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NOTES:
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, so don’t bug me about it.
Errors in fact, grammar, spelling or punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.
Transcript of Presidential Debate, October 6, 2020
Anderson Cooper:
Mr. President, to pick just one issue, in the summer of 2019 you claimed that Alabama was at risk of a direct hit from Hurricane Dorian, when your own National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center had made it clear days earlier that the hurricane would travel north along the Atlantic coast and wouldn’t come anywhere near Alabama. Why did you warn Alabamans to take shelter from a hurricane that was not going to arrive? And who drew that obviously forged Sharpie bubble onto a National Weather Service map?
President Trump:
You’re wrong as usual, Anderson. Wrong. That’s just more fake news, fake news, everybody. CNN should lose its license because of all the fake news you spread. You and the rest of the fake news are the enemy of the American people. The enemy. Fake news. There it is for everyone to see, folks. Fake news.
The people of Alabama were at severe risk, so I bravely stepped up for them. I protected my people. I’m a hero. There was a severe risk. The National Weather Service said so. They made the Birmingham office apologize and say I was right. You ought to report on that, Anderson, instead of the fake news you tell people. You’re fake news, Anderson. Fake news. And I’m a hero.
AC
Senator Warren, you have 30 seconds for your rebuttal.
Senator Warren:
Well, that’s a perfect example of the president saying things that aren’t just false. but are easily disproven. That raises the key question of this election.
Mr. President, for you to repeatedly say things that are so obviously false leaves us with only two possible explanations:
You are not just ignorant, but willfully so. And in your not knowing, you haven’t the sense to keep your mouth shut. Or,
You know the truth but speak contrary to it. That is to say, you lie.
Which is it, Mr. President? Please tell the American people: are you ignorant or are you a liar?
DT
Well, there you go, Pocahontas, speaking with a forked tongue. Everyone knows you’re not trustworthy, not at all trustworthy. You’re just like Hillary. Just like Hillary. She’s untrustworthy and you’re just like her. Untrustworthy.
And you’re a socialist. We’re Americans, but you’re a socialist. You’re not even a true American. You’re not like us. You’re a socialist.
People are saying – I’m hearing this every day – people are saying that you lied your way into Harvard. That you lied. And you told American business people that they didn’t build their businesses, that those hard working business people didn’t build their businesses. Who built their businesses, you? I don’t think so. I don’t think so at all. You’re against everything American. You just aren’t American. People are saying this.
And you’d be a disaster dealing with Kim Jung Un, this I can tell you. This I can tell you. A disaster.
AC
Senator Warren, you may respond.
EW
I have to admit that with your reply to my question, Mr. President, you’ve shown us a 3rd and even a 4th possible explanation for you saying so many thousands of false things. Number 3 is that you’re an imbecile. Number 4 is that you are mentally deranged, a psychopath.
You didn’t answer my question, so let’s try this once again. We now have 4 possible explanations for your thousands of false statements. Which one explains your dishonesty, Mr. President? Are you ignorant, a liar, an imbecile or a psychopath?
AC
Mr. President would you care to respond to Senator Warren?
DT
You know, Pocahontas likes to get people to think that she’s some kind of genius, but she’s no genius. No genius. She’s not even smart. She’s not a smart person.
The economy is great. It’s just great. People have jobs. Lots of jobs. So many jobs that people are sick of jobs. Manufacturing jobs are coming back to the U.S. and my tariffs have brought China to its knees. That’s how powerful I am. I’m a very powerful person. And I still have a great relationship with President Xi – he likes me very much. He called me twice yesterday. Twice. We have a great relationship. He likes me very much.
The stock market is at record highs. But she doesn’t understand that. She’s not too smart. Record highs. I told you I’m a genius and now you see it. I’m so smart – I’m a genius. She’s not too smart. This I can tell you.
If she becomes president we’ll still be at war in 2024 because she can’t stand up to the Taliban. She’s not a strong person. And she doesn’t know a thing about how to negotiate. I’m the most powerful negotiator. That’s why I’m the chosen one to deal with these things. I’m very powerful. She’s not strong. She’s very weak. I’m very powerful. I’m the best negotiator.
EW
This is absolutely googly-eye crazy.
Unemployment is up 1.5% over the past 12 months, the Dow is down 17% and not even one manufacturing job has been repatriated to the U.S. Because of your tariffs our family farms have gone bankrupt at a rate not seen since the Great Depression. You’ve ruined our economy, you’ve hurt hard working Americans and your cruelty to people seeking asylum has shattered our credibility around the world. No amount of fantasy from you will change these facts.
