I’m at the place in my life where running errands count as “going out.” – Unknown

Today’s topics include:

• Secretary of State Stapleton
• Orlando Sentinel Endorsement
• AOC & Concentration Camps
• One More Thing

Secretary of State Stapleton:

It’s pretty amazing how many problems current Secretary of State Corey Stapleton has encountered or caused since he was elected to that position in 2016.

According to a story in Lee Newspapers, the latest problem for Stapleton is that a state audit revealed that he misused a state-owned vehicle. The audit found other issues within Stapleton’s office, including relationships between three office employees related through birth or marriage. Two of the employees were in a supervisor-supervisee relationship, according to the audit. That existed a little more than a month, when the office changed the supervisor after auditors raised questions.

You can read the full story from Lee Newspapers HERE.

Stapleton recently announced that he was running for Montana Governor, but then changed his mind and is instead running for the U.S. House of Representatives (unless he has changed his mind again).

With so many mistakes, I think it’s time for Stapleton to just sail off into the sunset. He should concentrate on trying to at least do a satisfactory job as Secretary of State and try not to screw up any more before his term is up.

With his recent record, that would almost be a miracle if he did that.

Orlando Sentinel Endorsement:

With President Donald Trump in Orlando to kick off his campaign for another term, the Orlando Sentinel made their endorsement for 2020:

We’re here to announce our endorsement for president in 2020, or, at least, who we’re not endorsing: Donald Trump.

The Sentinel goes on to say:

After 2½ years we’ve seen enough.

Enough of the chaos, the division, the schoolyard insults, the self-aggrandizement, the corruption, and especially the lies.

So many lies — from white lies to whoppers — told out of ignorance, laziness, recklessness, expediency or opportunity.

Trump’s capacity for lying isn’t the surprise here, though the frequency is.

It’s the tolerance so many Americans have for it.

There was a time when even a single lie — a phony college degree, a bogus work history — would doom a politician’s career.

Not so for Trump… 

They close their editorial with this:

The nation must endure another 1½ years of Trump. But it needn’t suffer another four beyond that.

We can do better. We have to do better.

Amen to that.

AOC & Concentration Camps:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., upset a lot of folks when she appeared on her Instagram page and said, “The US is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are.”

Several people, mostly Republicans, tried to tie the “concentration camp” remark to the Holocaust. I listened to her speech and never heard AOC mention the Holocaust or Nazis.

The editors of Encyclopedia Britannica describe “concentration camp” this way:

Concentration camp, internment centre for political prisoners and members of national or minority groups who are confined for reasons of state security, exploitation, or punishment, usually by executive decree or military order. Persons are placed in such camps often on the basis of identification with a particular ethnic or political group rather than as individuals and without benefit either of indictment or fair trial.

For a young first-term representative, AOC sure has the Republicans worried. They respond to almost everything she says.

One More Thing:

Don’t forget to vote in the latest poll here at The Western Word. The poll is asking, “Who do you think will win the Republican primary election for Montana Governor?”

You can see the poll by clicking HERE.

The results will be posted on Friday.

##END##