Vance

You’re Being Played, But Not Like You Think


POST 1114

An Insidious Conspiracy

JD Vance is a guy who compared Trump to Hitler. He said, “I’m a Never Trump guy. I never liked him.” He said lots more that was unlikely to cause Trump to find him attractive. Still, he got the nod, so many were asking why Trump picked him to be his running mate.

Vance is where he is because of millions of dollars invested in him by Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Now, why would these guys shell out that kind of cash to get this phony hillbilly into position to be Vice President of the United States? You know they expect to get massive pay back for their investments. Let’s back up the story a bit to see what we can find.

Let’s make the assumption that the people at the Heritage Foundation, authors of Project 2025, are smart guys. You may not like their values or their policies, you may customarily call them some unattractive names, but they aren’t stupid. They and others like them have waged a 50 year war on our liberal democracy, perhaps even going back to FDR. Their fight has been constant and it is solely about amassing astonishing piles of cash and unlimited power, even as they claim patriotic values to distract you. And we all have been distracted. They have brought us to the point where a fascist, an avowed enemy of democracy, has an even chance to regain the White House.

It’s great fun to ridicule Trump, but that’s looking in the wrong direction.

We love to attack Trump for his crudeness, his cruelty, his lack of substance, his fundamental dishonesty and his flagrant stupidity. Now we’re watching him disintegrate mentally before our eyes.

But shift your thinking from the magician’s hand that you see – that’s Trump – to the one behind his back that is tricking you. Trump is the joker that the magician, the manipulator, the Heritage Foundation, flashes before our eyes. But behind their back is the hand manipulating events that will put Vance into the Presidency. Here’s how.

Trump’s mental faculties are unraveling before our eyes and before the eyes of the world. His ability to stay on a topic has shrunken to just a few seconds of outrageous accusations and idiotic projections, leading to a verbal spaghetti of senselessness. Just imagine the fear our NATO allies feel and the excitement that world dictators are enjoying over the prospect of another 4 years of Trump.

He has refused interviews everywhere. He won’t show up at CNN, CNBC or 60 Minutes and he won’t debate his opponent. He’ll only appear with fawning supporters and even then all he can manage are short periods of cruelty, threats of violence and mental incontinence. He couldn’t even stay glued together at a friendly town hall and had to resort to playing music and swaying moronically for 39 minutes.

His campaign staff, his family, MAGA politicians and pundits all know that they have to limit his pubic exposure because every time he opens his mouth to speak he undermines his candidacy. Far more important, they all know that if he wins the election that he will be unable to execute the duties of the Office of the Presidency or even the dictates of the Heritage Foundation.

You’re being played by master magicians, but not like you think. You’re being made to think that this chaos and instability are about Trump, the joker, but he’s just the distraction. The real danger is the manipulation we don’t see, but it’s being done in plain sight.

Within months, perhaps just days of Trump taking office, the 25th Amendment will be invoked. Congress will support it and JD Vance will become President of the United States, your ruler.

Did that send a shiver up your spine? It should, because Vance is smart, cunning, an extremist and the author of the violent introduction to Project 2025. He would follow its dictates and destroy our democracy. He wants you to be crushed by fascism. You know that frighteningly well.

That is the goal of the Heritage Foundation. Vance is the traitor to democracy who will make you a serf and give oligarchs all the money and all the power. These are our morbidly rich to whom we’ve already transferred $50 trillion of our wealth thanks to trickle down economics and self-defeating tax cuts for the rich.

.
We’ve been played, all right, but not by Trump, the snake oil salesman and marionette of the ultra-rich.
.

We’ve been played by the oligarch wannabes for at least five decades and now we’re being played to put Vance, the oligarch tool boy, into the White House to do their bidding.

.
This election isn’t about Trump’s insanity. It’s about whether we will crush our own democracy through our willful blindness to what is before our eyes.
.

Vance is actually worse than you already think. Have a look at this memo from the guys who ran Tim Ryan’s Senate campaign against Vance. They looked the beast in the eyes and they know what they saw. This guy is smooth, slick and dishonest. And no, he doesn’t think Trump lost the 2020 election. Or at least that’s the story he changed to after being named Trump’s running mate and shifting from being a Never Trumper to being a spineless Trump suck up.

We are powerless to remove Vance from the ticket, so our only hope to protect our rights, our freedom and our democracy is to defeat Trump, which would bar the White House door to Vance. We have to defeat the Republicans running for other offices, too. Our most sacred right,

VOTING

.

is our only weapon to ensure that there will be elections in 2026 and 2028. This is truly a use-it-or-lose-it moment.

We must crush the plan of the Heritage Foundation or it will crush us. So,

If you don’t want a President Vance;

If you don’t want democracy to end and be replaced by oligarchs counting the money they’ve taken from you and exploiting and abusing you;

If you’re tired of being played for a fool;

.  .  .  then you know what we must do. We must defeat the forces of evil which otherwise will subjugate us. They are fascists. They are despotic. They care nothing for your freedom except to take it away from you. They have been working all these long decades to defeat you and end everything you hold dear.

Your vote is critical, but it isn’t enough. You must get people to the polls. You have to motivate voters in red states and blue states and purple states to get off their Barcaloungers and show up and vote.

Put out your lawn sign, make calls to swing states, write postcards to swing state voters and talk to people, even your crazy Uncle Bob. Offer to drive people to the polls. Even staunch Republicans and MAGAs want their rights and their freedom and they won’t have either if Vance is behind the Resolute desk for 4 years. None of us will have the America we believe in if the Heritage Foundation owns it.

