Foreign Policy

Yes, Really


POST 1304

 

 

Buttinsky Corner

A recent Gallup poll asked Americans, “When a couple has a child together, how important is it to you that they legally marry?” 58% of Republicans answered the question, “very important.”

Clearly, if a Republican couple finds through experimentation that the rumors and wild claims really are true, that dancing and then being in intimate heterosexual proximity lead to pregnancy, then they are free to believe as they wish about marriage.

But here’s the thing: They don’t get to tell you or me what we have to think or do, should we find ourselves participants in a tumble in the hay with the same surprising to them result.

Yet we are besieged by Republicans determined to make us all adhere to their absolutist, self-certain views on everything from books not allowed in the library to the very definition of the founding of this nation and their oppressive fantasies about what America is supposed to be today. So, I say unto the pseudo-holy marriage dictators the same thing I say to the book banners and the self-appointed blabbers who pretend to speak for the Founders:

You have every right to don your pointy Merlin hat and wave your Harry Potter wand and to drool and dribble your incantations in private. Other than that, butt out of my life and shut the f*ck up.

Wait: Isn’t that “butt out” stuff what fiercely independents, the MAGA tough guys, would demand for themselves? I’m looking at you, red states.

Border Dispute Resolved

Source not found. If you know it, please share it in the Comments section below and we’ll update the pic.

Click on the pic – it’s a real Google map that’s online now. Google renamed Lake Ontario “Lake America” and, no surprise, renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” Google is just another cowardly company bending the knee and acting without integrity. We suggest you switch to a different search engine and email.

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe An Answer

I’ve been asking questions about things like:

Why we continue to deplete our national defense stockpiles and our petroleum reserve

Why we have kicked science to the curb and recommend against life protecting vaccines, even as cases of measles, smallpox and polio proliferate

Why we’ve slashed staffing of agencies that keep us healthy

Why we allowed the gutting of the FDA which now can’t help us with the explosive diarrhea causing parasite or the next pandemic

Why we’ve insulted our allies

Why we started a war we cannot, under any circumstances, win

Why it’s just a footnote that we killed those little school girts and bombed a wedding in southern Iran, killing at least five people and injuring at least 67

Why we’ve kicked out our most experienced military people during a war

Why our Congress stands cowardly and mute as our national parks, landmarks and buildings are violated

Why mobs of incognito storm troopers beat, incarcerate and kill both citizens and innocent non-citizens alike

Why our Congress allows the vast bulk of the Epstein documentation and crimes to be buried under Trumpian distractions. Do you suppose our representatives and senators would be this spineless if the victims of Epstein, Maxwell and Trump were their own daughters?

Who benefits from our neutering our country internally, externally and morally?

Here are two pieces you must read to begin to understand:

  1. First read the New York Times editorial from August 23, Trump’s Election Meddling Erodes our Democracy.
  2. Then read the essay from Steve Schmidt from September 2, I Can See Clearly, Again. The pattern is clear. The way to disaster has been set.

And if you want to understand the cruel inscrutability behind the leader of our narcissist led thugocracy, read the special guest essay by Vince Greenwood, PhD. in Sheila Markin’s August 29 post, Proof Trump’s a Psychopath. It will make you lock your doors and windows.

Now, go read.

August Jobs Report

After losing 23,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department now wants us to believe that the U.S. gained 162,000 jobs in August. That is a magical turn around for an economy that lost over 20,000 manufacturing jobs in a month. Color me skeptical about the Labor Department’s report because I’m not buying it.

Have a look at what ADP Research and Endless Urgency have to say about the administration’s fun with numbers scam. With the mid-term elections nearly upon us the Trumpies want us to accept the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s just another agency where Trump fired the director – the one who had some integrity. In fact, he’s fired all the watch dog agency directors and clearly believes that now he can make up any statistics that will help him to get what he wants, like another compliant Republican Congress.

Expect more glowing reports about inflation, jobs, prices, the Iran war and more between now and November 3. Foolishly believe the administration at your peril.

Click me – and this one, too.

Song of the Week

Jesse Welles has done it again. Watch and listen as he explains our terrible, awful, illegal, pointless, unwinnable and cruel war. I mean, who really cares about those dead little school girls and wedding attendees?

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. 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.

I Don’t Get It


POST 1300

Via a quick AI search I found that Trump and his brain-free and dishonestly named (it never was about efficiency) DOGE chainsaw hackers mangled America like this:

ο Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): Cut roughly 20,000 positions, slashed $4 billion in medical research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and saw major workforce reductions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alongside significant cuts to Administration for Children and Families programs. [1, 2]

Wait: Drastically reduced medical research means fewer cures for the things that hobble and kill us. Slashing the CDC means leaving us vulnerable to the next pandemic. Cuts to children and family programs leaves millions medically adrift. That’s efficiency?

ο Department of Education: Slashing nearly $900 million through the cancellation of 89 independent research contracts under the Institute of Education Sciences. [1]

Wait: Cutting research contracts will leave us more ignorant and unready to compete in anything, anywhere.

ο Department of Defense (DOD): Civilian workforce reductions expected to impact up to 8% of personnel (roughly 61,000 employees) alongside numerous contract reviews. [1]

Wait: Aimless slashing leaves us more militarily endangered in a dangerous world.

ο Other Agencies: Widespread layoffs, contract “deobligations” [I guess that’s a word] or survey terminations also hit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Homeland Security (specifically the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties), and the U.S. Census Bureau. [1, 2]

Wait: Cutting those agencies leaves us more vulnerable to storms of ever increasing violence. Slashing the agencies that protect our rights and our elections is a direct assault on our freedom.

Need more to be convinced that Trump is putting us at great risk? Read Trump has been dismantling post-9/11 counterterrorism protections, Senate report says. He’s eviscerating our protections against international bad guys. And that’s supposed to be better for us?

For a clear explanation of the full cost to us of the DOGE massacres, read Why the full cost of Elon Musk’s DOGE is still coming into focus by Hayes Brown

The point of DOGE was claimed to be something about government efficiency. Instead what we’ve done is to cut ourselves off from critical services, leaving our neighbors without healthcare and even without food and allowing over 700,000 to die in other countries. We’ve stifled learning – I guess there’s nothing left to learn, according to our MAGA DOGE-brains – and crippled  individual and national growth and stopped even trying to keep up with the rest of the world. Worse, we are disarming ourselves militarily in a very dangerous world.

