Leadership

Trump Debate Bingo


Reading time – 87 seconds; Viewing time – 2:42  .  .  .

In a snappy article in the New York Times cleverly entitled, A Week of Whoppers From Donald Trump, authors Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns list a single week’s “.  .  .  blizzard of [Trump’s] falsehoods, exaggerations and outright lies  .  .  .” and then debunk them.

After reading the piece it occurred to me that watching the September 26 debate would be more fun if I were to keep track of the false innuendo and bovine fecal matter that dribbles from Trump’s lips  .  .  .  just to record his prevarication score in Bingo-like fashion  .  .  .  to identify which lies he told the most times in just one 90-minute period.

Given that he was to be just one of the two debate participants, he would be limited to about 45 minutes of blatant deceit possibility, minus the time moderator Lester Holt might use for posing questions and suppressing audience reaction. Surely, not even Donald the Deceiver could rack up a high score in so little time, right?

Wrong.

In a debate where I found Donald Trump to be especially incoherent and non-specific, here are the top scoring Trump untruthables according to our crack CYA News staff:

  1. I was against going into the war in Iraq. He said something like that 4 times. Hard to tell because of his meandering, incoherent rhetoric. He said it other ways, too, which if added to the blatant denials of the truth brings the total to about 8 whoppers.
  2. Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape they’ve ever been in before. He said some form of that approximately two times – sort of. Again, it’s hard to nail this down due to the Trump verbal blizzard of non-sequiturs.
  3. Lots of whoppers vying for third place, like:
    1. ISIS is in more and more places.
    2. I’m all for NATO.
    3. The Iran agreement is one of the great giveaways of all time.
    4. We lose on everything.
    5. “Stop and frisk” wasn’t found to be unconstitutional.

Perhaps things seem hopeless and you feel your sense of dignity and even your sanity assaulted by the Trump blasts of political dishonesty. Well, take heart – there is hope!

Have a look at the newest offering from the Represent.us folks. After watching their highly encouraging video, click through to their website. Then maybe even do something to make things better. I mean, really, that shouldn’t be too hard, since the bar is set so low.

DIRTY STINKING LIES BONUS SECTION:

David Leonhardt heads the New York Times Daily Opinion report and published the following summary of Deceitful Donald’s excursions from reality. There is no link to this in the newspaper, as this material was only offered as the lead article in the email to subscribers immediately following the September 26, 2016 debate.

Dear Times Reader,
He lied about the loan his father once gave him.
He lied about his company’s bankruptcies.
He lied about his federal financial-disclosure forms.
He lied about his endorsements.
He lied about “stop and frisk.”
He lied about “birtherism.”
He lied about New York.
He lied about Michigan and Ohio.
He lied about Palm Beach, Fla.
He lied about Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve.
He lied about the trade deficit.
He lied about Hillary Clinton’s tax plan.
He lied about her child-care plan.
He lied about China devaluing its currency.
He lied about Mexico having the world’s largest factories.
He lied about the United States’s nuclear arsenal.
He lied about NATO’s budget.
He lied about NATO’s terrorism policy.
He lied about ISIS.
He lied about his past position on the Iraq War.
He lied about his past position on the national debt.
He lied about his past position on climate change.
He lied about calling pregnancy an “inconvenience” for employers.
He lied about calling women “pigs.”
He lied about calling women “dogs.”
He lied about calling women “slobs.”
So… who won the debate?
You can sign up for this daily newsletter, containing commentary and links to The Times’s full daily Opinion report, here.
David Leonhardt
Op-Ed Columnist

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

YOUR ACTION STEPS: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

About Those Deplorables


false

Click the meter to get the fact-checked story on who started the birther insanity.

Reading time – 1:37 seconds; Viewing time – 2:56  .  .  .

I instantly cringed when I heard Hillary say,

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?”

There is a difference between the act (saying something deplorable) and the person (they are deplorable) and my belief is that to condemn the person is to vilify, and that is a deplorable thing to do. So, I’m forcing myself to read between the lines and make a differentiation.

