Three Impeachment Attempts, A Book to Read, A Film to See, The President's Future, A Call to Republicans, Sportstime and RoboCalls

The Two-time Loser

Three times in American history has impeachment come into play.  Once, its mere threat resulted in the resignation of a President, Richard Nixon.  On two occasions, however, the House of Representatives went so far as to actually approve Articles of Impeachment of a President:  Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.  Neither were passed by the Senate, so the full impeachment of an American President has never taken place.

Andrew Johnson 

Nixon Resigned to Avoid Impeachment

Bill and Monica

There is a world of difference, however, between the reasons for these two failed impeachment attempts.  Bill Clinton supposedly lied under oath about his sexual involvement with a White House intern.   Andrew Johnson fired his Secretary of War, something a law at the time (the Tenure of Office Act) did not permit him to do.  Johnson disagreed with his Secretary of War about the details of how to deal with the defeated Confederacy and the freed slaves at the end of the Civil War. 

Clinton’s lies, as abhorrent as they might be, do not come near approaching the issues affecting national policy which the unsuccessful impeachment of Andrew Johnson involved. Today, criticism of President Trump exists on both moral grounds

Trump with Stormy

as it did with Bill Clinton and also on Constitutional issues and on national policy as was the case with Andrew Johnson.   Potentially, Trump can be a two-time loser.

Jack Lippman

 A Book to Read

Lawrence Wright writes for the New Yorker, but in God Save Texas, a Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State, he writes about something which should be of great importance, not only to Texans and those serious folks who read the New Yorker, but to all Americans.  

After he makes it clear to non-Texans (especially those from the Northeast, Florida and California) why Texas and Texans are somewhat different from other Americans, he also makes it clear that the Texas experience is a microcosm and perhaps a preview of what is going on in the other 49 states, only magnified in the way Texan things always seem to be.  Is Texas our future?  Although it’s an easy 350 page read, it you’re short on time, just read Chapter Seven (Dallas) which like that city, covers a lot of ground.  The book, despite its title, is not about Texas.  It’s about America.

JL 

A Question about the President

After the President Trump’s term of office is over (or otherwise ended), what will he be calling Michael Cohen?

Answer: “Cellmate.”  (Not really.  See below)

Seriously, If Michael Cohen goes to jail, Donald Trump also must.  The President is an accessory to some of the crimes to which Cohen has pleaded guilty.  If someone commits a crime at your behest, for you, and you are aware of it, you are equally guilty.  Cohen has provided evidence to that effect regarding the President and others are substantiating that evidence. The President has already admitted to personally reimbursing Cohen for the “hush money” he paid out, supposedly taking the payments outside of the realm of illegal campaign contributions, even though they took place just weeks before the 2016 election instead of anytime during the many intervening years between the “hushed” occasions and that election.  But he finally, after months of denial, admits reimbursing Michael Cohen who took care of paying the "hush" money.

Stop a second!  All of this, and the Mueller investigation too, could just be Democratic sideshows to divert the nation’s attention away from the facts that the economy is doing great, unfair taxes have been gotten rid of, and foreign countries have stopped taking advantage of us, all to the credit of Donald J. Trump!  That is the real truth in the eyes of what millions of Americans see daily on Fox News!  Never forget that.  Okay, now you can read on.  Just remember, millions of Americans are not on your side (nor mine).

Trump’s temperament and lies were acceptable for years in a part of the business world where everyone lies to some extent, bribes officials, pays off people, and cheats and insults others in order to come out ahead.  In that business, if you behave otherwise, you become a loser.  And in that business, Donald Trump was a winner!

Therefore, he honestly doesn’t think he has done anything wrong. He is just doing what he has always done.  His doctors’ lies kept him out of military service and good lawyers’ lies probably have kept him out of jail over the years.  So that makes it all legal in his eyes.  

