Labor Day 2024, As We Face The Most Important Election In American History

 

As we celebrate Labor Day this year, I would suggest that we celebrate it with a sense of caution and use it as an impetus to renew our personal commitments to fight to protect the working class, the middle class, and all threatened classes of individuals with our vote on November 5, 2024, to elect President Kamala Harris.  Labor Day is a day which was set aside as a national holiday on June 28, 1894, when Democratic President Grover Cleveland signed a federal law making Labor Day a national holiday.  Labor Day had previously been celebrated in roughly 30 states.  Labor Day has been celebrated ever since both as celebration of the working class and a tribute to all the people who worked over the past 250 years to make America the country and the Democracy it has always been.  But this year we are facing the worst attack on the American working class, middle class, elderly, infirm, racial and ethnic minorities, women, children, and nearly every human in America who is, in one way or another, vulnerable to those who have no respect for laws, the US Constitution, constitutional rights, human rights, and any other idea which is intended to protect, defend, educate, provide health care, and all other basic rights to such vulnerable individuals.  That attack is being perpetrated by TRAITOR Trump, the Right Wing Radical Repugnican Party, Project 2025, the super wealthy, and those who comprise all such groups and their ideas.  

In this election, we have what is actually the most clear cut choice ever posed in an election for an electorate to choose between Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, Human Rights and Total Disregard For Such Rights.  The choice is between Vice President Kamala Harris who represents all those positive possible outcomes and TRAITOR Trump who represents all that is Evil and Destructive in the world. Kamala Harris is a person who has spent her life fighting for and defending all that is Good and Positive in the world.  TRAITOR Trump has spent his life fighting to destroy literally everything in the world which he cannot find a way to dominate, control, and hoard unto himself.  This choice is so simple that it baffles me and millions of other good, decent, rational Americans to understand how any human on earth can fail to understand the simplicity and the seriousness of this choice.  TRAITOR Trump and everything he represents is geared to destroy America, American Democracy, Constitutional Rights, Individual Rights, and to wipe all that is good and productive off the face of America.  

I am asking each of  you who read this to either make or renew a personal commitment to fight every day from now until President Kamala Harris can be elected, protected, and sworn into office to uphold the Constitution, to elect President Harris, and to insist that TRAITOR  Trump finally be held criminally responsible for all his crimes against America, American Democracy, the world, and the planet.  He must be convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned for his crimes.  If he is not, this country cannot survive as a Democracy.  We are literally facing a choice between the future of America and the total destruction of all that America and American Democracy represent.  We will either save America and American Democracy or we will lose them forever as a result of this election.  

A Wonderful, Early, Unintended Political Birthday Present!

 

Yesterday, July 19, 2023, we spent most of the day in the general area of Morehead, Kentucky, and got home late, about 5pm after I had hiked for an hour and ten minutes at the Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery which sits just below the spillway of Cave Run Lake; then we went to Wal Mart and Kroger to stock up on groceries, etc. I had already had a good day for several reasons.  I had spent time with my wife, Candice, and I had hiked to the hatchery from the spillway area in the company of the man who supervises the transportation of the fish they raise there to about half the state of Kentucky.  We had a good talk and hike on his way to work and my way to hike.  He answered several of my perpetual questions about the operations of the hatchery including telling me that they raise a lot of gold fish to feed the muskellunge they breed for stocking lakes.  I had previously seen goldfish in some concrete holding tanks on the property but had never understood exactly why they had them there.  I had thought that since they are a form of carp they might have been keeping them to help keep tanks clean.  But actually, they are just another version of the fattening hog for the muskellunge.  Then I hiked on around several of the 84 growing ponds the hatchery uses to finish the fish they produce.  I saw a lot of bird during that time which I don't always see there because I am hiking constantly and not paying attention to the tree lines and sometimes flush birds before I can clearly identify them.   I saw a flock of about 24 Canada Geese, about 18 American Crows, 6 Killdeer which are actually one of my favorite birds, and I was able to identify my first Green Heron.  

Then when I got home, I found a small envelope in my mail box with the return address of Betty Lynn on it which I had known was coming in some form or other since Betty had told me on Facebook that she was sending me something she had found in her large collection of memorabilia from a long career at Berea College where she worked as a secretary for many years.  I opened the envelope and quickly realized that Betty knows me well and had chosen to give me a perfect birthday gift. It was a single sheet of aged, yellowed, frazzled paper with a poem written on it in blue mimeograph ink and the letterhead of Berea College on the other side.  It is a rhyming poem of 7 stanza each composed of 2 rhyming couplets by an unknown author who was most likely an employee of Berea College in the 1950's when it was written.  I will include it at the bottom of this blog post but let me say in advance it if funny and well located at this time in American History because it puts our current political problems in a good perspective and shows us that while the Republican party never had the best intentions in mind for the majority of our citizens they were surely not the absolute criminals in 1952 that they are today.  The man who is the primary topic of this poem was definitely not anywhere near the level of pond scum that TRAITOR Trump is and always has been.  

 

 

Here is the poem in its entirety: 

THE REPUBLICANS

The Republican's seed sprouted and grew, 

In the simple minds of quite a few.

Some are nuts about whom they like

And made up their minds to vote for Ike. 

They've promised a lot and they'll promise more

Let's look and see what they did before.

Twenty years have passed, and yet,

Those Hoover Days I'll  never forget.

When Hoover was in I lived on the farm.

A dollar bill looked as long as my arm.

I never saw a ten dollar bill, 

And, if Ike is elected, I doubt if I will.

When Hoover was in, things were really tight. 

The rabbits were scarce and the fish wouldn't bite.

The men too ragged to go anywhere,

And the women wore flour sack underwear.

Remember me when you cast your vote.

If you vote for Ike, you'll cut your throat.

Would you rather have a life of ease

Or water gravy and black-eyed peas?

Since nineteen hundred and thirty-two

The Republican party has been in a stew.

They've called the Democrats nasty names, 

But the banks stay open just the same.

If Ike is elected, I'll move to the farm.

I'll plant some taters behind the barn; 

I'll steal my neighbor's roasting ears, 

I'll try to get by for four more years.