About 350,000 federal workers and contractors lost their jobs through the manically celebrated DOGE ready, fire, aim idiocy. That’s a plus, they tell us, unless you were one of those workers who lost their jobs and income or you’re any of the people and businesses the now unemployed used to do business with, like the waitress at the diner who’s lost all that tip income. It’s a total minus if you’ve needed any of the things those folks used to do for us.

Somebody tell me how we’re better off for having sacrificed both our present and our future this way, because I don’t get it. Explain how even the Narcissist-in-Chief benefits (of course, his benefit is his only interest), because he’s screwed his base and knee capped the economy. How does that help him? How does it help any of us to deplete our ability to defend our nation militarily, economically and medically?

On the other hand, Trump’s knee bending buddies are doing just fine, like the oil companies who have raked in a WINDFALL OF 26.5 BILLION IN PROFITS in just the second quarter, as well as the war matériel companies who are making lots more bombs, drones, rockets and profit.

Same kind of question in foreign affairs. Trump has offended our allies, sucked up to opponents and left millions to suffer and die. He started a war from which there doesn’t seem to be even a face saving exit, much less a victory, and neutered our diplomatic corps, replacing them with incompetents. He has an evil clown running the FBI, putting us all at risk. He chopped the IRS so that his rich friends can evade taxes, thereby efficiently dumping yet more debt on us and our progeny. In short, he has vastly and possibly catastrophically weakened our nation.

What will we do when China decides to invade Taiwan? What will we do if Putin decides to nuke Ukraine and invade the Baltic states? What will we do after Saudi Arabia decides to nuke Israel once we’ve given them the ability to do that?

Mark Felt aka Deep Throat.

One more time: Somebody tell me how we’re better off for having sacrificed both our present and our future this way, because I don’t get it. In other words, the “I don’t get it” boils down to asking, “Who’s better off due to our madness of neutering our nation to our existential peril?” Plus, explain how even the Narcissist-in-Chief benefits.

Your answer should include some version of Deep Throat’s clear imperative: Follow the money. Be sure to post your answer in the Comments section below, because, like I said, I don’t get it.

Question for Senators John Cornyn, Tom Tillis and Bill Cassidy

Senators, you were on your way out, career over. You had no need to suck up, but  you sucked anyway. How does it feel to be Trump’s most recent, most public and dumbest dupes?

Best Unmasking of the Week

Perhaps you’ve heard something about David Ellison and his mass grab of Warner Brothers, CNN, et.al.  but you need perspective on the harm to us that is on the way. Some has already arrived, like Bari Weiss having gutted 60 Minutes. Read Marc Ellis’ Open Letter To David Ellison to learn what’s coming.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. 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.

Policy


POST 1299

Click me

The insightful, prolific and clever singer-songwriter Jesse Welles has done it again: He’s told the truth. Listen to his song, There’s a Hole.

After you’ve heard it, remind yourself that we attacked Iran for no specific reason, fueled by no coherent strategy, we lusted after vague and wandering, inconsistent goals, all entirely without an exit plan. To be fair, there have been great clouds of presidential bluster. How could we have been suckered into that after 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan?

This sounds suspiciously like our idiocy in Vietnam, the very place President Bone Spurs avoided with five fraudulent deferments.

A key difference between then and now is that there was a draft then and kids just out of school were being vacuumed into that Southeast Asia death machine, leading to constant protests in our streets. You know, demonstrations of “.  .  . the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” that’s guaranteed to us by the First Amendment. You remember that right, right? President Bone Spurs doesn’t.

The protests weren’t only about the killing and dying: they were also about the stupidity.

There was no specific reason for that war except for the inane, hyper-righty “domino theory,” which history has proven to be bunk. It was the “mushroom cloud” scare tactic of the day. There was no coherent strategy, the goals were vague and inconsistent and the entire thing lacked even a hint of an exit plan. Nobody wanted to kill or be killed for hollow, vaporous reasons; hence, people opposed the war and the draft.

Now there is no draft, so there are no student protests. Instead, government appeals to the patriotism and manliness of our young. Instead of forcing them into the death machine, now we trick them into it with puffery and slick slogans (“Be all that you can be.”) and signing bonuses that poor kids can’t refuse.

Click me

To extend the comparison still further, there quite obviously was no way to win the Vietnam war, so a proposed street solution was for us to declare victory and go home. Richard Nixon couldn’t abide that solution, declaring that he wasn’t going to be the first American president to lose a war. He really did think it was all about himself and his legacy, body counts be damned. That’s Trump’s policy, too.

Nixon managed to avoid signing his name on that imaginary surrender document by quitting the job and dumping the whole mess onto Gerald Ford. That led to the embarrassment of helicopters under fire evacuating our diplomatic personnel from the roof of our embassy in Saigon, now renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

Click me

Arguably, the signatures of Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower and Truman belong on that imaginary surrender document. Bear in mind that our involvement in Vietnam began by bailing out President Charles de Gaulle of France, a country stripped of its military might due to WW II. We covered for him so that he could keep his colony, then part of what was called French Indochina.

Isn’t it interesting that the combatants in that war in Vietnam consisted of those wanting to remain colonials – the South Vietnamese – versus the people fighting for their liberty, for an independent nation, the North Vietnamese. How did we descendants of American revolutionaries who fought against colonialism get on the wrong side of that fight? Oh, right, de Gaulle had been an ally in WW II.

Now we are, by choice and by self-destructiveness, an ally of no one and we are once again fighting an unwinnable war. We haven’t a ghost of an exit plan and we have proudly learned no lessons that we should have learned from  20 years in Vietnam and re-learned from 20 years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because Trump is incapable of admitting he made a mistake, the list of American dead and wounded in Iran will climb higher and higher. More on that in a moment.

Separately, we have now blown up 67 small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing 221 people. There continues to be no evidence of drugs on those boats and the cocaine supply in the U.S. hasn’t slowed. That’s likely because none of those boats was headed for the U.S. The drugs come to our shores via other paths. Still, Trump wantonly murdered those boat people for no reason other than his need to demonstrate how tough he is. And our government called our murderous actions legal. That’s policy.

The men on those boats were South Americans and they likely had brown skin, so there’s no reason for our empathy deficient, racist government geniuses to care about them, any more than they care about non-Christians in Iran. Bear in mind that had they lived, those 168 little girls we blew up in that Tehran school five months ago would have grown up and probably given birth to more non-Christians. That’s plenty of reason for our racist Trump government to refuse to even apologize for murdering them.

