Too Bad to be True

Something that sounds too good to be true isn't.  So what about something that sounds too bad to be true? 

How does that logic work?

This is not an idle thought. We have a President who has advised his supporters to break the law and vote twice. He's said that twice.

If you put yourself in a journalist's shoes and imagine how you would cover this story, you might drive yourself crazy. Because this is a time, no matter how hard you might try to remain neutral, you simply cannot.

There's no way to remain objective when we see democracy being destroyed.

There have always been ugly undertones to our democracy, including racism, hate, and prejudice of all kinds. And there always have been people willing to exploit those ugly things for personal or political gain.

But never before have we had a President who signals to his followers that shooting people who hold different opinions from his is okay.

According to him, it's okay to cheat and steal the election, and it's okay to shoot those who oppose what he is trying to do, which essentially is to end democracy.

Fictionists composed thrillers with scenarios like this in the past, but few people thought they would ever actually happen.

Because they sounded too bad to be true. 

* 7 Officers Suspended as a Black Man’s Suffocation Roils Rochester -- Daniel Prude, who was having a psychotic episode, died after police officers placed a mesh hood over his head in March. (New York Times)

* Trump said U.S. soldiers injured and killed in war were ‘losers,’ magazine reports --The report by the Atlantic cites four unnamed people with firsthand knowledge of the president’s comments. (Washington Post)

* Disdain for the Less Educated Is the Last Acceptable Prejudice  -- It’s having a corrosive effect on American life — and hurting the Democratic Party. (New York Times)

* This Is Democrats’ Doomsday Scenario for Election Night -- What if early results in swing states on Nov. 3 show President Trump ahead, and he declares victory before heavily Democratic mail-in votes, which he has falsely linked with fraud, are fully counted? (New York Times)

* Heat ‘rarely ever seen’ is forecast to roast West by weekend, with wildfires still burning -- The National Weather Service is using strong language to describe the potential for conditions that could cause deadly heat illness, an increased likelihood of large fires and temperatures that could set records for any day on record. (Washington Post)

* The Commission on Presidential Debates announced its lineup of moderators on Wednesday for the upcoming debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump and their running mates. Fox News’ Chris Wallace will moderate the first Biden-Trump matchup in Cleveland on Sept. 29, followed by C-SPAN’s Steve Scully in Miami on Oct. 15. NBC News’ Kristen Welker will moderate the final one on Oct. 22 in Nashville. Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief of USA Today, will moderate the vice presidential debate between Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence on Oct. 7 in Salt Lake City. [HuffPost]

* Former supporters of Trump say they’re not going to be voting for him again and they were pretty blunt about why they’re now backing Biden. “I think it’s one of if not the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life,” Ann Kupitz told CNN of her 2016 vote as she slammed the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “I feel like voting for him helped kill over 100,000 Americans.” Kupitz was part of a CNN panel of six suburban white women who voted for Trump in 2016, a demographic he has recently tried to win over with overtly racist appeals. [HuffPost]

* The pandemic is ruining our sleep. Experts say that could imperil public health -- “Coronasomnia” could be creating a population of insomniacs, experts say, along with risks around productivity, hypertension and depression. (Washington Post)

* Election Update: Biden Gets Good Polls In Arizona And Wisconsin — And A Bad One In Pennsylvania -- Biden still likely to win all three states. (538)

* Jane Fonda, Intergalactic Eco-Warrior in a Red Coat (New York Times) ... This is a great read by Maureen Dowd.

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"Hurt me with the truth. But never comfort me with a lie."

-- Jim Carrey

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