Rights

What Is Actually Happening Today


POST 1254

Don Lemon’s Bogus Arrest Isn’t What You Think

He committed journalism. So far that still is not a crime. But it was only a matter of time until Don Lemon would be arrested.

For years Lemon has been critical of Trump. He’s laughed at and ridiculed him, been disparaging, accusatory, condemning and, worse, Lemon has been accurate in his unsympathetic appraisal of the malignant narcissist. That alone would be enough for Trump to jam Lemon into his retribution pipeline, his enemies list, about which both he and Pam Bondi lie, saying it doesn’t exist.

Clearly, Trump believes Lemon has earned retribution and other cruelty. If Trump doesn’t suppress Lemon, Trump would be forced to see himself as a loser, the very worst thing. So he must crush that nasty bug. But there’s more and it’s worse.

Don Lemon is a full time, card carrying Black person. And he compounds that effrontery by being gay. He’s not who the heavy-starch-in-their-underwear, moral storm troopers insist that he must be. Don Lemon is the perfect target for persecution by racist Trump. And there’s moreT

Trump and his fascist lieutenants are on a full court press to eliminate our rights, focused primarily on the First Amendment. They’ve sent their Gestapo to many cities to shut down freedom of speech, the right to assemble and the right to petition government. And they’re on a 50 state rampage to eliminate voting rights for all but those who will vote for Trump.

He’s already attacked freedom of the press with his extortion of CBS, ABC and now his baseless arrests of Don Lemon and other journalists.

Lemon’s arrest isn’t just retribution, It is an attack on our freedom and our democratic foundation.

Historical precedent

It was then-Vice President Dick Cheney on (I think it was) Meet the Press. There was great criticism across the country of Dubya’s invasion of Iraq, Cheney’s pet project. He proclaimed his absolute certainty that deposing the tyrant Saddam was worth our blood and treasure. Far worse, he told we critics of the war that we better watch what we say.

WATCH WHAT WE SAY!?

If we were to criticize him, Dubya, Rumsfeld, their policy, their strategy or their power he would – what? – come gunning for us? Lock us up? Cheney’s was a barely concealed threat against the First Amendment’s protection against government abridgement of our freedom of speech. We might not have seen it then, but that was prelude to today.

Now

Trump, Bondi and a few DOJ bench warmers are saying the same thing, that we better watch what we say. They’re taking Lemon to court to make it stick. Were they to win their blatantly anti-Constitutional case, all freedom will be taken from all of us. The First Amendment will be burned to ashes.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens are already threatened with violence and incarceration, even a torture prison, this as government policy to eliminate our freedoms and place all power in Trump’s hands.

And Trump won’t stop there, Here are a quick list of the Amendments and Article II of the Constitution.

Q. Once the First Amendment is gone, what will be destroyed next?

A. Everything

I say again: Lemon’s arrest isn’t just retribution, It is an attack on our freedom and our democratic foundation.

Duplicitous

Maybe it’s just more of Trump’s miserable, self-serving, living-the-lie bullsh*t. Read this short report from Peter Baker’s January 13 NYT piece, Trump Supports the Protesters, Except Those Protesting Him.

From The Onion

President Trump had a ringing message of solidarity on Tuesday for demonstrators in the streets. “KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” he wrote on social media. He decried “the senseless killing of protesters,” and added that those pulling the triggers “will pay a big price.”

He meant the protesters in Tehran, not Minneapolis. By contrast, the people in the streets of Minnesota, he wrote just 63 minutes earlier, were “anarchists and professional agitators” trying to cover up a fraud scandal. He vowed that “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”

This is yet another example of Trump as democracy destroyer.

Tom Homan, Border Bastard

From Mother Jones:

Homan was a key architect in implementing family separations as acting ICE director in the first Trump administration [Think: thousands of kids in cages. Over 1.000 still are not reunited with their parents.]. In the president’s second term, he was appointed “border czar” to take charge of mass deportations and was investigated over cashing in on it. (We reported with the Project On Government Oversight that many of his former private business clients won lucrative border and immigration-related government contracts.)

Plus, Homan is the $50,000 FBI bag man. And he’s continuing the illegal, un-Constitutional ICE Gestapo brutality in Minneapolis, coming soon to Ohio and Maine.

That’s right: Homan’s appointment to Assistant Chief Cruelty Dispenser is yet another example of Trump as democracy destroyer.

Quote Of The Month

On NBC’s Meet The Press, Sunday, January 18, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained why we are in a state of emergency, by saying,

“The national emergency is avoiding a national emergency.”

Let your eyeballs settle a moment for having gone googly over that idiotic doublespeak.

Next-Gen M1 Abrams Tank. Picture that parked down the street from your house.

There is always the possibility of something causing an emergency. So, if Bessent’s absurd remark has weight, then we are always in a state of national emergency. That’s handy for Trump because that could allow him to cite the Insurrection Act and deploy our active duty military with their weapons of war everywhere in the country.

And that would make it much easier for Trump to destroy democracy and accrue all power to himself.

It Isn’t New, But It’s Just As Ugly

From The Diary of Anne Frank, January 13, 1943:

Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone. The Christians in Holland are also living in fear because their sons are being sent to Germany. Everyone is scared.

We’re living in a mad king, Jaberwocky moment like that right now and it’s very, very dangerous for us all.

Song of the Month

You must listen to Bruce Springsteen’s song Streets of Minneapolis. It’s so strong and so sad and so honoring and so brave.

A Call From July 4, 1776 – Pick Up The Phone. It’s For You

We are endowed with .  .  .

.  .  . certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed .  .  .

.  .  .  but we do not consent to this government!

We are at a choice point. We can either allow ourselves to be terrorized into submitting to Trump’s dictatorship or we can stand against it.

Many ask what we can do. Read Steve Schmidt’s Defiance Is The Cure. Then steel yourself for the patriotic battle that we will win.

Now, tell me you’re seeing what is actually happening today.
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    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

An Update – With Questions


POST 1249

ICE Murders

Intending no disrespect, Renee Nicole Good is still dead. That’s the way it is when an ICE thug shoots someone in the face or shoots them pretty much anywhere else. It isn’t a movie and the actors don’t get to go home. Renee Nicole Good is and will remain dead and her children will remain orphans.

That was said to make it clear that she isn’t a statistic or an avatar. She was a real person just like you and me and now she’s dead because of ICE brutality directed by Donald “Shaky Brain” Trump, Stephen “Goebbels” Miller, Christi “Puppy Killer with a Rolex” Noem and Pam “President’s Hit Man” Bondi.

