Integrity

April 5: Fixin’ What’s Broke


POST 1164

VOTE TUESDAY, APRIL 1 – NO EXCUSES. THIS MAY BE FOR ALL THE MARBLES.

National Security

National Security Bozo Michael Waltz

By now you know that Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief of The Atlantic, was included in an unsecured group text on Signal, originated by National Security Advisor (yes, really) Michael Waltz. That chat included top secret information about a pending attack on Houthi belligerents in Yemen.

The operation and text string discussion were led by the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and included 17 other administration incompetents, not one of whom had the sense to question who “JG” – Jeffrey Goldberg – was or insist that they use a secure communication system, rather than Signal, a public use platform. They discussed F-18 attacks, rocket and drone usage, timing, target damage assessments and more. That is to say, it was the battle plan, complete with information for when our pilots would be over their targets.

Let’s have a both sides compare-and-contrast.

First, imagine that this had happened on Barack Obama’s watch.

  1. What national security outrages and screams of fecklessness would congressional Republicans be howling at Obama and his top people, were they to have conducted secret plans on an open platform and had included a journalist who had no security clearance?
  2. How many firings of Obama’s top people would Republicans have demanded within the first 20 minutes of the news of such a breach of security being made public?
  3. Within how many seconds of news of the breach of national security going public would there be Republican calls for the impeachment of Obama?

But it didn’t happen on Obama’s watch. It happened on Trump’s, so:

  1. There has been no howling of outrage by congressional Republicans, although there have been many massively stupid things said in defense of the indefensible. How come?
  2. There have been no demands by congressional Republicans for firing any of the sloppy bozos who included that journalist on their unsecured chat. How come not even one of those 18 administration brainiacs even questioned who “JG” is, much less why the war plans discussion was being held on an unsecured chat line? What if the person presumably accidentally included in this war chat had been Putin suck-up Tucker Carlson? What if Tulsi Gabbard, the immensely unqualified, Russian useful idiot security risk, our Director of National Intelligence, had been on that chat? Oh, wait: she was.
  3. Why have there been no Republican calls for the firing of the incompetent 18 and the impeachment of Trump?

“The obvious point [about Signalgate] was made early: The people in charge of the country are buffoons and liars.” – David Corn

Bittersweet

48-Star Flag, 1912 – 1959

A long time ago my in-laws had a 48-star flag that hung on a wooden flagpole mounted in a holder next to the front door of their house. After they passed we kept the flag and my wife put it away carefully to protect it. This morning she came upon it again and brought it into my office to show it to me. It’s all cotton, of course, and the colors are still bright.

I refolded it the way the Boy Scouts taught me all those years ago, tucking in the ends to make a neat package and realized that this flag was from a day when this was America.

I don’t mean a day without Alaska and Hawaii. I mean a time when We The People had a shared reality and shared values and when attacking our democracy and our Constitution were unthinkable evils; a day when we not only made commitments, like Social Security and health benefits for our veterans, but we kept them, too; a day when we didn’t have ignorants talking parents out of protecting their kids from deadly diseases, when our officials understood the meaning of “Top Secret” and took extra care to protect our nation. Maybe you remember that America, too.

That is the America the overwhelming majority of We The People want. We have values in line with the values we had when that 48-star flag was new.

That’s what is inspiring tens of thousands of us – perhaps millions – to demonstrate on April 5. It will propel us to speak up on other days, too. We want our America back.

TAKE ACTION

There will be a huge demonstration in DC on April 5 organized by Indivisible, 50-50-1, mobilize.us, Women’s March and many more organizations, all demanding of TrumpMusk, “HANDS OFF!“

The beauty is that you don’t have to be in DC to stand and be counted. There will be rallies that day all across the nation. Stand tall. Make your voice heard. Being passive is the same as making yourself a victim and losing everything. You don’t want that to happen.

Click here or on the map to the right to find a rally near you. Then SHOW UP on April 5!

Pass this along to at least 3 others – and bring a friend to the rally.

And watch this.

Counting On the Courts

Are you thinking that Trump and his lackeys got away with defying the federal court order to return to the U.S. the so-called Venezuelan terrorist gang members they renditioned to El Salvador? Is it your notion that they were ordered to produce evidence supporting the deportations and ordered to justify refusing those men due process and that they got away with refusing the judge’s orders?

Judge James Boasberg

The judge in this case is Judge James Boasberg. His wife and daughter have been threatened by Trump-following thugs, but he’s standing firm and having none of Trump’s deceit, disorder and lawlessness. Read about it in Harry Litman’s piece, Boasberg Will Not Relent.

“But,” you say, “the courts have no army to enforce their orders and Trump has his Andrew Jackson smartass, tough guy attitude. Plus, he has his get-out-of-jail-free pass, courtesy of the poisonous, brain-free 2024 Supreme Court decision in Trump v. USA.”

All true, but Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), constitutional law professor and royal smart person in all things Constitution, has the antidote to the Constitutional poison. Read Jamie Raskin And The Way To Stop The Trump Administration. This piece is a don’t-miss for your heart health.

There’s More

To stop Trump we will need for our military to refuse illegal orders. That will be tough, since Trump has fired all the top brass who aren’t sycophants.

Just imagine if Trump had invoked martial law in 2020 during the peaceful demonstration in Lafayette Square for George Floyd. Trump wanted Gen. Milley to order his army to shoot protesters in the legs. Milley would never do that. Such an order would be illegal, but I don’t have sufficient confidence that the next general will have the same square jawed integrity.

Trump knows he’s going to be severely reprimanded by voters in the 2026 mid-term election. Expect him to do everything imaginable to stop that from happening, including cancelling the election*. Desperate people do desperate things, and Trump is desperate to be king.

All of that is why we need judges with a stiff spine, people like Jamie Raskin, generals with integrity and We The People in action.

In Case You’re Wondering . . .

. . . how badly Trump’s Project 2025 Cruelizers have damaged our country, read this.

And read this from STAT:

Peter Marks, the top FDA official who oversaw vaccines, gene therapies, and the blood supply, resigned Friday after being told by Trump administration officials he would be fired if he did not step down, according to press reports and people familiar with the situation.

In his resignation letter, which was obtained by STAT, Marks said that he had attempted to answer the concerns of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., regarding the safety of common childhood vaccinations.

