Behavior

Five


POST 1116

Did you already vote? Great! And you’re not done protecting our rights, our freedoms and our democracy.

You know quite well that MAGA and the acquiescent, cowardly Republicans stand for hatred, cruelty, violence and un-American values and norms. They cannot make themselves bigger so they use every hateful method to make everyone else smaller and poorer in every way. Here’s the most recent evidence of their crimes against America and Americans.

The Trump Nazi Bund rally at Madison Square Garden last Sunday was a goose stepping jamboree, a festival of hatred and cruelty. From Heather Cox Richardson:

The hateful performances of the early participants set the tone for the rally. Early on, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who goes by Kill Tony, delivered a steamingly racist set. He said, for example: “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” He went on: “And these Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.” Hinchcliffe also talked about Black people carving watermelons instead of pumpkins.*

You may recall that Trump made himself the anti-hero for the people of Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria by throwing rolls of paper towels to people devastated by that storm. You may also recall that Puerto Rico is one of the Trump-named “shithole countries.” Actually, Puerto Ricans are Americans, but people like Trump, Vance and that swamp creature comedian don’t like to acknowledge that.

That kind of thing is why you voted against the MAGA creeps.

As my friend, futurist David Houle recalled, in the 60s the establishment types hated protesters, anti-war types – anything that wasn’t locked down establishment. They wore their certainty of their being the true Americans on their sleeves and also wore it on their pick up trucks and cars with signs reading, “America: Love it or Leave it.”

Writes Houle,

The “conservative candidate,”  Donald Trump, has been trashing America.  He most recently called America a “garbage can of a country.”  I don’t think that any presidential candidate in U.S. history has ever spoken so negatively about this wonderful democracy.

What?!  If you, Mr. Trump, do not love America or want America to once again become a “shining city on a hill;”

If [you] Donald Trump [don’t] like America, [you] can leave it! Love it or leave it, Donald.

Remember that Trump has been painting America in dystopian terms since 2017.

It’s time we recognized that Trump does not love America and he doesn’t care a bit about the disaster he will leave behind him. He wants to change nearly everything about America and all for the worse for our rights, our freedom and our democracy. So, per my friend David’s observation, it’s time for Trump to leave.

AND NONE OF THAT IS THE POINT!!

.

As I explained in this post, the point is that Trump is just the marionette, the puppet designed to distract us from what the Heritage Foundation fascists are doing. What they really want is to put Vance in the White House so he can be their tool boy to destroy our democracy. Their plan is to get Trump into the White House and then invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him and put Vance at the Resolute Desk to enact all of the democracy destroying carnage of Project 2025!

Trump is doing everything he can to keep his loyal followers juiced up, mindlessly angry, full of certainty and hatred. He’s doing nothing to attract additional supporters. That’s a perfect recipe for losing the election so he can attack his popular and Electoral College losses by inciting violence.

I don’t have a magic formula, a witch’s cauldron of potion to cure the extremists. What I’m sure of is that Trump must not be allowed anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and that starts with his overwhelming loss at the polls. The good guy legal eagles will have to figure out how to stop his valueless lawsuits. Our law enforcement people will have to figure out how to deal with the violence and the phony electors. All of that is above my pay grade. But crushing MAGA in this election is right on our level.

So, you voted. Did you think Trump and MAGA extremists would go away because you voted in this free and fair election? Nope.

This win for our rights, our freedom and our democracy needs to be an overwhelming victory for Harris-Walz and a crushing defeat for Heritage Foundation fascism. That’s why you aren’t done taking action.

Look at the countdown clock below. Five days is all we have to create the tidal wave victory for the America we believe in.

Just five days to stiff arm fascism.

Five days to protect the future for our children and grandchildren.

Just five days to block politicians from OB/GYN exam rooms.

Just five days to ensure we have leaders who will take steps to stem the hemorrhaging from our gun violence.

Just five days to restore decency to our government and our nation.

We have just five days to banish the haters from our politics.

We have just five days to encourage people to vote, using our door knocking, postcards, phone calls and more.
.

“Hard work is good work.” There are lots of options for you,

Many of which are listed here

There are Post Cards to Swing States – Holland & Muskegon MI

You can knock on Doors in Wisconsin

Rockin’ Zoom Phone Bank – Indivisible Illinois

Or this

Or this

And of course there is this potpourri of opportunities to make a difference.

This stuff is easy to find and easy to do, so find something. The key: TAKE ACTION TODAY!

Tell people to vote like their life depends on it.

Because it does.

___________________________________________

* In case you are a Trump apologist or Trump explainer/whisperer, consider this.

Eleven years ago a US Navy submarine surfaced right into a Japanese fishing boat. The fishing boat sank and nine people were killed. The submarine captain with an otherwise fine record, was officially disciplined and had to resign from the Navy. Here’s why.

The leader is responsible for everything – that’s everything – that happens on his/her boat, whether it’s during the captain’s watch or not. It’s the captain’s job to make certain that all involved are properly trained, that they know their jobs and that they execute them properly. No excuses.

