October 5, 2024 - Mostly About Lies

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Do Not Believe Lies! 

Donald Trump and JD Vance are proven liars. (Trump actually won the 2020 election, Haitians are eating their Ohio neighbors’ pets, etc.)  Even the ‘devout’ House Speaker talks about voting irregularities of which he has no evidence, but 'intuitively' believes occurred. Get used to the fact that Republicans routinely make up stories. They lie.

JD, the vice-Liar candidate

This election is about more than candidates.  It is about the willingness of millions of voters to be taken in by lies, repeatedly uttered by liars, until the point is reached where they achieve a level of false legitimacy.  When enough Americans accept lies, then democracy dies!  Do not believe lies!

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In her Oct. 4 posting, Heather Cox Richardson summed it up by saying that ‘the firehose of lies is designed to make it impossible for voters to figure out the truth. The technique is designed so that eventually voters give up trying to engage, conclude everyone is lying, throw up their hands, and stop voting.’ She went on to point out that ‘holding on to facts combats the effects of the storm of lies.’                                                

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Economist Paul Krugman has noted: ‘We’ve all become desensitized, but it’s amazing how at this point the Trump campaign rests entirely on denouncing things that aren’t happening: an imaginary bad economy, imaginary runaway crime and now an imaginary failure of Biden and Harris to respond to natural disaster.’

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Trump criticized the president for not immediately authorizing FEMA assistance for Tennessee.  Well, it seems that just when other similarly affected States were requesting such aid in regard to damage inflicted by Hurricane Helene, a legal pre-requisite for obtaining it, Tennessee’s governor was instead introducing legislation for a day of prayer and fasting as a way of dealing with the storm’s damage.  How dumb are voters in Tennessee? 

But people in solid Republican areas believe these lies and will vote accordingly.  It’s a disease that infects their minds.

JL                                             

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Did You Check Out Timothy Snyder's Column?    

Jackspotpourri’s posting just prior to this one included a piece by Timothy Snyder entitled ‘Trump’s Hitlerian Month.’  Please go back and read it again.  Please.  It may, for many of you, automatically follow this posting. Otherwise, it can be found by  CLICKING HERE or copying  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/WhctKLbMwJvtVHwSqpGHmPzqNrtxCppMTqjDBWNgXbSVzcdCnwnBqRFsLkbwgsGlNSDqTZg and pasting it on your browser line.

Don't miss this column!

JL

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Time to Endorse Truth

The other day Liz Chaney personally endorsed Kamala Harris, adding to the other Republicans who have recognized the danger of a second Trump term. 

In the New Yorker magazine’s endorsement of Harris, they point out that ‘Trump is a menacing presence in American life, and most of his former associates know it. Of his forty-two former Cabinet secretaries, only half have endorsed him. More than two hundred staffers for four previous Republican Presidents and Presidential candidates have endorsed the Democratic ticket. High-ranking officials who once surrounded Trump—including former Vice-President Mike Pence, former Defense Secretaries Jim Mattis and Mark Esper, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former chief of staff John Kelly, the former national-security advisers John Bolton and H. R. McMaster, and the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley—regard him as unfit, a threat to national security.'

(The full New Yorker endorsement, which is a worthwhile but lengthy read, can be found by visiting https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/07/kamala-harris-for-president-endorsement or BY CLICKING HERE.)

JL

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Baseball Confusion

Apologies are in order regarding the National League playoffs, the description of which in the preceding Jackspotpourri was inaccurate.  The Arizona Diamondbacks, finished the season with exactly the same record as did the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets, both of whom made it to the playoffs, but they were left out in the cold.

This mess was the result of an incomplete game between the Mets and the Braves that was finished after their double header’s first game, the result of that first game determining their seeding in the playoffs. (The Mets won the doubleheader’s first game. The Braves won the second game, the completion of the earlier unfinished game.)  Afterwards, all three teams had identical 89 win and 73 loss records.  The ‘tiebreaking’ rules in such situations call for referral to the teams’ record between them during the regular season.  The Diamondbacks came up short against the Braves and the Mets over the entire season, so the result of the unfinished game did not really matter. 