“However, it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks wrote.

_________________________________________

* He’s threatened to do that so that he can stay in office.

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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. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

Wimps, Leadership and Stupiditudes


POST 1159

NEW!
Wimps

At Donald Trump’s 100 minute, gag-athon, look-at-me address to Congress on March 4, he spewed dozens of lies, non-sequiturs, phantasmagorical idiocies and real world cruelty. In short, he was classic Trump.

When Rep. Al Green (D-TX) could stomach Trump’s verbal feces no longer he stood and interrupted, shaking his really nice cane and calling out Trump’s Trumpiness until at last Trump called for the Sergeant at Arms to remove Rep. Green. A couple of other Democrats left with him.

The key point is that EVERY Democrat in attendance should have stood and walked out. Instead, nearly all just sat in their stew of meek, hands folded properly in their laps, legs demurely crossed at the ankles, once again looking weak, powerless and volunteering to be voiceless. I’m tempted to ask when they will learn to play hardball against the fascist, cowardly, hypocritical Republicans, but it’s clear that the time stamp reads “NEVER.”

One might argue that it was proper to endure Trump’s verbal harangue to honor the office of the presidency, but that ignores the dishonor that Trump does and is to the presidency. It ignores his backsliding to the primitive, as well as the subservient dishonor of the Republican legislators.

Two days after Trump’s speech the Republican controlled House voted to censure Rep. Green for his outburst. No surprise there. It was Republicans predictably playing hardball for political advantage. Sure, they cloaked their smear in claims of impropriety, which is a laughable thing for that group of thugs to do. But the censure had nothing to do with propriety. It had everything to do with attempting to curry favor with Trump.

Actually, though, the big story is that 10 Democrats voted to censure Green. His own team shoved the knife into his back! Even Green himself failed to vote against the censure.

What’s with these people who can’t stand firm? What’s with these people who can’t fight the good fight? It’s no wonder that the American public sees Democrats as weak, this at a time when strong leadership is demanded.

In 1928 humorist Will Rogers famously said, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” That was said as the Democrats were losing the presidency to Republican Herbert “Great Depression” Hoover, the future Mayor of Hoovervilles everywhere.

People got the humor then and we get it now. But that dysfunction, the Democrats’ act that never gets put together, is allowing the disintegration of our democracy, our Constitution and our way of life. By not supporting Green on the floor of the House or against the fraudulent censure vote, they let Trump and the Republicans look strong and made themselves look like wimpy milquetoasts yet again.

For the record, here are the inductees to the Democratic Wall of Shame for voting to censure Al Green:

  1. Ami Bera of California
  2. Ed Case of Hawai’i
  3. Jim Costa of California
  4. Laura Gillen of New York
  5. Jim Himes of Connecticut
  6. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania
  7. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio
  8. Jared Moskowitz of Florida
  9. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington
  10. Tom Suozzi of New York

Shomari Figures of Alabama voted “present,” as did Green himself. Go figure.

Leadership

I’ve been asking who will lead us back to being the United States of America, land of the not wrongfully fired, home of the Rule of Law, but just about all I see of Democrats are passionless, directionless placeholders at a time when we need clear, strong, informed and impassioned leaders confidently saying, “THAT way.”

Instead, what we have is Chuck Schumer doing his self-defeating dance, bailing out the Constitution killing Republicans by announcing he’ll vote for their continuing, all-for-rich-guys-and-autocracy, continuing resolution (CR).

Yes, he advocated for helping the Cowardly Elephants pass a bill to extend tax cuts for the ultra-rich, disempower the Congress and give TrumpMisk a signed blank check to continue their destruction of all we hold dear.

Why do Democrats consistently bring bubblegum to a gunfight?

I’ve been wondering where the voices from the old guard have gone. Where are Obama, both Clintons, Gore, Harris, Pelosi and Biden?  Indeed, where are the traditional Republicans, like Romney, Bush, Pence, Boehner and the droves of Senators who quit during Trump I, like Jeff Flake and Bob Corker. Seems like I’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places.

Who will lead?

Bottomless Depravity

From The Atlantic Daily:

“In 2023, Donald Trump posted that electric-car supporters should “ROT IN HELL.” [caps original] Now he is showcasing Teslas on the White House lawn.”

Trump doesn’t drive, but according to himself, he will ROT IN HELL.

From Louise Hartmann, March 13, speaking to Trump’s Covid depravity:

  • Oh, the lies kept rolling, the truth was denied.
  • They let our people suffer, they let our people die.
  • Not just neglect—this was by design,
  • Trump’s deadly COVID betrayal, drawn on racial lines.
  • Click the link for the entire poem – because we must never forget.
  • Speaking Of Wimps

  • To TrumpMusk: You piss off gray haired ladies at your ultimate peril. You’ve been warned.

    Headline from Andy Borowitz:

“Trump Gets New Podiatrist’s Note in Preparation for War with Canada”

Many thanks to KL for pointing me to this.

Also from Borowitz:

“In 2010, the Tea Party protested their taxes being spent by a guy they claimed was born in Africa. In 2025, their taxes are being spent by a guy who was definitely born in Africa. Come on, Tea Party, take it to the streets!!!”

Stupiditudes Of This Trump Week

Massive storms, killer tornadoes, winds blowing semis onto their sides in the St. Louis area. killing 34 people in six states.  As bad as it was, NOAA and our National Weather Service experts were there to warn people so they could protect themselves and stay safe. Now TrumpMusk are firing more thousands of NOAA people, which will crush our ability to keep people safe, like the folks in Ashville, NC who needed those advanced warnings; and like in any coastal area in Florida; and for the folks in Tornado Alley and elsewhere when violent weather is coming.

If you were a Trump voter, are you feeling different now, knowing that soon you won’t be able to rely on getting advanced warnings to stay out of harms way, like hurricanes and tornadoes?

If you are a human being who cares not just for yourself, but for others, too, are you thinking that now is the time to stand up and speak up while you still can – perhaps before your right to free speech is terminated and you’re sent to a detention camp in Louisiana like Mahmoud Khalil?

Does it seem like it’s best to take action before tragedy strikes much closer to home, before all the air traffic controllers are fired and it’s way too dangerous to fly; before FEMA is completely gutted and there is no help coming when tragedy strikes your life; before our children can no longer get a good education or before our vets can’t get healthcare?