And so it is in the Trump campaign. Trump is responsible for the hiring, training and execution of his election team. Someone on his election campaign invited that crude “comedian” to speak, so Trump is responsible for his crude, cruel words. Trump can dance all he wants, but Trump is responsible for that hurtful meanness. He can try to distance himself from that, he can apologize – no matter. He’s accountable.

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

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

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

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

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


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

    Click me

    JA


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

A-Changin’


POST 1115

On the Sunday before last the New York Times published letters from readers that were composed in lyrical form rather than in prose. One was to the tune of the 60s Bob Dylan song, The Times They Are A-Changin’. Here’s it’s opening:

Come liars, deniers who call it a hoax

And convince us these fires are nothin’ but jokes

When the air that you’re breathing’s like three packs of smokes

Even Fox might admit they were fakin’

Better get a good gas mask if ya don’t wanna choke

‘Cause the climate is a-changin’

Having been there in the 60s and been a finalist in Lyndon Johnson’s contest to win an all expense paid trip to Vietnam, I was sensitive to Dylan’s words in his song. That tide of change led to the 1968 anti-war demonstrations in Grant Park that turned into a battle that the Kerner Commission labeled a “police riot.” I remember Hizzoner the Mayor, Richard J. Daley, defending the police, saying, “The police are not here to create disorder. They are here to preserve disorder.” He certainly was a man of insightful and inspiring words.

What comes to me now is that the 60s demand for change was about our attempts to move away from repressive government hiding behind the label “conservative.” It seemed designed solely to prevent any change that might affect the power of those in charge, regardless of the desires of We The People. Meanwhile, people were getting killed.

Good thing there is no global warming leading to this flooding in New Mexico. Oh wait – there is.

Here we are today with new power grabbers stripping power from us using their chicanery, demanding that their minority be in charge of the rest of us. They’re fighting any change with their unlawful, unconstitutional schemes to diminish our power.

They’re denying climate warming, for example, even as people throughout our southeast are suffering, some dying, from yet another “storm of the century” and there are lakes, oddly enough, flooding parts of the Sahara Desert and New Mexico. Hence, the creative use of Dylan’s form and the updated meaning above.

These pretenders are trying to claw their way into absolute power using lies, propaganda and promises – threats, really – of unconstitutional cruelty. They are fighting change for the better solely to snatch away yet more power for themselves at the expense of We The People. Meanwhile, people are getting killed. It’s an eerily familiar story.

The times are a-changing because we have made a lethal mess and change is an existential imperative. Ask your children and grandchildren how they’re feeling about their future, about the dire threat of global warming and the threats coming from citizen mob incitement and violent people with guns. Ask them how they’re feeling about people, especially politicians, who deny reality.

Today’s young are the ones who have had to do active shooter drills in schools. They’re the ones dealing with our insurmountable housing reality and the crazy cost to marry and have children, about all the impossible challenges that have put them in despair. Essentially, they are asking,

“What American dream?”
.

So, they and we want the times to be a-changin’. We don’t want the chaos, the instability and the threats of being dominated by people who want to “terminate” our Constitution. We don’t want our rights to be stolen from us and we don’t want liars to treat us like we’re stupid.

In short, the battle is the same now as it was in the 60s, as we fight the lies and repression that could get us killed. It turns out, much to the surprise of some, that people don’t like their rights and freedom trampled. People don’t like the frauds and the cruelties, like ripping babies from the arms of their mothers; like lying to victims of hurricanes so that they don’t get the aid they need and deserve; like letting pregnant women die from lack of ordinary care that would save their lives; and like encouraging Americans to attack other Americans. People don’t like their hopes and dreams to be crushed by those who care only to amass yet more power.

Change is coming because We The People won’t long tolerate repression. The cruel ones will continue to be cruel because that’s all they have. The minority will continue to manipulate the system solely for their own benefit for as long as they can. But we will reject them because they represent an America that only the haters want. We’ll banish them to the obscurity they deserve.

Our job, to paraphrase Ghandi, is to “Be the change we want to see in America.”

Not with a riot in Grant Park, but with a riot of votes before and on November 5. Then the times, they truly will be a-changin’.

Come hopers and voters who know that they stand

For something much greater than that hateful man.

When hatred and lies are all that they sell

We see what they’re doing and we’re here to tell

They better get packing or they’ll sink down to hell

‘Cus their time it is now ending.

Name Calling Accuracy

O’ those rascally generals, those former Trump Cabinet heads and Republican spine finders! They are calling Trump and Vance dangerous fascists. O’ the degrading truth of it all!

You need to go to school on this and Professor Timothy Snyder has advanced to the podium. Watch his short instructional videos in order.

 

 

.
.
Lest We Forget the Odious Felons

These are some of the crooks who want to end our democracy and rule over you with a cruel fist. Don’t let them!

Pass this along to any who are undecided or apathetic. As awful as these felons are, they’re pussycats compared to the fascist, evil, goose stepping morons whom Trump will put in power over us if he wins.
.

Tell people to

vote like their life depends on it.

Because it does!

