global warming

We In A Heap O’ Trouble


POST 1139

Fires and Little Minds

We can be calmed and grateful that two Kardashian sisters have at last spoken, bringing their public safety expertise to the Los Angeles fires disaster. We’ll ignore their useless finger pointing and that of most everyone else and instead focus on people’s need to blame.

Trump is blaming because he sees political advantage in attacking Gov. Gavin Newsome. He’s also blaming because he loves to and needs to demonize and hate what he cannot – as in: not able to – understand. Plus, he hasn’t even a single constructive idea about even the most obvious challenges to our nation. That is what ignorance can do for the enthusiastically clueless. Nevertheless, blaming is taking center stage. It is dribbling from Trump and coming from other points of ignorance.*

If you want to blame someone for the fires, blame the millions of Americans who bought into the California dream and demanded to live in that area. That produced housing that was far too dense, with too many houses on every block, jammed together, making it easy for flames to jump from house to house and far too difficult for fire fighters to stop the progression of a fire.

Or blame all the municipalities for failing to realize that there is an entire ocean immediately next to them, but they have never installed pumps and pipes to supply ocean water into the fire hydrant piping system.

Or blame the tax payers for their blissful ignorance, demanding excellent services but refusing to pay for them, so they don’t have them. Turns out there is no free lunch. You don’t pay, you don’t get.

Or blame the politicians we elect who prostrate themselves before the money of Big Fossil Fuels and who then repeat the mantra that there is no global warming or, if there is, that burning hydrocarbons has nothing to do with it. Who could forget that 97% of world climate scientists told us decades ago and ever since then that the Earth is warming and that human burning of hydrocarbons was accelerating the danger? Worse, who could forget the politicians denying that and siding with the miserable 3% of scientists who conducted “research” that was funded by fossil fuel companies?

Or blame us for electing those cowardly politicians.

The Best Blaming Award, though, goes to Trump for his fantasy, gibberish criticism.

From NBC News, Trump blames Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom for deadly wildfires:

“’Governor Gavin Newscum [sic – kudos to Trump for extending his infantile, bratty string of name calling] refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,’ Trump wrote in one of several posts on his social media platform, Truth Social.
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“Newsom’s Director of Communications, Izzy Gardon, accused the president-elect of ‘playing politics’ while the wildfires continued to wreak havoc in southern California.

“‘There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need,’ Gardon said.”

Someone please explain to the rest of us how a felonious president-elect ignorantly pointing his finger helps the victims of these fires.

To be even-handed, talent-less, pretty Kardashian women who spend their days primping are leveling blame with all the authority of ignorant playground brats. Somebody please explain to the rest of us how that helps the victims of these fires or makes things better in any way.

I don’t know if it is universal in human nature, but it certainly is universal in American culture to shift at light speed from terrible events to blaming. What is that, a fear response? A self-protective avoidance of accountability? A venting of anger? Something else? One thing it is not is helpful to making things better.

Something Has Been Lost

From Thom Hartman, Why Do Republicans Hate a Prosperous Middle Class? (hint: it’s about greed):

At the end of the day, all Republican politicians care about is money. Greed is their principle animating force, and what binds them to their morbidly rich donors. [emphasis original]

I encourage you to read Hartmann’s post. It is shockingly accurate.

From Steve Schmidt, America: where kings were once toppled:

Elon Musk has embraced his white South African pedigree with a zeal that would have made even the most vicious Afrikaner beating in a black skull with a club smile in delight. Whether cheer leading for the British racist Tommy Robinson or the German AFD, which holds that the SS was not a criminal organization, Elon Musk is dropping the curtain. Following the connective thread is not difficult— or rather should not be — but for much of America’s media it is a bridge too far. For them, it is better to pretend that it isn’t happening. The news these days is often what can be seen and heard, but is not allowed to be spoken. That’s too bad because the danger is coming closer.

Our press – now referred to as the mainstream media, or worse – used to be called the Fourth Estate, a bulwark against tyranny and official wrongdoing. These folks held up a light so that all of us could see what is really going on and then hold perps accountable. A great many outlets have gone out of business – it’s expensive to field investigative reporters – and many more seem to have lost their spines. That’s an invitation to the destruction of all that is good about this nation. In Steve Schmidt’s words, the danger is coming closer. It’s a good time to subscribe to your local newspaper while you still have one.

The Worst News and the Best News

Click me – refer to Note #5 below.

From Marc Elias’ post on Democracy Docket, January 14:

    • It was predictable that the legacy media would fail to stand up to Trump and his barrage of lies.

    • It was predictable that the corporate leaders would jettison any principle to suck up to Trump.

A large number of publications that used to have the courage to speak truth to power have caved in to Trump. The Washington Post is owned by Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos. He refused to publish the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris just before the election. So did the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong. Now each of them has pledged to give Trump $1 million for his inaugural events. Surely that’s coincidence.

You. might recall what happened after January 20, 2017, when millions of dollars donated for Trump’s inaugural could not be accounted for. Recall that he is the same perp who had a charity whose main beneficiary was Donald Trump.

More and more companies are doing what Prof. Timothy Snyder in On Tyranny,** calls “obeying in advance.” It’s a capitulation driven by greed and spinelessness and it threatens our republic.

That is the worst news.

The best news is that some people are doing something about that.

Jennifer Rubin resigned from the Post and she and Norm Eisen have started an online news and opinion publication they call The Contrarian. I just subscribed and recommend that you do, too. Click through and have a look.

If we are to keep this republic and fend off the haters, the fascists, the oligarchs, the White supremacists and the rest who want to burn our Constitution, destroy our democracy and subjugate all of us, we need smart, brave people to speak truth to power, to call out the lies and the liars and to rally us in defense and protection of our Constitution and all that we hold dear.

Your part is to support the people doing that. Subscribe. Do it for your children, your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren. Do it for your crazy Uncle Bob and for your totally lawn obsessive neighbor. Do it for your librarian and the teachers in your schools, for the bewildered kids who need mental healthcare and for our millions of hard working, law abiding immigrants who make your life easier and less expensive. Do it because just a picture of the Statue of Liberty gives you chills.

Do it because you still believe.

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* Following the release of the Special Counsel’s report, Trump called Jack Smith, “a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election [sic].” He was right about the last part and stupid about the first, but he did get in a typical schoolyard brat derogatory.

** Also available in a graphic format for those who miss their comic books.

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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 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. 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.
  5. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.
  6. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


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

A-Changin’


POST 1115

On the Sunday before last the New York Times published letters from readers that were composed in lyrical form rather than in prose. One was to the tune of the 60s Bob Dylan song, The Times They Are A-Changin’. Here’s it’s opening:

Come liars, deniers who call it a hoax

And convince us these fires are nothin’ but jokes

When the air that you’re breathing’s like three packs of smokes

Even Fox might admit they were fakin’

Better get a good gas mask if ya don’t wanna choke

‘Cause the climate is a-changin’

Having been there in the 60s and been a finalist in Lyndon Johnson’s contest to win an all expense paid trip to Vietnam, I was sensitive to Dylan’s words in his song. That tide of change led to the 1968 anti-war demonstrations in Grant Park that turned into a battle that the Kerner Commission labeled a “police riot.” I remember Hizzoner the Mayor, Richard J. Daley, defending the police, saying, “The police are not here to create disorder. They are here to preserve disorder.” He certainly was a man of insightful and inspiring words.

