Disambiguation from the political and social musings of Jack Altschuler

Manipulation

Taking Sides


!!! NEWS FLASH !!!

Washington DC, 7:00PM local time, August 1, 2023

A federal grand jury has indicted the twice impeached, twice indicted, disgraced former president, Donald J. Trump on four counts:

  1. Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
  2. Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding
  3. Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct An Official Proceeding
  4. Conspiracy Against Rights

Incitement to riot is not charged, nor are several other charges that might have been brought.

These charges all have to do with Trump’s attempt to overturn (“steal”) the 2020 presidential election from We The People. There is much to say about this, including, “O’ happy day!” but that will have to await study of the document. You can read the indictment here. Perhaps it will cause you to take sides.

It’s Time To Take Sides

Courtesy of Steve Sheffey

“The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.” – John F. Kennedy

We all know right from wrong. This applies most especially now, as our nation is under attack from home grown extremists and terrorists.

It’s Time To Take Sides.

At this point in his first term, Ronald Reagan’s approval rating stood at just 35%. Remind me again what the problem is with Joe Biden’s approval rating in the 40s.

Yet he will be verbally eviscerated with false accusations by dishonest extremists over the next 15 months. But if we stand up for the truth, we will see public approval for him steadily climb. The economy will continue to improve, more people will gain good paying jobs, the metaphorical and literal potholes will get fixed and America will be looking better and better to us.

It’s time to take sides.

I’ve written here several times about the reasons people say false things and it is an unholy trinity:

  1. They’re too lazy to learn the truth, so they just make up self-serving .  .  . stuff. Or they’re too spineless to stand up to the screamers.
  2. They’re too dim witted to understand the truth and too dumb to know to keep their mouths shut.
  3. They’re liars.

Now, that just isn’t pretty. But it’s accurate.

There’s one more thing to consider and that is why politicians and even those in the general public lie; i.e. say things they know to be false. This one is easy to identify. It’s because they get some perceived benefit from the lies. Think:

– politicians spouting incendiary lies in order to garner votes from their extremist constituents or to gain campaign contributions from those who will benefit from their election.

– ordinary citizens spouting lies in order to puff up their egos or justify their hatred and anger or to feel a sense of belong, a kinship with other extremists.

  • We cannot live long enough to slip truth and reality into such minds. What we can do is to immunize the rest of us from the lies. This is no time for neutrality.
  • It’s time to take sides.
  • It’s time to take sides because the vast majority of us want gun safety legislation, the right to abortion, open voting rights for all citizens, immigration reform, racial fairness, LGBTQ rights, the right to contraception (Justice Thomas wants that one gone) and so much more. The reason we don’t have these things is because entrenched special interests (read: the greedy and power hungry people) have locked We The People out of power. But if we stand up to them – if we vote – our democracy will have worked for We The People and we will end this reign of terror.
  • It’s time to take sides.
  • And that means that it isn’t enough to have mutually reinforcing discussions with those who agree with us. We actually have to do something beyond our own tribe. Otherwise the lies stand to overpower our nation.
  • Taking Sides on Staying Alive

  • Click me for the full story from Everytown

    I confess my extremism: domestic abusers should not have access to any firearms. No excuses, no exceptions. This should be an absolute. And this should be obvious good sense to everyone. It already is to battered wives and children.

  • Sadly, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals thinks violent abusers should be able to buy, borrow and possess guns with the same impunity as non-offenders. These judges apparently think the Second Amendment is an absolute, in contradiction to what former and very conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said in plain English.

“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited,”

So, yeah, we can keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. Violent people. We just have to do it.

  • This case is on the docket for the Supreme Court to hear this fall. Let’s hope they surprise us with some uncommon common sense and strike down that 5th Circuit Court of Appeals murderous ruling.
  • It’s time to take sides.
  • Oh Golly, Gipper: You Were Wrong and So Are Today’s Crazies

“Bidenomics is proving to be the most impactful and transformative public investment program since FDR’s New Deal, with even Morgan Stanley acknowledging that economists broadly underestimated the positive effect of Bidenomics.”

By Andy Borowitz  

Maybe you’ll like this explainer even better:

.Many thanks to Jim Nathan for pointing out both pieces.

These are based of the same idiotic and cruel concept as “skills training” that was given to African slaves by their White slave masters, per Ron DeSantis. Maybe we should stop paying him for being governor of Florida because of the fine skills of cruelty and lying he’s acquired.

When crazy satire like this makes sense,

It’s time to take sides!
  • Today is a good day to be the light

    ______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    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.

    Click me

    JA


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

Changing Minds


The Economy

For those dedicated to wringing hands over the economy, here’s the beginning of Prof. Heather Cox Richardson’s post of July 25:

President Biden’s determination to “build the economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” appears to be paying off. Last Friday the global financial services company Morgan Stanley credited Biden’s policies with driving a boom in large-scale infrastructure and manufacturing, a boom large enough that Morgan Stanley revised its gross domestic product growth projections upward to 1.9%, a projection almost four times higher than its original projection.

Analysts doubled their projections for the fourth quarter, and raised forecasts for next year, as well. “The economy in the first half of the year is growing much stronger than we had anticipated,” Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. economist Ellen Zentner wrote.

Read her essay. It’s full of wonderful news and vitally important truth, stuff that the crazies attack and lie about.

Will our outstanding economic performance change the minds of Trump voters or the hallucinatory far right crazies?

Answers: NO and NO.

But that doesn’t matter. They’re the crowd that’s super-glued to conspiracies and obstruction.

The battle is for those who are open to accurate information. This positive economic news just might change their minds and motivate them to show up to vote for candidates who will fight for our democracy because there’s something in it for them. It’s about changing these minds with the truth.

Lies

From reader and contributor Diana Dobrovolny Hefter:

It’s all beginning to fall apart.
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Last [Tuesday] Rudy Giuliani admitted in a court filing that he made false claims about Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman.
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These are the two individuals that Trump, his attorneys and his followers claimed to have committed election fraud in the state of Georgia, leading to Biden’s victory.
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Giuliani now admits that it was fabricated.
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Will this change the minds of Trump voters who still believe Trump’s lies of massive election-changing voter fraud? Will Trump stop pushing these lies?
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Answers: NO and NO.
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Once again, from an election perspective, the truth is only valuable to people who are not super-glued to fantastical, extremist lies. The rest of us think democracy, rights and freedoms are good things. We think lying like Giuliani lies is a bad thing. If we can change some minds, these folks just might get off their La-Z-Boys on election day and vote. That would be most democratic – lower case “d” – and helpful – for a change.
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The Fall of the FBI
No, it didn’t fall. But trust in the Bureau is extremely low. The important part is why it’s so low and it turns out that it’s extremist propaganda, conspiracy lunacy and a very large number of googly-eyed lies told over and over. You know, like The Big Lie.
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Dana Milbank has detail on this in his Washington Post piece, Republicans celebrate their successful deception of voters. Here’s a summary.

