Accountability

A Bucketful of Weird


POST 1109

Heart Wrenching Quote of the Week

Misty is a teacher in Charlotte, NC. She was interviewed on CNN. She spoke of teachers going to the houses of students to make sure they were okay, as they were living in rubble. One of the teachers is missing and they are surrounded by the disaster and the suffering that is everywhere, trying to help the kids have something that feels normal. Misty said that’s critical for the kids, because,

“Normal just washed away  .  .  . “

Their ordinary lives just washed away. Food and drinkable water washed away. Their homes washed away. Their hopes, dreams, security and perhaps friends and family washed away. The death toll stands at 232. No one knows how many are missing and there is no way to calculate the devastation.

The people wading through the muck and rubble are our family, neighbors and community even if at a distance. When disaster hits, we roll up our shirtsleeves and lend a hand. We come together for one another.

And our help, already critically needed, is going to become far more desperately needed, as Hurricane Milton slams across Florida.

CNN put together this list of organizations providing relief. Just click the link and pick one to help our people, because we step up for our community. It’s just what we do, so it would be weird not to.

Weird Black Nazi Wish List

North Carolina Republican candidate for governor and self-labeled Black Nazi, Mark Robinson, has said many offensive things. Among them,

“Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it back. I would certainly buy a few.”

Maybe I’ll buy some slaves, too. Robinson will be my first purchase. The first thing I’ll do as his master is to end all of his freedom and work him to exhaustion every day. Just wondering if he would still think “slavery is not bad.”

Weird.

The Weird Candidate

From an article in The Atlantic Daily on October 2 entitled “Beyond Handshakes,” focused on the Vice Presidential debate:

.  .  .  Vance slyly executed a strategy to make himself, and Trumpism, appear “normal.” He eschewed talk of “childless cat ladies” and ran from his own lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. That such a sentence needs to be written tells you all you need to know about the ugly tenor of this race.

Actually, it tells you all you need to know about the ugly dishonesty and cruelty of Republican politicians.

Weird.

Springfield Geese

Turns out that Trump and Vance are sort of right – someone did kill geese in Springfield, OH. But it wasn’t one of the legally resident Haitians.

Springfield idiot and non-Haitian, Brian Comer, was having fine sport killing golf course pond geese on September 10. Got busted for it. There are no reports of him killing neighbors’ dogs or cats and eating them or whether he’s a Trump supporter – you do the guessing on that. Regardless, he’s seriously weird.

FEMA Funds Never Fed Our Undocumented

Following Hurricane Helene, Donald Trump blasted out damning crapnews that FEMA is running out of money for relief because they’re funneling millions to undocumented immigrants. Trump SS officer Steven Miller and idiot genius Elon Musk are helping to spread that lie. The details of this Trump-stupid FEMA accusation are too long to include here, so read Heather Cox Richardson’s explainer.

Worse, at a time when tens of thousands of Americans are desperate and counting on the heroic rescue teams working hard to save them, feed them, to bring them to safety and to give them hope, Trump is crushing their hopes and their belief in their country. Trump is weird and he’s cruel beyond words. But, you knew that.

BTW – When he was president he did exactly what he’s falsely accusing Biden of doing. He diverted FEMA money from relief for victims of Hurricane Maria to use it to punish “others.” While those devastated by the hurricane were Americans, he didn’t care because, hey, they’re just Puerto Ricans. To refresh your memory, this is the paper towel tossing incident. See this capture of his reprehensible and weird nature.

“That Was a Damning Non-Answer”

Walz: Did [Trump] lose the 2020 election?

Vance: Tim, I’m focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans in the wake of the 2020 Covid situation? (As though that fantasy was in the future – and the answer is no.)

Walz: That was a damning non-answer.

Vance’s slimy-squirmy avoidance of Walz’s question lit up the debate and Walz nailed him on it. Good for all of us.

Actually, Walz let pass nearly all of Vance’s non-answers (about 22 of them) and his lies (uncountable), much to the frustration of fact-based viewers. No clue why Walz did that.

Trump’s nearly successful efforts to thwart the will of the people of the United States in 2021 and Vance’s support for that felony is ugly. But We The People believe our eyes and ears and we know what happened. The Vance-Dance wasn’t just damning. It was criminally damning.

And weird.

Reality Roundup

You already know that some of us have a flimsy relationship with truth, facts, science and other parts of reality. Lies, misdirection, fantasies, fatuous rumors and conspiracies have achieved great popularity with many of our less sharp-eyed fellow citizens. Their opinions, based on nothing more than personal bias and cartoon-ish flights of insanity, have supplanted facts in their minds. That’s an impressive achievement and actually quite a problem.

A fine essay was offered in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago – Facts Matter, and They Don’t Care How You Feel, by Francis S. Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health. His piece is a clearheaded approach to telling us that reality is what it is and that our confirmation bias, bad attitudes and our need to find a boogeyman behind every tree don’t change reality.

So no, the Earth is not flat. The 1969 moon landing did happen. So did the Holocaust. There were no sex trafficked young girls in the basement of that pizza shop in DC (actually, there is no basement in that building). There are no Jewish space lasers and vaccines don’t kill, neuter or blind people. They saved hundreds of thousands of lives just in America, despite Trump’s efforts to get Americans to instead inject bleach, Lysol and little ultraviolet lights and to take a drug approved solely to treat malaria. We know all this because there is massive evidence that declares the realities, even as conspiracy wingnuts and wacko political candidates display their very serious mental limitations by rejecting reality and imperiling all of us.

Weird.

