Every American Voter Should Read One Of These Books Before November 5, 2024!

 

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

 

I first began posting these book lists sometime shortly after it became apparent to most intelligent, politically aware people in America that TRAITOR Trump was just that, a TRAITOR, nothing more, nothing less.  He was that long before I ever posted one of these reading lists.  He is still a TRAITOR today.  He will still be a TRAITOR on the day he dies and finally leaves America and Americans to live in peace after he has destroyed everything he can on the way.  It is imperative, if America is to remain a democracy, that TRAITOR Trump must never be allowed anywhere near the White House or any other active component of government in this country.  He is unfit to hold any position of public trust at any level, all the way down to dogcatcher and constable in a small, poverty stricken district.  Do both yourself and the country a much needed favor and read at least one of these books on this list before you vote on November 5, 2024.  This is an election between Good and Evil, Patriotism and TREASON, Peace and Total Destruction of Everything Valuable in America.   

 

On Democracy by Timothy Snyder  This is Timothy Snyder's latest book, just having been releases a short while ago.  Like everything Snyder writes, it is described as being a book which "will allow us to design a government in which we and future generations can flourish."  It is a continuation of Snyder's deep concerns and fears for America and American Democracy if the voters of this country allow TRAITOR Trump to return to another TREASONOUS occupation of the White House.  In my opinion, Snyder is the greatest historian and historical writer in America today.  He is a professor of history at Yale University in an endowed chair and still manages to write at least one important book a year or more.  This is the link to his official website.  Anything which Snyder writes is a must read for any citizen of America who wishes to see our Democracy survive.  I will add a couple of his other books below with less commentary about them.  Just assume if he wrote it, you need to read it. 

 

The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump Edited by Bandy Lee, M. D. I reviewed this book here.  This is one of those books that every reasonably intelligent citizen of this country should read.  I have been promoting this book ever since the day the initial publicity campaign began when it was released.  This book was written in individual articles by 27 of the best, best known, most experienced, most respected psychiatrists in the country and edited by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M. D. who is a psychiatrist and professor at Yale University.  Her credentials are incredible and so is this book.  Just as the letter to the senate from 2,400 law professors should have put an end to the legal career of Brett Kavanaugh, this book should have put an end to the public life of TRAITOR Trump.  Read this book even if you do not choose to read another book on this list or another book of any kind for the rest of your life. Do not let the fact that it is written by a bevy of psychiatrists deter you from reading it.  When you are done you will have a far better understanding of the serious and danger mental illness of TRAITOR Trump. 

 

The Road To Unfreedom by Timothy Snyder  This is Snyder's most recent book excluding the release last month of his latest, On Freedom.  The Road To Unfreedom is an excellent and well documented study of how Fascism has been spread by Russia and other countries in Eastern Europe.  It discusses Putin's dream of putting together a Russian empire extending all the way from Vladivostok to Lisbon covering most of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia.  Do not for a minute believe TRAITOR Trump when he tells you that he could "stop the war in Ukraine before" he took office if he should actually win an American election for the first time in his life.  Putin has expressed this plan for quite a few years in magazine and newspaper articles published under his name, in public speeches, and in all forms of media.  His attempt to subjugate Ukraine is geared toward giving Russia an open door to proceed further in this plan.  If he is allowed to overpower Ukraine, Poland will be next.  World War 3 will have begun and Putin will proceed until he is forcefully stopped, if that is even possible at that point.  

 

On Call by Anthony Fauci, M. D.  is the recently published memoir of Dr. Fauci who recently retired as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.  He was also the public face of the scientific fight against Covid and was daily defamed, insulted, minimized, and abused by TRAITOR Trump who is not now and never was fit to be a pimple on Dr. Fauci's ass.   More than 1million innocent American victims of Covid died because TRAITOR Trump refused to do anything to stop the pandemic after being informed by the intelligence and healthcare communities in January and February 2020 that the pandemic was coming and could destroy the country.  If NIH and the CDC had been allowed to fully do their jobs in early 2020, Covid would have been far less destructive and would have been confronted and dealt with successfully far sooner if TRAITOR Trump had not attempted to hamper every effort the scientific community made to do their jobs.  How do I know this?  For 5 years in the middle to late 1990's I spent many days at NIH.  My wife was a patient there during that period and we traveled there 2 or 3 times a year for a week at a time during that 5 year period.  So did my father-in-law.  I have never met Dr. Fauci, but I have met one other chair of an institute there.  I know NIH.  I have known people there at every level of employment from grounds keepers, food service workers, nurses, research staff, doctors, and one director of an institute.  Every one of them is a hero working daily in their own unique ways to help save the world.  If you don't read another word of Dr. Fauci's book read the section on Covid 19 and the pandemic which is only 67 pages long and will show you exactly what a TRAITOR TRAITOR Trump is and exactly what heroes the men and women of NIH  are.  It will also give you a great deal of insight into how greatly TRAITOR Trump has damaged this country morally and ethically over the last 10 years.

