Accountability

All You Need To Know


Post 1,045

It Only Hurts When We Laugh

 

You likely see the humor and perhaps appreciate the creativity in this cartoon, even as this is terribly cringe-worthy. It was sent to me by a dear friend and I’m working hard to forgive him. Here’s the problem.

This cartoon conflates two alt-right lunacies – fertilized egg personhood and extreme gun rights – as if some contest can be won by not being the most awful. But in reality, it doesn’t work that way.

We (both individuals and our country) are besieged everywhere in every way by alt-right extremists doing things like:

book banning/burning – there are over 1,000 books already banned in Florida alone,* many banned by people who don’t even have kids in the schools

patriarchal gender dominance (“Women belong in the home having and raising children” as well as limiting women to “my type” or “not my type”)

justice negation

election fraud through manipulating the system or baselessly denying results

tearing down our democracy

racist degradation (“Where’s my Negro? He’s gonna love these gold sneakers.”)

gun rights valued over human life

You know well that this list could go on for pages and still not cover all the fear- and anger-generated assaults on human rights, human dignity and democracy.

These MAGA anti-America phony patriots are actually after just one thing. They want all the power for themselves so that they can remake our country into something our Founders would say is exactly what they rebelled against.

The MAGAs not only want this country to be Christian nationalism (which is neither Christian nor nationalism), but they want it to be their own notion of Christian. There are two core problems with that: 1. What they want is something Jesus wouldn’t recognize or approve of; 2. That is exactly what the Founders did not want for our country – see the First Amendment.

Back to the cartoon.

It only hurts when we laugh. That’s why we don’t laugh much about our politics.

So, Here’s All You Need To Know

By 2018 Donald Trump had ramped up his vicious attacks on would-be immigrants, first with his rapists, murderers and drug dealers labels, his caravans scare tactic and his replacement idiocy. But nothing compares to his “zero tolerance” reign of terror. That was when he ordered that children be separated from parents at the border. You need to see the reality of this in your mind’s eye.

Picture a young mother with an infant on her hip and a toddler holding her hand on her other side. They wait in line for a long time and are eventually led into a room where they are seated across a table from a Border Patrol agent. She is told that she can’t enter our country legally and will be detained. The next thing that happens is that another Border Patrol agent rips her children from her and takes them away to be detained separately from her, on their own.

And this story gets worse.

The children were put into a cage with many other children and with no adult to care for them. There wasn’t even someone to change soiled diapers. Now for the worst parts.

  1. There was no plan to enable those children to be reunited with their mothers. No documentation. No identifications. Nothing. There were over 5,000 children detained/imprisoned this way and there was no system to ever to set things right. Those children were set adrift and their mothers made bereft and hopeless. Some of those mothers were deported – without their children.
  2. Trump and his brown shirt kidnapping mastermind Stephen Miller declared publicly that this cruelty was the point (and here). It was intentional. They wanted to discourage others from traveling to our border by letting them know in advance that we are and will continue to be barbarically cruel.

That was done in our names. Let’s make that more personal: Your name is attached to each separation. You and I allowed that to happen. Enough of us voted for this megalomaniac, wicked leader and we got what we elected.

The only good news is that immediately upon taking office President Biden stopped the Zero Tolerance policy and began reuniting mothers and babies. There are many sad stories that accompany those reunions, like kids who don’t remember or don’t recognize their parents; plus, there are still about 1,000 children who have not been reunited with their parents because of the daunting task of finding and matching families. Read this from Mother Jones.

You know all about Trump’s racism, detachment from reality, 30,000 lies, intention to be a dictator and use Seal Team 6 to murder his opponents and all the rest. Any one of his sociopathic failings should be enough to tell you that you never want this savage to have any power at all – ever.

There’s more.

It isn’t just his sycophantic followers, like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mike Johnson, Josh Hawley and Ron Johnson who we need to remove from the halls of power. We need to prevent every MAGA follower from having any position of authority because they will slavishly follow the slightest word from their deranged leader. We’re seeing this right now, with Speaker Mike Johnson refusing to bring bills up for a vote for time-critical things, like support for Ukraine to continue its battle for freedom, for humanitarian aid for Gaza and for our border security. This is being done by MAGA extremists at Trump’s direction while he is not even in office.

If we fail to stop the goose stepping MAGA horde, Trump will once again be able to inflict his cruelty on innocents.

There’s so much craziness that’s so very outrageous that it can make your head spin, so let’s make this simple. Always remember Trump and the MAGAs proudly ripping babies from their mother’s arms. That’s why you’re rightly certain that you do not want Trump or any MAGA to have any power anywhere, in any way, at any time. Remember what MAGA always does. That’s what Trump and his goose steppers will do again if we let them.

There is no court of justice or cavalry coming over the hill to save us. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for and we cannot wait any longer. We have to mobilize ourselves to not only vote, but to encourage others to vote and stop the MAGA cruel insanity.

Do it in remembrance of all those mothers and babies.

That’s all you need to know.

.

———————————————————–

* For a clear view of what is in store for this nation if Republicans gain control as they have in Florida, review this PowerPoint presentation focused on book banning in Florida. This fascist mind control is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of us.

Click the link, then click or double-click the listing in your download folder.

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Elections


Post 1,044
Get Over It

Joe Biden is the Democratic Party nominee for President. Regardless of his age, his awkward gait, his historic gaffs, his verbally relocating various world leaders to other countries, his paltry number of press conferences, his refusal to be younger than he is and his inability to make everything in the universe just the way you like it, he is the nominee.

Click me

Sure, a younger, more vigorous candidate would be attractive, other things being equal, which they never are. Yes, we’d be inspired to see this candidate doing multiple campaign stops every day, kissing babies and thrilling us with speeches filled with patriotic fervor. We’d delight hearing Kennedy-like repartee, seeing Obama-like airplane boarding hops and shaming of the people who are blocking what we all know is the right thing to do. You’ll have to settle for just that last one.

Biden is going to continue to be the nominee. He’s going to make more gaffs and be older than you’d like. And he’s going to smile that 1,000 watt smile and wear aviator sunglasses and know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, patriotism and sabotage. He’ll be a lousy candidate but a phenomenal President, doing what the vast majority of Americans want their President to do. He will protect our country, honor the Constitution and steadfastly advance old fashioned stuff like democracy and the rule of law. He’ll continue to return us to government of, by and for the people. You know – like Lincoln said.

