Behavior

ICE!


POST 1252

BREAKING NEWS!

Minneapolis, MN, Saturday, January 24, 2026:

Border Patrol Commander and SS Murder UberFührer Greg Bovino. He really does shave the sides of his head like a Nazi and wear a Nazi SS style long coat. Our murdering ICE thugs look to him for leadership.

37-year-old Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, was shot and killed by ICE thugs yesterday. They had been sitting on him, punching him and trying to hog tie him. Then they shot and killed him. Reportedly, 10 shots were fired into his body.

Within 15 minutes of the shooting administration officials claimed that Pretti had a gun and was trying to shoot ICE agents. Actually, he had a phone. The administration slandered him, calling him a terrorist.

You may believe that prepared gaslighting (“the opponent of the state deserved it.”) and the rest of the administration’s victim demonization lies and their exoneration of the shooter, as you wish. Just keep in mind that before being murdered by an ICE thug 18 days ago, many videos show that Renee Nicole Good was slowly driving away from him. The administration deniers of what was plain for all of us to see claimed she was trying to “run him over.” But cars don’t go sideways, so their stupid excuse wasn’t even physically possible. They and their abhorrent gaslighting only serve to undermine trust in our country and in our democracy.

Regardless of the specifics of the shooting yesterday or that of Renee Good or what anyone says about either murder, there would have been no shooting at all and no one would have been harmed if weak-of-mind ICE Gestapo thugs hadn’t been in Minnesota to stoke fear and anger and to stomp on the rights of Americans.

This is fascism in America.
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Join ICE!

Perhaps you clicked through the pic to the left in my January 4 post and listen to Jesse Welles’ excellent rip on ICE. It’s a fun piece, a cause of outrage and a fine dose of confirmation bias all at the same time. But it’s nothing compared to what’s on the ICE website.

Click the link to the ICE home page in the pic on the right. The most important thing to note there and on the entire site, really, is the call to patriotism through the demonization and persecution of immigrants. Apparently, our patriotism now calls on us to rip people out of their cars, throw them to the ground, zip tie and rendition them to black sites. Or kill them. It’s in the sentences you can’t read at the bottom of the pic. Here’s what they say:

America has been invaded by criminals and predators.
We need YOU to get them out.
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That declares in no uncertain words the core, the focus, the raison d’être, the foundational, primary lies of ICE, Kristi Noem and Trump. Indeed, it’s an impressive pack of bullsh*t propaganda in just two manipulative sentences. You know that with Trump, if his lips are moving, he’s lying. Same for ICE.

  1. America has not been invaded. There never were any caravans. There is no immigrant army. There is no invasion. There is nothing to defend against.
  2. Every study shows that immigrants, whether legal or not, do crime far less often than American citizens. Think about it: they know that they have to stay off the radar of law enforcement. Otherwise, they’ll be sent back to the miserable conditions they left for a better life here – much like your ancestors. They may be immigrants, but they aren’t fools. So, most work hard at honest jobs and don’t do crime.
  3. Apparently, the ICE idiots think being a predator is different than being a criminal, so they have to list both words. Okay, but there is no – i.e. zero – data to support any claim that immigrants, whether legal or not, are predators. That word is used solely to inflame and motivate potential recruits; i.e. ICE thugs. ICE has no need for the presence of truth.
  4. It says, “AMERICA NEEDS YOU.” Apparently, they learned rules of capitalization from Trump. The small print says, “We need YOU to get them out,” but actually we don’t. This country doesn’t need ethnic cleansing and economic studies show that we need more, not fewer, immigrants. Of course, Trump wants all immigrants to come from Norway because they’re very White. At least he did before it was clear that he wasn’t going to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize. Plus, the Norwegians don’t want to put up with our Trumpy American crap, so they aren’t coming.

This ICE website has a pretty good appeal to Americans who love their country and haven’t the brain power to see the lies in those sentences. ICE tells them that by signing up they’ll feel special, probably for the first time in their lives. That’s a strong appeal to our citizens who rejoice in claiming their victimhood. And isn’t it a fine puff-up to beat up people half a step down the power pyramid, including American citizens who probably have it coming anyhow because they didn’t vote for Trump.

Click through to the ICE “See Job Postings” pages and review about 60 ways for ICE agents to screw Americans, legal residents and any Brown person. That’s most attractive, especially if you’re White, angry because you had a rotten childhood and life isn’t fair for you. It’s great over-compensation, too, for having a tiny pee-pee. Betcha nobody will make fun of ICE guys in the locker room now that they carry Glocks.

I did not see where the website says that as an agent you can kill protesters whenever you’re feeling just a bit cross, but I’m sure it’s there.

Final note on this Hitler Brownshirt recruiting website.

When they join ICE these thugs will get minimal training and be issued their very own Kevlar vest, face mask, gun and secret decoder ring. They’ll get to throw Brown people and their sympathizers to the ground and make them eat dirt and snow. They’ll be trained to know that protesters are really domestic terrorists and that when agents are sick of whistles being blown in their faces that these proud ICE thugs can blow away those commie terrorists who are carrying signs or honking their horns. They can chase down cars like a dog and shoot people in the face.

It’s so good to be a patriotic American ICE agent!

Are you ready to be a really rough and tough pretend patriot so that you can break laws with impunity?

Join ICE!

Readings

From Steve Schmidt, January 10, 2026 – The Murder of America:

“Dissent is the righteous cry of the right against the wrong.”

“This moment demands that Democratic leaders embrace a philosophy of raw power. It holds that they will assert it to the maximum in order to stop the assault on the republic and the burning of the Constitution, [this] in defense of the American people.

From Rick Wilson, January 16, 2025 – Trump’s Gestapo.

Wilson says that what ICE is doing to American citizens is a violation of their Constitutional, civil, and human rights, and the consequences are a stain on this nation’s honor and that he’ll stop calling them a Gestapo when,

DHS stops pumping out overt Nazi propaganda, memes, and social media posts.

Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino and Tom Homan are held to account.

the day every ICE agent is ordered to pull off the masks, display a name and a badge number, and DHS sets out in public an explicit code of conduct with real penalties for the abuse of Americans’ civil rights.

But they won’t. Unless we make them.

From The “A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words” Desk

Copenhagen, 1943

Washington DC, 2025

Photos courtesy of Lawrence Dietz

Most Motivational Photo of the Week

Mother Jones reports,

“.  .  . ICE had detained Liam Ramos, a 5-year-old Minnesota boy .  .  .”

“Here is a literal preschooler wearing a Spider-Man backpack, just like all of our kids, as the hand of a much larger masked ICE agent holds onto his backpack, as if he were a flight risk. An oversized blue hat with bunny ears partially covers his face as he stares ahead blankly.”

That’s right. This tiny kid wearing a Spider-Man backpack was on his way to preschool and was detained by ICE and sent to a detention center. They tell us they do this cruelty to make our streets and our country safe from the worst of the worst. Maybe the white bunny ears hat failed to hide little 5-year-old Liam Ramos’ dangerous, worst of the worst nature.*

Bastards!

Read the Mother Jones report. And recognize that cruelty like this is being done in your name and mine every day.

______________________________________________

“America is not supposed to be a place where an angel-face five-year-old named Liam, with a floppy-eared hat and a Spider-Man backpack, gets seized and taken to a detention center by men in masks.”

“The depths of [Trump’s] shallowness is infinite.”

– Maureen Dowd, The Un-American President, January 25, 2025

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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 or Barnes & Noble 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 comments I deem inappropriate.
    7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

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    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

A New Proposal


POST 1251

Let’s take a short break from the ongoing ICE brutality, from the corruption and incompetence of the Trump administration, from its bedrock of self-serving dishonesty, from Trump as pit bull, using every American thing as a fire hydrant to piss on and claim as his own and from the America-defeating Republican cowardice.

You remember Gaza, right? Those people were all over international news for, what, a year? Maybe two? First they were evil for the thousands of rockets they fired into Israeli cities and then for the October 7 massacre.* Then they were victims when Israel hit back. Then they were pitiable for their lack of human basics, like water, food and shelter.

Then something happened somewhere else and the world forgot about them. But their dire circumstances remain and call for something to alleviate the suffering. Oddly, they offer a formerly unimaginable solution to this very old problem in this very old region, so let’s remember these people for a couple of minutes.

The Palestinians can’t have all the territory “from the river to the sea,” regardless of college student chants. The chanters are people who think they are well meaning, but they very much are not.

The Palestinians and the Israelis refuse to live together peacefully. There are sovereignty and religious problems that are intractable and all solutions offered for co-existence have proven to be unacceptable to some or all. People are locked into their stories and will do anything to prove themselves right. But we shouldn’t let self-defeating intransigence get in the way of a solution and the present circumstances offer one that was formerly unthinkable.

As you consider what follows, ignore the current reality of the immobile far right coalition ruling Israel now. It will take more time, but Netanyahu will at last go to prison and the Knesset will balance quite differently.

Israel has all the power in that region right now, so it can dictate. Consider this dictatorial solution.

Click for a larger view.

It is for Israel to declare a two state solution. A new state of Palestine will be carved out of Jordan – the east bank of the Jordan River – and part of Syria and Lebanon. Gazans will be relocated to that territory. Some may not mind being forcibly moved, because Gaza is not much more than rubble now. If they do mind, that won’t matter much, because, again, Israel has all the power and can dictate.

That Jordan, Syria and Lebanon will have to cede territory to the new state of Palestine is a tough one. No country would look favorably on such a loss of its territory. Plus, since 1948 no Arab or Muslim country has ever offered anything to sustain the Palestinian people. They have periodically made wars designed to eradicate Israel and they’ve supplied materials for Hamas to use to build rockets to fire into Israeli cities and kill Israelis. Otherwise, no Arab or Muslim state has ever helped, nor now wants to help Palestinians. This is going to require some truly exceptional diplomacy and perhaps some exquisite arm twisting.

Bear in mind that the current configuration of states in that region is largely due to European countries arbitrarily dictating it be so following WW I. Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon didn’t exist before then.

That carving up of land was done following the Ottoman Empire having grabbed vast territories and reshaped borders for hundreds of years before that. Redefining territory in that region is almost an international sport. While unpalatable to the current countries, carving out land for a new state of Palestine has historical precedent, including the establishment of Israel.

All those Gazans will have to go somewhere. They can’t live within Israel. A separate state is the obvious answer.

Israel will absorb Gaza. They will own what they broke – the Pottery Barn rule. Fixing it will fall entirely to Israel. And Israel will absorb the West Bank for its obvious security value.

To sweeten the deal, Muslims will be allowed access to all their holy sites in Jerusalem. The physical and spiritual security there will be protected by an international guard.

The Palestinians will have to do the very hard work to build a country of their own, perhaps with international help, like the Israelis did. We Americans will have to help. Our no-sighted hard heads will have to deal with the fact that the citizens of the new Palestinian state won’t be their notion of White or Christian. To these hard heads I offer new age psychotherapy: get over it!

This solution is outrageous, yes, but nobody will be able to prevent the implementation of this unilateral solution because, one more time, Israel holds all the cards. Everyone will abhor this idea – everyone – even as nobody – literally nobody – has a better idea.

Sure, there is mountain of details to surmount to make this work. But refusing that climb guarantees unending war, miserable people suffering and dying in spiritual and physical degradation and entirely without hope for a better life. We know that because we’ve seen this movie over and over.

Got a better idea? Put it out there. The world awaits.

Did this piece make you think? Did it distract you from your distractions? Good.

Hurry. People are suffering.

