Ghazala Khan’s son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq in 2004.

CHARLOTTESVILLE

Donald Trump has asked why I did not speak at the Democratic convention. He said he would like to hear from me. Here is my answer to Donald Trump: Because without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me felt me in their heart.

Donald Trump said I had nothing to say. I do. My son Humayun Khan, an Army captain, died 12 years ago in Iraq. He loved America, where we moved when he was 2 years old. He had volunteered to help his country, signing up for the ROTC at the University of Virginia. This was before the attack of Sept. 11, 2001. He didn’t have to do this, but he wanted to.

When Humayun was sent to Iraq, my husband and I worried about his safety. I had already been through one war, in Pakistan in 1965, when I was just a high school student. So I was very scared. You can sacrifice yourself, but you cannot take it that your kids will do this.

*snip*

He said, “Mom, these are my soldiers, these are my people. I have to take care of them.” He was killed by a car bomber outside the gates of his base. He died trying to save his soldiers and innocent civilians.

That is my son. Humayun was always dependable. If I was vacuuming the house and he was home, he would take the vacuum from my hand and clean the house. He volunteered to teach disabled children in the hospital how to swim. He said, “I love when they have a little bit of progress and their faces, they light up. At least they are that much happy.” He wanted to be a lawyer, like his father, to help people.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ghazala-khan-donald-trump-criticized-my-silence-he-knows-nothing-about-true-sacrifice/2016/07/31/c46e52ec-571c-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html

A Seattle woman—the mother of two bi-racial children—was greeted by a threatening, racist note, signed and left at her front door Tuesday night by self-professed Trump supporter.

Stephanie Endres posted a photo of the letter on Facebook. It calls her a “n***** lover” and threatens her children, before declaring support for Donald Trump: “U and all these n*****s need to leave this country that’s ours! One day your kids will get what they deserve being on this land,” the note reads. “White lives matter fucking n***** lovers!!! Go Trump!!!

“Although this has been quite terrifying for my family with the safety of my children being threatened, I will not let this affect us anymore…I will also be following up with SPD to make sure this is being taken seriously and if someone is found, they will be prosecuted for a hate crime. I would never wish this upon anyone,” she wrote.

Endres reported the incident to police, who are investigating it as malicious harassment, which constitutes a hate crime in Washington state.

http://fusion.net/story/275934/trump-supporters-push-black-woman-super-tuesday-rally/

How Hillary Embraced History

Accepting the Democratic nomination for President on Thursday, Hillary Clinton leaned into her status as the first female nominee for President from a major political party.

It was a direct contrast to her 2008 campaign against President Obama, where Clinton largely avoided addressing the legacy of her candidacy — up until the end, when she famously declared there were now “18 million cracks” in the glass ceiling.

During her acceptance speech on Thursday, she faced it head-on, wearing all white in what is likely a nod to Geraldine Ferraro, who wore white when she became the first woman to accept the Vice Presidential nomination of a major party, and the suffragettes, who wore white while fighting for women’s right to vote.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/07/28/3803257/hillary-embraces-history/

At a rally in Davenport, Iowa on Thursday, Donald Trump said he felt an almost irresistible urge to “hit” speakers who criticized him during the Democratic National Convention last night, but was talked off the ledge during a phone call with “a highly respected governor” who urged him to “hit Hillary Clinton properly” instead.

During his remarks, Trump assumed the role of the schoolyard bully, at one point saying that he wanted to “hit one guy in particular, a very little guy. I was gonna hit this guy so hard his head would spin, he wouldn’t know what the hell happened.”

Trump eventually made clear that he was using the word “hit” metaphorically. But the diatribe was in keeping with the violent rhetoric he has frequently employed during the campaign.

Trump seems to feel particularly betrayed by this aforementioned “little guy.” Trump suggested he did business with this man in the past, so it came “out of nowhere” when he heard him criticizing Trump.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/07/28/3803209/donald-trump-dmc-hit-hillary-clinton-properly/

Coming soon to your television set (or later to your Netflix binge): Vice President Joe Biden.

He’ll tape an appearance Friday on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” the popular and long-running procedural drama that focuses on sex crimes. Biden’s appearance will focus on the backlog of untested rape kits, according to the White House.

Combating violence against women has been one of the top issues of Biden’s political career. During his time as a senator from Delaware, he introduced the Violence Against Women Act, which eventually passed in 1994, and as vice president he has been involved in efforts to stop campus sexual assaults.

Biden has collaborated with “Law & Order: SVU” star Mariska Hargitay on advocacy efforts several times in the past. The two visited a domestic violence hotline together in 2013 and co-starred in a 2014 public service announcement. Hargitay narrated the video that played before Biden’s Democratic National Convention speech on Wednesday.

Biden announced plans last fall to award nearly $80 million in grants toward eliminating the backlog of untested rape kits, in a combined effort between the federal government and the New York County District Attorney’s office. Rape kits are containers that include information and specimens, such as blood samples and swabs, gathered in an exam after a sexual assault.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joe-biden-law-order-svu_us_579aaa27e4b0693164c0ab6b?

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Thursday afternoon he wanted to "hit" some of the Democratic National Convention speakers "so hard" while watching them last night, including a "little guy...so hard his head would spin."

"You know what I wanted to. I wanted to hit a couple of those speakers so hard," Trump said. "I would have hit them. No, no. I was going to hit them, I was all set and then I got a call from a highly respected governor."

Trump didn't immediately clarify what he meant, but he said he was made particularly upset by an unspecified person he called a "little guy."

"I was gonna hit one guy in particular, a very little guy," he said. "I was gonna hit this guy so hard his head would spin and he wouldn't know what the hell happened."

Trump has been campaigning vigorously during the week of the DNC, and has been trying to grab media attention in the process. Yesterday, he held events in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and hosted a short Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit in which he spoke to his most ardent supporters.

At the Florida event, he appeared to invite Russia to intervene in U.S. elections by asking the country to retrieve thousands of Hillary Clinton's deleted emails.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-wanted-hit-couple-dnc-speakers-hard/story?id=40974703