It’s time to redouble our efforts to send all Republicans packing – especially Vance and the other extremists – before they can reduce us to serfdom in their fascist state.

Best Guess

Trump is doing everything he can to lose this election by insulting as many people as possible, by advocating policies that will hurt as many people as possible, by flagrantly demonstrating his mental deterioration, by avoiding attracting as few new voters as possible and telling people that after this election they won’t have to vote.

Best guess: He isn’t trying to win in the old fashioned way because he can’t. He wants to spark a civil war and violently take over the country.

They’re Trying To Buy It Outright

From Mother Jones, October 21:

[Elon] Musk is saying he will give out a million dollars a day—every day until the election—to voters in swing states who sign a petition from his pro-Trump political action committee (and no, I will not link to it). He was also pledging to pay $100 to registered Pennsylvania voters who sign his petition through today.

Is that okay with you? I don’t think it’s okay with the Justice Department.

Tell people to vote like their life depends on it.

Because it does.

 

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:
.

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


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

A Bucketful of Weird


POST 1109

Heart Wrenching Quote of the Week

Misty is a teacher in Charlotte, NC. She was interviewed on CNN. She spoke of teachers going to the houses of students to make sure they were okay, as they were living in rubble. One of the teachers is missing and they are surrounded by the disaster and the suffering that is everywhere, trying to help the kids have something that feels normal. Misty said that’s critical for the kids, because,

“Normal just washed away  .  .  . “

Their ordinary lives just washed away. Food and drinkable water washed away. Their homes washed away. Their hopes, dreams, security and perhaps friends and family washed away. The death toll stands at 232. No one knows how many are missing and there is no way to calculate the devastation.

The people wading through the muck and rubble are our family, neighbors and community even if at a distance. When disaster hits, we roll up our shirtsleeves and lend a hand. We come together for one another.

And our help, already critically needed, is going to become far more desperately needed, as Hurricane Milton slams across Florida.

CNN put together this list of organizations providing relief. Just click the link and pick one to help our people, because we step up for our community. It’s just what we do, so it would be weird not to.

Weird Black Nazi Wish List

North Carolina Republican candidate for governor and self-labeled Black Nazi, Mark Robinson, has said many offensive things. Among them,

“Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it back. I would certainly buy a few.”

Maybe I’ll buy some slaves, too. Robinson will be my first purchase. The first thing I’ll do as his master is to end all of his freedom and work him to exhaustion every day. Just wondering if he would still think “slavery is not bad.”

Weird.

The Weird Candidate

From an article in The Atlantic Daily on October 2 entitled “Beyond Handshakes,” focused on the Vice Presidential debate:

.  .  .  Vance slyly executed a strategy to make himself, and Trumpism, appear “normal.” He eschewed talk of “childless cat ladies” and ran from his own lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. That such a sentence needs to be written tells you all you need to know about the ugly tenor of this race.

Actually, it tells you all you need to know about the ugly dishonesty and cruelty of Republican politicians.

Weird.

Springfield Geese

Turns out that Trump and Vance are sort of right – someone did kill geese in Springfield, OH. But it wasn’t one of the legally resident Haitians.

Springfield idiot and non-Haitian, Brian Comer, was having fine sport killing golf course pond geese on September 10. Got busted for it. There are no reports of him killing neighbors’ dogs or cats and eating them or whether he’s a Trump supporter – you do the guessing on that. Regardless, he’s seriously weird.

FEMA Funds Never Fed Our Undocumented

Following Hurricane Helene, Donald Trump blasted out damning crapnews that FEMA is running out of money for relief because they’re funneling millions to undocumented immigrants. Trump SS officer Steven Miller and idiot genius Elon Musk are helping to spread that lie. The details of this Trump-stupid FEMA accusation are too long to include here, so read Heather Cox Richardson’s explainer.

Worse, at a time when tens of thousands of Americans are desperate and counting on the heroic rescue teams working hard to save them, feed them, to bring them to safety and to give them hope, Trump is crushing their hopes and their belief in their country. Trump is weird and he’s cruel beyond words. But, you knew that.

BTW – When he was president he did exactly what he’s falsely accusing Biden of doing. He diverted FEMA money from relief for victims of Hurricane Maria to use it to punish “others.” While those devastated by the hurricane were Americans, he didn’t care because, hey, they’re just Puerto Ricans. To refresh your memory, this is the paper towel tossing incident. See this capture of his reprehensible and weird nature.

“That Was a Damning Non-Answer”

Walz: Did [Trump] lose the 2020 election?

Vance: Tim, I’m focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans in the wake of the 2020 Covid situation? (As though that fantasy was in the future – and the answer is no.)

Walz: That was a damning non-answer.

Vance’s slimy-squirmy avoidance of Walz’s question lit up the debate and Walz nailed him on it. Good for all of us.

Actually, Walz let pass nearly all of Vance’s non-answers (about 22 of them) and his lies (uncountable), much to the frustration of fact-based viewers. No clue why Walz did that.

Trump’s nearly successful efforts to thwart the will of the people of the United States in 2021 and Vance’s support for that felony is ugly. But We The People believe our eyes and ears and we know what happened. The Vance-Dance wasn’t just damning. It was criminally damning.

And weird.

Reality Roundup

You already know that some of us have a flimsy relationship with truth, facts, science and other parts of reality. Lies, misdirection, fantasies, fatuous rumors and conspiracies have achieved great popularity with many of our less sharp-eyed fellow citizens. Their opinions, based on nothing more than personal bias and cartoon-ish flights of insanity, have supplanted facts in their minds. That’s an impressive achievement and actually quite a problem.

