Reviewing The Last Four Years and Anticipating The Next Four Disastrous Years In America!

I wrote this roughly four years ago and posted it quite a while after that on this blog under the name "A Liberal Political Action Plan". I am looking back on it now knowing full well that it will be a miracle if we manage to hang onto any of the few positive wins we have had from it over the past four years. But, whatever happens in the near future, those of us who know just how much we have lost in the November election of 2024 must not surrender to TRAITOR Trump and the Criminal Syndicate he is assembling for his imminent return to the White House, the scene of many of his worst crimes against the USA, the world, and the planet. Their overall plan is to both rob and destroy the government of the United States. None of the people who have been named as nominees for cabinet positions is fit to run a one car funeral, clean shit out of cages at a local humane society, or hold any position of public trust at any level, literally down to constables and dog catchers. Each of them has been required to swear fealty to TRAITOR Trump and been willing to do so in anticipation of whateverit is they think they can steal for themselves. A few of them, including TRAITOR Trump, are already convicted felons. A few of them are accused sex offenders including TRAITOR Trump. All of them are willing contributors to his overall plan for extensive TREASON. None of them are to any degree trustworthy. God Help Us All! We have now lost control of all three branches of government. We cannot allow the 2026 midterm election to occur without regaining control of congress. It is the only hope we have to prevent the loss of democracy in America. In the two years before that 2026 election,anything which can be stolen or destroyed by legislation or executive order will be stolen and destroyed. In the meantime, all of us who understand just how disastrous this recent election was must not just sit down and shut up. We cannotand must now simply sit idly by. Every time one of the current members of congress leaves office for any reason, whether it be resignation, death, or arrest and conviction, we must ensure that their replacement is a loyal member of the Democratic party no matter what state they represent. We must continue to speak outand educate the electorate about the ongoing crime spree by TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate. We must Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out! I will return to this post in the next two or three days and update it with reviews of each section below and a discussion of how we have both succeeded and failed in the attempt to bring its goals about. I apologize at this time for the lack of time to complete it today. Introduction: November 3, 2020, was a mixed day for liberal and Democratic political aficionados. While we won the White House, the election is obviously under attack from TRAITOR Trump and his allies both in the US and in Russia. While nearly every legitimate world leader has congratulated and consulted with Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin is still denying the winner any acknowledgement and, like his puppet in Washington is striving to hold onto their ability to damage America. Democrats managed to retain control of the House of Representatives and had a net gain in the senate but the two runoff races in Georgia leave the Senate in doubt. In Kentucky, where most of us live or have roots, we have an excellent governor who is under attack from a slate of elected Republican officials and a solidly Republican state legislature. They have extensive plans to further damage the governor’s ability to successfully manage the state in a time of steadily increasing crisis and they probably have the votes to override most of his potential vetoes of their damaging legislation. The Kentucky Attorney General is joining in every Republican law suit he can in order to further damage the governor’s ability to succeed. The one bright side to the Attorney General’s situation is that he has shot himself in the foot with his highly questionable actions in the Breonna Taylor grand jury and seriously damaged his standing with the African American base from both parties which had previously coalesced to elect him. Kentucky and the nation are both under unrelenting attack by Right Wing Radical Republicans. In this writing, I am setting forth what I consider to be goals for each of us as individuals and all of us as a group for which we should be working on a daily basis just as we all did in the months preceding the November 2020 General Election. I fully realize that all of you might not agree with all of my goals and recognize your right to do so. But, we are small, hard working, intelligent, committed group of politically motivated women and men who have proven over the past several months what we are capable of as individuals. We can prove over the next months and years that we can, as a cohesive group, achieve a great deal more. I do not visualize this group of people becoming a major national force in politics but I also know that we can help promote rational, progressive values in our area and, to a lesser degree in the nation as a whole since each of us has some level of networks with other likeminded people all across the nation. In my original communication to you about forming such a group, I mentioned the idea that, at some time in the future, we might consider meeting face to face at least once. I would love to see that happen. But, for the foreseeable future, that is not possible or advisable until the Covid Crisis is under control. But the dangerous issues being debated in the nation require immediate actions and we have all proven that we are capable of engaging in those actions on an individual basis. I am setting out below several important goals we can work on and I hope you agree with me and decide to take some actions to support those goals. Let me also say that I have absolutely no personal political goals other than being a continual force for good. I do not intend to run for political office and I never will. But I do want to put your mind at ease about the possibility that my intentions could be less than altruistic. I am nearly seventy years old and my wife has been in a wheelchair for more than twenty years. I am also working nearly daily on my career as a published Appalachian writer. I have more than enough to occupy my mind and my time. So let’s look at what I consider to be important actions we can take to help what I hope can become a changed and grateful nation. Immediate Goals: 1) Support President-elect Joe Biden and his administration to overcome the irrational and anti-American opposition to his election which is rooted in the both the legal smoke screens and the Stochastic Terrorism of TRAITOR Trump. We can speak out on Joe Biden’s behalf. We can support whatever actions it becomes necessary for him to take to legally occupy the White House on January 20, 2020, as mandated by the US Constitution. We can write letters to newspapers and magazines on his behalf. We can confront the supporters of TRAITOR Trump wherever and whenever we encounter them. We can make telephone calls to radio and television stations to support him. We can each make whatever monetary contributions to his transition team which we can afford. 2) We can also support the ongoing efforts in Georgia to elect Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the US Senate in Georgia. As of this writing, the Republicans hold 50 seats in the US Senate without winning either seat in Georgia. If Warnock and Ossoff both win, Vice-President Harris will hold the tie-breaking vote in the senate which would make President Biden’s work much easier. We can each support these two important candidates in all the ways we sought to help Joe Biden, Amy McGrath and other candidates. We can volunteer to make phone calls for them without ever leaving our homes. We can write letters. We can make whatever monetary contributions each of us is comfortable with. 3) For those of us who live in Kentucky, we must support Governor Andy Beshear in his work to save this state both medically and economically. In order to do that, we must actively oppose the efforts of the elected state officials to destroy the governor’s work. We must publicly, in every medium possible, confront their attacks on the governor with telephone calls to their offices; telephone calls to our friends and random strangers; letters to newspapers and television and radio outlets; and continuing everything each of did to help elect the governor and to fight for those candidates who would help his cause. Intermediate Goals: 1) In two years, one third of the US Senate and the entire House of Representatives will be up for reelection. In 2022, Rand Paul will be up for reelection in Kentucky and we have several potentially good candidates to replace him such as Charles Booker, Andy Beshear, and others. We must work to defeat Rand Paul just as hard as we tried to replace Mitch McConnell this year and, in this case, we must win. 2) We will also have an opportunity to replace many of the Republican state legislators in Kentucky including, especially, Goforth, Wheeler, and the entire Republican state delegation. We work to defeat them by assisting viable candidates, inducing candidates to run, and registering and turning out Democratic votes. We must develop a plan to register a majority new eighteen year old potential voters, to educate those voters, and to keep them in the Democratic fold. I have at least one good idea on that front which I will discuss later. 3) In 2023, we will be facing another statewide election in Kentucky and we must work in all the ways above to elect a statewide ticket of Democratic candidates including Governor Beshear if that is what he believes is his best option. We should also do all we can to induce as many of his inner circle of cabinet members and key advisors to seek either lesser statewide offices, congressional offices, mayoral posts in our larger cities, or positions as county judge executives. In Conclusion: This has been worked out in my head for several months although this is the first attempt I have made to put it into writing. It is at best a rough draft, a preliminary plan, which I wanted to get to all of you before the fire in our bellies dies as we move away from the recent election. But always remember that the next election always begins, at the latest, when the votes have been counted in the most recent one. We must keep fighting as if our lives, our nation, and our state depends on it, which it definitely does. Please send me your impressions of this set of idea along with your honest criticisms and your own ideas which may differ from mine.

