Trump says he has done nothing wrong: that is not the issue.

 Notice that whenever Donald Trump is indicted he swears he has done nothing wrong.

This is disingenuous, a trick. 

The question is not whether or not he had done anything wrong, since the rightness or wrongness of any action can always be debated, but the issue is whether or not he has done things illegally. 

In all of his cases it appears he has. 

That is if all we know and have seen or heard in the media is correct, for there is no denying our own eyes and ears and we have seen his tricks often. 

By saying he has done nothing wrong he places himself above the law for he he saying the law is wrong to indict him. He is not a god but claims to be divinely inspired. His are not moral issues but legal ones and must be viewed that way.

There is little doubt he has done illegal things - many of them. 

He must be called to account in court and in public opinion not on what he says but what he has done illegally. 

No one has directly confronted him with the question of whether or not he has done anything illegal. The press must do so.

And then the legal system must take precedence over a mere opinion of a charlatan. 

Book review: SHORT SHORT STORIES FROM A LONG LONG LIFE

 

SHORT SHORT STORIES FROM A LONG LONG LIFE consists of stories gleaned from many years of living. 

Some are whimsical, some are terrible and some are totally imagined from a philosophical view of that long life. 

There is a story of a tragic high school love affair of fifty years ago set off from a chance meeting of sports photographers at a track meet. A confused innocent little boy shoots a little girl in elementary school. An idolizing woman spends the night with the ghost of Lincoln in the White House. A bully dies in Vietnam, despite his friend's efforts to save him from the war. Aliens appear in the form of paving stones. 

In all, there are sixteen tales from that long, long life. They are touching or thought-provoking or humorous or strange. They extend far back in memory from old age or happen today. 

Despite being fiction they are very, very real.

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGMFKCCN

Book review: Elk Dreams: A Montana Memoir

From the first day a couple moves to Montana to fulfill their fantasies of going west and becoming nature photographers in that legendary state, a very different reality assaults them. 

Far from the Elk Dreams they've been living with, they find their pasts and the also legendary hostilities of the state nearly too much to bear. 

Everything and everyone seems to embody a prevalent bumper sticker: WELCOME TO MONTANA: NOW GO HOME. 

Add in a terrible streak of bad luck, emotional difficulties, a tremendous natural disaster, and other problems and you have a recipe for tragedy and personal disintegration. 

Far from becoming the nature photographers they dream of being, they instead discover just how trying and destructive living a fantasy life can be.

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HAP6BQ

Book review: Leyla and the Sandmen

 

During the Iraq War, a squad of soldiers comes upon some collateral damage , a little girl dressed in a white burqa at the bottom of a blast crater. 

When they discover she speaks English and Arabic, they decide to take her with them on a rogue combat mission, despite the danger that presents to her and others. As soon as they find her, one soldier is maimed suddenly and horribly, but despite that the reputation for survival of their mad Captain, who decided to entrust the squad to the little girl, is not questioned. 

She becomes an object of luck and their hope of survival. While kicking down doors in search of terrorists, while fighting and dying and killing, two of the soldiers who are lovers take the little girl to their hearts and plan on saving her after the war. 

Fate has another plan. 

The violence and untrustworthy nature of war take over, and while thinking they've found a way to end the conflict that day, a very different result ensues. Still, that does not shake the belief and trust and love one soldier develops for the lucky little girl. This book contains extreme violence and very strong language.

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GA8XFMG

Book review: Three Horror Tales

As the title suggests, this offering contains three stories of the strange and grotesque. 

In "His Angels He Charges With Error" a priest is determined to discover why his brother, also a priest, committed suicide. He's forced to confront a bloody ghost who turned out to be someone he did not expect. 

In "The Euthanasians" a unique method of disposing of the terminally ill is depicted. Clients take turns in murder. 

And in "My Father's Watch" an ancient curse attempts to avenge a horrific massacre. The subject stirs up something better left forgotten.
 

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005899356

Book review: Skettleton's War

 

Joshua Skettleton, a narcoleptic Confederate soldier, is bat-shit crazy. 

The hope that he'll see his son Josh again and the friendship of another soldier, Jeb Charles, help him to cling to some semblance of humanity while the rank butchery, race, religious hatred and greed of the rich tear his soul apart and nearly destroy his body. 

Two separate stories intertwine in the book, that of his arrival home and his fight to remain alive in some of the most horrific battles of the Civil War - with the help of Jeb Charles.

 In alternating chapters, we see Skettleton's progress as he travels the final six miles home and then flash back to his participation in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Petersburg and more. 

His attempt to reach home is interrupted by Lester and Constance Engles, a mad couple who give him food and shelter in exchange for a sympathetic ear and the skill he exhibits with his Mississippi rifle, while exploiting him for their own ends.

