Alt-Right

What I’m Seeing

Aug 20

POST 1206

Unconservative

The right wing has taken a terrible blow to its head, its heart and its morals and has become not the right wing, but the wrong wing. Perhaps you’ve wondered what actual conservatives have been thinking for the past years as they’ve allow themselves to become compromised and putrefied.

Patty Vasquez has thought about that and she offers a warning to them in her post, Dear Conservatives: Trump Is Betraying Everything You Stand For, although it may already be way too late to reach them. Read it and then pass it along to Uncle Bubba and Aunt Spunky. Maybe they were once conservatives back in the days before Newt Gingrich began the angry, self-focused, extremist pollution of our politics that started us on the downward spiral to today’s not-conservative fascism.

No Comment Needed

Click me for the story – but you already know it.

Clear Message

Trump took all those trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane, the Nubile Express, to frolic on Sex Traffic Island. Is there actually anyone who believes that Trump was there just to play poker or to splat his 300 pound overload onto a beach chair? O’ the horror of the nasty visual of him in swimming trunks and a much too long red necktie!

He recently had Air Force 1 fly him to Scotland at a cost of millions of dollars of your tax payer money and offered only some phony, manufactured excuses for the trip. The real reasons for the trip were to promote his golf courses there – on our dime – and also to distract you from the Epstein story, the scum bag tattle tale of sin and lawbreaking that will not go away. And no, you’re not surprised.

The Scots have an opinion on all this and especially on Trump’s obvious criminality. They’ve offered a message for him, presented by some Scots who have a fine clarity about right and wrong and a skill for expressing their views ever-so-elegantly. Many thanks to pal Kirk Landers for sending the link.

NOTE: This video contains strong language guaranteed to be offensive to some. If you are one of the “some” people, please use good judgment.

.

Everyone else, yer gonna love this.

______________________________________________

Deconstructing Trump Corner will return on Sunday.

Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.
Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

Thanks!

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

JA

Can We Drop The Pretenses and Denial Now?

Aug 17

POST 1205

It’s About One Thing and One Thing Only

The Trump immigration cruelty, breaking of laws and the rest have nothing to do with immigration. They have nothing to do with the economy. They are unrelated to international trade or safe borders, disease prevention, ending war or the Nobel Peace Prize.

Click me for the story.

The cruelty is about getting rid of Brown and Black people, which is why ICE locks up even legal Brown American citizens and doesn’t discriminate between immigrants with or without a criminal record. In fact, ICE doesn’t even check for criminal records. They just kidnap people, zip-tie them and send them to a hell hole prison. Make America White Again!

The cruelty is about establishing public fear of Trump so that he has all the power. Even big law firms, major universities and financial institutions are chickening out and bending the knee for what they seem to believe is their short term advantage or perhaps protection from Trump’s cruelty.

That is compounded by Trump’s incremental militarization of our cities – notably only where there are Black mayors. Trump threatens several more cities with the deployment of our military and none of them is near the top of the list of cities with the most crime. He threatened New York, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, all Democratic strongholds with large African-American populations. They could be next and won’t that be a fine distraction from the withheld Epstein files?

Militarization is what dictators do to suppress and control the population.

During his first administration Trump ordered Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, to have his troops “shoot [protesters] in the legs.” Milley refused, but now that Trump has fired the generals most likely to refuse his illegal orders and has replaced them with Trump sycophants, what do you suppose will happen when there are peaceful protests that Trump doesn’t like and they are surrounded by our troops carrying weapons of war?

That’s essentially what happened at Kent State in 1970 when Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on unarmed peaceful protesters (full disclosure: they were saying mean things about the administration). Guardsmen killed four and injured nine kids. Who was the idiot who issued live ammunition?

Surely, Trump figures that fear will keep we rubes in line.

Again, this is what dictators do to suppress and control the population.

All of that is diabolically supported by a cowardly Republican controlled Congress and the Supreme Court that was hand picked by Trump. Whatever their beliefs, they are all receiving death threats from Trump thugs, making it most unlikely that they will stand up to him.

Every Trump outrage is about one thing and one thing only: Making Trump a king. Der Führer.

Can we drop the pretenses and denial now?

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Address of August 14*

In urging you to read her whole post, here’s an excerpt from Prof. Heather Cox Richardson’s report of August 14.

Noting that “this time requires us to act anew, not just think anew,” Newsom nodded to President Abraham Lincoln’s famous call from 1862: “The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”

The Staples Singers

Trump bungled every aspect, every detail of his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage on Friday. The bungling began even before the two met. Trump landed first and Putin showed up late, causing Trump to have to wait for him for nearly an hour, making Trump look like a chump.

Then Trump treated Putin to red carpet treatment and gave him a ride in the presidential “Beast.” At the end they parted, saying false, hollow niceties about one another and Mr. Art of the Deal flew away with no deal and with no pathway to a deal. Trump just plain got played by Putin – again. That affects all of us and, oddly, connects to The Staples Singers.

I listened to their wonderful hit Respect Yourself the other day and heard their message a bit differently than I did in 1972 when it topped the charts. Back then it was a message to our angry and disrespectful and the violence prone people, suffering in the midst of great and largely justified public rage in our country. Today I heard it as a message to all of us to respect ourselves and one another by proudly standing up for what we know is right.

We know the Alaska meeting was wrong for America and the world. We know this Epstein stuff stinks 16 different ways, that disappearing people is wrong and awful and unlawful, that the assaults on our healthcare, the education of our children and the security of old people who paid into a system that now owes them are all wrong. And we know that abandoning Ukraine, giving it lies instead of munitions and turning our back on those embattled people is wrong on so many levels.

So, have a listen to Respect Yourself for a message – see if it speaks to you, giving you guidance for your actions today. And do, indeed, respect yourself.

**The Deconstructing Trump Corner**

.

Truth is on
the march
and nothing
can stop it
Émile Zola, 1898
We must always take sides.
Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Elie Wiesel, in Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Dec. 10, 1986
_______________________________________________
* Watch the entire session. This is what you’ve longed to hear. It will fill your heart and stiffen your spine with resolve.
Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.
Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

Thanks!

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

JA

Pharaohs

Aug 10

POST 1203

Who’s the Pharaoh?

WW II resulted in 6 million Jews being murdered. They made up over 36% of all Jews worldwide. But all the Jews in the world accounted for just 0.7% of world population. One result of that was world sympathy for this tiny minority that was the wretched victim of the hatred and brutality of the Holocaust. That sympathy was part of the impetus for the United Nations vote to recognize the new state of Israel.

Israel continued to enjoy world sympathy and support, partly because of recurrent attacks on Israel by Arab and Muslim states in the area. We all love an underdog. Sometimes.