"How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" by Jason Stanley and What You Can Do To Prevent Fascism In America!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On November 3, 2024, just two days before our recent disastrous national election, I wrote an earlier blog post about this book, "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" by Jason Stanley.  In the last few weeks preceding that election, I was posting as much as I could write on this blog about the imminent danger that TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate present to America.  I was working on reading, and still am today, a large shelf of "To Be Read" books about Fascism, Threats To Democracy, and the current politics of the United States.  In most of those blog posts, I also stated that I was writing about a book or books which I had not fully read at that time.  I was skimming the books for quotes which were applicable to the danger we were in. I would search the indices of the those books for the appropriate words, read those brief sections, and, if they were worthy of repeating, I would write a blog post about that books brief sections which I had read.   While I might have hoped, or fantasized, that the American electorate would do the right thing and elect Kamala Harris as president, I was also aware that just as he had in 2021, TRAITOR Trump would wage a war against America and American Democracy if he was once again defeated as he always had been before.  I knew that if Kamala Harris was elected TRAITOR Trump would stage another insurrection just as he had on January 6.  In fact, one of my blog posts before the election was written on September 23, 2024, and entitled "The Upcoming Second Insurrection".  Sadly, that insurrection will now be conducted from the White House.  So, the most important question for all of us to answer in our heart of hearts is "What am I going to do to help prevent the death of American Democracy?  The first thing you can and should do is to educate yourself on a daily basis about the danger to America and American Democracy which TRAITOR Trump represents.  One of the best ways to begin that self-education is to read this book "How Fascism Works..." by Jason Stanley.  Learn how Fascism works, how Fascism creeps into a country and destroys its political soul.  Most importantly learn what you as one individual can do to help prevent Fascism, the Fascism of TRAITOR Trump can and should be resisted, defeated, and wiped out of the  blood stream of American Democracy.  Then, secondly, become involved on a personal, face to face level with other dedicated citizens who are involved in the fight against TRAITOR Trump and his Fascism.  Don't con yourself into believing that sitting at home reading the news on the internet and engaging in social media is enough.  Develop personal friendships with others who are involved in the fight. Join the politically focused organizations that are in the fight such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood  and others.  Don't just join them and read their literature.  Support their work to the degree that you can based on your income, free time, and personal commitments. Read every book you can find about the danger to America and how to prevent the loss of American Democracy.  So now let's get to the point of this blog post and discuss the book, "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" by Jason Stanley. 

Throughout the book, Stanley, who is a professor of philosophy at Yale University in an endowed chair, documents and discusses actions, speeches, and threats by TRAITOR Trump which are clearly Fascist in nature.  While this book was reissued in 2020, recent statements by several American generals who have worked closely with TRAITOR Trump about his fascist tendencies fully support what Stanley has to say about him and his danger to the country.  In Bob Woodward's new book, "War",which I will discuss fully as soon as I can finish it, he tells a story of meeting General Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at a party:

“We have got to stop him!” Milley said. “You have got to stop him!” By “you” he meant the press broadly. “He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.” His eyes darted around the room filled with 200 guests of the Cohen Group, a global business consulting firm headed by former defense secretary William Cohen. Cohen and former defense secretary James Mattis spoke at the reception.  “A fascist to the core!” Milley repeated to me.  I will never forget the intensity of his worry."  (The Atlantic, October 16, 2024, "The General's Warning".  https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/10/the-generals-warning/680279/ ) 

