Freedom

These Are The Times That Try Men’s Souls


POST 1312

Thomas Paine

You know it’s true and you feel it to your bones. We stand and we fight to reclaim our freedoms and to keep the faith and the promise for our generations to come. We will not be bought by billionaires or trillionaires or by any tyrant. We stand and we fight for the soul of our nation.
Pass it on.
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Here’s Some of What Must Be Done By Our Newly democratic Government

The lower case “d” is intentional.

  1. The next Congress must investigate corruption, enforce accountability, restore constitutional authority, and begin rebuilding America starting January 3, 2027. Plus tear down that vulgar Trump vanity project, the Ballroom. And order Trump’s face removed from every public building, monument, street sign, photo and White House portrait.
  2. The next president must be ready at noon, January 20, 2029, to negate all 291 of Trump’s executive orders from this term and all that remain of the 220 EOs from his first term. S/he must immediately fire all cabinet secretaries, advisors, anyone ever associated in any way with DOGE (except its victims) and all stupid, unqualified people in any position anywhere in federal government. Plus prosecute Pete Hegseth for murder (over 200 in the Caribbean) and for toxic masculine stupidity.
  3. Begin the process of reconstituting our agencies that were decimated during the Trump reign of intelligence rejection. Re-establish support for science, public health, education, food and drug safety – you get the idea. To pay for that, recapture the billions of dollars fleeced from We The People and instead stuffed into Trump’s pockets and those of his sycophantic, ultra-rich knee benders.
  4. Following Senate confirmation of the next head of the Department of Justice, the DOJ must be immediately ready with indictments of all in the Trump years who violated laws and/or the Constitution.
  5. ICE must be stripped down to bare bones and roving bands of its Gestapo thugs must be fired, some criminally prosecuted. Plus all innocents, especially those denied due process (that means everyone) must be released from both U.S. prisons and foreign prisons/gulags.
  6. The DOJ must release all Epstein documentation, unredacted except as required by law to protect victims. Then the  DOJ must energetically go after the bad guys without delay. We won’t drag feet for two years as was done by Merrick Garland’s DOJ.

NOTE: There is no federal statute of limitations for those accused of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Keep that in mind as you would if one of the victims had been your daughter or your sister or your mother or your wife or your cousin or your friend – or YOU.

I’m guessing you can add to this list of actions required of a new, sane, democratic government. Do it in the Comments section below. Go ahead: Let it fly!

Election Obvious

From Rick Wilson’s The Wrong October Surprise,

Ballots are already in the mail across much of the country. Every vulnerable Republican on them voted for the tariffs, cheered the Iran war that sent diesel [prices] through the roof and called Vladimir Putin’s meat puppet {Trump] a genius at every opportunity. [emphasis mine]

Do share that with friends who haven’t voted yet.

Life or Death Betrayal

This platform has consistently been in support of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. They are fighting a war for their individual and national survival and are at the forefront of protecting freedom and democracy around the world, including here. Said another way, they are fighting our fight with their blood, their lives and their treasure. They stand firm as Putin consistently bombs their civilian infrastructure, like apartment buildings, hospitals, electrical power plants, schools, parks with little kids in them and more. That’s why the International Criminal Court has charged Putin with crimes against humanity, including, deportation – kidnapping – of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children and for bombing civilians.

This is the most recent Lincoln Project ad. Click, watch and pass this post along to your peeps who haven’t yet made up their minds to vote. Nah, send it along to all your peeps and tell them to vote early.

Yet Putin is President Trump’s bestie whom Trump supports in every way. Trump has rolled back sanctions on Russia to allow Putin to sell diesel fuel to make it easier for Russia get money to make war. That little bit of extra diesel fuel that trickles into our storage tanks won’t help us at the pump but it will fund a lot of missiles that will kill a lot of Ukrainians.

From Judge J. Michael Luttig inThe End of Rule of Law in America in The Atlantic, May 2025:

The president of the United States appears to have long ago forgotten that Americans fought the Revolutionary War not merely to secure their independence from the British monarchy, but to establish a government of laws, not of men.

Luttig’s use of the word “forgotten” seems far too generous. It implies that at some time Trump knew about the “government of laws, not of men” thing and understood its importance. Not a chance. It’s far more likely that he flunked his civics and history tests and his daddy donated money so that he wouldn’t be expelled.

The importance of a “government of laws, not of men” is why we must fire the complicit ones in this election and elect those who actually believe in democracy.

It remains unclear why Trump is consistently a pawn of Putin, but he is at least consistent: he always betrays Ukraine, NATO, Canada, the U.S. and you and me. Always. He is a life and death betrayal of us all.

Official Corruption

Click me

Former representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) is one of only 2 Republicans with the courage and integrity to stand up to Trump. He was a prominent member of the House Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack.

He left Congress a few years ago and now regularly posts about the state of our government and our country. His video of October 20 is especially important, as Trump’s bulldozer of corruption smashes through our norms, our laws, our Constitution and everything decent that you believe in. Watch his video.

