Things Get Weird in North Carolina

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Mark Robinson is the Republican lieutenant governor of North Carolina, a position to which he was elected in 2020 and with his term expiring in January of 2025.  Robinson is currently the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, a race he seems destined to lose.

Prior to entering politics in the previous decade, Mark Robinson, a Black man, was a weekend minister whose regular paycheck came from working in the furniture construction industry.   Robinson, who has the oratory skills of a well-practiced preacher, first came to prominent public notice when he delivered an impassioned defense of guns at his local city council meeting in the spring of 2018.  His speech went viral on Facebook, and a politician was born.

Donald Trump, apparently referring to Robinson's oratorical skills, has called him "Martin Luther King on steroids."  Trump endorsed Robinson for Governor in this spring's GOP primary in North Carolina, and the candidate went on to win a three-way statewide race with 64.8% of the vote.

Robinson was already controversial when he won the gubernatorial primary and was on record as having made inflammatory remarks that were homophobic, transphobic, racist, anti-semitic, and Islamophobic.  He is like Trump in that he seems ready to say anything that happens to flit across his mind.

A big part of Mark Robinson's political persona is built around his staunch anti-abortion stand.  A few weeks ago he and his wife announced that back in the 1980's when they were dating, he had paid for her to have an abortion.  Now he says publicly that he thinks the process should not be allowed after the 12th week of pregnancy, and he has been quoted as saying privately that he actually prefers that the number of weeks be reduced to zero.

Robinson has been identified by personnel from businesses that sell and rent pornography as someone who used to frequent their places of business, and he admitted to once having an interest in pornography.

A report from CNN yesterday leveled several new allegations at the Republican gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina including statements allegedly made on a porn site more than ten years ago when Robinson allegedly referred to himself as a "black Nazi" and pined for the return of slavery saying that he would pcertainly purchase a few.  He had also supposedly posted remarks critical of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, the man to whom Trump sought to compare him.  Among other things, he reportedly referred to Dr. King as a "commie bastard."

CNN reported that Robinson, a man who had previously called transgender and gay people "filth," had, according to the messages that he allegedly posted, had watched and commented on-line about enjoying transgender porn.

And there was more, with CNN indicating that some of it was so salacious that they had chosen not to report it.

Mark Robinson is denying the allegations by CNN.   While the messages do exist, he is denying the authorship of those messages.

Republicans in North Carolina were of apparently two minds on the issue of Mark Robinson and his colorful past.  One group stood behind the candidate and encouraged voters to vote on issues rather than personalities.  Another group, noting that midnight yesterday was the deadline for dropping out of the race, seemed to be encouraging the candidate to throw in the towel.   He resisted the encouragement to do so and remained in the race.   North Carolina began sending out their absentee ballots this morning - and Mark Robinson's name is still on the ballot as the Republican candidate for governor of the state.

One news report this morning said that the Trump campaign's internal polling shows Mark Robinson trailing his Democratic opponent, NC Attorney General Josh Stein, by 14 points.

(Note to Donald Trump:  Be careful what you wish for!)

Killer Pagers

 

by Pa rock

Citizen Journalist

Isn't it a comfort to realize that in a world where we still cannot come up with a cure cancer or even the common cold, people are being wildly successful, nonetheless, in developing new and extremely clever ways to kill one another.  It's great to know that all of that expensive post-secondary education is not going to waste!

The week we have been treated to some amazing Orwellian, or perhaps James Bondian, tales in the press about mankind's obsession and dependency on electronic gadgetry being turned against some of us by others of us.  

On Tuesday at least a dozen people, including two children, were killed and thousands wounded in Lebanon and parts of Syria when their small, personal pagers began exploding.  The following day, Wednesday, there was another round of unexpected blasts in that same war-ravaged area, this time from personal walkie-talkies blowing-up.  During that attack twenty-five died and more than six hundred were wounded.  The attack of the killer walkie-talkies resulted in fires in at least seventy homes and shops in Lebanon as well as car and motorcycle fires.

An Israeli official reportedly told American officials that the attack was engineered by Israel.  The intended victims were members of the Hezbollah militant group which is headquartered in Lebanon and has been carrying out attacks on Israel since the start of the current war in October of last year.  During that time Israel has also been involved in a prolonged counter-offensive with Hezbollah.  The military group began relying on pagers earlier this year after leaders became concerned that Israel might have the ability to hack their cellphones.

There is still much speculation as to how Israel, or whoever instigated the attack, was able to arm the pagers and get them into the hands of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and Syria.  The brand of the pagers involved was "Gold Apollo," a company owned and operated (somewhat) in Taiwan.  That company, however says that it only supplied the name for the pagers, and that the actual work of making them was farmed out to a company in Hungary.  From there they were headed to Hezbollah, but the shipment was stalled at some port for three months due to restrictions caused by various sanctions on the receiving countries.

Speculation currently is that agents opposed to Hezbollah intercepted the shipment at that point and placed small amounts of explosives and tiny metal balls into each of the pagers, and that the explosions were then detonated by special radio signals that caused the pagers' batteries to rapidly overheat.

Whatever the specifics of how the deadly process worked, the important thing is that it did work and terrorists who had the pagers deep in their pockets were killed, and so were children who happened to be standing nearby, and people in shops who were just going about their daily routines, and people on buses, and all manner of innocent civilians.  The indiscriminate nature of the attacks, in fact, has led to accusations that they amounted to "war crimes."

But that was there and this is here, and here in America we aren't dependent on gadgetry that could be used to control, defeat, or eliminate us.  We are smarter than that.

Or are we?

McAlister's Deli Comes to West Plains!

 

by Pa Rock

Backwoods Gourmet

I don't know the history of the establishment, but up until recently one of our local grocery stores had a parking lot that was literally more than twice the space the store needed to run its business.  Early last spring ropes and markers began going up on the far end of the parking lot indicating that something was afoot.  A few days after that one of the people in my cardiac rehab group announced that she had heard that a "McAlister's Deli" was going in at that location.

A new place to eat is big news in a small town, and while some in the cardiac rehab group were unfamiliar with the McAlister's chain, those of us who were experienced travelers assured the rest that the business would be a welcome addition to our town's grub supply.   