Just get this:

Shifting back to reality will take powerful, consistently muscular, banner-waving, truth telling, lie smashing, propaganda pummeling communication and a personal touch. Anything less than that will cause us to descend into a freedom killing wasteland. There are only 26 days left and this will take all of us. It’s time to step up. Now.
.

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!

– Les Miserables R Us

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

An Outrageous Proposal for October 7


POST 1108

Most of us know that an Israeli cease fire won’t get the hostages back, won’t curtail Hamas’ terrorism, won’t stop Hezbollah from firing rockets into northern Israel, won’t stop the Houthis from firing ballistic missiles into Israel from Yemen, won’t stop Iran from firing drones and ballistic missiles at Israeli cities and won’t stop Iran from funding all of these terrorists. There will be no cease fire trade for hostages because giving up the hostages will eliminate Hamas’ bargaining chips. These things are real world truths, in contrast to the beliefs of well meaning but simple minded college students, especially those who have turned their empathy into hatred.

Israel had to take action both to recover hostages – they retrieved over half of them – and they had to defend against Hamas and cripple it in order to prevent yet more terrorism. That was made far more complicated by Hamas.

It is a fact that Hamas positions its terrorists and its weapons among the civilian Palestinian population in Gaza – in hospitals, schools and apartment buildings. That ensured that Israeli retaliation and military pressure against Hamas would injure and kill massive numbers of otherwise innocent Palestinians. For those needing to point a finger of blame for thousands of Palestinian casualties, point your finger at Hamas. They wanted and got massive world sympathy through their cruel manipulations that caused the deaths of those Palestinian mothers and children.

More bombs, missiles and drones will not get anyone peace or land. More murders of hostages will only trigger continuing cycles of retribution. “From the river to the sea” is a fantasy that serves only to inflame passions and cause more death.

The war has widened, there are no indications of anything likely to get better any time soon and the world is poised in anticipation of an all out regional war if all parties continue to behave as they have. Clearly, if things are to improve, something must change. Here is my outrageous proposal.

I propose – no, I invite, plead, beseech – Prime Minister Netanyahu to go on the world stage and invite Iran and representatives of the Palestinians into negotiations to make a permanent peace. Perhaps the Egyptians, Qataris and Jordanians can facilitate such a process.

Netanyahu must offer Israeli support for creating a sovereign Palestinian state and be willing to remove and relocate Israeli settlers from the West Bank. He must be willing to share Jerusalem. In short, he must come to these talks prepared to give up a great deal in exchange for getting everything Israelis have hoped for since 1948.

We have seen that fierce warriors on all sides are a hindrance, not a help. It is time for fierce statesmanship and a new kind of courage, the courage to not fight. Perhaps things are so awful now and so threatening to everyone that we can move past the chest thumping, intransigence, self-righteousness, the threatening and the contest to win the biggest victim award and at last bring peace to all.

Yes, that’s outrageous. If you have a better idea, I’d love to hear it. So would all the mothers and children in the Middle East.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Reconsidering


POST 1104

A Little Founding Father Direction

From Benjamin Franklin, 1787:

“I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.”

When you’re “obliged by better information, or fuller consideration,” do you “change opinions even on important subjects, which [you] once thought right, but found to be otherwise”?

It’s happening now.

We’re seeing lots of Republicans, former Republicans and Independents who are showing us the strength to change opinions, as Franklin himself did.

And we’re seeing lots of fellow citizens, formerly disengaged and loath to make the effort to vote, registering to vote.

There is something solid about “better information, or fuller consideration” that emboldens us to do what we know to be right, what we must do. It is what has motivated hundreds of former Reagan officials, Trump officials, Republican Party chairs, judges and thousands of traditional Republicans to declare that they not only will not vote for Trump, but that they will vote for Harris.

From Jamelle Bouie

“For nearly a decade Trump has fomented an atmosphere of political violence. Much of his appeal rests on the promise that he will dominate his enemies – who, through him, become the people’s enemies – and remove them from the body politic.”

“Last Monday, Trump blamed Democrats for political violence. ‘Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying and it will only get worse,’ he wrote on social media.

“But there is only one politician who has placed violence at the center of his movement. Only one politician who is running for president on a promise of “retribution.” Only one politician who has promised that if he is elected again, he will unleash the state against a wide array of disfavored groups.”

When Trump Loses

Over the years Trump has declared a stunning list of imagined enemies, icky people, all somehow oppressors of himself. He has announced that he is an innocent victim and brays his hatred and coming retribution for all the suffering he has imagined from his enemies, like:

The Justice Department, weaponized, which is what he promises to do himself

Muslims

Blacks (except for “my Negro”)

Hillary Clinton

Antifa

Hispanics

Everyone from “shit-hole countries”

Non-White immigrants from non-European countries, especially Hispanics seeking asylum, including the babies he ripped from their mothers’ arms

Everyone who investigated or prosecuted the January 6 insurrectionists

Joe Biden

Kamala Harris

Democrats

Haitians

Now “The Jews” – they’re just 2.4% of the total population but he says that his upcoming election loss will be their fault somehow.

It’s funny how Trump is never responsible for anything bad that happens to him. It’s always the fault of someone else. Blaming and hating “others” takes the focus off his countless failures, lies, cheats, stupidities, cruelties and ineptitude by telling us not to pay attention to those, but rather to hate the bright, shiny object du jour he’s flashing in our faces, like Haitians eating cats. Plus, it makes for a common enemy to hate. It’s just what savage, hateful dictators do.

The Trump “Blame It On The Jews” Tour

Trump is repugnant in every way. There’s no need to go through that extensive list here, but one of the most virulent and dangerous is his demonizing of his many out-groups, like those in the list above. After smearing Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, he started blatantly attacking Jews  – no dog whistles any more – by declaring, “If I don’t win this election, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss.” That matters.

