Manipulation

Lunatic Losers


POST 1240

 

 

Hey! It makes a great stocking stuffer!

The horrific mass slaughter of people on Bondi Beach in Australia last Sunday happened as the community lighting of a menorah on the first night of Hanukkah began. It’s reported that the father-son duo shooters were/are Muslim fanatics. If so, how ironic, considering Hanukkah commemorates the first documented fight for freedom of religion.* Clearly, had today’s shooters been around at the time of the now celebrated event, they would have been on the wrong side of that fight.

Their guns vomited death on the beach and now fifteen people are dead and about 40 are wounded. The shooters must have had a powerful reason for doing all that killing.

I guess the killers believe that if they rid the world of Jews that their lives would get better. And I’m betting that they believe they were doing God’s work. There really is nothing like religion for producing dead bodies. It’s been that way for a very long time and has always been common lunacy stuff.

But the lives of the haters won’t get better even if all Jews were to suddenly disappear. The haters would still be the same losers they are now. They wouldn’t make more money, they wouldn’t have friends and they still wouldn’t be able to get laid. They would remain the miserable nobodies and no-hope washouts that they are today. Jews aren’t their problem. The hate filled losers themselves are their problem.

The Jewish community remains small – only about 0.2% of the world’s population – but it is strong. Indeed, as Rabbi Rami wrote on Sunday,

.  .  .  despite the deadly pogroms at Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh (October 27, 2018), a kosher grocery in Jersey City (December 10, 2019), El Ghriba Synagogue in Tunisia (May 9, 2023), Neven Yaakov Synagogue in Jerusalem (January 27, 2023), the Nova music festival in Israel (October 7, 2023), and Bondi Beach (December 14, 2025), AM YISRAEL CHAI (“the People Israel lives”) .  .  .

So I say to the violent, hateful ones, whether Muslim, Christian or anything else, that there is no Jewish cabal trying to take over the world, not even from a DC pizza restaurant. Indeed, if Jews wanted to do that there is no way that just 15 million of them could succeed against 8.26 billion non-Jews.

Oh, and money. Sure, you violent, hateful ones believe all the stupid stuff about Jews and money, the idiotic blood libel about matzo and more. That only proves that you are gullible enough to believe any stupidity that some other hate monger spews. That’s world class gullibility.

In other words, lunatic losers, your problem isn’t Jews. It’s you.

And because you’re a killer, at least at heart, you are everyone’s problem. So, while you want Jews to disappear, lots of us want you to disappear. Just go away. Self-deport. Go find your own space away from people who want to live in peace and live without your lunatic threats. Go away, because we don’t want you or your hatred or your violence here.

Just know that when you absent yourself from Jews, you still won’t have more money or friends and you still won’t be able to get laid.

“Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

The No Empathy Loser

Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were murdered a few days ago. Awful, but not surprising in this country where citizens act as though violence solves all problems or that an immediate blast of destructive passion is just the thing for a feel-good  on a quiet Sunday.

That Reiner was a vocal critic of Donald Trump guaranteed that his death would be met not with empathy for the survivors and a call to the country to renounce violence, or a call for us to unify in support of our founding principles and for peace in the valley. None of that happened.

Instead, Trump posted on his social media site, making the issue about himself, casting himself in the role of victim. He said Reiner had TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME and drove people CRAZY,** implying that Reiner had instigated his own death. Read Vaughn Hillyard’s post about this offensive, unworthy, embarrassing and un-presidential post in what should be a moment of grief and caring for a hurting community.

David Corn of Mother Jones in his post, Rob Reiner Was a Menscjh. In Death, He Showed Us Trump’s a Schmuck wrote,

Following the news of the murder of Rob and Michele on his flailing social media platform, Trump issued an ugly rant. He derided Rob and attributed his death “to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” He said Rob had “driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump.”

It was hard to follow Trump’s reasoning. Was he suggesting someone had killed Rob because of his opposition to Trump? Was he saying that Rob’s criticism of Trump had triggered psychosis in his murderer? Was he implying that Rob got what he deserved? All that was clear was that Trump was demonstrating yet again that not an iota of grace or decency exists within his dark soul.

It’s standard fare for Trump to boast erroneously, heap cruelty on defenseless people and stoke chaos. That kind of idiocy and self-focused obsession is just what a narcissistic sociopath does. He’s a lunatic loser. Read this.

_________________________________________________

* Look up The Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE) for more. You can start with this.

** All caps because that’s how Trump wrote it in his deranged social media post.

*** Blast from the past from Trump I:

See *** footnote – and click me

Melania was off to see children locked in cages, having recently been ripped from their mothers’ arms by ICE kidnappers. On her coat was painted, “I REALLY DON’T CARE. DO U?” I don’t know what it was that she really didn’t care about, but the juxtaposition of her wearing that coat as she was off to stare at kids, forlorn and miserable in cages, officially made orphans by our ICE thugs, is breathtaking. Maybe she can lend that trench coat to her husband to use as a cape whenever empathy is called for but, as always, he fails yet again to answer the call.

Because he really doesn’t care.

BTW – Due to Trump’s mania for chaos, Trump’s team of cruelty heapers had dreadful – almost no – record keeping of those separated mothers and children. Of the over 5,500 kids separated from their mothers and in spite of Herculean efforts by the Biden administration to return those kids to their moms, about 1,500 of those kids and mothers still have not been reunited these many years later. Recall that at that time of those kidnappings Trump Nazi Stephen Miller told us that the cruelty was the point. Miller certainly knows how to be cruel. It’s a core Nazi skill.

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

Who Will Lead?


POST 1238

Quote Of The Mid-Week

From Harry Littman’s December 8 post, Trump’s Alternate-Reality Government:

Donald Trump is surely the most prolific and brazen liar ever to occupy the White House. From day one of his first term, when he confabulated wildly about the crowd size at his inauguration, he has fabricated nonsense so promiscuously that people—supporters and antagonists—have just come to assume you can’t trust what he says.

But in the last few weeks, Trump and his Administration seem to have broken through the lying speed of light, emerging into a whole new universe of bullshit.

The “lying speed of light” – gotta love that.

Fascism In Plain Sight

Click me to review the document.*

From What’s the difference between an authoritarian and a fascist? by C. Clark Kissinger, December 4, 2025:

“Mussolini, Hitler, and Trump were all brought to power with reactionary mass movements involving the conscious participation of a significant percentage of the population and with the support of a section of existing power and wealth”

He goes on:

“The Trump/MAGA team believes that only those who stand for ‘traditional American values’ (white supremacy, male supremacy, Christian supremacy, xenophobia, traditional gender roles, and American global dominance) are fit to rule. And they are supported by a cohort of billionaires.”

Who are these people who believe we should be ruled by them and their notions of hateful “traditional American values”? Does MAGA** really mean a hoped for return to feudal times and feudal wars? Does it call for a return to the Dark Ages through an end to vaccinations so that hundreds of millions will die needlessly? After humanity having completed the decades long Herculean task of eliminating smallpox, do we really want to unleash it to visit us again with horrible suffering and death? Same question for polio, hepatitis, measles and more.