What comes to me now is that the 60s demand for change was about our attempts to move away from repressive government hiding behind the label “conservative.” It seemed designed solely to prevent any change that might affect the power of those in charge, regardless of the desires of We The People. Meanwhile, people were getting killed.

Good thing there is no global warming leading to this flooding in New Mexico. Oh wait – there is.

Here we are today with new power grabbers stripping power from us using their chicanery, demanding that their minority be in charge of the rest of us. They’re fighting any change with their unlawful, unconstitutional schemes to diminish our power.

They’re denying climate warming, for example, even as people throughout our southeast are suffering, some dying, from yet another “storm of the century” and there are lakes, oddly enough, flooding parts of the Sahara Desert and New Mexico. Hence, the creative use of Dylan’s form and the updated meaning above.

These pretenders are trying to claw their way into absolute power using lies, propaganda and promises – threats, really – of unconstitutional cruelty. They are fighting change for the better solely to snatch away yet more power for themselves at the expense of We The People. Meanwhile, people are getting killed. It’s an eerily familiar story.

The times are a-changing because we have made a lethal mess and change is an existential imperative. Ask your children and grandchildren how they’re feeling about their future, about the dire threat of global warming and the threats coming from citizen mob incitement and violent people with guns. Ask them how they’re feeling about people, especially politicians, who deny reality.

Today’s young are the ones who have had to do active shooter drills in schools. They’re the ones dealing with our insurmountable housing reality and the crazy cost to marry and have children, about all the impossible challenges that have put them in despair. Essentially, they are asking,

“What American dream?”
.

So, they and we want the times to be a-changin’. We don’t want the chaos, the instability and the threats of being dominated by people who want to “terminate” our Constitution. We don’t want our rights to be stolen from us and we don’t want liars to treat us like we’re stupid.

In short, the battle is the same now as it was in the 60s, as we fight the lies and repression that could get us killed. It turns out, much to the surprise of some, that people don’t like their rights and freedom trampled. People don’t like the frauds and the cruelties, like ripping babies from the arms of their mothers; like lying to victims of hurricanes so that they don’t get the aid they need and deserve; like letting pregnant women die from lack of ordinary care that would save their lives; and like encouraging Americans to attack other Americans. People don’t like their hopes and dreams to be crushed by those who care only to amass yet more power.

Change is coming because We The People won’t long tolerate repression. The cruel ones will continue to be cruel because that’s all they have. The minority will continue to manipulate the system solely for their own benefit for as long as they can. But we will reject them because they represent an America that only the haters want. We’ll banish them to the obscurity they deserve.

Our job, to paraphrase Ghandi, is to “Be the change we want to see in America.”

Not with a riot in Grant Park, but with a riot of votes before and on November 5. Then the times, they truly will be a-changin’.

Come hopers and voters who know that they stand

For something much greater than that hateful man.

When hatred and lies are all that they sell

We see what they’re doing and we’re here to tell

They better get packing or they’ll sink down to hell

‘Cus their time it is now ending.

Name Calling Accuracy

O’ those rascally generals, those former Trump Cabinet heads and Republican spine finders! They are calling Trump and Vance dangerous fascists. O’ the degrading truth of it all!

You need to go to school on this and Professor Timothy Snyder has advanced to the podium. Watch his short instructional videos in order.

 

 

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Lest We Forget the Odious Felons

These are some of the crooks who want to end our democracy and rule over you with a cruel fist. Don’t let them!

Pass this along to any who are undecided or apathetic. As awful as these felons are, they’re pussycats compared to the fascist, evil, goose stepping morons whom Trump will put in power over us if he wins.
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Tell people to

vote like their life depends on it.

Because it does!

Best Required Reading

From Steve Schmidt, October 24, “America has had many long nights in its history.” You need to know this story – read his post. Meanwhile,

There is no heaven on earth, but there is America.

It is time to believe and imagine again in America. Isn’t it? America was invented by believers, not cynics. The presence of cynics amongst the believers doesn’t diminish the believers. It simply tests the character of the undecided. There are great choices ahead. There always are. While we wait, perhaps it is worth taking stock and remembering, if but for a moment, how it feels to be a member of the luckiest group of people on earth. Americans. This is a place where anything still remains possible. Two hundred years ago at a moment of division a friend [Lafayette] visited and reminded a young nation of its unlimited future. America is a young nation with old politicians. That problem can be fixed. It should be. It’s time to start building tomorrow again in this country.

Reality Reset Quote of the Week

From Sheila Markin:

Immigrants are not the danger that Trump claims they are. Democrats are not the danger Trump says they are. Climate change is a real threat. The pandemic was a real threat. Because Trump is disconnected from reality, Trump himself is the threat from within.

Insanity Corner

In what is already one of the most expensive Senate races in American history, the Ted Cruze “Citizens United funded Super PACs” are “.  .  .  blanketing the airwaves with $34 MILLION in attack ads against Colin [Allred] (from a 10-27-24 Allred fund raiser email).

This is just some of the insanity unleashed by the John Roberts Supreme Court extremists, who contorted themselves and the Constitution to give super wealthy individuals and corporations super influence over our elections. Plus they gave inanimate, non-human, non-sentient corporations all the rights that you have.

Insane.

Best Action Today

Read this.

It’s not the vibes and it’s not the polls: it’s the votes. 
Are you registered to vote? Check it out on any of these websites:
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https://www.vote.org/am-i-registerilled-to-vote/

https://www.usa.gov/confirm-voter-registration

https://www.rockthevote.org/how-to-vote/am-i-registered-to-vote/

“Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.”
  • – Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), 2016


  • 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 ALL 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, even if that makes them a few bucks more expensive. That will help to keep them your town or neighborhood vibrant.
    6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.

    Click me

    JA


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

Mostly Serious – Part Two


This is a continuation of the Mostly Serious- Part One post of October 9, 2022.

Page 4: This Isn’t New, But

The Russians and the Saudis just decided to cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day. That will lower world supply, driving prices higher, which you will feel every time you fill your gas tank. We’ve done this dance with oil producers many times and we always get our feet stomped on. Same thing when the gouging comes from our domestic refiners. Think: Arab oil boycott in the 70s and price gouging this year.

In addition, many people have noticed that there probably is something to the claims of over 97% of international climate scientists who say that we humans are the biggest contributors to global warming. That’s leading to things like vastly more destructive hurricanes (I know you noticed that), droughts of Biblical proportions, rising sea levels that will flood coastal cities and more.

What that means is that drilling to produce more oil to lower costs probably isn’t a good solution to anything except more profit for the fossil fuel industry companies in the short term and ever worsening ecological disasters for all of us. Good news! We’re not required to be that, hmmm, what’s the word? – oh yeah: Self-destructive.

