Resist

What Will Happen – Part 2 of 2


POST 1121

Preface

This is Part 2 of 2 – Part 1 was published last Sunday, detailing some of what you can expect from the second Trump presidency, Some of what follows is snark or satire. Most is not.

Criminality

The sentencing hearing for the 34 criminal convictions of Trump in New York for fraud is scheduled for November 26. Expect some cockamamie, bullshit suspension of sentence. The conviction will stand, but it will be neutered and Trump will get away with fraud, election interference and screwing a porn star while his wife was giving birth and caring for his infant son.

The E. Jean Carroll case is on appeal, likely to be decided around the time Trump is sworn in with his hand on a Chinese made Trump Bible. Watch to see if the Bible is held upside down, as in Trump’s photo op in Lafayette Square in 2020. If the judgement award is upheld, the money will be paid to Carroll from the bond believed to have been created by Trump’s lawyers. Then expect an infinitely long delay to repay Trump’s attorneys. Like so many Trump lawyers and contractors have been, those guys (or whoever put up the cash) will be screwed.

Once in office, Trump will attempt to pardon himself in order to avoid eventual prosecution in the insurrection indictment and in the Mar-A-Lago classified documents indictment. His puppet district court judge in the Mar-A-Lago case, Aileen Cannon, dismissed the case on bogus reasoning (a staple of her judgeship) that the special prosecutor was appointed improperly. There are at least two cases that establish with great clarity that there is no basis for her ruling. Jack Smith has appealed her stupid dismissal of the case. Expect yet another appeals court smack down of Judge Cannon.

Meanwhile, as I said, Trump will attempt to pardon himself from this and all other crimes which he may have committed, which will include the insurrection indictment and the Mar-A-Lago classified documents case. His pardon, if allowed to stand (and I don’t know who would challenge it, since he will control the Department of Justice) will only apply to federal cases.

Meanwhile, there’s the Fani Willis indictment of Trump in Georgia for election interference, criminal racketeering, conspiracy to change the outcome of the 2020 election and felonious manifestation of stupidity. That’s the, “What I want to do is this. I just want to find, uh, 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,” case. This case will go nowhere because by the time Trump is out of office he will be mentally enfeebled and too much time will have passed for there to be public support for prosecution.

Several of Trump’s lawyers pleaded guilty to the Georgia conspiracy charges and some are disbarred. All are tarred and will have to go find real work. Maybe they can get jobs building the wall that Mexico won’t pay for.

These lawyers helped the big stinky fish to get away. That was a great deal for Trump, because he will stiff those lawyers. All it took to get his free legal defense was Trump’s promise of money and fame. The disgraced lawyers believed him and sold themselves out on the cheap.

Meanwhile, pardon or not, Trump will be President and therefore prosecution-proof because of that grievous 1973 memo from The Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, which says that a sitting President may not be criminally prosecuted. It isn’t law, but it’s treated as if it were.

And, of course, there is the idiotic Supreme Court stay-out-of-jail-free decision from 2024 that transforms a president into an absolute, untouchable monarch. The Court decided that a bad boy President can never be prosecuted for criminal official acts. That way Trump really can shoot someone on 5th avenue and get away with it. It’s good to have one’s own personal Supreme Court justices.

Supreme Court

Thomas and Alito will resign and Trump will replace them with radical right wing operatives (no women need apply). Their young age will guarantee an extremist Court for generations. They will be fundamental to the Heritage Foundation march to permanent destruction of democracy and the enshrining of autocracy.

There will be no ethics codes with teeth imposed on the Court, the kind that all other federal judges must abide by. The Trump Court will lubricate the monstrous enriching machine for already fabulously rich people, as well as send all power to just a few unworthy individuals. Cruelty and discrimination will be enshrined in our laws, as rights and freedoms are incrementally taken from the people. Abortion, gun safety, public education and humane immigration will all vanish. No worries, though. Things will get worse.

Legacy

In his first administration, Trump rampaged through everything on which Obama had his fingerprints. Effectively, he tried to erase Obama from American history. Now it’s Biden’s turn to be Trump’s whipping boy. Expect his efforts to cancel every Biden success.

Trump will direct his Department of Justice to prosecute the non-existent Biden Crime Family. All that will come of that will be a high volume lies and innuendos from Republican posers. They will sound like champions of justice to the MAGA crowd and like lying idiots to the rest of us. Biden will have to secure legal counsel to defend himself against the Republican dishonesty, so Trump will crow about how he crushed Biden.

Foreign Relations

Expect Trump to do everything he can to undermine NATO, including removing the US from membership. Plus, he will treat NATO like one of his lawyers and refuse to pay what is owed. Given his compliant Senate and likely compliant House, they will allow him to terminate our membership or financially undermine the organization that has kept the peace in Europe for 75 years. Following that, look for Putin’s Russia to begin invasions of NATO member countries with relative impunity, because Trump has already told Putin to, “Do whatever the hell you want.” Accordingly, it’s safe to assume Trump will cut off military aid to Ukraine and allow the very worst to happen to those people.

Expect some kind of aggressive actions toward Iran, likely leading to a military confrontation in a battle to win the Penis Raving Insecurity Challenge Kingdom (PRICK). There will be further sucking up to North Korea and provocations of China. What could possibly go wrong?

Final Note

There is nothing in this post that you didn’t already know. That is how blatantly, screamingly, obviously awful this stuff is. And there is more and worse on the way. We have a lot of work to do. Meanwhile,

Don’t let the bastards get you down!

 

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

A-Changin’


POST 1115

On the Sunday before last the New York Times published letters from readers that were composed in lyrical form rather than in prose. One was to the tune of the 60s Bob Dylan song, The Times They Are A-Changin’. Here’s it’s opening:

Come liars, deniers who call it a hoax

And convince us these fires are nothin’ but jokes

When the air that you’re breathing’s like three packs of smokes

Even Fox might admit they were fakin’

Better get a good gas mask if ya don’t wanna choke

‘Cause the climate is a-changin’

Having been there in the 60s and been a finalist in Lyndon Johnson’s contest to win an all expense paid trip to Vietnam, I was sensitive to Dylan’s words in his song. That tide of change led to the 1968 anti-war demonstrations in Grant Park that turned into a battle that the Kerner Commission labeled a “police riot.” I remember Hizzoner the Mayor, Richard J. Daley, defending the police, saying, “The police are not here to create disorder. They are here to preserve disorder.” He certainly was a man of insightful and inspiring words.

