Posts by: Jack Altschuler

Where Are We?


POST 1292

David and Goliath Today

In Timothy Snyder’s recent post, Sky Defense: Bringing it Home, focused on the terrible war in Ukraine and the undefinable courage of that Ukrainian David incrementally slaying the evil Goliath of Russia, he wrote,

By resisting Russia, Ukrainians are defending what is perhaps most basic about decent political life: the idea that people should be who they choose to be, not whom they are forced to become.

I’ve told you many times that the Ukrainians are fighting for freedom as a proxy for all freedom loving people, the list of which includes us. They are standing up to tyranny, to domination of the many by the few. The lesson in that is obvious.

We need to be strong and resolute like the Ukrainians. We don’t have an army shooting at us, but some of our tribe have been killed, like Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Some have been manipulated and horribly abused, like Kilmar Armando Ábrego García. Many have died in American torture prisons and Gestapo-like goons patrol our streets looking for people to abuse and imprison for abuses like not looking Aryan.

But it’s as clear as it can be that this is tyranny of the many – that’s us – by the greedy, cruel, self-focused few. Now is the time – it’s always the time – to decide to be David and stand up and fight the Goliath of Trump/MAGA/billionaire evil.

In the Old Testament, Genesis 22:1, we’re told that God tested Abraham, first calling his name. Abraham answered, “I am here” or “Here I am” or “Here am I.” Terrified though he may have been, he answered the call. So it is with us today.

Our country is calling us. It’s time for us to stand and declare, “I am here.”

Because like the Ukrainians, we should be who we choose to be, not who we’re forced by the fascists to become.

One More Thing

Incompetent Tulsi Gabbard held the job of Director of National Intelligence, DNI, quite incompetently for a year and a quarter. Now she’s gone from that post, but there’s a twist.

In Trump’s first administration he got away with appointing incompetents everywhere by avoiding the Senate “advice and consent” protocol. Instead, he fired Cabinet secretaries and appointed incompetent “acting” replacements, thus once again avoiding the rules that apply to everyone else. Perverting the system is a way of life for him.

Likely you heard that Bill Pulte is his latest “acting” DNI. He has no intelligence, military, diplomatic or bureaucratic experience.  In a word, he is incompetent to be DNI. What qualifies him for that post in Trump’s mind (also in Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s mind, what there is of it) is that Pulte has an unblemished record of being a Trump suck up.

That is what passes for the best and brightest in today’s government.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for readability, punctuation, typos, voluntary idiocy and to exclude those comments I deem inappropriate or offensive solely for the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

The World’s Best Campaign Message


POST 1291

 

 

CAUTION!

THIS POST CONTAINS THE WORD “ASSHOLE.” IF THAT WORD OFFENDS YOU, YOU’VE ALREADY READ TOO MUCH. STOP READING IMMEDIATELY AND RETURN TO WATCHING ANDY GRIFFITH RERUNS FROM MAYBERRY. BE SURE TO SAY “HI” TO AN’ BEA FOR ME.
Campaign Messages

The Democrats have labored at the speed of slugs to examine and explain their losses in the 2024 election and to produce a report. It only took them 18 months to create a professional looking report that states nearly nothing useful and provides nothing of value for the American people. It is in every way a first cousin to the post mortems the Republicans produced after the 2012 Romney loss, the 2016 Trump victory and the 2022 Republican midterm under-performance. In all cases these self-serving documents are short on accountability and lack of any sense of care for We the People. Their campaign messages only supply us with focus group and poll tested bumper sticker talking points. That’s why nobody reads them or cares what the authors have written.

There is near constant talk now about what Democrats should focus on during this campaign season and it’s almost solely zeroed in on them getting votes. That means that essentially it’s about manipulation of We the Voters. There is nearly no focus on what We the People actually need and want. The good news is that I’m here to supply that direction, aided by my able and clear headed assistant, Rabbi Rami, who I have never met.

Rabbi Rami is a retired rabbi now dispensing clarity you can use. I recommend subscribing to his Substack posts. His offering of June 4 will convince you that I’ve given you good advice. It’s titled Don’t Be An Asshole.

You like it already, right?

