Posts by: Jack Altschuler

WAR!


POST 1221

Reporting From War-Torn Chicago .  .  .
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Adapted from Edward R. Murrow’s March 9, 1941 broadcast from London.

Edward R. Murrow

This is Chicago.

Soon it will be winter in America. Already the flowers in the parks are browning and wilting as though there will be no renewal next year. There’s good fighting and invading weather ahead for Trump’s shock troops. In a few days’ time the moon will be full again and there’s a feeling in the air that big, dangerous things will happen soon.

Don’t believe it’s war? Go to Broadview, IL and ask anyone about masked gunmen, smash and trash, people thrown to the ground, pepper spray blasted in the face of innocents, children zip-tied and jammed into an unmarked, blackened U-Haul. Ask about camouflaged masked gunmen rappelling from a Black Hawk attack helicopter to invade and vandalize a peaceful apartment building. Ask about people shot by masked thugs and  a priest shot in the head while praying for peace.  Ask them if at first it felt like an invasion of criminals and now it feels more like a Civil War battlefield. So much for better angels.

From pal Frank Levy:

It isn’t bad enough that 47 is sending storm troopers (ICE and CBP) to northern cities with Democratic and Black mayors to quell an insurrection that does not exist.
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Now he is sending federalized National Guard troops from Texas to Chicago. Said another way, 47 is sending north hundreds of “sons of the south,” descendants of fighters for the “lost cause,” to quell violence, to stop an insurrection that does not exist, and control all those uppity people of color and put them back in their place. This sounds an awful lot like the making of an attack on Fort Sumter. I mean Fort Chicago.
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Can you imagine how excited all those Texas NG troops are to be going to Chicago to stomp on those Yankees? Can you imagine how over the top Greg Abbott is to be the first southern governor to send troops from his little army to control or attack the abolitionists in Chicago?
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We all know 47 wants to instigate violence so he can justify sending in the big guns. And we have known for some time that the MAGA cult has wanted a true Civil War. It looks like 47 is setting the stage for the outbreak of real violence and America’s 2nd Civil War.
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Click me for the story

MAGA-types have been calling for a shooting civil war in and on America for a long time. I confess that I find a certain appeal to most of the federal tax sucking red states (dark colored states in the pic) seceding from our present disunion and having to go it alone without the hundreds of billions of dollars from blue states to support their bullying conceits every year. These are the people who decry welfare for desperately poor people but are quite happy to suck money from blue states for themselves..

At least since 2016 dementia addled Trump has been calling for martial law to be led by his bone spur self. He’ll command the bloody, treasonous travesty while sitting safely on his gold toilet. He is enacting a Constitution eviscerating war on America right now, making the have-not dupes do the fighting, leaving the rich guys safely on their yachts and in their mansions, protected by their security forces.
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Still don’t believe this is war? Read Jonathan Last’s essay in TheBulwark from October 7, Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next. If the facts Last presents don’t convince you and make you want to scream and do something to right this foundering ship of democracy, this last, best hope, you have a world class case of denial.
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Didn’t the Republicans used to be the tough-on-crime guys? Weren’t they absolutist believers in bedrock American values like those made clear by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, at least for themselves? Weren’t they the bible thumping, Jesus everything, black-and-white, obey-the-law unquestion-alists? Where’s their fury over Trump violating the Constitution, the law and the courts multiple times every day?
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Actually, the Republicans have always been bible thumpers. It bolsters their certainties and justifies everything they want to do, including violently attacking people for an insurrection that doesn’t exist and locking up innocents who don’t pass the racial profiling test. Bible thumping is what the boundlessly manhood deficient KKK used to use to justify lynchings. All the official strongman, tough guy posturing today is the current version of manhood deficiencies. And it actually is as deranged as it sounds.
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To be fair, this has been ongoing insanity at least since the Rutherford B. Hayes administration. He’s the selfish bastard who killed Reconstruction to sell out southern Blacks (yet again) in order to get the presidency for himself. Republicans have constantly and aggressively been blasting away at everyone and everything that isn’t White and identifies as whatever their current distortion of Christianity might be. Oppression and hypocrisy aren’t new here.
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We Don’t Have a Trump Problem
We have a cowardice, hypocrisy and greed problem. All of this war on America could be stopped almost instantly if Republicans in Congress would actually find their spines and honor their oath to protect and defend the Constitution.
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Instructions for being a Republican

But there’s no chance of that happening. These people sold out a long time ago. They sold their integrity and they sold their honor. Likely, they don’t even remember a time when they had clarity on what is right and what is wrong. Their clarity now is limited to what serves themselves best in the short term, which consists solely of sucking up to Trump..

This war is no fiction, no movie. Harm is being inflicted on real people and death has already come to some.
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It takes a certain trust and a stretch of empathy to see this violent lawlessness from my peaceful North Shore neighborhood. But that’s what they thought in Highland Park, IL in the morning of July 4, 2022. Everything seemed peaceful. Then suddenly it wasn’t.
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Maybe there’s no war to see where you live. But there is a shooting war in America right now, with bullets flying in only one direction – at We The People – regardless of whether you can see the violence from your door step.
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From Project 2025 in Action: Sounding the Alarm for Democracy:

Each of us can take steps to support – and perfect – our democracy, whether through talking with friends, family, and neighbors, contacting elected representatives, or exercising our right to protest. The value of the right to speak freely, to celebrate dissent even when uncomfortable, to have a say in our government, to live free from surveillance and the threat of unwarranted punishment, demands no less.

– Julie Goldscheid, Professor of Law Emeritus at CUNY School of Law

What Would They Say or Do Today?

Looking towards the Paul Revere statue and the rear of the historic Old North Church in Boston, MA. Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey

Paul Revere made his famous ride because of the immediate threat posed by the tyrannical British overlords and their soldiers advancing on the colonists. One lantern was hung in the belfry of the Old North Church in Boston and that sent Revere speeding on his horse to sound the alarm.

