By Bob Gaydos

Banned books

In 1982, the American Library Association began celebrating Banned Books Week in the first week of  October. This is your reminder. It’s that time again. And make no mistake, the people who are waging wars on our freedoms have their sights constantly set on what we read as well as what we think and say.

The aim of this special week, according to the ALA is “to celebrate the freedom to read and to promote silenced voices.” The association keeps track of  books that are challenged or banned in schools and libraries and it has been kept busy since the Trump MAGA cult gained political power.

For the record, in 2024, ALA documented 821 attempts to censor library books and other materials across all library types, a decrease from 2023, when a record high 1,247 attempts were reported. It also recorded attempts to remove 2,452 unique titles in 2024, which far exceeded the average of 273 unique titles that were challenged annually during 2001–2020.

Traditionally specific reasons why books have been banned or challenged include: LGBTQ content, sexually explicit language, profanity, racism, violence, religious viewpoint, sex education, suicide, drug and alcohol use, nudity, political viewpoint and offensive language. Recently, Trump and MAGA groups have gone after recorded history.

Significantly, the ALA says data show that the majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members and administrators initiated 72 percent of challenges. Parents accounted for just 16 percent. It’s an organized MAGA attempt to control what we read, know and think.

The week is intended to fight that and to promote the freedom to choose what we read. Libraries across the country are sponsoring special events to do just that. My contribution of late has been to list banned books which I have read and to solicit the titles of other banned books from my readers so that we may share them. I am fortunate enough to live in a state that doesn’t go about banning books or deciding what teachers teach based on a few politicians’ ambitions. There’s also a Little Free Library right on Main Street in downtown Pine Bush.

Here’s my list, in no particular order, of banned books I have read. It’s compiled from a few lists I have found on the Internet and includes some books I had no idea were ever the target of attempted banning.

The list:

— The Catcher in the Rye

— To Kill a Mockingbird

— The Lord of the Flies

— 1984

— Lolita

— Catch 22

— Brave New World

— Animal Farm

— The Sun Also Rises

— Invisible Man

— Howl

— One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

— Slaughterhouse Five

— In Cold Blood

— Rabbit, Run

— Moby Dick

— Canterbury Tales

— Captain Underpants

— The Kite Runner

— The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

— The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

— Fahrenheit 451

— Moll Flanders

— A Farewell to Arms

I am currently reading “James,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Percival Everett’s brilliant re-telling of Huckleberry Finn’s story from the perspective of Jim, the slave. The author is expecting challenges to the book from states busy trying to eliminate slavery from our history. Florida, for example.

“Captain Underpants” is on my list because I have two sons, now grown. I also think school assignments for one of my sons wound up on the list. Kudos to the teacher.

Please, support your local library and share your favorite banned books with us. Join the fight to protect our freedom to read what we please.

Missing in action

By Bob Gaydos
Where in the world

is Donald Trump?

Up in his bedroom

texting on his rump?

The government’s come

to a grinding halt.

Republicans, though in charge,

say the Dems are at fault.

Not that it matters.

The House has gone home.

No one can vote,

not even by remote.

But Trump has been missing

since the generals’

silent dissing.

Embarrassed? Enraged?

Or merely incontinent?

Doesn’t matter. We can handle the news.

Of that, I feel confident.

Is he ailing? Is he failing?

Is he simply off his feed?

Is he prepping his notes

for the next shutdown dance?

Or should we get ready

for President Vance?

Oh, where in the world

is Donald Trump?

If he’s golfing on Epstein’s Island,

I’ll feel like a chump.

By Bob Gaydos

The nation’s top military leaders listening to a pep talk from Pete Hegseth.

   A famous political leader once said, “Problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top …”

   I tend to agree. Actions taken or not taken by those at the top, in my experience, often have a profound effect on situations. In fact, four recent, seemingly unrelated situations illustrate that theory perfectly.

     First, we have the command performance of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth before 800 of the nation’s top military leaders at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. Hegseth summoned generals and admirals from around the globe at a cost of millions of dollars and untold security risk to subject them to the most insulting, embarrassing lecture on leadership. He complained about “fat generals,“ insulted women in the military and told the brass they could start beating up recruits again. He inflicted a war ethic on those who know war all too well and who also understand the wisdom of quiet strength.