The polls have shown that a very large percentage of Trump supporters are motivated by some form of hate. The white supremacists are the extreme example, of course, but ordinary Americans with strong biases about race, gender identity, religion and national origin practice”othering” and they say and do, well, deplorable things. Like beating up protesters. My blood boils at the hatred of Trump and his cadre of brownshirts and brownshirt wannabees and I struggle to keep my “reject the action, not the person” mindset. In fact, there, I just failed again with the brownshirt comment.

Separating out these people who expressly promote hate, like David Duke, former Grand Peabrain of the Ku Klux Klan, and Alex Jones, Right Wing Village Idiot (and no, I won’t provide links to these two haters), I think a lot of Trump supporters are in his Kampf for far more benign reasons. They are frustrated at being lied to over and over by elected officials. They are suffering because so many good American jobs have disappeared (Fact: a large percentage of jobs are gone because of automation – off-shoring and bad trade deals aren’t the only boogie men). And they have been fed a steady diet of lies and hate from politicians, telling them that others are the cause of whatever their woes might be, all this in the absence of any facts that might be at least tangentially connected to reality.

All that doesn’t make these people innocent. At the very least they are guilty of allowing themselves to be ignorant. In their black and white world, they refuse to allow for the complexities of the world and foolishly insist on simple answers. And they allow themselves to be led by nothing more substantive than bumper sticker slogans.

And they are getting all of that from Donald Trump.

Stretch yourself, though, to allow that in their heart-of-hearts they love America just as much as you do and that they believe in right over wrong and good over bad. If you can do that, then Stephen King can explain our national obsession with delusion in this way:

the-trust-of-the-innocent

Think about that as you watch the debates.

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

YOUR ACTION STEPS: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

North Carolina


jennifer-roberts

Mayor Jennifer Roberts Charlotte, NC

Reading time – 39 seconds; Viewing time – 1:36  .  .  .

I saw Jennifer Roberts, the mayor of Charlotte, NC interviewed by Brian Williams a couple of nights ago and yesterday I found her leading a press conference. She thanked the local police (who conveniently did not have body cameras turned on when they killed Keith Scott) and the state police, as well as the NC National Guard. She talked about their professionalism (avoiding acknowledging their unprofessional non-use of those pesky body cameras) and she announced that the businesses in the downtown area will indeed be open for business. She talked about the need for the curfew and how well the police had enforced it and basically did an “aren’t we wonderful!” announcement.

Not once did she express regret over the loss of life or the grief of loved ones, concern for the injured, nor any appreciation whatsoever for the reason that people are on the streets. Not one word of caring for anyone not in a position of power.

That woman is reptilian.

And she matches well the governor and members of the North Carolina state legislature who have worked so diligently to steal voting rights from the poor and  minority citizens of North Carolina, which is still, as far as I know, part of the United States of America, where voting rights are guaranteed for all citizens, except convicted felons in some states, including North Carolina.

What has happened to North Carolina?

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APOLOGIES – to you if you have tried to comment on past Disambiguations but have been frustrated, confused and perhaps annoyed that your comments seem to have been received but never showed up online. We’ve been experiencing biblical levels of spam and have tried various means to thwart the bad guys. Some methods, though, seem to have thwarted everyone. Now there’s just a simple “I’m not a robot” method in place. So, go ahead – say something – and let’s see if this works better for you.  JA

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

YOUR ACTION STEPS: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

The Lesson


Flight 93 National Memorial

Flight 93 National Memorial, Shanksville, PA

Reading time – 54 seconds; Viewing time – 1:54  .  .  .

I fly a lot and often think about the people on those four airplanes on that awful day, September 11, 2001. Most often I think about those on United Flight #93.

WTC AttackThere had been victims of terrorists before then, like those on the USS Cole and in the Marine barracks in Lebanon. And there were victims of terrorists on that very day aboard the airplanes that were flown into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon. Each time they were hapless victims, either because they were scared into being compliant or they were simply blindsided. Not so for those on United #93.