 

 Fascism by Madeleine Albright  Former Secretary of State Albright's book has been postively reviewed by most of the media people who have read it.  Secretary Albright was born in Czechoslovakia and immigrated to the US to become our first female Secretary of State and one of our best.  This is her description of a Fascist: "A Fascist is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.”  There is no more accurate description of TRAITOR Trump.  Read this book and if you finish it before I do send me an e-mail or a comment on this blog post.

 

  
Trump/Russia by Seth Hettena  This book provides an excellently researched timeline of the more than 30 year history of interactions between TRAITOR Trump and Russia.  Hettena's reputation as a reporter, researcher, and writer are excellent.  He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and that, in itself, is a recommendation of his mind and ability to function successfully in a high pressure environment.

 

 

The Restless Wave by John McCain  "Worse misfits have not been seen in a White House since William Taft got stuck in his bathtub."  (John McCain, p. 327)  When I read that sentence in John McCain's last book, I laughed out loud.  I have not reviewed this book yet, and have a few pages left to read before I finish it but this book is the most pleasant surprise I have had in a book in quite some time.  I began reading it since McCain has recently died and he had up put some level of public resistance to TRAITOR Trump.  However, in 2016, he had failed to go the full mile and endorse Hillary Clinton for president instead of just refusing to endorse TRAITOR Trump. Yet this book is far more positive about Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama than toward TRAITOR Trump.  I had begun the book expecting to hear a pretty standard espousal of fairly Right Wing Repugnican politics and a play by play of McCain's career.  But the book is often very honest about McCain's serious misgivings, distrust, and opposition to TRAITOR Trump.  But once again, he fell short of taking the full step and calling a spade a spade.  But the book is very well worth reading.   

 

The Plot To Destroy America by Malcolm Nance Malcolm Nance is a career US Navy man and the author of several books on counter terrorism, intelligence, national security, and Islamic extremism.  He is a trained intelligence expert and cryptologist.  His unique perspective and ability to write about what he knows without endangering his security clearance or his reputation is remarkable.  Malcolm Nance is the kind of person you could expect someday to be a national security adviser to the next duly elected, legitimate administration to occupy the White House.

Russian Roulette by Michael Issikoff & David Corn  These two authors are writers for Yahoo News and Mother Jones Magazine respectively.  This book is another examination of the Russian interference in the 2016 election.  While I consider Mother Jones to be a far more reputable source of news than Yahoo, these two authors also have excellent reputations and their work is well respected.

Fear by Bob Woodward Bob Woodward needs no introductions anywhere in the world.  He is one of the two men who broke the story of the Watergate Conspiracy and eventually could be said to have helped bring about the resignation of Richard Nixon.  His reputation is flawless and he has steadily written political works since the 1970's.  Nearly all his books, more than a dozen, have been best sellers and above average works.  His ability to develop sources deep within sheltered organizations was first seen in the information he and his co-author Carl Bernstein obtained from Deep Throat who eventually revealed himself as a Deputy Director of The FBI.  This might be the first book some of you read or may have already read.  Tell me about it if you have.

The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy by Greg Miller This book was written by Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post reporter Greg Miller.  No author should ever need to have their resume bolstered after having been employed at the best newspaper in the nation and winning a Pulitzer Prize.  Place this book high on your list of works to be read as I have.  I can't wait to get to it and neither should you. 

Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever by Rick Wilson  Numerous reputable Republicans who desire to keep their reputations intact have spoken out over the last three years about the crimes and ignorance of TRAITOR Trump.  Many have left the Republican Party over his actions.  The rest should do the same.  Rick Wilson has a more than thirty year career as a Republican political operative and worked in the Department of Defense under Dick Cheney.  His resume and his political roots make this book worth examining. 

House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia by Craig Unger Craig Unger has a Harvard education and a growing list of books written primarily about connections between Republican politicians and less than desirable partners. This book examines the long history between TRAITOR Trump and the Russian Mafia whose upper echelon members own many of the apartments in Trump Tower.  Nothing more need be said about that connection when you look at the list of business deals and money laundering schemes which have been perpetrated between these prinicpals. This book seems to be worth the time to read it.  Let me know what you think if you get to it before I do. 

 

 

Collusion Secret Meetings, Dirty Money And How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win by Luke Harding  I have reviewed this book here.  This is the first historical book that I read about the crimes of the TRAITOR Trump. It was well worth the experience and has often guided me in my choices about other subsequent reading.  Luke Harding is a writer for The Guardian and is a tremendous writer, researcher, and fact finder in the very dangerous world of international politics.  He and his colleagues are on that list of journalists whom every American citizen should read regularly.  This book goes a very long way to explain and corroborate the information contained in the Steele Dossier which literally began the revelations about the crimes of TRAITOR Trump.  This book also does a great job of putting the timeline of the crimes of TRAITOR Trump into a logical frame for the less aware reader.  This book "reads like a spy novel" is what my friend and follower of this blog Steve Sargent said about it.  My response to that was "it is a spy novel". However, it is also the farthest thing in the world from fiction.  