But those days are coming to a close.  He will be impeached or more likely resign, be indicted afterwards, be convicted and, instead of incarceration, be allowed to live in exile somewhere.  I recommend Patagonia, along with Don, Jr., Jared and Ivanka to keep him company.

JL

A Call To Republicans

Republican Voters!  Is that collection of liars and ostriches in Washington really your party? Republicans used to be conservative, respectable people. Those who supported G.O.P. candidates throughout the party’s history were always the “nicest” people, even in the eyes of those who disagreed with them politically.  That’s why it was called the “Grand Old Party.”

But something has happened over the past decade.  Bigots, white nationalists, folks who are still fighting the Civil War, anti-immigration groups and conspiracy-believers have moved into your party and taken it over.  One who caters to them sits in the White House and the rest of the Republican Party now depends on their votes to keep their otherwise moribund party alive.  Sadly, the President’s questionable ethics have trickled down to many who call themselves Republicans today.  What a tragedy.
  

It’s not your party any longer.  Vote for Decency in 2018 or go fishing on Election Day. 

JL   

A Movie to See:  BlacKkKlansman

It’s almost September and the really good films are starting to appear.  Those released in the Spring and early Summer may be popular with the popcorn munchers but they never win any awards.  This one might, though! Don’t miss Spike Lee’s new film, “BlacKkKlansman,” starring John David Washington (Denzel’s son).  Set in the 70’s, which many of us remember, it doesn’t ignore today’s challenges as well. 

(Don’t remember the 70’s? Okay, just “google” Angela Davis and Stokely Carmichael for starters before you see the film. You probably already know who David Duke is.  He’s still around and a supporter of you know who.)

JL

It’s Sports Time

High school and college educators should reconsider the role of athletics, particularly football, at their institutions.  That role must always be secondary to the school’s primary mission, education.  

When I read about high school athletes transferring from one school to another because of an athletic program which promises to better enable them to use their skills and enhance their opportunity for a college athletic scholarship, I wonder if someone is getting their priorities mixed up.  At the college level, athletes jumping from one college to another to improve their chances of getting a professional offer is nothing to be proud of either.  (The number of such athletes at Florida Atlantic University, for example, causes me to wonder if that school has an Admissions Office, or just a Recruiting Department.)

The small number of high school athletes who actually benefit from such transfers and move on to a college education which they might not otherwise be able to access, and the miniscule number of college athletes who might make it to the NFL and its financial rewards, make such transfers a misleading goal for the many more students who would be better off pursuing other pathways to achieving success in their lives. 

Finally, there is no reason for high schools to play football at night. It’s just inviting teenagers to get into trouble after the game.  That started in rural areas where there wasn’t much to do in the evening anyway, but that isn’t the case here in South Florida.  Back in the day where I grew up, public high school football games were played in daylight on Saturday, and on Sunday after church, the parochial high schools played.  And no one got shot.

(This is an expanded version of a letter I recently submitted to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which had to be limited to 150 words.)

JL

"Hello?  Hello? - Is Anyone There? 

The world of landline telephones has been captured by criminals who make robocalls.  Forget the telemarketers who attempt to pitch something if you pick up.  You can always hang up on them.  The real culprits are those calls which you reluctantly pick up, usually because they seem to be from your local area and might be someone you know, despite the absence of caller ID information, and greet you with profound silence.  

Occasionally, I have picked up such calls and then, promptly hang up when there was no one there.  In some way, however, my act of picking up the phone on these very few occasions was enough to enable these criminals to capture my phone number to use in making further calls like the one I was foolish enough to pick up. I know this because I occasionally receive calls from people who, seeing my number, but with no message left, call me back.  (I believe these criminals make their money by assembling a list of phone numbers which they sell to supposedly legitimate marketing businesses, or use as the first step in identity theft.) 

When apprehended, these crooks should be tried and if convicted, serve hard time in prison.  (If they are located outside of the United States, our government should impose economic sanctions on the nations harboring them.)

