war

The Rush To War And, Of Course, Money


POST 1266

This is an unusual day/time for letting you know about a new Disambiguation. It’s part of some good news, which is .  .  .

My web geeks tell me that they’ve fixed the spam inundation, which means that you can now enter your comments without getting the third degree from Captcha. So, speak!

The U.S. Stampede To War

A piece published in Dispatches from the Atlantic Council entitled Before striking Iran, Trump should answer these six questions explores what our bottomlessly ignorant President and State Department should have done before launching this illegal war. The questions are here, with my answers following them.

Questions and Answers

Q1: What is the objective of [this] military campaign?

First, foremost, middle and last, to distract from the Epstein case.

As to the military objective, nobody knows. It’s a vast cluelessness, callousness and official incompetence surrounded by tough guy posturing. See this sample of the White House videos.

Q2: What might Iran do in response?

There is no evidence that this was considered. But by now we know about their missile and drone strikes and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. You don’t suppose they might try some terrorist stuff, do you? Explosions? Cyber terrorism? Proxy uprisings?

Q3: Will Trump face any consequences this time around?

Oh, please, please, please.

Q4: [Wa]s there a feasible diplomatic off-ramp prior to conflict?

Yes, given that Iran posed no threat to the U.S. But Trump was too excited about looking like a tough guy flexing U.S. military muscle to bother with little impediments like diplomacy. Plus, there;s that wagging of the dog thing.

Q5: How will the Iranian people respond to a military campaign?

They will die and death will come from our bombs, missiles and drones.

Q6: What role will US regional partners play?

They will be targets for Iranian missiles and drones. They won’t lift a finger to help the war effort, nor will any U.S. ally.

We can add more questions, like:

Jax Q & A

Q7: What is the end game – the off ramp for ending this war?

There is none. Trump says bombing will stop “when I feel it, OK, feel it in my bones.” Yes, he said that.

Q8: Now that we’ve broken things, we own them, per the Pottery Barn rule as taught to us by Gen. Colin Powell. What are we prepared to do with the broken mess we’ve created?

Nothing. We will just turn our back to the suffering we’ve created. Think: Vietnam; Iraq; Libya; Syria; Afghanistan; Yemen; Somalia; Nigeria; Venezuela.

Q9: How will we repair relationships with the countries in the region that have suffered from Iranian bombardment, triggered by our display of our manly manliness?

Trump will tell them that nobody has ever seen anything like the rebuilding we’ll do. Then he will accept their bribes, which they will give, hoping for assistance. He will pocket the money and do nothing to help them.

Q10. How many dead American military is too many?

There is no number high enough to deter Trump from his Epstein distraction.

There is so much that should have been done way in advance of any hostilities at the direction of smart, wise experts in international affairs. But those people have been forced out of government service and replaced either by nobody, leaving us empty of expertise, or by know nothings and people who think war is a bar room video game.

Now the question is how we can get out of this mess. Trump will reject any solution that won’t leave him looking like a hero, the  likes of which nobody’s ever seen before, and keep us distracted from the Epstein criminal participants. Got any ideas?

Follow What?

After being forced out of office by the exposure of his criminality in the Watergate crimes, Nixon returned to his home in California and never admitted to any wrongdoing. Indeed, in an interview with David Frost in 1977 he defended himself, arrogantly declaring,”When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” That was an echo of the long dead divine right of kings and a precursor to the divine right of Trump, a vicious Supreme Court perversion of our Constitution.

The advice to Woodward and Bernstein for investigating Watergate was, “Follow the money.” We can do that now to understand Trump’s illegal war against Iran.

Who benefits monetarily? The easiest way to think about that is to consider who benefits from greatly increased oil prices.

The U.S. is energy independent. The Straight of Hormuz may be blocked and 20% of the world’s oil supply may be choked off, but that doesn’t affect supplies here. The cost to produce a gallon of gas or diesel fuel has not increased a bit, but still the prices at the pump continue to rise.

You’re the loser because you are funding the expanding profits of oil companies. Watch those quarterly reports for confirmation. Trump’s billionaire friends thank you.

Who else benefits from this war? Certainly, the manufacturers of war matériel receive enormous contracts to replace our fabulously expensive drones, missiles, rockets, bullets, that refueling airplane that crashed and killed 6 of our people and yet more. Betcha those billionaire friends of Trump are sending him messages with hugs and kisses emojis.

How about Saudi Arabia? They hate the Iranians. They’re in a centuries old battle of Sunni/Shia, each side certain that Allah is on their side and the other side is a horde of horribles, which may actually be true in both directions. Betcha the Saudis are content to have Trump do the dirty work of pounding Iran. They just might be paying Trump handsomely for him to be their bounty hunter. Watch for more billions to be given to Jared Kushner.

Russia has gained a windfall of over $6 billion due to Trump releasing Russia from oil sanctions. How come Putin gains huge whenever Trump acts?

You get the idea. This war was a money con long before a shot was fired. We’ve been given bottomlessly stupid explanations for the reason for our attack, including that Trump “had a feeling” that the Iranians might possibly do something or other. We’ve been given a long string of implausible goals for this war with no consistency coming from the idio-scenti.*

Pay no attention to our over 200 mangled troops dumped into VA hospitals or the now 13 flag draped coffins that have arrived at Dover AFB. Hey, our President told us with a yawn that people die in war, you know?

And he calls them suckers and losers.

Ultimately, it’s simple: follow the money. But DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT be distracted from the Epstein case and Trump’s involvement.