The USS Cole is towed into open sea on Oct. 29, 2000 Photo: DOD by Sgt. Don L. Maes, U.S. Marine Corps

USS Cole is towed into open sea, Oct. 29, 2000 Photo: DOD, Sgt. Don L. Maes, U.S.M.C.

Todd Beamer’s name and face are in my memory, but more than those are his words: “Let’s roll.” He was telling his fellow passengers and, unknown to him, this entire nation, not to be victims. He was telling us to take action. And I tell myself that very thing, in part because of his words and actions.

[Ed. note: Check the PS below – it’s not in the video.}

We have fought back as a nation. That there haven’t been far more attacks is noteworthy and great thanks go to the good people who have prevented them. Still, our people have died in San Bernardino and Boston and Fort Bragg and Orlando and survivors still grieve.

Todd Beamer

Todd Beamer

In the face of so much suffering, others have heard the call and stepped up. Like Bill Badger, who stopped more killing at the Tucson Safeway store where Gabby Giffords and others were shot by a crazy in 2011. And Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, who stopped a murderer on a French train in 2015.

Whatever happens there are always lessons, and one of the lessons of 9/11 is to step up. To take action. To refuse to be a victim. Always, the imperative is, “Let’s roll.”

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PS: There are people who volunteer to do dangerous things for the rest of us.

Almost 14% of the people who died in the World Trade Center buildings were first responders who charged into those burning buildings in order to save the people inside. It’s on us to make sure that Congress honors our commitment to the surviving first responders – all of them – in order to ensure they get the medical support they earned through their courage and selfless dedication. Tell Congress there’s no weasel room on this: tell them to do the right thing.

Our military people were once accused of awful things, yet they are now held in the highest esteem. Regardless, in each case they were far from home and doing the enormously hard and dangerous things of war because we sent them to do so for us. Some never got thanked and some still wait for the medical support they were promised.

Please read John Calia’s post and then do as he invites. Let’s roll.

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

YOUR ACTION STEPS: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

It Isn’t About Your Message


Housefly.Reading time – 1:54; Viewing time – 3:17  .  .  .

The 2012 general election generated a lot of forward looking comments from pundits and political operatives, like:

The Republicans will have to change their messaging if they are going to appeal to Latinos.

“Severely conservative” Mitt Romney will have to pivot to the center in order to attract independents.

Republican candidates have to stop saying things like, “A woman’s body has a way of shutting that down [in cases of rape],” and “[Pregnancy from rape] is God’s plan.”

This year those statements are being modified only slightly by saying that Trump will have to change his messaging if he is going to appeal to Latinos and African-Americans. Like Romney, he’ll have to pivot to the center in order to attract independents. He’ll have to stop demeaning women and he’ll  have to refuse to align with hate groups if he is going to attract anyone but the hair-on-fire pissy people (my description, not a quote).

The important point, though, is that all that “how to win elections” word torturing is completely misguided, wrong-headed and even dishonest.  It seems to say that all that matters is the manipulation of the message and of voters.

To which I say, “Nuh-uh.” What is important is not the crafted messaging of an appeal to African-Americans or a pivot to the center or avoiding saying stupid stuff. What is important is what candidates would actually do. And however you dress up Trump’s piggy statements, it’s clear that even with lipstick, he will continue to be a pig and he will do what pigs do.

Charles Blow recently wrote, “Trump is an unfiltered primal scream of the fragility and fear consuming white male America.” Surely, there’s much we can learn from that. More critically, though, Trump’s frivolous comments about the use of nuclear weapons abandons common sense and even survival. In a real crisis, what would he do?

This election is about many things including what’s already been mentioned, as well as voter disenfranchisement, big money poisoning of our politics and the millions of good paying jobs that Congress continues to say “It’s all about” but consistently refuses to take action to improve. It is about these substantive issues and is not about focused-grouped, misleading messages.

TO OUR POLITICAL CANDIDATES (not just Trump) – News flash: It isn’t about your message.You need to understand that Latinos don’t care what you say about immigration reform; they care about what you would do about it. Americans don’t care how you flap your lips about Medicare, Social Security, jobs, climate warming and terrorism; they care about what you would do.