That world support ratcheted up on October 7, 2023 with the horrific attacks by Hamas. But then Israel mounted its offense and now has backed itself into a corner. Its hard line position of ongoing military attacks on the rubble that is Gaza and, far worse, the Israeli blockade of food and medical supplies – humanitarian aid – intended for Palestinians has raised the anger of millions. Due to that cruelty Israel is fast losing world support and making itself a pariah state.

The Children of Israel (Hebrews, not yet Jews) entered Egypt roughly 3,800 years ago. They wound up slaves to the Pharaoh and at last escaped in what was named the Exodus about 430 years later. Passover is a story of redemption from slavery and the universal wish for freedom. Pharaoh kept freedom from the Children of Israel.

But now Israel is the pharaoh, oppressing Palestinians.

.

Today’s Other Pharaoh, If We Let Him

Chicago radio personality Patty Vasquez (WCPT, 820-AM, Chicago) has managed to connect the dots into a clarity that you’ve felt in your bones but may have been unable to articulate. From her post Everything is For Sale: Trump Turned Democracy into a Transaction:

[Trump is b]uying more political power. Buying favorable testimony. Everything is negotiable when you’re running the country like your personal criminal enterprise.

The Texas gerrymander isn’t about fair representation, it’s about purchasing a House majority. The Maxwell interviews aren’t about justice for victims, they’re about shopping for dirt on [Trump’s] enemies. Every institution, every norm, every democratic tradition is just another item in Trump’s democracy yard sale.

We’re not sliding toward authoritarianism anymore. We’re there. And we better start fighting our way out.

Because now Trump is an American pharaoh.

.

Recall Jimmy Buffett’s call to us: “There’s still so much to be done.” Find a way to make good trouble. Find a way to disobey.

We’ll find nobody in the Trump administration or in any suck up red state who will change their evil ways because we asked nicely, so we have to resort to something with muscle.

I’m calling for a nationwide strike – a work stoppage

.

– by all immigrant workers. It’s detailed here and it’s no joke.

Rosa Parks refused to obey the order to move to the back of the bus and she became an avatar for courage to fight what was wrong. The Montgomery, AL city officials refused to abandon their racist, segregationist ways. Nothing could sway them until Montgomery’s Black people refused to ride the city buses. They boycotted for over a year and, faced with bankruptcy of the system, the city at last succumbed to the insistent, non-violent pressure of the brave people who, instead of riding the bus, walked miles to create change.

We’re in a similar position now. Trump will never give in to demands for democracy because of our demonstrations alone. Far more powerful will be our refusing to work.

– Let the produce rot in the fields

– Let building construction grind to a halt

– Let restaurants and hotels be unable to operate, including Mar-a-Lago

– Let rich people’s landscaping become overgrown and go to seed

It may be insufficient for only immigrants to strike and it may be grossly unfair, too. So, let’s expand this strike to all democracy loving Americans. Our rights and power to withhold ourselves is something no ICE goons can stop and no Presidential temper tantrum or boundless greed can control.

Let my people go!

Who The Other Side Is

Mehdi Hassan is an impossibly intelligent fellow. He recently had a whirlwind debate with 20 people, one at a time. They were young Trump voters who proclaimed world views vastly different from Hassan’s and likely from yours. Their self-proclaimed identities went all the way from racists and White supremacists to self-proclaimed fascists and Nazis. You know: D*cks.

The back-and-forth is fascinating. As interesting as the debate are the reactions of the group when they are watching others engaging with Hassan. You may be surprised and likely appalled at what they applaud. Watch the exchange here.

Medical News

Scientists at the Center on Brain Dysfunction have isolated a new and powerful bacterium. This has been a decades long effort to identify the cause of self-destructive and often cruel behavior that eventually leads to pronounced dementia. The bacterium has been identified as:

Stupidococcus Stupidoniae

.

Stupidococcus readily infects others, especially in closed environments, like in Congressional caucus rooms and in cloak rooms. In early stages a patient with stupidococcus may sound lucid and even confident in making pronouncements, but as the infection progresses logical functions deteriorate markedly.

Speech patterns become increasingly unintelligible, with words garbled and flamboyant phrases repeated many times in a single, overly long sentence. Unsupported superlative claims that adjoin most statements are like nothing anyone has ever seen. That is especially pernicious, as a person suffering from stupidococcus may appear to be confident but actually his internal light is, at best, only flickering. Practitioners should monitor for signs of paranoia, often manifest by violence, like subjects throwing ketchup on the wall.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced last week that he is terminating grants for further research of this disease so that people don’t come to expect anything from government. His funding cuts for mRNA research should close the door on progress toward disease prevention and reduce what he called “socialist aid” to millions who suffer from this now incurable disease and others. Kennedy declared that his actions will combat waste, fraud and abuse and that he expects the number of new cases of autism to decline, offering no plausible explanation for that.

Upon hearing the news of Kennedy’s financial aid cuts to medical research, former head of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele reminded Americans that, “You can’t cure stupid,” adding, “and now we never will.”

**The Deconstructing Trump Corner**

.

Office tends to confer a dreadful plausibility
on even the most negligible of those who hold it.
Mark Lawson 1992
Among all the diseases of the mind
there is not one more epidemical
or more pernicious than the love of flattery.
Richard Steele, 1711
Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.
Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

Thanks!

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

JA

On Not Being a D*ck – v3.0

Aug 06

POST 1202

Ed. note: This is the last post “On Not Being a D*ck,” as you know full well who is and who isn’t.

Emergency

Decide for yourself if you should call the paramedics after watching this video.

The Trumpstein Catastrophe

After Trump whined stupidly at the end of a press briefing about his spa workers who were “stolen” by Epstein, as though they were his property stolen by a thief in the night, a reporter shouted to Trump:

What did you think Epstein was stealing those women for?!?

.

But Trump didn’t answer that key question.

And they weren’t women. They were just kids. Children. Underage girls. Not women. And they weren’t his property.

He’s a d*ck – only in the sense of cruelty. He’s always been a d*ck.

Listen to Keith Olbermann’s comments about this here.

And you need to see Ben Meiselas’ review last week.

The Real Reason

.Here’s a headline from the August 3 Gannett News-Press:.

- Is there justice, along with snakes and gators, in the Everglades | Opinion
- DeSantis and Trump are turning our country into a police state in order to round up those coming to America
- fleeing extreme poverty, violence and brutal dictatorships
- Howard L. Simon

Just two more points. DeSantis and Trump are turning our country into a police state:

In order to cement a dictatorship in America so that they and their fellow fascists have all the power
To rid America of all people of color and, eventually, all non-Protestants. Whatever color you are, whatever religion you align with, if you aren’t White and Protestant, sooner of later they’ll be coming for you.

If I’m wrong, no matter. These guys and their fellow fascist wannabees are still d*cks.

If they don’t want to be d*cks, they should try aggressively promoting democracy and following the law.