Many thanks to reader and boyhood pal Kirk Landers for pointing out Kinzinger’s video.

It’s up to us to make sure that the election stealers never again get their cruel, barbaric hands on the levers of power.

That’s why we VOTE!

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.

Special Friday Post


POST 1310

No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings. We Decide.

Tomorrow there are special No Kings: Vote Early rallies all over our country. These rallies aren’t only to make a statement and be with others who actually support the Constitution. These are about making the difference that will begin to create the change we want to see.

From the website:

For over a year, millions of people have come together to send a clear message: in America, we have no kings. Power does not belong to billionaires, strongmen, or politicians who believe they are above accountability.

Power belongs to the people, but only if we use it.
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So, click on the map below, enter your ZIP code to find a rally near you, register and then show up. Don’t want to register? That’s okay. Just show up and together we’ll raise the voting action flag for all to see, salute and follow.

Why Vote Early?
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So that your vote will be counted before Trump finds yet another slimy way to kill your vote, steal yet another freedom and disempower you.
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The Nuts and Bolts For Voting

Here’s a link that shows the early voting dates for all 50 states.

Here’s a link to check your voting registration. Here’s another.

Here’s a link to find your polling/voting place.

Here’s a link for absentee or mail-in ballot procedures for all 50 states.

Freedom of assembly (peaceful demonstrations and protests) and the right to vote are USE IT OR LOSE IT things. A casual attitude toward either is the same as surrender to the tyrants.

So, attend your rally tomorrow and then VOTE!

This is going to take hundreds of millions of us, so pass this post along to your peeps.
RIGHT NOW!
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More on threats to your freedoms in this Sunday’s post, What’s Most Important – V2.0.

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.

What’s Most Important – V1.0


POST 1309
Historical Context

Our fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers risked their lives and nearly half a million of them died to make sure we would never, ever live under the cruel heel of a vampire fascist dictator’s boot. Turns out it’s very hard to make the fascist vampire stay dead.

Once again that monster is somehow rising, sucking the life blood from us and our country. Our fathers and grandparents can no long answer the call, so it falls to us to put a stake in that vampire’s chest – again.

The Threat

AI Overview – with JA comments in [brackets].

Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology that prioritizes the nation—and often a specific race [of people]—above individual rights. [1, 2]

Core Characteristics:

Dictatorial Leadership: [all p]ower rests in a single autocratic leader with a strong cult of personality.

Extreme Nationalism: Unquestioning loyalty to the state is demanded, often relying on a mythic [never happened] past or a sense of national rebirth. [plus unquestioning loyalty to the cult leader, who is indistinguishable from the state.]

Suppression of Opposition: Democratic liberties, pluralism, and free speech are abolished, and opposition is forcibly silenced using violence and secret police. [Think: charging innocent people with crimes, forcing people from their jobs, terrorizing the opposition, sending secret police to arrest and deport innocent citizens and legal residents, etc.]

Militarism and Violence: Military strength is glorified, and violence is viewed as an acceptable or purifying tool to achieve national goals. [think: toxic masculinity]

Social Hierarchy: Believes in natural social hierarchies and the dominance of a privileged group over marginalized populations or designated scapegoats.

Does any of that feel foreboding and, worse, now ordinary? That’s the call to action that’s screaming in your heart.

Perhaps the term fascism feels too extreme to you (but read Fascist. Full Stop). Okay, then call it authoritarianism or dictatorship. They aren’t exactly the same thing, but for the purpose of recognizing the existential threat to all of us, any of those terms will do.

See this video and read this post.

Also see Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever.

This Election Is About

Each Sunday through November 1 we’ll post what you or pundits or candidates say this election is about. This week’s notion is from reader Kirk Landers and is about his frustration with our electorate at this existential moment.

This election, as always, is about how the vast army of ignorant, unaware American citizens feel about their personal finances, and who they decide to blame or credit based entirely on superficial input, such as what their friends are saying on social media.

That’s valuable insight, considering we are faced with looming dictatorial rule, the loss of our rights and freedoms and the theft of our national and personal wealth, as people make their voting choices based on the cost of a gallon of gasoline or diesel.

Put your idea about this election in the Comments section below.

Pop Quiz
Question: How do you tolerate what’s being done to our country?
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Answer: You don’t.
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The authoritarian threat and the imperative to act are

What Is Most Important.

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Next Sunday: What’s Most Important – V2.0, detailing specific threats.

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.

Now You Know-V2.0*


POST 1297

Trump’s speech last Thursday was a collection of lies that eclipsed all such collections ever assembled anywhere in the world – like nothing you’ve ever seen. Except .  .  . you hear his lies, idiotic claims of victimhood, fear mongering and demands for retribution every time he speaks, so it isn’t like nothing you’ve ever seen. It’s exactly what you’ve seen for 11 years, although to be fair, this rant was amped up beyond his normal cartoon bobblehead absurdity. You can be forgiven for changing channels in protection of your mental health and stability and missing the entire episode of Not So Stable Genius.

