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.

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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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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 

The Stream of History, TV at Eight in the Morning, and Five Interesting Bits and Pieces

First Thing in the Morning

Each morning when I wake up I flip on my bedroom TV to see if anything “big” happened overnight. 

Not me, but the picture is pretty appropriate anyway

Yesterday morning, both CNN and MSNBC, on this anniversary of the white supremacy demonstration in Charlottesville a year ago, were featuring panels discussing the manner in which the President manages to be a racist without specifically openly being one. 

They discussed his comments that “there were good people on both sides” in those demonstrations (Since when are any white supremacists “good people”?) and his attacks on NFL football players, Lebron James, CNN anchor Don Lemon, his stated preference for immigrants from places like Norway rather than the Central American immigrants seeking asylum at our southern border and his referring to certain African nations as “s_ _ t hole” countries.  (Do you see a pattern here?  Something that would appeal to a white supremacist, perhaps?) A former White House aide, who had worked on “the Apprentice” TV series and recalled the President’s use of the “n” word in those days was also included in both of these channels’ programming.  My conclusion:  If it walks like a duck, smells like a duck and quacks like a duck, one may conclude that it’s a duck.

I then switched to Fox News where a panel was seriously involved in interviewing an ex-NYC police officer who was producing evidence to prove that the Mueller investigation is nothing more than a smokescreen to hide the Democratic Party’s “collusion” with Russia.   This was clearly another Fox attempt to discredit the Mueller investigation which, in my opinion, is going to produce enough evidence to guarantee the impeachment, conviction and exile of Donald Trump, unless he resigns first, as did Richard Nixon. 

At that point, I shut off the TV, got up, and added this to the blog posting you are now reading.

Jack Lippman

The Stream of History – So Pertinent Today !

(A Tale of Two Johnsons)

History is like a stream running by, with eddies and currents, sometimes fast-moving, even churning, and other times slowly meandering with barely noticeable motion.  

The “Founding Fathers” sidestepped the issue of slavery when they established our country.  When this evasion could no longer be maintained, and all compromises had been exhausted, our bloody Civil War took place.  In the eyes of most at the time, in both the North and the South, the war was fought to preserve the Union, and not to end slavery.  The seceding States maintained that their “States’ Rights” permitted them to secede and of course, the Federal government disagreed.  The “rights,” of course, in which the seceding States so strongly believed that they were willing to shed blood for them, included their citizens’ right to own slaves.  They feared that the nation was sliding down a slippery slope leading to the abolition of slavery (which had already happened in most Western nations) but rather than come out and say that, they insisted that that the War was about “States’ Rights.” 

The Republican administration, after the Civil War was over, embarked on two courses.  First was reuniting the nation.  Second was dealing with the newly freed slaves.  The Republican Party was split among those who prioritized reuniting the nation and those who believed that guaranteeing the ex-slaves their newly found freedom was more important.  This latter group were known as Radical Republicans, led by Charles Sumner and later, by Thaddeus Stevens.  Today we would call them “civil rights advocates.”  Crucial to determining who would win out in this struggle was the unsuccessful attempt to impeach Andrew Johnson, who had succeeded the assassinated Abraham Lincoln in the White House.

Lincoln had been a fence-sitter between both sides, but many feel he would have ultimately sided with the Radical Republicans. Johnson was a Democrat whom Lincoln selected to be his Vice-Presidential running mate as a sign of unity between the parties and was most unlikely to side with the Radical Republicans. 

Andrew Johnson

Basically, the impeachment was based on Johnson’s supposedly unconstitutional attempts to fire his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.  Stanton stood with the Radical Republicans in regard to the freed slaves, advocating an extended military government of the South.  Johnson stood with the rest of the Republicans and the Democratic remnant in Congress, both of these groups being more intent on reunification of the nation than on dealing with slavery, and willing to offer amnesty to the former secessionists on a relatively generous basis.    With the failure of Johnson’s impeachment in the Senate by one vote, which was probably bought, the course was set for the fate of the ex-slaves over the next century.  Bringing equality to them would take a back seat.

The next two Presidents, Ulysses S. Grant (1868-1876) and Rutherford B. Hayes (1876-1880) gradually brought the seceding States back into the Union and also attempted the Reconstruction of the South, half-heartedly trying to bring the ex-slaves into the mainstream of American society.  These were turbulent times hallmarked by political corruption, bloody racial violence and deals between the political parties which ignored the underlying purpose of the Civil War, once you got beyond the surface of the “States’ Rights” argument to its core, that of ending slavery.  By the end of Rutherford B. Hayes’ presidency in 1880, “Reconstruction” was over.  The States of the Confederacy, now readmitted to the Union, were dominated by the same former slave-owning upper classes there who, whether they were Republicans or Democrats, cared little about the welfare of the ex-slaves. 

States got away with passing local legislation which hampered equality for the ex-slaves despite the passage of the 14^th and 15^th Amendments (banning slavery and providing equal protection under the law for all).  Radical Republicans got nowhere with their efforts.  Although the Federal government did fight Southern terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, these remained powerful until well into the 20^th century. “Jim Crow” laws segregating schools, transportation and almost everything else in the South were passed and found to be constitutional by a compliant and politicized Supreme Court, and only were challenged when the 1964 Civil Rights Law was passed during the administration of Lyndon Johnson.  Another 54 years have passed since then and many Americans still remain anchored or becalmed somewhere far upstream from today in the stream of history in which today’s events are flowing by us. 