The extremist Republicans are and have been on a relentless tear of  telling lies to poison the minds of We The People. And they’ve been quite successful at undermining trust in the FBI, the Justice Department and our intelligence agencies. Here’s a piece from Milbank’s post:

[Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA)], the leadoff questioner at Wednesday’s hearing, told [FBI Director Christopher] Wray about a recent NBC News poll in which “only 37 percent of registered voters now view the FBI positively, down from 52 percent in 2018. That’s a serious decline in the people’s faith, and it’s on your watch,” he told Wray.

Milbank goes on to say,

The Republicans are well aware of “those numbers” — because they are the ones who assassinated the reputation of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. [emphasis mine]

Those prevaricators sure did change some minds, but not for the better.

Sensitive readers are cautioned to read Milbank’s piece with no sharp or heavy objects nearby. The story is, let’s call it, unsettling.

The point is that the hyperbolic crazies, using a tsunami of misinformation, is driving down public trust in those who keep us safe. It’s a garbage dump of Big Lies. And that affects our elections.

BTW, weren’t Republicans the ones who claimed to carry the mantle of law and order and tough justice? Big supporters of law enforcement? But now they’re ripping the FBI. What happened to that mantle?

Good Guys Winning Elections

It is beyond human capability to change minds of the super-glued crowd. If we’re to get sane, democracy loving officials, we’ll have to appeal to independents, those with minds open to reality. We’ll have to appeal to every non-extremist voter to vote. In short, we’ll have to do whatever it takes to motivate ALL OF US to participate in our democracy. That would be a fine change of minds.

Would that there were moderate Republicans with the courage to speak out against the lies, but alas, we cannot count on them to do the right thing. Those with a backbone seem to be on the edge of extinction.

“We are the people we’ve been waiting for.”

There is but one way to stop the flood tide of dishonesty and that is for us to saddle up and be the cavalry charging over the hill. Obama said it best: “We are the people we’ve been waiting for.”

We are the ones who have to protect and defend rights, freedoms and democracy because we are the ones who believe in reality.

This is no thought exercise. This is a call to action, to canvas, to text, to donate, to make calls so that those who believe in truth and democracy are the ones who take office in January 2025 and in the states following the state and local elections between now and then.

We have to change a bunch of minds – for the better.

Betcha You’ve Never Heard of This Kind of Thing Before

Jadarrius Rose, a 23 year old Black man, was driving his 18-wheeler in Circleville, OH on July 4 when he was stopped by the State Highway Patrol for a missing rear mudflap. He got out of the cab of his truck and was told to get on the ground. Instead, he threw his hands up in obvious surrender.

In the body cam footage an officer can be heard repeatedly telling Circleville Police Officer Ryan Speakman, who was the handler of a police dog, “Do not release the dog with his hands up!”
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That was when Speakman released the dog. It savagely attacked Rose.
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  • It’s easy to understand how that might happen, as Rose was quite obviously guilty of surrendering with his hands up while being Black.

Oh wait: maybe you have heard of such a thing. And maybe refusing to teach kids the truth about systemic racism in America is a very bad idea.

A lot of minds need to be changed about this.

Just For Fun

Now that there are 37 charges against Trump in the documents case, it’s time to see how the We The People feel about this.

  • Today is a good day to be the light.

    ______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    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.

    Click me

    JA


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

A Critical Recommendation


There’s no more whispering or hinting. No more sneaky attacks. No more need to interpret Steve Bannon’s insane “Tear it all down,” rants. It’s all out in the open now.

In an enormously chilling piece in the New York Times, Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025, subtitled “The former president and his backers aim to strengthen the power of the White House and limit the independence of federal agencies” your worst fears for our country are laid bare.

It’s the Heritage Foundation in full Nazi dress uniform declaring that they own the true interpretation of our Constitution and it doesn’t involve any of that messy, inconvenient checks and balances bother. There’s neither need for nor room for democracy. They want nothing to impede a megalomaniac.

Their treachery would create a unitary president with monarchic power. Dictatorship. All power in the hands of one pathological ruler.

Go read the report by Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman. They make clear that what these “extreme unitary executive people” want to do is truly horrifying, anti-American and terminally toxic to rights and freedom. What’s even more upsetting is how many millions of Americans seem to want that.

From an earlier Disambiguation:

It is truly frightening that millions of people are demanding authoritarianism in America. They want an end to our self-rule, our long and noble experiment in democracy. Christopher Ingraham spells out the truth that has been so difficult to define in his Washington Post article, “New Research Explores Authoritarian Mind-set of Trump’s Core Supporters.”

Key takeaway: In the face of this brain-free populist authoritarian self-destruction, we practice apathy at our individual and collective peril.

Apathy and disinterest simply won’t do for those of us who think democracy – that thing you learned about in civics class – is a pretty good thing. Fortunately, there are actions we can take to help us keep it.

If we were all to vote, our popular will would be enough to douse the flames of authoritarianism. Good on you for voting, but it turns out we don’t all vote. That means that you and I have to do a bit more. We have to fight a better fight if we’re to keep our democracy and the things we hold dear.

IMPORTANT NOTE

DO NOT be swayed by claims made by the totalitarians with their chest-thumping calls of patriotism, patriarchy, Christianity, traditional society or any of the other manipulations that autocrat wannabes use. This is simply, clearly and maniacally a grab for all the money and position and power.

They will use any words and any manipulation to get away with their treason, but it will remain treason to all you hold dear. It’s their boundless greed. Their grab for total control. And once your democracy is gone, it will be gone forever. It will be the end of life as you know it.

Don’t believe it? Does that seem hyperbolic to you? Go ask the people of Hungary or Turkey about that. They used to have democracies. Check with survivors of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. It took wars where tens of millions of people died to end those dictatorships and now the Putin dictatorship has revived the cruelty of the Soviet Union.

This threat is existential to you.

These people don’t give a damn about you or anything that’s important to you. Whether your key issue is guns and gun safety, abortion rights, healthcare, immigration, education, jobs, wealth inequity – THEY DON’T CARE! They want to take the power from you and me and use it for themselves. Here’s what that means to us:

We must get democracy supporters and promoters into all offices and dump the anti-democracy thugs.
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It’s the only way for us, our children and our grandchildren to remain free.

