"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.   

 

 

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 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. Several individual American states such as Texas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama 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."   In one case, that of Kentucky, a Right Wing Radical Repugnican state legislature has attempted numerous ways to accomplish many of the same assaults on democracy which have occured in the other states mentioned. But in Kentucky, Andy Beshear, the best governor in America and a Democrat who was considered as a possible running mate for Kamala Harris, has managed to use the veto and other executive actions to stymie the highly destructive legislature. On page 2 of the book the authors 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 that 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 book 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. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, TRAITOR Trump, and 1 Million Dead Innocent Victims Of Covid 19

 

I have Dr.Anthony Fauci's recent memoir, "On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service", on my desk right now and actually did something I rarely do and didn't read from the front to the back. I actually began with the section on Covid and Fauci is totally honest in what he has to say about TRAITOR Trump. It is very enlightening. I should also say, in the spirit of full disclosure, that I spent many days at NIH in the mid to late 1990's, two to three trips a year, a week at a time because my wife was a patient there. I met people at all levels of NIH from food service, maintenance, and grounds keeping up to one director of one of the institutes. Everything about NIH is personal to me. I never met anyone there I never liked and respected. Many of the greatest medical and scientific minds in the world work there and Dr. Fauci was one of them. He could have left 20-25 years ago for a multi-million dollar salary with a drug company and stayed because he was committed to making the world a better place. He tells a story in the book about receiving a white powder in an envelope at his desk in the middle of Covid and what he and his family had to go through because of it even though it was nothing. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Dr. Fauci received that, and many other pieces of hate mail and attempts at intimidation, because of the words and deeds of TRAITOR Trump. My knowledge of NIH and the people who make it one of the greatest medical and scientific institutions in the world on a daily basis was one of the most productive learning experiences in my life, a life in which I have consistently moved from one learning experience to another in an attempt to make myself a better, better educated human being who might be worthy of making some contribution, however insignificant, to make the the world a better place. 

So, with that preface, let's now examine what I learned from reading that section of Dr. Fauci's memoir, that 66 page story about his efforts to help the world win the war against our most recent plague, Covid 19, and his deeply personal disclosures about how TRAITOR Trump impeded that effort on a daily basis which complicated the lives of every employee of NIH and endangered the lives of every citizen of the United States and, ultimately, the world. Dr. Fauci begins his section on Covid 19 with a description of events which occurred in a meeting at the White House on January 29, 2020, at a time when Covid infections in the US had just passed the 7,700 mark and 170 victims had already died. He describes how TRAITOR Trump, whom he consistently refers to with the totally undeserved honorific "President Trump", came into the meeting and began to butter him up, as has always been TRAITOR Trump's way until he decides to move on to sooner or later denigrating anyone he has previously flattered. But, in the spirit of what has always been Dr. Fauci's absolute honesty, he moves on to say that "...he shocked me on day one of his presidency with his disregard of facts such as the size of the crowd at his inauguration. His apocalyptic inaugural speech had also taken me aback, as had his aggressive disrespect for the press." (Fauci, page 346) 

It is also very pertinent to know that meeting in which Dr. Fauci first met TRAITOR Trump took place on January 29, 2020, because NPR reported on May 2, 2020, that TRAITOR Trump was told in intelligence briefings on January 23 & 28, 2020, that

"...the coronavirus was potentially going to 'spread globally,' " the official said of the first briefing, which came two days after the first case of the virus was reported in the United States...Five days after that initial briefing, the president was briefed again, according to the official. This time, he was told the virus "was spreading outside of China, but that deaths from the disease were happening only in China," the official said. (NPR, May 2, 2020, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/02/849619486/trump-received-intelligence-briefings-on-coronavirus-twice-in-january)