I’m Not So Sure

Likely, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen, was unglued because he had lost four family members to an Israeli bombing in Lebanon last week. So, he did what any of us would do. He strapped on his rifle, mounted his explosives filled vehicle and rammed it into a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan.

In the aftermath of each of our unceasing episodes of religious and racial violence we regularly hear calls to our “shared humanity.” I’m not so sure that we have a shared humanity, except in a genetics sense. When someone is moved to violence against others, is that person’s humanity displaced or perhaps destroyed by uncontrollable rage? Did the killer of eleven at Tree Of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh share our humanity? It looked to me more like he was sharing his rage and his full magazines of bullets. Same at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston where nine were murdered. Same when ten were murdered at the Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo. Do we have a shared humanity with those murderers? I’m not feeling it.

Right now I’m not much in the mood to understand those who want to get their way by means of murder. There just isn’t much detectable humanity in them.

Come to think of it, that’s a lot like Trump jamming our military into where it doesn’t belong, getting his way by means of murder.

Spare me the calls to shared humanity.

Make Your Voice Heard

Click here to find a No Kings rally near you. Then show up on March 28.

The cure for hopelessness is action.

_________________________________________

* Cognoscenti – “people who are considered to be especially well informed about a particular subject.” My made-up idio-scenti is the opposite of that and is well displayed in this government.

  • Time for action is dwindling

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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.
    4. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.
    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 comments I deem inappropriate.
    7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

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    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

War, Consequences and Fantasy


POST 1265

What Will Iran Do?

If you had been in charge in Iran for the past 14 months and had heard Trump’s bluster and saber rattling about attacking your country, what preparations would you make? Surely, you’d be thinking about defense for your country and your people. What else?

The Iranians are a proud people. Having now been attacked without provocation, it’s reasonable to assume that they might want something Trump understands: retribution. There’s no way Iran will be satisfied just to have been a punching bag for the West’s military adventure. They can’t beat the U.S. and Israel militarily, so they would look for some asymmetrical way to hit back. One thing they do well is to sow terror. Indeed, it’s what they do best.

They have already attacked our military installations in the region, killing 7 of our people and injuring over 130. They’ve sent missiles and drones into Israel and clogged the Strait of Hormuz. They can only continue their attacks until their weapons supply is exhausted. Then they will do something else.

One thing they could do is to plant explosives, maybe even dirty bombs, around the U.S. and near U.S. embassies. They could place them in schools, hospitals and in government buildings. They could attack our infrastructure and our cities, with these explosives to be detonated as they desire. They could murder a lot of Americans and hobble our nation.

Their attacks would serve more than their hunger for retribution. Terrorist attacks could be a powerful trigger to permanently empower American authoritarians, our home grown fascists, to declare martial law, to destroy our democracy and to end our civil rights. They could destroy our way of life. They will believe that destroying “the great Satan” is a great and religious victory, a tribute to Allah.

What kind of corner do you think we’re painting ourselves into with this illegal, punitive and pointless war? Put your notions in the Comments section below.

If you want to stretch your brain further, consider what Vladimir Putin  and President Xi may do, as Trump systematically shifts global advantage to Russia and China. Trump is tolerating Putin’s providing Iran sophisticated targeting of American assets in the Middle East to blow up our hardware and to kill our people. Trump has also shifted much of our Pacific military might away from Taiwan, opening the door to Xi to walk through. What a fine time this is to be America’s adversary, thanks to Donald Trump.

To be fair, Trump’s deadly Iran folly is a brilliant move for Trump himself. He’s taking our eyes away from ICE cruelty and murder and from the Epstein affair and Trump’s part in it. It’s what con men do. Damage to our nation and the crushing of justice and the death of Americans? Big Trump yawn. He’d rather talk about his gold drapes and his “You’ve never seen anything like this” useless ballroom.

Ever and always, it’s all about Trump. He has no room in his narcissism for the welfare of the American people or the Iranian people or our servicemen and women. And as his dementia and other maladies progress, expect worse, especially because our Gallery of Cowardice Republicans are invertebrates. They whisper in private about how bad Trump is and then vote for whatever he wants in perfectly choreographed goose step. That will ensure many casualties, both in Iran and in America.

Selling The War With Brainless Hoo-Ah

Top officials in our government seem to think that war is nothing more than a video game. They thump chests while mixing extremely dangerous actions with toxic and murderous masculinity, as though war is just fantasy that doesn’t count in the real world. Hey, it doesn’t hurt Trump or his department heads, so why shouldn’t we war whoop?

Watch this official White House video promoting the awesomeness, the “Meanest S.O.B. in the valley of the shadow of death,” the absolute power of American might and our endless toxic testosterone.** And watch this video linked from Sunday’s post. In it Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, Destruction and Primal Screaming, shows how way cool war looks by mixing video from the actual bombing of Iran with video game footage. It’s not clear if one of the actual bomb explosions in Tehran shown in his video was the one that killed 175 little school girls. No problem, because Pete just doesn’t care about them or the over 1,200 Iranians already killed. It isn’t at all clear that Hegseth even cares about our 7 wear dead, either.

Keep in mind that those brain-free video dispatches aren’t from some cretinous, online troller. They are our official government cretinous dispatches.

They think they’re selling the war to the American people so that we’ll be silent as they create more death and destruction. They think that chest thumping is enough and that we won’t notice that they have no objectives, there is no strategy, there is no exit plan, there isn’t a definition of what comes next and there is not even a vague notion of what victory would look like. Trump says he demands “unconditional surrender,” perhaps to send a mothballed battleship to the port of Bandar Abbas to have surrender documents signed there. Idiocy.

