abortion

Another Modest Proposal – Plus What Americans Want


POST 1227
Most Important First

You MUST read Prof. Timothy Snyder’s warning, The Next Terrorist Attack And What Comes After (Updated). It is an urgent warning for all of us.

The Jonathan Swift Solution

Click me

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is expensive. We’re paying over $28 billion per year plus another $170 billion from a bill passed in July for their president-led cruelty. This is your money, honey, that we’re giving to ICE thugs in a time of reduced food availability, vastly increased unemployment, a severe housing shortage, skyrocketing healthcare costs and more.

“Enough!” I say, There is a simple solution at hand, similar to A Modest Proposal offered bu Jonathan Swift to the people of Ireland in 1729. Trump and 4th Reichsführer Stephen Miller are sure to love this.

Instead of doing all the pesky legal things like due process that lefty vermin demand for Hispanics, whether they’re criminals or legal immigrants or simply Hispanic-looking American citizens, we will arrest and slaughter them. It will be a fine start for reversing the Great Replacement of White Americans.

But slaughter isn’t enough. We must not waste. We must process the slaughtered ones like beef and feed the meat to our poor people. That will provide multiple benefits:

Click me for the gold plated story.

  1. We’ll get those pesky non-White Christian pretenders off our streets.
  2. We’ll free up housing for real Americans.
  3. We’ll put our legal poor to work processing the meat so they will no longer be unemployed drags on our White population.
  4. Our poor will be fed this new food supply and thereby avoid compromising our regular food stocks intended for the rest of us.
  5. The savings will be enormous and crime rates will plummet.

We at last will be harvesting value from those caravans of immigrants, the murderers, the rapists and the ones hauling drugs to poison real Americans whom Trump warned us about in that golden escalator moment in 2015. How very Final Solution this will be!

Once we’re done with the Browns we can harvest the Blacks, then the Jews and the Muslims. Important footnote*

What Real Americans Want – The Numbers**

It’s cringe worthy when any Republican or former Republican gets misty-eyed in their self-certainty and lets roll off their tongues that this is a center-right country. I’ll give them a good score for being glib, but not for being accurate. Here, updated from June 4, 2025 is truth about where we’re at.

85 – 92% of Americans believe Social Security benefits should be maintained or increased.

58 – 73% of Americans support raising (not cutting) taxes on the wealthy and big corporations.

56 – 70% of Americans want Medicare For All (MFA). Enough with the ridicule of Bernie Sanders.

63% of Americans believe abortion should be legal.

52 – 63% of Americans believe automatic weapons should be banned.***

56 – 60% of Americans want stricter gun laws.

70 – 85% of Americans want strong red flag laws to keep guns out of the hands of abusers.

67% of Americans want the minimum wage to be $15/hour.

74% of Americans want Dreamers to have legal status in the U.S.

62 – 66% of Americans believe medication abortion should be legal.

82% of Americans want Medicaid to either stay the same or increase.

63 – 67% of Americans oppose ICE raids in schools and places of worship.

80% of Americans support maintaining or increasing SNAP (food stamp) benefits.

75 – 90% of Americans oppose redistricting (gerrymandering) for political advantage.

When asked if they’re righties or lefties, millions of Americans claim to be conservatives – center-right or even more to the right. But when they’re asked specifically about their views on the issues above, they respond just as you see – like progressives. That’s why conservative blabbers really should stuff a sock in it. Their center-right claim just isn’t true.

If We The People want these things – and we’ve wanted them for a very long time – how come we don’t have them? Click here for the answer.

About the Kids Who Sat At The Back of the Classroom Shooting Spitballs Instead of Paying Attention
.

30% of Americans believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump but have no – zero – evidence for their belief. ZERO!

35% of Americans cannot name the 3 branches of government.

26% of Americans believe the sun orbits the Earth.

There will be no Blue Light Special to save us from the craziness on the cheap. This is going to cost our blood, sweat and tears. And it is a challenge worthy of America.

4 – 10% of Americans believe the Earth is flat. *****

27% of Americans distrust science.

The roughly 30% who are spitballers blindly follow Trump and they say and believe preposterous things. But many of them align with the list above of What Real Americans Want, even as they mindlessly continue to believe they are righties and continue to shoot spitballs.

If we want something better, like the center-left policies listed above, we’ll have to do something different, like elect Democrats to power who will get off their timid, boring, lazy butts and craft a comprehensive, audacious plan for We The People to get what we want.**** To that point, click to Ben Cominos’ post,

Project 2029: The Blueprint the Left Has Been Too Afraid to Write
.

It will take generations to fix the damage we’ve allowed to be done by our self-serving cowards and hypocrites who cower before bullies and debase themselves to lobbyists. And we’ve been let down – harmed, really – by the willful indifference of the over 90 million eligible voters whose butts remain on their couches every election.

Now is the best time to start the clean-up of the terrible Republican mess in Aisle 2025.

The Department of Hope

If we are to have hope for a better tomorrow we must stop wringing our hands. We have to reach down and grab our grit and use it to attack what deserves to be attacked. It’s time to speak the truth about America and Americans and demand the America We The People want. You know: center-left. That fight is what gives us hope. Plan the work. Work the plan.

Every day in every way, punch the bully in the nose and demand Project 2029 from the Democrats. Maybe then enough people will vote for them and we can start to get what we want.

Don’t back down. Don’t ever back down.
.

Click me. Definitely click me.

Update to Post 1226: Feel Better Now?

Americans are facing imminent food and healthcare shortages, loan defaults and other sufferings. Tens of thousands of federal workers are being forced to work for no pay, including air traffic controllers, TSA personnel and more. Your travel safety is in their hands. Do you really want them going to work hungry, worried about the mortgage, the car payment, feeding their kids, and cranky? And is any of that even remotely fair or right or decent?

Even as workers suffer, federal legislators are receiving full pay for not doing their jobs and the President of the United States is receiving full pay while expanding his grift, graft and cruelty. In addition,

ICE THUGS CONTINUE TO RECEIVE FULL PAY
FOR DOING THEIR CRUELTY AND BRUTALITY.
.

Betcher not feeling better about that.

__________________________________________________

* This section is satire; i.e. not a real recommendation. It is an exaggeration in all ways to highlight the brutality that is our every day lived experience in America today. In that way it is like Jonathan Swift’s original essay. Go read it – both links.

This writer and these posts DO NOT EVER advocate and they specifically oppose and reject cruelty, violence, murder, cannibalism, forced labor and other forms of official White House policy savagery. No person, whether or not holding the legal right to be in the United States either temporarily or being a citizen of the United States should be subjected to discrimination of any kind other than for specific, fact-based suspicion of criminality, and then only meted out with proper restraint and with the full due process of law.