Facts And Fears by James Clapper This book continues James Clapper's public denunciation of the crimes of TRAITOR Trump.  I have reviewed it here.  The one glaring shortcoming in the book is the use of acronyms for literally dozens of branches of the federal government and international agencies which Mr. Clapper worked with or for during his lifetime of public service.  For the person not well versed in the federal bureaucracy, this use of hundreds of acronyms is confusing and irritating in spite of the insertion of a list of full names in the back of the book.  But this book is one of the first on the list that I would suggest that you read.  It is a fine historical perspective on American intelligence efforts over the last forty years and brutally honest, especially so about the Russian collusion and hacking of our 2016 election.   

A Higher Loyalty Truth Lies And Leadership by James Comey  First and foremost, I want to say that this book is about James Comey and his life of public service much more than it is about his firing and public victimization by TRAITOR Trump.  I have reviewed it here.  This book, just as is true of James Clapper's is much more about facts and history than it is about any emotion the author might feel toward the current illegal occupant of the White House.  It is an excellent piece of work which I do not believe would have ever been written if Mr. Comey had not felt that it was his duty as a patriot and lifetime public servant to do so because of the criminality of TRAITOR Trump.  Read it!  Learn from it!  Familiarize yourself with and utilize the truths it contains. 

 

United States Constitution The US Constitution and individual rights will be under attack from the first second the Republicans take control of the US government.  Donald Trump has already, on numerous occasions, stated a desire to restrict freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and all rights of Muslim citizens and immigrants in general.  Every citizen should have a solid understanding of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence.  Every citizen should also be willing to stand up and speak out in defense of these basic principles of American Democracy at any time Trump or his generally uneducated, ignorant, and unprincipled followers make attacks on these concepts.  The Capitol Net publishes pocket copies of the Constitution and many other important American political documents which are cheap and easily ordered from their web site.   Capitol Net will actually send you a free pocket copy of the Constitution upon request. Get a copy, read it, study it, understand it, carry it with you wherever you go, and be prepared to confront ignorance about the foundations of American Democracy wherever you encounter it. 

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay Do not ever listen to and accept the opinion of another about what the Founding Fathers thought, intended, or wanted.  Read what they said for yourself and form your own opinion.  

"Mein Kampf" by Adolph Hitler Donald Trump's campaign was a carbon copy of the campaign Hitler used to gain power in Germany.  One of Trump's ex-wives has stated that he kept a copy of Hitler's speeches by his bed.  Many of the same techniques Adolph Hitler and Vladimir Putin have used to gain and maintain power are the same being used by Donald Trump today and that use is not accidental. The Big Lie is being used every day by TRAITOR Trump just as it was used by Adolph Hitler.  It is deliberate emulation of Adolph Hitler. 

Black Earth The Holocaust As History And Warning by Timothy Snyder One of the most cogent quotations from history comes from the philosopher George Santayana:  "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  Donald Trump is backed by a coalition of extremist groups ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to the American Nazi Party.  Trump has consistently refused to condemn them, their ideologies, or their actions.  Here is a link to a great story from Mother Jones about those groups.  Most of the followers of these groups are psychologically very similar to the German citizens who became Hitler's Brown Shirts and SS Troopers.  And the most important thing to remember about the Germans who carried out Adolph Hitler's crimes against humanity is that before Adolph Hitler rose to power those people were considered to be ordinary German citizens just as most of Trump's followers would have us believe they are ordinary American citizens.  This book by Timothy Snyder looks at the Holocaust both as a historical event and as an event that could be repeated if the people of today do not heed the warnings provided by the Holocaust.  This is one of the most important books to have been written in the last 25 years. 

Stubborn Twig: Three Generations In The Life Of A Japanese American Family For those of you who do not believe that anything remotely resembling the crimes of the Holocaust could happen in America, this book is a must read as Donald Trump rises to power after having preached disrespect, disregard, and unconstitutional labeling of groups in America such as the media, Muslims and immigrants.  It details the life of a very successful and patriotic Japanese American family which had their land and property seized during World War II and were sent off to interment camps simply because of their ethnicity.  Yes, it can happen in America and it already has under the administration of one of the greatest American Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt.  

The Cherokee Removal A Brief History With Documents edited by Theda Perdue & Michael Green  For those of you who have read "Stubborn Twig..." and still find yourselves saying it couldn't happen here, it already has...twice, once to the Japanese Americans and once to the Cherokee.  In many ways, the disrespect that Trump shows to Muslims and immigrants is a lot like the attitude which Andrew Jackson showed the Native Americans.  

The United States Of Appalachia How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture, and Enlightenment To America by Jeff Biggers  This book will teach you a great deal about the birth of American Democracy, especially for those of you who have never heard of the State Of Franklin.  Jeff Biggers will also show you a lot about how a few dedicated citizens can change a country for the better. 