But what, Diamondback fans argue, would have been the case if the Mets had also won the uncompleted game? Then play-off bound Atlanta would have had a worse record than the Diamondbacks!

To avoid this mess on the last day of the regular season, the National League should have seen that the incomplete game was finished earlier.  A rule requiring that all incompleted games that might affect the league’s final standing be completed at least one week before the end of the regular season should be considered.  And if that doesn’t solve the problem, it would be no sin to postpone the playoffs, and the World Series, until they were resolved. I suspect that rainstorms have caused postponements in the past.

Repeating my World Series prediction:  Yankees over the Phillies in seven games.

JL

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them. There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though!  

Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. 

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting. 

Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com. 

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. There is just a month remaining until Election Day. Spread the word. 

JL  

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September 30, 2024 - Non-Registered Voters, Tim Snyder on the G.O.P. Ticket, Granola, Baseball, Football, and a Word from Jefferson

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Believe It or Not, There are Many Out There Who are Not Registered to Vote

If you are not a registered voter, Monday, October 7, is the last day that you can register (at least in Palm Beach County).  Remind your friends!  Tell them to contact the Supervisor of Elections at https://www.votepalmbeach.gov/Voters/Register-to-Vote.  It can be done online!

JL

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Yale University’s Timothy Snyder Speaks Out on Trump’s ‘Hitlerian Month’

More than one critic has pointed out the similarity between the actions and words of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and those of the two candidates heading the 2024 Republican presidential ticket, Donald Trump and JD Vance.  Their supporters have defended the two of them and attacked those bringing up that the Republican candidates often take such seemingly ‘Hitlerian’ positions.  

While not formally Nazis, Trump and Vance seem to
 think in the same direction as Germany's dictator did.

Snyder points out that indeed, Trump and Vance are echoing Nazi ideas, especially antisemitism, and using the tactic of turning the tables by condemning one’s critics for criticizing them. Of late, Trump has been suggesting that Jews might be blamed should he lose in November, and Vance has found another minority, Haitians, to scapegoat.

Take the time to visit  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/WhctKLbMwJvtVHwSqpGHmPzqNrtxCppMTqjDBWNgXbSVzcdCnwnBqRFsLkbwgsGlNSDqTZg  to read the article or read it by CLICKING HERE.  It is not a ‘happy’ read, but it is an essential one.

JL

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The Words of Thomas Jefferson Still Resonate

Many politicians fail to recognize that a public office is a public trust. 

Thomas Jefferson wrote that ‘When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property, and justly liable to the inspection and vigilance of public opinion; and the more sensibly he is made to feel his dependence, the less danger will there be of his abuse of power, that rock on which good governments, and the people’s rights, have been so often wrecked.’

New York City’s Mayor should take note of this.  Once in office, elected officeholders must recognize that their current and past actions will be under a spotlight and monitored.  This ought to prevent the possibility of their abusing their power.  But it doesn’t!

Many, most recently including former Congressman George Santos, former New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, and even the forty-fifth president of the United States to varying degrees have stumbled on ‘that rock’ which Jefferson mentions and suffer the consequences.

Democracy is weakened when those who fail to recognize this are elected to office by a gullible and easily fooled electorate. 

JL

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Granola Label Questioned

It amazed me to see a label on a 17 oz. package of Nature Valley Granola declaring that it contained ‘50% More Granola than our 11 oz. package.’ Of course it does.  Why?  it’s a larger package!  

Only an idiot need be told that if you increase a package size by 50%, it will be able to contain 50% more of whatever its content is.  I suppose General Mills, whose product this is, believes that its granola consumers lack the arithmetic skills of an elementary school student. Maybe it’s something they put in the granola.