Trump has invented a war so that he could be a war president, with all of us rallying ’round the flag and him. But a majority of Americans disapprove of this war and 74% oppose sending ground troops into Iran.

One thing is clear: sending U.S. ground troops into Iran will be a disastrous, murderous blunder. That, though, won’t stop President Bone Spurs. We’ll need the Congress to stop him. How’s that going to happen?

This Trump administration is the cabal that has:

– imperiled our economy

– raised the cost of living for everyone

– has not just killed job growth but has cost over 100,000 manufacturing jobs

– brutalized, imprisoned, tortured and killed innocent American citizens, legal residents and immigrants who have done no wrong

And now it has started a war that immediately spread to be a regional war with no solution even at the horizon. What are we going to do about it.

Click here to find a No Kings rally near you. Then show up on March 28. Add the event to your calendar._______________________________________________

* It’s great political theater to brag that we have the greatest military in the world, but how sure are we that China isn’t the biggest, baddest gorilla? How sure are you or any of us that we really are the greatest military?

  • Time for action is dwindling

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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.
    4. Book links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble are provided for reference only. Please purchase your books through your local mom & pop bookstore. Keep them and your town or neighborhood vibrant.
    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 comments I deem inappropriate.
    7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine. Unless it’s a guest essay, in which case, blame the guest.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Little Friday Comment


POST 1187

As of this writing President Trump has said that he will make up his TACO mind about whether to go to war against Iran within the next two weeks.* Why he would make such a strategic announcement to our adversaries like a circus barker saying “You ain’t seen nuthin yet?” This comes from somewhere beyond sanity or national security.

This is not a commentary about what Trump’s decision should be. Rather, it’s about his decision making methodology and the limitations of this president of greatly limited capability.

Our news folk are telling us that he is conferring with:

The civilian leader of our national defense. I find no comfort in hearing that he is giving serious consideration to what SecDef Pete Hegseth has to say. He’s the guy who had to overtly declare that he’d stop his drunken ways if he were confirmed for the post he now holds and we don’t know if he’s honored his pledge. He’s the same fool responsible for failing to protect what should have been top secret plans to bomb the Houthis in order to protect our shipping through the Gulf of Hormuz. He instead sent his plans over an unsecured service with at least one participant on the string having no security clearance at all. Are we supposed to trust his advice to the President regarding our military services and security in war?

Our military defense people. Trump dumped all the top people – the generals – who he knew were primarily loyal to the Constitution. He replaced them with people primarily loyal to Trump. Who cares about some pesky solemn oath, anyway?

Can we be confident these replacements will refuse to obey an illegal order?

Our intelligence people. Lots of agencies there, but they all funnel to the Director of National Intelligence, who right now is Tulsi Gabbard. That’s “Putin Talker” Gabbard. That’s “no experience in intelligence work” Gabbard or even at keeping a secret. Not hard to imagine that she might give advice to the President based upon what Vladimir Putin wants us to do, rather than what is in the best interests of our country. Worse, it’s not hard to imagine Trump preferring to hear about Putin’s preferences.

Our Secretary of State. Marco Rubio is a smooth talking, pleasant looking pol who has shown us repeatedly that he is not much more than a political weather vane. He will say and do only what Trump wants him to say and do, leaving decisions and policy without a check or expanded options.

Then there is Trump’s learning disability and gnat-like attention span. This president doesn’t read. They’ve had to put the President’s Daily Brief  (“PDB”) into comic book format. They’ve tried creating videos for this reality show freak of a man to advise him of international threats.

He can’t stay with any train of thought for more than a few minutes. That isn’t sufficient when the topic is anything more complex than how many Big Macs this infant tyrant wants for dinner, much less for the brutal and perilous questions of war.

Fortunately, the power to declare war rests solely with the Congress, not the president. Unfortunately, we have no assurance that the Congress will put on its big boy and big girl pants and stop this president from acting from his dementia addled brain to get a lot of people killed with no thought to the day after.

Our last two forays into war lasted 20 years, got over 7,000 American troops killed, hundreds of thousands of locals killed, millions displaced and upheaval in the region that continues even today. All that was started by a similarly un-serious, incompetent president who listened to the wrong people and whose primary concerns were his popularity and his legacy. He lied us into wars against two nations that had done us no harm and were not a threat to us.

Trump craves grossly narcissistic things, including money, power and adulation. He gets none of those from Benjamin Netanyahu, leaving the possibility of a chip on Trump’s shoulder that may influence his decision about war against Iran. But it shouldn’t.

Now, in this appallingly dangerous world, un-serious incompetence is more lethal than ever and we are once again saddled with it.

__________________________________________

* That “two weeks” business is nothing but a stall to make Trump seem in control, seem assertive and to give him time to do a dozen other outrageous things to distract you so that you stop thinking about whatever he was supposed to make happen in two weeks. Think: Infrastructure Week.

Stop listening to talking heads who grind on about what will happen in two weeks. That grind isn’t worth your time or attention.

Countdown to November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election
Countdown Timer
Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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 this 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 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. 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 length, readability, punctuation, typos and voluntary idiocy and to exclude those I deem inappropriate.
  7. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Dream Sequence v2.0 – For All Mothers


POST 1176

First The Big Bad News

Yes, the Army has reported that there will be parade of explosive masculine military hardware and personnel to help Trump deal with his small genital low self-esteem. But that’s not the big, bad thing I’m focusing on in this dense forest of big, bad things.

I heard yet another person, hateful of Trump, proclaim that they don’t want Trump to have any wins, so he hopes that our economy crashes. We all get the no wins intention, but wishing disaster for our country is quite a different thing. The point is that Trump and his army of treasonous, poison biting extremists have wound our national spring so tight that patriotic Americans are actually cheering for our downfall.

