You Need To See This
POST 1290
See It Now
Most of us are primarily visual creatures which can lead to missing important things that we can’t put our eyeballs on, so let’s start with something that is visual.
Here’s a pair of pictures I found in Steve Schmidt’s post of June 1 of the dignified before and the dreadful now of the White House.
.
Here is how Schmidt described Trump in this context:
He has debased the People’s House with the aesthetic sensibilities of a pimp turned bankrupt casino operator and reality television performer, who confuses excess for greatness and spectacle for dignity.
The classically noble East Wing is gone. Jackie Kennedy’s beautiful rose garden is gone. Instead of the grand sweep of the White House lawn there is a slab of pavement and a structure for crude and violent cage matches that goes far beyond offensively stupid. We see all that.
There is tasteless gold leaf all over the Oval Office. There is a tasteless, useless, ostentatious ballroom being built to dwarf and debase the greatest symbol of freedom and democracy in the world. All dignity is gone.
We see all that and more. It’s visual. But what about the parts of America that are being desecrated and for which there is no specific visual that alarms us to the harm being done?
Can’t See It Quite as Well
Like the wanton cruelty of ICE thugs, those violence dispensers, rounding up our citizens and immigrants like cattle. We see that much of their savagery, but we don’t see the brutality done to people inside those hideous, for profit prisons.
Like the self-debasement of the Department of Justice.
Like the gutting of our national security agencies that have kept us safe.
Like the stripping and contamination of our public healthcare system and of our food safety system, putting every one of us in danger.
Like the incalculable brutality done to our moral compass.
Those aren’t as visual but they are here and abasing us and our nation nonetheless. They are as real as Trump’s galactically stupid war, which, again, we don’t see but is as damaging to us as anything we do see. It’s up to us to keep them in focus and to be actively on the right side of all those issues.
We are easily distracted from what’s important by spectacle, but there are still over a thousand women who were once little girls who were raped and trafficked and scarred for life and for whom there is scant justice. Trump was in the thick of the criminality, but there are few visuals and scant attention given to that sordid, illegal pit of wanton brutality. So far Trump’s cover up and his manipulated, spineless sycophantic Department of Justice has protected him and his distracting spectacles have blinded the eyes of most of us.
Trump has done over 3,700 insider stock trades just this year (about 25 per day) and has made billions from his soon-to-be-worthless crypto coin scams and his influence peddling grift. He’s caused major companies to cower and obey and has done permanent damage to the right of free speech. The only visual we have of that is the absence of Steven Colbert from late night television. But the harm is as debilitating as anything we can lay our eyes on.
The point is that there is an endless supply of harm being done to America, to our place of leadership in the world, to We The People and and to this “last, best hope of Earth.” Some is easy to see and some is much more difficult to eyeball and comprehend, but it’s no less awful than a deeply offensive gladiatorial cage match on the White House lawn.
What We Must See
You and I need to see all of it, because this violence to our values and our to our trust is systematically under assault. And at root, all we have to keep us strong, what we can cling to in this dangerous and threatening sea, is our invisible trust in one another.
The time for action is NOW!
Keep standing up,
speaking out
and taking action
-
Count-down Timer
-
To The November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election
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:
- 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.
- There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 the opportunity to be offensive. It’s my post, my rules.
- 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.
- 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.