What comes to me now is that the 60s demand for change was about our attempts to move away from repressive government hiding behind the label “conservative.” It seemed designed solely to prevent any change that might affect the power of those in charge, regardless of the desires of We The People. Meanwhile, people were getting killed.

Good thing there is no global warming leading to this flooding in New Mexico. Oh wait – there is.

Here we are today with new power grabbers stripping power from us using their chicanery, demanding that their minority be in charge of the rest of us. They’re fighting any change with their unlawful, unconstitutional schemes to diminish our power.

They’re denying climate warming, for example, even as people throughout our southeast are suffering, some dying, from yet another “storm of the century” and there are lakes, oddly enough, flooding parts of the Sahara Desert and New Mexico. Hence, the creative use of Dylan’s form and the updated meaning above.

These pretenders are trying to claw their way into absolute power using lies, propaganda and promises – threats, really – of unconstitutional cruelty. They are fighting change for the better solely to snatch away yet more power for themselves at the expense of We The People. Meanwhile, people are getting killed. It’s an eerily familiar story.

The times are a-changing because we have made a lethal mess and change is an existential imperative. Ask your children and grandchildren how they’re feeling about their future, about the dire threat of global warming and the threats coming from citizen mob incitement and violent people with guns. Ask them how they’re feeling about people, especially politicians, who deny reality.

Today’s young are the ones who have had to do active shooter drills in schools. They’re the ones dealing with our insurmountable housing reality and the crazy cost to marry and have children, about all the impossible challenges that have put them in despair. Essentially, they are asking,

“What American dream?”
.

So, they and we want the times to be a-changin’. We don’t want the chaos, the instability and the threats of being dominated by people who want to “terminate” our Constitution. We don’t want our rights to be stolen from us and we don’t want liars to treat us like we’re stupid.

In short, the battle is the same now as it was in the 60s, as we fight the lies and repression that could get us killed. It turns out, much to the surprise of some, that people don’t like their rights and freedom trampled. People don’t like the frauds and the cruelties, like ripping babies from the arms of their mothers; like lying to victims of hurricanes so that they don’t get the aid they need and deserve; like letting pregnant women die from lack of ordinary care that would save their lives; and like encouraging Americans to attack other Americans. People don’t like their hopes and dreams to be crushed by those who care only to amass yet more power.

Change is coming because We The People won’t long tolerate repression. The cruel ones will continue to be cruel because that’s all they have. The minority will continue to manipulate the system solely for their own benefit for as long as they can. But we will reject them because they represent an America that only the haters want. We’ll banish them to the obscurity they deserve.

Our job, to paraphrase Ghandi, is to “Be the change we want to see in America.”

Not with a riot in Grant Park, but with a riot of votes before and on November 5. Then the times, they truly will be a-changin’.

Come hopers and voters who know that they stand

For something much greater than that hateful man.

When hatred and lies are all that they sell

We see what they’re doing and we’re here to tell

They better get packing or they’ll sink down to hell

‘Cus their time it is now ending.

Name Calling Accuracy

O’ those rascally generals, those former Trump Cabinet heads and Republican spine finders! They are calling Trump and Vance dangerous fascists. O’ the degrading truth of it all!

You need to go to school on this and Professor Timothy Snyder has advanced to the podium. Watch his short instructional videos in order.

 

 

.
.
Lest We Forget the Odious Felons

These are some of the crooks who want to end our democracy and rule over you with a cruel fist. Don’t let them!

Pass this along to any who are undecided or apathetic. As awful as these felons are, they’re pussycats compared to the fascist, evil, goose stepping morons whom Trump will put in power over us if he wins.
.

Tell people to

vote like their life depends on it.

Because it does!

Best Required Reading

From Steve Schmidt, October 24, “America has had many long nights in its history.” You need to know this story – read his post. Meanwhile,

There is no heaven on earth, but there is America.

It is time to believe and imagine again in America. Isn’t it? America was invented by believers, not cynics. The presence of cynics amongst the believers doesn’t diminish the believers. It simply tests the character of the undecided. There are great choices ahead. There always are. While we wait, perhaps it is worth taking stock and remembering, if but for a moment, how it feels to be a member of the luckiest group of people on earth. Americans. This is a place where anything still remains possible. Two hundred years ago at a moment of division a friend [Lafayette] visited and reminded a young nation of its unlimited future. America is a young nation with old politicians. That problem can be fixed. It should be. It’s time to start building tomorrow again in this country.

Reality Reset Quote of the Week

From Sheila Markin:

Immigrants are not the danger that Trump claims they are. Democrats are not the danger Trump says they are. Climate change is a real threat. The pandemic was a real threat. Because Trump is disconnected from reality, Trump himself is the threat from within.

Insanity Corner

In what is already one of the most expensive Senate races in American history, the Ted Cruze “Citizens United funded Super PACs” are “.  .  .  blanketing the airwaves with $34 MILLION in attack ads against Colin [Allred] (from a 10-27-24 Allred fund raiser email).

This is just some of the insanity unleashed by the John Roberts Supreme Court extremists, who contorted themselves and the Constitution to give super wealthy individuals and corporations super influence over our elections. Plus they gave inanimate, non-human, non-sentient corporations all the rights that you have.

Insane.

Best Action Today

Read this.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Freedom Of Speech


POST 1105

From the First Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law  .  .  .  abridging freedom of speech  .  .  .”

To be clear, that has nothing to do with whether the owners of social media sites or newspapers can keep us from speaking on their platforms. They can. That has everything to do with whether the government can muzzle us, keeping us from speaking truth to power. It can’t.

So, Trump can bray his idiocies and judgements, like claiming that Biden is the worst president in history. The government can do nothing to stop that. But he is still subject to the laws regarding defamation, a concept that even his massively expensive losses to E. Jean Carroll don’t seem to have gotten through to him. Just think about all the people he’s defamed and who could file actions against him, like his lies about Haitians eating dogs, cats and geese and his various claims about sexual improprieties, like those aimed at Kamala Harris and other successful women. Those are abhorrent, but it would be far worse if he or any of us were prohibited from speaking truth to power.