The Last Laugh

From Andy Borowitz, The Borowitz Report of January 9:

LONDON (The Borowitz Report)—In a move that was widely hailed across the free world, on Friday King Charles III of the United Kingdom reasserted British rule over the colonies formerly known as the United States of America.

“In recent days, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller have been advocating a muscular return to colonialism,” the monarch said. “I couldn’t agree more with those chaps.”

“We lost the colonies because our King went insane,” Charles added. “But now the shoe’s on the other bloody foot, isn’t it?”

As for what this change in status would mean for Trump, the King said, “Perhaps he could room with his old chum, my idiot brother.”

_____________________________________

* Right, it was Hamas. But Hamas is composed entirely of Gazans. And the non-Hamas Gazans tolerated Hamas’ constant violence, so it’s on all Gazans, like it or not.

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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 or Barnes & Noble 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 comments I deem inappropriate.
    7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

An Update – With Questions


POST 1249

ICE Murders

Intending no disrespect, Renee Nicole Good is still dead. That’s the way it is when an ICE thug shoots someone in the face or shoots them pretty much anywhere else. It isn’t a movie and the actors don’t get to go home. Renee Nicole Good is and will remain dead and her children will remain orphans.

That was said to make it clear that she isn’t a statistic or an avatar. She was a real person just like you and me and now she’s dead because of ICE brutality directed by Donald “Shaky Brain” Trump, Stephen “Goebbels” Miller, Christi “Puppy Killer with a Rolex” Noem and Pam “President’s Hit Man” Bondi.

It doesn’t get more real or more permanent than dead, and our titular leaders don’t give a damn about that or anything important to you, like your life, just as they don’t care about Renee Good losing hers.

Two more innocents were gunned down by Border Patrol last week in Portland, OR, so it seems right to do a count of the deaths by our immigration thugs. Here’s what I found from Google AI.

Since January 1, 2017, ICE has reported that 70 people have died in its custody. [Note that we don’t know how many have died in the El Salvador torture prison.]

Independent reports suggest a higher potential number, with a 2024 analysis by the ACLU, Physicians for Human Rights, and American Oversight finding that 95% of 52 deaths in ICE custody between 2017 and 2021 were potentially preventable with adequate medical care. 
.

A report by The Trace revealed that between 2015 and 2021, 59 shootings by ICE officers resulted in 23 fatalities. [We must have had a lot of domestic terrorist drivers who tried to run down ICE agents in those years.]

More recent reports from late 2025 and early 2026 indicate a notable increase in the use of force.
.
During the current Trump second term, federal immigration agents have shot at civilians at least 16 times, resulting in four deaths and at least seven injuries, according to a data analysis. [all emphasis original]
.
None of the deaths of incarcerated people were of White guys. But most, maybe all, of the deaths of protesters gunned down by ICE were White. Make of that what you will.
Questions

Do you feel safer?

Is our nation safer?

Is it okay for a vigilante quality posse of goons to shoot law abiding people?

Is this the kind of country you expected or want?

Did you vote for this? This question will make a lot of people twist their innards. Guilt is a terrible thing.

More Pesky Questions

Have you noticed that nearly all the Immigration and Customs Enforcement – ICE – action is happening hundreds to thousands of miles from our borders, where there is no immigration going on?

Can we now stop pretending that what is going on has anything to do with the enforcement of our immigration laws?

Can we now publicly declare that our officially designed domestic terrorism is actually about racial domination in pursuit of White racial purity? You know: like superior Aryan purity?

Playing With Numbers

It’s clear that making this a White Christian nation is a key priority of Trump, MAGA and most super rich guys. So, what would it look like if we removed all those pesky “others”?

We’re already well on the way to expelling all Brown and Black people. People with Somali ancestry are obviously next to be imprisoned and expelled, even though between 70 and 83% of them are U.S. citizens and most others are here legally. But this is the Trump era, so those numbers are no impediment to ICE thuggery.

Muslims, Jews and Asians will likely be next. I have no clue what they’ll do with/to Native Americans. Since Trump likes Andrew Jackson so much, maybe there will be another Trail of Tears that leads to deportation vehicles.

The population of the country is about 348 million, so when we get rid of the 60% of unwelcome non-White, non-Christian “others” the population will be about 139 million.

That leaves me wondering who will do all the jobs that those disappeared people are doing now. What will Trump do with all the vacant rooms in his hotels? What will be our sense of ourselves? Don’t ask me because I won’t make the cut. I’ll be looking for a country to live in.

Three Questions

Who will remove Emma Lazarus’ poem from the base of the Statue of Liberty?

The last line to each stanza of the Star Spangled Banner is “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,” just as Francis Scott Key wrote it. Who will compose a revised last line that both rhymes and reflects our new and deeply compromised freedom and bravery?

When Trump has Arlington National Cemetery dug up to build the “Nobody has ever seen anything like this” Trump U.S. National Golf Course, what will he do with the 430,000 caskets and headstones of all those “suckers and losers”? How will the caskets and headstones be kept properly paired?

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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 or Barnes & Noble 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 comments I deem inappropriate.
    7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

You Knew This Was Coming


POST 1247

ICE thugs have been brutalizing people both verbally and physically for a year. The crowds of protesters have confronted them and have somehow stayed peaceful in the face of ICE brutality and illegality.

Now a mother in Minneapolis is dead at the hands of an ICE agent holding a gun like he thinks he’s Rambo. Trump and his mouthpieces claimed the ICE thug was afraid for his life, but video of the scene puts the lie to that. The real issue, though, is that he should never have been where he was and doing what he was doing.

This is Donald Trump’s Gestapo, crafted by his chief Nazi, Stephen Miller. It is Trump’s national private police, made up of people desperate to feel strong, needing to feel in charge of themselves for once and basking in the glow of receiving a pat on the head from someone in authority. Thanks to megalomaniac Trump these people are unrestrained by law, justice or even simple decency. They are the American SS.

