The Way Trump Rolls

Fingers are starting to point in Tulsa as time for Donald Trump's big hoodoo rally grows close. According to the Tulsa World, Mayor G.T. Bynum is claiming he wasn't, "in the loop," during the early set up for the event. Bynum told The World the first he heard of the rally is when the BOK Center management company called him up to see if the city would spring for police protection.

Bynum also told the paper the contract with the city allows the management company, ASM Global, to book whatever event they want and short of declaring a state of emergency there is nothing he, the Mayor, can do to stop it.

ASM Global on the other hand issued a statement yesterday saying they had been waiting on Bynum to issue the order of civil emergency. It appeared to be a none too subtle hint they would love for him to give them an excuse to get out of their contract with the Trump campaign. The Mayor did finally declare an emergency, but it had nothing to do with cancelling the rally. Instead Bynum imposed a curfew in the immediate area around the BOK Center, then had his police department clear out all the Trump fans who had been camping on the sidewalks around the place since Monday.

Bynum said the move was necessary because his office had received intel from his PD and other law enforcement agencies, "that shows that individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive, or violent behavior in other states are planning to travel to The City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally."

Ah, the old Visigoths from the outside ploy. Tulsa has seen this before. During the 1921 race massacre rumors of hundreds of black reinforcements arriving by rail from Muskogee prompted the raging white mob to open fire on a Frisco passenger train. The riders, none of them black, or having any idea what was happening, were forced to take cover on the floors of their Pullman rail cars.

This morning, Big Don, as always perfectly unaware of what is going on, hit Twitter with a post which read, "Big lines already forming in Tulsa. My campaign hasn't started yet. It starts Saturday night in Oklahoma!"

It didn't take long for someone to clue the President in on Bynum's declaration though. In another tweet a little later Trump wrote, "Any protestors, agitators, looters, or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!"

Governor Kevin Stitt, who is from Tulsa, is taking the possibility of trouble as seriously as G.T. Bynum. Local media outlets are saying he has activated 250 National Guard troops who will be armed in full riot gear just in case Mr. Trump wants to take another outdoor photo op stroll.

Meanwhile, no one is listening to the Executive Director of the Tulsa County Health Department, Bruce Dart. From day one he has been pleading for the rally to be, "postponed." Today he is quoted in USA Today as saying, "I know so many people are over COVID, but COVID is not over. It's transmitting very efficiently in our community."

He's right. Yesterday in Oklahoma a state high of 450 new cases were reported including 80 plus in Tulsa alone. In response to the growing numbers a group of lawyers are petitioning the Oklahoma Supreme Court today to get the rally stopped unless someone, either ASM Global, or the Trump campaign, can guarantee social distancing will be observed and the wearing of masks is mandatory Saturday night.

In addition, ASM Global claims they have sent a letter to the campaign asking for a detailed plan of the safety measures it will take. The campaign issued a statement which said it is, "studying," the letter, which means they have no plan other than offering masks at the door and promising to take everyone's temperature before they are allowed in. Well that and they're having all attendees abide by a waiver saying if they do come down with the disease they can't sue Trump, or the campaign.

Finally ASM Global has another problem. Reports are most of its employees who work such events are refusing to be there. Other reports say their places will be taken by 200 Trump volunteers. You know people who have no idea what they're doing.

Yes, the term cluster fuck does seem to apply here. Of course, given what has gone on during Trump's three plus years of running things we shouldn't have expected anything else. It is, after all, the way he rolls.


sic vita est


6-19-20