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Donald Trump

Abe and Gert: A morning with a couple of coronaviruses

June 21, 2020 by Stephen Altschuler Leave a Comment

Abe and Gert: A morning with a couple of coronaviruses

 

Location: a café

 

Characters : Abe and Gert, two coronavirus friends inside a cup stained with coffee and some chocolate croissant crumbs

 

Day after the Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma

 

Abe: So how’d you sleep last night, Gert?

 

Gert: Sleep. Are you kidding? I hardly slept a wink.  I was expecting a feast last night and what did we get—kibble and some bozzo talking for two hours about how he shuffled down a ramp or something. Dude, that guy was so over the top he was like standing on his head. One of our guys told me he was president or something.  But like nobody was there, at least not as many as we expected. Bummer.

 

Abe: Right. Definitely a downer. I mean they had no regard for us. We gotta make a living too , right. BTW, Gert, you look kind of sleepy cute this morning. I don’t know. There’s something about your pigtails. They like sparkle.

 

Gert. Oh please. They’re a mess. I’m hoping to get to the hair dresser today but I don’t think they opened them yet. What do they have against us, closing everything down?

 

Abe: I know. But not to worry. They’re opening again and people are starting to flock after all this time in isolation.  The Covid futures market is booming. You should see my 401Kovid. It hasn’t been this high since the SARS market a few years ago.  That reminds me, I’ve got to call my broker. I got an inside tip on a stock pick that a friend of mine in the White House called me about. This is about to spread like wildfire.

 

Gert: Really. Pray tell. I’m all antennae. And BTW, where is this Trump character going for his next rally. I’ve got to book a ticket.  A lot of our folks were able to infect quite a few last night as just about no one was wearing a mask or social distancing.  Wasn’t that great. They think we’re done, finished, washed up. Arent’ humans wonderful to be around. They’re so accommodating.

 

Abe: And so naïve.  My only fear is that we’ll starve when there are no more of them left.

 

Gert: I know. I lose sleep over that prospect.

 

Abe: OK. Finish your coffee and crumbs. We’ve got a full work day ahead of us.

 

Gert: Right. Ugh. I’ve had way too much chocolate. There goes my figure.

 

END

 

copyright Stephen Altschuler 2020

Filed Under: Donald Trump, Human nature Tagged With: covid-19, White House

Understanding White Privilege

June 12, 2020 by Stephen Altschuler 4 Comments

I finally understand what white privilege is, after not understanding for a long time. I always justified it by saying, to my wife, mostly, that I had no control of my skin color at birth and so how could I be privileged when compared to a black person. On the other hand, do I have to think about my skin color and how society will respond to it when I leave the house? Other than have to put sunblock on my very light white skin, I did not have to think about my skin color when in society or how people will respond to it. That, in a few words, is white privilege. It doesn’t make me a racist but it does make me much more aware of how a black person feels when he or she leaves his or her house in America. Whether it be the police, the grocery store, the bank, the gym, a school, or even a sporting event blacks know they will often be judged by the color of their skin and not their character or personality or achievements. Whites  may not have an easy life financially, emotionally, or physically, but, other than sunblock, they do not have to worry about their skin color and how people will react to them because of it. That is white privilege.

And that is not acceptable in a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, democratic, supposedly free, society. The plaque on the Statue of Liberty invites all to our shores. We have and do represent a hope for the [Read more…] about Understanding White Privilege

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, Events, Human nature Tagged With: African American, Asians, Blacks, Jews, Moslems, Native Americans, racism, White Privilege

As with Trump, Twitter Must Go

May 26, 2020 by Stephen Altschuler 6 Comments

If Twitter persists in allowing citizen Trump to use its giant media forum as his personal venue for lies, misrepresentations, bullying, conspiracy theories, encouragement to break the law, instigation to violence, and fake news, then Twitter’s license to operate should be revoked. The first amendment allows freedom of speech, but not without condition. For the most obvious, you cannot yell “fire” in a crowded place if there is no fire. And Trump figuratively yells fire when there is no fire. He is therefore a menace to society. His morals and scruples are warped. He lies compulsively. He deceives. He distorts. He accuses. He demands. He threatens. He obfuscates. He bloviates. He bullies. He shames. He calls people names as a tween might in a junior high schoolyard at lunchtime.

Donald Trump is an embarrassment to this country. He has not made this country great again as he and his followers profess. Indeed, they fit the definition of a cult–a cult of narcissists–allowing the Narcissist in Chief free rein [Read more…] about As with Trump, Twitter Must Go

Filed Under: Donald Trump Tagged With: Bolsonaro, Brazil, China, City by the Bay, Democrats, Europe, FCC, pandemic, President Obama, SF, Twitter

Questions and Comments for Donald Trump

May 9, 2020 by Stephen Altschuler Leave a Comment

 

The following questions, concerns, observations, suspicions, and informed comments have been culled from recent news items from reliable sources such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR news, The Atlantic, and CNN among others. Some of the following are my own suspicions and conclusions. My hope is that a professional investigative reporting team will pick up on some of these and dig deeper.