We saw on January 6 the violence he can induce. He stopped just short of instructing his mob to kill cops, smash windows and doors and defecate in the hallways of the Capitol Building, but the mob got the message and did all of that and worse. He and his weird and hateful running mate continue to accuse Haitians of eating the pets of the residents of Springfield, OH. They have induced their rabid thug followers to make dozens of bomb threats there. Now he’s blatantly blaming “The Jews” in advance of his election failure. Can violence to synagogues and congregants be far away?

This is a Congressional Republican hero – Source: Pixabay

Not even one Congressional Republican has repudiated his statements.
.

Apparently, they aren’t familiar with Benjamin Franklin’s wisdom about reconsideration when better information comes along. Or maybe they’re just chicken.

Listen to Keith Olbermann’s commentary – start at 24.30 for more on Trump’s Blame It On The Jews tour. For a more thorough look, read the first section of Steve Sheffey’s post that begins,”Hi Steve.” Plus, you might want to reconsider actions you’ll take in these last critical weeks before the election. There’s lots more that you can do.

Election Wisdom From Master Yoda

“A great and terrible disturbance there is in The Force. Happened this has many times before and evil is once again coming to destroy the Republic and enslave the people.

“If free people you are to remain, The Way of The Vote you must learn. A luminous path it is to what is right and what is good. To refuse The Vote is a path to the dark side.

“Not enough is it for you to do this noble task. Influence others to Vote, you must. You will do this with the The Force that is within you. Feel it connecting you to others and between you and the stacks of prepared ballots awaiting voters. Then guide others, you must, and follow you to the polls they will on the wave of The Force. Then will you feel the crushing of the disturbance in The Force and triumphant will be democracy.

“Go now. Much work there is to do. If your job you do well, The Vote will be with you, always.”

Do we still have the right stuff for the continuing battle against the Dark Side?
.
.

And always remember:

Voting and getting out the vote reduce the risk of unwanted presidencies!

.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Her Own Best Interests


POST 1103.

Brutal Truth

Amber Thurman and her son. Say her name.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Special Note to Pro-Life Zealots

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

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

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

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

And that isn’t in our own best interests.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Potpourri v23.0


POST 1101

The Debate

In the spin room following the Trumpocalypse he claimed victory. He was asked again if would he would veto a national abortion bill should he be re-elected. He replied, “It was a perfect answer on abortion, and I’ve done a great job on that, and I’ve brought our country together.”

All but the extreme MAGAs now see clearly that he is uninformed, unglued and unfit. So he’s right that he’s brought us together – in recognizing his mental decline.

Here’s a CNN fact check on the debate.

Trump said that Harris had four years to fix our southern border immigration problem and didn’t get the job done. That’s worth mentioning because of a peculiar Constitutional limitation.

The vice-president has only two Constitutionally named jobs: 1. preside over the Senate; 2. wait for the president to die and then take over that job. Harris doesn’t set policy. Biden does. Trump seems to think he’s still running against Biden. For Trump, fantasy or reality – it’s all the same.

Steve Schmidt Quote of the Week

“What Donald Trump is running as is fuhrer of a fascist movement promising protection for White America against imaginary Haitians coming to eat their pets. The presidential campaign has become a clinic of mental illness – not on both sides. On one side.

“And that is the story of this race and the story that should be leading the news – all the news, every night, is that a man who wants access to the nuclear weapons that he singularly can launch, cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is fantasy.”

Meanwhile, George W. Bush’s Attorney General, Alberto “Torture Memo” Gonzales has endorsed Kamala Harris for President. Is that a good thing?

The Crime That Keeps On Stealing

At his State of the Union address in 2010, shortly after the Supreme Court invented a case that allows for massive, corruption-inviting loads of money to influence and at last buy our elections, Obama spoke directly about the Citizens United decision.

“With all due deference to separation of powers, the decision will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.”

Chief Justice Roberts, seated before Obama, shook his head and said, “Not true.”

But it was and it still is.

Foreign money has made it into our elections, but we only know about those bribes that have been caught. Beyond that, we know full well of many of the billions that warp every election. Here’s a link to a report that identifies the top 50 MegaDonor contributors, reported through August 20, with a breakdown of where their money went:

                 TO

Republicans                         $893.7 Million

Democrats                           $452 Million

Both                                     $203.6 Million

Third Party                           $29.6 Million

MegaDonor Total       $1.578.9 Billion

And there’s lots more mega-cash still rolling in.

Before the legalization of criminality that the Citizens United decision delivered, such contributions would have been considered bribes – felonies – and they would have been subject to criminal prosecution. But then John Roberts decided to create a law.

After deciding the actual CU case that was brought to the Court, Roberts called the litigants back and ordered them to argue the rights of inanimate objects – specifically, corporations. The Court then decided that corporations have all the rights that you have. That’s what allowed all those huge bribes to become legal and that’s why Citizens United is the crime that keeps on stealing.

A Second Flunked Taste Test

I did a taste test last month of a piece by Marc Thiessen of The Washington Post, headlining my comments, This Is Juicy. Mine was a most reasonable dissection of his idiotic claims, ending with, “So, nice try, Mr. Thiessen. You are entitled to your opinions, but the facts say you’re wrong.”

Thiessen came up with an intriguing headline more recently, Trump Can Knock Harris Out Of The Race In One Debate. Here’s how. I was sufficiently tweaked by his claim to give him one more taste test. Then I read his first paragraph.

