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Jack is a graduate of Rutgers University where he majored in history. His career in the life and health insurance industry involved medical risk selection and brokerage management. Retired in Florida for over two decades after many years in NJ and NY, he occasionally writes, paints, plays poker, participates in play readings and is catching up on Shakespeare, Melville and Joyce, etc.

Saturday, February 16, 2019

Emergency Declarations, the Democratic Sweepstakes, Republican Tactics, Wealth Redistribution and Immigration



A National Emergency

Trump Loves to Sign Things

A recent posting on this blog suggested that the need for declaring a national emergency was not on our Southern border, but instead in the area of reducing gun violence.  I note that on the anniversary of the Parkland murders, House Speaker Pelosi said the same thing.  Even Ann Coulter, from the far right and for different reasons, has chimed in saying “the only emergency is our idiot President.” 

Well, our White House occupant is indeed declaring a national emergency on that border, a declaration which is certain to be challenged in courts and in the Congress.  The Judicial and Legislative branches of our government will draw the line and slap down this sleazy and ignorant real estate peddler/deal maker who sits at the head of the Executive branch who daily flaunts the Constitution.  

The only deal he should be making now would be with Robert Mueller.  But that won’t happen because no one trusts him anymore to live up to anything he says, even Ann Coulter.  Soon enough, America will be saying “good riddance to bad rubbish.”  

                                                       

 Jack Lippman 

                                          


Democratic Horn of Plenty


In picking candidates to run for President and Vice President in 2020, Democrats must accept certain realities.   In my opinion, they are:

1.   For a “West Coaster” to be on the ticket, he or she must come from a Governor’s chair.  Being in the Senate or House is not enough.  Because the West Coast is usually secure territory for Democrats, geographic appeal is not a plus but strong executive experience is.  Following this same logic, for a Texan to be on the ticket, they similarly should offer executive experience in a Governor’s chair. Being in Congress is not enough.  Hence, I do not see Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke or Julian Castro being on the ticket.

2.   There will have to be a woman on the ticket and there will have to be a man on the ticket.

3.    One of the two candidates on the ticket MUST come from the Midwest, because doing well there is a priority for Democrats.  That candidate can be either a man or a woman, so the other candidate must be of the opposite sex.  Right now, there are three possible candidates from the Midwest, Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator Amy Kolbuchar and South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg.

4.    The other slot on the ticket would have to come from the East Coast. There are many seeking to be on the ticket.  These include Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kristen Gillibrand, Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg, the last three of whom have not yet declared their candidacy.

Based on the above realities, here are some of the possible ticket combinations.  If Biden, Bloomberg, Sanders or Booker is the Presidential nominee, Amy Kolbuchar will be their running mate.  If Warren or Gillibrand is the Presidential nominee, Brown will be their running mate.  If Brown is the Presidential nominee, Warren or Gillibrand will be his running mate.  If Kolbuchar is the Presidential nominee, Biden or Booker will be her running mate, the other male candidates from the East not being interested in the number two position.  This leaves out those yet to throw their hats into the ring and some of those who have already done so, but I think the choices will come down to those mentioned above.
 JL

 

Republican Strategy 

The Republican nominees in 2020, whomever they may be, are in a weak position.  Hillary Clinton got more votes than Trump, nationwide, and his margins in the three states which gave him a victory in the Electoral College were so small that there is no chance of their repeating their performance for a Republican, Trump or otherwise, in 2020.  And G.O.P attempts at voter repression nationwide are falling short.  The Republicans cannot win on their own in 2020, and they know it.  What they can do, however, is make the Democrats lose!  And that will be their strategy.

Watch for Republican criticism of all Democratic candidates, picking out and exaggerating details which will soil their image, hopefully turning the process of choosing the Democratic (note that I never use the pejorative adjective “Democrat”) ticket into turmoil. 

Examples:  Biden makes misstatements and gaffes, Bloomberg is a Republican and is really too pro-business for the Democratic left, Sanders is a wild-eyed Socialist, Booker has no real experience governing outside of Newark where no one goes out at night anyway, Kolbuchar is mean to her employees, Warren, another wild-eyed socialist, lied about her racial background, Brown and Gillibrand are too unknown to have a national impact, Harris, another Socialist, plays the race card in an unspoken manner and the two Texans, Castro and O’Rourke, do it openly, appealing to Latinos. 

Republicans will spend millions to lie about the Democratic field hoping that enough of it will stick in the minds of the gullible to enable the Republican nominee to slip through to the White House.  Beware!

This has already started.  Last week, a relatively mild column by National Review Senior Editor Jonah Goldberg proves it.  It is aimed at making voters uncomfortable with Democrats.  CLICK RIGHT HERE TO READ IT.  And if that doesn't work, here's where to find it.  
  