That’s what the news stations did. But I digress from the main point, which is what we now know.

After his blustering about imaginary successes, false claims about the economy, the Iran war and that we are “the hottest country in the world,” whatever that means, along with other mouth dribbles the meaning of which is totally opaque, he focused on election fraud as his justification for the SAVE America Act.

He says our voting circumstances are bad – very bad, and still he offers no evidence, much less proof of his claims. Millions of illegal immigrants, non-citizens, are voting, he says. Voting machines are switching votes to be against him, China is controlling our elections, Democrats are rigging voting and “mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt.” He urged viewers to fact check his data at WhiteHouse.gov, but all the justification he said is there is either fully redacted, missing or the opposite of what he claims.

His completely unjustified claims of voting fraud are the flaccid muscle for his demanding that Congress pass his SAVE America Act.

Trump said it in the final seconds of his tantrum (read the full text here):

To all Americans, I ask you to pick up your phone tomorrow, call your Representatives in the House and Senate and demand that they pass the SAVE America Act without delay.

Congressional bills are often named to make them palatable to the voting public, festooned with patriotic sounding names and plain language puffery. For example, George W. Bush had his Patriot Act, which we later learned was horribly anti-patriotic. Trump’s SAVE America Act is actually a voting suppression proposal designed to stop from voting everyone who might vote contrary to Trump. It is a way to activate the many decades long Republican efforts to deny the right to vote of anyone who might vote for Democrats. It doesn’t, it can’t and it won’t save America.

It would fly in the face of the Constitution, taking control of elections from the states and plopping it in the lap of the fat occupant in the White House. That is all it would take to end our democracy, effectively ending the United States of America. There would be no saving of America.

We would become something else altogether. Maybe school children would be taught to sing Trumpland Über Alles and we’d Make Slavery Great Again. Whippings and lynchings would once again feed the MAGA-brain blood thirst and ICE would fire bullets through every car window.

Without a scintilla of doubt the election this November is about just one thing:

It is a battle that pits We The People, our Constitution and our democracy
against the forces of despotic evil.
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Trump has laid it all out with his pompous demand that he never be held to account for anything, anywhere, any time and his lap dog Supreme Court has made it so. His blatant grab for authoritarian power is in plain sight for everyone to see. No more hiding the ball. No more chiseling at the edges of destruction. It’s an in-your-face dismantling and swindling of our entire country.

You know the kinds of things Trump does and he is now desperate. Don’t be surprised if he declares some phony emergency and uses that to alter, postpone or cancel the November election. Trump laid it out for you in his special brain addled way.

In case you didn’t know before now, now you know.

Our existential charge is to Stop Hateful Idiocy Today. You work out the acronym.

Quote Of The Week

“Americans Favor Work Requirements for Members of Congress.” – Andy Borowitz

___________________________________________

* Here’s a link to the original Now You Know post, from which the closing line of this post was taken.

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.

An Open Letter to Mainers and Clarity From Our Founders


POST 1296

An Open Letter To Mainers

Oops! You got caught going brainless in public. Don’t tell me you’re practical, no nonsense people with a fine tuned BS meter now that you gave your vote to a guy with a Nazi tattoo.

Get serious. Nobody gets a Nazi tattoo because it’s Thursday. They do it because that hate-fueled ideology speaks to them deeply. The guy almost certainly is a Nazi. He’s the type your grandfather risked his life to stop. Maybe Grandpa lost his life to make sure you’d never have to bow down to a tyrant or live where fear and hatred is your reality. Violent suppression of you and your rights is what Nazis fervently want. And Graham Platner has a Nazi SS tattoo. Did I mention that you voted for him anyway?

You gave your primary vote to a guy who has been credibly accused of brutality against women and now of rape. Either you’ve put your moral compass into a drawer with magnets around it or you aren’t what you claim to be.

WAKE THE F*** UP! (emphasis added because I’m shouting.)
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This election is about sending Sen. Susan Collins to the Home For The Spineless and Perpetually Duped. It is not about sending someone with transparently violent and duplicitous innards to speak for you.

Yes, Platner spoke to many of your concerns and did so with an edge, leading you to believe he’d fight for you, but that’s nothing but campaign black ops. If he’s violent, he’s violent everywhere. It’s his nature. You can’t trust him with your spouse, your wallet or your vote because you don’t want someone who violates your values to harm you or your dear ones. And you surely don’t want him to speak for you. There is a solution to this.

Either organize a fresh primary this week – yes, it can be done if everyone stops saying that it can’t and instead takes action – or nominate me. I will move to Maine somewhere near the L.L. Bean flagship store in Freeport. And I’ll bring my Bernese Mountain Dog. He prefers the cooler weather to the sweltering Midwest summer and is a first rate campaign mascot.

I pledge to campaign fiercely against Collins. And  when I represent you in the Senate I promise to campaign for and live by the sensible values you cherish.