Your negotiations with the leaders of the most dangerous nations on Earth have given them status and power they couldn’t have gained any other way, while we in the United States have gained nothing. You get photo-ops with tyrants and the United States is left in danger.
And nobody cares whether President Xi likes you.
Nobody likes being lied to, either, so please tell the American people why you tell them so many false things.
DT
I’m not even going to talk to you. These things are things you can’t understand. Maybe you would if you were a smart person, but you’re not smart. Not smart at all. I’m a genius and you’re not even smart.
Maybe you’d get it if you were a deal maker, a great negotiator like me, but you’re not. You’re not. There’s no point explaining things to you. You’d be a disaster as president. A disaster. Imagine her dealing with the Iranians or even Justin Trudeau. She’d be a disaster. This I can tell you. This I can tell you.
EW
“I’m not even going to talk to you“? Is that how you deal with leaders of nations? With the heads of the Cabinet? Is that how you work with Congressional leaders to deal with the challenges and opportunities America faces? “I’m not even going to talk to you“?
Gotta admit that, what with your refusal to meet with Robert Mueller and your illegal stonewalling of Congressional subpoenas, you did deal with Mueller and the House Judiciary Committee that way. What’s next, threatening to hold your breath until you turn blue?
AC
We’re going to break. When we return we’ll look at what to do about the tens of thousands of refugees from Central America still at our southern border and the thousands of children still locked up.
DT
She’d be a disaster. This I can tell you. And CNN is fake news. Enemy of the people. Fake news. People are saying that only I can lead this nation. People are saying that. And it’s true. This I can tell you: only I can make America great again.
EW
OMG
Finally,
Saudi oil fields were attacked by cruise missiles and the U.S. administration has claimed that the missiles came from Iran. The president and vice president have used words like “locked and loaded” and made other threatening statements toward Iran in reaction to the attack. Here’s the question.
The Saudis have the largest military in the middle-east and are quite capable of taking whatever retaliatory action they deem necessary. The United States has not been attacked. So, why is the Trump administration threatening retaliatory military action against Iran?
————————————
Ed. Note: I don’t want money or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. So,
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Pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe (IT’S A FREEBIE!).
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NOTES:
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, so don’t bug me about it.
Errors in fact, grammar, spelling or punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.
To quote Porky Pig: “Ah-bi-dee, ah-bi-dee, that’s all, folks!”
The Supreme Court has just handed down its most blatantly political decision in a long time, or at least since the democracy killing Citizens United decision in 2010. Their stupefyingly bone-headed refusal to knock down blatantly obvious discrimination by North Carolina’s legislature will have a destructive impact that will echo across the nation.
This case was about gerrymandering designed to strip voting rights and legislative power from the poor and from minorities. The Supreme Court has opened the door for unending, unearned political control by a diminishing white majority. Its decision will have devastating impact on millions of Americans for years to come and is truly the New Jim Crow.
To the 5 justices who made this happen, I have some snark: Your mothers must be very proud.
I can’t do better than David Leonhardt’s piece in Friday’s New York Times. Click through and read it, and note his comments about the census, too.
BTW, the Times is not failing, as Emperor Trump would have you believe. It’s having some of its best years ever. They’re focused on stuff happening here on planet Earth, a concept of reality that doesn’t seem to penetrate the information-proof walls of the East Wing living quarters, which serve as Trump’s Twitter bunker. #FailingPresident.
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Ed. Note: I don’t want money or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. So,
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I’m not a registered Democrat, but like Bernie Sanders, I caucus with them. That’s why I’m announcing my candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
I thought I’d have more time for this, at least enough to put together an exploratory committee. But what with our never-ending campaigns, I don’t even have time to learn what an exploratory committee does. And there’s no chance to line up mega-donors now, either, because they’re already taken.
So, I’m left to make this major announcement via blog post. Good news for you: You’re the first to learn of this. Not even my wife knows about this yet. Man, I hope she won’t be angry.
Anyway, Kamala, Elizabeth, Bernie, Amy, Beto, Joe, Eric, Pete, Kirsten, John, Jay, Cory, Julián, Tulsi, John, Marianne, Wayne, Tim and Andrew, it’s nice to be in such a large and non-exclusive club.
Worry Announcement, or, Are We Really This Stupid?
What do you suppose Americans worry about the most: Illegal immigration? Foreign terrorists? Brown skin people from south of the border or Muslims? Nope, it isn’t nearly that dopey.