Expect more of this kind of thing, but even stronger, over the next nineteen months.  Texas Senator Cornyn has already quoted Winston Churchill declaring that "Socialism always starts with good intentions but always ends up with the Gestapo" to paint a sordid and dishonest image of the Democratic Party.  Republicans fear any increased role whatsoever which government assumes, and call it 'socialism' because that means higher taxes and that is precisely what the G.O.P.'s supporters and donors abhor with a passion.  That's their bottom line.
 JL

A Favor 

Do me a favor.  I am experiencing some problems with Google Adsense, a service which provides advertisements on blogs.  Last year, this blog included ads on every posting but supposedly isn’t continuing doing it this year.  I understand, however, that some of you are still seeing advertisements on blog postings.  I would appreciate your letting me know if that is the case with you, and on what kind of device (desktop, tablet, smartphone) you are getting them.  Just drop me a note at riart1@aol.com or jacklippman18@gmail.com.  Thanks.
 JL


Wealth, Immigration, Opportunity and Some Ideas

There is a determinable quantity of wealth in the world.  It is based on the possession and extraction of natural resources and crops, the utilization of those resources through manufacturing, consumption and their distribution through national and multi-national economic systems.  It is augmented by the value of intellectual property, a significant recognizable resource in our electronic age.  And through investment of that wealth and increases in its value based on supply and demand, that wealth of the world is constantly increasing.

The problem is that this wealth is not equally distributed throughout the world.  Some nations or regions have more of it and some have less of it.  And while some individuals control or possess very large portions of this wealth, other individuals possess far less of it, with some even possessing next to none of it.

The availability of electronic communications in most of the world through computers and mobile phones, augmenting television, and the spread of  the internet, including social media, has widened the knowledge of this wealth, and its uneven distribution, throughout the planet.  People living in unheated huts with dirt floors are now aware that much of the world has housing with floors and heating.  People who know only unpaved roads now have seen superhighways and high-speed trains.  And most importantly, they are aware that in nations or regions of the world possessing a lot of this wealth, there are opportunities and ways of earning a living which are not present in areas with less wealth.

It is natural, then, for people in places without much wealth to want to get to those places where there is plenty of it, and ultimately be able to share in it.  Hence, the desire arises to emigrate to these places, legally or illegally if necessary.  Add to this the impetus to emigrate which comes from living in places where not only is wealth in short supply but where there also is social and political disorder as well, at times dangerous.  Places with wealth appear to be much more stable and orderly and usually are less hazardous for residents. 

'I lift my lamp beside the golden door'
Throughout history, these factors influenced migrations such as the tremendous exodus of Europeans to North America during the past five hundred years.  Today, Africans and Middle Easterners see more prosperous Europe as their goal.  Millenniums ago, Asians crossed a land bridge which is now the Bering Straight to populate North America because things looked more promising there than on the Asian land mass where they were.  These became the “Indians” in both Americas that Europeans found here.  

And why did the Hebrews leave the land of Canaan to settle in Egypt?  The Biblical explanation doesn’t tell the whole story.  Egypt offered more opportunity.  And when they were no longer welcome as immigrants there, they left on a generations-long exodus to the “land of milk and honey.”  This is the same reason Africans risk crossing the Mediterranean in overcrowded and leaky boats to get to Europe, why Central Americans seek asylum, or any excuse, to get into the United States and why Haitians pay smugglers to bring them from the Bahamas to Florida’s shores.  People will try to get to places where the wealth is, because that’s where opportunity lies.  It has always been that way and it always will be.  Immigration follows the money.

Locking the gates will not solve the problem.  A more equitable distribution of the world’s wealth on a national or regional basis would go a long way toward solving the problem.  Institutions like the World Bank and international monetary practices designed to ultimately redistribute some of the world’s wealth on a more equitable, but nevertheless deserving, basis may be the answer.  This is what monetary gatherings such as the one periodically held in Davos are about.  That can lead to an answer to making poorer nations richer.  Nationalism cannot.

As for individual personal wealth, there are many innovative ideas around.  In Germany, companies with over 500 employees are legally required to have significant employee representation on their Boards, sometimes approaching fifty-percent.  This serves to divert some of a firm’s profits from shareholders and highly paid executives to employees.  Another “wealth redistribution” plan involves “Modern Monetary Theory” by which the government prints all the money it needs to provide “entitlement” benefits and guaranteed income, the only brake on this practice being the inclusion of steps to prevent inflation.  Ideas like this deserve a hearing rather than instant condemnation.
JL


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