We are no less threatened today by the advancing tyranny of the Trump administration. Today Revere’s call would be:.

The fascists are coming! The fascists are coming!
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What would Paul Revere do today? What will you do today?

Thomas Paine told us:

Thomas Paine

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;

What would Paine say of our American Crisis today? What would he implore us to do?

What will you do today? Click here for guidance. And read this.

  • NO KINGS!
  • Be there on October 18 – in just 6 days – to join millions of our fellow democracy loving Americans and make your voice heard. Insist that there will be no fascism and NO KING in the United States of America!
  • Click the map below to find a demonstration near you. There are over 2,500 of them ready to go in blue states and red states – in every state.

Be there!

Click me

Final Words

“The fundamental reason for all our evil is our desperate attempt to prove our preferred illusion true by slaughtering everyone who clings to a different illusion.”

Who is it who wants to do the slaughtering?

Still Standing

Three years ago Rep,Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Some Other Reality) ranted idiotically,

“Not only do we have the DC jail which is the DC gulag, but now we have Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff and spying on American citizens,”

It stands yet today as a supreme MAGA totem against intelligence – and gazpacho soup. Take no comfort in her now demanding that Trump’s Big Ugly Bill be neutered of its attack on healthcare because the cost of healthcare insurance for her adult sons will double. The rest of you . . . oh wait: she doesn’t even see you.

Click me

“Reporting from Chicago, Good night and good luck.”

Mid-Term Election
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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 length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate or intentionally cruel. If you must post something cruel, stop reading these posts immediately and instead invest your time with a good therapist.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally and unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

First They Came


POST 1220

No One Left To Speak

From friend Jay Becker of Refuse Fascism:

[Over] just a few days, here in Chicago, masked, heavily armed federal agents:
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– fired toxic pepper balls and tear gas at [non-violent] protesters in Broadview;
– shot a woman in Brighton Park;
 – carried out a military style assault on an apartment building housing Black and brown working people in South Shore;
– raided a homeless shelter in Bronzeville;
– marauded through crowds of families on Michigan Avenue, kidnapping those that fit their racial profiling, and more.
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And this is just in one city. The same scenes are playing out in DC, Memphis, Portland and L.A., and the list of cities Trump wants to use for “military training” grows. And this is just a sample of the civil and human rights trampled on by this fascist regime. Read more here.
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Lawrence Dietz wrote a stunning piece to put into perspective what is happening in our country. He has given me permission to post his essay here for you. You know the first part.

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”

— c. 1946, Rev. Martin Niemōller, arrested by the Gestapo in 1937

and liberated in 1945

First they came for Latino illegal immigrants, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Latino.

Then they came for the comedians who make fun of them, and I did not speak out — because I was not a comedian.

Then they got an executive order to punish any group they call “terrorist,” including liberal political groups who oppose them — and I did not speak out, because I do not belong to any of those groups.

Next, they can come for me, a geezer who has posted critical social media comments about them — and who will be left to speak for me?

The “they” Niemōller referred to who came and arrested innocent citizens in Germany was the Gestapo. They always arrived in overwhelming numbers of thugs to abuse, terrify and arrest people who had done nothing wrong. Those incarcerated just weren’t fine Aryan specimens, so it was easy to scapegoat and abuse them. That’s a lot like our Latino immigrants today.

And that’s exactly what happened in Chicago last Tuesday.

From Reuters:

U.S. Border Patrol agents deployed to Chicago led a late-night raid on an apartment building this week, rappelling from helicopters onto rooftops and breaking down doors in an operation authorities said targeted gang members but which swept up U.S. citizens and families.

As part of the raid, some U.S. citizens were temporarily detained and children pulled from their beds, according to interviews with residents and news reports. Building hallways were still littered with debris two days later.

Hundreds of agents swarmed the apartment building during the raid on Tuesday, including some rappelling down to the roof from Black Hawk helicopters, according to NewsNation.

One resident, who asked not to be named, reported being made to lie down on the ground by agents during the raid and having his hands zip-tied.

From Prof. Heather Cox Richardson’s post on October 3:

The escalating raids on undocumented immigrants are also running afoul of the law. Tuesday’s raid on an apartment building in Chicago, in which residents, including U.S. citizens, were detained, has galvanized opposition. Today, after reports that children were zip tied, separated from their parents, and detained for several hours .  .  .

Click and read

The goals seem quite clear. First, to rid the country of Black and Brown people. Second, to terrorize the citizenry so we won’t fight back, but instead will obey in advance. It’s all to establish a dictatorship for the benefit of Trump, his sycophants and the fabulously wealthy. That’s called fascism.

Enemies Of The People, Invasion From Within

That’s the terminology that violent, hatred-driven, maniacal dictators use to snuff opposition. Trump has been using it for years. Like all megalomaniacs, he thinks it justifies persecution by making hatred seem patriotic.

And it kills.

In his rambling, often incoherent speech to 800 generals and admirals (link here for the entire tirade) who were pulled from duty from around the world, Trump lied,  “We’re under invasion from within, no different than a foreign enemy.” He said that the US military could use American cities as “training grounds” for troops, as they battle “the enemy from within.”

Trump is right about one thing: we do have an enemy within. It’s Trump and his maniacal army of fanatics. They are systematically dismantling our government for their own benefit and to your detriment.

If you aren’t Black or Brown don’t imagine that you’re safe and will stay that way. Jews, Muslims, Asians and more have long been in Trump’s crosshairs. Not far behind will be Catholics, all native people, Mormons – essentially anyone who isn’t Aryan Christian. When they come for you – and they will come – do you suppose there will be anyone left to speak for you?