If we have learned anything in recent months, it is that a single bad debate can end a presidential campaign — which is why Vice President Kamala Harris is apparently afraid to do more than one 90-minute, teleprompter-free exchange with former president Donald Trump.

Okay, it wasn’t just one debate that ended Biden’s campaign. There was also that massive in-party pressure.  But it’s the rest of the sentence that flies over the cuckoo’s nest.

Does Thiessen have inside information that says Harris is afraid to do more than one debate against Trump? Or that she is afraid to do more than one if they don’t include teleprompters? What is his source for what’s unstated but is in her head?

Of course, he has no source. He’s pretending that he knows. Ross Douthat of the Times and lots of other pundits do this often. It screams, “I really don’t know anything, so I’ll make up denigrating stuff.”

Mr. Thiessen, you have flunked my second taste test of your work. There won’t be another.

And fie on those who think their ignorance causes them to know what is in someone else’s head.

Despot Suck Up

The President of the United States has three primary jobs explicitly named in the oath of office and in Article II of The Constitution:

  1. Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States
  2. Be Commander in Chief of our armed forces
  3. See that our laws are faithfully executed

The are more duties, of course, but nowhere does the job description include cozying up to cruel dictators, condoning invasion of sovereign nations or abdicating the defense of our democracy. Here’s a quote from Ambassador Michael McFaul’s September 5 post:

In this column, I explained why “Putin has rational motives for wanting Trump to win,” including Trump’s pledge “to ‘look into’ recognition of Crimea as a part of Russia,” Trump’s “disdain for the United States’ alliances around the world [and] his “isolationist policies,” and indifference to “promoting democracy and human rights.”

Of course, Trump also encouraged Russia and Putin to, “do whatever the hell they want.”

Did I already mention “unhinged?” Add to that “faithless.”

Mental Health Warning

We see Trump’s obvious cognitive decline, his inability to complete a thought, his dissembling about fictional character Hannibal Lechter, sharks and batteries, his stringing together of words that don’t belong together and his fantastic claims, like that immigrants are eating pet dogs and others are taking over whole communities. Even as that stuff pulls the rug from under Trump’s election chances, it may provide an insanity defense in court. We need that guy nailed before he can get away with that.

It’s not the vibes, it’s not the polls: it’s the votes.
Are you registered to vote? Check it out here:
.

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Ours To Remember


POST 1100

9/11

It’s 23 years since that terrible day. I went there a few weeks afterward and saw the devastation and the thick cloud of toxic dust that the clean up workers were breathing. Some agency of the federal government told them it was safe to breath that air. But the rate of cancers that have attacked those people was and is astronomical. We’ll never know if that false claim of safety was due to a lie or ineptitude.

I saw the trucks, loaded to their tops with the rubble and the tiny pieces of what had been normal, breathing people. I saw the purple bunting over the entrance to Hook & Ladder Company 8, the Ghostbusters firehouse, the one nearest Ground Zero. They lost 33 of their company on that cruel day.

I saw the pictures and posters taped to every light pole, every traffic sign, every surface that would hold them. Every one read some version of, “Have you seen  .  .  . ?” Clearly, they were posted by people hoping their loved one had amnesia or got lost or were injured and perhaps someone could call the posted phone number to say where to find their dear one. But by the time I visited, the missing were completely and forever lost.

Candles burned on the sidewalks because  .  .  .  were they intended to be votive candles? Yahrzeit candles? A flame of hope? Something to grasp when there was nothing? Somehow they were connected to the posters those weeks after the attack, this in a vain effort to deal with the loss.

The only sound was from the heavy equipment, the trucks and front end loaders that belched their thick diesel exhaust. No one spoke. The traffic cops didn’t blow whistles and the few cars near the protective fence moved slowly and quietly. Everyone felt the holy.

I walked north on the way to meet a friend for dinner and heard in my mind’s ear Todd Beamer’s last words to his fellow passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93. “Let’s roll.” And they did. They stopped the hijackers from crashing that plane into the Capitol Building by instead crashing it into a field in Shanksville, PA. That selfless act is the stuff of heroes.

The Other Part Of  The Story

Brace yourself, because this is a shocking turn from the story of loss, sadness and honoring. It is, however awful, the truth.

President George W. Bush, the frat boy, have a beer with him president, was warned by our intelligence agencies that an attack was likely imminent. After the attack his national security advisor Condoleeza Rice wondered in an interview how anyone might think it would come in the form of commercial airliners. The way they could have known is if Bush had listened to our experts who told him about that possibility. But he ignored the warnings. Then this got worse – perhaps worse than 9/11 itself.

Bush lied, claiming a connection between secular Saddam Hussein and religious extremist Osama bin Laden and parlayed his elongating nose into a full assault on Iraq, a country that had done us no harm. Later our CIA people tracked bin Laden to a cave at Bora Bora and asked for help to smoke him out. Bush refused the help and instead began a full assault on Afghanistan to root out the Taliban who had hosted bin Laden and his al Qaeda thugs.

The result of all of that was:

Hundreds of thousands killed or wounded

Millions displaced, people who migrated to other countries that don’t want the refugees

Instability throughout the entire region

The complete waste of trillions of dollars

The loss of the longest war in American history

Thousands of new graves at Arlington National Cemetery

Bush’s ineptitude, his dereliction of duty, created the set up for Trump to ignore the Afghan government in Kabul and negotiate instead with the Taliban in order to withdraw American troops. He set a date certain for all troops to be out and watched as the Taliban failed to meet any of their agreed upon duties. Then Trump lost the 2020 election and dumped this steaming, stinking pile of crap in President Biden’s lap.

