At Length

The Scariest Halloween Is Always Before A November Election

For the past 10 years, the scariest Halloween has arrived every other year, and the one we’ve feared the most was an orange-tanned monster given to long-winded, never-ending speeches about everything xenophobic and grabbing women by their private parts.  His shtick hasn’t changed: it’s a rerun of fear-mongering of his latest pick of people he likes to hate. Only this time, he’s dug really deep into his bag of tricks to pull out the “red scare” trope, calling Democrats communists and accusing anyone who supports universal health care as being evil and “anti-American. Curiously, recent polling shows that some 79% of Americans believe that a Medicare for all system would be preferable to the for-profit health model of patchwork plans, hospital chains and private insurance.

The reasoning goes that access to healthcare and public K-12 education should be a right rather than a privilege. The idea isn’t radical. All Western-style democracies but ours have free universal health care. Yet in this land of the free, medical bankruptcies are one of the top three reasons people become homeless. One would think that after the COVID pandemic, everyone would realize that public health is a national concern and that if large parts of our country aren’t protected we are all exposed to the next virus– like what’s happening with the measles outbreak.

The same is true with higher education. In most western European nations if you are accepted into the university it’s basically free. Here our students get into scary debt that takes years to pay off– that you can’t file bankruptcy on. The rationale for this is of course a higher level of education brings greater economic and political stability.

The irrational rantings of the Orange Felon have gone from horrible to horrific starting back with the War on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This debacle, as you all well know, has raised the price of gas and diesel, exposing how we as a nation are still economically tied to the oil industry for damn near everything – scary isn’t?

This of course has raised inflation on everything from beans to beer and slowed true economic growth down along with the crazy quilt of tariffs which seem to come and go with the whims of a horny ferret sniffing for a female in heat.

Then we have the political investigations of his political enemies – former special prosecutor Jack Smith, US Rep. Ilhan Omar (whose DC house was raided by DHS agents).

And then this list of people and groups: 

James Comey: Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted by a grand jury after federal prosecutors were replaced, following public and private demands from President Trump for his prosecution.

  • ActBlue: On April 24, 2025, President Trump issued a presidential memorandum directing the Justice Department to investigate the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue.
  • Elected Officials and Critics: Federal agencies have increased scrutiny and actions against high-profile political critics, including US Rep. Ilhan Omar mentioned above.
  • Elections and Local Offices: Federal authorities, under FBI Director Kash Patel, conducted operations including a raid on Georgia’s Fulton County Election Office related to 2020 election records.
  • Liberal Organizations and Non-Profits: The administration has expanded investigations into progressive civil society groups, liberal non-profits, and higher education institutions.
  • And let’s not forget his continued attacks on the US media, correspondents, comedians and some musicians

It doesn’t take much these days to be called “an enemy of the people” a term that would seem to qualify for the man using that term the most.

The scariest part of this election is not so much whether the democrats win majorities in the house and senate– it’s how this tyrant will once again try to derail our duly elected government once he loses again.

It’s going to be a scary Halloween and November 3rd may just become the new Día de los Muertos.

James Preston Allen

James Preston Allen, founding publisher of the Los Angeles Harbor Areas Leading Independent Newspaper 1979- to present, is a journalist, visionary, artist and activist. Over the years Allen has championed many causes through his newspaper using his wit, common sense writing and community organizing to challenge some of the most entrenched political adversaries, powerful government agencies and corporations. Some of these include the preservation of White Point as a nature preserve, defending Angels Gate Cultural Center from being closed by the City of LA, exposing the toxic levels in fish caught inside the port, promoting and defending the Open Meetings Public Records act laws and much more. Of these editorial battles the most significant perhaps was with the Port of Los Angeles over environmental issues that started from edition number one and lasted for more than two and a half decades. The now infamous China Shipping Terminal lawsuit that derived from the conflict of saving a small promontory overlooking the harbor, known as Knoll Hill, became the turning point when the community litigants along with the NRDC won a landmark appeal for $63 million.

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