Maybe it’s a good time to start weaning ourselves off our dedication to self-destruction. We could do things like:

    • Start a massive program to install solar collectors on every roof and wind farms everywhere it’s windy.
    • Start upgrading our electric grid.
    • Make big incentives for people to replace their gas guzzlers with electric cars.
    • Begin construction of a huge number of charging stations.
    • Incrementally shut down coal and oil fired power stations.
    • Fund ongoing research to produce better power generation and storage.

You get the idea: Initiate a Manhattan Project to bring this country into the 21st century. Sooner or later we’re going to do this because we have to; otherwise we, our kids and grandchildren are gonna die.

I’m completely serious about all of that.

“If we want to make a difference, we need to maximize our energy security, national security and economic security, all at once. The only way to do that effectively is to incentivize our market to produce a stable and secure supply of energy with the lowest possible emissions at the lowest possible costs as fast as possible.

“The only truly effective way to do that is with a strong price signal – either taxes on dirty stuff or incentives for clean stuff – plus steadily increasing clean energy standards for power generation .  .  .  “

Page 5: A Final Serious Note

Republicans are fighting progress with all the hypocrisy they can muster, and they  can muster a lot of it. They excoriate Biden and Democrats for inflation, including high gas prices, but produce not even one idea to combat it. With blithe disregard for victims of global warming events they indifferently mumble something about “thoughts and prayers.” That probably won’t help the people in Lee County FL, any more than their thoughts and prayers have helped mass shooting victims anywhere. And they continue to support the candidacy of mentally scrambled Herschel Walker because for them it’s Power Uber Alles.

From Dana Loesch, former spokesperson for the NRA:

“I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort baby eagles. I want control of the Senate.”

From David Corn of Mother Jones:

” .  .  .  how much does it matter if a Republican says he or she is a conservative, moderate, or liberal, if he or she believes Barack Obama was born in Kenya, the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and Democrats are scheming pedophiles?

“The polling numbers on these reality-free propositions for Republicans .  .  . are 40, 50, 60 percent.”

“This is not an ideological polarization. It is a divide over reality and rationality.”

Which is all about grabbing power at the expense of all higher brain functions. Minority rule.

Tell me you’re getting this.

Too many Americans are sleep walking in a metaphorical democracy fire. The fire trucks are at the ready in the firehouse, but they’re just sitting there with nobody at the wheel, even as the 911 phone is screaming its alarm, the huge bell is clanging, sirens are wailing and everywhere flames are scorching the halls of democracy.

WAKE UP!

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If you’re already awake, jab an elbow into the ribs of the people on your right and on your left to wake them up. It’s time for all of us to climb aboard the fire engine to answer the call of democracy.

All of us should be serious about that.

“The times have found us.” – Thomas Paine

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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 vibrant.

JA


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

Guest Essay: Elections Have Consequences


Boyhood pal, smart person and activist Frank Levy cares about justice, fairness, inclusiveness, freedom, rights and more. Come to think of it, he’s a lot like you in that way. That’s why I asked his permission to share his recent FB post about what we must do to make sure all those good things we care about actually are ours.

Just to be clear, Frank’s message is motivated by the destructive fact that Republicans consistently vote against all those things you care about. For example, they had to be shamed into passing the PACT Act to help our veterans harmed by exposure to toxic burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that happened after they first killed the bill. That’s a fact – the Republicans voted against our vets! That and so much more are why it’s mandatory to remove these anti-We-The-People politicians from public office.

Frank’s post follows. Read it slowly and let it sink in, because he’s right. And note his number “10”. He’s right about that, too.

Elections have consequences. Legal, untainted elections make a difference. If Hillary Clinton had won the presidency in 2016, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett would not be sitting on the Supreme Court and Roe would still be the law of the land. Elections have very real consequences.

If Joe Biden had not been elected, Merrick Garland would not be Attorney General and no one would be prosecuting the police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor.

There are JUST 86 DAYS until the November midterm elections.

If we are to have any chance of keeping our fragile and imperfect democracy alive, Republicans at all levels of government [the people who oppose what you support – ed.] must be soundly defeated in November.

If we are to have any hope of passing a national law allowing access to safe and legal abortion, Republicans must be defeated in November.

If we are to have any chance of passing meaningful and sensible national gun laws, Republicans must be defeated in November.

If we are to have any chance of expanding the Supreme Court, Republicans must be defeated in November.

If we are to have any hope of retaining the right to marriage equality, retaining legal protections for LGBTQ+ individuals, interracial marriage, access to birth control, the right to vote, and the right to free and fair elections, Republicans must be defeated at every level of government in November.

If we are to have any hope of living in a thriving, diverse, equitable, inclusive, and just America, each of us must do everything we can to ensure Democrats win state and local elections and increase their majority in the House and Senate.

Here are some things each of us can do to help ensure that Democrats defeat Republicans at every level of government on November 8, 2022:

  1. Make sure you are registered to vote.
  2. If you are not registered to vote, register to vote now.
  3. Make a specific plan to vote on November 8, 2022 or sooner depending on election laws where you live. [Now comes the “10” thing – Ed.]
  4. Convince 10 people you know who don’t normally vote to this time register to vote, to make a plan to vote, and to vote Democratic on November 8, 2022.
  5. Convince each of those 10 people to convince 10 of their friends who normally do not vote to, 1) register to vote; 2) to make a plan to vote; 3) and to vote Democratic on November 8, 2022. Easy as 1-2-3.
  6. Get involved with one or more of the national efforts listed below to get out the Democratic vote.

https://naacp.org/actions/power-your-vote
https://democrats.org/take-action/
https://www.rockthevote.org/get-involved/https://statesproject.org/
https://swingleft.org/

Ed. Notes
  1. Now that Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago hidey-hole and contraband warehouse have been searched by the FBI and sensitive government documents have been recovered and secured, the incitement to violence from elected Republicans and talking empty heads has exploded. So, too, have threats of violence from far right militants. Their self-righteous fantasies of 1776 won’t go away any time soon and their promises of savagery must be met with appropriate protections provided by the proper authorities. That means we need people who believe in the rule of law and who deploy those we count on, like the FBI and police. So that all of us will be safe, follow Frank’s advice and elect Democrats. Our children, grandchildren, our families and friends – we’re all counting on us.
  2. Extra Credit Questions: Some of the classified documents Trump stole are TS/SCI*, so critical to our national security, that neither the DOJ nor the National Archives is allowed to even catalog them. Like things that include the word “nuclear”. And Trump kept them in unlocked boxes in an unlocked, unguarded basement at unsecure Mar-a-Lago. What could possibly go wrong?  Here are some extra credit questions about that.
    1. In how many ways has Trump already imperiled our country by using these stolen documents as bargaining chips?
    2. What do you imagine he thinks he can get for them? To start your thinking, consider things like a Trump Tower in Moscow. Or Budapest. Or Pyongyang. Or Tehran. Or refuge for him and his crime family in a country with no extradition treaty with the U.S.