** I once again looked up all the numbers presented here and easily found them from reputable sources with a simple search, “What percentage of Americans want .  .  . ” There are many reports on each of these topics, so some variation in the percentages can be found, but none that challenge the meaning of what is presented here.

*** In the wake of every mass shooting (think: Sandy Hook; Parkland; Topps Supermarket; Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Music Festival; Emanuel AME Church; Tree of Life Synagogue; Tucson-Giffords; etc.) the percentage of Americans who want automatic weapons, large capacity magazines, bump stocks and silencers to be banned goes up to 80-92%.

**** Gallup reports that approval of Congress is roughly 38%. That means that over 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of our Congress. 54 – 60% of us disapprove of the job Trump is doing. Why in the world should we tolerate such horrid job performance? Fire these guys!

***** For those who have forgotten history, John Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth. That was only possible because the Earth isn’t flat. It’s round. Really.

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
  2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.
  5. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.
  6. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for readability, punctuation, typos, voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

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JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Her Own Best Interests


POST 1103.

Brutal Truth

Amber Thurman and her son. Say her name.

The awful day will come. There will be no avoiding it and the now 6-year-old son of Amber Nicole Thurman will hear the brutal truth.

He will be told that his mother was cut down by Donald Trump, Gov. Brian Kemp and all the self-righteous bigots who are sure they know best how Amber Thurman should have lived her life. They call themselves “pro-life” but they killed Amber Thurman with their cruel laws, just as surely as if they had used a gun to shoot her.

That little boy will hear the grisly story of how the people who could have helped his mom, who could have saved her life so that that little boy would have had his mom as he grew up, instead sat on their hands and let her die. He will hear how the Trump judges, Justices and state legislators threatened the doctors, nurses and hospital administrators with prison terms, should they help her. So, they sat idle because the self-important politicians and judges cared far more for thumping their Bibles than they did for saving the the life of the mom of that little boy, or the life of anyone else. They were certain that they should impose their opinions on her and every other woman and girl.

By the time that little boy learns the truth, an uncountable number of other women will have died from that same repugnant arrogance and self-righteousness, that putrid, primitive stench that hangs in the air in our domed state legislatures and the in vaulted halls of justice and in Congress.

Those in charge were told that many women would die and still more would be permanently damaged by their cruel certainties, but they charged ahead as though causing suffering and death were a virtue. Those Bible thumpers will have their way with these women and girls, like gods sanctimoniously holding the lightning bolt of death in their hands. How glorious and triumphant they must feel.

I want every one of them to face one raped 10-year-old girl they abandoned. I want them to attend the funeral of just one woman they condemned to death. I want them to tell their own daughters that they will turn their backs on them in their hour of need, just like they did to Amber Thurman.

Perhaps one of Amber Thurman’s sisters or her own mother will care for that little boy. We can hope, but it won’t be the same for him.

We’ll remember Amber Nicole Thurman every bit as powerfully as we remember George Floyd. We will keep their spirits alive because we will say their names. The cruel ones won’t. They will just forget her.

Here’s the Pro Publica story about this, as well as Lawrence O’Donnell’s report. It’s a hard video to watch, so have a box of tissues at hand. This story is heartbreaking, because Amber Thurman’s death was tragically and entirely unnecessary.

Amber Nicole Thurman lived. She was a real person and she knew what was in her best interests. She tried to get it, but Donald Trump, Brian Kemp, the Republican Georgia legislature and six black-robed, black-hearted Supreme Court Justices declared they knew better. They did violence to that woman. Now she’s dead and her little boy has lost his mom.

The self-certain bigots waged a 50-year war on freedom and rights. They won and brought this triumph of cruelty to all of us. How proud they must be.

Special Note to Pro-Life Zealots

You have your strongly held beliefs. Perhaps they are buttressed by your religion and your certainties about what God wants. You know what’s right. There is no balance for you to maintain and there are no complexities for you to consider. Got it. Here’s the thing.

It’s your right to believe as you do. You get to have the values you hold and to live as you choose. I will forever stand in defense of that. And I will forever stand in opposition to you imposing your beliefs, your values and your absolutism on me or anyone else.

Believe as you do. If you oppose and perhaps hate abortion, then don’t have one. Stay true to yourself. Maintain your integrity. But keep your integrity and your certainties the hell away from me and mine. Or, as our soon-to-be new Vice President instructs, “Mind your own damn business.” And I amend that with, “Keep the hell out of my business.”

Because when you meddle in the business of others, freedom disappears and people die.

And that isn’t in our own best interests.

It’s not the vibes, it’s not the polls: it’s the votes. 
Are you registered to vote? Check it out on any of these sites:
.

https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/

https://www.usa.gov/confirm-voter-registration

https://www.rockthevote.org/how-to-vote/am-i-registered-to-vote/

“Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.”
  • – Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), 2016


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    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore, even if that makes them a few bucks more expensive. That will help to keep them your town or neighborhood vibrant.
    6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Juicy


POST 1094

This Is Juicy

In a stunning piece in the Washington Post, writer Marc A. Thiessen says, “Walz is Harris’s first unforced error — and an opportunity for Trump.” That’s the headline.

Thiessen writes “.  .  .   most Americans are more comfortable with the MAGA agenda than they are with the democratic socialism of the Harris-Walz ticket.” Hmmm .  .  .

That democratic socialism thing – the vast majority of Americans actually want

access to legal abortions – over 62% –  5 of 8 Americans – that means both men and women

common sense gun safety legislation (to the extent that we have any common sense left) – 77 – 87%, depending on the specific action

some version of Medicare for all – 57% of Americans

affordable healthcare insurance – about 63% of Americans favor the Affordable Care Act. Nevertheless, Republicans have challenged it in courts and held votes to kill it over 2,000 times.

Social Security. Some of us remember that before Social Security it was common for Americans to live their last years in miserable, abject poverty. Memo to revisionist history Republicans: We’re not going back.

overhaul of our immigration system – about 74% of Americans

About that last, Thiessen says Harris wants “open borders,” a common MAGA claim that they use for the the purpose of sliming Democrats, even though no Democrat wants that. It makes for a fine bumper sticker. Doesn’t matter: It’s still a lie.