Consider the title alone and give thought to the President, senators, congressmen/women, state legislators, appointed apparatchiks, heads of governmental bodies and  all others who present themselves as being of the people, as leaders for we who yearn for honest leadership, but who consistently let us down. Consider how many are flagrant in their self-serving attitude, their sole interest being snatching and grabbing power and scamming cash. Each day they display enhanced performative asshole-ness mastery.

Consider the jerks who, after any mass shooting, send “thoughts and prayers” instead of creating gun safety legislation to prevent at least some of the massacres that are otherwise certain to happen. Check the Gun Violence Archive if for some unfathomable reason you have any doubts as to the certainty of our national bleed outs.

And what about the army of waste, fraud and abuse soldiers who are proudly chopping federal spending by taking food from the mouths of our poor children and food and life saving medicine from desperate people in need of what we can provide cheaply, such that now millions of them have died?

Then there are the WF&A warriors saving money by cutting healthcare from millions of Americans. And the brain damaged people refusing to provide aid to Ukraine as that country fights for freedom everywhere. And the cretins bombing small boats in the Caribbean without the slightest evidence of wrongdoing or effort toward due process.  And they’re locking up random people using a Gestapo-like army of thugs, as though their stupid and cruel flexing of military and police power somehow makes us better, stronger, safer or more enviable. If you think any of that asshole cruelty helps us, you need a reality re-set.

I say these people are assholes and I know you agree with me, because Congress now sports an approval rating of 10%, with 86% of Americans disapproving of the job Congress is doing. That means that you and I think these guys are assholes in the first degree, differentiated not at all from fetid, stinking pond scum.

What if candidates for office were to focus on us and our needs, instead of their own selfish cravings? What if they actually were to care that people are suffering terribly and want to do something about it? What if they somehow were to recognize that the only voters who care about their welfare are their mothers and that the rest of us think they should instead care about our welfare?

Think about all that and more, but first link through to Rabbi Rami’s post and give serious consideration to his report. This stuff is really simple and should be easy to adopt. If you can’t find candidates who can do what Rami recommends, go run for office yourself. Get in the game and rid us of assholes before they steal this entire country from us.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for readability, punctuation, typos, voluntary idiocy and to exclude those comments I deem inappropriate or offensive solely for the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

You Need To See This


POST 1290

See It Now

Most of us are primarily visual creatures which can lead to missing important things that we can’t put our eyeballs on, so let’s start with something that is visual.

Here’s a pair of pictures I found in Steve Schmidt’s post of June 1 of the dignified before and the dreadful now of the White House.

.

Here is how Schmidt described Trump in this context:

He has debased the People’s House with the aesthetic sensibilities of a pimp turned bankrupt casino operator and reality television performer, who confuses excess for greatness and spectacle for dignity.

The classically noble East Wing is gone. Jackie Kennedy’s beautiful rose garden is gone. Instead of the grand sweep of the White House lawn there is a slab of pavement and a structure for crude and violent cage matches that goes far beyond offensively stupid. We see all that.

There is tasteless gold leaf all over the Oval Office. There is a tasteless, useless, ostentatious ballroom being built to dwarf and debase the greatest symbol of freedom and democracy in the world. All dignity is gone.

We see all that and more. It’s visual. But what about the parts of America that are being desecrated and for which there is no specific visual that alarms us to the harm being done?

Can’t See It Quite as Well

Like the wanton cruelty of ICE thugs, those violence dispensers, rounding up our citizens and immigrants like cattle. We see that much of their savagery, but we don’t see the brutality done to people inside those hideous, for profit prisons.

Like the self-debasement of the Department of Justice.

Like the gutting of our national security agencies that have kept us safe.

Like the stripping and contamination of our public healthcare system and of our food safety system, putting every one of us in danger.

Like the incalculable brutality done to our moral compass.

Those aren’t as visual but they are here and abasing us and our nation nonetheless. They are as real as Trump’s galactically stupid war, which, again, we don’t see but is as damaging to us as anything we do see. It’s up to us to keep them in focus and to be actively on the right side of all those issues.

We are easily distracted from what’s important by spectacle, but there are still over a thousand women who were once little girls who were raped and trafficked and scarred for life and for whom there is scant justice. Trump was in the thick of the criminality, but there are few visuals and scant attention given to that sordid, illegal pit of wanton brutality. So far Trump’s cover up and his manipulated, spineless sycophantic Department of Justice has protected him and his distracting spectacles have blinded the eyes of most of us.