It doesn’t get more real or more permanent than dead, and our titular leaders don’t give a damn about that or anything important to you, like your life, just as they don’t care about Renee Good losing hers.

Two more innocents were gunned down by Border Patrol last week in Portland, OR, so it seems right to do a count of the deaths by our immigration thugs. Here’s what I found from Google AI.

Since January 1, 2017, ICE has reported that 70 people have died in its custody. [Note that we don’t know how many have died in the El Salvador torture prison.]

Independent reports suggest a higher potential number, with a 2024 analysis by the ACLU, Physicians for Human Rights, and American Oversight finding that 95% of 52 deaths in ICE custody between 2017 and 2021 were potentially preventable with adequate medical care. 
.

A report by The Trace revealed that between 2015 and 2021, 59 shootings by ICE officers resulted in 23 fatalities. [We must have had a lot of domestic terrorist drivers who tried to run down ICE agents in those years.]

More recent reports from late 2025 and early 2026 indicate a notable increase in the use of force.
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During the current Trump second term, federal immigration agents have shot at civilians at least 16 times, resulting in four deaths and at least seven injuries, according to a data analysis. [all emphasis original]
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None of the deaths of incarcerated people were of White guys. But most, maybe all, of the deaths of protesters gunned down by ICE were White. Make of that what you will.
Questions

Do you feel safer?

Is our nation safer?

Is it okay for a vigilante quality posse of goons to shoot law abiding people?

Is this the kind of country you expected or want?

Did you vote for this? This question will make a lot of people twist their innards. Guilt is a terrible thing.

More Pesky Questions

Have you noticed that nearly all the Immigration and Customs Enforcement – ICE – action is happening hundreds to thousands of miles from our borders, where there is no immigration going on?

Can we now stop pretending that what is going on has anything to do with the enforcement of our immigration laws?

Can we now publicly declare that our officially designed domestic terrorism is actually about racial domination in pursuit of White racial purity? You know: like superior Aryan purity?

Playing With Numbers

It’s clear that making this a White Christian nation is a key priority of Trump, MAGA and most super rich guys. So, what would it look like if we removed all those pesky “others”?

We’re already well on the way to expelling all Brown and Black people. People with Somali ancestry are obviously next to be imprisoned and expelled, even though between 70 and 83% of them are U.S. citizens and most others are here legally. But this is the Trump era, so those numbers are no impediment to ICE thuggery.

Muslims, Jews and Asians will likely be next. I have no clue what they’ll do with/to Native Americans. Since Trump likes Andrew Jackson so much, maybe there will be another Trail of Tears that leads to deportation vehicles.

The population of the country is about 348 million, so when we get rid of the 60% of unwelcome non-White, non-Christian “others” the population will be about 139 million.

That leaves me wondering who will do all the jobs that those disappeared people are doing now. What will Trump do with all the vacant rooms in his hotels? What will be our sense of ourselves? Don’t ask me because I won’t make the cut. I’ll be looking for a country to live in.

Three Questions

Who will remove Emma Lazarus’ poem from the base of the Statue of Liberty?

The last line to each stanza of the Star Spangled Banner is “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,” just as Francis Scott Key wrote it. Who will compose a revised last line that both rhymes and reflects our new and deeply compromised freedom and bravery?

When Trump has Arlington National Cemetery dug up to build the “Nobody has ever seen anything like this” Trump U.S. National Golf Course, what will he do with the 430,000 caskets and headstones of all those “suckers and losers”? How will the caskets and headstones be kept properly paired?

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    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Starting To Set Things Right


POST 1236

Cheers For Freedom Of Speech

One of the most valuable rights we Americans have is the right of free speech. What that means is that the government is prohibited from restricting our speech, stopping us from saying what we want to say, even if we are criticizing the government or any of its employees. There are some exceptions, like for slander, liable and incitement to violence. That’s how it’s been since 1789 and it’s worked pretty well for our democracy and our freedom all this time. We can say pretty much what we want to say, as did six legislators who told the truth about the prohibition of military personnel to obey illegal orders. See the Special Slime section in this post for more.

The government may not censor us just because some wrinkly, thin-skinned official cries “MEANY!” or “UNFAIR!” or “TRAITOR” on the playground at recess time and throws an infantile tantrum, then runs to his fixer, his present day Roy Cohn (his AG, Bondi) demanding prosecution of whoever dared to speak truth about him.

Having so many opportunities to right grievous presidential wrongs, we’re getting better at this.

A Mini-Summary

A court says Alina Habba, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s surrogate for unconstitutional cases, is an illegal U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. The appeals court agrees and replaced Habba with Desiree Leigh Grace. Immediately Bondi fired Grace and put Habba back into control of that office. We’ll see how long that lasts, because judges typically have the last say.

Click me for the U.S. Department of Revisionist History

Another court says beauty queen Lindsey Halligan was not properly vetted and appointed, so it dumped her cases against James Comey and Letitia James, then spanked her hand with judicial smack downs. Andy Borowitz opined that Halligan’s dream is to go to law school some day.

It seems that maybe, possibly, might be, could be Pete Hegseth has finally crossed a red line. Following 10 months of saying stupid things, he ordered our military to kill survivors of our homicidal drone strikes on boats in international waters. A lot of people have their underwear in a bunch over that, including senators and representatives. They say those acts are war crimes and murder. Ya think? At last Hegseth may get what he has coming; specifically a boot out the White House back door and perhaps prosecutions for his impressive list of illegal actions. We’ll all have lots to say about this deviant in the coming months.

AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks earned his title  of czar only because: 1. Nobody knows what someone in charge of AI and/or crypto does or should do; 2. Donald Trump likes big superlative seeming stuff that gets attention, like the title “czar.”

Hard to read. It’s a huge billboard in Chicago not far from  Broadview that reads “IMPEACH TRUMP.”

Adapted from a quotation by management expert Peter Drucker:

“We are using the word ‘czar’ only because ‘charlatan’ is too long to fit into a headline.”

That quote can be used for just about every Trump appointment. And yeah, I get to say that. It’s that freedom of speech thing.

Our reality show president has been waging a verbal war on narco-terrorism, perhaps believing he can Truth Social it into submission and randomly kill whoever someone tells him is a drug something or other. Apparently, even the dementia-addled have the right of free speech, much as that sucks in this case.

Trump is definitely a tough guy who is verbally tough on narco-terrorism and Hispanic landscapers, but now he has pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras. He was convicted in the United States of a vast drug-trafficking operation that prosecutors said dumped over 400 million tons of drugs into the U.S. Trump has pardoned this biggest narco-terrorist of them all, enraging Elmer Fudd, who oinked furiously, “I’ll get that wasco, if it’s the wast thing I eva do!” So much for Trump being the narco tough guy.