About the Dems
I’ve been asking about who will lead us on a path back to something that looks like America and I still have no answer, but I do have more questions.
Justice Samuel Alito

Justice Clarence Thomas

At 75 and 77 years old, unconstitutional Supreme Court d*cks Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas are the oldest on the Court. Their departure from the Court is quite possible, even likely, while Trump is president. Replacements will have to pass muster in the Senate and if that happens while the Senate is majority Republican, very bad things will happen.
What will the Dems do when Trump nominates a younger far right supplicant to himself to sit on the Court and do his bidding for decades? Stopping that nail from being driven home into democracy’s coffin will be next to impossible. That should keep you from sleeping well and, perhaps, motivate you to get out on the street to canvass for your Democratic Senate candidate.
Because the 2026 election could produce a Democratic majority in the Senate starting on January 3, 2027. Then the leadership question morphs a bit.
Mitch McConnell made “the most consequential decision I’ve made in my entire public career” by stonewalling Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Court for over 10 months. McConnell was so very proud of his thumb in the eye of the Constitution. That gave us Neil Gorsuch on the Court instead of Garland. Is there a Democratic senator with the courage to do a McConnell stonewall to a Trump nominee to the Court if given the chance?
The radical Rs are finding new, slimy ways to rig the system, including wiping likely D voters from voting roles, killing mail in ballots and eliminating ballot drop boxes, The new red state scum bag move is to redistrict by slicing and dicing current districts to produce extra districts that will be safe Republican House seats. Texas alone intends to create 5 of therm and other red states are looking to do the same thing.
Gov. Gavin Newsome is promising to fight back by doing the same kind of redistricting in blue California and governors in Illinois, New York and other blue states are looking to do the same. We either fight this Republican slime or we will be slimed and there will be no Ghostbusters to come and save us.
Other than Newsome, what Dem has the chutzpah to do what must be done, including stonewall Trump’s nominations?
That is the nitty-gritty of my “Who will lead?” question. We need people ready to claw and scratch, bite and kick – fight fire with fire, slime with slime – to stop the destruction of all we hold dear. Otherwise, we’ll be the smug virtuous ones lying prone with a fascist’s boot on our necks.
Forget about “When they go low, we go high.” I’m as much a fan of Michelle Obama as anyone, but her very nice declaration is a paving stone on the path to fascism.
So, Democrats: put on your big boy and big girl pants and don’t be such gutless wimps.

The Democrats are more interested in grasping for social virtue than improving the material and emotional well-being of Americans. When your representatives won’t represent, you become your own delegation.

– Prof. Scott Galloway, June 20, 2025

Jimmy Buffett And You

Perhaps you remember the Jimmy Buffett song Last Mango in Paris (full lyrics here). In the song, an old man tells his story to Jimmy. Here’s the chorus, now personalized for you:

.

I ate the last mango in ParisTook the last plane out of SaigonTook the first fast boat to ChinaAnd ____________________ there’s still so much to be done.

. Write your name here

.

Our work wasn’t finished with the civil rights wins in the 60s or the Viet Nam confrontations in the 70s. The haters, the usurpers and thieves never left. Now they’re ethnically cleansing our country of Black and Brown people and either renditioning them to foreign torture gulags or stuffing them into American Koncentration Kamps. They’re cramming our courts, universities and government agencies, even our entire Department of Justice with authoritarian supplicants.

.

As brutal as were those righteous battles of the 60s and 70s; as painful and as belief destroying as were the murders of Kennedy, King and the Kent State 4; as barbaric as was the 1968 Chicago Police riot; as abhorrent as the Reagan years of “trickle down” lies and the illegal Iran-Contra scheme; as democracy destroying and sanity stupefying as was Trump’s first term; we are now at a far more dangerous precipice. We are threatened with losing everything.

.

We see it, so we know. And we cannot un-know.

As much as we’ve battled, there’s still so much to be done.

**The Deconstructing Trump Corner**

.

Office tends to confer a dreadful plausibility
on even the most negligible of those who hold it.
Mark Lawson 1992
Among all the diseases of the mind
there is not one more epidemical
or more pernicious than the love of flattery.
Richard Steele, 1711
Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.
Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

Thanks!

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

JA

* I propose that we fight this Republican democracy killing with something more muscular. We should leave the safe red districts as they are and then create a new blue district for every Democratic voter. Illinois would produce over 3 million new blue seats in the House and New York would supply over 4.6 million new blue seats. Continuing this nationwide will produce over 75 million new Democratic Representatives in the House. Who cares what Texas does?

On Not Being a D*ck – v2.0

Aug 03

POST 1201

The Trumpstein Catastrophe

Perjurer, sex offender, human trafficker and pedophile Ghisiaine Maxwell has been transferred from the Tallahassee women’s prison to Club Fed, a minimum security day camp prison in Texas. There are tennis courts, a putting green and lots of fun things to do there. We have just a few questions, starting with these.

The prison transfer happened following a visit to Maxwell last week by Trump’s former lawyer, Todd Blanche. He is no longer busy trying to protect Trump from 34 felony counts (he failed) and is now Deputy Attorney General to Attorney General Pam “The files and list were on my desk for review but, golly, I don’t know where they are now” Bondi. How did Maxwell earn this vacation prison privilege? You don’t suppose that she promised to keep silent about Trump’s participation in the goodies that she and Epstein offered Trump, do you? Trump did make it clear that he likes girls “on the young side.” You don’t think Blanche was there to offer her a deal, do you? You don’t suppose she agreed to say nothing about whatever Trump did to those girl children in exchange for being transferred to prison day camp, do you?
You don’t suppose that Todd Blanche offered that for her silence that soon Maxwell will be pardoned or her sentence commuted, do you?
If your middle school daughter (referred to as a “nubile” by Maxwell) were one of the sex trafficked girls, how would you feel about sexual abuser Maxwell’s good fortune? How would your sex trafficked daughter feel about that?

What crimes are worse than arranging for the raping of a 13 year old girl multiple times a day? Maxwell made that system work on over 200 young girls and now she’s getting this special treatment. Trump’s ass saving fix is in and it may save Maxwell’s ass, too. This whole thing stinks so bad.

Everyone in that monster convict cabal is a d*ck.

Your blood should be boiling over this, especially if you were one of those girls. Or you’re a betrayed MAGA. Or if you were once a young girl. Or if you have a daughter. Or if you know a daughter. Or if you have a sister. Or if you had a girlfriend when you both were in high school. Or if you have even an inkling of the difference between right and wrong.

D*cks.

Health – Or Not

This piece of health news comes from STAT.

“Immunized kids are healthier kids who can focus on growing, playing, and learning,” Kristina Bryant, a member of the AAP’s infectious diseases committee, said in a statement. But flu vaccination rates among both children and adults have dropped in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wait just a second. Vaccinations have dropped? That same STAT report opens this way:

The flu death toll among kids during the 2024-2025 season has reached an astonishing 266, the worst single season total — except during the 2009 flu pandemic — in the 21 years that the CDC has recorded pediatric flu deaths. Five new deaths were added on Friday, and it’s likely that number could rise further before the 2024-2025 season officially closes at the end of September.