JL

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Sports Section

Baseball - Several months ago, I predicted that the Miami Marlins would lose 107 games this year.   Surprisingly, they finished the season with only 100 losses while winning 62 games, better than two other major league teams, the Chicago White Sox and the Colorado Rockies! 

Now we can concentrate on the baseball playoffs where the Detroit Tigers, the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, and the Baltimore Orioles battle to see who challenges the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians for the American League’s World Series slot. 

After today we’ll know for sure if it will be the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves who join the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Diego Padres in the National League playoffs.  They play a doubleheader today and if one of them sweeps it, eliminating the other, the door still might be open for the Arizona Diamondbacks to see who challenges the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers to represent the National League in the World Series, where I predict the Yankees will defeat the Phillies in seven games.

Football - As for NFL football, the local Miami Dolphins as well as the New England Patriots, the New York Jets, and the New York Giants for which some local fans, originally from up north, still root, are going nowhere this season.  If you want to follow a team, consider the Baltimore Ravens whose stellar quarterback, Lamar Jackson, is a product of Boynton Beach High School.

JL

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them. There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though!  

Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. 

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting. 

Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com. 

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. There are just about just five weeks remaining until Election Day. Spread the word. 

 

JL 

 

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September 25, 2024 - Protection Old Style, TV Political Ads, a Tim Snyder Quote, and More

 

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The ‘Protection’ Racket 

Donald Trump, in one of his more outrageous comments, declared the other day that he saw himself as a ‘protector’ of women and claimed that American women won’t be ‘thinking about abortion’ if he’s elected. (His actual position concerning women’s abortion rights appears to be that it should be left to our fifty individual states, where he incorrectly believes that’s what all women want. His party’s position, dominant in many of those states, is closer to favoring a national ban, which leaves Trump’s position unclear at best.) 

What struck me as unusual was his use of the word ‘protector,’ in making this comment. That brings to mind Oliver Cromwell, who ruled England for five years in the mid-seventeenth Century, taking the title of ‘Lord High Protector’ to make his dictatorship, which sanctioned the beheading of King Charles l, as something benevolent, dedicated to ‘protecting’ the people. 

Oliver Cromwell, a 17th Century 'Protector'

Far from it. Cromwell was a dictator who came to power, and maintained it, in a period of political and religious ferment by the use of military force. Even today though, some see him as a hero of liberty, agreeing with Parliament’s initially doing away with the monarchy.  After his death in 1658, his son unsuccessfully tried to succeed him, but the English had enough of a ‘Lord High Protector’s’ dictatorial ‘protection’ and they reinstated the monarchy. ‘Protector’ Cromwell’s body was then disinterred from his grave and publicly mutilated. 

But Donald Trump knows nothing about Oliver Cromwell and what became of him. Any person or thing that he claims to want to ‘protect,’ should run quickly in the opposite direction. In fact, many Englishmen did exactly that in those days, fleeing to the colonies then being developed on the other side of the Atlantic, just to get away from being ‘protected’ by their “Lord High Protector.’ 

JL

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Anti-Debbie TV Ads

I’ve seen the TV ads Florida’s troglodyte Senator Rick Scott is running against Debbie Muscarsel-Powell, pointing out her earlier campaigns for public office, some successful, some not, but all of which were aimed at serving the people, at the same time that Scott’s former hospital company (he was its CEO) was being convicted of Medicare fraud, fleecing the people and the government. 

The TV ad ends showing a fictitious license plate for Debbie with one word on it: ‘Socialist,’ as if anything starting with the first six letters of that word, s-o-c-i-a-l, were automatically evil.  I suppose that coincides with Scott’s idea of putting Social Security (and Medicare) up for renewal every five years.  Any senior who votes for Scott should have their head examined.

Looks like Scott’s ad agency is so taken in by MAGA malarky that they think it resonates with everyone.  They are wrong.  It's up to Florida voters to prove that!