According to a current survey by the Gallup Organization you and I worry about healthcare more than anything else. Take a look at the chart below or, better yet, click on it for an expanded view of the chart and the complete Gallup report. Here’s another.
Healthcare is our biggest worry for the 5th year in a row. Oddly, our president has decided to do a full court press next year to increase our worry by repealing and replacing Obamacare. There’s just one thing: In the 9 years since the ACA passed the Republicans have tried dozens of times to repeal Obamacare and they haven’t succeeded, even when they were in control of the Senate, the House and the presidency.
Even worse – and that’s “worse” as in: both destructive and hypocritical – they’ve had 9 years to come up with a replacement healthcare plan for the “replace” part of “repeal and replace” and they’ve sat on their hands. They have no replacement or even the beginning of an outline for a replacement plan. So, if Trump gets his way, he and the Republicans will repeal Obamacare and replace it with NOTHING.
Then some of us will die needlessly, some will go bankrupt and pre-existing conditions won’t be covered, just like it was before the ACA. So, you better worry that if Trump and the Republicans get their way, there will be no replacement healthcare plan and you may have no healthcare at all.
Puerto Rico Aid Announcement
The president just announced that we have supplied $91 billion of aid to Puerto Rico, which means that we really didn’t totally blow off the survivors of that terrible hurricane that killed 3,000 Americans.
That’s good news, indeed, except for one little detail: the actual, real world, fantasy-free number is just 12% of Trump’s claimed amount. That aid has barely scratched the surface of what’s needed and it hasn’t provided food for the one-third of the population that’s going hungry.
Trump continues to astound all sentient beings with his constant lying and his ease in inflicting cruelty on people who desperately need help. Maybe he should go back to San Juan and toss out a couple more cases of paper towels to a crowd of suffering people to once again show his true support.
Proud State Announcement
It’s understandable if you think of North Carolina only as the leader in Republican crafted voter suppression, voting fraud and generally crazy politics. For example, former Republican Governor Pat McCrory blamed his loss in the 2016 election on non-existent voter fraud and refused to leave the governor’s mansion. Turns out his real electoral problem was his zeal for the infamous “Bathroom Bill.”
Yet, the Tar Heels are even more creative than that. They’re button-busting proud of the craftiness revealed by the recent indictment of Greg Lindberg, a major political donor, plus a couple of his associates and state GOP chairman and former congressman Robin Hayes for bribery through an insurance scheme.
These guys should have known that the FBI has no sense of humor about people lying to them, but lying repeatedly to the FBI is one of the indictments against them, as is attempting to bribe the current state insurance commissioner. U.S. Rep. Mark Walker was identified in the indictments as “Public Official A.” He was the recipient of $150,000 in political donations from Lindberg, but he’s not under indictment. Yet.
But just a second: the North Carolina Republicans may not have a monopoly on creativity. The current North Carolina Democratic Party chairman was the insurance commissioner during the time of some of this scandal. We’ll see if he, too, becomes a candidate to be a ward of the state.
Stay tuned, as this likely will prove to be the basis of a super hero movie – a Marvel Comics “State Dumb Stuff” thriller, staring Captain Greed.
Many thanks to DN for bringing this inspired piece of graft to our attention. It gives us all a renewal of appreciation for the human gift of imagination.
Special Award Announcement
You may recall Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who, in a rant against Dreamers declared that,
“For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another hundred out there who weigh a hundred and thirty pounds—and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling seventy-five pounds of marijuana across the desert.”
That was quite the visual image and just the thing to introduce a new congressional award.
On Tuesday of this past week Rep. Steve King was presented the first ever “Congressional Bag Full of Stupid Award.”
In a dignified ceremony on the floor of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi began the proceedings by playing a video of King’s remarks. She then recounted his many dalliances with racism, white supremacy and fantasized hate.
Pelosi expressed concern that King’s years of commuting between Iowa and DC had left him with a huge bulge on the side of his head from carrying 75 pounds of stupid across the Iowa border into Illinois. She said that she hoped that his upcoming stupidectomy surgery would be successful. However, she warned that the medical community is united in the opinion that you can’t fix stupid. She said, “We all hope that this surgery will cause Steve’s stupid to go into remission for a while.”
At last and in a sincere and heartfelt closing, Pelosi recognized King for his well earned award and wished him a fine and very remote retirement beginning in January 2021.