These are just a handful of issues that the majority of Americans support and want – there are more. Can we please stop saying that this is a center-right country and acknowledge that, labels aside, the majority of us have shifted to a far more progressive position? Can we admit that majorities of We The People want things that only government can provide? Can we agree that the MAGA agenda will get us none of what we want?* (see Project 2025)

Can we put aside fantasies and falsities and instead deal with the reality that democracy means rule by the people? That means that our elected representatives should be working to get us what we want, rather than just covering their asses and sucking up to “the base.” Crazy idea, I know, and it’s hard to keep things sorted out while living in our Through the Looking Glass political world, where the real is fake, bad is good and lies are truth.

But as John Adams said,

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

So, nice try, Mr. Thiessen. You are entitled to your opinions, but the facts say you’re wrong.

This Is Juicy, Too – and With Far More Impact

From Prof. Heather Cox Richardson on August 8, the anniversary of the resignation of Richard Nixon from the presidency. The issue here regards the audio tape recordings of his conversations with aides as he schemed to cover up events surrounding the Watergate break-in.

Nixon fought the subpoenas [for audio recordings] on the grounds of executive privilege. On July 24, 1974, in U.S. v. Nixon, the Supreme Court sided unanimously with the prosecutor, saying that executive privilege “must be considered in light of our historic commitment to the rule of law. This is nowhere more profoundly manifest than in our view that ‘the twofold aim (of criminal justice) is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer.’… The very integrity of the judicial system and public confidence in the system depend on full disclosure of all the facts….”

That’s a breathtaking unanimous statement from the Supreme Court that clearly supports “our historic commitment to the rule of law.” They were nine justices marching in lock step to protect the rule of law and “The very integrity of the judicial system and public confidence in the system .  .  .” Stunning. And proper.

Compare that to today’s presidential immunity decision. Six Republican appointed justices decided that one man is above the law, that we no longer have a “commitment to the rule of law.” Six justices declared that they care not a whit about “The very integrity of the judicial system.” They did this with no substantiation from the Constitution or settled law. These activist, Republican appointed justices simply made up new law.

Recall that Section 1 of the Constitution instructs that, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States . . . ” Today’s six justices of the Court usurped that legislative power and ended 248 years of our belief and practice that nobody is above the law.

Recall that President Washington stepped down, in part because he would not be a king, which were anathema to We The People. They still should be. Read his Farewell Address.

Washington said of political parties,

“…they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government…”

Do any names come to mind?

The granting of immunity to a president is a most perilous step toward our being dominated by a dictator, as Washington warned. Following the dictates of their extremist Republican overlords, the six justices on this Supreme Court have invited into our republic the first fascist dictator who promises to end our republic.

That is driving the “Republicans for Kamala” movement.

That is why people who had never before voted for a Democrat are lining up to do that formerly unthinkable act.

That is why people who had believed that this is a center-right country are attending “restore Roe” demonstrations, declaring they won’t go back and demanding a referendum in their states to make abortions legal.

That is why people are signing petitions for gun safety.

That is why President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Schumer proposed significant changes to the Court.

That is why we will vote to reject overwhelmingly every candidate who stands in opposition to our democracy.

Use the links below to make sure you’re registered to vote. Then do a search for “early voting in [name of your state]” and then vote.

_______________________________________________

* From Paul Krugman:

. . .  my hackles rise whenever people call MAGA a populist movement. The people who will almost certainly make policy if Trump wins are as committed as ever to a right-wing economic agenda of cutting taxes on the wealthy while slashing programs that help Americans in need — including programs that help children.

In addition to being cruel, this agenda tends to be unpopular.

Ya think?

Are you registered to vote? Check it out here:
.

https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/

https://www.usa.gov/confirm-voter-registration

https://www.rockthevote.org/how-to-vote/am-i-registered-to-vote/

“Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.”
  • – Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), 2016.


  • Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take ALL OF US to get the job done.

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    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.
    6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Somebody Has To Tell Me . . .


POST 1063

.  .  .  why we are even talking about:

– whether doctors can be criminally prosecuted in Idaho for having made efforts to save the life of a pregnant woman in distress or if they have to wait until death is imminent before proceeding with life saving treatment and by then the woman might never again be able to carry a baby?

– Trump claiming that a president cannot be prosecuted for “official” criminal acts and that a former president cannot be prosecuted unless the House of Representatives has impeached him and the Senate convicted him. Clearly, “Equal justice under law” will no longer have any meaning.*

– that the Supreme Court of the United States has taken this immunity case, this violation of reason, this affront to the Constitution, this kick in the teeth of justice seriously? And they may well grant Trump such god-like power!** Read this excellent explainer.

– whether Texas women can travel to another state for an abortion or whether she can be given consult from others without any of them going to jail? That is to say, why is it necessary to question whether Texans have freedom of speech or freedom to travel? Or Floridians? Or Mississippians?

.  .  .  how it’s even possible that:

– the state of Tennessee has authorized school teachers to carry firearms, when everyone has known for a very long time that the real problem is not unarmed teachers, but over-armed citizens with a vigilante mania or some other mental derangement, like, “I feel like a weenie, and I know I’ll feel powerful if I kill a bunch of people.”

– Fuhrer Greg Abbot of Texas has his police and National Guard in riot gear on the campus of the University of Texas – Austin and they are arresting and are prepared to beat up kids who are in peaceful protest over suffering Palestinians? This looks like it can become like the 1968 police riot in Chicago all over again, with kids beaten, arrested and shot.

– hateful idiots on college campuses across the country are screaming pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic vitriol, hurling threats at and committing physical assaults on Jewish students? Someone taught them to hate. Someone taught them that they could beat up those who are somehow different from them. I wonder who that might be.

– we tolerate the cruelty heaped on Asians, Muslims, Blacks, Browns and Jews? Oh yeah: it’s that “Someone taught them” thing again.

– a large segment of the Republican Party favors Vladimir Putin and Russia over a democratic ally in Europe and even favors Russia over our own country?

– the majority of Republicans (about 70%) believe Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election? Didn’t these people receive an education? Do they understand concepts like evidence, reality and the rule of law? How is it that a jury of his peers found Trump liable for sexual abuse and for defamation – twice! – and they still plan to vote for him? And they’ll vote for him even if he is convicted of felonies – crimes – before the election?

– sitting senators (Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley) are calling for National Guard deployment against peaceful protesters? Cotton posted, “I encourage people who get stuck behind the pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic: take matters into your own hands.”

– that Speaker Mike Johnson bellowed from the steps of Low Memorial Library, “Columbia has allowed these lawless agitators and radicals to take over. Anti-Israel encampments are popping up in universities all across this country. The madness has to stop.” Mother Jones How come today’s Republicans sound an awful lot like hateful, anti-civil rights creeps of the 1960s? Perhaps Johnson and his snarling Buddies On Repression Extremism Society (“BORES”) will bring Iranian Revolutionary Guards to shoot college campus protesters, just like they do in Tehran.