Biden postponed the withdrawal for several months and then fulfilled our part of the agreement with the Taliban. And he did a horrible job of it, failing the necessary security for the military exit and, possibly worst, failing to evacuate the Afghans who served us as interpreters, guides and more. We had promised to protect them and their families and then left them to be hunted down and killed by the Taliban.

Every bit of that and more lies at the feet of President George W. Bush for his failures and his murderous dishonesty. Yet somehow we’ve allowed him to avoid accountability. He spends his time in luxury, painting terrible portraits and he doesn’t have the patriotism or backbone to speak out against those who would end our democracy.

That’s what happens when we send an incompetent frat boy to the Oval Office. It works pretty much the same when we send an incompetent, fraudulent circus side show barker.

__________________________________________

There is plenty to remember about 9/11. It’s more than that beautiful blue sky that day and the outrageous killing and the heroism of our first responders and the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of police and firemen and women from around the country and even from foreign nations who showed up using their vacation time and their own money to help.

We are the survivors – even those who weren’t born yet. We are called upon to remember.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Mental Health Wake Up


POST 1099

CAUTION! THIS IS NOT SNARK

.
Ugly Truth

We all know it’s a mental health thing, right? I mean, who but a mentally sick person would kill two kids and two teachers and wound 9 others? Who but a wacko dad would give an assault rifle to his mentally messed up 14-year-old kid?

“You don’t have to have been physically injured in this to be a victim,” District Attorney Brad Smith said outside the Barrow County [Georgia] courthouse. “Everyone in this community is a victim. Every child in that school was a victim.”

Who but someone deranged would blast away 20 first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School? Or get bump stocks for his combat weapons, so he could fire over 1,000 bullets into concert attendees in just 10 minutes? He murdered 59 people and wounded at least 700 more at the Music Festival in Las Vegas.

They would be incoming freshmen right now. Thanks go to JN for this banner.

How crazy would someone have to be to massacre 17 kids at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland), or murder sabbath service attendees at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh or kill grannies shopping at Topps Supermarket in Buffalo or murder the bible study people at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston or the County Environmental Health and Public Health employees in San Bernardino? Something must be mentally wrong with a person who would do such things.

And there’s plenty more insanity.

The political slaves to campaign contributions from the big bucks firearms industry will only admit that our daily slaughters can be blamed on mental health. Surely, they say, there’s no connection to our insane interpretation of the Second Amendment that allows combat weapons to be in the hands of anyone with the strength to lift one. But that excuse is insane. It’s a lie and they know it. We know it.

We are by far the world’s leader in firearms homicides and it isn’t because our kids watch more violent video games or because we are more mentally deranged than people in other countries or because we make and watch more violent movies. There’s just one reason:

We have more firearms per capita than any other nation on Earth – 120 of them per 100 Americans, including babies. That’s double the rate of the next most gun crazy country.
.

It’s murderously easy to get a gun and ammunition. And that’s why we’re Number 1 in murders.

Are we massively mentally deranged, suffering from various violent behavioral anomalies, disorders, psychoses and apathy, too? Of course we are.

We’d have to be mentally ill to continue to elect people who will not do what 80% of us send them to office to do, like pass tough, common sense gun safety legislation. But we keep sending murder weapon enablers to Congress. It’s the very definition of insanity.

Of course we’re crazy, as we gasp at the atrocities and see the faces of the shell shocked survivors who will forever suffer from their trauma. But then we do nothing to stop the next shooting. That’s insane.

We ignore the paralyzing, knee collapsing shock that assaults our first responders who are first to the bloody crime scenes and have to face the horrid truth of the massacres and pick up what is left of those slaughtered. Then we move on and let those heroes fend for themselves. That’s insane.

And we ignore that our flag waving politicians have voted to further de-fund our mental health facilities. That’s insane.

Yeah, we have a mental health problem. It’s us.

Solutions

The Second Amendment is:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The reason for the amendment is spelled out in the first 13 words. It was included in the Constitution to placate southern enslavers who feared a slave uprising. That got Southern states to vote to adopt the Constitution. But the need for protection against a slave uprising no longer exists and it hasn’t since the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865.

Those 13 words call for not just any militia, but a well regulated militia. That means a force of trained troops under the command of a regulating authority. We have that. It’s our National Guard and every state has one. We have no need for vigilante militias or vengeance seeking wackos. So, second Amendment enthusiasts and the gun industry conveniently ignore all 13 words, focusing only on the last 14.

Those 14 words tell us that We The People may keep and bear arms, meaning firearms. In the Founders’ time there were only flintlock pistols and muskets. They didn’t have semi-automatic pistols or AR-15s or bump stocks or large capacity magazines. The right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment applied to muskets.

So, let’s be strict originalists, just as our extremist right wing Supreme Court justices think of themselves. Let’s change our understanding of the Second Amendment to mean exactly what the Founders meant.

American citizens may keep and bear all the musket ball firing flintlock pistols and long guns they want. And those are the only firearms that we originalists should allow.

Muskets have a repeat firing rate of possibly one ball fired every 30 seconds. If the Las Vegas shooter had used a musket instead of his bump stock-modified AR-15 he could have harmed only about 20 people in his 10 minutes of carnage, instead of over 750.

For our gun myopians:

  1. The Second Amendment wasn’t about showing what a tough guy you are, taking your AR-15 to Starbucks or to a bar or to polling places to intimidate voters, so don’t do that insane thing.
  2. Put trigger locks on your firearms and lock them up unloaded so that your aggrieved kid can’t grab them and kill other kids at his school, like that deranged 14-year-old kid at Apalachee High School in Georgia did last week. Same for the shooters at Sandy Hook, Parkland and Uvalde.
  3. Try being a good dad instead of a pretend soldier with a warped notion of patriotism. And get into therapy that focuses on anger management.
Wake Up

This is a wake up call to all of us to elect representatives who will do what We The People want them to do. Doing anything less is insane.