(I have been to two McAlister's:   one inside of the airport in Springfield, Missouri, and the other in northwest Arkansas near where my sister, a McAlister's fanatic, lives.  I gave up coffee many years ago and now get my caffeine buzz through unsweetened iced tea, and I know from experience that McAlister's has really good iced tea!) 

Progress on the project was slow, and the actual construction did not start until summer.  But once the builders arrived,  it went up fast and some (me included) suspected they were shooting for a Labor Day opening.  That holiday came and went, however, and still the new place was not open.   Not long after Labor Day I was in the grocery store next to where the new food place was standing empty, and I asked the lady running the checkout when the McAlister's would open.   She looked around before answering, and then leaned across the counter and whispered, "The 16th."  

"Is it a secret?" I asked, incredulously.

"Oh, no."  She said, in her regular voice - and then continued ringing-up the high-priced groceries.

The overly dramatic checkout lady was right and the new eating establishment did open this past Monday morning, September 16th.  My son and I had planned to go there for dinner that evening, but we each had occasion to drive by during the day, and each time the place was packed - so we will check it out later after the novelty begins to wear off.

Our community's "daily" newspaper, which offers a print version only on Wednesdays and Saturdays, had a front-page photo today showing the crowd waiting to get into the new business when it opened its doors for the first time at 10:30 a.m. on Monday.  The newspaper reported that more than one hundred people were standing in line for the event.  It was definitely a big deal in a small town!

McAlister's, welcome to West Plains.  May your business and our community both benefit from your decision to open one of your delis here. I'll stop by for an iced tea and a sandwich just as soon as you have a table to spare!

Missouri Senate Race Shaping Up to be Closer than Expected

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Josh Hawley won his US Senate seat in Missouri running against a formidable Democratic incumbent, Claire McCaskill, in 2018 with just 51.4% of the vote.  After six years of learning the ropes in the Senate and working to develop a national profile, and without McCaskill in the race, he should have been looking at a relatively easy re-election this year, but that is not what is happening.   Hawley's effort at re-election against Democratic newcomer Lucas Kunce seems to be facing surprisingly strong headwinds.  

Not only has Kunce proven to be a strong fundraiser and campaigner with a compelling personal story, he has also benefitted from Hawley's missteps, some of which are almost legendary.

Hawley has managed to embarrass himself - and his state - on multiple occasions.  Just two years after assuming his position as a US Senator, Hawley raised his fist in the air on the grounds of the Capitol in support of the traitorous scum who would later in the day be storming the building. That same day Hawley was the first Senator to announce he would object during certification of the electoral vote, a move which former US Senator Jack Danforth (also of Missouri) said "set the stage" for the deadly riot that followed.  After the rioters were inside of the building and all hell was breaking loose, Hawley was filmed running in panic away from the same mob that he had helped to incite that morning  - clearly not the sprinter's finest hour!

Jack Danforth, a retired Republican politician who had finagled behind the scenes for Hawley's election, said the following day that supporting Hawley "was the worst mistake I ever made in my life."  A few days later Danforth compared himself to "Dr. Frankenstein" for his role in helping to "create" Hawley.  

David Humphreys, a major donor to Hawley's 2018 campaign said that the Senate should censure the young senator over his role in the events of January 6th, and Hallmark, a major corporation headquartered in Kansas City, asked Hawley to return its donations to his campaign.

Another way in which Josh Hawley has differentiated himself from his (supposed) Missouri roots is in the area of abortion.  While Missouri is a red state with a very red legislature which has enacted an almost total ban on abortions, that is not the way regular Missouri citizens feel with regard to a woman's right to control her own body and healthcare.  This year there is an amendment on the Missouri general election ballot that will reinstate a woman's right to an abortion up to viability of the fetus - around 24 weeks - and polling indicates that the amendment is likely to pass handily. Hawley and his wife, Erin, also an attorney, are both active and prominent figures in the anti-abortion movement, a stance which should whittle away at his November vote totals.

Lucas Kunce stands a very real chance of defeating Josh Hawley this November, a fact which seems to be routinely ignored by the national press and the national Democratic Party.  Kunce is currently running stronger than the national Democratic ticket in the show-me state and is polling at just a few points shy of Hawley.  I have donated multiple times to his campaign and probably will again - which means I get some sort of email "ask" from the Kunce campaign about every fifteen minutes!

Here are portions of two that I received yesterday.  (I just copied the parts focused on describing Josh Hawley, and I thought both were exceptionally good.). The first is from actor and comedian (and native Missourian) John Goodman:

"I’ll be honest: I’ve been ready to defeat Josh Hawley since January 6th, 2021.

He totally disgraced my home state that day… raising his fist because he wanted to look strong, and then running away like a little coward out the back door.

But Josh Hawley has done a lot more than just that to embarrass Missouri over the years, stuff you probably wouldn’t even believe.

Hawley himself played a major role in overturning Roe V. Wade — he even bragged about it! He backs the total abortion ban in Missouri, co-sponsored a national abortion ban, and is a pioneer of the legal movement threatening access to IVF and birth control nationwide.

Hawley forced Missouri taxpayers to cover his legal bills after he broke the law — $250,000, in this economy! He’s refused to invest a single dollar in Missouri, instead spending all his time writing stuff like his “Manhood” self-help book.

It’s just shameful."

The other is from Jason Kander, a a Democrat and former Missouri Secretary of State who came extremely close to defeating Roy Blunt for his US Senate seat in 2016.  Mr. Kander, who like Lucas Kunce, is an Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran, is a prominent figure in veteran's causes and issues.   He had this to say about Josh Hawley:

"Now let’s talk about why Josh Hawley is so vulnerable.

Hawley famously popped popcorn in his dorm room to gleefully watch the invasion of Iraq and then claimed a decade later to have opposed the war.

And since he’s represented Missouri in the U.S. Senate, he’s also become known as a desperately anti-union scab who is self-consciously obsessed with manhood.

From blocking defense nominations to voting against health care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Hawley has put his personal politics ahead of national security and the needs of military families. And he’s used his office to build a family business dedicated to restricting abortion access nationwide as his allies in Jefferson City enacted one of the nation’s most extreme abortion bans.

Now with five years under Hawley’s belt in the U.S. Senate, Missourians don’t like what they’ve seen.

Approval polling from Morning Consult shows that Hawley has the lowest approval of any GOP senator running for reelection in 2024, lower than Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida. And even his mentor, Missouri’s former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, has called backing Hawley the “worst mistake I ever made.”