_____________________________________________

* This from Wikipedia:

OLC memoranda

In 1973, amid the Watergate scandal, the Department of Justice‘s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a memorandum concluding that it is unconstitutional to prosecute a sitting president.[23] Its arguments include that the president “is the symbolic head of the Nation. To wound him by a criminal proceeding is to hamstring the operation of the whole governmental apparatus in both foreign and domestic affairs.”[24] It says that the statute of limitations should not be tolled while the president is in office, but suggests that Congress could extend the statute of limitations specifically for presidents.[25] After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Clinton, the OLC issued a second memorandum in 2000, distinguishing civil and criminal presidential immunity and determining that it was still improper to prosecute a president due to the adverse affect it might have on his ability to govern.[26]

That is the rationale for the recommended prohibition against prosecuting a sitting president – but only while he or she is still president. My understanding is that there is nothing in either memorandum to indicate that there is a prohibition against prosecuting a president for crimes committed while in office once that president has left office.

More to the point, nowhere is it written that a president enjoys permanent protection from prosecution for criminal activity when no longer in office, as when Trump stole classified documents, brought them to Mar-a-Lago and then lied to the FBI and defied a subpoena. But, of course, Trump’s lawyers have claimed just such protection at the Supreme Court.

Required Reading – click here

Blindfolded Lady Justice – for now

.

The Court heard this case with Justice Clarence Thomas present. He did not recuse himself – again – in his obvious temper tantrum ignoring of his conflict of interest, as his wife Ginni participated in the insurrection at the heart of this case.

Someone has to tell me why the Supreme Court accepted this farcical and cruel excuse of a case. These Justices make it look like Lady Justice is peeking out from behind her blindfold, telling them that it’s okay for them to be political hacks and to undermine our justice system.

If you wish to dig into this further, here’s a link to the full OLC memos, along with pertinent commentary.

** If Trump succeeds with his case in the Supreme Court, President Biden could immediately have Trump assassinated by Seal Team 6, claiming him to be a clear and present danger to the United States. If Seal Team 6 were to refuse such an order, Biden could bring a pistol the the first presidential debate and kill Trump himself. Either way, Biden could never be prosecuted for the murder because the Supreme Court would have made it legal to be a presidential murderer.

Today is a good day to be the light

  • _____________________________
  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.


  • Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take ALL OF US to get the job done.

    And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Horrible, Horribler, Horriblest


POST 1061

Horrible

Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire had been a Nikki Haley supporter making Never Trump sounds, this in his blowhard-y way, but that doesn’t work now that Haley’s candidacy is over. Now he’s backing Trump. He even says Trump shouldn’t drop out of the campaign even if he’s convicted of felonies. Here’s his exchange with George Stephanopoulos last Sunday, as reported by Heather Cox Richardson:

Just to sum up,” Stephanopoulos said, “You support [Trump] for president even if he’s convicted in [the] classified documents [case]. You support him for president even though you believe he contributed to an insurrection. You support him for president even though you believe he’s lying about the last election. You support him for president even if he’s convicted in the Manhattan case. I just want to say, the answer to that is yes, correct?”

Sununu answered: “Yeah. Me and 51% of America.” *

Aside from its overstatement of Trump’s national support, Sununu’s answer illustrated the triumph of politics over principle. Earlier in the interview, Sununu explained that he could swallow all of Trump’s negatives because he wanted a Republican administration. “This is about politics,” he said.

That exchange was on the eve of jury selection in the first trial of the only ex-president to be charged with felonies. It seems that Trump isn’t the only fraud and Republicans are in a cowards conga line, meekly peeing on Trump’s command. Don’t confuse Sununu’s bluster with strength or integrity. He’s nothing more than a wimpy Trump suck up.

Horribler

From a newsletter from AVOW, a Texas organization working to protect abortion rights:

Here are just a few of the policies Texas extremists are pushing:

Direct district attorneys to investigate and prosecute abortion support funds and their donors for helping people who travel out of state for care.

Censor and shut down websites with information about accessing abortion care — including educational websites like Avow’s NeedAbortion.org.

Expand the abortion bounty law out of state for medication abortion.

It wasn’t enough for them to ban abortion care in Texas — now they want to block free travel and information. [all emphasis original]

You’re reading that correctly. The state of Texas wants to end freedom of speech and the right to travel freely between states. Plus, of course, they want to eliminate everything related to pregnancy except waiting, regardless of the viability of the fetus or whether the mother will survive the ordeal or if she was raped by a thug or is the victim of incest by Uncle BillyBob. They want to eliminate all contraception but abstinence and, it seems, stop all sexual activity unless a government official observes and approves the act. Don’t even think of getting funky.

All that prohibition is very odd, in that Texas used to proclaim itself as having a starched spine over liberty and independence. “Don’t mess with Texas,” they proudly declare. Those folks used to believe in freedom. But now we see that they only want those things for people who agree with those in power, the freaks who want to control others’ lives. Looks like those guys have taken over the job of messing with Texas.

All of that is happening in extremist Gov. Greg Abbott’s Texas, he who proudly declares, “Slice ’em with razor wire and drown ’em in the river” cruelty; he of the defying of a Supreme Court ruling; he of the un-American way.

Horriblest

We wondered why a mean spirited creep snarling, “You’re fired!” was somehow entertainment for so many. And we lived in the frustration of millions accepting obvious fantasy, lies, cruelty, sideshow hucksterism and plain-to-see narcissism, resulting in all that and more being visited upon all of us. As bad as that was, it has become far more dangerous.

Trump’s mental decline is apparent to anyone paying any attention at all. As nonsensical, as vacuously performative as he has always been, things are far worse now and are becoming clinically perilous.

You must read Trump’s Brain Is Not Okay. This is not some updated Trump bashing or progressive leveraging. This is a serious examination by serious mental health professionals of what every one of us can observe any time Trump speaks or acts in public. He is becoming incompetent in ways that unmask his inability to operate on an executive level.

Dementia in various forms isn’t uncommon, but he is campaigning to be the next President of the United States. He has declared he will be a dictator, that he’ll be your “retribution,” that he will order Seal Team Six to assassinate his political opponents, that he will order our armed forces to take hostile action against lawful American citizens. He will babble like a toddler and

He will have the nuclear codes!
.

Don’t imagine that if he is elected that sane adults will be in the room to stop him all the time. Rather, imagine him as a tyrannical child having spontaneous and unpredictable temper tantrums with the world’s most destructive toys at his disposal.