Trump has done over 3,700 insider stock trades just this year (about 25 per day) and has made billions from his soon-to-be-worthless crypto coin scams and his influence peddling grift. He’s caused major companies to cower and obey and has done permanent damage to the right of free speech. The only visual we have of that is the absence of Steven Colbert from late night television. But the harm is as debilitating as anything we can lay our eyes on.

The point is that there is an endless supply of harm being done to America, to our place of leadership in the world, to We The People and and to this “last, best hope of Earth.” Some is easy to see and some is much more difficult to eyeball and comprehend, but it’s no less awful than a deeply offensive gladiatorial cage match on the White House lawn.

What We Must See

You and I need to see all of it, because this violence to our values and our to our trust is systematically under assault. And at root, all we have to keep us strong, what we can cling to in this dangerous and threatening sea, is our invisible trust in one another.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for readability, punctuation, typos, voluntary idiocy and to exclude those comments I deem inappropriate or offensive solely for the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

No Post Today


Nevertheless, Go Do Something – Check All That Apply

You wanted to know who’s in his MAGA base.

Ο for your wallet

Ο for decency

Ο tor right over wrong

Ο for compassion

Ο to rebuild our alliances

Ο for our healthcare

Ο for voting rights

No other entertainers would show up for Trump’s concert, so he hired the Low-T Boys.

Ο for education

Ο for sensible immigration rules

Ο for a government that obeys the Constitution and the law

Do something today for what you know is right.

Many thanks go to JN for the pics.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for readability, punctuation, typos, voluntary idiocy and to exclude those comments I deem inappropriate or offensive solely for the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

Click me

JA

 

 


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

That Kind Of Country


POST 1289

    • We have the power to shape the civilization that we want. But we need your will, your labor, your hearts, if we are to build that kind of society.
  • President Lyndon Johnson, May 22, 1964,
  • University of Michigan Commencement speech,
  • announcing the Great Society program

Do you want “that kind of society”? Because if you want rule by thugs; if you want people snatched off our streets by unidentified brutes, this without regard for the rule of law, without an arrest warrant, without representation, without any of the things guaranteed by our Constitution, then “that kid of society” isn’t on your radar. Only survival of the cruelest is within your view. If that’s what you want, you don’t have to lift a finger.

But you aren’t like that.

Don’t misunderstand. I was no fan of Lyndon Johnson. Once I finished college he wanted to ship me off to Viet Nam to kill and/or be killed in his illegal, unwinnable, vanity project war. No, thank you. But he wasn’t wrong about everything. He was right about the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. And he was right about making this a better, aspirationally Great Society – “that kind of society.”

And he was right, that “we need your will, your labor, your hearts.” So, I have an idea.

So many of us are disgusted by what we see going on, but we don’t know what to do to stop it, to reverse course back the country we believe in. We’re inundated with candidates and organizations pleading for our donations and, of course, we can help that way. Beyond that, what can you do? What action can you take? Who can give you the direction you need? I have a little idea for that.

Start with your answer to this question: What do you care about? I mean really care about. Gun safety? Illegal wars? The impossible challenge of having adequate supplies for life, like food, medical care and gas to get to work. Like elected officials lying to you, cheating you, cheating your country and more.

Name for yourself the key issue you have passion about.

Now, here’s the action step. Contact an organization the focuses on your key issue and ask them how you can help, beyond throwing some money their way. Go ahead. Make the call. Then  bring “your will, your labor, your heart”. Get up and get out to overwhelm the usurpers this November.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for readability, punctuation, typos, voluntary idiocy and to exclude those comments I deem inappropriate or offensive solely for the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Memorial Day 2026


POST 1072 / 1288

Tomorrow Is Memorial Day

This essay was originally posted on Memorial Day, 2012, with wars raging in Iraq and Afghanistan, promoted by the beat of politicians thumping chests and spraying lies.

Today we’re in an unwinnable war against Iran through just as much pointless, homicidal bravado as before. Yes, we’re still sending our young off to kill and to be killed for no patriotic or security reason.

There’s a question embedded throughout the song Where Have All The Flowers Gone? It is, “When will they ever learn?” Clearly, the answer is: never. Because we refuse to learn.