    3. Click me

      Explain why Americans who consider themselves super patriots would froth at the mouth and threaten to kill FBI agents, Democrats and election workers to put this (at best) careless, cheating  moron back in the White House. Earn 5 extra points for each of the following included in your answer: narcissist; authoritarian; despot; over 30,000 lies; “very fine people on both sides”; double-down; criminal; the wall; con-man; unpatriotic; insurrection; sedition; martial law; Mexican “drug dealers, criminals, rapists”; fraud; election interference; jail; autocrat; liar; Muslim ban; babies ripped from mothers’ arms; “my Negro”; infantile; “acting” cabinet appointees; private phone for classified conversations; prison; racist; traitor; money laundering; Russia; suck up; toadies; golf; fake electors; sycophants; thief; tantrums; “do us a favor, though”; “Mexico will pay for it”; high chair; “very stable genius”; Lafayette Square; alternative facts; American Carnage; grab women by the p###y; “losers” buried in Arlington National Cemetery; stopped-up toilet – “toiletgate”; Ivermectin and bleach; Big Lie; “But her emails“. Use ’em all for 250 extra points!

  3. !KANSAS! Read Ed Gurowitz’s take on the message to us from !KANSAS!
    1. Ed’s message comports perfectly with Frank’s.
    2. Hint: This isn’t about Dorothy or Toto and it’s more powerful than a twister, Auntie Em.
    3. Attention: Here’s a special message about Republicans from Oz (no, not Mehmet, the New Jersey carpetbagger in Pennsylvania) – watch this 7-second clip. Couldn’t resist.
Finally,

Here are two pics of a reservoir in northern Mexico. You can find pics of Lake Meade and other reservoirs in the U.S. that look just like these – because the west is in a drought of Biblical proportions, this as Kentucky drowns, as California burns and as coastal waters inundate ever more land. Be sure to show the pic to your climate warming denial friends, especially if they like to visit the west and southwest.

This crisis has been made possible by decades of Republican reality denial and obeisance to the fossil fuel industries. Also look here.

Many fossil fuel captured Republicans simply don’t believe in the reality of global warming and the catastrophes it creates, like how unlivable areas are when there is no water or too much water or fires or hurricanes or tornadoes. Optimistic you, you’re hoping tomorrow will actually happen and that’s why you’re going to vote for Democrats at every level.

Click the pic for the WaPo story.

From the Onion:

“If Trump can get investigated, then by that logic, that implies our country has laws and when those laws are broken, there are consequences. What kind of hell are we living in?”

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* TS/SCI means “Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information.” Available only to those necessary to the project. Must be discussed, used, and stored only in secure locations. Its release to the public would cause “exceptionally grave” damage to our national security.

————————————

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!)

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 vibrant.

JA


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

MAGA Time and Time For A Moon Shot


I was thinking about what the term “MAGA” means. I don’t mean the words; rather, the reference point.

If the goal is to make America great again, the construct requires an antecedent when America was deemed to be great, a glory from which we’ve foolishly slipped. That’s what the MAGA folks want to restore, it seems. Okay, when was that?

Could they be thinking about the Revolutionary War period, when the inhabitants of the Colonies were all engaged, shoulder to shoulder, in the great quest for freedom from King George III? If so, that’s misguided, because about 20% of the colonists were loyalists to the King and the vast majority were fence sitters. The revolutionaries were a small minority. That’s why Thomas Paine had to exhort colonists to enlist in the fight. Was America great then? There were heroics, to be sure, but probably not overall greatness.

It’s hard to imagine the Civil War period as great, as we killed 620 thousand Americans. Or perhaps that was a great time for some, proudly enslaving others and reaping the benefits and when poor Whites were pretty much our national trash. The White land owners were the undisputed kings of their realms. Maybe that was when America was great.

I’m not confident that the Reconstruction and Jim Crow periods qualify. Not a lot great there, if “liberty and justice for all” means anything, although we did manage to kill and displace uncounted numbers of Native Americans in our westward expansion and lynching was a semi-national past time.

Same problem with Freedom Summer in 1964, when Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were tortured and murdered in Philadelphia, MS. They were there for the very American activity of registering citizens to vote. Their murders still stand as a symbol of the period. Was that a proud epoch in our history – a MAGA idealized period – when brutality ruled over civics and basic decency?

Maybe the MAGA folks think of the 1950s as the time when America was great. It did work pretty well for Whites. Ours was the only industrial economy left intact after WW II. Jobs were plentiful and wages were good. It was a time when “others” knew “their place.” And it was well before the radical Blacks and college kids were making trouble with all those pesky protest marches for civil and voting rights and against the Viet Nam war. Yeah, that was a great time to be White in America. That must be the MAGA reference point.

It seems to me that when the almost completely White* MAGA crowd spouts “Make America Great Again” what they really mean is to make the country great for them. Just them. This is the very definition of White supremacy, selfishness and the refusal of equal protection. It’s all for me and who cares about anyone else?

That’s what the enslavers said until the Civil War. They continued to believe all their lives that “The South will rise again!” touting their “Lost Cause” totem, and it seems to have done just that with our current insane far right populism. That’s what the Jim Crow South enforced. That’s what hundreds of years of cruelty and broken promises to native Americans were all about. That’s what Reagan worked to create, albeit with carefully written and highly choreographed terms that made selfishness sound patriotic.

And that is what Trump and all the ideological, far right extremists in Congress and elsewhere want to create. It’s about the absolute right of the individual over the common good. All for them and who cares about anyone else?

I should have told you that there will be a pass-fail exam. To prepare, you must watch the history lesson from Professor Heather Cox Richardson, as she digs into the deeper meaning of the Roe-killing Supreme Court Dobbs decision. It’s likely much farther reaching than you now realize. So, grab your cup o’ joe and listen up.

To close this section, here’s a fine and insightful, pre-massacre comment from the July 4th weekend:

“Even though our politics is toxically polarized right now, we don’t need fewer arguments right now; we just need less stupid ones.”

  • Eric Liu, CEO, Citizen University
  • PBS News Weekend, July 3, 2022
Time For A Moon Shot

Picture credit: NASA and Wikipedia

Surely, there can’t be many doubters left that we are at the whim of the fossil fuel industry. The craziness of U.S. gas prices that have gone over $6 per gallon is actually dwarfed by what customers are paying in Europe. So, let me say this with as much clarity as I can muster: We travel about and stay warm in the winter at the pleasure of and discretion (if any) of oil producers, and many of them have no interest at all in what works best for us. Think: Russia; Saudi Arabia; Iran – and even the myopically focused, shareholder and  C-suite-centric U.S. fossil fuel companies, still selfishly thinking Milton Friedman got it right. **

Add to that the actual, real life fact that we are in the process of cooking our planet, making huge areas uninhabitable, reducing crop yields, killing people in freak storms that are so common that they aren’t freaks anymore and incrementally drowning coastal land areas. It’s possible that the smart move is to let go of our petty insecurities and short term thinking that lead to nothing good and instead do something about what matters. Like staying alive.

Apparently, Coal State Joe doesn’t care about his grandkids.

This just might be the moment to rally the U.S. and perhaps the world to a moon shot, a dramatic shift from fossil fuels to renewables that won’t kill all of us. This just might be the time to create incentives for solar panels on every roof, for far more fields of wind generators, for the development of power from tides and all the rest of the things that we will eventually do anyway. The only question is when our circumstances will have become sufficiently dire and scary for us to break out of our denial and do the obvious.