And finally,
From the You Can’t Make This Stuff Up File
A short compendium of dumb current events that are too unbelievable even for fiction
Vile, hateful, wacko conspiracy nut case Alex Jones is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by parents of children murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. He’s floating a defense that he has a “form of psychosis” that causes him to believe that certain events were staged. He says his psychosis was brought on by government and media lies, causing him to feel like “. . . a child whose parents lie to him over and over again. Pretty soon you don’t know what reality is.” So, Alex Jones, the grand perp of hateful, harmful conspiracy theories that fattened his wallet dramatically, is a poor victim.
Fox and Friends unveiled a new geographic phenomenon when it boldly declared. “TRUMP CUTS AID TO 3 MEXICAN COUNTRIES.” That came as startling news to those who erroneously thought there was only one country named Mexico.
Live, on the ground in the Valley of Stupid, I’m Jack Altschuler.
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Ed. Note: I don’t want money or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. So,
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It is the bright, fresh practice of the Senate of the United States of America to formally abandon all activity if the President of the United States might not like what the Senate would do. Of course, this is in stark contrast to times past when Congress was held to be a separate and equal branch of government. Now, though, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has seen the wisdom of abdicating Congressional responsibility. You can expect more acts of Senatorial disappearance as the shutdown continues or really any time it’s politically expedient.
Note that Senator McConnell is still under a Harry Potter invisibility cloak and didn’t appear to be available for comment.
Everyone knows that McConnell has stated that he won’t bring a bill to the floor of the Senate to resolve the government shutdown issue unless he knows the president will sign it. But, why is that? Try this.
A vote to open government without funding Trump’s wall is a most precarious thing for Republican senators. If they do that they will have turned their backs on Trump’s campaign promise and, correspondingly, on their constituents who voted for Trump. Senators will feel their fury in their next primary. It will be ugly and they know it.
If, on the other hand, those senators vote against reopening government, each one will immediately feel the fury of every government worker in their state, as well as the fury of the workers’ families and their friends, independents who can spell “empathy” and all Democrats in their state. That fury will be brought to every election s/he will enter for the rest of their life and they will have to resign from the Senate and become a lobbyist for Big Pharma or a defense contractor.
That’s why McConnell won’t bring a bill to reopen government to the floor for a vote if he thinks Trump will veto it. These days it’s very hard to be a Republican.
Here’s how to get the government reopened without spending billions on a useless wall designed solely for Trump’s ego. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team should offer this to Trump and announce it to the public at a press conference:
Immediately reopen all of government.
Immediately pay all back wages both to workers who were forced to work without pay and to workers who were furloughed.
Trump will deliver a personal, hand-written note to each federal worker, written in bold Sharpie, saying, “I know I hurt you. I apologize and promise I’ll never do that again.” Okay, that isn’t going to happen. It’s just snark. I do feel better now.
Funding will be provided for a bi-partisan blue ribbon committee to generate a plan to bring border security and immigration policy into the 21st century, including recommendations for permanently dealing with the DACA kids and the other 11,000,000 undocumented in the US now. The plan is to be submitted to Congress and the president within 9 months of committee inception. It is to include no recommendation tor a wall except where a wall will actually enhance border security and is to be of appropriate construction. No need for a wasteful “big, beautiful wall.”
Congress is to draft a bill following the committee’s recommendations, as adjusted or amended by Congress, and vote on that bill within 6 months.
Note that Congress won’t be starting from scratch because there were efforts at immigration reform not long ago.
The beauty of this plan is that the if the president rejects it he will be telling everyone that he really doesn’t support border security or immigration reform; he only supports what makes him look like a tough guy and doesn’t care about America or Americans. There will be substantial pressure on him to agree to this plan.
Plus, the president can claim a victory, as there will be some amount of wall that will be constructed. And he can claim fiscal prudence, too, since whatever wall is recommended will likely cost a lot less than $5.7 billion and a whole lot less than the projected $59 billion for a complete Trump wall. Everyone wins.
Perhaps you recall President Trump bravely declaring, “There’s been nobody tougher on Russia than President Donald Trump.” Regardless, he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to sign off on the sanctions imposed on Russia and some oligarchs for their hacking our 2016 election.
Then in December 2018 when Congress was on holiday break he had his Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, dump in Congress’ lap a plan for sanctions removal. They had just 30 days to vote to stop that action and far fewer once congressmen and senators were back in DC. The House voted to stop the sanctions removal with a strong bipartisan showing. The Senate wimped out, falling two votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.
Every one of those nay voting senators knows that Russia is a bad actor. Every one of them knows that Russia hacked our election and deserved those sanctions. And 43 of them voted to lift the sanctions.
