Obama Archives - Stephen Altschuler

I’m afraid, yes, it’s coming. America has never had a coup attempt. We’ve always had peaceful transfers of power after an election. The people’s vote was sacrosanct. Some who were voted out of power didn’t like it, but they accepted it. Now there is Trump, a kind of caustic rust who is continually wearing away our Democracy in the torrent of his lies. But Trump is a madman. That is obvious to many of us. To him, it’s all about himself. He cares little for anyone else. He would throw his wife under the bus if she uttered one word he deemed oppositional to him.

But the real impetus of a coup lies with the senators and representatives who want to reverse a legal, true, fair, and accurate election–one of the most observed and accurate in American history. They and possibly Pence think they can defy the Constitution and reverse the vote in battleground states that went for Trump. They think they have the power to do that despite the fact that just about all the courts, including the Supreme Court, ruled against Republican challenges to election results. So they are bypassing the judicial branch of our government to get their way. And they are opposing our Constitution that is the glue that holds the three branches of our government together. That is [Read more…] about The First American coup d’etat Attempt

As an older secular Jewish man, I believe I’m in a good position to judge a politician’s attitude towards Jews. And one’s attitude and behavior towards Jews does not necessarily coincide with one’s opinion towards Israel and their governmental policies. That’s a very complicated snake pit that involves religious, territorial, nationalistic, historical, and cultural considerations. But one’s attitude and opinion of Jews is more visceral. Put the word Jew before any Western person and ask for their first impression and you will discover their basic attitudes and inclinations, especially if the responses are confidential and discreet. Because of historic racism and prejudice towards Jews in the Middle East and Western worlds, I suspect those responses will be mostly negative and derogatory, depending on geographical, educational, economic, and religious factors.

I’m not a professional historian, but it is commonly accepted that the first Crusaders, around the year 1096, on their way to liberate the Holy Land from Islamic rule, invaded Jewish villages along the way, and massacred most of their inhabitants. The Crusades, after all, were church-sanctioned genocidal escapades to combat paganism and heresy. Jews were lumped in with Moslems in that regard. And to solidify the hatred, a conspiracy theory started in the Middle Ages, called blood libel, was spread by word of mouth, accusing Jews of murdering Christian children in order to use their blood as part of religious rituals. These claims—alongside those of well-poisoning and host desecration—have been major themes of the persecution of Jews in Europe. And Europeans brought such vicious falsehoods to America when they colonized this territory.

Believe it or not, this conspiracy theory still survives [Read more…] about Why Jews, and really everyone, should not vote for Donald Trump or any of his Republican enablers