Since the power of pardons rests solely with the sitting president we can’t prosecute Trump for this affront. We are left with investigating how much money was given to Trump for that pardon. Watch for that investigation as Trump’s biggest pay-to-play bribe. It might be part of a package of bribery investigations starting in 2027, then pursued by the Department of Justice in 2029.

Click me for the transformational story.

We’re starting to set things right. My notion is that it’s going to take more than a generation to clean up all the terrible mess the infant tyrant has made. It will take many years to remove his bad boys and bad girls and prosecute them in accordance with the law. Let’s hope that foot dragging Merrick Garland has nothing to do with initiating those prosecutions so that we don’t get stymied by the statute of limitations.

That said, courts are largely doing what they are supposed to do, although John Roberts cannot live long enough to somehow be worthy of forgiveness for giving immunity from prosecution to Trump. Our Republican legislators are beginning to see that it may be safe for them to retrieve their spines from the Senate and House Cloak Rooms, where they checked them upon being sworn in.

It’s Partisan

President Donald Trump has told us that the Epstein thing is a partisan witch hunt being conducted by Democrats, much like his claim about Russians helping him in his elections; like “affordability” and inflation; like Hegseth’s “Kill them all” criminality; like so many issues. It’s about the other party. So, I have a question.

My party is the Constitution of the United States. What is Trump’s party?

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Two Cruelties


POST 1228

Keeping Score

Trump’s Reichsführer, Stephen Miller, White House Nazi-in-residence, has an important goal. He says that we must deport (not incarcerate; deport) 1 million people per year, regardless of anyone’s absence of criminality, lawful U.S. residency or even citizenship. That may have to do with something primitive about blood and  soil.

Here’s the math.

1 million people removed in a year will require 2,739 people to be disappeared every day. ICE reports that they’ve disappeared 527,000 – about 1,370 per day. Clearly, Trump’s Thug Corps. is not on pace to brutalize people to match up with Miller’s nutso number. And there is nobody checking ICE’s number – could be worse – any more than there is anyone stopping their cruelty, so there is no particular credibility to their body count.

Now you see the reason for the Jonathan Swift solution proposed in POST 1227. It should appeal to psycho Stephen Miller as a serious recommendation cruel enough even for Trump, especially as a distraction from the Epstein files and rumored pedophilia and sex trafficking of little girls. And that perpetuates the cruelty to all of the victims of Epstein and his clients.

They messed up. They let us know there’s an Epstein black book and a gazillion documents of his crimes and those of his allegedly wicked “clients.” Trump can dance, deny, and distract, but he and his bootlickers can’t make us forget that the incriminating evidence exists. I just hope that someone is retaining unaltered copies of the evidence so that suck up sycophant Pam Bondi can’t redact all of it into a black blob.

Congressman Brad Schneider (D-IL 10) and the Republicans

From Rep. Schneider’s October 31 newsletter:

On Monday [October 27], as chair of the New Democrat Coalition (New Dems), I reached out to my counterparts in the Republican Main Street Caucus and the Republican Governance Group (RG2), proposing we sit down to look for common ground and shared ideas for breaking the impasse between Republicans and Democrats  I was hopeful they would agree to join me in bipartisan conversations. Unfortunately, neither one was willing to engage. [I]nstead they leaked my outreach to the press and told us to effectively “pound sand.” Click here for [the] MSNBC story on my letter.

That’s what we can count on for help to get justice for Epstein’s victims and ICE’s victims. And that should tell you all you need to know about how desperate Trump and Speaker Johnson are to maintain distractions to prevent the Epstein files from being made public and how desperate Republicans are to avoid displeasing Trump. No amount of food shortages, economic woes and healthcare suffering by the public will dissuade them and fellow Republicans from stalling and covering up the horrific crimes likely to be found in those Epstein documents or stop the ICE unlawful cruelty.

From Steve Schmidt, November 3

The American people are besieged by malice, indifference, corruption, incompetence, venal leaders and a boiling hot lava of stupidity, which truly appears to be bottomless. It seems that a corrosive awfulness has saturated everything, everywhere, and that nothing decent remains.

Of course, that is the hope of the architects of our shared misery. Hopelessness is their greatest weapon. Fear is the poisoned tip of their arrow.

We’ve seen the poison tipped arrow up close in Chicago and now in Mt. Prospect, IL at the Randhurst Mall, in quiet residential neighborhoods in Northbrook and in Evanston. Rachel Maddow covered the ICE-hole* brutality on Monday, including an interview with Mayor Daniel Biss. Click here and then on the right for the Chicagoland Sets The Example segment. And click here for an ICE deportation tracker.

There are no riots, there is no vandalism, there are no attacks on people or property in our cities by We The People who are protesting ICE cruelty and Epstein victim cruelty. No one in the streets is rioting, regardless of the phantasmagoria spouted by the Liar In Chief.

Our police cannot fight ICE because doing so would be a violation of the law. The Republicans in Congress could fight the ICE cruelty as well as the cruelty to Epstein victims, but they are spineless cowards. That leaves the opposition to the fascists to you and me.

And that calls on us for our courage.

As your blood boils seeing the cruelty done to the survivors of Epstein and his clients and the cruelty to our neighbors in our streets, remember that any violence by We The People in the streets will give Trump his unwarranted excuse to send the Marines to permanently occupy our country and our freedom will be lost. That is what the domestic terrorists headquartered in Washington want. So .  .  .

Speak up. Show up. Take a stand. And remain non-violent. Always.

__________________________________________

* “ICE-hole” – kudos for the creativity and thanks to MHA for use of the term.

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

WAR!


POST 1221

Reporting From War-Torn Chicago .  .  .
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Adapted from Edward R. Murrow’s March 9, 1941 broadcast from London.

Edward R. Murrow

This is Chicago.

Soon it will be winter in America. Already the flowers in the parks are browning and wilting as though there will be no renewal next year. There’s good fighting and invading weather ahead for Trump’s shock troops. In a few days’ time the moon will be full again and there’s a feeling in the air that big, dangerous things will happen soon.

Don’t believe it’s war? Go to Broadview, IL and ask anyone about masked gunmen, smash and trash, people thrown to the ground, pepper spray blasted in the face of innocents, children zip-tied and jammed into an unmarked, blackened U-Haul. Ask about camouflaged masked gunmen rappelling from a Black Hawk attack helicopter to invade and vandalize a peaceful apartment building. Ask about people shot by masked thugs and  a priest shot in the head while praying for peace.  Ask them if at first it felt like an invasion of criminals and now it feels more like a Civil War battlefield. So much for better angels.