Author Unknown, Berea College, 1952

While this might not be great poetry, it is above average political doggerel and it points out the very clear differences between the Republican Party of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican Party of TREASON, hatred, criminality, and disgust it has become since 1952.  While Eisenhower was not anywhere near the best, or even one of the best, presidents we ever had, he was a patriot, was a major player in winning World War II and was elected twice.  His most important achievement was beginning what became the interstate highway system which he envisioned while fighting across Europe against Adolf Hitler.  No, Eisenhower was not perfect.  But he was also not perfectly imperfect as TRAITOR Trump proves on a daily basis that he is.  While the country did not prosper as it should have during the administration of Eisenhower, it was never in mortal peril as it has been every day since TRAITOR Trump listened to his Russian master Vladimir Putin and consented to be the TREASONOUS beneficiary of as stolen US election.  While Eisenhower accomplished little in the White House other than the interstate highway system's birth, he never engaged in the kind of crime spree his vice president Richard Nixon did you just a few short years later. Dwight D. Eisenhower was a man of honor, a general of great military achievements, a man who could have been trusted to be in a room alone with a teenage girl.  TRAITOR Trump can not point to any actual achievements other than having become the greatest TRAITOR in the history of the world. America must realize that there is some truth in the little poem above.  But the most valuable thing in that poem is a chance to compare the last decent Republican in America to the worst TRAITOR in the history of the world, TRAITOR Trump.  We must learn from the comparison and we must send that TRAITOR to federal prison for his crimes against America, the American people, and the world.  

America's Ongoing Flirtation And Toleration Of Unfit Presidential Candidates

 

For many years, virtually since the beginning of this country, we have had a long list of totally unfit candidates run for the highest office in the land, guardian of the free world, President of The United States, and this year, heading into the 2024 presidential election cycle is no exception.  In 1856, just prior to the Civil War, when the issues which led to the war were building in the country, Millard Filmore who had ascended to the White House on the death of Zachary Taylor and proved himself to be totally unfit ran on the American Party ticket.  Filmore held office as a member of the Whig Party, their last leader, and then became the candidate of the American Party, known fondly as the Know Nothing Party, perhaps the most appropriately named political party in the history of the world, and pushed their anti-immigration platform.  Thankfully, Filmore lost and it is likely the history of America regarding both slavery and the Civil War turned out in far better hands in the long run.

In 1924, Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin ran on the Progressive Party ticket and garned about 16 percent of the vote in an election which was won by Calvin Coolidge who never amounted to much himself.  We will never know if the country could have been better off and, perhaps, have avoided the Great Depression which resulted because Herbert Hoover and the Republicans won the next election in 1928.  It is likely that, if LaFollette had served two terms, the country might not have been worse off than having Hoover serve one with it's resultant economic collapse, Hoovervilles, Hoover Boxes, and starving citizens all across the country.  

In 1948, South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond running on a segregationist platform received about 2% of the total vote and America chose to retain Harry S. Truman as president after he had finally ended World War II by dropping the atomic bombs on China after succeeding FDR.  There is little doubt that Thurmond was far less qualified than Truman. 

In 1968, Alabama Governor George Wallace took up the segregationist banner after the US Supreme Court forced the racial integration of public schools across the country with the Brown vs. Board of Education case which still today is one of the most important and necessary cases ever heard by the Supreme Court.  

In 2000, it is highly likely that the candidacy of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader diverted enough votes from Vice President Al Gore to allow George Bush to win the White House.  Nader, who might have been very good for the country and its conservation policies had absolutely no foreign policy experience and was a far less qualified candidate than either Gore or Bush.  But his 2.8 million votes, which statistically seem to have come primarily from self-described Democrat voters allowed Bush to benefit from the highly suspect recount in Florida which set up the reprehensible Gore vs. Bush decision by the US Supreme Court which allowed Bush to ascend to the White House.  

In 2008, the Radical Right Wing Repugnican Congressman Ron Paul ran for the White House on a platform which could have set social justice back a hundred years and lost soundly to President Barack Obama who led the country in eight of the most progressive years in the history of the country.  Sadly, today, the poorly qualified son of Ron Paul, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul holds a seat in the US Senate and still espouses many of the asinine idea of his father and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican Party.  

Since that election in 2008, nearly every presidential election has been loaded with Right Wing Radical Repugnican candidates who are grossly unfit to hold any position of public trust at any level including a second successful run by Ron Paul against Mitt Romney who can arguably be said to have been the last sane Republican to run for president.  

The 2016 presidential election was a total disaster for the country due to the fact that the Right Wing Radical Repugnican TRAITOR Donald Trump was able to illegally occupy the White House after being strongly aided by his Russian Owner Vladimir Putin whose computer hackers were able to steal about 80,000 votes total in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan and literally steal a US election.  Today, he is already under indictment for having stolen a treasure trove of classified documents from the US government and is facing much more serious indictments in his unsuccessful insurrection of January 6th 2021, after he soundly lost his second consecutive election against President Joe Biden.  It appears higly likely that he will turn out to have been the worst TRAITOR in the history of the world.  

And, yet, the perpetual flock of unqualified, misled, and often larcenously motivated candidates continues to crop up.  The Right Wing Radical Repugnican Party has a long list of candidate headed toward 2024 who range from the mildly dangerous to absolute lunatics such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.  The only arguably qualifed among their long list of candidates is former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson whose politics is just as far to the right of center as any of the others.  The only good thing that can be said about this list of volatile candidates is that none of them has been indicted for crimes against the US government as their front runner TRAITOR Trump has.  

 

Yet, the Democratic Party is also sporting their own resident lunatic, Robert Kennedy, Jr. who is a rabid anti-vaccine ranter whose own relatives regularly speak out against his ignorance and insanity along with the great majority of Americans.  

Someday,  perhaps, the US will find a way to legally and appropriately prevent lunatics, Russian spies, common criminals, and even TRAITORS from being able to run for the highest office in the land.  Until that day comes, all we can do is vote consistently for the party which has had the lowest number of unqualified candidates in history, the Democratic Party.  But we must also realize that this year and Robert Kennedy, Jr. prove that even the Democratic Party is not immune from having  a resident nut.  

The Moral Degeneration In America

 

Over the last five or so years, we have seen a steady downhill slide in the general public attitudes in America which has steadily drifted toward dishonesty, depravity, criminality, and general disrespect for morality, laws, and honesty in general.  This widespread shift in the moral behavior of large segments of the American population has included a shift in the overall morality of one of the segments of the population which had previously, for four centuries, been considered one of the bedrock institutions in the country.  That segment of the population includes much of the clergy and self-professed Christians in the country who had generally advertised themselves and often been accepted as being in the forefront of the moral arbiters of the country. In one way or another, I have written about this shift in the morals of the country at least since 2016.  I believe I first clearly addressed this shift in my writing on this blog in October of 2016 with this blog post.  From that point on, I have striven diligently to confront this deterioration of the morals of the country and have regularly written about various aspects of that deterioration.  But by beginning to confront the moral degeneration of the country at that date in October of 2016, I began the battle at least 16 months later than I should have.  

