Stephen Altschuler

thoughts on environment, politics, health, life issues

Donald Trump

Who Are We? What is this society and what can it be?

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Hopefully, we are…

  • a society that believes that each human being who lives here deserves the chance to be healthy, happy, and educated.
  • a society of democratic values, such as the right to vote and have that vote counted as was voted.
  • a society where individuals can practice whatever religion they choose, or no religion at all, as long as that religion does not preach harm to its practitioners or to others in our society or the world at large.
  • a society of laws–laws that keep us healthy, laws that protect us against crime, laws that protect our environment, laws that keep us safe as determined by our representatives in local, state, and federal government, laws that may at times be anathema to individual members of society but that have been enacted by our legislatures and approved by our courts (for example, laws that mandate masks, vaccines, stoplights and stop signs, seatbelts, drinking and driving, helmets and motorcycling, vehicle licenses and registration and smog control, noise control, sanitation regulations, and open admission to public facilities.
  • a society that respects differences and honors diversity.
  • a society that attends to the wellbeing of our fellow human beings no matter their color or economic status or immigration status.
  • a society that is generous in kind and spirit, willing to help those less fortunate.
  • a society that treats all sentient beings with compassion and respect, including even the seemingly lowest in class and status such as prisoners, the disabled, the poor and destitute, the homeless, the sick, the fragile elderly, the hungry.
  • a society that follows the Golden Rule which is Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
  • a society where individuals take responsibility for their actions, and consider the effects of their actions on the lives of others, whether people, other animals, or plants.
  • a society that prides itself on its livability, its clean water and air, its sustainable practices, its wise and sensible land use, its clean and alternative energy resources, its happy and content populace.
  • a society of good roads, safe bridges, universal broadband, universal child care and early childhood education, free education for those unable to afford it, trade schools for those who desire it, and quality health care for all.
  • a society that has the courage to take an honest look at its history, face up to its failures and atone for them, smiles at its successes and honors them, and avoids changing history to suit its collective ego.
  • a society that trusts legitimate science and the scientific method it employs.
  • a society that cooperates with other countries, finding commonalities and interests it can agree upon, resulting in positive results for the planet.
  • a society that chooses peace over war, honing the art of negotiation and diplomacy, resorting to war only when it or a treaty ally is directly attacked.
  • a society that works, along with other countries, to disarm, especially nuclear weapons that can easily destroy the planet if unleashed.
  • a society that sets a good example of democracy for the rest of the world to emulate–an example that includes one person/one vote, counted fairly and squarely, that includes a presidential election decided by popular vote and not an antiquated system that creates doubt in the outcome, that includes a true representative democracy that deletes schemes like gerrymandering and filibustering, and a fringe third party that can sway an election unfairly.
  • a society where all eligible voters can and do vote.
  • a society that can provide decent jobs and a living wage for its workers.
  • a society that honors women with equal pay for equal work, that acknowledges the freedom of choosing how to manage their own bodies in regards to reproduction, health care, and birth control, and that has sufficient child care resources to allow them to pursue whatever career or job they wish.
  • a society that understands that one can be pro-life and pro-choice at the same time, and end this toxic polarity between the two factions.
  • a society that honors multi-culturalism.
  • a society that rejects false conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, white supremacy, the Big Lie (s) of Donald Trump and his surrogates, the spittle of Tucker Carlson and Fox “News”, and vaccine misinformation.
  • a society where civil discourse is the rule not the exception.

Can we be such a society?

Who is a Patriot?

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I was subject to the draft during the Vietnam War, complied and went for my physical, but was turned down for medical reasons. Am I a patriot? If I’d been accepted, I would have gone to Vietnam if ordered to do so. But few would believe I’m a patriot after being rejected.

Some believe the insurrectionists who invaded the Capitol…

To continue reading this post, please go to breakablenews.substack.com.

Thank you.