 

  1. Everything about this botched invasion of Venezuela points to you, Pompeo, and possibly Barr. You had put up a $15-mil reward. You wanted Maduro’s ouster or capture for extradition. And now Pompeo will do anything to get these guys back. Yet another diversionary move to get attention away from virus pandemic and your botched handling of that. Had the raid been successful, you would have taken full credit, which would have helped your reelection. Now that it failed, you deny any responsibility as is your phony and fake news strategy.
  2. The killing of a black man in Georgia looks like a white nationalist action spurred on by your tacit support of these “good people” as you call them.
  3. You have blocked proper testing to keep the Covid-19 numbers low, which you believe will help your reelection. Same with opening up the economy. People will die but your base demands opening and you will feed red meat to that base. Only thing is you’re running out of red meat, literally and figuratively.
  4. You will not wear a mask in public because you do not want to be perceived as weak or unmanly. This has created more polarization. Wear a mask and you’re perceived as a Democrat and liberal (and even a communist!). Don’t wear a mask and you’re seen as pro Trump, for the economy, and fix the economy, forget the elderly proponents.
  5. You blame China to deflect your own blame for your lame response to the virus. This has led to violence and harassment against Chinese and other oriental Americans in our country. You have said little to dissuade this kind of despicable behavior perpetrated mainly by your cult followers. Your bobblehead sycophants in Congress have also said little to stop this violence out of fear you will denigrate them.
  6. You’ve had little consolation for the relatives and friends of those who have died from the virus. This reveals your true nature, namely a lack of compassion and empathy. To compare yourself to Lincoln was among your grossest distortions yet.
  7. You have stated publicly that you only want to send virus relief money to states that are run by Republican governors and legislatures and not send money to Blue states, that it’s unfair to Red states to help out Blue states. More red meat for your cult followers. This virus does not know of political, social, ethnic, economic, or racial differences. It attacks and kills without discrimination. Only you discriminate, as do your cult followers.
  8. You have no real concern for the people of this country as a whole, as a President should have. You are only concerned with your reelection and how it will affect your family and business interests.
  9. You used the National Defense Act to keep a meat plant open in Iowa, much to the chagrin of workers there who are not given proper protection against the virus by management, but would not use it to help produce PPE for vulnerable health workers. Why?
  10. Stimulus checks are mostly delayed for one particular group: elderly who are on Social Security. What have you got against this group? Is it that you think they wouldn’t vote for you anyway since you’re on record to wanting the elimination of Social Security? And how is it that dead people have been issued checks, as well as non-citizen foreigners who were here for school and are now back living overseas? In the meantime, many Americans have not received their checks or direct deposits despite being in great need to pay their bills.
  11. The stock market went up today some 400 points despite unemployment being the highest since the 1930s. Do you have cult followers within the market? Are you trying to manipulate the market? I suspect you are. Have your family members and other cronies engaged in insider trading to pad their pocketbooks. I suspect they have.
  12. You don’t like wearing a mask, personally, even though they help prevent others from getting the virus, and you are directing the CDC to rewrite their guidelines to remove the mask requirement when in public spaces like a food market. If masks help prevent the spread of the virus, why are you trying to do away with the requirement? Is it that, like your cult followers, you don’t like the government telling you what you can and can’t do? This appeals to your base, doesn’t it, and so helps you politically, as is the motive for most of your behavior as president. So it seems that keeping your base happy and loyal is more important than protecting the rest of us from this deadly virus.
  13. Your characterization of the mainstream news media as “the lamestream media” demonizes and negates one of the truly vital aspects of a free, democratic society: a free and vibrant press. It seems your intent is to destroy that free press, and replace it with a kind of right wing, extremist state media that only flatters and sucks up to you, such as found in present day China, North Korea, and, increasingly, Russia. I won’t even pose a question since I already know the answer.
  14. You have manipulated and repressed valid Covid-19 statistics in order to cover up their implications to your reelection efforts. Why have you done this? To advance your own sordid goals at the expense of those suffering from this pandemic and those on the front lines fighting it.

***

I truly wish to see you voted out of office, then prosecuted, and sentenced to years in prison. You have professed to Make America Great Again. Instead you have polarized its people, inspired its extremist elements, and ruined its standing and image in the world with your poisonous rhetoric and your adolescent Tweets. You are an incorrigible bully, sir, and are not worthy of the office you unfortunately hold.

