down to double digits

Trump has 96 days to convince the U.S. electorate to rehire him, really about half that since early voting starts in mid-September in seven states (including Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia).  If he’s got any game-changers, he best trot them out soon.

His ridiculous ads about a Biden hellscape future are merely showing his own hellscape present.  Video of unmarked federal thugs pummeling protesters in Portland is a haunting echo of cops beating civil right marchers in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.  Bloody Sunday becomes bloody weekdays, hopefully spawning a new generation of John Lewis’s.

His one adult-like move was a few more stabs at presenting actual virus-related info last week.  He didn’t seem to be into it, though.  He read off stats half-heartedly.  When he said the virus may get worse before it gets better, he looked like he had vegetables in his mouth.

None of this has moved the needle.  He’s been averaging a 55 – 40 disapproval/approval rating for the past month.

So he did what Trump does, he became Trumpier.  He reminded us that early voting leads to massive fraud, absent evidence.  The commission he authorized right after his election couldn’t even find any.  Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, professor found — from 2000 to 2014 — only 31 cases of voter fraud in municipal, special, primary and general elections sampled.  The number of votes cast in just the primary and general elections of that sample exceeded one billion.  Yes, billion.

Ever the carnival barker, he came up with a new attraction for his sideshow.  Doctor Stella Immanuel, a pediatrician in Houston, claims that masks are worthless and hydroxychloroquine cures the virus.  And she says that with the implacable confidence of someone who runs a ministry out of a strip mall.

She further claims that alien DNA is used in earth medicine, and that gynecological problems are caused by people having sex with demons in their sleep.  Oh, and someone is trying to develop a vaccine that will prevent people from becoming religious.

That was evidence enough for Trump, who continued to laud her despite revelations of her singular research.  He was back full circle yesterday, walking away from a presser mid-question as CNN’s Kaitlin Collins pestered him with facts about the good doctor Immanuel.