Does MAGA really mean we should insist upon the destructive and often homicidal cruelties of the so-called traditional American values listed? Should there be constant violence to establish dominance?

These foot soldiers on the march toward fascism are people who called for “herd immunity” during Covid-19. They tell us that we don’t need vaccines that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. insists give people Covid-19, cause autism and don’t work to protect people from the disease. Good thing he has both a medical degree and the bona fides of a healthcare scientist. Oh wait. He actually has no healthcare or scientific credentials and knows nothing unless he read it in a post by some UFO loony spouting craziness.

You need to be clear that herd immunity means everyone gets exposed to the disease and the few who survive are the rulers of the universe. Are you okay with rolling the terminal illness dice on Aunt Sophie, Mom, Dad, you and your siblings and friends – everyone you care about?

You can read “reactionary mass movements” as our so-called populism, which is actually a minority of the population ginned up by lies coming from hateful talking heads to piss MAGAs off over some real and lots of imaginary offenses. Our “say anything outrageous and offensive on (anti-) social media” is a boon to manipulators, high on their own stash of grievance. They pay no price for lying and now we actually expect our feckless leaders and followers to lie constantly. Witness Pete Hegseth’s meandering lies about his involvement in what is nearly universally seen as murder on the high seas. It’s been called out only by those with the uncommon courage to say what is blatantly obvious. That courage shouldn’t be uncommon.

But the lies give rise to popular piss-off, which keeps the liars in power. That’s a price we pay for limp-wristed journalism using words like “unfortunate” instead of “cowardly;” “questionable accuracy” instead of “pack of lies;” and “uncommitted” instead of “spineless.”

Note in Kissinger’s paragraphs above the references to billionaires and their complicity in government malfeasance. Their caving to power is the most cowering and intentionally myopic of things, as they see some short term riches and blind themselves to an absolutely certain long term powerlessness and they ignore the simple imperative to do the right thing. They are bought for a relative pittance, leading to our collective downfall. Witness: all the organizations that caved to Trump this year over his threats of financial penalty.

Liberals didn’t escape Kissinger’s analysis. He sees so many hiding in the shadows apparently scared of their own backbones.

At the end of the day, they are more frightened by a mass movement to oust Trump than they are by fascism.

Pitiful, if he’s right.

Their fright doesn’t bode well for those of us who think this country should still be of the people, by the people and for the people.

We have to get out of the Trump/MAGA fascism doom loop if we are to save our democracy and protect and defend our Constitution. That’s on us.

And I ask yet again, “Who will lead?”

Profile In Awfulness

That’s the title of yesterday’s The Borowitz Report on Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). He says that Cotton lies, and “His biggest whopper? That he cares about ‘American kids.’” Borowitz then unmasks Cotton’s hypocrisy, completing his post, writing, “Tom Cotton is an embarrassment to Arkansas—and given that the state’s governor is Sarah Huckabee Sanders, that’s saying something.”

The educational value of this short piece is that Cotton is the poster child for all but a few Republicans in Congress. Their cowardliness is as boundless as their denial of obvious reality. If either of your senators or your representative answers that description, they need your unbridled condemnation, because otherwise they won’t just be spineless; they will become spineless fascists.

__________________________________________________

* Trump and his likewise hatred stoked sycophants, his evil flying monkeys, need enemies in order to make their message seem powerful to followers. They focus on “others” and everyone and everything that is against their tyranny,

Antifa is just that: it’s anti-fascism. What the hateful manipulators don’t tell you is that there is no antifa organization. It’s just a term for those of us who believe in and want democracy, not tyrannical fascism.

** MAGA: “Malignant And Global Agony”

es
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The Fine Print:

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


POST 1209

First, a Feel-Good

Things are changing. People are standing up and speaking out. Not just the usual suspects, but even Republicans and MAGAs. Even some high profile types are finding their way out of “nice” and are on the attack (at last!). Trump has so outrageously overplayed his hand that we’ve had some electoral wins and a beginning of the possibility of ripping our country out of the treasonous clutches of the fascists. So, what will we do when the good guys are back in charge? It starts with a re-set.

Rick Wilson put some thought to that and wrote a bill to be introduced in Congress on January 20, 2029 or, perhaps, on January 3, 2027. Read his Restoration of America Governance Act, designed to undo much of Trump’s lawless and unconstitutional actions. It’s a short and good read.

Now, Ugly Stuff
  1. Heather Honey is the election conspiracy theorist liar who claimed that in the 2020 not-stolen election that in Pennsylvania there were 205,000 more votes than voters. Baseless idiocy. She’s all about preventing people from voting and now Trump has named her to a new “election integrity” post at DHS. What could possibly go wrong?
  2. From Democracy Docket: “On a recent episode of his podcast, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon made a chilling prediction: ICE agents will be stationed near polling places for the 2026 midterm elections.” Last election they made it illegal to bring water to people waiting to vote in long lines on hot days. Thugocracy.
  3. Louisiana told the justices of the Supreme Court that it will no longer defend the court-ordered map that added a second majority-Black congressional district. Instead, the state argued that any use of race in redistricting is unconstitutional. Yes, really.
  4. In a separate case, Alabama asked SCOTUS to strike down a lower court ruling requiring it to draw another majority-Black congressional district.

Points 3 & 4 are noteworthy for one reason. The GOP in most red states have worked tirelessly for decades to prevent non-Whites from voting, from purging voter registration roles using cruel racist schemes, to closing nearby polling places, to eliminating ballot drop boxes, to their wildly discriminating voter ID laws and more. Now they’re objecting to rulings that favor fair representation for non-Whites on the basis of racial discrimination! Their hypocrisy has no bottom.

    5. From this “Treason” post detailing Trump’s attack on Nicolle Wallace:

Since returning to power, Donald Trump has unleashed a coordinated assault on the free press unlike anything in American history. He’s personally attacked journalists he wants removed; he’s revived his “enemy of the people” designation against the Constitution’s only protected profession; he’s sued major outlets for coverage he deems unflattering; he’s threatened to revoke broadcast licenses of outlets who don’t cater to his preferences; he’s weaponized the FCC and effectively installed a personal “bias monitor” to oversee CBS News; he’s hijacked Voice of America and turned it into a pro-Trump global news outlet; he’s de-funded organizations like NPR and PBS; he’s changed long-standing Justice Department policies to make it easier to monitor journalists, to seize their records, and to search their homes; and more.

And that’s just about his attacks on one part of the First Amendment.

I’m a political news junkie, so I don’t expect anyone to be as focused on this stuff as I commonly am, but I found myself doing something that, on reflection, is frightening.

I was doing some chores in the kitchen with the TV on CNN. They covered the embarrassingly fawning Cabinet meeting, with seemingly otherwise functional (if unqualified) adults not reporting on their departments, but instead spewing cringe-worthy adulation onto Trump. CNN’s next topic was reporting on Trump’s threats to send our military into Chicago and reflexively I clicked off the TV. I bailed. I dropped out. Couldn’t stomach the river of bile. But if this political junkie dropped out, likely, that means that huge numbers of people won’t pay attention to what is happening to our country. That’s really dangerous.