Campaigning isn’t the same as actually doing the job. And in the end, the campaigning won’t mean a thing. What will matter is having the right values to be the commander of this ship of state. Only Biden checks that box.

He’s old. Get over it.

Need more help? Take a look at this fantastic list from Daily Kos.

Reality Denial – Reprise
  1. There are claims still being made by congressional Republican election deniers (over 140 of these cowards* are still in office). They are also being made by delusional Trump lawyers and temper tantrum dopes who lost their elections (I’m looking at you, Kari Lake.) Plus there are the frothing Trump supporters and those with a pathological need to be in community with like minded haters (the aggrieved victimhood addicts). Nevertheless, there is a total lack of evidence of voting fraud. Even Rudy Giuliani at last had to admit that. And Trump lost every lawsuit he filed in trying to steal the election for himself – every one for a total lack of evidence. BTW: “Everybody says” and “People are saying” are not evidence. They are not facts. They are circus barker lies.
  2. There is voluminous proof of the opposite, that the 2020 presidential election was free, fair and devoid of all but the most insignificant voting irregularities. This is supported by audits and recounts in many states, counties and cities. To be fair, there were a handful of guys in Ohio and Pennsylvania who tried to vote in the name of their dead mothers. All of their fraudulent votes were cast for Trump. Their votes were discarded and they were prosecuted.
  3. Still, millions of Americans continue to claim that the election was stolen from Trump. They make their claims entirely on the basis of “Yeah, but I want Trump.” They have their fallacious certainties and they voice them with passion, often with barely controlled anger and sometimes with firearms to prove their might and right. But their volume and guns don’t change a thing: they’re still wrong. Pathologically, factually wrong. And they are dedicated to their groundless, anti-American beliefs. Wanna change their minds and votes? Fugeddaboutit.

Of the non-MAGA Republicans (yes, there still are a few), David French writes in The New York Times,

“. . . in any clash between traditional Republicans and MAGA, traditional Republicans typically surrender.”

That’s called cowardice. Or dereliction of duty. Or violation of oath of office. Or all three and perhaps still more dreadful descriptors. They are members of the “I want to keep my job, so I’ll just cave in and shut up” club.

Unqualified

During the first utterly forgettable Republican primary non-debate, several of the candidates railed against abortions done just before a natural birth would occur. I think the walls of my family room are still echoing my involuntary shout, “WHAT?!?“

What evidence is there of such a thing? I found out by reading Neil Steinberg’s 13 takeaways from that shameful Republican demonstration of dishonesty and unintended buffoonery. Here’s his #9 explainer:

Someone should tell these Republicans that the reason a woman needs the right to an abortion up to the time of birth is if the baby she is carrying is dead, or has such massive infirmities that it will die shortly after birth. Nobody has an abortion in the eighth month because they’re afraid their child will grow up to be like Ron DeSantis, although that seems a valid reason.

The point of mentioning this abortion nonsense is to use it as a placeholder for all the lies, distortions, hyperbolic propaganda and delusions that Republicans use to “flood the zone.” They vomit this crap (terminology from the DSM-5 reference book for psychological disorders**) so fast that there is no possibility to counter it in real time.

Biden is beginning to swing a club at Trump now, calling out some of his lies and anti-American – let’s call it crap. That’s a start, but we need more people calling out the liars. We need more people asking publicly whether these people spouting untrue things are liars or whether they’re willfully ignorant or just stupid. We need more people shaming the hypocrites when they do and say shameful things, because these candidates aren’t worthy of holding public office.

Nikki Haley’s speech to concede the New Hampshire primary election (here – start at 1:35) was full of attacks against Biden. Other than accurately stating his age, none of what she said was true. None!

But now she thinks that all she has to do is to spout hyperbolic, antagonistic lies and hold on until they perp walk Trump to the fitting room for an orange jumpsuit. Then she’ll beat Biden to become the next President by default. She might be right. Biden can beat Trump, but many have significant misgivings about whether he can beat Haley. She’s younger, you know. But still unqualified.

And she lies. Call her out.

Voters

Bob Dylan was right and continues to be right: The times they are a-changing. Have a look at this chart from Gallup:

Click me for the full report.

Now, if the moderate women – the black line – (defined as those who aren’t bat shit crazy) were to join the ascendant liberal women – the dotted blue line – they would constitute an enormous force for sanity. All they have to do to save our Republic is to show up and vote.

_______________________________

* Courage:

mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty – Merriam-Webster

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those non-MAGA Republican dopes were suddenly able to find their courage and do what’s right? Have low expectations for this.

** Not actually true. Just a joke, although the DSM-5 is real. Nevertheless, we’re wishing for Republican mental health to re-appear. Once again, have low expectations.

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Joe Biden Has To Be Better Than Super Bowl Commercials


Post 1,042

However odd it might be, we love our Super Bowl commercials as a form of entertainment. Millions tune in just for them, not so much for the football game. And with the cost for just 30 seconds of ad time at $7 million, the ad agencies and the companies they create ads for better make you want to buy their product.

So, here’s a test: Name all the brands or products you remember seeing in the 59 commercials you watched on February 11. I’m guessing you won’t remember many of them, so let’s try this another way.

There were roughly 101 celebrities in the ads. How many can you name and what is their connection to the product they hawked? (Answer: none)

Far more to the point, having seen the Super Bowl commercials and had your arm twisted by celebrities, are you likely to buy any of the advertised products? Betcha you’re not. And there is a point to this that goes well past your product buying habits and Super Bowl commercials.

While we might have been entertained by some of these ads (whether or not we could figure out what they were for), our behavior will be largely unchanged. The reason for that is the same as for poor political messages.

For a message to cause us to take action, it has to move us. We have to feel something that lights our fire or brings tears to our eyes. It doesn’t matter if there are celebrity endorsements unless the message speaks to us deeply.

So, here’s the deal for Joe Biden. He has to stop doing whatever it is he’s doing now and speak to us from his gut to ours. He has to make us feel why we should care.

We know that the other guy is entirely bad for our country and bad for us personally. We get it and it’s okay for Joe to tell us about that. But nobody wants to vote for Joe Biden only because he isn’t as bad as the other guy.

Joe, ya gotta make us want you bad. You have to reach into us and touch our hearts and our guts. Then your gaffs and your verbal and physical stumbles won’t matter to us and we’ll vote for you.

When the message digs into our innards we remember it and we just might be moved to give the product – Joe Biden – another try, as did the best Super Bowl ad ever, the 1984 Macintosh ad.