From pal Frank Levy:

It isn’t bad enough that 47 is sending storm troopers (ICE and CBP) to northern cities with Democratic and Black mayors to quell an insurrection that does not exist.
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Now he is sending federalized National Guard troops from Texas to Chicago. Said another way, 47 is sending north hundreds of “sons of the south,” descendants of fighters for the “lost cause,” to quell violence, to stop an insurrection that does not exist, and control all those uppity people of color and put them back in their place. This sounds an awful lot like the making of an attack on Fort Sumter. I mean Fort Chicago.
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Can you imagine how excited all those Texas NG troops are to be going to Chicago to stomp on those Yankees? Can you imagine how over the top Greg Abbott is to be the first southern governor to send troops from his little army to control or attack the abolitionists in Chicago?
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We all know 47 wants to instigate violence so he can justify sending in the big guns. And we have known for some time that the MAGA cult has wanted a true Civil War. It looks like 47 is setting the stage for the outbreak of real violence and America’s 2nd Civil War.
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Click me for the story

MAGA-types have been calling for a shooting civil war in and on America for a long time. I confess that I find a certain appeal to most of the federal tax sucking red states (dark colored states in the pic) seceding from our present disunion and having to go it alone without the hundreds of billions of dollars from blue states to support their bullying conceits every year. These are the people who decry welfare for desperately poor people but are quite happy to suck money from blue states for themselves..

At least since 2016 dementia addled Trump has been calling for martial law to be led by his bone spur self. He’ll command the bloody, treasonous travesty while sitting safely on his gold toilet. He is enacting a Constitution eviscerating war on America right now, making the have-not dupes do the fighting, leaving the rich guys safely on their yachts and in their mansions, protected by their security forces.
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Still don’t believe this is war? Read Jonathan Last’s essay in TheBulwark from October 7, Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next. If the facts Last presents don’t convince you and make you want to scream and do something to right this foundering ship of democracy, this last, best hope, you have a world class case of denial.
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Didn’t the Republicans used to be the tough-on-crime guys? Weren’t they absolutist believers in bedrock American values like those made clear by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, at least for themselves? Weren’t they the bible thumping, Jesus everything, black-and-white, obey-the-law unquestion-alists? Where’s their fury over Trump violating the Constitution, the law and the courts multiple times every day?
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Actually, the Republicans have always been bible thumpers. It bolsters their certainties and justifies everything they want to do, including violently attacking people for an insurrection that doesn’t exist and locking up innocents who don’t pass the racial profiling test. Bible thumping is what the boundlessly manhood deficient KKK used to use to justify lynchings. All the official strongman, tough guy posturing today is the current version of manhood deficiencies. And it actually is as deranged as it sounds.
.
To be fair, this has been ongoing insanity at least since the Rutherford B. Hayes administration. He’s the selfish bastard who killed Reconstruction to sell out southern Blacks (yet again) in order to get the presidency for himself. Republicans have constantly and aggressively been blasting away at everyone and everything that isn’t White and identifies as whatever their current distortion of Christianity might be. Oppression and hypocrisy aren’t new here.
.
We Don’t Have a Trump Problem
We have a cowardice, hypocrisy and greed problem. All of this war on America could be stopped almost instantly if Republicans in Congress would actually find their spines and honor their oath to protect and defend the Constitution.
.

Instructions for being a Republican

But there’s no chance of that happening. These people sold out a long time ago. They sold their integrity and they sold their honor. Likely, they don’t even remember a time when they had clarity on what is right and what is wrong. Their clarity now is limited to what serves themselves best in the short term, which consists solely of sucking up to Trump..

This war is no fiction, no movie. Harm is being inflicted on real people and death has already come to some.
.
It takes a certain trust and a stretch of empathy to see this violent lawlessness from my peaceful North Shore neighborhood. But that’s what they thought in Highland Park, IL in the morning of July 4, 2022. Everything seemed peaceful. Then suddenly it wasn’t.
.
Maybe there’s no war to see where you live. But there is a shooting war in America right now, with bullets flying in only one direction – at We The People – regardless of whether you can see the violence from your door step.
.

From Project 2025 in Action: Sounding the Alarm for Democracy:

Each of us can take steps to support – and perfect – our democracy, whether through talking with friends, family, and neighbors, contacting elected representatives, or exercising our right to protest. The value of the right to speak freely, to celebrate dissent even when uncomfortable, to have a say in our government, to live free from surveillance and the threat of unwarranted punishment, demands no less.

– Julie Goldscheid, Professor of Law Emeritus at CUNY School of Law

What Would They Say or Do Today?

Looking towards the Paul Revere statue and the rear of the historic Old North Church in Boston, MA. Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey

Paul Revere made his famous ride because of the immediate threat posed by the tyrannical British overlords and their soldiers advancing on the colonists. One lantern was hung in the belfry of the Old North Church in Boston and that sent Revere speeding on his horse to sound the alarm.

We are no less threatened today by the advancing tyranny of the Trump administration. Today Revere’s call would be:.

The fascists are coming! The fascists are coming!
.

What would Paul Revere do today? What will you do today?

Thomas Paine told us:

Thomas Paine

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;

What would Paine say of our American Crisis today? What would he implore us to do?

What will you do today? Click here for guidance. And read this.

  • NO KINGS!
  • Be there on October 18 – in just 6 days – to join millions of our fellow democracy loving Americans and make your voice heard. Insist that there will be no fascism and NO KING in the United States of America!
  • Click the map below to find a demonstration near you. There are over 2,500 of them ready to go in blue states and red states – in every state.

Be there!

Click me

Final Words

“The fundamental reason for all our evil is our desperate attempt to prove our preferred illusion true by slaughtering everyone who clings to a different illusion.”

Who is it who wants to do the slaughtering?

Still Standing

Three years ago Rep,Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Some Other Reality) ranted idiotically,

“Not only do we have the DC jail which is the DC gulag, but now we have Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff and spying on American citizens,”

It stands yet today as a supreme MAGA totem against intelligence – and gazpacho soup. Take no comfort in her now demanding that Trump’s Big Ugly Bill be neutered of its attack on healthcare because the cost of healthcare insurance for her adult sons will double. The rest of you . . . oh wait: she doesn’t even see you.

Click me

“Reporting from Chicago, Good night and good luck.”

