Behavior

Two Cruelties That Are Happening


POST 1228

Keeping Score

Trump’s Reichsführer, Stephen Miller, White House Nazi-in-residence, has an important goal. He says that we must deport (not incarcerate; deport) 1 million people per year, regardless of anyone’s absence of criminality, lawful U.S. residence or even citizenship. That may have to do with something primitive about blood and  soil.

Here’s the math.

1 million people removed in a year will require 2,739 people to be disappeared every day. ICE reports that they’ve disappeared 527,000 – about 1,370 per day. Clearly, Trump’s Thug Corps. is not on pace to brutalize people to match up with Miller’s nutso number. And there is nobody checking ICE’s number – could be worse – any more than there is anyone stopping their cruelty, so there is no particular credibility to their body count.

Now you see the reason for the Jonathan Swift solution proposed in POST 1227. It should appeal to psycho Stephen Miller as a serious recommendation cruel enough even for Trump, especially as a distraction from the Epstein files and rumored pedophilia and sex trafficking of little girls. And that perpetuates the cruelty to all of the victims of Epstein and his clients.

They messed up. They let us know there’s an Epstein black book and a gazillion documents of his crimes and those of his allegedly wicked “clients.” Trump can dance, deny, and distract, but he and his bootlickers can’t make us forget that the incriminating evidence exists. I just hope that someone is retaining unaltered copies of the evidence so that suck up sycophant Pam Bondi can’t redact all of it into a black blob.

Congressman Brad Schneider (D-IL 10) and the Republicans

From Rep. Schneider’s October 31 newsletter:

On Monday [October 27], as chair of the New Democrat Coalition (New Dems), I reached out to my counterparts in the Republican Main Street Caucus and the Republican Governance Group (RG2), proposing we sit down to look for common ground and shared ideas for breaking the impasse between Republicans and Democrats  I was hopeful they would agree to join me in bipartisan conversations. Unfortunately, neither one was willing to engage. [I]nstead they leaked my outreach to the press and told us to effectively “pound sand.” Click here for [the] MSNBC story on my letter.

That’s what we can count on for help to get justice for Epstein’s victims and ICE’s victims. And that should tell you all you need to know about how desperate Trump and Speaker Johnson are to maintain distractions to prevent the Epstein files from being made public and how desperate Republicans are to avoid displeasing Trump. No amount of food shortages, economic woes and healthcare suffering by the public will dissuade them and fellow Republicans from stalling and covering up the horrific crimes likely to be found in those Epstein documents or stop the ICE unlawful cruelty.

From Steve Schmidt, November 3

The American people are besieged by malice, indifference, corruption, incompetence, venal leaders and a boiling hot lava of stupidity, which truly appears to be bottomless. It seems that a corrosive awfulness has saturated everything, everywhere, and that nothing decent remains.

Of course, that is the hope of the architects of our shared misery. Hopelessness is their greatest weapon. Fear is the poisoned tip of their arrow.

We’ve seen the poison tipped arrow up close in Chicago and now in Mt. Prospect, IL at the Randhurst Mall, in quiet residential neighborhoods in Northbrook and in Evanston. Rachel Maddow covered the ICE-hole* brutality on Monday, including an interview with Mayor Daniel Biss. Click here and then on the right for the Chicagoland Sets The Example segment. And click here for an ICE deportation tracker.

There are no riots, there is no vandalism, there are no attacks on people or property in our cities by We The People who are protesting ICE cruelty and Epstein victim cruelty. No one in the streets is rioting, regardless of the phantasmagoria spouted by the Liar In Chief.

Our police cannot fight ICE because doing so would be a violation of the law. The Republicans in Congress could fight the ICE cruelty as well as the cruelty to Epstein victims, but they are spineless cowards. That leaves the opposition to the fascists to you and me.

And that calls on us for our courage.

As your blood boils seeing the cruelty done to the survivors of Epstein and his clients and the cruelty to our neighbors in our streets, remember that any violence by We The People in the streets will give Trump his unwarranted excuse to send the Marines to permanently occupy our country and our freedom will be lost. That is what the domestic terrorists headquartered in Washington want. So .  .  .

Speak up. Show up. Take a stand. And remain non-violent. Always.

__________________________________________

* “ICE-hole” – kudos for the creativity and thanks to MHA for use of the term.

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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Another Modest Proposal – Plus What Americans Want


POST 1227
Most Important First

You MUST read Prof. Timothy Snyder’s warning, The Next Terrorist Attack And What Comes After (Updated). It is an urgent warning for all of us.

The Jonathan Swift Solution

Click me

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is expensive. We’re paying over $28 billion per year plus another $170 billion from a bill passed in July for their president-led cruelty. This is your money, honey, that we’re giving to ICE thugs in a time of reduced food availability, vastly increased unemployment, a severe housing shortage, skyrocketing healthcare costs and more.