The time to replace Rick Scott with Debbie Muscarsel-Powell has arrived.  His candidacy should be buried along with that of Trump as Florida goes blue at last in November.

JL

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To Be or Not to Be

In his September 24 posting, with the Shakespearian quote as its heading, Yale professor Timothy Snyder wrote, in referring to ending Ukraine’s war with Russia, that ‘one cannot simply choose to negotiate with a power that openly seeks to bring about the end of your nation and state,’ it being a question of choosing between ‘being’ or ‘not being’ an independent nation.

He points out that negotiations will only be possible when Russia abandons its idea of ending Ukraine’s nationhood, and Snyder goes on to point out the necessity of American support in accomplishing that.

The same logic can be applied to Israel’s reluctance to commit to full negotiations with parties that are sworn to end its nationhood.  Israel is doing a dance, using military and less conspicuous means, with or without America’s support, to convince their antagonists and their Iranian puppeteers, to abandon that position.  Only then can real, meaningful, negotiations take place.

JL

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The Success of President Biden’s Economic Plans

When President Biden recently spoke to a group of economists, he based the extraordinary economic successes of the past three and a half years upon the American Rescue Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Science and CHIPS Act. He told the audience: “American business, our economic dynamism can’t succeed…without a stability and security that makes us the envy of the world.” 

These pieces of legislation, passed without Republican help, are what make this possible.  They are the direct results of Democratic victories in the 2020 election.

This blows into smithereens the traditional Republican theory of an economy where the profits of businesses and the wealthy ‘trickle down’ to working families and fails to directly address the economic wellbeing of most of the nation’s working population.  Just remember that voting for Republicans in any election, national or local, is like sleeping outdoors in a bed of poison ivy and is to be avoided.

JL

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Gasoline Prices

Those who criticize President Biden (transferring their opinion to Kamala Harris' campaign) often cite high gas prices as an example of inflation. 

No longer so!  Gasoline prices bounce around depending on the available supply and vary daily and are far lower than they were a year ago.  On Monday I filled  my tank at a ‘no-name-brand’ station with regular gas at $2.97 per gallon!  Name brands were about a dime more a gallon, but within a day, even ‘regular’ at the ‘no-name’ station was up about twenty cents.  But that is not the fictitious $4 a gallon price right-wingers claim exists.  That’s just misinformation.

JL

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Drafting Players in the Schoolyard

Years ago, before playing a game of ‘touch’ football in the schoolyard, I recall the kids present ‘choosing up sides.’  As a result, the better athletes were not always on the same teams.  (Usually, the two best athletes were ‘captains’ of the two teams doing the choosing.)

That’s similar to what the ‘transfer’ portal has done to college athletics, particularly football and basketball.  It is almost like what in major league baseball is called ‘free agency.’  It may sound trite, but it's a new ball game on college gridirons and basketball courts.

The teams of lesser institutions that used to engage in money-making games against big time schools that were looking for what amounted to early season scrimmages, now actually have a chance of defeating them, (Example: Northern Illinois’ recent victory over Notre Dame) and even more often, providing at least very creditable competition, based on transfer students. 

If an athlete feels he (or she) is talented enough to ‘make it’ at a higher level of competition, or available compensation through use of their name, image, or likeness (N.I.L.) seems greater at another school, they can opt to transfer to that school by following the procedures of the ‘transfer portal.’

In the minds of many college athletes is the maximization of their chances of being selected by a professional team, where the really big money begins to flow, and the ‘transfer portal’ is there for them to seek greater exposure that might lead there.

Sometimes a coach in need of greater athletic talent than his school’s enrollment or recruiting has provided will search those coming through that ‘portal’ to see if there are players there who meet his school’s needs.

But is this good for the sport or the schools involved?

JL

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com. 

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them. There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though!  

Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. 

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting. 

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter.  Election Day draws near. Spread the word. 