A Nation Defiant Polish Resistance To The German Occupation Of Poland by Richard S. Fuegner  The only way the country will be able to successfully resist, confront, and stop the destruction of American Democracy by Traitor Trump and his henchmen will be by utilizing a committed, determined, and well organized populist resistance.  Such a resistance is forming in America and can win this battle in the long run but that resistance must learn techniques which have been successful in other periods and other places.  This is an excellent book about the Polish resistance and will teach you a lot.

When Even Angels Wept by Lately Thomas During 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin led an effort known as the Communist Witch Hunts which destroyed the lives and careers of many thousand falsely accused Americans.  Senator McCarthy, another classic megalomaniac, led a senate investigation into alleged communism in the country and dragged hundreds and thousands of innocent socially active people in front of the committee where they were pilloried, denigrated, and defamed with little to no evidence in most cases.  Many of these people spent the rest of their lives unemployed, defamed, and in poverty.  But Senator McCarthy was confronted and stopped before he could completely destroy the country and American Democracy.  This is a great book to learn about one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the country and to utilize that knowledge to prevent TRAITOR Trump and his henchmen from perpetrating another such crime.  

I hope every person who reads this post will go on to read at least one of the listed works, especially the United States Constitution, which will be under attack for the next four years by the Republican Party whether or not Donald Trump is successfully prosecuted for treason.  

 

Appalachia Day Homecoming, AliceLloyd College, October 12, 2024

 

Yesterday, October 12, 2024, I attended Appalachia Day Homecoming at Alice Lloyd College with my wife Candice, our friend Eugenia "Genia" DeCoursey Hall, and her friend Sharon White who is the wife of John White with whom I worked nearly fifty years ago as cooks at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Prestonsburg, Kentucky.  Genia, Sharon, and I had all attended ALC many years ago and Genia and I have been friends for over fifty years.  My wife Candice is actually an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, in Platteville, Wisconsin.  But over the last 32 years, she has become a lover of Appalachia and Appalachian Culture.  Candice and I left our home at about 8:30am in an attempt to arrive by no later than 10am since it is about a 70 mile drive from our house and somewhere near 30 miles of the trip is over two lane roads including US 460 from our house to Salyersville, Kentucky, Kentucky 7 from Garrett, Kentucky to the Floyd/Knott county line, and Kentucky 899 from there to Pippa Passes where the college is located.  Amazingly, we got there in time to get the last handicapped parking space on the highway on campus instead of having to park half a mile away.  Most of the various vendors were already set up selling a large variety of arts, crafts, food, and books.  The crowd was comfortably large but not overwhelming.  The main highway or street through campus was shut down totally and vendors were actually set up in parts of the road where visitors wandered around or stopped to listen to local musicians and the Alice Lloyd College Choir, The Voices of Appalachia.  

Candice and I had driven together, naturally, and Genia and Sharon had driven in Genia's car but arrived a couple of hours after us.  Candice and I had naturally worn our Kamala Harris shirts and, since it was a fairly cool early fall morning, we had chosen to wear Harris/Walz shirts on the outside and Harris/Walz tee shirts underneath so we could change our outer layer when the sun warmed up to about 75 or 80 degrees.  The photo above is of my Harris tee shirt which my regular readers have seen before.  I had not been on the property very long when I encountered a man who approached me and said he liked my shirt.  We had a fairly long conversation about politics on which we agreed fully, learned that we hadfew friends in common from the ALC days.  Then to my surprise, he asked me to take a selfie with me and actually used both our phones to get the photo below.  I told him of the death of a good friend of both of us a few years ago due primarily to a tragic accident in which our friend had been asleep in a recliner in the living room of  his ground level apartment and was hit when an impaired driver literally drove into his living room. Then we parted ways.  The photo below is of the two of us at Appalachia Day. 

 

Then Candice and I wandered around, sometimes together, sometimes separately, looking at the things which interested us, talking to a few people here and there, getting registered, etc.  Candice also decided she wanted to order a sweatshirt which ALC was selling which is Appalachian in nature.  The people who were selling the shirts for the college could only provide a few tee shirts on the spot, could not take credit or debit cards, and Candice had to pay in advance for the shirt with cash, fill out an order card, and wait some undetermined time to receive the shirt.  I am certain that more of the shirts would have been bought if all those issues had not been part of the deal. The photo below is of Candice's Harris/Walz tee shirt. 

I saw an older Mennonite woman selling books at a table next to some male author whom I did not immediately recognize.  Since I have numerous Mennonite friends in our home county and also have known a few members of the Mennonite congregation in Knott County where Alice Lloyd College is located, I moved over to her table and struck up a conversation with her.  It turned out that we did have a few friends in common and I bought a copy of one of her books, "Flooded...Yet Not Alone" by Miriam Moyer, which is an oral history type book about survivors of the 2022 Eastern Kentucky Flood in Knott County which is the county of my birth and childhood. 