Just the day before the meeting in which Dr. Fauci met TRAITOR Trump for the first time, TRAITOR Trump had been told that Covid 19 was likely to "spread globally".  At that January 29, 2020, meeting he was also told that 170 US victims had already died.  Obviously, information about Covid 19 was moving and changing rapidly, but what any well run White House is supposed to be best at is gathering, analyzing, and making decisions regarding fast moving crises of any kind.  From January 20, 2017 to January 20, 2021, the White House was anything but well run which has been reported on by every ethical news agency in the world thousands of times.  Dr. Fauci then reports that on February 25, 2020, Nancy Messonier, the head of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a conference call with reporters that "...a pandemic in the United States was no longer a matter of if but when and that we should prepare to do things like close schools and work remotely...The media erupted.  The stock market plummeted, and President Trump was furious." (Fauci, Page 358) 

At that point, TRAITOR Trump had a choice to make about Covid 19, and he had two options: 1) he could and should have chosen to listen to the best scientific minds in America and begin to do what they were telling him, or, 2) he could just ignore the scientists, do nothing effective about Covid 19 in a vain and murderous manner which was intended to protect an economy which his tax cuts for the rich was already destroying.  His choice to do that later resulted in the unnecessary deaths of more than a million innocent American victims.  Yes, we would have been likely to have a relatively mild epidemic of Covid 19 no matter what the official response was.  But, it is highly unlikely that we would have had more than a million deaths if the response had been competently directed from the White House and left in the hands of the scientists throughout the decision making process.  It is highly likely that the great majority of the victims would have survived.  

Dr. Fauci then moves on in the book to discussion of how the Covid 19 Task Force which was being headed by Vice President Mike Pence was operated.  "Vice presidents are always publicly loyal to the president.  But, in my opinion, Vice President Pence sometimes overdid it.  During Task Force meetings, he often said some version of "There are a lot of smart people around here, but we all know that the smartest person in the building is upstairs.  He was of course talking about the man sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office." (Fauci, Page 359)

We all know what price Mike Pence paid for that misplaced loyalty on January 6, 2021.  Dr. Fauci then goes on to describe a telephone call he received from TRAITOR Trump a few days later: 

"What I did do during our twenty minute conversation about Covid 19 was to lay out the facts.  I encouraged him not to underplay the seriousness of the situation.  "That almost always comes back to bite you, Mr. President," I said.  "If you are totally honest about what is happening with Covid, the country will respect you for it."  (Fauci, Page 359) 

We all know that didn't happen, don't we?  At no time in his life, has TRAITOR Trump ever been totally honest with anyone about anything anytime anywhere.  The misrepresentation of a deadly disease and its potential destruction of the country and the world had only just begun.  TRAITOR Trump was now in his favorite and most beloved arena, the creation and propagation of lies, prevarications, fabrications, misrepresentations, and delusions which would become more and more bizarre as the bodies piled up, refrigerated trucks became morgues, and the country began to watch our loved ones dying.  Dr. Fauci then discusses some of the bizarre ways in which TRAITOR Trump responded to a situation in which he proved on a daily basis that he was unfit to be in the position which Russia's election tampering had placed him.  On page 365 of the book, Dr Fauci says

"And so with the ghastly reality setting in that COVID was not going to go away, Trump began to grab for an elixir that was going to cure this disease.  Along came hydroxychloroquine...The fact was, however, there were no clinical studies proving that this antimalarial drug would help people.  And it might hurt them.  The president seemed unable to grasp that anecdotes of how hydroxychloroquine might have helped some people with COVID did not translate into solid medical advice.  This is when I realized that sooner or later I would have to refute him publicly."  (Fauci, Pages 365-366) 

Farther along in page 366, Dr. Fauci then discusses the way TRAITOR Trump has always attacked and denigrated members of the press corps. 

