A Few Basic Truths About The 2024 US Election!

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

7) God Help Us All! 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fantasies Of A Trump Cult Member!

 

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

I go everywhere in my Maga hat.

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

He must have had a whole car load.

He had them Trump flags four feet long,

Almost as big as Arnold Palmer's dong.

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

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

I stood and looked at them big flags, 

Wished I had enough nerve to rob some fags.  

When all them wetbacks get shipped out, 

I'm gonna stand up and shout

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

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

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

He's going to love me in the end.

I'll go vote ten or twelve times.

I'll spend election day standing in line.  

When Trump wins this election for the third time, 

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

He's my hero.  He's my friend.

He'll put all things right in the end.

I had a dream the other night.

We were all in a great big fight.

I was the first through the Capitol door.

I was the first to shit in the floor.

I was the one to kidnap Pence.

I helped push him into an electric fence.

He lit up like the Fourth of July.

I saw sparks come out of his eye.  

Then we got all the Democrats, 

Even Jamie Raskin wearing his spats.  

Then we marched across town in our Maga hats, 

Dancing, and smiling, and killing all cats.

It really wasn't the fault of the cats

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

When I woke up I was so sad

Because in the dream I never had

Met my hero Trump, my dear God Dad

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

Playing golf together off really short tees,

On greens as smooth as Trump's bald head

Hid by the wig he keeps under his bed.

In my dream, the last thing he said

Was please buy my Bibles, shoes, and stuff,

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

Cause I need your money for women and stuff.

Then he left in a great big huff.

And I was crying when I woke up

And felt just like a little whipped pup.

I'll have a better dream tomorrow

Cause Trump is going to fix all my sorrow.

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

He'll give me a brand new start.

He'll take me south to his big house.

He'll help me find a whole new spouse.

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

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

Everything I need, I will receive. 

Because in Trump I do believe.   

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Diving Bell And The Butterfly" by Jean-Dominique Bauby

 

My wife Candice and I just finished reading this fine little book by Jean-Dominique Bauby in the manner in which we have been reading books regularly for several years now.  While Candice washes our breakfast dishes, I read aloud from whatever book we are reading at the time.  When she finishes washing the dishes, I stop reading and rinse them.  I put them away later.  We alternate who chooses the next book we read, and this one was her choice.  Our previous book which I chose was "Band Of Angels", a novel by Robert Penn Warren which I wrote about at this link.  For us, this book is personal.  Bauby was the editor of "Elle", the French fashion magazine, when he suddenly, and apparently without any warning, suffered a severe stroke in his early forties which left him with "Locked In Syndrome".  Locked In Syndrome is a condition due to a stroke or other form of brain damage which leaves the patient completely paralyzed, unable to move or speak, and without any realistic hope of recovery.  Usually, the patients mind is working perfectly well inside a completely dysfunctional body.  Sometimes, as in Bauby's case, the patient is able to blink one or both eyes which is utilized to facilitate a form of communication.  Bauby, his friends, family, and providers were trained to use an alphabet system with the letters of the alphabet arranged in order according to their frequency of use in French, his native language.  The person communicating with such a patient is required to read the letters one at a time, wait until the patient blinks in response to a letter, write that letter down, and repeat the process until a word is spelled.  Then a sentence, and thus a conversation.  Bauby and a young female employee of his publisher utilized the system for him to write this book which is, understandably, only 132 short pages of about 175 words each for a total of approximately 23,000 words. Admittedly, that is a small word total for most adult non-fiction books.  But for a book which was produced using the method described above, it is a phenomenal piece of work for both Bauby and his publisher's employee.  

