Ferri Tales

On May 19, 2026, a gathering in front of the Bradford County courthouse in Towanda, PA met to rededicate Bradford County to God. On July 12, Commissioner McLinko – bless his heart – is holding a good old big tent religious revival on his property. All of this follows Donald Trump’s May 17 rededication of the U.S. to the same deity. As innocuous as the gatherings seem to be, we all know that once our true-believing resident Christians and Evangelicals crack the door open, they’ll want total control. They want to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Christian Bible. And this means things have to change. - No shrimp, crab, lobster or pork. (Leviticus 11:7-12) - No tattoos. (Leviticus 19:28) - Rebellious children are to be stoned. (Deuteronomy 21:21) - Adultery is out too even though our president and some rededicators seem to major in the subject. The penalty is death. (Leviticus 20:10-16) - Some good news for rapists though. If a man rapes a virgin, all he has to do is pay her father a...

In 1933, as a pretext for declaring an emergency to suspend civil liberties, Nazis set fire to the Reichstag building and blamed it on Communist agitators. Soon afterward, Nazi rule was established in Germany with Hitler as its dictator. Ninety-plus years later, Trump has used multiple pretexts to justify the suspension of civil liberties: he completely fabricated crime emergencies in D.C. and Minneapolis, he falsely equated peaceful demonstrators as insurrectionists, and he continually claims voter fraud where none exists. None of these pretexts have worked. But the pretext of Iran as an imminent threat to the U.S. might. With no justifications from Netanyahu or Trump, both began bombing Iran. Iran is a violent repressive theocracy attempting to become a nuclear power. In June 2025, Trump bombed Iran's nuclear facilities and claimed that they were "completely and totally obliterated." His February 28, 2026 bombing was based on a “feeling” that Iran was going to attack u...

Congress unanimously passed (minus 1 vote) the Epstein Files Transparency Act that mandates the DOJ to release records related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell while protecting victim identities. Sen. John Husted was the only “no” vote for the release of the Epstein files because he accepted a $116,892 campaign donation from Les Wexner – who is in the files. Trump signed the bill into law although the passage was veto proof. He had no choice. The DOJ has not only not complied with the law, they have redacted names of rapists, sex traffickers, and pedophiles while releasing names, contact information, and pictures of victims. The victim’s names were released to intimidate them and to prevent other victims from testifying. The DOJ has also withheld millions of documents. They have neither indicted a single person nor interviewed any of the victims. Attorney General Pam Bondi is protecting rapists, sex traffickers, and pedophiles because the release of the files in accordance with...

Trump’s method of operation when events don’t go his way is to attack, counter-attack, never apologize, and never admit defeat. Trump was raised by his racist, slum-lord father Fred, who kept Trump from bankruptcy multiple times. Trump’s later tactics were learned from Roy Cohn, a ruthless New York lawyer who was disbarred for “unethical and unprofessional conduct, including misappropriation of clients' funds, lying on a bar application, and falsifying a change to a will.” After his death in 1986, most of Cohn’s assets were seized by the IRS for tax fraud. Trump is a racist as shown by his recent social media post of the Obamas. He is a Nazi as shown by his collaborations with self-proclaimed Nazi Elon Musk. Trump has the support of the rich because of his tax cuts. He essentially bought their support because they are spineless sycophants who surrender morals and ethics over profits. If you support Trump, you would have supported Hitler and you would have supported slavery and the ...

Trump's creation of an undertrained and over funded army of rabid masked federal agents has nothing to do with deportations. I.C.E. was changed into his personal police force to instill fear in any area he decides that needs to be punished for not supporting him enough. It has little to do with immigration and customs enforcement. In Minneapolis, two peaceful protestors were murdered by Trump's I.C.E. gestapo. Regardless of multiple angles of videos showing the executions, the Trump administration claimed that the two protestors were domestic terrorists, in direct opposition to the video evidence and analysis by multiple independent agencies. Three Trump agents must be charged with the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. As a reminder to Fox “News”, Noem, Vance and others spreading lies – remember Julius Streicher. He was a Nazi propagandist who was aware of murders by the Nazis but continued the vile rhetoric. He was the first Nazi hanged for his actions. We know what we sa...

Trump recently mentioned that many people call him a dictator then added “sometimes you need a dictator.” Trump's history shows that he incubates insane ideas and gradually builds on them unless stopped. His obsession with Greenland – one of many – started during his first term. Trump wants to remain in office to avoid prison, and to do this he must become a dictator, another insane idea. His methods parallel those of Hitler: attack journalists and media, create a personal police force (I.C.E.), use the “Justice” department to attack perceived political opponents, deny election results unless favorable, attack peaceful protesters, and use violence to further his agenda to impose martial law to cancel elections. Cruelty in their actions is the point. Trump and his fellow traitors – including his entire administration and many members of Congress – should drop the pretense and don brown shirts with swastikas. John L. Ferri Towanda Daily Review, Letter to Editor, January 29, 2026

“Timeless” is a time travel science fiction series currently streaming on Prime. Its premise is that a terrorist has stolen a time machine and traveled into the past to alter the history of the United States and possibly the world. One of three protagonists is a black male computer specialist and time machine pilot. Their first mission in a prototype of the stolen time machine is to 1937. When the pilot is told that he is essential and must go, he replies, “I am black. There is literally no place in American history that would be awesome for me.” “Awesome” would be at the bottom of a list that describes conditions in the United States for minorities and women since its founding. The founders were humans and knew that what they created was not “awesome” for all – especially Native Americans, Blacks, women, or anyone not considered white – but did strive to improve the union to be “more perfect”. Conditions were improving. Then along comes Trump. Trump and his cult don’t have a time ma...