Donald Trump recently commented on Hawley’s race too — “So interesting that the Democrats are looking hard at the Senate races in both Missouri and Texas. Josh and Ted must be very careful, stranger things have happened!!!”

Hawley is vulnerable, and everyone knows it. The proof is in his rapidly changing election-season rhetoric, Republicans in Washington fretting about their draconian abortion bans across the country, and Hawley’s billionaire allies launching a new pro-Hawley super PAC right after Lucas entered the race."

It's a clear choice in November for voters who reside in Missouri.  Lucas Kunce needs to be elected, and Josh Hawley needs to be returned to his posh Virginia suburb where he an Erin can enjoy a quiet and very private life of minding their own business and leaving us alone to mind ours.

Get to the polls on November 5th - seven weeks from today - especially if you live in Missouri - and take your friends with you.

Missouri can do so much better than Josh Hawley!

Saying You Hate Taylor Swift Probably Isn't Smart Politics

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

It's been almost a week since mega pop star Taylor Swift issued a long and flowing endorsement of Kamala Harris for President.  Swift made that endorsement last Tuesday night on her Instagram account after the presidential debate, and that account has over 280 million followers.  Ms. Swift's endorsement also contained a link to the website vote.gov which facilitates voter registration, and more than 400,000 people hit on her link to that site within the next 24 hours.

Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz was a very big deal, and it read, in part:

"She (Kamala Harris) fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.  I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader, and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos."

Swift said she was driven to make the endorsement after Trump posted misleading information, including fake AI imagery, which suggested that he was getting her vote.

Trump, the elderly felon, apparently stewed over Taylor Swift's remarks all week, and yesterday he cut loose on his own personal social media platform, Truth Social, with this gem:  "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!"

Yup.  The angry man-child said it in all caps so that his followers would be able to figure out that he was really, really mad!

Trump has also suggested that Taylor Swift, a real billionaire, would probably pay a price for her endorsement of Harris "in the marketplace."

Keep hawking those Bibles, Donbo.  God loves you whether anyone else does or not!

Ignoramus Vows to Deport Haitians "Back" to Venezuela

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Springfield, Ohio, is a small urban center with a population of around sixty thousand individuals, of whom a quarter-to-a-third are fairly recent legal immigrants from Haiti.  By most accounts this recent influx of Haitians has been largely without incident, and they have been a positive influence on the community.  The Haitians work, pay taxes, attend local churches, support local businesses, and send their kids to the local schools.    

Things had been going well in the small Ohio city, but then a few weeks ago someone posted a meme on social media suggesting that some of these new Black arrivals in Springfield, Ohio, were eating the domestic pets of their neighbors - cats, and dogs, and ducks, oh my!  City officials, including the city commissioner and members of the police department, tried to get out in front of the rumor and denied it, but the story was just too good for Republican Party to ignore.  Yes, the immigrant population of Springfield was by-and-large legal, but they were Black, and, as such, they could be used to whip-up fear among the ignorant masses.

JD Vance, an opportunistic Republican Senator from Ohio who also happeens to be the GOP vice-presidential candidate, reposted the baseless allegation saying essentially that it must be true because it had been on the internet, and then at last Tuesday night's presidential debate Donald Trump, a man who has built his political career by using immigration to scare people, decided to trot out the immigrants-eating-pets hoax and peddle it to the entire nation.

It wasn't true, but Trump, a politician who has never been bashful about lying, said it anyway.  The moderators at the debate tried to correct him, but he pushed on with his shocking lie saying that he had seen people on television talking about it, so again, it must be true.  A day or two later he doubled-down on his false narrative and said that the immigrants in Springfield would be among the first that he would deport when he became President again - completely disregarding the fact that most of the Haitians in Springfield are there legally and they are good, responsible citizens of the community.

Then others decided that they, too, needed to be in on the action of "helping" Springfield, Ohio, deal with its problems.  People began calling in bomb threats aimed at the city government and local schools.  Meetings had to be canceled or moved, and several schools had to shut down - all over an internet rumor that was ginned up and being spread by a few self-serving politicians who get their political strength through dividing people.

Now the stories about Haitians eating family pets have spread on down the road to Dayton, Ohio, and it is not true there either.  When garbage is plopped down on the internet it tends to grow legs and run wild.

Trump is boasting at this rallies that "when" he gets back in the White House he is going to order the biggest mass deportation in US history and that it will begin with Aurora, Colorado, a community he says is overrun with immigrant gangs, and Springfield, Ohio, the place where the savages are eating their neighbors dogs and cats.  Yesterday, speaking from his golf course overlooking the Pacific Ocean in California, Trump said:

"We are going to do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio, large deportations.  We're going to get these people out.  We're bringing them back to Venezuela."

Yes, Mr Trump by all means rip those legal Haitian immigrants out of their homes and lives in Ohio and send them back to Venezuela.  Prove to the world that you are almost as smart as Greg Abbott.  Whether you are impaired by a low IQ, the effects of a private school education, or senility, you need to get control of yourself and quit terrorizing the most vulnerable among us.

Quit being a bully and pick on somebody your own size - like me!  Deport me back to Fiji, or  Bora Bora, or Marrakesh.  I double-dog dare you! But leave the Haitians alone.  They came here to escape the murderous gangs in the small homeland of Haiti (not Venezuela), and to build better lives for themselves and their families - just like your own mother did when she immigrated to the US to build a better life here as a maid, or like two of your three wives did when they also immigrated to America to better themselves.

And believing that Haitians are from Venezuela, well . . . that's just weird! Buy a geography book, Donald, and pay somebody to read it to you - or enroll in a night class a a community college.

Education is the most reliable path out of the morass of fear and ignorance.

The Political Clout of Sarah Palin

by Pa Rock

Political Junkie

A meme has been flitting across social media for the past several days, in multiple forms, that provides insight into the presidential preferences of people who have already either served as President or Vice President of the United States, or who have been a major party candidate for one of those positions.  The results show one group of party elders in a strong position of unity - and the other in raging disarray!

Past (and present) Democratic Presidents are unanimous in their support of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.    Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden are actively backing Kamala and Tim.  Jimmy Carter was not mentioned in the memes that I saw, but his grandson said that former President Carter told him that he is "hanging on to vote for Kamala."  Carter has been in hospice for nearly two years and will turn one hundred on October 1st.