Read: Trump’s Brain Is Not Okay.
.
Actually Horriblest-er

In the House of Representatives of the United States, its Republican members brought forth an impeachment resolution and puffed with great thundering bombast and imperiousness over the managing of our southern border, effectively blaming Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for the ongoing debacle. They presented no evidence of any high crimes or misdemeanors.

On Wednesday the full Senate of the United States took up the matter, with Republicans vying for an opportunity to get a video clip to use in their campaigns for reelection in November. After a few hours of pointless blathering, the impeachment was discarded.

The debacle that is our southern border is the result of exactly one thing: Congress has failed to deal with the problem for decades.

Two months ago the Senate passed a very tough bipartisan bill to deal with the problem, but the House Republicans were told by Donald Trump not to even bring it up for a vote. He prefers to use immigration problems as a campaign talking point. So, the Trump-owned Cowardice Caucus of Republicans sits on its hands as terrified immigrants wait and suffer. Plus at Trump’s insistence the cowards made sure that aid didn’t get to Ukraine, Taiwan or to Israel/Gaza for over 480 days.

Our Congress is doing all that in our name as people are dying.

Finally, Some Good News

The scene is a time worn courtroom in New York City. It is Friday, April 19 and all are tired from the now completed arduous task of jury selection. As the day is ending the defense is challenging yet another decision by the judge.

Justice Juan Merchan:

“The defense is targeting my decisions one by one by one. That has to end .  .  . There comes a point where you have to accept my rulings. There’s nothing else to clarify. Nothing else to argue. We are starting this trial Monday morning.”

Like it or not, Orangeman, Justice Merchan is in charge, you are not and there’s nothing you can do about it.

________________________________________
* Nope – sorry, Governor. It isn’t 51%. It’s 42%. Now, what are you going to do when that number plummets because, unlike you, Americans won’t tolerate a crook, a fraud, a traitor, a cheat, a rapist, a liar and a convicted felon in the White House?

Today is a good day to be the light

  • _____________________________
  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.


  • Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take ALL OF US to get the job done.

    And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Oh No – Reality!


Post 1,023

___________________________________

Republicans have been trying to kill Social Seciurity only since it began in 1935. Just a few years ago Paul Ryan (D-WI) tried to replace Social Security with a voucher system that he insisted wasn’t a voucher system. But it was and his sneakily misnamed scheme didn’t fly.

Since that Ryan skirmish over reality, Republicans have reverted to periodic bouts of phony statistics, victim whining and magical thinking. But they’re just politicians doing what today’s Republicans do. What about the way the rest of We The People feel about the Social Security system and what to do about it?

First, start with the plain fact that everyone loves Social Security. That is true at least for old people and also for others who know old people and for people who hope to one day become an old person. So, if there is any truth to the claims that Social Security will one day run out of money (and the math suggests that it will on some hotly disputed date), then we are left to figure out what to do about that.

Should we:

Raise the retirement age?

Limit benefits to some generations?

Limit benefits to all generations?

Eliminate cost of living adjustments (COLA)?

Let Granny starve or freeze to death?

Put old people in retirement city collectives, which would be cheaper than individual dwellings (we won’t call them “concentration camps”). After all, we do public housing so very well.

Offer them a bonus to die so we can eliminate the cost of their upkeep and then harvest their organs?

Eliminate the cap on contributions so that rich people and corporations pay their proportionate share of taxes on all payroll, not just some?

Raise the Social security tax rate on everyone?

Make the tax rate progressive instead of a flat tax?

The Gallup organization did a recent study of how we Americans want to see this issue solved. Here’s the chart of their surprising findings:

That’s right: By a 2 to 1 margin We The People would rather raise taxes on ourselves than cut benefits. And I’ll bet you can guess who’s in the 31% in favor setting Granny adrift. Here’s the full story.

Don’t expect any Republican to show this chart as support for his/her speech on the floor of the House or Senate – not when they can instead go histrionic over their fantasy of a deep state. They’ll be arguing yet again against what We The People want, like the way they vote against gun safety laws and abortion.

BTW – and I shouldn’t have to tell you this –  If you don’t want to worry about what the Grinches want to do to your retirement benefits or to Granny’s, elect people who will protect your benefits.

That’s right: If you want Social Security to be there for you, you have to do something about it. That’s the reality.

Boomers Strike Back

All true. All Boomers can do those things.

Truth be told, not only can I write in cursive, but sometimes later on I can read what I wrote. And I can use it to prevent Trump from reading my secret messages – kind of like our WW II Navajo Code Talkers – both because of my semi-undecipherable cursive and because he can’t read anything but a teleprompter (not well) and Mein Kampf (too well).

That’s reality, too.

Worst Person of the Month Award

So many worthy candidates but just one award .  .  .

Ken Paxton, the Republican Attorney General of Texas, has made it his holy mission, his crusade, his bible-thumping idiocy to be the fundamentalist decider in all things in the lives of all Texans.

He’s fighting the federal greenhouse gas rule, as though global warming will somehow skip around Texas and too bad for the rest of us.

He’s snooping into records from a Seattle hospital regarding gender affirming care for Texas kids. You read that right: in Seattle.

He loves the Texas concertina wire fences that slice up people coming to this country from the south. They’ve already killed some asylum seekers. Why aren’t there murder charges against the perps? Oh, right – it’s Texas.

All of that and more is contrary to the will of the majority of Texans, but that’s okay, because Paxton can bible-thump away at anyone who disagrees with him.

One last thing: his impeachment trial on corruption charges is getting close to a verdict.

  • Query: How come so many moral zealots are found
  • to be hypocrites and morality violators?

The worst part of the Paxton story involves Kate Cox, a pregnant Texas woman carrying a fetus that has severe medical problems that make survival outside the womb nearly impossible. Plus, continuing her pregnancy to term with this fetus might cause Cox to lose the ability to have another child and might even prove to be lethal to her.

She went to court in order to obtain an exception from the draconian Texas abortion law. Her case was based on the threat to Cox’s life. She won in the circuit court, allowing her to have an abortion. That’s when Ken the Merciless showed up and appealed to the Texas Supreme Court to block the whole thing. Paxton’s halo glowed like the sun, as he ensured that both Ms. Cox and her baby would likely die. Ms. Cox was running out of time to take action, so she left Texas to get the medical care she desperately needed elsewhere.

