Dog-Whistle Racist Tweet Says Baltimore Is Full Of Rats -- Not NYC?

Photo credit: Andrew Savulich, NY Daily News

Have you ridden the subway in NYC lately? I have, and it's common to see rats there -- on the platforms, or down on the tracks, foraging.

Last night the power went out in Manhattan around 6:30pm, trapping people in subway cars and stations. If I had been one of them, you can bet I would have been thinking about the rats as I was led to safety by first responders.

I saw a woman almost step on a large rat just behind her as she stood chatting with friends on a bright summer morning. Ok, that was in Brooklyn.

Manhattan is the home base of the white supremacist family lolling in nepotism in the nation's capitol.

Yesterday their not-so-bright patriarch tweeted insults at Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore. Ostensibly Cummings' crime was being a bully -- to officials of Homeland Security under questioning in Congress about their conduct of torture centers for immigrants.

Cummings tweeted back: "Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors.

It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents." Cummings did not even use the tag #WeAreBaltimore which trended to the top quickly and stayed on the top 10 list of trending topics for hours.

Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors.

It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.

— Elijah E. Cummings (@RepCummings) July 27, 2019

Infested, dirty, rats, and crime are words that turn up regularly in White House insults directed at elected officials of color. Congresswomen of color are told they deserve to be "sent back" even though they are U.S. citizens. 

White people in the U.S. are no longer the majority, and whipping up their fear of other races is a good way to distract from the things really fueling their anxieties: declining prosperity, health care and higher education beyond their reach. 

Photo credit: Herika Martinez, Getty Images

Building a wall on our southern border is a visible symbol of white making right. The Supreme Court just ruled that the demagogue with bad hair can divert Pentagon funding to that purpose. Now you know what is even more sacred than the military in the U.S.: racism.

I heard that news with mixed feelings. U.S. and Afghan allied forces have killed more civilians than the Taliban, and the demagogue recently mentioned casually that he had the power to obliterate Afghanistan should he want to. More brown children he and his base do not care for, and they probably could not even articulate why not.

Congressman Cummings' real crime was more likely that the House Oversight Committee he chairs sent subpoenas this week to the demagogue's nepotism recipients. Personal emails and texts pertaining to official business are sought, according to the Associated Press:

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the panel’s chairman, said the committee has obtained “direct evidence” that the president’s daughter, Kushner and other top aides were using personal accounts for official business in violation of federal law and White House policy. 

“What we do not yet know is why these White House officials were attempting to conceal these communications,” Cummings said

What we do know: additional racist pronouncements will attempt to distract the public from this information.