From Professor Timothy Snyder’s post of September 19, following his meeting with Volodymyr Zelens’kyi:

The notion of “free speech” has become very inflated, used all too often just to mean the right to offend someone or cause disruption by knowingly telling lies, often from a place of power and wealth.The reason why we care about freedom of speech, though, is that we want to protect the dignity of the individual and protect the individual from the powers that be.  Freedom of speech is protected so that we can speak our truths to power, not so that power can force its lies on us.  It must be a right, in other words, because truth is risky.

  • – Prof. Timothy Snyder
  • Satire of the Week

Link through to Andy Borowitz’s explainer,

Trump Says He Will Be Too Senile to Debate in Late October
.

You will instantly understand everything and you’ll thank your lucky stars for the free speech that gives Borowitz the right to speak his satire about a would-be dictator.

Many thanks to JN for directing me to Borowitz’s piece.

Melania

In 2018 First Lady Melania Trump visited a detention center for children who had been ripped from their parents’ arms by Melania’s husband. She wore a trench coat on which had been written in bold white paint, “I Really Don’t Care. Do U?”

She was about to see infants and children crying in cages and she wore that coat with that message. Most of us were stunned seeing that, but now Melania claims the message was aimed at Ivanka. Right. Sure. Truth be told, I really don’t care about her claim. Do U?

This is the same Melania who, unlike most first ladies for a long time, championed nothing for we common folk. When we did see her it was clear that the only thing that was important to her was to be seen as glamorous.

She is the same Melania who couldn’t be bothered to attend the ceremonies on 9/11. Instead her husband was accompanied at Ground Zero by his new hate monger, 9/11 denier and current bimbo, Laura Loomer. I use that term “bimbo” because it’s his word for Stephanie Ruhle and so many other women. Melania was nowhere to be seen at the ceremonies. I guess she’s right: she really doesn’t care.

So, tell me why we should care about her new book, other than wondering if parts were plagiarized from Michelle Obama, like she did in her speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention. She’s promoting the book now and has the same right of free speech as the rest of us. I won’t be buying a copy, though, because, hey, I don’t care about Melania. Do U?

Quote of the Week

From Jimmy Kimmel:

“Sorry to break your cold little heart, Donald, but I endorsed Kamala Harris for president.”

I like Jimmy Kimmel and heartily approve his endorsement, but he got one thing wrong. Trump doesn’t have a heart.

Okay, that’s just a little fun, but there is a serious issue embedded in all of this. It’s about how we will exercise our freedom of speech, how we will make our voices heard. We must make them heard because, as Professor Snyder cautions us, “truth is risky” and we have to take that risk if we are to keep our freedom of speech.

One of the risks is that if we were to fail to exercise our freedom of speech by telling the truth, we could lose our right of freedom of speech entirely. Some strongman would come along and snuff it out, like a candle going dark – or a democracy going dark.

Look at the countdown timer below and you’ll see that we don’t have much time left to do what we can do, what must be done.

You can write letters to the editor, if you still have a newspaper.

You can post your comments – your speech – to these Disambiguations.

You can connect with a voter call operation – find one at www.JoinTheUnion.us

You can meet some nice people while canvasing for Democratic candidates in swing states.

You can write postcards to voters in swing states.

You can post a yard sign in front of your house.

You can attend rallies and cheer for what you know is right.

You can talk to your neighbor Bubba and ask why he plans to vote for Trump, when Trump would rather see his daughter die than get the help she needs for her rape-caused pregnancy. Okay, maybe that’s too in-his-face.

You can kick in a few bucks to help a Democrat win election in a swing state.

You can vote – and bring some neighbors with you to the polls – see below in RED.

All of these are exercising your freedom of speech, specifically to protect and defend our democracy so that your children and grandchildren will have that same sweet wine. And U care deeply about that.

While you’re deciding which actions you’ll take, watch this post from Steve Schmidt.

Voting and getting out the vote reduce the risk of unwanted presidencies!

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Potpourri v22.0


POST 1080

Source unknown

Readings & Quotes

“One important decision was handed down today, so we know the justices are at work. In what seems to be the ultimate no-brainer (but this is where we are), the court upheld a federal ban on gun possession by suspected domestic abusers. Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter. [In the Trump immunity case,] Trump’s claim that he is above the law seems as absurd as giving firearms to alleged abusers.”

“So why has a case of such importance taken more than 109 days to decide? The answer from a Trump-packed court is becoming obvious. Slow-walking justice is justice denied.”

– Dan Rather, Why Are They Taking So Long?, June 21, 2024

Get this critical difference: progressives, traditional Americans and believers in the rule of law are in Constitutional outrage over the idiocy of the Trump immunity motion and the Supreme Court’s obvious abuse of our justice system. MAGAs are chuckling evilly over their clever manipulation and distortion that is allowing both Trump to avoid trial and removing another brick from the foundation of our nation.

“But when Joe Biden talks about the “hostages” he is working to bring home, he’s talking about the 120 people held by Hamas in Gaza. When Donald Trump talks about “the hostages” who are treated “horrifically,” he’s talking about January 6 insurrectionists held in U.S. prisons who he plans to pardon.”

– Steve Sheffey newsletter, June 16, 2024

Pardoning insurrectionists, traitors to our country, is yet another Trump promise of destruction. Many Americans foam at the mouth repeating his threats. They want to destroy America, too. They cheer when Steve Bannon demands that we “tear it all down” and “victory or death!”* That is what we must defeat. Otherwise, the thugs actually will tear it all down.

“With his recent felony conviction, Trump can no longer legally own a gun. Should he be re-elected president come November, however, he will have the power to launch a nuclear weapon without any oversight.”

– Kathleen Kingsbury, New York Times Opinion Today, June 17, 2024

Maybe we better not allow him to have any power anywhere over anything. Besides, he’s on mental overload with the very serious task of deciding if he’d rather be electrocuted or eaten by a shark. Very presidential stuff. See the video link below.

“We protect the press because the press protects democracy.”

– Richard Stengel, former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy

Trump keeps telling us that the press is “the enemy of the people.” In truth, the legitimate press is only the enemy of cheaters, liars and traitors – people like Trump. They are the people whom we need called out by that Fifth Column. Go buy a newspaper today so that our journalists can continue to be our watchdogs protecting democracy.

“For decades, [Richard] Lynn was one of the loudest proponents of the unfounded idea that Western civilization is threatened by “inferior races” that are genetically predisposed to low intelligence, violence, and criminality. His work has been repeatedly condemned by social scientists and biologists for using flawed methodology and deceptively collated data to support racism.”