Best Required Reading

From Steve Schmidt, October 24, “America has had many long nights in its history.” You need to know this story – read his post. Meanwhile,

There is no heaven on earth, but there is America.

It is time to believe and imagine again in America. Isn’t it? America was invented by believers, not cynics. The presence of cynics amongst the believers doesn’t diminish the believers. It simply tests the character of the undecided. There are great choices ahead. There always are. While we wait, perhaps it is worth taking stock and remembering, if but for a moment, how it feels to be a member of the luckiest group of people on earth. Americans. This is a place where anything still remains possible. Two hundred years ago at a moment of division a friend [Lafayette] visited and reminded a young nation of its unlimited future. America is a young nation with old politicians. That problem can be fixed. It should be. It’s time to start building tomorrow again in this country.

Reality Reset Quote of the Week

From Sheila Markin:

Immigrants are not the danger that Trump claims they are. Democrats are not the danger Trump says they are. Climate change is a real threat. The pandemic was a real threat. Because Trump is disconnected from reality, Trump himself is the threat from within.

Insanity Corner

In what is already one of the most expensive Senate races in American history, the Ted Cruze “Citizens United funded Super PACs” are “.  .  .  blanketing the airwaves with $34 MILLION in attack ads against Colin [Allred] (from a 10-27-24 Allred fund raiser email).

This is just some of the insanity unleashed by the John Roberts Supreme Court extremists, who contorted themselves and the Constitution to give super wealthy individuals and corporations super influence over our elections. Plus they gave inanimate, non-human, non-sentient corporations all the rights that you have.

Insane.

Best Action Today

Read this.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

You’re Being Played, But Not Like You Think


POST 1114

An Insidious Conspiracy

JD Vance is a guy who compared Trump to Hitler. He said, “I’m a Never Trump guy. I never liked him.” He said lots more that was unlikely to cause Trump to find him attractive. Still, he got the nod, so many were asking why Trump picked him to be his running mate.

Vance is where he is because of millions of dollars invested in him by Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Now, why would these guys shell out that kind of cash to get this phony hillbilly into position to be Vice President of the United States? You know they expect to get massive pay back for their investments. Let’s back up the story a bit to see what we can find.

Let’s make the assumption that the people at the Heritage Foundation, authors of Project 2025, are smart guys. You may not like their values or their policies, you may customarily call them some unattractive names, but they aren’t stupid. They and others like them have waged a 50 year war on our liberal democracy, perhaps even going back to FDR. Their fight has been constant and it is solely about amassing astonishing piles of cash and unlimited power, even as they claim patriotic values to distract you. And we all have been distracted. They have brought us to the point where a fascist, an avowed enemy of democracy, has an even chance to regain the White House.

It’s great fun to ridicule Trump, but that’s looking in the wrong direction.

We love to attack Trump for his crudeness, his cruelty, his lack of substance, his fundamental dishonesty and his flagrant stupidity. Now we’re watching him disintegrate mentally before our eyes.

But shift your thinking from the magician’s hand that you see – that’s Trump – to the one behind his back that is tricking you. Trump is the joker that the magician, the manipulator, the Heritage Foundation, flashes before our eyes. But behind their back is the hand manipulating events that will put Vance into the Presidency. Here’s how.

Trump’s mental faculties are unraveling before our eyes and before the eyes of the world. His ability to stay on a topic has shrunken to just a few seconds of outrageous accusations and idiotic projections, leading to a verbal spaghetti of senselessness. Just imagine the fear our NATO allies feel and the excitement that world dictators are enjoying over the prospect of another 4 years of Trump.

He has refused interviews everywhere. He won’t show up at CNN, CNBC or 60 Minutes and he won’t debate his opponent. He’ll only appear with fawning supporters and even then all he can manage are short periods of cruelty, threats of violence and mental incontinence. He couldn’t even stay glued together at a friendly town hall and had to resort to playing music and swaying moronically for 39 minutes.

His campaign staff, his family, MAGA politicians and pundits all know that they have to limit his pubic exposure because every time he opens his mouth to speak he undermines his candidacy. Far more important, they all know that if he wins the election that he will be unable to execute the duties of the Office of the Presidency or even the dictates of the Heritage Foundation.

You’re being played by master magicians, but not like you think. You’re being made to think that this chaos and instability are about Trump, the joker, but he’s just the distraction. The real danger is the manipulation we don’t see, but it’s being done in plain sight.

Within months, perhaps just days of Trump taking office, the 25th Amendment will be invoked. Congress will support it and JD Vance will become President of the United States, your ruler.

Did that send a shiver up your spine? It should, because Vance is smart, cunning, an extremist and the author of the violent introduction to Project 2025. He would follow its dictates and destroy our democracy. He wants you to be crushed by fascism. You know that frighteningly well.

That is the goal of the Heritage Foundation. Vance is the traitor to democracy who will make you a serf and give oligarchs all the money and all the power. These are our morbidly rich to whom we’ve already transferred $50 trillion of our wealth thanks to trickle down economics and self-defeating tax cuts for the rich.

.
We’ve been played, all right, but not by Trump, the snake oil salesman and marionette of the ultra-rich.
.