So, there’s your solution. Tune out Platner who wants to have his hateful thumb on the scale. Ignore the dopes who want to endlessly debate what to do and who never take action. Pay no heed to the pols who want to use this moment to divide us. And absolutely reject the self-anointed ones who hallucinate that they are sent by God. Just take your moral compass out of that drawer, plug back into your good sense and listen to it.

This message has been brought to you by the Right to Vote, the number 51 and the Someone Has To Stand Up and Do Something Committee of the I’ve Had Quite Enough Crap Alliance. You just might qualify for membership.

Clarity From Our Founders

We all know that freedom of speech is now conditional, based solely upon whether Trump likes what you say. The traditional limits on speech, like defamation and yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theater where there is no fire are quite secondary today.

That is not what the Founders demanded.

  • Tyrannical suppression of freedom
  • is exactly what tyrant King George III enforced on the colonists.
  • It’s a major part of why they rebelled.

So it is with great patriotic courage that I speak boldly of Trump exactly as he spoke of Iranian leaders last week. The original of this child tyrant rant was spewed by Trump. Pronouns were changed here, but the meaning, the defamation, is Trump’s. I just turned it around to rightly point the Trumpian vitriol at him. Here are the slightly modified words from the Washington Post,

He’s scum. He’s a sick person. He leads sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people . . . Far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with Trump. He’s a liar . . . there’s something wrong with him. He’s cuckoo. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.

Now that I’ve posted something Trump won’t like, the question is whether the Trump-Miller Gestapo will come for me, declaring me to be among the worst of the worst, simply because I spoke out against Trump. Maybe they’ll ram their black, unmarked Trump-Miller Gestapo SUVs into my car and shoot at me. It’s what they’ve done to countless American citizens, legal residents and more. They use your tax dollars to incarcerate innocent people, doing so in your name and they kill people who are guilty of nothing more than living in America while Brown.

Consider the words of the Declaration of Independence:

We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Re-read that last sentence.

November is coming upon us rapidly – see the countdown timer below. It’s high time for each of us to answer the call to duty to ensure the neutering of this substitute King George III tyrant, this king wannabe who is “unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” That is the plain and unmistakable clarity of direction from our Founders. It remains ours to do what is necessary, as they have directed us to do.

Do it while you still can, before Trump declares freedom itself to be illegal, before Trump sabotages everything decent and before he befouls every national symbol and monument.

Quote Of The Week

Rather than an expansive vision of democratic equality, with room for ever more people to enjoy “unalienable rights,” the word citizenship has become a legal term, a cudgel to enforce the power of some over others.

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.

What Smart People Are Saying


POST 1294

Your Sunday Review of Commentary

From Inae Oh of Mother Jones:

Anyway, back to negotiations with Iran—and the Obama-era inspections that Trump broke and are now apparently returning. Anyone else see a theme here?

The big mouth spews his demeaning accusations, he spews his lies, then he at last finds out he really can’t do any better. Or he makes things far worse. For some reason he doesn’t spew that.

Also from Mother Jones is a piece by Dan Friedman and Amanda Moore explaining the fetid pond apocalypse besetting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Trump Is Losing His War On Algae. This is a truly astonishing piece displaying Trump’s finest skill: everything he touches dies. Maybe we should wrench his little hands off our country.

As if that isn’t enough bad news about Trump’s “my name on everything” mania, read the piece from the Washington Post entitled, A dead duck was seen in the Reflecting Pool. Then two more were found nearby. That Trump Reflecting debacle is yet another of his “Fire, Ready, Aim,” narcissistic and thoughtless acts, just like putting his name of the Kennedy Center.

Now he claims that “radical left lunatics” vandalized the Reflecting Pool. He always needs a villain to blame for his constant failures and he’s handling this one just like he handles his 2020 election loss. He and his critical-thinking-impaired fawners still claim that the election was stolen by fraudulent votes of immigrants, voting machines that switched votes and the rest. The voting loss and the Reflecting Pool disaster are the same, in that he makes fantabulous accusations and never offers any evidence to support his hollow claims because there isn’t any.

This is exactly like his brain-free war against Iran. No forethought, no plan. no reason. He just blasts away and lets the destruction reign supreme. Watch for his long list of people to blame for that war failure, too. He has the vermin, his imaginary far left terrorists, the worst of the worst brown skin immigrants and more to cruelly blame. He just can’t show any of them to you or connect them to his failure, again because there aren’t any. Like Inae Oh asked, “Anyone else see a theme here?”

Speaking of no forethought, plan or reason, read this from Thom Hartmann’s Post of June 23.

On the morning of February 28th, the first day of Donald Trump’s war on Iran, the children of the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in the southern Iranian town of Minab were at their desks a little after ten o’clock when the missiles arrived. The name of the school means “The Good Tree.”