We can clearly point to the exact date this moral deterioration began, or at least began to worsen rapidly and which has led us to the point we are at today where we are attempting to recover from a domestic terrorist attack on the very seat of the US government for which many indicators point to the terrorists having been assisted by several members of congress and the capitol police force some of whom are already under arrest and indictment along with the domestic terrorists themselves. That attack was also encouraged, provoked, and incited by TRAITOR Trump in his appearance before the domestic terrorists only minutes before the attack began.  Amazingly, 43 members of the Right Wing Radical Repugnican contingent in the senate voted to allow TRAITOR Trump to escape punishment for another of his crimes in his long standing effort to destroy the country. They are also at the forefront of this moral degeneration in the country. The investigation by the FBI and the US Department of Justice is ongoing and the numbers of indictments and arrests are likely to expand over the next several months.  We are also at a point, and have been for at least five years, where we know that large segments of the clergy and their self-described "Christian" adherents are a part of the degeneration.  The date this deterioration began, or at least began to worsen, can be written in stone as having been June 16, 2015.  That is the date that the worst TRAITOR in American History and an accused Russian intelligence asset rode down an escalator and made the asinine and incredible announcement that he believed he was a fitting candidate to become President of the United States.  Russia managed to steal that election in three states and install their agent in the White House for four of the most criminal and miserable years in American History and that has rapidly accelerated this moral degeneration among the supporters of TRAITOR Trump and his TREASON. 

Since that date which will live infamy, we have seen a consistent chunk of the American electorate holding steady at about 35-40% which is willing to accept larceny, sexual deviance, criminality, TREASON, moral corruption, and a variety of other deviant and abhorrent behaviors as being outside the realm of disqualification for a candidate seeking election to the leadership of the free world.  These people have found it within themselves to accept nearly any crime from anyone who will express public acceptance of their most egregious hatreds and self-expressed desires.  These people generally fall within one of four groups as I described in this blog post on August 5, 2018.  These same people either participated in, encouraged, or were accepting of the January attack on the US Capitol.  They flatly refuse to admit they are ignoring nearly everything in the Holy Bible which they claim to hold dear.  They refuse to read, comprehend, and practice the teachings of Jesus Christ, whom they erroneously claim to worship, in order to actually worship the worst criminal in American History.  These people have watched more than 500,000 of their fellow Americans become innocent victims of a pandemic which their TRAITOROUS leader could have prevented during his Russian supported occupation of the White House if he had taken even the most basic scientific precautions against a new disease which both the scientific and intelligence communities informed him in January 2020 was coming and could destroy the country.  

As a nation, we will suffer from the damage perpetrated by that TRAITOR and his followers for the next fifty years.  With fifty years of solid, honest, committed, patriotic, political leadership, we might be able to undo the damage of these people and the TRAITOR they have chosen to follow in his efforts to destroy America and American Democracy.  These people are in the process of raising at least one more generation of children who are being fed the same lies which their parents have chosen to believe and support.  If those children cannot be rescued from the ignorance of their parents, they will also continue this effort to promote treason, racism, fascism, terrorism, and a multitude of lesser crimes.  The United States is greater danger today than it has been in since Pearl Harbor.  Simply because we have a highly moral and legally, legitimately elected President in office, we cannot rest in our effort to resist the ignorance which brought about the horrible four years from January 20, 2017, until January 20, 2021, which will be remembered as being four of the worst, most destructive years in the history of America.  We must work every day to continue to confront the ignorance, criminality, and TREASON which resulted in those four years until we have literally erased all memory of it from our history.  Most of us who are adults today cannot hope to live long enough to see the end of the damage that has been and will continue to be done to America because of that TRAITOR and his TREASONOUS followers.  

An Interesting Encounter With A Physician!

Caduceus, Photo by Istock

Yesterday, I had an interesting encounter with a physician who is employed as the chairperson of a major department at a major American hospital.  I am not disclosing any personal information about this doctor because I believe they are fully entitled to have and express their informed opinions about any issue in America today just as any other American citizen, without fear of complaints and outcries from the general public.  When I met with this person, I had in my possession my copy of Former National Security Advisor John Bolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened".  The doctor, whom I have known for a little more than two years, saw the book and asked me what I thought about it.  I will more fully express my opinions of the book later in this blog because I still have about 80 pages left to read.  I told my acquaintance exactly what I have said to a few others since I have been reading the book.  I said that I believe that if anyone who had been involved in any of the meetings which John Bolton discusses in the book had also expressed their opinions of any particular incident or meeting in the book they would have their very own opinion and none of those opinions would coincide since the only specific job requirement which had been set for anyone working in the White House since January 20, 2017, has been that job applicant's acceptable level of criminal intent.  The doctor in question responded by saying that they had started the book and quit trying to read it after about 80 pages of the more than 500 page book.  I went on to say that it is my opinion that John Bolton is trying desperately to preserve some positive opinion of himself in the eyes of history which is very unlikely once the entire truth about the last three plus years inside the White House.  But that complete truth will only be achieved if and when we have a legally and duly elected president in the White House.  We were in total agreement that the skills of any particular person working in the White House since January 20, 2017, have been far below those necessary to actually run the government or any portion thereof.  This doctor asked me further to expand on what I thought of the book.  I responded by saying that it is a bit like taking 21 day rabies shots which every person I have ever known who had to suffer through that experience has said is one of the most painful experiences of their lives.  The doctor then went on to say, and I quote, "It is very scary." which was a succinct and very accurate description of the disaster which is being perpetrated inside the White House on a daily basis.  The doctor and I did not make the book, its author, or the criminal syndicate inside the White House the subject of our entire conversation.  We had other things to discuss also which have nothing to do with this blog post.  But as our conversation was ending I did say "if you believe what you said at the start of our conversation, go vote".  I would also say that to each of you.  If you love this country and want to see it ever become what it was before the Russians stole the election in 2016, you must vote! You must vote Straight Democratic!  You must support a full criminal investigation and prosecution of TRAITOR Trump and all his co-conspirators both inside and outside the White House, both inside and outside America, and both inside and outside Russia.

Symbolism In The Death Of Woodstock 50

I was a budding hippie in Knott County Kentucky in August of 1969 when Woodstock took place.  But I did not go to Woodstock and I have wished for fifty years that I had.  I also did not go to the Summer of Love in San Francisco and for fifty years I have also regretted that.  But I did not have any desire to attend Woodstock 50 if it had ever happened in any of the potential sites which were considered for it.  Times have changed since Woodstock.  America has changed.  The world has changed and it has not changed for the better.  Woodstock was a wonderful photo of what America could have become and should have become.  Half a million people spent three days and nights in a muddy field and no one got hurt.  Three people died out of that half million.  There have always been unconfirmed rumors that one baby was born there.  No one fought.  No one was robbed.  No one was raped.  There were no murders in a place where that many people in an average American city, even of that time in 1969, would have had one or two murders.  But Woodstock set the stage for hope of ending an unjust war in Viet Nam, for hope of world peace, for hope that the human race could interact reasonably, peacefully, and sensibly. Woodstock was truly a cultural phenomenon.

