21st Century

Movie


POST 1189

I’m writing in the hours following the U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear and missile facilities and the Iranian response of their announced-in-advance missile attack on the vast U.S. military facility in Qatar. There will surely be more surprises to come, engineered by one of the world’s most awful regimes and more surprises from the other of the world’s most awful regimes. We wait for shoes to drop.

Let’s set aside the typical Trumpian stupidities:

“We’re not at war with Iran; we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear facilities.”

His bombastic claims: “We obliterated their nuclear facilities,” which bomb damage assessment experts have shown to be false.

The idiotic flip-flopping denials: “We’re not after regime change,” then “Make Iran Great Again” through “regime change.”

Let’s instead have a look at serious issues that serious minded leaders would commonly contemplate seriously with advice from serious minded advisors. Not that such advice might be seriously considered by Trump.

Whether you think the attack on Iran was the right thing to do or you see a blisteringly dumb move that is a probable prelude to something very bad happening, that attack will have many consequences.

It isn’t at all likely that, having taken a public drubbing, Iran will let go of its hostilities and go all golden retriever puppy with love for the twin devils, Israel and the U.S. They will want to hit back and are far more likely to be willing to make war than negotiate. It’s about venting rage and proving how tough they are.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is 86 years old and is not politically strong. He’s already offered recommendations for a successor, including his son, which further complicates the possibility of negotiations and the calculus of predicting what actions that country may take. We’ll leave that speculation to our well informed intelligence people, sadly led by second-raters who owe their suck-up jobs to Trump patronage. Trump will ignore all of them.

What we know is that saving face is critically important to this Iranian regime and to the culture of the country. Nobody reacts well to humiliation and even Khamenei’s detractors in the streets of Tehran will want to hit back, especially because for them this is a holy war. Did anyone at the White House, the Defense, State, Homeland Security or the Intelligence Departments consider what would happen on Day 2?

You know this from at least as far back as Colin Powell invoking the Pottery Barn rule about war: You break it, you own it. And now we own this one.

Here are just a few examples of how the Iranians might strike back.

  1. Physics and chemistry tell us that their 60% enriched uranium cannot be used as is to make a traditional nuclear bomb. But it can be used to make dirty bombs – common explosives laced with radiologically hot material. They could smuggle IEDs or bombs into any country and detonate them in crowded cities. Use your imagination to identify which places would be near the top of their hit list. Dirty bombs don’t have nearly the explosive power of nuclear bombs, but they can make a huge radius of land uninhabitable for hundreds of years.
  2. If they have sleeper cells in the U.S., they can be activated to do damage to us physically and psychologically. If you think we distrust one another now, just wait until Iranian sabotage has occurred in the U.S., some Americans have been killed and you’re suspecting every stranger you see of being a murderer.
  3. They can mine the Strait of Hormuz (see these maps) to shut down shipping of gas, oil and other goods. 20% of global petroleum output travels that narrow stretch of water and shutting it down will drive up oil prices globally and likely tank Trump’s economic agenda.
  4. They can attack U.S. forces in the area, as they did in their retaliatory attack in Qatar on Monday. Given that no substantial damage was done, this was likely intended solely for domestic consumption, a public beating of chests and a saving of face. That may likely prove to be a self-destructive action, but proud, angry people might dismiss the cost to themselves and approve yet more attacks.
  5. They can fire barrages of missiles and drones at Israel, assuming they still have substantial stockpiles.
  6. They can task their tech geniuses to create destructive cyber attacks that disrupt our power grids, businesses, defense capabilities and more.

If they did any of those things, what would our U.S. dictator wannabe do? He’s an amoral, irrational and self-serving narcissist whose mania requires that he be seen as strong, most strongly, and always right. He would insist that any Iranian aggression be countered massively. Bigly. Like nothing anyone has ever seen. There aren’t too many choices available for an all-about-me tyrant trying to show that he can pee higher on the fire hydrant than the other dog.

  1. He could order massive bombing of all Iranian infrastructure. “Bomb ’em back to the stone age” was a very popular phrase after 911, when our proud, angry people wanted retribution. So was Sen. John McCain’s “Bomb, bomb, bomb – bomb, bomb Iran” in 2008, wanting for us to show the world what tough guys we were.
  2. Trump could order 300,000 – maybe 500,000 – troops to invade Iran. That will be a forever war that will kill hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of our military men and women. We will build an Iran War Memorial on the National Mall. Trump will get to play wartime president to burnish his orange ego. But critically, he will ignore the flag draped caskets carrying suckers and losers, as they arrive at Dover, DE.

It doesn’t appear that anyone is considering what comes next, most dangerously, the President.

Will Russia, China and North Korea supply Iran with war matériel and scientific know how? If they do, what will we do?

If we learn that we didn’t “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities (we didn’t), will Trump order more bombings?

Given their stockpiles of enriched uranium and scientific know how, if Iran continues to refuse to negotiate, what will we do? What will Israel do? What might Iran do?

What will we do to win hearts and minds of Iranians? We weren’t too good at that in Iraq or Afghanistan.

We’ve seen this movie before. We know the plot and that it takes decades to end this bad movie. It will cost thousands of lives and massive treasure that creates trillions of dollars of debt that will never be paid off.

Trump will be long gone when the reality of his ever-expanding war dawns on us. By then there will be someone else in the White House to blame for his war folly. Just like when Dubya was gone and Obama and Biden took the heat for exiting his Iraq and Afghanistan war failures.

Like I said, we’ve seen this movie before. The question for us now is whether we remember the lessons of that movie before a lot of people get killed and whether Congress has the backbone to dial down the madness. Indeed, have we learned anything at all?

From his post on Monday, When Incompetence Goes To War, Dan Rather, with his many decades of reporting and his experience in too many wars, gets the last word.

Truth IS the first casualty of war.

The first things you hear often are untrue, and so are many of the things you hear later.

Wars are by their very nature chaotic and unpredictable. What you most expect frequently does not happen; what you least expect often does.

Up close and personal, wars are almost unbelievably savage. The television screen and the printed word do not come close to conveying their harsh realities.

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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.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

Little Friday Comment


POST 1187

As of this writing President Trump has said that he will make up his TACO mind about whether to go to war against Iran within the next two weeks.* Why he would make such a strategic announcement to our adversaries like a circus barker saying “You ain’t seen nuthin yet?” This comes from somewhere beyond sanity or national security.

