Somebody Is Murdering Democracy!

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

Donald Trump, Russian Intelligence Asset According to "The Guardian"

It is always great to learn that you have been correct about anything.  It is even better when you learn that you have been correct about a very important thing.  Today, January 30, 2021, I learned that I was correct, which I have known in my heart all along, in my deep seated conviction that the TRAITOR Donald Trump has been a Russian intelligence asset since the 1980's.  I admit that using the words "TRAITOR  Trump" and "Intelligence" in the same sentence creates an oxymoron of the worst kind.  Today, I read a news story on "The Guardian" which is one of the greatest and most accurate sources of news in the world.  In their story of January 29, 2021, entitled "The Perfect Target: Russia Cultivated Trump As An Asset For Forty Years- ex-KGB Spy", their writer David Smith provides details of an interview he conducted with retired KGB officer Yuri Shvets who is now an American citizen living and operating a corporate security firm in Virginia detailed how the TRAITOR Trump was cultivated by Russia's intelligence forces beginning in 1977 and worked both with and on him ever since to the fulfillment of their most extravagant dream, having an intelligence asset inside the Oval Office.  

Shvets was interviewed by journalist Craig Unger for an upcoming book and began disclosing how Russian kompromat, their term for the use and control of foreign intelligence assets, was able to feed TRAITOR Trump Russian talking points, flatter him  with women and Russian bank loans when no American bank would loan him money, and use him to fulfill their goals in the United States.  The news story details how a KGB asset in New York City was able to assess TRAITOR Trump as a possible asset and to direct him to others higher up the ladder who completed the process.  What is truly interesting about this story is that the scenario in the news story on "The Guardian" is eerily close to the scenario I used to write my short story, "Burial At Sea", which has been published on the Northwest Indiana Literary Journal, the Creativity Webzine in Germany, and on my blog all under the public domain since I wanted the story  to be published and circulated as widely as possible before the 2020 election since I have known from wide reading of other authors over the past five years that the only logical explanation of TRAITOR Trump's love of Russia was Russian kompromat.  In all three publications, I made clear that I want the story to be always in the public domain so it can be published and circulated anywhere, anytime, by anybody, so long as I am given appropriate author credit.  My wording on Creativity Webzine is as follows regarding publishing the story in the public domain: "Author’s Note: While this story is copyrighted, the copyright is intended only to protect my authorship. Anyone, any time, anywhere has my unrestricted permission to disseminate this story on any medium whether now known or created in the distant future. You may share it on social media, e-mail, websites, books, magazines, literary journals, or other forms of mass communication. I do not seek or require any form of remuneration for this work other than dissemination of the work. This permission is granted in tribute to my mentor, Don West, who published his life’s work without a copyright. The only thing I ask is that you give appropriate author credit and my brief bio is below." If you have the desire to pass my story on, feel free to do so under those circumstances.   

 "The Guardian" is one of the best, most reliable news sources in the world. If they publish a story you can bet it was vetted and proven to be true! For those of you who have read my short story, “Burial At Sea”, or Bill Best’s book, “Li’l Donnie” which contains an afterword I wrote along with a foreword by Juanita Herrington, or any of the other political books which I have written about on my blog, "My Appalachian Life" at Blog Spot, or posted about on Facebook, you will not be surprised.  I will never have to confess on judgment day that I did not Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out against TRAITOR Trump! What about you?

 

 

 

The 78 Most Dangerous Days In America...

 

The full title to this blog post is actuallyThe 78 Most Dangerous Days In American History Since Pearl Harbor and we are currently in the middle of those 78 days which means that I should have posted this piece on November 4, 2020, as soon it was apparent to all rational Americans that Joe Biden was the winner of the election held the day before.  I had actually been predicting the serious levels of danger to America which would arise after a Biden win as early as July or August in 2020 as soon as the majority of polls began to show that Joe Biden was amassing an insurmountable lead in public opinion.  To anyone with any level of psychological or psychiatric training, it has always been apparent that TRAITOR Trump was a very dangerous, criminal, and totally self-serving person.  So the question for those of us with such knowledge immediately became how will this man who is a malignant narcissist at best and an antisocial personality disordered individual at worst respond to the loss of the power which he had gained by virtue of his TREASON with Russia and Vladimir Putin.  It has always been readily apparent to all such trained people that TRAITOR Trump would respond as he always does to differences of opinion with his own mistaken beliefs that he would become increasingly more dangerous, more unhinged, and begin a steadily escalating series of attacks on anyone he believed had been responsible for his defeat and on America, American Democracy, and the entire free world as he draws nearer and nearer to the day on January 20, 2021, when he will be removed from the scene of his four year crime spree and be in imminent danger of federal prosecution for those crimes up to and including TREASON with Russia and Vladimir Putin.  