That’s why the Worst Person of the Month Award is hereby slimed upon Ken Paxton, the self-appointed dictator of Texas morality, This well-earned derision is for driving Kate Cox out of Texas without even a moment’s thought to her welfare. He’s quite like the medicine man with a bone in his nose, driving witches out of the village to die in the jungle.

“Congratulations, Ken! You’re the Worst Person of the Month, a first class hypocrite and a world class jerk.”

Come to think of it, he’s just like his boss, Republican Governor Greg Abbott.

Tell you what, crepes: You come after me and leave that poor woman alone. She has enough to handle without having to fend off your cruelty and overcompensation for your inadequacies.

Sadly, that’s reality, too.

Today is a good day to be the light

_____________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.


  • Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take ALL OF US to get the job done.

    And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Reality Jokes from the 1950s


Q. What do you call couples who practice the rhythm method of birth control?

 A. Parents

Q. What do you call teenagers who are taught abstinence as the only acceptable form of birth control?

A.  Parents

Amazingly, according to some bible thumpers, some Republicans and a former Republican Party platform, only abstinence is to be taught in our schools to instruct our teenagers in birth control. That ignores the slam-dunk certainly of human behavior.

We humans are remarkably resistant to changing our natural behavioral tendencies. We have certain defaults, like survival of self and our species. Following puberty we have sexual urges. While it is undeniably true that our behavior can be and sometimes is curbed by societal norms, our urges remain and, in certain circumstances, societal norms are all but forgotten. Like in the back seat of a car.

While kids know not to have sex because of the risk of pregnancy, plus Puritanical legacy pressure, they’ve always done it and will continue to do so. Leaving them with nothing but abstinence for birth control is like dumping them in the ocean in a tiny raft with a spoon for a paddle.

Science has become a strange and forbidden topic for the far righties. They say and do things that suggest that they believe that nothing has been learned over the past 2,500 years, but science exists just the same.

To paraphrase the 1997 movie Men In Black, 2,500 years ago men knew that the Earth was flat. 500 years ago men knew the Earth was the center of the universe. 50 years ago men knew that the only form of birth control was abstinence. What do the bible thumpers and far-right Republicans know now?

According to a CDC study reported by CBS News, there was a 44% drop in American teenage pregnancies (ages 15 – 19) from 1991 – 2010 and there were fewer teenage mothers in 2010 than in any year since 1946. Better still, the teen pregnancy rate was at its lowest rate ever in the U.S. in 2022. The CDC reports that the dramatic decline is due to pregnancy prevention education, the pill and condoms.

What that says is that teaching about sex and pregnancy and supplying the necessary tools gives kids a better chance to avoid unwanted consequences. It says that science (like the pill) exists and is available to prevent pregnancy. That suggests that kids aren’t stupid and will learn to make better choices when they are told the truth and when they are given necessary tools.

Pretending that teen sex can be controlled by telling kids not to engage in sexual behavior or that they must not take advantage of better science is to ignore the reality of human beings. Same for adults.

Come to think of it, that Republican mania to deny reality seems to pop up in lots of areas, like global warming, honoring our obligations and stealing public money from public education and passing it along to private schools, saying that isn’t a violation of the First Amendment.

Here’s the thing about reality: we can deny it, but that won’t change what exists. And the longer we pretend, the worse our problems become.

For example, we can pretend that outlawing abortions will prevent them, but we have hundreds of years of experience that tell us with certainty that if abortions are made unlawful, they will continue to be performed just the same. Rich women will find a doctor to help them and all the rest in need will revert to what used to be called “back alley abortions.” Women will be mutilated and killed in the process. That is the reality even if some deny it.

Those jokes from the 1950’s weren’t particularly funny then (think: surprise babies) and they are less funny now. That’s especially true since Supreme Court Justice and right-wing billionaire moocher Clarence Thomas argued in his Dobbs anti-abortion decision that, “. .  .  the right to birth control — decided by the Court in [the] 1965 Griswold decision — should be overturned, along with the right to gay marriage [and that] maybe contraception shouldn’t be legal.”

Wait – wouldn’t outlawing contraception result in lots more unwanted pregnancies and more abortions?

Headlines This Week – So Far

New York Times

Note 1: The only reason for this right-wing idiocy is to create the illusion of a Biden equivalency to the poster boy for criminality.

Note 2: McCarthy caved to the crazies because he cares more about keeping the speaker’s gavel in his hand than he cares about life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty.

New York Times [Italics emphasis in headline are mine]

That end of aid was due to congressional Republicans and Democrat Joe Manchin killing the expanded child tax credit. The poverty rate among children jumped from 5.2% to 12.4%.

The New North Korean Threat
Why the United States Needs to Address Pyongyang’s Nuclear Advances Now

Foreign Affairs

Quotes Describing Us

Dahlia Lithwick’s guest on her Slate podcast of September 9 was Marc Elias, the attorney-crusader for voting rights. They discussed the Republican legislature of Alabama having refused to obey a redistricting order from the United States Supreme Court, as well as other examples of Republicans flouting the law.

Elias:

“Within the Republican Party now, violating court orders [and] breaking criminal laws makes you more popular.”

Lithwick, speaking of multiple examples of Republicans defying laws and norms:

“The[ir] coin of the realm is lawlessness.”

This is what years of a constant drumbeat stoking anger and of middle finger politics has done. This is how an entire society self-immolates.

Today is a good day to be the light

______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.


  • Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take ALL OF US to get the job done.

    And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Rights and The Fourth of July


Idiotic Theories and Your Rights

Collect the entire set of Rights Elimination Bobbleheads

Trump’s infamous attorney general, Bill Barr, is an enthusiastic proponent of the radical “unitary executive theory.” He promoted it in his 19-page suck-up application to be Trump’s suck-up AG.

Jeffrey Clark, the mental lightweight DOJ supporter of Trump’s attempt to make himself Permanent Emperor of the United States, is also a unitary executive theory bobblehead.

The New York Times wrote:

Like other conservatives, Mr. Clark adheres to the so-called unitary executive theory, which holds that the president of the United States has the power to directly control the entire federal bureaucracy and Congress cannot fracture that control by giving some officials independent decision-making authority.

That idiotic theory is related to the “independent state legislature doctrine,” which would effectively eliminate elections, allowing radical state legislatures to select office holders instead of We The People doing that. Both notions are efforts to crush democracy – i.e. your rights.

Imagine if extremist state legislatures or Trump were awarded dictatorial powers. That would be the end of this as a nation of laws. Instead, this would be a nation at the whim of tyrants with fever dreams of grandiosity. Good thing the Supreme Court just smacked down some of that extremist garbage. More on that next week (and see the Comment about this below).