Wake up.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

What a Load of Bovine Fecal Matter!


POST 1097

Cow Pie #1

Republicans tell us they’re for small government, low taxes, no deficits and no debt. Good thing. Otherwise, we’d have a crazy amount of debt, right? Here’s how the Rs helped us with this, looking at just their tax programs.

The unpaid-for George W. Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 collectively added about $5.6 trillion to our national debt. Dubya solemnly promised that the cuts would “pay for themselves” via increased economic activity, plus more opportunity and better wages for working people. None of happened, but rich people did become much more wealthy every year of his administration.

Dubya was the first president to cut taxes while our country was at war, creating massive debt. His vice president, Dick Cheney, proudly declared that budget deficits don’t matter, so they conducted “off-balance sheet” wars. I still don’t know what that is.

Trump continued the lie, promising tax cuts that would bring greater opportunity and higher wages for working people. He structured his tax policy to give 83% of the benefit of the tax cuts to corporations and extremely wealthy people – about $2 trillion – and we got the debt.

Do you understand $1 trillion? You can do the math, of course, but can you really relate to what it actually is? Consider yourself a genius if that number is anything but an abstract notion of math to you.

The tried and true method of explaining large numbers is to imagine dollar bills laid end-to-end. $1 trillion would stretch around the earth at the equator .  .  .

4,000 bills deep!
.

That’s $1 trillion. But these two presidents piled about $7.6 trillion of debt onto the backs of We The People in order to stuff large denomination bills into the pockets of the already rich. That results in a circle of dollar bills around the earth at the equator

30,400 bills deep!
.

That’s what supply side voodoo economics (that was H.W. Bush’s term) got us. It’s wealth transfer from us to the rich. We still have search crews out looking for the supply side benefits for working people that Republican presidents have promised.

Are you getting this?

If elected president again, Trump has promised another massive tax cut for the rich, and why not? His first tax cut worked out so well for himself and his rich pals.

Republicans are not for small government. They are not debt or deficit hawks. They are strictly for enriching the grossly wealthy at the expense of the rest of us, creating an almost feudal system of wealth inequity. Their tax plans are a load of bovine fecal matter.

Just for fun

Our national debt is currently over $35 trillion. Stack those singles around the equator and the pile would be.

140,000 bills deep!

That’s what we owe, in part thanks to Republicans and their phony opposition to debt and deficits.

Cow Pie #2

A couple of weekends ago vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance complained on CNN that Democrats are bullying him by calling him weird. The nerve of them to correctly identify the pretender to the throne as weird! They are such meanies!

But wait. Didn’t Vance call Democrats “miserable, childless cat ladies?” That’s pretty weird. Didn’t he denigrate the 24 year military service of Tim Walz? That’s weird, too. Doesn’t Trump spend a significant part of his day trying to think up a mean, playground brat name for Kamala Harris?

That’s all pretty weird. And since J.D. is now a spokesperson for all the weird Republican stuff, his whining about being called weird is nothing less than hypocrisy.

Tell you what, J.D.: we’ll stop calling you weird when you stop pretending to be a man of the common folk from Appalachia, you faux-billy. We’ll stop calling you weird when you stop demeaning American women who haven’t given birth to a child. We’ll back off that descriptor “weird” when you stop trying to make America into a 13th century patriarchy ruled by a cruel despot.

Because until then, you’re just a weird cow pie.

Cow Pie #3

Read this from Boston College Professor of History Heather Cox Richardson, reporting a Supreme Court decision on the topic of women’s suffrage:

In a unanimous decision in 1875, the justices decided that women were indeed citizens [by virtue of birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th amendment] but that citizenship did not necessarily convey the right to vote.

It would take another 45 years and a Constitutional amendment the Supreme Court couldn’t mess with to fix that.

That crazy pants decision is from the same body that recently decided that presidential immunity from prosecution for criminal acts – felonies – was a good idea. Apparently, they believe we don’t need accountability or equal justice under law.

What kind intelligence abdication, as well as Constitution defying brain pretzeling does it take to come up with such contorted lunacy? Did these guys sprain muscles and dislocate joints getting to their twisted idiocy? Our nation is severely damaged by their blatant faithlessness.

Cow Pie #4

Trump ridiculing disabled reporter using recreational cruelty sanctioned by his Ministry of Cruelty

You know all you need to know about far right cruelty, dispensed daily by Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter and, most cruelly, by Donald Trump, like when he ridiculed a disabled journalist. Last week they ridiculed Tim Walz’s son Gus because of his tears of pride and joy for his father. That 17-year-old with nonverbal learning disorder just isn’t a real man, according to these savagery dispensers.

I learned a new term for what these awful people do. It’s

recreational cruelty.
.

You’ve seen their joy in hurting others just for the fun of it. What is far worse is that they have a huge audience that cheers their bloodthirsty sadism. They are the drivers of the sick, cruel recreational cruelty. If they mob were to stop cheering, the perps would go down like waste in a sewer.

Final Fecal Heap

Trump visited the graves at Arlington National Cemetery of 13 service people (“suckers” and “losers”) who died in a Taliban bombing as we exited that country, done per the agreement Trump made with the Taliban. He was at Arlington to use those people as props to attack Biden and Harris, this in direct violation of the law and the rules of the cemetery. Read Steve Schmidt’s take on Trump’s reprehensible cow pie.