 

 

On a daily basis since November 3, 2020, we have seen TRAITOR Trump commit a series of steadily worsening acts against all the targets of his self-serving and virulent ire.  He has steadily refused to acknowledge his defeat, refused to concede the election (actually his second lost election),  daily used his favorite tool of stochastic terrorism to further incite the menagerie of Right Wing Radicals who blindly support him, attacked state officials in every state which Joe Biden won, and induced his lawyers to file a long string of unjustified and unsuccessful law suits against those states and those officials.  He has also issued a steady stream of highly questionable and likely unconstitutional executive orders to alter and damage the American government, encouraged the head of the General Services Administration who is known to be one of his loyal minions, to refuse to acknowledge Joe Biden as the president elect and to give him and his incoming administration access to the federal government, fired numerous federal officials who would not blindly support his fantasy that he had actually won an American election, and ceased to do anything except play golf at government expense and work to support his effort to cling to the power which he and Vladimir Putin stole four years ago.  

 

 

As I said above, as much as five or six months ago, I began to predict a series of dangerous actions I could foresee TRAITOR Trump taking after he was defeated in an American election for the second time.  That list of potential threats to America included 1) a long series of highly questionable and likely unconstitutional executive orders which we have been seeing carried out; 2) a series of pardons of his key conspirators which has begun with the pardon of Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn who is one of the direct connections between TRAITOR Trump and Vladimir Putin, the discussion of an attempt to even pardon his children and himself, and discussion of possible pardons for several more of his co-conspirators; 3) further stochastic terrorism and incitement of the Radical Right which he has been doing on a daily basis since November 3,2020; 4) further efforts to destroy the government and weaken various agencies whose missions are in conflict with his criminal interests and this has been occurring with the firing of several federal employees who have disagreed with TRAITOR Trump and this has resulted in the firing of the head of election security who refused to support his claims of election fraud; 5) further looting of the federal treasury which we cannot prove has been ongoing until Joe Biden is actually inaugurated and investigations of TRAITOR Trump's crimes can begin.  Nearly all of these crimes which I foresaw are happening on a daily basis since the election on November 3, 2020, and they will continue and actually escalate until the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.  These are the 78 most dangerous days in American History since Pearl Harbor and, at this point, we have no idea how much further damage will be done between now and inauguration day. 

 

 

If all this disaster should end today, this country will still suffer from the TREASON of TRAITOR Trump for decades to come.  The damage to the federal judiciary, especially the US Supreme Court, will last for as much as a half century based on the age of the appointees TRAITOR Trump and his co-conspirators have been able to place in judicial positions.  Numerous federal agencies such as the State Department have been deeply damaged with an exodus of experienced employees and the unwarranted firings of others.  We cannot rule out the possibility that TRAITOR Trump can still manage to start an unjustified war somewhere in the world, most likely against Iran.  We cannot rule rule out further outright TREASON with Vladimir Putin and Russia including the passing on of voluminous state secrets, identities of American intelligence agents and non-citizen intelligence assets around the world which could result in the deaths and neutralization of numerous agents, double agents, and cooperationg foreign citizens.   We cannot bet that America will ever be safe again because for four years we have allowed a Russian Agent and American TRAITOR to claim to be the President of The United States. 

Stochastic Terrorism In America!

 

Stochastic Terrorism is defined as "the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted".  Stochastic Terrorism is being committed in America every day and the source of the most serious portion of that terrorism is the illegal occupant of the White House.  Stochastic Terrorism results in hate crime attacks on members of targeted minorities all across this country.  Rampant ignorance about targets of Stochastic Terrorism is being spread like wildfire by the primary source of that terrorism, his appointed co-conspirators, and hundreds of  thousands of other voluntary co-conspirators who believe his lies.  

 

 

 

This week in Lansing, Michigan, at least 13 Domestic Terrorists were arrested in a plot to storm the state capitol, kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, place her on "trial for treason", and eventually kill her.  These people were known members of a group called "The Wolverine Watchmen" had conducted surveilance on the governor's vacation home and had, at one time, talked of using up to 200 men to attack the state capitol.  The group had been infiltrated by FBI agents and large numbers of recorded conversations and telephone calls had been obtained detailing the plot along with other acts of terrorism which the group wished to perpetrate.  The two leaders of this terrorist group had been involved in public protests with at least one elected county sheriff in Michigan.  Dar Leaf, the sheriff in question, has refused to disown the group and was a vocal opponent of Governor Whitmer's active interventions into the Covid 19 pandemic.  That action should tell you that this sheriff is also a Domestic Terrorist and should be charged. 

 

 

 

The question which  many people are asking about this incredibly treasonous and violent plot is "how could this happen in America" or "why are people in America engaging in such domestic terrorism".  There is a simple answer to such questions: a Domestic Terrorist has been allowed to live in the White House for nearly four years and, as a pubic figure, has been engaging in Stochastic Terrorism for at least 5 years.  At least since, Gretchen Whitmer began her run for governor of Michigan in 2018, TRAITOR Trump has often, randomly, unduly, and falsely attacked her because she has not only opposed him and his TREASON,she has publicly opposed him and always been correct and on target in her negative assessments of him.  Immediately after this plot was announced and the 13 people arrested by the FBI, TRAITOR Trump attacked Governor Whitmer again without saying one negative word about the Domestic Terrorists who had just been arrested for plotting her kidnapping and murder. TRAITOR Trump has variously attacked nearly every elected Democratic official in statewide offices, Democratic senators and congress members at the federal level, and even attacked retired Democratic officials in his efforts to incite such groups to acts of violence.  