A fine essay was offered in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago – Facts Matter, and They Don’t Care How You Feel, by Francis S. Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health. His piece is a clearheaded approach to telling us that reality is what it is and that our confirmation bias, bad attitudes and our need to find a boogeyman behind every tree don’t change reality.

So no, the Earth is not flat. The 1969 moon landing did happen. So did the Holocaust. There were no sex trafficked young girls in the basement of that pizza shop in DC (actually, there is no basement in that building). There are no Jewish space lasers and vaccines don’t kill, neuter or blind people. They saved hundreds of thousands of lives just in America, despite Trump’s efforts to get Americans to instead inject bleach, Lysol and little ultraviolet lights and to take a drug approved solely to treat malaria. We know all this because there is massive evidence that declares the realities, even as conspiracy wingnuts and wacko political candidates display their very serious mental limitations by rejecting reality and imperiling all of us.

Weird.

Just get this:

Shifting back to reality will take powerful, consistently muscular, banner-waving, truth telling, lie smashing, propaganda pummeling communication and a personal touch. Anything less than that will cause us to descend into a freedom killing wasteland. There are only 26 days left and this will take all of us. It’s time to step up. Now.
.

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!

– Les Miserables R Us

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:

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


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

The Jax Politix Trump Rally Speech


POST 1106

Late Addition: The Debate Opening We Wish Had Happened

“Senator, you don’t know me. We just met, so we’re not close friends. I will address you as Senator. You may address me as Governor or Governor Walz. Not Tim. I’m quite sure I’ve earned that respect.

“Three years ago you confidently announced that you want to tear down our Constitution and our democracy and replace it with an autocracy – a dictatorship. What is significant is that before that you were a United States Marine. You swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic and then you argued for tearing it all down. You’ve repeated some version of that loathsome statement since then. and you’re partnered with a criminal who wants to “terminate the Constitution.”

“You took that same sacred oath upon becoming a United States Senator. That means that your first official act as a senator was to swear that sacred oath, knowing you were lying. You did it with your hand on your Bible. That was unacceptable dishonesty. Were you to win this election, it would be treasonous dishonesty. Senator, you’re the worst kind of fraud and you aren’t fit to be Vice President of the United States.”

View From a Half-Empty Arena With Attendees Leaving

Donald Trump advances to the podium, then shifts to the side and claps his hands not quite in time with the music. Then he begins to speak.

My friend Hannibal Lector – he’s the greatest – he came up from my Mar-a-Lago basement yesterday where he’s been staying as my guest at no charge. It’s a beautiful basement – the best – like nothing you’ve ever seen – there’s even a gold toilet and cases of ketchup – and he explained it all to me. It’s so bad, he told me.

Nobody can believe it. You’re lucky to have me here to protect you from the horrible people in this failing nation and to deliver the revenge and retribution against these horrible people, these Democrats, who dribble corn flakes in your bed.

And the election – you won’t even have to vote because we’ve set up traps – they’re called rabbit snares – and we can stop the fake voters with these traps. We can stop the illegal people who ka-MA-la-la is letting into our country. They are trying to vote and steal our great nation. So are the people who aren’t White but who try to vote anyway, and even the fake FBI. They’re so fake that it’s their first name. The Fake Bureau of Investigation. Nobody can believe it, but I’m telling you this is true. I wrote it in ketchup on the wall.

The foiber and gonzelets are fonzled in abstentia, but we real Amerikanzis stand toothgetter. We have to be strong and flight, flight, flight! Nobloody has ever seen this kind of strengther before. Nobloody.

I’ll protect our women. That’s what strong men do. I do that. I’m strong. “I WILL PROTECT WOMEN AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE.” But ka-MA-la-la is horrible. She’s actually mentally disabled and should be impeached and persecuted. She’s weak and can’t protect our women or our country. Trump is the only protector. The only one.

But the women, they love me, even the women who love their cats but not their dogs. They love me. Especially the ones who are my type. I really like my type. Ivanka is my type. I’d date her if she weren’t my daughter. Melania used to be my type, but not so much anymore. I’m sorry I brought her here from Lower Slobovia. What’s that kid’s name?

We can’t let our country become a shithole country, which is where we are headed unless I’m president. Hannibal Lechter told me that and he knows. He’s strong and he speaks to me. He told me that electrocution by batteries in the ocean is better than getting eaten by a shark and he should know, because he was electrocuted. He’s a very strong man. Very strong. Like me.

I could be sun bathing my beautiful body,* but instead I’m here protecting you. I stand here taking the blows for you and that’s okay. Don’t worry about me. I worry about you, which is why you have to fight like hell. So, stand back and stand by. We’ll make the Democrats and the corn flake crumbs go away forever. That I will tell you. FLIGHT, FLIGHT, FLIGHT!

It will be like nothing anyone has ever seen. People are saying  .  .  .  something. I can’t remember what.

Exit to the playing of copyrighted material used without permission.

View From The Brits
From the FaceBook post of Dwight Homer of September 21,
.
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” in London Daily Sept 16 2023 (excerpt)
.
“Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
.
“Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
.
“Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
.
“There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface……
.

“And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling [sic} sidekick instead. …”

Many thanks to DS for pointing me to this piece.