In the book, Stanley writes in chapters which are descriptive of the key elements of fascist thinking and acts and labels those elements of Fascism as The Mythic Past, Propaganda, Anti-intellectual, Unreality, Hierarchy, Victimhood, Law and Order, Sexual Anxiety, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Arbeit Macht Frei which is translated as "Work Sets You Free" and was utilized by the Nazis in concentration camps to help them control the prisoners.  In the 2003 issue of "Free Inquiry Magazine, Lawrence Britt discussed key elements of fascism under slightly different titles and I have written about that examination of fascism at this link six years ago.  The fascism of TRAITOR Trump is not a new thing just because several American generals and other staff members who worked under him have suddenly begun to use the word "Fascist" about him in public. It has been existent many years and many of us who have been aware of it have also been making frequent studious attempts to educate the rest of the world about his fascism.  Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright actually published a book "Fascism A Warning" in 2018 and I wrote about her book that same year.   Television personality Rachel Maddow, who also happens to be Dr. Rachel Maddow since she holds  a Ph. D. in Political Science from the University of Oxford wrote a book in 2023 entitled "Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism" which I have written about at this link. It is also worthwhile to find Maddow's interview with Stormy Daniels on Youtube and watch the entiree interview. In that interview, the two women actually read Stormy Daniels' testimony in her civil trial against TRAITOR Trump with Daniels playing herself and Maddow reading the parts of the several attorneys.  It is an enlightening show and was the first opportunity the general public had to actually see the testimony from the "Hush Money Trial" since it was held without television cameras present.  Let me suggest that you watch that interview after you have learned at least the basics of fascism which will make TRAITOR Trump's actions toward Daniels much more clearly understood for what they are: Fascism In Action.  I have made reference to all these discussions of Fascism to help the reader understand that TRAITOR Trump's devotion to and practice of Fascism is nothing new. Jason Stanley and I are not the only people working diligently to make all of America aware of the problem it presents on a daily basis to the country and the world.   

In the epilogue to his book, Jason Stanley refers to the work of Yale professors Joshua Knobe and Adam Bear by saying that in a New York Times article they have found that "...Trump's continuing behavior-- actions and speech that used to be considered remarkable--have real and disturbing consequences:  "These actions are not simply coming to be regarded as more typical; they are coming to be seen as more normal.  As a result, they will come to be seen as less bad and hence less worthy of outrage."  (Jason Stanley, "How Fascism Works...", Page188.)

Read This Book!  Get Involved In The Fight!  Do Your Part To Help Save America And American Democracy! 

 

 

 

 

 

Trump Anxiety Disorder As Discussed In "The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump" Edited by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M. D.

 

I wrote about this book on this blog almost as soon as it was published in 2017.  I have consistently described it as being one of the books which every American should read who is seeking the truth about TRAITOR Trump.  I mention it regularly in conversation with others about politics and TRAITOR Trump.  I also regularly add it to any list I create of the books every American should read who is interested in fighting to save the United States and American Democracy from TRAITOR Trump and the other assorted TRAITORS and Idiots who support him and his plan to destroy the country for Russia and Vladimir Putin.  I think of this book nearly every time TRAITOR Trump commits another crime against America and American Democracy.  In this post, I simply want to discuss one article from the book entitled "Trump Anxiety Disorder" by Jennifer Contarino Panning, Psy. D.  In one succinct and terse little sentence, let me say "America, you were warned".  

Dr. Panning begins her article by saying in the second paragraph that the result of the 2016 election "...led to an unprecedented level of post-election shock, grief, and anxiety in about half of the American population..."   She moves on to discuss how TRAITOR Trump's "...bombastic, grandiose attitudes and campaign untruths created an environment of uncertainty, with Americans feeling threatened in their personal safety...his use of  psychological manipulation tools such as gaslighting, lying, and blaming are described as contributing factors to Trump anxiety disorder."   It is pertinent to say that after the 2016 election the cabinet which was assembled by TRAITOR Trump was described by the Washington Post as the "worst cabinet in history".  That 2017 article can be located still today at this link from The New Zealand Herald.  The proposed cabinet officers which TRAITOR Trump is now nominating make that first highly dangerous group of marginally qualified people look like the combined faculties of the entire Ivy League in comparison.  None of the current nominees are remotely fit to lead a one car funeral and nearly every honest political reporter and most politicians are saying so.  Matt Gaetz, the original nominee for Attorney General in this new group has already been forced to withdraw when as many as eight Republican Senators told him to his face that they would not vote to confirm him.  The headlines from nearly every major newspaper in the country today are even more negative about this proposed criminal syndicate than those in the article cited above from 2017.  So, you must ask yourself, if a reputable group of twenty-seven of the best psychiatrists in America were willing to have their opinions published in 2017 in a book with the chapter we are discussing in this post, what must they all be saying today about a group of nominees which contains two alleged sex offenders in addition to the leader of the criminal syndicate who has been accused of at least twenty-six rapes, a man who claims women are unfit to serve in combat roles in the military is nominated for the head of the Pentagon, and the former head of the World Wrestling Entertainment company is being touted for Secretary of Education.  So, if the anxiety among the population of America was worthy of Dr. Panning's chapter in 2017, just how great is that Trump Anxiety today?  

After discussing the large numbers of Americans who were suffering from Trump Anxiety in 2017, Dr. Panning actually concluded her chapter of the book by disclosing her own Trump Anxiety.  She stated that she would actually inform her patients that "...I was experiencing similar feelings, and that many of these feelings were universal to progressives post-election....we therapists were left with similar feelings of helplessness and, perhaps due to our professional training, more concern given the characterological issues we saw in Trump's behavior and personality."  Just a few days ago in a local restaurant, I jokingly asked an acquaintance if he ate lunch in that location every day.  He responded "I'm trying to enjoy it while I can because it is going to get bad really quick."  That response then morphed into a ten minute conversation between us about just how dangerous and anxiety producing we both see the electoral disaster of November 5, 2024, as having been. We are nowhere near the only Americans who suffer from Trump Anxiety Disorder around the country.  We are literally facing the potential end of American Democracy!  God Help Us All!  

Picking Roses In Eastern Kentucky On Thanksgiving Day 2024!