We’ve been played by the oligarch wannabes for at least five decades and now we’re being played to put Vance, the oligarch tool boy, into the White House to do their bidding.

.
This election isn’t about Trump’s insanity. It’s about whether we will crush our own democracy through our willful blindness to what is before our eyes.
.

Vance is actually worse than you already think. Have a look at this memo from the guys who ran Tim Ryan’s Senate campaign against Vance. They looked the beast in the eyes and they know what they saw. This guy is smooth, slick and dishonest. And no, he doesn’t think Trump lost the 2020 election. Or at least that’s the story he changed to after being named Trump’s running mate and shifting from being a Never Trumper to being a spineless Trump suck up.

We are powerless to remove Vance from the ticket, so our only hope to protect our rights, our freedom and our democracy is to defeat Trump, which would bar the White House door to Vance. We have to defeat the Republicans running for other offices, too. Our most sacred right,

VOTING

.

is our only weapon to ensure that there will be elections in 2026 and 2028. This is truly a use-it-or-lose-it moment.

We must crush the plan of the Heritage Foundation or it will crush us. So,

If you don’t want a President Vance;

If you don’t want democracy to end and be replaced by oligarchs counting the money they’ve taken from you and exploiting and abusing you;

If you’re tired of being played for a fool;

.  .  .  then you know what we must do. We must defeat the forces of evil which otherwise will subjugate us. They are fascists. They are despotic. They care nothing for your freedom except to take it away from you. They have been working all these long decades to defeat you and end everything you hold dear.

Your vote is critical, but it isn’t enough. You must get people to the polls. You have to motivate voters in red states and blue states and purple states to get off their Barcaloungers and show up and vote.

Put out your lawn sign, make calls to swing states, write postcards to swing state voters and talk to people, even your crazy Uncle Bob. Offer to drive people to the polls. Even staunch Republicans and MAGAs want their rights and their freedom and they won’t have either if Vance is behind the Resolute desk for 4 years. None of us will have the America we believe in if the Heritage Foundation owns it.

It’s time to redouble our efforts to send all Republicans packing – especially Vance and the other extremists – before they can reduce us to serfdom in their fascist state.

Best Guess

Trump is doing everything he can to lose this election by insulting as many people as possible, by advocating policies that will hurt as many people as possible, by flagrantly demonstrating his mental deterioration, by avoiding attracting as few new voters as possible and telling people that after this election they won’t have to vote.

Best guess: He isn’t trying to win in the old fashioned way because he can’t. He wants to spark a civil war and violently take over the country.

They’re Trying To Buy It Outright

From Mother Jones, October 21:

[Elon] Musk is saying he will give out a million dollars a day—every day until the election—to voters in swing states who sign a petition from his pro-Trump political action committee (and no, I will not link to it). He was also pledging to pay $100 to registered Pennsylvania voters who sign his petition through today.

Is that okay with you? I don’t think it’s okay with the Justice Department.

Tell people to vote like their life depends on it.

Because it does.

 

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

What We Wish We Had Heard . . .


POST 1112

 .  .  .  in the Bret Baier Interview
Harris

Tell me, Bret: When you interview Donald Trump do you interrupt him? Do you talk over him? I bet not, because if you did he’d crush you like a bug.

Baier

Well, no, not really.

Harris

Then don’t interrupt or talk over me.

And just to make sure you don’t, if you do it again I will invite you to imagine me telling your mother what you’re doing. I’m sorry she’s passed, because that strong woman would know just what to do with you and you wouldn’t like it. So would the nuns at your high school alma mater, Marist School. They would know what to do with you. They’re strong women, too.

So, what do you say, Bret – are you going to be polite and respectful in this interview?

Baier

Uh  .  .  .  uh, okay.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Voter Fraud – and Others


POST 1111

One More Look At Our Terrible Voter Fraud Problem

You’ve heard the statistics about our voter fraud problem, like that it’s 0.00001% of votes cast, clearly not enough to sway even the election of a candidate for the mosquito abatement board, much less a megalomaniac fraud and sexual assaulter to the presidency. Nevertheless, we must have some fun with the numbers from the off-the-right-edge-of-the-continuum Heritage Foundation because they are Trump suck-up misleaders.

The Brookings Institution did that in a paper entitled Widespread election fraud claims by Republicans don’t match the evidence. Note that their analysis has nothing to do with how anyone feels or their confirmation bias or their delight in demonizing. They’re just the facts, ma’am.

Brookings reports,

[The Heritage Foundation finds] that there have been 1,465 proven cases of election fraud — 1,264 of these resulted in criminal prosecutions and the remainder resulted in civil prosecutions, diversion programs, judicial findings, or official findings.

These may sound like big numbers, however, they must be examined in context. The findings encompass more than a decade of data during which, nationally, hundreds of millions of votes have been cast. For instance, in Texas, Heritage found 103 cases of confirmed election fraud. However, those 103 ranged from 2005 to 2022 during which time over 107 million ballots were cast. There were 11 million ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election alone. The fraud in Texas amounted to 0.000096% of all ballots cast — hardly evidence of a fundamentally corrupt system.

