Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself. – Robert Green Ingersoll

Today’s independent commentary deals with these people/issues:

• Threats & Hate
• Joe Biden & SNL
• Another One Bites the Dust
• Trump’s Tax Returns

Threats & Hate:

In the past having worked for a U.S. Senator for over a decade, I’ve experienced the “bravery” of some constituents on the phone telling me they were going to kick my ass and/or kill me and my family, or that my boss and/or me “better watch out.”

The following headline from USA Today was chilling:

‘I’ll put a bullet in her’: Trump supporter charged with threatening to kill Rep. Ilhan Omar

I felt sorry for the staffer who took the call. I also felt sorry for Representative Omar who has been getting attacked mostly because she is Muslim and partly because of some of the things she said.

One thing about the caller (and many Trump supporters) was that he was not too bright. He gave his name and the correct spelling and provided accurate contact information. That makes it easier for the FBI to find him – and you can bet they will find you if you make a threat toward a federal official.

It seems there are a bunch of Trump supporters who are afraid of Muslims. They seem to think all Muslims are terrorists. These are some of the same people who believed Barack Obama was born in Kenya. In other words, these people are morons.

A 2017 study from Pew Research estimated that 3.45 million Muslims were living in the United States, about 1.1% of the total U.S. population.

President Trump fuels the hate. Bloomberg News reported:

President Donald Trump made a sarcastic reference to Representative Ilhan Omar during a speech in Las Vegas, a day after prosecutors said a New York man was arrested for threatening to murder the freshman Minnesota Democrat.

Trump snuck in the line about Omar minutes into a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition as he ran through a list of Republican lawmakers and others supportive of Israel.

“Special thanks to Representative Omar of Minnesota,” Trump said. “Oh, I forgot. She doesn’t like Israel. I forgot. I’m so sorry.”

One of these days the hate speech from President Trump will get someone killed or seriously injured. He needs to stop it and his supporters need to stop posting hateful messages about Muslims on their social media accounts.

Joe Biden & SNL:

Saturday Night Live (SNL) opened their show with a skit about former Vice President Joe Biden learning how to appropriately greet women. Later in the show on “Weekend Update” segment, Biden was ridiculed for the misconduct allegations against him.

It was funny.

It was also funny that after checking Biden’s Twitter feed, there’s no complaining from him about SNL. He did not post anything on Twitter about opening a Federal investigation or anything like President Donald Trump did recently after SNL did skits about him.

Biden can take a joke. That’s being an adult.

Another One Bites the Dust:

Reuters and several sources reported that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversaw President Donald Trump’s bitterly contested immigration policies during her tumultuous 16-month tenure, resigned on Sunday amid a surge in the number of migrants at the border with Mexico.

It was also reported by the Associated Press (AP) that Nielsen was the highest profile female Cabinet member, and her exit leaves DHS along with the Pentagon and the White House staff itself without permanent heads.

In other words, it’s a mess.

NPR reported last month that no elected first-term president in the past 100 years has had this much Cabinet turnover this early in his presidency. In just 14 months on the job, Trump has had more Cabinet turnover than 16 of his predecessors had in their first two years.

This is not the way to run an administration.

Trump’s Tax Returns:

It looks like the Federal court (Judicial) will be the branch of government to decide if the U.S. House tax committee (Legislative) can obtain President Trump’s tax records. The White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney (Executive) says the House will “never” get the records. (Reuters)

I say that “never” is a long time. We’ll see. Both sides seem confident.

It’s all a big political game. That’s the shitty thing about politics – the Republicans would be doing the same thing if a Democrat President did not release his/her tax returns.

So excuse me if I don’t get too excited about the back and forth banter.

 

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