View From the Hypocrisy and Mendacity Corner

Of course you know they lie, but they’ve really set a new low mark using the devastation of hurricane Helene to spew their hate, just when our people are desperate for help. Here’s a bit from Heather Cox Richardson’s post of October 1:

.  .  .  the hurricane has become the latest topic of disinformation for MAGA Republicans. Social media today is full of accounts claiming that the federal government is not responding to the crisis in western North Carolina because it prefers to spend money in Ukraine and on undocumented immigrants. Newsmax host Todd Starnes claimed that FEMA’s “top priority is not disaster relief” but to push diversity, equity and inclusion. “So, unless you’ve got your preferred pronouns spray painted on the side of your submerged house—you won’t get a penny from Uncle Sam. Western North Carolina is just too Conservative and too Caucasian for FEMA to care.” The House Judiciary Committee posted that “Joe Biden was at the beach.”

These posts echo Russian disinformation, and Trump was on board with it.

It’s possible that the Republican Party can be revitalized into something that is based in truth and reality. It’s possible that they could stop being cruel, stupid and anti-American. But we’ll have to wait a long time for that.

Read Richardson’s full post to revitalize your understanding of why we must get Democrats elected.

Quote of the Week

From Steve Sheffey’s post of September 29,

“Why are some of us eager to believe anything bad about Biden and Harris but willing to dismiss the truth about Trump?”

Voting and getting out the vote reduce the risk of unwanted presidencies!

______________________________________________________

* View From the Tennis Court
.

 

 

 

 

.

 

Many thanks to SA for the Obi-Wan gif.

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:
.

https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-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 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

What a Load of Bovine Fecal Matter!


POST 1097

Cow Pie #1

Republicans tell us they’re for small government, low taxes, no deficits and no debt. Good thing. Otherwise, we’d have a crazy amount of debt, right? Here’s how the Rs helped us with this, looking at just their tax programs.

The unpaid-for George W. Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 collectively added about $5.6 trillion to our national debt. Dubya solemnly promised that the cuts would “pay for themselves” via increased economic activity, plus more opportunity and better wages for working people. None of happened, but rich people did become much more wealthy every year of his administration.

Dubya was the first president to cut taxes while our country was at war, creating massive debt. His vice president, Dick Cheney, proudly declared that budget deficits don’t matter, so they conducted “off-balance sheet” wars. I still don’t know what that is.

Trump continued the lie, promising tax cuts that would bring greater opportunity and higher wages for working people. He structured his tax policy to give 83% of the benefit of the tax cuts to corporations and extremely wealthy people – about $2 trillion – and we got the debt.

Do you understand $1 trillion? You can do the math, of course, but can you really relate to what it actually is? Consider yourself a genius if that number is anything but an abstract notion of math to you.

The tried and true method of explaining large numbers is to imagine dollar bills laid end-to-end. $1 trillion would stretch around the earth at the equator .  .  .

4,000 bills deep!
.

That’s $1 trillion. But these two presidents piled about $7.6 trillion of debt onto the backs of We The People in order to stuff large denomination bills into the pockets of the already rich. That results in a circle of dollar bills around the earth at the equator

30,400 bills deep!
.

That’s what supply side voodoo economics (that was H.W. Bush’s term) got us. It’s wealth transfer from us to the rich. We still have search crews out looking for the supply side benefits for working people that Republican presidents have promised.

Are you getting this?

If elected president again, Trump has promised another massive tax cut for the rich, and why not? His first tax cut worked out so well for himself and his rich pals.

Republicans are not for small government. They are not debt or deficit hawks. They are strictly for enriching the grossly wealthy at the expense of the rest of us, creating an almost feudal system of wealth inequity. Their tax plans are a load of bovine fecal matter.

Just for fun

Our national debt is currently over $35 trillion. Stack those singles around the equator and the pile would be.

140,000 bills deep!

That’s what we owe, in part thanks to Republicans and their phony opposition to debt and deficits.

Cow Pie #2

A couple of weekends ago vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance complained on CNN that Democrats are bullying him by calling him weird. The nerve of them to correctly identify the pretender to the throne as weird! They are such meanies!

But wait. Didn’t Vance call Democrats “miserable, childless cat ladies?” That’s pretty weird. Didn’t he denigrate the 24 year military service of Tim Walz? That’s weird, too. Doesn’t Trump spend a significant part of his day trying to think up a mean, playground brat name for Kamala Harris?

That’s all pretty weird. And since J.D. is now a spokesperson for all the weird Republican stuff, his whining about being called weird is nothing less than hypocrisy.

Tell you what, J.D.: we’ll stop calling you weird when you stop pretending to be a man of the common folk from Appalachia, you faux-billy. We’ll stop calling you weird when you stop demeaning American women who haven’t given birth to a child. We’ll back off that descriptor “weird” when you stop trying to make America into a 13th century patriarchy ruled by a cruel despot.

Because until then, you’re just a weird cow pie.

Cow Pie #3

Read this from Boston College Professor of History Heather Cox Richardson, reporting a Supreme Court decision on the topic of women’s suffrage:

In a unanimous decision in 1875, the justices decided that women were indeed citizens [by virtue of birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th amendment] but that citizenship did not necessarily convey the right to vote.

It would take another 45 years and a Constitutional amendment the Supreme Court couldn’t mess with to fix that.

That crazy pants decision is from the same body that recently decided that presidential immunity from prosecution for criminal acts – felonies – was a good idea. Apparently, they believe we don’t need accountability or equal justice under law.

What kind intelligence abdication, as well as Constitution defying brain pretzeling does it take to come up with such contorted lunacy? Did these guys sprain muscles and dislocate joints getting to their twisted idiocy? Our nation is severely damaged by their blatant faithlessness.