Need more?

in Arizona, where President Biden won by a mere 10,457 votes in 2020, Heritage documents just four cases of fraudulent voting in the general election. Furthermore, while former Republican gubernatorial candidate and 2024 Senate candidate Kari Lake falsely claimed widespread fraud following her loss in 2022, there have been zero reported cases from that year thus far. To put these cases (or lack thereof) in perspective, Arizonans cast over 6 million votes in the 2020 and 2022 general elections. [That’s fraud  of 0.0% of votes cast.]

Other swing states have also recorded negligible numbers of election fraud. In Georgia, Heritage has reported no cases of fraud in the 2020 or 2022 general elections, in which nearly nine million votes were cast. [That, too, is 0.0% of votes cast.]

So, now we’re all convinced that there is no voter fraud problem, right?

So, what’s going on here? Nothing. Confirmed conspiracy theorists never take no for an answer, so they will certainly insist that there was massive fraud or that prosecutors were bought off.

Mmm, that right, Kemosabe. They will say that. And they will be wrong.

We have only one voter fraud problem and it’s the fraud that attacks voting rights, like:

  1. gerrymandering
  2. kicking eligible voters off voting rolls for specious and discriminatory reasons, especially when it’s done just before an election so there is no time to appeal
  3. limiting access to voting, like closing polling places to make it extremely difficult to vote and eliminating drop boxes for mail-in ballots
  4. requiring voter ID that is difficult for a targeted population to secure

Click here for a more extensive list of Constitution stomping, rights killing manipulation by .  .  .  guess who?

Note especially that even before mail-in and absentee ballots began to be filled out this year and with zero evidence for their claims, Trump and his entire entourage and his parroting millions were already claiming voting fraud. So, 1. Are they clairvoyant? or, 2. Are they frauds? You choose.

From The “Ya Gotta Read This” Department
First

Perhaps you’ve heard that right wing extremists, including our twice impeached, four times indicted, 34 counts convicted felon and adjudicated sexual assaulter former president, Donald Trump, have used our hurricane disasters to demonize FEMA, saying they don’t have enough money for disaster relief because they gave away money to undocumented immigrants (they prefer to call them “illegals”). That’s complete  .  .  .  how is it said? .  .  .  you know. See this and this.

These lies are just a current attack on our institutions designed to make the easily manipulated distrustful of government. It’s so dumb that even “no stranger to airhead conspiracy stupid stuff” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) smacked down the no FEMA money idiocy.

Now the rabid right has told hurricane and tornado victims that FEMA is coming to seize their land and worse. That’s led to armed militias – actually, vigilantes – roaming western North Carolina hunting FEMA people. That has caused relief workers to pull back, interfering with relief getting to hurricane victims. Again, it’s just your presidential candidate doing what he can to stoke violence and undermine our trust in ourselves.

Here’s more on hurricanes from CNN:

Last week, [Rep. Marjorie Taylor] Greene, without specifying who “they” is, posted, “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

She offers quack patent applications from a hundred years ago to prove her airhead point.

Most important is that you’ve heard this kind of idiocy many times from those who were the kids who flung spitballs from the back of their science and civics classes. The problem now is that such inanities get forwarded millions of times until some people believe it, putting themselves and others at risk through their denial of reality and further eroding our trust in our institutions.

The scariest part of this latest MTG lunacy is that citizens of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District keep sending her and her AR-15 to Congress. What do you suppose is the key contaminant in their drinking water?

Right: it’s fraud.

Second

Read Prof. Timothy Snyder’s new post, From the Storm to the Stormtroopers. The Fascist Logic of Climate Lying.

Third

Are you a Boomer? If so, you’re a child of the Greatest Generation. Read Lessons From My Father. Then say a quiet – perhaps even sacred – thank you.

Bang Bang

Click me

We have 48 dead kids already this year, hundreds wounded and ten of thousands traumatized for life. And all of us are living with the threat of a grotesquely distorted Second Amendment hanging over our heads. Watch for a very personal account of that this Sunday.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Endorsements


POST 1110

From a rally for Tammy Baldwin

Jax Pix

Here are some of my pics.

President

Kamala Harris (queue the forehead slaps), because we want our President to be a person who has neither dementia nor a mania to be der fuhrer. We want her to be focused on We The People.

Senate

Arizona – Reuben Gallego – Good, solid, proven congressman. Plus, he isn’t election denier, pants-on-fire Kari Lake.

California – Adam Schiff – Super smart January 6 Committee member and impeachment prosecutor. His Republican opponent, Steve Garvey, was a terrific baseball player. He should have stuck to that, because if elected he would be another Trump mini-me suck up, MAGA extremist. Plus, he sounded like a doofus in their debate.

Florida – Debbie Mucarsel-Powell – She’s good and she has going for her that she isn’t spineless, elitist, arrogant, dangerous Rick Scott, co-sponsor of a national abortion ban bill and too chicken to face Mucarsel-Powell in a debate.