“Enough!” I say, There is a simple solution at hand, similar to A Modest Proposal offered bu Jonathan Swift to the people of Ireland in 1729. Trump and 4th Reichsführer Stephen Miller are sure to love this.

Instead of doing all the pesky legal things like due process that lefty vermin demand for Hispanics, whether they’re criminals or legal immigrants or simply Hispanic-looking American citizens, we will arrest and slaughter them. It will be a fine start for reversing the Great Replacement of White Americans.

But slaughter isn’t enough. We must not waste. We must process the slaughtered ones like beef and feed the meat to our poor people. That will provide multiple benefits:

Click me for the gold plated story.

  1. We’ll get those pesky non-White Christian pretenders off our streets.
  2. We’ll free up housing for real Americans.
  3. We’ll put our legal poor to work processing the meat so they will no longer be unemployed drags on our White population.
  4. Our poor will be fed this new food supply and thereby avoid compromising our regular food stocks intended for the rest of us.
  5. The savings will be enormous and crime rates will plummet.

We at last will be harvesting value from those caravans of immigrants, the murderers, the rapists and the ones hauling drugs to poison real Americans whom Trump warned us about in that golden escalator moment in 2015. How very Final Solution this will be!

Once we’re done with the Browns we can harvest the Blacks, then the Jews and the Muslims. Important footnote*

What Real Americans Want – The Numbers**

It’s cringe worthy when any Republican or former Republican gets misty-eyed in their self-certainty and lets roll off their tongues that this is a center-right country. I’ll give them a good score for being glib, but not for being accurate. Here, updated from June 4, 2025 is truth about where we’re at.

85 – 92% of Americans believe Social Security benefits should be maintained or increased.

58 – 73% of Americans support raising (not cutting) taxes on the wealthy and big corporations.

56 – 70% of Americans want Medicare For All (MFA). Enough with the ridicule of Bernie Sanders.

63% of Americans believe abortion should be legal.

52 – 63% of Americans believe automatic weapons should be banned.***

56 – 60% of Americans want stricter gun laws.

70 – 85% of Americans want strong red flag laws to keep guns out of the hands of abusers.

67% of Americans want the minimum wage to be $15/hour.

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

62 – 66% of Americans believe medication abortion should be legal.

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

63 – 67% of Americans oppose ICE raids in schools and places of worship.

80% of Americans support maintaining or increasing SNAP (food stamp) benefits.

75 – 90% of Americans oppose redistricting (gerrymandering) for political advantage.

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

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

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

30% of Americans believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump but have no – zero – evidence for their belief. ZERO!

35% of Americans cannot name the 3 branches of government.

26% of Americans believe the sun orbits the Earth.

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

4 – 10% of Americans believe the Earth is flat. *****

27% of Americans distrust science.

The roughly 30% who are spitballers blindly follow Trump and they say and believe preposterous things. But many of them align with the list above of What Real Americans Want, even as they mindlessly continue to believe they are righties and continue to shoot spitballs.

If we want something better, like the center-left policies listed above, we’ll have to do something different, like elect Democrats to power who will get off their timid, boring, lazy butts and craft a comprehensive, audacious plan for We The People to get what we want.**** To that point, click to Ben Cominos’ post,

Project 2029: The Blueprint the Left Has Been Too Afraid to Write
.

It will take generations to fix the damage we’ve allowed to be done by our self-serving cowards and hypocrites who cower before bullies and debase themselves to lobbyists. And we’ve been let down – harmed, really – by the willful indifference of the over 90 million eligible voters whose butts remain on their couches every election.

Now is the best time to start the clean-up of the terrible Republican mess in Aisle 2025.

The Department of Hope

If we are to have hope for a better tomorrow we must stop wringing our hands. We have to reach down and grab our grit and use it to attack what deserves to be attacked. It’s time to speak the truth about America and Americans and demand the America We The People want. You know: center-left. That fight is what gives us hope. Plan the work. Work the plan.

Every day in every way, punch the bully in the nose and demand Project 2029 from the Democrats. Maybe then enough people will vote for them and we can start to get what we want.

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

Click me. Definitely click me.

Update to Post 1226: Feel Better Now?

Americans are facing imminent food and healthcare shortages, loan defaults and other sufferings. Tens of thousands of federal workers are being forced to work for no pay, including air traffic controllers, TSA personnel and more. Your travel safety is in their hands. Do you really want them going to work hungry, worried about the mortgage, the car payment, feeding their kids, and cranky? And is any of that even remotely fair or right or decent?