 

 

 

The most often stated support of American Domestic Terrorists by TRAITOR Trump has always been the occasion after the Charlottesville, Virginia, murder of an innocent protestor when he stated that there were good people "on both sides of the protests".  Yet, somehow, a major portion of the American electorate was willing to ignore these blatant occasions of Stochastic Terrorism from TRAITOR Trump against non-violent protestors expressing their constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech, ongoing Stochastic Terrorism against Democratic office holders, candidates, and activists.  Anyone who utilizes their right to free speech, public assembly, or freedom of the press to question the motives, actions, or intentions of TRAITOR Trump has always been a target for his virulent rabble rousing and Stochastic Terrorism.  Finally, his TREASONOUS actions have reached a point in their consequences that only the most ignorant or uncaring Americans can ignore them any further.  It is long past time for the decent, law abiding citizens of this country to stand up against TRAITOR Trump and his Stochastic Terrorism, his TREASON with Russia, his burgeoning insanity, his crimes against humanity, and his complete incompetence in a job to which he was not legally elected.  Impeachment failed because he had 51 Right Wing Radical Repugnican co-conspirators in the US Senate.  Now, the only option is to vote STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC, elect Democratic officials nation wide, and support them in the necessary work to ensure that TRAITOR Trump is not allowed to incite civil war in the nation, ensure that he is removed by force if necessary from the White House on January 20, 2021, guarantee that he is indicted, convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned for life for his crimes against this nation and the entire human race. 

A Second Interesting Encounter With A Second Physician!

About a week ago, I posted on this blog about an interesting encounter I had with a physician who works as a department chair in a major American hospital.  Amazingly, I had a second such encounter with a second physician who is also a department chair at a major American hospital.  I was having a very interesting and satisfying week.  The first encounter occurred on Monday, September 14, 2020.  The second encounter occurred on Thursday, September 17, 2020.  The circumstances which led to both encounters taking the tack they did were nearly identical.  I had meetings scheduled with both doctors and was still reading the same book, John Bolton's "The Room Where It Happened", on both occasions.  I had expected to be required to wait at various times on both days and was trying desperately to finish reading Bolton's book so I could be free of it.  I had begun the book several weeks ago and had actually completed at least two other books while I was trying to complete the onerous task of reading it.  I had actually described it to the first doctor as being similar to taking 21 day rabies shots which used to be administered in the abdominal muscles each day for three whole weeks.  I had carried the book into both meetings and laid it down on the table next to me with the spine upright and facing the chair in which the doctors sat.  In my first post, linked above, the doctor had seen the book and immediately asked me what I thought of it and also stated that he had read about 80 pages of it and become so disgusted with it that he had laid it down for good.  Then we entered into about a ten minute conversation solely about our identical views of the book, John Bolton, and TRAITOR Trump.  

As I said above, for the second meeting I laid the book down on the table next to me with the visible spine facing the doctor's chair just as I had in the first encounter.  The second doctor immediately also asked me what I thought of the book.  I also told this doctor exactly what I thought of Bolton, his book, TRAITOR Trump, and the entire band of co-conspirators who assist him.  The second doctor also immediately agreed with my views but stated that he had known all along that he did not need to read the book and had never chosen to start it.  Our conversation lasted probably fifteen minutes on the subject of our identical political views, and the doctor stated his fears that American Democracy itself is in danger from TRAITOR Trump, a statement with which I totally agree.  At the end of this fifteen minute conversation, we went on to other matters.  But when we had concluded our discussion of the real subject of our meeting, this second doctor returned to the subject of politics and their fears for the country if Joe Biden is not elected president.  We talked politics again for about five more minutes and as we were heading out the door, the doctor stated, "I would literally vote for anyone before I would vote for..." to which I responded "I would vote for the town drunk of West Liberty (my hometown)" to which the doctor responded "I would also vote for the town drunk of West Liberty".  Then they initiated an elbow bump and we went down the hall in opposite directions smiling and laughing.  

While I was very pleased to encounter two very well respected doctors in America today who are willing to discuss their opposition to TRAITOR Trump openly while on duty, I am also deeply disgusted that it is necessary for any of us to have to feel the myriad emotions of disgust, distrust, fear, acrimony, and loathing which are fully appropriate toward TRAITOR Trump and those who support and enable him all  way from the most illiterate and mislead member of some small, dangerous right wing radical hate group to Vladimir Putin and his hackers in Russia.  America, American Democracy, and American style democracy are all in danger world wide if Joe Biden does not win this election.  We have been in the hands of the world's worst TRAITOR for nearly four years and we must bring this tyranny to an end on November 3, 2020.  But never forget that when Joe Biden wins this election on November 3, 2020, the most dangerous 78 days in America since Pearl Harbor will have begun.  After the election loss, TRAITOR Trump and his co-conspirators will wage a never ending war, both day and night to destroy America before Inauguration Day on January 20, 2020.  There will be a plethora of unconstitutional executive orders, further widespread looting of the federal treasury, generalized attempts to damage and destroy all regulatory agencies in the federal government, massive witness tampering and intimidation, and outright unmitigated TREASON on every front literally until the doors of the White House and all other branches of goverment are closed to these TRAITORS forever with the inauguration of President Joe Biden.  