This is not a commentary about what Trump’s decision should be. Rather, it’s about his decision making methodology and the limitations of this president of greatly limited capability.

Our news folk are telling us that he is conferring with:

The civilian leader of our national defense. I find no comfort in hearing that he is giving serious consideration to what SecDef Pete Hegseth has to say. He’s the guy who had to overtly declare that he’d stop his drunken ways if he were confirmed for the post he now holds and we don’t know if he’s honored his pledge. He’s the same fool responsible for failing to protect what should have been top secret plans to bomb the Houthis in order to protect our shipping through the Gulf of Hormuz. He instead sent his plans over an unsecured service with at least one participant on the string having no security clearance at all. Are we supposed to trust his advice to the President regarding our military services and security in war?

Our military defense people. Trump dumped all the top people – the generals – who he knew were primarily loyal to the Constitution. He replaced them with people primarily loyal to Trump. Who cares about some pesky solemn oath, anyway?

Can we be confident these replacements will refuse to obey an illegal order?

Our intelligence people. Lots of agencies there, but they all funnel to the Director of National Intelligence, who right now is Tulsi Gabbard. That’s “Putin Talker” Gabbard. That’s “no experience in intelligence work” Gabbard or even at keeping a secret. Not hard to imagine that she might give advice to the President based upon what Vladimir Putin wants us to do, rather than what is in the best interests of our country. Worse, it’s not hard to imagine Trump preferring to hear about Putin’s preferences.

Our Secretary of State. Marco Rubio is a smooth talking, pleasant looking pol who has shown us repeatedly that he is not much more than a political weather vane. He will say and do only what Trump wants him to say and do, leaving decisions and policy without a check or expanded options.

Then there is Trump’s learning disability and gnat-like attention span. This president doesn’t read. They’ve had to put the President’s Daily Brief  (“PDB”) into comic book format. They’ve tried creating videos for this reality show freak of a man to advise him of international threats.

He can’t stay with any train of thought for more than a few minutes. That isn’t sufficient when the topic is anything more complex than how many Big Macs this infant tyrant wants for dinner, much less for the brutal and perilous questions of war.

Fortunately, the power to declare war rests solely with the Congress, not the president. Unfortunately, we have no assurance that the Congress will put on its big boy and big girl pants and stop this president from acting from his dementia addled brain to get a lot of people killed with no thought to the day after.

Our last two forays into war lasted 20 years, got over 7,000 American troops killed, hundreds of thousands of locals killed, millions displaced and upheaval in the region that continues even today. All that was started by a similarly un-serious, incompetent president who listened to the wrong people and whose primary concerns were his popularity and his legacy. He lied us into wars against two nations that had done us no harm and were not a threat to us.

Trump craves grossly narcissistic things, including money, power and adulation. He gets none of those from Benjamin Netanyahu, leaving the possibility of a chip on Trump’s shoulder that may influence his decision about war against Iran. But it shouldn’t.

Now, in this appallingly dangerous world, un-serious incompetence is more lethal than ever and we are once again saddled with it.

__________________________________________

* That “two weeks” business is nothing but a stall to make Trump seem in control, seem assertive and to give him time to do a dozen other outrageous things to distract you so that you stop thinking about whatever he was supposed to make happen in two weeks. Think: Infrastructure Week.

Stop listening to talking heads who grind on about what will happen in two weeks. That grind isn’t worth your time or attention.

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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.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

IMMIGRANTS UNITE!


POST 1185

First, Minnesota

A thug murdered three Minnesotans, two of them Democratic state legislators. This should come as no surprise, since Trump has been calling since 2015 for violence against Democrats, progressives, protesters and anyone who disagrees with him about anything. He claims to be “your retribution” against “those others.” So of course some wing nut listened to him and took action, perhaps expecting to be pardoned by Trump.

This is just today’s chapter in Trump’s program of I Don’t Care, So Death To You.

To The National Brother/Sisterhood/Childhood of Immigrant Workers
.

Yesterday there was a massive national demonstration, an opposition, a revulsion, the rejection of the tyrant’s attack and his anti-America corruption of the values we hold dear. Indeed, our immigrants, whether documented or not, came here to live by those values and they and we won’t stand for this vile little man’s evil.

This President has unleashed his attack thugs, masked gunmen bearing no identification, no badge of any kind, carrying no arrest warrants and exercising no concern for innocent people. He dispatched them with instructions to kidnap anyone who they think looks like they might be in America without documentation – that means Black and Brown people. They select kidnap victims based on their ignorance.

They have arbitrarily claimed thousands of people to be criminals. They have arrested citizens of the United States with the same right to be here as any of us. They possess no evidence of anyone’s wrongdoing and act in the total absence of due process rights. In short, they are thugs acting illegally at the order of a lawless president and you, immigrants, are their primary target.

Demonstrations against this lawlessness are powerful and good, but it will take more for the American public to become fully aware of what these illegal actions mean to Americans. They don’t realize that they themselves will feel the effects of this. They don’t realize that one day the tyrants will run out of Black and Brown people to abuse and others will be next to be labeled enemies. That’s what tyrants always do.

That is why I’m calling for an ad hoc action, a labor strike, to make clear how Trump’s White, Non-At-All-Christian actions will impact everyone. Specifically, I’m calling on:

hotel and restaurant workers

construction laborers

domestic workers

garment workers

farm workers

landscapers

day laborers, like the folks who hang out early in the morning at Home Depots and 7-11s hoping to earn a day’s pay

It’s time to take a stand, so immigrant workers:

DO NOT SHOW UP FOR WORK THIS THURSDAY OR ANY THURSDAY UNTIL THIS CRUELTY STOPS.

.

Maybe some of the White privilege people who whine and moan their “Replacement Theory” lunacy will show up in California’s Central Valley to do stoop labor, like picking strawberries and lettuce. Maybe they’ll do the work of moving heavy wheel barrows full of cement or removing debris from construction sites. Maybe they’ll scrub the pots and pans in a hot commercial kitchen 14 hours a day, or clean befouled hotel rooms left by hotel guest slobs. Maybe they’ll scrub the floors of rich people’s homes.