 

JL 

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September 21, 2024 - Unsatisfying Jobs, Gun Violence, Exploding Pagers, and Tariffs

 

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A Warning to Democrats 

Unemployment might be down, and the economy might be stronger, but many of those who are sharing in the fruits of such favorable trends remain unhappy. They see the crappy, unsatisfying, jobs in which they are stuck as better than not having any job at all, but also as something to blame on President Biden’s administration. Conceivably, with absolutely no good reason to do so, they will end up voting for the Trump/Vance ticket rather than for Kamala Harris. 

Not my first choice as a job

but  maybe better than this

or this!

Democratic strategists must figure out a way of addressing this problem. They should start by making a list of the crappy jobs they themselves would not consider taking, nor steer their family members toward. It would start with fast-food franchises, the staffing of most retail establishments, and the housekeeping chores in hotels and health care facilities. These folks must be given strong reasons for voting Democratic. They must be given hope for greater, more fulfilling, opportunities. Are you listening, Kamala and Tim? 

JL                                 

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Gun Violence ... Again

After two attempts on his life with the kind of weapons intended only for military use, I hope former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump will get behind national gun control legislation. 

He ought to personally ask the three Supreme Court Justices he put on the SCOTUS to take action to reverse D.C. vs Heller, the decision that puts weapons in the hands of anyone who wants them. 

That ‘right’ is guaranteed by their 2008 misinterpretation of the final fourteen words of the Second Amendment. Sunday’s incompetent and unsuccessful assassination attempt would not have even occurred (nor would the earlier one in Pennsylvania) had not the D.C. vs Heller decision enabled the assassin, whatever his motives were, to get his hands on an assault rifle, which he abandoned when he became aware that his presence had been discovered by a Secret Service agent whose gunshot was directed in his direction. An alert passer-by, seeing him fleeing and jumping into a parked car, captured his license plate with her cell phone. 

In dealing with gun violence, just forget about ‘mental problems’ or ‘ego-hungry copycats’ as being causative, and ‘thoughts and prayers’ being an acceptable response. Guns are what kill people and they must be immediately regulated by Congressional action on a national basis. Why? It will take forty or fifty years to repeal the Second Amendment and replace it with one reading something like this: 

‘The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, for the purpose of hunting, sporting activities, and protection of one’s domicile or business, shall not be infringed.'  There’s nothing wrong with that language, unless of course one has an armed insurrection in mind. 

The Second Amendment has to be changed. That is what has to be done, but we cannot wait that long. These guns must be taken off of the streets, out of unlocked cabinets in homes, out of the gun stores, out of the gun shows, and out of circulation, while still protecting our ‘right to keep and bear arms’ (as the Second Amendment says) in the manner the revised Amendment language above suggests, before they fall into the hands of any of the hundreds of thousands of unbalanced Americans, or misguided zealots.

When? Right Now! 

The public agrees that the use of a potentially killer drug like fentanyl must be regulated. The Food and Drug Administration does that, considering it to be a ‘controlled drug.’ There is no reason why killer weapons should not be similarly regulated by Congressional action until the Second Amendment is changed as suggested above. 

When? Right Now! 

Here are some numbers to help you form your opinion: 

• According to the United States Census, the nation’s population is about 335,000,000. 

• According to registrations in all 50 States, there are about 276,000,000 private or commercially registered automobiles in the United States, evidence that all are regulated in some manner. 

• According to the Ammo.com website, there are 82,000,000 civilian gun owners in the United States who when taken together, own about 500,000,000 weapons, almost twice as many as the number of registered vehicles in this country. Because of the absence of effective State regulation, only about 6,000,000 of them are registered in any manner.  

Check this out by visiting https://ammo.com/articles/how-many-gun-owners-in-america#:~:text=Based%20on%20NICS%20background%20data,least%20one%20firearm%20in%202023 or by CLICKING HERE. 