In recent weeks, promoters attempted unsuccessfully to stage a Woodstock 50 commemoration of that greatest music festival ever held.  They failed miserably, and after numerous potential sites and performers withdrew, they threw their hands up in defeat.  Woodstock 50 did not happen and I fear greatly that it would have been a frail imitation of the original if it had occurred.  The music of today is barely music and most of the performers who are popular today would have pointed out exactly how much American music and performers have fallen short of performers and their music such as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young; Jimmie Hendrix; Joe Cocker; and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Woodstock 50 obviously would have fallen far short of the half million attendees at the original if it had happened anywhere in America.  I suspect it would have fallen far short of that attendance even if it had been held in a major urban area with free tickets.  

Now let's talk about the  symbolism of that failure.  Woodstock 50 and its failure is a symbol of the failures in America which have resulted in not one, but two, mass murders in the past 24 hours with 19 dead in El Paso and 9 dead in Dayton.  Over the last fifty years, with Woodstock 50 standing as an apt symbol, we have deteriorated into a country where an illegal and TREASONOUS occupant of the White House is allowed to force innocent children to live and die in chain link cages.  We have deteriorated into a country where no crime is horrible enough in our alleged leaders to cause us to feel shock and disgust as a nation, just as Germany did in the 1930's and 1940's.  The United States of America has become the laughingstock of the world because we have not only allowed a TRAITOR to occupy the White House but have also lost the morals sufficient to remove that TRAITOR and hold him responsible for his crimes.  We have seen the sixth largest coal company in America shut down and write bad checks to hundreds of men and women all over the Appalachian coalfields and we have not seen any great public outrage.  We have tolerated more than one mass murder a day in 2019 without doing a damn thing to stop it by passing rational gun control legislation to stop  it.   

Woodstock 50 and its failure to get off the ground is an apt symbol for many of the ongoing failures in and of America today.  Please don't let it become the last or lasting symbol of this great country.  Help me fight to bring America back to sanity.  Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out! 

An Independence Day Declaration

As we approach July 4, 2019, the United States of America is in the worst constitutional crisis since April 8, 1865, the day the Civil War officially ended.  US democracy is in greater danger today than it has been at any time since then and perhaps since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.  For more than two years, the White House has been occupied by a nameless TRAITOR, Russian Agent, self-confessed sex offender, draft dodger, tax cheat, pathological liar and career criminal who conspired with Vladimir Putin and Russia to steal an American election.  Despite overwhelming evidence of the collusion and further even better documented efforts to derail and obstruct the evidence into his crimes, this criminal still resides in the White House, still acts in his charade as the official leader of the greatest democracy in the world, and still works daily to destroy America, American Democracy, and the entire free world.  Despite the public outcry from numerous elected officials and authors who have called out the nature of his crimes against our country, a major section of the populace still swagger along with him in support of his TREASON. The US military has been forced to transport US Army tanks to Washington for their use in an event for the first time since the end of World War II at a time when the country is being held hostage by a would be dictator who has never been legally elected to any position and has openly sided with numerous dictators including his Russian Owner Vladimir Putin, the murderous Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Kim Jung Un of North Korea, and President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines who has openly murdered citizens in his country.  This TRAITOR is running actual concentration camps along the US border with Mexico, holding children in cages, and has recently openly defied the US Constitution's mandate for a ten year census.  I repeat, the US is in the greatest constitutional crisis it has been in since 1865.  This TRAITOR must be indicted, convicted, impeached, and imprisoned where he should have been fifty or more years ago.  

Over the past three years on this blog I have written about the well documented, factually researched, and legitimate works of numerous authors in their efforts, like mine, to bring this country to its senses and put an end to the illegitimate occupation of the White House.  On October 28, 2016, I wrote about the incredibly dangerous cult of personality which had been built around this TRAITOR.   On November 24, 2016, I wrote about how little this country had to be thankful for after the TREASONOUS result of the election on November 8, 2016.  On December 12, 2016, I wrote about the comparisons between the disastrous results of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the outcome of the 2016 stolen election.  On December 18, 2016, as the US Electoral College carried out their disastrous certification of the November election I wrote about the fact that the CIA had already stated they had sufficient evidence to prove that Russian hackers had managed to alter results in the November election.  On December 21, 2016, I wrote about a family dinner with my wife and several of my cousins at which my cousin, more like a brother, Jack D. Terry, had given every attendee at that dinner a copy of the US Constitution because his concerns about this TRAITOR were then and continue to be just as great as mine.  I add the information at this time that Jack D. Terry is a retired US Army non-commissioned officer who also retired from the US Army Corps of Engineers.  His patriotism cannot be questioned since he was in Viet Nam at 19 and in Mosul, Iraq at 59.  

On January 7, 2017, I created my first version of a list of books I had read or planned to read and have since actually read those and numerous more which constitute my Reading List For The Resistance.  I implore all of the readers of this blog post to begin by simply choosing one of those books to read.  When you find a single truth in them, and you should find major terrifying truths in each of them, then move on to read others and educate yourself about the crimes which have been committed by this TRAITOR against the United States of America and the entire free world.  On January 20, 2017, I wrote about that day as one of the darkest and blackest in the history of this country and it has proven already to have been just that. The likelihood that it will prove to have been even blacker is just as great as was the likelihood that  the US Civil War could have destroyed the country.  On January 31, 2017,  I wrote about my mourning for the country as it became more apparent what a menagerie of criminals and Russian connected co-conspirators were being assembled in the White House under the putative leadership of this TRAITOR.  

On February 4, 2017, I wrote a review of George Orwell's "Animal Farm", one of the books on my Reading List For The Resistance.  I still implore all of you readers today that if you have never read this book, read it now and pay close attention to the writing about the damage a totalitarian dictatorship can do to a community.  I will also suggest that you read everything that George Orwell wrote in his highly productive life.  On February 17, 2017, I reviewed a book I had just read entitled

"A Nation Defiant Polish Resistance To The German Occupation Of Poland" by Richard S. Fuegner.  This book became the first of several works I have read about European Resistance efforts in World War II against the totalitarian regimes of Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini since I believe that the only thing which can save the United States from an even worse slide into totalitarian Right Wing Radical political polarization will be the firm, unyielding resistance of the rational portion of our populace.  I would also like to suggest to my readers that you actively study the entire European Resistance during World War II, the overall history of World War II, and the honest biographies of Benito Mussolini, Adolph Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Vladimir Putin.  You will also find inspiration to continue fighting for America in the best biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.  