But none of that is ever going to happen. Here’s what will happen.

None of those angry, privileged White guys will show up to do the hard work our immigrants do every day. Housing construction will slow to a halt, restaurants will close their doors and produce bins in grocery stores will be empty. And there will be a lot of hotel rooms that don’t get cleaned and landscaping around rich guys’ houses will become nothing but weeds.

It’s time to make the point to all American citizens that their way of life is dependent upon the hard working immigrants to this country and that those tax paying immigrants are a major part of the reason for hope for this nation.

Immigrants to America Unite!

You have nothing to lose but the threat of deportation to a torture concentration camp, never to see your family again.

.
Memo To Silent Americans

.

Turn off the ignorant and the stupid.

.

Treasonous Americans are trying to steal your country, your values, your freedom, your future and your hopes for your children.

They tried an insurrection to murder leaders and take over your government, killing and maiming cops and befouling our Capitol Building.

Trump pardoned the convicted criminals, enabling them to continue to conspire to overthrow us.

The Supreme Court gave the president the right to break our laws with impunity.

Trump and his criminal suck-ups are moving every day to use our military to take action against you and make this a police state.

THAT WILL BE THE END OF YOUR FREEDOM!
.

DO NOT sleepwalk through reality. DO NO be an existential threat to the United States of America through passivity. DO NOT tolerate the murderous Oath Keeper criminals, the DOGE flying monkeys who stole your personal information and the lying Trump bastards violating your Constitution and your rights every day.

Wake up!

.

America isn’t about any king.

It is about We The People.

We declare that in no uncertain terms right here.

.
Pics From The Highland Park NO KINGS Event

Yes that Highland Park. July 4, 2022. 7 killed, 48 wounded. Still this little village turned out over 3,000 yesterday to tell everyone that we will not have a king. We will not tolerate cruelty to anyone. The Law is the law and nobody is above it. Those sentiments were on display in over 2,160 locations nationwide with attendance in the millions.

Paraphrasing Winston Churchill’s address to the House of Commons in the darkest days of the blitzkrieg of the Battle of Britain, June 4, 1940:

We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight them in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight them in our town squares, we shall fight them in the hills. We shall never surrender. We shall fight them in our state houses, we shall fight them in our Congress. We shall fight them in our courts and we shall fight them in our voting booths. We shall rescue and liberate ourselves from their cruelty to carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, we restore our promise of America.

 

kakistocracy | kakəˈstäkrəsē | government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state

 

 

 

Credit to MG for this one

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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.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


Now Is The Time – It Always Is


POST 1184

Click the pic

On February 19 Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker delivered his State of the State address. Appropriately, most of it was focused on Illinois issues, but he reserved his final comments for the state of our country and the perils we face moving forward.

We are now four months further down the dangerous path Pritzker described and things are turning more dire with every Trump power grab and his every attack on our Constitution. That makes Pritzker’s warning yet more important and urgent.

Down goes Trumpy! Down goes Trumpy! Down goes Trumpy!
Trump ridiculed Biden for tripping on the Air Force One stairs. Do you think he’ll rip himself for doing the same thing? Click the pic

Watch and listen to Gov. Pritzker’s cautionary message. If you’d like to watch his entire address (36 minutes), click here.

Here’s another framing from Pritzker about where we stand in the march of history:

What we do and don’t do matters. It matters right now more than it ever has before. When my future grandkids look back on this moment, I want them to know that my voice was one of the loudest in the room, screaming for justice and fighting against tyranny.

What do you want your grandkids to know about what you did when everything was on the line?

It’s time to stand strong in the face of the tyrants. Here’s what Churchill said about that in 1940 during the Battle of Britain, even as the bombs of Hitler’s blitzkrieg (“lighting war”) exploded in London.

Click me. Definitely click me.

America isn’t about any king.

It is about We The People.

We declare that in no uncertain terms right here.

.

You and I are just like the Founders in our abhorrence of kings – dictators, really. We are threatened by such people right now. That’s why June 14* is

NO KINGS DAY!*

.

“You have to know what you stand for, or you’ll fall for anything.” – Les Brown

Click the map to find a demonstration near you. As of this writing there are over 1,800 of them, all for people across the nation who won’t tolerate Trump’s reign of scams, cruelties, corruption and the destruction of our Constitution he hopes will lead to his dictatorship and make him Orange King Donald I.

So, show up on June 14 to demonstrate who we really are, what we stand for and what we won’t stand for.

And pass this message to others. This existential battle needs all of us – and we need this battle in order to restore our country.

___________________________________________________

* It’s also the day of Trump’s ego-maniacal military parade. Watch for his lying press secretary Karoline Leavitt to lie in a manic, fantastical frenzy about parade attendance, a la Sean Spicer.

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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.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

Center-Right – Really?


POST 1182

The Numbers*
Here is What We Americans Want
.

87% of Americans believe Social Security benefits should be maintained or increased

79% of Americans support raising (not cutting) taxes on the wealthy and big corporations

69% of Americans want Medicare For All (MFA)

63% of Americans believe abortion should be legal

53% of Americans believe automatic weapons should be banned**

64% of Americans want stricter gun laws

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

62% of Americans believe medication abortion should be legal

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

60% of Americans oppose ICE raids in schools and places of worship

77% of Americans support maintaining or increasing SNAP (food stamp) benefits

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

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

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

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

30% of Americans think the 2020 election was stolen from Trump

35% of Americans cannot name the 3 branches of government

26% of Americans believe the sun orbits the Earth

4 – 10% of Americans believe the Earth is flat – seriously!

27% of Americans distrust science

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

If we want something better than we are getting, we’ll have to do something different – like elect people to power who will fairly represent us and who will kill the voter suppression practices that poison the heart of America.

It will take generations to fix the mess we’ve allowed to be made by our legislative self-serving cowards who debase themselves to lobbyists and cower before bullies. And we’ve been harmed by the willful indifference of the over 90 million eligible voters whose butts remain on their couches every election. Now is a good time to start the clean-up on Aisle U.S.***

The Department of Hope

It’s time to stop wringing our hands. It’s time to reach down and grab our grit and use it to attack what deserves to be attacked. It’s time to speak the truth about America and Americans and demand the America We The People want. That fight is what gives us hope.

