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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.

Monday, August 28, 2017

Afghanistan, the "BMOC" in NYC, Checks & Balances, Democratic Victories, Campaign Rallies and the Mitch/Ed Parallel

The next posting on Jackspotpourri will include commentary on the reactions of the Administration and the Congress to the human tragedy in Texas.  Will they, as they must, be bi-partisan and rise above political considerations?  Will existing positions on spending Federal funds and on climate change enter the discussions?  Your comments for inclusion in the blog are welcome.

Democratic Victories in 2018 and 2020 are Possible

I cannot repeat this too often because I firmly believe it.  Donald Trump is quite right in claiming that his followers would not desert him, even if he shot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
  
Many, if not most, Americans see Trump as the incompetent fraud that he is and recognize that he is not fit to serve as President.  While this includes many Republicans, it does not include his solid base of supporters.  They will stick with him through thick and thin.  While not a majority, these supporters are sufficient in number to significantly influence the Republican Party and produce critical electoral votes for a candidate, as they did for Trump in 2016.  I do not see this changing, regardless of the results of the Russia investigation, Trump’s inability to live up to most of his promises and whatever realistic alternatives to meet the nation’s challenges the Democratic Party might present.  Whatever the Kool-Aid Trump served up to them contained, his base still is and will remain under his spell.  So what are the Democrats to do?

In every election, from dog catcher on up, throughout the country, Democrats must force their Republican opponents to take a stand on Donald Trump’s presidency.  They must not be allowed to sit on the fence.  They must either oppose him, or stand with him.  This should be the crucial issue in any election!  

If a Republican candidate says he supports the President, some of those Republicans who are sick of him will not support that candidate.  If a Republican candidate says he opposes the President, some of those who are still loyal to him will not support that candidate.  Either way, the Republicans will lose votes and the Democratic candidate will benefit.  

Example:  The Presidents's pardoning of Arizona ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio, even before he was sentenced, puts him on the side of ignoring the laws and the courts, as well as with the nation's bigots by standing up for an acknowledged criminal (accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt) whose racism influenced his  duties. Republicans should be asked whether they support the President's pardon or think it was wrong. They should not be allowed, at all levels, to dodge this question.

This is, in my opinion, the best and perhaps the only way for Democrats to win elections in 2018 and 2020.  They must thoroughly exploit this schism in the Republican party at every level and in every election.  No Republican candidate should get away without being pushed to the limit as to whether or not he supports Donald Trump.  2018's election debate should not focus upon issues like health care or taxation.  The only issue should be loyalty of Republicans to the least qualified President the country has ever had the misfortune to elect.
JL


All You Need to Know About Afghanistan

Afghanistani history reveals many centuries of attempted control by outside forces.  In the Nineteenth century, the British fought two wars there, one in the 1840’s and one in the 1880’s.  In the last century, the Russians fought a losing battle to control the country.  Most recently, the United States has been involved in a similar struggle which our President has just committed us to continue. Once an outside nation leaves, hoping to have established some stability there, Afghanistan reverts to the infighting between the many tribes and variations of religious faith with which the people of this cruelly mountainous country identify.  

Liken Afghanistan to what used to be rural Appalachia, where families who lived in one “holler” considered those over the mountain in the next valley to be their enemies, and with whom they often feuded for generations.  Afghanistan is filled with many Hatfields and McCoys.

Why do outside nations even bother?  In the past, I had been an advocate of troop withdrawal there.  Now, however, I have given it a second thought.  It’s a matter of geopolitics. Just look at some maps

When Western trade with China opened up over two thousand years ago, the area we know as Afghanistan was at the crossroads of the overland trade routes to China from Europe and from India. 


Today that still is true, but more from a political and strategic standpoint than from an economic one.  China would love to directly access the Indian Ocean through Afghanistan and Pakistan. And over the mountains, just to the north sits a nervous Russian presence in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, as well as Iran on Afghanistan’s western border. Who controls Afghanistan controls the fulcrum of south-central Asia (where three of the countries shown on the adjacent map already have nuclear weapons, not including Iran nor the Russian-related "stan" nations to Afghanistan's north) and that is a concern to the United States.  That is why we would like to see an independent, stable and neutral Afghanistan. 