I’ve dropped back in. We all need to be in.

Next, Bang Bang!

First, let’s recognize that our pathological president is working his hardest to negate everything Obama and Biden accomplished, including the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. However insufficient, that was the first major gun safety legislation passed by Congress in nearly 30 years.

Next, much as it’s so painful to see the reality, let’s recognize the brutality of the murders and wounding of little kids at the Annunciation Catholic Church School in Minneapolis last week.

Now I want you to imagine you’re the mom in the photo to the right, running in near panic for her children. She didn’t even put on her shoes. She just ran. You would, too.

Take a moment to feel her panic, her dread, her terror. That is the reality of every mass shooting, especially when it involves children.

Recognize that Trump wants to make it easier for hate-filled terrorists to get guns, assault rifles, large capacity magazines, bump stocks and more. Trump wants to do nothing to prevent the horror that has overcome that woman or anyone. His actions steadfastly declare that he doesn’t care how many little kids are ripped apart by bullets fired by a hatred filled terrorist.

Last, Some Hopeful Stuff

Chicago Mayor Brandon Jackson stood strong yesterday, calling Trump’s invasion of Chicago exactly what it is. He signed the Protecting Chicago Initiative executive order. It does many things including protecting the people from federal overreach and declaring that the CPD won’t collaborate with Trump’s Gestapo. Jackson joins governors Newsome, Pritzker, Moore, Walz and others standing against and speaking out VERY LOUDLY against Trump’s violations of our Constitution and the militarization of our country. Listen to Mayor Jackson’s powerful presentation here.

You know lots of the reasons why we have to do whatever it takes to defeat Trump, his sycophants, his cowardly, hypocritical legislators, his lying, extremist administration officials, his ICE Gestapo, his education destroyers, his know nothings undermining our healthcare and all of science – all of those who seek to destroy our values. We need to see Rick Wilson’s  Restoration of America Governance Act become real.

And we can do that.

The Deconstructing Trump Corner
.
  • Whoever is careless with truth in small matters
  • cannot be trusted in important affairs
  • Albert Einstein, 1979
  • The truth does not change
  • according to our ability
  • to stomach it emotionally.
  • Flannery O’Connor
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    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Big Brother At Our Doorstep


POST 1191

The Swinders

Do you remember Peter Thiel – the billionaire PayPal and FaceBook guy? More significantly, maybe you remember him from his being JD Vance’s sugar daddy, giving that loser a fund manager position and then bankrolling Vance into the Senate. Thiel’s support culminated in Vance white washing all the trash talking he did of Trump (remember his Hitler comparisons when he was a “never Trumper”?) and getting the VP job by means of Thiel’s hand on his butt shoving him there.

Elon Musk and his juvenile delinquent flying monkeys stole our personal data from Social Security and other agencies. They sucked up all of your information – bank accounts, debts – everything – and dumped it in the lap of – guess who? – Peter Thiel and his AI company. I suspect that Musk kept copies for himself. This is true Big Brother intrusion into our lives and there is likely nothing any of us can do about that invasion of our privacy.

Of course, you smelled a rat when Musk was claiming to be fighting waste, fraud and abuse but he never found any waste, fraud or abuse. He promised to save us $2 trillion but actually barely broke even in his rampage of destruction. The rat you smelled was the theft of all of our information and its transfer to Thiel. It was for the benefit of Trump, Musk, Thiel, rich, greedy guys and lovers of dictatorship. That is the real reason for DOGE. Just like the Republican Big Barfy Betrayal Bill, it’s about sending your money to rich people and corporations.

You’ve been swindled by these thieves who invite Big Brother into our house.

This robber baron horror story is spelled out in Robert Reich’s piece, The Most Dangerous Corporation in the World.

Health Beat

From STAT:

79%

That’s the proportion of U.S. adults who say parents should be required to vaccinate their kids against preventa[ble] diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella in order to attend school, according to a new, nationally representative poll from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation.

You say you don’t want your kids to be vaccinated against these highly contagious diseases, as well as polio and smallpox? Fine. Just move to an unpopulated offshore island and never set foot on this continent again so that your family cannot infect the rest of us, cause a pandemic and make many people die.

While that offshore island cure for anti-vaxxers is, perhaps, extreme, 4 out of 5 adults in this country, including 68% of Republicans, pretty much agree about vaccinating our children. The question is why Secretary “Brain Worm” Kennedy doesn’t get it. Oh right: he has a brain worm.

And he’s a member of the DKS* wing of the Big Brother clan of cruelty.

Bombing Update

From Steve Schmidt, Headed Back To 2003 (when Dubya lied us into war in Iraq):

“CNN is scum, MSNBC is scum, the New York Times is scum. They’re bad people, they’re sick.”

— Donald Trump, June 25, 2025

Donald Trump’s Iran attack was a failure.

The Iranian nuclear program was not destroyed.

Here is what happened.

The United States used more than half of its bunker-busting arsenal of GBU-57s to obliterate a mountain top, and Little Marco, Champagne Pete, and JD Vance got to appear in a prime time episode of national disaster television behind a demented old man filled with malice, delusions and venom.

Here is what was achieved.

Nothing — except for making the Iranian regime more dangerous.

  • That is what a diabolical Big Brother does and that puts us all at risk.
Why Is All This Happening?

From Robert Reich:

.  .  .  Republicans, who hold majorities in both chambers of Congress, won’t defend their constitutional prerogatives. America is becoming a dictatorship because there are not even 4 Republican senators out of 53, nor 3 Republican representatives out of 220, with enough courage and integrity to stand up for Congress’s constitutional responsibilities.

That is a major piece of how Big Brother has come to be at our doorstep. That is why all this is happening.
.
Hope

Late last Sunday afternoon a huge thunderstorm rolled through our area. I sat on my front porch and enjoyed the show, the distant crashes of thunder, the torrents of rain overwhelming the roof gutters and splashing onto the ground, the rivers flowing fast in the street – it was glorious.

Then almost suddenly the rain slowed and bright sunshine bathed the area, sparkling off the drops on the leaves of the trees.

Wait: rain and sunshine – there had to be a rainbow somewhere.

I got up from my comfortable chair on the porch and went out into the street, turned my back to the sun and right there, low in the sky was the rainbow, just as they always are when the sun shines through rain.

We are living in a time of dread over all the harm and cruelty and the breaking of our laws, our customs and our hearts. Many people – perhaps you – feel a profound sense of hopelessness. Well, here’s something for you.

There is no executive order to arrest and deport rainbows. No bunker buster bomb can obliterate them and there is no tariff to pay to enjoy them.

The laws of physics haven’t been repealed. Light still refracts through raindrops. The science teachers who told us about that are still here and firm in their knowledge, even in the face of our science deniers and book banners/burners.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Science still works. It’s like bedrock. It stands ready and able to support us. Much as the greedy, power hungry thieves want to shake our bedrock, we can stop them from upsetting our country. Our beliefs, our values and our spirit stand strong.

