Domestic Policy

Apt Comparison


POST 1256

Moderation?

As early as 2017, the first year of Trump’s first administration, I made comparisons of Trump to Hitler. A few others did so, too, but the voices of moderation and reason railed against such observations, calling any comparison to Hitler hyperbolic, unfair, overblown and more. It was, they said, way too early for such over-the-top accusations. But the reality of Trump’s desire for fascism was in our faces even then. The issue was our being willing to see what was plainly there. That’s what I was calling out.

Now that Trump’s Gestapo is murdering Americans, should we still be moderate in our descriptions?

Now that journalists are being indicted for reporting the truth that Trump doesn’t want you to see, should we still be moderate in our descriptions?

Now that tens of millions of Americans are being denied food and medical care, as are millions in devastated regions of the globe, causing massive numbers of deaths, is it still time to be moderate about calling a spade a spade?

I warned about the hatred in America that can metastasize into murder, comparing it to the Holocaust in a post in 2020. There is nothing moderate about what is happening now, including DHS moving to create massive koncentration kamps – human warehouses – across our country.

Brown and Black people, citizens, legal residents, law abiding people – it doesn’t matter –  are being disappeared at the direction of Trump’s Adolph Eichmann, his toy Nazi, Stephen Miller. Prisoners are being denied food and medical care. Anyone not speaking the fatherland tongue is in trouble. Actually, any non-White person or non-Christian person is somewhere in line for persecution. We’ve seen this movie over and over. The ending is beyond horrid and it’s always the same.

Don’t even think that’s not so because Miller is Jewish by birth. He is as full of demonic hatred as anyone you’ve ever heard of. So, I ask, how do those voices of moderation from 2017 sound now?

To anyone who thinks they still sound reasonable I suggest that they go to Minneapolis, pick up a protest sign and stand a watch at 26th Street West and Nicollet Avenue. That’s where Alex Pretti, helpless, with his face pressed into the snow and ice and the rough sidewalk, was gunned down by Trump’s ICE agents. For those showing up today, fascist descriptors may begin to seem reasonable and accurate.

First, watch the video to the right – again. There is no moderation there. There’s only murder legalized by Trump.

Still skeptical about Nazi/fascist comparisons? Watch this short commentary by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI).

The Great Brain Report: True Trump Quote of the Week

“I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t manage elections.”

It’s true. Trump really doesn’t know. He could look it up in the Constitution, Article I, Section 4, or have a flunky look it up and make a comic book presentation for him, but he’d ignore even that. In fact, he doesn’t want to know. He hasn’t a bit of curiosity and he doesn’t see an immediate profit to himself for making the effort to know, Plus, he hasn’t the ability to learn.

Oops! Wrong brain

In the damaged Trump brain there are only two possible outcomes of any election. Either he gets what he wants or he declares that the other side cheated and demands to be named the winner. He knows that there’s nothing lower than a loser, so when he doesn’t get his way, he goes psycho. It’s a brain issue. Part nature, partly distorted by nurture. The Oval Office is a terrible place for an abnormal brain.

To see the actual way Trump got his brain, watch this short clip from the 1931 film classic, Frankenstein.

Trump’s loser phobia psychosis has real world impact. Here’s part of a report from Heather Cox Richardson’s post of February 3 and note the obvious insanity.

[Trump] said to Bongino: “These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally, and the, you know, amazing that the Republicans aren’t tougher on it. The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over, we should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places*.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked and the county votes, we have states that I won that show I didn’t win. Now you going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get with a court order, the ballots? You’re going to see some interesting things come in. But, you know, like the 2020 election. I won that election by so much.”**

Fighting that anti-American, anti-Constitution, illegal vote stealing mania is job #1 for us, because if we don’t stop his theft of states rights and his destruction of the Constitution, it won’t matter how thoroughly he’s crushed in a real world vote count. He’ll just lie and say he won and his Reichsleiter (top Nazi leaders) and Gestapo thugs will make that stick.
.
Statistic of the Week

Got a sister, daughter, mother or female friend age 15 – 44? There’s a 40% likelihood they want to leave the U.S. permanently. That desire correlates perfectly to loss of faith in America’s institutions over the past 10 years.

  • Gasp! That’s the same time frame – 10 years – as Trump’s destructive influence on America!
  • Coincidence? I don’t think so. Neither do 40% of America’s younger women.
X Post of the Week

We are facing annihilation of our democracy, so splash some cold water on your face and read Frank Levy’s wake up call..

Hopeful Reading of the Week

Read Thom Hartmann’s Dear Trump Administration Official: History Is Full of Loyal Men Who Thought They’d Be Protected. The reality of what will happen can help you to stiffen your resolve and bolster your hope. You’ll enjoy reading this piece for the accountability Hartmann shows us is coming.

From The Borowitz Report, Feb. 5
Tom Homan Demands ICE Agents Return Their Signing Bonuses to Him in Paper Bag

While some ICE agents grumbled about transferring their signing bonuses to Homan, he sternly reminded them, “Taking away people’s freedom isn’t free.”

