Uncategorized

What Do You Want?


Reading time – 77 seconds .  .  .

coca-colaThe Coca-Cola company wants you to know that if pepsiyou drink Cokes, amazingly wonderful things will happen for you. Pepsico wants you to know the same thing, but assures you that it has to be Pepsi. And both of these companies want you to know what really great guys they are, so they promote STEM learning and women’s empowerment and other good causes. These companies and their lobbying organization, the American Beverage Association, care deeply about your health, so much so that from 2011 – 2015 they contributed to at least 96 health organizations. That sure makes them look like great guys. And they’re pretty good at making themselves look blameless for anything other than good times, too.

According to a report released by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, while those companies were doing their supporting of good causes, they were spending $10 million per year lobbying to defeat legislation – 29 bills – designed to curb the sugar consumption that comes from the soft drinks we consume, the very stuff that is responsible for about half of the obesity in America.

Let’s see  .  .  .  they make it look like they care about you and your health and then make sure that their advertising skewers you with implied promises that you’ll be lovely and be loved, that you’ll be forever young and beautiful and that life will be a joy, if only you’ll drink their bottles of sugar water. And they put their money into making sure that they maintain their God-given right to ensure there is never any legislation that would allow you to know the actual, fact-based truth. Sorry, but more sugar will not make your life eternally wonderful. It will just make you fat.

In case you’re the kind of person who thinks that we really do have a fat problem in America and you believe that we ought to do something about it besides imagine that people will somehow magically and consistently make nothing but good choices for themselves, in case you think that product labeling of the things you consume is a good thing, in case you want government that works for the people, the truth is that

YOU AREN’T GETTING WHAT YOU WANT!

And you can trace that to our pay-for-play system of government that allows $10 million per year to prevent you from knowing what you’re consuming and what it does to you. If you want to start getting what you want, you better stop voting for people who like things the way they are. You better start electing reformers.

————————————-

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: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Where?


Reading time – 1:01; Viewing time – 2:41  .  .  .

Uh-oh. Some snark follows. Sensitive readers should squint.

What candidates say matters. And to paraphrase Barney Frank, you want your next president to be someone who spends the majority of his/her time on this planet. Well, here’s how Politifact scored the candidates’ claims made in the second so-called debate. (Here’s the New York Times’ fact checking). NOTE: There is a pop quiz following the charts.

second-debate-politifact-clinton

Clinton Scorecard, 2nd Debate

Trump Scorecard, 2nd Debate

Trump Scorecard, 2nd Debate

Pop Quiz

  1. Do you notice any differences, any imbalance between the charts? Compare and contrast, especially the False and Pants on Fire statements. No credit will be given for incomplete, weenie answers.
  2. Which candidate appears to spend the majority of his/her time on this planet? Explain your answer using a language common to Earth.
  3. For extra credit: Exactly how much do you believe that Donald Trump is sincere, much less contrite, in his apology for his misogynistic, “locker room” comments in which he confessed to having committed criminal sexual assault?
  4. When did you first recognize the warts that identify this reptile?

Enter your answers in the What Do You Think? section below. Your score on this quiz will become 50% of your letter grade for the semester and will affect all of your future life options.

One more thing.

Following the first debate many people were speculating about the cause of Donald Trump’s frequent sniffling. Did he have a head cold? Was he really sad? Did a bug fly up his nose? The sniffing was far more pronounced throughout the second debate. Oddly, he doesn’t do that at his rallies, so what’s going on? Let’s put the speculation about this into the Donald Trump style of rhetoric:

Many people are saying – I don’t believe this myself – but many people are saying that he might be doing coke. This I am hearing. I don’t know if this is a fact. I’m just saying that people are saying these things. Believe me. This is true. I am hearing this. I’m a very successful businessman – I am the best – and I got that way because I know how to read people. He’s a total disaster. A total loser. Believe me.

So tell us, Donald, how do you you like it when that kind of crap is aimed at you?

————————————-

Bonus Section – You absolutely must read this piece of clarity from David Leonhardt, Opinion Editor, New York Times. Plus, here is his guide to second debate, Trump fact-checking:

He lied about a sex tape.
He lied about his lies about ‘birtherism.
He lied about the growth rate of the American economy.
He lied about the state of the job market.
He lied about the trade deficit.
He lied about tax rates.
He lied about his own position on the Iraq War, again.
He lied about ISIS.
He lied about the Benghazi attack.
He lied about the war in Syria.
He lied about Syrian refugees.
He lied about Russia’s hacking.
He lied about the San Bernardino terrorist attack.
He lied about Hillary Clinton’s tax plan.
He lied about her health care plan.
He lied about her immigration plan.
He lied about her email deletion.
He lied about Obamacare, more than once.
He lied about the rape of a 12-year-old girl.
He lied about his history of groping women without their consent.