 

 

 

Quick Comments On the CNN Interview – No Cow Pie Award Given

All participants got what they wanted.

Harris and Walz didn’t answer many questions. They did a standard political two-step around the sticky ones and Dana Bash let them get away with that. That got them:

Reduced media and Republican heat for having done no interviews to that point.

They did no harm to their campaign.

Dana Bash and CNN got:

Ratings

Advertising revenue

We The People didn’t get much.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

A New Take On Rights


POST 1096

First, A Few Takes From the DNC Convention

I’ve never seen anything like that. Nobody else has, either. We saw,

An IVF baby, now a young man, clapping and jumping, tears streaming down his face, pointing at the vice presidential nominee, yelling, “That’s my dad! That’s my dad!”

A daughter introducing her dad with such love and tenderness that when the President of the United States came on stage he was dabbing at his tears.

Oprah Winfrey being – what else? – Oprah Winfrey, and exhorting everyone to love and fight for freedom.

Obama brought her husband and each blew the roof off the United Center. When she was about to leave the stage, he held her hand a little longer and invited the crowd to applaud her. He is what a role model should look like. The country craves their clarity, their steadiness and their hope. Gawd, I miss those people.

Ever-present at the Republican convention but notably absent from 4 nights of the Democratic convention were:

cruelty

cynicism

exclusion of any class of Americans

Click me, if you can stomach seeing this

copyright infringements of anyone’s music

Lee Greenwood, his music and any inference of chest thumping superiority

muscle-bound domination of others or demonstrations of primitive masculinity

promises to strip away freedoms and end our democracy

lies about history, rights and freedom

No worries. The Republicans are completely caught up on all those awful things, so they aren’t going away any time soon.

There was great emotion throughout the Democratic Party convention, but it seems to me that the most powerful thread was a sense of the restoration of a long absent hope. It was the next step in the ending of a dark and terrible night, with the sun now shining on the horizon, promising a better tomorrow.

Reagan was just an actor reciting someone else’s words, so I will paraphrase those words now because at last they will be true.

Once again it will be morning in America, with the sun shining on the city on the hill.

The American spirit is coming out of its slumber and awakening once again.

CAUTION!

The right wingnuts have already begun their cruelty, blasting Tim Walz’s son. There will be more cruelty to come from them, more playground brat meanness and outright lies. Expect it to continue at least until November 5 because it’s all they have. Where appropriate, call out the lies and the hatred. And always,

DO NOT LET THE BASTARDS GET YOU DOWN!

Now, About Those Rights

Jon Meacham’s reminder and warning (scroll to “Critical Quote”) that “The forces that broke into the Capitol and threatened the lives of our elected representatives, including the Speaker of the House and the Vice-President of the United States, are still very much abroad in the land,” is a crystal clear statement of the danger we face. Those forces intend to strip our rights from us.

I wrote recently about rights in the context of Gov. Tim Walz’s admonition to Republicans to mind their own damn business. Here’s a bit more about our rights.

  1. When my wife and daughter – any of us, really – consult with our doctors, we have a right to evict all Republican politicians from the exam room, the doctor’s office and the entire building. Permanently.
  2. We are free to travel to any state at any time for any reason without fear of prosecution from deranged Republican bullies aflicted with Severe Self-Righteousness Syndrome. It’s a legal thing, thus sayeth the Constitution.
  3. My children and grandchildren have a right to be taught actual, full-story history that is unpolluted by Republican revisionist propaganda.
  4. All users of schools and libraries have a right to have books on the shelves available to students without interference from hyperbolic, ignorance loving, self-righteous Republican literature vigilantes.
  5. The Constitution says that we have gun rights. It also says that our 3rd graders have a right to not get shot dead in their classrooms by a wacko with “issues” carrying an AR-15.
  6. All Americans have the right to not go bankrupt due to the hideous cost of treatments for major medical events. Healthcare is not just for the rich, thus sayeth the Bernie.
  7. Citizens have the right to see accountability meted out to wrongdoers, regardless of whether the perps are shameful senators, representatives or any others like them who think there should be no accountability, even when their psychopathic bestie loses and breaks the law four different ways to regain power.
  8. We have the right to grab a beer at the Minoqua Brewing Company even though the extremist Republican (is that redundant?) county judge and the owner of the local newspaper don’t like the pub owner’s politics.
  9. We have a right for “No one is above the law” and “Nation of laws, not of men” and “The rule of law” to mean what they say and that nobody gets a free pass to commit crimes. Ever. Including the president. Especially the president.* And “guilty” means “guilty” for anyone who is guilty.
Best Reads, Because You Want To Understand

The Republican driven reinstatement of the Robber Barons that has been going on since we were tricked by Reagan’s woeful economic idiocy is crushing millions of Americans and inviting the purchase of our government by the ultra-wealthy. That’s not an accident. It is the result of decades of hard work by selfish, power and money greedy cannibals and it has prevented you from getting what you want (see the list above). And it has put us face-to-face with this MAGA and Heritage Foundation attack on our democracy. Read Thom Hartmann’s excellent explainer here.

To understand the ossified MAGA fascist brain, read Ed Gurowitz’s explainer, Growth vs. Stagnation.

Some Good News

1. Look at this headline:

Translation: Boeing, in the midst of all of its international and extraterrestrial fumbling, is going to be saved by international embarrassment Elon Musk. Feel free to chuckle or moan over any part of that.

2. Look at this chart from Gallup:

You’ll definitely want to read the source doc. Just click the pic.

Given our national history of discrimination, this is stunningly good news!

Final Takeaways From the Convention (click the pics)

“And we made sure that every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day. So, while other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours.”