 

While I was talking to Miriam Moyer, the man next to her approached us and said, "You are Roger Hicks aren't you?" At that point, I recognized him as Dr. Dennis Campbell, a psychiatrist from Campton, Kentucky, with whom I had worked for about three years in my other career as a mental health and substance abuse therapist.  We had a fairly long talk and I did not immediately buy any of his books, of which he has written about a half dozen since he retired a few years ago.  Eventually, I did return and buy two of his books after I was assured that Candice didn't want to buy anything else from other vendors.  I knew and told Dennis that since he lives not far from me that I could always get in touch with him and buy his books later.  The books I bought from Dennis are "Tales From The Red River Gorge" which was actually published under the pseudonym Maribeth Wagner, and "To Conquer Eternal Summer" which was published under the pseudonym B. Camp.  "Tales From The Red River Gorge" contains two fairly long stories, one of which is described as "A Romantic Suspense Thriller".  The other is described as "A Tale Of Wilderness Survival".  I always enjoyed working with Dennis and trusted his skills absolutely as a psychiatrist when we were working together in an environment where most of our clients were dually diagnosed and suffering from serious mental health issues in one of the poorest counties in Kentucky.  

 

 

I knew that my friend Genia had also been a nurse in the medical practice where Dennis worked for several years as a general practice medical doctor before returning to the University of Kentucky to complete training as a psychiatrist because, as he puts it, "I realized that a very high percentage of the clients I was treating as an M. D. were also suffering from mental health problems."  I can't wait to read his books. When Genia and Sharon arrived, Genia and I returned to Dennis' table to have another conversation with him together since he knew us both but had never known that we are nearly lifelong friends.  I also introduced him to Candice.  The second of his books, "To Conquer Eternal Summer",  is described as "A Cultivation Trilogy" which is within the field of Fantasy Literature.  Dennis' books are all available from Amazon. 

During the course of the day, I was approached at various times by two more couples who also gave me compliments about my shirt(s) and briefly talked politics with all of them.  One couple was a retired high school history teacher and his wife from Carter County Kentucky who described TRAITOR Trump as  "very dangerous".  I gave him the titles of a few books which also describe that same trait of TRAITOR Trump the same way in more lengthy and accurate words.  Another couple were ALC students, a male senior communications major and his girl friend who also felt  very strongly that America and American Democracy are in danger from TRAITOR Trump.  Another couple, perhaps in their thirties, were from Marion County Kentucky and approached about the shirt and expressed their fears about the upcoming election and the dire possibility that TRAITOR Trump could actually be elected for the first time in his life.  Candice and I ate lunch from a food trailer specializing in some Anglicized "Mexican food".  Candice didn't eat much there and I had a steak fajita which was bland but fairly good.  Then we checked in again with Genia who had somehow gotten separated from Sharon White, tried to help her locate her, and eventually gave up to leave in time to get back home at a reasonable hour.  It was good day and wonderful to spend time with friends, both old and new, and to receive some new reading material.  

TRAITOR Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Their Relationship!

 

I have written several times on this blog about the deep, unbreakable relationship between TRAITOR Trump and Vladimir Putin.  I have also written several times about the incredible writing and honest reporting of Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder.  This link will take you to several posts about the work of Timothy Snyder who, in my opinion is the greatest historian and author of history and political science based books we have in America today.  Timothy Snyder does a far better job of explaining or illustrating the dangerous and TREASONOUS depth of the relationship between the two.  Every voter in America should read Snyder's books "On Tyranny" ,  "The Road To Unfreedom", and "On Democracy".  All three are among the most important books in print in America today.  And all three are on the list of books that TRAITOR Trump, his campaign staff, and Vladimir Putin hope that no American will read.  The reasons for that is that the books are honest, accurate, well documented history of the danger TRAITOR Trump presents to both America and the world. 

Since I began writing this blog post, an incredible story has broken in the news media about TRAITOR Trump and Vladimir Putin.  Bob Woodward has just released a new book called "War"  in which he writes about information provided to him by a TRAITOR Trump staffer who stated that TRAITOR Trump had provided Covid equipment to Putin secretly very early in the pandemic while he was doing nothing about the onrushing US pandemic. The book also reports that TRAITOR Trump has made at least seven telephone calls to Putin since the inauguration of President Biden and would sometimes tell staffers to leave the room since he had "to have a private conversation with President Putin".  This book, written by one of the men responsible for the Watergate disclosures which ended the presidency of Richard Nixon, has made allegations which should ensure that TRAITOR Trump is prosecuted for violations of both the Logan Act and the  Espionage Act.  This is just one more "smoking gun" about the TREASON of TRAITOR Trump.  It is absolute proof of what I and dozens of other intelligent writers and politicians have been telling the world about TRAITOR Trump for many years.  HE IS A TRAITOR OWNED AND CONTROLLED BY VLADIMIR PUTIN AND RUSSIA!  Based on what Bob Woodward has said in his book, you cannot defend TRAITOR Trump on any level.  He must be prosecuted ! He must be convicted!  He must be imprisoned for the rest of his life!  This country is not safe so long as he is alive and outside a maximum security prison.  Below is just  a portion of the story as it has been reported by CBS News: 

