Remembering those We Never Knew But Wish We had

 

By Charles Eldridge Marshall 

                                                              

                                                      Lt. Robert Marshall  

Memorial Day 2026 

I first posted this in 2024 - but it always seems fitting and maybe I'll repeat it again every year as a tradition.  The Memorial of today is to the young people who lost their lives before they even started.  This is my second cousin - my father's first cousin- lost in WW II - his face is so young and filled with the expectancy of a full life of weddings and children and grandchildren and birthdays and holidays and achievement. That's what was lost on the battlefield- a life not lived.  RIP Robert Marshall,  I wish I had known you.  

Original Post 

  I found this picture a few years ago in my grandmother’s old photo album- Lt. Robert Marshall - she remarked "My Nephew Lt. Robert Marshall, lost in action in 1943. Pictures taken while a cadet at LSU - La." He was “lost” in action - so I assume killed - but she doesn’t say anything about where or how, and my father never mentioned this cousin. I often think about him- he’s so young with a lifetime ahead of him. A big smile with the hopes of any young man at that age. Consider those lives lost & the huge price they paid. Defeating the Nazis & Fascist Japan was the high-point of our history in my humble opinion. On this Memorial Day I remember Lt. Robert Marshall. Lost to the world in WWII.

Rest in Peace, my dear cousin

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Tyrants of Thought

 By CE Marshall

  DON'T EVEN THINK IT 

Dear Readers-- if you follow me on a regular basis then I apologize for my absence.   My last post was on February 16th regarding the Save America Act (which sadly, is still stuck in the Senate) To explain,  I'm in the plant business and Spring is a very busy time for me- not to mention on April 1  I was bitten by a pit bull (and that ain't no April Fools joke!).  That has taken quite a bit of my attention and occupied my mind.  That entire fiasco will be addressed in a future blog (I think.  It depends if the mood strikes me to review the entire episode). As of right now the saga is still not really over but I do feel I've rounded the curve to the finish line.  

     Today this title- "Tyrants of Thought" popped in my head and I thought to myself "that would be a great title to one of my blogs", so here I am!  What will this be about, I'm not totally sure- but I guess we'll find out shortly.  By the way I am working on a book- titled "An American Voice" or "A Voice of Reason"- I haven't made up my mind.  Maybe another title?  "Tyrants of Thought"?   It will be an elaboration on some of my humble opinions regarding ways to fix our broken, blubbery, fat, ineffective government.  My intention is to have it published an Amazon Publishing and posted with links to purchase here on my blog that you're reading right now.  My goal was to have it published by my daughter's birthday, May 5, but because of the dog bite that idea went off the rails.  Now, my goal is July 4 on time for the USA's 250th birthday.  

     Who are the Tyrants of Thought?    If you've read this blog you know that I refer to the "powers that be" here in the early 21st Century as "The Silent Tyrants" and also on occasion "Mad King George" to refer to the dictators that rule us through media and big government and academia and global corporations (as well as domestic corporations, they surely are not innocent!).  They are all complicit in controlling us and our thoughts, however in particular, the rulers of media, the press, and academia are the vectors of tyrannical thought where their ideas and ways of seeing things are sacrosanct and anything contrary is blasphemous or heresy to the "new world order" that they have been working on so hard and for so long.  Tyrants of thought are not only in these groups, they're in the schools and the churches and everywhere that people gather and move forward to act as a group.  These people tend to be more the minions of the "tyrants of thoughts" and are not where the tyrannical thoughts spring forth from. They are, however, just as dangerous to you and me because they are the "useful idiots" that the tyrants instruct to do their bidding.  They don't think for themselves, and they run on passion and emotion rather than rational thought and common sense.  