Someone please tell me where those brave men and women store their spines when they go to DC.
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Ed. Note: I don’t want money (DON’T donate) or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. So,
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A partial compendium of Trumpian distractions designed to keep your eye off the ball. Click the image for a larger view.
Reading time – 558; Viewing time – 8:31 . . .
NOTE: This was written and videoed prior to any Senate votes on Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
CAUTION: Language in this post may be inappropriate for sensitive readers and there’s just a little snark, too.
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Recall from a couple of previous posts the differentiation between a liar and a bullshitter. According to Harry G. Frankfurt,
“The distinction between lying and bullshitting is fairly clear. The liar asserts something which he himself believes to be false. He deliberately misrepresents what he takes to be the truth. The bullshitter, on the other hand, is not constrained by any consideration of what may or may not be true. In making his assertion, he is indifferent to whether what he is says is true or false. His goal is not to report facts. It is, rather, to shape the beliefs and attitudes of his listeners in a certain way.”
Here are a some perfect examples of what bullshit looks like.
You know about Trump claiming to have had the largest inaugural crowd ever. That’s just stupid and quite unimportant bullshit, but bullshit nevertheless.
Trump likes to claim that The Celebrity Apprentice was the number one show on television. With the exception of one episode in one season, the show almost never even cracked the top 10. That Trumpian claim, too, is stupid and quite unimportant bullshit. Here’s where bullshit becomes substantive.
On September 25 Donald Trump addressed the United Nations and said that his administration, “ . . . has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” That’s a ridiculous claim, to be sure, but that wasn’t the most important part.
After a short pause for translations into the various languages of the attendees, the delegates in the General Assembly began a long, slow roll of laughter at Trump for his obvious grandiosity and the absurdity of his claim. That national humiliation hasn’t happened before at the UN to anyone or to any nation and it’s a clear and painful embarrassment for this country, but even that isn’t the most important part. That came the next day.
“They weren’t laughing at me, they were laughing with me.”
“We had fun.”
“That was not laughing at me. So the fake news said, ‘People laughed at President Trump.’ They didn’t laugh at me. People had a good time with me. We were doing it together. We had a good time.”
That was bullshit.
Trump has made a laughing stock of the United States of America, in part through his bullshitting. Perhaps that’s what he meant when he said over and over that only he could do so many things. And really, can you think of anyone else who could have accidentally had the entire world laughing at the United States?
I repeat the clarity offered by Mr. Frankfort:
“In making his assertion, [the bullshitter] is indifferent to whether what he is says is true or false. His goal is not to report facts. It is, rather, to shape the beliefs and attitudes of his listeners in a certain way.”
Speaking of bullshit . . .
Let’s be clear about a few things surrounding the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
Read this article in The Washington Post for all of Brett Kavanaugh’s lies about Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony. In his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh even contradicted himself, so he made himself a liar right in front of the Committee.
Further, the President – perhaps Senate Republicans, too – have hidden over 90% of the documents that pertain to Kavanaugh’s record, including all of the documents pertaining to his time in the Bush White House, where the White House counsel team that Kavanaugh was on busied itself declaring that torture isn’t torture.
We’re left to guess why they would shield Kavanaugh’s documents from the Democrats and what dishonest and disqualifying things we might find among those documents. True, that’s speculation, but just guess what the Republicans would be saying if the roles were reversed. That hiding of documents is an attempt,”to shape the beliefs and attitudes of [Trump’s] listeners in a certain way,” and it’s Presidential bullshit.
Kavanaugh claimed to have had no participation in the torture memos, but we’re left to wonder if he’s telling the truth. As Sen. Richard Blumenthal discussed with Kavanaugh at the hearings, Falsus in Uno, Falsus in Omnibus: false in one thing, false in all things.
Brett Kavanaugh has shown himself to be fundamentally dishonest. I don’t mean he fudged just a trifle; I mean he’s a serial liar. Have a look at this video that reveals a series of lies he told the Senate Judiciary Committee in just the past few weeks.
Kavanaugh has lied to Congress, both at the hearings for becoming a federal judge and in the hearings regarding his Supreme Court nomination. That’s perjury. It’s contempt of Congress and it’s a felony.
Brett Kavanaugh on the bench? That’s bullshit. Brett Kavanaugh belongs in jail.
Likely you’ve heard that the FBI isn’t interviewing dozens of witnesses (some say as many as 40) who could help to shed light on what happened or what did not happen between Dr. Ford and Brett Kavanaugh. Many of these witnesses have volunteered to be interviewed and the FBI hasn’t even returned their phone calls.