  • Mid-Term Election
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Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this 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 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 length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate or intentionally cruel. If you must post something cruel, stop reading these posts immediately and instead invest your time with a good therapist.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally and unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

Don Quixote and You


POST 1219

What Motivates

Likely you’ve heard about the government funding war now being waged between the “just-found-our-cojones” Democrats and the “we don’t give a crap about the people” Republicans. Maybe you’re wondering what kinds of things are about to happen, like Trump saying he’ll fire another 100,000 federal employees, which means he’ll likely do it.

How about cuts to Medicaid? You know, about how we care for “the least” among us? Those draconian cuts are already in the works. Try this from STAT:

Millions of people are set to lose insurance coverage when President Trump’s budget bill — which was signed into law on July 4 and includes work requirements for Medicaid enrollment — goes into effect in 2027. But who are [those who will be required to work to get benefits]? A new study published in JAMA analyzes nationally representative federal survey data to better understand the characteristics of those who are most at risk.

The data included 344 people ages 20 to 64 who worked fewer than 20 hours per week or who were unemployed but won’t be considered exempt from work requirements. Overall, 41% had three or more chronic conditions, and that rose to 66% when looking at those over age 50. More than 20% overall had dyslipidemia, obesity, hypertension, urinary incontinence, depression, or arthritis. The study reaffirms previous research that has found that Medicaid beneficiaries who do not meet work requirements have worse health than the people who do. [emphasis mine-JA]

In other words, our Fourth Reich government has set up a program that specifically targets and harms the very people who most need our help. That oughta beat back waste, fraud and abuse, right MAGAs?

Pity the poor and the sick in red states who voted for this, a government focused on some superior Aryan race. Only the young, healthy and strong need be here. Do you think Trump’s cruelty dispensers will resort to just taking suffering people out back and shooting them? That would save some money.

Sadly, Chuck Schumer and a handful of other Democrats voted in July for that Big Crappy Bill in the delusional spirit of bipartisanship, as if that still exists. And now Hakeem Jeffries tells us that he expects that Republicans will do the right thing about healthcare for Americans. Yes, he really said that.

And these guys are leaders?

It’s long past time for younger, aggressive, nose punching Democrats to step way up. People like Newsome, Pritzker, Walz, Swalwell and Schiff have done some punching and more is needed. We need these people and others to get further out front and lead the way.

While it’s true that our democracy is being stolen, yelling that and waving arms in the air is way too heady and inspires almost nobody but those who are already ardent believers. Esoteric stuff doesn’t motivate. Here’s what does.

Instead of wailing that they’re cutting healthcare from millions of people, say, “You know they hate and despise you because they’re taking everything from you, including all your money, all your safety and Granny’s healthcare.”

Instead of talking about rural hospitals and clinics closing, say, “They’re intentionally bankrupting hundreds of rural hospitals and clinics, including the one near you, which means that they don’t care if you bleed to death from an accident and they don’t care if your pregnancy goes wrong and your baby dies. Maybe you, too.”

Instead of talking about tax cuts for billionaires, say, “They don’t even see you, much less care about you. All they see is more power and money for themselves.”

Those examples are not intended as snark, They are about telling the truth and appealing to voters’ emotions, especially their sense of fairness. Do your senators and representatives, both state and federal, get that? If not, educate them. Now.

From Robert Reich:

As a practical matter, Trump has been illegally shutting down the government since the moment he was sworn in. [emphasis original]

Trump effectively shut down U.S. AID, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. He gave the heave-ho to hundreds of thousands of federal employees, crippling the Department of Education, Centers for Disease Control, Environmental Protection Agency, and Food and Drug Administration.

Former Rep. Tim Ryan

So, for example, as then Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) explained in Congress, the Republican healthcare plan is:

  1. Don’t get sick.
  2. If you get sick, die quickly. It’s cheaper that way.

The same level of non-care for you goes for those other government agencies.

A Little Constitution Clarity

There has been great idiocy spewed over claims of freedom of speech or imaginary violations of freedom of speech, so it’s time for a little refresher. Recall sophomore year in high school.

Isolating the speech part of the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law  .  .  .  abridging the freedom of speech

It’s likely the Founders didn’t like King George III telling them they had to shut up, so they prohibited our new government from continuing such citizen muzzling. Got that? That Amendment is about stopping the government from preventing you from saying what you want to say.

That has no application when you want to rant on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform or spew at political parties or to political organizations. The same applies to any newspaper, TV or radio station. Those are privately owned, non-governmental companies and they can cut you off whenever they want to, for any reason or for no reason. It’s their privately owned platform and they can limit who can use them or appear and even what they are allowed to say, as they choose. You have no freedom of speech in a private venue.

That means that nobody’s right of freedom of speech right is violated when they can’t get on TV to blabber their blabber. So, if MSNBC doesn’t want some MAGA flamer to suck up valuable air time, they have no obligation to put said flamer on their feed. Same if some ultra-right podcaster or cable station doesn’t want to showcase AOC.

Our freedom of speech is solely about preventing the government from muzzling you, which is what Trump is trying to do with his abhorrent lawsuits attacking his perceived enemies. Say it with me:

“That’s unconstitutional.”

Reality Check For Windmill Tilters

From my pal FL:

Click me

Like you I have spent my life trying to make a difference, and right now, I feel like Don Quixote, tilting at very dangerous, angry and powerful windmills.

Maybe tomorrow will bring something to be hopeful about.

Perhaps you, too, have had such a Don Quixote moment. Maybe you’re looking for something to make you feel hopeful. This might help.

On October 18 there will be another NO KINGS DAY. Click the map and find out where your democracy loving friends will be and go join them. Bring your sign, your enthusiasm and your red, white and blue self. There will be millions of us across nation making it clear that we ditched a king once before and we’re prepared to do it again.