————————————-

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: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Insidious


putin-on-a-bearReading time – 1:49 plus 44 seconds for the Bonus Section; Viewing time – 2:31  .  .  .

Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University and he penned a most interesting essay in the New York Times entitled How a Russian Fascist Is Meddling in America’s Election. It is a worthwhile read if you want to understand a bit of Vladimir Putin’s anti-America behavior. It seems that Putin, the object of Donald Trump’s heart-pitty-pat bromance, is much enamored of the now deceased Ivan Ilyin, whom Snyder described as “a prophet of Russian fascism”.

Ilyin was all about the demise of individuality and democrace, which he saw as evil, both of which he saw as evil. He believed in some idealistic oneness of Russia ruled by a “national dictator” who would be “inspired by the spirit of totality,” whatever that means. If you are an ordinary Russian citizen and a hammer and sickle Russian fanatic, that might sound pretty good to you, And it will stay that way until the commissars snatch you from your home in the middle of the night and send you to a Siberian labor camp. And why wouldn’t they do that if individuals – you – are evil and have no individual value?

It’s so very Soviet Union yesterday.

Which isn’t the main point for us, but it does provide context. Snyder writes,

“For a decade, Russia has been sponsoring right-wing extremists as “election observers” – most recently, in the farcical referendums in the Crimea and in the Donbas region of Ukraine – in order to discredit both elections and their observation. Since democracy is a sham, as Ilyin believed, then it is right and good to imitate its language and procedures in order to discredit it. It is noteworthy that the Trump campaign has now imitated this very practice, supplying both its own private “observers” and the advance conclusion about the fraud they will find. [emphasis mine}

“The technique of undermining democracy abroad is to generate doubt where there had been certainty. If democratic procedures start to seem shambolic, then democratic ideas will seem questionable as well. And so America would become more like Russia, which is the general idea. If Mr. Trump wins, Russia wins. But if Mr. Trump loses and people doubt the outcome, Russia also wins.” [emphasis mine]

How in the world can Donald Trump be about making America great when all that he says and all that he does rips at the very fabric of our democracy?

BONUS SECTION – PLEASE ASK THIS QUESTION AT THE DEBATE:

Mr. Trump, before and during this campaign you have said ugly things about women, including calling them dogs and worse, as well as fat-shaming one of your own Miss Universe winners. You have steadfastly refused to moderate your comments and you have refused to apologize to people you have harmed with your cruel words, much less to the rest of the women of America. Now we have seen a video of you clearly objectifying women, making cruel and lewd statements about them and claiming with pride that you are free to commit sex crimes with women because you’re a star. You responded to the unveiling of your horrific statements with a limp apology.

Given that your words and your actions loudly proclaim your disdain for women, explain to all Americans why we should even consider the possibility that as president you would care about and respect over half of us – girls, women, daughters, spouses, mothers, sisters, friends – and look out for their welfare. And don’t tell us yet again that you respect women, because it’s manifestly clear from your words and actions that you don’t.

————————————-

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: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA

– See more at: https://jaxpolitix.com/7836-2/#sthash.J67dlWgD.dpuf


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Not About You Know Who


no-trump-silouetteReading time – 1:23; Viewing time – 3:01  .  .  .

There is no perfect candidate. There never has been. There never will be.

So, here’s a Dr. Phil prescription for your candidate ennui: Get over it.

On the one hand, Hillary has very real flaws. On the other hand, Hillary’s list of flaws has become far more than misleading; much of it is flat wrong.

  • Three different special prosecutors could find no wrongdoing over her Republican advertised Whitewater “scandal”.
  • Seven Congressional investigations could find no wrongdoing over her Republican advertised Benghazi “scandal”.
  • Nobody could find any connection whatsoever to the Republican advertised connection between Hillary and Vince Foster’s suicide.
  • The FBI could find nothing criminal about Hillary’s private email server.
  • No one has found a connection between Bill Clinton’s philandering and any Hillary “scandal”.
  • There is no evidence that contributions to The Clinton Foundation while Clinton was Secretary of State resulted in anything of any benefit whatsoever to contributors.