Start by listening to Tim Walz make it plain for you.

Our Streets

You and I are just like the Founders in our abhorrence of kings – dictators, really. We are threatened by such people right now, in part because of the national insanity we’ve tolerated far too long. That’s why June 14 is

NO KINGS DAY!

.

You have to know what you stand for, or you’ll fall for anything.

Click on the map to find a demonstration near you. As of this writing there are over 1,400 of them, all for people across the nation who won’t tolerate Trump’s reign of scams, cruelties, corruption and the destruction of our Constitution he hopes will lead to his dictatorship and make him King Donald I.

But America isn’t about any king. It is about We The People. We declare that in no uncertain terms right here.

So, show up on June 14 to demonstrate who we really are, what we stand for and what we won’t stand for. And pass this message to others. This existential battle needs all of us.

Don’t Ever Back Down

Democrats plan to hire a TACO truck to serve free tacos outside the Republican National Committee headquarters starting this Tuesday – TACO Tuesdays, as in: Trump Always Chickens Out. Said Mother Jones, “.  .  .  [the idea] has since reportedly irked our ever-mercurial, toddler-brain president.”

This kind of tweaking is, of course, childish and undignified. I love it.

Every day in every way, punch the bully in the nose.

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

Click me. Definitely click me.

___________________________________________________

* I looked up all the numbers presented here and easily found them from reputable sources with a simple search, “What percentage of Americans want .  .  . ” There are many reports on each of these topics, so there is some variation in the percentages that can be found. However, in no case was there meaningful disagreement from the intent of what is presented here.

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

*** Gallup reports that approval of Congress is 26%. That means that 3 of every 4 Americans disapproves of our Congress. 53% of us disapprove of the job Trump is doing. Why in the world should we tolerate such horrid job performance? Fire these guys!

Countdown to November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Emergency


POST 1181

Paramedics Aren’t Enough
We all have to show up for this emergency.
.

Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is presented as a budget bill, but its 1,116 pages hide aggressively subversive things buried in its bulk that have nothing to do with budgets and everything to do with crushing our rights and our freedoms. This bill is a clear and present danger to the United States. It is an existential threat to our way of life and the values you and I hold dear.

In a level headed, referenced piece on the site of Campaign Legal Center entitled These Hidden Provisions in the Budget Bill Undermine Our Democracy, Eric Kashdan lays out some examples of the subversion* in this bill.

“An Attack on the Judicial Branch

“The first of these outrageous policies — buried in Section 70302 of the legislation — would severely restrict federal courts’ authority to hold government officials in contempt if they violate judicial orders.”

Just consider the Supreme Court’s order to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. and the Trump Administration’s refusal. This provision would actually make Trump’s criminal contempt of court legal.

“A Flood of False Information in Elections

“The second problematic provision — found within Section 43201(c) of the House reconciliation bill — would impose a 10-year ban on the enforcement of all state and local laws that regulate artificial intelligence (AI), including rules for AI’s use in political campaigns and elections.”

Read that again: This bill will kill the efforts of our states to stop election misinformation, interference and manipulation of voters.

The New York Times has an exhaustive walk-through of this assault on democracy. If you’re feeling too happy, sample your way through it and you’ll be cured.

This “Big Beastly Bill” (kudos to Nancy Kohn and Art Friedson for the label – link through to their post – it’s brilliantly clear) is cloaked as a budget bill but is chock full of democracy destroying provisions like the destruction of checks and balance that has nothing to do with budgetary issues. And it’s full of nuclear attacks on Americans, most especially on non-super rich Americans. It is straight out of the Project 2025 homegrown political terrorist playbook.

The treachery throughout this plan for a bloodless coup is a clear violation of both the Faithless Clause and the Deceit Clause of the Constitution and is likely in violation of various sections of U.S. Code: Title 18 — CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, especially the Fraud, Unlawful, Cruel and Kaput (collectively the “FUCK Acts”) statutes.**

Trump and his fellow conspirators may well be in violation of sections of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, which includes provisions for treason, seditious conspiracy and more. To be accurate, they aren’t trying to overthrow the government. They’re supplanting established norms with a blizzard of self-serving edicts nobody voted for and refusing to honor even a ghost of their oath of office.

Please link through and read this short, clear-headed explanation. There is more bad stuff in this bill than can be listed there, but this will get you started in your research to understand this awful bill.

Good-Bye Norman Rockwell

My wife and I have long enjoyed election day, walking to our local polling place, seeing neighbors there and all of us practicing citizenship. It’s a Norman Rockwell scene that affirms who we all are.

Now, though, we are threatened by tyrants who are working day and night in every venue imaginable to take away our rights of citizenship, to tear down our country, to impoverish you and me and to pocket the spoils for themselves. They want to set fire to that Norman Rockwell scene. That is the imminent danger we face.

Update From Sen. Pig Castrator

At a town hall on May 30 Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) responded to a constituent question about the massive cuts to Medicaid in the Big Beastly Bill – $880 billion – and how that will affect our most vulnerable. She smirked and said, “Well, we’re all going to die.”

That, apparently, is what passes for promoting the general welfare and compassion for the suffering, according to Republicans. See for yourself here. Watch for the smirk at 0.42.

Did You Know?
The Byrd Rule*** allows a single Senator to remove non-budget related provisions from bills that are attempting to be passed under budget reconciliation.
.
CALL YOUR SENATORS, because it takes 60 votes to overcome [a filibuster], and ONLY ONE SENATOR to call out these un-American provisions.
Action

Here are the two things we – you and I – must do.

1. Immediately phone both of your senators – no snail mail, no email – whether they’re Democratic, Republican or Independent. You can reach them through the

U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121

.

Tell them to invoke the Byrd Rule** on every single non-budgetary provision in this bill. That won’t fix everything, so they’ll also have to invoke the filibuster, too, if/when it comes time for voting on the entire caca package. Then tell them to VOTE NO on this attack-on-America bill.


2. Attend a NO KINGS protest on June 14. Click the map below for clarity about why you need to be there and to find a rally near you. I promise you that you’ll be emboldened and proud stand with people who show up to practice citizenship and to declare, “NO KINGS ON MY WATCH!“

Also, listen to New York Attorney General  Letitia James tell us it’s time to stand up and fight back. Do not give in to fear.