Maryland – Angela Alsobrooks – Her opponent, Larry Hogan, isn’t awful like most Republicans. But he’s unacceptable because he’s a Republican, which means he would be an obstruction to anything Harris will want to do for We The People.

Michigan – Elissa Slotkin – She’s a seriously smart, solid woman, proven in Congress. She’s a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst (think: Jack Ryan) and Department of Defense official. Unlike Trump, she has a security clearance.

Missouri – Lucas Kunze – Vote for Kunze because he isn’t Josh Hawley. That alone should be enough to vote for him. He isn’t reprehensible –  Hawley is – and he never fist pumped insurrectionists.

Montana – Jon Tester – One of the best. Super solid and sensible guy. We need him and many others to be voices for We The People and to restore sanity in Congress.

Ohio – Sherrod Brown – Super guy. Hard working, sensible and loyal as the sunrise.

Nevada – Jacky Rosen – She’s been tested and has the cred to attract bipartisan support for important legislation. Plus, her opponent, carpetbagger Sam Brown from Texas, is just another MAGA doomer and blamer without a single constructive idea or the spine to stand up to the extremists.

Pennsylvania – Bob Casey – Sensible, non-histrionic patriot. Calm voice of reason. You remember reason, right?

Texas – Colin Allred – First, you should vote even for a potted plant over Ted Cruz, who is the worst, most hated senator not named Josh Hawley. Second, Allred is first rate – smart and loyal. Plus he’ll have the brightest smile and the best teeth in the Senate.

Wisconsin – Tammy Baldwin – She’s really smart, capable and tested. She won’t be stopped when it’s hard to do what needs to be done. Wisconsinites deserve her.

West Virginia – Glenn Elliott – Because the Republican candidate will sell out those poor people – yet again.

Issues Resources

Check with March For Our Lives for recommendations of candidates who will promote gun safety.

Check with any women’s rights organization for who to vote for if you care about girls, women, your sister, your mom, your daughter, the people on your street or the people on any street, and the rights of all of us.

Check for party affiliation, because Republicans will suck up to Trump and the insane radicals, keeping your children at mortal risk just for just going to school. They will curtail the rights of everyone. Vote for Democrats. Not because only Democrats have good ideas, but because they are a legitimate party with actual, thoughtful policies and a clear view to making the lives of We The People (that’s you and me) better. They’re beholden only to us and to the Constitution, not to a cult subservient to a demonic dictator wannabe. Plus, they believe in democracy and the rule of law, unlike the Republicans who want to “terminate the Constitution.”

We’ll deal with House races and some state races in another post.

Same Old Mendacity

You already know that if Trump’s mouth is moving that he’s either eating a Big Mac or lying. No news there. And you already know that idiot boy genius Elon Musk is just as lie-ful. But did you know that in his country of origin, South Africa, that his name in Afrikaans means “idiot boy genius”?

To be clear, I am not Musk’s interpreter so I cannot make sense for you of any of the idiot things he says. I don’t know if he actually believes the idiocy that Democrats are recruiting undocumented people to vote or if he believes that Democrats can control the weather. Okay, that was loony MTG who said that. See my post this coming Wednesday.

Musk promotes the Trumpy lie that we have a massive voter fraud problem. How might he have adopted that idiot notion?

In the 2016 election there were only 30 cases of claimed voter fraud nationally that were referred for prosecution, or just 0.00001 percent of all votes cast. They didn’t all result in guilty verdicts, so the actual incidence of voter fraud was actually lower. O’ those pesky facts. They point menacingly at Republican lies about elections.

Musk is prone to saying lots of idiotic things. I really don’t care about that. I do care that he has a huge platform to spread them and that he “re-posted [a deepfake of Vice President Kamala Harris] that racked up a staggering 1.2 billion views.”

So, he isn’t just an idiot boy genius. He is a very dangerous idiot boy genius whom I would be ignoring were he not in a position to influence so many uninformed or low propensity voters with his lies.

Respect yourself: Don’t buy a Tesla.

From The “Ya Gotta Read This” Department

My pal Ed Gurowitz offers his insights periodically and you must read this post. He reports on attending a Tim Walz rally in Reno NV and manages to deliver both the content and the feel of what he experienced. His description vividly captures the stark differences in the versions of our future that we’re being offered by the two very different presidential candidates.

This is a Don’t Miss piece. Indeed, it’s something valuable to pass along to those you know who are otherwise likely to skip this election. And tell them to read the t-shirt to the right.

Vote to keep this delusional out of the Oval Office.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

A Bucketful of Weird


POST 1109

Heart Wrenching Quote of the Week

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

“Normal just washed away  .  .  . “

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

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

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

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

Weird Black Nazi Wish List

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

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

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

Weird.

The Weird Candidate

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

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

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

Weird.

Springfield Geese

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

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

FEMA Funds Never Fed Our Undocumented

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

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

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

“That Was a Damning Non-Answer”

Walz: Did [Trump] lose the 2020 election?

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

Walz: That was a damning non-answer.

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

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

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

And weird.

Reality Roundup

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

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

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

Weird.

