Pen-pricks

• British voters handed Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the conservatives a huge victory over the Labor Party. Thank God. There was fear that a Labor victory would harm the US-UK Special Relationship, and that Trump might start cheating with younger, hotter Eastern European countries.

• Healthy Living released recommendations for the best possible diet to live a long, healthy life that calls for little meat or pork. A recent study from England said for every piece of bacon you eat, subtract nine minutes from your life. So, according to my calculations, I died September 3rd, 1847.

• The Bob Hope Foundation and Trust donated 60 years of his stand-up comedy monologues from his radio shows, his TV shows and his USO show performances to the Smithsonian Museum in the nation’s capital. What a gift. Over the years, only the voters have sent more jokes to Washington

• Senator Lindsey Graham vowed to call Adam Schiff to testify in the Senate about the whistleblower who started the impeachment process. Then he disappeared. Schiff’s campaign bio reports he’s a vegan, a cross-fit athlete and a Democrat, if you wondered how he manages to annoy everyone.

Argus Hamilton is the host comedian at The Comedy Store in Hollywood and a speaker. His email address is argus@argushamilton.com.

I read the article regarding the panhandlers. I found it sad that they were being talked about like they were a garbage crisis. “What can we do to get rid of them?” The majority of them aren’t there because they want to be. I will concede that there are a few that do it rather than find gainful employment. I will concede that it is very hard to differentiate between the able-bodied hustlers and the genuinely needy. But making that distinction is not the responsibility of the government unless it’s a blatant case of fraud.

It’s up to us. We can decide who we want to give money to. What business is it of mine if Joe Smith wants to give someone a couple bucks? As long as the panhandler doesn’t ask aggressively, it’s up to Joe. I see nothing wrong with a person standing somewhere holding a sign asking for help. I don’t feel it’s OK for a panhandler to approach someone and ask.

Perhaps I have just found a way to help determine if they’re actually needy or just “working.” The ones who are genuinely needy usually won’t approach anyone. They’ll usually just stand quietly holding a sign. The ones that are “working” will approach people, jump around in the street or perhaps yell as people drive by.

So, in closing, I will give my suggestion on how to “handle” them. If they calmly and quietly stand with a sign, leave it to the people passing by to decide if they want to give of their own free will. If the panhandler approaches people, interferes with the safe flow of traffic (stepping into traffic, yelling at vehicles, etc.) or forces themselves on people, ticket or arrest them for aggressive panhandling, depending on the severity of their actions.

At the end of the day, those who truly need the help and aren’t causing issues will suffer for the actions of the ones who are too aggressive and that’s not completely fair. Use your head. If they need help, help. But not to the detriment of your safety or the safety of others.

Anyone who chooses to hate President

Trump has that right – they can call him all sorts of names if that makes them feel better – but to agree with what the Democrats are doing in their pathetic attempt to impeach him is to approve of the subordination of the rule of law in favor of partisan politics. That’s wrong, no matter what one thinks of him.

The latest “hearing”, which simply moved the procedure from one committee to another (Schiff to Nadler) was more of the same – Democrats trying to establish cause for impeachment – and failing miserably. They turned to four law professors, all of whom voted against Trump, three invited by Democrats and the fourth by the Republicans (Jonathon Turley, despite his political leanings) and Turley made the other three look like what they are – liberals who are willing to accept rumors, hearsay and innuendo as “evidence” strong enough to impeach a POTUS they don’t like. The thought of those three teaching our future lawyers is scary.

What’s really going on--the bottom line--is that the Democrats are afraid Trump will get re-elected, reducing their power and leading to the exposure of all the corruption that has been going on in their party for years. They will try almost anything to besmirch Trump in the eyes of the American people, but impeachment is simply an exercise in futility; the House can vote to impeach, but the Senate will dismiss it.

Lastly we have the power brokers – the deep state and the globalists – who support the impeachment because Trump isn’t someone they can control and/or manipulate like they have been able to do with other politicians. They hate Trump and their impeachment efforts have created a sad, and disgusting, mess.