They abuse people who may possibly be guilty of a misdemeanor but likely aren’t, like overstaying a visa. They abuse people born in this country and who are, therefore, citizens of the U.S. by order of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. They abuse legal residents, like visiting nurses and college students. But all of these people are treated by ICE like they’re heinous criminals who have been convicted of the most terrible crimes. Committing offenses against humanity is the ICE marching order. It’s designed to terrify all of us into compliance.

It was just a matter of time before there would be unjustifiable violence*. I mean, really, they recruited thousands of low character men craving some justification for acting out their anger, gave them face masks, uniforms without identification and guns. They put them in black, unmarked vehicles and told them they have quotas to meet and that isolating the right suspects is unimportant. Just lock up bodies. I wonder how many of them are the very same January 6 insurrectionists who are traitors to our country. How many of them do you suppose are Proud Boys or Oath Keepers? Bear in mind that Hitler recruited his Gestapo from prisons and recruited violent criminals.

Oh, and they made these thugs above the law, untouchable and all powerful over state and local officials and law enforcement.

WHAT THE HELL

DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN?

.

This ICE murder in Minneapolis is one of several ICE murders – two more in Portland yesterday. And you know that Trump, Miller and Noem all lied about the Minneapolis murder in less than an hour. They lie reflexively, automatically, pathologically – and they will call this and any other violence a reason to send our military to Democratic (blue) cities to enforce martial law. You know that they’ll call for yet more brutal actions and they will spew yet more vile lies about law abiding people – like your neighbors or even you.

With the invasion of a sovereign nation and the kidnapping of its president; the lionization and pardoning of January 6 terrorist insurrectionists, calling them heroes and patriots; with the justice-free Department of Justice; most especially with the astonishing cowardice of the Republicans in Congress; with the six extremist Justices of the sycophantic Supreme Court; Trump hopes he will have redirected us away from the Epstein matter so that we won’t find out about the crimes he committed and he’ll thereby escape accountability.

But we won’t forget the violation of those little girls. We won’t allow them to be abandoned again. And we won’t allow justice to be perverted for the benefit of rich perverts.

See Andy Borowitz’s 9 second read about Minneapolis.

And if you want clarity about what is happening to America and Americans, see Rick Wilson’s 3-minute read, Stephen Miller’s Murder Machine – Murder and Lies in Minneapolis.

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    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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 comments I deem inappropriate.
    7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Doing “Things”


POST 1245

Preface: Nearly all of this post was written prior to the American invasion and kidnapping done in Venezuela yesterday. Consequently, there are just a few comments about that particular dog wagging and lawbreaking included here. We will do a deeper dive soon. Meanwhile, keep your eye on the prize.

Click me for the story by The Onion. My preferred caption for all of the posed pictures of Trump signing an executive order is, “Look! Look! I made a boom-boom!”

We the People are an endlessly clever and creative band and we relentlessly ridicule those who have earned and richly deserve our contempt and shaming. The year just past provided non-stop material for satire and verbal punches in the nose to our national abusers of decency, the law, the Constitution and even rational thinking. A few favorites are sprinkled in this post.

First, though, please accept my thanks for reading these posts and sometimes commenting on them. We all can do our part in this war to stop fascism, to protect and defend our Constitution, our democracy and our way of life and to restore decency to its place at the forefront of our cherished values. These posts are part of my modest effort to do just that. Indeed, when you see a message in these posts encouraging you to share them and to encourage others to subscribe (one more time: it is still and will remain a freebie!) it’s for the purpose of stretching the reach of the message from those of us who think democracy is a pretty good thing worthy of our collective moral muscle, to those who need our encouragement.

This particular post is less my words than direction to the brilliance of others. We start with the year end post of Prof. Heather Cox Richardson.

Click me

She brings context and points a finger at the guilty responsible for so many deeply destructive, anti-Constitutional and outright illegal things that have happened since January 20. Most examples are blood boilers, preludes to full-on fascism, but some really good stuff happened, too, like judicial decisions that pinned Trump’s ears back. Those are fun.

Many commentaries are persuasive, yet most often we’re left not knowing what to do to make the change we want to come about. Turns out some people can help fill that “huh?” hole.

For example, Robert Reich published 10 Crucial Things You Can Do in 2026 and it’s a really good list. You’ll know how to do every one of those “things”.

Here’s one of my “things”.

Are you on the fence about mean girl puppy murderer and poser in front of men illegally jammed into a torture prison at her direction, Christie Noem? Should she be removed from her post as Secretary of Homeland Security?

First, Watch this little video of Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (IL-3) as she skewers Noem by detailing her lies, her law breaking and her joyful cruelty. Then decide a proper fate for her.

Next, call your representative and senators and demand that they oust this talent-less Eva Braun by means of a humiliating impeachment. That’s a “thing” you can do.

Now Some Bitter, Well-Earned Congratulations:

Watch and listen to Jesse Welles’ message about recruiting ICE thugs. If you want more to make you think, click here.

– to the many millions of Americans who voted for Trump and who have lost their Obamacare subsidy so that their healthcare insurance now costs more than double what it cost last week. That will make it completely impossible for millions to get insurance at all and they will be relegated like so many to only the hospital emergency room for healthcare, including for their children. Millions of them live in red states and they didn’t vote for this to happen.

– to the hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens and legal residents who have been unjustly thrown to the ground, handcuffed, their faces mashed into the pavement, thrown into unmarked vans and either imprisoned or deported, all without an arrest warrant or even reasonable suspicion of any wrongdoing. It sucks to be an American with fascists in power and only the sociopaths voted for this.

– to the millions of kids who now go hungry because of the cruel withholding of SNAP benefits, a huge proportion of which used to go to families in red states. Again, they voted for Trump, but they didn’t vote for this to happen.