An Interesting Encounter With A Physician!

Caduceus, Photo by Istock

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

Great Political Banners In Appalachia

Every now and then someone does something which I cannot resist passing on to the general public in the best interests of the country and the world at large.  This is one of those occasions and my cousin, really more like a brother, Jack Terry, is the person who has done it.  Jack and I have known each other since I was born 68 years ago.  You might say we go back a long way.  Our mothers were sisters and we grew up a lot alike, about 5 miles apart on the waters of Beaver Creek in Eastern Kentucky.  Our families actually spent several years, at different times, living in the same house on Steele's Creek near Wayland Kentucky.  Our upbringing was a lot alike and Jack, his brother Johnny, and I spent a lot of time together when we were not in school since we attended school in two different counties.  My parents moved out of that house and store on Steele's Creek in Floyd County in the summer of 1957 just before I turned six and started school.  As we moved out and further up Beaver Creek to Dema in Knott County, on the return trip down the creek, the truck and laborers stopped at the place Jack's parents had been living in and picked up a load of their house plunder and hauled it to the building we were moving away from.

Jack became career Army and later career Army Corps of Engineers and is now retired as am I.  He lives in a very rural part of Lawrence County Kentucky and recently sent me photos of two political banners he has erected on his property beside the state highway.  I love these banners.  They say at least part of what needs to be said about the ongoing political, moral, ethical, and legislative disaster which has been transpiring in America since January 20, 2017.  Here are the photos.  Feel free to share them anywhere you desire on social media or otherwise.  But please give photographer and creator credit to Jack D. Terry.

Political Banner--Created & Photographed by Jack D. Terry

Political Banner Created & Photographed by Jack D. Terry 

Will You Allow TRAITOR Trump To Murder You?

As the death toll from the Corona Virus pandemic has crossed the 30,000 mark in the USA, as of this writing on April 16, 2020, TRAITOR Trump continues to run his mouth, spout ignorant propaganda, and attempt to reopen the United States long before the pandemic is likely to have run its course and well before most of the governors in the country agree on a reasonable date to loosen pandemic restrictions.  So the question becomes "Are you willing to bet your life on decisions being made by the worst TRAITOR in the history of the world?  Will you allow TRAITOR Trump to murder you?"  I realize the use of the word murder is strong.  But none of these deaths had to happen if the TRAITOR had simply done the job he was never elected to do.  But since he has always acted against the best interests of the United States ever since the day he illegally and TREASONOUSLY waltzed into the White House at the urging and due to the assistance of Vladimir Putin, TRAITOR Trump wants to ignore all aspects of science and medicine and tell the American people to take their lives in their own hands and go back to living life as if there is not a deadly virus wreaking the worst havoc in this country since at least the polio epidemic of the early twentieth century.

At least eleven governors in the United States and the mayor of the Washington, DC, know better and have updated their stay at home orders to at least May 15, 2020, which is still a decidedly optimistic time frame to reopen the country when the virus has killed at least 6,000 people in nursing homes, 33,000 nationwide and is now equal to 50% of the total US deaths during the Viet Nam War and rapidly approaching the total of all US deaths during the Korean War.  Just today we learned that the largest nursing home in New Jersey was just caught storing 17 bodies in a morgue intended for a maximum of 4 in an apparent attempt to delay or cover up knowledge of all those deaths since that facility had recently received the lowest possible state inspection rating which would allow them to remain open.  Even in decidedly rural Jackson County Kentucky, a county in which I worked for 2+ years as a mental health therapist in a juvenile facility, a nursing home is fighting a major outbreak with multiple cases and multiple deaths. Refrigerated trucks are in use as morgues in New York and New Jersey.  Funeral homes in both those states are overloaded and the unclaimed dead are being buried in trenches in a pauper's field in New York.  An official of the Centers For Disease Control has just publicly stated that the publicly accepted death toll of 33,000 as of this writing is probably "just the tip of the iceberg" and that actual number are probably much higher due to the criminally inadequate testing numbers nation wide due to the a lack of testing equipment and laboratories. The overall testing issue is also exacerbated by inaccurate, overdue, and undone reporting by many private labs. In his daily propaganda spiel on this date, TRAITOR Trump backed off his TREASONOUS disputation of the US Constitution that he has "total power" and admitted that the calls to reopen states must come from the governors.  But he is still the most dangerous man in the world and working daily to destroy the country.