Cow Pie #4

Trump ridiculing disabled reporter using recreational cruelty sanctioned by his Ministry of Cruelty

You know all you need to know about far right cruelty, dispensed daily by Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter and, most cruelly, by Donald Trump, like when he ridiculed a disabled journalist. Last week they ridiculed Tim Walz’s son Gus because of his tears of pride and joy for his father. That 17-year-old with nonverbal learning disorder just isn’t a real man, according to these savagery dispensers.

I learned a new term for what these awful people do. It’s

recreational cruelty.
.

You’ve seen their joy in hurting others just for the fun of it. What is far worse is that they have a huge audience that cheers their bloodthirsty sadism. They are the drivers of the sick, cruel recreational cruelty. If they mob were to stop cheering, the perps would go down like waste in a sewer.

Final Fecal Heap

Trump visited the graves at Arlington National Cemetery of 13 service people (“suckers” and “losers”) who died in a Taliban bombing as we exited that country, done per the agreement Trump made with the Taliban. He was at Arlington to use those people as props to attack Biden and Harris, this in direct violation of the law and the rules of the cemetery. Read Steve Schmidt’s take on Trump’s reprehensible cow pie.

 

 

 

Quick Comments On the CNN Interview – No Cow Pie Award Given

All participants got what they wanted.

Harris and Walz didn’t answer many questions. They did a standard political two-step around the sticky ones and Dana Bash let them get away with that. That got them:

Reduced media and Republican heat for having done no interviews to that point.

They did no harm to their campaign.

Dana Bash and CNN got:

Ratings

Advertising revenue

We The People didn’t get much.

Are you registered to vote? Check it out here:
.

https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-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.


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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 mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.
    6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.

    Click me

    JA


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

20%


POST 1095

First, Existential Reality

In a stunning wake-up call to Americans, as reported by Jamie Gangel and Gregory Krieg of CNN, Constitutional scholar and retired U.S. Appellate Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, who has never, ever voted for a Democrat, wrote,

“In the presidential election of 2024 there is only one political party and one candidate for the presidency that can claim the mantle of defender and protector of America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law,” Luttig wrote in a statement [read this] obtained exclusively by CNN. “As a result, I will unhesitatingly vote for the Democratic Party’s candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.”

They go on to report Luttig writing,

“In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own, but I am indifferent in this election as to her policy views on any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be.”

Get your mind right. It’s time for just one thing: to protect and defend. That is what Luttig is telling us.

However heartfelt, until November 5, every single issue, no matter how critically important, is nothing more than wistful self-indulgence. Keep your eye on the prize, because without it, all of the critically important things will never be ours.

Read the linked source articles and watch reporter Gangel’s short video recounting a bit of her conversation with Luttig.

Now, 20%

Anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote,

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Thom Hartmann has quoted Mead often, claiming that it would take roughly 20% of the population to make the changes we need to get back to sanity, changes that have been so vitally needed since Reagan began to strip our country bare. That 20% notion was the logic and the strategy.

Hartmann’s math was about right, but sadly, the destination now is far different from what he imagined. A small minority of Bible thumping, Bible misusing, manipulative White extremists has secured minority control over large swaths of our American government and of our citizens.

That’s right: the restoration of sanity that we hoped for has instead gone 180° wrong. I guess the experts are right, that hope is not a strategy.

Critical Quote

From Vanderbilt University Professor Jon Meacham’s Reflections of History podcast for January 13, 2023:

The vote in the House on a single article of incitement to insurrection was 232 to 197. Trump would be acquitted in the Senate a month later, with 57 senators voting for his guilt and 43 against. The tally failed to reach the Constitutional threshold of two-thirds.

The farther we move in time from the terrible events of January 6, 2021 the harder it can be to recall just how close the United States came to overturning a free and fair election.

I raise this today because, as the 18th and 19th century trope had it, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” It would be a mistake, one that I fear many Republicans are making or are at risk of making, to see the insurrection and its aftermath as exculpatory instances of American resilience.

Yes, the republic is resilient and the republic did survive, but only barely. And the forces that brought us to the brink, the forces that broke into the Capitol and threatened the lives of our elected representatives, including the Speaker of the House and the Vice President of the United States, are still very much abroad in the land. [They are the 20%.]

Representative Liz Cheney put things succinctly 6 days after the insurrection. She said,

“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the president. The president could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There never has been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath of office and to the Constitution. I will vote to impeach the president.”

The question for all of us moving forward is whether a single person or a single party’s dominion is worth undoing the constitutional order that has served us for nearly two and a half centuries. There is nothing inevitable about American democracy. We’re the exception in world history, not the rule, and when the interests of the strong willed are allowed to overcome the rule of law, the end is near.

For now, we stand. But we must stand with our eyes and our hearts open.

There are very dangerous and unpatriotic things going on in an effort to overthrow our government, to end our democracy and our way of life. It has only taken about 20% of our citizenry to put us in such peril. It’s the collection of political bullies and the angry, disaffected citizens who comprise MAGA and who want retribution for whatever disrespect and suffering they believe has befallen them. They want to tear down all that we hold dear. The bullies and fascists are coming to take away the promise of America. They are coming to take away your freedom and every hope you have for your children.

So, put a lantern in the belfry-arch of the Old North Church. Listen and you’ll hear the hooves of Paul Revere’s horse clacking the cobblestone in Concord once again. We’re being warned. We must be eternally vigilant and always ready to fight for our liberty. Today, right now, is the time for that fight. Stand up and stand fast.