Finger Pointing Department

If you want to know who to blame for our ongoing debacle (root cause, primary driver), it might surprise you to learn that it isn’t Donald Trump. It’s who enabled Trump to happen. Click here.

Head Scratcher Department

Country Joe McDonald sang his song I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag at Woodstock 55 years ago. In it he asked about the Viet Nam war, “What are we fighting for?” I’d like to hear some of today’s Trump supporters answer that question – what are they fighting for?

_________________________________________________

* sub·ver·sion
/səbˈvərZHən,səbˈvərSHən/
  1. the undermining of the power and authority of an established system or institution.
    “the ruthless subversion of democracy”
    Source: Oxford Languages

** These Clauses and statutes don’t exist, but they should so that we can accurately describe the un-American actions of today’s faithless, selfish, cowardly Republican saboteurs and hold them accountable.

*** From Google AI:

The Byrd Rule is a Senate rule that limits what can be included in reconciliation legislation to provisions that directly affect the federal budget, specifically spending and revenues. It prevents reconciliation bills from becoming vehicles for non-budgetary policy changes. 

Click here for a plain language explanation of the Byrd Rule, or here if you want to really get down in the weeds with it.
Countdown to November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election

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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 readability, punctuation, typos, voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

Downhill


POST 1177

Deterioration

During an ABC interview our president boldly and repeatedly embarrassed himself by claiming that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 terrorist gang member. Trump tried to prove it by showing a picture of Mr. Garcia’s left hand with “MS13” tattooed on his knuckles.

But here’s the Snopes fact check article that exposes Trump’s claim as bunk. They wrote,

While publicly available evidence confirmed the image shared by Trump was authentic in origin, it also confirmed the image had been altered to insert the text “MS-13” above the actual tattoos — in effect annotating them. There was no clear evidence the symbols on Abrego Garcia’s fingers proved an affiliation with MS-13. [emphasis mine]

Okay, so Trump lied. No breaking news there.

A couple weeks ago Trump declared that, “The price of eggs went down 92%.” But there is no place in the United States where the price of eggs went down 92%. Trump lied again, a fact based right here on Earth 1.

The egg lie is pointless. It’s stupid. The other lie has enormous impact, not just on Mr. Garcia, who remains in an El Salvador gulag, but on our foundational principle of the rule of law and, consequently, on all of us.

If Trump believes that the false things he says are true, then instead of his being dishonest, he would be delusional, mentally separated from reality, cognitively dysfunctional.

Going downhill.

The Garcia and the egg lies are just a couple of the most recent demonstrations of what makes Trump the poster boy for the 25th Amendment.

From Robert Reich’s post, Don’t Call Them “Potential Conflicts of Interest. They’re Corruption:

Words matter. When the media points out Trump’s “potential conflicts of interest,” as it has in recent days when describing Trump’s growing crypto enterprise, it doesn’t come close to telling the public what’s really going on — unprecedented paybacks and self-dealing by the president of the United States, using his office to make billions.

The correct word is corruption. [emphasis original]

Trump holds a private dinner at the White House for major speculators who purchase his new cryptocurrency, earning him and his allies $900,000 in trading fees in just under two days. One senator calls this “the most brazenly corrupt thing a president has ever done.”

Further downhill.

Now there’s the $480 million jet bribe.

During his first term there was nonstop talk about Trump’s obvious emoluments violations that constantly attended him like water swirling in a toilet. The Republican controlled Congress let Trump get away with his grift, just as this Congress sits spinelessly watching his grift today.

It looks like there is little Trump criminality that is low enough to motivate Republican legislators to honor their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.

Like I said: Downhill.

From Michael Cohen’s post, This Ain’t the Godfather, Morons**, explaining why so many Americans support this mob boss:

” . . . in a country broken by inequality, fear, and rage, people want to believe in someone who promises to punish the people they blame for their pain.”

“With Trump back in office, it’s no longer an act; it’s a goddamn sequel. But this time, he’s not just throwing tantrums on Twitter. He’s purging government agencies, pardoning his goons, and rewriting the rules to protect himself. This is mob rule in a democracy’s clothing.”

“America loves an outlaw. We romanticize the antihero. But we forget the lesson every one of those gangster stories teaches us: it always ends in blood. In betrayal. In regret.”

Not-So-Fun Facts

Not-So-Fun Fact #1:

Trump’s repugnant, organizationally illiterate, DUI Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has announced that he is firing 20% of our flag officers (generals and admirals). They’re the guys with long experience and with the knowledge and good judgement that take decades to accumulate. They’re the folks who know national defense and who live the concepts of integrity and accountability. Hegseth is dumping 20% of these knowledge and expertise resources.

He’s also announced plans to eliminate legacy weapons and equipment programs. He’s said little about what these are.

Wait: He’s dumping our smart people and a bunch of our munitions. Who in the world might benefit from us hobbling ourselves like that?

Not-So-Fun Fact #2:

Musk and Trump have conspired to give worldwide dominance of internet services to Musk’s Starlink. Other than the tsunami of money for Musk, it’s a grab for worldwide dominance of AI. How do you feel about putting Musk in charge of everything, including your private, personal information and whatever you’re thinking and saying?

Plus, Musk warns us, the Sun is expanding and will affect and then eat Earth in 5 billion years. Musk realized as a child the threat we face and wants to go to Mars pronto. After all, we only have billions (with a “B”) of years until doomsday. There’s too much to unpack here, so read Heather Cox Richardson’s piece from last Wednesday.

Like I said: Downhill.

Thinking Beyond The Current Tweak To Your Sensibilities

As Trump slides down the mental acuity and corruption sewer pipe we are left with a terrible reality. Were Trump to leave office before January 20, 2029, J.D. Vance would move into the Oval Office. That’s actually as bad as Trump staying there, because Vance is just as comfortable as Trump is with dishonesty and betrayal of the Constitution and our laws. Worse, he’s cunning, slimy and indebted to a bunch of mega-billionaire Project 2025 types (read: greedy billionaire bastards) who paved his way to the vice-presidency on a highway of greenbacks. What could possibly go wrong?

