12 Point Plan

What It’s Really About – Part One


The Diabolical Debt Ceiling

Everyone knows that if the U.S. defaults on its debt obligations that the sky will fall all over the world. We will sink into a recession that lays off over 8 million American workers, leaving them without a way to support their families. Interest rates will soar, making everything way more expensive and we will lose our place of leadership in the world.

All of that and far more is waiting for us right around the corner due entirely to the threatened Republican catastrophe scheme. Why would Republicans be taking us there? They want the same things for our country as you want, right?

Wrong!
.

As Jaemlle Bouie wrote, they don’t hate big government, at least not big government that benefits themselves. I’ll add that they really hate big government that they don’t control dictatorially.

Democracy is all that’s stands guard between us and a dictatorship.

And the Republicans prove to us every day that what they and what their cruel minority wants is absolute control. Dictatorship. They don’t want you to have a voice or power of any kind.

They worship at the feet of dictator Viktor Orbán in Hungary, holding their conferences there, and some of them even cheer Putin. Yes, Republicans are championing Russians who attack the freedom of others.

They gerrymander our voting districts to benefit themselves and to eliminate Democrats from legislative bodies, all the while taking power from those they don’t like.

They attack our press, our schools, teachers and knowledge itself.

They take rights from you time after time, including taking away your right to safety, to not be gunned down in a mass shooting.

They attack our justice system and call for impeachment of our pubic officials for no reason other than to undermine your faith and confidence in our institutions.

They manipulate the system to put ever more guns into private hands, including people who have known mental health issues.

And they work every day to dis-empower women. See the last quote in this post.

What all of that tells us is that what this terrorist minority of haters is working toward is to

bring down our government!
.

They tried and failed (barely) on January 6. But what do you suppose will happen if our economy and our place of world leadership are in tatters because we decided to stiff our creditors?

The thugs will shout from the rooftops that democracy – our government – has failed us and that only they can save us. Then all will be lost. Our delicate experiment in self-rule will be over and we will descend into a hundred years of darkness.

Kevin McCarthy isn’t bluffing when he threatens you, our country or our world. He and the crazies want a very different America than the one you want and they don’t care what rights and freedoms you lose, who gets oppressed or even killed or what injustices torment us, all in their pursuit of all the power and all the money. They want to subjugate We The People. They want Nazi Germany in America. Marjorie Taylor Greene, AR-15 in hand, will be the head of the American SS.

It is all about grabing and hoarding
all the power and all the money for themselves.
.

And that is what it’s really about.

Special note for skeptics: If this seems hyperbolic to you, I urge you not to take my word for any of this. Just look at the easily found historical models and compare them with what is happening in plain sight right now.

On-Point Must Reads

Thom Hartmann lays out with great clarity what the GOP really is, what it is doing to America and what it’s doing to you. His essay is subtitled, “It’s time to call a fascist a fascist.” Hartmann references FDR’s Vice President Henry Wallace and his article about fascism published in the New York Times in 1944. It could have been written today. You can read it here.

Dana Milbank’s Washington Post essay, The Day Free-market Republicans Became Soviet Economic Planners is a fine exposé of Republican efforts to subvert our nation.

Quotes of the Week

From David Corn of Mother Jones:

“These days, Republicans have intensified their efforts to rig the system to help them gain and retain power, even when they attract the support of only a minority of voters. In Missouri, they are trying to pass a measure that would require a 57 percent majority to approve a ballot initiative [same in Ohio, except theirs would require a 60% majority] .  .  . a condition that favors the GOP. Republicans throughout the country are scheming to make it harder for college students to vote. In Texas, Republican state lawmakers are pushing legislation that would allow an appointee of the governor to overturn elections in Houston. And there are many other ways the GOP is striving to stack the deck in its autocratic [read: dictatorial] favor.”

  • – Our Land Newsletter, May 9, 2023

In reaction to the recent spate of mass shootings (we have 2 every 3 days), Sheila Markin writes,

“Wanna Stay Alive? Don’t Vote For Republicans”

“Mother’s Day isn’t dying—mothers are.” – click here and here

  • Watch for What It’s Really About – Part Two this Sunday, May 21.
Today is a good day to be the light.

______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    JA


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

SOTU


This was absolutely the best SOTU I’ve seen in terms of both content and style, with strong persuasion value for independents and undecideds. They’re some of the people who will decide the next elections.

I especially loved Biden’s rope-a-dope over Social Security and Medicare. He suckered in the liars/haters/cheaters and showed them to be the dopes who want to end or privatize those enormously popular programs, a move that would infuriate tens of millions of Americans who were watching at that moment.

Biden said,

“Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans, want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s the majority.”

“Hi, I’m Marjorie and I’m a rude, mean girl. I yelled,’You lie!’ at the SOTU. I sure showed that Biden guy who’s the smart one.”

That’s when the Republican congressional temper tantrum started.

Biden continued,

“Let me give you — anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy — I’ll give you a copy of the proposal.”

The proposal to sunset all government programs, including Social Security and Medicare, was written by the former chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Rick Scott (R-FL),* who somehow, in an act of desperation, denies his own proposal. The crazies knew of that proposal and others even more draconian, but still they booed. They yelled, “Liar!” They were apoplectic. They snarled in anger. They were extremists being extremists.