Grifting with Jesus

– to all the dozens of Venezuelans who have been illegally murdered at sea and now on land, but who were never formally accused of, incarcerated for, convicted of or sentenced for any crime.

– to all of us for our windfall benefit created by Trump’s piracy at sea of at least two oil super tankers filled with Venezuelan oil.

– to the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who have died of starvation or lack of inexpensive medicines because Trump ended the USAID program.

– to all of us for the blatant crushing under heel of the First Amendment on Christmas day by Trump and various departments of what’s left of our government. “If lawmakers could destroy the right of freedom of conscience, they could destroy all other unalienable rights. Those in charge of government could throw representative government out the window and make themselves tyrants.” Read Heather Cox Richardson for this sad story.

Maybe you’d prefer an upside down Bible from the steps of St. John’s Church.

– to the terrorist cult of MAGA for its cheering Trump auctioning off a hastily painted Jesus, where he announced through his actions yet again that there is no bottom. There is nothing so undignified, so clownishly demeaning of our country that Trump will refuse the opportunity to grab it by its septic tank and tarnish our nation before the world.

– to Merrick Garland and his timid DOJ for epic, even galactic foot dragging, thereby refusing to enforce our laws. That allowed Trump to run in and win the 2024 election. See William A. Finnegan’s take down of what happened. This story will gnarl your innards yet again over the DOJ cowardice that enabled the current, ongoing destruction of our Constitution and blatant lawlessness, every bit as much as our lap dog Republican Congress has enabled that through the same cowardice.

Yes, really

– to the people of Venezuela for losing their country to Donald Trump. He’s made it clear that he admires and wants to be like Vladimir Putin, invading a sovereign nation, bombing facilities and killing its citizens. Trump has gone even farther by kidnapping its leader. Now he’s just like Putin. Maybe worse.

NOTE: Don’t be distracted. This invasion and kidnapping have nothing to do with drugs, democracy, elections or how bad or how illegitimate is Maduro as president of Venezuela. It is about the massive reserves of oil beneath that country and what that’s worth to Trump. That’s why we’ll “run the country.” Plus it’s a first step toward domination of all of South America and maybe Greenland, because Trump desperately needs to show what a strongman he is.

– finally, congratulations to us, for our dog being wagged relentlessly by yet another illegal Trump military distraction. But We The People will not let the Epstein scandal go away and Trump will get what he is due.

You know that this congratulatory list could be very long and you understand the sarcasm. You get that we cannot – we must not – tolerate more of this, which means that you and I must take action because our dire circumstances have become worse. Whatever you and I are doing, it isn’t enough. This is a great and lasting task before us. But, what to do? Try this to jump start your engine:

  • I can’t vouch for the claimed connection to anyone named Van Gogh, but the message is clear and compelling. There is a blank page before us waiting for what’s next in our story of democracy and it is our honor to write that story.

I repeat: Whatever you and I are doing, it isn’t enough. But we can do “things” and keep on doing “things”.

Many, many thanks to all who step up, do “things” and carry a load for the sake of all of us.

  • Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

A New Year Wish For You


POST 1244

A long time ago, yet not seeming to be so long past, Marilyn and I married. Without planning to do so, we began traditions of our own, not quite like hers and not quite like mine.

Our children, grandchildren and more gather every year and one thing we do is to plan a family philanthropy project. That, of course, is an opportunity to reach beyond ourselves and be of service to others, as well as being a good and fundamental teaching for the young ‘uns and even a good reminder for the old ‘uns.

And we do a holiday talent show, with everyone getting their very own time to shine, 3 minutes to entertain us all with dancing, singing, a magic trick, showing a complex, hands-on project – whatever each of us chooses to show and tell. It’s great fun, with lots of laughs and high energy applause and cheering.

This year a grandson sang Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and I heard the song in a way that was different and far more valuable than before. Here’s the lyric that changed things for me:

Through the years
We all will be together
If the fates allow

But the fates don’t always allow. They may for a while, but they likely will have things in store for us that we cannot or will not see, until at last we can no longer avoid the reality that we will not always be together. We are left to deal with the absences.

All religions have their holy things, their holy rituals, their holy incantations and their divines. But this year our grandson led me to something holy that might have been obvious long ago, but I got it clearly and in full measure just now.

To me what is most valuable, most enduring to the heart and most dear and holy is my family, together. That’s holy.

And so I wish you not just a happy new year, but a holy one, wherever you find holy, perhaps with your dear ones, whether they are near or far.

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 the job done.

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
  2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Behavior Geek


POST 1241

A Disambiguation Science Moment

Today, the winter solstice, is not the shortest day of the year. In fact, there is no shortest day of the year. They’re all the same length: 24 hours; 86,400 seconds. What this actually is that is noteworthy is the day of this year with the shortest duration of daylight. Conversely, it’s the day with the greatest duration of dark sky.

But you knew that. Here’s another way to look at it.

Starting today, we’ll gain between 1 and 3 minutes per day until the summer solstice on June 21. Consider that we can shed more and more light on reality all next year to influence our November 3 election to create more sanity in our federal and state governments.

More light. It’s a good thing.

We Start Here

Machiavelli told us long ago, it matters far more what people think of you than what the reality is. And we are experts at manipulating our self-presentation [and] we are so good at it that we actually believe the nonsense we say to other people.

– Bill Moyers interview of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, 2012

Haidt was talking about all of us, but this was pre-Trump. The concern today is about our not-so-dear president, his sycophants and his millions of supporters. They actually believe the nonsense they say.

And the concern is also about the cavers, the ones who sell themselves out for a short term gain. The reason for our concern is the terrible effect they have on our nation and on each of us individually, including their attack on values we all claim to hold but which are sold out by so many.

We learned during Trump 1.0 that when he says outrageous, incendiary, un-American things that he’s telling us what he actually will do, including breaking the law. Oddly, many are surprised.

