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The Gods of Safari Electrons Are Having a Tantrum


A thousand apologies if you use Safari and could not access today’s Disambiguation. The “read more” link in the email has worked properly for those using Firefox or Chrome, but apparently Safari is a different animal.

This problem also happened about a week ago and somehow spontaneously fixed itself. It appears to have done the same today. Please try the direct link to today’s post once more.

Alternatively, link to the main website page and click on the top listed post.

I’ve set my tech guys on this and hope they will effect a permanent cure shortly.

So sorry for your frustration.


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

What’s Most Important – V2.0


POST 1311
We Are At a Tipping Point

This Führer, his in-house Gruppenführers and his spineless Republican Congress are at the edge of winning a nearly 50 year battle against We The People. The unaccountable billionaires, strongmen, politicians and the puffed-up, permanently duped MAGA followers will have triumphed over the 70% majority of We The People. Conservatives will have defeated us and will have conserved all power, all wealth and all freedoms for themselves, leaving none for us. Call it fascism, authoritarianism, oligarchy (as in post-Soviet Russia) or dictatorship; the repression is the same and the impoverishment of the rest of us will be universal.

Here are just a few of the tools the power crazed use to keep you from having any power at all. Several of these came from a Reuters piece, which I suggest that you read in full.

  1. Extreme gerrymandering,
  2. War crimes to pick your pocket and distract you from losses of your freedom
  3. Illegal deportation that removes – disappears – U.S. citizens and legal residents from this country
  4. Constant lies about non-citizens voting. That actually happens in only 0.00000636% of votes cast. That’s one in about 1.6 million votes.  See this.
  5. DOJ’s massive election monitoring program seeking to strip control of voting from the states
  6. Trump’s demand for a national “citizenship list”
  7. Military at polling places
  8. ICE Gestapo at polling places
  9. Alleging voting fraud or compromised voting machines with no evidence, much less proof
  10. Pressuring election officials to change or cancel results
  11. Seizing ballots and voting equipment
  12. Federal election monitors interfering with voting
  13. Threatening to declare a national emergency and martial law
  14. Federal investigations and phony charges against election officials
  15. Congress refusing to seat election winners – see the next section.
  16. States close polling places and eliminate ballot drop boxes to make it harder for specific demographics to vote

And the granddaddy of them all: kicking vast numbers of U.S. citizens, mainly minority and poor people, off voting rolls for no legitimate reason. It’s done because Republicans can’t get elected if we all vote.

Here’s probably the most dangerous.

The Speaker of the House Has Threatened to Refuse to Seat Democratic Party Election Winners on January 3!

Yes, really.

Click me. Thanks go to MA for the pointer to this chilling video.

The spineless Speaker of the House is so deep into Trump’s plot to steal our nation that he’s prepared to mobilize a never attempted coup tactic using arcane House rules. His treachery would work this way:

  1. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson would fire the Clerk of the House and replace him with a Trump/Johnson loyalist (read: toady).
  2. The new clerk would refuse to enter the names of certified Democrats-elect onto the official House roles and would refuse to seat them.
  3. The 120th Congress would convene with only Republican representatives but it would be powerless to take any action.
  4. The Senate would be neutered because it takes both chambers to make a law.
  5. The Republican pseudo-Congress members would prostrate themselves before Trump and allow every Trump criminal and unconstitutional action. They would allow and even encourage the formal ending of democracy. Trump in his dementia would rule in an America dictatorship.

It’s instant Constitutional crisis. Actually, it’s the instant end of the Constitution.

I strongly urge you watch Katie Couric’s podcast with Judge J. Michael Luttig explaining this contemptuous treachery. Begin listening at 35:20. And you can read Judge Luttig’s essay, The Final Battle for America’s Democracy in The New Republic.

Here Is What’s On The Way Should We Fail

From Jim Acosta’s program on October 15 (start at 18:15):

Woman protests at Trump rally in Youngstown, OH wearing a “Release the Epstein Files” t-shirt.

 

 

MAGA thug in green t-shirt and black cap punches the woman in the face.

Fat, bald MAGA thug in black t-shirt grabs fistfuls of woman’s hair and mauls her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

.
.

From Heather Cox Richardson regarding streaming the execution of Nidal Hassan:

As Amy B. Wang and Alauna Safarpour of the Washington Post reported yesterday, 80% of Americans opposed livestreaming the execution to the public.

A poll by the Washington Post, ABC News, and Ipsos showed that the only demographic polled in which a majority wanted a livestream of the execution was MAGA Republican men, of whom 57% wanted the event livestreamed and 42% were opposed. Veterans, Democrats, non-MAGA Republicans, Independents, and MAGA Republican women all opposed the livestream by overwhelming amounts.

57% of MAGA Republican men want everyone to see the gore and the brutality. These thugs are what we get when Trump is the violence cheerleader, the dementia-addled Führer.

