimore resident decrying the Democratic area's neglect is absolutely deadly.
Trump shatters another Overton Window
I’ve been waiting for him to do this one for a while..
OTOH, everywhere I have lived in Albuquerque over the last 60-odd years, there has been at least on Black family on the block and their front yards have been among the neatest and best tended on the block.
Of course, though Albuquerque largely votes Democrat, we have, and never have had, anything like an organized Democrat political machine.
Mike at 11:03 makes the fair point that Trump never describes poor white areas with the same brio that he describes poor black areas. Fair enough. But it should also be noted that, so far as I can tell, pols like Cummings never criticize indicted and indictable pols with the same brio that are used to criticize Trump. Has any reporter asked Cummings what he thinks of Mosby and various other Baltimore pols that have been caught up in scandal. Cummings is a power broker in Baltimore. Why doesn't he weigh in on a choice for Mayor or Police Coommisoner? Cummings seems rather aloof from the scandals that plague Baltimore but it's his turf. Why isn't he more involved?
If Trump is racist about Baltimore, then so is PBS:
https://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/movies/bs-fe-rat-film-20180226-story.html
“Rat Film,” a documentary that takes the decades-long fight waged against Baltimore’s rat population and uses it as a lens through which to look at how the city has addressed myriad social issues over the decades, airs tonight on PBS.
The hour-long documentary from Baltimore filmmaker Theo Anthony, a crowd favorite at last May’s 19th Maryland Film Festival, airs at 10 p.m. on Maryland Public Television as the latest episode of PBS’s “Independent Lens” series. It repeats at 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.
"Don't forget, if Trump wanted to he could wipe Baltimore off the face of the earth."
The political machine running the place is trying hard to beat him to it. As much as I dislike Orange the Clown, he's right about this.
Supposedly Cummings and Pelosi were in Italy dining at a 5 star, on the way to visit something.
One of those work trips, THAT are not really a congressional paid vacation.
https://followxmexdownxthexrabbitxholeblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/27/rep-elijah-cummings-in-venice-italy-dining-at-5-star-restaurants-with-speaker-pelosi-after-he-gave-fake-impeachment-presser-before-jetting-off/
Trump has criticized de Blasio, Newsome, and Pelosi recently for the exact same things.
Where was the "racism" chant from the media then?
Oops!
"... we do not ...
Peter Baker / New York Times: Trump Assails Congressional Critic, Calling His Majority-Black District a ‘Disgusting’ Rat-Infested ‘Mess’...
How can this guy not realize he just assigned responsibility for the mess to the black populace?
(Apology if it has been already noticed. )
As to Cummings, the Maryland 7th Congressional District is one of those very odd-shaped districts that would be decried as obvious Gerrymandering if the Republicans drew it up, but merely good politics since it was drawn up by Democrats.
It's one of many "minority-majority" districts resulting from the VRA of 1964. That's the civil rights act that was passed a "blacks have the right to vote for representation" and was quickly interpreted as "only blacks can get elected from this district".
These districts swallow up middle class suburbs with single family homes. It was said when Michigan was losing it's population at historic rates, John Conyers' district would stretch from Detroit to Alpena "(norther Michigan).
“Rat Film,” a documentary that takes the decades-long fight waged against Baltimore’s rat population and uses it as a lens through which to look at how the city has addressed myriad social issues over the decades, airs tonight on PBS.
I heard a TV journalist opine that Trump doesn't even think before he tweets this stuff out.
I'll bet Trump knew all about the PBS movie before he pushed send.
And his inclusion of Pelosi's district along with Cummings' was not an accident.
By Monday, people will be posting pictures of Baltimore rats all over the internet.
Perhaps Althouse can begin tonight with a drawing of her own.
I believe Trump's point, which seems to be overlooked, is not that Baltimore is a shithole.
It's that Cumming has been a very powerful member of Congress for decades, and pulls a lot of federal funding for his district. Not to mention his wife.
It's still a shithole.
Where did the money go?
OTOH, everywhere I have lived in Albuquerque over the last 60-odd years, there has been at least on Black family on the block and their front yards have been among the neatest and best tended on the block.
Used to do work for property management people, doing minor repairs on rentals.. Learned pretty quick that attitude rather than race is determining factor.
Browndog:
Good point. Money is green and that interpretation removes the alleged controversy.