Flim Flam Don and His Big Lies

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What strikes me most about Trump is what he doesn’t say. For example, and perhaps mostly glaringly, he hasn’t said a word encouraging people to take the Covid vaccine. If he cared about the welfare of the people of this country and the world, he would be out on the hustings, shouting from the rooftops, to take the jab. But no, not a word from him on this vital subject. Why? All I can figure is that he doesn’t want President Biden to benefit from the end of the pandemic, a pandemic that he, Trump, perpetuated and accelerated through his ineptitude and narcissism. Another reason is that he doesn’t want to antagonize his followers who are against vaccines–like QAnon wackos, Christian evangelicals, white supremacists, and slavery and Jim Crow apologists.

The sad truth is that Trump doesn’t care. About Americans, about democracy, about the economy (except his own business), about immigrant families, about crime on the streets and hyper-availability of guns, about equal justice for all, about Blacks or Browns or Yellows or Reds, about Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Atheists, about scientists, scholars, educators. Nor does he care about valid, democratically-run elections, like the one he lost so decisively in November 2020.

By hanging on to the Big Lie, like a monkey hangs on to the grub of food in the trap hunters have set for them, Trump reveals an addiction that is bringing him further down a rabbit hole of destruction, and dragging along with him all his Republican minions who are duped by his lies.

The answer for those of us who see through his lies, is not to keep harping on Trump. He, himself, is a lost cause, and unresponsive to any criticism, sanctions, censures, even lawsuits at this point. His cult followers will merely brush aside any of those attempts at vilification and label him a martyr. No, the answer lies in the election of 2022, perhaps one of the most critical elections in the history of our democratic republic.

2022. It’s just around the corner. And the outcome will test the influence, if any, that Trump has on our electorate. Will Trump-loyal Republicans regain control of the House and/or the Senate? Or will the Democrats further solidify their hold on these Houses of Congress and make Joe Manchin irrelevant? And what of voting? Will Republican efforts to suppress the vote prove successful? Or will voters find a way around these scurrilous laws to vote enmass? Or will Republican laws actually reverse the results of elections they deem not in their interests, namely those that put Democrats in power?

It will all be laid out before us quite graphically, in the results of the 2022 election. And it’s all up to you and I, the voters. For despite the new Republican voter suppression laws, where there’s a will to vote, there’s a way to vote. So no matter what the obstacles, I deeply hope you will vote. And if the GOP tries to reverse the outcome of the election, I hope the courts will respond as they did when Trump tried to reverse the vote of the 2020 election, and prevent Republican-controlled states from doing so.

Otherwise, if either fails, you can kiss our democracy and the country we love goodbye!

The New American Armageddon

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Joe Biden says we are in danger of losing our democracy, and I totally agree with him. For we have in one camp those, like Biden and myself, who believe strongly in democracy; and in the other camp (and there are only two camps), those who are in favor of autocracy and authoritarianism. These include all Trump Republicans, QAnon believers, white supremacists, most conspiracy theorists, anyone who still thinks Trump won the election, which of course includes Trump himself and his immediate family (with the exception of Mary Trump): a significant portion of the population.

Democracy, or the principle that all human beings are created equal and are entitled to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, is anathema to this Trump group. On the contrary, they believe white Christians are more equal than anyone else and are entitled to more rights such as the right to vote, the right to bear arms without any regulations, the blending of religion and government, providing its the Christian religion, specifically most Protestant forms of Christianity.

This group is increasingly in favor of a military coup to reinstate Trump to the presidency, as what recently occurred in Myanmar. Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Louis Gommert have just advocated for this. A violent insurrection such as what we saw on January 6, 2021, an insurrection that apparently most of the Republicans in Congress were implicated in since they voted against a bipartisan commission to investigate this worst attack on our democratic form of government since the Civil War.

So the lines are clearly drawn. Republicans in many red states have passed legislation that restricts voting rights, aimed at anyone they perceive will vote Democratic, most alarmingly allowing the vote to be overturned by election officials who deem the vote to be fraudulent, and, as for a presidential election, can be tossed to a (they hope) Republican dominated House of Representatives for reversal if the results are not to their liking.