Best Quote of the Week

This comes from Steve Sheffey:

But in every district and in every state, including Michigan, the Democrat on your ballot will be the better choice and better alternative to two more years with no checks or balances on Trump’s agenda.

We have generations of work to do to repair what hateful MAGA and criminal politicians have done to our country. Demand nothing less.

Until the repairs are done (and, of course, forevermore) we must

VOTE!

and do so in massive, overwhelming, undeniable numbers in order to keep our democracy. The thugs may believe what they want. They may get all tingly-toughy when they play Rambo in the slimy bogs in the woods. They can wallow in their pitiful faux masculinity and smoke their own brand of weirdo-weed. It’s up to us to make sure that they never again get their cruel, barbaric hands on the levers of power.

That’s why we vote.

That’s what’s most important.
The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. 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.

Special Friday Post


POST 1310

No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings. We Decide.

Tomorrow there are special No Kings: Vote Early rallies all over our country. These rallies aren’t only to make a statement and be with others who actually support the Constitution. These are about making the difference that will begin to create the change we want to see.

From the website:

For over a year, millions of people have come together to send a clear message: in America, we have no kings. Power does not belong to billionaires, strongmen, or politicians who believe they are above accountability.

Power belongs to the people, but only if we use it.
.

So, click on the map below, enter your ZIP code to find a rally near you, register and then show up. Don’t want to register? That’s okay. Just show up and together we’ll raise the voting action flag for all to see, salute and follow.

Why Vote Early?
.
So that your vote will be counted before Trump finds yet another slimy way to kill your vote, steal yet another freedom and disempower you.
.
.
The Nuts and Bolts For Voting

Here’s a link that shows the early voting dates for all 50 states.

Here’s a link to check your voting registration. Here’s another.

Here’s a link to find your polling/voting place.

Here’s a link for absentee or mail-in ballot procedures for all 50 states.

Freedom of assembly (peaceful demonstrations and protests) and the right to vote are USE IT OR LOSE IT things. A casual attitude toward either is the same as surrender to the tyrants.

So, attend your rally tomorrow and then VOTE!

This is going to take hundreds of millions of us, so pass this post along to your peeps.
RIGHT NOW!
.

More on threats to your freedoms in this Sunday’s post, What’s Most Important – V2.0.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. 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.

What’s Most Important – V1.0


POST 1309
Historical Context

Our fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers risked their lives and nearly half a million of them died to make sure we would never, ever live under the cruel heel of a vampire fascist dictator’s boot. Turns out it’s very hard to make the fascist vampire stay dead.

Once again that monster is somehow rising, sucking the life blood from us and our country. Our fathers and grandparents can no long answer the call, so it falls to us to put a stake in that vampire’s chest – again.

The Threat

AI Overview – with JA comments in [brackets].

Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology that prioritizes the nation—and often a specific race [of people]—above individual rights. [1, 2]

Core Characteristics:

Dictatorial Leadership: [all p]ower rests in a single autocratic leader with a strong cult of personality.

Extreme Nationalism: Unquestioning loyalty to the state is demanded, often relying on a mythic [never happened] past or a sense of national rebirth. [plus unquestioning loyalty to the cult leader, who is indistinguishable from the state.]

Suppression of Opposition: Democratic liberties, pluralism, and free speech are abolished, and opposition is forcibly silenced using violence and secret police. [Think: charging innocent people with crimes, forcing people from their jobs, terrorizing the opposition, sending secret police to arrest and deport innocent citizens and legal residents, etc.]

Militarism and Violence: Military strength is glorified, and violence is viewed as an acceptable or purifying tool to achieve national goals. [think: toxic masculinity]

Social Hierarchy: Believes in natural social hierarchies and the dominance of a privileged group over marginalized populations or designated scapegoats.

Does any of that feel foreboding and, worse, now ordinary? That’s the call to action that’s screaming in your heart.

Perhaps the term fascism feels too extreme to you (but read Fascist. Full Stop). Okay, then call it authoritarianism or dictatorship. They aren’t exactly the same thing, but for the purpose of recognizing the existential threat to all of us, any of those terms will do.

See this video and read this post.

Also see Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever.

This Election Is About

Each Sunday through November 1 we’ll post what you or pundits or candidates say this election is about. This week’s notion is from reader Kirk Landers and is about his frustration with our electorate at this existential moment.

This election, as always, is about how the vast army of ignorant, unaware American citizens feel about their personal finances, and who they decide to blame or credit based entirely on superficial input, such as what their friends are saying on social media.

That’s valuable insight, considering we are faced with looming dictatorial rule, the loss of our rights and freedoms and the theft of our national and personal wealth, as people make their voting choices based on the cost of a gallon of gasoline or diesel.

Put your idea about this election in the Comments section below.