If you’re all about the hot air of your finely honed, misleading messaging, then all you are is a manipulator and we will sniff you out. You may have had your way with us for a while, but if you’ve been dishonest with us, we will swat you like we would an annoying housefly and flick you away.

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

YOUR ACTION STEPS: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

America Through the Looking Glass


Antique Looking GlassReading time – 37 seconds; Viewing time – 55 seconds  .  .  .

You’ve heard comments about the multiple Trump bankruptcies and failures, but to really understand you need to read the meaty account of them in Newsweek, Donald Trump’s Many Business Failures, Explained by Kurt Eichenwald. As you read it, keep in mind that Trump has told us repeatedly that he’ll be the greatest president ever because he’s such a great businessman and a winner. Eichenwald’s essay puts the lie to that nonsense.

Trump wants you to believe that he knows things that you don’t know, and he’s right. You don’t understand, for example, that failure is success. You just don’t get that a lie is better than the truth and that innuendo, insult and slander are hallmarks of personal greatness. All of us but Trump missed the fundamental life lesson that fraud is the calling card of great virtue. To any sane person, it’s craziness.

But the true craziness of our time is not Trump and his dishonesty; it is that 30 percent of the American electorate is so enraged that they support him and cheer anything he says that feels like a “f**k you” aimed at others. They are so enraged by all the lies and sellouts over so many years by those in power that they mindlessly latch onto Trump’s permanently raised middle finger.

What have we done?

For a fuller understanding of the Trump alternate universe, take a look at Katy Tur’s piece on the Marie Claire website and you’ll see that life around Trump is life through the looking glass. Can that possibly be good for you or even for Trump’s 30 percent? Could America as we know it survive that?

Thanks go to ABS for the pointer to the Newsweek piece.

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

YOUR ACTION STEPS: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Green is the New Black


Green is the New BlackReading time – 1:52; Viewing time – 3:37  .  .  .

Many Democrats are angry and some even hate Hillary Clinton. The negatives tend to cluster around two things: trustworthiness (actually, the lack of it) and her disastrous position on ____________ (fill in the blank with your key issue). That has led many Democrats to proclaim with a righteous fury that they will not vote for her and they certainly won’t vote for Trump, so instead they will either abstain from voting or will vote for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. To explain why that’s self-defeating, let’s look at the math.

Votes for Trump will be from “the base”, plus those Republicans who put clothespins on their noses (thanks for the visual, D.W.) and vote for him only because his name is not Hillary Clinton. Clearly, all of those will be votes against Clinton.

Next point: Jill Stein doesn’t have even a remote chance of becoming president, so a vote for her won’t get her elected. In that sense, votes for her are wasted.

Finally, making the assumption that Democrats who abstain from voting or who vote for Stein would have voted for the Democratic candidate had that been someone other than Clinton, then those abstentions and votes for Stein will be votes against Clinton, which is exactly the same as a vote for Trump.

So, the math says that if you are a disaffected Democrat and either abstain from voting or vote for Stein, you will assure that America is endangered by a sociopathic President Trump. There, I said it: President Trump. How did that feel in your gut to read those words? Really scary and black?

If you fail to vote for Clinton and instead abstain or vote for Stein, Green will be the new black.

Yes, the DNC played unfairly with the nomination process. Absolutely, there are things about Clinton that don’t comport with your ideas about how things should be and assault your sense of right and wrong. I get it. Overriding all of that is this simple imperative:

There must never be a President Trump.

On August 7, 2016 Bill Maher put into perspective the issues you have with Clinton, saying, “There’s no room for boutique issues in an Armageddon election.” Armageddon election! That’s exactly what we have when a presidential candidate speaks glibly about using nuclear weapons.

Want to feel a bit better about holding your nose and voting for Clinton? Here’s some help.