All of the former unsuccessful Democratic candidates for President who are still living have also endorsed Kamala - including, Al Gore (a former Vice President), John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton.  Tim Kaine, Hillary's 2016 running mate, is also actively supporting the Harris-Walz ticket.  In fact, the only Democratic national candidate from whom I could not locate an endorsement was John Edwards who was Kerry's running mate in 2004.

The Democrats were impressive in their unanimity, particularly when compared to the Republicans.

Former President George W. Bush, the only other living former President besides Donald Trump who is a Republican, said that he has "retired" from presidential politics and would not be endorsing anyone.  Bush's Vice President, Dick Cheney, announced last week that he is supporting the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.   Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP standard bearer has said that he will not vote for Donald Trump, and at one point Romney indicated that he might write-in his wife, Ann, for President.  Romney's running mate in 2012, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, has also said that he will not vote for Trump and plans to write in some other Republican.  Trump's former Vice President, Mike Pence, has also declined to endorse Donald Trump for the presidency this time around.  Former Vice President Dan Quayle, a Republican, has made no endorsements, but Quayle was instrumental in convincing Mike Pence not to try and overturn the 2020 election results.

The only past member of a Republican national ticket, other than Trump himself, who openly says she will be voting for her party's nominee for president this November is the late John McCain's running mate from 2008, Sarah Palin!

But it would be a foolish to underestimate the political clout of Sarah Palin, because it is very likely that as Sarah votes, so too will Ted Nugent!

Misogynistic Pigs

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Former Republican Congresswoman and current bane of the Republican Party, Liz Cheney, made news multiple times last week:  once when she announced that she was supporting and would be voting for Kamala Harris for President, and again when she let the world know that he father, former Republican Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, would also be voting for Kamala Harris for President.  Those were stunning announcements, but by the end of the week there was more, and this time Ms. Cheney really cut loose.

Liz Cheney was appearing at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, an annual event that was held September 5-7 this year.  On Friday during the festival Cheney was sitting for a public interview with Mark Leibovich of The Atlantic when she offered up advice to Kamala Harris for the upcoming debate, and that advice was to "let Trump be Trump," which Harris wound up doing devastatingly well!

As she was pressing her point to the writer from The Atlantic, Cheney said that the debate would be "an opportunity where Donald Trump gets to show the American people who he is" and then she went on to clarify that by adding the words "a misogynistic pig."   Then, to insure that she had made her point, Ms. Cheney clarified further while speaking of Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, thusly:  "This is my diplomatic way of saying it:  They're misogynistic pigs."

In news from another litter, Elon Musk, a man with aspirations to become Earth's first trillionaire and who would dearly love to control this planet and Mars, volunteered this week to inseminate pop star Taylor Swift.  Swift, who on Tuesday night after Kamala Harris kicked Trump's tired, old, flabby butt in the debate, endorsed Harris for President on Instagram and signed the endorsement "Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady," an obvious dig at Trump's running mate, JD Vance, a man who seems to have serious issues with women who don't reproduce.  

Clever Elon, a father of twelve children already and a man who imagines he is beloved by millions, took Swift's endorsement and tried to make light of it and her.  On "X" (formerly "Twitter"), a social media platform that Musk owns, he responded with this:

"Fine Taylor, you win . . . I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life."

Talk about misogynistic pigs!

Musk also announced this week that another of his companies, SpaceX, will begin sending unmanned missions to Mars in two years, with plans to follow-up with manned missions to the Red Planet four years from now.   If Elon, a.k.a. the Space Cowboy, would ride one of those rockets to Mars himself, I suspect that Taylor Swift and several million other proud and strong American women would be delighted to help him pack!

Wanda Sykes: Thirty Words on American Education

 

by Pa Rock

Former Teacher

Stand aside Horace Mann, John Dewey, and Maria Montessori, because another powerful personality is making her way to the forefront of the struggle to redefine education in America, and  this cranky, old former teacher believes that the voice of Wanda Sykes is one which needs to be heard, especially as she addresses the bloody issue of school shootings.

Ms. Sykes, a comedian and entertainer, did not write a book on education or school safety, but she did address the topic in one of her comedy routines, and that riff went on to enjoy a second life on TikTok and has since flourished across social media.  In a mere thirty words, the comedian cut right to the chase and identified a major hypocrisy of legislators who believe their primary purpose in public life is to exert their control, influence, and religious values over schools.  Wanda Sykes said this:

"Until a drag queen walks into a school and beats eight kids to death with a copy of 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' I think you're focusing on the wrong shit."

How perfect is that!

Little Johnny's heart may swell with pride and adoration when he finds an AR-15 with his name on it under the Christmas tree as he and his family celebrate the birth of Jesus, but Lord, please don't ever let him come within fifty-feet of a drag queen or a book about diversity.  Some things are just too damned dangerous for children to be around!

For those who live in cultural and educational  backwaters like Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, the thirty words of Wanda Sykes would be easy and very appropriate to include on letters to any member of your state legislature, regardless of the general topic of the correspondence.   And if your legislator is not a reader, there is probably someone around the office who is.  Perhaps a custodian.

Let teachers teach and let students learn - in peace and safety!

Harris Scores Big Win at Debate

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I will admit to not watching last night's presidential debate, but I did listen to the entire performance on National Public Radio (NPR), WWNO out of New Orleans.  By subjecting myself to just the audio of the debate, I missed out on the visual aspects of the show, things like the occasional raised eyebrows and revealing facial expressions.  But that's alright.  I wanted to hear what the candidates had to say without being distracted by the choreography.