So get off the porch and into the street. You did it on NO KINGS DAY. There still are rainbows right here in America.

______________________________________

  • * DKS – adjective: “Don’ Know Shit”
  • ** AI Overview from Google:

    The little girl featured in the 1964 “Daisy” ad was Monique M. Luiz (born Monique Corzilius). The ad, officially titled “Peace, Little Girl,” was part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 presidential campaign. At the time of filming, Monique was only three years old, according to the Library of Congress. 

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Who Benefits?


POST 1178

Last Wednesday I showed you that “repugnant, organizationally illiterate, DUI Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has announced that he is firing 20% of our flag officers [generals and admirals]” and that he “plans to eliminate legacy weapons and equipment programs.” I asked a critical question:

Who will benefit from us hobbling our national defense?
.

There are more areas to which to apply the “Who Benefits?” question..

Trump cut military aid and satellite surveillance capability from Ukraine. Then, having eliminated all motivation for Putin to negotiate to end the war in Ukraine, he invited Putin to a 30-day ceasefire, which Putin rejected, of course.

Same question again: Who benefits from our double-dealing?
.

Scott Galloway wrote in his post Brain Drain how we have massively cut our support and promotion of science, research and the things that have made us healthy, prosperous, safe and the go-to place for the best and the brightest in the world. Now those brilliant and creative people are either avoiding the U.S. entirely or are accepting schooling and R&D opportunities in other countries. And it isn’t just foreign born smart people who are abandoning us. It’s America’s best and brightest, too.

Trump’s self-defeating wounds are massively stupid actions that will crush the momentum of 80 years of our investments in growth and innovation. They will set us behind many other countries.

Same question: Who will benefit from our knee capping ourselves like that?
.

More in this line from STAT:

The city of Milwaukee was in the middle of a public health crisis when the Trump administration abruptly laid off 10,000 federal health workers last month. A lead crisis, to be exact: Late last year, a student had a concerning blood test, and the source turned out to be their school. The city took on the case, but investigating more than 100 schools is much more complicated than the typical exposure that occurs inside one family’s home. The local team would often turn to CDC scientists for both strategic planning and step-by-step guidance. Then the layoffs occurred, and all of those federal scientists were gone.

Who benefits from our government abandoning our health and safety needs?
.

Hint: It isn’t the lead poisoned children in Milwaukee – or those in any other place.

Trump imposed his brain-free tariffs with the precision of a car crushing machine and already our economy has been harmed, our supply chain is missing links, prices are on the rise, shelves at Walmart will be empty in not much more than a month and most of our former friends are avoiding us and looking for other partnerships.

Same question yet again: Who will benefit from our bad will, our forcing a trade war on the world and our abandoning our friends and allies?
.

I could go on with many more examples. The point is that Trump and his greedy billionaire power grabbing dictator wannabes and his lying, traitorous ideological sycophants are doing everything they can to destroy our strength, our leadership, our good will and our freedom.

Who will benefit from our self-destruction?
.

Here’s another question, one that you won’t like if you aren’t speaking out against these attacks on our country. It’s the one that our children and grandchildren will be asking you and me in the years to come, as the ashes from our self-immolation rain down on them.

What did you do to prevent this catastrophe?
.
One More Category

Trump is offered and may receive a “gift” of a $400 million airplane.

Get serious: Nobody gives $400 million like this and expects nothing in return. It is not a gift. It is a quid with an as yet unnamed pro quo. What do the Qataris want?

This “gift,” if retrofitted to the performance, communications and security measures required for it to be used as Air Force 1, will cost we taxpayers between $600 – 900 million.

Plus, Trump has bullied our military into giving him his narcissistic “big, beautiful” military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. It will include 6,000 troops, 50 fighter jets and bombers and 150 military vehicles, including tanks that will destroy the pavement. It will cost you and me at least $45 million dollars. That doesn’t count the cost to restore Pennsylvania Avenue.

Obviously, there is no need to ask who benefits from these “mine’s bigger than yours” over-indulgences. Makes me wonder if there are limits to infantile behavior. Scratch that. Obviously, there isn’t.

Li’l Fun – Just To Lighten Up A Bit

This is to the tune of Harry Belafonte’s version of Matilda. Here it is karaoke style so you can sing along.

               Orange Trumpy
  • 1.
  • He say dey Argentina gang bangs.
  • Got no evidence of such t’ings.
  • Orange Trumpy, de courts do slap down, he jus’ ain’ no big king.
  • Everybody!
  • .
  • Chorus
  • Orange Trumpy (grifting with the crypto)
  • Orange Trumpy (trade apocalypto)
  • Orange Trumpy he take de money and run Mar-a-Lago.
  • 2.
  • He say we subsidize Canada.
  • Dumped a tariff on ’em, uh-huh.
  • Dey fight back and send de message to Trump, “Go screw ya.”
  • 3.
  • Walmart say de prices get big.
  • Tariffs make sick economy pig.
  • Moody’s does downgrade of U.S., is no longer safe gig.
  • 4.
  • Orange Trumpy say he don’ really know
  • If defend Constitution’s his show.
  • Orange Trumpy ignore court orders and kidnap your neighbor.
  • 5.
  • Orange Trumpy don’ care none ’bout your health
  • Just as long as he increase his wealth.
  • He say Granny jus’ go die and let cancer kill kids.
  • 6.
  • He say burn books that ain’t enough White.
  • Fire librarians just out of spite.
  • Orange Trumpy, he can’t read nothin’ and wants you be dumb, too.
  • 7.
  • Orange Trumpy sell dinner access, is plain,
  • Billionaires try to get in his brain.
  • But Orange Trumpy, dementia makes him don’ know nuthin’ no more.
  • Everybody!
  • .
  • Chorus 2
  • Orange Trumpy, sucking cash and airplanes.
  • Orange Trumpy, griftin’ wid just half brain.
  • Orange Trumpy, he take de money and run Mar-a-Lago.
  • Finally, The Scantron Crisis
  • Donald Trump has decreed that little girls may have only 2 dolls and 5 pencils (Merry Christmas!). Got me to wondering if pencils are still used in schools. Turns out they are, primarily for Scantron answer sheets.
  • But what’s a kid to do while taking her 5th grade math test, Mr. Pencil President, when her pencil points break or they aren’t sharp enough? Can you negotiate a deal for her? Your daddy got you test score deals at The Wharton School, right?
Countdown to November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

The Lede


POST 1173

Here’s the Lede

Our Constitution’s Peril Is Not Now Nor Was It Ever About Trump.

America’s real enemy is the fascists – call them ultra-fat cats or oligarchs if you prefer. They are the home grown terrorists, the diabolical evil ones, working for over 40 years to steal our country away from us.
.

Trump is the front man, the warm-up act, the circus sideshow barker, the Distractor-in-Chief. Trump is just a tool for the fascists.

The extremists are directing Trump to cripple our government, our markets, our international relationships, our leadership of the free world and the maintenance of our values that have protected peace and international relations for 80 years. Tens of thousands of our people who make the trains run on time, who find cures for killer diseases and who protect us from unsafe food have been fired, leaving nobody to stand guard. They have kicked aside all who used to be our allies and snuggled up with bad guy dictators.

