Barack Obama

How we got into the bind we are in; and how to get out of it

January 18, 2021 by Stephen Altschuler Leave a Comment

In order to determine how we got to where we are with our democratic republic, we need to acknowledge where we are and work our way back from there. Currently, we are in a tenuous and fragile spot, having just experienced, on 1/6/21, a barbarous insurrection against our Capitol and its elected representatives by pro-Trump thugs. It was, arguably, the most serious attack on our way of government in our history, and it has our foreign enemies licking their chops as to how they can take advantage of our cancer from within.

In a few days we will inaugurate our next president, Joe Biden, along with our next vice president, Kamala Harris. A large number of people who voted for Trump still believe the election was fraudulent and that he actually won. However, Biden’s win has been definitively proven in the courts and by election officials, many of whom were Republicans, and elsewhere by reputable media sources. Further violence against our government and the election results has been threatened.

So how did we get to such a dangerous crossroads in our nation’s history? My contention is that Donald Trump [Read more…] about How we got into the bind we are in; and how to get out of it

Another Unrequited Letter to Donald Trump

June 2, 2020 by Stephen Altschuler Leave a Comment

Continuing my unrequited letter writing campaign to Donald Trump (caution: my language here can get a bit coarse at times):

Hello Donald (or, if I might, in your own vein, call you Dunkin Donut Don, mocking your ample girth), I hear you’re hunkering down in the White House basement/bunker, feeling safe as a bug in a rug, comfy as a rat in a dumpster, and frisky as one of your cult members who hasn’t been laid in a month of Sundays. I know, it’s tough being el presidente’, or as your followers call you, Our Dear Leader, after your bud in North Korea. All those pesky decisions, meetings, keeping your hair in order and well-sprayed, making sure enough donuts have been ordered for the day, along with all the whoppers, Big Macs, fries, and shakes that need to be sorted and delivered…on time. I know how you’ve loved those fries ever since you were a kid, assuming you ever were a kid.

Anywhomwhatsoever, as if you didn’t have enough on your plate (no, not your actual plate, big guy), now these riots over the death of an unarmed black man—good guy, I hear—by one of your other “good people” on the other side—the cop who pinned George Floyd down with his knee until he was dead. Right. I’m thinking—I don’t have direct evidence— but I’m really pretty sure the cop was one of your white supremacist [Read more…] about Another Unrequited Letter to Donald Trump

Saving Our Democracy

March 17, 2017 by Stephen Altschuler Leave a Comment

Briefly stated, get involved. The keyword for a strong, active democracy is involvement. When the citizenry becomes lazy and complacent, when it becomes politically silent, when it takes its freedoms and liberties for granted, assuming they are written in stone, that citizenry becomes vulnerable to any strongman/autocrat who comes along spewing lies about how the democracy is working. That strongman first creates fear through false facts and fake news and then purports to fix the false facts that aren’t really facts. It was the stock and trade of snake oil salesmen who roamed the American countryside in previous centuries, bilking people of their hard earned cash while lining their own pockets with the spoils of a gullible public.

So a crucial element of involvement, is to tear open the envelope of fear and false facts, and determine, truly, which are true. This is no easy task. There are numerable purveyors of news out there, all vying for attention with sometime questionable headlines and content. There is the Internet, unfettered and unregulated, with a scant few checking on its so-called facts and assertions and accusations. It’s like entering a casino and trying to figure out which slot machine will deliver the next jackpot. The machines are often rigged to deliver an occasional winner, just to keep the player in his or her seat plugging in quarters and dollars as the casino owners sit smugly in their high lairs smiling the smiles of contented greed and satisfaction at their cleverness.

Of course slot machine analysis is a futile exercise. You will ultimately lose because only luck will determine when that next jackpot will come up. Objective research is futile. But with the lies of politicians, which are paraded unabashedly as truths, you may be able to determine which are valid and which are bloviated bull. Performing that analysis is the challenge of every [Read more…] about Saving Our Democracy