So, wait just another second. We had the COVID-19 pandemic that killed over 1.1 million Americans and millions more have been debilitated. The pandemic was finally stopped only after enough of us had been vaccinated.

Measles killed many millions over the centuries. It is one of the most infectious of viral diseases. It was at last stopped through universal vaccination. Until now.
We had the Spanish Flu in 1918 that killed millions. Now we have a vaccine that prevents that flu and most others, too. That’s a huge success.
Nevertheless, some parents are refusing to vaccinate their kids against flu, measles, COVID and more and the body count continues to rise.
Isn’t there a lesson that even stubborn people can find in all that success in disease prevention? And yet vaccinations against the flu have dropped and our anti-vaxxers are allowing their children to go unvaccinated against measles, allowing the disease to spread once again and kill.
This medical craziness is promoted by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert “Brain Worm” Kennedy. Susceptible to his medical and scientific ignorance are fiercely independent “You can’t tell me what to do” Americans. They puff up on their proud distrust of government, science and the reality of medical experience, along with their mighty resolve to preserve their right to self-destruct.
Their refusal of vaccinations against these awful diseases and the consequential peril in which they put the rest of us, as they breathe, cough and sneeze nearby us is, I believe, a demonstration of their contempt for human decency. They may be the very definition of d*cks.
Safety Advisory: Your kids will be back in school in a couple of weeks, mixing with unvaccinated children of the indecent ones.

Important Fact: Those 1.1 million people who succumbed to COVID were real, just like you, and they suffered and now they are dead. Don’t let the impersonal nature of statistics separate you from the heartbreaking reality of the personal suffering and loss of every one of those people and the impact of their deaths on the people who loved them. The same goes for unvaccinated children dying of flu or measles.

My Toilet Seat
The other day my wife showed me that one of our toilet seats has a crack that’s widening and needs to be replaced before it splits. I was in a silly mood and responded jokingly, “If the toilet seat has a crack, whatever can we count on?” Obviously, not great humor; it’s just silliness.
But if Democrats have a crack, and it sure looks like a tectonic fissure that’s propagating, who are we to believe in?
We need strong, new Democratic leadership.
And I need a new toilet seat. I’ll stop by Home Depot today and hope that faceless ICE d*cks without a warrant won’t be there to lawlessly arrest me and send me to be tortured in a foreign gulag.
That worry isn’t just silliness.

**The Deconstructing Trump Corner**

[He] was his own world,
and nothing that concerned anyone else
was important to him . . .
and nothing that touched him unimportant.
Kathleen Thompson Norris, 1933
Look at [his] comments . . .
They prove that the senator speaks his mind,
and that he is not working with much when he does so.
Anna Quindlen, 1993
_________________________________________________
* The Florida Department of Corrections offers this bold declaration:

AS FLORIDA’S LARGEST STATE AGENCY, AND THE THIRD LARGEST STATE PRISON SYSTEM IN THE COUNTRY, FDC EMPLOYS NEARLY 24,000 MEMBERS, INCARCERATES OVER 89,000 INMATES AND SUPERVISES MORE THAN 145,000 OFFENDERS IN THE COMMUNITY.

Yes, they put it in all caps. This is what Ghislaine Maxwell just escaped through no merit of her own. What does it say that this is “Florida’s largest state agency?” Floridians must be very proud.

Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.

Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

Thanks!

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

JA

On Not Being a D*ck – v1.0

Jul 30

POST 1200

The Power of Dance

Thom Hartmann’s post of July 26 contains a remarkable list of right wing lies that’s worthy of review. Most troubling is that CBS has tacitly agreed to promote them. Here’s an excerpt:

Reality has a well-known leftwing bias because much of the rightwing ideology out there is based, simply, in lies [like these].

Trickle-down economics benefits working class people. Immigrants are more likely to be criminals. Women love getting abortions, particularly late term. Unions steal from their workers to make “union bosses” rich. Global warming is a hoax. The fossil fuel and chemical industry aren’t poisoning us and our environment. Green energy is more expensive than gas, oil, or coal. People on Medicaid and food stamps are lazy. Unemployment insurance discourages work. Raising the minimum wage increases unemployment. People only value a college education if they go into debt to get it. Healthcare for all Americans is too complicated for any government to create and administer. America was created as a Christian nation.

Every single one of those statements is a demonstrable lie, but when they pop up on CBS News going forward don’t expect any push-back. As part of Skydance’s deal with Trump and the FCC, they not only gave the president a personal $16 million bribe (and apparently also offered a similar amount in free advertising) but also agreed to install in the CBS operations a “monitor” to catch and kill any semblance of “leftwing bias.” This is the sort of thing that routinely happens when nations lose their democracy, and is a flashing red sign that we’re in the actual process of losing ours.

That’s CBS’ cowardly caving to Trump that will produce a big payday for Shari Redstone, holder of the controlling stake in Paramount Global, and for her fellow shareholders, now that Trump is allowing the merger of Paramount with Skydance to happen. That CBS has caved to Trump and is installing a Big Brother monitor and is, of course, allowing themselves to be extorted of $16 million for Trump’s non-existent, no plans presidential library, is the quid for the merger quo.

Raise your hand if you think that the $16 million will go directly into Trump’s pocket. Raise your other hand if you can see that a “monitor” is one more shovel of dirt into the grave of our free press. Perhaps Skydance will rename 60 Minutes “Pravda West” or “Trump’s Sputnik.” See this video from Rick Wilson.

Greed is good, it seems. At least it is for the super rich. Not so much for We The People, as universities, law firms and more go all jellyfish to the tyrant for their short term gain and we get cheated out of full education, legal representation and democracy. D*cks.

Every Sunday Dan Rather takes a break from the hard news and opinion focus of his Steady posts and gives us A Reason to Smile. Likely, you’ve noticed that we need one. Last Sunday he linked his readers to a music video of country singer Lee Ann Womack and her huge hit, I Hope You Dance. That got me to thinking.

Hartmann’s list of the right wing’s lies is promoted by a particular swath of American officials. They’re called Republicans. These are people, I think, who heavily starch everything, especially their underwear. That’s most uncomfortable and makes people cranky. My bet is that almost none of these liars danced when they were young and that none of them dances now. That appears to have led to lives of hypocrisy and cruelty.

There is great good power in dancing, including better health, a positive attitude and inoculation against becoming a d*ck. I wish these officials would listen to the music and try it. We might get good government and maybe even keep our democracy. Plus we’ll have fewer d*cks.*

What About MAGA?

This is a serious look at why people identify as MAGA; the draw, the allure and why they stay.

From Robert Reich’s post of July 27:

Rich Logis was deep in it. He became a Trump supporter in 2015, built a MAGA following, launched a podcast, and wrote op-eds in support of the movement. For years, he was a true believer. But like many who have left cult-like environments, it wasn’t one single event that changed him – it was a slow, painful unraveling of truth.