Now, in plain violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, the Trump administration has militarized our southern border from New Mexico to California, making it legal for our military to detain, arrest and imprison migrants and even our native born citizens, the ones guaranteed citizenship by the 14th Amendment. It’s essentially making the U.S. Army into a Gestapo. All the Constitutional protections and our laws shielding us from overreaching, crushing governmental power are being shredded by this cruel administration of extremists.* No Americans intentionally voted for these calamities.

“I don’t want everyone to vote.” “As a matter of fact, our [Republican] leverage in the elections quite candidly, goes up as the voting populace goes down.” Paul Weyrich, co-founder of The Heritage Foundation and proud proponent of voting suppression.

You can find the plan for the ruination of America in the Project 2025 handbook, painstakingly crafted by anti-American geniuses over the course of decades. They are a very talented cabal of megalomaniacs, people inspired to treachery by the likes of Paul Weyrich (link through and watch the 40 second clip). He’s the guy who told us plainly that he didn’t want all Americans to vote – only the ones who would vote his way – Republican. His political descendants are stationed all about our country now, constantly creating voter suppression everywhere. This diabolical plan was designed specifically for the destruction of your values and your freedom.**

Trump has claimed that he knows nothing about Project 2025. Given that he is reputed to be incapable of reading anything that doesn’t have pictures and that the document is 922 pages long, he probably has not read it. But he is being fed instructions from it by the billionaire fat cats and manipulators who wrote it, the people who want to rule the world, who think they are entitled to steal your power and your rights.

Trump cannot even spell “strategy” or “plan.” Creating such things is far beyond his abilities. But he is the very best at several things:

  1. Getting attention, promoting himself, grabbing the focus by being outrageous and thereby distracting you from his wrongdoing
  2. Demonizing opponents
  3. Lying instantaneously, making stuff up, like claiming that the price of eggs is down 92% – whatever fantasy or lie suits his purpose in the moment
  4. Never admitting mistakes and never backing down, even to the point of absurdity

The billionaires and the sneaky pols crafted this Project 2025 plan for domination and they have the perfect shill for their task: Donald Trump, their useful idiot. When their absolute power is firmly established, they will discard him like leftover fish gone bad.

That is the plan behind the seemingly self-destructive stuff of the past 100 days. The destruction makes perfect sense in the context of the grandest larceny ever committed.

If the fat cat dictator wannabes get their way, the complete loss of your freedom will be the result.

Once More: Here’s the Lede
.

Our Constitution’s Peril Is Not Now Nor Was It Ever About Trump

America’s real enemy is the fascists – call them ultra-fat cats or oligarchs if you prefer. They are the home grown terrorists, the diabolical evil ones, working for over 40 years to steal our country away from us.
.
Action

You know what to do to fight this. Here it is spelled out for you by Adam Kinzinger’s Country First in just 1 minute, 38 seconds.

And listen to Gov. Tim Walz’s State of the State address on April 23 (start at 2:17, unless you want to listen to the complete list of attendees).

Perhaps you’re both discouraged over the spinelessness and hypocrisy of Republicans and dismayed over the apparent lack of strength and direction – the wimpiness – of Democrats. Walz has clarity about all that and you need to hear it now. The only disappointment in watching this presentation is seeing the Minnesota Republican legislators refusing to applaud, even when Walz announced things that everyone likes, like that crime is down. That brain-free, hyper-partisan behavior is part of the Project 2025 scheme.

There was a time in America when Democrats stood tall for We The People, when they were bold in demanding fairness and they continuously banged the drum of decency for and from everyone. But their strength has been diluted into watery pablum and they insist upon refusing to come together for what they all know is right. They’ve made themselves into a force that can be knocked down by a simple tap on the forehead.

There was a time in America when Republicans were the big flag wavers, the most muscular defenders of liberty, the thumpiest of Constitution thumpers. They had the courage to stand strong against what was un-American. But those people are long gone, replaced by others who cannot even recognize an elephant. No matter how much lipstick you use and regardless of how you dress up today’s Republican pig, it’s still a pig.

America’s real enemy is the fascist terrorist thieves and those Americans too chicken to stand up to them.

____________________________________________

* Long time friend Jim Nathan is the co-founder of Floridians for Democracy, an organization dedicated to protection of our democracy. Read his clear message about the destruction of rights and the norms you count on here.

** Read David A. Graham’s The Project 2025 Presidency in The Atlantic.

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Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


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

The Constitution Train


POST 1172

First Stop: Your First Amendment

What if that foundational list of 5 protections were vanished by the flick of a Sharpie? What if a morally compromised, legally powerful Trump toady took aim at you and hauled you into court for not being nice enough to Trump? Or for voicing a contrary opinion? Or for walking the streets wearing a tattoo? Or for writing a book – any book – that Trump doesn’t like? Or for gathering with others in peaceful protest? Or for you having come from another country and not being sufficiently White? Or just because Trump doesn’t like you?

This is not hyperbole, nor is it fantasy. The undermining of our First Amendment protections – guarantees, really – is happening every day in America.

Your first stop on the The Constitution Train is Michael Cohen’s post, Democracy Dies With the First Amendment.

Second Stop: The North Carolina Canary

North Carolina has a proud hypocritical history of using law and the state constitution to undermine democracy and steal people’s rights. The case in question is special in the same way that Kari Lake refuses to honor the will of the voters in Arizona is special. Everything is, of course, all about her. In these cases they are trying to change the rules of the game after the game is over by suppressing the votes of a targeted group in much the same way as in Bush v. Gore.

There was an election last November for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court contested by sitting Justice Allison Riggs and Court of Appeals judge Jefferson Griffin. Riggs won by a very slim margin and that should have been that, but, of course, it wasn’t – not in this age of alternative realities, dishonest manipulation and the happy theft of people’s rights. Griffin refused to concede and instead challenged about 60,000 votes in mainly Democrat voting areas. Funny how he didn’t challenge votes in mainly Republican areas.

There was a recount. Then there was another recount. Griffin lost all three times.

Now the contest is down to his challenging 1,700 military and overseas ballots for no justifiable reason. In fact, he wants to apply new requirements for voting – after the election! – in order to invalidate the 1,700. He only wants to invalidate enough votes to take that seat on the Supreme Court and dispense MAGA non-justice in a proud un-American destruction of our democracy,

It’s been 178 days – six months – since the election and it still isn’t settled because of Griffin’s post hoc attempted manipulations.

There are loser candidates like them all around our country – all Republicans – claiming stolen elections and doing everything they can, legal or illegal, to disenfranchise voters, to steal freedom and rights from voters. In other words, Riggs’ fight is your fight, because the MAGA thieves are planning to take away your Constitutional right to vote, too. That’s why North Carolina is the canary in a democracy mine.

Curiosity: Is Jefferson Griffin named for the treasonous president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis? Just wondering.