To the editor: In a recent “ Letter from an American ” (March 15), Historian Heather Cox Richardson recounted the motivating factors that created the Republican Party. Southern landowners (whose wealth was based on free slave labor) were pushing Congress to pass laws that would permit the spread of slavery in the West to gain leverage over the North. A group of Northern politicians from different parties joined together “to stop the Slave Power that was turning the government into an oligarchy.” In 1856, the Republican Party was founded, and in 1859 Abraham Lincoln defined the party as one of “ordinary Americans standing together against the oligarchs of slavery.” Bradford County has many good “ordinary Americans” who consider themselves ‘conservative’ and are registered Republicans. They believe in the once-accepted platform of limited government, fiscal responsibility, law and order, support for veterans. Many of them believed that Trump, master salesman and liar, had their backs. To...

Every order from the Trump Administration is on behalf of Trump's handler, Vladimir Putin. Every order hurts the United States and helps Russia. A few examples follow: -- Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force which investigated violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. -- Bondi disbanded Task Force KleptoCapture which monitored sanctions against Russia. -- Bondi disbanded the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force. -- Elon Musk gave a 19-year-old with ties to Russia and cybercrime full access to systems and data at the U.S. Government Cybercrime Agency. -- Trump's CIA director sent a list of CIA employees to the White House in an unclassified email. Trump is also giving out security clearances without background checks. -- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive operations against Russia. -- Trump is shutting down U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that supports programs for health, ...

I have been a lifelong Republican. As a Vietnam combat veteran and former law enforcement officer, I have been a proud American all my life. Watching the spectacle that took place in the White House on Feb. 28 has made me ashamed to be a Republican and an American. When Ukraine was attacked, and it appeared Russia would overtake their country, we Americans stepped up and vowed to help the Ukrainians, which rallied their people to fight on. Because we Americans promised to support them until Putin was defeated, they sacrificed hundreds of thousands of their soldiers and civilians. Our country’s loudest supporters were our Republican leaders. They encouraged the Ukrainian people to fight on and to sacrifice. These Republican leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the governors now are silent, afraid to stand as proud men and women, cowards to position and power. Because we change presidents should not change our country’s promises. I, for one, will change my po...

Dear Editor Keeler, Your editorial last week about the re-renaming of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, contains historical errors and misunderstanding. As a grad student of history at the University of Alabama, I learned that Confederate place names and statues across the South had absolutely nothing to do with “an effort to ease tensions between the North and South, heal wounds and reunite the country,” as you stated. This is far from the truth. Fort Bragg was named in 1918 (as you pointed out). The Civil War ended in 1865 and none of the efforts to honor the Confederacy took place until after most of its’ veterans (on both sides) had died. The elevation of Confederate “heroes” was part of white southern efforts to reassert domination. It’s not a coincidence that the Confederate statues, names and romanticism about “the lost cause,” took place right along with Jim Crow laws, the rise of the KKK and the scourge of lynching. All of them were designed to scare and oppress the blac...

In " Hearts and Minds ," a 1998 episode of the sci-fi series Outer Limits, a group of soldiers have drug injectors to protect them from "diseases" harbored by their hideous non-human enemy. After an injector malfunction, the soldiers realize that the drugs are hallucinogens that make the enemy -- also humans but from another region -- appear as giant insects. When they try to contact the enemy, they are all killed. The "enemies" hallucinogenic drug injectors did not malfunction. An effective way to ostracize a person or group is to create a fiction that they are the "other" -- somehow different, less worthy, dangerous -- because of "race", ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or social or political identity. Slavery persisted in the U.S. because slaves were labeled as sub-human, mere property. Hitler blamed Jewish people for "blood poisoning" of the Aryan race just as Donald Trump blames immigrants for "poison...

As a new member of the Viet Nam era United States Army I swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. There was no expiration date on that oath. I believe that oath has been made by every individual that has become a member of the United States armed forces from private to commander of the armed forces. I also believe that oath is sworn by every member of the congress of the United States: Democrat, Republican, or Independent.  The leader of the present administration is allowing Elon Musk and a small group of professional hackers to enter and observe, or modify, or copy, the once secure systems of our government and to use that yet unpublished information not to reduce but to eliminate entire parts of our government that have been established by laws written by our congress and signed into law. Congress and congress only can write our laws, a president can approve or veto a law. Our judicial system determines if the laws are accept...