Click me

“We’re shocked, shocked, to find that there is crime being done in and from the White House!” It’s a Captain Renault moment in America, over and over.

To mix metaphors probably way too much, we really did know what that snake was when we picked him up, so there should be no surprise at all. Horror? Fear? Blood running cold? Sure. But not surprise.

Perhaps what is more shocking is the capitulation done by people who had no need to capitulate. The knee benders. The ring kissers. The simple greedy bastards. The ones who obey in advance.

From Wikipedia:

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (“Paul Weiss”) is the sole law firm targeted by an executive order that did not sue the administration and instead made a deal with the administration to avoid sanctions and restore access [to federal courts].

In addition to Paul Weiss, eight other firms made preemptive deals with Trump to avoid being similarly targeted by executive orders. As part of the settlements, the nine law firms have agreed to provide a total of $940 million in pro bono work to efforts supported by the president. Plus, they and many others each agreed to Trump’s extortion plan that they “donate” $16 million to Trump’s presidential library, for which there is neither a location nor architectural plans.

Trump doesn’t read and his only book is Mein Kampf, so there will be no need for book shelves, nor file cabinets for documents in a Trump library, were it to be built. Likely, there would only be his greatest hits album detailing his tough guy speeches and reruns of The Apprentice shown in a gold and white theater.

Columbia University went completely paws up to Trump when he pulled $400 million in federal funding from them. To get him off their back they relinquished control of their programs, their classes and even their selection of students and faculty.

What they and so many others have in common is that they have ignored Timothy Snyder’s messages from On Tyranny – 20 Lessons From The Twentieth Century. Here’s a sampling. Note that the comments below are mine, not Snyder’s.

Lesson No. 1: Do Not Obey In Advance. Don’t do what you think the bully wants you to do, perhaps hoping to curry favor. Doing so is surrendering without even an objection, much less a fight. It’s voluntarily going paws up. Instead, put on your big boy or big girl pants and punch the damn bully in the face. Hard.

Lesson No. 2: Defend institutions. Tyrants want to smash them, disempower them so that they can control everything and everyone. Instead, put on your big boy or big girl pants and punch the damn bully in the face. Hard.

Lesson No. 5: Remember professional ethics. Refuse to succumb to directives ordering discrimination and violation of your oaths. Instead, put on your big boy or big girl pants and punch the damn bully in the face. Hard.

There is more, of course, but it all comes down to taking a stand protecting and defending what must be protected and defended, like the Constitution. Failure to do so is nothing but caving in, hoping you’ll quickly get out of the crosshairs of the bully and will be able to do so on the cheap. The best that can be said about that is that it is astonishingly short sighted and self-deluding.

When a little kid has a temper tantrum and you give him what he wants, hoping to shut him up, you’ve trained him to come back in full tyrant form and demand more. That’s what happens to those who are quick sell-outs to bullies. The bullies take your lunch money the next day, too. Don’t be an idiot. Put on your big boy or big girl pants and punch the damn bully in the face. Hard.

And that’s the message that so many should have heard and heeded. Trump’s threatened lawsuits would have been easy to defeat in court because his actions weren’t defensible. His style is to make capitulation the cheapest exit from his bullying. But there really is no exit for those who cave and ultimately it isn’t cheap.

There are many short-term thinkers, like the bullies who became ICE thugs. Trump found a cheap hook to recruit them – a $50,000 signing bonus – and then he owned them. He told them to bully, beat, gas, shoot and assault people indiscriminately – strangers, fellow citizens, neighbors – anyone even a little brown – and to pay no attention to whether they were U.S. citizens or legal residents and to essentially ignore whether they were criminals or not. Trump got his national thug army and set them a-thugging. The goal wasn’t about crime. It was and is to terrorize the country so that he could rid the country of non-Whites using illegal immigration as a cover story. Plus he’d get to cow all of us into submission.

And these ICE thugs stepped up to collect their checks and then started beating up innocent people. When Trump is gone and sane people are back in charge – like when we once again remember and invoke our common values – look for prosecutions of all the bullies.

For these and others, the day will come when they are in deep, deep trouble, maybe anguish, because they gave up, sold out on the cheap for their greed and for their lust for power until nothing was left. They will look for strength deep inside and will find an empty vacuum where their souls used to be.

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 the job done.

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
  2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

You’re A Pirate!


POST 1239

Yes You!

On September 2, 2025 the Secretary of Defense (he prefers “Secretary of War – it’s more chest poundingly tough guy sounding) Six Gun Pete Hegseth had a special day. It started with spotters finding a non-military open boat, apparently from Venezuela, in international waters. It was powered by engines commonly used for water skiing and was carrying 11 people. Six Gun Pete ordered the boat to be blown up, same as he had done to others over the prior weeks, killing nearly 90 people.

Without so much as a whiff of evidence he claimed that the boat had been  carrying illegal drugs. But even if there had been drugs:

  1. The boat hadn’t been headed for the United States, 1,200 miles away and traveling in a different direction, so the U.S. had no authority to intervene.
  2. The standard protocol for handling a situation where contraband is suspected is interdiction by the Coast Guard, not murder.

Nine of the 11 people aboard that small boat were killed by a U.S. missile. That left a vexing problem for the head of our “Department of War.” There were two survivors of that U.S. missile attack. They were clinging to floating parts of the destroyed boat and were, by any notion of reality, shipwrecked survivors. They were non-combatants completely unable to be a danger to anyone. Had there been illegal drugs on board their boat, they couldn’t have delivered them anywhere because they had no boat; just flotsam. They were harmless corks in the ocean, leaving Hegseth the task of deciding what to do with them. Maritime law said that they must be rescued.

Instead, our valiant War Czar made the brave call: “Kill them all!” he announced with manly vigor about people who had done no harm to the U.S. or to any Americans.