This is offered today (with some updating) as a reminder of what this holiday – this holy day – is actually about.

Arlington CemetaryOur War Dead

It was originally called Decoration Day, a formal day of remembrance of the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. The refreshing of their graves with flowers and flags was the order of the day and it was later extended to all Civil War dead. It became known as Memorial Day in 1967 and was declared to be in honor of our dead from all of our wars, over 1.3 million of us. That federal re-naming packaged all of the various honoring ceremonies for our war dead and all the individual traditions practiced around the country into a neater package, something that apparently was important in 1967. In addition, the date of remembrance was shifted from May 30 to the last Monday in May so that there would always be that critical 3-day weekend, also apparently of great importance in 1967, however well it misses the point.

We no longer conscript our young into military service and instead rely upon a voluntary corps of warriors, with roughly 0.4% of Americans doing frightful tasks for the rest of us. Military service and its risks seem remote at best to most of us.

Then we see a soldier in desert fatigues walking through the airport, his boots the color of desert sand, his heavy camouflage backpack hung from his shoulders, and we know he’s either on his way to or from trouble and war becomes a bit more real to us. It’s already quite real to that GI.

Study this picture and you’ll understand the meaning of Memorial Day. Source unknown

Memorial Day is not for that soldier. It is for those who have died doing their duty to protect and defend our country. What is poignant is that that soldier in the airport might be one of those whom we remember next year.

Memorial Day is intended to be a somber event. It is not about parades to entertain us with patriotic sounding music, nor about political clowns promoting themselves. It is about the renewal of our individual and collective memory and the honoring of those who can no longer march in our parades. We do this in earnest, lest we forget them.

Read Longfellow’s poem aloud.

Decoration Day
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, pub. 1882
.
Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry’s shot alarms!
.
Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon’s sudden roar,
Or the drum’s redoubling beat.
.
But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.
.
All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!
.
Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.
.
Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.
.
Go To Your Local Memorial Day Ceremonies Tomorrow

It’s okay to buy the new mattress, the set of tires and any of the rest of the stuff offered during Memorial Day sales. But that isn’t the point of the day.

Let yourself be transported even for just a few moments of gratitude to be beside those who sacrificed everything, Remember and honor our fallen ones and say “Thank you.” Because they remembered: Duty, Honor, Country.

Watch this short video from Adam Kinzinger. I know you’ll understand his message.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for readability, punctuation, typos, voluntary idiocy and to exclude those comments I deem inappropriate or offensive solely for the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

American Insanity


POST 1287

From the “Yet Another Insanity” Department

There is a lot of crazy and it’s all around us. We’re dealing with:

an unprovoked, brainlessly started and conducted war where there is no off-ramp

the ongoing destruction of American hegemony

ugly, ugly gerrymandering by White supremacists that is driving us into Jim Crow 2.0 and is condoned by the not-so-Supreme Court

the no-wrongdoing imprisonment of American citizens, legal visitors and more, all to the benefit of for-profit prisons and of hastily recruited, scarcely trained ICE agents

the hollowing out of Americans’ financial security

the Epstein pedophilia, trafficking and the potential Trump involvement in that scandal

a scandalous Justice Department cover up, plus its misuse for Trump’s retributions and more

a deeply compromised FBI and national security system

the ongoing Trump support for Putin, this to the detriment of our allies, especially Ukraine, as its people fight a war for freedom, in which we should be aiding them

the surrendering of this century to Xi and China

the destruction of the post-war compact that has kept the peace for nearly 80 years

The hits just keep on coming because there is an endless, Trump concocted supply of insanity that’s powered by his dementia and his toxic narcissism.

Then There’s The Sneaky Stuff That Slips Below The Radar

From STAT:

An inconspicuous amendment to the 2026 farm bill working its way through Congress would make tobacco farmers eligible for funding from a certain federal aid program that they’ve been excluded from since the federal tobacco program ended more than 20 years ago. It’s not exactly in line with the MAHA goal to lower chronic disease rates in the U.S.

The overall impact of the amendment would be relatively small, “but it amounts to subsidizing a product that kills half a million Americans every year,” according to Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy, a nonprofit attorney.

Wait: we’re subsidizing a crop that kills us and we subsidize the coal industry $3 – 4 BILLION per year, too, but we don’t have money to feed poor kids?