This is no thought experiment, nor something that is so far away that we can’t see it. We can already feel it, taste it, smell it and touch it. This threat is here right now. The un-American thugs have declared their intent to destroy our country.

Still not convinced? Review the Project 2025 website, but keep your teddy bear close, because it’s going to really scare you. It’s nothing short of lipstick on a rights, freedom and democracy killing pig.

That’s why you’re going to JOIN THE UNION, where they will show you how to make the difference you need to make.

Critical Recommendations

The Union is an organization dedicated to our Union – the U.S.A. It’s an offshoot of The Lincoln Project. Its efforts are focused on exactly one issue: to protect and defend and to strengthen our democracy. They support organizations doing the hard work of protecting our rights and freedoms and advocating for the things you believe in. That’s a good thing. So CLICK HERE and join The Union. I’m a volunteer and I think you should be, too, because:

  1. This is to protect and expand what you believe in.
  2. What you believe in will go away unless you do something to prevent that from happening.

Heavy handed? Sure, but nowhere near as heavy handed as Donald Trump Der Fuhrer. Or any Republican despot wannabe.

More To Do
Paraphrased from Sheila Markin’s post of July 20, here is what you and I need to do:
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  1. Actively tell everyone you know that Biden is the right guy for the job and stop wringing hands about his age.
  2. Canvas, text, make calls and donate to get Democrats elected, because Republicans are trying to murder our democracy – unless you can find a Republican who is overtly promoting democracy. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to find one.
  3. Explain why all Republicans are too scary to elect even if their name is not Donald Trump. They are all part of the movement to dismantle democracy and, at best, they’ve stood silent as the outrages have continued. The threat to our democracy is much bigger than Donald Trump.
  4. Volunteer to be an election worker so that there is a counter to the MAGA GOP election deniers who are going to volunteer to oversee elections and intimidate voters.
  5. Share this post to help people understand the threat.
Strongly Recommended Reading

1. Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American, July 17. She’ll give you context for the extremist power play for 2025.

2. Writing for The Hill, Alexander Bolton explained that GOP Senators Rattled by Radical Conservative Populism. They might be rattled, but these cowards still refuse to speak out against the crazy and the un-American. That may be the biggest obstacle to preventing autocracy/fascism from taking over our country.

Today is a good day to be the light.

______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    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.

    Click me

    JA

 


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

Headlines


This Headline Gave Me Hope

.I wrote here about the terribly dangerous Moore v. Harper case from North Carolina. That law threatened to take the votes of We The People, throw them into a dumpster, set them on fire and allow a hyper-partisan legislature to hijack elections – a classic case of theft of our rights and the destruction of our democracy. The good news is that this law was rejected by a 6-3 decision of the Supreme Court.

That ugly North Carolina law was a threat to democracy everywhere. It was promulgated by the autocrat wannabes in the NC legislature, those little minds that covet their very own fiefdom. Had the despotic “independent state legislature theory” law been upheld by the Court, all the Republican controlled states would have followed suit and crafted their own version of this democracy crushing stinker. The legal contest worked out right this time, but another attempt at election theft, the end to your voting rights and our democracy, will surely come along.

The bad news is that the usual suspects, Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch, voted for the autocracy and despotism promised by that anti-Constitution North Carolina legislation. Do bear in mind that if Mitch McConnell had not stonewalled for 341 days President Obama’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the bench, Gorsuch wouldn’t be there and Merrick Garland would. McConnell has said that he is very proud of his anti-Constitution larceny.

If the Senate Judiciary Committee had believed Anita Hill’s claims about Clarence Thomas and not fallen for Thomas’ lame “high-tech lynching” victimhood rant, we would have been spared his massive ethics violations and his extremist votes. I say we set that right by removing him and putting Anita Hill on the Supreme Court.

Click the headline above for the Times story and read Prof. Heather Cox Richardson’s explainer. For more insight into this, read Diana Dobrovolny Hefter‘s comment below my post last Sunday. She gets it and is a fine explainer.  Betcha you’ll have something to say, too.

With this vote to smack down the democracy killing “independent state legislature” theory, it looks like it’s possible that the Republican-packed, stolen, extremist Court might not be entirely reprehensible about rights and democracy. Just mostly.

This Oughta Have a Headline

We’ve always had liars, thieves, cheats and scoundrels in our politics. We’ve always had injustice in our justice system. And we’ve always had poverty, disease and avoidable death. What’s most interesting is how red states seem to excel at all of that and how the people in those states don’t seem to see how they are being manipulated and abused. They’re even dying younger due to Republican policies, but they’re allowing that to happen, too. Your required reading is Thom Hartmann’s report of June 28, where he writes:

“It’s undeniably true (and documented with each hotlink below) that Republican-controlled “Red” states, almost across the board, have higher rates of:”

and he goes on to document a Pandora’s box of awful stuff. Why do otherwise common sense Americans not have the sense to refuse to tolerate that?

If you’re in a blue state, don’t imagine you get a free pass. Read this. You’re getting ripped off, too, by being forced to subsidize red states.

This Headline Made Me Laugh Out Loud

This is for real. Click the headline to read the article to meet your minimum daily requirement of eye rolling.

Here’s Another “Oughta Have a Headline”

Let’s be clear about our military veterans. These people volunteered to put their lives on the line for us, even when they knew that the reasons for doing so were stupid, dishonest or hypocritical. They still kept their word to follow orders and to protect and defend. They did that while we went about our regular lives with nobody shooting at us. And some of our vets have lost their way.

A large number of them are homeless. For them, life is far more than hard. A crazy number of them live in a PTSD despair that drives many to commit suicide. It’s the same for teens who are in a mental health crisis of pain and hopelessness.

So, here are a couple of phone numbers to keep handy:

Veterans Crisis Hotline:    800-273-8255
Suicide Hotline:                    988
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It turns out that the biblical question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” doesn’t apply only to male siblings. It’s about “brother” in a much broader sense. It’s about a moral obligation to help our fellow human beings when we can.*

The answer to the question is a resounding “YES!” And sometimes your help, our help, is desperately needed. Opportunities to reach out to someone who needs a hand are all around. And as Neil Diamond told us decades ago, that’s what your hand is for. Click the audio below and listen to the words for a reminder.