Click me

My pal FL and I will both be there. We’ll look for you.

About Your Heart, Mr. Quixote

Likely, you remember the murderous attack at the Tree Of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. The folks at the temple have created a traveling message about it. Read about it in this post from Tree of Life Synagogue. It speaks of the power of human compassion and solidarity, even in the face of cruelty and violence.

If you will be in New York any time from October 5 – November 9 you can view the exhibit at

The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

Edmond J. Safra Plaza
36 Battery Place
New York, NY 10280

  • Mid-Term Election
    Goes fast, doesn’t it?
    .

Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this 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 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 length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate or intentionally cruel. If you must post something cruel, stop reading these posts immediately and instead invest your time with a good therapist.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally and unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

Civilian Leadership of Our Military


POST 1218

Yesterday we were given the full screen picture of our newly renamed War Department. Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, set the stage with absolutist war drum pounding and attacks on everything not MAGA. Fie on DEI and Woke! They are the core of our problems, he’ll have us know.That plus facial hair, overweight generals and admirals and pressure to prosecute rapists.

This gathering was toxic masculine posturing from the stage at its most toxic, complete with triumphal arrangements of patriotic music and a way too large American flag. The only thing missing was goose stepping. This meeting could have been held on the field at Nuremberg, with torches burning.

President Donald Trump then spoke in his dementia poisoned way, claiming to have settled 7 wars (actually zero), bragging about renaming the Gulf of Mexico and so much more puffery that it would be a comedy act, were it not so dangerous for real people. Indeed, he suggested using our cities as training grounds for our military “whose job is to “kill people and break things” to attack our imaginary “enemy from within,” which means anyone who doesn’t bend the knee to the great one, especially Democrats, protesters, citizens who live in our cities and anyone who has spoken less than flatteringly of Trump.

He announced how great is the paper used for military commissions and that he loves his signature and, actually, everyone loves his signatures. Plus, he made clear that his attacks on the Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities had “obliterated” them. He even said that the Atomic Energy people said those facilities were obliterated.

Except of course, they weren’t and they didn’t. That only matters if you actually want to ensure that Iran doesn’t have the capacity to make atomic bombs, in which case you wouldn’t resort to lies. You would instead be a steely eyed realist. A dementia compromised brain is a terrible thing when it commands a finger near the nuclear button or commands the dropping of 20,000 pound MOABs (“Mother Of All Bombs”). Now there’s another “mine is bigger than yours” Trumpian proof.

Trump began winding up his galactically inappropriate speech by saying that it’s good that Congress cannot agree on a spending bill. He said that would shut down the government and then he could do anything he wants to do.

He may actually believe that he somehow has absolute power if Congress shuts down the government, since he is incapable of reading the Constitution.

According to law and the Constitution, the limits on what the President is allowed to do remain essentially unchanged regardless of a government shut down. However, Trump’s standard move is to do his illegal thing, knowing that it will take months to stop him, at which time his damage will be done. Just ask the former workers at the USDA, the CDC, Voice of America, USAID, soon the FAA and more.

“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this—you haven’t.” – Thomas Edison

They brought 800 top generals and admirals from their posts protecting American interests around the world to hear a toxic alcoholic Fox News “personality” strut his poison and an addled brain old man brag that his is bigger than yours, that Joe Biden is a loser, that gold decorating in the White House is the new red, white and blue and yet more idiocy. This is what passes for civilian leadership of our military today.

We have a great deal of work to do to begin to set things right in our country. Sometimes it feels like we’ve tried everything, but Thomas Edison reminds us that we have not. There’s so much more we can do.

  • Mid-Term Election
    Goes fast, doesn’t it?
    .

Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this 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 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 length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate or intentionally cruel. If you must post something cruel, stop reading these posts immediately and instead invest your time with a good therapist.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally and unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

The Real Charlie Kirk


POST 1217

It is one of our more peculiar behaviors in America. I don’t know if it’s common in other cultures, but it is pervasive here.

When someone dies we only speak of that person in complimentary ways. We never mention the meanness, the cruelty, the bad things done by the departed. I suppose the refraining of speaking ill of the dead hearkens back to some jungle admonition that doing so will lead to becoming the next to die. Just a guess.

This is crazy stuff because when people die their acts of cruelty don’t suddenly vanish as though they didn’t happened.

When Adolph Eichmann at last faced accountability and was executed by the State of Israel, it would have been insanity for acquaintances to eulogize him, saying what a good neighbor he was. He was a genocidal murderer and that didn’t un-happen because he was at last dead.

Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Should we only speak of him as a great party host and a guy who provided employment for young girls wanting to become models or masseuses? Ridiculous. And I don’t think we should do that selective amnesia following Charlie Kirk’s death, either.

Charlie Kirk was a hateful man. Whatever his finer qualities might have been, he stoked hatred and wrapped it in the covers of a Christian bible. He was the guy about whom we were warned by the quotation, “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”* That’s how Kirk presented himself to spread his infection of hatred to others.

He spoke in ways Jesus would likely have found abhorrent. Check with your pastor on that. Kirk encouraged bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia and more. He spoke in ways that would have gotten him tarred and feathered by our Founders.

Our unhinged far right is crafting him into a martyr for their cause of White supremacy and faux Christianity, They present him as a hapless victim of those who weren’t their truly heartfelt brothers and sisters in hatred, like lefties, Democrats, liberals, protesters, Never Trumpers and others. That deification ignores the reality of Kirk’s hatred.

Fortunately, there’s no need for me to recount his calls to discrimination and domination because there is a rich public record of them. Watch this little compilation and decide for yourself if Kirk is the true red, White and blue Jesus replacement.