It’s easy to succumb to extreme emotion, but this is a time to keep our wits about us. Cheer for Trump’s downfall, not that of our country.

The Dream

At 8:00AM on March 16, 2022 I watched the broadcast of President Zelenskyy addressing the U.S. Congress, the American people and the world. His words were brilliant and compelling. His message was clear and unmistakable. And the fierce resolve of his people, even in those dark days, was reflected in his bearing, plain for all to see.

Four days later I awoke from a dream sequence and posted it here. That dream hasn’t come true and in the intervening years many lies have been told, many people have died and now great manipulation is afoot. It’s time to update the dream.

________________________________________________

The regular army of Ukraine plus many thousands of volunteer citizen soldiers have inflicted enormous damage to President Vladimir Putin’s vaunted military forces. Many thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed and at least twice as many have been wounded and sent home. Many of their tanks, troop carriers, aircraft and artillery pieces have been destroyed and the Russian army is, at times, in retreat, its myth of superior military might destroyed.

The North Koreans and Chinese have dumped thousands of their soldiers into this meat grinder of men. Iran has given Putin missiles with which to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure and to kill women and children as they sleep.

President Zelenskyy is taking to the airwaves to address President Putin and President Trump. The whole world is watching, holding its breath. First he speaks fluently in Russian from his office, with only the Ukrainian flag behind him. He is wearing an olive green tee shirt, a month of dark beard and his eyes are bloodshot, yet rock steady into the camera.

President Putin, it is time for us to end this war.

Clearly, you began it with the expectation that your military would roll over my country in just a few days; that you could eliminate our parliament and me and install a puppet regime that would be your servant; that the world would stand by and watch as you once again invade a sovereign nation and commit unspeakable crimes against humanity, including kidnapping thousands of our children. Only the kidnapping happened. Yours is a weak, blustering imitation of what the Soviet Union once was and you know that by now. We will not allow you to replicate it by destroying our country.

You did not count on the pride, the resolve and the unyielding patriotism of the Ukrainian people. You did not expect our fierce insistence upon our sovereignty, our democracy and our freedom. And you did not understand that the fire of freedom that burns in the hearts of people everywhere would cause them to reach out to support the Ukrainian people and punish Russia. Perhaps by now, after over 3 years of death and frustration, you are beginning to see the truth.

We will not bend. We will not be beaten. We will prevail. So, I am now giving you one chance to end this with some of your military still intact. If you refuse this offer we will continue to destroy your armies.

Here are my non-negotiable terms:

1. All Russian military personnel, army, navy, air forces and missile command, will immediately cease fire.

2. All Russian military personnel will immediately withdraw from all Ukrainian lands that were sovereign to Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion of Crimea on February 20, 2014, as well as all Ukrainian waters.

3. You will not interfere with any Ukrainians repatriating to our country.

4. You will return to Ukraine all Ukrainians whom you kidnapped or took as prisoners.

5. You will immediately pay for your indiscriminate bombardment of our civilians, our cities, our infrastructure and our lands the sum of $2 trillion dollars in U.S. funds as reparations for the destruction you have caused my people and my country. It grieves us that we cannot get reparations from you that could bring back our soldiers, our grand parents and our little children you have killed.

The entire world wants you to accept these terms, Mr. Putin, including over 140 million Russian people. They don’t want this horrible war any more than any freedom loving people would. That’s why you must stop the killing and suffering and end the morbid spectacle of thousands of body bags containing dead Russian boys being sent back to Russia and the awful sound of their wailing, grieving mothers.

This offer will expire in three days. Take it. Save what you can from this misbegotten adventure and Europe will once again be at peace.

The world awaits your reply.

President Zelinskyy turns to a second camera and continues in accented but clear English.

President Trump, you have sought to create a peace, but have done so by arm twisting the Ukrainian people to falsely accept responsibility for starting this awful war. You have insisted that we Ukrainians must accept defeat and give much of our beloved Ukraine to President Putin. You have curtailed U.S. shipments of munitions that would have supported our men and women of the Ukrainian army and you have shut down our access to satellite imagery. We understand that this is your standard negotiating technique – to do grave damage and then “negotiate” relief. Your cruelty, however, will not work against us.

You seek to force us to give up our mineral wealth, claiming it as repayment for past U.S. support of Ukraine. That support was given freely and with no stated or unstated demands or expectations of payment.

The United States did not seek such payments from Germany following WW I, nor from the United Kingdom, Germany or Japan following WW II, nor from South Korea following its war for freedom. The U.S. has never sought to exploit another country in such a way, be they ally or adversary. Yet now you try to do so like a thief holding hostages. Very well. The world can see what you are doing both to my people and to the esteem of the United States.

I have recently signed an agreement with your country, although I did so with much regret. Its terms give the U.S. preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals and natural resources licenses. In return, under this agreement the U.S. will provide financial and military assistance to Ukraine to help my country rebuild after the war. One can only wonder what assistance will be forthcoming, given your mercurial nature and no specificity about your assistance, as my citizens are left in the squalor created by Mr. Putin. President Trump, what will you do for my people then?

________________________________________________

Since the original dream, little has changed except the body count and the end of U.S. military support for Ukraine.

America and the rest of the free world have given much and European nations continue to give to Ukraine to help them to succeed, even as the U.S. retreats into self-inflicted embarrassment. Perhaps one day President Zelenskyy will be able to deliver my dream speech so that Ukrainian and Russian mothers will no longer have this awful reason to grieve.