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Taking This “Hand Thing” One Step Further

On the night of the 4th we went to the concert in Highland Park, IL to see Highland Park native Gary Senise and the Lt. Dan Band. It was a stunning display of generosity, caring and real deal patriotism. Plus, that’s a most wonderful and entertaining band.

The key point is about what those folks do for our military people. The put their lives where their hearts are and give to our active duty and retired vets. They’ve done over 550 concerts and countless visits to our wounded and they’ve donated gobs of money to benefit and honor the people who keep us safe from bad guys.

They were in town for the Highland Park concert, so the day before that they went to the Great Lakes Naval Training Base in North Chicago and did a gig for our new recruits. Those men and women volunteered to go into harms way for us and many will soon be there. Senise and his band showed up to honor them.

There were police from 27 towns around Highland Park to secure the morning dedication and memorial walk, as well as the concert in the evening. There were Secret Service folks, too, and sniffer dogs. They all gave up their day off, their 4th of July with their families, to be of service to all in the community. All stood in the heat and humidity guarding us. All served and protected.

Think about 9/11 and all of our horrific shootings, like in Highland Park last year. These first responders show up in places where you wouldn’t go and they do the dangerous and grisly things that must be done. So, Gary Senise and the Lt Dan Band remember and honor our first responders, too.

Here’s an NBC report about what Senise and the band members do. Because you’d like to support the people who support our troops, here’s a link for that. It’s a good way to say “Thank You” to the people who say “Thank You” as their mission in life. Through Senise and the band, your hand will reach all the way to our brothers and sisters in need.

One Last Fourth of July Follow Up

From Heather Cox Richardson’s July 5 Letters From an American:

Josh Hawley fist saluting insurrectionists – seditionists – trying to destroy America. January 6, 2020

“Yesterday the official account of the Republican National Committee tweeted Independence Day greetings with a graphic of the Liberian flag, which has one star, rather than that of the United States, which has fifty.

“Even more troubling was the tweet from Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) attributing to founder Patrick Henry a false quotation saying that “this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Historian Seth Cotlar noted that the quotation actually came from the April 1956 issue of a virulently antisemitic white nationalist magazine, The Virginian.”

Ignoring the impressive Josh Hawley ignorance factor for the moment, his is not the United States of America envisioned by the Founders, who bristled at the notion of being controlled by any religion. Neither is the America that today’s White supremacists demand.

So, Josh the Sloppy Opportunist, you can take your phony patriotism and religiosity and .  .  .

________________________________

* From Rabbi Hillel:

If I am not for me, then who will be for me?

And if I am for myself alone, what am I?

And if not now, then when?


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

A Political Peace Treaty – Or Not


“The Courage To Be Free” is Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign BS book that he hopes will propel him from his authoritarian throne in Tallahassee to the gold toilet just off the Oval Office that was left by a former extremist president. He tries to scare us, saying that, “The threat to freedom is not limited to the actions of governments, but also includes a lot of aggressive, powerful institutions hellbent on imposing a woke agenda on our country.”

A woke agenda? Imposed? Yikes!

He’s talking about enemies of freedom. Bad guys. ” . . . entrenched elites that have driven our nation into the ground.” They, “control the federal bureaucracy, lobby shops on K Street, corporate media, Big Tech companies and universities.”

Wow! That’s a lot of entrenched elites doing a lot of driving into the ground.

These bad guys, he says, “use undemocratic means to foist everything from environmental, social and governance (E.S.G.) policies on corporations, forcing as well critical race theory on public schools.” It’s, “an attempt to impose ruling class ideology on society.”

Holy smokes! These guys do E.S.G.? In public? And they force CRT on innocent children? And they’re imposing ruling class ideology on society? That sounds awful.

I find myself feeling sorry for DeSantis, wondering if Mommy and Daddy didn’t come to his room when he screamed in the night in fear of the monsters in the closet and the boogeyman under his bed. They left little Ronny in a terror that he never got over.

He has carried his terror and his angry fictions with him all this way and he still sees monsters and boogeymen, but now they aren’t just in the closet and under the bed. Now they’re in classrooms, libraries, in doctors’ offices, in voter registration offices and at Disney World. Indeed, they lie in wait in DC meeting rooms, hiding under conference tables and in the cabinet under the large screen TV where they keep the coffee service. Poor Ronny!

But the thing is that his boogeymen and monsters not only don’t exist, but he is using his fear of these fictions to harm you, to take away your freedom. He’s already taken away voting rights, women’s healthcare, education, books from the library and more. So, you already know some of the harm he could do if he were given the power to attack our entire nation in his childish fight against his night demons. You better make sure that little Ronny DeSantis doesn’t get the key to the room with that gold toilet.

Don’t you think it’s time for our country to end extremist driven political and cultural wars, like DeSantis’ hateful idiocy? Me, too, so here’s my proposal.

Resolved: that all members of all political parties will:
.

– Refrain from all attempts to limit voting rights.

– Nevermore discriminate in any way to limit or marginalize citizens on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, boxers or briefs, N95 masks or knowledge of CRT (if any).

– Never prohibit food or water from being given to citizens waiting in line to vote.

– Never require that schools teach a sanitized, race-blind version of American history to “protect” fragile White children and that they instead tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

– Never attack our democracy in any way.

– Never make vague, groundless accusations, like “entrenched elites that have driven our nation into the ground” and “aggressive, powerful institutions hellbent on imposing a woke agenda on our country,” or any other meaningless and inflammatory stupid stuff.

– Never demonize immigrants or those hoping to be immigrants. That means no replacement theory BS.

– Never emit hateful dog whistles.

– Never forget to take their meds every day so that they have the strength to control the Tourette-like M.S.U. (Make Shit Up) impulse.

– Immediately say, “I’m sorry” when they say something false, rude and mean, because they know that if they don’t say “I’m sorry,” the monsters and the boogeymen will be released from the closet and from under the bed and not even Ghostbusters will be able to stop them from a full assault on decency.

Oh, wait. No need to make this about all members of all political parties, because only Republicans are doing these hateful, stupid things. It’s amazing that people can still be sold magic beans and snake oil claimed to cure all ills.

Only the Republicans have sucked in millions of dollars of PPP money for their corporations, enjoyed debt forgiveness and have now killed student loan forgiveness.

Only the Republicans want to censure and impeach officials for the crime of breathing while being a Democrat. And worse, for doing their jobs.

Only Republicans are cheering Supreme Court decisions that reverse decades of progress, that eliminate rights and attack the foundation of democracy, that open the door to discrimination and religious intolerance and put the lie to the justices’ claim of fidelity to stare decisis.