 

For my wife and I, the book is a personal matter for two reasons: 1) my wife has been in a wheelchair for about 26 years, and in a power chair for about 5 years due to a rare genetic disorder; 2) when I was an undergraduate at Morehead State University, I had a professor whose husband, a retired psychiatrist, suffered a massive stroke which left him with "Locked In Syndrome".  On one occasion, my former professor told me the story of her husband's stroke and eventual death.  They utilized some such system of eye blinking to discuss his condition, absolutely devastating prognosis, and their possible options in the matter.  Admittedly, they were a couple who were unusually prepared by their professional lives to deal with such an issue in their private lives.  Her husband was a retired medical doctor and psychiatrist who had run a large state operated mental health treatment system.  His wife was a doctoral level professor of social work who had also worked in mental health setting in the past.  But, as she told me the story, it was obvious that she was still totally devastated by the decision they had reached in his case.  They had discussed their problem and their options, as I described above, and her husband chose to be disconnected from life support and to die rather than to linger for whatever time the health care system could have kept him alive.  Admittedly, my wife and I have a very unique perspective from which to assess Bauby's incredible little book.  

 

The book is written in very short chapters, very little pages, and is an incredible read both for its brevity and its breadth in how much information it contains.  Bauby says little until almost the end of the book about the actual event of his stroke.  It moves from short segments about his life in a state government operated system for very difficult neurological cases in France to segments about his life before his stroke to other segments about how he spends his time when he is alone in his hospital bed.  He discusses his creation of fantasies about what had previously been his goals and dreams, his life with his young children and wife, and his professional life as the editor of a major French fashion magazine.  This is a book which a good reader can finish in a single sitting.  But it is also a book which can require some time between sittings for the reader to absorb and process the information it contains.  This is an incredible book and well worth reading by every reader  

Have You Ever Called Vladimr Putin? I Never Have!

 

 As pre-release copies of Bob Woodward's new book "War" were sent out in advance of its October 15, 2024, release date, nearly every legitimate, ethical news agency in the  nation began to report on some of the most important revelations the book contains.  Most of those news stories were similar to the one which PBS ran on October 8, 2024, one week before the book's release.  I quote from that story below: 

"Donald Trump has had as many as seven private phone calls with Vladimir Putin since leaving office and secretly sent the Russian president COVID-19 test machines during the height of the pandemic, Bob Woodward reported in his new book “War.”"  (PBS via AP, October 8, 2024.  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-had-as-many-as-7-private-calls-with-putin-since-leaving-office-bob-woodward-writes-in-new-book )

I received my copy of the book on October 19, 2024, and have not read the entire book yet.  I am currently snowed under with a pile of new books on my "To Be Read" shelf, and was forced to simply use the index to check all the book's references to both TRAITOR Trump and Putin, the man who has owned him for forty years.  The book is stunning in what it says about TRAITOR Trump and his deep connections and indebtedness to the worst dictator in the world. You must also consider who Bob Woodward is when you examine what he says in this book.  Bob Woodward, along with Carl Bernstein, was responsible for breaking the story of Watergate which resulted in the end of the political career of former President Richard Nixon.  Woodward has been a fixture in Washington, DC, and world politics and literature since the early 1970's. He has published about 20 other books in his career, nearly all have been best sellers, and his integrity has never been questioned.  His reputation is impeccable.  If he prints it, it is a fact!  But what I find stunning is not that TRAITOR Trump was maintaining contact with Vladimir Putin.  For years now, a large number of other honest, ethical journalists have been telling you and the rest of the world that TRAITOR Trump is just that, a TRAITOR.  I have published on this blog numerous discussions of other books by other writers about the thousands of crimes of TRAITOR Trump.  He is a TRAITOR, nothing more, nothing less, and he has been for at least forty years.  But I have known several retired military personnel in the last 10 to 20 years who have all been saying exactly what I have been saying.  We have universally believed that for some long period of time some covert channel of communication existed between TRAITOR Trump and his Russian handlers who were probably not Putin until after Putin and Russia managed to steal the 2016 election and place TRAITOR Trump inside the White House.  Timothy Snyder has actually compiled and posted a list of 50 times TRAITOR  Trump was involved in exchanges of power, money, or influence with Putin and Russia. I have quoted and cited numerous authors over the last 9 years who have said the same thing.  In this blog post, I quoted the entirety of page 220 of Timothy Snyder's excellent book "The Road To Unfreedom" in which Snyder provides another long list of the incidents in which TRAITOR Trump has interacted with Russia, Putin, and other Russian agents.  What Bob Woodward tells us in his new book is nothing new! It just comes from his contacts with a different source, an employee of TRAITOR Trump who spilled the beans.  And when we consider if Bob Woodward knows how to develop and utilize a source, just remember that he and Bernstein were the men who got a Deputy Director of the FBI to divulge what he knew about Richard Nixon's crimes, to become known as Deep Throat, and to admit it publicly before his death.  If Bob Woodward says it, he can prove it.  