"Even after leaving office, Trump has stayed in touch with the Russian president, according to Woodward. An unidentified aide told Woodward the former president had as many as seven private calls with Putin — although Woodward noted he was unable to speak to Trump or Putin to verify the calls happened, and he was wasn't able to confirm the calls through the Trump campaign or intelligence sources.  But according to the aide, one of the calls came early this year, when Trump was urging Republicans to block additional aid to Ukraine to help the country's fight against Russia.  The newly revealed contacts raise additional questions about Trump's relationship with Putin. In a recent presidential debate, Trump twice refused to say who he wanted to prevail in the war between Russia and Ukraine." (CBS, October 8, 2024) 

This is damning information from a journalist who has moved within the circles of world power for over fifty years and whose work with Carl Bernstein led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, the successful prosecution of the Watergate figures, and has made both of these men household words in America and the world ever since.  Woodward's ethics and honest are impeccable and unimpeachable.  This is, or should be, the last nail in the public coffin of TRAITOR Trump and his collusion with Vladimir Putin.  I am certain every US intelligence agent in the world has now been directed to follow this story to whatever sordid place in which the ultimate truth of it is hiding.  It is about Espionage!  It is about TREASON!  It is about TRAITOR Trump's collusion with the worst enemy the United States of America has in the world!

In a slight aside, let me say that if you want to understand the nature of the relationship between TRAITOR Trump and Vladimir Putin, all you have to do is study and come to understand the body language in the photograph above.  It was shot at the G7 Summit in Helsinki at the press conference after TRAITOR Trump had just met with Vladimir Putin in a meeting without US interpreters.  He came out of that meeting with the above hangdog face while Putin was trying hard to stifle a grin at whatever they had just said to each other.  In the press conference, TRAITOR Trump disputed the findings of all 17 US intelligence agencies and stated that he believed Putin when he said that Russia had not interfered in the US election. That photograph, that meeting, that relationship, and that lie from TRAITOR Trump have been discussed many times in many places by thousands of journalists, US intelligence agents, common US citizens, and nearly every world leader since then, and almost universally by everyone who has ever rendered an honest opinion about it, it has been assessed as being a photograph of an American minion of the Russian president telling a lie to please his owner.  The most honest of all those opinions and the best documentation of proof to support his opinion about that relationship has consistently come from Timothy Snyder, both on his Twitter or X account and in his several books about the rising specter of Fascism in the world today.  It has also been discussed many times by other historians and journalists in their writings.  This is a CNN article on the topic from June of 2018.  This is a 2021 article from the New Zealand Herald discussing TRAITOR Trump's insistence three years after the news conference that he still believes Putin over US intelligence.  

Me And My Shirt Take Another Trip To The Big City!

 

On Thursday, October 3, 2024, my wife Candice and I took another trip to Lexington, Kentucky, for medical appointments and left early so we could eat at one of our favorite places and I could hike for an hour at the Lexington Arboretum which is one of my favorite places to get some exercise when I'm in the city.  It is also a place where Candice can find a nice shady spot to read while I put in my hiking time.  It is usually heavily used but has enough acreage that you never feel crowded by too many people since it is roughly 100 acres with some woodland, several miles of trails and one of the widest collections of plants in Kentucky.  It's also a nice place to passively advertise my politics by wearing a political shirt when I'm there.  Candice usually sets herself up in one of her favorite reading spots and I hit the trails.  

 

Thursday was a bit quieter in terms of how many notices I got about my Harris shirt.  One man who was either listening to some book or having a conversation on his cell phone simply passed me and gave me a thumbs up with a point to my shirt, patted himself on the chest, and gave me a thumbs up. Then we moved to the Kentucky Clinic where we had our appointments with my regular cardiologist.  As we were traveling from our parking space to the section of the hospital where our doctor's office is, a woman passed us and gave us a similar signal of approval to the one I had received at the Arboretum.  I have known my cardiologist about six years and he and I always have some brief conversation about politics and books.  Since he was seeing both of us at the same time, I knew we had to keep moving and had no intentions of trying to distract him with politics or literature.  But as our visit was ending, he brought up politics and referred to his children who are young adults and said "I think this time the young people are going to save us" in the election.  