 

Yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2024, my wife Candice and I chose to travel to Prestonsburg, Kentucky, for the Thanksgiving Day Buffet at Jenny Wiley State Park Lodge rather than cook a Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us.  When we are away from the house and have the time, I nearly always try to walk or hike somewhere while Candice waits for me in van at a safe parking area and reads.  Since it was fairly cool and damp, I chose to not hike in the woods near the lodge. There are several fairly good hiking trails in the park and I have used them quite a bit over the last few years. We have also attended other holiday dinners at the lodge with members of my extended family over the years. I went to Big Sandy Community and Technical College to walk on their paved walking path near the Big Sandy River instead.  I have walked there numerous times and actually enjoy that walking path since it is mostly paved with an unpaved gravel loop around a grassy area near old US 23 or North Lake Drive.  The paved area is a big loop with one fairly good uphill which overlooks the river.  Between the river and walking path, there is also a fairly large, relatively flat grassy area which can also be used for walking if it isn't too wet.  There is also a consistent population of black squirrels in the trees around the walking path and along the river bank.  I only saw two squirrels yesterday while I was there and never clearly established that either of them was black since both were on the ground near trees and probably at least a hundred yards away when I spotted them and they immediately ran up the back side of the trees.  

 

I only saw one other walker while I was there yesterday and he only made one loop before disappearing.  He was wearing shorts and the temperature was only 40 degrees or so.  I suspect that he might  have not been enjoying the shorts.  But, to my amazement, I spotted a few late fall roses blooming on some plants which are situated at a little memorial rock garden between the college parking lot and the hiking path.  The rock garden is dedicated to some former employee whose name I don't remember.  There were also some beautiful flowers on several small shrubs at both the rock garden and near a swing which is situated at the opposite end of the grassy area in the center of the walking path.  Since it was already only forty degrees with a subfreezing forecast, I chose to cut one of the roses and several of the other flowers for Candice who was waiting for me in the van.  It was a pleasant surprise for both of us to learn that all these flowers were actually still in bloom on Thanksgiving day.  It also amazes me  how many people choose to totally ignore signals such as these flowers about the fact that global warming is very real and very dangerous for the planet.  

After my walk, we drove up old US 23 from Prestonsburg to Allen where I showed Candice some of what is left of Allen.  Then we returned to the lodge for the buffet.  It was acceptable but a bit overpriced.  There was ham with pineapple served in thin slices, fried cat fish which the lodge serves at nearly all of their major events, turkey served sliced and/or shredded, some turkey dressing which I chose not to try, some fairly good shoe peg corn and carrots, and banana pudding, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie for desert.  The lodge was fairly crowded with what was almost universally an older crowd. It was an enjoyable day all things considered. 

"The Far Family" by Wilma Dykeman

"The Far Family" is a novel written by famed Appalachian author who is, perhaps, best known for her other novel, "The Tall Woman".  I have to admit that I have read little by Wilma Dykeman over the years and had tended to focus on a few other female Appalachian authors to my own detriment.  This is fine novel about a close knit but far flung Appalachian family who grew up in Nantahalla County, a fictional county which is somewhere in the area of Western North Carolina.  That area is loosely located somewhere in Nantahala National Forest and/or Nantahala Township.  The book is written in alternating chapters labeled "Yesterday" and "Today". In terms of actual time or current time, it covers a long weekend in which the family gathers together to assist one of the sons, Clay Thurston, who has just been charged with the murder of a friend or acquaintance, a black man named Hawk Williams during an all night long hunting trip which Clay organized for several of his friends.  Hawk Williams was hired to cook for the men on the trip because of his wide spread reputation as an excellent cook.  He is also acknowledged widely as a vicious and dangerous man.  The Thurston family is composed of Clay, his brother Kin, sisters Ivy Thurston Cortland, Phoebe, and Frone.  Their mother Martha is still alive but bedfast in Ivy's home being cared for by her daughter who is a widow after having married an older widower from New York State whom she had met while living in a boarding house in town while attending high school.  Ivy has a son, Phil, who happens to be a young, newly appointed United States Senator, who has also returned for the visit and its related attempt to keep Clay, a notorious alcoholic and ne'er do well, out of the penitentiary.  The "Yesterday" chapters of the book flash back to the developmental years of the brothers and sisters and tell the story of their father's repeated hopeless attempts to make a massive mark on the world around him and his eventual relatively young death in a sawmill he owned.  

 

The book is wonderful piece of work and shows a widespread, deft, and accurate depiction of life in Central and Southern Appalachia.  It discusses the massive exodus of young men and women from Appalachia indirectly in its discussion of the lives of Clay, Phoebe, Frone, and Ivy as they married, left the area, and in all cases except that of Ivy, never returned except to visit.  Ivy and her husband had chosen to sell his New York farm in the Mid-Hudson to return to North Carolina where she raised her son after the death of her older husband.  With the accusation of murder of a black man against a white member of a prominent family in North Carolina, the issue of race relations in the Appalachian South is a key focus of the story.  It is particularly addressed in one chapter when Phil, the US Senator, and his uncle Clay, the accused murder, visit the widow and other family members of the victim Hawk Williams.  As unlikely it is that a sitting US Senator would have ever made such a trip, it is a very impressively written scene in the family's shack as the two white men are welcomed by the widow and her aged father, who reminiscences about a time when a distant relative of the two men assisted him in a legal situation and saved him from conviction in a case which would have damaged the rest of his life.  It is an accurate depiction of life encounters between the races in the south in times past and, perhaps present.   

I won't ruin anyone else's reading of the book by telling the story of the outcome of the murder accusation against Clay and the conclusion of the book.  But it does involve another aspect of the race issue in the Southern Appalachians.  It is a wonderful book!  Read it!

It's Not A Cabinet! It's A Criminal Syndicate!

For the first time in American history, we are watching the formation of a criminal syndicate which is announcing the names of the members of that syndicate as they are being turned into "made" men and, also for the first time in history for a criminal syndicate, "made" women.  TRAITOR Trump has apparently decided to appoint people to his so-called "cabinet" who are not only the worst American cabinet in history as was his first but also literally the worst in history because they are being chosen for 1) their total lack of qualifications; 2) their apparent willingness to commit any crime imaginable against the nation and the its people;  3) their total, blind, unreasoned loyalty to TRAITOR Trump; and, 4) their unswerving commitments to destroy any portion of the United States government over which they might be given power.  