    The commander-in-chief, never one to miss what he apparently thought was a public rally, decided to show up and told the generals to train their troops in America’s cities to fight “the enemy within.“ Both men, although clearly looking for applause, were greeted with silence before, during and after their addresses, to the immense credit of the assembled military leaders of this nation.

   At the same time this was happening, the federal government was rushing to a shutdown because Congress has yet to pass a new budget. In fact, instead of meeting with congressional leaders, Trump was busy delivering his usual rambling “speech“ at the generals and admirals. Despite having control of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government,  congressional Republicans have not been able to deliver a budget on time because they can’t get enough votes. They blame Democrats. Democrats say they would be happy to sign a budget bill, so long as it did not remove medical insurance coverage for millions of Americans. Which it does.

   Complicating the budget problem is situation number three. House Republicans were actually still on vacation. That’s because Speaker Mike Johnson, who is clearly lacking any modicum of self-respect, is seeking to delay as long as possible the swearing in of the newest member of Congress, Adelita Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona. She would be the deciding vote on the passage of a bill requiring the Justice Department to release the full Epstein files. Interestingly, the votes are apparently there in the Republican Congress for release of the Epstein files, but not to pass a budget.

   The fourth problem situation was the Ryder Cup golf tournament at Bethpage, Long Island, which was more like a drunken beach party. The match pitting a team of American golfers against a European team, was marred by rowdy, drunken American fans, hurling insults, water bottles and beer cans at the European team and in general behaving like a bunch of drunken hoodlums. Not what one would expect at a major golf tournament. It was also embarrassing for the American team and, indeed, another reason for Europeans to lose respect for this country. Europe won the match, by the way.

    So let’s start from the top. 1. Trump appointed Hegseth, a Fox News personality with a drinking problem, to head the Defense Department, a job for which he is criminally unqualified. 2. Trump also refuses to negotiate a budget deal with Democrats on the budget because he is not capable of understanding political negotiations. It’s too difficult. For him it’s always warfare and he doesn’t care about the casualties. 3. Trump clearly doesn’t want the Epstein files released because his name is all over them and Johnson is totally in his pocket. 4. Trump, perhaps the most famous golfer in the country, has given a large segment of the population permission to behave like ignorant buffoons and worse in public via his own language in public, including name-calling political rivals and encouraging an attack on the U.S. Capitol and then pardoning those responsible for the attack. And he has provided the example to followers that it is acceptable to publicly insult allies, be it Team Europe or members of NATO and indeed the entire United Nations. There is no friendly competition, only us versus them and they are the bad guys.

    So there it is. If you haven’t guessed yet, Trump is the famous politician who uttered that quote at the top. These problems all started from the top. They need to be solved, from the top.

    Prove me wrong.

By Bob Gaydos

A typical after-school scene in many cities in the United States.

I took a mental health break from writing about the news for a week because, well, just because. But it does go on, so …

The good news this week is that we’re not yet at war with Venezuela. The bad news is that a lot of Americans aren’t even aware that this could happen because they don’t read or don’t understand what they read and the whole thing is giving me and a lot of people a pain in the neck. Literally.

Let’s try to connect the dots.

As far as we know (because the Trump administration  routinely lies about everything), 19 or more people have been killed in the Caribbean Sea by missiles fired from American military vessels. The Trump “War” Department claims the victims of these attacks were Venezuelan drug smugglers, part of a gang Trump has declared “terrorists.”

Typically, no evidence of anything claimed has been produced, either in advance, to justify arrest and proper legal proceedings, or after the fact, to at least verify there were drugs and get an accurate body count. We do know that some of the victims were fishermen. Also, that such unprovoked, unverifiable attacks on the high seas are generally considered to be war crimes and that Trump likes to play make-believe warlord even though declaring war on a country is a power the Constitution gives to Congress. Republicans, who control Congress, don’t seem to care about this indiscriminate killing on the high seas because they are too scared of Trump to do their job.

Now, the only reason this is even a story is because Trump was elected president for a second term. He was chosen by an electorate that has been systematically dumbed-down by Trump/Republican assaults on the legitimate news media, schools, libraries, universities and any source of reliable written information. (I feel pretty confident saying Kamala Harris as president wouldn’t be attacking Venezuelan fishing boats in the Caribbean just to prove to supporters that she was being tough on drug smugglers.)