Even as workers suffer, federal legislators are receiving full pay for not doing their jobs and the President of the United States is receiving full pay while expanding his grift, graft and cruelty. In addition,

ICE THUGS CONTINUE TO RECEIVE FULL PAY
FOR DOING THEIR CRUELTY AND BRUTALITY.
.

Betcher not feeling better about that.

__________________________________________________

* This section is satire; i.e. not a real recommendation. It is an exaggeration in all ways to highlight the brutality that is our every day lived experience in America today. In that way it is like Jonathan Swift’s original essay. Go read it – both links.

This writer and these posts DO NOT EVER advocate and they specifically oppose and reject cruelty, violence, murder, cannibalism, forced labor and other forms of official White House policy savagery. No person, whether or not holding the legal right to be in the United States either temporarily or being a citizen of the United States should be subjected to discrimination of any kind other than for specific, fact-based suspicion of criminality. and then only meted out with proper restraint and with the full due process of law.

** I once again looked up all the numbers presented here and easily found them from reputable sources with a simple search, “What percentage of Americans want .  .  . ” There are many reports on each of these topics, so some variation in the percentages can be found, but none that challenge the meaning of what is presented here.

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

**** Gallup reports that approval of Congress is roughly 38%. That means that over 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of our Congress. 54 – 60% of us disapprove of the job Trump is doing. Why in the world should we tolerate such horrid job performance? Fire these guys!

***** For those who have forgotten history, John Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth. That was only possible because the Earth isn’t flat. It’s round. Really.

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Feel Better Now?


POST 1226
BSO Mastery

Sure, Trump is a constant tsunami of snow job, obfuscation and BSO (Bright, Shiny Object) distractions. He always needs them because of his blatantly illegal, unconstitutional, cruel, anti-America vice king blitzkrieg. There is nothing he won’t do to keep us looking somewhere else so that the Epstein files don’t reveal proof that he’s a pedophile and rapist. That’s particularly important, because his unquestioning MAGA supporters will tolerate grift, fraud, murder and much more, but they won’t tolerate his abusing and violating little girls.

He’s killed people in international waters where no U.S. law applies. That’s a lot like terrorism, maybe piracy. Those on the boats weren’t formally accused of anything. They weren’t indicted or arraigned and no evidence, much less proof of wrongdoing has been offered, All we have is the Liar In Chief saying there were drugs on board those boats. We can’t prove he’s a liar any more than he can prove he’s right because he killed nearly all the 4 dozen or so people who were supposed to be innocent until proven guilty and he sank the evidence. All that was done without a legal right to have taken any action against those boats or the people in them. And now he’s threatening a land invasion of a sovereign nation, Venezuela.

There was a story in the Miami Herald on Monday, Venezuela claims capture of CIA group, accuses U.S. of plotting ‘false flag’ attack. What makes this shocking is that it’s a believable story. Trump sending CIA operatives to Venezuela? Of course. Nothing distracts public attention like a land war and a huge show of force by our Naval warships. Nothing galvanizes citizens to back a president like a war. Nothing makes a president look like a strongman like – you guessed it – a war. It’s all so distracting.

So, who’s going to focus on the Epstein files after Trump has trumped up a phony war?

BSO Mastery Unmasked

Tearing down the East Wing of our national treasure, the White House, the one that belongs to We The People and not to the felon temporarily housed there, is a horrific violation of all that is right and good. President Real Estate Scam is getting away with this because Spineless Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to reconvene the House because doing so will require him to swear in and seat newly elected Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ).

She will be the 218th vote for the discharge petition to force the release of the Epstein files. Trump just cannot have that, so puppy dog Johnson manufactures fantasy reasons to refuse Grijalva’s swearing in. With the House AWOL, there is no possibility of Congress stopping anything Trump wants to do, including Gestapo cruelty in our streets, murdering people at sea, starting a war and tearing down the East Wing, all so that we don’t get to see that he’s a pedophile.

Fortunately, the folks at The Lincoln Project are adept at laying bare official misconduct and hypocrisy and they’ve done it again. Watch this AI video of Trump pitching his new, nobody-else-wants-the-damn-thing ballroom.

Q & A

A TV newscaster was asking why in this hyper-connected digital age aren’t more people agitated by official government cruelty to the point of taking action.

In part it’s because so many things online have a cartoon-ish vibe, a sense of “it isn’t real – it’s just the internet.” There’s a lack of depth and solidity to such stuff. When a report comes to us about people dying, it’s almost as if they are cartoon characters or actors in a movie who can go home after shooting their film for the day. We are left unmoved by the not-quite-real perception, so the outrage we should feel over a terrible real event doesn’t materialize in a fully human dimension.

There are roughly 330 million of us, 32% of whom are MAGA types, leaving 224 million who are not MAGA types. If 7 million show up at the NO KINGS rallies, where were the other 217 million Americans who believe that cruelty is being done in their names and who want change for the better? Why do they stay home?