When the book switches to the battle scenes, Skettleton suffers from the uncontrollable urge to fall asleep in the middle of the horror, which allows him to cope and stay alive. 

Jeb Charles, who's been with him since the beginning of the war, keeps Skettleton alive despite the man's mental illness and propensity to doze off at the worst possible moment. 

Truly horrific battle scenes and the unfolding tale of his time coming home combine in the end as Skettleton discovers just how mad war has made him, but by then it's too late to salvage even a small piece of himself. 

War, religion and greed combine to plunge him into a Southern fantasy world where a racist horror is the norm and reality becomes a dream.

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0149ARSDI

Book review: Gatsby Girls

 

Gatsby Girls, a sequel to the classic novel The Great Gatsby, continues the saga of a Jazz Age dream gone wrong, that of Jay Gatsby for Daisy Buchanan. 

The dreamer is dead, but Daisy is unrepentant and plans an abortion before leaving her drunken, abusive husband, Tom.

 She enlists the help of a gangster, a drugged friend, and Nick Carraway, but her scheme fails and another deadly tragedy ensues.

Written in the style of the Jazz Age, Gatsby Girls magically recreates that golden era of flappers, jazz, gangsters and frustrated love.

Once again, the Roaring Twenties come to life.

View Gatsby Girls on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0053HAAQ4

Book review: Red Lights for Six Nights

 

After a devastating divorce, a man in late middle age travels to Amsterdam to experience all the lusts and pleasures he can in that city's famous red-light district. 

Charles Ranier wants to discover if a broken heart can be overcome by pure animal passion and throws himself into his quest with anger, humor, lust, doubt and a desire for revenge against the past. 

At night, he experiences one prostitute after another, always cataloging his feelings and watching his broken heart mend as his passions return. 

During the day, he drinks in the gorgeous city and its sights, all the while preserving himself for his nightly debaucheries. 

Red Lights for Six Nights a kind of Last Tango in Amsterdam, describing the secrets of the red-light district there explicitly and detailing his sexual encounters carefully.

Charles is a man on the mend, mentally and spiritually, but his healing doesn't come without a cost. This novel contains a great deal of adult content, as Charles visits one prostitute after another and lets them work their magic on him.

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0037Z6Z0Y

Book review: Omar and the Bomb

 

By the time Osama bin Laden arrives in Oklahoma City late in this satirical novel, Omar And The Bomb, it's pretty clear his protege Omar Urdu has botched his assignment to pull off another terror attack in the country's heartland.

 You see, hapless Omar has problems, ranging from the fact he holds conversations with his bomb to the fact that he's married to a flaky Reese Witherspoon look-alike suffering from depression after her first husband was killed in the 9/11 attacks. 

To avoid attention being drawn to him, Omar attempts to live a typical American lifestyle with his new wife, working at a typical job, living in a typical house and enjoying travel across the country. 

Just after the bomb is installed in his Infiniti SUV, and it begs him ascend to Paradise with it now, Omar instead travels to Yellowstone National Park for picnics and sight-seeing. 

It's there that Reese, his wife, throws the switch to the bomb prematurely, only to find that it doesn't work. 

Omar, as well as all the others involved in the plot, is thrown into a tizzy and immediately seeks help repairing his bomb, which has become quite angry with him. Not only is the bomb angry with him, but so are the right-wing conspirators he's aligned to back in Oklahoma City. They've joined with Omar and bin Laden in the hopes of pulling off a second, bigger Oklahoma City bombing. 

No matter how he tries, Omar can not get his talking bomb to work, despite the help and threats of his right-wing compatriots and his Arab co-conspirators. So finally bin Laden has to show up in Oklahoma City, intent on repairing the bomb himself, after he's come to believe that Omar is incompetent as a terrorist. 

With all the world against him, including his fellow terrorists, Omar comes to a bittersweet understanding about just how strange his world is, but by then it's too late ...

View Omar and the Bomb on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002P8MPW6

Book review: The Age of Fat Asses

 

Pieter Pullin Holdemtite is so large and so great a messiah in Pineville's Holy Church of Knee-Sniffers that he has to be born of two mothers. He comes out in two pieces, a top and a bottom, and has to be glued together. 

His mothers are consumed at birth by locusts, which lead him to hate all bugs, and his father is a worthless drunk and is soon killed by his son. 

Pineville is under attack by outsiders, and the Distinguished Fat Asses install Pieter as judge, jury and executioner of anyone who dares cross into town. 

Seven feet tall and seven feet around, Pieter overwhelms his victims in a manner befitting a giant with a huge appetite for cows and bugs. 

Although he's immense after just a few months of life, his mental faculties have not developed beyond those of a three-year-old, until a beautiful, red-haired young woman, Sarah Lesthanluki, is presented to him as a victim. 