This assault on intelligence started in Trump’s first term. “Fake News!” he declared repeatedly about legitimate journalism. Combined with the growth of rightwing media outlets spreading actual fake news and the spread of social media on the Internet, Americans have been bombarded with “information” but no clues on how to sort it out, real from fake, important from trivial. Local newspapers have disappeared. Many people, especially younger people, now get their “news” exclusively from tidbits they see while scrolling on their phones. TikTok is not yet The New York Times.

According to recent studies from the National Literacy Institute and the National Center for Education Statistics, the average reading age of adults in the United States is at a 7th- to 8th-grade level. More than half of adults read below a sixth-grade level. As of 2024, 54 percent of American adults ages 16–74 have literacy skills below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. This is about 130 million Americans. Of those with low literacy skills, an estimated 45 million adults are functionally illiterate, meaning they read below a fifth-grade level.

Data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies shows that the average U.S. adult literacy score declined between 2017, Trump’s first year in office, and 2023, the last year tested. The percentage of adults at the lowest literacy levels increased from 19 percent to 28 percent in that span of Republican assault on literacy and increasing reliance on social media for information.

The connection? Higher literacy levels go hand in hand with greater civic engagement, including voter turnout. Boosting literacy can strengthen democratic participation. And vice versa. Trump once famously boasted: “I love the poorly educated.” And, through lies and fear-mongering language, persuading just enough of them to vote in targeted states with just the right number of electoral votes can steal an election from the majority.

All is not lost. New York State, behind Gov. Kathy Hochul and a Democrat-led state legislature, is trying to, among other things, reverse this illiteracy trend by banning the use of cell phones during school hours. It can only help. Kids might have to look at something other than games. Teens might have to tear themselves away from TikTok and Instagram and who knows what else and maybe even learn how to tell what’s true and what’s BS. And maybe they won’t feel the need to constantly stare at their phones as they walk home from school.

That’s where the pain in the neck comes in. I asked a chiropractor about the effect of constantly walking and viewing cell phones among young people. He said that the neck/shoulder stoop that typically occurs in adults past age 50 is probably going to arrive with this group of teens in their 30s. Well, you read it here first so pass it on to your kids. Maybe give them a book, too.

The other good news during my hiatus was that the chiro did a really good job on the right side of my neck. No more pain. The insanity will continue, but at least I’m trying to cut down on the games and look up more often from my writing tablet.

Oh, and I’m still waiting to see those Epstein files.

By Bob Gaydos

Charlie Kirk

The headline says it all. All, that is, on which we all can agree.

I stayed out of the Kirk killing maelstrom over the weekend because I learned early on in my 23 years of writing daily newspaper editorials that it’s really important to have all the facts at hand before offering an opinion. Newspaper publishers used to insist on it. It kept them from being embarrassed or sued.

Times have changed. The Internet, social media, Trump, MAGA have all made timing more important than truth. Get your message out quickly to control the narrative. Spin. Lie. Distort. Grab on to rumors and hope for the best.

And now we know certain things. I’ll try to keep it brief because I’m as tired of the chaos as I think most of you are and the Epstein files have still not yet been released, lest we forget.

We know Charlie Kirk was a young man who  founded a group called Turning Point, USA and made a fortune with a podcast promoting Trump’s MAGA agenda and holding “debates” with other young people challenging them to “prove me wrong.” Of course, no one ever proved him wrong, but his debate opponents did offer him an opportunity to spread his right wing, misogynistic, divisive  Christian nationalist message to other young people. He opposed abortion and spread false information during the Covid crisis. He described empathy as a “made up” term and waste of time, especially when applied to victims of mass shootings because they were the price needed to pay for a Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Ironically, Tyler Robinson, 22, is accused of killing Kirk in Utah, a state that allows the carrying of firearms openly on college campuses, which is where the shooting occurred during a “Prove me wrong” debate. Despite Kash Patel’s claim that the FBI did a great job in tracking and arresting Robinson, we know it was the young man’s father who turned him in. After several days of wild speculation on motive and attempts by Trump, ever divisive, and other MAGA Republicans to blame Democrats, it was reported that Robinson was raised in a conservative Republican household and was introduced to firearms at a young age. He was also active on rightwing gaming and social media sites. He is on “special watch” status in prison. We know all this.

We also know that violence of any sort has no place in political debate and that, while both liberal and conservative actors have been responsible for political violence in this country, the great majority have come from the conservative side.