I think it would be self-destructive to stay home instead of joining others in protest.

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
  2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Book links to Amazon 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 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

I Don’t Know It For a Fact – Plus “Shane”


POST 1151

CAUTION!

This post contains unrestrained snark. It is recommended that sensitive readers use only one eye and then, jeez, get over it.

Bill Maher has a satirical bit he does periodically entitled,

  • I Don’t Know It For A Fact.
  • I Just Know It’s True.

Here’s my offering in that format.

Click me for a better view

When he was 12 years old Trump was in a terrible car crash that damaged his brain, making him unable to think in any way but in terms of “what’s in it for me.” Also injured in that crash was his heart. Surgeons had to remove a major section of it, which made him permanently disabled, without the ability to care about others. I don’t know it for a fact. I just know it’s true.

Trump is congenitally unable to think in strategic terms, only in a tactical, transactional way, and cannot express himself in any way but in word vomit. I don’t know it for a fact. I just know it’s true.

The next Trump Towers will be built in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riyadh, Budapest and – a long shot – Beijing, depending upon his effectiveness at sucking up to evil foreign dictators whose approval he craves. I don’t know it for a fact. I just know it’s true.

Trump contracted a nearly fatal case of Severe Asshole Disease following a high stakes poker game he lost, but which to this day he insists he won. He claims that cards were switched, a terrible fraud! That trauma left him unable to think in any terms but taking money from others. Plus, it left him always feeling unjustly treated, a victim captured in the terror of the truth, that he’s a loser. I don’t know it for a fact. I just know it’s true.

As soon as Musk’s destruction of all government agencies is complete, Trump will fire him and sic the Justice Department on him for retribution, whining on Truth Social that Musk upstaged him repeatedly in the reality show that is Trump’s life. He will also persecute Musk’s kid, X, for being in the Oval Office, stealing some attention from Trump and having what he will call, “a stupid name.” Plus, he will call Musk infantile names like Muskrat and doo-doo head. I don’t know it for a fact. I just know it’s true.

Trump read Mein Kampf and memorized Hitler’s speeches, which he kept on his nightstand. He practiced reciting them to his first wife, Ivana, believing that she would find that as erotic as he did. They had three children, but none after he began reciting those speeches to her. I don’t know it for a fact. I just know it’s true.

Elon Musk loves apartheid and wants to bring it to America to subjugate all non-Aryans and take their money. Then he will cash in his Krugerrands, gold coins made from gold mined in near-slavery conditions by Black labor. He will use that as seed money for his next venture, making soylent green, which he intends to feed to his Black laborers. I don’t know it for a fact. I just know it’s true.

Danger

In Steve Schmidt’s Presidents Day post, JD Vance is a fool on a ship of fools, he shares the words of Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert Jackson, who was the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials of Nazis following WW II. Jackson said this in his closing argument:

Civilization can afford no compromise with the social forces which would gain renewed strength if we deal ambiguously or indecisively with the men in whom those forces now precariously survive.

Now we have in our president a puppet of Putin, who is a man, “in whom those [savage] forces now precariously survive.” Just ask Vladimir Zelenskyy about Putin’s savagery. Justice Jackson was right then and he’s still right. Worst of all, Trump has modeled himself after such evil despots.

Trump is fond of saying, “Only I can _____________.” You fill in the blank. Sometimes he’s right. Only Trump can lead the dismantling of the American order both at home and internationally, putting we and the world in terrible peril.

You know parts of the list of the dastardly, un-constitutional, illegal actions he’s taking and you have a bad taste in your mouth for the cruelty he’s unleashed on tens of thousands, now millions of Americans. What you must do with that is to see that it is all of a piece and not get your underwear in a bunch over just one or two issues. The point is that he is leading a coup to take sole control and ownership of all of America and pocket all our riches for himself.

Trump would be right to crow, “Only I” can do that. And he will do that unless you and I stop him. Now would be a fine time to do that stopping, because “Only we” can prevent Hitler II.

Quotes of the Week

“We’re going to lose our democracy,” said Sotomayor, unless Americans and “particularly” young people take steps to inform themselves well and combat the misinformation chaos created by the rise of the internet.

  • – Josh Sackheim FB post, Feb 12,
  • reporting on comments of
  • Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor
  • at Miami Dade College in Florida

The tumult is smoke. But don’t look away: The fire is a national takeover.

Who will stand up to Trump at high noon?

Indeed, who will do that? We’re looking for that leader.

Backbone

There is an Open Letter to Career Prosecutors, executed on Presidents Day, February 17, 2025. It is circulating now and you MUST read it. It is a cautionary message of support for our good and honorable prosecutors who are under attack from the Trump Justice Department for refusing to do wrong. It is a message of standing with and for these prosecutors as they stand with and for our Constitution and the rule of law. It is signed by over 900 former prosecutors.

The text of the letter ends,

“generations of former federal prosecutors are watching with pride and admiration and stand ready to support you in this honorable pursuit.”

Then come the names. 39 pages of the names of people with courage and integrity. People who then, now and always stand by their oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Read the letter. And in your heart, stand with them for our career prosecutors today.

Could we – you and I – do any less for our democracy? Not if we stand for something worthy.

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
  2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Book links to Amazon 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 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