Pop Quiz
Question: How do you tolerate what’s being done to our country?
.
Answer: You don’t.
.

The authoritarian threat and the imperative to act are

What Is Most Important.

.

Next Sunday: What’s Most Important – V2.0, detailing specific threats.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. 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.

Change


POST 1308

 

 

First, Have You Noticed .  .  .

.  .  .  that voting restrictions, voter roll purges, extreme gerrymandering, roadblocks to voting, like elimination of polling places and locations to drop off a mail-in ballot, disinformation propaganda, voter intimidation with threats of violence, laws that discriminate against minorities, women, naturalized citizens and poor people and yet more impediments to voting are done solely by the Republican Party? Now, why do you suppose that’s true? Find the answer here and here.

Hint: Because Republicans know they cannot even come close to being elected and in power unless they cheat.

It’s All Connected

Food prices, fuel prices, war, corruption, cruelty, incoherence, cowardice, dishonor and more – it’s all of a piece. Have a look at a paragraph from Heather Cox Richardson’s post of September 18:

All of these crises—the price crisis, caused by the oil crisis, caused by the Iran crisis, which has created a military crisis while the country is staggering under a deportation crisis—appear finally to be making some Republicans rethink their support for Trump and his policies.

Which means that embedded in the miasma of American self-inflicted misery is a growing core of hope for us. Keep the faith, baby, and never, never, never give in.

Who?

The mid-term election is nearly upon us and those of us with functioning brains are hoping for an overwhelming rebuke of all things Trump and all things cowardly Republican. That will be most satisfying both personally and legislatively, as Democrats put a stop to Trump’s insane destruction of our nation and begin to prosecute the governmental felons. Still, there’s more to think about.

Like who we’d like to be our next president, and no, I don’t mean J.D. Vance after Trump is replaced via the 25th Amendment and sent to the home for dementia addled sociopathic narcissists.

Who will have what it takes to restore our economy, kill the illegal and cost of living killer tariffs, make healthcare affordable, repair our relationships with our former allies and retake our place as the world’s leader for democracy? Who will be able to remember to dismantle the useless ballroom, remove all the gold crap-tizing of the Oval Office, aid Ukraine to banish the Russian pestilence, get us out of Venezuela, end the pointless travesty of the Iran War, prosecute Trump and his felons and the corporate profit pirates? Who has the background and skill for such a dauntingly enormous task?

We’ll want someone who isn’t steeped in and stuck in Boomerism, yet has the experience and wisdom for the job of restoring balance in the world. We’ll need someone who recognizes that it will take generations to fix what Trump has broken but who also has the urgency to take swift steps toward a sustainable new normal. What stands out is how dangerous the world has become. Who has the experience to deal with Kim Jung Un, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Mojtaba Khameni, the Supreme Leader of Iran?

Another day ending in “Y”, another Trump scum bag lie and reason to dump all the complicit Republicans. Click the pic.

There are a lot of really good people available to be candidates, but electability is the key. 32% of voters – MAGAs, traditional Republicans stuck in habit, low information sheepl and far right pissy people – won’t vote for anyone who isn’t a Republican, so we can ignore them in our election considerations.

Cost of living issues are critical now and they’re going to stay that way for the 2028 election. Republicans are focused on their far right donors and are bankrupt of ideas to benefit We The People. What if in 2029 the president were to abolish all the illegal and financially crippling tariffs and proposed a wealth tax and restoration of traditional tax rates on millionaire and billionaires (now effectively about 3%) so that they stop skating from paying their fair share? Wouldn’t you love it? So would independents and undecideds.

Too Good To Miss

We all know that Trump repeatedly claimed that he would “drain the swamp,” meaning Washington, and, of course, only he could do it. Since then you’ve been watching him eliminate tens of thousands of government employees from agencies that protect us and many good people in public service. You’ve seen the reports of unqualified people replacing good people in positions of power, but Thom Hartmann provided a lovely list of Trumpies with power that brings this infamous rogues gallery into sharp focus.

— An alcoholic B-list weekend TV star in charge of our military,
— A formerly heroin- and sex-addicted brainworm-infected lawyer in charge of our public health,
— A wrestling promoter in charge of our Education Department,
— The president’s personal criminal defense lawyer in charge of the Justice Department,
— A C-list reality TV star in charge of our air traffic control system,
— A plumber in charge of Homeland Security,
— A “miracle weight-loss pill” TV hawker in charge of Medicare and Medicaid,
— A social media hustler and children’s book author in charge of the FBI,
— A predatory hedge fund guy in charge of the Treasury,
— A fracking CEO who denies the climate crisis in charge of the Energy Department,
— Jeffrey Epstein’s former next-door neighbor and Epstein Island visitor in charge of the Commerce Department,
— A politician who built his career on a phony story about his parents fleeing Castro in charge of telling America’s story to the world,
— The mentee of an anti-democracy billionaire as our VP,
— A Project 2025 architect who was excited to put federal workers “in trauma” in charge of America’s federal budget,
— A racist whose own uncle publicly denounced him as an immigration hypocrite, and whose leaked emails pushed white nationalist material to Breitbart, in charge of immigration policy,
— A former NFL player in charge of public housing,
— A real estate developer and golf buddy with no diplomatic experience whatsoever negotiating with and sucking up to Vladimir Putin,
— The world’s richest man firing people investigating him and his companies while gutting the federal government and killing millions by “feeding USAID into the wood chipper,”
— And a self-described “proud Islamophobe” with no government job vetting the National Security Council staff. [all emphasis original]