     An example of "TOT" (Tyrants of Thought) would be Trump Derangement Syndrome at the local level where the minions have been instructed and are obeying the edicts of the corporate media and the globalists to hate Donald Trump.  The rationale is that he's dictator and a Nazi or a King, etc.... whereas the fact that they are able to say such things on the street corner with no fear of retribution is evidence that he actually is not.  It also is an example of their lack of understanding of our government and how it works- no one person can get his or her way as President.  That would not be true if we had the absolute government that they crave controlling everything.  That is true dictatorship as what we saw in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.   The irony is they are the very people that would enable our government to such power and use its power to encroach on the rights of their neighbors.  This we saw during the COVID pandemic with elaborate fanfare as citizens told on their neighbors for having more than 5 visitors or people were denied visitation to dying family members.  

In my humble opinion, here is a list of the thoughts that tyrannical leaders through various methods, are ruling us and intimidating all of us to think and to not question.  If something is not up for debate or is "settled science" then it is more than likely a tyrannical thought that springs from someone who benefits that we all think the way the want us to think.   On this list, many are such a part of the Silent Tyrants' agenda, that if you don't agree with them then their minions will defriend you off Facebook, etc...  and you are not to be addressed again. You are "persona non grata" as the Latin saying goes.  

The Edicts of the Thought Tyrants 

1) Donald Trump is an insane tyrant.  

2)  Climate Change is real. 

3)  All vaccines are good and are completely safe.  

4)  People are born gay; they don't choose to be gay. 

5)  People who identify as the opposite sex are totally sane and should be encouraged and enabled to do so. 

6) The universe is billions of years old. 

7)  The Theory of Evolution is fact, not theory. 

8)  All physical reality can be explained through science, if scientists don't have the answer now, they will eventually. 

9)  The Holy Bible is to be interpreted according to how you feel about what it's saying and obedience to it relies on whether you agree with it or not.  

10)  You have to get more education in order to be a fulfilled as a human being, no matter how useless what you study is. 

11) The sexes are equal to each other, and each is just as capable of doing anything as the other. 

12)  White people and/or males are responsible for most of the bad things that happen in the world today. 

13) Diversity of people is always a good thing.  

14)  Diversity of thought is never a good thing.  

15)  Emotions are much more important than the logical reality of any situation. 

16)  Any problem can be solved if you hand it over to federal agencies, or the Universities for examination along with lots and lots of money to "study" the issue. 

In the mind of the "statists" or the "thought tyrants" there is no debate to be had with any of these issues.  These are all "settled science".  

In My Humble Opinion.....

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Voting Rights and the Save Act

 By CE Marshall

     Dear readers-  I apologize for my long absence.  Normal life has been calling and keeping me busy but, alas, a current event demands my commentary.  I have been following the "Save Act" which is a federal law in the works to require proof of citizenship for all voters and also instills several measures to prevent voting fraud.  The name comes from the urgency expressed by the Republican party that any other choice will end up in the ruin of our Republic- as is the case for nearly every law/election for the last 20 years- as expressed by both parties' leaders.  It does grow tiresome.   However, I do support the Save Act but I'm not sure it's doom and gloom if it does not pass.  I do think the Democrats are painting themselves into a corner with their absolute opposition to the Save Act.  Have they actually been cheating?  

What's good about the Save Act;

1)  This ensures American voters are represented by leaders they elect not by leaders who are beholden to illegal immigrants that have entered our country outside the boundaries of established law. Statistics bear out that a large percentage of "undocumented" immigrants take government assistance so the motivation to vote and keep Democrats in power would be quite strong. 

2)  Illegal votes- whether from undocumented immigrants or through ballot stuffing and other nefarious means to "cheat" the system should be obviously wrong to anyone interested in fair elections. It's self-evident, isn't it?  

3)  The suspicion that the Democrats cheated in the 2020 election only grows and any and all methods to assure the public that elections are fair and lawful is essential. 

4)  The courts have proven themselves to be either complicit in enabling Democrat success with questionable voting laws (or lack thereof) or they are afraid to make a stand for fear of over-stepping their power.  There have been some rulings that should help "somewhat" in preventing more 2020 types of voting theft.  One ruling, by the supreme court does support efforts to strictly limit voting after election day.  But such rulings do not go far enough.  We need a law to give the situation teeth. 