From simply an audio perspective, these are the things that I noticed

• Kamala Harris stayed calm and in control throughout the debate, while Donald Trump's mood rose and dropped like some overworked carnival ride.  Harris ignored quite a bit of Trump's malarkey, but he would not let any statement of hers go unchallenged, always blustering objections and insisting on the last word.  I heard on the news this morning that he managed to speak more than five minutes more than she did, not an insignificant amount of time in a debate that was only ninety minutes long.
• Harris remained respectful and usually addressed her opponent by his name or his former title.  Trump, on the other hand, relegated the Vice President to pronouns like "she" and "her," and declined to address his opponent by her name or office even once during the debate.  He came across as loud, brash, and disrespectful - with a dollop of misogyny thrown in for good measure.
• Donald Trump said some of the funnier things of the night, though he likely did not intend for them to be taken as humorous.  When Harris said that Trump was not respected by world leaders, and he shot back that he had been praised by Hungarian Prime Minister (and autocratic strongman) Viktor Orban, I laughed out loud.  Out of a literal world of possible examples, he reached straight to the bottom of the political barrel and came up with Orban!  And then there was the bit where Trump, who famously does not even like dogs, dredged up the thoroughly debunked internet fable that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating dogs and other family pets.  Not funny - but so damned funny!   Or when Rambo Trump said he "took a bullet to the head" because of Democratic rhetoric, or when he said President Biden hates his Vice President because she helped force him out of office.   One laugh line after another!  Donald Trump lies faster than most people can talk - and he can be so damned funny!

Donald Trump had four years at the helm of our government, and he spent most of his time on the golf course neglecting the people he was elected to serve.  His "accomplishments" consisted almost entirely of a massive tax cut for himself and his rich crony friends and corporations - and appointing three justices to the Supreme Court who gave that court the ability to overturn Roe v Wade - which it promptly did.  We cannot go back to "leadership" like that.

Last night's debate highlighted the clear choice voters will have this November.   One candidate is a beacon of truth and hope guiding us - all of us - toward a brighter future, and the other is Donald JohnTrump.  It is a time for moving forward - and Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the way forward - and Donald Trump is lost somewhere on the back nine.  

The future is forward.  Never go back!

Hit the Road, Flo!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

As a self-taught family researcher who has been slowly learning the skills involved in genealogy for over forty years, I have become familiar with all types of records and the ways they help reveal aspects of people's lives which otherwise might be lost in the dust of time.  One of my favorite types of records  (and one that I always hope to find when I begin tracking down an ancestor) is some form of an obituary - because obituaries reveal so much about a person, statistical as well as personal.

Obituaries are usually written by personnel at the funeral home handing the final arrangements, and published on the funeral home's website and often in a local newspaper.    Relatives are consulted for information that goes in the obituaries, and sometimes relatives will write the brief biographies themselves.  (I wrote the obituaries for both of my parents.) Occasionally people will even prepare their own obituaries prior to their deaths to highlight what they want remembered about their lives.

Obituaries contain facts about the lives of the deceased which give important clues to researchers about where to look for further information - things such as dates and places of birth, parents' names, siblings' names (and sometimes places of residence), names of children and grandchildren, educational backgrounds, occupations, and even things like hobbies and special interests.  Obituaries tend to offer a more personal glimpse of a person's life than other records like birth and death certificates or census records,  With obituaries you are far more likely to get a sense of who the person really was.

The following very brief obituary has been bouncing around the internet this week, and though it is succinct, it is also quite revealing.  It was penned by the adult daughter of the deceased who had not seen her mother in more than a decade prior to the woman's death, and did not learn of her death until months after it happened.  The daughter, who showed her brutal assessment of her mother to relatives prior to submitting it for publication, said she wrote the obituary with sarcasm and relief, but that "it's real."

Christina's obituary for her mother, Florence, was published in a newspaper in the mother's home state and later picked up a national magazine.  It was just four sentences long, but had a lot to say:

"Florence ______ died without family by her side due to burnt bridges and a wake of destruction left in her path,  Florence did not want an obituary or anyone including family to know she died.  That's because even in death she wanted those she terrorized to still be living in fear and looking over their shoulders.  So, this isn't so much an obituary but more of a public service announcement."

There is an old saying that goes:  "Be careful how you treat your children because they are the ones who will be choosing your nursing home."  It would be prudent to note that they may also be the ones writing your obituary!

Happy trails!

Good Place to Park a Boat for the Winter

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There have been a number of stories in the news lately discussing what some see as Donald Trump's apparent cognitive decline.  With Joe Biden leaving the presidential race in July before he could become the Democratic Party's official nominee, Donald Trump now holds the dubious distinction of being the oldest presidential candidate in our nation's history - and many are finally beginning to openly comment on the elderly candidate's lack of focus and tendency toward confusion when he speaks.

In fact, as often as not, Trump's rambling incoherence seems to overtake whatever topic he is supposed to be addressing. This week, following a speech to the Economic Club of New York, Trump was asked what specific legislation he would seek to lower the cost of child care for working families - a good question on an important issue that begged an exact response.  But instead of a clear and concise answer, Trump coughed up this hairball:

"It's a very important issue.  But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers I'm talking about, that, because, look, child care is child care.  It's something you know you have to have it, in this country you have to have it.  But when you talk about those numbers compared to the type of numbers I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels they're not used to, but they'll get used to it very quickly. - and it's not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they'll have a very substantial tax when they send products into our country."

When reporting the story of Trump's plans for child care or tariffs (take your pick), some journalists tried to translate his gibberish into an understandable response - while others accused  the first group of "sane-washing" what Trump had said.

But gibberish from Donald Trump is like lava from an active volcano - it just keeps flowing.

Earlier in the week Trump held a rally in Potterville, Michigan.   The complete transcript of his speech at the rally is available on the internet, but the following segment, which is fairly representative of the speech as a whole, has been popping up extensively on social media.  In it Trump's "train" of thought appears to be more akin bo "bumper cars" of thought.  The bard of Mar-a-lago had this to say about his opponent in November - at least it started out being about his opponent:

"She destroyed the city of San Francisco, it's - and I own a big building there - it's no - I shouldn't talk about this but that's OK I don't give a damn because this is what I'm doing.  I should say it's the finest city in the world - sell and get the hell out of there, right?   But I can't do that.  I don't care, you know?   I lost billions of dollars, billions of dollars.   You know, somebody said, 'What do you think you lost?'  I said, 'Probably two, three billion.  That's OK, I don't care.'  They say, 'You think you'd do it again?'  And that's the least of it.  Nobody.  They always say, I don't know if you know.  Lincoln was horribly treated.  Uh, Jefferson was pretty horribly.  Andrew Jackson they say was the worst of all, that he was treated worse than any other president.  I said, 'Do that study again, because I think there's nobody close to Trump.'  I even got shot!  And who the hell knows where that came from, right?"