Some of the earliest of these people to be named are absolutely unqualified to lead a one car funeral and may well have been chosen as decoys to deflect negative attention from the possible few later choices who might arguably have some minimal level of qualifications.  It is hard to chose at this point which of these criminals and idiots is the worst of the lot; but two stand out as glaring examples of just how horrible the totality of these choices is.  Robert Kennedy, Jr. has been named as the incoming Secretary of The Department of Health and Human Services.  He knows less about actual science than the average one celled organism knows about human intelligence.  He has just concluded the most ludicrous campaign for the presidency at least since TRAITOR Trump ran his first time.  Kennedy is an avowed anti-vaxxer who has stated publicly that "a worm ate my brain".  If that statement is true, God help that long dead worm.  "Mr. Kennedy’s outlandish views on basic scientific facts are disturbing and should worry all parents who expect schools and other public spaces to be safe for their children," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in a statement. (NBC News, November 14, 2024.)   Kennedy's own extended family were so appalled by his attempt to become president that they joined President Biden in a photo opportunity at the White House to state their total opposition as a family to his campaign.  Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., called two of Trump's recent decisions "the definition of insanity," and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., slammed Trump's selection, saying, "This could not be more dangerous."  (NBC News, November 14, 2024).   A few Republican senators in what must be a misled attempt to preserve party unity have said nothing.  

The other most totally unqualified attempted appointment is that of former congressman Matt Gaetz to become the United States Attorney General.  Gaetz had been facing the release of a House of Representatives Ethics Committee report of the findings of an investigation of his probable sexual contacts with underage girls and even possible human trafficking for sexual purposes.  He resigned from congress before the report could be released in an apparent attempt to prevent its release.  If a congressional report ever needed to be released this one does.  It is the ultimate example of black humor to have TRAITOR Trump stand up and say that Gaetz should be Attorney General.  However, no one should be surprised to see a man attempt to make such a clearly criminal appointment who has been credibly accused of rape by 26 women whose reputations all their lives have been far better than TRAITOR Trump's on his best day.  This is a clear cut attempt to put a criminal who has previously been investigated by the US Department of Justice in charge of that department in order to cripple it.  

The proposed appointment of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State is just as bad due to his clear lack of real diplomatic experience and his heavy biases against many, if not most, of our closest allies.  The attempt to appoint Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense is another criminal attempt to put a totally unqualified individual in charge of a department from which many of its former most successful officers have expressed deep personal doubts about the competency of TRAITOR Trump including former Chairman of The Joint Chiefs Mark Milley who publicly described TRAITOR Trump as a Fascist.  

None of these members of this most recent American criminal syndicate are qualified to run the departments for which they are nominated.  Most are not qualified to run your local Dollar General store.  If the United States Senate approves these nominations, they will have endorsed the death of American Democracy and, quite possibly, the death of the nation itself.  This is a blatant attempt to destroy the government in its totality.  It is also quite likely that most of these choices were made by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  

Key Quotes About Fascim For The Resistance Fighters Of America!

 

As we face the incredibly dangerous and uncertain future with the probability that TRAITOR Trump and the other TRAITORS who support him and his fascism, it is incumbent on all of us who understand that danger to do everything within our power to resist that fascism  and the immeasurably destructive potential outcomes which are sought by TRAITOR Trump and those other TRAITORS who support him. With all three branches of government in their hands, there is little that can be done to prevent that incredible potential damage to both America and American Democracy.  Political resistance is the only weapon we have which has been proven to be effective in such situations.   Patriotic and determined resistance groups have given us effective examples of how this resistance is accomplished.  Those groups in much of Western Europe during both World War II and World War I.  There are also excellent examples of effective resistance in countries  such as Turkey, Iran, Chile, and Syria.  Study those examples!  Emulate those examples!  Read recent books about political resistance!  Attend educational opportunities to learn about fascism and how to resist it!  Become an active resister!  It is the only effective option we have!

 

The quotations below are from several famous writers and politicians.  Study them and the brave souls who verbalized them and practiced political resistance on a daily basis in their lives.  The first five of those quotations were all used as part of my official e-mail signature from January 20, 2017, to January 20, 2021.  I will be using and posting them wherever it is appropriate in the coming four years.  So should you!  Learn what you can do as a political resister at this most dangerous time in America since the day Fort Sumter was fired on.  GOD HELP US ALL!       

 

“I have lived my life and I have fought my battles, not against the weak and poor—but against power, injustice, and oppression.”  Clarence Darrow  

“Why, this far into the twenty-first century, are we once again talking about Fascism?  One reason, frankly, is Donald Trump.  If we think of Fascism as a wound from the past that had almost healed, putting Trump in the White House was like ripping off the bandage and picking at the scab.”  Madeleine Albright, “Fascism A Warning”, p. 5-6.  

 

 

“Bigger misfits haven’t been seen inside a White House since William Taft got stuck in his bathtub.”  John McCain, “The Restless Wave”, p. 267

 

 

“I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written: Yes We Can. Yes We Did.  Yes We Can.”  President Barack Obama

 “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." Thomas Paine 

 

"Fascism is capitalism plus murder."  Upton Sinclair

 

"A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such and intensity of intolerance toward  those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions, or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends."  Henry Wallace 

 

"There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that  he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind bars, and the man is outside." Upton Sinclair 

 

"Fascism is a lie told by bullies."  Ernest Hemingway

"But the devil is a subtle worm; he does not give up at one defeat, for he knows human nature, and the strength of the forces which battle for him." Upton Sinclair   

"I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system." Noam Chomsky

A Few Basic Truths About The 2024 US Election!

 

1) TRAITOR Trump is just that, nothing more, nothing less, a TRAITOR! 