The Worst


POST 1149

A Partial List of Executive Order Destruction
  1. They’re cutting funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), slashing support for indirect costs associated with medical research. Good luck with that break-through treatment your baby needs to survive.
  2. They’re cutting funding for the CDC, which will be forced to stop preparations to deal with the next pandemic and the one after that. They’re cutting support to deal with opioid overdose prevention, too.
  3. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is being shut down, so we will no longer have warnings about dangerous weather.
  4. Even the sign has been taken off the USAID building, making it clear that the agency is so yesterday. We don’t care if babies die, tens of thousands succumb to HIV and China replaces us globally in the hearts and minds of millions so that they gain access to the resources we need.
  5. The Department of Education is set to receive the wrecking ball. Your children are already well behind where their parents were at the same age in reading, writing, science and the rest. The destruction of the DOE will ensure that their children – your grandchildren – will be even more ignorant. Plus, some of the DOE money will be redirected from public education to private schools via vouchers. Are you okay with your tax dollars going to the school at Our Lady of Grift, or the St. White Guy Patriarchy Academy?
  6. Musk has announced the imminent demise of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Apparently, we didn’t really need the $17 billion the agency recovered for We the People who were fleeced by fraudulent and predatory practices. We can look forward to a resumption of the days of wanton financial cheating and the emptying your wallet.
  7. Christian Nationalist Russell Vought was made director of the Office of Management and Budget. He is an author of Project 2025, which is a roadmap to destroying the Constitution and our government. To be fair, that wasn’t done by executive order. It was a cowardly Republican vote in the Senate for a decidedly anti-American extremist.
  8. Newly installed director of HHS Christi Noem, the, promo actress for her dentist, made a visit to Guantanamo, where Trump plans to dump 30,000 immigrants. They are possibly undocumented people who are possibly accused criminals who were possibly convicted. Trump explained, “We don’ do no stinkin’ vetting for nobody for nuthin’. Besides, they’re brown. We don’ need no dark people to mess with our White privilege and we don’ need no stinking rule of law or habeas corpus,* either.” Note that I did not follow the events of Noem’s visit, so I don’t know if she shot and killed any cute puppies while she was at Guantanamo.

Notice the resemblance,

especially in the dead eyes.

We’ve had 3 weeks of Trump flaunting the law. There have been lawsuits to stop him and he’s lost them all, but just as his Josef Goebbels (Stephen Miller) said about ripping babies from mothers’ arms at the border, “The cruelty is the point.”

The court system is a long, slow process. Some lawsuits may take years to conclude. Meanwhile, Trump will be getting away with lawlessness and harming people.

Trump has captured the public narrative (yet again) with his lawlessness and his unending torrent of verbal vomiting of fantasies and lies. The rule of law isn’t even a speed bump to him. As his advisor Steve Bannon advised, “Flood the zone with shit” and Trump is doing exactly that. It may be shit, but it’s a tsunami that overwhelms everything so fast that stopping him is more than a daunting task.

Saving the Worst For Last

I know that this has been a long year for you over just the past 3 weeks, but take a trip with me in the WayBack Machine. We’ll set the dials to take us to the thrilling days of yestermonth, when there was separation of powers, un-elected rich guys couldn’t stomp on your privacy, your financial well-being or the programs Congress had ordered. The rule of law, that quaint, old fashioned notion, was king and it applied to everyone, except fat, orange, mentally declining narcissists.  Even as there were people in black robes undermining the rule of law, there were guys with silver bullets enforcing it. But things have changed.

Now thousands of silver bullet guys have been fired as retribution for having enforced the rule of law. Replacements are being required to pledge themselves to the fat, orange, mentally declining narcissist, instead of to the Constitution and the rule of law. All executive department heads (or nominees) have similarly pledged their loyalty and have given away their integrity to that same fat, orange, mentally declining narcissist.

He is blatantly ignoring court orders and the separation of powers that for nearly 250 years has prevented us from being violated, dominated and sometimes terminated by a cruel despot, like mad King George III. And the stomping by an un-elected apartheid devotee and his hacker delinquents upon your privacy, your financial well-being and programs Congress ordered  continues. They are defying court orders. They even want to murder Big Bird. So do the Republicans in Congress.

In short, this president and his integrity-free operatives are daring anyone to stop them from taking sole power over the United States of America and strangling this country with fascism.

That’s the worst.

.

We cannot count on our self-neutering elected Democrats or the always-with-their-hand-out-for-contributions DNC to lead actions to stop the steal of our country, so it’s up to us – as in: you, me and the millions who recognize that injustices and wholesale attack on our nation and our people are underway.

Demonstrations are scheduled for Presidents Day, this Monday, Feb 17. That’s a really good day for millions of We The People across the country to take a stand.

Click here to find an action near you. If you don’t find something nearby, make one – there’s information for that at the same site.

Oh BTW – eggs are $10 a dozen. Didn’t Trump promise he’d make the price go down? Was that supposed to happen on day one? Did anyone tell the hens about all that?

RESIST!

Required Reading for Action

Read Robert Reich’s Feb 6 post, What You Can Do.

___________________________________________

* noun: habeas corpus

a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention. [emphasis mine – JA]
Source: OxfordLanguages

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
  2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Book links to Amazon 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 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Stand a Post – 2


POST 1141

Preface to This Guest Essay – It Could Be Entitled, “Stand a Post-2.”

On December 22 I published Our Problem, a flaming declaration of the obvious and dangerous truth, that most Democrats have shown themselves to be toothless tigers and are completely unready to battle the horrors that face us. Lifelong pal Frank Levy had something to say about that and he posted an insightful comment. You need to see it, so it’s here as a Guest Essay.

Frank has been an activist forever. He was a Freedom Rider in the 1960s when registering Black people to vote in the deep south was a death defying act. He does more than give lip service to doing what is right and good. He tells us that it’s time to get up off our butts and take action. He tells us that we cannot count on Democratic elected officials to fight this war to preserve our rights, the Constitution and our democracy. He’s right.

For context, review my post first and then come back to read Frank’s wise words.

Jack – You are right. The Dems are MIA. They are not going to save us. They are not even going to lead us. So, what? They have been MIA for a long, long time. The only thing that will save us and our on-life-support democracy is what has always saved us – WE THE PEOPLE!

With no disrespect, my longtime friend, you are suffering from a serious case of useless pundit syndrome. We all know what the problem is. We know it all too well. There is no shortage of media pundits (all of whom incorrectly predicted the election), scholars, and the like explaining ad nauseam what went and is wrong. There is no shortage of useless verbiage telling us how bad things will be. We know all of that.

What we need are people willing to offer some solutions, a defensive or even offensive strategy or tactical plan so We The People can survive the coming catastrophe and maybe even restore liberal democracy to America sometime in the future.