In March of 2017, we saw the beginning of the TRAITOR's open attacks on a Free Press which still continue today.  On March 1, 2017, I wrote a blog post entitled "Unconstitutional Attacks On A Free Press" which I began with the following quotation from a man named Owen Lattimore in his testimony before the McCarthy Committee during their equally dangerous attacks against the United States in the 1950's which were created, directed, and inflamed by US Senator Joseph McCarthy a man who was very similar to our current TRAITOR in his personality, willingness to destroy America and American Democracy, and his mental instability.  

"...the sure way to destroy freedom of speech and the free expression of ideas and views is to attach to that freedom the penalty of abuse and vilification...It is only from a diversity of views freely expressed and strongly advocated that sound policy is distilled. He who contributes to the destruction of this process is either a fool or an enemy of his country." Owen Lattimore in Senate testimony before the McCarthy Committee in 1950.

On nearly a daily basis since I wrote that blog post on March 1, 2017, we have seen the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House attack the constitutionally guaranteed Free Press in America.  He is every bit as dangerous to this country and every bit as focused in his attacks on it as Joseph McCarthy was in 1950, as Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini were from 1938 to 1945, and as Vladimir Putin is today.  Also on March 1, 2017, I reviewed "1984" by George Orwell, the second of his books which I have read and reviewed as a part of my Reading List For The Resistance.  Just as he did in "Animal Farm", Orwell writes about the extreme dangers of totalitarian governments.  But in "1984", he writes about a fictional government run  by humans as opposed to the porcine run government he created in "Animal Farm".  

On May 2, 2017, I wrote a post about the term "Fellow Travelers" which Joseph McCarthy had used to denigrate, belittle, and damage the credibility of his innocent targets in the 1950's.  However, I now use that term to describe the current TREASONOUS and illegitimate occupant of the White House and those who believe his extremist and totalitarian rants.  They are "Fellow Travelers" of Vladimir Putin and his Russian oligarchy as it is assisted by this American TRAITOR. 

On June 25, 2017, I used a quotation from an old country doctor I knew in my childhood, Dr. Mark Dempsey, to defend universal health care in America as it was being disastrously attacked by this Russian Owned TRAITOR.  To quote Dr. Dempsey once again, "(a)ll people should have free health care" and "(e)very man, regardless of who he is, should be trained to do skilled work".  I said then and I say now that those are two of the most brilliant statements I have heard come out of the mouth of a human.  All taxpayers, in the long run, pay for all health care for all persons in a democracy and preventive health care if far cheaper than emergency medicine for chronic conditions which always develop in people who do not receive regular preventive medicine.  The state of Tennessee is now paying for two years of free post-secondary education for every eligible citizen of Tennessee which should long ago have become a federal mandate.  The current TREASONOUS and illegitimate occupant of the White House fights daily to destroy both health care and education in America which is just one portion of the total plan to destroy American Democracy which he carries out for his Russian Owner Vladimir Putin.  

On Independence Day 2017, I wrote just as I am today, two years later, in defense of America, American Democracy, and all the rational aspects of our country as it suffers this attack from a TREASONOUS gang of Russian Owned criminals.  Sadly, very little in America today, two years later, is any better than it was on Independence Day of 2017 and many things are far worse.  On July 4, 2017, I returned to my discussion of the crimes of Senator Joseph McCarthy against America and American Democracy and their comparisons to the crimes of the current American TRAITOR as I reviewed a book by a man named Lately Thomas called "When Even Angels Wept A Story Without A Hero".  In today's times, we are possibly somewhat better off than we were during the crimes of Joseph McCarthy since we do have a few heroes in America who are fighting to save the country, the US Constitution, and our Democracy in general.  Thank God, we have Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings, and others who support their efforts in the US congress to hold this TRAITOR responsible for his crimes against America, American Democracy, and the entire free world. They deserve the support of every American until their work is done and this criminal sits for the rest of his life in a federal prison cell.  On Saturday, July 8, 2017, I wrote about my experiences with a large private medical practice in Lexington, Kentucky, where I had been a patient with a practitioner for several years.  My first doctor had left the practice and I chose to attempt to work with a second provider who, in his first encounter with me, had spoken out against the Affordable Care Act.  I called him on the error of his ways, stopped going to that practice and they had called me to try to get me to return.  I told the employee who called me why I left the practice and that I would never return to such a practice again.  In the blog post I wrote about it, I called, as I often do, for my readers to to Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out against the wrong in America.  I do the same with all of you once again today and I will continue to do so as long as my fingers and brain can work to write, so long as my tongue works, and so long as these crimes against are still being committed and breath still flows through my body.  So should each of you!   On July 16, 2017, I wrote a little blog post about "Sins I Will Never Need To Confess" involving speaking up and speaking out against this TRAITOR and his co-conspirators as well as their crimes.  Once again I can tell you that I will never have to confess the sin of having failed to stand up against these criminals and their crimes.  Neither should you!  If you have been diligent in your efforts to defend America against these TRAITOR, I commend you!  If you have had a few failures to do so, I urge you to make a personal commitment to never allow that to happen again.  Choose to make the day you read this blog post the day you made that personal commitment to America, yourself, your creator, and your family that you will never again fail to fight these criminals and that this day can be your day to say "Not since July 4, 2019, have I ever had to confess the sin of silence or failure to support my country and its precious Democracy."  On July 29, 2017, I wrote about having attended a rally in support of health care at a place called Coal Run Village, Kentucky.  On that day and many others I have taken direct, public action in support of America and American Democracy.  I hope you have also and I implore you to do so at the next and ever other opportunity you have to do so.  

On November 22, 2017, I wrote about "Another Thanksgiving With Little To Be Thankful For".  Sadly, we have seen many national holidays come and go in this country since this terrible constitutional crisis began where we have had little or nothing to be thankful for.  Let's all make personal commitments to do everything in our power to make this July 4, 2019, the last national holiday on which we will allow this TRAITOR, his Russian Owners, and their many co-conspirators to hold our country hostage and commit their crimes against both it and us.  One week later, on November 29, 2017, I wrote a post about "Always Confronting Political Ignorance" and I am proud to say that failing to do so is a sin which I have rarely had to confess in my entire life.  I sincerely don't believe that I have to confess it at all since November 8, 2016, and I assure you I will not have to ever do so again.  I will always Stand Up, Speak Up, Speak Out, and defend our country and our democracy just as I urge each of you to do.  