This list could go on for pages, but you get the idea. The right wing foaming mouth babblers have continued to promote Hillary scandals, even as they have been proven false again and again.

Have a look at this piece from the Wall Street Journal about Hillary-Hatred Derangement Syndrome. More importantly, read some of the comments that follow the article, because they are the most instructive. You’ll see assumptions of criminal guilt, treason, and accusations that Hillary promotes cop killing (“If you want dead cops, vote for Hillary.”). One calls Hillary Evita, saying that he wouldn’t vote for her because of, “.  .  .  her collusion to place Israel in Iran’s nuclear cross hairs.” Another writes, “Clinton is corrupt to the core and belongs in jail, not in the White House.”

That last – belongs in jail – for what? The private email server was dumb, bad, irresponsible and all the other things James Comey said it was. Accepting large foundation contributions while she was Secretary of State is bad optics for sure. But criminal and she “belongs in jail”? If that’s what you want to see, then that’s what you will see. And the Derangement crowd is fixed on that vision. For that matter, though, get over the stars in your eyes for Hillary, if that’s what you see.

There is no perfect candidate. Sadly, all are flawed human beings and we are saddled with the miserable job of picking the best (or least worst) of the lot. The only alternative is despotism. The divine right of kings. Dictators. Want that?

If not, get over Hillary-Hatred Derangement Syndrome. She’s an imperfect human being and an imperfect candidate. On the other hand, she won’t start World War III.

————————————-

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: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Honestly, They Aren’t Idiots


painter-on-bucketsReading time – 51 seconds; Viewing time – 1:47  .  .  .

A recent Vox essay dug into Donald Trump’s – let’s call it “odd” – speaking style of non-sequiturs, parentheticals, baselessness and departures from any reality common to this planet. Quite often it’s impossible to discern his message from the words used and you may have wondered what kind of stupid ignoramus would follow and support such an apparently mentally challenged, focus incapable individual. Turns out they aren’t ignoramuses, nor are they stupid.

Trump is a voice for the voiceless. They don’t resonate to his policies or his cleverly explained plans; they groove to his emotional vibe and that was explained so very well in the Vox piece:

“In other words, when Trump’s audience finishes his sentences for him, the blanks are filled with sentiments that resonate: fears of joblessness, worries about the United States losing its status as a major world power, concerns about foreign terrorist organizations. Trump validates their insecurities and justifies their anger. He connects on an emotional level,” Du Mez says.

“For listeners who identify with Trump, there is little they need to do but claim what they’re entitled to,” she says. “No need for sacrifice, for compromise, for complexity. He taps into fear and insecurity, but then enables his audience to express that fear through anger. And anger gives the illusion of empowerment.”

I’ve offered this before and it bears repeating: A very large percentage of the American people are afraid for their security, both financial and corporal, and they are mad as hell at being blown off for decades by their leaders. They are now emboldened by a candidate who speaks to their rage and speaks for their rage. Their fears are grounded in reality and at last someone is speaking for them.

And that’s all you need to know to understand his followers. Honestly, they aren’t idiots.

————————————-

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: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA

– See more at: https://jaxpolitix.com/trump-debate-bingo/#sthash.PSKW3TBN.dpuf


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Trump Debate Bingo


Reading time – 87 seconds; Viewing time – 2:42  .  .  .

In a snappy article in the New York Times cleverly entitled, A Week of Whoppers From Donald Trump, authors Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns list a single week’s “.  .  .  blizzard of [Trump’s] falsehoods, exaggerations and outright lies  .  .  .” and then debunk them.

After reading the piece it occurred to me that watching the September 26 debate would be more fun if I were to keep track of the false innuendo and bovine fecal matter that dribbles from Trump’s lips  .  .  .  just to record his prevarication score in Bingo-like fashion  .  .  .  to identify which lies he told the most times in just one 90-minute period.

Given that he was to be just one of the two debate participants, he would be limited to about 45 minutes of blatant deceit possibility, minus the time moderator Lester Holt might use for posing questions and suppressing audience reaction. Surely, not even Donald the Deceiver could rack up a high score in so little time, right?

Wrong.