_______________________________________________
* All 15 are blue states. Imagine that!
.
** Even if a fourth counting of the Fulton County, GA votes somehow shows that Trump gained enough votes to win Georgia (there’s not even a remote chance that could happen in an honest recount), his Electoral College count would still show him to be the loser of the election, 290 – 248.
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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.

Get Out!


POST 1255

CAUTION!

The following transcript is a fiction drawn from the author’s imagination and does not represent the actual phone call between the parties. But it should.

It is presented here for the purpose of clarifying real world needs of the people, plus to properly place well deserved snark. Strong language suitable for the defense of democracy is unredacted. Sensitive readers are advised to use only one eye.

– JA

The Phone Call

President Donald Trump telephoned Governor Tim Walz (MN) on the morning of Monday, January 26, two days after unarmed, unresistant, defenseless Alex Pretti was gunned down in the street by ICE agents. The call was reported by the White House to have been “productive.” Here is a transcript of that conversation.

President Donald Trump (PT): Good morning, Tim.

Governor Tim Walz (GW): It’s “Governor Walz,” Mr. President.

PT: Right. Well, Tim, I just want to check in with you to learn firsthand what you’re seeing.

GW: Is your hearing okay, Mr. President? Do you hear okay? It’s “Governor Walz.”

PT: Absolutely, Tim. Absolutely. In fact, my doctors say I have the best hearing they’ve ever seen. Ever! It’s off the charts. I aced all the tests. All of them. They’ve never seen anything like that.

GW: Okay. I’ll say this slowly to be sure you’re able to understand my words. What I’m seeing is your mob of masked, heavily armed bullies are injuring and murdering my people. There is chaos and violence in our streets caused entirely – ENTIRELY! – by your Gestapo thugs. That’s what I’m seeing.

PT: Well, Tim, you know that you have a huge – HUGE! – crime problem. And your Somali’s – they’re bad. They’re very bad. These are very bad people. Just look at your Representative Omar. She’s garbage. Complete garbage. There’s crime in your streets, Tim, like nothing anyone has ever seen before. It’s never been seen.

GW: You’re right, Mr. President. Nobody has seen it before because the crime you refer to doesn’t exist. Both violent and non-violent crime are down dramatically all over the state. That was true well before your private army of fascist thugs showed up and started beating people, throwing them to the ground, arresting and imprisoning innocent U.S. citizens and murdering innocent people. So, Mr. President, get your damn Gestapo goons out of Minnesota. You can send your pet Nazi Stephen Miller to lead them away.

PT: You’re very rude, Tim. You know we have to have law enforcement. Can’t have these illegals doing criminal things, like eating dogs. People’s pets. It’s terrible. They eat ducks in the park, too. It’s bad. It’s very bad.

GW: Mr. President, those accusations of animal eating came from lies told by your idiot Vice President. He was talking about Haitians who live legally in Springfield, OH, not Somalis in Minneapolis. And his accusations were proven by multiple researchers to be total bullshit. Your lies and those you’ve trained your idiot Vice-President to tell are bad, Mr. President. Very bad. Nobody has ever seen so many terrible lies. Do you know what I mean? Are you tracking with me?

Also, 80% of our immigrants from Somalia are U.S. citizens and they are entirely law abiding.

PT: Now, Tim .  .  .

GW: It’s “Governor Walz,” you know? “Governor.” What’s your problem, dementia?

PT: Once again, that’s very rude, Tim. You’re a very rude person.

GW: You’re right about one thing, Mr. President. We need law enforcement. And we have great law enforcement at our state, county and local levels. So, Mr. President, we don’t need your brutal, cruel, law breaking goons. Get your damn criminal Gestapo thugs out of Minnesota.

PT: Tim, I think you’re missing something here. Do you .  .  .

GW: Mr. President, get your fucking Gestapo thugs out of my state. Am I saying this slowly enough for you so that you get it? Get your fucking criminal creeps out of Minnesota.

PT: Tim, have some respect. I’m the President of the United States.

GW: Yeah, well most often it’s hard to understand how that’s possible. Regardless, get your damnable thugs out of Minnesota. Just leave. We’ll clean up your miserable, sorrowful, un-American mess.

PT: We’ll see what happens, Tim.

GW: We already know what happens. We see your brutality every day. Get your damn fascist thugs out of Minnesota. Are you getting my message?

And it’s “Governor Walz.”

PT: You know, Tim, that I can send our active duty Marines to Minneapolis, right?

GW: And I can send the Minnesota National Guard to surround the White House. That would be just as stupid as your idea.

As a safety tip, Mr. President, I don’t think you’ll be welcome at the funeral of Alex Pretti or Renee Good or at any of the vigils held in their honor. You might want to stay at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with a Sharpie in your  hand counting the number of times you’re named in the Epstein files. Perhaps you’ll want some high school girls to help you count and to help you remember all the sick abuse of so many girls.

One more thing: Get a brain scan right away. And in case I haven’t been clear, get your criminal thugs out of my state.

Take Heart

From Pew Research:

Only about a quarter of Americans today (27%) say they support all or most of Trump’s policies and plans, down from 35% when he returned to office last year. That change has come entirely among Republicans.

