POST 1300

Via a quick AI search I found that Trump and his brain-free and dishonestly named (it never was about efficiency) DOGE chainsaw hackers mangled America like this:

ο Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): Cut roughly 20,000 positions, slashed $4 billion in medical research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and saw major workforce reductions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alongside significant cuts to Administration for Children and Families programs. [1, 2]

Wait: Drastically reduced medical research means fewer cures for the things that hobble and kill us. Slashing the CDC means leaving us vulnerable to the next pandemic. Cuts to children and family programs leaves millions medically adrift. That’s efficiency?

ο Department of Education: Slashing nearly $900 million through the cancellation of 89 independent research contracts under the Institute of Education Sciences. [1]

Wait: Cutting research contracts will leave us more ignorant and unready to compete in anything, anywhere.

ο Department of Defense (DOD): Civilian workforce reductions expected to impact up to 8% of personnel (roughly 61,000 employees) alongside numerous contract reviews. [1]

Wait: Aimless slashing leaves us more militarily endangered in a dangerous world.

ο Other Agencies: Widespread layoffs, contract “deobligations” [I guess that’s a word] or survey terminations also hit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Homeland Security (specifically the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties), and the U.S. Census Bureau. [1, 2]

Wait: Cutting those agencies leaves us more vulnerable to storms of ever increasing violence. Slashing the agencies that protect our rights and our elections is a direct assault on our freedom.

Need more to be convinced that Trump is putting us at great risk? Read Trump has been dismantling post-9/11 counterterrorism protections, Senate report says. He’s eviscerating our protections against international bad guys. And that’s supposed to be better for us?

For a clear explanation of the full cost to us of the DOGE massacres, read Why the full cost of Elon Musk’s DOGE is still coming into focus by Hayes Brown

The point of DOGE was claimed to be something about government efficiency. Instead what we’ve done is to cut ourselves off from critical services, leaving our neighbors without healthcare and even without food and allowing over 700,000 to die in other countries. We’ve stifled learning – I guess there’s nothing left to learn, according to our MAGA DOGE-brains – and crippled  individual and national growth and stopped even trying to keep up with the rest of the world. Worse, we are disarming ourselves militarily in a very dangerous world.

About 350,000 federal workers and contractors lost their jobs through the manically celebrated DOGE ready, fire, aim idiocy. That’s a plus, they tell us, unless you were one of those workers who lost their jobs and income or you’re any of the people and businesses the now unemployed used to do business with, like the waitress at the diner who’s lost all that tip income. It’s a total minus if you’ve needed any of the things those folks used to do for us.

Somebody tell me how we’re better off for having sacrificed both our present and our future this way, because I don’t get it. Explain how even the Narcissist-in-Chief benefits (of course, his benefit is his only interest), because he’s screwed his base and knee capped the economy. How does that help him? How does it help any of us to deplete our ability to defend our nation militarily, economically and medically?

On the other hand, Trump’s knee bending buddies are doing just fine, like the oil companies who have raked in a WINDFALL OF 26.5 BILLION IN PROFITS in just the second quarter, as well as the war matériel companies who are making lots more bombs, drones, rockets and profit.

Same kind of question in foreign affairs. Trump has offended our allies, sucked up to opponents and left millions to suffer and die. He started a war from which there doesn’t seem to be even a face saving exit, much less a victory, and neutered our diplomatic corps, replacing them with incompetents. He has an evil clown running the FBI, putting us all at risk. He chopped the IRS so that his rich friends can evade taxes, thereby efficiently dumping yet more debt on us and our progeny. In short, he has vastly and possibly catastrophically weakened our nation.

What will we do when China decides to invade Taiwan? What will we do if Putin decides to nuke Ukraine and invade the Baltic states? What will we do after Saudi Arabia decides to nuke Israel once we’ve given them the ability to do that?

Mark Felt aka Deep Throat.

One more time: Somebody tell me how we’re better off for having sacrificed both our present and our future this way, because I don’t get it. In other words, the “I don’t get it” boils down to asking, “Who’s better off due to our madness of neutering our nation to our existential peril?” Plus, explain how even the Narcissist-in-Chief benefits.

Your answer should include some version of Deep Throat’s clear imperative: Follow the money. Be sure to post your answer in the Comments section below, because, like I said, I don’t get it.

Question for Senators John Cornyn, Tom Tillis and Bill Cassidy

Senators, you were on your way out, career over. You had no need to suck up, but  you sucked anyway. How does it feel to be Trump’s most recent, most public and dumbest dupes?

Best Unmasking of the Week

Perhaps you’ve heard something about David Ellison and his mass grab of Warner Brothers, CNN, et.al.  but you need perspective on the harm to us that is on the way. Some has already arrived, like Bari Weiss having gutted 60 Minutes. Read Marc Ellis’ Open Letter To David Ellison to learn what’s coming.

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:

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.