"...even when I did not know the journalists the president insulted, I was still taken aback by his behavior.  I was also concerned that my very presence at the lectern or sitting against the wall of the press room would be interpreted as acceptance on my part of his behavior."(Fauci, Page 366)

Those two sentences clearly demonstrate the differences between a consummate professional scientist like Dr. Anthony Fauci and a blustering, aggressive, argumentative, and ignorant individual like TRAITOR Trump especially when such an individual is in a position for which they have always been horribly unqualified and never actually attained in a legal manner.   After that discussion of TRAITOR Trump's abuses of many of the best, most professional journalists alive, Dr. Fauci goes on to become more direct in his assessments of the horrible failures of TRAITOR Trump in the remainder of the COVID section of the book.  He then moves on to a time late in the fall of 2020, as the presidential election campaign was in full swing and says

"By this time, the virus had infected more than 9 million Americans and killed 230,000.  New daily cases were hitting record highs.  But out on the campaign trail, Donald Trump insisted, "We're turning the corner.  We're turning the corner.  We're rounding...the curve.  We will vanquish  the virus."  (Fauci, Page 406)

Thank God, the American people realized what was  happening.  They knew the country was dying, one COVID case, one beloved relative at a time.  President Biden was elected on November 3, 2020, and sworn into office on January 20, 2021.  To misquote former President Gerald Ford "Our long national nightmare was over."  Now in 2024, we are once again facing the most important and most dangerous election in our nation's history.  We have a choice to actually, for the first time, to elect TRAITOR Trump to the highest office in the land, and create God only knows what future disasters which could well make the COVID epidemic look like only a warmup.  TRAITOR Trump has already proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is unfit to hold any position of public trust at any level.  God Help Us, if we make that fatal mistake and allow him near the White House again. 

 

 

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.  

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.  

Me And My Shirt Take A Trip To Two Eastern Kentucky Towns!

 

 

This morning my wife Candice & I had a few things we needed from Wal Mart in Morehead, Kentucky, and left home about 11am.  Our first stop was at a McDonald's in one of those towns.  I don't intend to say which McDonalds' or which town in order to protect an intelligent, committed employee of that McDonald's from any potential punitive actions her employers might wish they could use against her.  When I pulled up the food service window, she handed me my order and suddenly said, "I like that shirt."  I thanked her, pointed out that my wife was also wearing a similar kind of Kamala Harris shirt and suggested that she be sure to vote and get out all the votes she can for Harris.  She said, "I'm trying with everybody I can".  Then she added, "We ain't going back."  I loved it.  

Later I was at the meat counter in Wal Mart when I encountered a couple about 35 or so and the man suddenly turned to me and said, "I like that shirt."  We struck up a conversation and they assured me that they are registered and do vote.  They also told me that the wife sometimes wears one of the "Childless Cat Ladies For Kamala" shirts.  Then the husband began talking about the connections between TRAITOR Trump and Vladimir Putin and Russia.  We talked a bit about the theft of the 2016 election in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan about which they agree with me totally.  All together it was a fine day.  I saw one or two of those irritated and ignorant glances when others saw the shirt but no one during the day, including our lunch at Cracker Barrel, said a negative word about our shirts.  And I would actually like it to have happened because it impossible to confront that kind of ignorance if the don't open their mouths.  

The Upcoming Second Insurrection!

The attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an Insurrection, Domestic Terrorism, Sedition, and Treason.  It was fomented, led, and caused by TRAITOR Trump because, for the second time, he had lost an American election after having been installed in the White House by virtue of Russia having stolen enough votes in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania to tilt the electoral vote count in their favor.  They failed in their attempt to do that in 2020, and TRAITOR Trump incited the attack on the US Capitol in order to try to stop the constitutionally mandated count of electoral votes which is the final step in the certification of an election in the United States.  January 6, 2021, was an attack against the United States by enemies of the United States, and incited by the second worst living enemy of the United States, TRAITOR Trump, in support of the absolute worst living enemy of the United States, Vladimir Putin, who owns and controls TRAITOR  Trump.  When the 2024 presidential election is over, the votes are counted, and the electoral counts are referred to the congress for certification proving that TRAITOR Trump has actually lost his third consecutive election in America, he will already have done the work of inciting that Second Insurrection, and he is actually engaged in setting the stage for it on a daily basis today since he knows full well that he cannot legally win an election in the United States.  TRAITOR Trump has already stated on May 2, 2024, that he will not commit to accept the results of the upcoming presidential election unless he is declared the winner.  TRAITOR Trump has already worked with the Right Wing Radical Repugnican Election Board in Georgia to have them institute a set of new rules for counting the votes which will allow them to bring about the unlawful counting of votes, the manipulation of the vote count, and the illegal declaration that TRAITOR Trump has won the election in Georgia.  He will also attempt to commit other acts of election sabotage in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada.  He is now faced with the likelihood that he will also lose North Carolina since his hand picked candidate for governor in that state has been caught on an internet pornography website describing himself as "a black Nazi".  Their little ship of dreams is sinking fast in North Carolina.  When the November 5th election is over, the votes are counted, and the truth is out, TRAITOR Trump will once again incite an Insurrection against the legally constituted government of the United States of America. 

So, the question becomes what do we do to avoid the theft of another US election by TRAITOR Trump and his allies, both Russian Hackers and American Fascists?  First and foremost, every American must go to the polls and vote for Kamala Harris for president of the United States.  Secondly, between now and the election, we must confront the ignorance and TREASON of TRAITOR Trump and all his supporters every time we hear it no matter whom we hear it from or where we hear it.  We must get others registered as Democrats until the last day to register in the state in which these unregistered voters live.  We must then get those newly registered voters to the polls and be certain that they are voting for Kamala Harris for President.  And, when TRAITOR Trump begins his Second Insurrection, we must work with the legally  constituted government of the United States to hold TRAITOR Trump and every one of his supporters responsible for their crimes in any such Second Insurrection.  We must not allow any questionable acts in support of his Second Insurrection by TRAITOR Trump or any of his supporters to go unconfronted by the legal authorities of the United States of America.  When this Second Insurrection begins, we must demand that President Biden immediately order the arrest of TRAITOR Trump and any of his allies who engage in this Second Insurrection.  We must demand that they receive a constitutionally mandated and protected SPEEDY TRIAL, conviction, sentencing, and imprisonment for their crimes.  When such a Second Insurrection has been dealt with in this manner, it will be clearly understood for many years in America that such an insurrection by TRAITORS, Insurrectionists, Domestic Terrorists, and Enemies of The United States will not be tolerated, minimized, or swept under the rug.  IT WILL BE GREAT! 

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

 

I never leave home any farther than to my mail box about 200 yards away these days without wearing one of my Kamala Harris shirts.  The one pictured above is my current favorite until cooler weather makes me wear a sweatshirt which was delivered yesterday while I was gone to Lexington, Kentucky,  with my wife Candice, who was also wearing her current Kamala Harris shirt which I have pictured below.  We had a blast, made stops at several locations during the day, and received multiple compliments about our shirts. 

The first place we went was the Lexington Arboretum where I like to walk when I'm in Lexington.  Candice can find a shady location and read while I put in my hour or so on the many paved trails or my favorite tan bark paths in the woodsy section of the Arboretum.  Shortly after I began my walk, I met a woman on one of the paved trails who gave me a thumbs up and just said "Kamala".  Then, as we were headed into the parking lot to leave, two different women, one walking and one sitting in her car, both spoke up about how much they liked the shirts.  We had short, positive conversations with these women and left the Arboretum.  Then we went to the Kentucky Clinic where Candice had an appointment in the Wound Care Clinic.  When a nursing assistant took her blood pressure they said, "That is a comfortable shirt", which I assumed was a coded way of saying they liked the shirts.  I laughed and asked, "Do you mean to say that it is a shirt you are comfortable with?' and got a nonverbal confirmation.  Actually, in that clinic, it is not unusual to receive positive comments about our political leanings.  Just last Friday, I had a very positive conversation with my surgeon and wrote about at this post.  That surgeon and I have open political conversations every time we see each other.  He is not the only doctor at this facility with whom I have political conversations in nearly every encounter between us and I am damned grateful for their political thinking and their willingness to speak out on behalf of America and American Democracy.  