Just get this:

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

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

– Les Miserables R Us

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

An Outrageous Proposal for October 7


POST 1108

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Odd Critters


POST 1107

Odd Humans

See note #5 below

Upon seeing him on Bill Maher’s program on September 27, I remembered that Yuval Noah Harari is a favorite author of Barack Obama. I just ordered Harari’s book Sapiens and hope to find a little understanding about humans from those pages.

My non-scientific, anecdotal observation is that for most of we humans, upon learning of the suffering of others, we first translate that into how we would feel were we suffering in that way. That probably isn’t true of a mother responding to a crying baby, but it likely is true when we hear about the Gazans today. We see the suffering people and do an automatic, “What if that were me or someone I love?” We bypass simple empathy for those actually suffering in the moment and make it about ourselves, a “me thing.”

Feel free to push back on this and perhaps we’ll all learn something valuable. But if there is any validity to my observation, then, for example, that lack of simple empathy may well be part of why our political insanity makes it impossible to create what are called “common sense gun safety laws.” The cruel irony, of course, is the absence of any common sense.

I just don’t see any common sense in our allowing our citizens to own AR-15s or bump stocks or large capacity magazines. It makes no sense for an 18-year-old, years from having a mature brain that can fully anticipate consequences and for whom risk is just an exercise in excitement to have the right to purchase weapons of war. But we let this insanity – this total lack of common sense – go on, as our legislators suck up to the firearms industry in order to get campaign contributions. And then we reelect them! That’s insane.

When the awful shooting occurred – any shooting – did you feel affected? If you lived in Nerwtown, CT (Sandy Hook Elementary School) you did. Same for Highland Park, IL on the 4th of July two years ago and all the others when it’s close to home. We automatically identify when the threat feels near.

I’m feeling that way now because two of my grandchildren are in college, in different schools, and each had a shooting nearby them, one on and the other just off campus. That’s really close to the heart for me. But it’s likely you didn’t even hear about those shootings because we have two mass shootings every three days and lots more single shootings in this shooting gallery of a country. Most of the attention to them fades away quickly, covered only by local news and even then only for a day or two. Then the journalists are off to cover the next “If it bleeds, it leads” event.

My grandchildren are okay, thanks for asking, but I am not. My fire is stoked once again to a roaring inferno over our insane refusal to protect our own people until the blood is flowing close to home. And even then we do nothing to prevent the next massacre, just like the days following the Sandy Hook slaughter of first graders, when we did nothing but offer impotent, cowardly and offensive “thoughts and prayers.”

If you need to feel that fire in order to understand and to take action, just imagine that those were your children or grandchildren being just a short distance from that campus gunfire. Imagine if they had to “shelter in place,” hiding in their dorm rooms as the murderer was hunted down. Imagine them at last able to leave their dorms, walk outside and realize how terribly exposed and at risk they are all the time. Do you feel that fire now?

No matter where it happens and whether we feel it or not, it’s always close to home for someone or it will be soon. Do we only care after the fact, or are we willing to go on the hunt to recapture some common sense? Our election in 29 days seems like a good time to gather our wits about us and elect people who we believe have common sense. Check March For Our Lives first, then Everytown For Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action. Get involved – before you’re ordered to shelter in place.

About that about “me thing” – it likely doesn’t even register that there is an ongoing civil war in Sudan and many thousands of people are starving because we Americans pretty much don’t identify with the Sudanese. So, like I said, if it isn’t us and it isn’t close to home, it doesn’t register.

We really are odd critters.

Biggest Idiot of the Month

Speaking of odd critters, as the winds and rain of hurricane Helene were rapidly ramping up, the governors of most of our southeastern states mobilized their emergency teams and national guard units. They put all citizens on alert and called DC asking for a declaration of emergency to get help from FEMA as fast as possible.  All of them did that – except one.

Republican Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee took a different approach to dealing with that monster hurricane. He refused to reach out to our federal agencies for the help the people in his state would soon desperately need. He made no request for a declaration of emergency for Tennessee. Instead, Gov. Lee called for a “voluntary day of prayer and fasting.”

That’s right: book banners are idiots, too. Click me

Yes, really!

He didn’t ask for FEMA help until flash floods were drowning entire towns and cities in his state. Of course, President Biden approved the request immediately.

If they could talk, I bet the people in Tennessee who died in that monster storm would have something to say to Gov. Lee about his official state response of prayer and fasting, when food, water and boots on the flooded ground would be so terribly and obviously needed. He’s weird in a “beating drums in the jungle” kind of way and as a result has lost the support of his dead Bible thumping constituents – perhaps some live ones, too.

Congratulations go to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee for being the Biggest Idiot in September.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

The Jax Politix Trump Rally Speech


POST 1106

Late Addition: The Debate Opening We Wish Had Happened

“Senator, you don’t know me. We just met, so we’re not close friends. I will address you as Senator. You may address me as Governor or Governor Walz. Not Tim. I’m quite sure I’ve earned that respect.