Want to know what that’s done to you? Read his post for the grisly list and a full clarity of the abject greed that fuels the Republican Party.

Quote of the Month

From Robert Reich’s post on September 24,

There’s simply no legitimate use for crypto. Its only practical uses are tax evasion, money laundering, human trafficking, fraud, speculation, and crime.

Best Clear Direction

From Rick Wilson, direction for us for this election, if we want to preserve democracy:

The only rule for the next five weeks is attack, attack, attack.

Burn their crops. Salt the earth. Cut the tongues from the mouths of their bards.

Run up the score. Every Senate race, every House race, every statehouse, every county commission. Make the MAGA candidates wear every single thing this administration has done. Don’t coast. Don’t protect the lead. Beat the MAGA movement into a lifeless pulp, and let the vultures come in to finish the job.

A narrow win lets them claim it was a fluke. A blowout is a verdict.

Forgiveness is real, and it’s precious, and it has to be earned.

It comes after truth, after accountability, and after consequences, not instead of them.

Quote Of The Week

From Rabbi Rami’s post You Can’t Always Get What You Want:

Life is absurd. Death is the end. Don’t ask why. Just love your neighbor and the stranger as yourself (Leviticus 19:18;34).

What if our politicians thumping Bibles in White supremacy fervor and supplicating themselves to the orange god of bone spurs, instead, for a magical instant, loved our neighbors and strangers as themselves? What if for a long enough moment to legislate something – give something – to the poor and the stranger? What if they actually were to follow the rulebook they thump?

The answers, of course, are that 600,000 – 760,000 desperately poor people, 2/3 of them children, wouldn’t have died (projected to be 14 million dead by 2030), and that would actually have mattered to us, even though they weren’t White. We wouldn’t have poor kids in this country going to bed hungry, going to school hungry and going without healthcare.

Crazy, I know.

This Election Is About

Each Sunday through the last one before the November 3 election we’ll post what you or pundits or candidates say this election is about. This week’s is taken from Paul Krugman’s podcast, The Midterms!:

The election is about turnout, not pollsters’ data.

Put your idea about this election in the Comments section below. We’ll post samplings of how readers see this, so indicate if you want your name appended to your comment.

  • _______________________________________________

* “The politicians who created this mess are not going to be the ones who fix it. How do you tolerate what’s being done to our country? The answer is: you don’t.“

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. 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.

The Dyspeptic Gods of Electrons.


I was advised by some readers that the link to today’s Disambiguation did not work. After doing some trouble shooting I was unable to find the cause, but then Safari began to work properly again. Apparently, the gods of electrons are no longer dyspeptic.

Apologies to you if you were frustrated trying to access today’s content, Please try again – here’s the link.


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

A Thousand Failures


POST 1307

 

 

Thanks For Protecting Our Elections

In a major crackdown on illegal voting, our Kash Patel-led FBI revealed that they had uncovered seven (7) legal resident non-citizens who voted in Texas in 2024. They arrested and charged the seven in a “sweeping federal election integrity operation.”

From The Onion, of course.

That’s right: Our proud FBI posse netted 7 bad guy voters from a sea of 11,000,000 votes cast in Texas in 2024.

Kudos to the dedicated geniuses at the DOJ for deploying all of that specialty talent in this “sweeping federal election integrity operation” to end this massive voter fraud. We wouldn’t want our Justice Department people to waste time pursuing small stuff, like:

the thousands of Epstein sex traffickers and abusers, including the creeps who raped little girls

governmental insider trading

no-bid contracts awarded by the President

our illegal and unwinnable war in Iran which has not been authorized by Congress (see Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution)

$BILLIONS in violations of the Constitution’s  Foreign Emoluments Clause and the Domestic Emoluments Clause

contempt of court and contempt of Congress

the illegal invasion of Venezuela, the kidnapping of its president and the theft of its oil, its oil money and its gold

numerous assaults on the Constitution.

We all know that any of that would be a “sweeping” waste of DOJ time and talent.

So, DOJ, thanks for protecting our elections from the illegal 0.00000636% of votes cast in Texas in 2024. That’s one in every 1.6 million votes. If that rate of fraud happened nationally, there would have been ninety-five (95) illegal votes out of over 152,000,000 total votes cast!