Maybe, in part, because all the bad stuff doesn’t feel quite real to them. Plus, leaders have lied to them over and over, saying it’s just “fake news.”

Democrats Don’t Get a Free Pass

The Democrats are led by inept, uninspiring men, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. They offer far too little for us to get excited about. The most patriotic thing each of them can do is to step down from leadership so that real leaders can step up to save us from Republican cruelty. We need new leaders with fire in their bellies to rail against:

ICE cruelty in the streets of Chicago and Portland. Speak from where ICE is brutalizing citizens, not from a safe lectern downtown Tell everyone, “We stand with We The People!” Shout it out that ICE goons and the goons who sent them hate America and Americans.

Trump’s stupid tariffs and inept economics that are bankrupting farmers and impoverishing the rest of us. Go to red states, Democratic firebrands, and declare that we stand with farmers. Do it from a soybean field that won’t get harvested. Tell We The People that’s because Trump has driven away our markets for soybeans. The silos are full and there is no place to put this year’s harvest. Get former Sen. Jon Tester, an actual farmer, to do the talking.

Trump’s ICE thugs who have emptied the produce fields of people doing stoop labor that you’d never do. You’re going to pay double for your fruits and vegetables if you can get them at all. Firebrands, say that on camera in a supermarket with half-empty shelves.

Want to know why Democrats lose elections? It’s because they don’t have the best people leading the charge, they don’t present much that people can identify with (please, no more heady policy!) and they present themselves as wimps. And everybody knows that wimps always get the snot beaten out of them and they lose their lunch money to the cruel playground bullies.

Who will punch the bullies in the nose? We need an answer very quickly.

We Don’t Want You To Worry

With this Republican, Trump-powered federal government shut down, paired with all the defunding that has already happened and furloughs of people we have counted on, millions of formerly productive, fairly paid Americans are going without a paycheck. This is happening now. Moms, dads, kids – really everyone – is or soon will be liquidating retirement savings, rationing food and avoiding all but emergency healthcare.

But you shouldn’t worry. Even as the government is shut down and millions are forced into despair about how they’ll make the house and car payments, how they’ll feed and clothe their kids, our manipulative, lazy-ass Republicans in Congress are being paid their full salaries for refusing to do their jobs, as is Donald Trump. They are and will continue to be financially sound without a money care in the world.

Feel better now?

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

In Case You Didn’t Hear About These


POST 1225

Live fire across I-5

1. From Robert Reich on October 20: The Other Demonstration on Saturday – what happened during the NO KINGS demonstrations:

The Marine Corps — under the watchful [creepy] eyes of JD Vance and Pete Hegseth — staged a demonstration on Saturday in southern California.

It wasn’t a No Kings demonstration, though. It was more like a Yes Kings demonstration.

Some of the Marine Corps’ [live fire] shells that were fired by M777 howitzers across California’s Interstate 5 prematurely detonated, sending shrapnel down on what could have been hundreds of motorists.

Why the hell did the Marine Corps fire [live] artillery shells over Interstate 5 anyway?

Dick Altschuler, 1943

Note that the Marines have a live fire range not too far east of where they instead stupidly put people in danger. It was apparently for the benefit and entertainment of Fauxbilly Vance and Hopeless Hegseth.

Dad risked his life over and over to fight fascism, as did 16.1 million of his brothers in arms. We saw many of their pictures at the NO KINGS protests, held by descendants of those democracy heroes.

We damn well are nearly all anti-fascism – antifa – except for our simple minded, who want quick, simplistic solutions to our complex challenges and grievances. They got no stinkin’ reason to think. Their dictator will do all the thinking for them.

Note for fools believing Republican demonizing idiocy:

THERE IS NO ANTIFA ORGANIZATION. NO OFFICIALS. NO OFFICES. It’s just a catch-all term for we Americans who are against fascism and for democracy of, by and for We The People. It’s people like my dad and his brothers in arms. It’s like my family, friends and neighbors from sea to shining sea. It’s like all 7 million of us who marched on October 18.

Got it MAGAs and Republicans in Congress? Ah, probably not.

One more thing: We damn well have no business firing live artillery shells across Interstate 5. I bet those war lovers, Vance and Hegseth, got their sophomoric jollies over that stupidity. Think about that as you look forward to Trump being confined in a mental hospital and Article 25 bringing us Vance behind the Resolute Desk. Shivers.

—————————————–

2. From Daniel Lippman in Politico last Tuesday:

Paul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump’s embattled nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, told a group of fellow Republicans in a text chain the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and said he has “a Nazi streak,” according to a text chat viewed by POLITICO.

You’re surprised that Trump would nominate a creep like Ingrassia, right? Not likely.