For those who have an uncontrollable need to whatabout everything, for those who hear something they don’t like and maniacally have to object that it’s unfairly out of context, let me say from my heart, “Get over yourself.” Watch the video of the little man with a fine intellect, great showman talents and the skills to bring out the great ugliness within our White supremacists, their very worst angels. Then decide if Kirk was a true patriot and a holy warrior and if his death was a messianic moment.

The far right is in an orgy of indignation over the murder, seething with self-righteousness and certain in their holiness and virtue, as they demonize any with the temerity to oppose them. They have next to no facts to support their claims, nor is that lack of facts an impediment to their judgment or a cause to question their blaming. And they must have someone to blame. For them it is a holy war, all praise to the Great Orange Demented One and all honor to the martyr! Nothing kills like a holy war.

To our White supremacists: Should you believe in some justification for Kirk’s deification, please don’t write to me about it. Don’t enter your brain mashing rationalizations in the Comments section below. Just walk away quietly – please, quietly – down the sidewalk, never letting others know of the hatred and violence you harbor and covet. Better yet, get yourself into some anger management program or psychotherapy.

Charlie Kirk didn’t deserve to be murdered. He didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of political hatred and violence, even though he stoked it with his own words. But Charlie Kirk most definitely deserves our wide-eyed recognition that his being murdered didn’t purify him of his evils and it hasn’t made him a good man. He remains in death the hatred stoker that he was in life.

That’s the real Charlie Kirk.

_____________________________________

New York Times, April 9, 1944

Click me

* That quotation is often attributed to Sinclair Lewis because of the message of his 1935 book, It Can’t Happen Here, or possibly to Huey Long. But the actual source is unknown. Nevertheless, we see today that it is true and accurate.

For more, see the profile by Henry Wallace, FDR’s second vice-president. Click and read his clear explanation from 1944. He knew a lot about fascism, as we were in the last year of the war to defeat fascism when he wrote his essay. He was accurate and correct then and he still is now.

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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 length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate or intentionally cruel. If you must post something cruel, stop reading these posts immediately and instead invest your time with a good therapist.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally and unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

Making a Difference


POST 1216

What If You Could?

Many people have doubts.

“I’m just one tiny voice.”

“I don’t have any special skills or power.”

“This is too big for me.”

“I don’t even know what to do.”

“I hate what’s happening to our country, but I’m no billionaire.”

“What good would it do?”

My friend MG of The Deconstructing Trump Corner posted the lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s song Anthem recently. I think it’s for all the perfectionists, those of us who hold back because they fear their efforts will be imperfect or of little value. If you’re one of those, pay attention to these lyrics. They give you permission to be human.

  • “Ring the bells that still can ring.
  • Forget your perfect offering.
  • There is a crack in everything.
  • That’s how the light gets in.”

Oh, and how we need that light right now!

Your imperfect efforts will be good enough. They will join with tens of millions of other imperfect offerings to crash through the crass dishonesty and the cruelty and the light will once again get in.

All because you rang the bell that still can ring.

RING THAT BELL!

Perhaps you’re a biblical type and would like the message in that context. Try this.

Imagine Moses, Miriam and Aaron leading the Hebrews from Egypt. They have arrived at the shores of the Red (“Reed”) Sea. They have no boats, so they have stayed there a long time, but the Egyptian army is not far behind them.

Try this adaptation of Deuteronomy 1:6-7:*

You have stayed long enough in this place, God said.

Time to go forward.

Turn your face to the future.

Believe that you can cross this sea and survive.

Inside you is a Moses; within you Miriam dances, unafraid.

Lift up your voice and sing a new song.

If today “this place” is where you’ve stayed as an observer, then it’s time to go forward, to turn your face to the future. It’s time to believe that you can do what seems impossible, because it is not impossible.

It is possible because of what is inside you.

Lift up your voice and sing a new song.

Sing it loud.

Sing it so everyone can see the future that you see.

Sing it with your integrity and your imperfect voice.

That’s how the light gets in!

____________________________________________

* from Mishkan Hanefesh, Machzor (prayer book) for the Days of Awe, Rosh Hashanah, page 33.

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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 length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate or intentionally cruel. If you must post something cruel, stop reading these posts immediately and instead invest your time with a good therapist.
    7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally and unavoidably mine.

    Click me

    JA


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

Realities


POST 1215

Some Things Just Have To Lede

Brace yourselves, flat-earthers.

Tomorrow at 1:19PM the reliable, count-on-it solar system will deliver this year’s autumnal equinox even for the flat earthers. It will be the very moment when the forces of summer and the forces of winter will hold hands, balance on tip-toe and suspend for just a moment their individual certainties. They will set aside their differences and their wobbling convictions. One side will even return, if only fleetingly, to once again recognize laws and the eternal nature of reality. The other will cheer them with welcome, asking, “Where’ve ya been?”

Many thanks to AT for this most valuable question.

For just that moment.

Then we will be returned to a world of lies, grift and cruelty, led by the Monster Liar In Chief (see the valuable question to the right).

Now Something Quite Serious

The lying done by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the rest of the extremist Palestinian mouthpieces is well known and has been paraded prominently before the world at least since the leadership of Yassir Arafat. They excel at making themselves appear to be victims in order to garner the sympathy of the world and thereby gain support. It is a self-defeating, suicidal strategy, but those leaders don’t seem to care about the suffering of their own people.

For the past two years Gazans, most of whom are not Hamas, have suffered starvation, injury and death. Hamas is the only reporting entity there and they report tens of thousands dead, among whom is a high percentage of children. We do not know whether their claims are accurate, but regardless of the actual numbers of dead, there are obviously many. That’s great victim PR for them.

That is horrendous for the people of Gaza for obvious reasons. And it is horrendous for Israel, too, which is well on its way to becoming a pariah state. The problem isn’t the majority of the people of Israel. It is Benjamin Netanyahu and his murderous government. Read Sen. Bernie Sanders’ message of September 18 in The Nation, It Is Genocide.