After we left the clinic, we went looking for a Haitian restaurant where we could support struggling immigrants but did not locate one and went to Sonny's Barbecue instead.  I had found a couple of Caribbean restaurants advertised in Lexington during an internet search but had not found one clearly labeled as Haitian.  At Sonny's, I got up to wash the barbecue sauce off my hands and face, and on my way back from the restroom, a woman and her husband spoke up as I got near their table and told me how much they liked my shirt.  We had a short conversation about politics and the upcoming critical election in America before I returned to my seat.  When I had paid the ticket at the table and was preparing to leave, an older man seated on a bench near the cash register said in a low voice, "I like that shirt!"  We also had a short conversation about politics and I made sure he also saw Candice's shirt as she drove her wheelchair past him to leave.  It is always wonderful to find another person who understand that this is the most important election in American History and is, literally, a contest between good and evil.  I always wear one of my Kamala Harris shirts whenever I leave home and I will until election day when we can all work together to save America and American Democracy from TRAITOR Trump and his cult.  I am also encouraged by the large numbers of Republican former government officials who are endorsing Harris as the election approaches.  That list includes more than 200 former employees of the Department of Justice under Republican presidents.  But we all must work every day to make it clear that there is only one choce in this election and that choice is Kamala Harris. 

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.  

Fascism In America, Yesterday And Today!

 

Let's begin this blog post with a brief quotation from a book I am currently reading.  

"...seeping into this country by the thousands every single month...to take the jobs which rightly belong" to Americans.  "I wish to say, and I say it without the slightest hesitation--that if I had my way about it at this hour, I would build a wall about the United States so high and so secure that not a single alien or foreign refugee from any country upon the face of the earth could possibly scale or ascend it." 

Like you, as soon as I read that quote the person who popped into my head was TRAITOR Trump.  Those words sound as if they probably came directly out of his mouth in some rambling rant in front of a crowd of a few thousand of his Fascist and TREASONOUS cult members.  But that is not who said it, and it contains one major clue that it did not and could not have come out of TRAITOR Trump's mouth.  I had spotted that clue when I read it and, thankfully, so did my sister-in-law in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, when I read it to her and her husband yesterday, August 10, 2024, during a Google Meet which my wife and I do with them every two weeks.  So, the question becomes "Who said it?  Where did it come from?  When?"  The answer to those questions is both surprising and not surprising at all.  Those words come from page 220 of the book "Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism" by Rachel Maddow, and they came from the mouth of Democratic United States Senator Robert Rice Reynolds in 1941.  Maddow's book was published in 2023 and, based on her title, I hope it is intended to be a precursor to  another book about Fascism as it is currently being practiced in America.  The clue which both my sister-in-law and  I saw in the words of that quote involves the language used.  There is phrasing and there are words in that quote which would never and could never come from the mouth of TRAITOR Trump.  The sentence structure is good, solid, complete sentences. Those sentences are sometimes complex, far more complex than TRAITOR Trump could ever construct on his best day.  And TRAITOR Trump never uses complete, structured, rational sentences, and would never use words like "ascend" or "scale". He also has no ability to construct complex sentences. Those words, "ascend" and "scale" are far too abstract for his diminished intelligence and grade school vocabulary. Those words are synonyms for others such as "climb", and "top" or "mount".  TRAITOR Trump is not as intelligent or highly verbal as Senator Reynolds was in 1941.  But he is just as ignorant and just as evil. His intentions are just as destructive, potentially damaging to America, and just as unfounded as the words of Senator Reynolds in 1941. So what happened to Senator Robert Rice Reynolds?  