2) You can bet your ass that Putin already has demanded, and will receive, repayment for everything he has done for TRAITOR Trump over the last forty years just as he did from January 20, 2017, to January 20, 2021.  

 

3) The very same hypocrites and TRAITORS who claimed that President Biden was too old and senile to be president are singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" because they supported a 78 year old TRAITOR who can't construct a complete sentence.  

4) It will be a miracle if America and American Democracy survive the next four years.

5) Even if TRAITOR Trump were to die in his sleep tonight, the same danger in a slightly more intelligent form would remain in the form of J. D. Vance who is just as criminal, just as much a TRAITOR, and just a little bit smarter than TRAITOR Trump.

6) I will continue to fight TRAITOR Trump and those who support him on a daily basis so long as he walks free and endangers this country and worldwide Democracy.  So should you!  If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem!

7) God Help Us All! 

"How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" by Jason Stanley

 

The original edition of this book was published in 2018, The current edition of the book which I am discussing today was published in paperback format in 2020 due to the fact that it was a best seller and the upcoming election of 2020 made it both necessary and advantageous for the author and publisher to reissue the book in paperback due to the danger being presented to the country by TRAITOR Trump at that time.  Today, that danger still persists in even greater form than four years ago.  We now have major public figures who have worked closely with TRAITOR Trump actually using the words "Fascist" and "Facism" to describe him and his goals.  This version of the book was released with a new preface by Jason Stanley.  In the Preface on page IX, Stanley states that "I wrote this book as a warning against fascist politics, essentially the danger of rhetoric that encourages fear and anger as a means to foment ethnic and religious division, seeping into public discourse." (Jason Stanley, "How Fascism Works..." Page IX)    Later in the Preface on page XII, he writes: "A distinguishing mark of fascism is the targeting of ideological enemies and the freeing of all restraints in combating them."(Stanley, Ibid, Page XII). That is exactly what TRAITOR Trump has been doing in this 2024 election campaign when he has discussed jailing his political enemies if the tragedy of his actual election should occur. TRAITOR Trump has even exceeded his own previous levels of fascist speech this week by stating on multiple occasions that Liz Cheney, one of only two Republicans in the entire country fit to hold public office at any level, should be forced to face "nine rifles pointed at her face".  That kind of speech is not only fasicst, it is illegal in every state in the union and should be prosecuted to the highest level of the law. Even years before these kind of incredibly derogatory statements started coming regularly from TRAITOR Trump in 2024, Jason Stanley was seeing evidence of fascism in TRAITOR Trump's rhetoric: 

"In the United States, as Donald Trump's campaign against immigration intensifies, it is sweeping untold numbers of undocumented workers of all backgrounds into anonymously run private detention centers, where they are concealed form view and public concern." (Jason Stanley, "Ibid, Page XV.)

Throughout the book, Stanley, who is a professor of philosophy at Yale University in an endowed chair, documents and discusses actions, speeches, and threats by TRAITOR Trump which are clearly fascist in nature.  While this book was reissued in 2020, recent statements by several American generals who have worked closely with TRAITOR Trump about his fascist tendencies fully support what Stanley has to say about him and his danger to the country.  In Bob Woodward's new book, "War", he tells a story of meeting General Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at a party:

“We have got to stop him!” Milley said. “You have got to stop him!” By “you” he meant the press broadly. “He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.” His eyes darted around the room filled with 200 guests of the Cohen Group, a global business consulting firm headed by former defense secretary William Cohen. Cohen and former defense secretary James Mattis spoke at the reception.  “A fascist to the core!” Milley repeated to me.  I will never forget the intensity of his worry."  (The Atlantic, October 16, 2024, "The General's Warning".  https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/10/the-generals-warning/680279/ ) 

 In the book, Stanley writes in chapters which are descriptive of the key elements of fascist thinking and acts including Propaganda, Anti-intellectual, Unreality, Hierarchy, Victimhood, Law and Order, Sexual Anxiety, and Sodom and Gomorrah.  In the 2003 issue of "Free Inquiry Magazine, Lawrence Britt discussed key elements of fascism under slightly different titles and I have written about that examination of fascism at this link six years ago.  The fascism of TRAITOR Trump is not a new thing just because several American generals and other staff members who worked under him have suddenly begun to use the word "Fascist" about him in public. It has been existent many years and many of us who have been aware of it have also been making frequent studious attempts to educate the rest of the world about his fascism.  Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright actually published a book "Fascism A Warning" in 2018 and I wrote about her book that same year.   Television personality Rachel Maddow, who also happens to be Dr. Rachel Maddow since she holds  a Ph. D. in Political Science from the University of Oxford wrote a book in 2023 entitled "Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism" which I have written about at this link.  In that interview, the two women actually read Stormy Daniels' testimony in her civil trial against TRAITOR Trump with Daniels playing herself and Maddow reading the parts of the several attorneys.  It is an enlightening show and was the first opportunity the general public had to actually see the testimony from the "Hush Money Trial" since it was held without television cameras present.  Let me suggest that you watch that interview after you have learned at least the basics of fascism which will make TRAITOR Trump's actions toward Daniels much more clearly understood for what they are: Fascism In Action.  I have made reference to all these discussions of fascism to help the reader understand that Donald Trump's devotion to and practice of fascism is nothing new and Jason Stanley and I are not the only people working diligently to make all of America aware of the problem it presents on a daily basis to the country and the world.  

 

In the epilogue to his book, Jason Stanley refers to the work of Yale professors Joshua Knobe and Adam Bear by saying that in a New York Times article they have found that "...Trump's continuing behavior-- actions and speech that used to be considered remarkable--have real and disturbing consequences:  "These actions are not simply coming to be regarded as more typical; they are coming to be seen as more normal.  As a result, they will come to be seen as less bad and hence less worthy of outrage."  (Jason Stanley, "How Fascism Works...", Page188.)