His approval rate probably won’t go much lower because he’s down to only his angry, mouth-breathing base supporters who will mindlessly support any irrational or cruel things he does.

Unless there’s proof of his pedophilia. That’ll piss off even Billy Bob and his little sister, too. Abusing little girls just isn’t okay with nearly any of us.

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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.

What Is Actually Happening Today


POST 1254

Don Lemon’s Bogus Arrest Isn’t What You Think

He committed journalism. So far that still is not a crime. But it was only a matter of time until Don Lemon would be arrested.

For years Lemon has been critical of Trump. He’s laughed at and ridiculed him, been disparaging, accusatory, condemning and, worse, Lemon has been accurate in his unsympathetic appraisal of the malignant narcissist. That alone would be enough for Trump to jam Lemon into his retribution pipeline, his enemies list, about which both he and Pam Bondi lie, saying it doesn’t exist.

Clearly, Trump believes Lemon has earned retribution and other cruelty. If Trump doesn’t suppress Lemon, Trump would be forced to see himself as a loser, the very worst thing. So he must crush that nasty bug. But there’s more and it’s worse.

Don Lemon is a full time, card carrying Black person. And he compounds that effrontery by being gay. He’s not who the heavy-starch-in-their-underwear, moral storm troopers insist that he must be. Don Lemon is the perfect target for persecution by racist Trump. And there’s moreT

Trump and his fascist lieutenants are on a full court press to eliminate our rights, focused primarily on the First Amendment. They’ve sent their Gestapo to many cities to shut down freedom of speech, the right to assemble and the right to petition government. And they’re on a 50 state rampage to eliminate voting rights for all but those who will vote for Trump.

He’s already attacked freedom of the press with his extortion of CBS, ABC and now his baseless arrests of Don Lemon and other journalists.

Lemon’s arrest isn’t just retribution, It is an attack on our freedom and our democratic foundation.

Historical precedent

It was then-Vice President Dick Cheney on (I think it was) Meet the Press. There was great criticism across the country of Dubya’s invasion of Iraq, Cheney’s pet project. He proclaimed his absolute certainty that deposing the tyrant Saddam was worth our blood and treasure. Far worse, he told we critics of the war that we better watch what we say.

WATCH WHAT WE SAY!?

If we were to criticize him, Dubya, Rumsfeld, their policy, their strategy or their power he would – what? – come gunning for us? Lock us up? Cheney’s was a barely concealed threat against the First Amendment’s protection against government abridgement of our freedom of speech. We might not have seen it then, but that was prelude to today.

Now

Trump, Bondi and a few DOJ bench warmers are saying the same thing, that we better watch what we say. They’re taking Lemon to court to make it stick. Were they to win their blatantly anti-Constitutional case, all freedom will be taken from all of us. The First Amendment will be burned to ashes.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens are already threatened with violence and incarceration, even a torture prison, this as government policy to eliminate our freedoms and place all power in Trump’s hands.

And Trump won’t stop there, Here are a quick list of the Amendments and Article II of the Constitution.

Q. Once the First Amendment is gone, what will be destroyed next?

A. Everything

I say again: Lemon’s arrest isn’t just retribution, It is an attack on our freedom and our democratic foundation.

Duplicitous

Maybe it’s just more of Trump’s miserable, self-serving, living-the-lie bullsh*t. Read this short report from Peter Baker’s January 13 NYT piece, Trump Supports the Protesters, Except Those Protesting Him.

From The Onion

President Trump had a ringing message of solidarity on Tuesday for demonstrators in the streets. “KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” he wrote on social media. He decried “the senseless killing of protesters,” and added that those pulling the triggers “will pay a big price.”

He meant the protesters in Tehran, not Minneapolis. By contrast, the people in the streets of Minnesota, he wrote just 63 minutes earlier, were “anarchists and professional agitators” trying to cover up a fraud scandal. He vowed that “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”

This is yet another example of Trump as democracy destroyer.

Tom Homan, Border Bastard

From Mother Jones:

Homan was a key architect in implementing family separations as acting ICE director in the first Trump administration [Think: thousands of kids in cages. Over 1.000 still are not reunited with their parents.]. In the president’s second term, he was appointed “border czar” to take charge of mass deportations and was investigated over cashing in on it. (We reported with the Project On Government Oversight that many of his former private business clients won lucrative border and immigration-related government contracts.)

Plus, Homan is the $50,000 FBI bag man. And he’s continuing the illegal, un-Constitutional ICE Gestapo brutality in Minneapolis, coming soon to Ohio and Maine.

That’s right: Homan’s appointment to Assistant Chief Cruelty Dispenser is yet another example of Trump as democracy destroyer.

Quote Of The Month

On NBC’s Meet The Press, Sunday, January 18, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained why we are in a state of emergency, by saying,

“The national emergency is avoiding a national emergency.”

Let your eyeballs settle a moment for having gone googly over that idiotic doublespeak.

Next-Gen M1 Abrams Tank. Picture that parked down the street from your house.

There is always the possibility of something causing an emergency. So, if Bessent’s absurd remark has weight, then we are always in a state of national emergency. That’s handy for Trump because that could allow him to cite the Insurrection Act and deploy our active duty military with their weapons of war everywhere in the country.