“Three years ago you confidently announced that you want to tear down our Constitution and our democracy and replace it with an autocracy – a dictatorship. What is significant is that before that you were a United States Marine. You swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic and then you argued for tearing it all down. You’ve repeated some version of that loathsome statement since then. and you’re partnered with a criminal who wants to “terminate the Constitution.”

“You took that same sacred oath upon becoming a United States Senator. That means that your first official act as a senator was to swear that sacred oath, knowing you were lying. You did it with your hand on your Bible. That was unacceptable dishonesty. Were you to win this election, it would be treasonous dishonesty. Senator, you’re the worst kind of fraud and you aren’t fit to be Vice President of the United States.”

View From a Half-Empty Arena With Attendees Leaving

Donald Trump advances to the podium, then shifts to the side and claps his hands not quite in time with the music. Then he begins to speak.

My friend Hannibal Lector – he’s the greatest – he came up from my Mar-a-Lago basement yesterday where he’s been staying as my guest at no charge. It’s a beautiful basement – the best – like nothing you’ve ever seen – there’s even a gold toilet and cases of ketchup – and he explained it all to me. It’s so bad, he told me.

Nobody can believe it. You’re lucky to have me here to protect you from the horrible people in this failing nation and to deliver the revenge and retribution against these horrible people, these Democrats, who dribble corn flakes in your bed.

And the election – you won’t even have to vote because we’ve set up traps – they’re called rabbit snares – and we can stop the fake voters with these traps. We can stop the illegal people who ka-MA-la-la is letting into our country. They are trying to vote and steal our great nation. So are the people who aren’t White but who try to vote anyway, and even the fake FBI. They’re so fake that it’s their first name. The Fake Bureau of Investigation. Nobody can believe it, but I’m telling you this is true. I wrote it in ketchup on the wall.

The foiber and gonzelets are fonzled in abstentia, but we real Amerikanzis stand toothgetter. We have to be strong and flight, flight, flight! Nobloody has ever seen this kind of strengther before. Nobloody.

I’ll protect our women. That’s what strong men do. I do that. I’m strong. “I WILL PROTECT WOMEN AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE.” But ka-MA-la-la is horrible. She’s actually mentally disabled and should be impeached and persecuted. She’s weak and can’t protect our women or our country. Trump is the only protector. The only one.

But the women, they love me, even the women who love their cats but not their dogs. They love me. Especially the ones who are my type. I really like my type. Ivanka is my type. I’d date her if she weren’t my daughter. Melania used to be my type, but not so much anymore. I’m sorry I brought her here from Lower Slobovia. What’s that kid’s name?

We can’t let our country become a shithole country, which is where we are headed unless I’m president. Hannibal Lechter told me that and he knows. He’s strong and he speaks to me. He told me that electrocution by batteries in the ocean is better than getting eaten by a shark and he should know, because he was electrocuted. He’s a very strong man. Very strong. Like me.

I could be sun bathing my beautiful body,* but instead I’m here protecting you. I stand here taking the blows for you and that’s okay. Don’t worry about me. I worry about you, which is why you have to fight like hell. So, stand back and stand by. We’ll make the Democrats and the corn flake crumbs go away forever. That I will tell you. FLIGHT, FLIGHT, FLIGHT!

It will be like nothing anyone has ever seen. People are saying  .  .  .  something. I can’t remember what.

Exit to the playing of copyrighted material used without permission.

View From The Brits
From the FaceBook post of Dwight Homer of September 21,
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“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” in London Daily Sept 16 2023 (excerpt)
.
“Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
.
“Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
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“Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
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“There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface……
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“And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling [sic} sidekick instead. …”

Many thanks to DS for pointing me to this piece.

View From the Hypocrisy and Mendacity Corner

Of course you know they lie, but they’ve really set a new low mark using the devastation of hurricane Helene to spew their hate, just when our people are desperate for help. Here’s a bit from Heather Cox Richardson’s post of October 1:

.  .  .  the hurricane has become the latest topic of disinformation for MAGA Republicans. Social media today is full of accounts claiming that the federal government is not responding to the crisis in western North Carolina because it prefers to spend money in Ukraine and on undocumented immigrants. Newsmax host Todd Starnes claimed that FEMA’s “top priority is not disaster relief” but to push diversity, equity and inclusion. “So, unless you’ve got your preferred pronouns spray painted on the side of your submerged house—you won’t get a penny from Uncle Sam. Western North Carolina is just too Conservative and too Caucasian for FEMA to care.” The House Judiciary Committee posted that “Joe Biden was at the beach.”

These posts echo Russian disinformation, and Trump was on board with it.

It’s possible that the Republican Party can be revitalized into something that is based in truth and reality. It’s possible that they could stop being cruel, stupid and anti-American. But we’ll have to wait a long time for that.

Read Richardson’s full post to revitalize your understanding of why we must get Democrats elected.

Quote of the Week

From Steve Sheffey’s post of September 29,

“Why are some of us eager to believe anything bad about Biden and Harris but willing to dismiss the truth about Trump?”

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

______________________________________________________

* View From the Tennis Court
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.

 

Many thanks to SA for the Obi-Wan gif.

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

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

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

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

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


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

    Click me

    JA


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

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