Translation: Trump has put the blinders on the FBI and prevented them from doing the kind of thorough, professional investigation they customarily do. Trump’s investigation isn’t about truth or falsity. “It is, rather, to shape the beliefs and attitudes of [Trump’s] listeners in a certain way.” In other words, it’s bullshit.
Answer this question: What kind of country do you want? We may not know one another, but I’m willing to bet that your answer doesn’t include bullshit in our highest public offices.
Next question: What are you willing to do to get what you want?
You know where this goes. It comes down to us getting off our butts and advocating for what we believe in. It comes down to us knocking on doors to spread the word. It comes down to us voting. It comes down to us bringing others to the polls with us, people who otherwise wouldn’t vote.
Because if we don’t do that, someone else – perhaps a bullshitter who wants a very different America from the America you want – will do all of that, and they’ll get their way because they’ll be the only ones talking and voting.
It comes down to us. You know what to do.
One last thing . . .
I’ve seen nothing about it in the press. I haven’t found a word written nor a word spoken about the debt we owe to three men in particular. I speak, of course, of Lindsey Graham, Brett Kavanaugh and Chuck Grassley, who speak for so many.
It has been a long time coming to unshackle this marginalized group and to let fly the voices of a people who have suffered iniquities for so long. At last we are hearing the voices of the long suffering, angry, rich, old white men of America.
Each of these men has shown us the way, as they let fly their pent up anger at those who have been mean to rich, white guys. They snarled and they spit and they sneered. They vented their emotions for all to see and at last led us toward the promised land, the true path of America for its real citizens, angry, rich, old white men.
Forever may she wave with gilded edges in rooms of elegance, the red white and blue!
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Ed. note: I don’t want money (DON’T donate) or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. That’s the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people, so:
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– Promoted and signed a tax plan that overwhelmingly (85%) benefits already very wealthy people and corporations and blows off the rest of us in just a few years
This started when President Obama committed the greatest of sins, the most heinous of indictable crimes when he mocked Donald Trump at White House Correspondents Dinners (here at about 20 minutes).
Trump, a whining, sniveling little victim always, was infuriated and we know that whenever he thinks he’s been wronged (which is pretty much every day) he goes into full court press attack mode. And that’s what he’s been doing since he got his hands on the reins.
Trump has stupidly, childishly, clumsily done everything possible to erase the legacy of Barack Obama. The sole exception occurs whenever he can blame anything, whether real and imagined, on his predecessor. It doesn’t matter a whit to Trump if what he does harms our people or our country or the entire planet. He doesn’t care if he puts us at risk of civilization destroying nuclear war or any other consequence as long as he can diminish Barack Obama. That is the tyrant child we have as a president.
And another thing . . .
Many Republicans in Congress and our nominally Republican president hate the very notion of helping poor people. “It’s your fault,” and “Help yourself,” intoned the pizza king presidential candidate, Herman Cain. Conservatives hate welfare, like the food stamps that make it so that poor children have something to eat.
Making that cruelty to our most at-risk people even worse are the slimy reforms proposed by conservatives. People like Paul Ryan call for welfare changes that they brand with chest thumping, patriotic sounding names and then they lie about their programs and the adverse effect they’ll have on poor people. That’s the slime.
Repealing all welfare is likely politically impossible, but there must be a solution somewhere to this anathema to the conservative soul. Well, I just happen to have a solution that should satisfy everyone.
A kid in a family with an out of work coal miner dad in West Virginia doesn’t have the same resources for building an economically successful life as, say, little Donald Trump did. He began life with huge wealth in his lap, and just look at what he claims to have built from that. It’s obvious from that comparison – the poor kid in West Virginia and the rich Donald in New York – that the solution to our welfare mess is for everyone to start with a fortune.
That is why I propose that we give every current and future poor person a one-time $1 million stake to use to create their own life of wealth. Just imagine the millions of Americans with enormous wealth that this insightful program will produce. We’ll do away with all other welfare programs and that will make conservatives happy.
Best of all, the rest of us won’t have to listen to any more disingenuous and slimy conservative welfare reform schemes.
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Ed. note: I don’t want your money (DON’T donate) or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. That’s the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people, so:
YOUR ACTION STEPS:
Pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe (IT’S A FREEBIE!).
Engage in the Comments section below to help us all be better informed.
Thanks!
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.
Not so long ago the Republican Party proudly boasted of being the party that stood for law and order. They let us know in no uncertain terms that they were the guys who would defend against international threats. They were the tough guys who were best suited to ensure our national security.
