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Beware the Ides of January 6th

December 31, 2020 by Stephen AltschulerLeave a Comment

In what should be a ceremony that the press always ignores, the certification of the Electoral College vote on January 6th is morphing into another Trumpian spectacle of Sturm und Drang. It seems some Republican senators, with the support of Trump, will mount a challenge to the Electoral College vote, trying to reverse its outcome in several battleground states that went for Biden, giving him the victory. Trump has exhausted all legal paths to change the outcome. All failures. He still denies Biden won. He is, indeed, in denial, as we mental health counselors say. Big time. Why won’t Trump concede his loss?

Is it that he is afraid that once he is out of power, his wrongdoings will catch up to him and he will wind up in prison? Perhaps. You and I would assume that, but Trump has evaded so many attempts to cripple him through the courts that I think he thinks he is invincible. Just hire enough lawyers who issue enough legal roadblocks and his accusers get tired of the time and money it costs to continue accusing. Even tax evasion, that misstep that finally caught Al Capone, won’t catch him, he surmises. Never has and never will.

So now, he has one more ploy. Actually a series of ploys. First, he has his traitor Representatives and Senators vote to deny certifying the Electoral College tally in certain states. When that fails he has Pence fail to certify the final tally (Pence has no constitutional authority whatsoever to do so). When that fails he instigates his radical, armed supporters, such as various white supremacist groups who he has dogwhistled to “Stand by,” to take to the streets and perform enough acts of violence and chaos to allow him to declare martial law (He has already called for such violent rallies on the 6th!). Police, many of whom are either members or sympathizers of these White Supremacist groups do nothing to restrain the violence, effectively being complicit in a violent takeover of the government. His cult followers also take to the streets screaming and creating havoc. The final ploy in this string of ploys? Trump remains in power, declaring himself President for at least another four years.

Impossible? Improbable, perhaps, but not impossible. Trump is desperate enough to try this. He has nothing really to lose since he’s already lost the prize he thought he had all along: remaining in power. His ego cannot and will not tolerate a loss. You must not be a loser, his father drummed into his skull. Of course all of the above must succeed for the final Trumpian outcome to come true. If it doesn’t work, Trump will leave office but declare himself the victim of a fraudulent election, making himself a martyr, still beloved by his cult followers. This might encourage him to run again in 2024 to continue his onslaught against our government and way of life.

Is there anything you and I can do to stop this insanity? I’m doing what I can do by writing this post. We are past the point of “calling our representatives.” We are past the point of voting or sending in our donations. Our democracy has voted Trump down hard, but our democracy still teeters on the brink of [Read more…] about Beware the Ides of January 6th

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

A Trump Coup Attempt?

December 25, 2020 by Stephen Altschuler2 Comments

Donald Trump seems to have a form of coup on his mind. A coup, though, often involves a military takeover. In the post Cold War world, such coups have occurred in Asia, Africa, and South and Central America. According to Wikipedia, about half have been successful and half unsuccessful. None have occurred in Europe or North America. The U.S. has never experienced a coup.

Yet a coup is mostly plotted by a group that is out of power against at the group that is in power. Trump’s coup would be a first: a coup of a person currently in power against a person duly elected but not yet in power. Trump has tried every legal means even, up to the Supreme Court, to reverse the outcome of the election, without success. His next scheme is to convince Mike Pence to vote against confirmation of the Electoral College tally in Congress and reverse the outcome of the election. But Pence and his advisers have advised Trump that this is [Read more…] about A Trump Coup Attempt?

Filed Under: democracy, Donald Trump, Events, Human nature, mindfulness, Nuclear WarTagged With: Coup, Joe Biden

I awake this morning with a deep anger…

December 23, 2020 by Stephen Altschuler7 Comments

…toward Donald Trump and these inhumane and immoral pardons he feels justified to impart like a fake monarch surveying his realm. His pardon of four thugs from Blackwater who murdered 14 completely innocent Iraqis, including men, women and children, during the invasion was particularly deplorable. One was in jail for first degree murder and life, the other three were serving 30 year sentences. Trump released them with one swirl of his sloppy signature, slapping the face of an entire nation who still mourns.

Beyond anger, I feel a deep embarrassment at the actions of this immoral so-called human being, Donald Trump. I am embarrassed to be connected with him as an American, embarrassed that I’ve lived here under his rule during these last four years, embarrassed to be connected, even remotely, with those that voted for him and those in Congress who enabled his reign of his attempt to dismantle our democracy. I am embarrassed that some 74 million people voted for this charlatan. I am embarrassed that a significant number of those voters still think he was not legally elected. I am embarrassed that though Trump lost, Republicans gained seats in the House, and held their majority, so far, in the Senate.

