parade

It’s Just A Matter Of Time


POST 1183


Declining Health On The Way

From Heather Cox Richardson’s post of June 1 dealing with RFK, Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” Commission report that’s “full of errors, including misrepresentation of experiments and nonexistent studies:”

Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told [reporters] Weber and Gilbert, “This is not an evidence-based report, and for all practical purposes, it should be junked at this point. It cannot be used for any policymaking. It cannot even be used for any serious discussion, because you can’t believe what’s in it.”

Clearly, it’s a fabricated report from a brain worm addled, science ignorant RFK, Jr., backed by our morbidly obese, obviously unhealthy president. It’s yet more proof that we are entirely through the looking glass.

From STAT:

Last week, HHS confirmed it was canceling a more than $700 million contract with Moderna to develop, test, and license mRNA vaccines for flu strains that could cause future pandemics.

This stands in stupid juxtaposition to mRNA-developed vaccines that saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, once Trump shut up about injecting Lysol and was kicked out of office. Nevertheless. he’s setting us up for yet more pandemics and death.

Also,

$9.8 billion

That’s how much our dental costs would be if the rest of the country follows Utah and Florida in banning the addition of fluoride to water, according to a study published Friday in JAMA Health Forum.

How come Republicans want us to be sick and toothless?

Pain Is On The Way

Price increases of consumer goods caused by Trump’s Temper Tantrum Trade Tariffs (the “5Ts”) will hit hard starting in July. Because the tariffs have shoved a stick into the gears of global supply chains, consumers will begin to see empty shelves in stores. The reality of tariffs and the idiocy of non-existent subsidizing of other countries will become obvious. We’re going to feel the pain of Trump’s trade and foreign affairs lunacy and it will begin to sting even his most ardent followers.

From STAT:

Facing a shortfall of roughly $40 million in terminated contracts, the nation’s leading advisory body on issues of science and technology has already had to lay off 50 of its 1,000 employees and could lose as many as 250 more by the end of the summer .  .  .

.  .  .  just months into the second Trump administration, more than 2,000 grants have been terminated, totaling around $9.5 billion. [emphasis mine]

$40 million in terminated contracts and the cancellation of $9.5 billion in research grants means that a lot of research will be halted and there will be 300 fewer scientific experts working to keep us healthy. That means that a lot of medical research won’t happen and some ailments and diseases that might have been curable due to that research won’t be available to help us. You, the people you love and even those you’re not too fond of will all suffer completely unnecessary afflictions, even death.

It will take a while to connect the dots from the gutting of the FDA (3,500 layoffs) to outbreaks of avian flu, E. Coli and Listeria. Robert Kennedy, Jr. recommends non-pasteurized (“raw”) milk, an invitation to infections including salmonella, pathogens like bacteria, viruses and parasites that can cause food-borne illnesses and more. What could go wrong?

Wait a second: Pasteurization kills pathogens like parasites? RFK Jr. drinks “raw” milk and he has a brain worm. Coincidence? The American people want to know.

It isn’t clear how long it will take us to figure out the connection between the Kennedy/Trump decimation of our science and medical research capabilities and the diseases we’ll suffer, but we’ll get there. And 99% of Americans are going to be very, very angry. The 1% are the knuckleheads who love their ignorance more than they love granny and babies.

We Don’t Like Being Played For Fools.

Trump promised great “deals” for America would come about through his “5T” tariff madness. But literally the only “deals” he’s managed are an agreement with China to talk about an agreement, plus another like that with the Brits. There’s no substance anywhere in sight.

He promised lower prices, but most have gone up.

He promised he would end the war in Ukraine in one day, but today is the 139th Trump “one day” and the war goes on.

He promised massive reduction of waste, fraud and abuse, but has only managed to put tens of thousands of faithful government employees out of work and has imperiled all of us. The actual net of the DOGE thugs’ actions looks like it will be about $0 – plus a massive invasion of our privacy.

He promised to round up non-citizen criminals and deport them first, but none of those snatched from their homes, our streets, immigration centers, schools and work sites have been proven to be a criminal. It’s that habeas corpus thing that hasn’t happened, like occurs in dictator countries. All that exists of administration justification for its Gestapo-like* raids are completely evidence-free claims of gang affiliation and the crushing of our rule of law and the presumption of innocence.

We’ve all been played for fools, especially the 38% who are loyal Trump supporters. But they, like the rest of us, will feel the sting. It’s just a matter of time.

America isn’t about any king.

It is about We The People.

We declare that in no uncertain terms right here.

.

