The Shamelessness of Donald Trump

I was appalled when I came across the following Internet report in which Donald Trump is attributed to have said of John McCain that “He is not a war hero,”  followed by “he is a war hero because he was captured.” 

 

Trump reinforced his position as follows:  "I like people that weren't captured, OK? I hate to tell you. He is a war hero because he was captured. OK, you can have -- I believe perhaps he is a war hero."

Those comments were made in the mid-west at the Iowa Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa.  Later today, after this monumental gaffe, Trump tried to walk back those comments.

What was this man thinking?  Or, more precisely, not thinking?  His military record is non-existent.  He was given four student deferments and a medical deferment in the 1960’s when the Vietnam War was raging.

So, who is this man Trump to take on the military record of John McCain, a 1958 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a Naval Aviator:  Both his dad and granddad were four-star admirals in the U.S. Navy.

The Tenacity of Life

The grassy weed that refused not to be!

I first noticed it late this spring:   A tiny sprig of grass growing from one of 15 bags of garden soil piled up in the backyard, all destined to be spread out at the base of the English privets lining the northeast side of our lot.

Although the bags containing that soil are made of sturdy plastic, one of them somehow incurred a small cut somewhere along its voyage from initial packaging to the time that I plopped them all out back last fall.

 

That’s all that Mother Nature needed:  a tiny opening in a bag full of rich garden soil, and she promptly went to work, taking advantage of the opportunity afforded her.

The nine saints of Charleston, South Carolina

Crystal icon on our south-facing window.

Updated 6/19/2015, 3:00 PM

It was at a Bible study in the sanctuary of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, on Wednesday evening, when a young white man walked in and was warmly welcomed.

Greeted by the pastor and his congregants, this person sat among this group for an hour, as they read and discussed the meaning of selections from Holy Scripture and their daily application for each of them.

When the hour-long discussion period ended, this 21-year-old allegedly pulled out a .45 caliber handgun, hurled racial slurs at the peaceful assembly, then began shooting and reloading, killing nine of God’s faithful.

Pension Obligations: Back into the Political Sandbox

Members of Somerset County's education association in Somerville.

Today, the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey decisively ruled (5-2) that it will not interfere with what are the constitutional responsibilities of the New Jersey Legislative and Executive branches concerning the much contested and underfunded pensions of public employees.

Although a lower court had previously ruled in favor of the New Jersey Education Association and its members to enforce a pension payment shortfall of $1.57 billion to be included in next year’s state budget, the Supreme Court reversed that decision upon direct appeal by the Christie administration.

In a 144-page opinion released this morning, N.J.’s highest court ruled “That the State must get its financial house in order . . . and that “the need (to do this) is compelling in respect of the State’s ability to honor its compensation commitment to retired employees.”

National security compromised

In a rare U.S. Senate session on Sunday, Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky unilaterally prevented that body from temporarily extending the Patriot Act which expired on the same day.  Both the House of Representatives and President Obama had supported an extension.

Dome of the U.S. Capitol Building

Approval by Congress and the Administration to extend the Patriot Act would have allowed time for Congress to amend it or to write a new law to replace it, but Rand scuttled that proposal through procedural maneuvering.

He was criticized for that by his colleagues, many of whom simply walked out of the Senate Chamber when he rose to speak.  Rand admitted that he will eventually lose his fight on this issue.  Senator John McCain accused him of posturing to gain favor in his bid for the GOP Presidential nomination.

The Patriot Act was enacted shortly after the infamous Osama bin Laden-inspired 9/11 attacks on American soil.

Although a U.S. Court had struck down Section 215 of the Patriot Act which permitted the collection of telephone billing records by the National Security Agency, it nevertheless wisely permitted the U.S. Congress to extend the entirety of that law while working to revise it or to enact new legislation in cooperation with the White House.

After Rand obstructed Senate action, Obama’s Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, embarrassingly explained that U.S. Security Agencies will be employing “workaround tools” until this problem is resolved.  He appeared unpersuasive, as he tried to assure the American people that homeland security will not be jeopardized during the interim.