Third Stop: From STAT, April 22:

The Trump administration is stepping up its efforts to wield the federal government’s scientific purse strings as leverage in a broader policy war . . . the National Institutes of Health will soon prohibit new grants from being awarded to institutions that . . .  maintain programs dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The news follows the cancellation of numerous grants and funding opportunities targeted toward researchers of historically marginalized backgrounds, as well billions of dollars in research grants previously awarded to Ivy League schools including Harvard and Columbia.

This is what happens when political schemes and agendas dominate healthcare. It’s like brainlessly and without any evidence declaring vaccines do harm and don’t work or making galacticly stupid claims about autism, like curing it by June. Stupid stuff. Just put a sensationalist moron in charge and watch people die, like those Texas kids who died from measles.

Fourth Stop: Remedies

From Thom Hartmann on April 21:

Senator [Chris] Murphy’s warning carries particular weight: “I still believe we can stop [the Trump madness],” he says. His prescription includes institutional solidarity, mass mobilization, and political courage. These steps aren’t just wishful thinking: history shows they work when deployed with determination.

Definitions:

Institutional integrity – think: law firms joining in a mutual protection pact – same with universities,

Mass mobilization – that’s us taking to the streets and supporting the righteous ones battling those who are working to destroy our democracy,.

Political Courage – that’s legislators like Chris Murphy, AOC, Bernie, Cory Booker, Seth Moulton, Eric Swalwell, Jasmine Crockett, Elizabeth Warren and more. It’s our job to have their backs.

Fifth Stop: The Plan*

From MeidasTouch, April 22:

. . . yesterday I interviewed former President Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who shared with me his thoughts on Trump’s failures.

Jake’s take—and I agree—is that Trump and his regime don’t ever have a plan.

They wake up each day with the sole goal of winning the news cycle, with no long-term plan or even a plan at all about winning on the issue. It’s about rage-baiting and getting attention.

Recall that this is a president who hosted a fake, fixed “reality” TV show as though it was actual reality. He’s a master only of rage-baiting and getting attention. He has no plan beyond the current moment of “Look at me!”

Okay, he does have a plan: to be King Donald, a supplicant of Vladimir Putin.

Last Stop: Pray It Isn’t The End Of The Line

Last week we learned of yet more national security failures by our incompetent, TUI (“Texting Under the Influence”) hire, SecDef Pete Hegseth.

If an employee of Kentucky Fried Chicken were to leak their secret fried chicken formula, that person would immediately be fired. What Hegseth does is far more consequential, in that he compromises our national security by leaking confidential information – top secret information – with people who do not even have a security clearance. He does so over an insecure medium where adversaries can pick it up easily.

And he still has his job. Your KFC is secure, but your nation is not. Sleep well, knowing that Pete Hegseth is standing guard.

All Along The Track: The Cruelty Is The Point

To put all this and more into clear perspective, you must watch Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles interview with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE). As you listen to his factual account of what is actually happening to our people and to our country, compare what you hear to your own values and to your notion of the America you believe in. Think about what the cruelty is leading us to.

Example: Encouraged by our violence and cruelty inciting president, there was a new record of antisemitic acts in 2024, with one happening every hour, 24/7, 365. We’re number 1. Thanks, Mr. President.

________________________________________

*  See my post this Wednesday, April 30 for an explanation of what the bad guys are planning for us.

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

Click me

JA


Freedom And The Call


POST 1157

NEW!

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

@jaxpolitix.bsky.social
Executive Summary


> What do you suppose we’re missing?

> Freedom: Who’s getting more and who’s getting less?

MISSING

Click me – first see Note #4 below

I just finished reading Kenneth D. Evans’ book MISSING. It’s the story of his father, Donald Evans, during WW II, both as a fighter pilot and as a horribly abused POW held by the Germans for over a year.

He and our millions of European theater troops were returned to America after V-E Day. They rode on Liberty ships, the very slow transports that had been used to bring food, ammunition, fuel and more to war-torn Europe for years.

Donald Evans wrote in his notebook:

“My heart swelled with pride and gratitude when we came into view of the Statue of Liberty. I feel so grateful for the freedoms that I fought for. I can’t describe how wonderful it felt to finally step back on American soil. For me – the war is finally over.” – page 446

Liberty Ship SS John W. Brown – click me

Evans’ story is, at least in part, that of 16 million Americans during those terrifying days of combat, the soul crushing ordeals and then at last the blessing of coming home. Surely, all those boys felt what Donald Evans felt upon seeing the Statue of Liberty and at long last planting their boots on our ground. They knew what they had done and why they had done it. We today are the lucky ones living in the freedoms secured for us by their sacrifice and courage.

I fear that such pride and gratitude as that of Evans and his fellows-in-arms may largely be things of the past, as we’ve made draft dodger Bone Spurs our president and integrity and courage have been supplanted by today’s spineless hypocrisy and rank cowardice. We’ve celebrated cruelty at least as far back as George W. Bush’s torturing of prisoners. Now our officials sneakily pledge loyalty not to our Constitution, but to a man who lies to us at least 8,750 times per year (that’s a lie every 59 seconds for 4 years), who enacts retribution on those who oppose him and who grifts constantly. You can now buy a dinner with Trump for a million dollars. Choke on that.

Many of our citizens apparently believe that making death threats to fellow Americans is a patriotic act. Our nation’s leaders being obsequious to dictators and abandoning our friends are now reasons for self-congratulation and chest puffing.

So, some seem to think, are abandoning our vets, letting our poor children starve and abandoning the sick and malnourished everywhere, even as meds are cheap and food rots in warehouses. So is cutting support for the education of our children, for protecting our nuclear stockpiles and for abandoning protection for our kids from paralysis from polio and death from measles. Apparently, all that and more is now patriotic and we are at liberty to enjoy those “freedoms.”

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times labeled what’s going on as, “the deconstruction of a once-great superpower.” And it’s happening in plain sight.

What do you suppose Donald Evans and his buddies, the guys who risked their lives, some of whom lost their lives, protecting the promise of America would say to all that? Let’s take that question one step further.

What do you suppose our hollow performative, chest thumping, flag waving extremists and our jellyfish legislators would risk their lives for? Would they man a post just 1/4 mile from the front line, sail into battle in the belly of a warship, fly a warplane with missiles being fired at it, risk torture and death solely for the promise of America?

Said a different way, what is it that so many Americans are MISSING?

Freedom

Click me – first see Note #4 below

From the introduction of history Prof. Timothy Snyder’s book On Freedom:

Traditionally, some people have regarded themselves as free because they exploit the labor of slaves and women. Those who believe themselves free because they dominate others define freedom negatively, as the absence of government, because only a government could emancipate the slaves or enfranchise women.

We no longer have slavery in this country and women have incrementally gained most – but amazingly, not all – citizenship rights, but that doesn’t mean that domination has been eradicated.

Donald Trump and his co-president Elon Musk are on an illegal rampage of domination and destruction of our government, unchecked by Congress, on the promise of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. That name sells well to the American people, but the fact is that they chainsawed their way to mindlessly harming our public servants and accomplishing almost nothing positive. They are finding essentially no waste, fraud or abuse. They have claimed benefit to our country in the hundreds of billions of dollars, only to have it revealed that either there were no actual savings or that the amounts have been exaggerated by a factor of 1,000 or more.