– STAT Morning Rounds, June 20, 2024

Richard Lynn died last year, still a committed racist. Plus, he was a dishonest scientist. His work is still cited by people scheming to promote White supremacy. Today’s Confederacy revisionist history, with its claims that the Civil War was a “war of northern aggression,” that the war wasn’t about slavery, that Blacks were better off under slavery and various other disgusting lies, is still malignantly alive. These people demand “states’ rights,” a miserable term for, “You can’t tell us what to do. If we want slaves, we’ll damn well have them.” You’ll find the revisionism in the calls for the restoration of Confederate monuments to traitors, calls to violence*, racial slurs in dog whistles and those bellowed out loud by haters.

Our nation continues to refuse to see the obvious, that nobody is going away and that the only way forward is to stop hoping for a better yesterday and figure that out how to make a better tomorrow, one both with-and-for all of us. That “better tomorrow” cannot include the work of Richard Lynn or those who discriminate like he did. The first critical step is to stop the extremist minority thieves.

“The choice in the election isn’t Biden vs. Trump. It is MAGA vs. America.

“Sides must be picked.

“Indifference is a side. So is hate.”

– Steve Schmidt, June 19, 2024

“For the religious right, erasing the constitutional right to abortion was just the beginning. They are coming after all our reproductive rights and freedoms, every single one of them, and the only way to stop them is with our votes.”

This tyrannical minority is coming after more than reproductive rights. They’re coming after religious freedom, equal justice under law, your right to vote and so much more. Robinson has it right:

“The only way to stop them is with our votes.”
Must Read

You better decide – while you still can.

Thom Hartmann’s post, America’s Darkest Hour: Battling the Second Great Insurrection, is a chilling explanation of the terrible consequences creeping into our lives and from which we will suffer greatly if we don’t saddle up and ride to the rescue of our nation. Here’s an excerpt:

“Democrats — and Americans more generally — must finally realize that Trump’s MAGA GOP is no longer interested in policy or politics but solely wants to seize absolute political and economic power to end our democracy and reinvent the [C]onfederacy.” [emphasis original]

Yes, the Confederacy! Click through and read his post – you’ll understand immediately.

Here’s more from Hartmann’s piece:

“The new GOP motto might as well be, “We don’t need no stinkin’ issues; we just want power and revenge for the heroes of the Old South and the New Insurrection.

“It’s why they lie so easily on the Sunday talk shows and in political campaigns: They don’t give a damn about issues. All they care about is power.”

And because all they give a damn about is power,

they don’t give a damn about you!
.

Click through and read Hartmann’s  post.

Creepy Cranial Catastrophe in 1 Minute 23 Seconds

Here is an update of a scene from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

Click me

Finally,

“There isn’t a good thing to say about Trump except he supports fast food.”

– Richard Sack

__________________________________________________

* “Victory or death!” – Convicted criminal Steve Bannon screamed this maniacally at a rally, June 15, 2024

“Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.”

  • – Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), 2016
  • 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!


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

Finding Optimism


POST 1069

Third in a series (see Ignorance and Lies and The Underlying Disease)

Stand Up
I asked [my friend] what we would do if 150 crazy people — a mix of deranged narcissists, political extremists, weirdos, conspiracy theorists and other assorted friends of theirs — showed up suddenly on the perfect deck [where we sat overlooking the ocean]. I wanted to know if he thought we’d fight with them or leave.
.

“Obviously,” I told him, “we would leave.” He agreed. Crazy people make normal people want to leave.

That’s exactly what we must not do if we hope to provide a cure for our terrible national disease and exit the craziness. Leaving would guarantee a ramping up of the crazy, the vitriol and the siege against the design of the Founders. They had lived under the thumb of despotic King George III and they knew the perils and the pain of autocracy. Our leaving would be capitulation to the forces seeking to undermine the very strength of our nation, our democracy.

So, don’t leave. Stand and fight back. Fight forward. Fight in every direction for your freedom, your rights and for everyone and everything you hold dear. That means standing up to the ignorants and the liars, like Ron Johnson, Jim Jordan, J.D. Vance, MTG, and all the rest of the extremist crazies. Stand up for equity and justice. Stand up to the 50-year-long war to disempower you, make rich guys richer and impoverish the rest of us. Stand up.

A Parallel

Today’s shrill voices and the violence, the threats and the chaos, the crazy and the stupid are all around us with propaganda and lies and visions of doom. Those voices aim to scare good people into capitulation. Those who give up – who leave, to use Steve Schmidt’s term – are today’s version of Neville Chamberlain and his capitulation to Hitler and tyranny.

Click me

Having given away the Sudetenland (then part of Czechoslovakia) to Hitler, Chamberlain came back to England from Munich in 1938 claiming, “Peace for our time.” Less than one year later Germany invaded and overran Poland and a year later began bombing London in the Battle of Britain. Here is the message, the learning:

  • Capitulation never works. It never brings peace. Never.
  • It only emboldens the bullies to do yet worse.

On October 29, 1941 things looked overwhelmingly dark for Britain. Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited The Harrow School, which he had attended years before. Here, in part, is what he told the boys that day:

.

” .  .  .  this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

Steve Schmidt is right: “Crazy people make normal people want to leave.”

But we aren’t going to do that. We’re going to stay and stand up to protect our democracy and our self-rule. We’re going to stay and stand up to the hatred and thwart the cruelty. We’re going to stay and stand and fight. We must not – we will not – leave.

We will never, never, never, never give in.

Optimism

I received a private reply from very long time friend Frank Levy to a recent Disambiguation, Ignorance and Lies. He’s given his permission to post some of his comment – many thanks to him for that..