So now let's look at what Bob Woodward is saying about TRAITOR Trump and his contacts with Vladimir Putin.  First, let's look at the second half of the allegation from the PBS story quoted and cited above, that TRAITOR Trump sent Putin "COVID-19 test machines during the height of the pandemic".  Woodward discuses that fact on page 33 of his book in this manner: 

"President Trump had secretly sent a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use as the virus spread rapidly through Russia.  "Please don't tell anybody you sent these to me," Putin said to Trump.  "I don't care", Trump said. "Fine."  "No, no," Putin said, I don't want you to tell anybody, because people will get mad at you, not me.They don't care about me."  (Bob Woodward, "War", page 33.)

Then on page 98 of "War", Woodward writes directly about an interview he had with TRAITOR Trump at Mar-a-Lago:

"Putin respects me.  And I respect Putin. I think Putin likes me.  I think I like him.  I do like him", Trump concluded.  "Bob Woodward, "War", page 98.)

And there we have another repetition of the kind of ignorance contained in TRAITOR Trump's famous Love Letters to Kim Jung Un.  His desire to please a dictator, especially a dictator whose banks saved him from financial disaster many years ago, is the ruling element in his psyche.  Woodward begins chapter Seventy-Five of his book on page 356 with the discussion of the phone calls TRAITOR Trump has had with Vladimir Putin since leaving the White House on January 20, 2021.  This discussion of the telephone calls is what shocked much of the journalistic world since, after leaving the White House, even a legitimately elected president, which TRAITOR Trump never was, cannot conduct, or attempt to conduct foreign policy with legitimate world leaders without the clear approval of the sitting government.  It is a clear cut violation of The Logan Act of 1799.  It is a felony under federal law.  Here is what Woodward has to say about those telephone calls: 

"In early 2024, a Trump aide loitered outside the former president's office.  Trump had sent the aide out of the room so he could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.  According to Trump's aide, there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021.  When I asked Trump's campaign aide Jason Miller, in July if he knew about phone calls between Trump and Putin, Miller's answer was, "Um, ah, not that, ah, not that I'm aware of."  Is Trump able to talk to Putin now? "I'm sure they know how to get in touch with each other," Miller said."  (Bob Woodward, "War", page 356.)  

A little farther down the page, Woodward says, "The Logan Act makes it illegal for private citizens to negotiate disputes without the clear authorization of the sitting US government."  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem!  Traitor Trump has clearly committed multiple violations of The Logan Act.  It is highly likely that in the process of those violations he has also committed multiple violations of The Espionage Act. And, without a doubt, he also committed violations of the Sedition Act during his involvement in and orchestration of January 6.  But additionally, we need to ask ourselves this: "if he has maintained regular contact with Vladimir Putin, the most dangerous enemy of the United States, in addition to having stolen and lied to the FBI about hundreds of classified federal documents, what has he passed on to Putin from the contents of those documents".  As a citizen of the United States of America, you need to accept the fact that TRAITOR Trump is an agent of Russia, a TRAITOR, and an existential threat to the existence of American Democracy.  And you need to vote accordingly on November 5, 2024.