So with no lack of arrogance I am offering my own save yourself and democracy to-do list:

  1. Never miss an opportunity to inform elected officials – Republican and Democrat, local and national – about your position on every issue. Write them, Call them. Make them hear you!
  2. Get together with like minded people to form a local resilience and resistance force. Meet regularly. Make plans to do meaningful acts of resistance. There really is strength in numbers. This is our John Lewis moment!
  3. Make a plan to protect your job, your savings, your retirement funds, your healthcare plan, your health, your home.
  4. If you live in a red state, make plans to create an underground railroad, to help women needing an abortion or healthcare get what they need.
  5. Create or work with a local food bank so when food prices skyrocket and there are food shortages people in need can get affordable food.
  6. Raise your own livestock (cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys) or find a farmer to raise it for you – there will be food shortages. Be prepared.
  7. Again, if your live in a red state create an underground railroad to help LGBTQIA+ individuals get to states where it is safe to live, be married, and get gender affirming health care.
  8. Find new, reliable, courageous news sources. The media for the most part has surrendered to MAGA and Trump’s threats.
  9. Stop trying to make nice with MAGA people. They do not share your values. They will not agree to the same set of facts. Without agreement of those two things there is nothing to talk about.
  10. Buy a copy of Timothy Snyder’s book, “On Tyranny – Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.” Read it. It is your new Bible. Do not leave home without it.
  11. If you think you will need to leave this country to go somewhere safe – get or renew your passport now.
  12. Decide whether or not you have the means and are willing to provide sanctuary for those immigrants Trump and his evil henchmen want to deport or incarcerate.
  13. Join a group like Indivisible. They have great information and resources to help us in this fight. (www.Indivisible.org)
  14. Contact me one on one. I will be happy to share what I know, and what my friends and I in Alabama are doing. ([email protected])

I am sure there are other things we can and should be doing in this terrifying time, but this is a start. This is what my friends and I are doing now.

_____________________________________________________

Okay, maybe you won’t be raising your own livestock. At the very least you need to see Frank’s comment as making the point that your circumstances are likely to become extremely bad. With what you see and hear every day you shouldn’t require clarification of this.

  1. You see the billionaire tech-toadies buying their way into power and the monied supplicant suck-ups (oh, wait: that’s redundant) bending a knee instead of standing in integrity.
  2. You see the cabinet appointments chosen not for their qualifications or their excellence, but for their loyalty to Trump so that they protect our Felon-in Chief.
  3. You see the guardrails coming down, so you know our democracy is in trouble.

Frank mentioned Indivisible.org. There are other ways to stand that post, including The Union, MoveOn.org, Country First, Focus4Democracy, The States Project, Indivisible Illinois and more. Go stand a post with at least one of those organizations working to protect our democracy.

We are in for a long, achingly hard battle, so put your ideas for action in the Comments section below to help us all.

REBEL!

.  .  .  against the billionaire tyranny.

From The Union

Tomorrow is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day. You know the stories of how right wing haters tried to stop the creation of a day of remembrance for this (gasp!) Black man, this non-violent icon of peaceful change for the betterment of all. Tomorrow is also the inauguration of a man dedicated to hatred, selfishness and repression. The contrast would be comical if it weren’t so damaging.

The folks at The Union have some ideas about how you can help peaceful change come about.

Register Voters: Help your community by assisting people in registering to vote or becoming election workers. (If you’re interested in learning how to get involved with voter registration in your area, please reach out to The Union for more information.)

Volunteer at a local food bank: Help provide meals for people in need.

Community Cleanups: Lead efforts to clean up parks, streets, or public spaces, promoting community pride and solidarity.

Reach out to a friend or relative to see how they’re doing and encourage them to get involved in local volunteer opportunities or pro-democracy initiatives.

Sign up for a volunteer event at our Action Center! Key races are happening this year in Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Virginia. Get involved and mark your calendar today!

As The Union wrote in its recent post,

“Thank you for your dedication to justice, community, and democracy.”

TikTok

You would compromise our national security so that you can post and view inane videos for free? Really? Or so that you can make a few bucks on that platform, as though that’s the only place you can make a buck? Seriously?!

Seriously!?!!
.

We can be bought – we sell out – so cheaply. But you don’t have to do that. Reach down and grab your ass. That is what’s at stake.

Fun – Yes, Really

Click me

Did you make it this far in this long post? Good for you, because here’s a gift courtesy of Dan Rather at Steady. Fleetwood Mack tells us “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.” It’s a message of hope – “It’ll be here better than before” – and we surely need hope right now, because tomorrow – as in: Monday – won’t be better than today. But we are going to make our tomorrows better than before – if we work at it. Let’s go.

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not necessarily mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
  2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine, but I do wish that I could blame someone else. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Book links to Amazon 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 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

We Do Know What’s Coming – A Sampler


POST 1126

Today we take a quiet Sunday to club Republicans over the head for their excellently done sellout of America and the American people and the world class hypocrisy of so many. Sadly, we do know what’s coming.

