“Four years ago, when the United States was in the eighth year of an economic expansion and enjoying a time of relative peace and prosperity, Donald Trump saw only carnage. ’Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation,’ he told the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, describing a nation full of ‘death, destruction. . . and weakness.’ Now, America actually is in crisis: a world’s worst 177,000 dead from the pandemic, nearly 6 million infected, 6 million net jobs lost during Trump’s presidency, nearly $7 trillion added to the debt, and racial violence in the streets.
“Back in 1980, when presidential candidate Ronald Reagan asked his famous question, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ he said, ‘If all of the unemployed today were in a single line allowing two feet for each of them, that line would reach from New York City to Los Angeles, California.’ If we made a similar line today of all those on some type of unemployment relief, that line would cross the country five times. Trump can’t ask Americans whether they are better off than when he took over because we all know the answer. The best he can do is pretend everything is hunky-dory, and hope people fall for it.”
— Dana Milbank, Washington Post, Aug. 27, 2020.
“The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing. The people of Portland won’t put up with no safety any longer. The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard! Our great National Guard could solve these problems in less than 1 hour. Local authorities must ask before it is too late. People of Portland, and other Democrat run cities, are disgusted with Schumer, Pelosi, and [their] local ‘leaders.’ They want Law & Order!”
—Donald Trump tweet following fatal shooting in clash between BLM protesters and pro-Trump supporters in Portland, Oregon, Aug. 30, 2020.
“We don’t need your politics of division and demagoguery. Portlanders are onto you. We have already seen your reckless disregard for human life in your bumbling response to the COVID pandemic. And we know you’ve reached the conclusion that images of violence or vandalism are your only ticket to reelection.”
—Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, in response to Trump’s tweet rants, Aug. 30, 2020.
“Congressional oversight of intelligence activities now faces a historic crisis. Intelligence agencies have a legal obligation to keep Congress informed of their activities.”
—Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), acting chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe’s announcement that the intelligence community will scale back in-person congressional briefings on election security. [A cynic might say the move is just another attempt by Trump to divert attention away from election interference – or worse, to conceal it.]
“I fear that we are witnessing the end of American democracy.”
—Harvard psychologist Joshua Greene.
Louisiana Voice 
Key passage from MIlbank’s column: “The best he can do is pretend everything is hunky-dory, and hope people fall for it.”
At least 40% of them clearly have, as may be noted from some of the posts here. Again, separate realities.
Harvard psychologist Joshua Greene should have added this to his sentence: “if Trump is reelected.” Or he could have added: “because Trump is trying to kill it so he can rule autocratically.” And he could have changed “I fear” to “I am terrified.” All because we have a mentally ill person as president and so many ill informed voters.