Only the Republicans are attacking separation of church and state relentlessly.

Only the Republicans are cheering Ronny DeSantis and his boyhood lunacy.

Only the Republicans hate Americans like you.

To quote my friend Ed Gurowitz:

To effect real change, the majority [that’s us] must rebel – not by force of arms but by raising our voices in the media, at the voting booth, and everywhere else. The Right holds its power by lies and deceit. To counter that, the majority [that’s us] must stand up and speak out for the truth.

We’re in a clash not of right versus left, but of right versus wrong, So, it’s rebel or be overrun by forces of anger, hatred, discrimination, lies and deceit.

Political peace treaty? Nah, I don’t think so.

Independence Day Follow-ups

Read Richard Jacobs’ piece, Our Glorious 4th of July Heritage: Keeping It Working for All of Us. You’ll understand that it’s time for each of us to enter the arena.

And have a look at John Pavlovitz’s excellent post, July 4th: Mourning the America We Could Have Had. You’ll grow an enhanced and proper disdain for performance patriotism.

Finally, from Steve Sheffey’s July 2 post:

” .  .  .  make July 4 the day you start actively participating in the democracy we are celebrating by participating in the electoral process. Stop pretending that both parties are the same and stop treating bipartisanship and non-partisanship as virtues. Elections are partisan by nature and design, and the right to hold free and fair elections is what we are celebrating on Tuesday.”

Gotta love that –

“start actively participating in the democracy we are celebrating by participating in the electoral process.”
.

Voting. It’s a good thing.

Today is a good day to be the light.

______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    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 a lot 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.

    Click me

    JA


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

A Correction and Winning Elections


Correction

In my June 7 post I made a claim about Antifa that promoted discussion. I wrote,

There is no “woke.”
.

That’s just a label used inflame the base, much like they use the label “Antifa.” The panderers like to call out Antifa as though it is an invading army, a threat to our country, rather than an informal collection of Americans who refuse authoritarianism and fascism. Those who identify as Antifa don’t riot, they don’t intimidate other Americans, they don’t make death threats and they do think democracy is a good thing. Imagine that!

Well informed, eagle eye reader Sheila Markin replied privately,

Another good blog post. I agree with you.  But I do have some information that runs counter to the idea that Antifa is not like the far right.

The information comes from a counseling client I worked with about a year ago. He was a blogger on the left and had become an influencer. But someone revealed that he was an attorney and that he worked in BigLaw. After that he was assaulted verbally and threatened by “antifa.” The emotional toll was very heavy. He stopped blogging and invested more in his legal career but he was emotionally damaged by this.

The mere fact that he worked for BigLaw caused the backlash against him. He made good money which was considered a sin. His ideas were no longer considered valid. In my opinion extremism on the right and the left is bad news. Closed minded people are bad news. The right is worse but both the right and left are guilty of extremism and it is extremism that is so corrosive.

I’m not an expert on left wing social media, so I checked it out with Jay Becker to get her take on this. She introduced me to Antifa years ago. Here’s what she wrote:

The basic story has a ring of plausibility, not so much as an attack by “antifa” but because the tactics described are themselves so widespread among activists generally who identify as “woke:” rejecting or accepting a person because of their identity, not their political analysis (“standpoint epistemology”), rejecting ideas based on their source, not their content, etc. In this case, the person was canceled because he was a lawyer and worked for BigLaw, regardless of what he was advocating in his political writings, assuming that those threatening him were not making connections between his professional life and his advocacy, according to your friend’s report.
.
Verbal assaults have become common on social media against those who challenge whatever the latest “woke” tenets are, and any deviation can get you canceled by a virtual mob. That’s scary and intimidating, which stymies any real discussion, let alone debate. I have experienced this firsthand in trying to build resistance to abortion bans with Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights. Many people find these methods disturbing and grumble about them among themselves. The Revcoms (revolutionary communists) are taking this destructive phenomenon on directly. Here’s their 7 point indictment of “woke” as it has devolved, and here’s a playlist of their videos. I suggest starting with the speech Sunsara Taylor gave recently at UCLA, second on the playlist. (Watch at least the first 15 minutes, and you’ll see the “woke” bullies in action.)
.
So, I’m veering off from “antifa” but staying on topic because what your friend describes is so prevalent in how a generation of young people who do care about racism, fascism, misogyny, etc. is being trained to think and approach the world, which [is] doing a lot of harm. I hope it sheds some light, thanks for asking.
.
It seems that the unspoken invitation of social media to be a jerk is irresistible, regardless of which end of the political spectrum is its source.
.

Here’s a message to these left and right abusers. It comes from their moms:

Don’t be a jerk!

Thanks ever so much to Sheila and Jay for their insights and for permission to post their comments – big help.

I stand corrected.

What’s Your Message, Governor?

New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu delivered Republican clarity for all to see in his Washington Post opinion piece on June 5. He opened with, “Our [Republican] party is on a collision course toward electoral irrelevance without significant corrective action.” He declared, ” . . . candidates should not get into this race to further a vanity campaign, to sell books or to audition to serve as Donald Trump’s vice president.” So far, so good.

Sununu claims his vast worth as a leader and influencer and focuses direction for Republicans, saying, “We need to expand beyond the culture wars that alienate independents, young voters and suburban moms.” The problem with that is not about expanding beyond culture wars. That would be okay, it seems, although I don’t know what expanding means, since it doesn’t seem to mean stopping the lunacy,

The problem is that Sununu focuses on gaining votes. Not on what is right, moral, ethical, what We The People want or what’s best for the country. Just the pragmatics to gain votes and win elections.

Recall the so-called “Autopsy” that Republicans did after being pummeled in the 2012 election. That, too, was all about gaining more votes, not about changing Republicans’ evil ways. Indeed, they completely ignored that they were out of step with the vast majority of Americans. They ignored their own advice following that autopsy and have only become more entrenched in culture wars, demonizing and appealing to drooling, fang-toothed extremists.

There probably isn’t any reason to believe that Republican candidates will follow Sununu’s self-serving advice, nor will they get themselves aligned with the things the vast majority of Americans want. They will just continue to manipulate the system in order to retain their minority control, doing things like voter suppression and extreme gerrymandering.

Meanwhile, Sununu awaits the clamor for him to get into the race.

And Finally, FYI, The Key Provision of the Presidential Records Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 22)

§ 2202. Ownership of Presidential records

The United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records;

Specifically, the PRA:

•  Establishes that Presidential records automatically transfer into the legal custody of the Archivist as soon as the President leaves office.