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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

A Start


POST 1207

Congress

Amazingly, even Rs and performative MAGAs are offended by the sex trafficking of children and child rape, so they’re demanding all of the Epstein materials. It’s likely that these guys once knew someone who was a girl and are horrified by what Epstein, Maxwell and their clients (johns, really) did to them. Maybe the awfulness is close enough to home that they’re willing to displease even the foremost frequent flyer on Epstein’s Nubile Express, what with his attempts to cover up his behavior to avoid accountability for what pretty much everyone believes he did. Now we know what it takes to break through the Republican cowardice to get them to begin to stand upright. It’s a start.

Blast From The Past

Ronald Reagan, he of the “Government isn’t the solution to our problem; government is the problem” brain-free campaign sloganeering, used to be Saint Ronny. Nobody talks much about him now, so perhaps his sainthood has been voided. Regardless, this former B actor had great White House script writers and he delivered his lines well.

Here he is explaining tariffs to We The Ignorant. Watch this and imagine what Trump would call Reagan today. Trump is the one who said John McCain wasn’t a hero and that our military dead were suckers and losers. He’s the one who turns on former supporters and friends for the most trivial of reasons, just to exact revenge. He calls it retribution. You can ask John Bolton how that works now.

And people are beginning to react to his thin skinned delusions. It’s a start.

Voting Rights

Paul Weyrich didn’t want you to vote, because far righties’ “leverage” goes up when fewer people vote. Click me.

Perhaps our greatest fighters for our supposedly Constitutionally protected voting rights are Marc Elias and his team of snarling, biting pit bull legal fighters. They file blizzards of lawsuits against gerrymandering, illegal purging of voters’ registrations, closing of polling places, removal of ballot drop boxes, the killing of mail in ballot options and more. We know that the cheaters will continue to cheat – they always have. And we know that the job of stopping their abuse of We The People will never end.

The Republicans have been public about their scummy tricks and un-American attitude on who should vote and who they think shouldn’t vote at least since Paul Weyrich, a founder of the hateful Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), guys who write extremist legislation for Republicans to pass. He openly declared his un-American recommendations in 1980. Click the pic and hear the slime drip from his mouth. The good news is that Elias and his team are on duty, doing great work to protect all of us, to stop the cheaters. You might want to subscribe to his Substack and throw a few bucks their way. It’s a start.

Finally – as in: At Last

Gov. Gavin Newsome has taken the fight to Trump and shoved it in his face. He declared war on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his abhorrent Trump-demanded, mid-decade gerrymandering to create 5 more Republican seats in the House. Every day Newsome mocks Trump by tweeting at him in Trump’s own communication style.

I’ve been asking who will lead us out of the valley of democracy death for a long time. We’ve been hoping for a Democrat to stand up and smack the far right liars and cheaters and now we have one. It’s a start.

The Deconstructing Trump Corner
.
  • It is against Stupidity in every shape and form
  • that we have to wage our eternal battle.
  • William Booth, 1890
  • Nobody can be kinder than the narcissist
  • while you react to life on his own terms.
  • Elizabeth Bowen,1938
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  • Did someone forward this post to you? Welcome! Please subscribe at no charge – use the simple form above on the right. And pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too, because it’s going to take ALL OF US to get this job done.

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Potpourri v24.0


POST 1197

Car Sales And Trumponomics

Dr. Brian Beaulieu of ITR Economics is an economics and investments guru with a pretty good prognostication track record. He sees the chaos that is happening in our economy and sees the numbers. Here’s his recent report.

We did not have the June data for auto retail sales when I did my Fed Watch on Friday. Have it now. The May-to-June drop in domestically produced light duty vehicle retail sales was the worst spanning 60 years of data (including tough recessions) at -26.2%. For foreign produced light duty vehicles, the June drop was -39.6%, the most severe May-to-June decline in a history spanning 50 years.

The data is showing that:

1. Creating uncertainty is bad economic policy.

2. Playing whack-a-mole with tariffs is bad economic policy.

3. It may be possible to have a president come into office with economic policies that truly can disrupt the business cycle, at least temporarily.

You may not research what Beaulieu commonly does, but likely you know in your gut what he expertly shows us.

The Unlimited National Restoration About People’s Equity Act (UNRAPE) of 2025

Trump’s Big Barfy Betrayal Bill (BBBB) is a blatant transfer of trillions of dollars from poor and working class Americans to the very wealthiest in our very divided and economically grossly out of balance society. It is the biggest, but certainly not the first move to impoverish We The People entirely for the benefit of the very wealthy. It will leave most Americans feeling like they’ve been financially raped – yet again – because they have been. Indeed, $50 trillion (with a “T”) has gone from We the Regular People to the uber-rich over the last 40 years.

This is what oppressive governments do. The result is an impoverished populace with all power and most of the money in the hands of the insanely rich. It’s time to reverse that trend with this proposed bill.

TITLE I – WEALTH CLAWBACK

An annual 10% wealth tax is imposed on all persons having over $1 billion of net wealth. Let’s claw back, some of what they took from us.

TITLE II – FAIR SHARE

Federal personal income tax rates are hereby restored to those in effect when Ronald Reagan became President. The top tax rate then was 70% of income over $762,933 (in today’s dollars).

TITLE III – FEDERAL MINIMUM TAX

A minimum federal income tax rate of 20% is imposed on incomes over $1 million, regardless of the source of the income, whether filing individually or jointly, to ensure that very rich people who regularly use arcane tax exemption schemes not available to poor and middle class Americans pay their fair share.

TITLE IV – CORPORATE INCOME TAX RATES – BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE ALONE

Corporate federal income tax rates are hereby restored to those in effect prior to the first of George W. Bush’s tax cuts. The maximum corporate tax rate of 35% will apply to corporations with taxable income over $10 million. Corporations with taxable income over $15 million will be subject to an additional tax of 3% of the excess over $15 million, or $179,000 (in today’s dollars), whichever is smaller. That was the first time in American history when taxes were cut during war time.

For reference, Donald Trump’s 2018 Tax Cut and Jobs Act created no additional jobs and added $1 to 2 trillion to the federal debt, so the restoration of the corporate tax rates to the higher former rates should have no effect on employment numbers but will be a big help with our massive debt.

Let’s put this UNRAPE bill into the hands of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to expand and improve it. Email her and tell her to be ready with her proposal on the afternoon of January 20, 2029 or 2027, whenever Democrats retake the Senate.

Say Good-Bye To Your Mind

Congress has cut funding for PBS and NPR and Trump has the go-ahead to kill the Department of Education. Robert Reich explains the why of that:

There are five facets to the authoritarian attack on our minds that I cover in the video:

1. Rewrite history
2. Gut education
3. Dismantle science
4. Suppress the media
5. Attack the arts

Trump is unleashing all of them. And added up, they render us less informed, less inspired, and easier to control. They empower Trump to divide us with hatred and fear. And they prevent us from discovering that we have more in common with one another than with the authoritarians who try to rule us.