The same problem exists on my mobile phone but to a far lesser extent and is much more easily monitored.  Unlimited numbers of such phone numbers can be permanently blocked on most mobile phones while landline phones usually have a limited capability for number blocking, which I always use to capacity.  I now tell my friends not to call me on my landline number and to call my mobile phone, or text or email me.  The only reason I keep a landline phone is because my burglar alarm provider requires one in connection with its system.  Within a few years there will be no such thing as landline phones except for businesses.  Right now, most people under age 50 don’t even have them.  Some don’t even know what they are.
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 sending me an email at Riart1@aol.com.

HOW TO CONTACT ME or CONTRIBUTE MATERIAL TO JACKSPOTPOURRI.com 

Contact me by email at Riart1@aol.com.   YOU ALSO CAN SEND ME YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO BE PUBLISHED IN THIS BLOG AS WELL AS YOUR COMMENTS AT THAT ADDRESS.  (Comments can also be made by clicking on the "Post a Comment" link at the blog's end, though few followers of the blog have done that lately.)

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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 

Sitting on Hands, Not Inconceivble: Impeachment, Abortion Rights, Agent Orange, An Enemy of the People and the Florida Primary

Do Not Sit on Your Hands

Some of us liberals are extremely alarmed about the autocratic tendencies of the President.   Others feel that our democracy will survive, despite its processes having failed and produced a President and many other elected officials who do not believe in, nor understand, “what makes America great.” That is, of course, our reliance upon the rule of law and the checks and balances provided by the Constitution.  These seem to be beyond their comprehension. 

The President attacks those checks and balances on a daily basis, lies on a daily basis and perverts the nation’s laws to carry out heinous acts, such as the family separation of immigrants seeking asylum.  This is not a time to sit on one’s hands and assume that everything will eventually return to normal in our country.  It is a time for reaction to the President's excesses.  It is not a time for inaction.  Things do not automatically "get better."  

In other nations, when ugly autocracy raised its head and the citizenry sat on their hands, things did not return to normal.  Wars had to be fought for that to happen.  Do not sit on your hands.  Words are not enough.  Become active.  And that means more than just voting.  Find candidates whose programs you support and volunteer to work for them.  Do not sit on your hands.  Others who have done that suffered because of their inaction.
Jack Lippman

A Good Thing for the G.O.P.

Although it is unlikely, It is not inconceivable that President Trump might be impeached.

It takes a simple majority in the House of Representatives to pass Articles of Impeachment, and it is likely that the Democrats will have such a majority after the November elections.  To act on these articles, however, and rid the country of its President, two thirds of the Senate must vote to act on them.  The Democrats will not have such a majority in the Senate.  Even control of that body by them is unlikely this year.

In the Senate, however, many Republicans quietly resent a President who in addition to possibly being guilty of committing high crimes and misdemeanors,  has taken over their party and turned it into his own personal vehicle.  They want to regain control of their party.  Further, some are beginning to feel that the growing unpopularity of the President will affect the electability of all Republican candidates so long as he remains the titular head of their party.  In their eyes, the removal of Donald Trump from the Presidency would ultimately be a good thing for the G.O.P.

Therefore, when it comes to voting on any Articles of Impeachment, it is not inconceivable that a sufficient number of Republican Senators, for these reasons, will join with their Democratic colleagues to vote to impeach, thereby recapturing control of their party.  This will cost them the votes of Trump’s die-hard supporters and lose them some important elections but at least it would give them their party back.  Right now, they have no party of their own.  Theirs was sold to Donald Trump in exchange for the votes of his loyal supporters.

Aware of this possibility, even though it is still unlikely, the President is in his attack mode flailing out against those who criticize him. His weapons include security clearances, firings, retirement benefits and intemperate pejorative “tweets” (tweeting is the tool of the illiterate) used against those who criticize him. When backed into a corner, he fights back most viciously, for he knows his alternatives just might be on their way to being reduced to two:  Impeachment or a Nixonian resignation.