By the time the dust settled, as many as 175 people were dead, most of them girls between the ages of seven and twelve. Iran’s confirmed count came to around 155, and the list its state broadcaster released documents dozens of dead little boys, dozens of dead little girls, more than two dozen dead teachers, several dead parents, a dead school bus driver, and a dead pharmacy technician from the clinic next door.

Not oddly, I have not heard an apology from the Murderer-In-Chief for his killing of those little girls and the rest. What Trump did say when questioned about what happened was, “I don’t know about that. Maybe ask Pete.” That’s Pete Hegseth, his blundering Secretary of Defense. If you have evidence of an actual apology from Trump, an acknowledgment of his mistake, any form of accepting responsibility for the murders of those little kids, please post a link to it in the Comments section below. I don’t expect much help with that request.

Now from Rick Wilson’s post, Trump Trashes Washington:

The once beautiful Ellipse. It’s your park. Click to see a full perspective on Trump’s destruction.

President’s Park South [i.e., the Ellipse]. The same patch of ground he packed in 2021 with the crowd of angry and deluded Trumphadis that he aimed at the Capitol like a loaded weapon. When the [gladiator] party left [last Sunday], it left the park looking like Woodstock ‘99 in a drought, a brown wasteland with a few sad islands of green hanging on. Scotts’ Miracle-Gro tossed in a million bucks and a “proprietary grass blend,” which is corporate for “we’ll figure it out.”

The Park Service paperwork about hauling off the [gladiator stadium] equipment somehow forgot to mention restoring the lawn. Nobody has said who fixes the Ellipse, or when, or with what. It just sits there, scorched, a public park burned down for one night of an 80-year-old man watching younger men hit each other for his amusement.

You really should read Wilson’s entire piece for a full perspective on what actually happened.

Finally, read Morgan Freeman’s (yes, that Morgan Freeman) post, Trump’s $500+ Billion Surrender Disguised as Victory: The Man Who Keeps Losing While Taking Victory Laps.

Since this war began, Trump has been on an endless victory lap. He told us Iran had “no military left.” No navy. No air force. No anti-aircraft capability. “Totally wiped out.” Then Iran attacked ships in the Strait of Hormuz anyway. [Trump] said the Strait was under total control. Then they hit vessels and threatened the critical shipping lane again. He said the war was finished. Then reality laughed in his face.

This is the Trump pattern: Start a war with maximum chest-thumping, declare victory 20 times, then act surprised when the enemy he claimed was destroyed keeps fighting. How many times can one man claim he “won” the same war before even his own supporters get tired of the bullshit?

Reminds me of Dubya’s “Mission Accomplished” banner when the “mission” would not be completed for almost 9 more years. That’s a lot of warring and a lot of phony bluster without the mission being completed.

Trump is unable to apologize, accept accountability, say he was wrong, back up or back down. That isn’t leadership; it’s cowardly insanity. Read Freeman’s post.

All of Trump’s ruination could have and should have been checked by those with the power to stop it, including the enslaved legislators missing their backbones and millions who, perhaps blindly, voted for it.

Conservatism is just this side of dead, all but a sliver of it murdered by the selfish and the violent. There remain only a few lame and gravely wounded conservatives, straggling along, leaning on tree branch crutches like the remnants of the Confederate army after the shooting stopped. We actually need the decent and honest ones among them to come home. We need them to step up to help save this shaken and endangered experiment in freedom, this last, best hope.

If you look hard to the horizon, maybe squint just a bit, you can see the possibility still glowing. It’s time to saddle up and ride to it, to capture it and bring it home. While we still can.

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.

Where Are We?


POST 1292

David and Goliath Today

In Timothy Snyder’s recent post, Sky Defense: Bringing it Home, focused on the terrible war in Ukraine and the undefinable courage of that Ukrainian David incrementally slaying the evil Goliath of Russia, he wrote,

By resisting Russia, Ukrainians are defending what is perhaps most basic about decent political life: the idea that people should be who they choose to be, not whom they are forced to become.

I’ve told you many times that the Ukrainians are fighting for freedom as a proxy for all freedom loving people, the list of which includes us. They are standing up to tyranny, to domination of the many by the few. The lesson in that is obvious.

We need to be strong and resolute like the Ukrainians. We don’t have an army shooting at us, but some of our tribe have been killed, like Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Some have been manipulated and horribly abused, like Kilmar Armando Ábrego García. Many have died in American torture prisons and Gestapo-like goons patrol our streets looking for people to abuse and imprison for abuses like not looking Aryan.

But it’s as clear as it can be that this is tyranny of the many – that’s us – by the greedy, cruel, self-focused few. Now is the time – it’s always the time – to decide to be David and stand up and fight the Goliath of Trump/MAGA/billionaire evil.

In the Old Testament, Genesis 22:1, we’re told that God tested Abraham, first calling his name. Abraham answered, “I am here” or “Here I am” or “Here am I.” Terrified though he may have been, he answered the call. So it is with us today.

Our country is calling us. It’s time for us to stand and declare, “I am here.”

