ORLANDO MASSACRE TRUMPS EVERY PREVIOUS MASS SHOOTING IN THESE UNITED STATES AND GIVES NEW FODDER TO TRUMP THE DUMPSTER

It was shocking, horrible, unimaginable.

The slaughter of 49 people - and 50 more wounded - by a 'lone  gunman ' late on a Saturday night in a night club in Orlando, Florida left us all stunned and shocked, and deeply saddened  early on a Sunday morning.

Why, what, who, where, the basic questions of journalism tumbled out over the following agonizing hours to follow as families and friends and an entire nation waited to see what the hell was really happening here.

Alas, we now have the what, who, where which have filtered out through he first hours of the investigation, but we have no why.

We have the portrait of a deeply disturbed shooter -aren't they all - who took his wrath out on a roomful of people partying hardy in the Pulse  nightclub in Orlando.

His wrath, apparently was being wreaked upon people he hated.  Gays, Blacks, Jews, Women.

All of this information from the news reports accumulated in the hours after the murders.

And we know now, that he was a woman-beating, angry, homophobic bigot who, after gunning down dozens of people, took more people hostage and then called the police to proclaim he was...ISIS.

Puleease.

And back to the why.

And the why goes to the question of how do we classify this latest infamy done supposedly in the name of ISIS.

Well, we can take a cue from President Barack Obama's statement, "This was an act of terror and hate."

We classify this as a hate crime elevated to the act of terrorism which it most certainly was.

Of course ISIS has happily declared they will take credit for any nut case who shoots up a room filled with Americans, but the fact is they had nothing to do with it.

This was the work of a 'lone wolf' guy who, by the way had frequented the very club he shot up, and according to other recent reports,  culled from people who knew him well and partied with him...was himself a self-hating closeted gay.

There you go, just what we need.

Now, anybody who has a love life gone awry, or a tough domestic situation or a giant inferiority complex  can shoot up a bunch of Americans and yell out, " ISIS made me do it."

Which will make ISIS very happy, thank you.

And will make the Dumpster (Donald Trump) equally happy and feel free to go on one of his xenophobic rants.

Before we fire up the nuclear subs and such, we need to evaluate which of these threats are real, and which are being used by people who obviously fell through the cracks of mental health checks.

And we need to do it before some xenophobic, race-baiting, New York bombastic huckster is elected to be the leader of the whole world by playing upon all of these fears.

And our heart is heavy today, along with thousands of  Tampa people who love and cherish our own LBGT community.

And we can only hope that this horrible incident will bring us closer together, and live in love.

TRUMP STUMPS IN TAMPA

Nothing better to do on a sultry Saturday morning in Tampa, we decided to bite it and do the required appearance - hey, every reporter in this town has to do it at least once - at a Trump For President Rally.

We cringed at the thought, having read the reports of violence between Trump and Anti-Trump supporters outside these events in other cities.

And having been in crowds at political rallies in the past which broke loose and caused mayhem  We had a reasonable expectation of spending  at least part of the rest of the day either in the ER or limping away clutching what was left of our clothing.

So, armed with a back pack filled with water and band-aids and clutching a notebook and pen in  hand, We approached the Tampa Convention Center with what we were sure was the attitude of a puppy about to be spanked for spilling her dinner on the floor.

Approached by a TPD finest just outside the Convention Center, We answered his question...."Can I help you, miss?"

"Yup, I'm one of them sleezy reporters this fella keeps yapping about, which way do I go?"

The officer chuckled and pointed the way to the press area, an instruction which we promptly disobeyed, and headed off in the other direction to an area where we had spotted some Anti-Trump people.

On the way to their spot We  took a look around at the crowd.  Well, we say crowd, there were dribbles and drabbles of people hawking T-shirts, buttons, hats and one very loud lady trying to sell shirts emblazoned with the emblem, "HIllary For Prisoner."   Hmmmmmm.

The  crowd filtering toward the Tampa Convention Entrance was varied in age from thumb-sucking toddler to Old White Men.  Not too many women, and nary an African-American in sight, nor Hispanic nor Asian, nor, Gulp....Muslim.

The Anti-Trump people, clad in bright blue T-shirts and khakis were amiable, polite, and eager to talk.

Their signs said it all...Never Trump, etc.   and they were very sincere and very well informed.

One woman voiced great displeasure that Pam Bondi, our State Attorney General would be introducing Donald Trump to the crowd inside the center.

"They're a perfect pair," she snorted, I call them Tweedledumb and Tweedletrump."

She was of course referring to the reports of Ms. Bondi, through some sleight of hand had accepted a 25K campaign contribution from Trump a little while back, and then refused to sign onto the lawsuit over the Trump University scandal.

Another fellow spoke up about the real estate scam The Donald pulled here in Tampa a couple of years back on the piece of property at Ashley and Brorein.  The one where a lot of people paid a lot of money as down payments on condos which never materialized.

Donald kept the dough, of course, and promptly disappeared into the folds of the veil of bankruptcy.

On and on we discussed all of the other Trump failures.  Among them, Trump Vodka, Trump steaks, Trump airlines, et al.

So, we asked, "what do you think is the attraction here?"

One of the Anti-Trumpsters, an erudite fellow who happens to be a professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of Tampa, Mr. Richard Piper, explained it all:

"He's pandering, and scapegoating.  Hitting every racist, mean-spirited, disenfranchised and white male discontent  button he can find, and he's a great salesman, so he's doing it well."

Of course he is.  And he's doing it well enough to throw fear into not only the Anti-Trumpsters, but most of the GOP and any reasonable voter in the nation.

However, Anti-Trumpsters can take heart, only four thousand people showed up.

Ah, for the days four years ago, when we were embedded with Occupy Tampa, remember them?

They were fun.  And they were spirited and sincere in their message and in their wish for a better life for all.

And now we have....HHuuuuugggeee.....and talk of walls and no respect for dissent and trying to bully federal judges and on and on.

Donald says he;'ll  be back and back and back in Tampa.

Well, we'll be waiting....oy vey.