  1. As soon as Trump began his awful run for the White House in 2015 it was obvious what we were in for.  Recall his demonizing of Hispanics coming to this country, whom he described as drug carriers, rapists and criminal transmitters of disease. He said this to a small group of paid actors in the lobby of his building, recruited to cheer for him wildly. As soon as he got off the escalator he claimed there were thousands there. That was just his first official lie and a harbinger of his fraud to come. Republicans began to debase themselves before Trump almost immediately. We should have known what was coming.
  2. Then there were the impeachments. It was clear to everyone that he was guilty of those high crimes and misdemeanors, but Republicans in the House refused to vote against him. Only a small handful of Republicans in the Senate had the integrity to vote him guilty. The rest decided that they didn’t want to get primaried. Worse, they knew that a guilty decision would have prevented Trump from ever again holding any “office of trust” – we would have been rid of him. They chickened out. We wouldn’t be facing the frontal assault on our Constitution and our democracy now, had there been 10 more Republicans with a spine. Translation: The Republicans’ careers in Congress were more important to them than the fate of the United States of America or the oath they swore. Where have the patriots gone, you ask? They’ve been replaced by cowards and hypocrites. We should have known what was coming.
  3. Matt Gaetz was the most hated man in the House, mirroring Ted Cruz, the most hated man in the Senate who isn’t named Josh Hawley. Gaetz, a reasonably accused sex trafficker, high school girl schtuper, Ecstacy aficionado, Justice Department know-nothing and more, has removed himself from consideration for the job of A.G., a position for which he is profoundly unqualified. Perhaps now he can be prosecuted and get the cell of his pal Jeffrey Epstein. He’s being replaced by Trump’s defense lawyer and suck up (but looks good on TV – very important to Trump) Pam Bondi. We did know what was coming.
  4. Speaking of the Department of Justice, somebody please tell us what “weaponization of the Department of Justice” is. It sounds terrible, so it’s a great campaign slogan for Republicans to use to accuse Democrats of something bad. Isn’t the Department of Justice supposed to be weaponized against wrongdoing, like insurrection and theft of classified documents? Whatever evil “weaponization” means, I’m certain the Trump administration will do exactly that. They’ll prosecute everyone on Trump’s hit list and more just to harass them and drain them of money. We do know what’s coming.
  5. Sure, we believe Trump when he says he knows nothing about Project 2025 and will have nothing to do with its implementation. I mean, he said so, right? We do know what’s coming.
  6. Even if you follow news and politics only a little you likely saw that Jack Smith has dropped his indictments against Donald Trump for inciting insurrection, election interference, fraud, possession of stolen classified documents and more. That absurd Office of Legal Counsel memo (NOT law) from 1973 that says that a sitting president cannot be indicted and prosecuted is a justice killer, a rule-of-law violator, as is the 2024 Supreme Court issued “get out of jail free” decision. Combined with Merrick Garland’s unconscionable two years of foot dragging and Trump’s defense attorneys’ masterful manipulation of the courts to delay, delay, delay, Trump will have gotten away with his heinous crimes. Had you done any of the things Trump did, you would already have been rotting in a prison cell for a couple of years. It sure looks like a prime case of two sets of laws, one for rich, powerful people and another for the rest of us. We did know what was coming.
  7. Are you a woman or do you know and care about a woman? Coming are a national abortion ban, bans on contraception, prosecutions of OB/GYNs and a constant Christian Nationalist (which actually isn’t Christian at all) drum beat of reducing women to nothing more than sex toys, incubators and house slaves. We do know what’s coming.
Quote Adjustment Following the Election

From Salon.com, November 14:

In the most basic sense, the 2024 election can be understood as a referendum on the direction of America and the future of pluralistic multiracial democracy.

True, but that soft peddles the fundamental point. Let me help.

In the most basic sense, the 2024 election can be understood as a referendum on whether this is or ever will be America.

You Can Get Anything You Want at Alice’s Restaurant.

There is hypocrisy masquerading as justice and even as popular will, just as there was when Arlo Guthrie told his tale. Watch over the next few years – could be even faster if the MAGA barbarians are able to shred the entire Constitution sooner. Watch the MAGA faithful, the willfully ignorant, the dupes, the “I could never vote for a Democrat” non-thinkers, the “I want a strongman, not one of those woke types and for sure no woman” chest pounders and even those too lazy to get off the couch and vote.

Watch what happens as the hatred spreads and their freedom evaporates. They may cheer as the freedom of others disappears, but not when it clobbers them. Then, o’ golly, that won’t be fair.

Watch as they realize that the nice guy down the block has been ripped from his family and thrown into a concentration camp, his children left weeping. Watch as the cost of food and everything else skyrockets but wages are stagnant. Watch their eyes as diseases like measles, polio and smallpox make a big comeback, when the kid across the street is struggling just to breathe and the elderly lady next door has died with horrible sores all over her body and they realize that they might have been infected.

Listen to the hypocritical excuses, the lame, “It’s not my fault” exculpations. Watch as the testosterone overfilled, Bible thumping crowd begins to feel the pain of women dying in pregnancy, a threat that exists only because of their actions.

Yale Professor of History Timothy Snyder knows what’s coming. He lays it out for you here.

Oh yes, we do know what’s coming.

Bide your time. And

REBEL!

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

How We Fell Off The Sled v 1.0


POST 1123

I had this nifty 11-point list of the many ways Democrats lost the election. It wasn’t pretty, but it was factual. Then, in a blinding flash of the obvious, I realized that only one of them was a root cause issue, a progenitor of all the rest. Indeed, it took only one of them to make Trump and MAGA, the Freedom Caucus and the rest of the reactionary, angry people possible.

The Democrats, once the party of working people (think: FDR being elected President 4 times), have ignored working people for decades. Other than the “big tent” talking points and Biden’s consistent support of unions, the Democratic Party became a haven for the college educated, with little to no outreach to working people, our term for those who don’t work in offices.

Reagan is the one most responsible for the beginning of the destruction of unions, with his firing of all of the air traffic controllers who went on strike in 1981. Back then controllers were dying from heart attacks and strokes due to stress and over-work. Their pleas went ignored and the strike was a last ditch effort for survival. They were completely disregarded, disrespected and were fired. Where was the Democratic cavalry? It never came over the hill.

The Democrats hardly fought back for unions or for working people, instead battling Republicans for the college educated. Most recently, Harris counted far too heavily on suburban, college educated women for votes and ignored the plumbers, landscapers and construction workers who keep those suburban women comfortable. Those working people don’t like being ignored.

On-Point Quotes

“Democrats increasingly are the party of university educated elites, and they have an unfortunate knack for coming across as remote and patronizing scolds.” – Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, November 17, 2024

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.” – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

“My needs go ignored and I feel disrespected.”

When people are blown off there is a direct and instantaneous reaction of anger – even of hatred.

Example: Democrats stuck their fingers in their ears, failing to listen to Gen Zers who were furious over Netanyahu’s death machine in Gaza. That machine was armed with 2,000 bombs supplied by the U.S. That pissed off a whole generation. You can pile on the hopelessness of Z’s prospects for housing, food, relationships and more. Sure, we can point to the pluses of a historically low level of unemployment and increasing wages in some sectors of the economy, but Zs continue to feel blown off.

People from various generations have been knee-jerking in reaction to feeling blown off by people in power – by the “coastal elites” and the obscenely rich. We have an unspoken dictum from our financially comfortable, “I got mine. Too bad for you.”

16 years ago we got Obama. He was supposed to make a big difference. Check with those who most closely identified with him. Ask whether things got better for them and specifically if they feel they were heard. We can point to the Republicans who stopped every train with Obama’s name on it, but the rich guys and coastal elites blew off everyone who is not them and then pointed at the Democrats as the source of the blow off. And the Democrats went all radio silence.