Sherlock Holmes would have trouble finding a clue in that mental mess!

If you happen to be looking for a big empty place to store a boat for the winter, there might be space available in . . . well . . .  never mind.  I won't go there!

Rush Limbaugh's Cousin Rules Against Missouri Abortion Amendment

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Christopher K. Limbaugh, an Associate Circuit Judge with Missouri's 19th Judicial Circuit (Cole County), ruled on Friday that the proposed reproductive rights petition, also known as "Amendment 3," does not comply with state law and is therefore ineligible to be on the state ballot on November 5th.  The deadline for removing amendments from the state ballot is next Tuesday, and Limbaugh said that he would wait until then for the amendment to be removed in order to give the appeals court time to weigh in on his decision. (Two whole business days.)

The Missouri State Legislature, which is dominated by Republicans, had passed a law that would almost totally eliminate abortions in the show-me state when and if Roe v. Wade was ever overturned by the US Supreme Court.  When that happened with the Dobbs Decision in June of 2022, Missouri became the first state in the nation to outlaw the healthcare procedure.

This year Missouri citizens used the initiative process to secure a place on the ballot to have their say on the matter by proposing a reproductive freedoms amendment to the state constitution.   That amendment would ensure a woman's right to an abortion up to the time of fetal viability, along with protections surrounding other reproductive healthcare such as miscarriage care, birth control, and in vitro fertilization.

A coalition calling itself "Missourians for Constitutional Freedom" organized the movement to collect enough signatures to place the measure on the ballot which would reinstate the right to abortion services while protecting other reproductive freedoms.  They needed  a minimum of eight percent of voter signatures from six of Missouri's eight congressional districts (more than 171,000 total signatures), and wound up turning in petitions with a total of 380,159 signatures - more than double the number needed.

(Full disclosure:  This blogger is proud to declare that one of those signatures was his!)

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a conservative Republican who himself opposes abortion rights, certified the measure as eligible for the ballot last month.

This past Friday Judge Limbaugh, in responding to a suit filed by a group that included some hard-right Missouri legislators and others, ruled that the amendment did not comply with state law in that it failed to identify specific statutes which would be overturned if the amendment to the state constitution was approved.

Judge Limbaugh, a Republican, is the former prosecuting attorney of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, and has also served as the General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer to Missouri Governor Mike Parson, a Republican who went on to appoint him to his current position as an associate justice with Missouri's 19th Circuit Court.

It all feels like one big family!

And speaking of family, Judge Christopher Limbaugh was also a cousin to Missouri radio provocateur, the late Rush Limbaugh.

Sooner or later the people of Missouri will be heard on the subject of reproductive healthcare, and when they do have their say, it will be a mighty roar indeed!

Enough of the games already - let the people vote!

A Drawback to Voting by Mail

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This past week I happened to catch a special episode (a subscription preview) of the podcast "Pollercoaster" which is hosted by Dan Pfeiffer and is part of the Crooked Media group of shows.  I have recently became a regular and avid listener of "Pod Save America" which is the flagship program of Crooked Media, Inc., and the episode of "Pollercoaster" that I heard this week ran in place of a regular "Pod Save America" presentation so that the "Pod Bros" could have Labor Day off.

The episode of "Pollercoaster" that I heard contained interviews with a couple of well known national pollsters, Celinda Lake and Terrence Woodbury, and was entitled "State of the Race."   Ms. Lake, a longtime pollster and political strategist with the Democratic Party spoke first, and because I had attended a small panel discussion in which she was a participant her many years earlier, I was particularly interested in hearing her views and concerns regarding the Harris-Trump presidential race. She and Woodbury, as well as the moderator, all stressed the likely closeness of the race in November, but it was her thoughts on mail-in voting that really caught my attention.

Celinda Lake noted that as much as Donald Trump has ranted and roared over mail-in voting, that Republicans are nevertheless encouraging their voters to use the process when they can.  Trump may see the concept as somehow unfair to him, but the GOP writ large views it as a way to get more of their people to actually vote.    But, she also noted one big potential drawback.  With mail-in voting husbands and wives will often sit down together to mark their ballots, and the husband could exert undue pressure to force the wife to vote like he does - and Trump has an advantage with male voters.

"Hey, what are you doing?  You can't vote for her.  We're Trump voters!"

I hadn't thought about that before, but voting together at the kitchen table could lead to family discord or blatant coercion.  There is a reason that voting booths are constructed for use by one voter at a time!

(Note:  The panel discussion in which I had heard Celinda Lake talk about polling took place in a small art gallery in Key West, Florida, in February of 2007,  It was held just as the Democratic primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was beginning to take shape.  The event was one of several workshops presented as part of an educational cruise that was jointly sponsored by the National Association of Social Workers and Ms. Magazine.  It was nine months later when I started this blog, and I didn't get around to writing about the cruise until a year after that - in October of 2008.  The panel discussion referred to here today was covered on October 18, 2008, in a posting entitled:  "The Feminist Cruise:  Part Two (Key West)."

Parental Responsibility 101: Father of School Shooter Arrested

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In a stunning victory for commonsense, law enforcement officials in the state of Georgia yesterday arrested a father for being complicit in the deadly crimes committed by his son.  The father's arrest was starkly reminiscent of the arrests and subsequent convictions of  parents James and Jennifer Crumbley after their son, who was fifteen at the time, murdered four of his classmates in a Michigan high school in 2021.

The individual arrested yesterday in Georgia was Colin Gray, the 54-year--old father of the 14-yeear-old high school student who was arrested the previous day and charged with killing two students, two teachers, and causing injury to several others.  Authorities are saying that Mr. Gray is being charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children.  The father could face up to 180 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

The 14-year-old boy, a high school freshman, is being charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder.  The boy is facing the possibility and likelihood of life in prison.

The FBI received information in the May of 2023 indicating that the young man who would later become the school shooter was making on-line threats regarding a potential school shooting.  That agency informed the Jackson County Sheriff's Department in Georgia where the youth was residing with his father, and the sheriff's department interviewed the father and son.  The son denied making any on-line threats and said his social media account had been hacked.  The father said that he had hunting rifles in the household that were not loaded.  He said that he had been trying to teach his son to hunt and that the boy had shot his first deer that year.  The Jackson County Sheriff's Office reported to the FBI that they had no grounds to hold the father or son, and that they would make local schools aware of the allegations regarding the boy.