 

A case in point which perfectly illustrates what Stanley is saying about the change over time in the public perceptions of TRAITOR Traitor Trump's fascist statements and intentons is the famous statement he made in 2016 saying "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?"(CBS News, January 23, 2016, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-i-could-shoot-somebody-and-i-wouldnt-lose-any-voters/ )  has now morphed into this death threat against Liz Cheney which is being investigated as a crime by the Attorney General of Arizona: “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.” (Deseret News, November 2, 2024, https://www.deseret.com/politics/2024/11/02/donald-trump-liz-cheney-war-hawk/ ) That statement was not rhetorical, harmless, or "just politics".  It was intentional incitement of his most virulent and dangerous followers in the hope that one of them would do his bidding and assassinate Liz Cheney. It was  a crime and should be prosecuted to  the fullest extent of the law.  

Read Jason Stanley's book, GO VOTE if you have not already, and fight Donald Trump and his fascism until he can be convicted of at least part of his crimes, sentenced, and imprisoned as he should have been years ago.   

 

 

"Rocket Man: Nuclear Madness And The Mind Of Donald Trump", edited by John Gartner, Steven Buser, and Leonard Cruz,

 

This book was published in 2018, and edited by John Gartner, Steven Buser, and Leonard Cruz.  It is just as important, perhaps even more important, today as it was was on the day the first copy rolled off the presses.  I will repeat myself from an earlier post about a book called "How Democracies Die" by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.  As any intelligent, well read, politically aware American knows instinctively, this book would not have been written if TRAITOR Trump had never occupied the White House.  I have to admit that I have not read the entire book but have read key chapters and independent, unbiased reviews of the book.  This has been necessary due to both the speed with which we are approaching the most important election in American History again, just as we have been in the two previous election cycles and, because I have far too many books to important books to read and write about before the date of the election on November 5, 2024.  

This is a unique book because it was written in separate but existentially connected chapters by the authors, a cross section of mental health professionals and nuclear weapons and military experts.  This method of having several chapters written by different experts on the topic at hand was also utilized by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M. D.; M. Div. when she edited the very important book, "The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump".  These could not be more important books at any time other than today with the 2024 presidential election coming just six days from now.  Any well written and well reviewed which attempts to warn the American electorate of the dangers presented by TRAITOR Trump, his owner Vladimir Putin, and those who support his TREASON, is an important book today.  I am certain that there are several others which I have not been able to read and write about and, perhaps, even some of which I have not learned which are equally important if they share these authors' common goals of warning the electorate, protecting the country, and educating the reader about the dangers TRAITOR Trump presents every day he walks free.  

John Gartner is a doctoral level psychologist who previously taught at Johns Hopkins University.  Leonard Cruz, M. D. is the co-founder of the Asheville Jung Center and a practicing psychiatrist.  The third co-editor, Steven Buser, M. D., is also a co-founder of the Asheville Jung Center and a practicing psychiatrist  They pulled together a fine group of military and psychiatric experts to co-author the book.  Major General (Ret.) William L. Enyart, a former Illinois congressman, and a graduate of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.  Gordon Humphrey was a United States Senator from 1979 to 1990.  He served on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees.  These individuals are just a few of the more than two dozen highly qualified authors of the chapters/articles in the book.  Collectively and individually, they are people whose opinions should be sought at times of potential nuclear crisis in America and the world.  

Now, let's look at just a few examples of what they have to say about the danger TRAITOR Trump presents to the country and the world.  Chapter 4 of the book is written by David Reiss, M. D., and entitled "If Trump Were a Policeman I Would Have to Take Away His Gun".  The second sentence of his article tells you nearly everything you need to know about TRAITOR Trump which the anxiety producing title does not.  "If I were being asked to evalute Trump's fitness for duty as commander in chief there are behaviors that would trouble me."   But Dr. Reiss goes even further when he says this: "If Donald Trump were a police officer who had been referred to me for a Fitness-for-Duty evaluation...my recommendation would be removal of the officer from any position of responsibility pending a complete evaluation."  

Chapter 5 from Major General (Ret.) Enyart  is just as blunt in its title: "If Trump was entering the Military, he would not recieve a Security Clearance." He is even more blunt in the article in which he discusses the possibility that TRAITOR Trump could be or could have been the target of a Russian "honey pot trap", an offer of free sex from a beautiful woman who would be working with or for Russian intelligence agents, a common practice in their tool box. I quote from the article: "President Trump has shown a remarkable lack of judgment."  I quote further: "Knowing Trump's well-publicized sexual behavior, it seems unlikely that he could refuse such a tantalizing offer [an offer of sex, a honey pot trap].  "...if Donald Trump were undergoing a standard security clearance investigation, any credible suspicion of such kompromat would be enough to sink his application.  Period."   

Chapter 17, written by Bard Larsen, has an equally provocative title, "Is Donald Trump A Fascist?".  It concludes with this sentence "...America will have to reinforce the democratic institutions and repair the divided society and broken public discourse Trump has sought to destroy."   While Larsen does not flly answer the key question he presents in his title, he also did not have the amount of information on his topic in 2018 when the book was published.  Bard Larsen had never heard former Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley say in a recorded interview with Bob Woodward that “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump.  Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.”  

This book is a bit dated.  TRAITOR Trump had not said and done many of the things at the time the book was published that he has said and done in the intervening six years.  He had not been convicted of 34 felonies or indicted, but yet untried, for 60 more.  He had not ordered police to tear gas non-violent protestors in front of the White House.  He had not stated publicly that he "would only be a dictator on the first day". Yet, the group of outstanding psychiatric and military personnel who wrote this book had already found enough evidence to say in print that TRAITOR Trump was unfit to hold any position of responsibility, not an acceptable candidate for a security clearance and, definitely, not a fit candidate to be the commander in chief.  Read the book no matter what happens on November 5, 2024.  Regardless of what happens in the election, TRAITOR Trump will always be a threat to America, American Democracy, and the entire world so long as he walks free.  And, God forbid, if he wins that election, no one in the world will be safe until he is held responsible for both the crimes he has committed in the past, and for any crimes he will commit in the future. 