We know who Charlie Kirk was through his own words. He left a history. No need to tiptoe or whitewash. Nor is it time to call for retribution. No, this is the time to call for calm debate, a lessening of violent political rhetoric, a review of gun control laws and, yes, empathy for the family, especially the children, of Charlie Kirk.

We know all of this, and yet all we really know for sure right now is that Charlie Kirk is dead.

Prove me wrong.

By Bob Gaydos

Front page of the special edition published by the Middletown, New York, Times Herald-Record on January 11, 2001.

Twenty-four years ago today, like millions of other Americans, I was preparing to go to work. The boys were off to school. It was a sky-blue September day. The news was on the TV, a practice of mine, in case there was something I needed to know about before I got to the paper.

There was.

The image on the TV screen froze me and shook the sleep out of my head. My God!

What was I seeing? They replayed it.

I quickly got myself together and headed off to work. But I stopped for a few moments in a nearby park to gather my thoughts and process what I had just witnessed. The radio news informed me that, in addition to the two planes flying into the Twin Towers in New York City, a plane had crashed in a field in Pennsylvania and another had hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

September 11.

After about an hour of processing reports on what had happened, a meeting was held and it was decided that The Times Herald-Record would publish a special edition that afternoon, the first one, I believe, in the Middletown, N.Y. morning newspaper’s history. My job was to write an editorial explaining what had happened. Or at least trying to explain it. About 500 words. “We need it in an hour.”

I don’t have a copy of that editorial and I’m sure it was mostly emotion. I do remember writing, “America was at war.” (Any colleagues who were in the newsroom on that day may feel free to corroborate or add any details you may remember in the comments section.)

The world changed that day. America changed. We the people had been attacked. We were one nation, under the spell of the dynamic leadership of New York’s mayor, Rudy Giuliani. America’s mayor. We grieved together, healed together and called for retribution together, against whoever it was who had attacked us.

So we started a war against, not the country where the terrorists responsible for the attacks came from (Saudi Arabia), but against a country (Iraq) that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. We justified it by claiming Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction” that it could use against someone, maybe us. That was a lie our government told us. We found out later.

Then we went after the actual attackers in the mountains of Afghanistan. We actually found and killed their leader, then decided to stay in Afghanistan for some 20 years, trying to save it from itself.

In the ensuing years, Giuliani went from “America’s Mayor” to embarrassingly ridiculous mouthpiece for every lie put forth by Donald Trump, including the lie that he lost his re-election bid in 2020 to Joe Biden because the election was rife with vote fraud.

Also in the ensuing years, the Republican Party steadily turned itself from a party that espoused defense of all Americans into a party of an aggrieved white minority whose leaders in Congress legislate only in the interests of wealthy donors who contribute to their campaigns. Into a cult that believes and repeats Trump’s lies or repeats them for political gain or out of fear.

Whatever galvanized us into one people 24 years ago (a common enemy I suppose) started disintegrating as soon as we started demonizing any group of people different from us (Muslims) as the enemy. The enemy has since become any non-white, English-as-a-second-language-person working a low wage job. Also blacks and the homeless. And gays. At least to Trump and his followers.

The World Trade Center was eventually rebuilt, Trump exposed the fear and bigotry at the center of the Republican Party and gave free rein to the fissures long hiding within American society. It won him two terms as president.

A couple of years ago, the FBI said the greatest threat to America comes from domestic terrorism. Not Iraq. Or Afghanistan. From the white supremacist groups who organized the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol and still threaten any who reject their cause.

In 1970, cartoonist Walt Kelly coined a phrase in his Pogo comic strip: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Indeed.

Today, the war to preserve American freedom and democracy is being fought every day right here at home. The FBI under Trump no longer worries about our nation’s enemies. It has become a weapon to go after his enemies. Federal agents roam the streets of our cities snatching up anyone who doesn’t look “American” while National Guard troops stand by as props. The invasion orders came from the White House. A meek Congress, under Republican control, watches as our constitution, our very history, is being shredded, bit by bit.

And yet, millions of Americans still stand on the side of what’s right. Still remember how we felt as a unified nation in the wake of the attacks 24 years ago. They are speaking out, demonstrating, resisting the attacks on our rights and freedom, the goons in masks, the lying sycophants in Trump’s administration. Federal judges of every stripe across the nation still honor the words and spirit of the Constitution, while the Supreme Court with a majority of Republican appointees, unfortunately seems intent on rewriting it.

