Is it True What They Say About Donald?
The information which can be
found around the periphery of the news concerning the President-Elect’s
relationship with Russia is vague at best.
But it does raise several questions.
First, let us recognize that it
is “unvetted” and unconfirmed information from sources which are very difficult
to pin down. It comes from the world of
intelligence and spycraft where normal rules do not apply. What we are hearing may be entirely
fallacious or there may be a shred of truth to it. Because of the kind of information it is,
there may be more to it than the “unclassified” and unconfirmed tidbits which
have leaked out, and let me repeat, there may be nothing whatsoever to it. And bear in mind, the “leaking” of this
information may be intentional. Originally, the source of it was hired to
develop unfavorable information on the President-Elect by his opponents for the
G.O.P. nomination, and later employed by the Democrats to some extent as well. What kind of "source person" takes on such a job? Finally, it seems that the FBI, and many in
the media world, were aware of the source and the unconfirmed information
involved for quite some time, and chose to keep quiet about it.
Here are some final thoughts on
this subject which have occurred to me:
1.
This information, IF TRUE, is far more damaging
than the thoroughly developed information about Hillary Clinton’s emails and
the Clinton Family Foundation, yet up until now, it was not publicized,
although it was known to some. Clearly, this was because of the extreme
difficulty which confirming it would involve. Without such verification, "news" is not yet "news."
Trump in Russia for Miss Universe Contest in 2013
2. The Russians have agreed with the
President-Elect that the information is totally false. But if the information happened to be true, they
would be saying the same thing, so their agreement with Trump carries little
weight.
3.
The FBI’s not publicizing this information, into
which they had been looking, contrasts with their readiness to release
information in the form of letters regarding their unrelated investigation into
the emails of former Congressman Weiner, which included emails from Huma
Abedin, his estranged wife, and who also was Hillary Clinton’s assistant. They jumped to release this information about
Clinton before they fully investigated it and which a week later they confirmed
as amounting to nothing, and which in the minds of some may have changed the
outcome of the election ... while simultaneously sitting quietly on the unconfirmed
information they were also investigating regarding Trump. The FBI Director is
being asked by Congressional Democrats to explain this difference. Thus far,
his answers have been vague and will probably never be more specific.
My personal conclusion is that
the “unconfirmed’ information probably accurately describes what the Russians
would have liked to have accomplished regarding their relationship with Donald
Trump, but in reality, did not succeed in doing. I would expect that to solidify
this view, Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin will become increasingly
distant over the next few months.
Jack Lippman
Jack Lippman
A Non-Sequitur Cartoon
I’m a great fan of Wiley Miller’s Non-Sequitur
cartoons. Take a look at his cartoon for
Sunday, January 15, 2017. Just Click Right Here,
find the date and then when you see the first panel, click on “’Expand” for the
full cartoon.
Its point is that “news” published by “real” media such as
newspapers is usually verified, but that some material on the internet is more
likely to be unverified “fake news,” preaching to those with already closed minds and who find it
reassuring. But click on the
cartoon! My words don't do it justice.
While appearing in the “funny
papers,” it isn’t funny. Cartoonists who
published this kind of thing in Germany during the Thirties disappeared … and
you won’t find them in Putin’s Russia today either.
JL
Who's Doing the Discrediting?
Any attempts to discredit the
incoming Administration will not be coming from Democrats so much as they will
be originating in that very administration itself as it carries out Republican
efforts to “drain the swamp,” and basically reduce the role of government in
the lives of Americans. Many Republicans,
immersed in dreams of an irretrievable past peddled by its President, fail to
recognize that our government plays a vital role in the lives of all Americans.
Messing around with Medicare,
Affordable Healthcare, Social Security, Medicaid, Unemployment Benefits, Student
Loans, Food and Drug regulation, Investment and Banking safeguards, Consumer
Safety, Interstate Highways, Sexual Equality and basic guarantees of
Constitutional Rights in efforts to “Make America Great” will disturb the
millions of Americans who have come to accept and even cherish the role of
government in these areas. And for those
who would scream out “socialism,” understand that “socialism” involves the
government owning and operating a country’s means of production … and that is
not what government does here, despite right wing views to the contrary.
Some of these efforts will even run
counter to the “promises” made by Donald Trump during the campaign and others
will simply enrage the Americans who would be directly affected by any changes
in the laws.
For example, on September 15,
2016, candidate Trump promised “when that (Ford) car comes back across the
border into our country that now comes in free, we’re gonna charge them a 35
percent tax.” Does anyone really expect
Congress to invoke such a tariff? When
this doesn’t happen (and it won’t) and jobs lost to new technology and low cost
foreign labor don’t come back, who is being discredited and by whom? And whom will it anger? Same thing goes for those coal mines which will never reopen.
On August 8, 2016, candidate Trump said “One of my
first acts as president will be to repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare,
saving another two million American jobs.”
When Obamacare is repealed, but not immediately replaced, or is finally replaced
with a program more costly to the individual insureds, as is likely to be the
case, who is being discredited and by whom?
Twenty million Americans insured for the first time through the
Affordable Care Act will not be happy when this happens, and there is no record
of Obamacare causing job losses.
Actually, increases in new healthcare jobs
far outstripped any job loss
because of employers’ unwillingness to provide health coverage under the
Affordable Care Act. And those new jobs
will be lost. Whom will that discredit?
As the new Administration’s
appointees, aside from the Departments of State and of Defense, reluctantly
struggle to run their parts of the Executive Branch, they will confront a
Congress which will make that struggle more difficult as it supports the vague
promises Donald Trump made. This will
further discredit the Administration.
