Milwaukee’s racial paranoids get their 15 seconds!

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel went fishing for the pro-Biden campfire scare story it wanted to tell in the run-up to the Republican National Convention in their fair city next month. The newspaper found enough chickens little to quake on cue at the prospect of Republicans scything like hooded night riders through their troubled neighborhoods. 

“It’s still hard for me to get over the psychological effects of all this, knowing our first black mayor is rolling out the red carpet for people that hate us,” said Angela Lang, the executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities in Milwaukee.

If Rep. Byron Donalds, Dr. Ben Carson, or U.S. Sen. Tim Scott hate you, Ms. Lang, it’s not because you’re black. It’s because you are stupid. The Journal Sentinel segues into a variant of the lazy journalist’s “experts say” trope:

Research has shown far-right violent extremism is rising, and communities of color are feeling it. Darryl Morin, the national president of Forward Latino, agrees. 

Of course he agrees. It’s his job as a professional victim! Speaking of assumptions:

[Morin] said Hispanic and Latino families were already worried that their appearance, their accents, or speaking Spanish in public would make them a target.

“Because I can tell you we have not seen one hate crime victim who has told us they were stopped and asked about their immigration status before they were attacked,” he said. “It just occurs and the assumption is made.”

Don’t tell Marco Rubio or State Rep. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton — both of whom have been known to speak Spanish in public. If Mr. Morin has seen any hate crime victims, they weren’t Republican delegates, who won’t hit town until the week of July 14 – 18. I’d be more worried about race-baiting newspaper reporters.

---

A New York Times poll finds that 23% of black voters are going with Trump, a reputed Republican. The same poll shows Trump with a 6-point lead over Biden among hispanics.

---

 More police than delegates

Your Head Groundskeeper has attended two Republican national conventions — one as a newspaper reporter, the other as an alternate delegate. The 50,000 delegates, news hounds, and hangers-on to hit town will live in a convention bubble surrounded by a Secret Service-directed “secured convention perimeter.” 

Delegates will spend most of their time at Fiserve Forum for narcolepsy-inducing speeches and at their convention hotel for state delegation events with special speakers. (At the Cleveland Hilton, we heard from pollster Frank Luntz and John Ratzenberger (Cliff Claven of TV’s Cheers), among others. (Good Times!) Delegates will be ferried in vans and buses to the nightly parties around town and back to their hotels, nearly comatose.

Streets will be rerouted and barricaded with steel fencing and radio-controlled traffic-stop devices. If Milwaukee is anything like Cleveland, police, sheriff’s deputies, state patrol, and federal agents in dark suits will patrol on foot, in marked cars, vans and urban assault vehicles. Uniformed officers will ride on horseback, bicycle, and motorcycle. Law enforcement will put eyes in the sky with drones and helicopters. Sharpshooters will peer down from rooftops with binoculars and scopes on high-powered rifles.

Hard to burn crosses with that kind of surveillance.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Can’t blame MAGA for the Juneteenth shootout at Washington Park. Let’s face it — the Republican National Convention will be safer than a Bucks playoff game.

Is too much Joy Reid bad for one’s mental health?