Yet, in the face of all these governors and their actions, we are saddled with the TREASONOUS occupant of the White House blatantly and daily insisting that the most important aspect of this pandemic is the question of when the restrictions will be lifted and the country reopened.  This recipient of the electoral espionage and manipulation of Russia and Vladimir Putin does not care one iota about you, the reader, or any other citizen, state, city, or other jurisdiction in the country.  He does not care if you live or die and he is willing to allow all of us to die in order to get his way and avoid responsibility for his TREASONOUS inaction for two months from January until March as the virus was spreading all over this nation.  I repeat myself, WILL YOU ALLOW TRAITOR Trump TO MURDER YOU?

Some Thoughts On A Quote From Pearl S. Buck

"Yes, it was a great country, and he was part of it.  Men like him chose a common man and bade him to go to Washington and run the nation for them, and so long as they willed, he obeyed them.  When they willed, they sent him home again, and he went back to some little place...and was no more than anybody else.  It was a glorious idealism,

its only weakness the weakness of the individual."  (Pearl S. Buck, "The Townsman", Chapter 38, published under the pseudonym John Sedges)

During the course of her life, after returning to the United States from China, Pearl S. Buck wrote and published five novels under the pseudonym John Sedges because at the time her publisher believed that the American people simply thought of Pearl S. Buck as a Chinese or Asian writer and would not accept her writing fiction about America.  This is the only one of the John Sedges novels I have read at this point.  But I will complete them all in time based on how much I love this one. As I have been reading "The Townsman", I have come to love it and was particularly struck by the quotation above when I came upon it near the end of the novel.  What an important and accurate quote it is especially in these turbulent and terrifying times in America, the America which both Pearl S. Buck and I have loved.  But I do not intend to write at length in this post about the entire novel.  I only want to address the quotation above.  For these times, in March of 2020, with America facing the worst pandemic in the world since the polio outbreak of the early twentieth century this quote is both accurate and fraught with warning for this country and its people.  Taking the quotation line by line, let us examine it.  

"Yes, it was a great country and he was part of it." Yes, this is a great country, or was a great country.  But over the last four or so years, since the day the TRAITOR Trump announced he was running for president, the country has deteriorated sadly and immensely due primarily to the idiotic, unpatriotic, destructive, racist, violent, and ignorant speech from the TRAITOR Trump.  A coalition of the most gullible, criminal, and Right Wing Radical people in the country, including many who mistakenly claim they are Christians, has supported him and his TREASONOUS activities and the country has deteriorated morally, ethically, and legislatively as a result.  Our respect, as a nation in the eyes of the world has deteriorated greatly and now we are facing an unforeseen crisis which will turn out to be the worst health care crisis in the world since the polio epidemic of the early twentieth century.  Sadly, we have no leadership at the top fit to deal with it.

Men like him chose a common man and bade him to go to Washington and run the nation for them, and so long as they willed, he obeyed them.  From 1789 until 2012, the truths in the preceding sentence were upheld in America.  But in 2016, TRAITOR Trump, with the assistance of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Russian hackers stole a US presidential election and now nothing in that sentence above is true.  Men and women like the average citizen had their election, their presidency, their White House, and their country stolen from them and on January 20, 2017, a TRAITOR was actually allowed to illegally occupy the White House and he has never done the will of anyone except his Russian Master Vladimir Putin.  There have even been intimations, at times, both from TRAITOR Trump and his Russian master Vladimir Putin that he might not even step down at the end of this illegally obtained term. At no point, has TRAITOR Trump obeyed the will of the people.  The only will he has obeyed has been the will of his Russian Master Vladimir Putin.  He does not, has never, and will never obey the will of the electorate and only obeys the will of Vladimir Putin under duress which began when Russia bailed him out of his disastrous casino bankruptcies in 1989 through Deutsche Bank and Alfa Bank. At that time, no American bank with sufficient assets to do so would loan TRAITOR Trump enough money to save him from total financial collapse.  He belongs to Russia and he has always belonged to Russia since the day that first Russian backed loan was granted to him and he will belong to Russia until the day he dies or until the day they consider him no longer useful to Russian interests.