Ezra Klein has an ordinary size human head, but tucked inside is a brain the size of Delaware; he is monstrously smart. His recent Vox article is about Hillary Clinton and her “gap” – the difference between how people who know her feel about her, versus the feelings of those who don’t have first-hand experience. This piece is enlightening and is a must-read, unless you’re dedicated to being frustrated and angry about Clinton. I double-dog dare you to read it.

Libertarian is the New BlackBTW: Everything said here also goes for disaffected Republicans who are thinking of abstaining or voting for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate. Each of those voting options is a vote for Trump. Good Republican friends don’t let their friends do that.

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

YOUR ACTION STEPS: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Salve for the Bern


TortoiseReading time – 77 seconds; Viewing time – 2:37  .  .  .

I know you’re more than disappointed. You’re angry, disturbed, frustrated and wracked with despair. You know what’s wrong and you know what will fix it. You have a vision of how America should be and you want change from the hateful, harmful, even suicidal path we seem to be on. The urgency you feel is real and you want that change to happen right now. And the hope for reform that you invested in Bernie is dashed.

Well, buck up, Bubba, because true and lasting change takes time.

Gershom Gorenberg, writing for Moment Magazine about the disenchantment some have with Israel, has advice that applies to our society, our politics and our hopes that we placed in Bernie:

“I can best define despair in politics as unrealistic pessimism. History gives evidence that dedicated, organized people can bring about political change. The creation of Israel is, in fact, one example. The civil rights movement in America is another. I’m certain there were people who told Martin Luther King, Jr. in Birmingham not merely to move slowly (we’ve all heard about that), but to give up hope: “Look, Reverend, Jim Crow is entrenched policy. America’s promises are a sham. Give it up.” King didn’t. To bring about political change, you need to keep two conflicting recognitions constantly in mind. One is that it’s urgent. It must happen today, because the situation is intolerable. The other is that transformations require a very long march.

“When you despair, you exempt yourself from the slog. Declaring that nothing can be done, you stop asking what you can do. You become an un-indicted co-conspirator in the status quo.”

The hare never wins the race. In the fight for reform, we must be the tortoise. Bernie’s campaign may be over, but the fight for reform goes on. So, one thing we tortoises can do is to vote on November 8 and encourage everyone we encounter to do the same.

Pass this along to other disappointed people youThe work goes on know – they’re feeling let down, too, and need your help to rekindle their flame of hope instead of giving up. That’s what you can do, because giving up is not an option.

Thanks go to Steve Sheffey for the Gorenberg quote.

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

YOUR ACTION STEPS: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Yooge


http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yooge

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yooge

Reading time -122 seconds; Viewing time – 4:04  .  .  .

Now that we’re in the midst of the political conventions and immediately following the Trump narcissist extravaganza, it’s time to do something unusual, to separate from cable blather and give our full attention to reality.

Trump’s 1987 book “The Art of the Deal” was presented as an autobiography by the then-38-year-old Trump. In truth, Tony Schwartz is the ghostwriter who penned every word of it and he has an irreparably guilty conscience now for having done so. His Faustian bargain with Trump and the truth about Trump’s dishonesty are detailed in the July 25, 2016 issue of The New Yorker magazine in a critically important piece by Jane Mayer, author of “Dark Money.” Schwartz tells us that in writing the book, “I put lipstick on a pig.”

You need to read this piece to fully understand:

    1. That Trump really is a sociopath.
    2. That Trump is impulsive and has no attention span.
    3. That, “Lying is second nature to him.” “He lied strategically. He had a complete lack of conscience about it.”
    4. That Trump has no regard whatsoever for the people he falsely claims to champion.
    5. That the only thing Trump wants to make great is his public attention. For Trump, it is not and never has been about America.

On that second point Schwartz says, ” .  .  .  that it’s impossible to keep him focused on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes  .  .  . ” His experience with Trump left him with the clarity that Trump has, ” .  .  .  a stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.” Those are really bad personality flaws for someone who is Commander in Chief of the world’s most powerful military. The job of president requires the ability to learn and understand deep and complex issues and all the implications surrounding them. Says Schwartz, “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”

Regarding Trump’s claim to care about the poor and working people, “In the past seven years, Trump has promised to give millions of dollars to charity, but reporters for the Washington Post found that they could document only ten thousand dollars in donations – and uncovered no direct evidence that Trump made [the promised] charitable contributions from money earned by “The Art of the Deal.”