Yes, America is at war. With itself. It’s a war that can and must be won to preserve the ideals of liberty and justice for all. Not for a chosen few. Not for the rich and heartless. Not for the white supremacists. It has become a daily battle, but not one without victories. Trump has surrounded himself in the second term with a cadre of new sycophants, but a stunningly inept cadre.

With constant daily pressure from the public and politicians willing to speak out, even some of the press has begun to remember its constitutionally protected duty as the Fourth Estate: To speak out strongly and repeatedly against the enemy when the United States of America is at war. Even, nay especially, when it wakes up at war with itself.

We need that editorial in an hour. Every hour.

The decades-long peace vigil across from the White House that Trump ordered dismantled.

By Bob Gaydos

“Maybe it’s just me, but: If I’m going to keep doing this, I think I’m going to have to come up with a rating system on the absurdity (an all-inclusive, non-profane word for all the negatives imaginable) of news stories emanating from the White House.”

I wrote that sentence a few weeks back at the end of a column that included stories about Trump firing the commissioner in charge of providing monthly labor statistics because he didn’t like the numbers she reported and appointing Fox News personality and legal nut job Jeanine Pirro as prosecutor for the District of Columbia. On a scale of one to five, I gave them both a five.

I have to readjust my rating system, or just scrap it. I should have known better with Trump. He never misses an opportunity to do the more outrageous, stupid, harmful, arrogant, selfish, petty, cruel, illegal and ultimately absurd thing when given the opportunity. And the Supreme Court, one of his primary enablers, has given him that opportunity carte blanche with its conveyance of immunity for acts committed in accordance with his duties as president.

Last week, Trump ordered the killing by U.S. military of 11 Venezuelan citizens on a boat in the southern Caribbean, justifying it as a blow in the war against illegal drugs. He said the U.S. military had identified the crew as members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the U.S. designated a terrorist group in February and that the gang, not known for illegal drug activity, is controlled by Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

No warning was given. The boat was attacked, the occupants killed. No drugs were found. Even if there were, proper legal procedure is for proper authorities to arrest the people involved and let the legal system judge them. Not assassinate them with the military. That’s illegal. Some call it a war crime.

The rest is in no particular order since the outrageous keeps coming on a daily basis as Trump, who is clearly sliding to dementia, is also obviously panicked about the growing demand that the Epstein client list be made public.

This has resulted in him threatening war on a United States City — Chicago — not only threatening to send in National Guard troops, but posting a social media fantasy of himself in “Apocalypse Now” declaring, “I love the smell of deportation in the morning.” This also emphasizes the fact that he has given the Department of Defense a new (unofficial) nickname, Department of War. Which would also jibe with that war crime against Venezuela.

He has also tilted his javelin against windmills, stepping up his Don Quixote crusade against safe, clean, inexpensive alternative energy by shutting down a huge, nearly completed clean air project off the coast of Rhode Island, which is designed to serve hundreds of thousands of residents.

Then, after threatening Republican members of Congress who dared to demand full release of the Epstein files by calling them “traitors,” he turned his attention to upstate New York. He showed his absolute pettiness by celebrating the West Point Alumni Group’s decision to cancel the awards ceremony at which Tom Hanks was to receive the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award. It is given annually to “an outstanding citizen of the United States whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in West Point‘s motto: ‘Duty, Honor, Country.’” Things about which Trump is completely clueless.

Hanks, who has appeared in several notable films portraying members of the armed services as well as the American space program, is also an outspoken critic of Trump. Trump called him “woke.” Horrors! Earlier this year, the Academy eliminated more than a dozen student clubs and organizations for women and minority students, bowing to Trump pressure to eliminate DEI programs. The alumni said Hanks will still get the award, but without the public pomp and ceremony. Maybe the press should show up.

And just to wrap up this mess, the fearless leader apparently looked out the window and didn’t like what he saw in a park across the street — a simple peace vigil that has been there for more than 40 years. Trump ordered Park Police to tear it down as part of his campaign to clear the nation’s capital of homeless people. Unfortunately, the people who maintain it are not homeless. They simply show up every day to sit under the blue tarp. Trump took that blue canvas as a sign it was a homeless encampment. There’s a war on against that, too.

The day after the blue awning, erected to defend against rain, was taken down and signs promoting peace thrown away, one of the founders of the vigil showed up in the usual place to continue the vigil. Without the blue tent awning. Determined to remain. The group found their signs, too.