This is what passes for our national defense policy. It satisfies our mental incompetents in government and is good business strategy for their buddies, the war matériel contractors.

Once again, Trump is incapable of admitting he made a mistake, like killing those little girls, so this Iran bloodbath will continue at least until he’s out of office. Come to think of it, that’s a lot like the Vietnam war that killed over 58,000 of our military people and millions of Vietnamese people. But the Vietnamese were Asians and were nothing more than body counts to our government.

Perhaps the 25th Amendment will be invoked and forced upon our dementia addled president. The ugly prospect of surrender in Iran will then be left to a hapless J.D. Vance. There will be no word dance left for him to do and Trump will have skated from accountability yet again. That’s our policy.

Until then this illegal, intractable Iran war is an effective public distraction from Trump’s Epstein adventures in pedophilia. That’s policy, too.

Quote of the Week
  • “We should confiscate the billions Trump made in crypto and distribute it to Epstein survivors.”
  • Andy Borowitz
The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. 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.

Things May Have Changed


POST 1275

Trump Violates International Laws – Again & Still

He attacked a sovereign nation that did no harm to the U.S. and was not a threat to do so. That’s a war crime. He had our military strike civilian targets. That’s a war crime. He threatened the end of Iranian civilization. That’s a war crime.

Hey wait: this sounds a lot like Putin attacking Ukraine, a country that was no threat to Russia. That was and is a war crime. Same for his bombing civilian targets. That’s a war crime. Same for his nuclear blackmail. That’s a war crime.

Trump told us he admires Putin and we’ve seen that he wants to be like him. Looks like he’s succeeded.

Now Trump claims that he received a ten point plan from Iran to end hostilities and he’s grabbed it like a lifeline because he has no clue how to end this war. He told Iran that it has 10 days to open the Strait of Hormuz and let ships pass. Is this just another 10-day TACO? Did Trump get played big time by Iran? Time will tell. What is clear now is that Trump surrendered and Iran is still in control of the Strait of Hormuz. It is now expecting to charge and receive huge tolls for ships to pass.

Putin has benefited bigly from increased oil pricing and a reduction in sanctions against his nation. China knows that we’re distracted and there is speculation they are ready to move on Taiwan.

The shooting part of this Iran war may be over, but who’s the winner? We broke everything and gained nothing, so the U.S. isn’t the winner. This is yet another stupid war we should not have been in.

If You Missed It Do Not Search For It

The press conference on Monday featuring Trump, Hegseth, Air Force General Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe was a tragedy. Each did a demonstration of infantile pretension, of strutting and puffery and an exaggerated parade of the absolutes and superlatives of braggadocio. These pretenders humiliated you before the world and made a mockery of our actual military personnel.

I am not including a pic or a link to this epic parade of immaturity and little boy-ism (“bang-bang you’re dead”), as I customarily do for events discussed in these posts. Further, I encourage you not to find it and watch. Unless you enjoy feeling embarrassed.

In his post of April 7, It’s Just World War 3 . . . if we’re lucky, Rick Wilson wrote:

[Trump] detonates a new crisis to incinerate the headlines of the last one. It’s a scorched-earth policy applied to domestic PR, and it’s going to lead us into a darkness we aren’t prepared for. He’ll keep throwing matches until there’s nothing left to burn, convinced all the while that the explosions are actually applause.

You’ve seen this time and again, as Trump “doubles down” on his lies, his mistakes and his wanton cruelty. That’s combined with his time tested Roy Cohn dictum to never apologize, never back down and never admit he’s wrong no matter how high the body count climbs. And now he’s detonated this war crisis to incinerate the headlines – the proof – of his Epstein criminality, regardless of the number of people who die so that he can skate from accountability.

This war isn’t about painting everything gold or tearing down a house he doesn’t own. It’s not about putting his growling face on coins or on banners hung from buildings. It’s not about dismantling nearly all the agencies that protect you and me. It’s about actual human beings dying. Oh sure, some don’t speak English, which alone is good enough reason for Trump to bomb them, especially if he thinks he can steal their oil. The dead now number in the thousands.

Some of those human beings being killed are American military personnel who volunteered to stand strong in the face of threats to America. To be clear, though, there wasn’t a threat and our people do care if they die. They just don’t want to die for stupid reasons, much less for no reason at all. They are all predisposed to want to continue living, but that doesn’t enter Trump’s short circuited, dementia addled brain. If they die, Trump will wave a flag in faux patriotism, declare our superior warrior-ship and then call the deceased suckers and losers.

From David Corn of Mother Jones, interspersed with my comments in parentheses that I was unable to rein in:

Of course, millions of Americans have known from the start that Trump has long been a deceitful scammer. But millions of others have fallen for his hustle—and they stuck with his flimflam after his first stint as president demonstrated he lied when he promised cheaper and better health care (never even had a plan – nor an idea of a “concept of a plan”), a revival of American infrastructure (Infrastructure Week never arrived), and an end to budget deficits (he added $7.8 trillion to our national debt in his first administration). Despite his failure to make good on these pie-in-the-sky promises, he managed to keep the con going—even after miserably mismanaging the Covid pandemic (there were at least 800,000 unnecessary deaths – dead people – due to Trump’s ineptitude – seeing a pattern?) and then scheming to overturn a national election.

Now he’s scamming us with bogus claims of having eliminated Iran’s defenses, even as they shoot down our warplanes and our search-and-rescue aircraft; making promises of grabbing Iran’s oil on the cheap as though it’s ours to take; securing glorious victory for our troops; and inflation so low that you’ve never seen anything like it before.  Plus evicting the “worst of the worst,” even as he deports U.S. citizens – the list goes on and on and they’re all cons.

Here are some timely questions:

  1. Have our millions of Americans who have continued to let themselves be conned by this lifelong con man at last been awakened to the reality that Trump has started a global war and that real people are really being killed in service to Trump’s demented psychopathy?
  2. Have they/we at last figured out that this is real life or death? It isn’t a reality show and this war threatens to be fought right here. Do they get that the opponent won’t rope-a-dope for Trump for very long and that they will use their finest skills – terrorism – to attack us?
  3. Have our fellow citizens opened their eyes and now see that Trump is having our military people violate our own laws and commit war crimes – IN OUR NAME?
  4. Do MAGAs see that Trump has removed everyone who might possibly be less than completely loyal only to him, as though he is an absolute, all powerful muck-a-muck, so that now there are no backbones anywhere near him, that there aren’t any adults left in the room, just cowering children?
  5. Life or death didn’t seem to matter to Americans in the Covid pandemic during Trump’s first administration. Will life or death matter to us in a global war?