“We Must Say No”

From Steve Schmidt’s post on August 15:

Trump has made a hideous deal with a hypocritical wack pack of theocrats and weirdos who want to impose control and take what they want, when they want in the name of God and the state. It’s a terrifying proposition, and every American woman should appreciate the degree to which their freedom is on the line.

When the freedom of one American is threatened, the freedom of all Americans is in danger.

This is why Trump must be defeated.

He tried to take something that wasn’t his to take.

He tried to steal something that wasn’t his, but rather belonged to 330 million Americans.

Trump tried to steal our present by betraying our past and taking our future.

We must say, “NO!”

We need a new 20%. It starts with you and me.

_______________________________________________

* We are at a choice point:

“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” ― John F. Kennedy

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Are you registered to vote? Check it out here:
.

https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-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.


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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 mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings.
    2. There are lots of smart, well-informed people. Sometimes we agree; sometimes we don’t. Search for others’ views and decide for yourself.
    3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
    4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.
    5. Book links to Amazon are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.
    6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.

    Click me

    JA


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

People Are Saying


POST 1093

And They’re Saying A Lot

Here’s former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) on August 4 about the upcoming election, what’s at stake and what to do about it:

I believe in democracy; Donald Trump does not. I believe in the constitution; Donald Trump does not.

There is nothing more conservative than standing for the constitution and standing for democracy. Donald Trump only believes in gaining power no matter the cost to the constitution and the cost to  democracy.

That is why I’m endorsing Kamala Harris. That is why I will do everything in my power to ensure Donald Trump does not win this election.

Here’s what Prof. Heather Cox Richardson has to say about those who would throw our Constitution into the garbage (today’s Republicans – the ones who don’t believe in this republic), just as the enslavers and oligarchs wanted to do in Lincoln’s time:

When Democrats [i.e. today’s Republicans] tried to call those coming together as Republicans [today’s lefties] “radicals,” rising politician Abraham Lincoln turned the tables by standing firm on the Declaration of Independence. “[Y]ou say you are conservative—eminently conservative—while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort,” he said, addressing the Democrats who remained determined to base the United States in enslavement.

“What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by ‘our fathers who framed the Government under which we live’; while you with one accord .  .  . spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting something new . . . Not one of all your various plans can show a precedent or an advocate in the century within which our Government originated.” [emphasis mine]

We fight the same fight today against those who would enslave us. Now they aren’t slave owners and they aren’t called conservatives. They are called Republicans or MAGAs or Project 2025 schemers. Sometimes they’re called minority tyrants, vote stealers, liars and .  .  .  aw, don’t get me started.

During an interview of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer she was asked about how Trump is doing with Harris as his opponent:

I think Kamala Harris is [Trump’s] worst nightmare: a strong woman of color who was formerly in law enforcement.

What JD Vance Is Saying

Immediately after the Walz pick for VP was announced the Trump-Vance Lying Machine was running at top speed. Here’s Vance, verbatim, on August 7:

Click me

My view on it is it just highlights how radical Kamala Harris is.This is a person who listened to the Hamas wing of her own party in selecting a nominee. This is a guy who’s proposed shipping more manufacturing jobs to China, who wants to make the American people more reliant on garbage energy instead of good American energy and has proposed defunding the police just as Kamala Harris does. I think it’s interesting – actually, they make an interesting tag team – because, of course, Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and then the few who got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail. So, it is more instructive for what it says about Kamala Harris that she doesn’t care about the border, she doesn’t care about crime, she doesn’t care about American energy, and most of importantly, she doesn’t care about the Americans who have been made to suffer under those policies.

What Jax Is Saying
.

EVERYTHING VANCE SAID IS FALSE! ALL OF IT!

.

Right: That isn’t news. Either he is gobsmackingly ignorant and doesn’t have the sense to keep his ignorant mouth shut, or he is a liar. You decide.

Not so much for Vance

Vance (a “faux-billy” from non-Appalachia, per Maureen Dowd) is a political and amoral match for the psychopath Trump. Vance is the guy who called Trump America’s Hitler and was an enthusiastic never-Trumper right, until it was more politically advantageous to him to reverse himself in a spineless jellyfish whiplash. Expect more from him like this.

Can’t wait for the VP debate, assuming the ex-Marine paper pusher, the one whose lies violate Semper Fi (“Always Faithful”)  has the spine to show up.

Speaking of Debates
I have been wondering when Harris would call Trump a coward for refusing to debate per agreement without his open mic and his home boys primed to cheer for him. He’s finally agreed to a September 10 debate, the one he “committed” to, but I have my doubts whether he’ll show up. What to do to encourage him? So many possibilities .  .  .

“Kamala Harris’s Laugh Is a Campaign Issue. Our Comedy Critic Weighs in. The Trump campaign sees Harris’s laugh as a vulnerability to exploit. But far from a liability, it is one of her most effective weapons.” Click the pic

.
What’s the matter, Donald? Are you too chicken to come out of your Mar-a-Lago hidey-hole? It’s just me, a Black, Asian woman who’s a former prosecutor. That too scary for you?
.
If you don’t have what it takes to face me, you don’t have what it takes to face world leaders. C’mon, show us what you got. Gimme your best shot.
.

Paraphrased from Ronald Reagan’s take down of Walter Mondale in their 1984 debate:

I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s obvious mental decline, his criminal convictions, his many indictments, his history of violence toward women or his vast ignorance.