– Gov. Tim Walz – Acceptance speech to the DNC, August 20, 2024

  • .

“I want to know, who’s going to tell [Trump] that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?”

– Michelle Obama, Address to the DNC, August 20, 2024

  • .

“America, let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: freedom; opportunity; compassion and dignity; fairness and endless opportunities.

“We are heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world. And on behalf of our children and our grandchildren and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment.

“It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth: The privilege of being an American.”

  • – Vice-President Kamala Harris, Acceptance speech to the DNC, August 22, 2024

Yes, Sarah Palin, it’s that “hopey, changey” thing coming back to our doorstep. And it’s a stake in the ground that no person and no party holds an exclusive on the red, white and blue.

As Steve Schmidt says,

“We won’t get the years back, but we are going to get our country back.”

The real America, this nation founded not on royalty or privilege of the rich or on contortions of the law, but on the idea of democracy, is coming back. Dictator lovers, stand aside.

_______________________________________________

* Especially, because the president can do far more harm to America and Americans than any other individual.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

20%


POST 1095

First, Existential Reality

In a stunning wake-up call to Americans, as reported by Jamie Gangel and Gregory Krieg of CNN, Constitutional scholar and retired U.S. Appellate Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, who has never, ever voted for a Democrat, wrote,

“In the presidential election of 2024 there is only one political party and one candidate for the presidency that can claim the mantle of defender and protector of America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law,” Luttig wrote in a statement [read this] obtained exclusively by CNN. “As a result, I will unhesitatingly vote for the Democratic Party’s candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.”

They go on to report Luttig writing,

“In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own, but I am indifferent in this election as to her policy views on any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be.”

Get your mind right. It’s time for just one thing: to protect and defend. That is what Luttig is telling us.

However heartfelt, until November 5, every single issue, no matter how critically important, is nothing more than wistful self-indulgence. Keep your eye on the prize, because without it, all of the critically important things will never be ours.

Read the linked source articles and watch reporter Gangel’s short video recounting a bit of her conversation with Luttig.

Now, 20%

Anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote,

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Thom Hartmann has quoted Mead often, claiming that it would take roughly 20% of the population to make the changes we need to get back to sanity, changes that have been so vitally needed since Reagan began to strip our country bare. That 20% notion was the logic and the strategy.

Hartmann’s math was about right, but sadly, the destination now is far different from what he imagined. A small minority of Bible thumping, Bible misusing, manipulative White extremists has secured minority control over large swaths of our American government and of our citizens.

That’s right: the restoration of sanity that we hoped for has instead gone 180° wrong. I guess the experts are right, that hope is not a strategy.

Critical Quote

From Vanderbilt University Professor Jon Meacham’s Reflections of History podcast for January 13, 2023:

The vote in the House on a single article of incitement to insurrection was 232 to 197. Trump would be acquitted in the Senate a month later, with 57 senators voting for his guilt and 43 against. The tally failed to reach the Constitutional threshold of two-thirds.

The farther we move in time from the terrible events of January 6, 2021 the harder it can be to recall just how close the United States came to overturning a free and fair election.

I raise this today because, as the 18th and 19th century trope had it, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” It would be a mistake, one that I fear many Republicans are making or are at risk of making, to see the insurrection and its aftermath as exculpatory instances of American resilience.

Yes, the republic is resilient and the republic did survive, but only barely. And the forces that brought us to the brink, the forces that broke into the Capitol and threatened the lives of our elected representatives, including the Speaker of the House and the Vice President of the United States, are still very much abroad in the land. [They are the 20%.]

Representative Liz Cheney put things succinctly 6 days after the insurrection. She said,

“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the president. The president could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There never has been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath of office and to the Constitution. I will vote to impeach the president.”

The question for all of us moving forward is whether a single person or a single party’s dominion is worth undoing the constitutional order that has served us for nearly two and a half centuries. There is nothing inevitable about American democracy. We’re the exception in world history, not the rule, and when the interests of the strong willed are allowed to overcome the rule of law, the end is near.

For now, we stand. But we must stand with our eyes and our hearts open.

There are very dangerous and unpatriotic things going on in an effort to overthrow our government, to end our democracy and our way of life. It has only taken about 20% of our citizenry to put us in such peril. It’s the collection of political bullies and the angry, disaffected citizens who comprise MAGA and who want retribution for whatever disrespect and suffering they believe has befallen them. They want to tear down all that we hold dear. The bullies and fascists are coming to take away the promise of America. They are coming to take away your freedom and every hope you have for your children.

So, put a lantern in the belfry-arch of the Old North Church. Listen and you’ll hear the hooves of Paul Revere’s horse clacking the cobblestone in Concord once again. We’re being warned. We must be eternally vigilant and always ready to fight for our liberty. Today, right now, is the time for that fight. Stand up and stand fast.

“We Must Say No”

From Steve Schmidt’s post on August 15:

Trump has made a hideous deal with a hypocritical wack pack of theocrats and weirdos who want to impose control and take what they want, when they want in the name of God and the state. It’s a terrifying proposition, and every American woman should appreciate the degree to which their freedom is on the line.

When the freedom of one American is threatened, the freedom of all Americans is in danger.

This is why Trump must be defeated.

He tried to take something that wasn’t his to take.

He tried to steal something that wasn’t his, but rather belonged to 330 million Americans.

Trump tried to steal our present by betraying our past and taking our future.

We must say, “NO!”

We need a new 20%. It starts with you and me.

_______________________________________________

* We are at a choice point:

“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” ― John F. Kennedy

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

1 2 3 … 60  Scroll to top