Apply Trump’s words about voters to the majority of Republican members of Congress.
Now, though, they cower before the Mad Goon-in-Chief, doing his bidding and refusing to challenge his dishonesty and his devotion solely to himself, rather than to our nation. He’s callously made 1.8 million DACA kids (his number) mere pawns in his game of chicken to get his stupid, unnecessary wall, the security tool that assumes that Mexicans don’t know about ladders or tunnels. That’s the wall he told us time and again that Mexico will pay for, but now he wants each of us to pay hundreds of dollars for it. Today’s Republicans are sucking up to this scoundrel by playing his game and have abdicated their responsibility and their oath of office to protect and defend. They’re no longer the fierce guardians of our Republic; they’re the cowering lapdogs.
It took just 96 years for H.L. Mencken’s prophesy to come true.
Trump leads them in taunts to diminish our institutions, like the press, the FBI, the CIA, the entire Justice Department and specific people in those agencies. He has Senators Ron Johnson (R-MN), Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and others making flagrantly idiotic, scary sounding accusations about the FBI, substantiated solely by hot air, demeaning the very people who make sure we’re safe. That doesn’t sound much like the party that used to stand for law and order. That sounds more like self-serving people being manipulated by moneyed interests and lacking a spine to stand against what they know to be wrong.
Rep. Devin Nunez (R-CA) is cavorting about DC right now with a memo he wrote, claiming McCarthy-like that his memo contains a smoking gun that has the fingerprints of the evil FBI on it. The memo contains classified information that he carelessly didn’t review. And he carelessly has shown that classified information to most of the Republican members of Congress and is threatening to carelessly release it to the public. That whooshing sound you hear is Devin Nunez sucking up to Donald Trump.
The Justice Department has pushed back, making clear that Nunez will do damage to our national security should he release the memo. To understand the full importance of that, you need to know that at the same time that Nunez is doing his Trump suck-up dance, a tsunami of Russian bots is inundating our social media, calling for the release of his memo. Did I mention that the memo contains classified information? In other words, Republican Nunez is brainlessly playing directly into the hands of the Russians.
So, let’s be clear about what’s important:
Think: Congress
What is important is that unlike Nunez and the rest of the suck-ups, you and I see this for what it is: the next self-serving, transparent attempt at misdirection from what is important, the Russian hack of our election.
What is important is Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible conspiracy – not collusion: conspiracy – by Trump and his organization to get the Russians to help him win the election.
What is important is the investigation into possible obstruction of justice by Trump.
What is important is to discover if Trump – the President of the United States – has been part of a massive money laundering scheme and whether that has made him vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians.
The good news is that Mueller doesn’t care about Nunez’s dingbat grandstanding or Trump’s demonizing attacks or the spinelessness of what passes for Republicans in Congress today. He cares about justice. So do we.
We care about the abdication of duty to country by the jellyfish in Congress.
We care about the baseless attacks on the very people we count on to keep us safe.
We care that the people who thump their jellyfish chests about how strong they are for America are the very people who have abandoned their integrity and, through their obstruction, are enabling Russia to hack our next election.
These Republicans, the ones who are making fatuous accusations about the FBI, as well as all those in Congress who stand silently by and won’t call out Nunez or the president – and that especially includes Spineless Speaker Paul Ryan – have sold out their country to appease the infant tyrant, Trump.
The late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan summed up the aspiration of everyone in this country: “What the people want is very simple – they want an America as good as its promise.”
We aren’t getting that America from either the Executive Branch or the Legislative Branch of our government. And we’re going to remember that this coming November and in 2020.
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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we’re on a path to continually fail to make things better. It’s my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That’s the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.
YOUR ACTION STEPS: Offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe (IT’S A FREEBIE!) and engage.Thanks!
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.
This week we had a train wreck in Washington, as an Amtrak train flew off the tracks near Tacoma. People have been injured and some have died; perhaps yet more will die.
We’ve had another train wreck in Washington, as our Republican majority Congress (that means YOU, Republican senators and congresspeople) has managed to pass tax legislation that will further injure an enormous number of Americans and will allow many of us to die prematurely.
In both cases you who are in charge seem to have forgotten that your job is to protect and serve the people and to do it with care.
With the passage of the Republican-only, so-called tax reform act, once again you have managed to do exactly the opposite of what the American people want you to do.
Study after study have shown that we want sensible gun safety laws, universal healthcare, protection of our national parks and wilderness areas, clean air and water, excellent public education, an end to our endless wars, a solid battle against global warming and more; but you consistently deliver the opposite.