Right now is the time for that moon shot. We can start with a Presidential call to action and by firing all politicians who refuse to accept reality. I’m thinking about you, Joe Manchin (D-WV), as you abandon any concern for your grandchildren (see the graphic to the left). You, too, Marco Rubio (R-FL), as you mealy mouth about climate warming, while the Mayor of Miami Beach is on Highway A1A and the sea water is over his ankles. Read a related CBS story here.

In the face of Manchin’s Luddite refusal to support fighting global warming and the Supreme Court having hamstrung the EPA’s power to regulate, read Four Ways the United States Can Still Fight Climate Change. It’s not enough, but it’s something.

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* Don’t let a few Black faces in the audience behind MAGA speakers fool you. They’re placed where they are to make these hate rallies look more inclusive for TV viewers, but there are actually very few non-Whites attending. If you want to test that, watch any video of the January 6 insurrection and count the non-White faces.

** Friedman Doctrine: “An entity’s [corporation’s] greatest responsibility lies in the satisfaction of the shareholders.” Friedman’s tortured logic said that focusing solely on maximizing return to shareholders would result in the best outcomes for all stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, the community, etc.).

Today’s era of high inflation is caused, in part, by whimsically puffed up prices (whatever the market will bear) for energy, transportation, food and more. Per corporate reporting, this has resulted in greatly inflated corporate profits and, therefore, a far greater return to shareholders.

Is that resulting in the best outcomes for all stakeholders, as Friedman predicted? How is Friedman’s notion working for workers and small businesses? How is that working for you, as you stand at the gas pump and watch the numbers climb?

I really don’t think that Gordon Gecko (“Greed is good“) was entirely right. Self-interest is fine, but not in the absolute and certainly not to the exclusion of everyone and everything else. If we’re to keep this planet habitable, it’s going to require us all to work for the common good, irrespective of shareholder satisfaction.

————————————

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!)

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 vibrant.

JA


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

Potpourri-v14.0


What are we handing to the next generation? Attribution unknown

Does It Feel Hot In Here To You?

A short time ago I posted a piece about global warming. In case you are a denier, you need to know a few more things, so, in no particular order,

  1. Any discussion about global warming needs to be grounded in facts. Not fantasies. Not wishes. Not conspiracy theories fed to you by blabbers on a power trip or from any of the mealy-mouthed liars.
  2. Politicians who deny or weasel about global warming (I’m looking at you, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis, Rand Paul and more) are nothing more than short-term thinking, self-serving pocket lint to the fossil fuel industries. What do you suppose it’s like living in Charles Koch’s trouser pocket? Or living life as an asterisk on the balance sheet of Exxon? That’s where our elected deniers live.
  3. Data comes out in a steady drumbeat of messages telling us our time is running out for maintaining this planet as capable of sustaining 7.75 billion human lives.
    1. See the teaser to the right and click through to read the story. What do you suppose this means to the millions of Americans who live there? If you call that area home, how will it work for you to be without water?
    2. There is danger that deniers will say that this report proves that global warming is natural and that mankind has not grossly distorted this into an existential threat. These people are categorized as reality morons. Ignore them because they are incapable of learning. And don’t be one of them.
    3. That worst drought in 12 centuries story is just one example. Think: the increasing frequency and intensity of hurricanes that cause billions of dollars of damage every year to our Gulf Coast; the 200 mile long path of devastation from one tornado – in winter; over 100° F. north of the Arctic Circle; melting of permafrost and the consequential gassing out of methane, an atmosphere warmer 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. There are plenty more examples of atmospheric messages of doom that we deny at our own peril. This stuff is happening and it’s getting worse really fast, regardless of any denial of the facts.
  4. My friend David Houle is a futurist and is deeply involved in dealing with global warming issues, so,
    1. Read this to get an idea of what we are facing. It’s about what we must do to anticipate coming disasters, like sea level rise that will make our coastal cities uninhabitable in less that 20 years. Yes, really.
    2. Read this and study the chart – it will make your eyes pop. And pay attention to what has caused that hockey stick graph.
    3. Subscribe to David’s posts and figure out how you’re going to help. We all will saddle up when the question of our very survival is in our faces. The question now is whether we will be as smart as a squirrel. Instead of waiting for disaster to strike, will we take action to limit the threat that we know is coming – like what squirrels do before winter arrives?
  5. Tell your children what you’re doing right now to ensure their future safety and even their survival. They’re already clear about what’s coming and they’re furious over the intransigence of so many who are putting their lives in danger – see the pic top-right above. So, check their reaction when you tell them you’re a denier. And brace yourself, because their reaction won’t be pretty. Perhaps after they’ve explained things to you, you’ll be willing to reconsider. That would be nice.

From the 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos:

“We are using 50 percent more resources than the earth can support. Today we are living as if we had 1 1/2 planets,” Leape said.

“If we continue like this, by 2050 we will need three planets. Our pattern of consumption is unsustainable.”

And things have become worse since then.

Our problem, of course, is that we only have one planet. Do you think we should do something about that math imbalance?

How Come?

There are reasons why some don’t trust the COVID vaccines. And there are reasons why some feel disrespected in general and are ripe for the picking by liars and conspiracy spinners. Read this from STAT:

Perhaps lack of respect has something to do with our severe cultural conflict and why you and Uncle Bob can’t talk with one another any more.

What If We Help Ourselves?

I’ve been wondering for over 20 years why there isn’t a robust and sustained “Buy American” campaign. The truth is that we can’t buy cheap stuff at Walmart and also have our good paying American jobs, because the math of having both just doesn’t work. So, how come that campaign isn’t happening?

We all know that the manufacturing jobs went away a long time ago – millions of them. That brought us those cheap goods. It also shuttered our factories and delivered massive un- and underemployment and disillusionment. It killed factory towns, undermined trust and amped up anger.

In a piece examining a possible post pax-Americana, Bret Stephens of the New York Times wrote,

“Instead of depending on China for low-cost manufacturing and labor, we reinvest in American workers and factories and become independent in everything from energy to microchips.”

Indeed, what if we did that? What if we told the ultra-wealthy and the big corporations that they will re-shore their manufacturing or pay a huge penalty? What if we were to take care of our poor and middle class citizens by enabling them/us to live in dignity and security?

What if we were to Buy American and thereby help Americans?

Winning Elections
I called the Wisconsin Democrats twice offering to volunteer to help by using my writing and public speaking skills. Two staffers took my messages and I never heard from anyone. That’s strange, because Ben Wikler, the head of the organization, is begging for volunteer help. How will they win elections if they ignore offers of help?
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Perhaps President Biden can set Democrats on a useful course. He can do that by following the advice and direction of David Axelrod. He lays it out clearly in this piece. It has to do with respect, humility and empathy, things Biden is usually pretty good at delivering.
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Further, here’s my suggested battle plan:
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PRESIDENT BIDEN AND ALL DEMOCRATS MUST NAME WHAT AMERICANS WANT * AND THEN BLAME REPUBLICANS FOR THEIR NOT HAVING IT.
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You know – like they’re in a street fight and are throwing their best punches by telling the truth.
.