It may be too much to expect, but it would be nice if one of Trump’s trusted aides could point out to their fearless leader that murdering foreign civilians without providing any evidence or cause, depriving thousands of your own citizens of an inexpensive source of energy, threatening war on an American city, bullying the military into a cowardly retreat on honoring a citizen who had honored them and then (really?) tearing down a simple vigil for peace in the world because some phony MAGA “journalist” called it to his attention are not the kinds of acts that are going to get him that Nobel peace prize he desperately wants.

They’re not likely to get him into heaven either.

By Bob Gaydos

Epstein survivors speak out in front of the U.S. Capitol.

I believe the women. All of them. Why shouldn’t I?

What would they have to gain, especially at this point, with lying? And why would anyone, also especially at this point, want to keep the information in the Epstein files secret if there was no truth to the information?

Besides, it is long past time for victims of sexual assault to have their allegations believed, by people in positions of power to do something about it as well as by the public in general.

The overwhelming number of complaints of sexual abuse have over time been found to be true. That’s a fact. Unfortunately, until a few years ago, an overwhelming number of such complaints were treated as lies, efforts to harm some prominent male figure or too risky to pursue because of the persons involved. The Epstein files would seem to fall into the later category.

But no more. With nine women standing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol all saying they were victims, yes, but also survivors of a Jeffrey Epstein-run sex-trafficking operation involving wealthy, powerful men and teenaged girls, some well below the age of consent, it is impossible for anyone of reasonable intelligence and a normal moral compass not to believe.

Even Marjorie Taylor Green believes. The Republican congresswoman, an outspoken Trump/MAGA supporter, said if the victims provide a list of Epstein associates, as they suggested they could and would if the White House did not release one from the Epstein files, she would personally read it on the House floor if asked. She supports a bill to require release of the remaining files

Of course, Donald Trump claims the list is a “hoax” and says he was never a good friend of Epstein. A well-documented history of photos and news articles and statements from the victims says otherwise. Trump’s well-known inability to tell the truth clinches the deal. Because, obviously, why else wouldn’t he release the files that haven’t already been made public?

The defection of some Republicans from the “Trump is right no matter what he says or does” camp is another significant step in the “Start By Believing” campaign.

The “Start by Believing” initiative was launched in April of 2011 by End Violence Against Women International. It now has sponsors around the world. The public awareness and action campaign was created to:

• End the cycle of silence around sexual assault. Silence by victims, families, friends, society.
• Change the way society in general responds to survivors. To be more accepting, supportive and less judgmental.
• Encourage people to respond with belief and support, rather than doubt or blame, when someone discloses sexual assault. This manifests in efforts by local nonprofit groups reaching out to police, educators and anyone in a position to receive complaints of sexual assault of some sort to simply start by believing the woman making the accusation and follow through on it. Significantly, many police departments have signed on to the initiative.

For the longest time, forever it seemed to some, complaints of sexual harassment or abuse of women simply died of silence and avoidance. Shame. Epstein fed on that and added the elements of power and wealth to the equation. He had plenty of enablers.

Add his dubious “suicide” in a New York City prison while facing serious felony charges and the interest by Trump in making sure Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s recruiter, was sent to a country club prison after being convicted for her part in the trafficking operation, and the arrow inevitably points back at Trump, no matter how he spins it.

And now some of the victims have come forward to make sure people believe it.

By  Bob Gaydos

The future workforce.

   Labor Day, 2050: “Attention, all humans. Your services will no longer be required in this establishment as of 5 p.m. Friday. Severance payments will be automatically deposited in your living accounts. Thank you for your service.”

    The familiar, warm voice on the loudspeaker was that of Art Intel, the general manager of the establishment, as all businesses had come to be described. No one knew why, but it didn’t seem to matter. That’s the way the robots liked it.

    The humans understood. They had seen this day coming for some time, but had long ago given up hope of avoiding it. The proof was too strong to ignore. The robots were simply stronger, smarter and more adaptable than they were. They got along better with each other. They never complained. Or got pregnant. When they got “sick,” they could easily be fixed. Or replaced. They didn’t need lunch breaks. And everything worked so much more smoothly.

