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Stephen Altschuler

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democracy

Suppressing the Vote: The crux of systemic racism in America

March 3, 2021 by Stephen Altschuler3 Comments

Yes, systemic racism in America has some ugly heads that keep popping up like Whack a Mole. But these days the ugliest and most virulent head that not only affects people of color and differing religions but people in general is voter suppression–that weapon most loved by the Republican Party to help insure they win elections. It is a tactic that most erodes the foundations on which democracy is based. And they have a sympathetic supreme court to back their efforts. It’s a tactic that totalitarian dictatorships use to insure they stay in power indefinitely. The dictator wins with 99 percent of the vote and claims everything was fair and square. And if the dictator loses as in Myanmar recently or with Trump, he claims the election was rigged and tries to negate the results, sometimes succeeding as in Myanmar (so far) or not with Trump (although he threatens to raise his authoritarian head again in 2024).

In our country, people generally honor their right to vote and, for the most part, want to expand that right rather restrict it. What the Republican Party, nationally and statewide, is trying to do is restrict that right, and in doing so is setting up an ingrained system of minority rule. Presently Democrats in Congress represent about 45 million more people than Republicans while only controlling both Houses by very slim margins. Why? Because of voter suppression laws, gerrymandered districts, and voter registration restrictions. All restrictive and aggressively promulgated by Republicans. This is blatantly anti-democratic and abusive towards people of color and of poorer folks. It is reminiscent of poll taxes and property ownership requirements of Jim Crow times in the south. Today it’s voter ID laws, restrictive mail-in voting measures, and the manipulation of districts to the Republicans’ advantage. It’s essentially how Trump won in 2016 after losing the popular vote and barely squeezing his way in as a result of a few counties in the Rust Belt to take the Electoral College count.

In 2020, he lost because of a massive voter registration drive by Democratic Party operatives, even in the face of the most serious pandemic in a hundred years. People like Stacy Abrams and her group Fair Fight, now DNC chairman Jaime Harrison, and ProGeorgia director Tamieka Atkins led the way in registering new voters as Democrats, providing, perhaps, the best antidote to Republican voter suppression initiatives. It was fighting fire with fire, and it worked, perhaps better than any legislation or legal efforts.

In their continued allegiance to Donald Trump, entrenched Republicans are even more beholden to his lies and fascist tactics. He continues to hold the hot coal of his claims of election fraud, all of which have been debunked. He continues to threaten retribution and “throw under the bus” all of his party who voted for his impeachment, waving a sword of Damocles for primary battles ahead. Trump is toxic for the Republican Party, but they continue to drink the poison he serves up almost daily, even after his retreat to Mar a Lago. Republican voters seem to be choosing to leave their party and distance themselves from a man who incited an insurrection against our elected government. But Republican lawmakers at both statewide and federal levels continue to be trapped in a monkey trap, refusing to let go of the meager food they think will protect them from defeat in their next election. All a monkey, and Trump, has to do is let go of the food and pull its hand from the trap, but it won’t do so out of overwhelming greed and desire.

Of course, the overriding goal of the current Republican Party is a return to the white Christian America of a bygone era, which is, in reality, both a memory and myth. And unable to reverse the trend towards a more liberal multi-racial and religious population, they are resorting to autocracy in the form of voter suppression. They figure with an ultra conservative Supreme Court and extremist state legislators, along with the backing of the core cult of Trump supporters and the extremist conservative media, they can pull it off. And if history is a guide, they may just do that.

We need to oppose their incessant efforts along every step of the way. It’s not a time for unity and bipartisanship. It just isn’t happening. The way Congress is shaping up, it’s the same old same old with McConnell and his talk of opposing Joe Biden and the Democrats agenda–as he did with Barack Obama. This is a time for forceful and intelligent action, Stacey Abrams style. It’s not a time for timidity and caution. In this national emergency of pandemic and severe economic hardship, we cannot let anti-democracy Republicans muck up the gears of recovery and rehabilitation.

Yes, Donald Trump, we do need to fight for our country, but not in the mutant way you encouraged your Nazi hoards to do. We need to fight to preserve life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, along with justice, the right to vote, and the right of equality for all. We need to fight against racism in all its mean guises and all its vitriolic manifestations. The fate of our country depends on it.

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, Events

This so-called Senator Ron Johnson…

February 24, 2021 by Stephen AltschulerLeave a Comment

This so called Senator Ron Johnson from the otherwise great state of Wisconsin must have picked up his brain as an afterthought from 7-11 one night. He’s trying to peddle a conspiracy theory that the left was actually responsible for the insurrection at the Capitol on 1/6. He entered into the Congressional Record a screed from an extremist right wing website that the rioters were provocateurs and fake Trump supporters, along with their children and ordinary, peace-loving American citizens petitioning for change.

