The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. – Hubert H. Humphrey

It’s hump day – and another big day for political news! Today is another one of those days in which there are several major stories out there that I want to comment about – so it’s another “Political Odds & Ends” day!

Today’s topics include:

• Montana Democrats Score
• Presidential Primary Results & News
• Brussels & Religion & Hate

Montana Democrats Score:

In the ongoing contest between Governor Steve Bullock (D-Mont.) and his Republican challenger, Greg Gianforte, and their respective political parties, the Montana Democrats scored some valuable points Tuesday.

The Montana Democrats sent a letter to Gianforte calling on him to honor his pledge and demand the Montana Republican Party return all PAC money received during his controversial Thursday Washington DC fundraiser and throughout the election cycle.

Then a reporter (Holly Michels) for Lee Newspapers did a story about the letter and the “controversial Thursday Washington DC fundraiser.” The headline was a winner: “Montana Democrats claim Gianforte is violating no-PAC pledge.”

BINGO!!!!!

These gullible reporters are taking a lot of ink away from blogs. They are doing such a good job that they will probably end up working for one of the political parties or for one of the candidates.

Just as the Montana Republicans scored points with plane-gate, the Montana Democrats scored points with PAC-gate – and it’s all because they found a gullible reporter.

Presidential Primary Results & News:

Tuesday night went just about as expected. Donald Trump won winner-take-all Arizona. Ted Cruz won ultra-conservative Utah. Hillary Clinton won Arizona. Bernie Sanders won Idaho and Utah.

It looks like Trump increased his delegate lead a little and Sanders cut into Clinton’s massive lead just a little. Trump leads Cruz 738-463. Clinton leads Sanders 1214-901. (Source)

Next up, the Democrats have the Washington state caucus, the Hawaiian caucus, and the Alaska caucus – these are on Saturday (March 26). For the GOP, their next contest is April 5 and that is winner-take-all Wisconsin.

In other Presidential campaign news…

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush endorsed Ted Cruz. Nobody really cares.

Donald Trump tweeted a message about Ted Cruz’s wife (Heidi) in which he said he would “spill the beans on your wife!” Trump was mad because some pro-Cruz Political Action Committee ran an ad in Utah with Trump’s wife being shown naked with the caption, “Meet Melania Trump. Your next First Lady.” (BuzzFeed.com)

Hello, Melania! 

Brussels & Religion & Hate:

My thoughts and prayers go out to the folks in Brussels – I and many Americans stand with you.

It’s always interesting to see comments from some people on Twitter and Facebook following a reported terrorist attack. As you can imagine, some comments are just downright ignorant. Others come right out and say we should kill every Muslim on the face of the earth – and by God “don’t let that muslum Husein Obama bring any of his friends to my country.”

It’s also fueled by Presidential candidates trying to act like they are the toughest.

It’s pretty amazing that some people seem to be able to flip a switch from their posts about “love thy neighbor” and “God is good” and “Are You Saved” on Sunday and Monday to outright vitriolic hatred and bigotry toward others who look different or do not believe the same way they do. I saw a lot of that on Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Many still believe Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya and he wants to bring a bunch of his terrorist friends to the United States. They ratchet up the hatred a notch or two when there’s a terrorist attack. Some are even pissed that Obama did not drop what he was doing and run back to Washington after the attack – and it is fine to criticize our President because that’s what we have the freedom to do. But in my experience, the President can do his work from anywhere in the world just fine – mostly because Al Gore invented the internet and Alexander Graham Bell invented the phone, and Air Force One has some pretty cool gadgets.

Terrorists want to disrupt our lives and our freedoms.

These angry folks (many of them seem to be angry old white guys) believe that Islam is evil. If we all followed that slippery slope, then everyone could fall into some category and be known as “evil.”

I specifically dislike the condescending comments about Islam being the “Religion of Peace.” People ask why Muslims kill people if they belong to the religion of peace. I wonder why Christians kill people, too. I think in my study of the Bible “Thou shalt not kill” is still listed on the 10 Commandments list.

As for me, I wonder why anyone would purposely kill an innocent person. The only answer I can think of is because of the evil in the world.

Tuesday in Brussels, just as in other attacks, the terrorists probably killed Christians, Muslims, Jews, and people from other religions. Those who responded to help those injured were probably Christians, Muslims, Jews, and people from other religions.

At United States military bases around the world Christians, Muslims, Jews, and people from other religions are standing guard and keeping us safe. Watch out – someone with another religious belief may be living next to you.

In fact, New York City has almost 1,000 Muslims on their police force. In the world, there are over 1.5 billion Muslims with 2.5 million in the USA.

Almost every religion has its extremists, radicals, etc. On the other hand, there are some really good people in every religion, but it seems a lot of the angry old white guys don’t understand.

The ignorance in the world seems to shine brightly during times of tragedy. We are better than this – and we should be ashamed that we even know some of these people.

 

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