You clicked through to watch that Macintosh ad, didn’t you? If you hadn’t seen it already you were curious and if you saw it back then, you remember it because it did more than entertain you. it moved you. It shook your world and made you think differently about what is possible. Maybe it changed you. You were hungry to see whatever that Macintosh thing was going to be and how it was going to leave behind the boring stuff the big boys had and how it would make your world not just better, but really cool, too. That feels really good and motivates us to take action.

Click me – and then see point #5 below

Simon Sinek has a wonderful TED talk and a book called Start With Why. He points out that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t tell us that he had a plan. King told us, “I have a dream today” and we were grabbed down deep by that dream. We were captivated and motivated and had tears of passion in our eyes. His message was moving and memorable through the great magic of hope and that’s just what we need right now in order to restore our democracy, revive America and heal our deep, self-inflicted wounds.

Biden has a plan to do that, and nobody wants to hear about it.

In other words, Joe, you have to be what the Superbowl LVIII commercials were not: moving and memorable. Tell us about your dream for us, Joe.

What if the people running Biden’s campaign were that good? What if his messages truly spoke to us and were more powerful than the largely ineffective Super Bowl LVIII commercials? What if Joe Biden told us about his dream?

Super Bowl Ad Clunker

Boyhood pal Frank Levy reacted in a FaceBook post to the Jesus “He gets us” Superbowl ad:

“I always thought the point of Christianity and Christians was that they are supposed to get Jesus, not the other way around.“

He’s right.

Who’s Counting?

$5M + $83.5M + $453.5M .  .  .

and the interest meters keep on running.  Plus. the threat of prison time is looming.

Accountability: It’s a good thing.

Have I ever mentioned that I love it when a bully gets punched in the nose?

Finally

There was a campus shooting resulting in murders last week. I know someone living nearby the scene. That it was nearby makes our ongoing mass murders more than horrible. It makes them very personal.

I wasn’t having an empathy outage during the Kansas City and Atlanta and Fayetteville and Claxton and Baltimore and Bronx and Jackson and Huntington Park and Chicago and Birmingham and Carson and Montgomery and Burnsville and Middleton and Indianapolis mass shootings (those are just since Super Bowl Sunday). It’s just that this campus shooting, being close to home (as in: heart) brings it into stark reality for me. It’s funny how sometimes we don’t fully “get it” until it’s personal.

Well, I don’t need that up close and personal wake up call to feel the pain and awfulness of these murders. Nevertheless, these shootings do carry more voltage for most of us when they are personal. And every one of them is personal to real live people, like you, me, our families, our friends and our neighbors, whether across the street or across the country. Now two more are dead and more families wail and grieve.

See my post about this here.

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

What’s Most Important


Post 1,040

The President of the United States has a lot of responsibilities, including that ” . . . he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed . . .” as required by Article II of the Constitution. The to-do list is long and demanding to the point of being inhuman. There is significant long term impact from nearly everything the President does.

He has to manage:

immigration

the economy

safeguarding our democracy

transportation, like rail and air safety and highways

the health and welfare of the American people

Enough. You get the idea.

But which job of the President is most important? The sine qua non. The one for which all others can be made to take a number and stand in line. As critically important as it is, even in this age of grift, fraud, treason, insurrection and more, it isn’t justice. Even as the cost of groceries is frustratingly high, it isn’t the economy. Our immigration system has been universally pilloried for decades, as Congresses have steadfastly refused to do anything to make it better. That has left us with the chaos we see every day. But even fixing that isn’t the most important duty of the President.

The most critical task of the President of the United States is national security. Protecting us from bad guys who would do us harm must take precedence, because if we are at risk of foreign attack, none of the other issues will matter.

The task is never ending. There is no box to check and then say “next.” On December 8, 1941 it was obvious and easy to identify what must be done. Such clarity is exceedingly rare. National security is most often devilishly complicated.

For example, consider the Ukraine war. In 2022 when Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine in an effort to destroy that country and to make it part of Russia, it wasn’t obvious that we had a dog in that fight. But it quickly became clear that Putin’s genocidal war crimes adventure has consequences that can impact us.

It’s plain to see that this former KGB tough is trying to reconstitute the Soviet Union. That puts our NATO allies at risk and that means that war would be at our doorstep if Putin succeeds in Ukraine and then starts after our NATO friends. He’s already suggested that annexing the Baltic states might be next. Maybe eastern Poland, too.  Article V of the NATO charter would pull us into the conflict and our national security would be immediately compromised. That electric shock up your spine just now is you recognizing how close we may be to World War III. Prof. Heather Cox Richardson has more on this here.

That’s why national security is job one and why it is devilishly complicated. Let’s look at this situation just a bit more.

It’s well established that Putin kills his critics and political opponents, so it’s little surprise that he murdered Alexei Navalny. Putin had him tried and convicted on trumped up charges and sent him to a gulag in the Siberian Arctic and held there in solitary confinement. There was little Navalny could do to Putin from there. so why bother killing him? Here’s my theory.

Putin is an incrementalist. He pushes the envelope, finds that he can get away with something and then pushes some more. Ukraine is a perfect example.

After annexing the eastern section of Ukraine and the Crimea in 2014 he stopped there, waiting for world reaction. All he got were blabbers blabbing. No one came to the rescue of the Ukrainians to push Putin back, so in 2022 he went after the entire country. That’s incrementalism.

He didn’t get away with that recent invasion yet, but he may be in position to do so. Our spineless Republican Trump suck-ups have followed Trump’s demand to prevent Biden from having a win, so they refuse any further funding for Ukraine. These House cowards are leaving the Ukrainian fighters running out of munitions. They just ceded the bombed out city of Avdiivkak to the Russians, giving them a major win and a retreat for the Ukrainian forces.

That kind of battlefield advance made it time for Putin to push the envelope in a different direction, so he had Navalny murdered. Now Navalny is out of his way permanently.

Steve Schmidt wrote of Navalny:

One day, his name will be known in the same breath as Gandhi, Mandela, Churchill, Lafayette and Lincoln around the world. One day, when Russia is free, Alexei Navalny will be exalted. Today, he is simply dead, murdered for demanding that each individual human has a right to live in freedom.

Anne Applebaum wrote in The Atlantic:

Only minutes after his death was announced, I spoke with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader. “We are worried for our people too,” she told me. If Putin can kill Navalny with impunity, then dictators elsewhere might feel empowered to kill other brave people.