The botched COVID response. The deadly chaos of January 6. The growing realization that Donald Trump was not who he claimed to be. Rich describes it as a wrenching internal reckoning – a psychological and emotional break from a worldview he once fully embraced.

As Rich said when he endorsed Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention:

“I finally stepped outside the MAGA echo chamber. I stopped listening to what Trump said and I looked around with my own eyes. And I realized he had been lying about pretty much everything. Lying is Trump’s toxic superpower. He’s ripped apart families, communities, our country.”

But leaving MAGA wasn’t just about walking away from an ideology. It meant walking away from a community. From belonging. That’s one reason so many stay – because MAGA isn’t just political, it’s personal. It offers identity, connection, and meaning. Leaving it means reshaping how you see yourself and how you relate to the world. And that requires support. [all emphasis original]

Does that blinding flash of the obvious stun you? It did me. While I was busy wondering about the foolishness of MAGAs campaigning, rallying and voting against their own interests, I was missing what was most important to them. Some of my social musings touched on the human behavior motivations, but I missed many of them.

Understand the key point:

“MAGA isn’t just political, it’s personal. It offers identity, connection, and meaning. Leaving it means reshaping how you see yourself and how you relate to the world.**

That makes it hard to stop being a d*ck.

Many thanks to Rich Logis for opening my eyes.

Watch for On Not Being a D*ck – v2.0 on Sunday, August 3.

The Deconstructing Trump* Corner**

.

It is easy to become the dupe of a deferred purpose,
of the promise the future can never keep.
Jane Addams, 1910
It is a very great mistake to imagine that
the object of loyalty is the authority and
interest of one individual man.
John Adams, 1748

_____________________________________________

* That’s kind of like our so-called “incels.” These are relationship challenged people who are involuntarily celibate – they can’t get a date or get laid. That makes people mean and angry and causes them to lash out, especially at females, as though they are the cause of incels’ suffering. They really should learn to dance.
* The QAnon phrase is WWG1WGA, “Where We Go One, We Go All.” That’s powerful community and identity culture. Read Jim Acosta’s A QAnon “Storm is Coming” for Trump if He Pardons Maxwell.
*** Deconstructing Trump by Mardy Grothe explores The Trump phenomenon through the lens of quotation history.

Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.
Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

Thanks!

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

JA

Unfit

Jul 27

POST 1199

A Look At Just One

Here are Tulsi Gabbard’s responsibilities, per Steve Schmidt. Note that a similar listing of gravely important duties can be made for all Cabinet positions.

Tulsi Gabbard is the director of national intelligence [DNI], who oversees 18 different three-letter espionage agencies.

They are as follows:

Civilian Intelligence Agencies (8):

1. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) – coordinates and leads the entire IC.
2. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – focuses on foreign intelligence and covert operations.
3. National Security Agency (NSA) – responsible for signals intelligence and cybersecurity.
4. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) – provides geospatial intelligence (maps, imagery).
5. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) – designs, builds, and operates spy satellites.
6. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – Intelligence Branch – handles domestic counterintelligence and counterterrorism.
7. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) – Office of National Security Intelligence (ONSI) – focuses on drug-related intelligence.
8. Department of State – Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) – provides intelligence to diplomats and policy makers.

Military Intelligence Components (8):

1. U.S. Army Intelligence
2. U.S. Navy Intelligence
3. U.S. Air Force Intelligence
4. U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence
5. U.S. Space Force Intelligence
6. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) – military-focused intelligence and support for defense policy.
7. Department of Homeland Security – Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) – focuses on threats to homeland security.
8. Department of Energy – Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence – focuses on nuclear security and energy-related threats.

Department of the Treasury – Office of Intelligence and Analysis

1. Provides intelligence on financial and economic threats, including terrorism financing and sanctions evasion.

Coast Guard Intelligence (part of DHS)

1. Provides maritime-related intelligence, particularly around border security and drug interdiction.

All of that responsibility lives in the office of a woman who has literally zero intelligence training, zero intelligence experience, no history of operational action, education of or even a familiarity with the awesome responsibilities that attach to the nation’s security. Oddly, Trump and Tulsi say she’s right for her job.

Yer kidding, Trump and Tulsi, right? It’s a joke, right? And the rest of the Cabinet pretenders, too?

The qualifiers for any Trump appointment are:

Absolute loyalty to Trump. Willing to shed principles and integrity. Willing to display boundless emptiness just to be in the orbit of the cult leader. Willing to say patently absurd things and promote phantasmagorically destructive notions in order to expand the leader’s power and wealth. Think: nominations of judges and justices. This is the primary demand of dictators.

Is telegenic – looks good on TV, in press conferences and while lying to a roomful of Senators or Representatives in a Congressional hearing. Adept at claiming to have no memory of events that aren’t self-aggrandizing and is facile at making up rabid idiocies.

Will pursue any Trump policy including illegal or unconstitutional actions and will ignore court orders. Will promote any Trump lie, manipulation or temper tantrum and will aid in seeking retribution for all fantasy wrongs done to Trump, like others disagreeing with him.

Because of the great lapse of time, is unable to answer this question:

What was it like before your soul left your body? – source: probably Rick Wilson

These qualifiers stand as the gatekeepers to anyone seeking high appointment in a Trump administration or the judiciary. There is never consideration given to likelihood of honoring the oath of office, fitness for duty, skills, intelligence, training, ability to lead a high performing staff or the chance of doing something positive for America and the American people. All that is needed for appointment is listed above, leaving our nation in constant peril.

It’s also useful to be

– 2 generations younger than Trump, female and sexually attractive to him

– or a billionaire who can be exploited

– or a judicial candidate slavish to Trump.

Unintentionally Offered Wishful Thinking, From Consumer Reports

Ref: “How to get rid of pests and animals both inside & outside“

Hey, wait a second: Is that code for someone or for something specific? Who are the “pests and animals” they speak of? Are these the well known names of domestic terrorists who are attempting to invade our homes and nation in order to subjugate us? Are these the No Policy barbarians whose only purposes are to “tear it all down” and replace it with their absolute rule? Are these the vandals heaping over-the-top cruelty on thousands, even millions of people and dropping bunker busting destruction on our bedrock values and the societal ways we count on? Could they be the lawless perps who abuse the rights of everyone and do so in our name, as though we approve? Who are these “pests and animals?”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if some garden spray could rid us of these “pests and animals” to allow for the restoration of our national habitat?

It’s not that power corrupts; it’s that corruptible people seek power. – author possibly Frank Herbert

Reader Comments And The Risk of Public Opinion

Opinion is what I do. And I’m enormously grateful for readers’ comments and opinions, too.

