I have lived my allotted "three score and ten" and I have seen and heard my share of outrages in

[RVN VET71]

34. Actually if deriving our economic prosperity

out of the slave labor of Africans were the only evil underscoring that "prosperity" it would at least have the saving grace of being a single problem on which to focus our attention. But this country's prosperity was dependent on the exploitation of not just African slaves but of every working family, every white, black, asian, male, female citizen and visitor.

The ideal of capitalism is benign. Its reality, when and wherever it has gotten free rein, is cruel, evil, and callous -- the three main traits of the GOP and not a few Democrats.

I'm not a socialist -- and neither, I hasten to add, are any of the women Trump maligned in his most recent racist tweets -- because history has shown what happens when the means of production and distribution are handed over to a central authority, the state. But I despise any who claim to be "pure" capitalists because the evidence abounds as to its inevitable consolidation of monopolistic power, its cruelty and greed, and its ultimately self-consuming nature.

Choosing democracy, as these women urge us, is the best possible chance we have for continued survival as a free people. That, I think, is why these 4 women are targeted as enemies of freedom, etc., by Trump and his know-nothing minions.