And that is why Donald J. Trump is going to prison.

Plus for election interference in Georgia.

Plus for  multiple counts of fraud in New York.

Plus for incitement of insurrection in DC.

Several years ago I predicted that once out of office, Trump will spend the rest of his days as a defendant in court and in prison. Easy forecasting.

  • Today is a good day to be the light.

    ______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    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 a lot 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.

    Click me

    JA


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

Complacency


Caution: Offensive and Crude Language

There is an old series of hateful tropes passed along as jokes designed to embolden and inflame the already hateful and to attract new, impressionable recruits. They attack people they see as unworthy and make them an object of scorn. The oldest hatred – thousands of years of it – continues to target Jews.

Here’s an example of hate humor that illustrates this. But prepare yourself, because this is truly awful stuff.

Q. What do you call 6 million dead Jews?

A. A good start.

Yes, hatred is as crude and cruel and savage as that. And for those feeling oppressed, marginalized and disrespected, that kind of hate humor is quite appealing. It gives the aggrieved someone to blame – a boogeyman – for their lot in life. It leads to brainlessly shouting “Seig Heil!” and moronically chanting, “Jews will not replace us!” with a bunch of other juiced up skinheads in Charlottesville.

Heather Heyer – pic from her Facebook account

That led to a malicious bigot ramming his car into a protest rally, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 28 others and it led to 11 dead at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. There are material consequences to hate jokes and hate tropes.

The would-be fascists use violence to get their way. They are increasingly bold and some of them get elected to positions of power. That happens for just two reasons:

  1. Angry people are motivated and they turn out to vote for hateful, angry candidates.
  2. Complacent people, those just going about their lives and not paying attention, don’t vote.

That gives the haters the reins of power. And that leads to authoritarians tearing down our democracy, our safety and our way of life. The loss of safety for those hated by the bullies is obvious, but history is full of examples that show that eventually there is loss of safety and freedom for everyone. And all of this leads to radicalized terrorists killing innocent people.

Here’s Heather Heyer’s final Facebook post:

If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.

Are you outraged?

Hunter S. Thompson observed during the enormously illegal Nixon years that we were, “America acting on its worst impulses.” The same is true for all of the so-called populist tantrums, from the Civil War, to George Wallace standing in the doorway of the University of Alabama to stop Blacks from entering, to the traitorous January 6 insurrection, to today’s Republican reality deniers and voter suppressors.

Were Thompson still alive and chronicling our stumbles (some of them forward), he surely would have used his same words for America today. He would have blistering criticism of the reality denial that is rampant in America and the constant claims of victimhood – “America acting on its worst impulses.”

Joan Didion said, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” The haters have their stories that they believe justify their hatred. The fascist lovers have their stories that they believe justify killing democracy and establishing despotic rule. The victimhood lovers always have their fantasies.

And we who believe that America should live up to its promise have our story, too.
.

Our collective safety hinges on the establishment of that story as our true story. The elements required for that include a shared reality, the rule of law and what Thomas Jefferson called “an enlightened citizenry.” You already know what lack of an enlightened citizenry does to our country.

Most of us believe in science and learning, knowledge and wisdom, cause and effect. More to the point, too many reject all of that.

Millions more of us are needed for the science, learning, knowledge and wisdom story. Specifically needed are the 33% of eligible voters who didn’t vote in 2020 and the 47.8% who didn’t show up in 2022.

Without them we are doomed to be repeatedly attacked by the haters and our democracy will always balance precariously on the edge of a cliff – until that balance is lost. Our country, our story, needs all of us right now.

There’s good news and there’s bad news about this.

The good news is that even in the face of this decades-long assault on reality and our democracy by authoritarian wannabes, our country will continue to stand.

The bad news is that if we don’t do something to stop these assaults, this may not be a country you want to live in. The hate jokes and the hate tropes will metastasize and your freedom will be gone.

It seems quite clear – and history teaches us – that under the yoke of despotism We The People would be powerless and cruelly subjugated. Maybe we should ensure that such a thing never happens in America.

Again, Heather Heyer said,

If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.

So again, are you outraged?

A Bit of Sunshine

Take a look at the updated Gallup tracking poll of how Americans see themselves on social issues. Could it be that Independents and Democrats combined have the muscle to stop the crazies and their war on Social Security, Medicare and trying to jam Christian nationalism and authoritarianism down the throats of all Americans? Do the math for 2023. Add the percents of moderates and liberals. There are more of us than there are haters and despotism lovers.

Click me

Required Reading For Every American

Every day we are assaulted by the Republican snake venom of outlandish, idiotic lies, distortions and pretend patriotism, like,

Biden crime family

Weaponized DOJ

Senate candidate Todd Akin’s claim, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Anything said by – you know: the usual suspects.

Actual, factual truth is the antidote to Republican snake venom. That’s why you’re going to read Prof. Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters From An American” of June 15.

Then you’re going to share it because you are paying attention and you are outraged and you aren’t complacent. To make that easy to do, just forward this post.

  • Today is a good day to be the light.

    ______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    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 a lot 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.

    Click me

    JA


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

I’m Sorry


I’m sorry that Republican legislators are so angry and that they hate the Constitution, our laws and America itself so terribly that they are calling for angry, radical people to make violence on our citizens and on our nation.

I’m sorry that angry people are threatening to kill Merrick Garland’s wife and children and Jack Smith and his wife.

I’m sorry that Republicans are stuck in a spin cycle of whataboutism, and can’t get out. They can no longer make a declarative statement about just one issue, like the indictment. They instead have to justify the unjustifiable with phantom comparisons to Democrats, as though some other wrongdoing justifies this one.

I’m sorry that no matter what happens, Republicans are poor victims of Democrats, elites, gays, educators, hordes of would-be immigrants who are stealing our jobs and all the rest of the mean-spirited idiocy. So many poor baby Republican victims.

I’m sorry that Hillary had all those emails on her private server and that when it was searched for classified information by the Trump Bogeyman Super Snoopers they couldn’t find any. They only found documents which were classified after they were removed. They determined that Hillary had broken no law, but Trump and his angry hordes still chanted to lock her up. They still do.

I’m sorry that Trump made his DOJ continue an investigation into the Clinton Foundation for the duration of most of his administration, even though his investigators neither believed there was any there there, nor did they ever find any. (This sounds like weaponization – let’s have Jim Jordan check it out.) Nevertheless, Trump trumpeted lies about the Foundation. He still does, as do his sycophants.