And while on this subject, here’s former FBI Deputy Director Frank Figliuzzi’s take on this crucial subject. Copy and paste https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/happened-trump-yesterday-result-deadly-lax-gun-laws-rcna171256?cid=eml_mda_20240917&user_email=033d2070fe1faa4dfea53a4950e7d0ed837513fd06d41e88f2d7b6b7c74af785 on your browser line or CLICK HERE. 

Something must be done to address this problem and if you ask 'When?,' I reiterate ...... Right Now! 

Of course, Republicans placing the blame for these assassination attempts on Democratic campaign rhetoric is ludicrous. But please understand that almost everything Trump, Vance, and their supporters claim is similarly ludicrous with their expectation that voters might believe it! Haitians in Ohio are not eating neighbors’ pets and Kamala and Walz are not Communists, etc. unless the folks who are fed these lies want to believe them, and that is a bigger problem. 

JL 

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Exploding Pagers 

Let’s get one thing straight. Those in Lebanon with cell phones are not having them blow up in their hands. 

It appears that because of the lack of security on cell phones, members of Hezbollah, designated as a terrorist organization since 1997, have chosen to carry pagers instead, obsolete for the past quarter century, and other old fashioned, low-tech, two-way communications devices, to attempt to evade Israeli interception, and are the ones who are at risk of being killed or injured when these devices, apparently successfully hacked by Israeli intelligence, explode. Some may even have been altered at the time of their manufacture. 

But remember that we’re not talking about cell phones. It’s the pagers and ‘walkie-talkies, the latest devices of choice for Hezbollah terrorists, that have been turned into bombs by hackers, supposedly Israelis. It seems to be a matter of Hezbollah members and supporters jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Their only communications alternative would seem to be handwritten notes, transported by supposedly trustworthy human hands, or perhaps by carrier pigeons. 

JL

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All About Tariffs 

Donald Trump is a big fan of tariffs. He feels we can penalize foreign countries by putting a tax, or a tariff, in items they export to the United States. There are two advantages to this, the second of which I doubt has ever entered Trump’s mind, something probably taught at Wharton on a day he cut classes. 

Here are the two supposed advantages of tariffs. 

(1) The money collected as tariffs paid by foreign manufacturers of imported items can be used as a supposedly painless way to help fund our government’s activities. The flaw in this argument is that the tariff the foreign manufacturer pays will ultimately be included in the price Americans pay for the imported item, which amounts to a hidden ‘sales tax’ for which they are charged. That’s not painless. 

(2) Tariffs, as explained above, raise the price of imported items, and can encourage Americans to purchase comparable items made in the United States if available, the price of which should be lower than the imported item, the cost of which would be inflated by a tariff. This might significantly decrease the importing of the foreign-made items, and turn out to be a boon for American manufacturers of comparable items. While this might create jobs and increase the nation’s gross national product, it would not pour money into the Treasury as would a tariff, which amounts to a consumer-paid sales tax. Trump seems to miss this latter argument about it being a boon to American manufacturers, which might actually be to his advantage. 

JL 

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Follow Heather 

After you finish reading Jackspourri today, I suggest you take a few minutes to visit Boston College professor Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American.’ 

Day after day she presents a historian’s extremely knowledgeable perspective on the news. Her posting dated September 20, for example, describes all that is wrong with the Electoral College, the means by which our president is chosen, and how it got to be that way. Just copy and paste https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line or just CLICK HERE.   

(and as for the Electoral College, I believe that the only way to negate its 'thumb on the scale' flaw is an overwhelming Democratic victory in the 'battleground' States.)

It would be a good habit to check out what Dr. Richardson has to say EVERY DAY. It’s free, although you can subscribe at $5 monthly if you want to engage in commentary with other subscribers. (I no longer do that as it just takes up too much time. I’d rather play ‘Wordle’ each morning once I’ve checked out the New York Times and what Heather has to say.) 

JL 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them. There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting. 

Strange “Hits’! The large number of those accessing Jackspotpouri from Singapore and Hong Kong has somewhat lessened. I suspect that the Chinese are playing around with internet transmissions, possibly to try to identify who is reading them. 

Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com.

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. Election Day is drawing nearer! Spread the word. 

 JL 

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September 14, 2024 - Cats & Dogs, Adjectives & Adverbs, Tuesday's Debate, and a Strange Lady

 

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About Those Who Eat Others’ Pets in Ohio 

For the full story about the ‘dog and cat eating’ lies many Republicans are gullible enough to believe, check out Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s comments dated September 13 at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ or JUST CLICK HERE. The story is pure fiction. 

She documents historical precedent for the evils that DJ Vance and Donald Trump represent, and ties them to Republican efforts, often successful, to corrupt our system of courts and misuse the tools of government once they get their dirty hands on them. 

 JL 

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Comment on the Debate 

Enough has been said about former president and convicted felon Donald J. Trump’s pathetic performance in Tuesday’s presidential debate, so I will be very brief.   

Trump was quickly set back on his heels once Kamala Harris strode across the platform to him, offered her hand and introduced herself to him during the debate’s first few seconds. He never recovered from that ‘invasion’ of his physical territory, and just devoted himself to making futile, often untrue, arguments. 

Kamala Harris, on the other hand, while giving little attention to the questions to which she does not yet have very precise answers, nevertheless did so with a level of humor and cleverness that instilled the confidence and hope which the pathetic Donald Trump never approached.

But nothing is guaranteed in American politics. There are those out there who seriously believe Trump won the debate, won the 2020 election, and is the innocent victim of a legal system weaponized against him and will never, ever, renounce those weird beliefs. 

 JL 

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A Strange Lady

I would not normally devote any space on Jackspotpourri to this subject, except that it has ‘local’ interest as indicated in the following paragraph. There has been mention in the media of efforts of what survives as the Republican Party’s legitimate campaign leadership to try to distant their presidential candidate from right-wing extremist, nut-job, Laura Loomer. It won’t work since Trump does what he wants to do and ignores advice. Some of her comments make Donald Trump’s seem sane. I leave it to you to seek them out if you want to know how despicable this person is. Could that be Trump’s way of saying, ‘See, I’m not so bad. Look at what she says’?

Incidental to this, for Floridians, is the fact that back in 2020, Loomer ran for Congress in my Congressional district (FL 21) where both Donald Trump and I live. At that time, she lost to the incumbent, Lois Frankel (61% to 39%), but still received about 157,000 votes in doing so. (The percentages were about the same in 2022 when the G.O.P. ran someone else, who is also their 2024 candidate against Representative Frankel.) 

That very significant number illustrates the large number of voters who accept her lies, and will continue to accept them, including Donald Trump, his horrible performance in the debate notwithstanding. 

The First Amendment protects the likes of people like Loomer, although they can be individually sued for acts of libel or slander by those damaged by her words, but this affords them publicity, win or lose in court, so it doesn’t happen often. 

JL

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Trump Often Says Things Wrongly

Donald J. Trump prefers adverbs to adjectives. He seems to think they make him sound more intelligent by turning an adjective into an adverb, giving it more power, relating to an action rather than just sitting there being descriptive, modifying a noun. 

For example, rather than simply describe something as being ‘huge,’ he would use the word ‘hugely,’ describing it as being accomplished in that manner.’ He was quoted as hoping to win the 2016 election ‘bigly,’ althogh some think he meant ‘big league,’ or didn’t quite know the difference. 

Whatever he is trying to communicate, he usually does it wrongly and openly. Listen for this kind of stuff. 

JL 

                                                         * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Forwarding Postings:  Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them. 

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting. 

Strange ‘Hits’: The large number of those accessing Jackspotpouri from Singapore and Hong Kong has somewhat lessened. I suspect that the Chinese are playing around with internet transmissions, possibly to try to identify who is reading them. 

Email Alerts:  If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com. 

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. 

This is an election year. Spread the word. 

 JL 

                                                          * * *