2016 June 14^th

The authorities are still sorting through the Orlando nightclub tragedy. Now we find that Mateen, the killer, had been a frequent customer at this gay nightclub. Indeed, evidence emerges that he occasionally went there to pick up men. Perhaps the carnage resulted from some unfathomable personality dynamic that we will never know about…and speculating helps no one.

Even so our favorite bluster boy is certain he has the answer. While Hillary Clinton advocates commiserating with victim’s families, Donald Trump continues to play his conspiracy game. He continues to push for immigration that is more restrictive. He tells us that Mateen was born in Afghan to Afghan parents. Mateen was born in Brooklyn. Trump apparently does not know that the country is Afghanistan and its citizens are Afghans. Serves Trump right for going off script. He makes a fool of himself much more quickly when he does that but he just can’t help himself. ( You may remember how well he was doing with a teleprompter speech until he came to the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP. He then slyly smirked and talked about Pee Pee. You see Trump hates being politically correct. Imagine how his handlers felt.)

His push now is to ban from the U.S., Muslim immigrants from any country that has any connection with terrorism. He insists that Syrian immigrants are being admitted to this country with no examination at all. That is simply a lie. These immigrants, most of them families and many of them Christians are very carefully screened to the point that entry can take several years.

Then we discover that Trump has “withdrawn the credentials” of The Washington Post to cover his campaign. Trump did this because he didn’t like a story the Post ran. Trump has been at war with the press for some time, even herding the press people into a corral where he can point at, and ridicule, individual members. He has even gone so far as to mock a handicapped press person on national television. He claims now that he didn’t do that but it’s on record. The Washington Post will not stop covering Trump’s shenanigans; they just won’t get press credentials. Not surprising, for the Post now joins Des Moines Register, Buzz Feed, Politico, Huffington Post, Mother Jones and other news organizations that have received this badge of honor from Trump.

Much has been written about the FBI and their surveillance of Mateen. The issue is why they didn’t recognize his lethal tendencies. If they had they still didn’t have the manpower to keep watching him once they had become convinced that his ties to radical Islam were not critical. If we want to be safer from such attacks then we need more FBI agents and to get enough of them will require money. The money can only come from an increase in taxes. Does anyone really believe that the current Congress will agree to raise taxes to keep the citizens of this country safe?