More incrementalism.

Now the world is howling, including freedom loving Russians, but my guess is that the howling will slowly quiet and Putin will have gotten away with his crime. The envelope will have been permanently expanded.

That devilishly complicated national security task which comes above and before all others becomes not just more difficult, but more likely murderous when our own team is in constant conflict with itself, undermining our efforts and our options. It used to be that our political differences stopped at the water’s edge. We came together as one to protect and defend our country. Now that imperative has been betrayed, over-laid by petty self-interest and the infestation of cowards. Now the MAGA crowd sides with Putin.

We have elections coming up. Many candidates will thump their chests and proclaim what true Americans they are. They will tell you that their opponent is a weenie, soft on immigration, wanting open borders and willing to let our blood be poisoned by “others.” Those alt-right people are enemies of our country because they are spineless cowards, traitors to our Founders and our Constitution and violators of their oath of office, regardless of the holy verbiage they vomit.

Vote for the other candidates. The ones who have demonstrated that they will go to the Congress or their state capitol to fight for America, to honor their oath of office and to demand justice everywhere. Vote for the candidates who believe in this America, not some dreadful replica of the murderous nation led by Vladimir Putin.

That’s what’s most important for us to do.

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

You’re Not Going To Like This


Post 1,039

There was a glorious victory parade yesterday in Kansas City in celebration of the Chiefs’ Superbowl LVIII win. The crowd was estimated at a million people, twice the population of the city. There were waves and smiles and cheers and then people began to be shot and they dropped to the ground. As of the time of this writing there were at least 22 reported injured and one dead. Three people have been arrested. All this happened in the presence of over 800 law enforcement people.

Another day in America, another mass shooting. It’s 45 days into the year, we’ve already had 49 mass shootings and a total of 4,925 people are dead from gun violence. We commonly know who the bad guys are soon after a mass shooting, but I think we need to expand our definition.

I wrote here (in the “Innocents” section) about non-Hamas Gazans, commonly referred to as innocent Palestinian civilians. Since Hamas took over government in Gaza in 2006 the innocent Palestinians have stood by watching those hundreds of miles of tunnels be excavated and production equipment, computers and war matériel be loaded into those subterranean factories of death. Out of them have come tens of thousands of rockets that have been unleashed on Israeli civilians. While that carnage has been ongoing, what did those innocent Palestinian civilians do to prevent or stop the killing?

If, as it seems obvious, they did nothing, then they simply cannot be called innocent civilians. At very least they are complicit in those murders, those rapes, those atrocities because of their passivity. Now, here comes the part you’re not going to like.

If that logic holds, then we are not innocent in the shooting of those people in Kansas City, nor of the murders at Sandy Hook or Parkland or Uvalde or Tree of Life or anywhere else. We have allowed our system to be compromised, bastardized, politicized, weaponized and monetized so that any fool, any angry dirt bag, any paranoid or any Rambo wannabee can get his hands on combat weapons and ammunition. He can pick any day when the spirit of murder moves him and then blast away until he runs out of ammunition or the police shoot him down.

WE INNOCENT AMERICANS ALLOWED OUR SYSTEM TO DEVOLVE INTO THIS.

I foolishly thought that 20 little first graders and 7 teachers blasted and butchered into bloody puddles on the floor of Sandy Hook Elementary School would be the event that would bring us to our senses. That shows how naive I am, because as our nation wept and we held our little ones closer, the next mass murderer was on his way, locked and loaded and looking for blood.

AND WE DID NOTHING TO PREVENT HIM FROM MURDERING INNOCENTS.

Yesterday Everytown for Gun Safety opened their email this way:

Six years ago today at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 17 students and school staff were shot and killed, and 17 more were wounded.

And yesterday marks one year since the deadly mass shooting at Michigan State University, where three students were shot and killed and five others wounded.

And today in Atlanta, four students were shot and wounded after school in the parking lot.

And just hours ago, another community was terrorized by gun violence: At the Super Bowl Championship parade in Kansas City, where at least one person was killed and many wounded.

Once again, everyday moments and celebrations have turned into tragedy.

And once again, entire communities are picking up the pieces from preventable acts of gun violence.

We sit in stupefied silence as the gun lobby threatens, cajoles and bribes our lawmakers and these politicians cower before them. They tell us about the Constitutional right of red blooded Americans to have guns and no tree hugging liberal weenie is going to take their guns from them. And then we reelect those cowardly lawmakers and afterward wring our hands at each of the next massacres, wondering how that could have happened. “Nothing anyone could have done about that,” they tell us with phony, mopey faces.

And they’re right about that because we let it happen. You and I. We sit motionless and inertia wins. That murderous body in motion stays in motion because it isn’t acted upon by an outside force, which should be us.

If we haven’t done anything to make things better to protect our people, if we haven’t put our right to stay alive over the right of gun ownership, then we are about as innocent as those Palestinian civilians who stand by and let Hamas do its murdering.

We seem to have shamed politicians enough that they have abandoned their despicable thoughts and prayers nonsense, but our efforts to make things better have been pitiful. Life isn’t safer for our little kids at their desks in school, wondering if they’re next, or for high schoolers in the halls between classes or for partiers dancing in Las Vegas, or for worshipers in churches and synagogues or for grannies in supermarkets buying milk and bread.

Go ahead – push back if you like – but I think we’re complicit in these murders because, like the Palestinian civilians, we’ve allowed the murders to happen. Those “preventable acts of gun violence,” as Everytown calls them, weren’t prevented because we didn’t prevent them from happening.

Of course, my accusation does not go to the Moms Demand Action folks, the Every Town for Gun Safety people, the March For Our Lives kids from Parkland and the others who are speaking up and demanding the reform that the rest of us are allowing to not happen. We keep voting for those who will not make the laws we all know we need in order to protect little kids sitting at their desks and parade attendees in Kansas City. That’s on us.

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Potpourri v21.0


Post 1,038

As we sigh romantically and fondly for those we love on this Valentine’s Day, we embrace their hearts. May that be true for you.

Who’s Next?

We continue to lose roughly 200 American sweethearts to Covid every day. Of course, that number lacks the shock value of refrigerator trucks used as emergency morgues during the peak of the pandemic. And, of course, we’ve been distracted by our ongoing outrages, so we’ve moved on from paying attention to the horror of over 1.1 million dead from the disease. But now there is different statistic for the daily 200.