When they willed, they sent him home again, and he went back to some little place...and was no more than anybody else.  There are several separate key segments to this deceptively simple little sentence from Pearl S. Buck.  "When they willed" is a segment we have discussed at some length in the segment above which discusses in part the use of the very similar words "so long as they willed" and we will not repeat ourselves here.  But when you combine the words "when they willed" with the following phrase "they sent him home again", we arrive at a very important issue as regards the TRAITOR Trump and his lack of obedience to the will of the American electorate, his related total obedience to the will of Vladimir Putin and Russia, and the aforementioned doubt as whether or not the TRAITOR Trump will even obey the will of the people when he is defeated in the 2020 election and willingly leave the White House, the scene of most of his crime spree from January 20, 2017, until today, as I write, March 24, 2020.  Now, let's look at the last phrase in the sentence: "he went back to some little place...and was no more than anybody else".  That entire phrase and the totality of its validity rests on whether or not the occupant of the White House, whomever he or she may be, is willing to leave willingly at the end of their term whether that term was legitimately or illegitimately achieved.  In the case of the current illegitimate occupant of the White House, serious doubt exists among many of the most astute and intelligent people in the country and the world as to whether or not he will actually leave the White House willingly.  Their doubts are based in well documented statements both from TRAITOR Trump and those closest to him including his Russian Master Vladimir Putin.  Naturally, the question remains unanswered as to exactly what other public officials of the United States, including governors, senators, congress members, the Supreme Court, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff , would do in the event that an election were held, TRAITOR Trump were defeated, and then he refused to concede and leave the property of the taxpayers who had just rejected him.  Let us all hope that we never need to learn the answer to that question.  But if it does become necessary to learn, it is my fervent hope that the Joint Chiefs would do their duty and forcibly remove the usurper from the Oval Office.  It is also interesting from a psychological point of view to realize that the TRAITOR Trump has never believed, and mistakenly so, that he is "no more than anybody else" when in fact for every day of his criminal and TREASONOUS existence he has been far less than any other randomly selected and honest citizen of the country.  His ordinariness, his criminal nature, his limited intellectual skills, and his bone deep dishonesty indicate in an incontrovertible way that he is far less than the average voter who will, God willing, order him to give up his usurped office and leave to await further indictment, prosecution and eventual imprisonment for his TREASON and assorted other crimes.  

It was a glorious idealism, its only weakness the weakness of the individual."  At the time Pearl S. Buck wrote the book "The Townsman" and wrote the paragraph we have been examining, she had no way of knowing whether her words would ever be applicable to any political situation in America such as the one we are mired in as a country today.  Although she was expressing her own deeply held beliefs about America, American Democracy, and the Presidency, she had no way of knowing just how prescient her words would become seventy-five years after the book was published in 1944.  But prescient they are.  The entire concept of American Democracy and the US Constitution and everything it governs including the presidency does represent "a glorious idealism".  In the two hundred plus years since the US Constitution was written, several other democracies and constitutions have been modeled after ours.  Our democracy has managed to survive every assault which has risen against it since 1789.  We have survived multiple wars including two world wars.  We have survived prior economic collapses and health care epidemics including the Great Depression and the polio epidemic.  But in all those years, this country and this democracy has never been faced with a double breasted crisis such as the one we are facing now.  We are in the throes of the worst world wide pandemic since the 1918 Influenza Epidemic attacked the world.  We are in the throes of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930's.  Simultaneously, we are forced to face this two-pronged assault with the White House under occupation by an illegitimate claimant to the title of US President who claim to that title arose in a criminal nature and was facilitated by TREASON in cooperation with the worst geopolitical enemy this country has.  "The weakness of the individual" as Pearl S. Buck wrote it is at the heart of our worst crisis in American history.  The criminal weakness of the TRAITOR Trump has placed us in an untenable position as a country and a people.  We must survive this crisis and he must receive the punishment he deserves for the damage he has done to this country.  When is removed from office by vote, and if necessary by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he must be indicted, prosecuted, convicted, and incarcerated for his TREASON and assorted other crimes against the government and the people of the United States, and he must be forced to serve his sentence in a secure federal prison to the literal end of his miserable, TREASONOUS life.   

My Message To Bernie Sanders And His Supporters!

Yesterday morning, March 22, 2020, I sent the following message to US Senator Bernie Sanders on his official senate web page. I suggest that all my friends and all the voters in America do the same thing. Bernie Sanders is now doing exactly the same thing he did in 2016 and continuing a futile campaign, refusing to concede, and damaging the eventual nominee of the Democratic Party. Please send some form of a similar message to Bernie Sanders.

Senator Sanders:

Just as you did from June 6, 2016, until July 12, 2016, you are continuing to run a futile campaign and damage the Democratic Party nominee, Joe Biden. This is not ethical. This is not honest. This is not in the best interests of the country in this time of crisis. It is once again past time for you to concede, endorse the nominee, and support him publicly, or at the very least to stop damaging his campaign to save the country. Face your ethical, moral, and rational responsibility and concede. You are simply confirming the allegations in this news story at the link below that you are one of two candidates supported by Vladimir Putin because you bring chaos to the campaign and to America.

Roger D. Hicks

Here is the link to a news story about Vladimir Putin's interference in US elections and his support of both TRAITOR Trump and Bernie Sanders and the fact that Putin does this because Sanders, just like TRAITOR Trump, wreaks havoc in the country with his persistence in continuing to campaign and foment anger among his supporters.  The supporters of both Sanders and TRAITOR Trump are in many ways just alike and devoted to both men in a cult like manner.  Both groups are minorities in America and American politics.  But Vladimir Putin knows that if both are running for office and fomenting misplaced and illegitimate anger among their followers, a legitimate candidate like Joe Biden cannot win in the end and Putin will end up with his real candidate, TRAITOR Trump living illegally in the White House based on his TREASON with Russia.  I firmly believe that TRAITOR Trump is and has been for many years a willing agent of Russia based on their loans, through Alfa Bank and Deutsch Bank which saved him from a total financial collapse in 1989.  I have never come to the conclusion that Bernie Sanders is a willing agent of Putin and Russia.  But I do believe that Vladimir Putin and Russia view Bernie Sanders as a "useful idiot" which is a term intelligence agents world wide use to describe those people who are not willing to assist in their efforts but are just too gullible to realize they are being used to help their manipulators to achieve their goals.  Based on all that, I am asking anyone and everyone I can influence to do so to send a similar kind of message to Bernie Sanders to urge him to face the reality that once again, just as happened in 2016, he is incapable of winning the nomination and is only damaging the nominee, the Democratic party, and the country.  I would also like those messages to include a reminder to Sanders that he is, once again, assisting Russia and Vladimir Putin to achieve their goals and he must concede, endorse the nominee, and actually work with that nominee for the greater good of the nation.  