And that would make it much easier for Trump to destroy democracy and accrue all power to himself.

It Isn’t New, But It’s Just As Ugly

From The Diary of Anne Frank, January 13, 1943:

Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone. The Christians in Holland are also living in fear because their sons are being sent to Germany. Everyone is scared.

We’re living in a mad king, Jaberwocky moment like that right now and it’s very, very dangerous for us all.

Song of the Month

You must listen to Bruce Springsteen’s song Streets of Minneapolis. It’s so strong and so sad and so honoring and so brave.

A Call From July 4, 1776 – Pick Up The Phone. It’s For You

We are endowed with .  .  .

.  .  . certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed .  .  .

.  .  .  but we do not consent to this government!

We are at a choice point. We can either allow ourselves to be terrorized into submitting to Trump’s dictatorship or we can stand against it.

Many ask what we can do. Read Steve Schmidt’s Defiance Is The Cure. Then steel yourself for the patriotic battle that we will win.

Now, tell me you’re seeing what is actually happening today.
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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.

ICE News! and Impeachment


POST 1253

ICE News! We Exist And We Don’t Care If You Do!
Minneapolis, January 24
.

It was a proud moment for we at ICE, for Secretary Dead Puppy, for leader UberFührer Bovino and our holy leader and god of the galaxy and beyond, His Celestial Majesty, Donald J. Trump.

Ignore all the woke mouth flappers and those videos about Saturday. Here’s what really happened.

This woman breaks into our ranks, so we shoved her to the ground where she belongs. Then this guy comes out of nowhere and moves to help her and we heard him blowing a whistle, so we knew immediately that he was a domestic terrorist, a threat to us and to all real Americans. We saw the bulge in his waistline and knew he was carrying a gun for only one reason: to kill our fellow agents.

But think about that. We’re the guys you count on to get rid of the worst of the worst and to terrorize our nation into submission. Instead, this guy was trying to terrorize us with his radical woke. Can’t allow that.

So, six of us jumped him. While trying to subdue him his hand shot up holding his iPhone. No way we’d allow that commie crap, so one of our guys pulled his gun and plugged that sucker in the back. That sure slowed him down. Plus, it looked  like fun, so two more of us drew our weapons and fired away like it was the 4th of July. Ten shots in just five seconds! Pretty good shooting, huh? It was more fun than a drive in the country shooting holes in speed limit signs. That f*cker won’t be showing up at rallies with his whistle and his lefty radical creeps anymore.

And the 5-year-old kid with the Spider-Man back pack (sniffle)? We either lock the brat up now or he becomes an adult woke terrorist with a gun later. We’re all safer with him behind bars. ‘Course, we can always rendition him to that gulag in El Salvador, but he’s pretty small now and probably wouldn’t last too long there. No matter. None of us cares.

The rest of you a**holes on the sidewalks carrying your stupid and unpatriotic signs and blowing your stupid whistles oughta learn something from this. You don’t stand a chance against ICE because we’re motivated by our anger, our heads are empty and we have immunity from prosecution and can do whatever we want. So, F*CK YOU!

And watch out, Maine, you hotbed of un-American idiots. We’re coming for you next.

It really makes us feel so strong and powerful to say that stuff. We’re proud to be tough guys serving our perfect leader.

To comment on this ICE News or any ICE actions, dial 1-800-EAT SH*T. An on-duty ICE operator will verbally abuse you and find you via GPS tracking of your phone. Agents will come and pound your door down, drag you outside regardless of whether you’re dressed for the frigid weather and throw you into the back of an unmarked SUV with your hands zip tied. You can run, but you can’t hide, woke scum.

Impeachment

Of course you’ve thought about it and there is a long list of miscreants for us to target. There’s Trump and Vance, of course. There are also Patel, Bondi, Noem, Hegseth, Rubio, Zeldin, Burgum,  Bessent and Lutnick, cabinet secretaries each doing their own brand of democracy killing and fascist evil. Plus, we should also rightly target Supreme Court Justices Thomas, Alito and “I like beer” Kavanaugh.

I’m imagining that after the new congress is seated that Speaker Jeffries will send a letter to each of them. It will read,

“Your high crimes and misdemeanors have been noted and catalogued and articles of impeachment to remove you from government office have been crafted.

Accordingly, and in line with our country’s long practice of decency and respect, values that you’ve abandoned and know nothing about, we give you twenty four hours to resign your post and clear out of all government buildings. Secret Service agents will be present to make certain that you do not remove anything that isn’t your legitimate personal property. You are specifically prohibited by law and by congressional mandate from taking any confidential materials of any level of classification, even if you want to hide them in your bathroom.

If you fail to resign within that time period, articles of impeachment will be filed immediately thereafter and you will be subject to the public humiliation of having the truth of your transgressions paraded before the world. Thereafter, you can count on your likely forcible removal from government by order of the Senate and enforced by U.S. Marshals, who will perp walk you out of the building and off government property. All evidence of your guilt will be forwarded to appropriate justice enforcing agencies.

The clock is ticking.

There is a glitch in this wonderful plan. It’s the pardon.