(The boy's mother and father were separated, and she was living in a separate residence where she had custody of two younger children.  The mother was arrested for keying the father's truck, and arresting officers found drugs and drug paraphernalia in her possession, for which she was sentenced 46 days in jail.)

Seven months after the father and son had been interviewed by their local sheriff's department and the father had denied that his son had unsupervised access to weapons, the father purchased an AR-15-style assault rifle for his son as a Christmas gift.  The father's arrest warrant states that he provided his son with a firearm with "knowledge that he was a threat to himself and others."

James and Jennifer Crumbley were each sentenced to 10-15 years in prison for enabling their son to kill his classmates.  Mr. Gray already had a clear wake-up call on the possibility of his son becoming a school shooter, and he chose to make the boy's Christmas extra-special later that same year with the gift of an assault rifle.  Clearly he owns a significant portion of the blame for what went down at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, this past Monday.

Gun deaths in American schools are directly related to the ease with which young people can acquire guns, and the ready availability of assault weapons maximizes the flow of blood down the hallways of our schools. And yes, Republicans are right on one thing:  mental health is a significant issue in school shootings.  It's a shame they refuse to do anything to address it.

School Shootings: America's Bloodsport Is Back for Another Season

 

by Pa Rock

Former Student and Teacher

Labor Day has come and gone, the big yellow buses are rolling, and most of America's elementary and secondary school students are back in school.  Books have been distributed, seats assigned, lockers located, assemblies held, practices and games scheduled, contraband confiscated, detentions assigned, and, of course, loners are already being singled out and ridiculed by their classmates.

And school shootings have resumed.

Yesterday morning, just two days after Labor Day, a fourteen-year-old boy armed with a semi-automatic, AR-15-style, assault rifle walked down the hall of his high school in Winder, Georgia, and opened fire.  He killed two of his fellow students and two teachers.  Nine others at the high school were hospitalized as a result of the shooting.

Summer vacation had officially come to an end.

The boy had been identified as a troubled individual and potential school shooter in May of 2023 as a result of some of his internet activity, and the FBI sent a referral to the sheriff's department in a neighboring county where the boy and his family were residing.  The child was interviewed by deputies who deemed him not to be a risk.  The father apparently assured law enforcement that the only weapons he owned were hunting rifles and they were secured.    It will be interesting to learn where the AR-15-style assault rifle came from and how the boy accessed it.

School is back in session, and four individuals who walked into Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, yesterday morning were in body bags when they left the building.

Law enforcement has said that the fourteen year-old suspect is being charged with murder and will be "handled" as an adult.

America's political class rushed to the microphones to decry the shooting, to offer thoughts and prayers, and to say that now was the time to grieve for the victims and we could worry about policies to address the issues of gun violence and school shootings sometime in the future.  The can was kicked on down the road, just as it always is.

Donald Trump said the boy who killed four at the Georgia high school yesterday as a "sick and deranged monster."

Joe Biden put a bit more thought and care into his response.  President Biden said, in part,

"Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write.  We cannot continue to accept this as normal."

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added to President Biden's statement with some recommendations for policies to address the issues of gun violence and school shootings: She said:

"This is not normal.  Congress needs to take long overdue actions including: 

• Bans on assault weapons and high capacity magazines;
• Establishing requirements for the safe storage of firearms;
• Investing in violence-prevention programs; and,
• passing a national red-flag law.

(This tired old typist would add "Universal background checks of all gun-purchasers, regardless of how or from whom they purchase their firearms" to Ms. Jean-Pierre's list.)

And this from Vice President Kamala Harris:

"It's outrageous that every day in this country, in the United States of America, parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. . . It is a false choice to say you're either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone's gun away.  I'm in favor of the Second Amendment, and I know we need reasonable gun safety laws."

Lax supervision of guns seems to be a community norm in at least parts of Georgia, one that is backed up by the state legislature.  The state is ranked 46th in the nation in gun control measures.  In 2017 the Georgia State Legislature passed a law allowing guns on college and university campuses.  In 2022 the state legislature passed "permitless carry" legislation, and Georgia law does not require private gun sellers to do background checks.

First question, Georgia - and America:  Where and how did a child get access to an assault rifle?

Second question:  Who's school will be next?

This is not normal!

Young Men at a Fruit Stand

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I noticed a new "structure" in town early last week. It sits in the parking lot of a small manufacturing business on a fairly busy thoroughfare.  It's not a building or anything of permanence, but simply a sunshade of white plastic trimmed in blue and stretched between four lightweight poles, and it covers what looks to be about a five-foot by ten-foot space.  That description was obtained through a couple of drive-by observations because the enterprise itself is not something that would ever draw me in for a visit.

The structure, which looks like a roadside fruit stand, is actually a makeshift Trump campaign store - and instead of selling Ozark berries, peaches, and apples, or fireworks, or Granny's quilts, it is distributing (for a price, I suppose) Trump yard signs and other campaign paraphernalia. One interesting thing about the enterprise is that it seems to be staffed entirely by boisterous young white guys, a demographic that I keep hearing is one of the strongest elements of the Trump base.

The parking for the political venture appears to be adequate, but even so, the endeavor does not seem to be doing as much business as one would think it should in an area like this.   The guys manning the site are having fun whether they are making any sales, or converts, or not, and they seem to be more grounded in raucous noise than they are in political ideology. Driving by the site brings to mind one of those high school, car-washing affairs where the whole point of the project is to have a good time.

And they are having a good time - while ignoring the world around them.

Party on Wayne!

Party on Garth!

It will be a while before the bills start coming due.

And don't mind me - I'm just envious of your naïveté! 

Doing My Part for the Local Economy

by Pa Rock

Cool Dude

It's a beautiful morning here in the Missouri Ozarks.  The sky is clear and the temperature is sixty-nine degrees F, with an expected high of seventy-nine.  The leaves have not begun to turn, but other than that, it feels like autumn.  Summer is definitely on the wane.

I had been told last Friday when my home air-conditioning unit died that getting a service person out to assess the situation would be a very long process, that they are a self-important lot with plenty of business and enjoy making people wait.  Yesterday I phoned two, one was the company that spends the most money on advertising and is the best known in town, and the other was a smaller company recommended by a friend.  It was Labor Day and I did not expect that either would be answering their phones - and they weren't.    The better-known company did not ever have its answering machine on, but the small company did, and I left my information.