Also from Robert Reich:

Today the great divide is not between left and right. It’s between democracy and oligarchy. [emphasis original]

He’s right, but most people don’t know what oligarchy is. Instead, try this when you speak of the threat we face:

Today the great divide is not between left and right. It’s between democracy and greedy billionaire dictator wannabes. – JA

Reich also said,

Unlike income or wealth, power is a zero-sum game. The more of it at the top, the less of it anywhere else.

He’s right. It’s time we stopped our downhill slide and started us and our country back to becoming once again the shining city on the hill.

__________________________________________

* Trump remains the undisputed champion of deceit. They even track Trump’s mendacity in Australia. From Independent Australia’s Victoria Fielding in her post, Donald Trump is the world’s most audacious liar:

Trump’s entire political career has been one lie after the other — a fire hydrant of small, medium-sized and huge lies, lies told to hide other lies, lies told to confuse, to attack, to undermine, to pretend he is something he’s not, to cover up for what he’s done, to justify the unjustifiable, to shirk responsibility, to avoid consequences, to confuse people about what is true, to make them stop trying to tell the difference between lies and reality.

** “Morons” refers to Americans who blindly follow and support Trump.

Countdown to November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Dream Sequence v2.0 – For All Mothers


POST 1176

First The Big Bad News

Yes, the Army has reported that there will be parade of explosive masculine military hardware and personnel to help Trump deal with his small genital low self-esteem. But that’s not the big, bad thing I’m focusing on in this dense forest of big, bad things.

I heard yet another person, hateful of Trump, proclaim that they don’t want Trump to have any wins, so he hopes that our economy crashes. We all get the no wins intention, but wishing disaster for our country is quite a different thing. The point is that Trump and his army of treasonous, poison biting extremists have wound our national spring so tight that patriotic Americans are actually cheering for our downfall.

It’s easy to succumb to extreme emotion, but this is a time to keep our wits about us. Cheer for Trump’s downfall, not that of our country.

The Dream

At 8:00AM on March 16, 2022 I watched the broadcast of President Zelenskyy addressing the U.S. Congress, the American people and the world. His words were brilliant and compelling. His message was clear and unmistakable. And the fierce resolve of his people, even in those dark days, was reflected in his bearing, plain for all to see.

Four days later I awoke from a dream sequence and posted it here. That dream hasn’t come true and in the intervening years many lies have been told, many people have died and now great manipulation is afoot. It’s time to update the dream.

________________________________________________

The regular army of Ukraine plus many thousands of volunteer citizen soldiers have inflicted enormous damage to President Vladimir Putin’s vaunted military forces. Many thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed and at least twice as many have been wounded and sent home. Many of their tanks, troop carriers, aircraft and artillery pieces have been destroyed and the Russian army is, at times, in retreat, its myth of superior military might destroyed.

The North Koreans and Chinese have dumped thousands of their soldiers into this meat grinder of men. Iran has given Putin missiles with which to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure and to kill women and children as they sleep.

President Zelenskyy is taking to the airwaves to address President Putin and President Trump. The whole world is watching, holding its breath. First he speaks fluently in Russian from his office, with only the Ukrainian flag behind him. He is wearing an olive green tee shirt, a month of dark beard and his eyes are bloodshot, yet rock steady into the camera.

President Putin, it is time for us to end this war.

Clearly, you began it with the expectation that your military would roll over my country in just a few days; that you could eliminate our parliament and me and install a puppet regime that would be your servant; that the world would stand by and watch as you once again invade a sovereign nation and commit unspeakable crimes against humanity, including kidnapping thousands of our children. Only the kidnapping happened. Yours is a weak, blustering imitation of what the Soviet Union once was and you know that by now. We will not allow you to replicate it by destroying our country.

You did not count on the pride, the resolve and the unyielding patriotism of the Ukrainian people. You did not expect our fierce insistence upon our sovereignty, our democracy and our freedom. And you did not understand that the fire of freedom that burns in the hearts of people everywhere would cause them to reach out to support the Ukrainian people and punish Russia. Perhaps by now, after over 3 years of death and frustration, you are beginning to see the truth.

We will not bend. We will not be beaten. We will prevail. So, I am now giving you one chance to end this with some of your military still intact. If you refuse this offer we will continue to destroy your armies.

Here are my non-negotiable terms:

1. All Russian military personnel, army, navy, air forces and missile command, will immediately cease fire.

2. All Russian military personnel will immediately withdraw from all Ukrainian lands that were sovereign to Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion of Crimea on February 20, 2014, as well as all Ukrainian waters.

3. You will not interfere with any Ukrainians repatriating to our country.

4. You will return to Ukraine all Ukrainians whom you kidnapped or took as prisoners.

5. You will immediately pay for your indiscriminate bombardment of our civilians, our cities, our infrastructure and our lands the sum of $2 trillion dollars in U.S. funds as reparations for the destruction you have caused my people and my country. It grieves us that we cannot get reparations from you that could bring back our soldiers, our grand parents and our little children you have killed.

The entire world wants you to accept these terms, Mr. Putin, including over 140 million Russian people. They don’t want this horrible war any more than any freedom loving people would. That’s why you must stop the killing and suffering and end the morbid spectacle of thousands of body bags containing dead Russian boys being sent back to Russia and the awful sound of their wailing, grieving mothers.

This offer will expire in three days. Take it. Save what you can from this misbegotten adventure and Europe will once again be at peace.

The world awaits your reply.

President Zelinskyy turns to a second camera and continues in accented but clear English.

President Trump, you have sought to create a peace, but have done so by arm twisting the Ukrainian people to falsely accept responsibility for starting this awful war. You have insisted that we Ukrainians must accept defeat and give much of our beloved Ukraine to President Putin. You have curtailed U.S. shipments of munitions that would have supported our men and women of the Ukrainian army and you have shut down our access to satellite imagery. We understand that this is your standard negotiating technique – to do grave damage and then “negotiate” relief. Your cruelty, however, will not work against us.

You seek to force us to give up our mineral wealth, claiming it as repayment for past U.S. support of Ukraine. That support was given freely and with no stated or unstated demands or expectations of payment.

The United States did not seek such payments from Germany following WW I, nor from the United Kingdom, Germany or Japan following WW II, nor from South Korea following its war for freedom. The U.S. has never sought to exploit another country in such a way, be they ally or adversary. Yet now you try to do so like a thief holding hostages. Very well. The world can see what you are doing both to my people and to the esteem of the United States.