 

Then as we headed toward an elevator to our parking spot, we entered the elevator at the same time as a man about fifty who instantly said, "I really like those shirts!" and then went into a rapid discussion of his opinion that the Democratic party has made a major mistake by allowing TRAITOR Trump to go unconfronted about his basic and total lack of qualifications to be a candidate for president due to his long history of criminal acts, criminal convictions, nearly one hundred felony indictments, more than 25 accusations of rape and sexual assault, and his connections to Putin and Russia.  I told the man that I agree with him totally about TRAITOR Trump's total lack of legitimacy as a candidate for any position of public trust, he got out of the elevator, and we all went our separate ways.  Then we drove to our favorite place for chicken wings, hit the drive through and got one more pleasant surprise.  When we got to the window for payment and food pick up, the man working that location was a former client from almost twenty-five years ago who told me his story of recent personal success after having been homeless, showed me his pickup truck in the parking lot, and assured me he was doing fine.  Now all we have to do is win this election for the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris.  Then we hit the Mountain Parkway toward home eating chicken wings and throwing bones out the window. 

Listen To Major General Paul Eaton, Retired!

 

I receive an awful lot of mail, at least some nearly every day, some of which is important, some which is clearly junk, and some which requires me to open it before I decide which it is.  But this envelope came in the mail box today with such a clearly worded and obviously true statement added to the front just above my address that I had to jump on here and write a fast blog post about it.  The addressee, who is obviously working for/through a PAC, a political action committee, called VOTEVETS.org in Portland, Oregon, and also obviously in support of the presidential campaign of Kamala Harris, the next President of The United States.  Paul Eaton, the sender in the return address slot, is a retired major general in the United States military.  The organization he is working through and, we have to assume, are both convinced that the statement above my address is not only true but also necessary to be communicated as soon as the piece of mail hits the addressee's hands.  That statement We can have democracy.  Or we can have Trump.  But we can't have both.  is absolutely true in my opinion and, I agree with it wholeheartedly.  So, you need to ask yourself "if that statement is sufficiently true that a retired major general feels compelled to place it on the outside of the envelopes his PAC is using to mail their letters under his name what do I need to do on November 5, 2024, when I step into the voting booth?"  The answer to that question is just the same it has been ever since that tragic day when TRAITOR Trump rode down that asinine gold elevator and perpetrated the lie born in Putin's Russia and Putin's mind that he was qualified to be the leader of the entire free world.  You need to VOTE STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC, EVERY ELECTION EVERY RACE!  

Hurricane Helene Upset My 41 Day Schedule!

 

On September 26, 2024, just 3 days ago, I had written this blog post stating what  I intended to be a plan of action for the next 41 days until the election on November 5, 2024, which calls for me to write a blog post each day based on some chapter of one of the books which I had included in a list at the end of that blog post in my effort to do all I can to influence as many voters as possible in America to do the right thing and vote to elect Kamala Harris as President of The United States.  But Hurricane Helene came along, blew on shore in the Big Bend section of Florida and managed to affect weather over a major chunk of the Southeast and even into parts of the Midwest.  I had not begun the first of these blog posts before noon on September 27, 2024, and the remains of Helene hit Eastern Kentucky and knocked out our electricity at home.  I had no way to complete a blog post until the electricity was restored.  At our house, even in warm weather, it can sometimes take as much as 5 days to see electricity restored in an outage.  I went into my normal power outage routine, got my generator up and running, ran cords all over the house to carry power to the bare minimum of items: food freezer, refrigerator, my wife's power bed and its related alternating air mattress, and for a couple of hours at a time the television so we could stay up with the news.  Then we settled in to wait to see the electricity come back on.  Our initial tentative reported restoration time was 11pm on Monday, Tomorrow, September 30, 2024, which would have been about normal for our location.  So we set in to endure whatever happens which is what we do in all outages.  

 

Of course, we were also grateful that we don't live in the real hurricane disaster areas in several states to the south of us: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee.  But amazingly, yesterday evening, September 28, 2024, at about 5:30pm our power suddenly came back on.  That was a sweet surprise.  I began the process of tearing down all the outage work I had done the day before with the exception of putting the generator back in the storage building since it was still pouring rain here. I got the house cleared of the extension cords, started doing laundry, etc.  I put the generator back in the building this morning when the rain stopped.  And I managed to get that first blog post of my 41 day plan written and posted at this link.  But I'm still two days behind on that 41 day plan which has now been turned into a 39 day plan by Hurricane Helene.  However, it is my intention to still post 41 posts in these 39 days about the upcoming election in support of Kamala Harris as President of The United States.  In my opinion, there has never been a more unfit candidate for any position of public trust than TRAITOR Trump.  He is a TRAITOR, Insurrectionist, Seditionist, Career Criminal, Serial Rapist, Convicted Felon, Tax Cheat, Pathological Liar, and Idiot.  He has proven himself to be unfit to lead a one car funeral every day of his life for at least the last ten years.  There was never a time when he was qualified to an elected public official at any level.  While living illegally in the White House for four years based on his TREASON with Vladimir Putin who owns him and stole the 2016 election for him in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, he proved on a daily basis that he wanted to destroy Democracy in America.  God Help Us All, if he ever gets anywhere near the White House again.  For the next 39 days, I will be going back to that list of books in the first blog post on a daily basis to discuss the writings of other American Patriots who also understand just how great a threat TRAITOR Trump is to the United States, American Democracy, Worldwide Democracy, the entire Human Race, and the Planet.  I might run into other little hitches such as the recent power outage but I will post those 41 posts.  I only hope I can influence as many voters as possible to do the right thing and support Kamala Harris as the next President of The United States.  