I’m sorry that Trump and every Republican who has blurted an opinion about the indictment of Trump blames Biden for “weaponizing” the DOJ against poor, suffering Trump, this is in spite of the fact – yes, fact – that only Trump used the DOJ in that way – ref: one paragraph up. Their false blurting is in spite of the fact that Biden has strictly kept hands off what the DOJ does. It is in spite of the fact that Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is independent even of Merrick Garland’s purview, as well as of Biden’s. And it is in spite of the fact that Trump has not been indicted by Biden or the DOJ. He’s been indicted by a grand jury of south Florida citizens.

I’m sorry that Joseph Goebbels was right about how The Big Lie works, that all that is required to get people to believe lies and propaganda and to do horrible things is to bellow it out, over and over until the weak of mind believe. In the present case, that has led 88% of Republican primary voters (the hair-on-fire, pitchforks and torches crowd) to believe that the indictment of Trump was politically motivated. They believe the lies to be truth.

I’m sorry that whatever lawyers Trump can manage to hang onto will make pretrial motions with baseless, bogus accusations, like “prosecutorial misconduct,” solely for the purpose of bogging down the trial. Then it will get postponed by Trump suck up judge Aileen Cannon because it will then conflict with the 2024 election. You fill in the blanks illustrating what will happen next.

I’m sorry this guy stands with Trump.

Most of All, I’m Sorry

that so many Americans hate America and want to tear it down, and that there aren’t yet armies of Americans in the streets demonstrating for democracy, people who love America and want to protect and defend it and the Constitution.

But there could be. There’s still time.

Denée Benton

Oh, And I’m Glad .  .  .

.  .  .  that at the 2023 Tony Awards on. Sunday actor Denée Benton announced the Excellence in Theatre Education Award from Carnegie Mellon University, saying,

“While I am certain that the current grand wizard, I’m sorry, excuse me, governor of my home state [of Florida] will be changing the name of this following town immediately .  .  .  Plantation, Florida.” [emphasis mine]

Brilliant.

  • Today is a good day to be the light.

    ______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    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 a lot 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.

    Click me

    JA


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

The Problem Isn’t Woke


“Florida is where woke goes to die.”

Governor Ron DeSantis, (R-Cruelty) loves to say that in his devoid-of-personality way. It’s obvious that it tickles him to declare stupid things that elicit favor from the base. He seems to revel in encouraging exclusion, intimidation and authoritarian, anti-American behavior. He knows what makes him happy.

I tuned in to a bit of the CNN town hall with Nikki Haley and was immediately smacked in the face by her own pandering to the base and constant focus on applause lines, rather than saying anything that actually means something of value to non-extremists. She’s pretty much like DeSantis.

For example, she criticized Biden’s climate initiative to get us off our fossil fuel diet. Electric vehicles are heavier, she told us, and our bridges can’t handle that, so we’ll have to rebuild a gazillion bridges, a cost that Biden omits from the projected cost of transportation conversion.

Heavier? And if they are, is that a barrier to taking action to save the planet and ourselves? Okay, that sounds stupid, but let’s check, shall we?

Here are three popular 4-door sedans, each with room for 5 passengers:

The 2023 Tesla Model 3 has a curb weight of 3880 lbs.

The 2023 Chevrolet Malibu has a curb weight of 3159 lbs.

The 2023 Toyota Camry has a curb weight of 3340 lbs.

Okay, Nikki, you nailed the key problem. it looks like we have as much as 721 pounds of excess, bridge-crushing woke in the electric car. The mindless audience applause still rings in that auditorium.

Jake Tapper, usually a reliable interviewer who doesn’t let interviewees get away with dodging questions or giving dodgy replies, let Haley get away with her practiced, intelligence-free statements. That went on the entire time I was able to tolerate watching the spectacle.

It was very disappointing, much like the misnamed Trump town hall. That’s where CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was powerless to stem the tide – the tsunami, really – of Trump’s fact-free, self-serving delusions in the form of applause lines. The entire event, complete with no audience members who were not faithful Trumpers, was nothing more than a Trump Rally. No news or informed, intelligent ideas were to be found anywhere in the vicinity.

All of Haley’s, Trump’s and DeSantis’ anti-woke pandering is nothing more than bumper sticker fictions that call extremists to hatred and domination of unacceptable “others.” These presidential candidates are world class inciters with the finest of reality-free applause lines.

There is no “woke.”
.

That’s just a label used inflame the base, much like they use the label “Antifa.” The panderers like to call out Antifa as though it is an invading army, a threat to our country, rather than an informal collection of Americans who refuse authoritarianism and fascism. Those who identify as Antifa don’t riot, they don’t intimidate other Americans, they don’t make death threats and they do think democracy is a good thing. Imagine that!

The problem we in America have is not woke. Our problem is the haters and manipulators who try to make people afraid of their boogeyman du jour. They pander for voters’ support by inciting hatred and violence using their cruel fictions about other Americans. They are the ones who least resemble what we used to call American values and who stand in the way of our recapturing them.

There is no woke that goes to Florida to die. There is just a cadre of liars creating an incentive to hatred and violence and, perhaps, causing others to die. That’s the real threat and they put it into law, like this:

Definition: “Stand Your Ground” law. A mechanism to boil testosterone and create dead bodies. It is much beloved by haters and other insecure, cowardly people and embodies the true essence of anti-woke.

Woke Clarity From Another Source

Retired attorney and thoughtful person Ralph Bernstein leads a weekly political discussion group via Zoom. In his agendum (yes, he uses that term correctly) for yesterday’s session, he offered this discussion teaser:

Repub [sic] legislators, judges who are said to be right-wing judges, and MAGA activists have set out to trample on free speech and individual rights in the name of battling “wokeism.” If they don’t like what teachers say about history, they gag them. If they don’t like certain books, they ban them. If they don’t like a corporation defending LGBTQ rights, they retaliate against it. Their crusade has become an expression of not only white Christian nationalism but of contempt for the Constitution and the First Amendment.

If you’d like to attend and participate in Ralph’s no-charge discussions, drop him a line at [email protected].

Woke Must-Read of the Week

From the John Pavlovitz essay, Woke Will Win, June 5, 2023 (click through and read this excellent post in full):

The leveraging of irrational fear is nothing new.

Throughout history it has been the go-to tactic of the worst of politics and religion.

When you lack substantive ideas, you need an encroaching enemy to move and motivate people.

When you have nothing redemptive to offer, you have to create a violent adversary for them to run from and push back against.

When vulnerable people are placed in your path, you need to somehow turn those people into a threat to be exterminated.