Fantasies Of A Trump Cult Member!

 

I'm a Trump voter and I'm proud of that!

I go everywhere in my Maga hat.

I bought it from a man on the side of the road.

He must have had a whole car load.

He had them Trump flags four feet long,

Almost as big as Arnold Palmer's dong.

I wanted to buy one but couldn't right then.

I was outta money,  My welfare check hadn't come in.

I stood and looked at them big flags, 

Wished I had enough nerve to rob some fags.  

When all them wetbacks get shipped out, 

I'm gonna stand up and shout

When the rich people don't have to pay their bills,

They'll help us all cause they're having thrills. 

I know I'll get go be Trump's friend.

He's going to love me in the end.

I'll go vote ten or twelve times.

I'll spend election day standing in line.  

When Trump wins this election for the third time, 

He'll take back the country and treat us fine.

He's my hero.  He's my friend.

He'll put all things right in the end.

I had a dream the other night.

We were all in a great big fight.

I was the first through the Capitol door.

I was the first to shit in the floor.

I was the one to kidnap Pence.

I helped push him into an electric fence.

He lit up like the Fourth of July.

I saw sparks come out of his eye.  

Then we got all the Democrats, 

Even Jamie Raskin wearing his spats.  

Then we marched across town in our Maga hats, 

Dancing, and smiling, and killing all cats.

It really wasn't the fault of the cats

But they love Democrats and we can't have that.  

When I woke up I was so sad

Because in the dream I never had

Met my hero Trump, my dear God Dad

I wish I could see him, and Arnold Palmer, and me

Playing golf together off really short tees,

On greens as smooth as Trump's bald head

Hid by the wig he keeps under his bed.

In my dream, the last thing he said

Was please buy my Bibles, shoes, and stuff,

If you don't I'll have to play rough.  

Cause I need your money for women and stuff.

Then he left in a great big huff.

And I was crying when I woke up

And felt just like a little whipped pup.

I'll have a better dream tomorrow

Cause Trump is going to fix all my sorrow.

He'll cure my disease, he'll heal my heart.

He'll give me a brand new start.

He'll take me south to his big house.

He'll help me find a whole new spouse.

He'll give me money, friends, and fame.

He'll help me get in a whole new game.

Everything I need, I will receive. 

Because in Trump I do believe.   

 

A Shallow Examination of "How Democracies Die" by Steven Livitsky & Daniel Ziblatt

 

This book was released on January 8, 2019, in a reprinted and edited version.  The authors are Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.Both are professors at Harvard and have studied how democracies function, fail, and die for more than twenty years.  This book addresses the multiple questions of 1) how democracy is functioning in the United States, 2) is democracy endangered in the United States, 3) is Donald Trump a danger to American democracy, and, 4) what can be done to save American democracy.  As any intelligent, well read, politically aware American knows instinctively, this book would not have been written if TRAITOR Trump had never occupied the White House.  I have to admit that I have not read the entire book but have read the key chapters and independent, unbiased reviews of the book.  This has been necessary due to both the speed with which we are approaching the most important election in American History again, just as we have been in the two previous election cycles and, because I have far too many books to important books to read and write about before the date of the election on November 5, 2024.  

The authors of the book, in the early chapters, introduce their readers to several key actions which despots and would be despots take leading up to, and throughout, their attacks on democracy. They also describe , on page 2 of the book, ways in which American politicians and their actions worry them, "American politicians now treat their rivals as enemies intimidate the free press, and threaten to reject the results of elections.  They try to weaken the institutional buffers of our democracy, including the courts, intelligence services, and ethics offices. American states...are in danger of becoming laboratories of authoritarianism as those in power rewrite electoral rules, redraw constituencies, and even rescind voting rights to ensure that they do not lose."   On page 2 of the book they also describe TRAITOR Trump as "...a man with no experience in public office, little observable commitment to constitutional rights, and clear authoritarian tendencies".  The authors were absolutely correct in their assessment of TRAITOR Trump in 2019 when this book was published.  They also published a second book together in 2023, "The Tyranny of the Minority", which I do not own at this point but will purchase, read and write about regardless of the outcome of this election.  That will be necessary even if Kamala Harris wins this election because TRAITOR Trump and his Right Wing Radical supporters have already made it abundantly clear that they will do anything within their power to prevent the peaceful change of power unless they are the TRAITORS in power.  

Chapter 8 of the books is entitled "Trump Against The Guardrails" and directly discusses the ways TRAITOR Trump and his allies had attempted to destroy democracy in America in the first year plus of his occupancy of the White House.  

"Donald Trump's first year in office followed a familiar script...He called the media "the enemy of the American people," questioned judges' legitimacy, and threatened to cut federal funding to major cities."  (Levitsky and Ziblatt, "How Democracies Die", page176.)

On the following page, 177, the authors go further: 

"President Trump exhibited clear authoritarian instincts during his first year in office. In Chapter 4, we presented three strategies by which elected authoritarians seek to consolidate power: capturing the referees, sidelining the key players, and rewriting the rules to tilt the playing field against opponents.  Trump attempted all three of these strategies." (Levitsky and Ziblatt, "How Democracies Die", page 177.)

In the intervening five years since this book was published, we have seen and heard numerous others agree with Levitsky and Ziblatt including General Mark Kelly, General James Mattis, and General Mark Milley have all endorsed Kamala Harris for president and called TRAITOR Trump  "fascist to the core" and "the most dangerous person to this country".  TRAITOR Trump has also been quoted by NPR as saying "I need the kind of generals Hitler had."   Obviously, no such would be despot, dictator, tyrant, or genocidal maniac needs to be anywhere near the seat of American government.  He needs to be tried, convicted of at least part of his thousands of crimes, sentenced, and incarcerated for life in the supermax prison in Colorado where the other enemies of the nation are incarcerated.