Plus, somebody should return my phone calls. ***

Just In Case You Want Us To Keep Our Democracy

Lots to be said about this and many books have been written about it in just the past few years, like How Democracies Die, On Tyranny, How Fascism Works and more. It’s critical that we be clear-headed about where the power lies that is undermining our democracy and that we learn how to defeat it. That is the point of David Pepper’s book Laboratories of Autocracy.** Spoiler alert: It’s in the states.

Sheila Markin posted a guest essay from Pepper and I encourage you to read it and then buy and read his book. Learn what we can and must do.

But only in case you want us to keep our democracy.

And read Gail Collins’ Opinion piece, Should We Blame Mitch McConnell or Brad Pitt?

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* Read Thom Hartmann’s post which includes a short list of those things we want but are denied. To the issues he lists you can add gun safety laws, stopping global warming, universal healthcare, clean, lead-free water, cheaper rugs, universal low cost, high speed internet access, debt-free public education, high speed mass transit and more. We don’t want brain-free, simple, non-solutions to complex problems from con artists. We want real solutions from adults.

I’ll say it again: This is not a center-right nation. We the People want those progressive things.

** See Fine Print #5 below.

*** Late addition: I made the same offer of help to Adam Kinzinger’s Country First organization and just heard back from them. Dunno yet where this goes.

————————————

The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

Did someone forward this 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!)

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 vibrant.

JA


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

We Know – Really


Credit: NASA – Photo taken by astronaut William Anders aboard Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to the Moon, December 24, 1968

We have records going back nearly 200 years, so it’s with great confidence that the experts say that the seven hottest years on record are – drum roll please – the last seven years.

They brought us ever-more-catastrophic storms, killing heat and more, as well as the deafeningly loud warnings of permafrost melt, releasing methane into the atmosphere, drastic reduction in Arctic ice and a chunk of ice the size of Maryland ready to break off Antarctica and raise ocean levels significantly.

Truly, I’m so done with climate warming deniers and foot draggers. It’s time to completely ignore them or vote them out of office or send them to live in a tornado or hurricane prone place or a drought stricken new desert where they can continue to live in denial right until reality smacks them upside the head. Or all of the above.

Meanwhile, the rest of us better get to work. Here are some ideas we all know about.

  1. Plant a trillion trees to sequester carbon dioxide in wood. That’s how nature has always done it. That’s 1200 trees for every human being (1,000,000,000,000 trees / 7.75 billion people – somebody check my decimal point). Some can’t or won’t help, so figure to plant double that number yourself.
  2. End logging in all rain forests and require reforestation.
  3. End all subsidies, tax breaks, depletion allowances and all other support for fossil fuel extracting companies.
  4. Subsidize research, development, manufacturing and installation of solar, wind, tidal and other renewable energy resources.
  5. Subsidize construction of low carbon footprint transportation to replace fossil fuel technologies.
  6. Require solar panel installations on all new buildings and retrofitting them onto existing buildings. Subsidize as necessary.
  7. Do the research to find efficient, cost effective electricity storage methodology.
  8. Recycle efficiently and thoroughly. That means don’t put recyclable materials into a pile; reuse them instead of extracting yet more natural resources.

This isn’t a comprehensive list. It’s just what came to mind quickly. There are some really smart people with really great ideas who can help us out of the mess we’ve created and continue to make worse. It’s time to start listening to them and tell the people making obstacles to survival to just shut up.

Here is the irrefutable truth:

If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always get what we always got.
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What we’ve been doing has gotten us a planet that’s ready to hard boil itself. We can either change what we’re doing to get better results or we can stew in our own juice and end this singular, miraculous accident of the universe.

We’ve known for a long time what we have to do to survive. It’s time to choose reality over denial, survival over short term profit, courage over self-serving cowardice, cooperation over tantrums, action over self-immobilization, science over ignorance, learning over fantasies, big thinking over myopia  .  .  .  you get the idea, and surely you can add to this list of comparisons. The important thing is to take constructive action now and, really, forever, because this planet isn’t designed to tolerate our destructiveness.

Reading Assignment

Making progress on this and every other issue will require agreement on several things. Reality is primary, of course, because the price of denial is too great to bear or even survive. There is another that, in its own way, is just as critical.

Freedom is now used as a rallying cry, an absolute demand, an excuse to promote ignorance and disease and a justification of power over others. That’s dangerous stuff for our democracy and it, too, has a price too great to bear or even survive.

Read The Exploitation of ‘Freedom’ in America by Elisabeth Anker. She has managed to cobble together words to explain what I’ve been seeing, hearing and feeling for a long time. This reading assignment is mandatory and you will be tested every day.

Oxymoron of the Year (So Far)

Click me for the story

If he didn’t do anything wrong, how come he wants forgiveness? Somebody help me out.

————————————

.The days are dwindling for us to take action. Get up! Do something to make things better.

Did someone forward this 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!)

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 vibrant.

JA


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

Willful Ignorance


Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) in a congressional hearing as he berates and attempts to humiliate Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Dear Mrs. Jordan,

It is with regret that I write to tell you about your son, Jim.

He lies so very often, like repeating Donald Trump’s Big Lie. He lies about the attack on our Capitol Building. He lies by promoting conspiracy craziness. He says mean things about Democrats and liberals with almost every breath. His behavior is so bad that now Nancy Pelosi has had to shoo him from the committee investigating the insurrection because of his pugnacious attitude toward democracy. He just doesn’t play well with others.

I told him that if he kept on being so mean and dishonest that I’d tell his mom on him, but he said he didn’t care (sorry if that’s hurtful). Then he said some really horrible things about Dr. Fauci in a committee hearing. That’s the kind of thing he does all the time and it’s why I’m writing to you now.

It appears Jim knows the difference between right and wrong, so his bad behavior isn’t caused by accidental ignorance. Still, he chooses to do wrong. Is that how he behaved when he was a wrestler and a wrestling coach?

I’m sorry to send him back to you, Mrs. Jordan, but it seems he hasn’t grown up at all and needs discipline from his mom and dad. Surely, you didn’t raise him to be so mean and dishonest and I’m guessing he’ll be in loads of trouble now that you know about his bad behavior.

If there is ever anything I can do to help you to administer his punishments, please let me know. Actually, there are a lot of us who will be glad to help.

Sincerely,

Jack

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From the New York Times – On Politics newsletter of July 17, 2021:

After Sherri Tenpenny, a Cleveland-area doctor, falsely suggested during a hearing last month in the Ohio House of Representatives that Covid vaccines leave people “magnetized” and can “interface” with 5G cellular towers, Republican lawmakers thanked her for her “enlightening” testimony.

During her testimony Dr. Tenpenny told Ohio lawmakers that vaccinated people, ” .  .  .  can put a key on their foreheads. It sticks.” Download a PDF of a recent report on the FaceBook Dirty Dozen spreading anti-vaxx propaganda and self-serving lies here – there’s something in it for Dr. Tenpenny to spout this idiocy. And read The Markin Report here.

People magnetized?

Do you remember your 5th grade science class when you were taught that only iron and some of its alloys respond to magnets? Apparently, this doctor doesn’t remember her science class. She says – with a very serious look on her face – that a few cc’s of vaccine can produce strong magnetism in iron-free humans.