In a debate where I found Donald Trump to be especially incoherent and non-specific, here are the top scoring Trump untruthables according to our crack CYA News staff:

  1. I was against going into the war in Iraq. He said something like that 4 times. Hard to tell because of his meandering, incoherent rhetoric. He said it other ways, too, which if added to the blatant denials of the truth brings the total to about 8 whoppers.
  2. Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape they’ve ever been in before. He said some form of that approximately two times – sort of. Again, it’s hard to nail this down due to the Trump verbal blizzard of non-sequiturs.
  3. Lots of whoppers vying for third place, like:
    1. ISIS is in more and more places.
    2. I’m all for NATO.
    3. The Iran agreement is one of the great giveaways of all time.
    4. We lose on everything.
    5. “Stop and frisk” wasn’t found to be unconstitutional.

Perhaps things seem hopeless and you feel your sense of dignity and even your sanity assaulted by the Trump blasts of political dishonesty. Well, take heart – there is hope!

Have a look at the newest offering from the Represent.us folks. After watching their highly encouraging video, click through to their website. Then maybe even do something to make things better. I mean, really, that shouldn’t be too hard, since the bar is set so low.

DIRTY STINKING LIES BONUS SECTION:

David Leonhardt heads the New York Times Daily Opinion report and published the following summary of Deceitful Donald’s excursions from reality. There is no link to this in the newspaper, as this material was only offered as the lead article in the email to subscribers immediately following the September 26, 2016 debate.

Dear Times Reader,
He lied about the loan his father once gave him.
He lied about his company’s bankruptcies.
He lied about his federal financial-disclosure forms.
He lied about his endorsements.
He lied about “stop and frisk.”
He lied about “birtherism.”
He lied about New York.
He lied about Michigan and Ohio.
He lied about Palm Beach, Fla.
He lied about Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve.
He lied about the trade deficit.
He lied about Hillary Clinton’s tax plan.
He lied about her child-care plan.
He lied about China devaluing its currency.
He lied about Mexico having the world’s largest factories.
He lied about the United States’s nuclear arsenal.
He lied about NATO’s budget.
He lied about NATO’s terrorism policy.
He lied about ISIS.
He lied about his past position on the Iraq War.
He lied about his past position on the national debt.
He lied about his past position on climate change.
He lied about calling pregnancy an “inconvenience” for employers.
He lied about calling women “pigs.”
He lied about calling women “dogs.”
He lied about calling women “slobs.”
So… who won the debate?
You can sign up for this daily newsletter, containing commentary and links to The Times’s full daily Opinion report, here.
David Leonhardt
Op-Ed Columnist

————————————-

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: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

About Those Deplorables


false

Click the meter to get the fact-checked story on who started the birther insanity.

Reading time – 1:37 seconds; Viewing time – 2:56  .  .  .

I instantly cringed when I heard Hillary say,

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?”

There is a difference between the act (saying something deplorable) and the person (they are deplorable) and my belief is that to condemn the person is to vilify, and that is a deplorable thing to do. So, I’m forcing myself to read between the lines and make a differentiation.

The polls have shown that a very large percentage of Trump supporters are motivated by some form of hate. The white supremacists are the extreme example, of course, but ordinary Americans with strong biases about race, gender identity, religion and national origin practice”othering” and they say and do, well, deplorable things. Like beating up protesters. My blood boils at the hatred of Trump and his cadre of brownshirts and brownshirt wannabees and I struggle to keep my “reject the action, not the person” mindset. In fact, there, I just failed again with the brownshirt comment.

Separating out these people who expressly promote hate, like David Duke, former Grand Peabrain of the Ku Klux Klan, and Alex Jones, Right Wing Village Idiot (and no, I won’t provide links to these two haters), I think a lot of Trump supporters are in his Kampf for far more benign reasons. They are frustrated at being lied to over and over by elected officials. They are suffering because so many good American jobs have disappeared (Fact: a large percentage of jobs are gone because of automation – off-shoring and bad trade deals aren’t the only boogie men). And they have been fed a steady diet of lies and hate from politicians, telling them that others are the cause of whatever their woes might be, all this in the absence of any facts that might be at least tangentially connected to reality.

All that doesn’t make these people innocent. At the very least they are guilty of allowing themselves to be ignorant. In their black and white world, they refuse to allow for the complexities of the world and foolishly insist on simple answers. And they allow themselves to be led by nothing more substantive than bumper sticker slogans.

And they are getting all of that from Donald Trump.