Almost as bad as the genocide, the Trump administration is complicit in these deaths by sending Netanyahu offensive weapons that he is using to incrementally destroy what is left of Gaza. Perhaps that is so that Trump can have his “Riviera of the Middle East.” If he gets that it will be paid for by children buried in the rubble or dying of starvation.

Jimmy Kimmel, Deployed National Guard, Public Health, ICE Thuggery  .  .  .

You know about all those and more, so rather than detailing them in this post, here is your Sunday reading list.

§ In Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s post Be Loud — For America he lays out the obvious truth that Trump’s deranged verbal attacks on Chicago and his threats of sending in the military aren’t about stopping crime. They are about sowing chaos and destabilizing our democracy and our country so that he can establish his dictatorial power.

§ Dan Rather offers insight into our escalating violence in How Did We Get Here? Where the president is a proponent of political violence. He explains,

A political leader’s reaction to political violence is a test of character. It is a test that Donald Trump has failed. He exploits others’ violent acts to further his own vengeful agenda. At a time when our leadership should be seeking unity, Trump is using Kirk’s killing as a call to arms for his supporters. “We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them,” the president said at the White House last week.

Trump said that even before we had a clue who the alleged perpetrator was or what his motivations might have been. Nevertheless, he pointedly has called for violence against fellow citizens.

§ Read the transcript of Rep. Jason Crow’s address to the House, Concerning State of US Politics & the Path Forward to Unite Our Country or watch it via the embedded video. And share it with others.

Ahoy, Maties!

Friday was National Talk Like A Pirate Day.

What? You forgot?
.

(Read the following aloud and with proper pirate-ness.)

Shiver me timbers, ye scalawags. Arrrr!

De tieves ha’ been a-tievin’ and a-takin’ what be ours, workin’ dere treason wi dere lies.

Me proud beauties, ’tis time we be a-weigin’ anchor and puttin’ our bow to de waves to make good trouble. Fie on Davey Jones hisself if he dare be gettin’ in our way. Dis be de hour we ‘cede to set tings aright.

Raise full sails, me hearties, an’ make ar headin’ to where de treasure waits fer such as us. We parlay wi de traitor, de scurvy bloated orange poxy hisself, if we must. But eider way, we be takin’ back de rule what be rightly ars.

So stand ready, ye sea dogs. Ar Jolly Roger flies and de battle be wid us!

The Deconstructing Trump Corner
.
  • Reality is that which when you stop believing in it,
  • it doesn’t go away.
  • Philip K. Dick, 1981
  • Nothing doth more hurt in a state
  • than that cunning men must pass for wise.
  • Francis Bacon, 1625
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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 length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate or intentionally cruel. If you must post something cruel, stop reading these posts immediately and instead invest your time with a good therapist.
    7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally and unavoidably mine.

    Click me

    JA


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

A Message For Our Time


POST 1214

Where We Left Off On Sunday

From John Pavlovitz’s September 12 post, The Shameful Christian Idolatry and Fraudulent Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk:

“Kirk has left a hateful, dehumanizing legacy of words that Conservative Christians are either choosing to ignore in their zeal to canonize him, or they simply share his racist, phobic, misogynist, Islamophobic, antisemitic, supremacist sentiments, and in Trump’s garish, Jesus-less remodeling of the Christian faith in America, now imagine them righteous.”

“Jesus’ central command was to love. How exactly did Kirk love immigrants and people of color and women and Trans teens and Muslims and Democrats and atheists?”

Read Pavlovitz’s full comments here. And refer to the footnote in my Sunday post for accurate descriptors of Kirk. Then you won’t be too quick to canonize this man who was full of messianic delirium and hatred for anyone not precisely like himself. He infected our young people with his charismatic thumping, but Kirk is no martyr for Jesus. Maybe he just smoked too much of his own weed, swam in his own juice, sang his own songs until they were all he recognized. Elmer Gantry was delirious over the delusion of the faithful, too.

The young were fooled too easily by Kirk. It is important that we help them to be un-fooled and that we ourselves not be fooled by any charlatan.

Wait.

Is mine the lefty “savage rhetoric” Trump says led to Kirk’s death? Am I one whom Trump has vowed to go after, one “who contributed to this atrocity” even in my ignorance of Kirk?

I repeat that before the murder I knew nothing of Charlie Kirk and never spoke of or wrote about him. But Trump’s cosplay Wild West retribution macho-ness likely won’t differentiate my former ignorance from some imagined “savage rhetoric,” so woe be unto me for whatever it is I didn’t do, because Trump is way, way through the looking glass and my ignorance will be no defense.

“Off with my head!” will the Putin puppet king demand, needing a constant river of blood for his unquenchable thirst. He’s like the mad king in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, maniacally gouging hearts from chests.

Given Trump’s continuing willingness to be played by Putin, do you think Putin really has Trump’s pee tapes? Perhaps not. Perhaps it’s just Trump’s paranoia exacerbated by his dementia. Regardless, Trump is gleefully dismantling everything good about America, including cancer research and our individual health.

Did I mention something about charlatans? We should never allow a charlatan to have any power.

Where Are The Heroes?

As we approach Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of a Jewish new year and a wake up call to the realities of life and death, retired Rabbi Rami imagined how he would lead services and offered this closing:

A period of silent meditation will follow our discussion, after which I will distribute shofarot (ram’s horns), each with a taped message inspired by the one Woody Guthrie attached to his guitars in the mid-1940s: THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS. Ours would say, THIS HORN FIGHTS FASCISM. Those who are able would step outside to blow the horn and wake the neighborhood to the threat of fascism, while those unable to walk would do the same inside. The entire service would last no more than two hours and conclude with a communal shout of “In a place without heroes, be a hero!” – Rabbi Hillel

If Rabbi Rami has it right, in these most fraught of times, with danger and the promise of rising evil all about, when we desperately need heroes, how will you be a hero?