This attack on our minds ultimately reduces our capacity for self-government, because ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.

From Thomas Jefferson:

An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight.

Given Jefferson’s clarity, it’s easy to understand why Trump would want to keep us and our children ignorant.

Worthwhile Quotations Corner

From Steve Schmidt:

The other day, Van Jones suggested that any person who believes Trump’s babble is “weapons-grade stupid.” That is an accurate statement if there ever was one, and everyone knows that stupid cannot be fixed.

Speaking of Stupid

Our Congress is composed of the geniuses we send to Washington to represent us, our interests and desires and the needs of our nation. The Republican side of it has consistently and spinelessly caved to Donald Trump’s every pathological desire.

Congress voted to de-fund PBS and NPR. Republicans stupidly called it the “Defund Government-Sponsored Propaganda Act.”  Now that Trump has killed Big Bird, betcha Trump thinks that oughta distract and shut up those clamoring for the Epstein list. Won’t happen.

Who cares, Republicans seem to be saying, whether kids, especially rural kids and those with compromised early education opportunities get the obvious benefits of public broadcast programming? Or whether people in rural areas receive weather warnings before the tornado strikes? Who cares if Americans have a non-commercial, apolitical source for news, they whine?

Republicans have been saying for a long time that PBS and NPR are voices of woke lefties, a part of the “fake news.” They claim they broadcast propaganda. I challenge anyone to provide even a single example of PBS or NPR programming that even vaguely resembles those inflammatory, ignorant and stupid claims. C’mon, MAGAmites, help me out here.

All but two Republicans voted to shoot Big Bird and every Republican voted to cut Medicaid, SNAP, USAID, Voice of America, FEMA, vaccine research and the rest. Remember that when it’s time to choose in the upcoming November elections. Tell your friends. Tell your crazy Uncle Bob. Tell your Uber driver.

Click me for protest rights tips.

“The Republicans don’t care about you.”
.

It’s already established that you can’t fix stupid. And it looks like you can’t fix hypocrisy or cowardice, either.

From the John Lewis Good Trouble Demonstration
Highland Park, IL, July 17, 2025

Tens of thousands of people turned out for the Good Trouble protests at over 1,500 marches across the country, both to honor John Lewis and to staunchly, powerfully protest this felonious fascist president. Here are pics of  some signs people carried.

Sure do miss RBG

 

 

 

 

 

Our abused immigrants today are just like  your family members who immigrated here years ago. Same hopes, same dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

Be at the next demonstration, because we’re all counting on us.
The Deconstructing Trump* Corner
.
  • A bad cause will ever be supported
  • by bad means and bad men.
  • Thomas Paine, 1777
  • Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
  • Frank Leahy, 1955
  • _________________________________________

* Deconstructing Trump by Mardy Grothe explores The Trump phenomenon through the lens of quotation history.

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA

.


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

In America


POST 1193

Are You Among The Disfavored People?

university student, professor or administrator

scientific or medical researcher

farmer

non-White person

LGBTQ person

veteran

woman

any form of non-Christian

child

protector of the planet.

any Democrat (Trump hates you) or a current or former government employee

any person not accused or convicted of any crime and in this country legally – easy ICE targets

Bummer for you, because this country is solely for Christian-claiming (although not doing what Jesus would do), straight White men who insist on telling you how to live, establishing limits to your freedom and deciding your restricted fate, which may include warrantless deportation.

And all that gets far scarier when you consider that Trump is declining into dementia and JD Vance is next in line. He might be smarmy, disingenuous and heartless (I guess he forgot about his hillbilly roots), but he’s smart, diabolical and under the thumb of Peter Thiel, his sugar daddy, the private information thief.

Speaking of Disfavored

Let’s declare out loud what this deportation lunacy is actually about. The goals are:

  1. To get rid of Brown and Black people because they aren’t European White. Those immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
  2. Expand White privilege
  3. Feed raw meat to Trump’s base
  4. Suppress votes of Democrats

Those goals are well met by snatching Brown people, especially those who look Hispanic, off streets, from farm fields, from Home Depot parking lots, from a public park in Los Angeles and more. No need to check their papers, because we no longer care if the snatchees are here legally or even if they are U.S. citizens.

Nobody has a right to due process under the Trump administration. We just snatch ’em, shove ’em in a bus or van, cram them handcuffed onto an airplane and into rendition to be abused and held incommunicado. That’s the new American Dream Nightmare.

Here’s what our populist speaking but not practicing President and Republican Congress have done to make sure we’re number one in inflicting cruelty on immigrants.

Click the chart for Steve Schmidt’s comments.

This chart shows our Big Barfy Betrayal Bill carve out for ICE and compares it to the defense budgets of 20 countries. We are now poised to spend more on anti-immigrant actions than the total the next 10 countries spend on their national defense. That’s probably good, since those immigrants are drug dealers, rapists and murderers. So said the man with the golden escalator, the golden toilet, 34 felony convictions, boundless ignorance and a mania for cruelty, but not for reality.

Are you feeling safer now with our huge expansion of ICE, the American Gestapo? Read this from Jennifer Rubin for more.

The Lies and Cheating Didn’t Start With Trump

In 2010 the Supreme Court decided the Citizens United case. The lawsuit was about a movie trashing Hillary Clinton, intended by its producers to be aired during the 2008 presidential campaign. The Court struck down a provision of the McCain-Feingold Act (properly, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002) and told the Citizens United group they could show their movie. That should have been the end of that case, but it wasn’t.

Chief Justice John Roberts did something almost unheard of. He called the litigants back and ordered them to argue the rights of corporations, something not even remotely part of the original lawsuit. The Court then made a second ruling, deciding that corporations have all the rights of flesh and blood humans.

That unleashed the furies of fabulous wealth, which allowed those corporations and insanely rich people (plus foreign influencers) to donate fabulous amounts of money to political campaigns and overwhelm the wishes of we small folk. Roberts had made up a whole new case to serve his agenda and it worked.

As a result, the gun lobby, the pharmaceutical lobby and more lobbies control the votes of Congress and you have almost no influence. So, we don’t get the gun safety legislation 80% of us want, the healthcare-for-all that 67% of us want and far more. These legislators don’t care what you want because they don’t have to. They’re funded by corporations and super rich guys.

This Court that can’t seem to tell the difference between a corporation (a fictional “entity”) and human beings. The Court is composed of strict originalists, they tell us, but they don’t recognize the Founders’ abhorrence of undue influence exerted by the wealthy.