A better word still, is distraught. I am distraught that over 315,000 people have died due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and there are still a significant number of Republicans who [Read more…] about I awake this morning with a deep anger…

Filed Under: Animal Rights, democracy, Donald Trump, Human nature, mindfulness

Animal Rights: Let Lab Animals Free

December 22, 2020 by Stephen Altschuler2 Comments

Let Lab Animals Free

by

Stephen Altschuler

A song written in the 1980s and, in many ways, still applicable today

 

In the primate laboratories

I can tell you many stories

of thousands of baby chimpanzees

who are maimed and mutilated, tortured and castrated

and taken from their mother’s arms.

 

Chorus

They’ve got no voices, they’ve got no names

They make no charges, they lay no blame,

yet their hearts feel suffering just the same.

Let lab animals free, if not you and me, who else will set lab

animals free.

 

In the name of research and science

with tax money and government compliance

with an arrogant, heartless defiance,

Monkeys are maimed and mutilated, tortured and castrated

and taken from their mother’s arms.

 

Primate studies get repeated,

no anesthesia, surgically mis-treated.

Is this blood bath really needed?

As they’re maimed and mutilated, tortured and castrated

and taken from their mother’s arms.

 

Wild monkeys bound with steel and leather,

trapped in the tropics, shipped to northern weather,

screams of anguish, like slaves together.

for they’re maimed and mutilated, tortured and castrated

and taken from their mother’s arms.

 

From today’s Guardian:

In recent years the US government has started to phase out the use of primates in research, with the National Institutes of Health making a landmark decision in 2015 to retire all chimpanzees used in biomedical studies. Critics of the practice argue it is immoral and cruel to subject highly intelligent, social creatures so similar to humans to such conditions.

However, other labs continue to use monkeys in large numbers – a record 74,000 were used in experiments in 2017 – with scientists claiming they are far better than other animals, such as mice, for studying diseases that also afflict humans.

Even when monkeys are retired from research purposes, the task of rehoming them in appropriate sanctuaries still proves haphazard.

“What tragic afterthoughts these lives were,” said Mike Ryan, spokesman for Rise for Animals, the group that obtained the freedom of information documents on the Ames primate deaths. “Nasa has many strengths, but when it comes to animal welfare practices, they’re obsolete.”

Filed Under: Animal Rights, Human nature, mindfulnessTagged With: Animal rights, NASA

Hiking: I hate to hike…I love to…

December 21, 2020 by Stephen AltschulerLeave a Comment

I hate to hike. I mean, I love to hike, but after

the love of hiking gets me to the trail, I hate to hike.

I mean, I love to hike, but when heart is pounding,

ascending a hill, and legs are heading for hell, and

mind is fixed only on the hill’s top and its subsequent

leveling off and descent, I hate to hike. I really love

to hike when I’ve been sitting inside for a lifetime of

Monday mornings and the wind has blown away the smog and

I can see the mountains across the bay as clean as

glacial ice.

 

Such conditions herald a hike, and visions of the

way it will be dance in my head like the Sirens that

tempted Ulysses. The legs begin to sense it first and

then get up, often for the most ridiculous reasons.

Then the arms move, almost uncontrollably, and the head

turns to the outside as a compass needle turns north.

Like an addict, I am hooked, not on the hike itself but

the thought of it. And like the actions of the addict,

the thought and the event are inseparable.

 

So I go. It is not even a conscious decision. I do

not say Should I or Shouldn’t I. The lure of the hike

is like a beautiful woman beckoning me. I do not

hesitate but rush headlong into her wanting arms. She

envelops me with kisses and hugs as we make love till

dawn, and we lie there exhausted, not even knowing each

other’s name. And as it would be with such a woman, I

consider nothing of the consequences, of the potential

pain of succumbing totally to my sensory desires.

 

I go: to the hills, the mountains, the beach, the

steep, Bay Area public pathways and stairways©©it

doesn’t really matter. The itch and the urge must be

satisfied. How good it feels to scratch, but how

irritated if I scratch too hard!

 

Ultimately though, I love to hike and if I could

hike always on an ultimate plane of existance, I would

be in eternal bliss. But this body aches so at times,

and this mind hates the aching. Yet what can I do?

These legs will not stop. These eyes will not close.

This walker’s soul will not rest, although, at

times–upon a time, for a time, in time, because of

time, despite, in nirvana, there being no time–this

body hates to hike and would be done with it if this

mind and spirit didn’t love it so.

Filed Under: Hiking, Human nature, mindfulness

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