Right. I guess all of us who watched got it wrong, eh, Senator? I guess we didn’t see or hear what these thugs were screaming as they smashed police officers with fire extinguishers, flag poles, disassembled viewing stands, iron barriers, bear spray, powerful firecrackers, guns, and whatever else they could get their criminal hands on. Right– leftists who wore Trump hats, shirts, flags, and tattoos, yelling “Hang Pence and Pelosi”, and whose goal it was to stop the legal election of Joe Biden to the presidency. What matter that leftists never disguised themselves before at rallies. In fact, as authorities tell us, it was more white militias who loot and burn at rallies to make it look like antifa counterprotesters. Several white supremacist/Neo Nazis have been arrested for such crimes, whereas no antifa have ever been arrested for impersonating a Proud Boy.

So Mr. Johnson, where are you getting such ideas and tactics? Tactics, indeed, for it seems endemic to the present Republican Party that lies and false innuendos be spread helter-skelter out into a gullible population primed to believe such garbage. For what? To attract more voters so you won’t lose so many elections. Is that what you’re afraid of, Senator Johnson: that you’ll lose your next election and be forced to return to “spending more time with my family.”

You are an ignorant hypocrite, Senator, and should rightly resign from your present position. The Senate is a hallowed body, requiring integrity, intelligence, and humility. As your recent racist rant shows, you have none of those characteristics. You are morally empty, falling back on conspiracy theories because you really have nothing else. You are desperate, an empty shell of a human being, operating with a two-bit brain and no heart at all.

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, Events

Breakable News breaks new ground with a stolen transcript of a recent phone talk between Trump and his BBF Roger Stone

February 21, 2021 by Stephen AltschulerLeave a Comment

This scintillating report can be found at breakablenews.substack.com. Be the first on your block to read and forget what you read before any of your friends and neighbors who you haven’t seen for how long has it been now? Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday.

Stephen

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, Events, Uncategorized

Breakable News reports from yes, a cemetery–a cemetery that only admits Republican Congresspeople

February 12, 2021 by Stephen AltschulerLeave a Comment

For today’s vital report, go to our affiliate, The Real Fake News, at

breakablenews.substack.com.

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, Events, Human nature

A Breakable News exclusive interview with Punxsutawney Phil…even before Groundhog Day!

January 31, 2021 by Stephen AltschulerLeave a Comment

Be the first on your block to view, and even read, this post at breakablenews.substack.com.

All the best…

and, as we like to say, L’Chiam!

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, EventsTagged With: Groundhog Day

Breakable News breaks new ground with an unforgettable interview with two American classics: Heart and her friend Soul

January 29, 2021 by Stephen AltschulerLeave a Comment

Check out this post at breakablenews.substack.com.

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, EventsTagged With: Breakable News

I am sad, sorry, and alarmed to say…

January 26, 2021 by Stephen AltschulerLeave a Comment

I’m sad, sorry, and alarmed to say that we currently have a government based on mafiosa tactics and processes. Republicans in both Houses no longer vote their consciences, or even their common sense, but vote instead by intimidation and threats of violence against them. Any Republican legislator who even remotely appears to oppose Donald Trump, even after his presidency has ended, may well receive death threats via phone, email, social media, or even directly at their or their family’s home or place of business. “Godfather” Trump has never, nor does he presently, do anything to discourage such criminal threats.

The impeachment trial for Trump’s inciting the insurrection against the U.S. government is over before it starts. It seems most Senators have already decided on their vote, with the Republican count falling far short of the 17 needed to join all the Democrats to convict Trump.

Why is this so, given that we even have Trump’s offenses on video, making all who watched eyewitnesses to a crime? Certainly not because the Constitution forbids the impeachment of a Federal official after leaving office. There is a precedent for such an impeachment. No, it’s a political decision. Vote to impeach and a Republican risks the threat of a primary challenge; or worse, risks the [Read more…] about I am sad, sorry, and alarmed to say…

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, Human natureTagged With: impeachment, Joe Biden, QAnon, Republicans, Senate

Breakable News breaks new ground with another interview with the Booby Boys Stone and Bannon

January 25, 2021 by Stephen AltschulerLeave a Comment

Be the first on your block to check it out at breakablenews.substack.com.

It’s the fake news that screams worldwide at breakable.yikes!

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, EventsTagged With: ', Bannon, insurrection, Roger Stone

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Recent Posts

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