This Is The Battle I Was Trained To Fight!

America is in the midst of the worst constitutional crisis in the history of the country.  I had considered saying that we are in the worst constitutional crisis since April 12, 1861, the day the Civil War began.  But after careful consideration, I realized that even during the Civil War, the forces which were fighting against the United States of America were not controlled by a foreign power.  They were not fully committed to destroying Democracy in North America.  They were not fully committed to destroying the US Constitution.  Today, we are in a battle in which the individual who illegally occupies the White House is fully committed to destroying America, American Democracy, the US Constitution, and everything they all represent as he works to support his Russian master and the ideas of his heroes such as Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Adolph Eichmann, and every other Fascist and dictator who ever lived.  These are the worst days in the history of the country, worse than the Civil War, worse than World War I, worse than World War II, worse than the Great Depression.  We are literally engaged in a battle which will decide if this country will survive as the greatest democracy in the history of the world.

Statue Of Liberty--Photo by Ellis Island

So the question becomes what will each of us do in response to this widespread Fascist attempt to destroy America.  I don't know about you but I will fight it to my dying breath.  Just as the title of this blog post says 'This is the battle I was trained to fight'.  I have been incredibly lucky to be born in the greatest democracy on the face of the earth and so were most of you. And, of course, some of you were born in other countries and chose to immigrate to America for a better life in a better country.  I applaud each immigrant in America and know that the great majority of you are also deeply involved in this battle for the country you loved enough to leave everything and everyone you had ever known to become Americans. Each immigrant citizen in America is under attack today and living in fear of seeing the destruction of the constitutional process which made you an American.  I was incredibly lucky to have been born into a family which was composed of intelligent, politically aware people who were able to understand an attack on our country and to train me to understand it also along with being able to see and understand any future attacks long after the people who raised me were dead.  I have been incredibly lucky to have found, wandered into, or been divinely guided to other teachers, mentors, heroes, and friends who expanded on that early education I received at the feet of my elders.  Collectively and individually these people gave me a base of knowledge, morals, values, and resources which make it not only suggested but mandatory that I stand up for what is right in the face of any attacks which occur to destroy that which is valuable to and life sustaining for a democracy.  I sincerely hope each of you who read this has also had some level of the same type of mentoring, instruction, and moral training to teach you the same things.  At this time of incredible crisis in America, it is necessary that every American citizen with enough intelligence and morals to understand the nature of the intensifying attack on our country and its sacred institutions  must be willing to stand up, stand out, speak up, and speak out on a daily basis to confront the incredibly Fascist and anti-American ideas which are arising from the Radical Right and from Russia and their minion in Washington.

Albert Stewart--Photo by Lexington Herald-Leader

I have often written on this blog about some of the people I have encountered in life who have reinforced the democratic and patriotic values which my parents instilled in me.  Probably the first such person I met was William Howard Cohen when I was about 14 years old in Upward Bound on the campus of Alice Lloyd College.  Bill Cohen became my professor, mentor, and friend and taught me both by example and by didactic methods to stand up for what is right.  Bill Cohen went out in Eastern Kentucky to strip mines and lay down in front of coal trucks in his fight against strip mining and eventually lost his job at Alice Lloyd College because of it.  But because he was right, he never stopped speaking out against wrong.  At about the same time, I met Albert Stewart who also taught at Alice Lloyd College but fought his fights in a much quieter  but just as firm a manner.  In his effort to save his family farm on Yellow Mountain in Knott County from destruction by strip mining, he eventually willed it and gifted it to the University of Kentucky to prevent that destruction.

Robert "Bob" Snyder--Photo by Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College

A few years later, I became a member of a group of people in Beckley, West Virginia, who have gone on to become some of the most respected writers, teachers, and social activists in all of Appalachia.  The Southern Appalachian Circuit Of Antioch College in Beckley was created and directed by Robert "Bob" Snyder one of the best poets and most brilliant minds Appalachia has ever produced.  He also put together a tremendous group of professors and students at that time in the early 1970's who are often spoken of as a group when Appalachian writing and social activism are discussed.  In that group of professors was Don West, P. J. Laska, Rod Harless, and William C. "Bill" Blizzard.  Each of those people further reinforced my commitment to do the right thing no matter the circumstances or the opponent.  I learned valuable lessons from each of them along with several of the other students in that group.