Give that some thought and post your notions – your promise to yourself and to the people you love – in the Comments section below to clarify your own thinking, to stimulate others’ thinking and to inspire people who need inspiration. That would be all of us.

To be clear, this invitation isn’t about being Jewish. In fact, it isn’t about religion at all. It is about the realities and threats to our lives right now, both individually, communally and nationally. It is about recognizing the dangers to our deepest values and the need for us to step up, to hear and respond to the clarion call to duty.

How will you be a hero?
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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 length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate or intentionally cruel. If you must post something cruel, stop reading these posts immediately and instead invest your time with a good therapist.
    7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally and unavoidably mine.

    Click me

    JA


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

Who and What We Are


POST 1213

With Sad and Angry Regret, John Lewis

Nope, we’re not better than this.

There have been assassinations here since before we were a country. Multiple presidents have been shot. Sandy Hook happened and we were all so sad, but we continued killing one another as though those little kids were still alive and in their 1st grade classrooms.

Until his murder I knew next to nothing about Charlie Kirk. Had I known more about him likely I wouldn’t have agreed with him about any of his views, which, of course, is not the point. The point is that someone wanted to murder him and did so quite easily.

Click me and read the whole text.

Now President Trump plans to give Kirk our highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Kirk didn’t find a cure for a terrible disease. He didn’t carry people out of a burning building. He didn’t risk his life saving church or synagogue members from a would-be assassin. He didn’t stand a post anywhere to protect our freedom and our democracy, nor did he serve We The People in Congress. No, he was just a political activist. During his first term Trump gave drug addict Rush Limbaugh the PMoF, so with the flipping of another of those medals soon to Kirk’s next of kin, Trump is continuing to debase what was once a richly deserved, high honor.

Vice President Fauxbilly Vance has gone to Utah to retrieve civilian Charlie Kirk’s body and casket, plus his family, and fly them to Phoenix. In Air Force Two. On our dime. For a political activist. Not for an esteemed titan of democracy. Not for a hero. For just a political activist who had success motivating young people.

Kirk was a supporter of Trump, so of course Trump, the Adoration Junkie, has ordered flags at federal buildings to be lowered to half-staff. Do you suppose he’d do the same for any progressive activist who was shot? Or for any of the “suckers” and “losers” buried at Arlington National Cemetery?

Click me

Here’s Jennifer Rubin from before the arrest of the alleged perp:

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, Donald Trump has chosen to politicize [Charlie] Kirk’s murder, blaming the rhetoric of the “radical left”—all before anyone has been identified, let alone arrested for the murder.

Sadly, he and the MAGA troops reserve outrage only when Republicans are targeted (compare the near-silence when [Democratic] Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was targeted, the mockery when [Democrat] Paul Pelosi was nearly killed, and the snide remarks when two Minnesota Democrats were assassinated).

In each of these cases Trump demonized the left or ignored others’ tragedies, both of which encourage more violence.

So, don’t even think of both-sidesing this idiocy.* Only one side promotes violence to get its way. Only one side encourages hatred of the other side, although I confess to speaking ill at times about the violent ones, the willfully ignorant ones and the hateful ones.

Only one side adores a convict president who regularly urges them to violence. Only one side has a leader who promoted violent, murderous, treasonous insurrection and then pardoned the criminals, leaving them to believe that they can get away with maiming and killing in his name any time.

Only one side continues to pervert the Second Amendment from solely encouraging a stand-by militia for an at-risk fledgling country, to promoting a universal right to own and use modern weapons of war. Only one side stockpiles arsenals of weapons and ammunition, encouraged by puff-up slogans, like  “from my cold, dead hands,” and other pitiful macho, tough guy excuses. They give goose bumps to those angry guys who need to show they’re tough guys. And they give them excuse to do violence to others.

We have always been a violent society. Ask Blacks whose people were whipped and lynched. Ask Native Americans whose ancestors were massacred as state policy in order to take from them what we promised to leave to them. Ask any parent of a school child, anyone living in a drive-by kill zone – ask anyone.

So, no, John Lewis, We aren’t better than this. This is exactly who and what we are. We are violent, self-excusing murderous perps. In fact, I’ll take this one very dangerous step further.

We’ve Seen This Awful Movie Before And We Know How It Ends

In 1933 shortly after Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany in a free and fair election, there was a mysterious fire in the Reichstag building where the German parliament met. Here’s a pretty good explanation from Wikipedia:

The Reichstag Fire Decree . . . officially the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State . . .  was a decree issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg on the advice of Chancellor Adolf Hitler on 28 February 1933 in immediate response to the Reichstag fire. The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens. With the Nazis in powerful positions in the German government, the decree was used as the legal basis for the imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, and to suppress publications not considered “friendly” to the Nazi cause. The decree is considered by historians as one of the key steps in the establishment of a one-party Nazi state in Germany.

One mysterious fire and fingers of blame – scapegoating – were pointed and all semblance of democracy and everyone’s freedom were lost for a very long, murderous time.

Now consider this over-blown, over-played, over-politicized murder of Charlie Kirk. A super “conservative” guy was shot by someone who disliked him or his views. You don’t suppose that Trump will call that “radical lefty” violence and use it to brand all liberals as traitors, do you? Oh, wait: he already has.

It’s time to suspend your explanations and your self-protection schemes against the evils of Trump’s authoritarianism. Recognize that even if this murder isn’t the sole justification for the absolute power being sought by Trump, truncation of your liberty is on the way.

This ain’t bean bag.

Be sure to read Charlie Sykes’ post, Weaponizing the Murder of Charlie Kirk. The attacks on our freedoms are flying fast and with fantastical hatred – all aimed at you.