Indeed, FracTracker reports,

Despite claims of free-market competition, the U.S. fossil fuel industry benefits from an estimated $760 BILLION annually through subsidies, tax breaks, and unpriced externalities .  .  . [emphasis added]

Right: We cut off support for renewable energy innovation and production to subsidize the fossil fuel companies of Trump’s buddies, allowing them to clog and overheat our atmosphere to the expanding peril of us all. Theirs is short term thinking that never gets past the limits of a transaction to make a quick buck.

Trump is almost 80. Given that he cares only for his own welfare – he told us that plainly last week – why would he think longer term? Why would he care that storms continue to become more violent, destructive and deadly? He’ll never have to face them.

And so, we bravely charge into the 15th century. Make America Backward Again – MABA!

Hmmm  .  .  .  why don’t our elected officials care enough to stop the insanity and instead take action for We The People?

Just in case this isn’t clear, we are giving three quarters of a trillion dollars every year to support industries that are causing ever-worsening changes that are killing us. We are willfully doing that to ourselves by electing representatives to our representative government to represent us, but who instead are representing themselves and their own short term welfare.

Learned While Researching Something Else

If you don’t subscribe to and support the writings of Steve Sheffey, take a look at his post last Sunday (then subscribe) about the Senate race in Maine. Yes, you should care a lot about it – Steve explains why. I linked through to his “Fine Print.” I like that kind of stuff – have a look at my own below.  In his fine print is a link to Brandolini’s Law: The Bullshit Asymmetry Principle. It is:

Brandolini’s law (also called the bullshit asymmetry principle) states that the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. This denotes that it’s usually much easier to speak without regard for the truth, than to prove that what was said is false.

You’ve experienced this often over the past 11 years, as Trump/MAGA/Republican bullshit was sprayed in your face in brain-free bumper sticker format. Then it was refuted by a knowledgeable person in a clear, straightforward explanation. Unfortunately, that refutation was two pages long and nobody ever reads that stuff. And so bullshit hangs in the air. No breeze can waft it away. No plug-in odor eliminator can make it safe to breathe. This is what passes for Republican erudition.

RFK, Jr. Is Protecting Us

The World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency of international concern: Ebola. But don’t worry. Even though our brain worm addled director of HHS has slashed to the bone agencies that used to protect us and minimize the effects of such things, those guys gotcha covered.

Who needs experts in public health when we have loads of Ivermectin, a horse treatment recommended by our president. It treats infections caused by parasitic worms. But the Ebola threat has nothing to do with parasites – it’s a virus.

Still, we have Lysol and Clorox bleach that Trump says we can inject. And we can put ultraviolet lights in our bodies. That’s what he said during Covid. Do you suppose those will work against Ebola?

That’s Trump’s America. Sadly, we voted for it.

On the other hand, we can vote for something quite different this November.

As they say in the dugout, “Grab a bat; you’re up!”

A View From Elsewhere

Just in case you’ve wondered whether people in other countries notice the depth of the destruction of our values, our integrity and our national mental health, friend David Houle was vacationing in Europe and sent this pic from Paris. He says these signs are all over places where tourists go.

Kinda cute that even when they’re crude, Parisians are polite.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept or receive funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness. such disingenuous nonsense. You can find that in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe and what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark excepted, and make no pretense of idiocy requiring to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. See Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. 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 comments I deem inappropriate. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Who Cares?


POST 1286

Cheating The Vote – One More Time
  1. Why is it that only Republicans continue to wage a multi-decade effort to prevent women, poor people and people of color from voting?
  2. Why is it that only Republicans want to deploy weapons-carrying thugs to polling places to intimidate voters?
  3. Why is it that only Republicans make up lies about non-citizens voting?
  4. Why is it that only Republicans want to make it next to impossible for poor people and married women to obtain satisfactory ID to vote?
  5. Why is it that only Republicans close polling places that were convenient to people of color and poor people?
  6. Why is it that only Republicans eliminate drop boxes for ballots, making it especially hard for millions of poor people and people of color to vote?
  7. Why is it that only Republicans change polling places but don’t tell Democrats about it?
  8. Why is it that only Republicans change the postal service so that mailed ballots don’t get counted in time?
  9. Why is it that our Republican controlled SCOTUS emboldens our Republican democracy turncoats?