Don West--Photo by Georgia Encyclopedia

Don West had been born in North Georgia as the son and grandson of poor mountain farmers.  He grew up to write, teach, preach, do social action work, and to influence dozens of other American social activists.  He co-created Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee, with Miles Horton.  He and his wife Connie Adams West created the Appalachian South Folklife Center in Pipestem, West Virginia.  Don fought for the UMWA in Harlan County Kentucky in the 1920's, worked in the defense of Angelo Herndon in Georgia in the 1930's, and saw himself fired from Oglethorpe University due to his social activism.  He was run out of Georgia under a death warrant for his defense of Herndon, saw two homes burned out from under him, and was ostracized in many ways in many places.  But Don West never stopped fighting for social justice.  He also never stopped working to teach anyone he met about the importance of doing the same thing and never stopping in a fight for the good, just, correct thing in a crisis. By the time Don West died in 1992 at 86, his battles had earned him an obituary in the New York Times and a biography in the encyclopedias of two states, Georgia and West Virginia. 

Roderick Mansfield Harless--Photo by the Harless Family

Roderick Mansfield "Rod" Harless was also one of those professors at the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College.  Rod had grown up in a large family which produced both him and a brother who was a long term official in the United Mine Workers of America.  Rod was quiet, low key, and a wonderful writer.  His "Prince of New Rock" satire series about the candidacy of Jay Rockefeller for governor of West Virginia is an unknown and unrecognized classic. He was a social activist who was deeply committed to always doing the right thing in all circumstances and passed that commitment on to those who knew him.

William C. Blizzard--Photo by Kimberly Clear

William C. "Bill" Blizzard was also a member of the faculty at the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College after having spent most of his life as a writer at the Charleston Gazette  which fired him for refusing to cross a press men's picket line at the paper during a strike.  Bill Blizzard would likely have chosen to die rather than cross a picket line.  He was the son of William Blizzard, the leader of the United Mine Workers at the Battle of Blair Mountain in Logan County, West Virginia.  Bill Blizzard published a book, "When Miners March" about the West Virginia unionization effort late in life and devoted his life and much of his free lance writing to passing on the socially active values his father and the United Mine Workers had passed on to him as a child.

P. J. Laska--Photo by Roger D. Hicks

P. J. Laska was also a key member of the faculty at the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College and has been my professor, mentor, and friend since we met in the 1970's.  He is the one living member of that incredible group of teachers and activists who came together in Beckley along with a sizeable group of their students who have continued the good fight in nearly all causes we have encounter.  Laska was a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry in 1976.  I have been blessed to have known all of these people I have listed so far in this blog post.  But I have been especially blessed to have had P. J. Laska as a friend and mentor for the past forty plus years.  Today, at 80, he is still fighting the good fight just as many of his former students are.  After knowing and having been mentored by this group of people, how could I do anything except keep up the good fight until it is won just as the American Revolution was won, just as the Civil War was won, just as all of our greatest challenges such as the Great Depression have been won?

Dr. Daya Singh Sandhu--Photo by Sikhnet.com

I have also been blessed to know several immigrants who have influenced me deeply over the years.  I have written about some of those people and their contributions to America in this blog and I will continue to do so.  Recently, I have met two new immigrants who work in two of my favorite restaurants who are also inspirations to me.  After having known people like Dr. Elif Arioglu-Oral, Dr. Daya Singh Sandu, Dr. Surjit Dhooper, Dr. Noor Loynab and his wonderful wife, Amena Loynab, all of whom are immigrants, how could I not continue to fight the good fight to keep the open door of America open to all who are willing to come and work to make this country better?  But I have also been influenced by many other immigrants who came to America, became citizens, and spent their lives working as horsemen, waiters, laborers, and other jobs which make a country function successfully?  And, of course, how could any loyal citizen of this country not fight to their dying breath against the nameless TRAITOR who now lives illegally in the White House based on his TREASON with Russia?  I call upon every person who reads this blog post to join in this greatest fight in American history and to continue unflinching until the battle is won.  Do not allow our country's greatest enemy to destroy the US Constitution, American Democracy, and America herself as they are working daily to do?   

Dr. Elif Arioglu-Oral, M. D.--Photo by U of Michigan Health Net

An Independence Day Declaration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On December 7, 2018, I reviewed the excellent book "Fascism A Warning" by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.  Today I still use a quotation from that book on my e-mail signature which states: "Why, this far into the twenty-first century, are we once again talking about Fascism?  One reason, frankly, is Donald Trump.  If we think of Fascism as a wound from the past that had almost healed, putting Trump in the White House was like ripping off the bandage and picking at the scab.”  Madeleine Albright, “Fascism A Warning”, p. 5-6. This is a key book in the recently published books on the Reading List For The Resistance.  It is a highly important, well reasoned book by a person who had extensive experience both as a professor of history and politics and as a US Secretary Of State.  It presents a chilling picture of the world today in light of how Fascist and inhumane ideologies have spread like a bad case of crotch rot all over America and the world.  

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

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

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