Can’t you just see her saying that and then laughing the Kamala laugh?

Wash, rinse, repeat through November 5.

The point is to belittle him – challenge his fake masculinity. Make his weakness and lack of courage plain for all to see. I want verbal blood on the floor – arterial gushing.

Trump is stumbling around trying to find a nasty name to call Harris. The current one is “Kambala.” So, here’s something for Harris and Walz to use at rallies and the debates:

Name calling? All you have is name calling like a brat on the playground, Donald? That just isn’t enough. This country needs clear headed adults, not childish bullies having temper tantrums.

Prebuttal

Harris and Walz are getting a lot of air time now and you’re seeing very little of Trump and Vance. I can almost hear Trump whining about how unfair that is, how he’s being victimized by the fake media, poor baby. These and more are his standard victim wailings, as at his press conference on August 8.

Did you notice how reporters’ questions weren’t mic-ed so you didn’t know what the questions were and that reporters were not allowed follow up questions? That let him ramble incoherently and you didn’t know that he never addressed the questions.

Many of his rallies were broadcast in full in 2016 by what he calls the “fake media.” I’ve seen estimates of the value of free media time for Trump ranging from $1 – 2 billion during that campaign. Funny thing, we didn’t hear him complain about how unfair that free air time was.

His whining, his temper tantrums and made up s**t about being victimized by the fake media are on the way. Brace yourself for the coming Trumpocalypse. It will be in all caps on his Untruth Social rage machine.

Trump Must Never Get His Hands On Any Power Greater Than The Flush Handle Of A Prison Toilet.
Are you registered to vote? Check it out here:
.

https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-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.


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

    Thanks!

    The Fine Print:

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

    Click me

    JA


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

Why JD Vance?


POST 1089

Trump Must Never Get His Hands On Any Power Greater Than The Flush Handle Of A Prison Toilet
.

Check the clock below. There are just 99 days until the November 5 election. There is so much work to do and your democracy and your love of freedom are calling out to your hands, your mind, your heart and your feet to get in the game. For direction on that, click here and review the action list in the Rhymes of the Week section. Today is a very good day for that. Think: Paul Revere’s Ride.

Lebanon and Middletown

Click me

We were in the southwest corner of Ohio in the town of Lebanon, where we joined local Democrats to watch and then agonize over the debate last month. The next day the sun was blindingly bright and the temperature and humidity were impressively high by noon, when Witt’s Frozen Custard opened. We got a couple of crazy delicious frozen custard cones and went to work on them, attempting to keep pace with the melting and dripping. It was messy and glorious.

Continuing on our trip brought us to Middletown, Ohio. It’s a charming Midwest town, a suburb of Cincinnati, a fact which now raises eyebrows. JD Vance is from Middletown. But he proclaims his connection to poor Appalachia, seemingly wanting us to believe he’s an everyman.

Except Middletown is across the state from anything that might even remotely be described as Appalachia. The nearest thing he can claim is that his grandparents came from there. He didn’t.

Who is this guy? Just how stupid does he think we are?

A Stunning Moment Of “Huh?“

JD Vance has done nothing during his 1.5 years in the Senate other than to fill a seat with his butt. He has no governing experience and has a terrible work record in nearly all the jobs into which billionaire Peter Thiel provided him a red carpet. His auto-biography sort of honors the poor Whites of his imagined Appalachian upbringing.* At the same time he demeans them and has advocated for ending every program that can help these people. His attitude seems to be, “I got mine. Too bad for you – you’re on your own.”

Click the pic for the Lincoln Project video. Thanks JN for the pointer.

He has expressed great criticism of and disaffection from Trump, having proclaimed himself a Never Trumper.** Click the pic to the left for clarity on that.

More recently he has prostrated himself before Trump and abandoned whatever integrity he had remaining. He is where he is only by virtue of massive support from billionaire elites and some demonic, self-aggrandizing scheme from Trump’s evil imagination.

He is against most things that the vast majority of Americans support. He argues for the end of our republic and says he would have done the great betrayal. It’s what Mike Pence refused to do: Disenfranchise all Americans and subvert the Constitution.

So much for integrity.

That’s a long way from the oath he swore when entering the Marines and the oath of office for Congress to which he swore, hand on Bible. The list of Vance’s disqualifiers is long and inglorious.

About that oath .  .  .

The Presidential, Vice Presidential, Congressional and military oaths are essentially the same.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

JD Vance swore to that oath twice and is not obeying it. Indeed, both Trump and Vance want to terminate our Constitution.

From Every Town for Gun Safety

Note that none of the above deals with Vance’s profound weirdness – like”childless cat ladies” – and this. This guy is Sarah Palin, only worse.

Hypocrisy? Cowardice? Moral bankruptcy? Dishonesty? You pick.

So, about that stunning moment of “Huh?” – Why did Trump pick Vance?

Rather than offering my own deciphering, Rachel Maddow’s is, unsurprisingly, far better, offering a clear explanation of why Trump picked shape-shifter Vance. As you listen, keep in mind that Trump is just two Big Macs away from a coronary. If he were to be elected, that would give us President Vance in short order. The purple majesty of the mountains quakes in fear.

Watch and listen to Rachel’s explanation. Then “Once more unto the breach, dear friends.” Our call to duty is clear.

Shock

From the New York Times:

A new book by Trump’s nephew says the former president suggested some disabled people “should just die.”