We’re all breathing easier now.

Footnote To The Remembrances and Honorings on 9/11

Source: (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

In Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter From an American on September 11, 2026 she quotes from The Amazing Spider-Man, volume 2, number 36, published on November 14, 2001 (read it here). The key question is asked,

How, in a city that hundreds of superheroes call home, were those superheroes powerless to stop the 9/11 attacks?

“The sane world will always be vulnerable to madmen,” Spider-Man answers when a devastated couple fleeing from the devastation challenges him, “because we cannot go where they go to conceive of such things. We could not see it coming. We could not be here before it happened. We could not stop it.

“But we are here now. You cannot see us for the dust, but we are here. You cannot hear us for the cries, but we are here.”

But the superheroes Spider-Man identified in the chaos did not wear capes. They wore hats that said “FDNY” and “FEMA” and “POLICE.” The “true heroes,” Spider-Man said, were those ordinary people who ran back into the buildings to rescue others waiting in the dark, who joined together to storm the cockpit of a hijacked airplane and bring it down to the ground before it could hit the Capitol or White House, and who helped each other to safety or to face the terror.

They were ordinary men and women “made extraordinary by acts of compassion, and courage, and terrible sacrifice,” and who rejected “the self-serving proclamations of holy warriors of every stripe.”

These and others are the people the President and the Secretary of Defense dishonor and waste with their stupidity, their vacuous bluster, their failures and their consequences that come to be inflicted upon the American people. They are the losses these leaders call “small potatoes.” Our extraordinary people are the ones who will again and again fight in our battles, some of which would never come about were there competent leadership.

We the People are the ones being made far more vulnerable to terrorist attacks by the bottomless ineptitude of Trump’s mania for performance over competence. We ignore the reality at our terrible peril.

Crank up the volume and click the pic

Nevertheless, we always, always, always honor our ordinary people, “made extraordinary by acts of compassion, and courage, and terrible sacrifice.”

IMPORTANT HISTORICAL NOTE: Spider-Man says, “.  .  .  we cannot go where they go to conceive of such things. We could not see it coming. We could not be here before it happened. We could not stop it.”

But we could have stopped 9/11. Our intelligence people warned of imminent attacks by al Qaeda and George W. Bush and his top people both ignored the warnings and lied to us about the threats and the results. That includes Bush, V.P Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Link through and read about it. The warning detailed in that report wasn’t the only briefing Bush and his national security team received about attacks on the U.S., but they ignored the warnings.

And we got 9/11.

Click me – and play the video under “What Cait is fighting for”

This Election Is About

Each Sunday through the last one before the November 3 election we’ll post what you or pundits or candidates say this election is about. Cait Conley, Democratic candidate for New York’s 17th District (Hudson River Valley), West Point graduate, Special Ops leader, decorated combat veteran and national security expert,  says:*

The #1 issue is affordability.

Put your idea about this election in the Comments section below to help us all to see clearly the key motivating issues for We The People. It’s about doing what the title of Rachel Bitecofer’s book instructs:

Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts

You tell us where that is.

Special Notice For Northbrook Residents

The Meadow Plaza  shopping center in downtown Northbrook has been sold to Pulte Homes.

They plan to erect 5 or 6 story condos on the property. Big buildings in the village (not city) of Northbrook. There are new zoning variations largely unknown to the public that would allow this major transformation of the village. Watch here and here for full information.

There is a public hearing about this issue set for Tuesday, October 6 at 6:00PM at the Techny Activity Center. If you care about the vibe, the congestion and the entire flavor of the village, be there.

  • _______________________________________________

* “The politicians who created this mess are not going to be the ones who fix it. How do you tolerate what’s being done to our country? The answer is: you don’t.“

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. 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.

Integrity, Trump Style


POST 1306

“Cheat Like Hell”

Click me

At Trump’s Loser-Palooza in a half-empty stadium two weeks ago he spoke to the Republican National Convention crowd saying:

“We want honesty in our elections. We want honesty in our country,” Immediately after declaring that, Trump led his MAGAs in a pledge.

“Please raise your right hand. I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much he can’t even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends. I’ll do it any way. I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m gonna try and cheat like hell like they do. There’s never been bigger cheaters. I don’t care. I am gonna go out and I’m gonna get my friends, my family and we are going go out and vote on November third or we are going to vote before that.”

I don’t suppose anyone in that crowd of sheeple people (those who follow like ignorant, unthinking sheep) noticed that first he invoked principle and uprightness. Then he directed them to “cheat like hell.” That should be shocking, but it’s just more contorted Trump inside-out integrity crushing. It’s no surprise to anyone listening, least of all to his sheeple, who surely don’t even notice it.