TRAITOR Trump, Putin, Ukraine, and Putin's Dream Of A Eurasian Empire

 

Over the last several days, TRAITOR Trump has made numerous claims that he could "end the war in Ukraine even before I took office".  But there is a great deal of deception, misdirection, dishonesty, and outright lying in those statements.  Two days ago, on September 27, 2024, President Zelenskyy deigned to meet with man, other than Vladimir Putin, who presents the greatest danger to Ukraine and the very existence of democracy both in Eastern Europe and the United States of America.  I have no idea why President Zelenskyy would bother to hold such a meeting when the very existence of the country he has protected for the past several years is at stake.  After the meeting, TRAITOR Trump did as he always does in any situation, and tried to make himself look the answer to a problem which he is totally unfit to be involved in.  He said, in part, "We’re going to work very much with both parties to try and get this settled and get it worked out," Trump said, standing next to Zelenskyy while speaking to a small group of reporters ahead of their closed-door meeting. "It has to end. At some point, it has to end. He’s gone through hell. His country has gone through hell."    Like everything which crosses TRAITOR Trump's lips, there are just enough nuggets of near truth in it to mislead the naive listener.  Yes, at some point Putin's War Of Aggression against Ukraine must end, and it must end with a free, democratic Ukraine which is how it began.  TRAITOR Trump went on to make the outrageous claim that he and President Zelenskyy "have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin."  There is not and never has been a legitimate reason for anyone to believe that TRAITOR Trump and President Zelenskyy have anything near a positive relationship.  But the nugget of near truth in that second quotation from TRAITOR Trump's press conference after the meeting is that fact that he has "a good relationship with President Putin."   If you want to see how positive TRAITOR Trump's relationship with Putin is just look at the still photograph below of the two of them at the notorious press conference at the G7 meeting in 2018 in which TRAITOR Trump publicly undercut all 17 US intelligence agencies and stated that he believed Putin's denial of Russian involvement in the theft of the 2016 US election in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.   This photograph tells the astute viewer everything you need to know about whatever relationship exists between Putin and TRAITOR Trump.  Putin is obviously pleased, striving to control his sense of power and achievement while TRAITOR Trump is cowed, controlled, disempowered, and obviously unable to hold his head up in public.  That photograph is all you need to know about what happens when these two criminals are in the same room.  One is in charge while the other is powerless. 

 

Now let's look at how that relationship of power and control would influence any discussion of what Putin would do in Ukraine.  What TRAITOR Trump either does not know or is not allowed to discuss in public is that Putin has no intentions of stopping his War Of Aggression in Ukraine.  He has far larger plans based on the work of the Russian political philosopher whom he quotes regularly in public, Ivan Ilyin who lived from 1883 to 1954.  Putin has, on dozens of occasions, discussed his strong belief that Ilyin was the most important political thinker in the history of Russia.  So what does that have to do with Ukraine?  Ilyin believed and wrote extensively that he believed that Russia should control all of Eurasia, a political belief known as Eurasianism.  Putin has often said that he wants Russia to control all of Eurasia "from Vladivostok to Lisbon", an area that encompasses most of Eastern Europe and a major chunk of Asia.  Just as President Biden and most of the leaders of NATO know and understand what Ilyin believed and wrote.  They also understand Putin's belief that Ilyin was correct and Russia is entitled to control all of Eurasia. Putin will never stop at Ukraine if he is allowed to win.  And if TRAITOR Trump is allowed to illegally occupy the White House again, he will allow Putin to do "whatever the hell he wants to" all the way from Vladivostok to Lisbon.  Only a strong NATO with a fully committed United States, along with a mutually supported Ukraine can stop Putin from continuing his War Of Aggression into his dream of a Russian Eurasia.   This misbegotten dream of Putin's which was originated by Ivan Ilyin is a primary reason Sweden and Finland stepped forward after decades of neutrality to join NATO.  They know they would also be on the list of countries which Putin would attempt to conquer if he is not stopped in Ukraine.  

The Yale University historian and author, Timothy Snyder, discusses Putin's dream of Eurasia "from Vladivostok to Lisbon" in his excellent book, "The Road To Unfreedom".  Read it!  Believe it!  Tell everyone you know that TRAITOR Trump, Putin's Puppet, cannot and would never attempt to stop Putin in Ukraine, Poland, Sweden, or any other country in that vast area.  He would not and could not because Putin owns and controls him just as he proved in that press conference at the G7 meeting in 2018.  DO WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING ALL ALONG, VOTE STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC, EVERY ELECTION, EVERY RACE!