On December 27, 2017, I wrote another of those sad and sadly recurrent annual posts about how little we have to celebrate and how much we have to mourn and decry in America since November 8, 2016.  I sincerely hope that this is the last of these terrible and terribly disheartening blog posts I have to write about the ongoing destruction of our country, our morals as a nation, and our democracy in general.  One day later, on December 28, 2017,  I wrote a blog post about the fact that no Republican candidate for public office should ever be allowed to run unopposed and I believe that even more strongly today.  Any Republican, or any Democrat for that matter, who is running for a public office even as low as constable or magistrate who cannot publicly call for the indictment, conviction, impeachment, and imprisonment of the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House is unfit for any position of public trust.  When I meet candidates who are calling for my vote, I tell them this to their face and I am not subtle or timid about it.  They need to know the truth.  They need to be told that if they are not fighting for this country they are, by default, fighting against it.  

On January 2, 2018, I wrote a post about the Second Amendment As It Is Written in response to gun legislation both already passed and pending, at that time, in my own state of Kentucky and in the nation as a whole.  The Second Amendment does not, never has, and should never call for the free and unfettered access to guns especially in light of the violent trend in our national temperament which is another byproduct of the Radical Right and this TRAITOR who supports hate groups, extremist ideologies, and never decries their mass murders, racism or assaults against the US Constitution and human decency.  Until guns are "well regulated" as the Second Amendment calls for, acts of unfettered violence and mass murder will continue in this country.  

On February 7, 2018, I reviewed one of the most important books to be written and published in America since November 8, 2016.  The book is called "The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump" and was edited by Bandy Lee, M. D. and written by 27 of the most experienced and most respected psychiatrists in America.  The book makes a clear cut, well researched,  and well justified diagnosis of the current TREASONOUS occupant of the White House as one of the most dangerous humans on earth.  It should be a must read for every citizen of America.  On February 28, 2018, I reviewed a book called "Collusion Secret Meetings Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win" by Luke Harding which is another of those books on my Reading List For The Resistance.  It is an excellent book and does a better than average job of detailing, explaining, and proving the connections that were known up to the time of its publication about the illegal and TREASONOUS contacts between the current TRAITOR who occupies the White House, his many criminal co-conspirators, and Vladimir Putin and various other known career intelligence agents within the Russian government.  It is a book, like all those on the Reading List For the Resistance which every American should read before voting again. 

On May 27, 2018, I wrote a somewhat humorous post called "Republicans And Brown Headed Cowbirds" about the common qualities of the two groups.  Both are parasitic in their lifestyles.  Both destroy much of the productive life around them.  Both need to be prevented from persisting as forces working against the rest of the world.  Read it!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  On May 29, 2018, I reviewed the book  "A Higher Loyalty Truth, Lies, And Leadership" by former FBI Director James Comey.  Like all the other books my Reading List For The Resistance, it should be read by every American.  And to dispel the most prevalent myth about this excellent book, it is much more about James Comey and his commitment to America and American Democracy than about any other human on earth.  But it does do an excellent job of explaining his criminal firing by the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House.  On May 30, 2018, I reviewed the wonderful but horribly dark book "Black Earth The Holocaust As History And Warning" by Timothy Snyder which is one of the most important books on my Reading List For The Resistance.  For those of you who still cling to the erroneous and tragic belief that the Holocaust could not be repeated and is not likely to be repeated in today's world, this book will dispel that thought and does an incredible job of explaining the details of the Holocaust, its consequences, and the likelihood that it could happen again especially if we continue to allow a TRAITOR who is owned by Vladimir Putin and Russia to continue to illegally and illegitimately occupy the White House.  

On June 1, 2018, I wrote a blog post about having found several copies of hate literature books in a Little Free Library in my hometown of West Liberty, Kentucky.  I can tell you that I removed those books from that public book exchange in order to prevent their hate-filled diatribes from being spread to any more innocent and gullible minds.  They are still in my possession and I will probably read them someday in order to know better the enemies of our country and our democracy.  I took an easy, simple, but not simplistic action for the greater good of the community.  It would have been just as easy, maybe easier, to leave them there for any unsuspecting, poorly educated, and gullible mind to find them and be damaged by them.  As a rule, I do not support censorship and frequently find it hard to justify it by any means.  But hate ideologies, hate literature, and hate crimes have spread all across this country since November 8, 2016, it they must be stopped.  On June 24, 2018, I wrote a blog post about "Some Immigrants I Have Known" in a small attempt to help dispel the myths which are circulating freely in our country that somehow immigrants are dangerous, bad, destructive, or out of sync with our goals as a nation.  I assure you that any immigrant is worth more to this country than the current TREASONOUS occupant of the White House.  The great majority of them will actually work for the common good and pay taxes which he cannot prove he has ever done. 

On August 31, 2018, I wrote a blog post titled "The Fascism Of Donald Trump" and I stand by ever word in it to this day.  The current TRAITOR who occupies the White House is a Fascist.  His support of the rioters and murder at Charlottesville, Virginia, his failure to speak out against white Fascist acts of terror in other parts of America, his crude mimicry of a disabled reporter, and many other statements he has made publicly leave no doubt that he is a Fascist.  I must also state that I cringed when I typed his name in the title of this blog post and I have attempted stringently to avoid actually naming him in this blog post since I firmly believe that above and beyond the aching necessity for this country to indict, convict, impeach, and imprison him for his TREASON and multitudinous other crimes we must also work for all future time to remove his name, his face, his actions, and every mention of him from the public records.  He should be just as nameless as any other terrorist, TRAITOR, sex offender, career criminal, draft dodger, tax cheat, pathological liar, and deplorable in the world.   

On September 17, 2018, I reviewed the book "Facts And Fears Hard Truths From A Life In Intelligence" by James Clapper who was also criminally fired by the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House.  This is also a book which every American should read and, like James Comey's book, it is also much more about the life of a career public servant than about any interactions he might have had with the worst TRAITOR in history.  This book is a key component of my Reading List For The Resistance and I urge all of you to read it just as I do every other book on that ever growing list.  I have to admit that I am overdue to do another update on the Reading List For The Resistance.  I must add several books to it, some of which I have still not read myself.  And with that said, I also insist that each of us should work diligently to expand our reading of resistance history and literature until this current blight on our country can be imprisoned where he should have been fifty years ago before his crime spree had been able to do the widespread and tragic damage which it has.  