If Trump is impeached and removed from office, Vance will immediately become president and he will likely pull a Gerald Ford and grant Trump  a “full, free, and absolute pardon for all federal crimes he has committed or may have committed or taken part in .  .  .  ” Nice follow on from Chief Justice John Roberts having giving Trump a get out of jail free card for his crimes while in office. It’s galling to think that Trump might once again avoid accountability.

On the other hand, impeachment is not a criminal prosecution. The only penalties are removal from office and exclusion from ever again holding any public office.

Trump will likely pardon all of the felons preemptively. That would prevent them from being held accountable for their federal crimes. It appears that the only lasting remedy will be state prosecutions. Bring on Leticia James. Maybe Jack Smith, James Comey and a pack of feral state pit bull attorneys general. Keith Ellison, are you listening?

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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.

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?

  • Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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    The Fine Print:

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

They Never Miss An Opportunity


POST 1230

Last March enough Democrats, wimply led by Captain Cave-In Chuck Schumer, voted to advance a 6-month government funding extension – a continuing resolution of our then-current spending. They did that because, o’ golly, stopping that funding would have shut down the government. Then the Republico-fascists passed Trump’s Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad budget bill, which reality show dweeb Trump signed on July 4.

That funding bill is the grease to the wheels of lawlessness that everyone saw coming because the undermining of our Constitution, Project 2025, was in plain sight for everyone to see. It and the Republico-fascists promised to do all the terrible, horrible, very bad things that are happening today. Trump and our congressional Republico-fascists stood up proudly and said, “We don’ care ’bout no stinkin’ We The People.” Turns out they were right. They really don’t care.

But at 12:01AM on October 1 the government officially ran out of cash because the U.S. Congress, tied into knots by stand-up-and-fight Democrats, failed to pass appropriations legislation for the 2026 fiscal year, which began that day. The federal government has been officially shut down since then.

Democrats have refused to go along with the Republico-fascists because their legislation doesn’t include an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which would leave tens of millions of Americans without healthcare. For that moment Democrats appeared to have spine, standing up to the bullies and standing for those tens of millions of Americans.

The shut down has dragged on since then and Trump unlawfully cut SNAP (food stamp) benefits, which was especially poignant on Veterans Day because so many of our vets rely on SNAP benefits to feed their kids. He refuses to pay air traffic controllers, paralyzing air traffic. And he refuses to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which will leave (did I say this already?) tens of millions without healthcare.

Click to read Reich’s enlightening post.

Happily, the American people blamed the Republico-fascists for the shut down, as well they should. Democrats were riding high, partly because Trump was shooting himself in the foot with his cruelty and his failure to deliver on his promised prosperity for all. His approval numbers were abysmal and the Dems looked good because at last they were standing strong. But Democrats are not built for lasting success.

On November 10 seven Democratic senators and one independent joined senate Republico-fascists to extend funding and end the shutdown. It would be reasonable to expect that the 8 extracted mighty concessions for their votes, but they didn’t.

Lunch with the bully. Thanks to LR for this.

In fact, the 7 Democrats and 1 independent gave away everything earned in the shutdown for what Paul Simon called, “a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises.” They got a promise of a handful of magic beans.

They got nuthin’. They just caved. They wussed. For nuthin’. See this explainer.

The American people, bruised though they were, mostly by the willful, unnecessary cruelty of Trump, had stood with Democrats against Trump and his Republico-fascists. We The People suffered due to the shutdown and those 8 sold us out. We have nothing to show for that Republico-fascist-caused suffering. Nothing.

Do you remember TACO – “Trump Always Chickens Out?” Why are Democrats copying him?

Abba Eban, the Israeli ambassador to the United States decades ago, said of the Palestinians regarding making peace with Israel and creating a better life for themselves,

“They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

So it is with our congressional Democrats. Oddly, they think we should vote for them.

My standing question is this:

Who will lead?
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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Two Cruelties


POST 1228

Keeping Score

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

Here’s the math.

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

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

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

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

From Rep. Schneider’s October 31 newsletter:

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

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

From Steve Schmidt, November 3

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

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

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

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

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

And that calls on us for our courage.

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

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

__________________________________________

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

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

The Last Day


POST 1192

The BBBB

At last there were just enough Republican cowards, liars and hypocrites to pass Trump’s Big Barfy Betrayal Bill. Who would have thought it possible to amass so many legislators more afraid of losing their privileged seats in Congress than motivated to keep people from starving to death or dying of preventable maladies?

The Congressional Republicans cheered and took a group thumbs-up photo after the signing of that awful legislation that is so destructive of the American people and our way of life. They seemed to say “cheers for our side,” as though getting a legislative win were more important than doing what is best for the people.
.
That bill is the gateway to the loss of our freedom.
.
Its passage has created the next to the last day.
.
Who Doesn’t Care?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) offered an amendment to stop the Republicans from cutting half the funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Board. That’s the agency that has caused over $20 billion to be returned to Americans who had been cheated by a bank, credit card company or the like. Every Republican voted against her amendment.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) submitted an amendment to increase taxes on income over $10 million. Every Republican voted against that.

Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) had an amendment about Medicaid. The Republicans want to take it away from 17 million Americans. Her amendment was to at least keep in place Medicaid for brand new babies and their moms while they are in the hospital. Every Republican voted against it. Hey, if babies die, they die. Same for moms.

Republicans tell us that they care, but here’s their flag

Sen. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) amendment opposed the Republican plan to cut food assistance for low income families. It would guarantee food assistance at least for families with children under age 12. Every Republican voted against it.

The Republicans are for letting millions of Africans die from lack of medicines and surplus food already paid for and ready to ship.

The answer to the question beginning this section is that Republicans don’t care.

From Robert Reich:

[Their BBBB] establishes an anti-immigrant police state in America, replete with a standing army of ICE agents and a gulag of detention facilities that transform ICE into the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the government and it’s accountable to no one.

That is Trump’s private fascist army.

All of this is stuff you don’t want and perhaps you don’t even want to hear about, but this is what you get from Trump and his cowardly Republicans.

And we may have few chances left to vote them out of office. Trump said so.

The Posse Of Destruction Makes It Worse

From The Onion. Click me

John Roberts, Chief Justice to those other 5 black robed thieves of liberty, has placed himself in history to be the leader of the cabal who wouldn’t do their jobs – that “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” thing. Instead, they have substituted the name “Trump.”

The Roberts Court outrageously gave the President a get out of jail free card, allowing him to commit practically any crime while President and do so with no consequences (Trump v. United States). That matches nearly all of Trump’s no-accountability life. Then the Court put a nail in the coffin of birthright citizenship (Trump v. CASA). That oughta keep non-Whites from voting.

There are more Roberts assaults on our Constitution, of course. These are just two of the most recent.

John Roberts and his Posse of Destruction have abandoned their sworn duty (the real one) and have systematically dismantled our We The People protections from government cruelty. Indeed, they have neutered nearly every avenue to protect this nation from the onslaught of fascism and a cruel dictator.

That has dire consequences for your freedom.

The Final Manipulation

From Wikipedia:

The Reichstag fire .  .  .  was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany .  .  . the Nazis attributed the fire to a group of Communist agitators, used it as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government, and induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties and pursue a “ruthless confrontation” with the Communists. This made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.

That freedom killing Decree lasted until the end of the war.

Trump just got his horrible BBBB passed. It will give him radically enlarged power; hence, its passage signals the next to the last day. Now he needs something else big to solidify his dictatorship, so watch for some large act that looks like sabotage. He will blame Democrats, immigrants, LGBTQ citizens and journalists. He’ll use it to curtail our freedom and to declare a state of martial law. That will put Marines in your town and your freedom will be gone.

Then our Republican controlled Congress will sit like lap dogs, mute and meek, and watch Trump dissolve Congress and the courts. Trump will be a dictator exactly as he declared he would be when he said maybe there won’t be another election.

Then by extension, Prof. Timothy Snyder’s post Concentration Camp Labor tells us what comes next, powered by ICE thugs, who bring us deportations of innocents, imprisonments in concentration camps and then the normalization of slave labor.

I know that all sounds radical, outrageous. The German people didn’t see it coming, either.

Nevertheless, that will be the last day.
.
Unless There Is A Lot Of Action

First, a definition: autocracy = dictatorship

And dictators are never good for the people. The Founders knew that because they lived under a dictator, mad King George III. He was a lot like Dementia King Donald I. We need to get to the same level of clarity as our Founders possessed.

Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way and Daniel Ziblatt wrote How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy? and I strongly recommend that you read it. The article ends with this:

America’s slide into authoritarianism is reversible. But no one has ever defeated autocracy from the sidelines

Got it?

A Final Question About Our Self-Debasement Into Fascism

Every day Trump and his Gestapo are kidnapping people, beating them, killing them, locking them up and deporting them. Due process isn’t something even thinkable under these circumstances. Now they’re making jokes about detainees being eaten by alligators. They’re even selling Alligator Alcatraz merch. That extreme cruelty is being normalized and it’s being done in your name.

Here’s the question:

Are you okay with that?
The “Deconstructing Trump”* Corner

All Congressional Republicans know that the Big Barfy Betrayal Bill will badly hurt their constituents, but they voted for it, supine before Trump.

Accordingly, we begin this series with two quotations specifically for Congressional Republicans.

  • To sin by silence when we should protest
  • Makes cowards out of men.
  • Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1914
  • He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth
  • makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.
  • Charles Péguy, 1899
  • _________________________________________

* Deconstructing Trump by friend Mardy Grothe explores The Trump phenomenon through the lens of quotation history. As such, we explore his volume and add its applicable wisdom to these posts.

Mid-Term Election
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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 are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.
  5. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.
  6. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate.
  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.

Rich Guys Are Coming To Fleece You


POST 1186

Glossary

They – the president, the Republicans in Congress and Trump administration sycophants.

Rich guys – the president, the Republicans in Congress, plus the un-elected, all-for-themselves, who cares about you? rich guys sucking tax cuts.

Bullies – all of the above who are dedicated to cruelty, selfishness and think they’re above the law.

Money

It’s your lunch money the bullies are after. Plus your dinner money and the tax refund money you were going to use to buy a big screen TV. They want it all.