A reasonable deduction is that their efforts are fraudulently labeled and that what they are doing has nothing to do with saving tax dollars. Pair that with Trump’s tantrum about Congress having ordered the hiring of 82,000 new IRS agents to catch tax cheats and bring money into the federal till, and you can see that none of this has anything to do with waste, fraud and abuse. It has to do with destroying government – the “deep state.”

What that has to do with freedom is that crippling our health related functions makes sure that you won’t be free from the next pandemic, that your children won’t be free from measles, polio or smallpox. You won’t be free from financial institutions ripping you off, nor will you be free from nuclear disaster or from grave danger on a commercial airplane flight. And this story gets worse.

What our markets (Dow, S&P, etc.) hate more than anything is uncertainty, like on-again, off-again tariffs. After that comes anything that will negatively affect corporate profitability, like tariffs.

The Dow has dropped nearly 2,000 points since Trump first announced tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. What that means is that the prices of various stocks have gone way down, allowing billionaires, our oligarchs, to swoop in and buy those companies on the cheap. Later, the market will recover, stock prices will be back up and the rich guys will have made a killing. You’re not free to do that because you don’t have billions of dollars to invest.

That scheme will further concentrate American wealth in the wallets of the same 1% that has dominated us for so long. That sounds like a lot of freedom for rich guys, but not much for you and me.

The destruction of our government and the manipulation of our markets for the benefit of rich guys is exactly what Trump told us he would do. Those promises, those chickens, have come home to roost (bringing no eggs). We are all poorer and less free.

All of this grift and fraud is about Trump stealing our country from us.
.
Back To What We’re MISSING

Here it is in quiz form:

Q: What do you suppose those guys, standing at the rail of a Liberty ship sailing past the Statue of Liberty into New York Harbor would say to all this Trump fraud, theft and destruction?

A: They’d say that what Trump is doing is everything they went to war to fight against, what they risked their lives for and what thousands of their buddies died for.

Make no mistake: This is personal, because those guys included your father, grandfather or your great-grandfather. We dishonor all of them if we fail to answer the call of duty to our country today to restore our values and our republic.

Thanks FL for this.

REBEL!

Coming Wednesday: Ukraine Dream Sequence 2 – What we wish had happened.

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.

Extortion, Ugly Americans and Gaza


POST 1155

Executive Summary

> Musk failed. He’s expelled.

> Once an extortionist, always an extortionist

> Giving credit where it’s due: DOGE excels at idiotic claims and vile cruelty.

> It used to be “makers and takers.” Now it’s “Trumpys and parasites.”

> Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas were repatriated to Israel last week – in boxes.

Musk Update

Elon Musk failed to email his declaration of 5 things he did last week, as required by the demand email set forth in this space on February 26. Accordingly, he is immediately fired from his non-job. He will have 15 minutes to remove his personal items from his office and until noon tomorrow, Monday, March 3 to leave this country permanently.

The Extortionist

In 2019 Trump got caught trying to extort President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, demanding an announcement from Zelenskyy claiming he was investigating wrongdoing by Hunter Biden in Ukraine. Trump hoped that would kneecap Joe Biden in the upcoming election. Appropriately, Trump’s attempted extortion got him impeached.

Ukraine continues to be in need of military aid and Trump is making that aid contingent upon Ukraine giving away half of its rare earth mineral wealth and caving in to Putin’s Russia.

It’s yet another Trump extortion. To be fair, it’s actually a protection racket. You can almost hear Trump saying to Zelenskyy, “You’ve got a nice little country. It would be a shame if anything happened to it.”

The Lowest god

Surely, the Trump/Vance ambush  of President Zelenskyy served to puff up Trump’s extremist bro-bros. It served to buoy Putin’s ambitions to restore the Soviet Union through grabs of entire countries. And it served to display the reality that everything associated with Trump is solely about money and fame/power. But all that Trumpian worthlessness misses the point.

From Norm Eisen, The Contrarian, March 1:

Trump and Vance in one fell swoop managed to embolden our adversaries (not just Russia) and alienate our staunch European allies.

As Trump and hillbilly Vance vomited their playground bully stupidities, believing that they were humiliating President Zelenskyy, they were, in fact, humiliating themselves. They are too vain and clueless to understand that, but that misses the point anyway. They were humiliating the United States of America before the world. That’s the point.

We all understand that their Mafia don behavior in public will be enthusiastically applauded by right wing extremists (MAGA swagger for the insecure) and by spineless Republicans. But it will serve as a warning to our allies that the United States is no longer the leader of the free world and cannot be counted on as an ally. It will show Putin and Xi that we are nothing more than a grovelling paper tiger that can be manipulated by a single complementing breath and a pat on Trump’s comb-over.

Apparently, Trump’s art of the deal is nothing more than crude extortion and humiliation. Trump fancies himself king and a god. Perhaps he is right. But he is solely a god of self-humiliation

Trumpy Americans

They are the ones who support Trump and his pet raptor, the co-president of Smash and Grab. Just like Trump, Musk is severely challenged to stay within sight of truth, reality and decency. Look at this tweet from him →

Let’s unpack that.

First, there isn’t 90% of Americans loving DOGE; it’s around 50% and falling. That is like the oops of Musk conflating millions into claims of billions when he reports government savings through his ready, fire, don’t-bother-to-aim shotgun firings.

Musk gets such things wrong because:

A. He just likes the sound of “billions” the way some people like the sound of their own voice.

B. His love of ignorance and fantasy far outweighs his experience with truth and reality.

C. He’s going to Mars anyway, so why should he sweat the small stuff that doesn’t hurt him?

D. He’s been far too busy jumping like a 4-year-old to notice little discrepancies that are off by a thousand times.

E. All of the above

Second, other than the most determined-to-be-angry extremists, almost nobody “loves” a phony, largely illegal bunch of juvenile delinquent flying tech monkeys or their greedy non-boss.

Third, this statement apparently from Trump’s mean girl press person* makes clear that for those in the White House and for the national Trumpy ones, there are “others” and who cares about them because everything is only about whether it affects “you”? – meaning themselves. Empathy has no place in this White House or in that third of our citizens.

In this age of extremist rage, Mitt Romney’s label “takers” has devolved into “parasites.” Today there is never a description of anything by MAGAs, Republicans, oligarchs or fascists without including demonization of “others.” That stuff often comes from the ethically strained White House and always comes from dictators.

The over-proud, angry and poorly informed Trumpy Americans brought us this crashing of the America they claim to love but clearly they don’t. It’s the America they should have learned about in civics and history classes, the America of All-We-The-People, but they obviously never did.

Finally,

Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas were quite alive when they were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. The mother likely was raped and tortured after that. Then they were all dead.

In repatriating the bodies to Israel, Hamas substituted a deceased Gaza woman for the dead mother of two dead children. Connect all that to some other dots and perhaps you’ll see things a bit differently, if you dare.