As serial creep and sex predator Matt Gaetz did, Ingrassia has removed his name from nomination, both of them because they hadn’t a ghost of a chance passing muster. The real question is why a Nazi was nominated by Trump. You don’t suppose Trump thinks of himself as Der Führer, do you?

—————————————–

The Trump East Wing Death Star Ballroom under construction – thanks for this, RT

3. From Donald Trump, via Steve Schmidt: about his $300 million dollar ballroom to replace the East Wing of the White House.

“It won’t interfere with the current building. It won’t be. It’ll be near it, but not touching it — and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of. It’s my favorite. It’s my favorite place. I love it” — Donald Trump

In July he said the ballroom he expected to build would not touch the East Wing. Now the East Wing is gone, there are no permits or approved plans to build or even weather proofing plans for the remaining building to protect it through the coming winter months and there is no authorization from Congress to demolish government property that is a national treasure.

Listen for, “Believe me: you’ve never seen anything like this. Nothing like it anywhere in the world. It will be the best. Nobody has ever seen anything like this. Believe me.”

And our cowardly Republican Congress stands mute watching this, doing their constant impersonation of dead crickets.

Note that Trump brought in cranes to demolish the East Wing just after the NO KINGS protests. Maybe he thought nobody would notice, that he could sneak this past us. Kinda hard to miss that kind of destruction, though. It like – yes, it’s very much like the destruction he did to the Rose Garden (take that, Michelle Obama!) and the destruction he’s doing to the Constitution.

These are hard times that are getting harder for We The People. Inflation is shrinking the value of paychecks (3% year-over-year), millions are going without a paycheck at all and soon millions more will be in financial peril because of Trump’s economic blitzkrieg on America. He’s managed to shut down the government, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so actual employment numbers are unknown, but nobody is hiring. Tariffs derived from Trump’s vacuous brain are making things more expensive and new car sales are declining. And while people suffer, Trump is building a $300 million golden ballroom that no one but Trump wants or needs. This truly is our Marie Antoinette moment. Let the rubes eat cake.

—————————————–

Click me if you think you can stomach this.

4. Here’s yet more of Trump’s crude, crass embarrassment of our nation.

Immediately following the NO KINGS marches Trump posted his AI video of him as king piloting an F-18 and dumping feces on marchers.

Just when you thought that there was no way for Trump to debase himself and our country worse than he’s already done. Just when you foolishly thought there was a bottom to Trump’s awfulness. Just when you thought the dip shit had run out of shit.

Wake up. There is no bottom to what Trump will do or say. He’ll always find yet worse ways to be worse.

There is something so very emboldening about hatred and cruelty. And Trump’s MAGAs, hypocritical non-Christian Evangelicals, overt racist, misogynist, xenophobic, toxic masculine morons gorge themselves on it. They puff themselves up on that feeling of power. That’s Trump’s base.

Trump will always flatulate ever-more outrageous idiocy to distract you from the Epstein files. This destruction of the White House East Wing and his poopy plane are just the most recent chapters in his ongoing saga, “Bright, Shiny Objects Distract the Dopes From My Villainy.” Which leads to,

—————————————–

5. Raise your hand if you give so much as a rat’s ass if the Epstein files made public will embarrass Trump and others and send some to court and then to prison. Oh, golly: no hands.

You must (as in ‘MUST“) read Thom Hartmann’s fiery piece,

Trump’s Elite Pedophile Protection Program: Who are they Protecting?
.

It’s subtitled,

Amy Wallace says the FBI and DOJ have the list. Twenty abusers. Zero accountability. How long will we tolerate this cover-up?
.

Making this more personal, how long will YOU tolerate this cover-up? Call your senators and representative, especially if they are Republicans. You’ll know what to say to them.

—————————————–

6. We are required by all that is right to offer yet another apology to our Canadian friends. Reported by The Washington Post*: Trump cancels trade negotiations with Canada over anti-tariff ad.

That’s right. Our Infant In Chief is once again in an electric purple temper tantrum, pounding his fists and his bone spur heels on the floor and screeching his tyrannical obscenities. Now he’s yelling at a maple leaf flag, “I’ll never play with you Canadians again because you do stuff I hate so you’re a doo-doo. Maybe I’ll drop you from my kingly poo-poo-dropping airplane, too.”

Apologies to you, Oh Canada! You deserve far better from the U.S.

Now Some Good News!

Just imagine a day when the Supreme Court and we Americans can once again tell the difference between We The People and a fiction written on a piece of paper.

Many thanks to LR for passing this along.

________________________________________________

* 13 months ago Jeff Bezos caved to Trump, bent his knee and kissed the ring. He withheld the Post’s endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, betraying the newspaper’s motto on its masthead, “Democracy Dies In Darkness.” Indeed, it does and Bezos clouded the sun.