Over 90% of daily Covid deaths are of unvaccinated people.

That’s right: Most vaccinated people are protected from lethal complications of the disease.

Our enthusiastic vaccine conspiracy lovers continue to make fantastical and lethal claims*, like that the vaccines don’t work**, that they’ll infect users with Covid, that the vaccines will make people sterile or that giving them to children will both cause autism and keep the Tooth Fairy away. Let’s just face the fact that some people need to see a boogeyman behind every tree. Meanwhile, convincing granny not to get vaccinated is accessory to suicide.

The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks

Surely, you must have noticed long ago that the loudest Bible thumpers, those who declare ownership of the moral high ground, the stiff necked definers and owners of family values, the wrath-spewing judges of those who succumb to the devil’s call are often the most flagrant violators of their own puritanical absolutism. Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) and her flame, Corey Lewandowski, did and perhaps still do that

Kenzie Bryant lays this out (phrasing interntional) in her Vanity Fair piece,

Governor Kristi Noem, “God-Fearing” Family Woman, and Corey Lewandowski, Trump Creep, Reportedly Had “Yearslong” Affair.
.

She offers this subtitle,

It’s always the ones who insist that marriage is “a special, God-given union between one man and one woman” that forget how to count.
.

And forget they apparently did, that 1 + 1 = 2, not 4. But, oh what fun they’ve had over their years of mutual adultery. She rides her horse to rallies, proclaims her Christian values and then snuggles with Lewandowski, heedless of their hypocrisy.

But there is a price for hypocrisy. Just ask Jim and Tammy Faye. and Newt Gingrich.

The Border

Republicans bray like donkeys that Joe Biden has created open borders and eliminated national security. He’s the guy, they say, who won’t protect this country, refusing to put together laws to stop all those you-know-who-they-are from doing you-know-what to our blood.

But wait just a second. Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution (immediately after the Preamble you had to memorize in high school) is:

“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”

That’s a job description. Congress is charged with and has “All legislative Powers,” meaning only Congress can make laws. All laws. Nobody else can make laws.

Article II of the Constitution outlines the office, duties and responsibilities of the President of the United States. Section 3 of that Article ends this way:

” .  .  .  he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed .  .  .”

Nowhere in Article II is there any suggestion that the President has “legislative Powers.” The President is powerless to create legislation – Laws. His only job regarding Laws is to “faithfully execute” them.

That begs the question of why anyone would berate Joe Biden for not creating the laws for an improved immigration system that everyone agrees we need. It is neither his job nor in his power to do that.

You know: Like it says in the Constitution.

So, as you hear Trump and Republican legislators and news shills on the far right criticize Biden for failing to make laws to improve our border security and our immigration system, you’ll know what that criticism really is.

Hint: It pertains to the end of the digestive system of male bovines.

Gaza

Here’s the headline from The Times of Israel, February 7, 2024:

” .  .  .  IDF uncovers largest Hamas rocket factory to date”
.

Link through, read the short article, look at the photos and read their captions. That’s why Israel cannot stop being aggressive. Note: Hamas is still firing rockets into Israeli civilian populations. Keep that in mind as you read the post.

Here’s another thought on that deeply troubled area.

Innocents

Everybody knows that Palestinian Hamas fighters are the bad guys. They wantonly killed over 1,200 Israelis, they raped females from babies to grandmas and took hostages and set it up for Palestinians to be “collateral damage,” as Israel does what it needs to do to stop and punish the killers. There is just one thing about the innocent Palestinian civilians.

I need someone to tell me all the things those innocents did to stop Hamas from constructing those tunnels, building weapons factories underneath hospitals, mosques, apartments, schools and houses. What did they do to stop the building and firing of rockets designed to kill Israeli civilians? How did the innocents fight the killers to stop them from using Palestinians as human shields, disposable victims? All of that leads to a question of who the real innocents are.

I know it isn’t pretty to spell it out in that way, but I’m not sure of the innocence of the “innocents.”

To The 36%, 20% and 42%

This is for the 36% of women who favor Donald Trump in 2024.

That is a man who wants to reduce women to nothing more than sexual objects, play toys to grab you-know-where. You’re a bauble to him, a pretty thing on his arm or in a department store dressing room. Unless you’re not his “type,” as he claims about E. Jean Carroll, in which case you’re dismissed, discarded. Then you mean nothing, you’re of no value, like his ex-wives.

So, in saying you’ll vote for him, what are you thinking?

Now to Blacks and Hispanics.

Five recent polls show that 20 percent of Black voters and 42 percent of Hispanic voters favor Trump now. To them I say:

He hates you. He disrespects you. He shows his disdain for you in a constant stream of racist statements, so here’s that same question:

In saying you’ll vote for him, what are you thinking?

———————————-

* From STAT, Feb 7, 2024:

“Here’s an update on the vaccine misinformation stories found by NewsGuard, a group of journalists and information specialists who have tracked false narratives spreading online since 2018. Today, in Covid’s fifth year, they report there are more than 300 vaccine-related false narratives circulating on social media and in online search results, emanating from 4,387 news sites and other sources.”

** Let’s consider what “works” means.

The vaccine developers and manufacturers were clear from the start that the vaccines weren’t designed to and do not prevent anyone from catching Covid. They are designed to prevent serious symptoms and consequences, like needing a respirator tube to be shoved down your throat to prevent suffocation from the disease. I.e., they’re only designed to prevent terrible consequences, like dying.

So, when some conspiracy minded person tells you that he knows that the vaccines don’t work because Uncle Fred was vaccinated but he got Covid anyway, gently remind him, “Nuh-uh.”

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA

 


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

The Moronica Awards*


Post 1,036

WARNING! Contains Snark

Sensitive readers are advised to get over it.

The Moronica Awards are given to those who behave with the distinction of being obviously mentally unfit and who offer themselves without hesitation to display their true limitations publicly. The Awards are heavily weighted toward those who have made the greatest public impact to dumb down and compromise our world.

————————————-

First, a context setter from Steve Schmidt in his post of December 13, 2023:

“Where the original America First extremists were Hitler’s useful idiots, these [MAGA] America First-ers are those of Vladimir Putin. Each group disdains the US constitution and is easily manipulated by the siren song of their leader’s madness and lies. Their patriotism is hollow and cancerous. They are the scourge of Americanism because they disdain it and will destabilize the world until it starts burning again. America First was a threat in the 1930s, and it is a threat today.”