You and I are just like the Founders in our abhorrence of kings – dictators, really. We are threatened by such people right now. That’s why June 14 is

NO KINGS DAY!**

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“You have to know what you stand for, or you’ll fall for anything.” – Les Brown

Click the map to find a demonstration near you. As of this writing there are over 1,500 of them, all for people across the nation who won’t tolerate Trump’s reign of scams, cruelties, corruption and the destruction of our Constitution, which he hopes will lead to his dictatorship and make him King Donald I.

So, show up on June 14 to demonstrate who we really are, what we stand for and what we won’t stand for. And pass this message to others. This existential battle needs all of us – and we need this battle.

Finally

From a letter from the Interfaith Alliance:

[Congresswoman Mary Miller (R – IL-15)] attacked Giani Surinder Singh, a Sikh leader, saying it was “deeply troubling” for a Muslim to lead prayer at the House of Representatives because “America was founded as a Christian nation.” Then, she deleted the post when she realized that he was Sikh, not Muslim. So she then posted how troubled she was that “a Sikh” was leading a prayer. Finally, she deleted the second post.

This is a deeply proud Illinois moment. To think that we in Illinois have a congresswoman in serious contention to out-stupid Marjorie Taylor Green! Miller’s comment MUST! get her listed as a finalist in the Deranged Idiot Contest Dipstick (“DICK”).
In addition and because her district (IL-15) is mostly red, all of her constituents but Sikhs are hereby required to immediately write a letter of apology to the Sikh gentleman she insulted (indeed, to all Sikhs and Muslims), and another letter to all Americans, explaining her brain dead, historically false claim, admitting that her saying, “America was founded as a Christian nation” is wrong, cruel and stupid.
.
Anyone keeping score will know that the founders had an abhorrence of forced religion. That’s why freedom of religion is in the First Amendment. Rep. Miller would know that, had she attended a civics class in a public high school, instead of attending Stupid High and learning to be a mean girl.
 

So, in her apologies, Miller must write, “America was NOT founded as a Christian Nation” 100 times longhand. Tears of embarrassment dripped onto her 3-ring school binder note paper will be appropriate. Then she may go directly to Detention Hall.

___________________________________________________

* Why do you suppose Trump’s private army of no-warrant, kidnapping thugs wears masks? Why do you suppose Trump’s henchman, Nazi Stephen Miller, tells us, “The cruelty is the point”?

** It’s also the day of Trump’s ego-maniacal military parade. Watch for his lying press secretary Karoline Leavitt to lie about parade attendance.


Countdown to November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election

Countdown Timer

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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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.
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  5. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.
  6. Comments offered by readers, whether in agreement with my opinions or opposing, are encouraged and greatly appreciated. All are reviewed prior to going live. I reserve the right to edit for readability, punctuation, typos, voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

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JA


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

Be Decent, Waukesha, Climate & Just-For-Fun


Be Decent

Over 5,000 nut balls have disrupted airline flights with their violent behavior, endangering flight attendants, pilots, first officers and all the other passengers on those many flights. If you check with any teacher, dean of students or principal you’ll learn that our school kids are in a similar state of craziness.

Parents are having temper tantrums at school board meetings – yes, just like children who missed their nap and are kicking and screaming on the floor of the cereal aisle at the supermarket. Citizens are screeching incoherently at town hall meetings, ranting and menacing their neighbors, whom they themselves elected. We have athletes lying about having been vaccinated, then testing positive, having endangered both teammates and opponents and then justifying their actions with nonsense.

People at every level of government are saying the most outrageous, googly-eyed, false and rage inducing things, even attacking Big Bird. Our political blabbers are blabbing mindlessly and dishonestly and the online bullying continues unabated, spreading fantastic lies and ridiculous and brutal conspiracy theories. Somehow millions of our fellow citizens believe this idiocy.

Click me

We’re facing challenges, to be sure, but they’re not all unprecedented – we’ve seen some of these movies before. But our society hasn’t held up very well this time. We’ve degenerated into fearful, rageful things, fighting in some dystopia of our own making. Are we a less hardy bunch now? Have we lost our civilization backbone? Did we lose the secret of how to be together?

Watch this clip from the 1990 movie, The Bonfire of the Vanities. It doesn’t address root causes or the myriad, fundamental frailties of human beings, but it’s good advice. Actually, it isn’t just good advice; it’s great advice and an imperative for our time. It’s what we’ll have to do if we are to save ourselves from ourselves. *

A Word About Waukesha

Long ago a friend urged me to see bad things in a different way. He said to ask what the bad things are here to teach. What is it that we have refused to learn and retain through any other means of instruction? It may be hard to apply those questions to the tragedy in Waukesha just now, given the physical and emotional pain assaulting that community, but I’ll take a stab at that.