This scenario, although unlikely, is not inconceivable. 
JL

Enemy of the People:  Select One!

First, examine their records.
  

John Brennan

Donald Trump

JL

Florida Governor's Race

If someone were to ask me whom I voted for (and I already have voted by mail) in the Florida Democratic primary for governor, I would reply that I took this opportunity to vote for the candidate whom I feel best represents the uncompromised goals of the Democratic Party.   I voted my conscience, as I should have done in the 2016 Presidential primary.  

(The major candidates, in alphabetical order, are Andrew Gillum, Gwen Graham, Jeff Greene, Chris King, and Philip Levine, plus two minor candidates who together  are unlikely to get more than a few thousand votes.)

JL

Abortion Rights

There’s a lot of talk about Rowe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion in this country, being reversed because of the President’s appointments to the Supreme Court (Gorsuch last year and Kavanaugh likely to be confirmed this year).  These justices believe that Court decisions should not act to “create” rights not originally defined in the Constitution.  This was the position of the late Justice Scalia, who always looked backward, never forward.  (Don’t drive a car that way; you might get into an accident.  Same applies to the SCOTUS.)

The idea that abortion is wrong is a religious teaching, clearly a part of Roman Catholicism, and embraced by some in other religions as well, including some Evangelical Protestants and some Orthodox Jews.  Lately, these folks have been claiming that laws and court decisions allowing abortions discriminate against them since they contradict their beliefs, and amount to taking away some of their First Amendment rights, which specify that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” They feel the free exercise of their religion is to some extent “prohibited” since laws allowing abortion make their beliefs concerning abortion illegal.

I consider this extremely tortured reasoning.  The danger it poses is that this kind of thinking could be extended to other “rights” created by Court decisions such as those legalizing same sex marriage and gay, lesbian and transgender rights, things which are counter to the religious beliefs of many, usually the same people who believe legalized abortions prohibit the free exercise of their religion. 

What these folks, and this includes many judges, miss is that the First Amendment disallows laws prohibiting the free “exercise” of religion.  Believing something taught in one’s religion is not the same as “exercising” or performing an act taught in one’s religion. 

Example: A law against labelling kosher and halal foods would make close to impossible the free exercise of an act many Jews and Muslims believe in as part of their religion, the avoidance of prohibited foods.  Therefore, such a law would violate the First Amendment.  A law, or court decisions, protecting such labelling, on the other hand, would not affect anyone’s beliefs and would not violate the First Amendment because it would not prohibit the “free exercise” of anything whatsoever.    

Carry this analogy on to abortion where laws and court decisions allowing it do not take away any rights whatsoever from those whose religious beliefs condemn abortion.  They can oppose it "till the cows come home" but they are not prevented from believing abortion to be wrong.  

Religious opponents of abortion, and that is what most anti-abortion supporters are, should stop concerning themselves with what choices other people may make in dealing with their body’s reproductive mechanisms.  Their opposition should not take the form of a jihad nor should it be based on a corruption of the First Amendment as to what rights it protects.
JL

Agent Orange and the Truth

A friend recently referred to the President as “Agent Orange.”  Curious as to the possible origin of that nickname, I found myself checking out a July column in the U.S. edition of the Guardian where Richard Wolffe wrote an incisive article about the President’s aversion to truth and in which he uses that expression, alluding to the possible control of our orange-haired President by a foreign power. To check it out, all you have to do is CLICK HERE.

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 sending me an email at Riart1@aol.com.

HOW TO CONTACT ME or CONTRIBUTE MATERIAL TO JACKSPOTPOURRI.com 

Contact me by email at Riart1@aol.com.   YOU ALSO CAN SEND ME YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO BE PUBLISHED IN THIS BLOG AS WELL AS YOUR COMMENTS AT THAT ADDRESS.  (Comments can also be made by clicking on the "Post a Comment" link at the blog's end, though few followers of the blog have done that lately.)

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