I also don’t imagine that anyone in that crowd would dispute his claim of being the “greatest president in the history of the United States,” as to do so would have required them to have cracked a history book at some time in their likely long forgotten past.

Connecting Dots

From Tom Nichols’ piece in The Atlantic:, Trump Has It Out For Canada:

.  .  .  Trump’s attitude toward Canada is almost indistinguishable from the way Russian President Vladimir Putin sees Ukraine: not as a state but as some kind of historical anomaly that should be returned to its rightful owners. Trump might think it’s funny to post memes of Canada with an American flag superimposed on it, but those jokes are a lot less hilarious to people in places such as Ukraine, who are fighting a war against a dictator who feels exactly the same way about their country.

More assault on integrity.

The Dog That Has To Pee Highest On Every Fire Hydrant

The Trump hand-picked directors of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Board voted to close the center for “renovations” that will continue until Trump gets his name placed on the front of the building again. It’s odd how the schedule for “renovations” is affected by serving Trump’s vanity.

U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper refused to allow that illegal renaming act to occur. Trump was so miffed (feel free to use your own descriptor) that he posted on social media that without his name going onto the building, “.  .  . unfortunately, the Building is destined to doom. Isn’t that too bad?” Allow me to translate.

Mafia Don is saying, “Nice little place you got here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.” That’s extortion, pure and ugly.

Such is the focus of attention and the infinite pettiness of the President of the United States. That is the kind of focus on his ego frivolities and abdication of serious responsibilities that adds impetus to Canada disengaging from the U.S. and establishing stronger ties with the European Union and elsewhere. It encourages Russia to destroy Ukraine. It tells the world that America is a wholly unreliable country focused solely on presidential vanity. It tells the world that we have no integrity, that we can’t be counted on.

Our national pettiness, cruelty and unreliability are what will greatly help this to become the Chinese century. It will make America not much more than a dope on the sidelines of history being made by dependable nations.

Keep that in mind when AI takes our jobs, sabotages our utilities and unleashes diseases on our wholly unprepared citizenry. Like all the important things that don’t immediately massage Trump’s fragile and infinitely needy ego, all he did was to say stupid things about AI, boast of his genius and ignore the looming catastrophe.

  • “To destroy things he can’t possess or control is his essential nature.”
  • George Conway, The Bulwark
  • Best Read For A Fuller Perspective On Our Demise 
  • Read Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters From An American of September 16, 2026. It will give you more clarity about how Trump is hobbling our country.
  • What she doesn’t say is that even as Trump has made himself abhorrent to nearly 2/3 of our citizens, even as he has made himself and the United States of America international pariahs, most of the Republicans in Congress continue to sit in their cowardly supplication to him. So have Google, Apple, TV networks and some universities and law firms. This cowardice and supplication are how tyranny wins. It’s yet more abdication of integrity.
  • This Just In
  • On Friday, September 18 President Donald Trump announced via a post on his so-called Truth Social that representatives from CNN, MS-NOW and Politico are banned from the White House. His view has been widely denounced as a violation of the First Amendment, but Trump’s response was, “Who cares? They’re all stupid and terrible people.”

Later he posted that he didn’t feel his ban was wide enough and should be extended to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. We are left to wonder if he will also ban representatives like Punxsutawney Phil’s press secretary, journalists from Friends of the Chicago River, reporters from Iran’s Ayatollah News, all Canadian journalists and, most specifically, all communications personnel from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office.

New Feature: This Election Is About

Each Sunday through the last one before the November 3 election we’ll post what you or pundits or candidates say this election is about. I’ll get this started, saying:

This election is about the lives of We The People.

Put your idea about this election in the Comments section below. We’ll post samplings of how readers see this, so indicate if you want your name appended to your comment.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. 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.

Continuing Centuries of Repression


POST 1305

For The Glory Of Rigging The Vote

Click me

Regular readers of these Disambiguations may recall numerous references to Paul Weyrich (here and in other posts). He’s the Republican who decades ago declared proudly and openly that he didn’t want all eligible voters to vote. He said that  if they did Republicans couldn’t win. Somehow for him and many others, that describes a conservative. You decide what it is they want to conserve.

He wasn’t the first in America to suppress the voting rights of others. Surely, the earliest dishonor belongs to White slave owners. Even after slavery was constitutionally, if not actually, abolished, Blacks were prevented from voting by means of poll taxes, rigged jelly bean counts, rigged literacy tests, by violent intimidation and by outright murder.

Even the Founders wanted only landed White men to vote. In a letter dated March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams famously urged her husband, John Adams, to “remember the ladies” in the Articles of Confederation then being written. She noted that women would not hold themselves bound by laws in which they had no voice or representation.* It was the equivalent of a “no taxation without representation” statement the Founders should have understood. John Adams ignored her appeals and women gained no voting agency. It took until 1920 for Americans to realize that women were full citizens and that they deserved the full rights attendant to that. Even so, the rich boys domination club didn’t go away.