Be sure to read the post from Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko provided by Meidas+. Scroll just past the picture for insight into today’s Ukraine.

And Finally,

Da Pope, from The Onion, of course

Countdown Timer
To The November 3, 2026
Mid-Term Election

Goes fast, doesn’t it?

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 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. 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.

Click me

JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Dream Sequence 2


POST 1158

NEW!

I’m over at BLUESKY now, with Maddow, O’Donnell and other smart folks. Find me at:

@jaxpolitix.bsky.social
Executive Summary

→ What happened to Zelens’kyi in the Oval Office and what should have happened next

→ Yet more hatred in the Oval Office – again

→ Still looking for who will lead us back to the United States of America

This Happened

President Trump, Vice-President Vance and Brian Green, a right wing conspiracy journalist with no legitimate reason for being there, all publicly delivered their incoherent, demeaning rants in the Oval Office aimed at humiliating President Volodymyr Zelens’kyi of Ukraine. Instead, they humiliated the United States of America before the world. Then our national leaders expelled the leader of an allied nation from the White House.

Dream Sequence: This Should Have Happened

President Zelens’kyi stood and took a step toward toward the door of the Oval Office to leave, then stopped abruptly. He paused in place for a moment with a look of sudden clarity on his face. Then he turned to Trump and Vance.

“Mr. President and Mr. Vice-President, I just thought of something that had not come to me before this moment. My country is at war and I really have not had time for such notions.

“My people have suffered grievously from illegal and cruel Russian aggression. Many thousands of my countrymen, women and children have been killed and our buildings and our energy infrastructure lie in ruin. Many thousands of our soldiers have suffered and died fighting the invaders. That we have achieved some success on the battlefield is in part due to the munitions and field intelligence the United States has generously supplied, which is why I have thanked the American people many, many times, including during a major address to your Congress. We all know this to be true.

“We all also know that Mr. Putin has openly made his goals clear. He wants to reconstitute the Soviet Union. He has publicly declared that after he has destroyed and annexed my country that the Baltic States will be next to be invaded; then Poland. We can reasonably assume that stealing all the rest of what had been Soviet Union territory will come next and that all of Europe will be at risk. Democracy itself will be endangered everywhere. All that stands in his way are the people of Ukraine.

“We Ukrainians are doing the fighting and dying to stop Putin from decimating western culture, from killing tens of thousands of Europeans and from damaging, isolating and neutering the United States. Now you, Mr. President, have announced a “pause” in armament shipments to us and cut us off from intelligence reports and satellite utilities. That has emboldened Mr. Putin, to the enormous disadvantage and harm to we Ukrainians. Indeed, your actions threaten to hasten a terrible future risk for all of western culture and safety.

“It is our children who have been orphaned and killed and kidnapped, not yours, and it is we who have been doing the fighting, the bleeding and the dying, not your soldiers.

“What has come to me just now, Mr. President and Mr. Vice-President, is that it is you who should be thanking the Ukrainian people for fighting the righteous fight so that you do not have to send your sons and daughters into harms way to stop this international terrorist. But you have never uttered a word of gratitude for our suffering and sacrifice.

Not once have you thanked us for keeping your people safe, for all that we have done and continue to do for you and for freedom everywhere. We protect your people, your way of life and we protect the world for the blessing of democracy. You have never uttered a word of thanks to we Ukrainians. Not ever.

“That is what I have just realized, Mr. President. Now all the world knows.”

With that, Volodymyr Zelens’kyi turned his back to Trump and Vance and walked out of the Oval Office, raising a fist above his head and declaring in his strong, but war strained voice, “Slava Ukraini!”

Shame

I posted a Ukraine dream sequence almost exactly 3 years ago. It was about creating peace. Sadly, none of what I dreamed has come about and now our government has stopped support for that embattled nation. Trump, the Russian “useful idiot,” is quite deliberately handing Ukraine to Putin.

It appears that our elected leadership has officially and quite dangerously abandoned our values, our principles and the safety of the world for the sole purpose of serving one man’s vanity.

Still, there are places in America where there is still the capacity to feel national shame caused by officials without honor. There are fellow citizens who have the juice to deliver the condemnation that those doing shameful things deserve. Go join those voices at the next demonstration against TrumpMusk and your cowardly Republican congresspeople.

Hatred Report of the Week

Read what Prof. Timothy Snyder has to say about our elected leaders spewing hatred and scapegoating “others” in his post, Antisemitism in the Oval Office – even if you aren’t Jewish. Snyder doesn’t say as much in his essay, but immigrants, whether legal or not, criminals or not, U.S. citizens or not, continue to be vilified and scapegoated by Trump and by others infected with the poison of hatred. He did the same thing against Muslims during his first administration. Are you seeing a pattern yet?

We don’t know who will be next. But we do know that someone will be next.

Leadership Update

I keep receiving emails from Hakeem Jeffries. Other than listing a couple of Trump horribles to tweak me into sending cash (8 pings in 11 days), he offers nothing. I keep his emails in a folder labeled “Stupid Democrat Solicitations.”

Jeffries’ public speaking is a tour de force of uninspiring recitation of talking points read by a policy wonk. Nobody will be energized for the fight by listening to him. In short, he isn’t the guy we need to lead the charge.

Schumer is worse. Sometime, long ago, he accidentally entered a hospital OR where his passion was surgically removed.

I ask yet again:

Who will lead?

Flash Update

The verified total of Trump’s lies during his first term is 30,572. That means he lied to us every 52 minutes, ’round the clock for four years!