Thus, the first 2024 Moronica Award goes to the MAGA America First-ers. These are Trump’s impassioned, fawning followers, eager to seig heil their leader, to renounce their own principles and those of our country, to vent their fears and anger and to be useful idiots for people who hate America (see the Quote of the Week below). While these words might not register within them due to their mental limitations, we offer congratulations to all! You have earned this distinction moronically.

————————————-

The recipients of the second Moronica Award have worked tirelessly to perfect their voluntary ignorance and are most obviously deserving of recognition. The second 2024 Moronica Award goes to Republicans in Congress.

These brain damaged people practice their craft every day, cleverly finding new ways to do and say moronic things. Their major current project is to wail about the immigration situation at our southern border, decry what they call the President’s open borders policy, demand with eyes a-googling that our laws be improved and then declare that they will refuse every solution offered for improvement, even from bi-partisan coalitions. In other words, they demand change and steadfastly refuse all change. It’s moronic.

These Republican morons in Congress are now attempting to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. They have no evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. so they are impeaching him for the complete failure of Congress to enact laws sufficient to the task of protecting our borders. Note that they wrote their articles of impeachment before holding hearings.

These actions and more are truly and deeply moronic, even as they are only the most current demonstrations of Republican moronica.

Congratulations are offered to Congressional Republicans, both for their moronic behavior and for the cowardice of those who know better but refuse to take a stand. Moronically done, one and all!

————————————-

These awards would be incomplete without recognition of all the enablers of the Orange Circus Master. So, the third 2024 Moronica Award goes to Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Mark Meadows, Lindsay Graham, Mitch McConnell, Mike Johnson, Ron Johnson, Gini Thomas. Stephen Miller, Jeffrey Clark and the rest of the spineless suck-ups.

A dishonorable mention goes to all the ancestors of Republican cruelty, like Paul Weyrich, Richard Nixon, Christian provocateurs like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and head Jesus quoting sneak Ralph Reed, plus all the progenitors of modern Republican absolutistism, like Barry Goldwater, George Wallace, Newt Gingrich and the slinkiest of all, Ronald Reagan.

————————————-

The Grand Prize Gold Star 2004 Moronica Award goes to Donald Trump for his outrageous and bafflingly stupid claim of immunity from prosecution for all his criminal behavior while President. On Tuesday a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed Trump a devastating defeat for him in his federal elections interference case. It is a magnificent victory for justice and the rule of law.

The unanimous decision (download the text of the court’s decision here) was quite aggressive in it’s smack down of Trump’s “I’m above the law” claims and we can only hope that his lawyers get an appropriate smack down from the American Bar Association for their absurd and insulting claims. Meanwhile, we can cheer that the big bully got punched in the nose once again.

He will appeal to the Supreme Court, but don’t be surprised if they refuse to review the case. Trump’s argument really is that stupid.

To all Moronica Award recipients, sadly, your 2024 Moronica Awards are well-earned.

————————————-

The Cure for Moronica

There is good news and there is bad news.

Yoda

The bad news is that there is no cure for moronica. It is a persistent, progressive disease for which there is no penicillin. There have been reports of a few cases of spontaneous remission, but these are only anecdotal. No scientific study has been possible because nearly all carriers of this disease cling to their extremist views as though they are lifelines in a violent sea.

While there is no known cure for moronica, there is still good news: We can overpower it.

I recently consulted with Master Yoda about this. He explained the path to me and directed that I share his wisdom with you.

“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, the moronica will be defeated 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.”

The final battle will be on November 5. Meanwhile, there is much preparation for us to do, including donating to those who are on the proper path of truth, justice and the American way, plus supporting and promoting the candidates who are the true defenders of our republic. We are the Army Of Democracy!

May The Vote be with us!

Quote of the Week

From Steve Schmidt’s post of February 5,

Tucker Carlson is an internet-era Father Coughlin, a domestic enemy of the US Constitution, a friend of tyrants, and a disloyal American.

It just tickles my confirmation bias to read that. Yes, really.

________________________________

* From Wikipedia:

Moron is a term once used in psychology and psychiatry to denote mild intellectual disability.[1] The term was closely tied with the American eugenics movement.[2] Once the term became popularized, it fell out of use by the psychological community, as it was used more commonly as an insult than as a psychological term. It is similar to imbecile and idiot.[3]

In using the word “moron” in this post, no disparagement is intended toward most persons suffering this mental limitation. The disparagement is solely and intentionally focused on those persons specifically named herein.

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Our Young, Our Poor and Our Indicted


Post 1,035

Our Young

No Republican candidate for the presidency has captured the majority of voters under the age of 30 for decades. Hmmm . . . now why would that be?

Could it be that they explicitly court and favor old rich guys and old rich guy wannabees? They say that all we have to do is to crush the evil fascist/communist/socialist/whatever, baby blood drinking Democrats. Not too attractive.

For reasons that seem to be opaque to Republicans, young people today, our best educated generations, people who actually have critical thinking skills, don’t buy that crap. Seems like they actually learned something and can smell a scam all the way from DC.

They’ve learned that those very same Republican liars are the ones making their future prospects so very bleak that most young people figure they’re screwed and won’t be able to afford marriage, children, a house, a car – you know, the American Dream. Plus they’ll always be saddled with their forever student loans, like living in a recurring nightmare. And, of course, global warming is coming to kill them.

Here’s the problem: Our disaffected young don’t vote in great numbers. That leaves them and the rest of us at risk. But Trump may be fixing that for us.

That idiot has picked a fight with Taylor Swift. She endorsed Biden in 2020 and is likely to endorse him this year, but it will be different this time. Now young voters will show up to vote in big numbers because they’re angry about his attacks on their favorite entertainer – it’ll be personal this time. They’ll be angry about Republican attacks on abortion rights, too, and the Republican cruelty toward immigrants. So, in the interest of our democracy, let’s hope Trump cranks up his attacks on Swift. That will make him a useful idiot for democracy. Whooda thunk it?

Our Poor

From STAT:

FIRST OPINION
A prescription against poverty

Pediatricians around the U.S. are having to deal with a stubborn condition: poverty. Parents who can’t afford diapers, stable housing, or even clean clothes are increasingly more common, and children’s health simply can’t thrive when the most basic needs are not taken care of, writes Ben Hoffman, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in First Opinion. 

