Trump Shows His True Feelings Again - His People Try to Explain it Away but They Can't

“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” Mr. Trump said, as the crowd began to boo. He quickly added: “Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.” 

Now his campaign people, trying to fix yet another mess, are saying he meant people who support the 2nd amendment should vote. 

But that is obviously a false claim, since Trump said "If she gets to pick her judges ... Second Amendment people -- maybe there is." If Hillary Clinton is picking her judges then she has already been elected and there is no more voting by anyone.

Even if he was only "joking" as he may say later, how irresponsible is it for a candidate for president to joke about people assassinating a president? Obviously it's the same Trump, not a new version.

National Purple Heart Day

Today is Purple Heart Day, commemorating the day on which George Washington created this medal. He did it in 1782 and only awarded it to 3 soldiers in the Revolutionary War, all personally by him.

My father and uncle served honorably in World War 2 although I, like Donald Trump, had a medical deferment, in my case because of asthma that often put me in a hospital. Donald Trump claimed heel spurs.

The service of my father and uncle in World War 2 make it so disgusting to me that anyone would say, as Trump did, "I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This [having a veteran hand it to him] was much easier."

No sane person wants to get the Purple Heart because it is only given to a U.S. serviceman or women who has been wounded or killed. It is a solemn award, not to be treated as a joke.

AARP is Supporting ALEC Financially - Horrible

AARP is giving financial support to ALEC, the organization that supports all the worst right-wing legislation in states.

AARP attempts to justify this as follows:

"In 2016, AARP paid a fee to ALEC, which gave us an opportunity to engage with state legislators and advance our members’ priorities from a position of strength at ALEC’s annual meeting."

This is pure bull. AARP can "advance our members' priorities" without having anything to do with this vile organization of ALEC.

This is a matter of principle and morality. I am seriously considering dropping my membership of 41 years and urging everyone I know to do that too.

Failure of MoCo's 911 System

Yesterday, August 2, 2016, the MoCo Council held a hearing on why the MoCo 911 emergency phone system failed for 2 hours on July 9. The briefing was a little difficult to understand but it sounded as if the problem was caused by a cooling system that had a leak.

Council Members said this was unacceptable and could never happen again.

In case the 911 system ever goes down again, everyone should have the following numbers to call directly to MoCo police stations:
Non-emergency: 301-279+8000
District 1D - 240-773-6070
District 2D - 240-773-6700
District 3D - 240-773-6800
District 4D - 240-773-5500
District 5D - 240-773-6200
District 6D - 240-773-5700

The West Wing

The West Wing was a terrific tv show from about 20 years ago. It had humor and great writing and its best quality was that it tackled serious issues with intelligence.

My wife and I are re-watching it and we just saw a show where the opponent of President Bartlet is shown to be unintelligent. In the episode we saw tonight the opponent is trying to get out of debates because he known that he isn't very smart and doesn't want to be seen that way. Sound familiar?
 

Papers About Term Limits

Two members of the Montgomery County Charter Review Commission (CRC) have written papers about term limits in preparation for the CRC responding to the County Council request for the CRC's recommendation on this subject. 


Since all the work of the CRC is public, these papers are too, so if anyone would like copies feel free to send me an email at besselpaulm@comcast.net Please be clear in your message, and sign it and let me know who you are and any affiliations.

The current plan is that the CRC will discuss the issue of term limits at its meeting on August 24, in the County Council building, 8am in the morning, 6th floor conference room unless we need a larger room.

The public is invited and welcome to make brief comments at the start of the meeting. If you plan to attend please send me an email at the email address above so we'll know how large a room we'll need. The CRC will vote on its position on term limits at the following meeting, September 14.

Trump and the Khan Family

It is amazing that anyone could be so heartless as to try to demean a mother and father whose son died while in the U.S. Army and defending his fellow soldiers.

What should a candidate say about those parents? "I'd like to hear from the wife" or "Who wrote that? Did Hillary's script writers write it" or "I've made many sacrifices. I work very hard."

The only thing that can be said about someone who would say that, as Mr. Khazir Khan, the father of the sacrificed soldier did, that Donald Trump has a "black soul."

And what makes this worse is that the candidate dodged the draft because he claimed a minor heel spur --- yet he engages in all sorts of sports. And none of his sons apparently gave the slightest thought to volunteer to join the U.S. armed forces, as Mr. Khan's son did. Yet Donald Trump claims to be a patriot and questions Muslims such as Mr. Khan and his son.

This is all an embarrassment to our country.