From Mike Koplow regarding the return of the bodies of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas last week:

It is unfathomable to watch Hamas parade coffins of dead innocents who were kidnapped into Gaza [and are now being flaunted] before the cheering hundreds as music blares, unfathomable to watch them march tortured hostages onto a stage in a public square and force them to humiliatingly thank their cruel captors in front of television cameras before their release, unfathomable to contemplate that no Palestinian in Gaza appears willing to step forward and put an end to this or to even publicly object.

As you contemplate the horrors visited upon non-militant Gazans, consider Koplow’s words and scratch your chin a moment to see if you can understand, even if only a bit and even if only for a moment how that might have come about.

What if you had attended that concert in the desert on October 7? What if that were your family returned in boxes? What if one of those humiliated prisoners was your brother, friend, or father who was tortured for no reason other than Hamas savage sadism, was malnourished and forced to humiliate himself in front of cameras and a cheering Gaza crowd? That is the kind of reality Israeli’s live in.

Go slowly and gently with your certainties – and teach your idealistic college student waving a Palestinian flag to do the same. Perhaps there is more to learn. Perhaps there are things worth standing up for that are beyond our own individual limited view and which surpass our own individual sense of offense.

_________________________________________

* Questions for 27 year old Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary:

  1. Do you think that bratty mean girl rants are what the world should hear from the press room of the White House?
  2. Do you think that the cross you prominently display absolves you from the answer to the question, “What would Jesus say?”?
  3. No seriously, do you think it’s okay to lie for Trump?

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The Fine Print:

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

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JA


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

January 6 Special


POST 1135

From Adam Kinzinger’s Country First post today, The Truth About January 6th – Never Forget:

Sadly, the incoming administration and their allies have tried to normalize the events of January 6, 2021, and distort the truth.  Here’s the truth, 4 years ago, Donald Trump incited a Mob that marched to the United States Capitol, a symbol of our democracy, and our nation faced an unprecedented attack.

1. The Mob attempted to stop the certification of a free and fair election almost leading to a Constitutional Crisis.

2. The Mob desecrated the United States Capitol.

3. Members of The Mob assaulted the Men and Women of the Capitol Hill Police and DC Metropolitan Police.

4. The Core of our Democracy was shaken by a sitting President who was too small to admit his defeat.

That last point is the key to all. Trump is too small to admit his defeat, too small to admit anything that doesn’t support his grandiose fantasies about himself – and for him, it’s all about himself. He doesn’t care a bit – it never enters his small mind at all – who gets hurt or killed, like our DC and Capitol Police, as he protects and defends only his fragility.

Trump declares that the January 6 felons who attacked and attempted to bring our republic crashing down, the ones who openly and vaingloriously tried to end our democracy and the rule of law, are patriots. That’s sufficient example of his smallness, his weakness and his cowardice.

And yet in the face of his many public lies about that day, over 77 million Americans voted for this mental and moral cripple. It turns out that millions love our cowboy fantasies.

The American cowboy is a White guy (always White and always a guy) who wants nothing more from the government than to be left alone. He’s tough and he’s rugged. He’s a stand alone individual with a Dresden flag – “Don’t tread on me” – tattooed on his body, inscribed on his gun belt and painted on his pickup truck. His woman is at home cooking dinner, tending the children, and patiently waiting to be his submissive play toy. He’s a patriarch. And first and foremost, he’s a tough guy.

He loved Sarah Palin chanting “Drill, baby, drill” as though it was a message from God, although truth be told – and it is, sometimes – no god directed men (women don’t count) to impoverish and poison themselves. He loves to hear Trump chanting”Drill, baby, drill.” It makes him feel proud and powerful. Plus, cowboy knows that global warming is a hoax, so he has no concerns for his children being killed in a hurricane, a flood, a tornado or a monster fire. Drill, baby, drill.

These Americans like feeling proud and powerful. They’re saps for chest pounding.

We’re a highly educated society, yet so many willingly surrender their belief in reality, science and learning, exchanging it mindlessly for preposterous conspiracy fantasies. Think: Pizzagate. That attempted murderer pounded his chest all the way from North Carolina to shoot up a pizza shop in DC. Very proud. Very powerful.

They cheer murderers like Kyle Rittenhouse, who armed up and went to Kenosha to fight the riot there. He killed two, wounded one and was somehow acquitted. They cheered George Zimmerman who killed Trayvon Martin for the outrage of walking outside while Black. He, too, was acquitted because he “stood his ground” against a teen armed with Skittles and a Diet Coke. These perps, too, were very powerful and pounded their chests proudly.

Now Luigi Mangione, the highly educated son of wealthy parents, allegedly murdered the UnitedHealthCare CEO in New York He is being cheered. A group calling itself “The December 4th Legal Committee” has raised over $200,000 online for his legal defense with implications that he is some kind of hero. Rumors have it that contributors to the fund are very proud and powerful.

Each of these killers is a very proud and powerful American with a well-pounded chest. Real cowboys.

Killings are a great American sport. They’re riveting entertainment for a few hours.

When 20 first graders and six teachers and staff were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School, we were shocked. Then we did nothing to prevent the next massacre of children. That takes some kind of pride and power.

That’s how we handled Columbine, too, and all the rest, including those done in churches, supermarkets and at the Las Vegas concert, where 58 people were killed and over 500 injured. Each murder is just a temporary diversion, maybe even a Walter Mitty fantasy for these American desperados, which some contemplated as they fondled their guns. We’re tough and we’re rugged, they tell us. Don’t tread on them.

They like things simple out there on the prairie. So many things are far more complex than they like. They  have no need for complexities or nuance and they reject elites who they think talk down to them. So they keep it simple and vote for whoever makes them feel proud and powerful. It’s really that simple.

_________________________________________

Here we are four years later on another January 6 and over-proud Americans who assaulted cops and the Capitol Building are still proclaiming that they are the true patriots, that the DC and Capitol police they claim to support didn’t get attacked, injured or killed, that January 6 was a day full of love and that packing heat is a sign of a real American.

Here we are on this anniversary of an insurrection, a traitorous act against our own country. Proudly ignorant Americans have been easily manipulated into voting for a felon, a retrograde masquerading as a cowboy. It’s no problem that he’s a phony rugged guy, who wants to lie, grift. break laws and have only fawning cowards around him. Plus he wants absolute, never ending power. The mindless simplicity of his message has tricked American cowboys and others and given a reckless felon the reins of power, including the nuclear codes.

Welcome to the anniversary of January 6, 2021, an insurrection triggered by a far too small man; a day which should live in infamy, but instead lives in glory for far too many Americans.

“After the rioting and the mayhem, a majority of Republican members of Congress still voted to overturn the election. Still. 147 members of Congress — many of whom are still in office today. Insurrectionists, too. Albeit in suits and ties.” [emphasis original]

– Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) , A horrific anniversary, January 6, 2025

“And we should commit to remembering Jan. 6, 2021, every year. To remember it as a day when our democracy was put to the test and prevailed. To remember that democracy — even in America — is never guaranteed.”

– President Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States, January 6, 2025

 

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.

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