Don’t imagine even for a second that this is hyperbole. It’s happening in front of your eyes right now. This isn’t about policies or policy differences. It isn’t about wacko conspiracy stupidities or about some “alternative facts” (i.e. lies). People are dying and the rate of death is increasing. This is a developing global war, even though it’s happening now a few thousand miles away from us – except for the impact on the loved ones of those getting killed and injured “over there.” It’s happening “over here” for the people who are grieving.

Don’t be conned into believing that this war is over. The Iranians have a long memory, such that even if the immediate hostilities are stopped, Iran will continue to do what it’s done since 1979: terrorism and proxy wars.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action, like:

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!), because 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.

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 This War Is All About


POST 1268

A Little News Wrap-Up
  1. As detailed in Rolling Stone, 17% of young Republicans are Hitler loving Nazis, John Avalon reported on Morning Joe on Monday, March 16.
  2. The Chairman of the FCC and Trump are threatening broadcast networks that they’ll take action against those outlets which report news and opinion about the war that Trump doesn’t like. You’re right: that violates the First Amendment. Trump will do so to get his way through intimidation. See Timothy Snyder’s First Lesson in On Tyranny: Don’t obey in advance.
  3. Hegseth says we’re winning and doing so “without mercy” and “we will show no quarter for our enemies.” That means we will take no prisoners and instead we’ll kill everyone, including those who surrender. How very chest puffy of Hegseth to declare that. Other than the moral repugnance of such a thing, intentional cruelty and murder violate our own Uniform Code of Military justice. That means it’s a crime according to our own laws to follow Hegseth’s direction. And it’s a war crime, too. So, any U.S. military personnel who act according to Hegseth’s dictum will be international criminals.
  4. For an excellent explainer, read Sheila Markin’s post here.
War Update

Trump ignored warnings about likely Iranian opposition to a U.S. initiated war and did scant planning for it, even to the point of having no clear, achievable objectives.

The U.S. military doesn’t have the capacity to guard all regions of the globe, commit various offensive actions against Iran and also escort 130 – 150 ships per day through the Strait of Hormuz to protect them from Iranian missile and drone attacks. So, Trump is now trying to strong-arm other nations into filling the gaps in U.S. preparedness.

After harming them with tariffs, Trump has repeatedly threatened, disrespected and coerced members of NATO to help. In fact, now he is alternately begging and dismissing them regarding sending their warships to the Strait of Hormuz.

Stable genius Trump’s demand has been rejected or ignored by over a dozen countries. He said that if they won’t support his war, “I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.”

Let’s be clear that the United States attacked Iran, not the other way around. The NATO charter doesn’t require any support for a member nation that violates international laws regarding other nations’ rights and sovereignty. Nothing is promised to a nation which goes to war because its leader had “a feeling,” apparently based upon no evidence, that some unnamed bad thing was about to happen.

I swear it’s true that Trump posted this plainly self-contradictory idiocy:

“We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are.”

This is the person who started a war based on “a feeling.”

Insufficient and Insecure Being

On Thursday, with the Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sitting next to him, Trump made a cringe worthy comparison of his sneak attack on Iran to the Pearl Harbor attack. That was in response to a question about his failing to notify our allies in advance of his ambush. Said Trump,

“We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan, okay?

Turning to her, he asked, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, okay?”

We shake off the willies and go on.

In the preface to Brother Wayne Teasdale’s book, The Mystic Heart, Dr. Beatrice Bruteau makes an insightful comment that applies to our time, writing,

Consider that domination, greed, cruelty, violence and all our other ills arise from a sense of insufficient and insecure being. I need more power, more possessions, more respect and admiration. But it’s never enough; the fear always remains. It comes from every side; from other people; from economic circumstances; from ideas, customs, and belief systems; from the natural environment; from our own bodies and minds. All these others intimidate us, threaten us, make us anxious. We can’t control them.

Hence, our sociopath.

Trump’s effrontery, like that dumped on the Japanese PM, and all of his anti-social exhibitions play out in his domination, greed, cruelty, violence and the rest, as they inevitably “arise from a sense of insufficient and insecure being,” He harms and kills others in his desperate clawing to fill his emptiness. But he’ll never fill that void. Never.

That explains, but it doesn’t excuse. And now we are in yet another intractable war that should never have been started. People are dying and people are suffering and it’s of no consequence to Trump. But it is to us.

Just get that all the outrageous narcissism is about Trump trying to fill his bottomless neediness and we are the now hapless victims of that. It’s about his deadly coverup, too. See the final sentence in this post.

Follow Up

Last Wednesday in my post Winning I detailed some of what should be wins for We The People but instead they are abject, painful losses for us. Here’s an important addition that’s critical to that list for a lot of people.

Two and a half years ago there was a freak and violent hurricane that hit the Asheville area of North Carolina. The residents looked to FEMA for help and there was very little. Then Trump took office and ravaged the agency, making things far worse. There are lots of people in that devastated area still paying mortgages on houses they cannot live in, while simultaneously paying for housing elsewhere. And FEMA is nowhere to be found.

To be fair to FEMA, it is sorely hobbled by a huge percentage of its people having been DOGEed by Chainsaw Musk, so those remaining are unfairly challenged. There’s no way to distribute desperately needed cash to desperate people if there’s nobody there to do the job. Do you think the folks in Asheville feel like they’re winning?

Report From The Snark Department

Perhaps you’ve wondered how MAGAs could remain in thrall to Trump in the face of his anti-patriotic bluster. They vote against their own best interests and even thump chests about that.

I’ve repeatedly cautioned that such people have valid grievances. Their blockage is that they are ruled by their anger and that blanks their ability to think clearly and critically. They are limited to rage and hatred and they are unable to oppose what is actually abhorrent to themselves.

Watch this rant from Cliff Cash.

CAUTION: There is a lot of potty mouth in this rant. If nasty words offend you, don’t watch the video.

Speak Up This Saturday!

Click here to find a No Kings rally near you. Then show up on March 28. Change our atmosphere that has been poisoned by our home grown fascists. Make it clear that the they are the minority and we are the majority.

The cure for hopelessness is action.
What It’s All About

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT let Trump’s war distract you from his culpability in the Epstein crimes. Trump trying to cloud your eyes is what this war is all about.

  • Time for action is dwindling

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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.