Like I said, it didn’t start with Trump. Before he showed up the Court had already greased the gears of the fascism express. The Court further cleared the way with it’s ruling in Trump v. United States, allowing the President to break any laws he wants and get away with it. Does that sound originalist to you?

In America

Likely you’re feeling disheartened, as are most of us, because of the blatantly illegal, immoral and cruel actions of this administration. But here’s the thing: we don’t get to wallow in our despair because there’s so much that must be done and we’re the only ones who can do it.

The Charlie Daniels Band song In America was released in 1980 as

“.  .  .  a reaction to the varying difficult issues facing America in the late 1970s – the fallout from the Watergate scandal [etc.]. [Wikipedia]

We have “difficult issues facing America” now, too.

The fascists have come back to divide us and steal America from us.
.

The CDB’s message tells us about Lady America, that “We’re gonna put her feet back on the path.” The fascists, the oligarchs, the selfish rich guys “can all go straight to hell.” That’s not exactly what Charlie sang, but I like the sound of it.

You’ll see Lady America back on the path when the pain hits – from tariffs and the resultant higher prices and empty shelves, stolen healthcare, stolen food assistance, scarcities, babies beginning to suffer and die, neighbors being sent to concentration camps, jobs being lost and more. As Thom Hartmann puts it, Trump’s Tax Cuts Come with a Body Count — Starting with Grandma. That’s when we’ll all come together, “feet back on the path.”

Click this link and listen to the song. While our fight and our battle victories may not be happening at the pace we’d prefer, they’re happening – because of us.

The “Deconstructing Trump”* Corner

For the week following the Fourth of July and Trump’s failed narcissism parade, at which both he and Melania fell asleep, this is about Trump:

  • Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.
  • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
  • Do you know the hallmark of the second-rater?
  • It’s resentment of another man’s achievement.
  • Ayn Rand – that’s for our Libertarian friends
  • _________________________________________

* Deconstructing Trump by Mardy Grothe explores The Trump phenomenon through the lens of quotation history. As such, we explore his volume and add its applicable wisdom to these posts.

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


Rich Guys Are Coming To Fleece You


POST 1186

Glossary

They – the president, the Republicans in Congress and Trump administration sycophants.

Rich guys – the president, the Republicans in Congress, plus the un-elected, all-for-themselves, who cares about you? rich guys sucking tax cuts.

Bullies – all of the above who are dedicated to cruelty, selfishness and think they’re above the law.

Money

It’s your lunch money the bullies are after. Plus your dinner money and the tax refund money you were going to use to buy a big screen TV. They want it all.

They’re taking away your doctor, your hospital and the nurses who help you when you’re sick or injured. They’re doing that by starving them of cash. And they’re taking away your medical insurance so that you have to pay out of pocket, even if the cost drives you into bankruptcy. There goes that money, too.

You’ll only get medical care if you can find it somewhere, if you can afford it. Before you get treatment they’ll check if you’re able to pay them. That only happens if you can get there in time. Think: when you or someone you know goes into labor. Or miscarries. Or when something heavy falls on you, you’re bleeding out in your garage and the nearest EMT is a long way off because all the close-by services went belly up when Trump’s cruelty flunkys cut them off.

Taxes

They’re fleecing you by increasing your state and local taxes so that they can lower their own taxes and get a huge pile of cash for themselves – almost $400,000 per year extra for every rich guy.

THEY’RE BORROWING TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS
IN YOUR NAME
TO GIVE MORE TO THEMSELVES.
.

They’re doing it, too, by taxing you for the school your kids go to and then taking that money and giving it to private schools for their own kids.

Maybe that isn’t outrageous enough to get your attention. Try this:

THEY’RE DUMPING THAT ENTIRE LIFE-STIFLING
MOUNTAIN OF DEBT
ON YOU, YOUR KIDS AND AND YOUR GRANDKIDS.
AND YOUR GREAT-GRANDKIDS.
.

All that is just so that mega-maga-rich guys can have more of your money right now.

Power

They’re eating your lunch by taking away your right to speak up.

They’re doing that by calling every gathering to protest government cruelty a riot and then using grossly excessive force to stop you.

They’re doing it by ordering our National Guardsmen and Marines to point their rifles at you, in case you’re dumb enough to object.

They’re doing it by grossly contorting our Constitution and our laws in order to justify what is unjustifiable.

They’re doing it by incrementally making it more difficult to vote and then by ignoring your vote altogether.

They’re doing it by defying court orders and by threatening members of Congress so that they will never push back. These are the people – mostly Republicans – you sent to DC and to your state capitol to represent you. Most have been reduced to sniveling, mute cowards, leaving you voiceless, powerless.

Rights

The rich guys have them. You don’t. They can squeeze the system to squash you. You’re just a bug on the windshield of their fancy cars.

You don’t like that? Too bad for you.

Much of what’s above is already true. The rest will be on the way to fleece you if our cowardly Republican Congress passes Trump’s abhorrent, anti-American, anti-Constitution budget bill, which will take from you everything you value.

It’s Crunch Time

You have to make a decision and there are only two choices.

  1. You can go about your everyday life paying attention only to things in your immediate orbit, You can continue to do your job, care for your family and enjoy whatever things you like to do for entertainment. In short, you can live your life as usual – right up to the day when everything listed above and yet worse things arrive and you realize that you have been made into nothing but a peasant serving some bastard feudal king.
  2. You can stand up and fight to stop the rich guys from taking your lunch money and everything else you care about. You can get in the streets with millions of other red, white and blue Americans who damn well won’t stand by and be fleeced. You can make it impossible for the bullies to take your lunch money. You can speak up and get good people elected, people who have values like yours. You can vote them into office in DC, in your state capitol, onto your town board and your school board – everywhere there is a political contest. Kick out the spineless, corrupt bums and keep the good guys. You know who they are.

The choices are stark and they are very real. Failure to assertively select choice #2 – to stand strong and fight – is a tacit selection of impotent choice #1.

Pick one.

The Incompetence Report

Kristi “I Shoot Puppies” Noem, our incompetent Secretary of Homeland Security, made it to the top of our list last week.

The LA demonstrations before NO KINGS day were primarily triggered by Trump’s vile, cruel abuses of immigrants. Trump and Noem sicced the National Guard and the United States Marines on those demonstrators. Then Ms. Stupida went on Fox to flex her muscles and make sure everyone knows how tough and powerful she is.

Click me

Memo to Kristi: Nobody – no demonstrator or bystander conducted violence against law enforcement officers in LA last week, you lying sack of .  .  .  dead puppies.

