Back in 1933, an authentic American hero in every possible sense of that word stepped in to rescue the nation from traitors plotting to pull it all down -- Constitution, Bill of Rights, dreams of the Founders, everything, all of us, every last bit of it.

The traitors here were bankers, financiers, moneyed interests. An ocean away, their German peers advanced their own man to the front of the feed trough:  Adolph Hitler, by name.

By Bev Harris, founder of BlackBoxVoting.org

Public officials now admit they can see how you voted and link it to your name. This issue affects Colorado, almost all of Washington State, as well as some locations in California, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia and likely other states as well.

If you vote by mail or at combined-precinct "vote centers" your vote may be viewable by public officials and/or vendors.

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious," wrote two-star, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler in 1935.  He was a two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner, and rescuer of the United States from overthrow by fascist bankers and financiers.

The Racket continues.  War is such a profitable plaything for capitalists, all the high priests of the monetary system agree:  Can't wait for the next one, can't wait for the next spree! They are never careful what they wish for; no need -- their hands cover all the controls.

In his 1935 book, "War is a Racket," USMC Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler observed how commercial interests were too-well served by warfare.  He noted his own position in that machine:  "... I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."

Definition, one of many around:  Racket - An illegal enterprise carried on for profit.

To help your contemplative workload, it would be easier to ask you to consider some facet of life in the last 50 or so years that was not a racket.  Public, political, business -- everywhere, rackets. The noise of making money.  The noise of humans, alive:  What racket you in?

Meet someone worthy of as much awe, respect, admiration, and allegiance as it is possible for mere mortals to muster:  Marine Corps Major General Smedley D. Butler. He was under fire 120 or so times, and won the Congressional Medal of Honor -- twice.

Butler also stepped in to save this nation, first-handed, and personally, from slipping into the cesspool of fascism at the hands of scheming, traitorous bankers and financiers who had plotted to overthrow the United States government and take over power in a coup.

Tales from Uncle Remus (apologies to the author, the part of Brer Fox will be played by Brer Rabbit)

Brer Rabbit had a problem. He had been elected to be leader of the Free Forest after defeating grumpy old Brer Bear and his running mate Brer Cuckoo Bird, but lately it was a hard life in the forest. So Brer Rabbit set about first thing to fix the healthcare system of the forest. The ideas he was able to get passed by the Critter Congress weren’t all that good, but they were a big improvement over letting the predators run the system. They tended to eat the sick, especially the middle-class animals who they hated most awful.