This time you managed to put yet more billions of dollars into the pockets of already rich people, create an additional $5,000 of debt for every one of we 320 million Americans and you dumped the burden primarily on the backs of our poor and middle-class children. Congratulations on successfully sucking up to your rich donors, padding your own pockets and the pockets of the President and blowing off the rest of us.
You Republicans passed this junk legislation without any input from Democrats, with no input from tax experts and with no hearings in Congress, listening only to yourselves and those rich interests that have their hands up your back. This is exactly why we don’t trust you.
See if you can answer these three simple questions:
We want you to do things cooperatively and help to end our culture wars, not to make them worse. Exactly what is your problem with that?
How you can be so dumbfoundingly deaf to the voices of the people?
C’mon now, Republican congresspeople – you’ve been in charge for 7 years and ought to know by now what we the people want. Yet we’ve known for a long time that you don’t want to hear from us, but we want to hear from you. Answer my questions.
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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we’re on a path to continually fail to make things better. It’s my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That’s the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.
YOUR ACTION STEPS: Offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe (IT’S A FREEBIE!) and engage.Thanks!
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.
Perhaps you caught part of President Trump’s stunningly cringe-worthy presentation in Puerto Rico, wherein he boasted about the fantastic job FEMA is doing and the amazing contributions of our military on that island, even as most of the relief supplies were still sitting in shipping containers. Their release has been awaiting memos – memos! – from mayors of the cities and towns on that island, as idiotically required by FEMA administrators.
Later Trump threw rolls of paper towels to citizens like the guy at the basketball game shooting T-shirts into the crowd. Let’s see, they desperately need clean drinking water, food, medical supplies, fuel for generators and repair of their electrical power system and Trump was throwing rolls of paper towels across the room.
Click me – because we’re better than that
He called out General Kelly, letting us know that he’s a 4-star general and, boy, that’s really something and that he – Trump – is providing more F-35s for the Air Force, which brought me to my gag point. First, the Pentagon has repeatedly told Congress that they don’t need the F-35. Second, and far more important, this bombastic display by our president took place in front of Puerto Ricans, who have friends and relatives all around their island who are suffering and some are dying, and instead of focusing on serving all those suffering people, this fool of a President is lauding his chief of staff and bragging about himself for forcing yet more F-35s onto the Pentagon. Reprehensible. Absolutely reprehensible.
And that’s when the song burst onto my laptop screen nearly fully formed.
Sing it yourself to the tune of Unforgettable, originally sung by Nat “King” Cole, then later mixed as a duet with his daughter, Natalie Cole. Here’s a karaoke version for your accompaniment. Note that these stanzas don’t perfectly follow the recorded arrangement.
Got a stanza to offer? Put it in the Comments section below for all to enjoy.
And another thing . . .
Are you pretty well sick of the heartfelt “thoughts and prayers” our legislators offer after every mass shooting? The problem, of course, is that thoughts and prayers don’t stop bullets from ripping apart the bodies of the next innocent victims.
Gun safety legislation is prevented by the massive contributions of cash to politicians from the NRA. Have a look at the short list compiled by David Leonhardt of the New York Times for an idea of just how persuasive this lobbying organization for the firearms industry really is.
I know you want gun safety legislation to begin to stem the flow of the blood of innocents – 90% of us do. But as I demonstrate in my Money, Politics & Democracy talks, You’re Not Getting What You Want. And you won’t, as long as we allow our legislators to be in the pocket of big money.
You and I have a part in this in another way, too. Have a look at the article from the Washington Post by Danny Hayes to understand Why it’s so hard to pass gun control laws (in one graph). Hint: we all have BSO Syndrome (bright, shiny objects).
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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.
YOUR ACTION STEPS: Offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.Thanks! JA
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.
With 25 years of hands-on executive experience as CEO of the commercial and industrial water treatment company I founded, I now use every bit of what I learned there in delivering workshops and keynote speeches on leadership. And it seems our national political leaders need a bit of that training, too. Let's talk about it here.
that,
We’ve had another train wreck in Washington, as our Republican majority Congress (that means YOU, Republican senators and congresspeople) has managed to pass tax legislation that will further injure an enormous number of Americans and will allow many of us to die prematurely.
Are you pretty well sick of the heartfelt “thoughts and prayers” our legislators offer after every mass shooting? The problem, of course, is that thoughts and prayers don’t stop bullets from ripping apart the bodies of the next innocent victims.