“Although I can’t write my patients prescriptions to address poverty, Congress can take action right now and enact a proposal that can,” he writes, urging representatives to pass a bipartisan proposal that would help the child tax credit reach more families, and could lift as many as 400,000 above the poverty line in a year. Read more.

But there’s help on the way. I’m sure that the Republicans in the Senate and House are eager to help poor kids.

Oh, wait – they’re the ones who let SNAP benefits lapse and let millions of kids go hungry. They’re the ones who fought the American Rescue Plan that cut our poverty rate for children from over 12% down to 5.2%.  Then they let that program lapse and now another 7% of kids are back in poverty. Looks like we’re going to have to do something about children’s health some other way, because Republicans aren’t going to help. Indeed, under Trump and his Black Shirt leader Stephen Miller, the cruelty was and likely still is the point.

Our Indicted

Reading #1 –  Explaining the 14th Amendment Case

Trump’s reply brief in the 14th Amendment case is due tomorrow, Feb. 5. On Thursday the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in that case.

You need some context for what is about to happen, so read the very readable amicus brief (kind of an FYI to the court to assist in deciding a case) submitted by three eminent scholars of history. It’s just 34 pages (double spaced and with huge margins – i.e., it’s short and easy to read). Find it here. Learn some fascinating history so that you will be able to understand the true meaning of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and be ready for the upcoming blockbuster decision.

For a somewhat shorter explanation, read the essay from The Atlantic of August 19, 2023 penned by Prof. Laurence Tribe and Judge Michael Luttig, entitled The Constitution Prohibits Trump From Ever Being President Again. Their clarity and their logic are impeccable. You can also watch an interview with the authors here.

Reading #2 – Explaining what’s at stake

Read Prof. Timothy Snyder’s short essay. Don’t let the words of the title, Constitutional Self-Defense, cause your eyes to un-focus. This is no academic sleep inducer. Because you’re a card carrying American, you need to read this. You’ll see why.

Also strongly recommended is Prof. Snyder’s explainer, Bad Arguments and Good Historians – The History of Section 3 and the Future of the Republic. As he writes, “Anyone who can read the Constitution knows that Donald Trump cannot hold office.”

He lists Trump’s arguments to the Court of why the Amendment doesn’t apply to him, then proceeds to explain why these arguments are a total load of bovine excrement. Read his post here.

Reading #3 – Explaining the inexplicable

Art Friedson is an insightful commenter on our political insanity and he’s allowed me to post some of his writings as guest essays in these offerings. Read his recent post (here) about what’s really going on and why, because, 1. It can happen here, and 2. We can do things to stop that from happening, even as Gov. Greg Abbott is taking secession sounding, anti-American actions and Trump has strong-armed Republicans to refuse to do anything to improve our chaotic and sometimes lethal immigration mess.

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Violence


Post 1,034

Violence – Part 1

From David French’s piece Political Christianity Has Claws:

” .  .  .  when you combine theology and ideology but subtract virtue, you’ve created a formula for viciousness and strife. Raise the stakes to an existential or eternal level, remove the restraints of kindness and self-control, and watch the worst of humanity emerge.”

We are possibly facing a worst-of-humanity episode, a Ruby Ridge style catastrophe, fomented by the ideological, falsely theological, angry ones.

They are creating a trucker convoy to descend on points of entry at our southern border, specifically including Eagle Pass, TX, where there has been so much confrontation already. They are calling themselves the Army of God, which should send chills down your spine, because you know what has happened throughout history when people bathe themselves in the religious justification of representing God. They see themselves as holy and they justify all their violations of law, of religion, of morality and of good sense by declaring that they are doing God’s work. That often becomes lethal.

Here’s how one FB post reported this:

“This is a biblical, monumental moment that’s been put together by God,” one convoy organizer said on a recent planning call. “We are besieged on all sides by dark forces of evil,” said another. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. It is time for the remnant to rise.”

Clearly, these guys aren’t just itching for a fight; they are trying to provoke one with the imagined self-justification of doing so in the name of God. They’re puffed-up truckers, so call it a diesel crusade.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has clashed with the federal government over policing the border. He was shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court but vows to defy its ruling. That has been the spark for far right, hard-headed indignation and likely ignited the, “You can’t tell us what to do – we’ll show you!” trucker convoy. It smacks of the Cliven Bundy confrontation during the Obama administration. And it smacks of a far right test drive and even a flash to ignite a civil war.

President Biden is going to have to deal with these provocateurs. An armed confrontation will have disastrous consequences, yet he can’t let the armed mob rule or wantonly break the law. This is going to be a rule-of-law showdown and a really difficult situation to defuse. It has the potential for national disaster.

Violence – Part 2

The angry guys with guns (you know who they are) regularly eliminate peace makers, people like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby Kennedy, Rabin, Sadat and Gandhi. The thugs consistently live in their rationalized, religious zealotry belief that might-makes-right and that they have the black-and-white, universal ownership of truth and righteousness, like the extremists heading to the border in trucks right now.

Re-read the quote above from David French. With Trump leading his mob of millions and specifically calling for violence, we have let the anger and hatred genie out of the bottle and have truly removed the restraints of kindness and self-control.

On a different scale, read this from Everytown For Gun Safety:

“[the week of January 28] marks a devastating milestone: By early February, more people are killed with guns in the U.S. than during an entire calendar year in ANY OTHER high-income country.”

Please don’t say or tolerate anyone else saying that we are a peaceful country. Violence and murder are woven into the fabric of what it means to be Americans. Reference: our daily mass murders and the Army of God truckers swaggering with their AR-15s – you’ll see that soon.

The behavior we tolerate is the behavior we get (see: Trump, Nixon, Reagan and both Bushes). The longer it takes for us to take a stand, the harder it will be to end the craziness.

Have we become so distracted (see this) or so “nice” that we won’t stand up for ourselves and what we know to be right? There are lawsuits against Trump now, so we’re attempting to enforce accountability, but most Americans are silent and too many think he’s a hapless victim. Only the angry mob is speaking up.

Each of us has full freedom of choice about this. Violence and cruelty in the name of freedom of speech or worse, with the excuse of religion, is never okay. Nevertheless, it happens regularly and it’s happening right now. So, we better exercise our freedom of speech to stand against the haters and the violent ones.*

Reading Assignment

In Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters From an American on January 27 she writes about what became known as the Lyceum Address, delivered in 1838:

“[Abraham Lincoln} called for Americans to exercise ‘general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws.’”

