Somebody Is Murdering Democracy!

Nobody sees their crimes on Pennsylvania Avenue We don’t have fingerprints or the weapons Putin used But they’re murdering democracy, cutting out its heart and soul They’re getting away with murder on Embassy Row The almighty dollar and the lust for worldwide fame Are killing democracy and for that someone should hang They all say not guilty but the evidence will show That murder was committed on Embassy Row Unfed children cry and the who country prays Treason and Russian hackers are right up in our face Hillary & Kamala didn’t have a chance against criminal politics Trump has murdered democracy and it makes me mighty sick Trump thought no one would miss it once it was dead and gone Putin told him no one will ever know just keep up the treason and sing a pretty song Well there ain't no justice in it and the hard facts are cold Murder's been committed down on Embassy row. Unfed children cry and the whole country prays Treason and Russian hackers are right up in our face Thomas Paine wouldn’t have a chance in today’s politics Trump has murdered democracy and it makes me mighty sick They’d even tell George Washington to pack up and go back home Since Trump murdered democracy on Embassy Row. Copyright 2018 by Roger D. Hicks with consideration to Larry Cordle and “Murder On Music Row”. I have a major problem with the computer language on this blogspot website and I can't seem to get it corrected. My last few posts have had major errors in them which I can't seem to edit away. I apologize and I am working to correct it. When the problem has been addressed, I will re-edit the previous several posts. Keep coming back and thanks for reading my blog!

Pioneer Cemetery, Franklin, Pennsylvania

Over the rattle, roar, hum, of the lawnmowers and weedeaters, or was it beneath those sounds, I could have sworn I heard voices, maybe across the river, maybe down the street toward the courthouse, low, quiet, distant voices. As I moved across the fenced lot among the tombstones, occasional little American flags, local stones with engravings I had trouble reading now, the voices seemed to filter in, maybe being muffled by the surrounding trees, maybe across French Creek or somewhere along the Allegheny. Then, interspersed among the voices, I thought I heard the industrious strokes of a hammer, maybe John Broadfoot’s hammer building another house for a settler just arrived from farther east, Philadelphia, or even New York. That hammer kept working steadily but seemed to recede in the distance as another voice came through sounding a lot like I might have known John McLaurin’s voice would be, quietly insistent, encouraging us to keep working to “cherish their memories and keep their graves green”. The first time I stood in front of the gate to the Pioneer Cemetery and read the sign saying “First Burial in 1795” I knew I was in a special place, among historic people, people who would have remembered the stories of Fort Machault and how the French burned it to the ground in 1759 before retreating to Canada to leave America in the hands of the pioneers some of whom would be buried in that little plot on Otter Street. I walked inside and read the markers, slowly, one by one, moving from each to the next in awe of a group of people who had been brave and durable enough to come to the intersection of French Creek and the Allegheny to wrest the land from the French and nurture it until it became a quiet country town epitomizing the spirit of these people who had left England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales to come to a new, rough, rawboned land of mountains and rivers sitting in the way of the winds blowing off Lake Erie. These were people who included Lieutenant Francis Gordon, whose entire troop died in the loss of Fort Venango, and was burned at the stake after the fort was lost. This little town of little forts always outlasted the forts, the enemy forces who besieged them, the diseases which could not be cured, and the loneliness of living on what was in the late 18th century the western edge of civilization, the extreme limits of pioneer endurance until a few years later they sent their children farther west and often followed them taking that pioneer spirit to new places, new rivers, new forts, new adventures and dangers, moving, always moving, forever seeking more, more land, more freedom, more opportunities and always willing to engage in and win the fight necessary to seize the land and hold it against all comers. I have a major problem with the computer language on this blogspot website and I can't seem to get it corrected. My last few posts have had major errors in them which I can't seem to edit away. I apologize and I am working to correct it. When the problem has been addressed, I will re-edit the previous several posts. Keep coming back and thanks for reading my blog!