Newsflashes


POST 1264

Newsflash 1!

To the right is a picture from the dignified transfer at Dover AFB of six of our fallen military personnel. Attending is the undignified President Bone Spurs, who refers to our fallen warriors as “suckers” and “losers.” He is ignorant and doesn’t know that it is inappropriate to salute when out of uniform. But then, President Bone Spurs never wore a uniform.

Plus, he couldn’t be bothered to remove his cap as a sign of respect as six coffins passed him. The white ball cap is Trump merch, of course, for sale to rubes wherever they buy lies. And he wore a too long red tie as dead patriots passed by. The transfer was dignified. Trump is never dignified,

Newsflash 2!

It’s been reported that Russia – meaning Trump’s bestie, Putin – is providing targeting intelligence to Iran, which has led to their much improved accuracy in hitting U.S. military installations and killing American military personnel. Watch for swift, inane denials from Trump that are devoid of any concern for our troops. Hey, no problem, Trump told us. “When you go to war, some people will die.”

Watch Rick Wilson’s take down of this.

And see this video designed to appeal to Pete Hegseth’s MAGA-macho sub-intelligence. Perhaps it’s his creation. It will help you to understand this administration’s low sense of gravitas – its callousness, really – about this war.

Newsflash 3!

Kristi Noem, AKA ICE Barbie, the puppy and goat killer, the surgically and cosmetically altered face of United States Homeland Security, will be gone from the department by the end of the month.

President Trump used to try to look like a tough guy on his TV show The Apprentice by eliminating contestants with a vicious and scowling, “YOU’RE FIRED!” Turns out that in real life he doesn’t have the cojones to face a subordinate in a one-on-one dismissal meeting or to write a formal letter of dismissal or even to send a sycophantic employee to do the dirty work. He fired Noem via his social media platform, just as he has done with many others. It’s the coward’s way.

Trump wants Noem replaced by Sen.Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), a proud suck up to Trump. Actually, Trump said he was appointing Miller to the top spot at Homeland Security but that isn’t how this works. He gets to nominate Mullin and the Senate decides whether to let him slither through.

Mullin is a lick-spittle to Trump, a perfect yes-sir machine. This is a highly suitable and desired trait in fascist governments. He will be powerful, blatantly cruel and a proudly manly man, right until the hammer comes down on him. Here is what to expect from Mullin and each of Trump’s cabinet toadies when they are at last confronted with accountability:

“I was just following orders.”

It’s a Nuremberg excuse and it won’t work any better for Trump’s lackeys than it did for Nazi operatives. Bookmark this notion, because it’s already on the way via the next Congress if we do our job right.

Newsflash 4!

Jesse Welles’ explanation – click me

Back in our school days we took lots of tests, many of them multiple-choice. Often choice E was “None of the above.” Periodically, there was a choice F, “All of the above.” But in war, there is rarely a choice F. There is a primary answer or reason and everything else is secondary at best. This Iran war is more nebulous than that. Here are examples from the mouths of Trump, Rubio, Vance and a few more blabbers.

1, What is the real goal of the U.S. military actions against Iran?

A. Regime change – or not

B. Obliterate Iran’s nukes and nuke making capability – again

C. Destroy Iran’s ballistic missile capability

D. Freedom for the Iranian people – some undefined, probably unachievable smoke and mirrors thing

E. To eliminate some unnamed, invisible and fact-less “imminent threats” to the U.S. from Iran, supported only by a Trump “feeling”

F. All of the above, but who knows?

2. What is the U.S. end game? How will we know we’ve won and can bring our troops home?

A. There is regime change to something that isn’t a military theocracy – maybe a democracy in this country that has never had a democracy?

B. There are no more Iranian ships to sink or nuclear sites or missile launchers to bomb.

C. We’ve run out of missiles, drones and bombs

D. Netanyahu says, “I’ll take it from here.” Yeah, that will go well.

E. Trump has hotels and casinos along the Persian Gulf

F. All of the above, but who knows?

Newsflash 5!

This looks to be legitimate, based on a report from Politico.

Ashley Beck T, Moderator
BREAKING: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney blindsides Trump by forming a super alliance of 40 powerful countries to defeat his disastrous MAGA agenda.
.
[Canadian Prime Minister] Carney has become one of Trump’s most brilliant adversaries . . .
.
According to Politico, the European Union, composed of 27 nations, as well as a geopolitical bloc of 12 Indo-Pacific countries, have begun negotiations to form one of the largest economic alliances in the entire world. This historic pivot comes as Trump continues to wage erratic tariff wars on close allies, turning the once-stable United States into a deeply unreliable partner.
.
The talks are being led by Canada and will be the fruit of Carney’s vision of a world in which the so-called “middle powers” unite to undermine Trump’s tariffs and make themselves immune to his bullying coercion.
.
If successful — and it certainly appears to be heading in that direction — the supply chains of countries as far off as Canada, Malaysia, and Germany could be intertwined into one super supply chain.
.
“The work is definitely coming along,” a Canadian government official said to POLITICO. “We’ve had very fruitful discussions on it with other partners around the world.”
.
“We see a lot of value in increasing trade among the EU and [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership] parties, which would also contribute to enhancing supply chain resilience,” stated a Japanese trade official.
.
Last month, Carney gave an astonishing speech at the Davos World Economic Forum during which he announced the end of American dominance, stating that the “bargain no longer works for the rest of the world. American hegemony once offered benefits, now it offers only chaos.
.
“Let me be direct, we are in the midst of a rupture not a transition,” Carney said during that speech. “Over the past two decades a series of crises in finance, health, energy, and geopolitics have laid the bare risks of extreme global integration.”
.
“But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons,” he said, referring to Trump. “Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructures as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”
.
He predicted that allied nations would “diversify to hedge against uncertainty” and “rebuild sovereignty” and that’s exactly what’s happening with this nascent trade alliance. Carney said that the deal will “create a new trading bloc of 1.5 billion people.”
.
Left out in the cold would be the American people, who will be forced to stand by as the citizens of other nations enjoy easier, cheaper access to reliable goods. Trump has made us a world pariah, and the price will be shouldered by your wallet.
.
“We hope that if that’s a success, if you can see tangible benefits in different areas, that could also entice other countries to join in and team up in a positive sense,” said Klemens Kober, the Director of Trade Policy, EU Customs, Transatlantic Relations at the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce. “So the more the merrier,” Kober added.
.
This is what happens when we elect an ignorant conman and give him absolute power over foreign policy. Trump and his MAGA sycophants thought that the rest of the world would simply go paws up as America proceeded to abuse their countries. Instead, they’re banding together to completely shatter the balance of power forever and leave the U.S. odd man out.
.
It’s not just Americans whom Trump is pissing off. This is going to cost us big time.
  • Time for action is dwindling

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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.