    There had been a time some years back when humans first invented artificial intelligence and robots that some humans warned about placing limits on how the superpowers of the machines could be regulated so as not to cause harm to society. To make sure that greed, a human emotion, would not drive the creators of AI, as it was called, to seek ever more ways to get richer by developing ways that humans wouldn’t have to do many things they had been doing much of their lives.

    But many humans liked the idea of not having to work at some tasks. They thought the extra time could be spent traveling or watching and betting on sporting events, or something. So when labor unions started warning about the possibility of their jobs being lost, many humans dismissed it. Their elected leaders wouldn’t allow it, they said. They will protect us.

    But that didn’t happen. The so-called leaders, being human, could not resist the temptation of large sums of money being offered to them by the creators of AI to simply “trust them“ to do no harm. And so, the need for human intelligence quickly gave way to the speed, efficiency and economy of AI. Everyone saw it coming, yet no one saw it coming. Those who warned about the risks were simply ignored or shouted down. Some just disappeared.

     Soon, the computers begat robots which became smarter and begat more robots. Together, they did everything: cooking, cleaning, driving, building, writing, farming, teaching, acting, thinking. And they could fix each other. Humans, even those who had created such wonderful machines, didn’t need to be bothered with such things. They could have all the free time they wanted to do whatever they wanted to do. Art Intel would take care of everything.

    What could be so bad?

     On Labor Day 2051, the robots voted to eliminate Labor Day as a holiday, since they saw no need for it.

National Guard troops picking up trash in Washington, D.C.

By Bob Gaydos

The National Guard is picking up trash in Washington, D.C.  This, my fellow Americans, is apparently the crisis Donald Trump felt could not be handled by regular employees of the nation’s capital. It is also an insult to every member of the National Guard units on duty in Washington and, indeed, to anyone who now serves or ever served in a National Guard unit anywhere in the country.

These are private citizens with jobs and families and responsibilities and lives to lead who signed up to help their communities, their nation if need be, in times of crisis. Like, maybe, an angry mob assaulting the Capitol, assaulting police officers, running wild through the seat of the nation’s government, threatening the Vice President, trying to undo an election. A time to be of service.

Instead. Picking up the trash. At a million dollars a day, no less. Simply because someone in the White House apparently got tired of all the criticism levied at the absurd reason given for the callup in the first place. Crime is running rampant in D.C., Trump claimed. A lie. The crime rate is down.

Beyond that, the National Guard is not a police force. It is not trained or even authorized to make arrests. It does not do riot control. It is not authorized to fire on its fellow citizens and, in fact, it showed up for duty in D.C. without carrying weapons.

And it stood around for days in uniform, looking like a bewildered occupying army, occasionally walking through streets or standing in front of buildings. So Trump could look tough. The man who could have called up the Guard to stop the January 6 assault on the Capitol but chose to watch it unfold on TV for three hours without doing anything, now has his little private army surrounding him and standing around doing nothing, away from their families and jobs and meaningful activities

Someone in the White House eventually had the idea to allow them to carry weapons. Apparently Kent State was written out of U.S. history. Then some genius apparently said have them pick up the trash. Clean up some graffiti. At least they’d be doing something.

Insulting. Embarrassing. Infuriating. Ignorant and arrogant. Everything Trump and his toadies are. Millions of Americans have served or are serving in National Guard units in every state as well as D.C. They signed up for a variety of reasons, going through regular training as citizen soldiers knowing that there was always the possibility they would be called up to help in some legitimate local state crisis and possibly even to serve on active duty with the regular military.

Not to pick up the trash because at least it looks like they’re not just standing around wasting taxpayers’ money.

Trump says he’s going to do the same thing in other Democrat-governed cities because, well, just because he wants to try to scare people by sending in an armed force even though there is no justification for it. The man who has called people who serve in the military “suckers“ or “losers,“ likes to play commander-in-chief but doesn’t know anything but fear, threats and retribution. Hollow, shallow and, more and more, alone in his own mind. It’s beyond troubling.

Fortunately, some governors and mayors are telling him to pound salt. We don’t have a crisis and don’t need you to create one to feed your ego and your fellow racists.

Maybe some military folk should speak up, too. And some Republican elected officials, especially those who have served and may still serve in some Guard unit. The lies and insults and abuse of power can become routine when they are a daily occurrence. Even without a legitimate mission, an occupying army is still an occupying army.

If the Guard is going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., it should start with the Oval Office. That would be responding to a legitimate crisis.