Since reading that highly dangerous quote from Senator Reynolds, I have done a little research on him and found this enlightening article online from Vox which, says as I did above "those words could have come straight from Donald Trump".  Vox was mild mannered and non-confrontational enough to not use my favorite and most often used adjective of "TRAITOR" to refer to TRAITOR Trump.  The Vox article also gives us an actual date of June 5, 1941, for the date of Reynolds' statement and a location for it, the floor of the United States Senate.  The Vox article goes on to say this about Reynolds: 

"Reynolds never really expected a wall to be built, however much he might have dreamed of such a barrier. And his ideas about refugees never took hold with the broader American public. Today he is all but forgotten, even in his home state of North Carolina." (Vox, "Meet Robert Reynolds, the senator who wanted to build a wall 70 years before Trump." Available at the link above on August 12, 2024.) 

The Vox article goes on to say this about Reynolds: 

 "...his story is worth retelling. It serves as a reminder of the heights American hypernationalism, anti-interventionism, and nativism reached in the not-too-distant past.It shows, too, that these are strains of American political thinking that are recycled again and again, and are often ushered in by politicians who capture America’s attention with flash over substance. Trump isn’t the first showman known nearly as much for his marital lives as for his tendency toward oratorical extremes about refugees and “criminal” immigrants. The question is whether he will be the last — or whether his legacy will inspire other political progeny."  (Vox, Same Link Above) 

I agree completely with what the Vox writer had to say about Reynolds in that second quote above.  His story is worth retelling and, most importantly, it is worth retelling because Reynolds never succeeded in building his wall.  He fell out of favor with the voters of North Carolina and only served two destructive terms in the United States Senate. He was also serving, if that is the correct word, in the senate at a time (1932-1944) when America was led by a president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had strong support from a majority of America, control of the congress, and the acumen and courage to openly confront and control radicals like Senator Reynolds  Vox goes on to give us this description of the political demise of Robert Reynolds: 

Reynolds’s aggressive stance on immigration and deportation — and, later, his reluctance to criticize the rise of fascist dictators overseas and fascist sympathizers at home — sank his political career and erased any legacy he might have left behind.(Vox, Same Link Above)

That summation of Reynolds' fall from grace with the voters of North Carolina is a well justified end to the political machinations of such a man.  But it also points out that fact that, so far in America, a large portion of the nation has failed to reach the same accurate conclusions about TRAITOR Trump. His cult still lives and supports him. He is, totally unjustifiably, the face and the hate blackened soul of the Right Wing Radical Repugnican party in America.  He is once again trying to gain access to the White House and the power its occupancy brings to even a convicted felon, career criminal, rapist, and TRAITOR like TRAITOR Trump.   America is faced today with a pending election, just as important as the last two in 2016 and 2020, in which we can choose to vote in support of America, American Democracy, rational governmental decision making, and the preservation of constitutional freedoms or we can vote for TREASON, Fascism as practiced by TRAITOR Trump, completely irrational decision making, the continued destruction of constitutional freedoms as has happened in many states across America over the last 12 years, and the continued spread of Fascism, Racism, Hatred, and the perpetual courting of dictators, despots, tyrants, and criminals.  It is a simple decision to a rational person.  America must, once again, defeat TRAITOR Trump, pursue his criminal convictions and assure that they happen, and see him convicted, sentenced, incarcerated for the rest of his natural life in the supermax prison in Colorado with the other enemies of the country, and forgotten for all eternity except as a perpetual reminder of the damage such a worthless human can inflict on a compliant and complacent nation.  He must not be allowed to return to occupy the White House.  He must not be allowed to further damage this nation. He must be defeated and he must be proven to be the TRAITOR he is to all that is good and just in this country.  