Occasionally, I receive – let’s call them “cranky” – comments clearly intended to pick a fight or to own the libs through cruelty and to put me in my place. Because these comments are designed only to destroy, I never let them go live. (See Fine Print #6 below.) But recently one caused me to think about “putting it out there” and what that means.

We all like pats on the head, but in writing opinion pieces, including comments to these posts, more than that is dared. That caused me to pen the following for both of us, meaning for you, too, when you post your opinions. It’s to the tune of Ricky Nelson’s Garden Party.

- If you’re gonna hang out your opinion
- For everyone to see,
- If accolades are all you want
- Better brace for reality.
- .
- But it’s all right now.
- I learned my lesson well.
- You see, you can’t please everyone
- So, you got to please yourself.

I encourage you to comment on these posts – to please yourself, of course, and perhaps to help others see and understand.

**The Deconstructing Trump* Corner**

.

[He] was his own world,
and nothing that concerned anyone else
was important to him . . .
and nothing that touched him unimportant.
Kathleen Thompson Norris, 1933
Look at [his] comments . . .
They prove that the senator speaks his mind,
and that he is not working with much when he does so.
Anna Quindlen, 1993

_____________________________________________

* Deconstructing Trump by Mardy Grothe explores The Trump phenomenon through the lens of quotation history.

Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.
Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

Thanks!

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

JA

Missing

Jul 23

POST 1198

What Are We Missing?

On top of the furies of indignation, betrayal and the immoralities of the bitter cake that is every day Trumpism lies the Epstein icing on top. It has oddly joined MAGAmites with 90% of the population to call for the release of the Epstein list of sexual predators who abused and sex trafficked underage girls and perhaps others.

The MAGAmites wanted and were promised by Trump that once President he would let it all fly and the anticipated list of degenerate Democrats, Hollywood big shots and various coastal elites would be exposed. Then Republicans could splash about in moral superiority over the decadence and depravity of woke hypocrites. There would be no more hiding the truth, no more protecting the rich and powerful. Trump would uncork the drain of the DC swamp and all the bad guys would drown on the way down.

Except that’s not what happened. Trump is hiding the facts, the evidence. He’s doing exactly what MAGAmites were furious over when they dribbled conspiracy crazy on Dems, whom they were sure were getting away with horrible stuff, but they couldn’t prove it because facts were withheld. But this isn’t about Dems. Turns out MAGAmites are a lot like you: they don’t like being betrayed, even by their cult leader.

Trump is a master of distraction, the King of Bright Shiny Objects to direct your attention away from something damaging to him. His withholding of the Epstein list is widely believed to be his effort to prevent information incriminating to Trump from becoming public, but it does far more than that. Refusing to make the information public has transfixed public attention on the sordid Epstein mess, leaving us to wonder what Trump is doing that we aren’t focusing on, terrible things that are cruel, criminal and destructive.

Like:

Hiring thousands of additional ICE agents to act as his private, masked army, his Gestapo.

Putting thousands of immigrants into inhumane cages and holding them incommunicado

Arresting and incarcerating American citizens solely because they didn’t have citizenship papers in their possession and look Hispanic (read: Brown, not White)

Renditioning thousands of prisoners to various countries around the world

Setting the stage in Los Angeles for us to accept our military being deployed in our own country.

That last may be the key to what we are missing.

“Chronic venous insufficiency is a condition where the veins in the legs have difficulty drawing attention from the fact that the Epstein Files still haven’t been released.” anonymous source. Getty image

The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act prohibits deployment of our military on U.S. soil except for the most unusual circumstances, like an invasion from another country. No invasion has happened to the U.S. since the War of 1812.

Trump’s many horribles are at least as bad as you think they are, but the Epstein distraction may be hiding something far worse. We may be missing a looming final lurch into crushing authoritarianism.

Reference my post about that very thing. The Epstein distraction may be the preparation for some terrible event which Trump will use to declare martial law and become de facto dictator. Such actions are what dictators do and Trump is clearly a megalomaniac eager to burn our Constitution and aggregate all power and gobs of money for himself alone.

Yeah, we’re missing something critically important, for sure.

Who Will Lead?

Regular readers have likely recognized my discontent with the Democratic National Committee, a supposed leader of the right values and against the wrong values, We look there and to members of that tribe’s muck-a-mucks to do valiant and effective battle against those who would violate our values and do us and our nation harm. We expect them to vigorously promote our general welfare. My discontent boils for the lack of all that.

Who will lead us out of the morass of today to avoid the far worse morass of tomorrow? I’ve asked this question many times and we see some capable people speaking out (sometimes) against the cruel and the outrageous. Nevertheless, it remains opaque as to who will stand and declare, “THAT way – Follow me!” in such a compelling way that We The People will follow with our passion, our wisdom and our patriotism.

Truth be told, we Boomers made this horrid mess. George W. Bush lied us into two “forever wars” that killed and displaced millions, leaving brutality in its wake. Now Trump is clawing and scraping away our Constitution to institute dictatorial control and eliminate our rights and our freedom.

Both of these elected ones are charter members of the Boomer generation, each wholly unfit to lead a nation. Each enlisted many other Boomers and others into their perfidy, all to create their version of destruction and abandonment of facts and reality. Many in Congress and the courts are Boomers, too.

Here’s the key:

We cannot find our way out of this morass
using the same thinking and the same tools that got us into it.

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, recently announced that they will conduct a postmortem of the 2024 election. It took them 8 months to decide to do that. His examination won’t focus on the campaign, he said, as though the Committee’s lack of relevance to over 77 million voters and 90 million who didn’t bother to vote can be explained by an arcane partial study.

But that won’t help. Not for a party that dumped David Hogg from their leadership. Hogg is an established voice of Gen Zs. They listen to him. They sure as hell don’t listen to Boomers and X-ers, the very people who have made it next to impossible for them to find a path to the American dream. And the DNC dumped the very guy who can help to enlist the people who can clean up the mess. Suicidal.

I rest my hopes on our Gen Zs. There are enough of them, they are educated, packed with energy and more accepting of others than any other generation. Plus, they don’t want to live in the mess we’ve made.

We Boomers, Xers and Millennials aren’t off the hook. We, too, must continue to fight the good fight. And we must continuously invite our Gen Zs to join and to lead.

Here’s a quotation courtesy of friend Mardy Grothe, author of Deconstructing Trump*:

Upon the profound discontent of the young in every country
do I set my faith. I beg you, the young, to be discontented.
I pray that you may rebel against what is wrong,
not with feeble negative complaining
but with strong positive assertion of what is right for all humanity. — Pearl S. Buck
Pass that along to the Zs you know.
Let’s be clear about missing. It seems we are missing Democratic leadership. Demand nothing less.

The Deconstructing Trump* Corner

.
- A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger
- is prepared for a master, and deserves one.
- Alexander Hamilton,1797
- It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion
- will legislate its creed into law
- if it acquires the political power to do so.
- Robert A. Heinlein, 1953
- _________________________________________
* Deconstructing Trump by Mardy Grothe explores The Trump phenomenon through the lens of quotation history.

Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

Thanks!

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

JA

Potpourri v24.0

Jul 20

POST 1197

Car Sales And Trumponomics

Dr. Brian Beaulieu of ITR Economics is an economics and investments guru with a pretty good prognostication track record. He sees the chaos that is happening in our economy and sees the numbers. Here’s his recent report.

We did not have the June data for auto retail sales when I did my Fed Watch on Friday. Have it now. The May-to-June drop in domestically produced light duty vehicle retail sales was the worst spanning 60 years of data (including tough recessions) at -26.2%. For foreign produced light duty vehicles, the June drop was -39.6%, the most severe May-to-June decline in a history spanning 50 years.

The data is showing that:

1. Creating uncertainty is bad economic policy.

2. Playing whack-a-mole with tariffs is bad economic policy.

3. It may be possible to have a president come into office with economic policies that truly can disrupt the business cycle, at least temporarily.

You may not research what Beaulieu commonly does, but likely you know in your gut what he expertly shows us.

The Unlimited National Restoration About People’s Equity Act (UNRAPE) of 2025

Trump’s Big Barfy Betrayal Bill (BBBB) is a blatant transfer of trillions of dollars from poor and working class Americans to the very wealthiest in our very divided and economically grossly out of balance society. It is the biggest, but certainly not the first move to impoverish We The People entirely for the benefit of the very wealthy. It will leave most Americans feeling like they’ve been financially raped – yet again – because they have been. Indeed, $50 trillion (with a “T”) has gone from We the Regular People to the uber-rich over the last 40 years.

This is what oppressive governments do. The result is an impoverished populace with all power and most of the money in the hands of the insanely rich. It’s time to reverse that trend with this proposed bill.

TITLE I – WEALTH CLAWBACK

An annual 10% wealth tax is imposed on all persons having over $1 billion of net wealth. Let’s claw back, some of what they took from us.

TITLE II – FAIR SHARE

Federal personal income tax rates are hereby restored to those in effect when Ronald Reagan became President. The top tax rate then was 70% of income over $762,933 (in today’s dollars).

TITLE III – FEDERAL MINIMUM TAX

A minimum federal income tax rate of 20% is imposed on incomes over $1 million, regardless of the source of the income, whether filing individually or jointly, to ensure that very rich people who regularly use arcane tax exemption schemes not available to poor and middle class Americans pay their fair share.

TITLE IV – CORPORATE INCOME TAX RATES – BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE ALONE

Corporate federal income tax rates are hereby restored to those in effect prior to the first of George W. Bush’s tax cuts. The maximum corporate tax rate of 35% will apply to corporations with taxable income over $10 million. Corporations with taxable income over $15 million will be subject to an additional tax of 3% of the excess over $15 million, or $179,000 (in today’s dollars), whichever is smaller. That was the first time in American history when taxes were cut during war time.

For reference, Donald Trump’s 2018 Tax Cut and Jobs Act created no additional jobs and added $1 to 2 trillion to the federal debt, so the restoration of the corporate tax rates to the higher former rates should have no effect on employment numbers but will be a big help with our massive debt.

Let’s put this UNRAPE bill into the hands of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to expand and improve it. Email her and tell her to be ready with her proposal on the afternoon of January 20, 2029 or 2027, whenever Democrats retake the Senate.

Say Good-Bye To Your Mind

Congress has cut funding for PBS and NPR and Trump has the go-ahead to kill the Department of Education. Robert Reich explains the why of that:

There are five facets to the authoritarian attack on our minds that I cover in the video:

1. Rewrite history
2. Gut education
3. Dismantle science
4. Suppress the media
5. Attack the arts

Trump is unleashing all of them. And added up, they render us less informed, less inspired, and easier to control. They empower Trump to divide us with hatred and fear. And they prevent us from discovering that we have more in common with one another than with the authoritarians who try to rule us.

This attack on our minds ultimately reduces our capacity for self-government, because ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.

From Thomas Jefferson:

An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight.

Given Jefferson’s clarity, it’s easy to understand why Trump would want to keep us and our children ignorant.

Worthwhile Quotations Corner

From Steve Schmidt:

The other day, Van Jones suggested that any person who believes Trump’s babble is “weapons-grade stupid.” That is an accurate statement if there ever was one, and everyone knows that stupid cannot be fixed.

Speaking of Stupid

Our Congress is composed of the geniuses we send to Washington to represent us, our interests and desires and the needs of our nation. The Republican side of it has consistently and spinelessly caved to Donald Trump’s every pathological desire.

Congress voted to de-fund PBS and NPR. Republicans stupidly called it the “Defund Government-Sponsored Propaganda Act.” Now that Trump has killed Big Bird, betcha Trump thinks that oughta distract and shut up those clamoring for the Epstein list. Won’t happen.

Who cares, Republicans seem to be saying, whether kids, especially rural kids and those with compromised early education opportunities get the obvious benefits of public broadcast programming? Or whether people in rural areas receive weather warnings before the tornado strikes? Who cares if Americans have a non-commercial, apolitical source for news, they whine?

Republicans have been saying for a long time that PBS and NPR are voices of woke lefties, a part of the “fake news.” They claim they broadcast propaganda. I challenge anyone to provide even a single example of PBS or NPR programming that even vaguely resembles those inflammatory, ignorant and stupid claims. C’mon, MAGAmites, help me out here.

All but two Republicans voted to shoot Big Bird and every Republican voted to cut Medicaid, SNAP, USAID, Voice of America, FEMA, vaccine research and the rest. Remember that when it’s time to choose in the upcoming November elections. Tell your friends. Tell your crazy Uncle Bob. Tell your Uber driver.

Click me for protest rights tips.

“The Republicans don’t care about you.”

.

It’s already established that you can’t fix stupid. And it looks like you can’t fix hypocrisy or cowardice, either.

From the John Lewis Good Trouble Demonstration

Highland Park, IL, July 17, 2025

Tens of thousands of people turned out for the Good Trouble protests at over 1,500 marches across the country, both to honor John Lewis and to staunchly, powerfully protest this felonious fascist president. Here are pics of some signs people carried.

Sure do miss RBG

Ref: This post

Our abused immigrants today are just like your family members who immigrated here years ago. Same hopes, same dreams.

Be at the next demonstration, because we’re all counting on us.

**The *Deconstructing Trump Corner

.

A bad cause will ever be supported
by bad means and bad men.
Thomas Paine, 1777
Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
Frank Leahy, 1955
_________________________________________

* Deconstructing Trump by Mardy Grothe explores The Trump phenomenon through the lens of quotation history.

Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
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.
Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.
Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate or casually cruel. If you must post something cruel, stop reading these posts immediately and instead invest your time with a good therapist.
Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally and unavoidably mine.