Nope. Not on this planet Earth. Maybe on hers. Plus, most keys are made of some version of brass and are non-magnetic under any circumstances. So, if there are any keys sticking to the forehead of Dr. Tenpenny or others, I suggest they make a date with some soap and warm water.

And interfacing with 5G cellular towers?

Can we vaccinated ones really listen to YouTube videos via the fillings in our molars? Will Bill Gates make us update Windows? Will we be able to use our noses as divining rods to find water in the desert? Puleeze!

Here is a critical alarm we should be ringing: That nut bag, Dr. Tenpenny – quite a few pennies short of a dollar – is providing medical care to Clevelanders. Woe be unto them because of her disdain for science and her willful ignorance.

Far worse than that, Republicans are taking her seriously and enthusiastically embracing yet more ignorance. That’s what passes for a political party representing Ohioans and Republicans across the nation.

Please, please DO NOT give me false equivalences or “both sides” blabbering. There are no Democrats or Independents saying such idiotic things. They are instead trying to ensure voting rights for all Americans, beat this pandemic, rebuild our infrastructure and – who knows? – maybe do something to stop the insanity of unchecked global warming.

The old saying is that there is no cure for stupid. I think that remains true. More important now, though, is a question about a variation on that sentiment: Is there a cure for willful ignorance? Because we have an epidemic of willful ignorance in our country and it is destroying lives, driving people to take up arms against fellow citizens, to attack our democracy itself and even more.

There is a virus going around that lodges in lungs. It has killed over 626,000 of us, yet people willfully deny its existence. Instead of taking the proven protection against the pandemic, they refuse it, claiming that the disease is a hoax. 99.5% of such people make up our current dead victims list, which is increasing by over 260 per day. There is a price for willful ignorance and sometimes it’s the ultimate price.

The willfully ignorant are also denying the crisis that is destroying this planet. In the face of the obvious reality of massive storms, droughts, fires and hurricanes they say things like, “Global warming is a hoax.” As far as I know, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is still doing a dance about the reality of global warming, even as the ocean level rises to engulf his state.

But you can ask anyone in our incinerating west or anybody in the devastating floods in Germany or in coastal and even central China right now if, unlike magnetizing vaccines, global warming is a real thing. They’re quite clear that it is, but the willfully ignorant still deny it. For some crazy reason, our willfully ignorant don’t seem willing to connect the dots, even as they see that both the sun and the moon are now red all across the nation due to smoke from our western fires. Once again, there is a price for willful ignorance and sometimes it’s the ultimate price.

“The Stone Age was once the future,” said my 15-year-old grandson. Our task today is to keep the accuracy of his statement in the past tense. It’s on us to make damn sure we fix global warming because – and I say this without any keys stuck to my forehead – global warming is coming for us unless we take bold action to stop it. It’s the same with the pandemic.

So, here’s my question for your comments: What is it that drives otherwise sensible people to embrace willful ignorance and consequently imperil all of us?

————————————

Did someone forward this to you? Welcome! Please subscribe and pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) Use the simple form above on the right.

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. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
  3. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
  4. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town vibrant.

JA


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

Stomach Turning in 4 Parts and 5 Questions


Reading time – 4:49  .  .  .

1. Immigration Vile

We’re all appalled by the forced, medically unnecessary, inept and deceitful sterilizations of would-be immigrants at the hands of at least one doctor at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”),  Irwin County Detention Center. It is a privately owned (LaSalle Corrections), for-profit immigration jail in rural south Georgia. We don’t yet know if such things are happening in other ICE prisons.

First question: Why do we pay private corporations to run this and many other prisons, where they have incentives to lock up as many people as possible and perhaps perform stomach turning additional revenue enhancing acts?

The hideousness of these forced sterilizations – by some counts as many as 18 known and medically unnecessary, non-consensual surgeries – is now known and the full story isn’t out yet. This is a new chapter in American immigration cruelty. The good news, of course, is that this has never happened before.

Except it has. Many times.

In the 20th century alone (and it didn’t start there) tens of thousands of men and women were forcibly sterilized and it will come as no surprise to you who the targets were. From a report on this travesty (and here’s another report on this):

More than 60,000 people were sterilized in 32 states during the 20th century based on the bogus “science” of eugenics, a term coined by Francis Galton in 1883.

Eugenicists applied emerging theories of biology and genetics to human breeding. White elites with strong biases about who was “fit” and “unfit” embraced eugenics, believing American society would be improved by increased breeding of Anglo Saxons and Nordics, whom they assumed had high IQs. Anyone who did not fit this mold of racial perfection, which included most immigrants, Blacks, Indigenous people, poor whites and people with disabilities, became targets of eugenics programs. [emhasis mine]

But that was way in the past, right? Wrong.

Such practices are documented as occurring as recently as 2010. Over 1,400 forced sterilizations were performed in California prisons in just over 13 years. These were all state-sanctioned, non-consensual sterilizations.

To give you an idea of the cruelty of eugenics, the Nazis copied it, using the laws of Indiana and California as models for their 1930s laws that led to roughly 400,000 forced sterilizations. The Nazis weren’t the kind of people to whom we would want to be compared, and yet in this sense we can be.

Second question: Why do we tolerate this cruelty as part of our stomach turning immigration practices?

 

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2. COVID-19 Deaths

Trump’s cruelty and ineptitude remains exactly what the Oxford study said it was. Worse, he continues to do what is counterproductive to beating this pandemic and he avoids doing what would make things better. Nevertheless, there is more to this story and it’s likely not exactly what you think.

If you want to know why some countries have had relatively good results dealing with COVID-19 and why the U.S. has fared much poorer, read this.

Third question: Why have we tolerated a stomach-turning hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths?

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3. RBG’s Seat

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, progressive, civil rights icon of the Supreme Court has died. Separate from her loss and ours we must contend with Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, promising to hurry Trump’s replacement pick through the Senate. He announced that less than two hours after the news of her death broke. His was truly astonishing disrespect.

This is the same Mitch McConnell who declared from a dark corner of his manipulative, power-grabbing mind that in the last year of his administration President Obama couldn’t refill the seat left empty by Antonin Scalia’s death. It wouldn’t be fair to the voters, McConnell told us. The next president should handle that, he said. Besides, he informed us that no president had ever nominated anyone for a Supreme Court seat in his last year in office.

And he was right. Except for Anthony Kennedy, who was nominated by Ronald Reagan in his final year in office. And William Rehnquist and Louis Powell, who were nominated in the last year of Nixon’s first term – you get the idea. But it was really important to the Grim Reaper to prevent President Obama from having a Supreme Court pick in his last year in office, so McConnell made up precedent and put a knee on the neck of Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland.

Now, though, we’re hearing from the other fork of McConnell’s tongue. Somehow his phony precedent doesn’t matter so much, now that Trump is the one doing the nominating. Now McConnell has promised to ram Trump’s pick through the Senate before the November 3 election.

Fourth question: What does that do to your stomach?

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4. American Wars

From Sheila Markin’s recent post:

Trump has called himself a wartime president. Yes, America is at war. Our country has been beset by 4 huge assaults at once.