Because like the Ukrainians, we should be who we choose to be, not who we’re forced by the fascists to become.

One More Thing

Incompetent Tulsi Gabbard held the job of Director of National Intelligence, DNI, quite incompetently for a year and a quarter. Now she’s gone from that post, but there’s a twist.

In Trump’s first administration he got away with appointing incompetents everywhere by avoiding the Senate “advice and consent” protocol. Instead, he fired Cabinet secretaries and appointed incompetent “acting” replacements, thus once again avoiding the rules that apply to everyone else. Perverting the system is a way of life for him.

Likely you heard that Bill Pulte is his latest “acting” DNI. He has no intelligence, military, diplomatic or bureaucratic experience.  In a word, he is incompetent to be DNI. What qualifies him for that post in Trump’s mind (also in Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s mind, what there is of it) is that Pulte has an unblemished record of being a Trump suck up.

That is what passes for the best and brightest in today’s government.

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 information.
  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.
  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 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.

The World’s Best Campaign Message


POST 1291

 

 

CAUTION!

THIS POST CONTAINS THE WORD “ASSHOLE.” IF THAT WORD OFFENDS YOU, YOU’VE ALREADY READ TOO MUCH. STOP READING IMMEDIATELY AND RETURN TO WATCHING ANDY GRIFFITH RERUNS FROM MAYBERRY. BE SURE TO SAY “HI” TO AN’ BEA FOR ME.
Campaign Messages

The Democrats have labored at the speed of slugs to examine and explain their losses in the 2024 election and to produce a report. It only took them 18 months to create a professional looking report that states nearly nothing useful and provides nothing of value for the American people. It is in every way a first cousin to the post mortems the Republicans produced after the 2012 Romney loss, the 2016 Trump victory and the 2022 Republican midterm under-performance. In all cases these self-serving documents are short on accountability and lack of any sense of care for We the People. Their campaign messages only supply us with focus group and poll tested bumper sticker talking points. That’s why nobody reads them or cares what the authors have written.

There is near constant talk now about what Democrats should focus on during this campaign season and it’s almost solely zeroed in on them getting votes. That means that essentially it’s about manipulation of We the Voters. There is nearly no focus on what We the People actually need and want. The good news is that I’m here to supply that direction, aided by my able and clear headed assistant, Rabbi Rami, who I have never met.

Rabbi Rami is a retired rabbi now dispensing clarity you can use. I recommend subscribing to his Substack posts. His offering of June 4 will convince you that I’ve given you good advice. It’s titled Don’t Be An Asshole.

You like it already, right?

Consider the title alone and give thought to the President, senators, congressmen/women, state legislators, appointed apparatchiks, heads of governmental bodies and  all others who present themselves as being of the people, as leaders for we who yearn for honest leadership, but who consistently let us down. Consider how many are flagrant in their self-serving attitude, their sole interest being snatching and grabbing power and scamming cash. Each day they display enhanced performative asshole-ness mastery.

Consider the jerks who, after any mass shooting, send “thoughts and prayers” instead of creating gun safety legislation to prevent at least some of the massacres that are otherwise certain to happen. Check the Gun Violence Archive if for some unfathomable reason you have any doubts as to the certainty of our national bleed outs.

And what about the army of waste, fraud and abuse soldiers who are proudly chopping federal spending by taking food from the mouths of our poor children and food and life saving medicine from desperate people in need of what we can provide cheaply, such that now millions of them have died?

Then there are the WF&A warriors saving money by cutting healthcare from millions of Americans. And the brain damaged people refusing to provide aid to Ukraine as that country fights for freedom everywhere. And the cretins bombing small boats in the Caribbean without the slightest evidence of wrongdoing or effort toward due process.  And they’re locking up random people using a Gestapo-like army of thugs, as though their stupid and cruel flexing of military and police power somehow makes us better, stronger, safer or more enviable. If you think any of that asshole cruelty helps us, you need a reality re-set.

I say these people are assholes and I know you agree with me, because Congress now sports an approval rating of 10%, with 86% of Americans disapproving of the job Congress is doing. That means that you and I think these guys are assholes in the first degree, differentiated not at all from fetid, stinking pond scum.

What if candidates for office were to focus on us and our needs, instead of their own selfish cravings? What if they actually were to care that people are suffering terribly and want to do something about it? What if they somehow were to recognize that the only voters who care about their welfare are their mothers and that the rest of us think they should instead care about our welfare?

Think about all that and more, but first link through to Rabbi Rami’s post and give serious consideration to his report. This stuff is really simple and should be easy to adopt. If you can’t find candidates who can do what Rami recommends, go run for office yourself. Get in the game and rid us of assholes before they steal this entire country from us.

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 information.
  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.
  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 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.