So, on Hegseth’s order, Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley issued the order to kill those two men bobbing in the ocean. Another missile was fired and they immediately stopped being survivors.

There was no longer a legal threat to Hegseth that would have arisen had they instead been rescued and brought to the United States for a pesky habeas corpus thing. That was good for Hegseth, because in a trial he would have had to produce evidence of drugs aboard that boat. He would have had to demonstrate that the drugs were bound for the veins of Americans. But Hegseth had no such evidence. His tough guy deception and lies could go unchallenged just by killing those 2 helpless guys bobbing like corks in the ocean. So, that’s what he did.

We were not and are not at war – at least we are not in a declared war or a war authorized by Congress. Clearly, then, the killing of those 11 people could not be acts of war. It was instead cold blooded murder, ordered by Six Gun Pete Hegseth.

We don’t know if the president ordered Hegseth to do that, but it seems more than likely that he did, since he always needs to appear to be the Tough-Guy-in-Chief. Wanton murder is one of the things that pirates do, but this story has become more blatantly criminal and more obviously a foul tale of piracy since September 2.

On December 10 your president ordered that an unarmed merchant oil tanker sailing from Venezuela be boarded and commandeered by U.S. forces. The ship was not bound for the U.S. and no evidence of materials that could be used to harm the U.S. has been presented as justification for the assault. Here’s where Trump’s official policy to pick a fight with Venezuela crosses from stupid into total piracy,

The president has announced that the ship will be sailed to a U.S. port and its cargo of 1.8 million barrels of oil with a market value of roughly $95 million will be taken. Stolen. Pirated. And Trump is threatening to steal yet more Venezuelan tankers.

That’s piracy by anyone’s definition, including that of hundreds of years of maritime law, the laws of the World Court and the laws of the United States. And because this is being done in your name,

You are now a pirate
and your Jolly Roger waves over the seas,
malevolently declaring American piracy and murder.
.

Wouldn’t piracy and murder fall under the definition of “high Crimes and Misdemeanors“?*

It was bad enough when V.P. Dick Cheney (or was it Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld?) announced in 2003 that we would steal Iraqi oil and that it would pay for our invasion of Iraq and reconstruction of that country. But the Chinese have controlled Iraqi oil since 2003 and it’s claimed that $150 billion has been stolen. It seems that we weren’t as good at piracy then as our genius leaders led us to believe. But we were quite adept at murder. We’re still good at that.

Now we have Trump’s larceny and murder going on. What could possibly go wrong?

Shiver me timbers, matey. And wag the dog.

UPDATE!

The federal judge’s order regarding the seizure warrant for the ship carrying Venezuelan oil was unsealed yesterday. It gives permission to Trump and his grifters to keep the spoils of their piracy. But it’s hard to know anything substantive about that, because the unsealed document is nearly completely redacted. Everything but the title page is blacked out. There’s no way to check any of the claims, nor the reasoning for the judicial decision. There’s nothing left that could benefit the American people.

From The Mercury:

A US court released a heavily redacted warrant on Friday that had authorized the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a move Caracas decried as an act of “international piracy” and “blatant theft”.

______________________________________________

* See Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.

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 the job done.

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
  2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Your Government At Work – Maybe


POST 1237

Click me

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. No one alive on that day could have foreseen the intentional decline of the United States of America that has occurred, brought to us by political self-dealing, greed, power lust and voter indifference. Those at Pearl Harbor 84 years ago didn’t fight and die for the mess we have now. Read this.

The Rusty Wheels of Government

Take a look at this:

H.J.Res.54 – Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing that the rights protected and extended by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons only. (119th Congress)
Sponsor: Rep. Jayapal, Pramila [D-WA-7] (Introduced 02/12/2025)

Has changes in:

    • Cosponsors (1 new, 68 total)
      • Cosponsor: 12/03/2025: Rep. Goldman, Daniel S. [D-NY-10]

My representative hasn’t sponsored this critical bill yet, so I wrote to him asking him to cosponsor this legislation that is designed to allow for the elimination of Big Money from our elections, our politics and our laws and to ensure that the protection of our rights extends only to flesh and blood human beings. You know: reverse the dreadedful Citizens United manipulated Supreme Court decision.

If your rep hasn’t signed on yet, tell them what you want. Here’s a link to find his/her contact info. Just enter your zip code in the lookup box on the top right of that page. Your doing that will be part of lubrication for those rusty wheels of government.

Got The Alleged Bad Guy

You’ll recall that Trump directed thousands of people to storm the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, inciting that insurrection. When they had vandalized everything they could find, tried to find Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi so they could lynch them and had defecated in the halls of Congress, they left with Trump saying he loved them and that they were fine people and patriots all.

Over 1,500 were tried and convicted of crimes. Then Trump, the tough on crime president, pardoned all of them in 2025, including the thugs who tried to kill cops. Isn’t he just the epitome of tough-on-crime?

Last Thursday our government bad guys catchers announced that they had arrested the guy they are sure planted the backpack bombs in DC just before that January 6, 2021 insurrection. Did I mention that it was planned and incited by Donald Trump.

The alleged perp catching isn’t the news. What is most significant is how the presenters of this nab spoke in a news conference. Note that the team included Attorney General Pam Bondi, Director of the FBI Kash Patel, Assistant FBI director Dan Bongino and U.S. Attorney for DC, Jeanine Pirro. Here’s what they did and said that is worthy of note.

  1. The entire event was little more than a self-congratulatory victory lap, all speakers chanting their own version of, “We’re so great! We’re so great! Na, na, noo, noo! We’re so great!” like so many high school jerks. They are so pleased to take nearly all the credit for the bust and give just an honorable mention to the FBI agents who did all of the hard work. So much for professionalism.
  2. Every speaker presented with righteous superiority the various failings, ineptitude and the unworthiness of President Biden and his entire administration. They’ll have us know that for four years they did nothing to find the bad guy, our performative ones say. And weren’t we lucky to finally have these real professionals at work for the American People? No, really, they’re just so great!