First, there’s the pandemic which, because of Trump’s interference and mismanagement, has cratered our economy and devastated the lives of Americans, resulting in lost jobs, lost health care, lost health, lost homes, and food insecurity for millions of Americans.

Second, there’s climate change which has created huge raging fires in the West with smoke that turned into cyclones with their own embedded lightning, more powerful hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and ice caps melting at a rapid rate which will cause sea level rise, imperiling coastal areas.

Third, there is social unrest and mainly peaceful marches to support the Black Lives Matters movement in response to the unfairness documented by cell phone footage proving that people of color are treated horribly and are killed by police in disproportionate numbers.

Fourth, our democracy and cherished “free and fair elections” are being attacked by Russia working in tandem with Trump and Republicans to suppress the vote, discourage Dems from coming to the polls and cast doubt on the reliability of mail-in ballots.

America IS at war and Trump is not on our side.

It’s time for we soldiers to report for duty, leading to the

Fifth question: It appears that we have perfected the art of complacency. It’s time to abandon that dark art in all of these issues before our stomachs go terminal. Are you ready?

From Rosh HaShanah commentary:

“If you want to see God save the innocent, you need to get off the couch and save the innocent. If you want to see God feed the hungry, you need to feed the hungry. If you want to see God stand by while the innocent suffer, all you need to do is stand by and do nothing yourself.” (emphasis original) – by Rabbi Brent Chiam Spodek and Ruth Messinger.

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Ed. note: We need to spread the word so that we make a critical difference, so

  1. Pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe (IT’S A FREEBIE!).
  2. Engage in the Comments section 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. Sometimes I change my opinions because I’ve learned more about an issue. So, educate me. That’s what the Comments section is for.
  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.

JA

 


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

Where Political Influence Comes From – and a Destructive Snit


Reading time – 4:19; Viewing time – 6:49  .  .  .

It’s going to take decades to clean up the mess that our terrible infant president is creating. Some things will take much longer and will leave permanent scars. Other Trump damage, like loss of endangered species, will be impossible to fix.

We’re told that the Donald Trump Environmental Protection Agency intends to “sharply curtail rules on methane emissions.” It’s possible that methane isn’t a focal point of your day, so I’ll explain what this newest EPA ruling will mean to you.

Methane is likely the gas that burns in your home furnace and water heater. Burning natural gas instead of other fossil fuels produces less carbon dioxide, so it adds less to global warming, and it’s cheaper to use, too. That’s where the methane happy stuff ends. The rest requires a little story to explain it.

The phenomenally destructive Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission granted Big Money interests – deep pocket individuals and corporations – the power to dominate and control our politics using their cash. That was more than surprising, since the case was only about the Citizens United organization wanting to show their movie trashing Hillary Clinton right before each primary in 2008. It wasn’t about campaign contributions and domination of politics.

The McCain-Feingold Act prohibited such “electioneering” within 30 days of a primary, so Citizens United was enjoined by the district court from showing their 30-minute attack ad that was designed to influence the primary elections. They filed suit and the case wound up before the Supreme Court, which reversed the district and appellate court rulings against Citizens United. That should have been the end of the case, but it wasn’t.

Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the attorneys to return to the Court to re-litigate the case, this time testing the rights of corporations and speech equivalency. In that gross distortion of the original case, the 5-4 conservative majority decided that corporations have all the same rights as flesh and blood human beings, including the right to make campaign contributions and air political advertising.*

Justice John Paul Stevens

As outrageous as that is, if you’re a Constitutional purist, get that, “[In addressing an

issue that was not raised by the litigants], the majority changed the case to give themselves an opportunity to change the law.” That is from the blistering dissent of this decision, written by Justice John Paul Stevens.

Effectively, the Supreme Court legislated from the bench on issues that were not in contest in this case. Citizens United v. FEC had nothing to do with human rights or corporate rights or political contributions, but its adverse effect in those areas will be felt for a very long time.

Dig into the case a little deeper and you’ll have a new and dark understanding of Chief Justice John Roberts. Be sure to pay attention to his Senate confirmation hearings, where he did the now familiar confirmation dance, spewing volumes of words while not answering questions. More specifically, though, he invoked stare decisis, the principle of not upsetting prior court decisions and making current decisions based upon precedent. Roberts had a solid belief in that, he told us.

Turns out that stare decisis actually wasn’t a real important thing to John Roberts and that allowed him to legislate from the bench. That bench-created new law gave us things like the NRA being such a powerful campaign contributor to legislators that our elected officials refuse to create the gun safety legislation that 90% of Americans want them to create. Sadly, we have a government of, by and for Big Money, not you and me.

Here’s how that connects to the EPA lifting methane emission regulations.

Point #1: Over the course of 20 years methane released into the atmosphere has 86 times more powerful global warming effect than does carbon dioxide. The EPA has taken down its web page detailing this.

Point #2: Natural gas comes largely from fracking wells and as many as 50% of them leak methane into the atmosphere. The page for that has been taken down from the EPA site, too.

Point #3: The Obama administration generated regulations to cause the actors in the methane extraction business to take action to reduce methane emissions.

Point #4: Trump’s EPA is in the process of trashing those Obama era regulations and allowing essentially uninhibited methane leakage.

Some major oil companies have stated that they are opposed to the change the EPA is proposing. Do your own math on why they’d do that, especially since their own industry association and lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute, has come out in favor of EPA’s proposal to eliminate methane emission regulations.

There’s a really good chance that you are not in favor of the EPA’s proposal that will dramatically increase the rate of global warming. The problem for you is that our legislators don’t really care what you think about that, any more than they care about the 90% likelihood that you want strict gun safety regulations.

Just like healthcare, immigration reform, voting rights, education and so many other issues, you’re not getting what you want and it can all be traced back to Citizens United.

That’s now compounded by Trump’s ongoing snit over being dissed by President Obama at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011. Since that time Trump has been doing everything he can to negate everything Obama accomplished, including DACA, regardless of the harm he does to you and all of us, our allies and our planet.

Such is the behavior of this terrible infant president. We are paying the price for his temper tantrum and, as I said earlier, it will take decades to clean up his mess.

Quote of the Week

Trump is a man who has been progressively hollowed out by the acid of his own self-regard. David Brooks

Opinion Piece of the Week

The Frauding of America’s Farmers, Paul Krugman

*Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, wrote,

“The First Amendment does not allow prohibitions of speech based on the identity of the speaker  .  .  .  even if the speaker is a corporation.”

It is beyond any possibility that the Founders intended the Bill of Rights to have any connection whatsoever to non-human entities, like corporations. The purpose of the Bill of Rights was to protect the rights of people. Humans. Read the amendments and it will be clear to you.

So much for Justice Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas being “originalists.” They claimed to interpret the Constitution as the Founders originally intended. so they liked to call themselves originalists. Clearly they were/are not.

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Ed. Note: I don’t want money or your signature on a petition. I want you to spread the word so that we make a critical difference. So,

YOUR ACTION STEPS:

  1. Pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe (IT’S A FREEBIE!).
  2. Engage in the Comments section below to help us all to be better informed.

Thanks!

NOTES:

    1. Writings quoted or linked to 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. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling or punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    3. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

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

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