Realities


POST 1215

Some Things Just Have To Lede

Brace yourselves, flat-earthers.

Tomorrow at 1:19PM the reliable, count-on-it solar system will deliver this year’s autumnal equinox even for the flat earthers. It will be the very moment when the forces of summer and the forces of winter will hold hands, balance on tip-toe and suspend for just a moment their individual certainties. They will set aside their differences and their wobbling convictions. One side will even return, if only fleetingly, to once again recognize laws and the eternal nature of reality. The other will cheer them with welcome, asking, “Where’ve ya been?”

Many thanks to AT for this most valuable question.

For just that moment.

Then we will be returned to a world of lies, grift and cruelty, led by the Monster Liar In Chief (see the valuable question to the right).

Now Something Quite Serious

The lying done by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the rest of the extremist Palestinian mouthpieces is well known and has been paraded prominently before the world at least since the leadership of Yassir Arafat. They excel at making themselves appear to be victims in order to garner the sympathy of the world and thereby gain support. It is a self-defeating, suicidal strategy, but those leaders don’t seem to care about the suffering of their own people.

For the past two years Gazans, most of whom are not Hamas, have suffered starvation, injury and death. Hamas is the only reporting entity there and they report tens of thousands dead, among whom is a high percentage of children. We do not know whether their claims are accurate, but regardless of the actual numbers of dead, there are obviously many. That’s great victim PR for them.

That is horrendous for the people of Gaza for obvious reasons. And it is horrendous for Israel, too, which is well on its way to becoming a pariah state. The problem isn’t the majority of the people of Israel. It is Benjamin Netanyahu and his murderous government. Read Sen. Bernie Sanders’ message of September 18 in The Nation, It Is Genocide.

Almost as bad as the genocide, the Trump administration is complicit in these deaths by sending Netanyahu offensive weapons that he is using to incrementally destroy what is left of Gaza. Perhaps that is so that Trump can have his “Riviera of the Middle East.” If he gets that it will be paid for by children buried in the rubble or dying of starvation.

Jimmy Kimmel, Deployed National Guard, Public Health, ICE Thuggery  .  .  .

You know about all those and more, so rather than detailing them in this post, here is your Sunday reading list.

§ In Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s post Be Loud — For America he lays out the obvious truth that Trump’s deranged verbal attacks on Chicago and his threats of sending in the military aren’t about stopping crime. They are about sowing chaos and destabilizing our democracy and our country so that he can establish his dictatorial power.

§ Dan Rather offers insight into our escalating violence in How Did We Get Here? Where the president is a proponent of political violence. He explains,

A political leader’s reaction to political violence is a test of character. It is a test that Donald Trump has failed. He exploits others’ violent acts to further his own vengeful agenda. At a time when our leadership should be seeking unity, Trump is using Kirk’s killing as a call to arms for his supporters. “We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them,” the president said at the White House last week.

Trump said that even before we had a clue who the alleged perpetrator was or what his motivations might have been. Nevertheless, he pointedly has called for violence against fellow citizens.

§ Read the transcript of Rep. Jason Crow’s address to the House, Concerning State of US Politics & the Path Forward to Unite Our Country or watch it via the embedded video. And share it with others.

Ahoy, Maties!

Friday was National Talk Like A Pirate Day.

What? You forgot?
.

(Read the following aloud and with proper pirate-ness.)

Shiver me timbers, ye scalawags. Arrrr!

De tieves ha’ been a-tievin’ and a-takin’ what be ours, workin’ dere treason wi dere lies.

Me proud beauties, ’tis time we be a-weigin’ anchor and puttin’ our bow to de waves to make good trouble. Fie on Davey Jones hisself if he dare be gettin’ in our way. Dis be de hour we ‘cede to set tings aright.

Raise full sails, me hearties, an’ make ar headin’ to where de treasure waits fer such as us. We parlay wi de traitor, de scurvy bloated orange poxy hisself, if we must. But eider way, we be takin’ back de rule what be rightly ars.

So stand ready, ye sea dogs. Ar Jolly Roger flies and de battle be wid us!

The Deconstructing Trump Corner
.
  • Reality is that which when you stop believing in it,
  • it doesn’t go away.
  • Philip K. Dick, 1981
  • Nothing doth more hurt in a state
  • than that cunning men must pass for wise.
  • Francis Bacon, 1625
  • Mid-Term Election
    Goes fast, doesn’t it?
    .

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    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Little Friday Comment


POST 1187

As of this writing President Trump has said that he will make up his TACO mind about whether to go to war against Iran within the next two weeks.* Why he would make such a strategic announcement to our adversaries like a circus barker saying “You ain’t seen nuthin yet?” This comes from somewhere beyond sanity or national security.

This is not a commentary about what Trump’s decision should be. Rather, it’s about his decision making methodology and the limitations of this president of greatly limited capability.

Our news folk are telling us that he is conferring with:

The civilian leader of our national defense. I find no comfort in hearing that he is giving serious consideration to what SecDef Pete Hegseth has to say. He’s the guy who had to overtly declare that he’d stop his drunken ways if he were confirmed for the post he now holds and we don’t know if he’s honored his pledge. He’s the same fool responsible for failing to protect what should have been top secret plans to bomb the Houthis in order to protect our shipping through the Gulf of Hormuz. He instead sent his plans over an unsecured service with at least one participant on the string having no security clearance at all. Are we supposed to trust his advice to the President regarding our military services and security in war?

Our military defense people. Trump dumped all the top people – the generals – who he knew were primarily loyal to the Constitution. He replaced them with people primarily loyal to Trump. Who cares about some pesky solemn oath, anyway?

Can we be confident these replacements will refuse to obey an illegal order?

Our intelligence people. Lots of agencies there, but they all funnel to the Director of National Intelligence, who right now is Tulsi Gabbard. That’s “Putin Talker” Gabbard. That’s “no experience in intelligence work” Gabbard or even at keeping a secret. Not hard to imagine that she might give advice to the President based upon what Vladimir Putin wants us to do, rather than what is in the best interests of our country. Worse, it’s not hard to imagine Trump preferring to hear about Putin’s preferences.