My experience living among these American ethno-fascists [he lives in a deeply RED state], seeing their racism, watching them legislate for destructive and terrible policies for anyone that does not look, vote, pray, or love the way they do, watching them commit crimes of violence and hate against those very same people, watching them live out their misogyny and need to subjugate and humiliate women, and experiencing their virulent anti-Semitism leads me to two truths.
.
One, these people are who they are and they do what they do because they have been taught by their mommies and daddies to hate all the people their relatives hate (thank you South Pacific), and who [they believe] their religion teaches them to hate (thank you Christian Bible and Quran).
.
Two, they are who they are and they do what they do because they fear losing their privilege and power to the very people they despise and hate. And they hate democracy, while at the same time proclaiming themselves true patriots, because they know that they are a minority and that in a fair election they and their ideas are losers.
.
So, here is why I think your optimism is misplaced: you can’t undo this kind of hate and fear through conversation and education.
.
I believe Frank is right, that conversation and education won’t make a dent in the certainties of the fearful, the haters and the dispensers of cruelty, so I replied,
.
Our national salvation doesn’t lie in conversions of the BillyBobs and the vitriol droolers – as you put it, the ethno-fascists. Rather, it lies in activating everyone else.
.
We cannot wipe out the hatred and thuggishness in those who feel the imperative to hate and to be thugs. Their identities are wrapped up in that cruel package, making change for them impossible. What we can do is to overpower them at the ballot box and in legislatures, making their institutionalized bigotry and mania for domination of others a powerless thing, perhaps no more than an artifact.
.
Maybe the more remote polling places and mail-in ballot drop boxes will be returned to North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Kentucky. Maybe millions will have their names restored to the voting roles in Georgia, Virginia, Arizona and Texas. Perhaps an overwhelming defeat will make Kari Lake shut up.
.

It’s entirely up to us to make that happen. That’s the reason for optimism.

Obstacles to Optimism

Last Thursday a chunk of the MAGA extremism cult (please forgive the redundancy) came to Manhattan to parade themselves as brainless suck ups to Trump. They violated the gag order that

Judge Merchan placed on Trump and, in effect declared that they renounce justice.

Matt Gaetz (R-Young Girls) announced that he’s with the Proud Boy felons, saying, “Standing back and standing by, Mr. President.” Having already created chaos, these cheaters are attacking our justice system for being chaotic and broken. That’s what the extremists do: they break government, then blame Democrats for the ensuing chaos.

Also on Thursday, the news of Justice Sam “The Insurrection Man” Alito and his upside-down distress flag crashed into our Constitution. Is there nothing that is below him and Justice Clarence “Free Vacations Man” Thomas? Oh wait .  .  .  never mind.

The Republican pollution of the Supreme Court by insurrectionist sympathizers has driven disapproval of the Court to well over half of Americans. A few decades ago being a Supreme Court justice was the most highly respected profession. Now it doesn’t even make the top 20. It’s pretty hard to be optimistic about that.

Since impeachment isn’t going to happen and the Court’s newly drafted ethics guidelines have no teeth, perhaps now it’s time for Biden to pack the court with four additional justices, each of whom, refreshingly, has a moral compass. That would give us something to be optimistic about.

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.
    6. Clicking on most pics will take you to the source information.

    Click me

    JA


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

Law And Order: Special Hush Money Unit


POST 1062

Headline of the Month

From Politico of 4/14/2024 –

“A porn star, a president and a publisher named Pecker:

“The key potential witnesses at Trump’s criminal trial”

The Hoped For End of the Hush Money Trial

It’s the conclusion of jury deliberation in the Donald Trump hush money/criminal fraud/election interference, multiple count felonies case. The courtroom is silent in anxious anticipation, as the jury solemnly returns to Judge Merchan’s tense courtroom. The defendant has awakened from his courtroom nap and is focused on the jury with a sneering stare.

Judge Merchan: “The defendant will rise.”

Trump rises slowly, belligerent and hostile in rebellion against authority.

           Judge Merchan:   “Jury foreman, have you reached a verdict?”

Jury Foreman:     “We have, Your Honor.”

Judge Merchan:   “Regarding 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a crime, what is your verdict, guilty or not guilty?”

The jury foreman reaches into a pocket, pulls out a pitch pipe and blows a note. The entire jury turns menacingly toward defendant Trump. They furrow their brows in obvious distaste and snarl in unison,

“YOU’RE FIRED!”

Gang-Greene

You’ve known all along that Marjorie Taylor Greene is cruel and dishonest, vulgar and infantile and constantly inappropriate (ref: any Biden State Of The Union address). Her foaming-at-the-mouth refusal to help Ukraine leaves European nations and the U.S. at risk from the war mongering new iteration of megalomaniac Josef Stalin. That’s why she has earned a special title from Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who said, “that Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene . . . should be appointed as Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy to the United States Congress.”

In one of her most desperately cloying, grabbing, begging, pleading for attention idiocies, Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened to call for Speaker Mike Johnson’s removal from his speakership for his impudence to bring to the floor a bill for support of Ukraine. Putin didn’t want that to happen, preferring the continuing depletion of Ukraine’s war matériel so he can succeed in his invasion. Greene and her extremist conspirators in un-American activities, the Gang-Greene, are brain-free suck-ups to Donald Trump, who is completely captivated by Putin and proudly wears the title Putin has given him: Useful Idiot. That title goes for Greene and her abominable Gang, too.

Boomer Corner

From a recent post by my friend Ed Gurowitz:

It is this thoughtlessness that worries me. I have many German friends and family, and I’ve asked some of them what their parents told them it was like during the rise of Nazism. Even allowing for a people providing exculpatory explanations, what I have heard overwhelmingly is that people just let it happen – whether through apathy, feelings of powerlessness, or secret sympathy, it doesn’t matter. As Edmund Burke famously said, “All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

That is what I’m afraid of – good people doing nothing when the opportunity to vote is there.

Me, too. Which is why I offer the following.

From Wikipedia – Click the pic

We Boomers did some good work in the 60s when it was our asses on the line in a senseless war, our values were being assaulted by a continuation of centuries of cruelty that seemed like it would never stop. It was our time to respond to Abigail Adams, who expected her husband John to come home with a Constitution that guaranteed women the right to vote – he didn’t do that. And it was even time to (gasp!) guarantee non-Whites all the rights of citizenship. Crazy, right?

But those days are gone.  Our job was largely done, so we left the protests and went about our lives. The world moved on, only not always in a good way. Some of what we accomplished was tragically reversed and now we face a very bad threat.

We never thought we’d have to fight this fight again, but right now the forces of destruction are shaking our world, this time with an even greater threat to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The bad guys have been plotting this since we left the protests behind and they are organized and well funded by billionaires, who plan to be our fascist overlords.

You know what that means:

It’s time for us to saddle up again and fight for what is right.
.

It’s time for we Boomers to once again make our voices heard in a deafening thunder to say that we’re not going back. We will never back down. We will stop the forces of destruction. We will protect our sacred democracy.

READ THIS: An Urgent Call To All Boomers.
.