And there was more embarrassing stuff.

Please watch the 26 minute circus sideshow for yourself. Then come back to the Comments section below and let everyone know what other horribles I missed.

This complete lack of professionalism and childish bravado is what Americans voted for, however unknowingly. Now we wait as this story plays out, There will be charges made of possession of forbidden materials and whatever other charges they can conjure. There will be a trial held and the perp will go to prison, unless, of course, Bondi’s DOJ geniuses find ways to screw up this trial, too, like they did the James Comey and Letitia James prosecutions. If all that happens while Trump is still in office, watch for this perp to receive a January 6-worthy presidential pardon, unless, of course, Trump finds out that the guy is Black.

In Yet Another Attack .  .  .

.  .  .  on American values, the Trump White House issued its 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) of the United States of America. Giving credit where it might be due, it’s possible that there isn’t even a handful of staffers who can spell “strategy,” much less know what it is, but their numbers wouldn’t include key players, because they’re just players.

This is a document that blows off all U.S. obligations to NATO, abdicates international order, promotes U.S. imperialism, embraces tough guy murderous rulers and promises to roll over all of Latin America to “protect our interests,” whatever that convenient phrase might mean when uttered by any Project 2025 extremist.

This document is an ugly read that will offend your very being, so instead read Heather Cox Richardson’s piece about it from her December 5 post. Be sure to first take your heart attack pills.

The Ignoble Prize

It became clear even to Trump he will never be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, this for substantial reasons having to do with a lack of peace influenced by him, plus his continuing international belligerency. But his fragile ego needs a prize, so a solution was found. It is for Trump to award himself the first ever FIFA (soccer) Peace Prize. That brought raucous international disapproval and booing of fans, who declared, “This is pathetic.” The inscription on the medal reads, “For continuing discreditable service against the common man and attacks against laudable values.”

In receiving the award Trump said that he was so moved that he was speechless. He then proceeded to babble incoherently for 40 minutes, mispronouncing slurs against Presidents Obama and Biden and mimicking his insults of Sen. Adam Schiff. Reporters around the world once again bemoaned that America chose Trump as the best we could offer.

es
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 the job done.

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
  2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble 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 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Thanksgiving Message From a Geek


POST 1234

Stand-Up Guys Do: “Don’t Obey Illegal Orders” Video

Six Democratic lawmakers posted a video to remind our military folks that they are required to refuse illegal orders, like committing murder. Trump, Hegseth and others are calling these elected officials insurrectionists, saying that their actions are punishable by death, but of course they broke no laws, incited nothing unpatriotic and called for following the law and the Constitution. Nevertheless, Trump made threatening statements designed to inflame his followers and bully the six.

Sen. Mark Kelly was on Rachel Maddow’s program on Monday with his comments about the extremist, murderous comments.

“I’ve had a missile blow up next to my airplane. I’ve been . . . nearly shot down multiple times. I’ve flown a rocket ship into space four times, built by the lowest bidder, and my wife Gabby Giffords, meeting with her constituents, shot in the head. Six people killed around her. A horrific thing. She spent six months in the hospital. We know what political violence is, and we know what causes it, too . . . The statements that Donald Trump made . . . incite others . . . He should be careful with his words. But I’m not going to be silenced here . . . I’m going to show up for work every day, support the Constitution, do my job, hold this administration accountable, hold this president accountable when he is out of line. That’s the responsibility of every U.S. senator and every member of Congress. He’s not going to silence us.”

I love stand up guys and am thankful for these six brave people. See number 1 below.

Thanksgiving

I’ve been thinking about what kind of Thanksgiving message to offer and confess that several times I’ve lapsed into a lazy “This is awful” funk. The times invite us there, but that is, as I say, lazy. So, with just a little effort, here’s a starter list of things to be thankful/grateful for, listed in no particular order.

  1. That there are strong, stand up people like Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), as well as Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) and Chris Deluzio (D-PA) standing up for the rule of law.
  2. That in these fraught, threatening times millions of us are standing up and speaking up, refusing fascism and governmental cruelty.
  3. That when ICE thugs show up, a protest gathers within minutes, like in that town of 1,500 where 800 people showed up to say NO! to ICE.
  4. That 30,000 kids walked out of school and protested ICE in Charlotte.
  5. That New Yorkers purchased the goods of street vendors so that they could scram and not be exposed to ICE thugs.
  6. That we still have our five fundamental freedoms of the First Amendment.
  7. That our courts are standing up for us and truncating the power of the president to order our National Guard and our Marines onto our streets. The courts are ruling against the compromising of our Department of Justice and against presidential overreach and gross violations of the law.
  8. That we care about our fellow citizens and instinctively reach out to help, like that Chicago neighborhood that stepped up to help a deli owner whose shop was vandalized.
  9. That 1.3 million men and women volunteers are on duty all around the world right now, standing guard, saying that nothing bad will happen to us on their watch.
  10. That doctors all over the country are putting the lie to Robert Kennedy’s baseless claims about vaccines and causes of autism.
  11. That Trump’s ongoing decline into mental incompetence and physical deterioration is on public display.
  12. That Trump is so bad, so demonic, so anti- all that is good that he has caused the unthinkable to happen: that I now agree with Marjorie Taylor Green sometimes.
  13. That millions of us are donating money, food and our labor to help feed those who cannot take care of themselves or their children. And remember that it’s just November and that December through March it gets really cold in most of the country. Donate warm clothing, like a warm coat for someone who has no coat.
  14. That dear ones will be gathering all around the country tomorrow to make a statement about gratitude. In my family, once everyone is seated with a plate of food, we take turns saying what we’re grateful for. If that isn’t a standard practice in your family, I recommend it. I promise you’ll be surprised and, yes, grateful and thankful for what you hear.
Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
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