Our Secretary of State. Marco Rubio is a smooth talking, pleasant looking pol who has shown us repeatedly that he is not much more than a political weather vane. He will say and do only what Trump wants him to say and do, leaving decisions and policy without a check or expanded options.

Then there is Trump’s learning disability and gnat-like attention span. This president doesn’t read. They’ve had to put the President’s Daily Brief  (“PDB”) into comic book format. They’ve tried creating videos for this reality show freak of a man to advise him of international threats.

He can’t stay with any train of thought for more than a few minutes. That isn’t sufficient when the topic is anything more complex than how many Big Macs this infant tyrant wants for dinner, much less for the brutal and perilous questions of war.

Fortunately, the power to declare war rests solely with the Congress, not the president. Unfortunately, we have no assurance that the Congress will put on its big boy and big girl pants and stop this president from acting from his dementia addled brain to get a lot of people killed with no thought to the day after.

Our last two forays into war lasted 20 years, got over 7,000 American troops killed, hundreds of thousands of locals killed, millions displaced and upheaval in the region that continues even today. All that was started by a similarly un-serious, incompetent president who listened to the wrong people and whose primary concerns were his popularity and his legacy. He lied us into wars against two nations that had done us no harm and were not a threat to us.

Trump craves grossly narcissistic things, including money, power and adulation. He gets none of those from Benjamin Netanyahu, leaving the possibility of a chip on Trump’s shoulder that may influence his decision about war against Iran. But it shouldn’t.

Now, in this appallingly dangerous world, un-serious incompetence is more lethal than ever and we are once again saddled with it.

__________________________________________

* That “two weeks” business is nothing but a stall to make Trump seem in control, seem assertive and to give him time to do a dozen other outrageous things to distract you so that you stop thinking about whatever he was supposed to make happen in two weeks. Think: Infrastructure Week.

Stop listening to talking heads who grind on about what will happen in two weeks. That grind isn’t worth your time or attention.

Countdown to November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election
Countdown Timer
Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

  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.

Dream Sequence 2


POST 1158

NEW!

I’m over at BLUESKY now, with Maddow, O’Donnell and other smart folks. Find me at:

@jaxpolitix.bsky.social
Executive Summary

→ What happened to Zelens’kyi in the Oval Office and what should have happened next

→ Yet more hatred in the Oval Office – again

→ Still looking for who will lead us back to the United States of America

This Happened

President Trump, Vice-President Vance and Brian Green, a right wing conspiracy journalist with no legitimate reason for being there, all publicly delivered their incoherent, demeaning rants in the Oval Office aimed at humiliating President Volodymyr Zelens’kyi of Ukraine. Instead, they humiliated the United States of America before the world. Then our national leaders expelled the leader of an allied nation from the White House.

Dream Sequence: This Should Have Happened

President Zelens’kyi stood and took a step toward toward the door of the Oval Office to leave, then stopped abruptly. He paused in place for a moment with a look of sudden clarity on his face. Then he turned to Trump and Vance.

“Mr. President and Mr. Vice-President, I just thought of something that had not come to me before this moment. My country is at war and I really have not had time for such notions.

“My people have suffered grievously from illegal and cruel Russian aggression. Many thousands of my countrymen, women and children have been killed and our buildings and our energy infrastructure lie in ruin. Many thousands of our soldiers have suffered and died fighting the invaders. That we have achieved some success on the battlefield is in part due to the munitions and field intelligence the United States has generously supplied, which is why I have thanked the American people many, many times, including during a major address to your Congress. We all know this to be true.

“We all also know that Mr. Putin has openly made his goals clear. He wants to reconstitute the Soviet Union. He has publicly declared that after he has destroyed and annexed my country that the Baltic States will be next to be invaded; then Poland. We can reasonably assume that stealing all the rest of what had been Soviet Union territory will come next and that all of Europe will be at risk. Democracy itself will be endangered everywhere. All that stands in his way are the people of Ukraine.

“We Ukrainians are doing the fighting and dying to stop Putin from decimating western culture, from killing tens of thousands of Europeans and from damaging, isolating and neutering the United States. Now you, Mr. President, have announced a “pause” in armament shipments to us and cut us off from intelligence reports and satellite utilities. That has emboldened Mr. Putin, to the enormous disadvantage and harm to we Ukrainians. Indeed, your actions threaten to hasten a terrible future risk for all of western culture and safety.

“It is our children who have been orphaned and killed and kidnapped, not yours, and it is we who have been doing the fighting, the bleeding and the dying, not your soldiers.

“What has come to me just now, Mr. President and Mr. Vice-President, is that it is you who should be thanking the Ukrainian people for fighting the righteous fight so that you do not have to send your sons and daughters into harms way to stop this international terrorist. But you have never uttered a word of gratitude for our suffering and sacrifice.

Not once have you thanked us for keeping your people safe, for all that we have done and continue to do for you and for freedom everywhere. We protect your people, your way of life and we protect the world for the blessing of democracy. You have never uttered a word of thanks to we Ukrainians. Not ever.

“That is what I have just realized, Mr. President. Now all the world knows.”

With that, Volodymyr Zelens’kyi turned his back to Trump and Vance and walked out of the Oval Office, raising a fist above his head and declaring in his strong, but war strained voice, “Slava Ukraini!”

Shame

I posted a Ukraine dream sequence almost exactly 3 years ago. It was about creating peace. Sadly, none of what I dreamed has come about and now our government has stopped support for that embattled nation. Trump, the Russian “useful idiot,” is quite deliberately handing Ukraine to Putin.

It appears that our elected leadership has officially and quite dangerously abandoned our values, our principles and the safety of the world for the sole purpose of serving one man’s vanity.

Still, there are places in America where there is still the capacity to feel national shame caused by officials without honor. There are fellow citizens who have the juice to deliver the condemnation that those doing shameful things deserve. Go join those voices at the next demonstration against TrumpMusk and your cowardly Republican congresspeople.

Hatred Report of the Week

Read what Prof. Timothy Snyder has to say about our elected leaders spewing hatred and scapegoating “others” in his post, Antisemitism in the Oval Office – even if you aren’t Jewish. Snyder doesn’t say as much in his essay, but immigrants, whether legal or not, criminals or not, U.S. citizens or not, continue to be vilified and scapegoated by Trump and by others infected with the poison of hatred. He did the same thing against Muslims during his first administration. Are you seeing a pattern yet?

We don’t know who will be next. But we do know that someone will be next.