He forever stained his integrity. That’s when the Post began to bleed its finest reporters and opinion writers. I terminated my subscription. There have been no mentions of that formerly great newspaper in these commentaries since then.

I have not been able to shut off their solicitations, though, which include a daily list of their stories. I confess to being impressionable, so when they offered a year digital subscription for 50 cents per week, I accepted the offer. And yes, I feel a little slimy about doing this.

Question: How desperate must the Post be for readers if they are offering a 50 cents per week rate?

Fear not: I’ve tagged my calendar to cancel the subscription next year before the cost jumps to $3 per week. We’ll see if I can tolerate the slimy feeling that long.

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

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Cruelty


POST 1223

  • When your political universe is sorted into “pure” and “traitor,” cruelty becomes a tool. The point isn’t just to be offensive—it’s to police loyalty.
  • – Dean Blundell
  • _______________________________________

Here’s some clarity from @JoJoFromJerz:

@JoJoFromJerz is right, of course. This intentionally cruel material dumps onto us every day. Here’s another example.

Click the pic and watch the short video.

In Cicero, IL (Chicago area) ICE thugs dragged two women from their car in an elementary school pickup line and “arrested” them. In ICE-speak that means they brutalized them, threw them to the ground, handcuffed them and jammed them into an unmarked van. They did this without a warrant or even a faint suspicion of these women having broken any law. After hours of being “detained” – that’s ICE-speak that means the women were locked up incommunicado – then they were released. Turns out those women are in this country legally, but they were treated worse than hardened criminals would be.

And the kids exiting that school were terrorized by seeing that cruelty, as were all the moms and dads in that after school pickup line.

It appears that Trump’s main Nazi, Stephen Miller, was telling the truth about ripping babies from the arms of their mothers at our southern border during Trump’s first term.* When confronted about the cruelty, the horrible barbarity his thugs were inflicting on moms and their little kids, Cruelty-Meister Miller said, “The cruelty is the point.” And he’s doing it again.

This is what Nazis do and why they do it. This cruelty toward anything not Trump and MAGA is why we have to banish these thugs, these Nazis, these fascists from any position of power in our country. It would be fine with me were we to rendition them to that El Salvador gulag. If we keep them here for a little while we must prosecute them for the laws they are breaking. We’ll bankrupt them via lawsuit, just like Trump is trying to do to people on his enemies list. Trump’s cruelty is why we must vote for Democrats.

No, the Dems aren’t perfect. But they are the only path to rid ourselves of the vicious, anti-Constitutional, anti-American, hatred-fueled Republicans. As Obama advised, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Vote for the good. Things will be better.

Maybe you aren’t convinced that we need to vote for Dems. That’s okay. But before you reject the idea entirely, read the Politico report, ‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat.

You read the title correctly. Cheering cruelty, racism, misogyny, murder and the joy of inflicting pain on others is sport to these degenerates, these Young Republicans, these Hitler Youth. It makes no difference if you believe these Young Republicans really mean the filth they mouth. Maybe it’s just youthful “locker room talk,” like Trump’s Access Hollywood filth was fraudulently called by Trump apologists. At the very least these Young Republican degenerates are enablers of such barbarity. And they are unchecked by Republicans with power today. Crickets from them.

Check the subtitle of the Politico essay: Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape. Politico found that these horrible messages were sent over at least seven months. Clearly, these egregious cruelties that are chuckled over by today’s Republicans aren’t one-offs. This is standard Republican stuff.

These are the children of Trump, the spawn of the Republican Party.

Almost as bad, Vice President J.D. Vance defended these miscreants with whataboutism. And on the Charlie Kirk Show he said,

“I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke—telling a very offensive stupid joke—is cause to ruin their lives.” He called them “kids” seven times.

Julianne McShane of Mother Jones checked out Vance’s assumptions for his exoneration of the vile texters.

I found ages for eight of the 11 people included in the chat. And, spoiler alert: None were minors. The youngest appear to be 24, the oldest 35. (I could not find publicly available ages for three of the participants.) This information raises the question: At what age does the vice president believe people become grown adults who should be held responsible for their actions?

It turns out none of the participants sending and reading those abhorrent, hateful messages is an adolescent. Nevertheless, Vance wants to exonerate them, effectively saying, “They’re just kids, you know?”  But even if they were all under 18 years old, their messages and their senders would still be abhorrent.

Here’s the worst part:

The senders of these horrible messages are
the future leaders of the Republican Party.
.

.And as you can see, they will be welcomed by today’s Vice President of the United States.

That’s why you must promote and vote for Democrats now.