On October 10, 2018, I wrote a blog post about The Deepening US Constitutional Crisis which was prompted by an e-mail exchange with a distant cousin with whom I had been reunited in the recent past.   I had put her name on a mass e-mail about the crisis and she responded by asking me to remove her name from any future political messages.  I responded by agreeing, naturally, to remove her name from such messages and went on to tell her that I would never stop Standing Up, Speaking Up, and Speaking Out against the criminals and TRAITORS in our country.  I also sent her a list of about 15 books which are on the Reading List For The Resistance and urged her to read them.  I doubt that she ever has.  We have conversed some since then but I do not recall that I have ever received an unsolicited or unprompted message from her.  That is a minor tragedy in America.  It is always a minor tragedy in America when any person of reasonable intelligence refuses to speak out against attempted tyranny and an open attack on democracy.  What made it even more tragic is that, as a part time avocation, she writes for the local weekly newspaper in the county in which we grew up.  She is in a position to affect public opinion instead of writing and publishing little stories about family and high school reunions, deaths of unknown people, and the big turnip somebody grew in their garden when she could be speaking out against the crimes against conscience, liberty, democracy, and the country at large which are being perpetrated on a daily basis.  Do no allow yourself to become such a person.  Study the facts!  Learn the truth!  Speak out about your findings in these efforts especially when they are important to the larger community whether that community is your neighborhood or the entire nation.   On October 15, 2018, I updated my Reading List For The Resistance primarily as a response to the exchange with my spineless cousin.  The link above is actually the one you should use to that reading list since it contains a few books I had not listed on the first version.  I make you a solemn promise that sometime in the not too distant future I will do a third version of the Reading List For The Resistance and post it as a new blog post so that, perhaps, a few people will visit it who have never done so.  In fact, I will mention a new book, to me at least, which I just completed today, "Reading Lolita In Tehran" by Azar Nafisi, which spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List in 2003 to 2006 or thereabouts.  I had never read it and find the comparisons between the actions the mullahs of Iran were taking in the late 1990's and the actions of the self-described "Christians" of America today are amazing, stunning, and totally in line with statements I had made to people privately over the last few years.  In order for American "Christians" to support the current TREASONOUS and illegal occupant of the White House and to stand by without protesting the ongoing attacks on the rights of women, children, and immigrants including placing children in cages, these self-described "Christians" must go through all the same mental steps and decisions that the mullahs of Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan had to go through in order to murder hundreds of thousands of their neighbors.  I will review Azar Nafisi's book tomorrow, July 4, 2019, hopefully, and you should read it and consider it to be an addition to the Reading List For The Resistance.  On October 16, 2018, I posted an article about a trip my wife and I took to a political rally in support of Retired Col. Amy McGrath in her effort to go to congress from Kentucky.  The title of that post was "A Day In Kentucky Politics" and is important to this discussion primarily because my wife and I took political action by attending this rally outside our own congressional district for a candidate we could not vote for.  But we could sure as hell support her.  You should take such actions for the good of the greater community every time the opportunity arises and you can afford the time and gasoline.  On October 27, 2018, I reviewed the book "The Restless Wave" by John McCain and Mark Salter which I added to the Reading List For The Resistance immediately after reading it.  I say here, as I said in the blog post, this book was the most pleasant surprise I have found in a book in quite some time.  You should read it, learn from it, and tell everyone you know about it.  It made me proud of John McCain in a way I had never been before.  On October 31, 2018, I reviewed the book "Trump/Russia" by Seth Hettena which is another of the half dozen excellent, well researched books which have been published over the last few years which document and prove the extensive links between Vladimir Putin, Russia, and the current TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House.  The only other thing I will say about this book is to insert this quotation from page 104 of the book which reports an e-mail between Felix Sater, a man with extensive connections within the Russian oligarchy, and Michael Cohen, the currently imprisoned and self-confessed fixer for the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House.  Here is that quotation: 

"Michael I arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putin's private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin.  I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected.  We both know no one else knows how to pull this off without stupidity or greed getting in the way.  I know how to play it and we will get this done.  Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer.  I will get all of Putin's team to buy in on this." Hettena, p. 104.

On November 8, 2018, the two year anniversary of the stolen US election, I wrote a blog post about Birthright Citizenship in response to ranting and raving originating from the current TREASONOUS and illegal occupant of the White House.   Such a blatant attempt to subvert the US Constitution should clearly show any rational person that this TRAITOR wants to destroy the US Constitution.  Sadly, it often has not and the danger to the country on many fronts has increased on a daily basis since November 8, 2016.  A week later for some unknown reason I wrote a mildly optimistic Thanksgiving post called "A Moderately Thankful Thanksgiving".  I must have been out of my mind.  We had just managed to install an incoming Democratic majority in the House of Representatives but the same TRAITOR was living illegally in the White House.  Mitch McConnell and a majority of his co-conspirators were still in control of the US Senate.  I should not have been nearly that hopeful and the installation of two Radial Right Wing justices to the US Supreme Court should prove that to anybody.

On December 7, 2018, I reviewed the excellent book "Fascism A Warning" by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.  Today I still use a quotation from that book on my e-mail signature which states: "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. This is a key book in the recently published books on the Reading List For The Resistance.  It is a highly important, well reasoned book by a person who had extensive experience both as a professor of history and politics and as a US Secretary Of State.  It presents a chilling picture of the world today in light of how Fascist and inhumane ideologies have spread like a bad case of crotch rot all over America and the world.  

On April 26, 2019, I reviewed the book "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury which represented a return to my discussions of dystopian literature and totalitarian governments.  The book is a classic in the fields of politics, philosophy, and science fiction.  It is far more than a science fiction book.  It is a vivid warning sign to the world that allowing a TRAITOR and Fascist to illegally occupy the highest office in the land can destroy a country, any country, this country.  Read it!  Learn from it!  Do not ignore it simply because it is often labeled science fiction.   It is a key component of the Reading List For The Resistance.  

On June 24, 2019, I wrote a blog post about the Anti-Vaccine Movement In Appalachia which some of you might tend to ignore because it can be labeled as being about Appalachia not the nation, about medicine not politics, or about religion not government.  All those reasons are illegitimate one for ignoring the danger presented by the Anti-Vaccine Movement and its origins in and connections to the Radical Right and the incredibly dangerous shift toward the right in American politics.  Thankfully, the New York state legislature took decisive action by passing a law removing the religious exemption for refusing to vaccinate children.  These people are quite often also supporters of the entire gamut of Right Wing Radical causes which are based on  fallacies, fake news, and absolute lies being originated in the greater politically oriented groups who want to help the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House in his effort to destroy the country for his owners in Russia.  

I realize this has been a lengthy post.  I hope at least a few of you have read it to the end and that you will go back to the links and, at least, read the blog posts which you have not done so before.  The United States is in the throes of the worst constitutional crisis since the end of the Civil War and it can destroy this country, this democracy, and all our American Dreams.  Do not allow it do so to you, your families, children, parents, grandparents, and loved ones.   