To illustrate the impact of the last point about public attention, George W. Bush wanted to be seen as a war president. He proceeded to lie us into invading Iraq, which led to ISIS, the Syrian civil war, an unrestrained Iran, terrorist murders around the world and our never-ending Middle-East wars, all because Dubya wanted the public attention and image of war president. And Schwartz tells us, ” .  .  . that Trump seemed driven entirely by a need for public attention.” What do you suppose that sort of personality disorder might mean for our children and grandchildren?

It’s crucial that the American people know and understand the frightening truth about this P.T. Barnum-like charlatan before it’s too late. So send this blog to everyone you know, lefty, centrist or righty, informed or not and tell them to click on the link to Mayer’s article on Schwartz, just as you will. Tell them to read the piece – it’s startling – and then to pass this along to everyone they know. Because this is about reality – actual facts – from the guy who studied Trump like no other and knows the truth about him. We can handle the truth; what we can’t handle is a yooge sociopath in the White House.

So go ahead – do it now before the next hyperbolic news cycle breaks your concentration. And remember – and I mean this literally – we’re all counting on you.

You can watch Tony Schwartz on Bill Maher’s Real Time – RNC Convention Edition here starting at 22:20.

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

YOUR ACTION STEPS: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

A Man for Any Season


Seal_of_the_United_States_National_Security_Agency.svgReading time – 2:31; Viewing time – 3:26  .  .  .

In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001 the people of the United States were in the mood for a few things; chief among them was security. Not long afterward President George W. Bush started the National Security Agency’s warrant-less wiretapping program. Bush’s own Justice Department later reported that it could not certify the legality of that program, a euphemistic way of saying that the program was illegal.

The program had a hard stop date of March 11, 2004 and needed a sign-off by the Attorney General in order for the program to continue under the terms of its original authorization. Shortly before the reauthorization deadline, Attorney General John Ashcroft became quite ill with what was diagnosed as gallstone pancreatitis and doctors had removed his gall bladder. He lay in intensive care, a very sick man.

On the night of March 10, 2004, the night before the reauthorization deadline, White House Counsel Alberto R. GoSeal_of_the_United_States_Department_of_Justice.svgnzales (the same legal counsel who had declared that waterboarding was not torture and was, therefore, legal) and President Bush’s chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr. were on their way to Ashcroft’s intensive care bedside to strong arm him into signing the re-authorization that he had refused to sign prior to becoming ill. Ashcroft’s deputy Attorney General was James Comey, who was acting Attorney General due to Ashcroft’s incapacitation. When Comey learned what was about to happen he rushed to the hospital and prevented the strong arming, while at the same time refusing to sign the re-authorization.

Bush later authorized the illegal surveillance himself and caused it to continue. That was the last straw and Comey and the rest of the top officers in the Attorney General office were prepared to resign en-mass, refusing to be a part of an administration that would subvert the law. Bush then backed off, agreeing to make changes to the program.

400px-US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svgThat is the same James Comey who issued a blistering assessment of the use of private email servers by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and at the same time said that his FBI team found no evidence of criminal intent and recommended that no legal action be taken against Clinton.

This is the same James Comey who stood his ground during the hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, as several Republican members attempted to impugn Comey’s integrity, suggesting political considerations bent his judgment and that he allowed for a double standard of justice, one for the Clintons and another for everyone else.

James Comey

FBI Director James Comey

We now seem to have an overabundance of people focused solely on political advantage for themselves, who want to warp the understanding of events into whatever fantasy serves them and whose spines seem to be a bit too flexible. They don’t care whom they trample or how they crush integrity.

In contrast, how refreshing it is to find a man like Comey who stands up, speaks truth to power, saying, “Not on my watch.”

For full details of the 2004 hospital confrontation, read the Washington Post report here.

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

YOUR ACTION STEPS: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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