The Democrats do not have to harp
on the margin of popular votes by which Clinton defeated the President, the
influence of Russia on the election nor the questionable pre-election role of
FBI Director Comey in order to discredit the new President. All that is
unnecessary. Donald Trump, his Administration
and the Republican majorities in Congress will easily take care of doing that
discrediting themselves, as the Democrats watch.
Of course, to make sure America
knows what is going on, a watchful and vocal press, which the President greatly
fears, is necessary. The media,
including the press, is going to be the battleground on which the battle to
keep America great is going to be fought over the next four years. Their job will be to present the “truth,”
which Americans must learn has neither a liberal nor a conservative bias. Facts are facts.
The First Amendment to the
Constitution includes these words: “Congress
shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.” But that
Constitution is not so specific in regard to what a President might do in
issuing Executive Orders. The words attributed
to many great Americans, “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” must not
be forgotten.
JL
JL
The Major General Song
Having just
ordered tickets for a forthcoming production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The
Pirates of Penzance,” I recognize that beside Sullivan’s music, understanding
the tricky rhymes in Gilbert’s lyrics is vital to enjoying the performance! They laid the groundwork for the clever lyrics of more modern Broadway musicals. ("I got the horse right here, his name is Paul Revere," "With a little bit of luck, with a little bit of luck" etc.) Incidentally, "Pirates" did not open in London. It opened in New York City first!
One cannot come in “cold” and expect to catch
all the words of songs like the “Modern Major General” without some
preparation. They will fly by the
listener too rapidly to be understood, so it’s best to be a little familiar with
them beforehand. With that in mind, I googled the following lyric … and am
sharing it with you. Gilbert wrote it as
a “spoof” of the British career military officer class. And finally, “sat a gee” translates from the
slang of the day to mean “sat on a horse.”
The Major General's Song
GENERAL:
I am the very model of a modern
Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal,
and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I
quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order
categorical;
I'm very well acquainted, too, with
matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the
simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming
with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the
square of the hypotenuse.
ALL: With many cheerful facts, etc.
GENERAL:
I'm very good at integral and
differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings
animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable,
animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern
Major-General.
ALL: In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and
mineral,
He is the very model of a modern
Major-General.
GENERAL:
I know our mythic history, King
Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;
I answer hard acrostics, I've a
pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of
Heliogabalus,
In conics I can floor peculiarities
parabolous;
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from
Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,
I know the croaking chorus from the
Frogs of Aristophanes!
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've
heard the music's din afore,
And whistle all the airs from that
infernal nonsense Pinafore.
ALL: And whistle all the airs, etc.
GENERAL:
Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic
cuneiform,
And tell you ev'ry detail of
Caractacus's uniform:
In short, in matters vegetable,
animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern
Major-General.
ALL: In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and
mineral,
He is the very model of a modern
Major-General.
GENERAL:
In fact, when I know what is meant by
"mamelon" and "ravelin",
When I can tell at sight a Mauser
rifle from a javelin,
When such affairs as sorties and
surprises I'm more wary at,
And when I know precisely what is
meant by "commissariat,"
When I have learnt what progress has
been made in modern gunnery,
When I know more of tactics than a
novice in a nunnery --
In short, when I've a smattering of
elemental strategy,
You'll say a better Major-General has
never sat a gee.
ALL: You'll say a better Major-General, etc.
GENERAL:
For my military knowledge, though I'm
plucky and adventury,
Has only been brought down to the
beginning of the century;
But still, in matters vegetable,
animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern
Major-General.
ALL:
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
He is the very model of a modern
Major-General.
Now isn't that one great line, "I know more of tactics that a novice in a nunnery," worthy of Oscar Hammerstein or Lorenz Hart, both of whom were fans of Gilbert's work?
JL
HOW TO BE ALERTED TO FUTURE BLOG POSTINGS.
Now isn't that one great line, "I know more of tactics that a novice in a nunnery," worthy of Oscar Hammerstein or Lorenz Hart, both of whom were fans of Gilbert's work?
JL
HOW TO BE ALERTED TO FUTURE BLOG POSTINGS.
Many readers of this blog are alerted by Email
every time a new posting appears. If you wish to be added to that
Email list, just let me know by clicking on Riart1@aol.com and sending me an
Email.
HOW TO CONTACT ME or CONTRIBUTE MATERIAL TO JACK'S
POTPOURRI.
BY CLICKING ON THAT SAME ADDRESS, Riart1@aol.com YOU ALSO
CAN SEND ME YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO BE PUBLISHED IN THIS BLOG AS WELL AS YOUR
COMMENTS. (Comments can also be made by clicking on the "Post a
Comment" link at the blog's end.)
MOBILE DEVICE ACCESS.
DID YOU KNOW THAT www.jackspotpourri.com IS ALSO
AVAILABLE ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICES IN A MODIFIED, EASY-TO-READ, FORMAT?
HOW TO VIEW OLDER POSTINGS.
To view older postings on this blog, just click on the
appropriate date in the “Blog Archive” midway down the column off to the right,
or scroll down until you see the “Older Posts” notation at the very
bottom of this posting. The “Search Box” in the
right side of the posting also may be helpful in locating a posting topic for
which you are looking.
HOW TO FORWARD
POSTINGS.
To send this posting to a friend, or enemy for
that matter, whom you think might be interested in it, just click on the
envelope with the arrow on the "Comments" line directly below,
enabling you to send them an Email providing a link directly to this posting.
You might also want to let me know their Email
address so that they may be alerted to future postings.
Jack Lippman
No comments:
Post a Comment