He falls in love and can not kill her, but she is not accepted by the Distinguished Fat Asses. Sarah and Pieter meet and love secretly, until the inevitable betrayal.

The Age of Fat Asses is an hilarious satire on humans and their silly rites of government and religion and will keep you laughing and disturbed.

View The Age of Fat Asses on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZYSTP1V

Book review: Star Daze: Working at the Bucks County Playhouse in the 1970s

 

Star Daze: Working at the Bucks County Playhouse in the 1970s is a series of memory sketches drawn from the experiences of a parking lot attendant and wannabe writer with famous actors and actresses at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania. 

It takes place in the wild times of the early 1970s, when love was free and anything could and did happen. 

With the star system in place at the playhouse, a succession of luminaries from Hollywood, Broadway and television trekked to New Hope to perform and fall into experiences with the bumbling wannabe writer and parking lot attendant, who bemusedly recounts these peeks behind the curtain. 

Some of the stories are humorous, some sad, and others ironic. Viewed with the eyes of an insider who should have been left on the outside, the memory sketches include encounters with such stars as John Carradine, Tony Danza, Yvonne de Carlo, Tom Poston and others. 

It's a theatrical memoir from someone on the fringes of that world who happily stumbles into his encounters with the stars and lives to tell about them many years later.

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Z78RGLN

Book review: In A Circle of Stars

 

In A Circle of Stars is an epic adventure revolving around the aftermath of one of the most famous battles in American History, The Battle of the Little Bighorn, only this time it's told as fiction from the point of view of the Native Americans who won the battle. 

Custer is dead, Sitting Bull is fearful about what revenge the U.S. Army is about to take on his people and Fallen Hawk, the fictional young warrior who killed Custer in the book, is still not satisfied his revenge is complete. 

Days later, it appears to Fallen Hawk that it's the U.S. Army that's taken revenge when he discovers his wife, Mountain Cloud, has been murdered in an odd, ritualistic way. Many blame him for the murder while others strangely insist he marry again immediately, but in a fury he goes on the warpath to find his wife's killers. 

The action continues with the U.S. military relentlessly hunting down Sitting Bull and his band, while the desperate Lakota Sioux use every possible means of escape and fight for their very existence. 

As Fallen Hawk learns more and more about the murder of his wife, the hopelessness of the Lakota's situation becomes apparent, but his fierce nature forces him to continue his quest for the killers. Fallen Hawk constantly seeks out the murderer and this leads him to many adventures and furious battles, to the love of a new wife, Kicking Up Dust, and on a spiritual quest. 

Fallen Hawk is nearly elevated to the position of war-chief, as he fights the U.S. cavalry, endures the mistrust of his tribe and closes in on capturing the killer.

 Finally, as the book ends in tragedy, Fallen Hawk discovers the astonishing reasons for his wife's murder and the person who perpetrated the crime. Many of the main characters of In A Circle of Stars are well-known. Characters like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall and others have essential roles, but the main character, Fallen Hawk, is fictional. 

In A Circle of Stars re-creates the Native American west in a way that puts you on the Great Plains as part of the world of the Lakota, a world that vanished with the defeat of Sitting Bull and his people.

Book Review: The Last Shopkeeper

 A spring morning in Montana is shattered when Joseph Smith emerges from his tepee and his young wife is shot dead at his feet.

 He races after his wife's murderer but kills Three Pigs before he finds why the man murdered his bride. 

He returns to Bannack, where his three other wives fall victim to the plot against Smith and where Smith and his sidekick extract a bloody, Old West-style revenge.

A tragic ending leaves Smith shaken and searching fruitlessly for the loves he's lost.

Full of action and violence, The Last Shopkeeper keeps the reader galloping through the pages.

On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0053HA7LW

Book review: D'eannuosity, A Woman Warrior's Odyssey in Iraq

 Based on the Odyssey, D'eannuosity, A Woman Warrior's Odyssey in Iraq, is the story of D'eannu Christensen, a spy dropped into Iraq two years before that conflict began. 

The novel starts ten years later when her daughter, T'Deannu, begins a search for the mother lost to her ever since her childhood. Through the intervention of some powerful people, D'eannu is released from years of slavery but still has to make the long, tortuous journey home across the Pacific. She is shipwrecked and lands on the island of Fakia, where she recounts the horrors she faced in Iraq and enlists the aid of the Fakians in getting her home. 

After what she learned of death and economic exploitation in the war, she comes home intent on revenge and slaughter. She targets the lobbyists who control congress and acts on a hatred of those who profited from war and inflicted unnecessary deaths for money. 

Beyond fiction, D'eannuosity is an American myth.

View on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005466TSW