You know that dictatorial power is what Trump wants. So does Ron DeSantis. That alone should motivate you to make sure that nobody who isn’t an enthusiastic promoter of rights and democracy ever gets his/her hands on any public power. Those extremist – not conservative – schemes are exactly how the far right crazies intend to take away your rights and end your democracy. They want to end majority rule in America.

You’ve played by majority rule since you were on the grade school playground. I’m betting you can’t think of a single reason to do things differently, but the bad guys in the minority can. Their reason is that they want everything – all the money and all the power – for themselves. And they most certainly don’t want any non-Christian, non-White “others” to have power or rights, Constitution and Bill of Rights be damned. Plus, they don’t care a bit about you.

Good thing you know what to do about those guys who want to steal your rights.

Clarity About Rights

For the moment, consider abortion as a placeholder for all rights. First, you must read Prof. Heather Cox Richardson’s explainer, which follows her opening section about the recent Russian drama.

While nobody likes abortion and most agree with a ban following 24 weeks of gestation (meaning fetal viability), a huge majority of Americans believe abortion is sometimes necessary and should be a right. And we Americans love our rights. You remember that “Land of the Free” business, don’t you? That means rights.

And that’s true, even as some believe that you should not have all the same rights as they have, like voting rights. Some Supreme Court justices think you shouldn’t have a right to birth control. Some autocrat wannabes want to impose their might and their religious beliefs on you to further limit your rights. Are you feeling good about that?

No, you’re not. You don’t want anyone putting their knee on the neck of your rights, George Floyd murder style.

So, wave the flag on the 4th of July for your rights, for everyone’s rights, for majority rule, all of which means democracy. Yeah, that’s a good thing to wave the flag for. Here’s how to do that.

Grit For Rights

Mallory McMorrow

I’ve been an enthusiastic fan of Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow since her take down in April 2022 of a hatred spewing Michigan state legislator. See why here.

And because you care about murderers killing children, watch her commentary following the Uvalde massacre. Her message is a good one, too, for the anniversary of the Highland Park massacre. And the Little Rock nightclub massacre. And the massacre of Dallas police officers. And the Aurora, CO movie theater massacre. And the Grand Rapids, MI massacre.

Right, you don’t quite remember all of those. That’s because there is a mass murder every day, so only the ones that are spectacular in some way stand out.

Like little kids shredded so badly by assault weapon bullets in Uvalde that DNA samples were needed to identify them. That massacre happened while cops had an unscheduled rest period in the school hallway for an hour while listening to the murderer’s gunfire.

But every one of those people who were shot, regardless of whether we remember the events, had a right to live. I know you remember that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness thing. That’s about rights. And the right to life was taken away from every one of those murdered people.

Then our leaders stood, with drooping heads, pathetically mumbling something about some damned thoughts and prayers and that this isn’t the time, or some such cowardly drivel. And they DID NOTHING to prevent the next mass killings, so those happened and they keep happening.

The reason for providing those McMorrow links is for you to see what standing strong for what you know is right looks like. Our country needs lots more of this power from you and from me and from all of us. It’s time for moderation in our messaging to end. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

    • Mr. Nice Guy – n. a verbal construction connoting powerlessness; devoid of strength; lacking backbone; avoiding necessary confrontation.
    • – Disambiguation Dictionary, 2023

So, risk having the tough, necessary conversations. Your model for that is in those McMorrow links.

Tell it strong. Tell it from your heart and from your gut. Tell it for your children and your grandchildren who are terrified that they’re next. Tell it for all the people who can no longer tell it for themselves.

And tell your Democratic candidates to reach down, grab their power and wake up their woke. Nice guy milquetoasts are of no use to us at all. This is our time to stand strong.

Wave the flag for that on Tuesday.

Late Friday Extra: Jim Crow Rights

Many rotten tomatoes go to the Supreme Court for its recent decisions on: 1. an entirely hypothetical scenario of a website developer refusing service for a gay couple’s wedding website (they had not asked for one); 2. striking down Affirmative Action in higher education admissions, and; 3. striking down student loan forgiveness. Jim Crow discrimination and segregation have officially been brought back and expanded. Here is a pair of snapshots of facilities with updated signage to accommodate the Court’s decisions.

Click me. I’m suitable for framing.

It’s a new day, but it sure looks a lot like the old days.

Today is a good day to be the light.

______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take a lot of us to get the job done.

    And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Scheming


Here’s Some Of What Decades of Far Right Scheming Have Brought You

Voter suppression through:

extreme gerrymandering;

voting rights suppression;

throwing out voter registrations for obscure reasons – especially in poor and minority areas;

eliminating voting places;

restricting ballot drop box access;

School vouchers for private and parochial schools that starve public schools of money and violate the freedom of religion guarantee of the First Amendment;

Attacking and eliminating healthcare rights;

Cheating on Supreme Court confirmation hearings to get a polarized Court;

Cultivating a power base by appealing to racism and hatred – no more need for dog whistles;

Book banning and book burning;

Stoking fear of the “other;”

Promoting supply side “voodoo” economics for over 40 years, which has served only to make the wealthy wealthier and more powerful and make all others poorer and less powerful;

Packing the Supreme Court to engineer the Citizens United decision into a grotesque monster that allows enormous sums of money from hugely wealthy individuals and corporations to control our elections. This was accomplished by expanding the original case into something not in contest – in effect, making up a new case to ensure power for the wealthy;

Denial of truth and embrace of cruel fictions that stick a spoke into the wheels of progress in Congress and state houses, then complaining that government can’t do anything. Example: spouting lies about the safety and efficacy of the coronavirus vaccines and demonizing public health officials, while well over a million people died and our healthcare infrastructure (hospitals) failed, leaving millions without healthcare at all – and at the same time complaining that the government grossly mishandled the pandemic;

A Trump appointed Texas judge overruling the FDA to eliminate Mifepristone, this on a foundation of boundless ignorance and vacuous reasoning. That compliments what appears to be his whitewashing of his extremist views that he hid during his lifetime appointment judgeship confirmation process;

Challenging election results on the basis of absolutely no facts or evidence – but the false claims have accomplished the undermining of citizen confidence in our elections;

Stoking fear and hatred of LGBTQ citizens and inciting violence;

Ignoring the overwhelming public will on issues like gun safety, abortion, healthcare and more. Here is an example in a chart from the April 11 STAT report, based on a Kaiser Family Foundation study.

These are shocking numbers and the story is actually worse than it appears. Read the full Kaiser Family Foundation report. This is what happens when a minority is in control and they ignore what the rest of us want. It’s deadly.