Josiah H. Combs, Knott County Kentucky Musicologist

Josiah H. Combs was born in Perry County Kentucky and grew up at Hindman in Knott County Kentucky where he was the first graduate of the Hindman Settlement School. He graduated from Transylvania University and obtained a doctoral degree from the Sorbonne in Paris. He was one of the most important collectors of folk songs in America and his book, “Folk Songs of the Southern United States” (University of Texas Press) is considered a classic in the field. The book is based on his doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne and was originally published in French in Paris. He also published “A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk Songs” which contained more than 300 songs collected in Eastern and Central Kentucky. Dr. Combs's publications include “The Kentucky Highlanders” (Lexington, Kentucky, I912), “All That's Kentucky” (Louisville, Kentucky, I9I5), and “Folk Songs from the Kentucky Highlands” (New York, 1935), as well as textbooks and contributions to the “Journal of American Folklore”, “Books Abroad”, “Folk-Say”, and the “Kentucky Folklore Record”. Much of his important work remains in manuscript, including "The Language of Our Southern Highlanders." Josiah H. Combs’ is one of the four great writers and educators whose lives are detailed in the recent Loyal Jones book “My Curious and Jocular Heroes”. Josiah H. Combs was an important professor of foreign languages (French, Spanish, German) and a first rate linguist. He was a friend to H. L. Mencken who was very laudatory of his writings in “Dialect Notes”, “American Speech”, “Publications of the American Dialect Society”, and “Publications of the Modern Language Association”. He collected and preserved folk songs in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Texas. Many of his documented versions of American folk songs are either the only versions ever preserved or considered to be the most accurate. They often contain language variants which are more correctly and accurately preserved than those of lesser scholars and writers. He taught foreign languages at Texas Christian University, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Virginia. Many, if not most of his papers, are preserved in the Special Collections Department of the Berea College Library. While Josiah H. Combs’ literary work may not be well known in today’s literary world, he is one of the most important figures in the voluminous body of literature which is rooted in Knott County Kentucky and his published works are among the most respected in his fields of specialty. I have a major problem with the computer language on this blogspot website and I can't seem to get it corrected. My last few posts have had major errors in them which I can't seem to edit away. I apologize and I am working to correct it. When the problem has been addressed, I will re-edit the previous several posts. Keep coming back and thanks for reading my blog!

A Bad Day In The Auction Business, August 24,2013

Yesterday, August 24, 2013, I got a call from an individual I do not know asking me if I would come to Means, KY, in Menifee County to work a small consignment auction at his auction house. I generally always say yes to such requests for several reasons. First, it is the right thing to do to bail out a fellow member of a licensed profession when circumstances make it necessary for them to ask for help. Secondly, it is a good way to have my work as an auctioneer seen by people who don’t usually come to my own sales. Thirdly, it gives me a chance to see how some of my peers and competitors are operating their own businesses. Therefore, I always keep my name on the contract auctioneer page at Auction Zip. I agreed to do the sale and made arrangements to go there with my wife Candice. We arrived the building which I had seen about a year and a half ago when I was searching for a location in Eastern Kentucky to set up my own auction house. I had not been impressed when I saw it the first time and I was not impressed when I saw what had been done with it by the current operator. It was an old store located directly across US460 from the Means, KY, post office. The building is probably 50 to 75 years old and has little or no upkeep since it was last used as a grocery. The parking lot was nearly bereft of all its original paving. The only bathrooms were in a small concrete addition on the outside of the building. Grass and weeds were growing in every spot which was not heavily trafficked. The auction block was a cobbled wooden structure above the floor with three rickety steps staggering up to the tiny platform behind the auction block. The table for the auctioneer and cashier was built with a steep downward tilt so that a roll of duct tape had been place on it to hold the auctioneer’s water. The sound system was average or above with a hand held wireless microphone which quit once on me during the sale. There were two or three large steel uprights obstructing the view from the block to the back of the room. The merchandise which was waiting to be sold pitifully reminded of my first few solo sales when I was buying out yard sales, accepting box lots of junk, and taking anything of any hopeful value on consignment in order to have enough items to sell to entice a few people to come back the following week. It was heavily used in general with obvious flaws, defects, and shortcomings. The crowd, if it could be called such, dwindled in by ones and twos. Nearly all of them were dressed in clothes which appeared to have been bought in boxes at estate sales of the working class. Most were not very verbal before the sale started and talked only to those they knew. The two or three which the operator identified as sellers looked, at best, only a little better than their potential customers. In general, they seemed to be a low income, sultry, and sullen bunch. The operator started the sale about 15 minutes late which I always detest. It is my firm belief that a scheduled start time should be honored in concrete. As I like to say, “when the big hand hits the twelve I am going to make somebody happy.” The operator and one other man acted as ring men and merchandise movers. Their bid spotting was weak and they both liked to occasionally shout as if the noise might scare a bid out of someone.

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!