Two decades ago I knew nothing about Donald J. Trump. Then my wife and I sailed in to Atlantic City New Jersey. The biggest buildings were labeled "Trump". They were boarded up. So years later when I heard people extolling the fact that the government would be run by a "successful businessman", I knew better. Trump was never a successful businessman.

I did remember that the last previous "successful businessman" to be president was Herbert Hoover, who had been a mining engineer. Not a promising example of successful governing.

 Something there is that doesn't love a wall.

At least Robert Frost got it.

Trump just had to go down to our southern border and admire his wall.

I have seen some of the world's most notorious walls. I have been through Check Point Charlie. My conclusion is that walls don't work. They never did. They didn't protect China. They didn't protect Berlin. They didn't protect Hadrian.

Offhand, I can't think of a place or an entity they did protect.

Tear down walls. Build bridges.

 Let's be clear. Donald J. Trump wants to destroy the U.S. Government. He is not a loyal American. He has never been a loyal American in his entire adult life. His spurious claim of bone spurs to get out of military service was the original signal of disloyalty.

 Let's be clear. What Donald J Trump did last Wednesday was Treason. It was, to be clear, levying war on the United States.

Levying war includes actual use of force by multiple people with the common purpose of keeping some public law from being enforced. In this case the public law being impeded was the certification of a valid presidential election. 

I'm an old white guy from Mississippi. I have lived through a third of our country's history. Most of that time I was paying attention. I know a thing or two because I've seen a thing or two. 

I have also worn my country's uniform in defense of our nation's defense since 1954. 

For the first time in all those years, I am ashamed of my country.

It will take a long time to erase the shame of this presidency.

 Where were you on the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor? I ask, because there is a big difference in attitude between those who remember that day and those who have merely read about it. Even historians get the story muddled. 

The attack was a surprise. But the war was not. We saw it coming. We were getting ready for war with authoritarian dictatorships.

The biggest concern in 1939-1940 was, how would western democracies be able to stand up to despots. We never imagined it would be a good idea to become a despotism ourselves.

The morning of the attack, we were living in Tallahassee. My dad had been away at the Louisiana Maneuvers and had just returned two days earlier from the Carolina Maneuvers.   

About noon, our landlord knocked on the door.

"The Japs have bombed Pearl Harbor, he announced."

My dad grabbed his B-4 bag  and rushed off to the base. We didn't see him for a couple of days, when he came back to pack his foot locker.                                        

African Americans At Normandy (D-Day): Medgar Evers

Last week, The Raleigh News and Observer printed an article about African Americans at D-Day.

The article did not mention it, but one of the African Americans fighting for the allies at D-Day was the late Medgar Wiley Evers, a civil rights activist in Mississippi who was assassinated on June 12, 1963 by Byron De La Beckwith of Greenwood.

After World War II, Evers received a degree from Alcorn State College near Jackson, and became the state's first NAACP field secretary.

Beckwith was also a World War II veteran, having served on Guadalcanal. He belonged to both the Klan and the White Citizen's Council.

After three trials, Beckwith was finally convicted of Medgar Evers' murder in a state trial in 1994. He died in prison.

Donald J Trump Is A Disloyal American

The release today of the Mueller Report makes it clear that Donald J Trump is disloyal. He is also a crook.

But we already knew that.

We also already knew that the only way he was elected to the presidency is with the help of Putin and his Russian collaborators.

In this country, about three million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for Trump.

Trump is a loser.

Back On Line

I've been away for awhile. Getting back on line. In the meantime, had a hurricane (Florence) and some not very bad medical issues. Worse than that, we have had a sustained, prolonged attack (by our president and the NC state legislature) on American democracy.

Only we can save ourselves.