The extremists have been at this for decades, applying billions of dollars and enormous political pressure and their scheming has paid off in their minority control and their fantastic self-enrichment. Decide for yourself if this stuff works for you. If it doesn’t, then perhaps we should be scheming to set things right.

DNC: I don’t hear a thing from you except solicitations for my money. Is that your best shot?

Today is a good day to be the light.

______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.


    Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take a lot of us to get the job done.

    And add your comments below to help us all to be better informed.

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    JA

 


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Riddle Me That, Batman


Join the Disambiguation Gang right over there ⇒ (scroll down just a bit)

_____________________________________

The Riddler, aka E. Nigma

We human beings are walking contradictions. We say we want to be fit and healthy but we forget the New Year’s resolution and drop the gym membership before January 20 (to get the full membership refund) and we eat stuff that tastes good, but we know it’s bad for us.

We know the climate is warming, causing not just more natural disasters, but far more destructive ones. Check with Uncle Phil who lives in the California mountains to hear what he has to say about that right now – if you can get through to him. Or what Aunt Gloria in Ft. Myers, FL said about the hurricane last September. Or check with anybody in the still not fully rebuilt Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, these 18 years after Katrina, or any farmer who’s watched his crops wither and die in a massive draught. These disasters really are becoming more frequent and more devastating, but we still go out and buy a 17 mpg SUV or a 13 mpg pickup truck. Riddle me that.

Sometimes we’re contradictions in ways that are devastating in immediate and very personal ways.

For example, pro-life people are staunchly against abortion. They offer various rationales for their views, including calling abortion murder, stating their religious justifications and more. Here’s the riddle me part.

These folks are often in favor of capital punishment. That is decidedly not pro-life. You could ask any of the former death row inmates who were released due to the fine work of The Innocence Project. They know a lot about capital punishment from a perspective you don’t have and they’re quite sure that capital punishment isn’t pro-life.

And what about the pro-lifers who don’t want us to support healthcare for poor people, some of whom die for lack of healthcare? Or those who don’t want to provide supplemental food for poor children. Or those who won’t support a first rate education for kids regardless of their home address? This is starting to look very much like these people aren’t pro-life at all and perhaps aren’t even pro-kids. They’re just pro-fetus and don’t demonstrate much caring for kids following their birth. Riddle me that.

And while we’re on the subject of giving birth, how is it pro-life to refuse an abortion to pregnant women whose lives will clearly be in peril if their pregnancy continues? And how is it pro-life to force a 10-year-old girl in Ohio, a victim of rape and incest, to carry a fetus to term, endangering her life? Riddle me those life-of-the-mother contradictions.

Should you take issue with my indictment of pro-life, read Thom Hartmann’s exquisitely clear unmasking of it.

Our military people were ordered to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, this to ensure our fighting forces would be ready when needed, unlike the sailors and ships the Navy had to sideline in 2021. Some refused the order to be vaccinated. Bear in mind that they were required to receive various vaccines upon entering military service, so their objection surely wasn’t about vaccines.

They took an oath freely and without reservation, they affirmed, both to protect and defend the Constitution and to obey orders. And they kept their word, right until the moment when they didn’t. Riddle me that one, too.

Click me for the story

There was a gang of thugs who were going to kidnap and execute the Governor of Michigan because of her mask mandate and the 2021 lock down. They were conspiring to violate a bucketload of laws, all the while calling themselves patriots. That looks a lot like the January 6 insurrectionists carrying Blue Lives Matter flags, the flagpoles of which they used to beat and stab police officers. They proclaimed that they were true patriots, too. Riddle me those cruelties.

How about the mania for book banning and book burning that’s sweeping states with extremist, self-serving governors and legislatures? It’s always done with some excuse about protecting our delicate children from the truth, always with the patina of some invented notion of parents’ rights. But in the end it’s about what a minority of hair-on-fire types want and the ignoring of the truth that the majority wants taught to their kids. Riddle me that, too.

People exercise their rights by parading outside polling places carrying intimidating assault rifles. They scream insanely at school board meetings and threaten peaceful protesters. They repeatedly lie in Congress and claim the right to abuse asylum seekers and kidnap their children and more. Pay no attention to the constitutional rights they deny others. Riddle me that.

That’s very much like the right of state officials to gerrymander fair representation out of existence, and to wipe people off voting roles for the sneakiest, most manipulative of Jim Crow-like reasons. It’s about the right of states to remove polling places and ballot drop boxes in order to make it far more difficult for a select group of citizens to vote. It’s about the right to bollix up the system such that it takes 20 minutes to vote in White areas and 8 hours to vote in Black areas.

It’s always about the freedom and rights of those in the minority but who are in control, as they deny freedom and rights to others. Effectively, they tell us, “Freedom for me, but not for thee.” Riddle me that, Batman.

Oh, and Florida SB1316 requires bloggers who make comments about the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and others to register with the state. This is a blatant attack on freedom of the press.

That control freak power grab of a bill is not without precedent, as Vladimir Putin passed that same law in Russia in 2014.

That raises the question of why some of our Republican elected officials, self-proclaimed patriots, support dictators Putin, Orbán, Erdoğan, Duterte and other authoritarian bullies who strip rights and freedom from their people. Why do our homegrown anti-Americans call for us to abandon Ukraine, as it fights for freedom and democracy? Why do these elected officials call themselves patriots, even as they hate our democracy? Riddle me that, too.

Like I said: we’re walking contradictions.

Except when there isn’t a contradiction, as when all that matters is, “It’s all about me and what I want.”

For a fine explainer of our self-contradictory and often cruel crowd, read Ed Gurowitz’s offering, “Woke Is the New Code for Fascism.”

And if you have struggled to understand decades of dirty tricks and the mind numbing cacophony of cruel and self-contradictory absurdities Republicans spout, you must read Prof. Heather Cox Richardson’s explainer here.

Finally

The International Criminal Court has indicted Vladimir Putin for his war crime of kidnapping thousands of Ukrainian children. That prompted me to wonder what plans he has for them. Try this awful scenario.

We know that he is sending untrained soldiers to die in his war, using political criminals and other Russian undesirables as his canon fodder. He sends many to fight without weapons.

Now imagine him putting uniforms on older Ukrainian children and sending them unarmed to the front lines, forcing the Ukrainian army to kill their own kids. He’s diabolical enough to do that.

Let’s hope I’m wrong.

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PS

In my last post I observed that “woke” is commonly used as a pejorative but there’s no definition of what it means. Turns out I was wrong. Here’s an explainer.

Today is a good day to be the light.

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  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.


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