If you can’t or won’t engage in difficult conversations about complex issues, you turn words into monsters:

Illegals.
CRT.
Plandemic.
The jab.
Groomers.
Woke.

Anti-Woke Book Ban Selection of the Week

If sex, adultery, slavery, sex trafficking and murder are forbidden topics, this according to the anti-wokers, then we absolutely must ban the Bible. That is a nasty set of human debauchery tales if ever there was one. These books quite obviously don’t belong in libraries, schools, homes and other places where impressionable children might come upon them.

In fact, I don’t think you should be reading such salacious material either. As Justice Potter Stewart said of pornography, “I know it when I see it.” So do you.

If you are to be a flamer who burns those awful books, you better start gathering them and tossing them into a dumpster right now. Otherwise, Ron DeSantis and those 11 crazies responsible for so much book banning are going to have all the puritanical, witchy fun, as well as the ego rush that comes from bullying.

A Peculiarity

Yesterday was June 6. On that day in 1944 we and our allies made the Normandy invasion, the major push to defeat the Nazis and bring WW II to an end. What is peculiar now is the lack of recognition of the date in the news and elsewhere. D-Day used to be a major event in the public consciousness, but apparently no longer.

It’s just my speculation, but perhaps that is happening because of the rapid loss of those of our Greatest Generation who fought for our democracy, now dying at the rate of about 180 per day. That number used to be many times greater, but, of course, there are so few left.

  • Today is a good day to be the light.

    ______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    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 a lot 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.

    Click me

    JA


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

The Canary plus The Good Old Days


This Is a Get Smarter Opportunity

We are sometimes given a gift – a chance to see into the future, if only we will look at what is before us. That’s what we have right now.

You’ve heard of the many democracy, freedom and rights abuses Ron DeSantis and his rubber stamp Republican Florida legislature have inflicted on the citizens of Florida. He has sucked up to as many White supremacist grievances, fears and hatreds as he could in order to get extremists to support his bid to become an authoritarian president.

His assaults represent far worse than oppression of Floridians: DeSantis and his extremists are normalizing fascism.

DeSantis’ actions leave us with an obvious clarity about what he would do to our entire country were he to get his hands on the reins of power. That is why I believe that

Florida is the canary in the fascist infested coal mine.
.

If you’re skeptical about this, read Thom Hartmann’s take. You won’t be skeptical anymore.

You don’t have to be a Floridian to be worried about this, because we see similar things happening elsewhere. That’s why I’m encouraging you to get smart about this, wherever you are.

My friends Jim and Karen Nathan have co-founded Floridians For Democracy, a group dedicated to protecting democracy in Florida and, by extension, where you live. It is to that end that they are inviting you to two informative Zoom sessions:

    • “White Supremacist Activities in Florida: A brave sheriff and a state representative“
    • Jun 7, 2023, 7:00PM EDT. Co-Sponsored by SWFL Voices for Racial Justice
    • and Concerned Citizens of Lower Lee County
    • “Saving Democracy” with Author David Pepper
    •                                                          June 15, 2023, 5:30PM EDT. Co-Sponsored by Floridians for Democracy and SWFL Voices for Racial Justice

Here’s a link to full program descriptions and the Zoom link to each session. Note that these sessions come to you without cost and they are not fundraisers. They are education that is offered because you need to know.

Make no mistake: this is not just about DeSantis attacking minorities or even just about Florida. This is about all the anti-democracy bullies all over America stealing education from our children, cheating Americans of their voting rights, reducing women to second class citizens, refusing gun safety and all the rest.

This matters to you because one day DeSantis and the bullies will be coming for you and you’re going to hate it when they crash through your door.

The Good Old Days

As the default/budget bill was being readied for a vote in the House last Wednesday, Ron DeSantis was pontifi-whining about it, stupidly saying that we’re going to go bankrupt. Other idiot extremist Republicans were saying similarly stupid, apocalyptic things.

They all long so dearly for the good old days when fiscally responsible Republicans were in charge and they never added to our national debt. That made me wonder which days those were, so I dug around and the chart below is the product of that digging.

The numbers represent the total each president added to our national debt over the course of their administrations. Harding and Coolidge delivered surpluses. All the rest gave us more debt.

Most notably, each administration added billions of dollars of debt until Reagan came along and ratcheted that up to trillions. He put six times more debt on the U.S. than his Democratic predecessor did. In fact, he added just shy of twice the debt of all preceding presidents combined!

You can blame his supply side economics for much of that. He truly was Saint Ronny the Reverse Robin Hood, patron saint of giveaways to the rich. Republicans still genuflect at the sound of his fiscally larcenous name.

Simple fact: In large measure our national debt is a function of both low and lowered taxes matched with increased spending. Somehow such debt, while a big DUH! to the rest of us, is not easily understood by supply-siders, who believe Tooth-Fairy-like that we will have increased revenue by means of decreased revenue.
.

George W. Bush dramatically lowered taxes while starting two “off balance sheet” wars. I still don’t know what that term means. He doubled our national debt over all previous presidents combined, including Reagan! Oddly, that failed to impress voters.

The debt Dubya left for us is hardly a surprise, given his wars and his tax cuts. What is surprising is how Trump managed to increase our national debt in one term even more than Dubya did in two terms.

The Dubya and Trump tax cuts for the rich cost the U.S. nearly $10 trillion and included tax breaks for yachts and private jets.* We’re left with the glow of enhancing the lives of rich people and with the bill they left for us.

Someone please tell me which are the Republicans’ good old days when they were in charge, were fiscally responsible and didn’t add to our national debt.

Take a look at the chart and see if the “tax and spend” label that Republicans like to staple to the chests of Democrats makes sense to you. Or the Republican claims of fiscal responsibility. Or the moronic belief in supply-side economics. If any of that makes sense to you, you will immediately be sent to a 3rd grade remedial math class to see if you can keep up with 8-year-olds doing flash cards.

Source: The Balance

________________________________

* It’s heartwarming to know that the new budget just squeezed out of the Congress cuts $21 billion in funding from the IRS. That was a critical thing for Republicans. Two points about that:

  1. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that hobbling the ability to go after tax cheats will result in $40 billion in lost revenue, resulting in an increase to the debt of $19 billion.
  2. Gotta answer this question: Why was it so important for the Republicans to inhibit the IRS from chasing down rich tax crooks? Hint: Can you say “donors” boys and girls?
  • Today is a good day to be the light.

    ______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

    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 a lot 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.

    Click me

    JA


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

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