I have recently signed an agreement with your country, although I did so with much regret. Its terms give the U.S. preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals and natural resources licenses. In return, under this agreement the U.S. will provide financial and military assistance to Ukraine to help my country rebuild after the war. One can only wonder what assistance will be forthcoming, given your mercurial nature and no specificity about your assistance, as my citizens are left in the squalor created by Mr. Putin. President Trump, what will you do for my people then?

________________________________________________

Since the original dream, little has changed except the body count and the end of U.S. military support for Ukraine.

America and the rest of the free world have given much and European nations continue to give to Ukraine to help them to succeed, even as the U.S. retreats into self-inflicted embarrassment. Perhaps one day President Zelenskyy will be able to deliver my dream speech so that Ukrainian and Russian mothers will no longer have this awful reason to grieve.

Be sure to read the post from Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko provided by Meidas+. Scroll just past the picture for insight into today’s Ukraine.

And Finally,

Da Pope, from The Onion, of course

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To The November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Pictures of America


POST 1175

I’ll bet you remember those puzzles that asked you to identify what is missing from a picture. It might be a tree with a trunk that doesn’t touch the ground or a dog that’s missing a leg.  Here’s a visual example from the Way-Back machine.

What’s Missing From This Picture?

As you can see, there are an elderly lady and a pregnant lady standing in the aisle of this bus, while three young men sit in comfort, absorbed in their own worlds, oblivious to the needs of those less able. What is missing is chivalry. If you prefer less archaic terminology, what’s missing is just plain consideration for another person.

We suffer terribly from self-absorption and from a lack of empathy.* Those are drivers for cutting off Social Security and veterans’ healthcare. That’s how we are mindlessly able to turn off the supply of food and medical assistance intended for children living in desperate poverty.

Some who applaud the withholding of benefits from those in need often claim that providing assistance teaches people to be dependent. They seem to think that eliminating assistance will drive people to suddenly become independent, self-sufficient, tax paying Americans. They apparently have forgotten that some simply are not able to be independent. For those of us more fortunate, we worked and kicked into the piggy banks of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and are due their benefits. That’s the deal we all signed up for.

To be fair, food and healthcare going to non-Americans, like to starving, sick people in Africa, is different. It requires more from us. To support such programs requires that we have empathy for others, that we give more than a tiny damn for suffering fellow humans. But empathy seems to be not just in short supply, but is completely absent from those who now pull the levers of our government and in those who, with open eyes, voted for them.

So, the more encompassing answer to the “What’s Missing From This Picture?” question above is empathy. Sadly, even tragically, We The People have allowed enough of us to have been made into replicas of those three seated, self-absorbed bozos on the bus, willfully ignoring any consciousness about the weak legs of an old woman or the compromised balance and endurance of a pregnant woman.

So, for our empathy-less ones, I offer that the assistance we give to others is returned to us in the forms of good citizenship and diplomatic victories abroad. Those benefits should be easy to understand, because they’re self-serving and don’t require any empathy from us.

The picture of America doesn’t have to look like that.

Also from the Way-Back machine, we were shown pictures that had a collection of images and we were challenged to identify which image did not belong with the others. It might be a bowl of fruit that included a screwdriver or a kid in the batters box holding a broom. Here’s an example.

What Doesn’t Belong In This Picture?

We have a lot of things going on in America now that just don’t belong in the same picture as our Constitution or our sometimes squishy rules about justice. Manipulating citizen adults out of voting rights comes to mind.

In Florida in 2018 voters passed a referendum to make it possible for former offenders to vote once they had “paid their debt to society.” Then the extremists in control in Tallahassee twisted things to effectively negate the new citizen-decided rule. That’s much like gerrymandering and positioning polling places such that White voters only wait 20 minutes to vote, while Black people have to wait 8 hours. That doesn’t belong on our picture of America.

The Onion, of course.

Neither does grabbing people off the street and sending them to rendition sites without first accusing them of some wrongdoing and then giving them their day in court to contest the charges. It’s called “due process of law” and it’s owed to all “persons” (not just citizens). Denying due process of law is a violation of the 5th and 14th Amendments. We are violating them every day. That doesn’t belong on our picture of America, either.

The blanket firing of government workers, people who ensure that our food is safe, people who protect our nuclear stockpiles, people who monitor our rules and regulations to stop cheaters and more is a violation of our stated values, who we say we are, too.

The picture of America doesn’t have to look like that.

We might need those in charge to be brought to a 3rd grade classroom for a semester to show them what they were supposed to learn from those pictures they were shown long ago. What we do need for sure is for We The People to keep showing up demanding only what belongs in our picture of America and rejecting the rest.

It’s being claimed by some with very loud voices that this country is solely for Christian (although not necessarily doing what Jesus would do), straight, White men who like to tell you how to live. Were he alive now, Robert E. Lee might be one of them.

He was a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Then he violated his oath, his sacred honor, to lead troops for the Confederacy against our country. Doesn’t that make him a traitor?

Doesn’t that make you wonder why the name of this traitor is on street signs all over the South and there are statues of him that are viewed with reverence by millions? Don’t you wonder at the celebration of abandoned integrity at all levels, especially at the top?

The picture of America doesn’t have to look like that.

For a frightening, maddening explanation of the hypocrisy and cruelty coming our way aimed squarely at our children,  read Catherine Rampell’s excellent piece, Donald Trump’s war on children. One more time: The picture of America doesn’t have to look like that.

Copyright Robert Reich. The chart of America doesn’t have to look this way.

From Robert Reich:

“Teaching is about getting students to reexamine whatever assumptions they carry into the classroom. It’s about provoking conversations, fostering dissent, and learning from one another even when we disagree on issues.”

Reich has been a teacher for 40 years and knows a bit about seeking to understand. Do you imagine that We The People could accept his challenge to his students to reexamine assumptioms? What if we sucked it up, took a breath and followed this teacher’s direction?