I was pleasantly surprised early this morning when the small company called back.  The owner of the firm said that he would have time in an hour or so to come by and take a look at my unit, and an hour later he was pulling in the drive.   The owner of the company, who was doing his own service calls, was a young man (40-ish) who came across as both knowledgable and hard-working.  He said that my unit (which looks like it was purchased used from Fred Sanford not long after Lamont was born) was vintage 1996, and that it was suffering from an infestation of ants - which was not what had caused it to cease working, but the ants needed to be dealt with nonetheless.  After some testing he announced that the compressor had gone out.

The long and short of it is that the unit is too old for repairs and the replacement, for which I opted, will cost about as much as a one-owner, low-mileage used car with new tires, a kick-ass sound system, and a full tank of gas.  The new unit should be here next Monday or Tuesday.  The good news is on my end was that the warranty should outlast me.  The good news for the owner of the air-conditioning sales and service company is that now one of his kids can go to college.

Pa Rock does his part for the local economy!

Now we will see if my summer karma can last another week!

Summer Is Shutting Down

 

by Pa Rock

Man of Many Fans

Summer officially comes to an end in about three weeks, but as someone who came of age working in the tourist industry, I always considered Labor Day Monday to be the final day of the season.   When the tourists left our little cabin court by the river on that Monday in early September, we quickly got to work cleaning the cabins one last time and shutting down for the winter.  School would start the next day, and our lives would be completely transformed until Memorial Day weekend in the spring when the tourists would start flocking back in.

Now the schools are air-conditioned and start before Labor Day.  The buses here were rolling last week, and that left me feeling sort of sad.  It was too damned early for the kids to be going back to school.  But I'm old and I no longer clean cabins or teach school or do much that amounts to anything.  I guess I just need to keep quiet and stay out of the way.

It was uncomfortably hot here the first couple of days of last week, but by Friday the temperature was beginning to break.  That was fortunate because on Friday our creaky old air-conditioning unit went on the fritz and was dead by the end of the day.    Businesses were closed by the time the AC breathed its last, and as I sat at the computer that evening trying to figure out who to call the next day, it quickly became apparent that ALL of the places that service or sell air-conditioning units are closed on Saturday.  

(When my father sold window air-conditioners and other major appliances fifty years ago, he could have never closed on a Saturday because that was the day that the people who plucked the chickens and hammered mobile homes together had a day off.  It was our busiest day of the week.  Today people who punch the clock on a regular basis still normally have Saturdays off - but now lots of business owners apparently think they also deserve the day off.  That's the attitude that helped Walmart kill off Main Street.)

But crappy business practices are basically none of my business.  I just need to keep quiet and stay out of the way.

West Plains does have a few alternatives to Walmart for weekend shopping - the various "dollar" stores - and I went to a couple of those on Saturday and bought some fans.  Also, my son had a portable air-conditioning machine that he had previously purchased in a junk store, so we didn't suffer.  The weather Saturday was pleasant, there was some rain that evening and Sunday morning, and now we are at Monday and the weather is still pleasant.  All things considered, it was a great weekend for the AC to go kaput!

(One of my California cousins commented on my air-conditioning situation and the fact that the weather was cooperating, and noted that I have "good summer karma.")

The air-conditioner places were all closed on Sunday so the business owners could stay home and watch their neighbors go to church, and today is a holiday, so I will make a few calls but hold no hopes that anyone providing a potentially life-saving service like air-conditioning will be working on any day when they can avoid it - so maybe tomorrow.  I have my list ready.

It's not too hot out today - yet.

Things will get better.

I just need to keep quiet and stay out of the way.

Guess Who Thinks He was the Real Arlington Victim!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In an article posted two days ago for The New Republic entitled "Trump's New Rant Over Arlington Scandal Should Wake Up Dems," staff writer Greg Sargent focused on remarks Trump gave at a Michigan rally this past Thursday in which he went on an "extended rant" about what had occurred during his visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday.  That incident involved Trump campaign staffers allegedly pushing a park official and shoving her aside while they filmed Trump laying a wreath and then giving a short speech to Gold Star family members in commemoration of the fallen during the final days of the Afghanistan War.

The cemetery official who was assaulted by members of the Trump campaign team was doing her job of trying to prohibit filming at the cemetery for political purposes - which is a violation of federal law.  She filed a report regarding the incident with military authorities.   Arlington National Cemetery is managed by the Army through the Office of Military Cemeteries.   The female employee, who Trump campaign staffers referred to as "unpatriotic" and "mentally unstable," declined to press charges out of a fear of retaliation by over-zealous Trump supporters.

Trump denied that he was at the cemetery for political purposes, saying that he does not need the publicity.   He said that he was there to pose for pictures with the families of the soldiers who had died during the final evacuation from Afghanistan, but members of his campaign staff were there making a professional video, and it appeared on TikTok as part of the election campaign soon afterward. 

Now Trump is using the incident to further his ad nauseam complaint of being a victim, and to tie it all in with the "deep state" paranoia that he tries to gin up among his followers.

Greg Sargent, in his article for The New Republic, had this to say:

"At a rally in Michigan on Thursday, Donald Trump released an extended rant about the confrontation this week between his campaign staff and Arlington National Cemetery officials.  Shockingly, he offered a highly distorted account of the scandal and painted himself as one of its victims.  Trump even linked this to a bigger lie about the Deep State being out to get him, backhandedly illustrating a big reason why all this matters in the first place:  It reveals a level of contempt for the law and public service that's incompatible with democracy."

Mr. Sargent argues, rightfully, I believe, that the public has a right to an accounting of what actually took place at Arlington National Cemetery last Monday.  The cemetery employee who was physically confronted by the Trump campaign staffers may have been intimidated into not pressing charges, but she did file a report with her superiors, and now Senator Tim Kaine and Rep. Gerry Connolly, members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committee, respectively, are calling on the Army to release information that it has on the incident - information that should include the report filed by the cemetery employee.

A campaign video was made in a national cemetery in violation of federal law, that video has already been aired as a part of a political campaign, and now all Americans should be allowed to hear the facts as to why and how this desecration of hallowed ground took place.

It's our cemetery, and we have a right to know!