Let’s just say that the newly inaugurated president isn’t going to sit on his laurels during his second term. He’s well on his way to another four years of five-figure fibbing. – The Cap Times, January 27, 2025

What puzzles me is how that’s okay with Trump voters.

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.

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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.
  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 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

An Outrageous Proposal for October 7


POST 1108

Most of us know that an Israeli cease fire won’t get the hostages back, won’t curtail Hamas’ terrorism, won’t stop Hezbollah from firing rockets into northern Israel, won’t stop the Houthis from firing ballistic missiles into Israel from Yemen, won’t stop Iran from firing drones and ballistic missiles at Israeli cities and won’t stop Iran from funding all of these terrorists. There will be no cease fire trade for hostages because giving up the hostages will eliminate Hamas’ bargaining chips. These things are real world truths, in contrast to the beliefs of well meaning but simple minded college students, especially those who have turned their empathy into hatred.

Israel had to take action both to recover hostages – they retrieved over half of them – and they had to defend against Hamas and cripple it in order to prevent yet more terrorism. That was made far more complicated by Hamas.

It is a fact that Hamas positions its terrorists and its weapons among the civilian Palestinian population in Gaza – in hospitals, schools and apartment buildings. That ensured that Israeli retaliation and military pressure against Hamas would injure and kill massive numbers of otherwise innocent Palestinians. For those needing to point a finger of blame for thousands of Palestinian casualties, point your finger at Hamas. They wanted and got massive world sympathy through their cruel manipulations that caused the deaths of those Palestinian mothers and children.

More bombs, missiles and drones will not get anyone peace or land. More murders of hostages will only trigger continuing cycles of retribution. “From the river to the sea” is a fantasy that serves only to inflame passions and cause more death.

The war has widened, there are no indications of anything likely to get better any time soon and the world is poised in anticipation of an all out regional war if all parties continue to behave as they have. Clearly, if things are to improve, something must change. Here is my outrageous proposal.

I propose – no, I invite, plead, beseech – Prime Minister Netanyahu to go on the world stage and invite Iran and representatives of the Palestinians into negotiations to make a permanent peace. Perhaps the Egyptians, Qataris and Jordanians can facilitate such a process.

Netanyahu must offer Israeli support for creating a sovereign Palestinian state and be willing to remove and relocate Israeli settlers from the West Bank. He must be willing to share Jerusalem. In short, he must come to these talks prepared to give up a great deal in exchange for getting everything Israelis have hoped for since 1948.

We have seen that fierce warriors on all sides are a hindrance, not a help. It is time for fierce statesmanship and a new kind of courage, the courage to not fight. Perhaps things are so awful now and so threatening to everyone that we can move past the chest thumping, intransigence, self-righteousness, the threatening and the contest to win the biggest victim award and at last bring peace to all.

Yes, that’s outrageous. If you have a better idea, I’d love to hear it. So would all the mothers and children in the Middle East.

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.

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    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

What Will You Do?


  • Post 1,014
  • PLEASE read the comments that follow this post.
  • __________________________________

Millions of years and millions of generations have made mammals and humans in particular protective of our young. It is a species preservation imperative and our instinct to preserve and protect has magnified into a tenderness, a softness of heart and an arms-enfolding vigilance for children.

That is why my heart breaks for 4-year-old Abigail Edan, who was held captive by Hamas terrorists. She’s alive only because her father shielded her from Hamas bullets with his body, this following her mother having been gunned down.

And my heart breaks, too, for the Palestinian children who are suffering, orphaned and terrorized. Would that I had a name and picture to make this more personal, but you’ve seen the pictures and videos so you know as well as I of the enormous trauma to these little kids.

To be clear, my heart breaks for all the innocents, whether dead or suffering, whether they are children, adults or old people. It’s just that little kids like Abigail Edan grab at my heart by the fistful due largely, I suppose, to that protection imperative.

In this momentary truce while innocent hostages who were held by Hamas are being exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, people of many nations are beseeching Israel to be cautious, to protect civilian Palestinian life. Everyone – including Israel – agrees that’s the right thing to do, but there’s just one answer needed in order for Israel to comply:

How can Israel ensure that Hamas is made thoroughly unable to attack Israelis when the terrorists still hold their arsenals, stand ready to unleash death on Israelis and they have promised to do so “again and again“?

Hamas is dedicated to only two things: Wiping Israel off the map and killing all Jews. They’ve armed themselves to do just that and they don’t care who else suffers or dies in the process. Recall Maya Angelou’s words:

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

So, believe Hamas: They are murderers.

Given the homicidal reality of Hamas, its butchery, its ISIS-copying barbarianism, Israel must protect its citizens. Doing that requires eliminating Hamas’ ability to attack Israel and Israelis. But Hamas is hiding behind cute 4-year-olds who are just as precious and just as heart grabbing as Abigail Edan.

With the constant of worldwide condemnation of Israel, I’ve asked this question in various ways and haven’t heard any workable answer:

If you were making the decisions for Israel, what would you do?
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In an effort to protect Palestinian civilians, Israel has announced when and where it would attack so that civilians could get out of the way. It did so via tens of thousands of leaflets dropped on Gaza and by tens of thousands of cell phone warnings. It has directed Palestinians to go south because attacks would commence in the north. It has done everything short of taking Palestinians by the hand and leading them out of harms way.

At the same time, Hamas has blocked civilians from leaving the northern part of Gaza. Hamas has kept them where they know Israeli munitions will strike because they’re directed at Hamas weapons caches which Hamas embeds with civilians. Arguably, Hamas is the murderer of those thousands of innocents, including those cute 4-year-old Palestinian kids.