Then take action. You’ll know what to do.

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.

Civil War


Post 1,052

A blogger friend recently posted, “A few years ago, CNN reported on a survey indicating that over 40% of Americans believed that a civil war was ‘somewhat likely’ in the next ten years.” He mentioned globalization as at least part of the cause. I assume that means that it has caused disruptions leading to angry citizens.

There are a lot of people who believe they remember better times, regardless of whether the “old days” actually were better. Think: false message MAGA hats.

To be fair, there is some truth to their grievances. There has been off-shoring of jobs, “right-sizing” (i.e. massive layoffs) and the rise of the big box stores that decimated whole towns and more. Their frustration is being amped up by those who would accrue power and money to themselves by keeping people enraged.

Today millions hate the “elites,” which I suppose means anyone wealthier or more educated than themselves. One or two generations ago big company CEOs made 35 times what a regular wage earner made. Now it’s 320 times. Corporations often demonstrated a sense of duty to their communities. Now most obligation has shifted to serve only shareholders and C-level officers, who are, by definition, elites. And thanks to creative legal manipulation we have ensured that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer through the magic of legalized bribery (see Citizens United). Roughly $50 trillion has shifted from the bottom 99% to the top 1% over the past 50 years. That carries enough power to infuriate a lot of people.

If there is to be a civil war, it will probably look like guerilla warfare, not cavalry on horseback or infantry in trenches. It will look like attacks on elected officials, churches (Blacks), synagogues (Jews), grannies in supermarkets and children in schools. Anyone who is vulnerable and perhaps blame-able will be a target. We already know what that looks like* and it may well get far worse. The fires are stoked every day to keep the angry people agitated, like Trump declaring at his rallies that if he doesn’t win the election that there will be “a blood bath” and “bedlam.” He specifically enourages his followers to commit violence. Just like January 6.

Bottom Line

We need leadership to grow this nation instead of fracture it. We need a new clarity of purpose, which is now looking like dealing with existential threat. It could be a foreign threat, but at the moment it appears to be more like home grown terrorism encouraged by self-serving extremists.

Coming together for such a challenge is the job of each of us, of course, but most of all it is the job of the leader to bring us together. Anyone listening to and following those seeking to divide us against ourselves** is willingly seeking to destroy America. Don’t fall for the hypocrisy or let those you love fall for it. Then maybe, just maybe, we won’t have a civil war.

Key Reads of the Week

See Note #5 below – then click the pic.

See Note #5 below – then click the pic.

Prof. Timothy Snyder teaches history at Yale and is the author of On Tyranny and other books. If you have not read this brilliant, pamphlet-sized book (rather like The American Crisis by Thomas Paine), do so immediately.

The idea of a strongman leader has become quite popular, having been promoted over and over by Donald Trump to his largely uninformed audience. Having lived in, studied and understood strongman leaders in many countries, Prof. Snyder offers a most helpful post to explain what having such a leader always means and what profound and terrible consequences would descend on Americans should we choose such a path. Read Snyder’s post here.

Next, you must read Prof. Heather Cox Richardson’s clarification of the 2025 Project. Perhaps you already know that project is the product of the ultra-conservative (i.e anti-democracy) Heritage Foundation and is 1,000 pages of anti-American, dictatorial drivel. They think we should have a pharaoh or fuhrer, Stalinist, Viktor Orbán or Vladimir Putin, the far right’s BFF, to control our country and to control and minimize you. They believe that all power should go to the 1% wealthy minority and that there should be subservience and few rights for everyone else. They believe that all men are created equal except themselves, who are created superior and entitled.***

That’s what a civil war would bring us.

Take the pledge and internalize it deeply. Then click the pic.

Watch for the post this Sunday’s for some ideas of what we must do if things are to get better.

___________________________________________

* We are less than 22% through the year and already have over 12,000 dead from guns.

** It isn’t just Trump. Aaron Rogers thinks that 9/11 and the Sandy Hook murders were both staged by actors. He believes dumb and potentially homicidal theories about vaccinations, too. That’s why Rogers is on Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s short list for a running mate for the presidency. So is former pro wrestler Jessie Ventura. They are all dividers. And delusional.

If you want our nation to follow people like them, it’s possible you’ve sustained as many traumatic, brain injury bashings as Rogers.

*** Psst! Do you think you’re “more equal” than others? Most important, do you love to hate? Boy, oh boy do we have a tip.

This may not be the best country for you. Give Russia, Hungary, Sudan and Uganda a look. Those guys know how to suppress and murder “others” – they’re your peeps! Pick one and go there soon. Please.

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.

There Are Two Kinds of People


Post 1,051

Comedians say that there are two kinds of people in the world. There are people who laugh and there are people who make people laugh.

I, too, say that there are two kinds of people in the world. There are people who see nuances, shades of gray as well as of color; and there are people who only see black-and-white.

The black-and-white vision people are most fond of absolutes. Something is either good or bad, black or white, up or down and there is only one way to see things – their way. There is something satisfying in such simplicity. It’s the absence of troublesome “yeah-buts” and a lack of discomfort from uncertainty. Plus, there is the ease of never having to expend the energy to understand others. These people haven’t the rods or cones or whatever it is that allows some to see complexities and other possibilities. For these folks, there is no need for others’ conflicting opinions because those opinions are wrong.

We have many people in positions of authority who are black and white absolutists, unable to see anything but their own certainties. We saw that in the in vitro fertilization decision from the Alabama Supreme Court recently. The judges’ decision was supported by absolutist biblical understandings and beliefs. They included biblical quotes and invoked God multiple times in their written opinion. Apparently, they believe that everyone should believe as they do. That’s the law. Just ask them.

The First Amendment begins, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion .  .  .  ” If that prohibition against establishment of religion is the real deal, then that Alabama Supreme Court just violated it with their religious justification for their decision.

The absolutist judge who wrote that opinion effectively mandates, “You have to follow my religion just as I see it.” He is both wrong and dangerous.

He’s a threat to our Constitution, our democracy, our freedoms and what the Revolution was all about. Whatever his personal feelings about in vitro fertilization or religion, none of that belongs in this legal issue.