4 years ago we got Biden and he was supposed to make a big difference. And he did. You know about the enormous improvement in employment, wages and new businesses started. You know that it’s finally infrastructure week and much more. Price increases have slowed. All that is great except for three things.

1. The Biden administration has done a world class job of crappy communication about the victories and what they mean to ordinary Americans.

2. Regular Americans can’t afford to feed their families because food is way too expensive and that continues to get worse. Nobody cares that we’re better off than other first world countries because we live here, not there.

3. The failures at the southern border continue and finger pointing, however accurate – or not – doesn’t help working people who feel at risk. Ditto the world class crappy job of communication over the dramatic slowing of illegal entries.

The “I’d rather be us than them” election crowd finally put a sock in it because everything they hoped for was lost. Let’s see what some vote totals can tell us.

2020                        2024

Biden/Harris                                  81,283,098               73,981,301

Trump                                             74,222,958               76,587,122

Winner’s Margin                              7,060,140                 2,605,821

Eligible voters who didn’t vote ~ 80,000,000                80,870,000

Notions about this

1. 7.3 million people who voted for Biden in 2020 did not vote for Harris in 2024. Where did they go?

2. Trump picked up a couple of million more votes in this election over the prior one. Seems likely that a good portion of those votes were from blown off pissy people who switched from voting for the Democrat and this time voted for the Republican. Likely, they saw Trump as the less crappy of two crappy candidates.

3. About 80 million people won’t get off their lazy asses to show up and vote. Nobody knows what the outcomes of our elections would be if they did. I just hope no eligible voter who didn’t bother to vote complains to me about what happens to them following this election and how awful life has become for them. They won’t like what I have to say.

Finally

Whatever the issue, and we have plenty of them, having voted for Trump won’t fix them. His win will only have accomplished a proud double middle finger in the air from every working person and their very loud FUCK YOU! to members of “the establishment” or the imaginary “swamp” and those perceived as the privileged, the elite, the ones who disrespect their inferiors.

But nothing will get better for angry working class folks. More tax breaks for the rich will not help them. Cancelling Obamacare won’t help them. Massive tariffs not only won’t help them, they will hurt those people terribly. Deporting 11 million (or is it 20 million?) undocumented immigrants won’t help because, for example, our FUCK YOU! crowd won’t do the jobs those undocumented people have been doing. That will result in higher food prices for everyone and small business bankruptcies and the resultant loss of jobs. Elon Musk pulling the rug out from under our social services will imperil our elderly especially, and poor children will go hungry. Trump having his lick-spittle AG persecute and prosecute Trump’s opponents won’t help anything but Trump’s ego. Destroying the Department of Education will badly affect the children of our middle finger deploying citizens.

All these Trump voting people will have is the satisfaction of screaming into the night and feeling powerful only for the duration of the echoes of their screams. Their lives will not get better.

Don’t think for even a minute that Donald Trump will be recognized as a source of their ennui, and that’s fitting because we all did this. I’m as guilty as anyone for calling those supporting Trump stupid, self-defeating and a bunch of other unflattering, disrespectful names.

The true source of their suffering and anger is those of us who have blown them off for decades – for half a century. It turns out that people don’t like to be disrespected.

And that is how We The People fell off the sled.

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

What Will Happen – Part 1 of 2


POST 1120

Preface

This is Part 1 of 2 of what you can expect in the second Trump presidency. Some of what follows is snark or satire. Most is not.

Expect Part 2 on Wednesday.

Healthcare

Bobby Kennedy will be in charge of healthcare – your healthcare. He doesn’t like vaccines, so count on our not being prepared for the next pandemic and for there to be a massive number of preventable deaths. And count on ever increasing diagnoses of measles, polio, tetanus, smallpox and more in our little ones because, again, Kennedy doesn’t like vaccines.

Expect an ongoing idiocy from Kennedy of quack practices and assaults on science, health and sanity. Expect an undermining of the USDA, compromising the safety of the meat you eat including Trump’s Big Macs. Expect, too, an attack on the FDA, compromising the safety of our meds. The list of Kennedy’s undermining of our national health and safety will be very long and galactically stupid, as he does as Trump instructs, “whatever the hell he wants.”

The Economy

Genius nut job Elon Musk will be in charge of our economy. He has pledged to cut $2 trillion from our national budget. He can’t cut our military spending or other mandatory things, which leaves only “discretionary” spending. He will cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Departments of Education and Energy and more. All programs designed for the welfare of We The People will vanish. Better start figuring out how you’ll pay for your healthcare, your meds, how your kids will get educated and more.

We’ll have cheap gas and accelerating global warming to depress and imperil our children and grandchildren. The list of the carnage Musk will create is long and terrifying, as he does, “whatever the hell he wants.” Ah, but we’ll have a balanced budget. Why should anyone care about you?

Trump will re-up his previous tax reduction gift to rich people and will expand it. He will promise great benefits to working people and some to poor people. They will be, “greater than anyone has ever seen,” but nobody but the rich and big corporations will receive enough for any benefit to be identifiable.

All economic indicators, the Dow, S & P and the rest, will plunge in value following Trump cashing out his portfolios. Same for his rich buddies who will be given advance notice. Once securities have hit rock bottom the rich will buy them up just as rich guys did following the crash in 1929. Ordinary people will be economically devastated, as jobs disappear and whatever savings they had for retirement disappears. You already know that we’ve seen this movie before and we know how it ends.

Freedom

Expect encroachment on the freedoms of any who are not White and on all women. All forms of contraception will be outlawed except the so-called rhythm method favored by the Catholic Church, Evangelicals and Christian Nationalists (who aren’t really Christian in their beliefs and actions). This method excels at systematically producing many babies, a la the Dark Ages. All forms of post impregnation medical procedures will be outlawed, with prison sentences imposed for affected women and for medical professionals who dare to treat a woman having a miscarriage. Someone will keep a tally of women who die because of these prohibitions. The numbers will seem like they are from a horror film.

Blacks, Hispanics, Jews and Muslims will be encouraged through intimidation to stay in their place and not be uppity. Or they can leave this country. KKK white hood outfits with nooses attached to the belt and torches to carry, as well as Gestapo and SS uniforms will be popular Halloween costume choices.