Leadership Update

I keep receiving emails from Hakeem Jeffries. Other than listing a couple of Trump horribles to tweak me into sending cash (8 pings in 11 days), he offers nothing. I keep his emails in a folder labeled “Stupid Democrat Solicitations.”

Jeffries’ public speaking is a tour de force of uninspiring recitation of talking points read by a policy wonk. Nobody will be energized for the fight by listening to him. In short, he isn’t the guy we need to lead the charge.

Schumer is worse. Sometime, long ago, he accidentally entered a hospital OR where his passion was surgically removed.

I ask yet again:

Who will lead?

Flash Update

The verified total of Trump’s lies during his first term is 30,572. That means he lied to us every 52 minutes, ’round the clock for four years!

Let’s just say that the newly inaugurated president isn’t going to sit on his laurels during his second term. He’s well on his way to another four years of five-figure fibbing. – The Cap Times, January 27, 2025

What puzzles me is how that’s okay with Trump voters.

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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. 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.

What Will Happen – Part 2 of 2


POST 1121

Preface

This is Part 2 of 2 – Part 1 was published last Sunday, detailing some of what you can expect from the second Trump presidency, Some of what follows is snark or satire. Most is not.

Criminality

The sentencing hearing for the 34 criminal convictions of Trump in New York for fraud is scheduled for November 26. Expect some cockamamie, bullshit suspension of sentence. The conviction will stand, but it will be neutered and Trump will get away with fraud, election interference and screwing a porn star while his wife was giving birth and caring for his infant son.

The E. Jean Carroll case is on appeal, likely to be decided around the time Trump is sworn in with his hand on a Chinese made Trump Bible. Watch to see if the Bible is held upside down, as in Trump’s photo op in Lafayette Square in 2020. If the judgement award is upheld, the money will be paid to Carroll from the bond believed to have been created by Trump’s lawyers. Then expect an infinitely long delay to repay Trump’s attorneys. Like so many Trump lawyers and contractors have been, those guys (or whoever put up the cash) will be screwed.

Once in office, Trump will attempt to pardon himself in order to avoid eventual prosecution in the insurrection indictment and in the Mar-A-Lago classified documents indictment. His puppet district court judge in the Mar-A-Lago case, Aileen Cannon, dismissed the case on bogus reasoning (a staple of her judgeship) that the special prosecutor was appointed improperly. There are at least two cases that establish with great clarity that there is no basis for her ruling. Jack Smith has appealed her stupid dismissal of the case. Expect yet another appeals court smack down of Judge Cannon.

Meanwhile, as I said, Trump will attempt to pardon himself from this and all other crimes which he may have committed, which will include the insurrection indictment and the Mar-A-Lago classified documents case. His pardon, if allowed to stand (and I don’t know who would challenge it, since he will control the Department of Justice) will only apply to federal cases.

Meanwhile, there’s the Fani Willis indictment of Trump in Georgia for election interference, criminal racketeering, conspiracy to change the outcome of the 2020 election and felonious manifestation of stupidity. That’s the, “What I want to do is this. I just want to find, uh, 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,” case. This case will go nowhere because by the time Trump is out of office he will be mentally enfeebled and too much time will have passed for there to be public support for prosecution.

Several of Trump’s lawyers pleaded guilty to the Georgia conspiracy charges and some are disbarred. All are tarred and will have to go find real work. Maybe they can get jobs building the wall that Mexico won’t pay for.

These lawyers helped the big stinky fish to get away. That was a great deal for Trump, because he will stiff those lawyers. All it took to get his free legal defense was Trump’s promise of money and fame. The disgraced lawyers believed him and sold themselves out on the cheap.

Meanwhile, pardon or not, Trump will be President and therefore prosecution-proof because of that grievous 1973 memo from The Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, which says that a sitting President may not be criminally prosecuted. It isn’t law, but it’s treated as if it were.

And, of course, there is the idiotic Supreme Court stay-out-of-jail-free decision from 2024 that transforms a president into an absolute, untouchable monarch. The Court decided that a bad boy President can never be prosecuted for criminal official acts. That way Trump really can shoot someone on 5th avenue and get away with it. It’s good to have one’s own personal Supreme Court justices.

Supreme Court

Thomas and Alito will resign and Trump will replace them with radical right wing operatives (no women need apply). Their young age will guarantee an extremist Court for generations. They will be fundamental to the Heritage Foundation march to permanent destruction of democracy and the enshrining of autocracy.

There will be no ethics codes with teeth imposed on the Court, the kind that all other federal judges must abide by. The Trump Court will lubricate the monstrous enriching machine for already fabulously rich people, as well as send all power to just a few unworthy individuals. Cruelty and discrimination will be enshrined in our laws, as rights and freedoms are incrementally taken from the people. Abortion, gun safety, public education and humane immigration will all vanish. No worries, though. Things will get worse.

Legacy

In his first administration, Trump rampaged through everything on which Obama had his fingerprints. Effectively, he tried to erase Obama from American history. Now it’s Biden’s turn to be Trump’s whipping boy. Expect his efforts to cancel every Biden success.

Trump will direct his Department of Justice to prosecute the non-existent Biden Crime Family. All that will come of that will be a high volume lies and innuendos from Republican posers. They will sound like champions of justice to the MAGA crowd and like lying idiots to the rest of us. Biden will have to secure legal counsel to defend himself against the Republican dishonesty, so Trump will crow about how he crushed Biden.

Foreign Relations

Expect Trump to do everything he can to undermine NATO, including removing the US from membership. Plus, he will treat NATO like one of his lawyers and refuse to pay what is owed. Given his compliant Senate and likely compliant House, they will allow him to terminate our membership or financially undermine the organization that has kept the peace in Europe for 75 years. Following that, look for Putin’s Russia to begin invasions of NATO member countries with relative impunity, because Trump has already told Putin to, “Do whatever the hell you want.” Accordingly, it’s safe to assume Trump will cut off military aid to Ukraine and allow the very worst to happen to those people.

Expect some kind of aggressive actions toward Iran, likely leading to a military confrontation in a battle to win the Penis Raving Insecurity Challenge Kingdom (PRICK). There will be further sucking up to North Korea and provocations of China. What could possibly go wrong?

Final Note

There is nothing in this post that you didn’t already know. That is how blatantly, screamingly, obviously awful this stuff is. And there is more and worse on the way. We have a lot of work to do. Meanwhile,

Don’t let the bastards get you down!

 

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. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.

Click me

JA


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

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