Stretch yourself, though, to allow that in their heart-of-hearts they love America just as much as you do and that they believe in right over wrong and good over bad. If you can do that, then Stephen King can explain our national obsession with delusion in this way:

the-trust-of-the-innocent

Think about that as you watch the debates.

————————————-

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: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

North Carolina


jennifer-roberts

Mayor Jennifer Roberts Charlotte, NC

Reading time – 39 seconds; Viewing time – 1:36  .  .  .

I saw Jennifer Roberts, the mayor of Charlotte, NC interviewed by Brian Williams a couple of nights ago and yesterday I found her leading a press conference. She thanked the local police (who conveniently did not have body cameras turned on when they killed Keith Scott) and the state police, as well as the NC National Guard. She talked about their professionalism (avoiding acknowledging their unprofessional non-use of those pesky body cameras) and she announced that the businesses in the downtown area will indeed be open for business. She talked about the need for the curfew and how well the police had enforced it and basically did an “aren’t we wonderful!” announcement.

Not once did she express regret over the loss of life or the grief of loved ones, concern for the injured, nor any appreciation whatsoever for the reason that people are on the streets. Not one word of caring for anyone not in a position of power.

That woman is reptilian.

And she matches well the governor and members of the North Carolina state legislature who have worked so diligently to steal voting rights from the poor and  minority citizens of North Carolina, which is still, as far as I know, part of the United States of America, where voting rights are guaranteed for all citizens, except convicted felons in some states, including North Carolina.

What has happened to North Carolina?

****************************

APOLOGIES – to you if you have tried to comment on past Disambiguations but have been frustrated, confused and perhaps annoyed that your comments seem to have been received but never showed up online. We’ve been experiencing biblical levels of spam and have tried various means to thwart the bad guys. Some methods, though, seem to have thwarted everyone. Now there’s just a simple “I’m not a robot” method in place. So, go ahead – say something – and let’s see if this works better for you.  JA

————————————-

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: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

This Spaceship Earth


this-spaceship-earthReading time – 1:29; Viewing time – 2:34 .  .  .

SPECIAL TIME-SENSITIVE EDITION

Everybody knows that climate warming is a hoax perpetrated by googly-eye tree-huggers bent on destroying our capitalist way of life. Everybody except nearly every climate scientist on the planet. And this guy. Click through and scroll slowly all the way to the bottom. Even idiot, short-term-thinking, self-serving fossil fuel executives ought to be able to understand this.

It’s not enough to engage in arguments with people bent on stupid, nor is it enough to nod heads with all the people who are smart enough to agree with you.

News flash: We – you and I – actually have to DO something.

Which is what my pal, futurist David Houle is about. He has partnered with some smart folks and published a book, formed a non-profit and established a website (watch the video and sign up for the newsletter) dedicated to ensuring a habitable planet for our grandchildren.

If you are an adult over the age of 60, it’s likely you won’t see much climate warming effect, other than ever-more severe hurricanes, like Katrina and Sandy, along with drought in places where there hasn’t been drought for thirty thousand years. If you’re between 30 – 60 you might live long enough to see Miami under water, as well as the southern third of Manhattan, but you’ll still be able to find someplace to live. If you’re a Millennial, you’re screwed. And all of our descendants – like our grandchildren – will be fighting for food and drinkable water. So, if you can think beyond what you’re doing this weekend, do something now so that there is a tomorrow and humans present to record it.

Between noon EDT on Tuesday, September 20 and noon EDT on Wednesday, September 21,

  1. Go to the 2016 Giving Challenge.
  2. Follow the instructions.

There’s a three-fer for every donation between $25 – $100, so enter your info and send them $100. They’ll get $300 to lead the fight for a habitable planet. Note that this opportunity is only available until noon on September 21.

Don’t do this for David Houle and don’t do it for me. Not even for yourself. Do it for your grandchildren. Do it now.

————————————-

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: Please offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe and engage.  Thanks!  JA


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Email Exchange With a (gasp!) Republican


Reading time – A while   .  .  .

A while back my pal Dan Wallace and I had an email exchange and it occurred to me that you might like a peek inside the back-and-forth with a slightly right of center Republican and bona fide smart guy.

DW

Jack,

Read to the bottom of the story.  You’ll find yourself agreeing.

http://www.newsweek.com/2016/08/19/letter-paul-ryan-donald-trump-488877.html

Dan

JA

Just read it – thanks for sending this – it’s spot on.