That of course is a strategy of dictators, oligarchs, and authoritarians, ala Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko, Erdogan, Assad, and whatever Ayatollah is leading Iran at the moment. Their leaders in Congress like McConnell and McCarthy keep spouting off about the Socialist Democrats, but they actually go a step further than Socialism and dabble in the muck of Fascism.

Although this anti-democracy crowd has begun to clamor for armed insurgency, most are still sticking to a political coup of sorts trying to limit voting and registration to vote. If that doesn’t work–a good possibility given the energy and efforts of frontline Democratic workers like Stacey Abrams–they may call upon white supremacy groups to actively take up arms, hoping that the military–which has its share of white nationalists–will follow suit, and, like Myanmar’s military did with its democracy, assume control of the government and reinstate their own private emperor, Donald Trump.

All of us democracy advocates need to be concerned, for this gang of millions are fanatical and determined enough to pull this off. Continue on Facebook with the cat and puppy videos and reports of how our gardens are doing, and where we went for vacations, but get back to the vigilance we exhibited before the 2020 election–an election that helped save our country and the world from the ogre Donald J. Trump.

This is not a time for complacency. Yes, the pandemic is loosening its grip and we want to get out and enjoy the summer. That’s fine. But it’s not either, or. We can enjoy ourselves and, at the same time, up our political awareness to previous levels. The anti-democracy gang will take full advantage of any complacency in the democracy crowd, much as Hitler did. Jews in Eastern Europe didn’t think he and his authoritarian hooligans would amount to much. Those few who did, left, and their offspring are now alive and well in the West. The masses who stayed died horrible deaths, leaving few ancestors to carry on.

I am not saying that concentration camps will dot the American landscape. But an America without democracy will be similar to a Brazil between 1964 and 1988. My wife lived there through those years and describes a regime under military rule, without due process, without justice for all, with McCarthyist tactics where her own father was detained and interrogated but refused to give up the names of his progressive colleagues. It was a harsh regime, without a free press or freedom of speech, with dissidents imprisoned and tortured, with informants everywhere, with only state TV and press, and with voting restrictions that guaranteed the election of those generals in power. Is that what we want in our democratic America? A Trump Republican Party not unlike today’s North Korea with pictures of “our dear leader” Trump, the Narcissist in Chief, and his subsequent family successors, plastered on billboards everywhere.

Impossible, you say. Think it through. It is quite possible, and given the polarities and insanities spreading throughout our country today, increasingly probable…unless we act and act decisively.

Scammers, Scams, and the Scammed (like me)!

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As I’m sure some of you have experienced, I’ve been hit by scammers during the pandemic, which is a form of insult to injury. They are skilled at manipulation and subterfuge. They know how to impersonate, to deceive, to falsify. They know how to get you to believe in what they are saying. They know all the keywords and trigger points and, like good salesmen, all the rebuttals to victim objections. They’ve been trained well to mine as much personal data as possible in a potentially short period of time. And even if they often don’t succeed, they know they’ll eventually find a person who takes the bait and swallows the hook. I was such a person, and I’m here to warn you so you will not be a victim to these predators.

The first example was an email from Amazon stating that an iPhone I’d ordered for almost $1000 was on the way and had been paid for. Only problem was the name of the customer was not mine. I ignored the email but the same one came again the next day, so I figured I’d better pursue this possible expensive error. I should have checked the address of the email, but foolishly didn’t. Instead, I went for the bait, and called the phone number on the email in case of questions or problems with the invoice. That’s when the skilled scammer entered my personal space.

To make a proverbial long story short, he proceeded to bilk me out of personal information that caused me to cancel my debit card, along with automatic payment information according to the new card, an inconvenience I truly could have done without. Even worse, I lost some precious hours of sleep, worrying over the implications of this breech of my personal identity.  All I had to do to prevent this was to check the email source of the original email to find out it wasn’t from Amazon at all but some foreign source.