Setting aside the insanely one-sided and ignorant international rage-fests against Israel, I’m wondering where the demonstrations are against Hamas for causing the deaths of Palestinians. Hamas is getting them killed as surely as if they themselves were shooting Palestinian children.

If you want to rail against the cruelty happening to Gaza Palestinians, and even if you don’t care about the cruelty still being done to Israelis by Hamas rockets, at least dump the responsibility for the main part of the human carnage in Gaza where it belongs: On Hamas.

Everyone agrees that the fighting and the misery it causes are awful, so what should Israel do now? Should it stop rooting out the torturers, the rapists, the murderers and their weapons caches? Should it hold peace talks with people who not only don’t want peace, but who live only for killing Israelis? Come on, help a little. Tell us your workable solution.

For those who still want to go rabid over the actions of Israel, first be informed. Go there. Live in the terror of that constant siege, waiting for the rockets and the machine guns to be pointed at you and your 4-year-old daughter, knowing that the terrorists intend to gang rape your 12-year-old daughter and that they may burn you and your spouse alive in your own house. We know that those are their intentions because it is what they have already done. Stay in that terror for a year or two and then let’s see if you still think Israel should stop attacking Hamas.

And remember: Your 4-year-old daughter is counting on you to protect her with your arms-enfolding vigilance. What exactly should Israel be doing now? What will you do?

Today is a good day to be the light

_____________________________

  • 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 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.

    Click me

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

I’m So Old


I’m so old that I remember when passing the debt ceiling was just a box that Congress checked each year to ensure the full faith and credit of the United States. There was no conflating future spending with payment for past spending. There was no threatening of our economy. We just paid our bills.

I remember when abandoning world leadership, as well as abandoning our allies, was unthinkable, when Republicans insisted on muscular foreign policy and would never advocate for Russia or China.

And I remember when foreign autocrats, dictators and bullies were scorned and it wouldn’t even occur to a red, white and blue American to praise or emulate them, much less invite these thugs to deliver a keynote address.

I’m so old that I remember when promoting child labor or child marriage or defending statutory rape were unthinkable.

I distinctly recall a time when one country invading another nation’s territory, threatening its sovereignty and committing war crimes were universally abhorred, especially by Republicans, who would never condone, much less praise such actions.

I remember clearly when lying about voting fraud and election results were bad things and when actively promoting such lies was seen as treachery.

I remember a time when making death threats against fellow citizens was unacceptable.

I’m so old that I remember when there were profiles in courage to write about in books. And books were good things that only evil despots banned and burned.

I’m so old that I remember a time when having more rights was a good thing and something to defend and protect.

I remember when Supreme Court justices were held in the highest esteem by the entire country, this because they earned that esteem.

I’m so old that I remember when a president of the United States would never deny the reality of a deadly pandemic for months, then prescribe treatments that had absolutely no efficacy and some which would kill patients immediately. No president would accuse and ridicule our dedicated public health experts or reduce testing in order to make his numbers look better, all leading to over a million dead Americans.

There was even a time when a politician accused of crimes and about to be indicted for several more couldn’t possibly collect endorsements for his candidacy for the next election for president. And the notion of running for the presidency from a prison cell would have been universally considered absurd.

I distinctly recall when a mass shooting was murder, as were shooting someone who rang the wrong doorbell or who got into the wrong car or who pulled into the wrong driveway. It wouldn’t have occurred to anyone then that such shootings were someone exercising Second Amendment rights or that “stand your ground” meant that it’s okay to just blast away. Back then private citizens possessing weapons of war was unthinkable.

I remember when both major political parties had clearly stated policies and program ideas to implement those policies and they negotiated to find a way forward. It was all based on agreed upon facts and observable reality. How quaint.

I remember when the American people weren’t so disgusted with politics that 41% refused to declare a party affiliation.

Click me for the story

I’m so old that I remember when committing business records fraud, making illegal campaign contributions, stealing government records, some highly classified, leaking top secret documents to adversaries, committing rape, defamation and numerous episodes of adultery, inciting a mob to riot against our nation in an act of sedition, soliciting vote count fraud and committing tax fraud were universally believed to be illegal and worthy of prosecution. Except for adultery, which is a civil violation.

I must be really old.

Quote of the Week
  • “Clarence Thomas has got to fall back. He is the definition of a cuck, which, if you don’t know, is someone who lets another guy pay for his mom’s house.
  • “Or, I know a lot of people are, like, isn’t a cuck a guy who watches his wife screw America? Either way, he’s gotta go.
  • “And I don’t think there will be justice on the Supreme Court until Clarence Thomas steps down and is replaced by Anita Hill.”
  • – Jena Friedman on The Beat with Ari Melber, April 28, 2023
Betcha you laughed at that last one.
Today is a good day to be the light.

______________________________

  • 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.
    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.

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Injustice


I’ve been asked to be a guest on a political podcast program. In preparation for the preparatory phone call (yes, I did mean that alliteration) the host’s questionnaire asked what my area of focus is and I had a hard time declaring that. I had never thought of self-defining in that way. Still, it was a worthy question, so I’ve been thinking about it.

Regular readers will have realized long ago that I wade in on many different political and social topics, like Republicans trying to destroy our democracy (they are) and ordinary citizens voting against their own interests (they aren’t – at least not consciously). Looking for a theme among so much variety has been a bit daunting, but I’ve had a breakthrough. It came via a recent Twitter post – more on that in a minute.