__________________________________________________

* “Empathy is the oxygen of democracy.” – Jon Meacham

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

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JA


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

Hegseth and Health


POST 1174

DUI Hegseth

Norm Ornstein hit the bulls eye with this:

Trump kakistocracy—government by the least competent

About which Joyce Vance goes on to say that the Trump kakistocracy

.  .  .  continues to harm everyday Americans and put our allies at risk. On that front, the dishonor prize again goes to Pete Hegseth, with reports revealing he shared sensitive national security information in yet another Signal chat on his personal phone—forwarding information about attacks in Yemen last month to his wife, [his] lawyer and [his] brother [none of whom has a security clearance], among others who should not have been privy to such sensitive details.

Sheila Markin comments that he did that

.  .  .  using a chat app that he had installed in his computer to get around the rule that cell phones were not allowed inside the [Defense Department] office.

Our DUI hire Sec/Def is far worse than the obvious international embarrassment that he is. He’s a threat to our immediate safety and to our long term security. We all would be far better off without this fool, but Trump doesn’t have the cojones to hire competent people or fire incompetent ones.

What About Your Health?

STAT is the excellent health and healthcare publication of The Boston Globe. Last week they posted a report of how Trump and his administration are systematically dismantling medicine and science, which will be felt acutely by We The People in the years to come. You better hope that the next pandemic skips you and that your young ones don’t get exposed to measles, polio, smallpox and the rest, because you probably won’t be able to get them vaccinated or cured.

Even if a new administration replaces Trump’s on January 20, 2029 and that it works at “warp speed” and isn’t hobbled by legacy Trumpian dystopian bureaucracy and ineptitude, it will take generations to repair the damage Trump is causing and to restore our healthcare systems. Read Day by day, how Trump is roiling science and health and pray you never need a cure or even get a diagnosis that isn’t routine, because research efforts nationwide are being cancelled. And thank your lucky stars if you never experience any form of dementia as you age, because ways to prevent and treat such decline won’t be getting developed.*

Pro-Life? Really?

I’ve written (here, here and here) about the murderous hypocrisy of self-labeled “pro-life” claimers, but let me do a short review.

You can’t be both pro-life and also refuse to fund rural hospitals, where so many newborns die

You can’t be both pro-life and cheer the elimination of food assistance for millions of children

You can’t be both pro-life and applaud cutting USAID assistance to millions of starving people

You can’t be both pro-life and pro-death penalty

You can’t be both pro-life and applaud the ending of medical research grants

You can’t be both pro-life and support the DOGE hobbling of Social Security into an impenetrable maze that leaves seniors financially shipwrecked

You can’t be both pro-life and applaud the rendition of hundreds to extermination prisons without so much as a whiff of evidence of any wrongdoing

You can’t be both pro-life and claim that everyone should be carrying a gun to stop bad guys

You can’t be both pro-life and in favor of cutting assistance to all the poor grannies

You can’t be both pro-life and support the ending of regulating polluters

You can’t be both pro-life and terminatethe  NOAA severe weather warning system

As you can see, pro-life is actually only pro-fetus. After birth, the pro-lifers set those kids adrift and don’t give a damn about them throughout the rest of their lives. If you support these anti-human actions and still claim to be pro-life, get over yourself and get a grip on reality.

Speaking Some More of Health

We at the societal and cultural level are not too good at looking forward beyond the immediate horizon. That, however, doesn’t mean that the somewhat more distant future won’t arrive. The future just beyond that immediate horizon carries grave danger for us, our children and our grandchildren. Other than stupid, unnecessary, self-destructive wars, our deteriorating climate is the most dangerous thing facing us, regardless of whether we choose to see that danger.

Watch Al Gore’s presentation to the San Francisco Climate Week gathering or read the text of his speech here. Gore doesn’t couch our current reality in terms of myopia, but that is exactly what the current administration is peddling. The muscular calls for more and more fossil fuel extraction and burning, the disbanding of FEMA, the refusal to see the ongoing disasters as the ever-escalating result of global warming that they are keep us from seeing what we are doing to our future generations.

Seeing clearly does not require perfect vision. It only requires paying attention. – Steve Schmidt

The Price of Idiocy

Photo credit: The Onion

There is no evidence to recommend discontinuing fluoridating drinking water. There is goo gobs of evidence showing that fluoride not only protects against tooth decay, but also can prevent various bacterial infections and even death. In the face of that incontrovertible evidence, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wants us to stop fluoridating our water. Brain worm, maybe?

He is famously an anti-vaxxer of the first order, brainlessly railing against the vaccines that prevent illness and suffering and save lives.

From Magical Thinking About a Miracle Mineral, by Zeynep Tufekci,

. . . measles [is] one of the world’s most contagious – and vaccine-preventable – diseases

It has been a favorite target for Kennedy, who instead recommends quack cures, like

. . . “aerosolized budesonide,” an asthma drug that actual medical experts say is not relevant to measles, and clarithromysin, an antibiotic that experts don’t mention for this purpose.

Okay, Kennedy really does have a brain worm and a lifetime of being a special boy only because his daddy really was special. More significant are the people who give his uneducated recommendations serious consideration. Unvaccinated kids have died from measles recently and

there are now more than 700 known measles cases in at least 8 states.

Which is why you continue to thank your mom for dragging you into your pediatrician’s office when you were a kid to get the MMR vaccine. Also, the polio vaccine, the smallpox vaccine and more. Too bad the moms of those kids who died recently from measles and those on a path to die didn’t protect their kids.

The beauty of idiocy caused by listening to ignorant, celebrity know nothings is the relief from the hard work of having to think clearly and critically. But, of course, nothing is free. Sometimes the price for idiocy is the life of your kid.

Kermit, Big Bird and Miss Piggy

Trump has signed an executive order defunding PBS and NPR. They are the most recent targets of his reprehensible retributions, the unlawful tantrums of a tyrant toddler. Here’s a pic sent in by pal Jim Nathan to give you an idea of where things stand. You might want to respond to one of those email appeals from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, rather than reflexively pressing the Delete button. Or click here.

__________________________________________

* Recall that in 2020 Trump The SuperSpreader contracted Covid-19. He was rushed to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, sitting close to Secret Service guys in The Beast so as to be sure to infect them. At Walter Reed he was treated with remdesivir, dexamethasone and more, all breakthrough treatments developed with the aid of medical grants from the federal government. Now that Trump no longer has Covid he’s cancelling funding for medical research because, hey, he himself doesn’t need new miracle drugs.

 

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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

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