American Insanity


POST 1287

From the “Yet Another Insanity” Department

There is a lot of crazy and it’s all around us. We’re dealing with:

an unprovoked, brainlessly started and conducted war where there is no off-ramp

the ongoing destruction of American hegemony

ugly, ugly gerrymandering by White supremacists that is driving us into Jim Crow 2.0 and is condoned by the not-so-Supreme Court

the no-wrongdoing imprisonment of American citizens, legal visitors and more, all to the benefit of for-profit prisons and of hastily recruited, scarcely trained ICE agents

the hollowing out of Americans’ financial security

the Epstein pedophilia, trafficking and the potential Trump involvement in that scandal

a scandalous Justice Department cover up, plus its misuse for Trump’s retributions and more

a deeply compromised FBI and national security system

the ongoing Trump support for Putin, this to the detriment of our allies, especially Ukraine, as its people fight a war for freedom, in which we should be aiding them

the surrendering of this century to Xi and China

the destruction of the post-war compact that has kept the peace for nearly 80 years

The hits just keep on coming because there is an endless, Trump concocted supply of insanity that’s powered by his dementia and his toxic narcissism.

Then There’s The Sneaky Stuff That Slips Below The Radar

From STAT:

An inconspicuous amendment to the 2026 farm bill working its way through Congress would make tobacco farmers eligible for funding from a certain federal aid program that they’ve been excluded from since the federal tobacco program ended more than 20 years ago. It’s not exactly in line with the MAHA goal to lower chronic disease rates in the U.S.

The overall impact of the amendment would be relatively small, “but it amounts to subsidizing a product that kills half a million Americans every year,” according to Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy, a nonprofit attorney.

Wait: we’re subsidizing a crop that kills us and we subsidize the coal industry $3 – 4 BILLION per year, too, but we don’t have money to feed poor kids?

Indeed, FracTracker reports,

Despite claims of free-market competition, the U.S. fossil fuel industry benefits from an estimated $760 BILLION annually through subsidies, tax breaks, and unpriced externalities .  .  . [emphasis added]

Right: We cut off support for renewable energy innovation and production to subsidize the fossil fuel companies of Trump’s buddies, allowing them to clog and overheat our atmosphere to the expanding peril of us all. Theirs is short term thinking that never gets past the limits of a transaction to make a quick buck.

Trump is almost 80. Given that he cares only for his own welfare – he told us that plainly last week – why would he think longer term? Why would he care that storms continue to become more violent, destructive and deadly? He’ll never have to face them.

And so, we bravely charge into the 15th century. Make America Backward Again – MABA!

Hmmm  .  .  .  why don’t our elected officials care enough to stop the insanity and instead take action for We The People?

Just in case this isn’t clear, we are giving three quarters of a trillion dollars every year to support industries that are causing ever-worsening changes that are killing us. We are willfully doing that to ourselves by electing representatives to our representative government to represent us, but who instead are representing themselves and their own short term welfare.

Learned While Researching Something Else

If you don’t subscribe to and support the writings of Steve Sheffey, take a look at his post last Sunday (then subscribe) about the Senate race in Maine. Yes, you should care a lot about it – Steve explains why. I linked through to his “Fine Print.” I like that kind of stuff – have a look at my own below.  In his fine print is a link to Brandolini’s Law: The Bullshit Asymmetry Principle. It is:

Brandolini’s law (also called the bullshit asymmetry principle) states that the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. This denotes that it’s usually much easier to speak without regard for the truth, than to prove that what was said is false.

You’ve experienced this often over the past 11 years, as Trump/MAGA/Republican bullshit was sprayed in your face in brain-free bumper sticker format. Then it was refuted by a knowledgeable person in a clear, straightforward explanation. Unfortunately, that refutation was two pages long and nobody ever reads that stuff. And so bullshit hangs in the air. No breeze can waft it away. No plug-in odor eliminator can make it safe to breathe. This is what passes for Republican erudition.

RFK, Jr. Is Protecting Us

The World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency of international concern: Ebola. But don’t worry. Even though our brain worm addled director of HHS has slashed to the bone agencies that used to protect us and minimize the effects of such things, those guys gotcha covered.

Who needs experts in public health when we have loads of Ivermectin, a horse treatment recommended by our president. It treats infections caused by parasitic worms. But the Ebola threat has nothing to do with parasites – it’s a virus.

Still, we have Lysol and Clorox bleach that Trump says we can inject. And we can put ultraviolet lights in our bodies. That’s what he said during Covid. Do you suppose those will work against Ebola?

That’s Trump’s America. Sadly, we voted for it.

On the other hand, we can vote for something quite different this November.

As they say in the dugout, “Grab a bat; you’re up!”

A View From Elsewhere

Just in case you’ve wondered whether people in other countries notice the depth of the destruction of our values, our integrity and our national mental health, friend David Houle was vacationing in Europe and sent this pic from Paris. He says these signs are all over places where tourists go.

Kinda cute that even when they’re crude, Parisians are polite.

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, 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. I am neither offered nor do I accept or receive 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 information.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness. such disingenuous nonsense. You can find that in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe and what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark excepted, and make no pretense of idiocy requiring to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness.
  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. 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 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. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. 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.