Without  torturing the definition, treason is "the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance," and to which one has sworn an oath to protect and defend. To prove treason, our Constitution requires "testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act." The penalty for treason against the U.S. is death or not less than 5 years in prison with a minimum fine of $10,000. The current problem of treasonous attacks on the U.S. from internal actors is that too few traitors have been held accountable for their actions in the past.   During the Civil War, William Mumford was executed for treason in 1862 for raising a Confederate flag after tearing down an American flag in New Orleans.   Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States, and his generals were clearly traitors. After the war, Davis was locked up for only 2 years. There was no accountability for his generals. All were given amnesty by President Andrew Johnson and allowed to return to p...

I'm not a lawyer, but if Donald Trump, his staff, and Republican members of Congress can pretend to protect the Constitution, I can opine on the law. As a judge has ruled, Trump's executive order to change the 14th Amendment is “blatantly unconstitutional”.  If our laws were actually just, Trump would be indicted for this action. Instead, more judges rule and waste time to eventually conclude that Congress and the States are required to make this change. It is obvious that Trump can't change the Constitution with an executive order. Yet, our legal system plods along glacially pretending to be just, while allowing criminals to remain free to break more laws.  Our “laws” allowed Trump to regain power where a just system would have locked him up for his attempted takeover of the government when he lost the 2020 election. Our “laws” protect the rich and powerful because they were written and enacted by the rich and powerful. Our system needs major changes to hold criminals like...

On the first day of his 2nd term, Donald J. Trump showed that he cares little for the rule of law, and nothing for the U.S. Constitution.   He pardoned over 1500 convicted criminals who invaded and desecrated the Capitol on January 6 while chanting "Hang Pence." Five of those pardoned physically assaulted officers and one helped plan the attack. Trump referred to them as hostages.   They were not hostages. They were tried and convicted under the rule of law.   He issued an executive order to end birth-right citizenship -- a right given in the 14 Amendment to the Constitution. His action is an illegal order, yet will require the courts to strike it down, wasting time and resources better used elsewhere.   Trump and his enablers are showing that they do not support the police, nor do they intend to protect them, regardless of their claims otherwise. They also are again showing complete contempt for the Constitution, treating it as something to circumvent rath...

Joe Biden will become president on January 20th regardless of what Trump, his enablers, his supporters, and Bradford county (PA) commissioner Doug McLinko believe. How did this happen? There are two scenarios. The first is that Democrats rigged the election. The brilliant plot even sacrificed some down-ballot elections to divert suspicion. The plot even survived scrutiny of Republican led states who certified Biden as the winner because they could find no valid reason to do otherwise. The second scenario is that tens of millions of people already knew or finally realized that Trump is a lousy president who is not interested in doing his job. He golfs obsessively. He has done almost nothing to slow or stop the pandemic and has actively exacerbated its spread. He is a white supremacist with no impulse control who denies science. Democrats merely convinced 81 million people to vote. After losing, he is whining and grifting his supporters for money that he will use personally. Trump's ...

Donald Trump has been attempting to reduce the reported covid-19 deaths with outright lies. His latest con is that the U.S. deaths are overstated by a factor of 16. He claims that the number of deaths are only 6% of the reported numbers. According to the CDC, covid-19 was listed as the only cause of death in 6% of the cases and that, on average, for the remaining deaths, "there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death." By Trump's logic, if he shot a man in the middle of Fifth Avenue and then the man had a heart attack and died, the cause of death would not be the gun shot.   He conveniently ignores that the 7 day averages for U.S. death rates of approximately 2% from covid-19 is consistent with that of other countries. None report death rates 16 times lower. The CDC also reports that U.S. excess deaths from covid-19 since February 1st range from approximately 202,000 to 263,000. These figures are in direct conflict with Trump's lies and agree with rea...

During his first run for president, Donald Trump implied that he could fix what Obama had done. Here are a few of Obama's accomplishments: he fixed the economy that tanked while G.W. Bush was busy fighting a war of choice that killed almost 4500 American soldiers and maimed tens of thousands more; he successfully stopped several potential epidemics by listening to experts; and he passed a well liked health care program that covers per-existing conditions. Trump did "fix" some of Obama's successes: he has repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempted to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with nothing, even during a pandemic; he failed to follow the pandemic response playbook Obama created and let a deadly pandemic infect over 6 million Americans, killing 180,000 with more to come; and his choice to ignore the pandemic has destroyed the U.S. economy and his chance for valid re-election. After WWI, Hitler became dictator of a Germany destroyed by a war they started by promising t...

In an ongoing attempt to reopen schools before the coronavirus pandemic is under control, Trump claimed that children are "almost immune from the disease…. They just don't have a problem." He also claimed that the reason we have so many cases is because we test so much, and that the virus will "go away like things go away." His comments were removed from Twitter and Facebook because they are factually wrong and ignore all of the evidence that has been collected since the beginning of the pandemic. Children should be able to return to school. It's the best place for learning, and not only of academic subjects. They also learn to socialize and interact with their peers and with teachers. They learn that hard work has benefits. It also allows parents or guardians to work while children are in school. But the reopening of schools should happen only if it is safe to do so. School children have been the most quarantined group in the country because of ...