The piece confirms all the insanity I’ve read about Trump. Other than the angry people who delight in his hatred, those who know anything about him and his pathological behavior already know enough. But will that be enough for America?

He continues to get billions of dollars in public attention. It’s always that way – we humans love a freak show. We love the outrageous. We love movie special effects of things blowing up far more than we care about anything that requires mental energy. We have far less interest in learning than in being entertained. Could it be that Sesame Street trained generations of Americans to expect that they would always be informed through drama, songs and rhyme so that now we collectively are unable to think for ourselves or hold a complex idea in mind? I read an article a couple of years ago about how young people – I think this was about college age students – seem to have an increasingly difficult time holding two conflicting ideas in mind at the same time. What does that say about our culture and our society and the America we are shaping with our bumper sticker and 140 character communication? Frank Luntz must be very proud.

I’ve wondered over the past few months about the political considerations that are driving Republicans to line up with Trump instead of doing what is the obviously right thing to do, like your clothespin idea – to put one on your nose when you vote for Hillary because Trump must never become President. The question now is whether leaders Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are vertebrates and are able to stand up and be counted when it counts. I have my doubts.

DW

I think McConnell is a dope, and I have no sympathy for him whatsoever.  I don’t think Ryan is a dope, and I have a lot of sympathy for him.  But I still think he’s handling this completely wrong(ly).

JA

Be fair, now:

McConnell is a slimy, conniving dope.

Ryan is also scheming (he’s the guy with a budget plan that had no numbers in it; he’s the guy who won’t privatize social security but whose plan would privatize social security), but he has that pleasant, schoolboy face and a soft voice. Not a dope. Just spineless.

The Republicans engineered this travesty over the course of 40 years and, to mix metaphors, they are reaping what they sowed. Both of these boobs was a part of making that happen, so I haven’t any sympathy for either of them.

On the other hand, I have lots of sympathy for you and me, because everywhere I look I see Trump’s face and reporting and commentary about him and it’s intolerable. Should either of us acquire narcolepsy, we can just imagine 4 years of Trump’s pathological attention grabs from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That oughta keep us awake. And very anxious.

The more I look, the more I don’t like Hillary. The choices this year are simply dreadful, but the imperative that there must never be a President Trump overrides everything. We can survive Hillary. I’m not at all confident we can survive Trump. So, pass me some clothespins.

DW

Yup. 2016: The Year of the Clothespins.

Note: I asked Dan for a description of his bona fides so that you might understand where he’s coming from and why you might be interested in his views. Here is his reply:

DW

Before going off to the Harvard Business School and launching into a 30-year career consulting, raising capital and running businesses, I spent 5 years doing political work with what used to be known as Moderate Republicans.  This is a species that has since become extinct, which is to say that when Chris Christie is being described as a Moderate Republican, hell has indeed frozen over.  I mean people in the Chuck Percy/Everett Dirksen mold.

I did most of my work for Slade Gorton, a highly respected member of the US Senate.  He and the other candidates and officials I worked for believed that it was pretty much none of the government’s business who was praying to whom, when and where, and what was going on behind various bedroom doors.  They believed in prudent spending, which is to say that they thought spending money we don’t have is to be frowned upon, and that when confronting even something that seems like it really ought to be done, it is worth asking why the Federal government (which really means taxpayers other than the ones who are going to benefit from whatever it is) should pay for it.  And as members of the Greatest Generation or early Baby Boomers, they believed that the world is a dangerous place in which America needed to remain a strong and vigilant force for good.  They were probably a little naïve about the degree to which, other than our role in WWII, we really have been a force for good, but their beliefs on this front were pure and their intent honorable.

I believe that this set of principles actually reflects the views of a large middle swath of the American people.  That, of course, simply means that like anyone else, I’m convinced I’m right and that everyone else secretly agrees with me.  But at best, I just barely squeezed inside the left edge of the Republican tent.  Even in the early 1980s, when I did my political work, I could already feel the party picking up the tent and moving it way to the right, and I’ve been shivering in the rain ever since.

Is Dan shivering in the rain alone? I don’t think so.

News flash to Joe Scarborough: The nation is not shifting to the right. Only the righty extremists are moving that way. The vast majority are shivering in the rain with Dan. Think: Charlie Christ, Richard Lugar and so many others.

It’s way past time for tent relocation.


Copyright 2025 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

1 … 92 93 94 95 96 … 116  Scroll to top