 

The Second Amendment As It Is Written

On January 3, 2013, I wrote and published a post entitled One Appalachian Man's Opinion Of Gun Control which since that time has consistently been one of my most read and most commented upon posts on this blog.  Naturally, there have only been two opinions expressed about that blog post, either I am a genius or I am an idiot who wants to forever damage the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution and have the government take away every gun everybody in America owns.  Since that post was written, the four worst mass shootings in American history have taken place.  The post was actually written in response to the Newtown School Shooting on December 14, 2012, which killed 28 people if we include the shooter and his mother. It is only natural to include all the dead after a mass shooting.  But we still do not  have a consistently used and solidly defined understanding of what constitutes a mass shooting.  The verbiage varies from at least three victims shot but not necessarily killed to three or four dead shooting victims.  Since many murder suicides involve spouses or life partners and are generally limited to two dead, most murder suicides do not fall into anyone's commonly used definition of a mass shooting unless they involve several other victims besides the shooter such as children or other relatives.  Another truly bizarre quirk in our examinations of mass shootings and other forms of mass murder such as bombings, arson, and vehicular homicide is that the media and police almost never use the words "terror", "terrorism", or "act of terror" unless the event is perpetrated by a non-white, non-citizen, non-Christian who has expressed some belief in some form of government or religion which is not prevalent in American society.  It is my considered professional opinion, both as a writer and a retired mental health professional, that all mass murders are acts of terror.  No one with good sense would ever approach a survivor of such an act or a relative of one of the victims and argue the point that an event which killed four or more victims was not an act of terror.  All murders, all attacks of any form which kill or seriously injure multiple victims are terrorizing to the victims, witnesses, other intended victims, survivors, first responders, and family members of those murdered or injured.  As a society we need to broaden our definitions of terrorism and acts of terror.  If Porky Pig became enraged due to rabies or having eaten poisonous food and marched into his local mall and killed, maimed, or otherwise injured a dozen people we should and probably would call it an act of terror because Porky Pig is not like the rest of us or his human victims.  But if a Right Wing Religious lunatic who is Caucasian, a self professed "Christian", and an auxiliary deputy  in his local sheriff's department lost his mind and shot and murdered his wife and three children, it is highly unlikely that any form or media or any police spokesperson would call that an act of terror. That is a serious flaw in our reporting, policing, and analytical perspectives.  We must recognize that terror and terrorism do not need to be committed by a Muslim, an African American, an immigrant, or a Rastafarian in order to be terrorism.  Any murder, whether by gunfire, bombing, automobile, stabbing, or poisoning terrorizes both the victim and her family and friends as well as any witnesses to the act.  

I regularly refer to the website Gun Violence Archive when I am seeking information about gun violence, mass murder, or murder statistics in America.  They are the best, most impartial, and most accurate website in the nation in the field of gun violence statistics.  As I am writing this blog post on January 2, 2018, there have already been 138 gun violence incidents with 50 deaths and 83 injuries in less than two days in America.  If you do not believe or understand it, that is far too many incidents, deaths and injuries in what is supposed to be the most civilized country in the world.  In Australia, the country most people commonly think of as being a great deal like America, there have been no mass shootings since a wide ranging change in their laws following the worst mass shooting in the country in 1996 which killed 35 people and wounded 23 more.  Strong gun laws worked in Australia.  They will work in the United States and the 2nd Amendment gives the judicial and legislative branches of government full power to regulate guns and their ownership and usage in America.  

There is something deeply flawed morally, ethically, legally, and religiously in any country which will not take appropriate actions to prevent the murder of 15,000 people and the unnecessary maiming of 30,000 others a year.  The language of the 2nd Amendment is this:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

The National Rifle Association has managed, by spending hundreds of millions of advertising dollars and buying the support of thousands of elected officials, to perpetrate the mistaken belief that the government does not have the right to regulate gun  ownership.  The US Constitution is a living document and the US Supreme Court has the right to interpret that document to fit the needs of a changing world.  The phrase "well regulated militia" gives the courts and legislatures full rights to regulate all guns, gun ownership and use, and all auxiliary paraphernalia related to their use.  Both guns and automobiles can be and are used to commit murder, mayhem, and mass injuries and death all across America.  We regulate automobiles and their use from sea to shining sea and we regularly change the laws to meet the needs of the country as is taking place at this time in response to self-driving automobiles. Every state in the union requires registration, insurance, and a drivers license to own and operate a motor vehicle.  But anytime any courageous legislator or judge steps to the plate and makes an honest attempt to regulate guns a public outcry occurs and the National Rifle Association and its well trained members scream, yell, lobby, and threaten to riot in order to prevent life saving progress.  As a nation, we need to re-educate our populace and our legislators to the need for comprehensive federal gun control legislation.  We need to replace any elected official who will not support that effort.  We need to fund organizations which are fighting to improve gun control legislation and we need to lobby both individually and collectively until that legislation is enacted.  

I propose the following changes to US gun control laws and I propose that they be enacted immediately.  However, I am not naive enough to believe this can happen today, tomorrow, or even this year.  But it must happen step by step. 

1. All guns must be required to be registered.
2. All transfers in gun ownership must require a background check conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and that should include transfers of ownership within families in cases of estate management and gifting.  
3. Those background checks must include all sales at gun shows.  The gun show loophole must be eliminated.
4. All gun ownership should require the owner to complete and pass a basic gun safety course with testing as a requirement to pass the course. 
5. Gun ownership by convicted felons, the mentally ill, and those convicted of any crime of violence should be illegal.
6. All fully automatic guns should be illegal in the country except for use and ownership by legally constituted police agencies functioning as an arm of a federal, state, city, or county government.   
7. All appurtenances such as bump stocks and modified firing mechanisms which can be used to make a gun fully automatic should be illegal. 
8. All parts required to compose a working gun capable of firing, sometimes known as ghost guns, should be illegal for sale unless they carry a registered serial number and require the same permits, clearances and record keeping as complete guns.   
9. The creation of all firearms or any other mechanism capable of firing a bullet or missile of any kind via the use of printers should be illegal with a minimum prison sentence upon conviction.
10. No magazines holding more than five rounds should be legal.  
11. Armor piercing or "cop killer" ammunition must be illegal. 
12. Ownership of all forms of military weapons such as grenade launchers, flame throwers, and rocket launchers should be illegal.
13. All guns seized in the commission of a crime should be impounded by the police and courts and held until the complete legal process in the case has been completed up to and including the expiration of appeals timelines.  Upon conviction and expiration of the appeals process, all weapons used in the commission of a crime should be required to be destroyed the state police in the state in question. 

     I realize most of the ideas expressed in this essay are not going to be well received by supporters of unrestricted gun ownership.  That is fine with me.  We, as a nation, must become willing to listen to the uproar until such time as education and legislation have eliminated the need for these actions.