As the people of Waukesha come together in vigils, as they nurse their wounded of body and wounded of heart, perhaps they show us that our lesson is that we are in this life together. They tell us through their selflessness in this grievous moment that it’s time to stop assuming the worst of one another and stop attacking those we fearfully think of as “other.” They’re saying that it’s time for us to be a community. Maybe relearning that – yet again – is our lesson from this awful attack.

Climate

Speaking of saving ourselves from ourselves, the bad news is the way in which climate is changing and the ways in which we are making it worse instead of better. But you knew that.

The real question is what we – that’s us, acting primarily through our governments – are willing to do to ensure that our climate doesn’t kill us, which is something many humans would prefer. Actually, the keys to the most desirable solution are really pretty simple. For example, we have to get past – as in: replace – politicians who are in climate crisis denial to remove their self-serving roadblocks so that positive action can occur.

The core solution to our climate crisis cannot be found in any Glasgow blah, blah, blah resolution. It lies in the center of the region known as “Less Talk – More Positive Action – No Negative Action.”

That area is opaque to large corporations and very rich people, because that’s not where they accumulate ever-more-massive wealth. What happens instead right here in our current Earth sabotage is that campaign contributions go to politicians who ensure growing massive wealth for the already massively wealthy. That causes cataracts to grow over entire governments to the point that they’re blind to what is glaringly obvious. That drives a stasis which is counter-productive to the continuation of human life. But, hey, what a vast further enrichment of already rich people there will be for the short time we humans are around to see it!

We need cataract surgery on our governments. Immediately.

Click me

This has been creatively explained in the video to which you can link from the pic to the left. Please note that this video contains graphic and “colorful” language. If you know that you will find such language objectionable, you can find a bleeped version here. Either way, the message is clear, compelling and challenging to all of us.

We have to make our governments stop the greed saturated, suicidal stuff and do the things that will allow us to continue to live on the only inhabitable planet in the known universe. Or we can continue as we are and turn over the planet to our children and grandchildren and let them scratch out a miserable subsistence in the ever-dwindling arable land on Earth for the few wretched years available to them.

It’s our choice.

Pop Quiz!
  1. Can you think of even one reason we should still be subsidizing fossil fuel industries? If you have more than one, rank order them starting from the most dumb.
  2. Compare and contrast: A). Taking immediate positive action to prevent the worst climate catastrophes, and; B). Talking about taking positive action, but continuing our smug, willful intransigence. An extra 5 points each will be awarded for the inclusion in your answer of the following terms:
    1. survival
    2. massive migration
    3. desertification
    4. permanently flooded coastal cities
    5. wars
    6. societal breakdown
    7. wildfires
    8. deforestation
    9. catastrophic weather events
    10. integrity outage
  3. List the names of your senators, congressperson, governor and state representatives, along with their phone numbers. BONUS: 10 points each if you call their offices and tell them to immediately take action to combat the climate crisis.
Just For Fun

SNL, November 6, 2021 – Click me

Feeling stressed preparing for Thanksgiving? Worried about what Uncle Dorkus will say this year? Just need a laugh? Well, look no further.

Grab a glass of your beverage of choice and have a look at what is probably the best SNL skit in decades. Be sure to read a couple dozen of the comments below it. I promise you that, one way or another, this has happened to you.

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* “Saving ourselves from ourselves” – Several states have introduced or intend to introduce bills to prevent the mandating of any vaccine to prevent highly contagious diseases, like polio, smallpox, measles, rubella, chicken pox and the rest. We know what happens to civilizations when people aren’t protected from such things, because we have the experience of thousands of years of misery, suffering and death to make that clear. Denying that is stubborn, willfully obtuse and homicidal.

Such reversals of a century of progress toward better health, now with easy, cheap preventives available everywhere, is being fought in the name of reptilian notions of individual freedom and the crank idea of a mandatory vaccine as an assault. If the legislative attempts to end science, medicine and learning in several states succeed, my strong recommendation is to permanently stay away from anyone from Montana, Idaho, Florida and all the other vaccine refusing states, as well as anyone who has had contact with anyone from those states. And don’t let your kids play with their kids.

Said Dr. Anthony Fauci about vaccine refusal, “It’s the normalization of insanity, I think.”

Read about it in STAT here.

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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.

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