BTW

Where were those federalized National Guardsmen and Marines on January 6, 2021 when they were desperately needed in DC to stop the thousands of treasonous insurrectionists from killing our elected leaders, beating and killing cops and trying to overthrow our government?

Oh right: Trump prevented them from being called in to oppose the hoodlums. He even refused Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s pleading to let him send in the Maryland Guard. He just sat back and watched the violence show on TV, as he shoved his Big Mac and fries into his big mouth and threw ketchup onto the wall.

PS

There was an incident last week that resulted in a night time visit from 3 police officers ringing my door bell. They weren’t wearing masks, they wore badges and had name tags and were polite and respectful. Observing that, I knew they weren’t ICE thugs.

Isn’t it truly awful that to assure our safety I had to make that distinction?

Re: the incident last week – just a misunderstanding and all is well. Nevertheless, if there is a next time, I’ll insist that they show me identification.

Countdown to November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election
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Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Emergency


POST 1181

Paramedics Aren’t Enough
We all have to show up for this emergency.
.

Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is presented as a budget bill, but its 1,116 pages hide aggressively subversive things buried in its bulk that have nothing to do with budgets and everything to do with crushing our rights and our freedoms. This bill is a clear and present danger to the United States. It is an existential threat to our way of life and the values you and I hold dear.

In a level headed, referenced piece on the site of Campaign Legal Center entitled These Hidden Provisions in the Budget Bill Undermine Our Democracy, Eric Kashdan lays out some examples of the subversion* in this bill.

“An Attack on the Judicial Branch

“The first of these outrageous policies — buried in Section 70302 of the legislation — would severely restrict federal courts’ authority to hold government officials in contempt if they violate judicial orders.”

Just consider the Supreme Court’s order to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. and the Trump Administration’s refusal. This provision would actually make Trump’s criminal contempt of court legal.

“A Flood of False Information in Elections

“The second problematic provision — found within Section 43201(c) of the House reconciliation bill — would impose a 10-year ban on the enforcement of all state and local laws that regulate artificial intelligence (AI), including rules for AI’s use in political campaigns and elections.”

Read that again: This bill will kill the efforts of our states to stop election misinformation, interference and manipulation of voters.

The New York Times has an exhaustive walk-through of this assault on democracy. If you’re feeling too happy, sample your way through it and you’ll be cured.

This “Big Beastly Bill” (kudos to Nancy Kohn and Art Friedson for the label – link through to their post – it’s brilliantly clear) is cloaked as a budget bill but is chock full of democracy destroying provisions like the destruction of checks and balance that has nothing to do with budgetary issues. And it’s full of nuclear attacks on Americans, most especially on non-super rich Americans. It is straight out of the Project 2025 homegrown political terrorist playbook.

The treachery throughout this plan for a bloodless coup is a clear violation of both the Faithless Clause and the Deceit Clause of the Constitution and is likely in violation of various sections of U.S. Code: Title 18 — CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, especially the Fraud, Unlawful, Cruel and Kaput (collectively the “FUCK Acts”) statutes.**

Trump and his fellow conspirators may well be in violation of sections of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, which includes provisions for treason, seditious conspiracy and more. To be accurate, they aren’t trying to overthrow the government. They’re supplanting established norms with a blizzard of self-serving edicts nobody voted for and refusing to honor even a ghost of their oath of office.

Please link through and read this short, clear-headed explanation. There is more bad stuff in this bill than can be listed there, but this will get you started in your research to understand this awful bill.

Good-Bye Norman Rockwell

My wife and I have long enjoyed election day, walking to our local polling place, seeing neighbors there and all of us practicing citizenship. It’s a Norman Rockwell scene that affirms who we all are.

Now, though, we are threatened by tyrants who are working day and night in every venue imaginable to take away our rights of citizenship, to tear down our country, to impoverish you and me and to pocket the spoils for themselves. They want to set fire to that Norman Rockwell scene. That is the imminent danger we face.

Update From Sen. Pig Castrator

At a town hall on May 30 Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) responded to a constituent question about the massive cuts to Medicaid in the Big Beastly Bill – $880 billion – and how that will affect our most vulnerable. She smirked and said, “Well, we’re all going to die.”

That, apparently, is what passes for promoting the general welfare and compassion for the suffering, according to Republicans. See for yourself here. Watch for the smirk at 0.42.

Did You Know?
The Byrd Rule*** allows a single Senator to remove non-budget related provisions from bills that are attempting to be passed under budget reconciliation.
.
CALL YOUR SENATORS, because it takes 60 votes to overcome [a filibuster], and ONLY ONE SENATOR to call out these un-American provisions.
Action

Here are the two things we – you and I – must do.

1. Immediately phone both of your senators – no snail mail, no email – whether they’re Democratic, Republican or Independent. You can reach them through the

U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121

.

Tell them to invoke the Byrd Rule** on every single non-budgetary provision in this bill. That won’t fix everything, so they’ll also have to invoke the filibuster, too, if/when it comes time for voting on the entire caca package. Then tell them to VOTE NO on this attack-on-America bill.


2. Attend a NO KINGS protest on June 14. Click the map below for clarity about why you need to be there and to find a rally near you. I promise you that you’ll be emboldened and proud stand with people who show up to practice citizenship and to declare, “NO KINGS ON MY WATCH!“

Also, listen to New York Attorney General  Letitia James tell us it’s time to stand up and fight back. Do not give in to fear.

Finger Pointing Department

If you want to know who to blame for our ongoing debacle (root cause, primary driver), it might surprise you to learn that it isn’t Donald Trump. It’s who enabled Trump to happen. Click here.

Head Scratcher Department

Country Joe McDonald sang his song I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag at Woodstock 55 years ago. In it he asked about the Viet Nam war, “What are we fighting for?” I’d like to hear some of today’s Trump supporters answer that question – what are they fighting for?

_________________________________________________

* sub·ver·sion
/səbˈvərZHən,səbˈvərSHən/
  1. the undermining of the power and authority of an established system or institution.
    “the ruthless subversion of democracy”
    Source: Oxford Languages

** These Clauses and statutes don’t exist, but they should so that we can accurately describe the un-American actions of today’s faithless, selfish, cowardly Republican saboteurs and hold them accountable.

*** From Google AI:

The Byrd Rule is a Senate rule that limits what can be included in reconciliation legislation to provisions that directly affect the federal budget, specifically spending and revenues. It prevents reconciliation bills from becoming vehicles for non-budgetary policy changes. 

Click here for a plain language explanation of the Byrd Rule, or here if you want to really get down in the weeds with it.
Countdown to November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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

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

Thanks!

The Fine Print:

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

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

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