In recent decades the effort to suppress votes has taken on some clever twists. Republicans have jiggered voting district borders to minimize representation of non-Whites, like in South Carolina, where 25% of the people are Black. There are 9 congressional districts in that state but there is only one Black representative, just 11% representation.

Elbridge Gerry, the Massachusetts governor in 1812, showed us the successfully self-serving way to manipulate district borders and was immortalized when his scheming was dubbed “gerrymandering.” He’d be so proud of today’s Republicans. Read about it at the Brennan Center.

The Supreme Court is a formidable partner in voter suppression, as most recently it green lighted states to rig elections in the Louisiana v. Callais case. That was the last blow needed to crush Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and render it powerless to protect the rights and freedom of all citizens even if they weren’t rich White guys.

Click me

Another favorite voting rights crusher is to remove polling places from where Black, Hispanic and poor people live in order to make it harder for them to vote. In Louisville, KY they removed all ballot drop boxes but two in the downtown area, making it next to impossible for rural people to hand deliver their mail ballots. That’s great for Republicans because those people would otherwise overwhelmingly vote Democratic.

Now we have Trump’s un-constitutional assault on voting by mail. Mail voting is more popular with Democratic voters than Republican voters, so putting Trump’s heel on all voting by mail would result in vote totals more favorable to Republicans. So very cunning of Trump.

Then there’s the selective removal of names from state voter rolls by means of sneaky tricks, like Texas disenfranchising 1,000,000 from their voting roles. Several years ago Ohio claimed to be removing the names of dead citizens from its voter rolls. They mailed envelopes mostly to voters in Black neighborhoods. The citizens were instructed to send the enclosed card back to the state within 10 days or they’d lose their voter registration. Ohio also passed a law that removed a voter if s/he missed a single federal election and the Supreme Court upheld that law. Guess what happened when scores of  those mostly poor and minority infrequent voters showed up to vote in the next election.

Why you can’t get through to a Trump Supporter. Click this pic

And there were the inordinately long lines at polling places in Black neighborhoods – as much as 12 hours on the east, mostly Black side of Cleveland, OH. Those in line to vote were entirely without a bathroom, water or food. Compare that to the maximum 2-hour wait in White neighborhoods of the same state. Well done, Ohio Republican election officials!

Here’s the simple truth. If every citizen of voting age were able to and did vote, very few Republicans would be elected. Paul Weyrich knew that and so do today’s Republicans, so they do everything possible, whether un-constitutional or illegal, to stop people from voting for Democrats. Weyrich laid out the fundamentals of the plan for domination and later generations have used their creativity to expand that, standing on the necks of voters since then.

What remains is that we as a nation are consistently influenced by Republicans to be all about electing and promoting rich guys, White power and domination.

The Trump Demolition Derby

You’ve long known that Trump is a walking, talking scam, fooling some of the people all of the time. Check this out.

Ted Dintersmith gets the checkered flag for his metaphor of Trump running a demolition derby. Click the graphic to see a readable version identifying some of his scams. Here’s a teaser.

Click me

After his long trail of bankruptcies, [Trump’s] fulfilling his dream of being a billionaire. In 2025, he boosted his net worth by a stunning $1.4 billion. He made off with $636 million on a memecoin [sic] while 989,000 buyers lost $3.8 billion. He’s extracted $115 million of personal gain from foreign sources. Toss in a $400 million private jet from Qatar, upgraded at taxpayer expense. All made possible by a complicit Congress and SCOTUS, cheerleaders to his destruction.

The urgent message I see in that is the last sentence:

All made possible by a complicit Congress and SCOTUS, cheerleaders to his destruction.

The complicit Congress part is what we must crush this November 3. Then we’ll be in a position for the Democrats in control of Congress starting on January 3, 2027 to do a Mitch McConnell on impending SCOTUS appointments from Trump or Vance until the the new sheriff comes to town January 20, 2029.

Best Read Of The Week

Read Morgan Freeman’s (yes, that Morgan Freeman) post, The Price of Trump. It’s a full view reminder of the bill we pay for Trump’s demolition of our democracy. Hint: However costly you think it is, it’s worse than that.

___________________________________________

* See especially the final two paragraphs of Abigail Adams’ letter.

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. 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.

Yes, Really


POST 1304

 

 

Buttinsky Corner

A recent Gallup poll asked Americans, “When a couple has a child together, how important is it to you that they legally marry?” 58% of Republicans answered the question, “very important.”

Clearly, if a Republican couple finds through experimentation that the rumors and wild claims really are true, that dancing and then being in intimate heterosexual proximity lead to pregnancy, then they are free to believe as they wish about marriage.

But here’s the thing: They don’t get to tell you or me what we have to think or do, should we find ourselves participants in a tumble in the hay with the same surprising to them result.