They’re taking away your doctor, your hospital and the nurses who help you when you’re sick or injured. They’re doing that by starving them of cash. And they’re taking away your medical insurance so that you have to pay out of pocket, even if the cost drives you into bankruptcy. There goes that money, too.

You’ll only get medical care if you can find it somewhere, if you can afford it. Before you get treatment they’ll check if you’re able to pay them. That only happens if you can get there in time. Think: when you or someone you know goes into labor. Or miscarries. Or when something heavy falls on you, you’re bleeding out in your garage and the nearest EMT is a long way off because all the close-by services went belly up when Trump’s cruelty flunkys cut them off.

Taxes

They’re fleecing you by increasing your state and local taxes so that they can lower their own taxes and get a huge pile of cash for themselves – almost $400,000 per year extra for every rich guy.

THEY’RE BORROWING TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS
IN YOUR NAME
TO GIVE MORE TO THEMSELVES.
.

They’re doing it, too, by taxing you for the school your kids go to and then taking that money and giving it to private schools for their own kids.

Maybe that isn’t outrageous enough to get your attention. Try this:

THEY’RE DUMPING THAT ENTIRE LIFE-STIFLING
MOUNTAIN OF DEBT
ON YOU, YOUR KIDS AND AND YOUR GRANDKIDS.
AND YOUR GREAT-GRANDKIDS.
.

All that is just so that mega-maga-rich guys can have more of your money right now.

Power

They’re eating your lunch by taking away your right to speak up.

They’re doing that by calling every gathering to protest government cruelty a riot and then using grossly excessive force to stop you.

They’re doing it by ordering our National Guardsmen and Marines to point their rifles at you, in case you’re dumb enough to object.

They’re doing it by grossly contorting our Constitution and our laws in order to justify what is unjustifiable.

They’re doing it by incrementally making it more difficult to vote and then by ignoring your vote altogether.

They’re doing it by defying court orders and by threatening members of Congress so that they will never push back. These are the people – mostly Republicans – you sent to DC and to your state capitol to represent you. Most have been reduced to sniveling, mute cowards, leaving you voiceless, powerless.

Rights

The rich guys have them. You don’t. They can squeeze the system to squash you. You’re just a bug on the windshield of their fancy cars.

You don’t like that? Too bad for you.

Much of what’s above is already true. The rest will be on the way to fleece you if our cowardly Republican Congress passes Trump’s abhorrent, anti-American, anti-Constitution budget bill, which will take from you everything you value.

It’s Crunch Time

You have to make a decision and there are only two choices.

  1. You can go about your everyday life paying attention only to things in your immediate orbit, You can continue to do your job, care for your family and enjoy whatever things you like to do for entertainment. In short, you can live your life as usual – right up to the day when everything listed above and yet worse things arrive and you realize that you have been made into nothing but a peasant serving some bastard feudal king.
  2. You can stand up and fight to stop the rich guys from taking your lunch money and everything else you care about. You can get in the streets with millions of other red, white and blue Americans who damn well won’t stand by and be fleeced. You can make it impossible for the bullies to take your lunch money. You can speak up and get good people elected, people who have values like yours. You can vote them into office in DC, in your state capitol, onto your town board and your school board – everywhere there is a political contest. Kick out the spineless, corrupt bums and keep the good guys. You know who they are.

The choices are stark and they are very real. Failure to assertively select choice #2 – to stand strong and fight – is a tacit selection of impotent choice #1.

Pick one.

The Incompetence Report

Kristi “I Shoot Puppies” Noem, our incompetent Secretary of Homeland Security, made it to the top of our list last week.

The LA demonstrations before NO KINGS day were primarily triggered by Trump’s vile, cruel abuses of immigrants. Trump and Noem sicced the National Guard and the United States Marines on those demonstrators. Then Ms. Stupida went on Fox to flex her muscles and make sure everyone knows how tough and powerful she is.

Click me

Memo to Kristi: Nobody – no demonstrator or bystander conducted violence against law enforcement officers in LA last week, you lying sack of .  .  .  dead puppies.

BTW

Where were those federalized National Guardsmen and Marines on January 6, 2021 when they were desperately needed in DC to stop the thousands of treasonous insurrectionists from killing our elected leaders, beating and killing cops and trying to overthrow our government?

Oh right: Trump prevented them from being called in to oppose the hoodlums. He even refused Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s pleading to let him send in the Maryland Guard. He just sat back and watched the violence show on TV, as he shoved his Big Mac and fries into his big mouth and threw ketchup onto the wall.

PS

There was an incident last week that resulted in a night time visit from 3 police officers ringing my door bell. They weren’t wearing masks, they wore badges and had name tags and were polite and respectful. Observing that, I knew they weren’t ICE thugs.

Isn’t it truly awful that to assure our safety I had to make that distinction?

Re: the incident last week – just a misunderstanding and all is well. Nevertheless, if there is a next time, I’ll insist that they show me identification.

Countdown to November 3, 2026
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Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) It’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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


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

IMMIGRANTS UNITE!


