Texas Hold\u2019em Poker has become the game of choice for American casinos.\u00a0\u00a0Players are dealt two \u201chole\u201d cards only they can see.\u00a0\u00a0Then a total of five \u201ccommunity\u201d cards are placed up on the table.\u00a0\u00a0Bets are placed after the hole cards, the first two community cards (called the “flop”), and then each of the last two community cards (the \u201cturn\u201d and the \u201criver\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0That makes the stakes much higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At some point in the game, players determine when it\u2019s time to bet their stake, their entire amount of cash. They shove all of their chips into the pot. It\u2019s called going \u201call in\u201d, and it\u2019s the ultimate bet in poker. \u201cAll in\u201d means its win or go home. \u201cAll in\u201d might mean you think you have an unbeatable hand, but it might also mean you are bluffing to get enough money to get back in the game. Win with the cards or win with the bluff, it\u2019s about risking everything on one play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Donald Trump announced that he is going to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday. Kenosha is the town where Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a police officer from point-blank range. The policeman held the back of Blake\u2019s shirt as he did it. There have been protests in Kenosha every night since. Last week, a seventeen-year old boy-vigilante came from out-of-state to \u201cprotect property\u201d. He was carrying a semi-automatic weapon, and killed two and wounded two more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday night a man wearing the hat of a far-right protest group, \u201cPatriot Pride\u201d, was killed in Portland, Oregon.\u00a0\u00a0This was after a night of clashes between Trump supporters and protestors against police violence, including assaults with trucks, protestors using pepper spray, and attacks with paint ball guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But President Trump will draw the focus to Kenosha. He\u2019s going there to \u201ctalk to law enforcement\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His presence in Kenosha will draw protestors from \u2013 everywhere.\u00a0\u00a0The essence of the Trump position is that while there may be a few aberrant police officers, nothing is wrong with \u201cthe system\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The alternative view:\u00a0\u00a0there is acceptance in law enforcement of the arbitrary shooting of black men and women and somehow their lives are worth less than others.\u00a0\u00a0And for proof of that theory \u2013 they offer a list of names of those killed by police that ranges back decades, and ends today at the shooting of Jacob Blake.\u00a0\u00a0Tomorrow \u2013 it\u2019s hard to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So Donald Trump going into a city in crisis is likely to create trouble. The Mayor of Kenosha and the Governor of Wisconsin, both Democrats, asked the President not to come. The protestors against the police are already there, and Trump\u2019s presence will bring more. The Trump supporters are also there, and Trump\u2019s arrival will bring many, many more. It\u2019s a law enforcement nightmare \u2013 whatever side of the crisis you support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will be gasoline on a fire \u2013 and it will create a whole new crisis in a place already in turmoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a twenty-year old Field Coordinator for the Carter\/Mondale campaign in 1976, I was impressed with the number of federal agents that were mobilized for a visit by candidate Carter. Not just the Secret Service detail travelling with Jimmy Carter, but dozens of local agents, and dozens more agents from other Federal agencies were part of the overall protective detail. And when the sitting President, Gerald Ford came into town, those numbers doubled again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now forty-four years later, I\u2019m sure those numbers have only increased.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So a Presidential visit to Kenosha won\u2019t cause a threat to Donald Trump.\u00a0\u00a0The Secret Service won\u2019t allow that to happen.\u00a0\u00a0What they will do is put a cover of Federal protection on the fire for the time he is there.\u00a0\u00a0But the Presidential presence is fuel is on the fire, and a Trump visit will draw gasoline from all sides to the streets of Kenosha.\u00a0\u00a0While he\u2019s there, the city will be locked down.\u00a0\u00a0But when he leaves and the cover comes off:\u00a0\u00a0it\u2019s a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And maybe that\u2019s exactly what the Trump Campaign needs. No matter what they say, Americans recognize that their COVID-19 response has failed. The Administration even tried to mask the failure with a new CDC study showing that most of those who died of COVID had pre-existing conditions, as if to say the lives of 120,000,000 Americans are forfeit already, so get over it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The campaign that Trump wanted to run, based on a booming economy, has collapsed, regardless of the inflated Wall Street numbers. The reality of COVID unemployment rates and losses in entertainment, travel, and other industries are still growing. The sole strategy left for them is to try to convince Americans that only Donald Trump can control the violence in the streets, an echo of Richard Nixon\u2019s \u201claw and order\u201d campaign of 1968. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As ugly as it may seem, violence in the streets, in Portland, Kenosha and other American cities, is Donald Trump\u2019s friend. As his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said in Meet the Press, <\/em>there isn\u2019t violence in, \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s America,\u201d just in \u201cDemocrat\u201d America. The Trump Campaign is \u201call-in\u201d for violence in America\u2019s cities. They are betting it mobilizes the suburbs to come out for Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, he is running for President of the United States, not just \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s America\u201d. And he has been President of the United States for the past three and a half years. But Trump fails to take any responsibility for \u201cDemocrat\u201d cities. They, and their large minority populations, aren\u2019t a part of his America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\nLabels Matter<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n