We are in every bit as existential a crisis today as was our nation when Lincoln warned us. I urge you to read her post.

______________________________

* Watch this space next Wednesday, February 7 for The Moronica Awards, which will include directions for what to do about our national craziness.

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Now You Know


Post 1,032

Maybe you remember the early days of the Republican War Against America, like during the reign of Saint Ronny I, when he bamboozled the nation with his “trickle-down” voodoo economics scheme to send your money to the 1%. We used to wonder why otherwise sensible people would vote against their own interests. Since Trump came on the scene they have not only voted against their own interests, but they  appear to have abandoned their claimed bedrock values. They follow like sheep. Or lemmings.

There are many reasons for this, some explored in these posts, like striking out at “The Man,” and fear/hatred of others. A part that had eluded me was why evangelicals, people who see themselves as Christians (as in: following Jesus) would flock to an amoral, non-religious violator of pretty much everything they declare they believe in. A recent Sheila Markin post provides clarity.

“In his recent Apple podcast interview with Shumita Basu [Tim Alberta] talks about the two word phrase you hear over and over again from evangelicals today that helps us to understand their shift to the extreme right.

“The two words are ‘under siege.’

“Evangelicals believe they are under siege and ‘the barbarians are at the gates.’ A wicked, godless, hostile culture connected to secular government is coming to get them. This persecution, which they really believe is coming for them, is predicted to intensify. Evangelical pastors are also getting into the act by pushing this “replacement” idea and proclaiming Trump as their savior. Literally. Evangelicals are told they must vote for Trump because he will save them from the barbarians. As Tim Alberta points out, if you feel your culture and faith are about to be obliterated you are more willing to bend your beliefs to accommodate someone as morally bereft as Trump and think of him as your savior. It is remarkable that Trump, a man without religious faith or ethics, a man who is more of an antichrist than a second coming of Christ, has been anointed as the blessed savior of a culture that Trump could not care less about. Trump is simply using the evangelical base as his get out of jail free pass. He needs them to vote for him so he can avoid going to prison.”

Now you know why evangelical extremists do what they do. I’m referring to extremists like:

self-professed uber-Christians

the “Believe as I believe or there’s no God for you” absolutists*

the self-deluded moral high ground grabbers

the Jesus freaks who don’t follow Jesus

the people who want the Ten Commandments posted and recited in schools and courthouses but who don’t believe Trump has to follow them and maybe they don’t have to follow them either

the Fahrenheit 451 mob

the ones who so quickly believe violent lies and embrace racist taunts

the people who wrongly believe this nation was intended by the Founders to be a Christian nation and that non-believers should be expelled from our shores

the ones who so easily sell out themselves and are eager to sell out you and our country, too, all in the name of some imagined purity

These people actually believe they are “under siege” and so, too, is their White privilege. They are frightened and they let the Great Manipulators turn them to hatred.

That’s why Iowa voted for Trump. That plus only 110,298 out of 2,083,979 registered voters (5.3%) bothered to show up at the caucuses.

The evangelicals and the other deluded ignorants are very much afraid, so they are reliable voters who will check the boxes next to the names of the BS spouters.

Many millions of Americans are clamoring for autocracy. Some think they’re in the special, favored group and will gain vast power for themselves by stealing it from you. They want to control what people can say and even what they are allowed to think.

They want a strongman leading an autocracy to fix all the ills that they imagine rain down on them like the plagues on Egypt. It’s that “under siege” thing. They imagine under the leadership of a strongman they will be protected from those unwashed, unwelcome “others,” the “vermin” who are “poisoning our blood” and that at last life will be made right. There’s just one thing.

Autocracy doesn’t work that way. However they begin, they always become brutal and oppressive and they create massive suffering.

The Axis powers of WW II are too easy to name as examples. How about the ancient Roman autocracy? How’d that work out for early Christians or for the people of any of the conquered lands or for their own Plebeians and slaves?

How’d that work out in the Spanish Inquisition, which tortured and murdered tens of thousands of people? Or Pol Pot’s Cambodia (over 2 million killed) or the Balkan Wars (over 120,000 Albanians killed) or Milosevic’s Czechoslovakia (200,000 dead in Bosnia, 2 million homeless and 800,000 Albanians ethnically cleansed). How’d that work out in Stalin’s Russia (over 6 million murdered – over 28 million by the communists 1917 – 1987) or for the Uyghurs in China right now or in any of the ethnic cleansing atrocities like Darfur (over 400,000 dead).

The hoped-for nirvana via strongman/autocracy never appeared for people on those murderous trips into autocracy. They never will.

It’s often said by Americans needing validation that the United States is exceptional and it surely is in some respects. But there is no reason we should expect autocracy in the U.S. to be better in any way than it has been anywhere else throughout history. Indeed, we are already exceptionally good at anger, violence, discrimination and at fooling ourselves.

Dan Rather wrote a piece about Trump in his post of January 23, 2024 and how he has changed us.

“He has changed what was until recently considered unacceptable behavior for our leaders. He has normalized bigotry, misogyny, racism, ageism, ableism, sexism.”

“He has changed our relationships with facts. Now there are phony “alternative facts.” .  .  .  Rational discourse is a thing of the past, because how can you argue with someone who, in effect, refuses to accept that two plus two makes four. [sic]”

“He has changed how we show our discontent, unleashing long-held furies and granting permission to behave badly.”

Be clear that Trump didn’t do that change thing by himself. Millions of Americans cheered for his 2 + 2 = 5 nonsense because the anger made them feel powerful or they felt like Crusader champions or like delusional super patriots or even holy.

Go. Read Rather’s post. Bring with you the understanding that Trump and his lies, his brutish cruelty and his hatred has given permission for people who consider themselves to be good Christians to unleash their long-held furies and to behave badly. He does it, so they do it, too.

Regardless of rants by evangelicals or anyone else, Trump wasn’t sent by God.** Watch this from The Lincoln Project.

Now you know.

ACTION STEP:

Send this to 5 people so that they know, too.

Our existential charge is to Stop Hateful Idiocy Today. You work out the acronym.

________________________________

* From a quote by C.S. Lewis, declaring that he wasn’t of that crowd.

** Said by a woman being interviewed by a reporter outside a polling place in New Hampshire on primary election day:

“Trump is a divine intervention from God. I really believe that.”

I wonder how she justifies her belief, knowing that Trump thinks he can grab women by their private parts; that he can rape them, then defame them; and that he can do all that to her.

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

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