Madmen


POST 1277

Click me for a larger version of this pic, plus the Reuters essay.

Jesus Isn’t Just On our Side: He Is Our Side

April 13 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure .  .  .

Note the inclusion in this picture of the American flag, jet fighters, a heavily armed winged figure in combat fatigues with a spiked thing on his head. There are several other troops, all heavily loaded with weapons, a pair of bald eagles, the Statue of Liberty, two colonnaded buildings denoting government power – all very strongly manly, and – this is critical – only White people.

It appears that Trump-Jesus holds a divine light. Perhaps it’s the core of a nuclear explosion. He is laying his other hand over the head of an apparently wounded vet, perhaps to cure him by a miracle. All this takes place as a beautiful White female nurse looks up at him adoringly, perhaps eagerly anticipating his Access Hollywood pussy grab.

He’s been roundly criticized for this post by rational people, which Trump knows is so unfair to him. So, Trump went on the offense, attacking those who criticized his self-anointed divinity.

It’s easy to stop thinking about this in a logical fashion due to its obvious repugnance. But here’s the key: It wasn’t posted by some anonymous but creative and stupid twit whose brain hasn’t developed past age 15 and who doesn’t understand the concept of consequences or anything beyond his own need for attention. It was posted by Trump himself.

Okay, let’s be fair. Trump is that twit whose brain hasn’t developed past age 15 and who doesn’t understand the concept of consequences or that there is anything larger than himself.

Trump is the President of the United States whose finger is poised over the nuclear button and who seems to think he’s a god. Or wants to be a god. Or wants to have powers like a god, like life and death. Or he wants you to think of him as a god and worship him. He is naturally averse to self-examination, but he might recognize that he’s slipping fast and needs your worship of him very quickly, before he’s unable to bask in it.

If he pushes the button in a fit of retribution frenzy, like in a rage focused on Iran, it’s no problem for him. As throughout his entire life, he will be protected and never held to account. If the rest of us die, it’s of no consequence to him.

And that becomes yet more terrifyingly possible as Trump sinks ever deeper into dementia and is even less tethered to the day of the week.

The people who could stop this madness, this abuse of morality, of good sense, of the Constitution and the rule of law – they sit mute. They fawn over him and encourage him to do another wondrous miracle so they can cheer and clap their hands and swoon over him like infantile forest animals in a fairy tale.

Read Rick Wilson’s post from yesterday, Is Trump The Anti-Christ? and coverage from The Washington Post.

Living In The Age of Wimp

This is from a post by Ted Dintersmith, April 13, 2026, likening us to passengers trapped on a bus going at breakneck speed on a path to blow itself up.

Today, our entire nation is on an out-of-control bus. A madman is at the wheel, assuring us he’s history’s all-time greatest bus driver. He barks ludicrous tweets into the phone in his left hand. In his right hand [are] the nuclear codes. His knees do the steering. Front-seat passengers could intervene, but those seats are filled with sycophants who prize their proximity. Sheer horror, with years ahead of us. So how will this bus ride end? Bankruptcy? World War III? A full-fledged dictatorship? All of the above?

You don’t think that we can avoid our own disintegration sync-ed with Trump’s dementia-driven disintegration by sitting on our hands, do you? You don’t think that some wimpy Republican has the cojones to break the glass on the 25th Amendment or file impeachment charges, do you?

We are living in the Age of Wimp. The self-paralyzed ones are madmen endangering us every day.

The key is for us, you and me and others willing to see things as they are, to understand the danger all around us and to refuse to tolerate the Wimps in their madness. The key is for us to fight them everywhere.

On June 4, 1940, shortly before the fall of France and just after the disastrous British retreat from Dunkirk, Winston Churchill challenged the House of Commons with a declaration of defiance. His words ring true and valuable for us today.

We shall fight on the beaches,
We shall fight on the landing grounds,
We shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
We shall fight in the hills;
We shall never surrender.

Link through to read Churchill’s full address.

Our fight today is nearly as dire. We know the truth and that is why this is dire. So,

We shall fight the Wimps in the Congress.
We shall fight them in the state legislatures.
We shall fight them in the fields, in the streets and in the town square.
We shall fight them in the courts and in the polling places.
We shall never surrender

And in the end we will be victorious. We will save our fragile democracy from their cowardice and their malice.

For inspiration, think of the glorious and righteous prosecutions to come of those who sold out our country for a few coins in their pockets.

Here’s what we can do now.

Keeping The Promise

Last Sunday I promised you some direction for how you can fight the menace. Here it is.

Reader and activist Sheila Markin is making your next step easy. Take clarity of action from this. She writes,

TRUMP AND MAGA REPUBLICANS KNOW THEY CANNOT WIN FAIR AND SQUARE. 

THEY ARE GOING TO LIE, CHEAT, AND STEAL

to stay in power.  

They already are.

We must do 4 things:

Click the logo pic above to find out what the 4 things are. Also, see this.

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

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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.

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