  

Lyndon Johnson

The Radical Republicans of the 1860’s and 1870’s parallel the left wing of today’s Democratic Party.  Were he still alive, Republican Charles Sumner would probably campaign for Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Lopez.  The remaining “regular” Republicans and the Democrats during the last three decades of the 19^th century more or less paralleled today’s Republican Party, having a pro-business orientation and downplaying social issues, including the plight of the former slaves.  Only since the advent of Franklin Delano Roosevelt has a progressive Democratic Party evolved, one that is willing to attempt to swim with the current in the stream of history.  It took a near-fatal economic depression to get America to start to do that by throwing the rascals out during the 1930s and1940s.  But now the rascals are back, and they are busily trying to row upstream against the current.

JL

Five Items of Interest

 Check them out.

JL

1. Sexy Theatre Question 

If you were to go to see a production where the leading female character is played by a male actor, and that female role requires that she impersonate a male, who temporarily impersonates a female for purposes of the plot, what would you be witnessing?  (answer at end of this posting.)

(a) a mildly pornographic film

(b) a nude drama in a basement theatre in Manhattan's East Village

(c) something by William Shakespeare

(d) the annual show at the Fire Island (N,Y) Drama Festival

 2. Bada Book, Bada Bing

In the preceding posting, the demeaning of men in advertisements was discussed. This is most prevalent in television commercials such as the current one which advertises a middle-level hotel chain.  The owner or CEO of the company, a tall, dumb looking gentleman, simplifies everything his staff brings up by saying all one has to do is say “Badda book, badda bing.” 

That expression originated in the one of the Godfather movies where shooting someone up close to get rid of them quickly, “bada bing,” was used.  To make the point that a gunshot was involved, sometimes “bada boom” is added by those using this expression. (It also appeared in the Soprano TV series as the name of Tony Soprano’s strip joint, “Badda Bing.”) 

Obviously, the CEO in the aforementioned commercial is totally unaware of all of this and corrupts the expression to “Badda book, badda bing,” perhaps alluding to the fact that hotels are in the business of “booking” rooms and displaying total ignorance of the actual expression.  In any event, I am still waiting to see a TV commercial where this kind of stupidity is attributed to a female.

3. The Willfully Thick

Some of Kathleen Parker’s Washington Post columns are reproduced a few days later in many newspapers.  I read them in the Palm Beach Post.  On August 9, they published a Parker column dealing with the President which originally appeared on July 27 in the Washington Post.  Oddly, I have been unable to locate it on the various websites, including that of the Washington Post, where her columns are usually accessible.  Nevertheless, here are the concluding words of that column as it appeared in the Palm Beach Post where our country’s growing frustration with the Trump immovable base is aptly described thusly,

“It isn’t possible to use logic with the illogical; it’s futile to explain the obvious to the willfully thick.”

 

Great!  Couldn’t have said it better myself.  Don’t bother arguing with these idiots. Just register and vote, and make sure you get a few other to do the same.

And as an afterthought related to my opposition to the direct popular election of the President, if indeed 40% of our electorate think illogically and are willfully thick, the Founding Fathers were wise is restricting their ability to elect a President on a popular basis back in 1789.  Our democracy wasn’t any more ready for direct election of Presidents then that it is today.

 4. How to Tell You’re Getting Old

Recently, I was driving along 41th Street in Miami Beach with my daughter and some of her friends.  I pointed out that the neighborhood was becoming noticeably Jewish with several “Glatt Kosher” butcher shops and a number of “Hasidim” strolling along the sidewalks.  I then pointed at the street sign which read “41^st Street – Arthur Godfrey Road” and pointed out how ironic this was because Godfrey, a TV personality during the forties and fifties, was known to be an anti-Semite.  A nearby Bal Harbour hotel, the Kenilworth, from which he frequently broadcast, and of which he ultimately became a part-owner, openly rejected Jewish guests.  Some say that Godfrey changed this when he took over the place, but his reputation, deserved or not, still carries that stigma.  

The point I am making is that when I explained all of this, the four younger adults in the car all replied that they had never heard of Arthur Godfrey.  I understand where they were coming from because I most likely have never heard of a lot of entertainers today whose names are household words to those who have never heard of Arthur Godfrey.

 5. Investors:  Dumb or Smart?

One of the non-issues brought up in the Florida Democratic primary race for that party’s gubernatorial nomination is what is touted to be the nation’s biggest shopping mall being built on land west of Miami bordering on the Everglades.  Ignoring its political implications, if any, I seriously question the sanity of the developers and investors who are involved in such a project in an age when existing malls are filled with vacancies (according to the Wall Street Journal, this year’s mall vacancy rate just hit 8.6%, the highest since 2012), as major retail chains are downsizing and as more and more purchases are being made on the internet.  Could it be that investors in the mall expect to lose their shirts in this crazy project, and eagerly anticipate their being able to somehow use those losses to counter the profits made by other investments, thereby reducing their overall tax liability?

Answer to theatrical question asked above:  You’d be at a performance of William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”

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