5)  The Democrats claim this would prevent people from voting, but I don't see how that would be.  We all have to get ID's to drive and we all need Birth Certificates to confirm who we are in many instances.   One concern I've seen on X is that this will prevent women who have married and had their name changed from voting!   A marriage certificate should nip that issue in the bud- it's somewhat frightening that the Democrat leadership has such very little confidence - or they're lying- that females have no common sense to understand the situation.  Unfortunately, they are somewhat correct though in that assessment of the thinking abilities of enraged liberal women.  

6)  The left feigns great concern at the voting rights of American minorities and screams "racism".  The greater concern should be the loss of confidence that all law-abiding Americans have that their vote is being diluted by illegal votes and widespread cheating.  These are the true victims.  

     The Save Act seems a good thing in my humble opinion and should be passed.  The vote will be tight, and they would have to break the tradition of filibuster that requires 60-40 votes in the Senate to pass an Act.  It may be necessary, given that if the Democrats don't have any concern about cheating during elections, then they would have no problem breaking the filibuster themselves given the chance.  In addition, it would appear they may actually be a part of the cheating, at least at the local level in Democrat states and cities such as California and Atlanta.   The days of bi-partisan acts are gone, I'm afraid.  All opportunities to cheat during elections, even the appearance of cheating, must be halted  

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The Arrest of Maduro

 By CE Marshall

                                                        Dictator Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela 

     Much in the news this week is the capture and arrest of the dictator, Maduro, of Venezuela.  The Venezuelans of the world seem very happy about it and most of Latin America seems to be in agreement that this is a good thing.  As I write he is sitting in a prison in New York awaiting trial for drug trafficking and other various offenses to humanity.  We shall see what happens, of course, but the effect on the world political screenplay, as it were, is substantial.  

     When I awoke to the news that splashed across my cell phone, I shook my head and thought to myself "only Trump" because it is true that we have never had such an audacious President, certainly not in my lifetime.  The left-leaning public is opposed to it as they are opposed to anything Donald Trump does.  The far-left media - most mainstream media- is highly critical and clicking its tongues that "this action is outside of the law", their favorite line when something doesn't go their way or cannot be credited to one of their allies.  Considering that Joe Biden had a $25 million dollar bounty on Maduro's head, this is abject hypocrisy (the heartbeat of liberal or statist ideals).  It is a huge stretch to criticize the action too much, but the Democrats have nothing else to offer us these days but vitriol and sanctimony.  "It was a superb success, but we don't like it because Trump is behind it" is what they really mean.  

     There is work to be done in Venezuela as the United States' powerful navy proceeds to choke Venezuela's only means of income, oil.   This hurts the people, but the effectiveness of an embargo against an oppressive government is not clear in this case.  We've been shutting out Cuba from most world trade for decades and all that has done has been to hurt the regular Cuban citizen.   I hear rumors of starvation and no electricity through my Cuban-born wife.  Cuba is in such bad shape even Trump has shrugged his shoulders that the country will probably fall within itself.  This is the consequence of over sixty years of oppression and a government that has no concern but for itself, as do all Communist and most Socialist governments.   The leaders of Cuba still trade and benefit by dealing with the Iran's and Hezbollah's of the world, but the people starve and suffer.  Now that Venezuela can no longer help them and China is quite a distance away, it does not look good for the leadership of Cuba.  

     So, given that Maduro lost an election but refused to give up power, I see this as justice for the people of Venezuela.  Establishing a strong Democratic Republic is not an easy thing when the people are weakened and starving by their own government, and Venezuela is still very much under the grip of oppression.  But it is a good thing to try.   Our country is established under a constitution that begins "We the People" and it was built on the foundation of Christian values that empower the individual to live free and be allowed to pursue happiness as God permits.  May we proceed with the good fight to liberate Venezuela and all countries of the Western Hemisphere because it's the decent thing to do.  Even if it's not totally "legal".  Why should we help them?  Consider it paying forward the favor done for us in our Revolution against Britain 250 years ago.  France stepped up to help the United States, and we would not have won our independence but for our French allies.    It is the right thing to do.  

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