Click me

Our Freedom – v2.0

Jul 16

POST 1195

Preface

This is the second in a series examining the state of our freedom. Link to the first installment here.

What About Our Welfare?

Not so-called entitlement programs. This is about our general welfare, like NOAA, NWS and FEMA and how they work to enhance our safety – our welfare. It’s based on what has been discussed in the press about what was done in advance of the tsunami in the Guadalupe River that swept away hundreds of people, including those kids in the summer camps along the river.

This is not the first time that such massive flooding has happened in Kerr County. The folks in charge of monitoring and warning saw the massive storms approaching and they knew what would happen in hill country, as massive amounts of rain water flowed downhill to the river. So,

Question #1:

Radio alerts were sounded, but there was no siren, no audible alert. An audible alert system was scratched in this hyper-conservative county many times, even if it were funded by the federal government and not local property taxes because, as one resident put it, “. . . send this money back to the Biden administration, which I consider to be the most criminal treasonous communist government ever to hold the White House . . . ” Naturally, such folks don’t want to fund an emergency alert system through taxes on themselves – like for the common good. See this for details.

As of this writing at least 134 people are confirmed dead and about 97 are still missing. If it turns out that all the missing have died, that’s 231 people dead from the flood. The warning system those Texans refused would have cost about $1 million, so it appears that these hyper-conservative locals and Gov. Greg Abbott decided that those lives were worth just $4,329 each and not one cent more. Extremist ideology comes at a cost.

Question #2:

Why weren’t there people riding the road along the river, calling out a warning to all those summer camps of kids, to residents, to hikers and campers, Paul Revere-like, warning them to evacuate and get to high ground immediately?

We know that there was precious little time to accomplish the warning – perhaps just 3 hours – but people in pickup trucks or on horseback could have carried the warning to many who were not able to receive a radio or cell phone alert – assuming such alerts were sounded. Where were those guys? Why weren’t they organized for such an emergency?

Question #3:

Two of the top weather guys took early retirement due to insane pressure from DOGE. Consequently, they were unavailable during the run-up to the flood and no one took their places, so the best skills were missing from the extreme weather warning toolbox. How did that expertise gap hamper efforts to protect people along the river? That’s being examined now.

FEMA funds were already cut and no FEMA people were pre-positioned to provide quick support. I fact, it took until three days after the initial flooding for FEMA to show up. They weren’t even reliably answering their phones due to the shortage of personnel. Way to go, DOGE!

Question #4 – an aggregation:

Are Trump and Musk proud as can be for saving of the salaries of those weather and FEMA experts? Was this a major victory in their brain-free battle against largely non-existent waste, fraud and abuse? Now that they’ve significantly de-funded FEMA, will the effort to find the remaining victims of the flood be truncated, bodies left to decay in the flood debris, loved ones left in a hellish void?

Question #5:

The Preamble to the Constitution speaks to the purpose of that document and of government itself. One of the duties of government is to “promote the general Welfare.” How are we doing at that? And what does that say about our freedom?

Recall that in a time of great fear and constant want, FDR laid out the Four Freedoms:

1. Freedom of speech and expression

2. Freedom of worship

3. Freedom from want

4. Freedom from fear

So, here’s Question #6:

Given the terrifying nature of that flooded river, of our more powerful and more frequent hurricanes and tornadoes, of mass incarceration of wholly innocent people and the intimidation of our entire society, how are we doing on the Freedom from fear part?

Freedom is a demanding thing. It’s a high bar to clear and we all know that we must be vigilant to keep our freedom secure. At least, those of us who aren’t fascists and who aren’t willing to be subjugated by a dictator – we know that. And we know that our freedom is under continuous and dangerous attack.

What About Freedom From Dictatorship – as in: Freedom To be Free?

From the Heather Cox Richardson post of July 7:

As Harvard sociologist Theda Skocpol pointed out in Talking Points Memo, it appears that officials in the Trump administration are using immigration as a way to establish a police state. Indeed, they are using the concept that presidents have control of foreign affairs as a way to work around the laws in place to prevent a dictatorship. [emphasis mine]

In her July 9 post she quoted Sen. Edward Kennedy in his 1987 opposition to the Robert Bork nomination to the Supreme Court.

“Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, [B]lacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is—and is often the only—protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy….”

Too much of that 1987 warning feels frighteningly like today. Indeed, we’re being Borked regularly by the ultra-right, ideologue Supreme Court six.

If Trump gets away with establishing a police state, what do you suppose will happen to our next election? What will have happened to our freedom then?

**The *Deconstructing Trump Corner

.

A bad cause will ever be supported
by bad means and bad men.
Thomas Paine, 1777
Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
Frank Leahy, 1955
_________________________________________

* Deconstructing Trump by Mardy Grothe explores The Trump phenomenon through the lens of quotation history.

Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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 this job done.

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

1 2 3 … 50 Next Scroll to top

Alt-Right

Unconservative

No Comment Needed

Clear Message

NOTE: This video contains strong language guaranteed to be offensive to some. If you are one of the “some” people, please use good judgment.

.

Mid-Term Election

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.

It’s About One Thing and One Thing Only

The Staples Singers

The Deconstructing Trump Corner

.

Mid-Term Election

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.

Who’s the Pharaoh?

But now Israel is the pharaoh, oppressing Palestinians.

.

Today’s Other Pharaoh, If We Let Him

Because now Trump is an American pharaoh.

.

I’m calling for a nationwide strike – a work stoppage

.

Who The Other Side Is

Medical News

Stupidococcus Stupidoniae

.

The Deconstructing Trump Corner

.

Mid-Term Election

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.

Emergency

The Trumpstein Catastrophe

What did you think Epstein was stealing those women for?!?

.

The Real Reason

Is there justice, along with snakes and gators, in the Everglades | Opinion

About the Dems

Jimmy Buffett And You

.

.

.

.

The Deconstructing Trump Corner

.

Mid-Term Election

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.

The Trumpstein Catastrophe

Health – Or Not

My Toilet Seat

The Deconstructing Trump Corner

Mid-Term Election

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.

The Power of Dance

What About MAGA?

The Deconstructing Trump*** Corner

.

Mid-Term Election

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.

A Look At Just One

Unintentionally Offered Wishful Thinking, From Consumer Reports

Ref: “How to get rid of pests and animals both inside & outside“

Reader Comments And The Risk of Public Opinion

.

The Deconstructing Trump* Corner

.

Mid-Term Election

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

.

What Are We Missing?

Who Will Lead?

The Deconstructing Trump* Corner

.

Mid-Term Election

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

**The Deconstructing Trump Corner**

**The Deconstructing Trump Corner**

**The Deconstructing Trump Corner**

**The Deconstructing Trump Corner**

The Deconstructing Trump* Corner**

**The Deconstructing Trump* Corner**

**The *Deconstructing Trump Corner

**The *Deconstructing Trump Corner

**The *Deconstructing Trump Corner