 

 

Filed Under: Donald Trump Tagged With: Barr, CDC, China, covid-19, Maduro, masks, Pompeo, PPE, Social Security, Stimulus checks, Virus

A Letter to Donald Trump

April 16, 2020 by Stephen Altschuler Leave a Comment

Dear Donald John Trump, 

Please resign now as President and hand over the reins of your office to your veep Mike Pence. It makes sense. Polls indicate you will probably lose the next election by a considerable margin; your approval ratings are beginning to slip badly, the stock market is down; the economy is down and in recession, heading towards a depression; your business empire needs your full attention. And remember Nixon chose to resign to avoid the embarrassment of an impeachment conviction. You should resign, sir, if for no other reason than to avoid the embarrassment of a landslide defeat at the hands of the Democrats. Resignation will preserve your legacy at this point, avoiding any further smears. Think of it: you’ll have time to hone your golf game even more, build your businesses for enduring success, and be remembered as the President who did the right thing for America. With your grandchildren in tow, you can ease into older age, your memories as President and your reputation intact. 

So please Mr. President, resign and put elections and Coronavirus briefings and the media and the tanking economy behind you. It’s the right, and honorable ,thing to do.

Thank you, sir, for your attention.

written by Stephen Charles Altschuler

U.S. citizen

Vancouver WA

Filed Under: Donald Trump Tagged With: approval ratings, businesses, Coronavirus, Democrats, depression, Donald Trump, election, golf, media, Mike Pence, Nixon, polls, President, recession, the economy

An Appeal

December 11, 2017 by Stephen Altschuler 2 Comments

Our country is under attack, not as much from external enemies, but from within. Donald Trump, with the help of Republican conspirators in Congress, is consciously and willfully undermining and shredding our democracy. Unbelieveable as this may seem, he might just succeed. By declaring “the system is rigged,” he is creating an atmosphere of distrust where many people do not believe anything that his supposed opponents profess. This means that if Robert Mueller finds compelling evidence that Trump has colluded with the Russians or has obstructed justice, Trump’s minions will ignore the evidence and go on supporting their “Supreme Leader” as they would in North Korea or Iran or Russia.

Call this what you will. I call it autocracy, or worse, a Fascist dictatorship. Our Founding Fathers worried about such a development, building into the Constitution a system of checks and balances to protect us against it. But those wise men didn’t figure on a megalomaniac like Donald Trump to assume the Presidency of our country.

Of course our first and foremost worry is a nuclear war–a very real possibility given two impulsive and power hungry men are involved. Recent tensions are rising. Wild threats are increasing. The political air is bristling with electric intensity. Neither of these men has a moral compass to lead them. Neither of them is completely rational. Both are armed to the teeth and unhinged. Both are under tremendous pressure to appear strong and powerful to their base as well their military establishments. We are as close to nuclear war as we were when Kennedy faced down Khrushchev during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. And we have no Madam Secretary [Read more…] about An Appeal

Filed Under: 2018 election, democracy, Donald Trump, Nuclear War

Taking Back Our Country

August 19, 2017 by Stephen Altschuler Leave a Comment

It’s a strategy the Republicans used  when they beat Eric Cantor in the primary, one of their own but not conservative enough, in 2014. Cantor, House Majority Leader and seemingly unbeatable, was vulnerable in one particular area: immigration reform. And the keyword Tea Party Republicans latched onto was amnesty. Cantor was for it, but voters in his Virginia district were not. Nobody saw it coming when an obscure, bland economics professor from an equally obscure college in his district beat Cantor, quite handily, on that issue alone. Shockwaves reverberated throughout the halls of Congress as Eric Cantor tumbled back to his old banking position in the private sector.

Now in Wisconsin a similar race is shaping up pitting powerful Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who won his race by 35 percentage points in 2016, with ironworker turned congressional candidate Randy Bryce, a Democrat. Bryce seems to be attacking Ryan broadside with no particular issue as hot button as amnesty, but he is definitely attracting attention. Can he find Ryan’s vulnerabilities? He seems to think so, pointing out Ryan’s lack of visibility in conducting town hall meetings during the Fourth of July recess with the Trumpcare vote pending in the Senate, his advocacy relationship with a very unpopular Donald Trump, and a “mean, mean” (Trump’s words) version of a Republican health care bill, passed in the House under Ryan’s auspices. The First Congressional District in southeastern Wisconsin is generally not happy with Paul Ryan these days.

Randy Bryce, on the other hand, is a perfect foil to Ryan. He is a full time, longtime ironworker, with a mother who has cancer in fear of losing [Read more…] about Taking Back Our Country

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, Paul Ryan Tagged With: Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, Randy Bryce, robert mueller, Russian investigation

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