This is compounded by a U.S. Supreme Court which likely will affirm that decision when a case is brought to it, because they seem to sing, “Gimme that old time religion.” Today’s Supreme Court seems to have difficulty understanding plain language and has made clear that settled law isn’t settled at all. Pay no attention to their having sworn fidelity to stare decisis (leaving settled law alone) in their confirmation hearings. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Which brings us to my favorite West Wing scene. Watch it here. But before watching it decide if you believe that learning stopped several millennia ago. Because if we are limited to what pre-science, largely ignorant people believed and the fanciful stories and rules they made up about their universe in a hopeful but vain effort to explain what they could not understand, you won’t like that clip. Otherwise, go ahead and enjoy a view of human foolishness.

You Need To

Last weekend the New York Times Opinion Today newsletter ran this headline:

Humanitarian aid should be a bipartisan issue. Congress needs to unlock the needed aid funds. There’s no time to lose.
.

It was linked to the author’s guest essay on famine.

We all should stand and applaud that, just as Mike Johnson and his fellow smug Republicans should have stood and applauded at the SOTU after Biden said there should be no violence in politics and that we should make sure every kid can read by the time they’re in the third grade. But, of course, they didn’t applaud or stand and the Republicans are proudly resisting aid to starving people.

Gotta hand it to Republicans for their consistency of doing anything and everything to ensure that no Democrat, especially one residing in the White House, is ever allowed to have even the smallest win. It doesn’t matter to Republicans who gets hurt by their intransigence.*

The Republicans cling to their small-mindedness and their lack of care for anyone other than themselves and their monomaniacal lust for power and money. With each mean spirited, foolishly proud event we learn more about their adherence to the Dark Side and these lemmings march ever closer to the cliff. One can hope.

Which brings me to the words above from the Times. The troublesome part is “Congress needs to.” Does that mean that all in Congress have that need? Because if the Times does mean that, I think they should double check their sources. I think rather that we’ve picked up the “need to” phrasing as a weenie, chickening out of what is really meant: “Millions of Suffering People Need Congress to Unlock the Relief Funds.“

It’s much like the very popular phrase following a statement of opinion, “Just sayin’.” It’s a way of trying to avoid responsibility for taking a stand. Both phrases – “they need to” and “just sayin'” – chicken out of standing upright and making a clear declaration.

Here’s the thing: We don’t need any of that chickening out in Congress. Indeed, we need straight talk and sticking to what we know is right. Like ensuring that third graders can read.

So, in keeping with the theme, there are two kinds of people in the world: people who can think beyond themselves, who care about others and whose word means something. They say what they mean and they mean what they say. Then there are people who are weenies.

This is my shot across the bow of the USS Weenie. And no, I’m not just sayin’.

See Note #5 below

Today’s Quote

From Cassidy Hutchinson’s book Enough, page 354:

“I had seen how fragile democracy is, and my conscience recognized our duty as citizens to attend to it for its survival.”

There are two kinds of citizens in this country. There are people who believe in the Constitution, democracy and the rule of law. Then there are people who want to tear everything down and cause us to devolve into a brutal, feudal existence ruled by a despotic tyrant. On November 5 we get to vote on which we will be. Choose wisely.

Hint: You can do more than vote like a real American. You can encourage others to do the same. Click here.

__________________________________________

* Read Thom Hartmann’s post, How Come Everything the Republican Party Stands for Involves Other People Dying? The horrible part is that Hartmann is right.

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.

Elections, Amendments & Tunnels


Post 1,037

A little longer today because there is so much going on .  .  .

Winning Elections

A piece in The Economist in December accidentally provided yet another reminder of what wins elections. We used to believe that honesty and moral character were our guides, but we’ve been disabused of that fanciful notion for many years by poundings upside our heads from brutal reality.

We want to say that sound policy and good solutions leading to sensible goals are what get our votes. Surely the right policies for both our nation and for We The People individually are important to us. So, too, is a leader’s strong backbone to lead our national defense. That’s all nice and good, but that’s not what drives most voters’ choices.

In that Economist piece they report from a recent Harvard Youth Poll:

“Most of those who favoured Mr. Biden – 69% – said they did so more out of opposition to Mr. Trump; by contrast, 65% of those favouring Mr. Trump said they felt loyal to him.”

That’s touchy-feely stuff, not policy driven choice.

The Economist also reports from Joe Mitchell, who operates Run GenZ to recruit young conservative candidates, saying:

“Mr. Biden, he says, has passed more progressive legislation than Mr. Obama but is less admired by progressives because he lacks Mr. Obama’s cachet. By contrast, the indictments of Mr. Trump have restored his celebrity gleam.”

There’s that touchy-feely thing again. Sensible judgment need not apply.

If you listen to the comments from Trump supporters being interviewed, what you will hear consistently is visceral declarations of support charged with passion and certainty. If they are pressed for reasons for their enthusiasm they say that Trump kept his promises, that the economy was so much better when Trump was president, that he has the strength to stand up to other strongman leaders, that immigration was under control and our borders were safe when Trump was president. They say these things with great certainty and as though that’s what’s behind their support for Trump.

But they are wrong. Factually, provably wrong. He didn’t keep his wall promise or infrastructure week promise or pretty much anything else. The economy was worse, he was sucking up to dictators, our immigration system was as bad as it is now and Trump was locking up babies. We were far sicker and hundreds of thousands died. Yet even when presented with these and other incontrovertible facts, Trump enthusiasts remain certain in their beliefs. His moral failings like grabbing women you-know-where and raping them somehow don’t repulse his female followers. His nonstop vomiting of racist filth somehow doesn’t inflame his Black supporters.

They don’t follow and support Trump for his policies or for his moral foundation. Their enthusiasm is more about his showmanship and his tough guy talk. His followers think that the victimhood he whines about makes him like them, that when the bad guys from our justice system come after him, he speaks of that as coming after “us.” It’s a “We are a band of brothers under siege” appeal – and they eat that stuff up. They believe it.

It’s that touchy-feely thing again and millions are led to the ballot box by no more than that and an invitation to give their adulation.

Biden can’t come close to that. He just doesn’t have the stuff to strut. He’s further hobbled by the far left in his own party, people who are never satisfied and always complaining and demanding what he cannot possibly deliver.

Thanks go to JN for passing this along

I’ll make the assumption that nobody who reads these posts is a Trump supporter, so I can reasonably expect that even if you aren’t a Biden supporter, you want to see Trump defeated. Maybe you don’t trust any Republicans, so you don’t want Nikki Haley to win when she’s their nominee once Trump is wearing orange. Fine. What should Biden do to win?