What I realized is that most of the posts that I offer, much of the passion and sometimes outrage in my gut, is in reaction to injustice – cruelty to people who deserve none of that,

like the War on Drugs, which was and is actually a war on poor Black men;

like the kaleidoscope of voting rights destruction laws and the perps who crush others’ rights;

like unjust, stupid and illegal wars, like Dubya’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which accomplished little more than getting a lot of people killed, displacing millions and causing yet greater chaos and cruelty.

That last was the trigger to my clarity, because I read Daniel Ellsberg’s Twitter letter last weekend and the dots started looking like a picture. Here’s why.

l graduated from college In 1968 and instantly lost my 2-S deferment, setting me up for a letter from Lyndon Johnson instructing me to show up for a pre-induction physical. Through a slightly engineered quirk, I became a 1-Y, which was likely life saving, as LBJ had ramped up our presence in Vietnam to 549,500 men. A total of 2,594,000 men were destined to become canon fodder in that hopeless war. I could have been one of them, pointlessly slogging through rice paddies with a bulls eye on my back.
.
In 1971 Daniel Ellsberg copied the Pentagon Papers and they were published first in The New York Times, then in The Washington Post and other newspapers. They revealed the ongoing years of lies that kept the Vietnam death parade going.
.
I don’t know if it’s measurable, but my notion is that his actions helped to end that war sooner. Perhaps some men slightly younger than me were never called to their pre-induction physicals because of Ellsberg’s courage.
.
He’s now nearly 92 and has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Here’s a link to his Twitter letter about it all, including the Pentagon Papers, his lifelong crusade to prevent nuclear war, his cancer and more. In the process of reading his letter, especially his comments about the Pentagon Papers, I came to realize that he was fighting against cruel injustice back then and, really, has been ever since.
.
That’s when those aforementioned dots crystalized into a vivid picture. It’s the injustice and the lies of the powerful that trigger me. That’s what I’ll tell that podcast host is my focus.
.
I’m no Daniel Ellsberg. I don’t know that I would have had his courage to stand up to the liars in and around government in that critical moment. The connection is simply about the clarity that came to me thanks to Ellsberg’s words and actions.
.
I urge you to click through and read Ellsberg’s letter. It’s about a life well lived in service to others. Those others include all the boys who didn’t have to go to Vietnam to die for the injustice of cruel and lethal lies.
.
Late Addition: Walgreen’s Update

From STAT:

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state would no longer do business with Walgreens in response to the pharmacy chain’s plans to stop dispensing abortion pills in 20 states. Walgreens now appears to have backtracked, saying in a recent statement it “plans to dispense Mifepristone in any jurisdiction where it is legally permissible to do so.”

That’s a turnaround, as Walgreen’s previously appeared to have caved in to threats from 20 Republican state attorneys general to sue the company for doing something legal.

Today is a good day to be the light.

______________________________

  • 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.
    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.

    JA


Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

Anthem


Reading time – 1.38  .  .  .

It is the morning of the Electoral College report to Congress. Donald Trump has encouraged militants like the Proud Boys and neo-Nazis to demonstrate in the streets of DC, knowing full well that they will bring their anger and their firearms. As of this writing it is unknown if violence will erupt, but DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has called out the National Guard. We have a real live political and cultural divide that has the capacity to explode.

Muriel Bowser, Mayor, Washington DC

This kind of contentiousness, this threat to our national welfare and safety has happened before, most notably and disastrously in the Civil War. And during the 1960s we were torn apart over the concurrent crises of the Vietnam War and a renewed fight for civil rights.

It was mostly young people in opposition to an entrenched conservative power structure. That makes sense, in that it was young people being sent off to fight people they did not recognize as an enemy and perhaps to die for no good reason. They faced down generations of people who had been taught to do as they were told and who expected the 60s young to do the same.

That generational struggle also made sense because while young Blacks certainly had suffered racism, they weren’t yet beaten down by a life of racial discrimination and they refused to live with that injustice. So, they stood up to the entrenched conservative power structure, too, and were joined by white activists.

All that opposition led to violent confrontations and a lot of people were injured and some were killed. Some were assassinated by police, like Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, leaders of the Black Panthers. The Chicago Police didn’t knock, didn’t announce themselves, but simply started shooting, firing nearly 100 bullets into their residence late one night as the men slept. Some were killed by National Guardsman, like the student demonstrators at Kent State in 1971. Some were clubbed mercilessly by Chicago Police in what the Kerner Commission labeled a “police riot.” The times were indisputably violent and deadly. People in power don’t willingly give up their power.

There were calls by some for moderation and many tried to find a way forward that avoided violence, but passions ran high and Americans were polarized. Does that last sentence feel familiar? Isn’t that what is going on right now?

It’s clear that we didn’t resolve that basic conflict 50 years ago. George Santayana told us, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,“ and surely we’re doing that right now. Mark Twain told us, “History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Take your pick. Either way, our national divide isn’t new and it has all the capacity for delivering terrible results just as before, especially when so many on one side seem to act as though violence is the the best solution. Plus, they’re very well armed.

I have some suggestions for an anthem for our time. Both of these are from the late 60s and even if you know them well I encourage you to listen with fresh ears. Perhaps the messages from these can provide some sane direction.

Maybe you have a notion for how we can move forward safely. Maybe you have a suggestion for an anthem to guide us through these very dangerous times. Please share them in the Comments section below.

For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield – 1967

Everyday People by Sly and the Family Stone – 1969

—————————————-

Countdown to Inauguration Day 2021Countdown

—————————————-

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

  1. Did someone forward this to you? Welcome! Please subscribe and pass this along to three others, encouraging them to subscribe, too. (IT’S A FREEBIE!) Use the simple form above on the right.
  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. Said John Maynard Keynes, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” So, educate me and all of us. 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 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

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