NO KINGS

The NO KINGS protests – “.  .  .  the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances .  .  .” are like the Boston Tea Party, of proud American heritage. Read Heather Cox Richardson’s post of October 16 and you’ll understand.

And for sure read Ira Leavitt’s post,

Those ICE Guys Could Have Been Worse!
But Not Much Worse
.

This is cruelty. On We The People. Every day.

And we are as many as 8.2 million of We The People marching in the parks and in the streets, declaring,

NO DAMN WAY WE’LL HAVE A KING!

.

We sent one packing 242 years ago and we’ll send away this one or his 25th Amendment replacement not later than January 20, 2029. Until then and following the mid-term election next year we’ll tie them up with a stout rope made from the same parchment our Constitution is written on.

.

 

 

 

“Together Strong!!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your intrepid chronicler reporting from Highland Park, IL. NO KINGS, DAMMIT!

_________________________________________

* The last count I heard was that despite the hard work of good people in the Biden administration, having reunited over 4,000 kids with their moms, there were about 1,000 still separated, Stephen Miller did his proud, goose stepping, swastika waving work for his boss by refusing to document separations. That made reuniting moms and kids impossible for so many and that has heaped ongoing cruelty onto defenseless people.

Miller’s mother must be so proud.

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

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Deals, Awards & Spray


POST 1222

The Hostage-Ceasefire Deal

Likely, you’ve heard highlights dissected and discussed, but being an intelligent person, you don’t need a TV blabber to be your interpreter. Here’s a link to “Trump’s” 20-point plan.

As you read it, try to imagine Trump sitting at the Resolute desk, thinking deeply about a myriad of critical details to unravel this millennia-long, infinitely complicated conflict. We’re told that his goal was to craft the one plan that will work to create peace. Makes me wonder who actually cobbled together the ideas and who wrote it. No way Trump, with his gnat-like attention span and inability to grasp anything more complicated than a grift.

Nearly everything in this plan has been proposed many times before and rejected as many times. There are two points that stand out as different and worthy of comment.

10. A Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energise [sic] Gaza will be created .  .  .

A Trump economic development plan? Really? He’s the Baron of Bankruptcy, the Foreman of Fraud. The Poacher of Philanthropic Funds. The King of Cons and the Prince of Payoffs. And he’s going to make the economic development plan for Gazans? But his plan to rebuild Gaza includes creating the “Riviera on the Mediterranean” for his own benefit.

Puke-able.

20. The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians .  .  .

The U.S. will do this, huh? Just as though Hamas and the Gazans trust the U.S.? Can you think of even a single reason why Palestinians should see this as a trustworthy path for their lives and their children’s lives? Why isn’t some other arbiter that is trusted by both sides named as the facilitator, like Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Jordan or the UAE or Turkey?

Is there even a faint reason for Gazans to risk their future to the hands of the U.S., the provider of Gaza destroying, Palestinian killing bombs? Don’t be surprised if Hamas finds a way to scuttle this deal, claiming some U.S. act is to blame. Or Netanyahu scuttles it, claiming Hamas transgressions that required him to send in the IDF after dropping bombs.

Here’s the key about these two points: Trump is managing to make the entire peace and hostage returning process about Trump and for the benefit of Trump. This is Trump clawing for yet more attention and more self-aggrandizement, even as his cognitive capabilities disintegrate before our eyes. This is Trump trying to get a Nobel Peace Prize next year.

Puke-able.

Recall that there was an earlier hostage/ceasefire agreement in 2023. It was a 3-stage deal that fell apart almost immediately, with just a handful of hostages and Palestinian prisoners exchanged. We can hope this time the agreement will hold, but hardliner Netanyahu can’t be trusted any more than Hamas can. And Trump is the least trustworthy human on the planet.

Set your hopes and your expectations on extra low.

Everyone applauds the return of hostages. Everyone applauds the cessation of bombing and killing. It’s just such a shame that anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic Trump and his band of scoundrels would get any credit. That’s making my head and my heart hurt.

From the Israel Policy Forum:

We applaud President Trump and his administration for their hard work in bringing this historic moment to fruition and encourage them to continue to stay focused on the challenging road ahead to negotiate a better future for Israelis and Palestinians.

Wait a second.