But regressing momentarily to further discuss the Vox statement about the political demise of Senator Reynolds, let's look at the statement that  Reynolds "...is all but forgotten, even in his home state of North Carolina." That statement is not totally accurate.  In my research on Senator Reynolds, I found a page on the webpage of the North Carolina History Project which is a somewhat whitewashed biography of the senator.  While it does point out his notorious womanizing and five marriages...(And) flamboyant actions), it describes him as "A genuine believer in democracy".    A second page on the North Carolina History Project written by Will Schultz is more directly honest about Senator Reynolds and concludes by describing him as

"...controversial. Some regard him as a proto-fascist, a would-be American Hitler. Others consider him a radical populist along the lines of Huey P. Long of Louisiana. Still others dismiss him as a harmless buffoon. In Buncombe Bob, the authoritative biography on Reynolds, Julian Pleasants summed up the senator: “In short, he was a unique southern demagogue."  (North Carolina History Project, "Robert Rice Reynolds, (1884-1963)".  Available on August 13, 2024 at https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/robert-rice-reynolds-1884-1963/). 

While Rachel Maddow in her book does not clearly claim that Senator Reynolds was a Fascist or that he had direct ties to Hitler's Nazi propaganda experts in America, she does make that connection about other subjects of her meticulous research and actually discusses how several "privately owned" or "nonprofit" agencies or entities were created in the United States in the 1930's and 1940's and were financed directly by Adolph Hitler's propaganda machine.  She discusses in several places in the book the work done by the infamous Joseph Goebbels who ran Hitler's propaganda efforts worldwide.  She also includes the following quotation from "Mein Kampf":

" The great masses, he wrote, "will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one, since they themselves perhaps also lie in little things, but would certainly still be too much ashamed of too great lies.  Thus, such an untruth will not at all enter their heads, and therefore they will be unable to believe in the impossibility of the enormous impudence of the most infamous distortion in others."  (Rachel Maddow, quoting from "Mein Kampf", in "Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism", page 237. )

We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Adolph Hitler and his propaganda machine worked diligently in the United States of America during the 1930's and 1940's to control and/or influence the reaction of the general American public toward the war of aggression which Germany was waging all over Europe.  We know that they worked closely with many members of congress such as Senator Reynolds to gain publicly credible routes to the American psyche.  We have also been warned repeatedly by many sources about the highly probable connections between TRAITOR Trump and Putin's Russia. Perhaps the best source of that collusion is presented by the great historian and author Timothy Snyder in his book, "The Road To Unfreedom" on page 220, and on his account on the social media website "X", formerly known as "Twitter".   On that website, Dr. Snyder, who is a distinguished professor history at Yale University, has posted a Thread under this title 0/50 Why we do think that Mr. Trump owes a debt to Mr. Putin? Here are fifty reasons. All of the facts are a matter of public record, and all of the sources can be found in my book The Road to Unfreedom.  At that link, you will find Dr. Snyder's list of 50 incidents, all documented in the public record, in which TRAITOR Trump has had interactions with Russia in which either money or influence changed hands in a manner to indicate that there exists serious, and seriously TREASONOUS relationships between TRAITOR Trump and numerous representatives of Russia including Vladimir Putin and several other Russian oligarchs.  If we know that Hitler's Nazis were able to develop mutually beneficial relationships with several members of congress during the Third Reich, why should we doubt that in this time of much more means of surreptitious communication and transfer of money such similar relationships don't exist with numerous individuals, including TRAITOR Trump, and Russia. Also, as you consider this possibility, keep in mind that TRAITOR Trump has made several trips to Russia in his life, took an international beauty pageant to Russia, has met with Putin face to face on a few occasions, and has had numerous Russian citizens living in his residential properties.  Don' ever doubt the possibility that TRAITOR Trump is a Russian agent as alleged by a retired Russian intelligence agent in this article from "The Guardian" on January 29, 2021.  TRAITOR Trump must not be allowed anywhere near the White House again to repeat the many crimes for which he has already been indicted on numerous charges.