The problem that remains is how to acheive this goal with as little sacrifice of American lives and resources as possible.  Nations have been trying to solve this problem for many centuries.
Jack Lippman


Why the President Attacked Mitch McConnell

The United States government is based on a system of checks and balances outlined in our Constitution. The Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch balance each other and possess checks which prevent unwise excesses from being carried out by either one.  Less formally outlined but nevertheless still real are the checks and balances within each of these two branches of our government. 

In the White House, a President should be able to weigh and balance different recommendations from his advisors.  In Congress, the presence of representatives of both parties, each of which may include many voices, brings checks and balances into play.

When a President demands an Executive branch whose leaders can be counted upon to always agree with and support him, he is throwing away the safety valve provided by those who might not always agree with him.   And the same thing is even more true of the give and take of the various factions and parties in Congress.  But fortunately, by virtue of their very design, neither house of Congress can be monolithic.  
Mitch McConnell, Latest Victim of Presidents Anger

The revolving door which has been characteristic of this White House and the President’s criticism of his own party’s leaders in Congress clearly indicates that he neither understands nor wants to understand this system of checks and balances.  

Buildings at Fordham (left) and at Wharton (right) 

The President’s higher education started with two years at Fordham University.  Most colleges do not provide courses in our Constitution nor advanced political science courses before the junior and senior years.  By then, Trump had left Fordham and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania where he took business courses at the Wharton School for his final two years of undergraduate education.  So, it is understandable that the President of the United States may not understand the checks and balances provided by our Constitution.  It was not part of his education.

The conniving, bluffing, bribing, brow-beating world of real estate development is where he learned his skills.  In that “school,” getting around the law rather than adhering to it is what is taught.  And its leading campus was New York City, and guess who proceeded to act as if he were the “big man on campus” there, which he wasn't.  Could it be that the President is well described by the old Texas rancher's expression of disdain, "Big Hat, Few Cattle."  (See the following piece.)

This is why he is frustrated with Congress and appears to be taking it out on Mitch McConnell.   
JL

Mitch and Ed - Deja Vu

The late Ed Koch, former NYC Mayor 
And while on the subject of Mitch McConnell, last week, Bloomberg View (which you can access on the internet) carried a revealing tale of how Donald Trump wasn’t successful in working with Ed Koch whose cooperation he needed to pull off a giant real estate deal he was developing. Bluster and intimidation only goes so far and it didn’t work with Koch. Similarly, the President is blowing a relationship with Mitch McConnell which he sorely needs.  It seems that Trump really isn’t very good practicing the “art of the deal.”  Read this incisive piece BY CLICKING RIGHT HERE! 
JL
                         

Our Insecure President's Campaign Rallies

When someone is running for political office, it is not unusual, in fact it is common, for such candidates to have campaign rallies. Attendance at campaign rallies is usually composed of their supporters.

Once elected to office, campaign rallies become unnecessary and detract enormously from the time needed to carry out the functions required in the office to which the candidate was elected, especially the most demanding of offices, the Presidency.

Yet, our PEFAP (see definition in earlier blog postings or at the end of this posting) continues, even after being elected, to conduct campaign rallies. 


He uses them to market his position on issues (which may differ from those of his party), lambast those who oppose him, past and present, and energize his supporters.  Why does he do this?

Clearly, even though he won the election, he must feel sufficiently insecure in his office that he must continue to campaign.  Such campaign rallies are not directed at the nation he was elected to lead, but to those who supported and voted for him. Their cheering and their applause make him feel good, just as it did back when he was running for office.

Other than during the year or so when he might be running for re-election, I cannot think of an American president who took time off from running the country to do this kind of thing.

This is the height of insecurity.  In distant history, insecure monarchs would keep their courts filled with sycophants to make them feel less insecure.  Today, our sitting President who glories in campaign rallies for his supporters is doing no less. 
  
The United States of American does not need a President who is insecure.  Our nation has enough real problems with which to deal and should not be additionally burdened by the President’s troubled psyche.

The Republicans in the House and in the Senate should take steps to remedy this situation because it is of their party's making.  Our PEFAP must be impeached or urged to resign.

(In previous postings, PEFAP was defined as “Poor Excuse for a President.”)
JL
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