  1. Trump’s “hard work” consisted solely of threatening Netanyahu and getting him to humiliatingly apologize to the Qataris whom Netanyahu killed while trying to kill Hamas leaders in Qatar. The apology was okay, but it was not hard work for Trump.
  2. Trump can’t even stay focused on the teleprompter in front of his face, much less will he have what it will take to do the long term work to make and keep peace in that most dangerous neighborhood. Expect from Trump only transient attention to this middle-east process, absurd braggadocio and nothing related to any reality on Earth 1 except his fear of sharks and sparks. Those are real.
María Corina Machado, Venezuelan Opposition Leader Won The Nobel Peace Prize

Right wing idiotic reactions were swift in coming, as there have already been booger flicking stupidities from Putin and White House communications director Steven Cheung. Watch for disparaging comments ranted soon by Trump in incomprehensible press conference blabberings and on social media about both Ms. Corina-Machado and the Nobel Committee, because:

  1. Trump has done the most amazing things, more than anyone has ever seen. You’ve never seen anything like him before. He stopped 8 wars, made Napoleon go home and the won the Big Mac eating contest. And that was just his first day in office.
  2. He’s like a peace superstar, a superstar against violence everywhere, and the world loves him and she’s a loser.
  3. Everybody is saying, I mean people are saying that she cheated, having international losers lobby for her and that isn’t fair. That isn’t right. That isn’t fair.
  4. Trump revealed that George Soros, Antifa and the Hate America coalition are behind this dumb Peace Prize decision. He’s already directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute all of those people, as well as all members of the Nobel Committee. These are horrible people. Terrible people. The International Human Rights Court in The Hague has never before seen injustice like this. Never. This has never happened before.
  5. Trump will play a golf grudge match against Ms. Corina-Machado, with the winner to take home the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump knows that his score will beat hers because his score card is already filled out.
  6. She’s from Venezuela, a sh*t hole, Tren de Aragua country. She better not go for a pleasure cruise because maybe Trump will send a drone to blow up her boat, kill her and dump all the fentanyl she will have on board into international waters. He will claim humanitarian superstardom for having protected American druggies from the drugs and will expect to receive the Nancy Reagan “Just Say No Award.” He will insist that after he receives the award that it will be retired and that the Nobel Peace Prize be redirected to himself.
  7. You think Greenland has trouble? Nobody goes there. Nobody. It’s just a big ice cube. They’re ready to surrender to Trump. Trump is tough. Very tough. Let the Norwegians think about that.
  8. The Norwegians better reverse this Peace Prize award, because they have a nice little country. It would be a shame if anything were to happen to it.
The Trump Sh*t Spray

From Marc Elias, Democracy Docket, October 10:

We are not approaching a constitutional crisis; we are in one. We are not risking authoritarianism; we are experiencing it. We are not crossing the Rubicon; that famous river is so far behind us that our shoes and clothes have completely dried during the journey.

Reported by Heather Cox Richardson on October 10:

Trump threatened to retaliate against China [for saying they would restrict exports of rare earth minerals to the U.S.] and suggested that there was no reason to go through with an upcoming meeting with China’s president Xi Jinping.

Trump’s threat [of vastly higher tariff rates on goods from China] sent stock prices tumbling.

After the stock market closed for the day, Trump posted on social media again, saying he would impose tariffs of 100% on products from China beginning on November 1. This levy is on top of current tariffs. Stocks fell further in after-market trading.

Unavoidable conclusion: Trump is an economic moron.

  • NO KINGS!
  • Be there on October 18 – in just 3 days – to join millions of our fellow democracy loving Americans and make your voice heard. Insist that there will be no fascism and NO KING in the United States of America!
  • Click the map below to find a demonstration near you. There are over 2,500 of them ready to go in blue states and red states – in every state.
Be there!

Click me

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

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

WAR!


POST 1221

Reporting From War-Torn Chicago .  .  .
.

Adapted from Edward R. Murrow’s March 9, 1941 broadcast from London.

Edward R. Murrow

This is Chicago.

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

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

From pal Frank Levy:

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

Click me for the story

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

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

Instructions for being a Republican

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

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

From Project 2025 in Action: Sounding the Alarm for Democracy:

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

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

What Would They Say or Do Today?

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

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

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

The fascists are coming! The fascists are coming!
.

What would Paul Revere do today? What will you do today?

Thomas Paine told us:

Thomas Paine

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

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

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

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

Be there!

Click me

Final Words

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

Who is it who wants to do the slaughtering?

Still Standing

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

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

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

Click me

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

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

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Don Quixote and You


POST 1219

What Motivates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And these guys are leaders?

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

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

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

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

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

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

From Robert Reich:

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

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

Former Rep. Tim Ryan

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

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

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

A Little Constitution Clarity

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

Isolating the speech part of the First Amendment:

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

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

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

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

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

“That’s unconstitutional.”

Reality Check For Windmill Tilters

From my pal FL:

Click me

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

Maybe tomorrow will bring something to be hopeful about.

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

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

Click me

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

About Your Heart, Mr. Quixote

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

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

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

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

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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Civilian Leadership of Our Military


POST 1218

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

The Real Charlie Kirk


POST 1217

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s the real Charlie Kirk.

_____________________________________

New York Times, April 9, 1944

Click me

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

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

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

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