Final comment: For those like Charlie Kirk who claim to be Christians and use their bible thumping to justify spewing vitriol toward others (see footnote), you have to show me where in the Christian bible – any version of Christian bible – where followers are instructed to hate others, to persecute others. Then these thumpers can get me to believe they’re true Christians. Until then, they’re just hateful hypocrites.

Many thanks to pal FL for his contributions to this post.

The Deconstructing Trump Corner
.
  • I believe that deliberate, conscienceless mendacity.
  • the acceptance of falsehood and hypocrisy,
  • is the most dangerous of all sins.
  • Tennessee Williams, 1957
  • The biggest liar in the world is They Say.
  • [Or, “People are saying” – JA]
  • Douglas Malloch, 1978
  • _____________________________________________________

* Excerpt from Thom Hartmann’s piece, The “Both Sides” Scam: How False Balance Fuels Extremism:

” .  .  .  in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination — the guy who downplayed slavery, demonized Black and brown people, promoted the racist, antisemitic Great Replacement Theory, attacked queer people, made degrading comments about women, said gun deaths were fine because that’s the price we must pay for the Second Amendment .  .  . “

I guess with his murder Kirk paid what he said is “the price we must pay” for what is actually the constantly misused and abused Second Amendment, contorted by macho wannabees and the NRA. And Charlie Kirk. This hateful extremist righty, this performative Christian should not have been murdered. But Trump promotes violence against the left which will fuel the next murderers who think they are the true patriots doing Great Leader’s bidding.

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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 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 length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate or intentionally cruel. If you must post something cruel, stop reading these posts immediately and instead invest your time with a good therapist.
    7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally and unavoidably mine.

    Click me

    JA


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

People Are Saying . . .


POST 1212

The Trumpstein Slimepocolypse

To be clear, people like Jeffrey Epstein’s “clients” are commonly referred to on the street by “working girls” and by pimps as “johns” or “tricks.” And in this case we’re talking about people who assaulted, ravaged and raped underage girls as young as 13 – middle schoolers – That’s what these “clients” did for fun. These children were attacked and sex trafficked – sold – to Epstein’s “clients.” They carry emotional scars from pedophilia that will torture them for the rest of their lives.

Trump bragged that he was a star and

“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful . . . I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”

“Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

And he wrote to Epstein that they are alike, in that they like ’em young.

In legal venues that’s called assault – sexual assault – and it is a felony. But Trump bragged that he could do all that and implied he could get away with it. And it seems that he did, as at least 19 women have claimed that he raped them and he hasn’t been held to account. And his admission of having committed multiple sexual felonies didn’t stop millions from voting for him. That alone is a stunning and worrisome thing about us.

Now in this age of the Epstein slimefest, let’s see a show of hands of all those who believe that the self-proclaimed sexually entitled Trump does not appear on Jeffrey Epstein’s client list. Hold those hands high so we can get an accurate count of everyone who believes that Trump wasn’t an Epstein “client.”

No hands. It seems that people are saying .  .  .

Ghislaine Maxwell was Epstein’s main procurer of underage targets for sexual opportunity. They targeted kids – little girls. She just got a transfer to a minimum security prison in Texas, where sexual predators are not supposed to be allowed. Put your hand in the air if you’re okay with this awful predator getting special country club prison treatment.

Again, no hands. It seems that people really are saying .  .  .

This horrid stuff is why this story won’t go away, no matter how many outrageous things Trump does to distract us. It even has conspiracy loving Marjorie Taylor Green (R-SC) hugging Ro Khanna (D-CA) at the presser for Epstein survivors and even MAGAs are demanding full disclosure from Trump. Apparently violating children is bridge too far for right wing extremists. Now we know how bad it has to get for them to break with Trump. Sexual exploitation and trafficking of underage girls is the bar and it looks like Trump cleared it.

From Rick Wilson

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The old Washington logic of dutifully keeping the government functioning died years ago. It died when Mitch McConnell smirked his way through blocking Merrick Garland. It died when Trump turned the White House into a kleptocracy of golf carts and grift. It died when January 6 was not the end of Trumpism but its baptism into holy war against America and its system of government, when the barbarians didn’t just storm the gates, but were recast as heroes.

The insurrectionists were/are traitors to America. Their “love fest” killed and maimed cops and befouled our Capitol Building. These creeps were convicted of felonies. Then they were pardoned by the convict-in-chief.

But it’s beginning to become clear that insurrectionists are, by definition, traitors. It’s beginning to become clear that Trump is powerless to stop any war, that he’s inept at managing our economy, that he’s cruel beyond anything anyone voted for. In fact, almost nobody voted for this Trump, It seems that many people are saying .  .  .

From Democracy Docket, by Marc Elias

According to a new poll, when asked what emotion best describes how they feel about Trump’s actions as president, 49% of Democrats and 11% of Independents chose “furious.” Another 20% and 10%, respectively, chose “angry.” In total, 69% of Democrats and 21% of Independents are furious or angry about what Trump has done so far in his second term.

People are damn well saying. No speculation. No guessing. Just plain fact: People are saying Trump is enormously bad for Americans and America. So are his lying, cheating, reality denying suck up mobsters of mendacity.

More people every day are seeing the harm he’s causing us, the crushing of our freedom he’s orchestrating, the cruelty he’s doing every day in our name.

There’s a log way to go, but at last, people are saying .  .  .

The Deconstructing Trump Corner
.
  • There are conditions of blindness
  • so voluntary that they become complicity.
  • Paul Bourget
  • Good thing we have the vision
  • to see what is happening.
  • He is loyal to his own career
  • but only incidentally to anything or anyone else.
  • Hugh Dalton, 1941
  • Mid-Term Election
    Goes fast, doesn’t it?
    .

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