It's not racial. It's about the greed of elected officials.
“Better to have rats than to be one”
So first, the rat thing is true then. If it is true, how can it be racist? Is the paper saying truth is racist?
More importantly, isn’t this a shrug of the shoulders at the admitted problem? It's like saying poverty and health risks don’t really matter, what matters is I hate you.
Trump says Baltimore is infected with rats and rodents. Drudge puts up a picture of black children playing in the streets while referencing Trumps statements. Supposedly, Trump is the racist between the two of them.
An aside:
When Pelosi became the Speaker again in 2017, Cummings was not elected to a leadership position in the House.
Pelosi created a new one out of whole cloth, just for him.
"our Nation’s great African American people”
________
Tubman, Douglas, Carver, Washington, Sowell, Williams, Thomas and many more.
Trump should go to Baltimore and speak directly its citizens and ask them what they need to improve their lives.
@Cap’n BillyBob, apparently you aren’t aware that during the 2016 campaign Trump reached out to black communities and did just that.
They told him they needed jobs.
His economic policies have given them jobs.
In November 2020 we will see whether they were lying.
Make a billion and be less clumsy than Trump dipshits, don't let Trump be the only clumsy winner out there. You have the knowledge and wisdom, just find you some wherewithal.
"Lefties have bad timing because so much that they think is wrong, and some fraction of these things are always touted at a bad time."
Even the best of the brightest, Spock* level to most of us but not all, resorts to the label "Lefties" as if it is a 50/50, left v. right. Maybe being so attuned to nuance inversely affects your ability to discern big picture things, like those that would allow or not allow you to create a worthy foe where none exists.
Good God man, why elevate the 5% who want trannies getting hand jobs enforced by the state via hate crimes to 50% of the (voting?) population?
Heads out of asses don't say lefties like a French cunt in 1789 would like us to think in terms of. Even some of those silly bastards, had their heads been kept intact, wouldn't call themselves a member of a left/right coalition knowing what is known now about the deep state globalists with their Great Bu Bu saturation and dominant mass media brainwashing vastly evident.
*Prime has ST. Interesting stuff. I remember the dingus' eating the brains as a form of torture the most.
The Democratics can suggest names to list or come up empty.
Works for me.
OTOH, everywhere I have lived in Albuquerque over the last 60-odd years, there has been at least
I am very sympathetic to black families that are trying to live a middle class life. On a visit to Chicago a few years ago,. I stopped to take a photo of my family home. The current homeowner, a black guy about 35, came out and asked who I was. There are very few whites stopping in that neighborhood. Once I told him, he insisted on giving me a tour and asked if I could send him photos of the house when we lived there. I felt so sorry for him as he tried to live a life like that we lived there,
I suspect Albuguerque has none of the problems that Chicago has, especially the South Shore Neighborhood.
The overall crime rate in South Shore is 188% higher than the national average.
Get the hell out of the way, stop "helping" people by paying them not to work and excusing criminal and other self-destructive behavior, and watch them help themselves!
Black people have plenty of sound sense which will come to the fore once they stop being beaten down by crime-ridden neighborhoods and patronizing leftists.
Thomas Sowell pointed out a long time ago that black people in America were doing much better--gaining wealth and income faster than the white lower- and middle classes--before the leftists started "helping" them with the "War on Poverty". Since then, it's been monotonically down hill in every way, economically, socially, you name it. You can call Thomas Sowell a racist, an oreo, or an Uncle Tom, but I doubt that he'll give a damn.
My only problem with Trump calling out Elijah Cummings is that it's not nice to pick on mentally handicapped people. Still, sometimes truth demands that some things be said.
Before the internet, opinions were mainly shaped by newspapers and five o'clock TV news. Most people are still informed the same way.
Now, the younger ones are informed by Google, facebook, Instagram, and twitter. It's all they have left after The Daily Show went kaput.
Imagine a world in which Democratics defend:
1) The anti-Semitism of the Squad,
2) The anti-freedom of the Squad and Democratics, generally, and
3) The squalor of Democratic cities for which no Republican could be held responsible.
That is the world Trump has created, rhetorically.
And Democratics only have the overused "racist" to counter.
Again, I ask how A$AP Rocky is doing.
And did the BET founder Bob Johnson praise Trump's economic policy?
But let the few NeverTrumpers tell you he is losing.
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