When I discovered the scam, and called the man with the foreign accent on it, and cursed him, he cursed me back, and I knew instantly that I was right. I hung up, relieved it had not gone beyond a point where it could not be rectified.

And then just a few days ago, another scammer attacked my defenses. This time it was someone who called himself The Crowdsourcing Ninja, promising to assist me in meeting my Kickstarter goal for a project related to my last book, Into the Woods…and Beyond. He claimed to have extensive online social media contacts, and for a $250 fee to work daily for two weeks in putting the word out to those thousands of contacts promoting my project.  Every day, I’d get an email progress report of what he did that day–the same wording each day–with a caveat that it took time for people to get the message and donate to such a project. He guaranteed his work saying that if my goal was not met, he would refund my fee.

Well, my goal was met but only from donors whom I knew and contacted myself. There were none as a result of the Crowdfunding Ninja’s (aka Ryan West) efforts. When I questioned him about this, he admitted that he hadn’t done everything he said he’d done, only spending two days of the two weeks he’d promised contacting people. I asked for a refund, to which he agreed, but have never seen that refund, to date.  I’ve sent three emails about this with no response, and so I am exposing this charlatan to you, my dear readers, and warning you to avoid this “Ninja”.

Of course, I’d be remiss not to mention the most toxic scammer of all: Donald J. Trump (and his enablers), milking as much money as he can from his cult followers who believe his Big Lie that the election was fraudulent and really won by him. He scammed all of us, too, on the pandemic, actions that led to the deaths of over half a million Americans. He will go down as the absolute most notorious political scammer in American history. If you are presently allowing Trump to continue scamming you, please, give it up.

I’m sure some of you have your own stories to tell. I hope the above helps in avoiding future scams through a higher sense of awareness and good, healthy skepticism.

Have a safe and wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

BEWARE!

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Based on a Breakable News galloping poll of wild horses in Arizona

BEWARE!

of couples where one or both call the other their best friend. Don’t be shocked if divorce soon follows. Those wild ponies:  always with the jokes!

of homes where cats hang out in the front window all day sleeping. There’s trouble inside. And the kitty is likely depressed and/or angry.

of neighbor dogs who run up to you jumping all over. They are not getting enough love in their home.

of neighbors, and their guests, who look like Proud Boys or Girls. They probably are.

of cars that come right up to your bumper at red lights. They probably have guns on board and are thinking of shooting you, especially if you also have bumper stickers such  say We support Organic Farmers or Bee Kind.

of cute little kids, often boys, whose father allows them to ride fast electric toy trucks in driveways or on pavements. The father is probably a Proud Boy.

of publishers who write offering to publish your book. They won’t say it right off, but it’ll cost you thousands and they are basically vanity presses. 

of people who, six months after the election, are still waving Trump flags. They are mostly likely clinically psychotic.

of big conventional chain food markets. Trumpsters often shop there, as do serial mass killers, and child kidnappers.

of clowns who walk about town in their costumes. Need I say more?

of used car salesmen. More than likely they are woefully behind in their rent, and, so, are likely to be mass serial killers.

of anyone who calls him or herself a Republican or a QAnon supporter, or, as is often the case, both. They likely have kidnapped children in their basement.

of about half the population of America (which half we don’t know). They think the pandemic is a hoax, refuse vaccination, think Trump won the election, and will not hesitate to cough on you as you pass them by, saying they were just joking. I would avoid such so-called people. They are likely serial mass murderers…and have kidnapped children in their basement.

Otherwise, no problem. Enjoy the day. Be happy. And on occasion, get in your car and SCREAM.

Oh, one more…

of authors who always seem to be promoting their last book. Like Into the Woods…and Beyond with a foreword by Thomas Moore.

Suppressing the Vote: The crux of systemic racism in America

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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.