Women will be expected to be subservient to all males. Their roles will be limited to sex object, household servant, involvement in teaching young children and low level business positions. In no circumstance will they be allowed to have a position of any power in this perfect patriarchal America. What would you think of bringing back witch trials?

Ear worm warning: Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA will play in all elevators and all music on hold. There will be no escape.

Guns

Gun deaths will continue to mount. The rate may well increase. There will be absolutely no direct or indirect curbs to reduce gun violence, as age restrictions for purchasing firearms and accessories and limitations on those with a violent history are eliminated. Trump may wallow in finger pointing about shootings in our large cities, which, of course happen, but they are at a much lower per capita rate than in rural states, AKA The Wild West. No matter. Trump will always tell us that cities run by Democrats are  the worst.

Miscellaneous Un-American Activities

It’s logistically insanely difficult to round up 11 million or more people and deport them. There may be Gestapo raids in various Hispanic neighborhoods ripping families apart. Expect rampant cruelty that is never prosecuted.

Look for prosecutions on fantasy charges against people Trump doesn’t like. The prosecutions won’t result in anything substantive, but they will impoverish the defendants, so Trump will be able to giggle with glee about how he crushed his detractors.

Expect thousands of civil servants, the people who make the trains run on time, to be fired and replaced by Trump suck-up know-nothings.

Look for conflicts of interest and outright grift and graft on an epic level. There will be no prosecutions.

The Trump administration will end when JD Vance invokes the 25th Amendment to replace him. Then things will get worse.

Expect that to happen just into Trump’s third year, which would allow Vance to stay for two more terms, assuming that there will still be elections and such an old fashioned concept as “terms.” If we no longer have elections, the timing won’t matter.

Dos and Don’ts
Do

Stay connected to others, especially those who believe in democracy. It’s critical to your sanity.

Grieve the loss. It’s real and it hurts.

Get up and get active. Nothing restores the spirit like taking action to make things better.

Fight to Make America Not Suck. Get a red, write and blue MANS hat. I don’t know where to find those. Go all entrepreneurial with that.

If there is an election in 2026, dig in with everything you have to elect anyone who will oppose Trump and will restore our democracy. We need control of at least one house of Congress to put a brake to the Trump Train of Destruction.
.
Don’t

Don’t surrender to despair.

Don’t wallow in grief.

Don’t drop out.

Don’t succumb to “All is lost.” The fight just got much more difficult, so we must step up our efforts for truth, justice and the American Way.

And most important,

Don’t let the bastards get you down!

.
Final Note

There is nothing in this post that you didn’t already know. That is how blatantly, screamingly, obviously awful this stuff is. We have a lot of work to do.

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

Where Have They Been?


POST 1117

From NBC, October 29 (trimmed for brevity):

.  .  .  Nikki Haley criticized Trump world on Tuesday for being “overly masculine with this bromance thing” after former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

On Fox News on Tuesday, Haley addressed a comedian’s racist jokes about Puerto Rico and Latinos, a moment that has roiled the Trump campaign and was condemned by multiple Republicans, including members of Congress.

“This is not a time to have anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos,” Haley said, instead calling for discipline around the campaign. “This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance thing that they have.” [Mascuilinity now means hatred and cruelty?]

Haley noted other language used throughout the rally, as well as in Republican ads and messaging, that she called destructive to drawing women into the fold on Election Day.

She said, “destructive to drawing women into the fold.”

She said, “That is not the way to win women. That is not the way to win people who are concerned about Trump’s style.”

Those are her concerns? She’s not concerned about the racism and the misogynist cruelty?

Haley failed miserably because her sole focus is on winning the election. She didn’t show even a whiff of concern for decency. Plus, this election isn’t about Trump’s style. It’s about his pathological substance.

HALEY COMPLETELY FAILS TO ADDRESS HOW MISERABLY TRUMP WORLD BEHAVES AND ITS COMPLETE LACK OF DECENCY. HALEY DISCARDED ALL CLARITY ABOUT RIGHT AND WRONG. WHATEVER SPINE SHE ONCE MIGHT HAVE HAD HAS MELTED AWAY, ALONG WITH ANY SENSE OF MORALITY.

Nikki Haley’s values are upside down. Were the opportunity to present itself, I would vote for a golden retriever over Haley, this for its fidelity and for Haley’s lack of it.

Many Republicans – hundreds of them – have recovered their senses and are speaking out against Trump. Haley isn’t one of them. They are pledging to vote for Harris. So glad they’re standing up for what is right and good and patriotic.

But in the face of the constant outpouring of Trump and MAGA cruelty, vicious lies and attacks on our Constitution,

Where have they been for the last nine years?
.

Come to think of it, where has George W. Bush’s courage been? Wasn’t he the swagger president, the “You’re either with us or against us” tough guy? Where’s his repudiation of Trump and MAGA and where is his endorsement of Harris? Where is Mitt Romney’s? Or John Boehner’s or Paul Ryan’s? Where are the quiet ones who sometimes appeared to be “traditional Republicans,” like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski?

Each of them and more took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Why aren’t they standing up and fighting against this obvious threat to our Constitution?

Key Quote For This Election
.
“Bad People get elected when good people don’t vote.”  – Sen. Cory Booker
.

We know the difference between right and wrong and between good and evil and we vote accordingly. Good on you for standing strong and being a voter.

Your family, friends and neighbors may need your encouragement to vote. Please speak out. Urge them to vote. Don’t tell them who to vote for because that kind of message is almost never welcome. Just urge them to vote.

It’s time for all of us to take a stand.

Many thanks to MG for this quotation from Scotty Reston.

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

NOTE: Many states allow same day voter registration and voting!

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

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

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

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


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

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    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

A Bucketful of Weird


POST 1109

Heart Wrenching Quote of the Week

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

“Normal just washed away  .  .  . “

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

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

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

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

Weird Black Nazi Wish List

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

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

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

Weird.

The Weird Candidate

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

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

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

Weird.

Springfield Geese

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

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

FEMA Funds Never Fed Our Undocumented

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

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

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

“That Was a Damning Non-Answer”

Walz: Did [Trump] lose the 2020 election?

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

Walz: That was a damning non-answer.

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

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

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

And weird.

Reality Roundup

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

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

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

Weird.

Just get this:

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

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

– Les Miserables R Us

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

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