“You know, it means if Congress doesn’t keep the programs the way they are, they go away.

“Other Republicans say — I’m not saying it’s a majority of you, I don’t even think it’s even a significant — but it’s being proposed by individuals. I’m not — politely not naming them, but it’s being proposed by some of you.

More jeering and heckling.

“Look, folks, the idea is that we’re not going to be — we’re not going to be moved into being threatened to default on the debt if we don’t respond.”

That’s when the apoplectics began to quiet, because they knew they were angering millions of Americans by threatening to default on US debt obligations and not pay our bills. And they couldn’t afford to be seen as the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid enemies that they really are.

“Folks — so folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right?” Cheering. “They’re not to be — all right. We’ve got unanimity.”

“Social Security and Medicare are a lifeline for millions of seniors. Americans have to pay into them from the very first paycheck they started.

“So tonight, let’s all agree — and we apparently are — let’s stand up for seniors. Stand up and show them we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare.”

And everybody stood and applauded! Even the crazies!

“Those benefits belong to the American people. They earned it.”

Rope-a-dope. Genius execution by Biden.

The extremists had displayed themselves to be exactly what they are – rude horribles unmindful of the needs of the American people – and McCarthy looked weak, ineffective and powerless. This was a clear demonstration of truth. The entire event is one of the most lopsided contests I’ve seen.

“Hi. I’m Sarah and I lie. You can tell, because I’m talking.

Nearly as good, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the Republican rebuttal with true-to-form dexterity of dystopia speak. She extended her lying streak and sounded both wooden and stupid. She was almost as good a promoter of Democrats as Biden.

She got one thing right, saying, “The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy.” She just doesn’t get that it’s she and the Republican extremists who are the crazy ones.

Sanders spoke to the 11% of voters who are hair-on-fire types, living in the Cave Of Crazy. But she was, I believe, off-putting at best to everyone else. Let’s hope she’s very visible for the next two years.

This SOTU address was a brilliant display of Biden as warrior and Republicans as fools. The energy he marshaled for his presentation is what has largely been missing from many of his prior presentations and likely what has driven his low approval ratings. Those low numbers certainly are not about his programs or policies, as those are extremely popular.

There’s more that gets in the way of progress, like ineffective DNC communication and frequent failure of Democrats to smack down the Republican liars, haters and cowards. But energy – especially from an 80 year old man whose age augers against his continuing in office past 2024 – is what Biden needs to display every time he’s behind a microphone.

Great kudos to Biden’s masterful speech writers and to his 2 weeks of preparation. Both paid off. And kudos, too, to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, lifelong liar, mean girl and new promoter of Democrats.

This was a good night for truth, justice and the American Way. Cue music and waving cape.
.
From the “You’re Not Going To Believe This” File

You’re Not Going To Believe This #1

When I had stopped shaking my head in disbelief, it became clear that you need to know that this goes on.

“Only in Mississippi”: White representatives vote to create White-appointed court system for Blackest city in U.S.
A White supermajority of the Mississippi House voted after an intense, four-plus hour debate to create a separate court system and expanded police force within the city of Jackson — the Blackest city in America — that would be appointed completely by White state officials.

Read in Mississippi Today: https://apple.news/A99E_dva5SleoMi7OnGEJ9w.

Believe it or not, it’s worse than this already looks. Thanks to JN for pointing this out

Yet, this isn’t an “Only in Mississippi” story. This is akin to former White Republican Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan who, by the powers granted to him by his rights-revoking White Republican legislature, sent a state appointed White city manager to Flint, essentially dissolving all of its city government. That guy eventually poisoned 6,000 – 12,000 Black kids in the city with lead from a changed water supply, a “human made public health crisis.”

Just another White guy imposing cruelty on Blacks.

You’re Not Going To Believe This #2:

Click me

Rollan Roberts II of West Virginia announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the presidency last month. He has no governmental experience, but he invokes God and vomits platitudes with the best of them.

More important was his announcement speech, where his pregnant wife fainted, or perhaps collapsed from something far worse. The point is his non-reaction to her being sprawled unconscious on the floor. Watch the video and notice how fast others go to aid her and how long this idiot stood at the podium in glorious self-importance.

Is this really the kind of person Republicans want in the White House?

_____________________________

* You can read Sen. Scott’s 12 Point Plan to Rescue America for yourself and I encourage you to do so. In spite of his denial about attacking Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he declares,
.
“All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”
.
That’s in his point #6, seventh statement on page 36. If we were to follow his imperative, everything will go away absent a congressional vote to continue. That includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid – everything. Never mind the pragmatics of Congress actually being able to handle such a challenge.
.

Scott’s screed is a tour de force of absolutism, pandering and dishonesty and should be celebrated for the idiocy that it is and for his using half-sense as an art form. It will play well to the far right extremists.

You don’t suppose Rick Scott intends to run for president, do you?

_____________________________

Look for a special Valentine’s Day post on Tuesday.

______________________________

  • Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all of a piece, all the same problem with the same solution:
  • Fire the bastards!
  • The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.


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

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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

    1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings, so don’t bug me about it.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.

    JA


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

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