Remember: Winning elections isn’t about policy. Winning may not even be about reality or about any version of truth. Winning elections most definitely is about emotion, passion, beliefs, style, entertainment, heart-thumping pie-in-the-sky promises, excitement and pretty much anything touchy-feely.

And that is a huge challenge that not-so-exciting Joe Biden must meet if he is to win a second term, so:

  1. What should Biden do in order to win?
  2. What must you do to ensure that happens, so that you get what you want and, so very importantly, so that you don’t get what you deeply don’t want?

Here’s a little help for you:

Link to this Sheila Markin post and scroll down to the “USE YOUR WORRY TO ACTIVATE YOURSELF” section. Admit it: you’re worried. You’ll find a list of places to go where you can pitch in, take action, alleviate some of your anxiety and make a difference.

Click to join The Union. Their Action Center will give you all the direction you need for where to go and what to do to make a difference.

Link to Mobilize and register so they can aim you geographically and find ways for you to mobilize and make a difference.

Subscribe to The Grassroots Connector and see how you can make a difference.

Are you seeing the pattern? It’s time for us to make a difference.

Supreme Court

It looks quite likely that the Court will strike down the State of Colorado’s decision to remove Trump from its 2024 ballot. The questions of the justices during oral arguments often focused on distinctions without a difference, like whether a president holding office is an officer of the government. And it gets worse.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is a plain language statement that those who have taken an oath to the Constitution – like a president does – and who then participates in an insurrection against our government or who gives aid and comfort to those who rebel in such a way, may not hold office. The framers of this Amendment were exquisitely clear that people like Jefferson Davis must never hold power again. They felt the pain of our Civil War acutely, so they knew how important it was to prevent those who broke faith from holding office.

If the Court decides as it appears it will, the justices will have by-passed the requirement of Article V of the Constitution requiring a 2/3 vote of both Houses of Congress and the affirmation of 3/4 of the states. That is because this Court will have voided Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, something that should require a new amendment.

Think of that: This Court may unilaterally amend our Constitution. That puts every one of us in peril, as it can unilaterally steal our rights and our freedom.

Tunnels

Click me for the story about humanitarian aid that Hamas is keeping from the hostages

The strife in Gaza continues and, like nearly everything in the Middle East, things are complicated and rarely what they seem to be. Bret Stephens posted a most clarifying piece, The Meaning of Gaza’s Tunnels. He wrote,

“Hamas’s tunnels measure between 350 and 450 miles in a territory that’s just 25 miles long. (By comparison, the London Underground is only 249 miles long.”

Here’s another comparison: The entire New York City subway tunnels are only 145 miles in length.

Q. What do you suppose that enormous Gaza excavation is for?

A. To provide command centers, shelter for Hamas fighters and to build and warehouse huge factories to construct rockets and other munitions for the sole purpose of attacking and killing Israelis.

Palestinians have been impoverished for decades by the diversion of resources intended for the benefit of the Gaza people. The resources have been used instead solely to build this subterranean military fortress. Again, its only purpose is to enable Hamas to kill Jews and eliminate Israel.

Read Stephens’ piece, as well as another of his posts linked from the bottom of his current one. I promise you’ll learn important things you don’t yet know. They just might change how you see this awful, ongoing Gaza war.

Late Addition

Take this pledge for democracy and then link through.

Click me

  • 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.

At Last


Post 1,016

—————————————

It took years for our media to stop pointing out the “mistakes” Trump was making in his presentations and to at last state the obvious: He lies and he’s a liar. By the end of Trump’s administration the Washington Post had documented over 30,000 Trump lies. That’s over 20 per day for 4 years. These were not inadvertent errors or little oops moments; they were flat out lies. It took the Post and the rest of the mainstream press years to find the nerve to state that obvious fact. Now we’ve come to another reckoning with reality, this, too, of the forehead slap variety.

It seems that our mainstream media has figured out that Donald Trump and his rabid followers and cowardly tag-a-longs comprise an existential threat to our republic, to democracy, to the Constitution and to our way of life. Journalists have figured out that these unfaithful ones are actually proclaiming their evil intent out loud and promising to deliver destruction.

This promise of a destructive rampage seemed obvious and dangerous to me at least as far back as April 9, 2012, well before the Trump bastardization of our country. Later Trump undercut our intelligence agencies, threatened nuclear war, promised retribution against various opponents and agencies of our own government and far more. Imagine that: it wasn’t enough to demonize Mexicans as rapists and drug smugglers and criminals, as he did during his infamous escalator candidacy announcement in 2015, complete with paid actors pretending to be supporters. Trump has attacked and continues to attack us all directly and repeatedly.

Now he’s promised to take down the Constitution, aggregate all power to himself, kill our generals, imprison political opponents, station our military in our cities to control we citizens, this in violation of the Third Amendment, and more. He’s promising all this in his campaign speeches. If there’s one lesson we should have learned quite well a long time ago it’s that Trump doesn’t do hyperbole. When he promises something outlandish, he means to deliver it, regardless of illegality or harm to others. Now it’s clear that his overriding message is that he plans to tear everything down and build a dictatorship solely for himself; as in: Nothing for you.

No democracy. No shining city on a hill. No last best hope. No lamp beside the golden door. Nothing but serfdom under a mad king, exactly what the colonists rebelled against.

Which brings us to morning in the journalism world.

At last journalists are writing and speaking about the obvious reality of the existential threat promised by Trump.

In the Washington Post Robert Kagan explains that A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending. Kagan’s post is a serious buzz kill, because what he lays out has been in plain sight for a long time – we should all have been able to see this coming – and it’s a deadly serious threat to us and our country.

The entire January/February issue of The Atlantic is devoted to the theme: If Trump Wins. It’s a very ugly picture.

The Economist tells us that Donald Trump poses the biggest danger to the world in 2024.

And you can check the New York Times for Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign, in His Own Menacing Words.

These are just a sampling of current pieces. If you don’t have online access to these publications, go pick up copies at a newsstand. You remember those, right? The big box bookstores have a whole section of periodicals. Go there.

Spoiler alert: The news you’ll find is clear and terrifying.

Like his constant lying, it appears that the secret is out about the doom of Trump looming menacingly on the horizon. Journalists are finally naming names. At last.

You need to be naming these threats, too, especially to low information friends and family members who don’t see what’s coming and which will clobber them if they let it.

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.

1 2 3 … 9  Scroll to top