POST 1185

First, Minnesota

A thug murdered three Minnesotans, two of them Democratic state legislators. This should come as no surprise, since Trump has been calling since 2015 for violence against Democrats, progressives, protesters and anyone who disagrees with him about anything. He claims to be “your retribution” against “those others.” So of course some wing nut listened to him and took action, perhaps expecting to be pardoned by Trump.

This is just today’s chapter in Trump’s program of I Don’t Care, So Death To You.

To The National Brother/Sisterhood/Childhood of Immigrant Workers
.

Yesterday there was a massive national demonstration, an opposition, a revulsion, the rejection of the tyrant’s attack and his anti-America corruption of the values we hold dear. Indeed, our immigrants, whether documented or not, came here to live by those values and they and we won’t stand for this vile little man’s evil.

This President has unleashed his attack thugs, masked gunmen bearing no identification, no badge of any kind, carrying no arrest warrants and exercising no concern for innocent people. He dispatched them with instructions to kidnap anyone who they think looks like they might be in America without documentation – that means Black and Brown people. They select kidnap victims based on their ignorance.

They have arbitrarily claimed thousands of people to be criminals. They have arrested citizens of the United States with the same right to be here as any of us. They possess no evidence of anyone’s wrongdoing and act in the total absence of due process rights. In short, they are thugs acting illegally at the order of a lawless president and you, immigrants, are their primary target.

Demonstrations against this lawlessness are powerful and good, but it will take more for the American public to become fully aware of what these illegal actions mean to Americans. They don’t realize that they themselves will feel the effects of this. They don’t realize that one day the tyrants will run out of Black and Brown people to abuse and others will be next to be labeled enemies. That’s what tyrants always do.

That is why I’m calling for an ad hoc action, a labor strike, to make clear how Trump’s White, Non-At-All-Christian actions will impact everyone. Specifically, I’m calling on:

hotel and restaurant workers

construction laborers

domestic workers

garment workers

farm workers

landscapers

day laborers, like the folks who hang out early in the morning at Home Depots and 7-11s hoping to earn a day’s pay

It’s time to take a stand, so immigrant workers:

DO NOT SHOW UP FOR WORK THIS THURSDAY OR ANY THURSDAY UNTIL THIS CRUELTY STOPS.

.

Maybe some of the White privilege people who whine and moan their “Replacement Theory” lunacy will show up in California’s Central Valley to do stoop labor, like picking strawberries and lettuce. Maybe they’ll do the work of moving heavy wheel barrows full of cement or removing debris from construction sites. Maybe they’ll scrub the pots and pans in a hot commercial kitchen 14 hours a day, or clean befouled hotel rooms left by hotel guest slobs. Maybe they’ll scrub the floors of rich people’s homes.

But none of that is ever going to happen. Here’s what will happen.

None of those angry, privileged White guys will show up to do the hard work our immigrants do every day. Housing construction will slow to a halt, restaurants will close their doors and produce bins in grocery stores will be empty. And there will be a lot of hotel rooms that don’t get cleaned and landscaping around rich guys’ houses will become nothing but weeds.

It’s time to make the point to all American citizens that their way of life is dependent upon the hard working immigrants to this country and that those tax paying immigrants are a major part of the reason for hope for this nation.

Immigrants to America Unite!

You have nothing to lose but the threat of deportation to a torture concentration camp, never to see your family again.

.
Memo To Silent Americans

.

Turn off the ignorant and the stupid.

.

Treasonous Americans are trying to steal your country, your values, your freedom, your future and your hopes for your children.

They tried an insurrection to murder leaders and take over your government, killing and maiming cops and befouling our Capitol Building.

Trump pardoned the convicted criminals, enabling them to continue to conspire to overthrow us.

The Supreme Court gave the president the right to break our laws with impunity.

Trump and his criminal suck-ups are moving every day to use our military to take action against you and make this a police state.

THAT WILL BE THE END OF YOUR FREEDOM!
.

DO NOT sleepwalk through reality. DO NO be an existential threat to the United States of America through passivity. DO NOT tolerate the murderous Oath Keeper criminals, the DOGE flying monkeys who stole your personal information and the lying Trump bastards violating your Constitution and your rights every day.

Wake up!

.

America isn’t about any king.

It is about We The People.

We declare that in no uncertain terms right here.

.
Pics From The Highland Park NO KINGS Event

Yes that Highland Park. July 4, 2022. 7 killed, 48 wounded. Still this little village turned out over 3,000 yesterday to tell everyone that we will not have a king. We will not tolerate cruelty to anyone. The Law is the law and nobody is above it. Those sentiments were on display in over 2,160 locations nationwide with attendance in the millions.

Paraphrasing Winston Churchill’s address to the House of Commons in the darkest days of the blitzkrieg of the Battle of Britain, June 4, 1940:

We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight them in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight them in our town squares, we shall fight them in the hills. We shall never surrender. We shall fight them in our state houses, we shall fight them in our Congress. We shall fight them in our courts and we shall fight them in our voting booths. We shall rescue and liberate ourselves from their cruelty to carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, we restore our promise of America.

 

kakistocracy | kakəˈstäkrəsē | government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state

 

 

 

Credit to MG for this one

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  6. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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