  • Did that shock you? After 8 years of Trump’s non-stop shaking of our national tectonic plates, I’m wondering if we are beyond the ability to be shocked. Whether we are or not, all that upheaval is reason enough to reject Trump and everything MAGA. It’s time to invite all MAGAs to un-clench their fists and to come back into the fold of caring, patriotic Americans. Perhaps we can be friendly neighbors again.
Just For Fun
.

Not sure, but I think it’s real.

_____________________________________________________

* I like Maureen Dowd’s term for Vance: faux-billy.

** Vance’s wife Usha says Trump appalls her – but now she’s on the team. I guess spinelessness runs in the family.

“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. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.
    6. Clicking on most pics in these posts will take you to the source information.

    Click me

    JA

 


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

Mom First – Then Ignorance And Lies


POST 1067

Mom

Today is the official day we celebrate mothers. I had one and it’s likely you did, too. So, today, in addition to all the “Happy Mothers Day” wishes, give Mom a special thanks for raising you to think critically and to have integrity. As we’ll see, those can be in short supply.

__________________________________________

Ignorance And Lies

We have an ongoing attack of political falsehoods that is biblical in scale. Like the trillions of locusts on their way to eat plants, terrorize small animals and you, these assaults on truth aim to eat away at our trust and make us afraid of one another.

You may recall that I have explained the causes of political falsity as being of no more than two possible origins:

  1. The person releasing such gas is ignorant. S/he does not know the truth, whether through willful witlessness, laziness or through some mental impairment. Such people are clueless, dangerous and without the sense to keep their mouths shut.
  2. The person spewing false statements is a liar. To qualify for this disappointingly not-so-rare distinction one must know the truth and speak contrary to it.

I recently saw Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) on CNN spewing a string of idiotic, untrue things that host Kaitlan Collins would not have. She challenged them as false and without merit. Vance did the Trump two-step, doubling down on his false statements. Was he ignorant of the facts and too stupid to shut up, or was he lying? Turns out it doesn’t matter.

The people of Ohio are poorly served by someone peddling such fabrications and all of us are worse off for having it fogged in our faces. Our trust in one another and of our nation gets damaged yet further by each such falsification.

But what did Vance expect to get from vapidly flapping his mouth? A “look at me!” moment? Stature in the Insane Caucus of the Republican Party? Hope that Trump would notice how similar Vance is to himself and think him worthy of being Trump’s VP pick? Good for Vance. What’s in it for us?

Which leads us to the companion question: Why do people believe such trash? What’s in it for ordinary Americans to abandon Mom’s teachings and to integrate political bovine excrement into their beliefs and even to bellow those fictions as though they’re verified truth? What makes them blather gibberish and dance in the ecstasy of self-righteousness, victimhood, anger and the delirium of hatred of others?

The answer is that it’s about feeling. Their abdication of their common sense and their absorption of lies makes them feel good and powerful. They feel seen and understood. They have a sense of belonging to the true and right tribe and are at last hitting back. Plus they’re sticking it to the elites whom they believe have blown them off all their lives. (See my post this Wednesday for more on this.)

That’s how people who claim they enthusiastically support our police rationalized viciously attacking, maiming and killing cops on January 6 and desecrating our Capitol Building.
.

For those happily led astray, the mean spirited lies carry no need for verification or even good sense. And by absorbing and believing the untrue, they make themselves ready to believe yet more lies and distortions, oblivious of the destruction they bring upon not just those they hate, but upon themselves as well.

From First Ignorancians:

7. Verily I say unto thee, thou art putty in the hands of the liars, condemned to the hell of cluelessness and the coming curses. Thy ignorance shall keep ye enslaved and ye shall live with the Scarlet Letter “I” upon thy breast.

There is nothing we can do to save those self-selecting to be enslaved. They will live in the dark oppressive land of Dunno for all their lives and may well pass along their chains of enslavement to their children.

The rest of us must move onward toward that more perfect Union, that shining city on the hill, that promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
.

And so we vote for those we hope and believe don’t worship ignorance and lies. We talk with others about reality, like that the Earth is round, not flat; that democracy is best; that minority cruelty and minority rule are awful; that legalized stealing of rights like healthcare and voting is un-American; that insurrection is traitorous and deserving of great punishment; that vigilantes are domestic terrorists and deserve great punishment; and that willful ignorance and lies are inexcusable.

From Second Ignorancians:

18. Tremble ye builders of mountains of mendacity, for the vote is well-nigh upon thee.

19. Followers of liars take notice while ye can. Leave thy willful and hateful ignorance and enter the land of truth, justice and the actual, verifiable, real American way. The truth shall set ye free from a life of Duh! and Huh?

26. Celebrate the faithful who believe in the Constitution and democracy and who have the clarity not to worship a sociopath and con artist. Abandon thy toxic gruel while ye still can, lest karma rise up and smite thee.

Because what goes around really does come around.

Instructional Music Selection

Listen to the words of Revolution 1 from the Beatles‘ White Album. John Lennon has something for us, all these years later.

“If you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out.”

“If you want money for people with minds that hate, all I can tell you is brother you’ll have to wait.”

“You tell me it’s the institution, well you know, you better free your mind instead.”

You’re Planning To Do What!?!

From Heather Cox Richardson’s post of May 9:

Former House speaker Paul Ryan told Yahoo Finance that he would write in another Republican rather than vote for Trump. “Character is too important to me,” he said.

If character is so important to Ryan, somebody please explain to Mr. Social Security Vouchers (that he claimed weren’t vouchers) that a vote for anybody but Biden is essentially a vote for Trump, especially in a close election. Third party votes are un-American and are evidence of poor character.

Today is a good day to be the light

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