Yet we are besieged by Republicans determined to make us all adhere to their absolutist, self-certain views on everything from books not allowed in the library to the very definition of the founding of this nation and their oppressive fantasies about what America is supposed to be today. So, I say unto the pseudo-holy marriage dictators the same thing I say to the book banners and the self-appointed blabbers who pretend to speak for the Founders:

You have every right to don your pointy Merlin hat and wave your Harry Potter wand and to drool and dribble your incantations in private. Other than that, butt out of my life and shut the f*ck up.

Wait: Isn’t that “butt out” stuff what fiercely independents, the MAGA tough guys, would demand for themselves? I’m looking at you, red states.

Border Dispute Resolved

Source not found. If you know it, please share it in the Comments section below and we’ll update the pic.

Click on the pic – it’s a real Google map that’s online now. Google renamed Lake Ontario “Lake America” and, no surprise, renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” Google is just another cowardly company bending the knee and acting without integrity. We suggest you switch to a different search engine and email.

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe An Answer

I’ve been asking questions about things like:

Why we continue to deplete our national defense stockpiles and our petroleum reserve

Why we have kicked science to the curb and recommend against life protecting vaccines, even as cases of measles, smallpox and polio proliferate

Why we’ve slashed staffing of agencies that keep us healthy

Why we allowed the gutting of the FDA which now can’t help us with the explosive diarrhea causing parasite or the next pandemic

Why we’ve insulted our allies

Why we started a war we cannot, under any circumstances, win

Why it’s just a footnote that we killed those little school girts and bombed a wedding in southern Iran, killing at least five people and injuring at least 67

Why we’ve kicked out our most experienced military people during a war

Why our Congress stands cowardly and mute as our national parks, landmarks and buildings are violated

Why mobs of incognito storm troopers beat, incarcerate and kill both citizens and innocent non-citizens alike

Why our Congress allows the vast bulk of the Epstein documentation and crimes to be buried under Trumpian distractions. Do you suppose our representatives and senators would be this spineless if the victims of Epstein, Maxwell and Trump were their own daughters?

Who benefits from our neutering our country internally, externally and morally?

Here are two pieces you must read to begin to understand:

  1. First read the New York Times editorial from August 23, Trump’s Election Meddling Erodes our Democracy.
  2. Then read the essay from Steve Schmidt from September 2, I Can See Clearly, Again. The pattern is clear. The way to disaster has been set.

And if you want to understand the cruel inscrutability behind the leader of our narcissist led thugocracy, read the special guest essay by Vince Greenwood, PhD. in Sheila Markin’s August 29 post, Proof Trump’s a Psychopath. It will make you lock your doors and windows.

Now, go read.

August Jobs Report

After losing 23,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department now wants us to believe that the U.S. gained 162,000 jobs in August. That is a magical turn around for an economy that lost over 20,000 manufacturing jobs in a month. Color me skeptical about the Labor Department’s report because I’m not buying it.

Have a look at what ADP Research and Endless Urgency have to say about the administration’s fun with numbers scam. With the mid-term elections nearly upon us the Trumpies want us to accept the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s just another agency where Trump fired the director – the one who had some integrity. In fact, he’s fired all the watch dog agency directors and clearly believes that now he can make up any statistics that will help him to get what he wants, like another compliant Republican Congress.

Expect more glowing reports about inflation, jobs, prices, the Iran war and more between now and November 3. Foolishly believe the administration at your peril.

Click me – and this one, too.

Song of the Week

Jesse Welles has done it again. Watch and listen as he explains our terrible, awful, illegal, pointless, unwinnable and cruel war. I mean, who really cares about those dead little school girls and wedding attendees?

The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action

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 (IT’S A FREEBIE!), because 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.

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. I am neither offered nor do I accept funding of any type from candidates, online blabbers, organizations with or without any position or opinion or from any other origin other than from my own meager resources.
  5. 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.
  6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source material.
  7. Do not look to these posts for “both sides” idiocy. I don’t have life to waste on such foolishness, such disingenuous nonsense and you shouldn’t either. You can find “both sides” misdirection in any cowardly publication. I post what I believe to be true, sarcasm and snark sometimes excepted. I make no pretense nor allow any space for the idiocy of insisting views to be somehow balanced for reporting or opinion presentation fairness, because doing so would be grossly unfair and of no value.
  8. If you disagree with anything I write, if you think I’m inappropriately biased, puff up your courage and put it in the Comments section. But see Point #9 below. On the other hand, let’s agree that I, like you, am biased.
  9. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All comments 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 or offensive solely for someone taking the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
  10. We do not sell, give away, lend, share or otherwise allow the disclosure of the identity of our subscribers or of their information. Never have, never will. That should not have to be said, but the times have taught us that the words do need to be declared. At the last, all we can cling to is trust in one another.
  11. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

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JA


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

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