The answer to each question is the same, simple, dreadful truth: they do all this and more because they’ve known for decades that they cannot win unless they cheat. They make it pretty clear who they care about. And who they don’t care about.

Jeez, Republicans, you guys stink.

Speaking of the Truth, You Know It When You Hear It

In a 1954 case about obscenity and the first amendment, rather than defining it, Supreme Court Associate Justice Potter Stewart famously said, “I know it when I see it.” When Trump was asked about his focus on the plight of Americans as he wages unnecessary war on Iran, our president said this:

I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me.

That isn’t an out-of-context distortion. It’s what he said and, from his actions and from many of his other blabberings, it’s plain to see that it’s the truth of what he mean. Trump doesn’t care about your financial situation. He really doesn’t think about you. He only cares about eliminating an existential threat that does not exist for whatever illegitimate reason serves him, like distracting us from the Epstein scandal.

Like Potter Stewart (who names their kid Potter?), you knew truth when you heard it. That was a most rare moment hearing Donald Trump tell the truth. Savor it.

STAT Report

.  .  .  Vice President JD Vance announced that $1.3 billion in Medicaid funds to California will be deferred over suspicions of fraud. Earlier this year, the administration threatened a two-year licensing freeze for new providers of home and community-based services in Minnesota and instituted a similar nationwide halt on durable medical equipment suppliers.

Odd how Federal cuts to programs that benefit We The People get cut mostly in Blue states. Maybe that’s because there’s rampant waste, fraud or abuse in blue states and none in Trump supporting MAGA red states. Yeah, that must be it.

The sarcasm sizzles.

Must Read

Morgan Freeman (yes, that Morgan Freeman) does a Substack column and you are required to read his brilliant piece,

TRUMP IS HAVING A PUBLIC NERVOUS BREAKDOWN AT EXACTLY THE WRONG TIME

His title is, indeed, in all caps. Read the piece and you’ll understand. Actually, you already know why.

Freeman’s message is stunningly clear and stunningly foreboding. Read it and pass it along to everyone you know and to three people you don’t know.

Melania really doesn’t care. Do U?

Many thanks to futurist and friend David Houle for showing me Freeman’s piece.

Speaking Of Caring

Here’s Melania on her way to visit children who had been ripped from their mothers, now jammed into ICE/CBP detention cages without so much as ordinary hygiene for them. Did they teach her to be cruel and uncaring back in Slovenia, or did she learn it from Trump?

Inadvertently Speaking Truthfully About Not Caring

Check this from College Democrats of America, reporting on Republican Louisiana State Sen. Jay Morris:

On Friday, during a redistricting session, White GOP State Sen. Jay Morris yelled “Shut up, boy” at our Executive Director Dadrius Lanus who, in Morris’s words, was “commenting and talking” too loudly for him to concentrate.

Sen. Morris says we misheard. That the audio proves it. That he said “you all need to shut up” to Black constituents behind him outraged that their votes won’t be counted.

Sen, Morris, an elected member of our legislature, thinks if he had yelled “you all need to shut up” it would be better.

It wouldn’t.

What Sen. Morris doesn’t understand is that White people have been telling Black folk to “shut up” for over 250 years.

What Sen. Morris doesn’t understand is that we remember being told we were 3/5ths of a person. That even when we won personhood in the eyes of the law, they instituted poll taxes and “reading” tests. That when we marched and dreamed and cried and buried loved ones who had hung as strange fruit from tall trees because they raised their voices too loud that what Black people have always wanted is equality.

Or maybe Senator Morris does understand all that.

I don’t know.

What I do know is that I am a 70 year old Black man. And I don’t let anyone call me or my brothers “Boy.”

Any questions about what Sen. Morris cares about? Or about what any of the Republicans working so very hard to bring back Jim Crow care about?

The only question is .  .  .

What We’re Going To Do To Stop Them and Their Thievery.
.
It’s not the vibes and it’s not the polls: IT’S THE VOTES!
Are you registered to vote? Check it out on any of these websites:
.

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

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

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

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action, like:

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!), because 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.

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 or Barnes & Noble 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 comments I deem inappropriate.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

Click me

JA

 


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

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