A Gerson “Must
Read” Column
There
was a great Washington Post column by
Republican conservative Michael Gerson last week. In it (the column’s heading was ‘Republicans
must pick their point of principled resistance’), Gerson quotes author Edward
Luce about populism as follows: “the true populist
loses patience with the rules of the democratic game” and goes on to
comment that “he comes to view himself as the
embodied voice of the people and (sees) opponents as (in Trump’s words)
“un-American“ and “treasonous.”
Wow! You must read the entire
column!
St. Thomas More |
I
read the column in the Palm Beach Post, which
had omitted its final paragraph which talked about St.
Thomas More, who in Robert Bolt’s play “A Man for All Seasons,” had to
make a fatal decision resulting in his execution. He drew a line beyond which he would not
retreat in confronting evil.
That’s why the Roman Catholic Church made him a saint. Republicans can’t hope for sainthood if they
act now, but they can take a lesson from this column.
Click here to read the full column as it originally appeared in the Washington Post.
Jack Lippman
How it Will End
Things
are developing so fast with the Presidency that this weekly blog cannot keep up
with them. Cracks in the edifice are widening.
The advance hints as to what Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book will reveal and the New York Times Op-ed piece by an anonymous Senior White House official deeply criticizing the President are unprecedented. Charges of incompetence and mental illness even overshadow hints at criminality. Even Barack Obama has issued a clarion call to America to wake up!
The advance hints as to what Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book will reveal and the New York Times Op-ed piece by an anonymous Senior White House official deeply criticizing the President are unprecedented. Charges of incompetence and mental illness even overshadow hints at criminality. Even Barack Obama has issued a clarion call to America to wake up!
But
there are still enough Americans out there sufficiently gullible, misled, misinformed or just plain dumb (no other word
suffices) supporting the President, and enough Republicans in Congress who fear
that their speaking the truth will result in a fatal primary challenge from the
right to prevent anything being done at this point. They are quiet because the majorities
his supporters have given them in Congress enable them to push through what is
mostly a traditional Republican agenda (Tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation,
weakened safety net, emasculated health care, conservative judiciary, etc.). That
is sad, but that is what happens when easily-swayed people vote against their
own interests and put Republicans into office.
Go
back right now and read the Gerson column above if you have not already. This is what it is all about.
Mueller |
There will have to be something absolute, irrefutable and
ironclad, from Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation or otherwise, which when
presented to the public, to Congress … and to the President … will result in
his immediate resignation. I don’t know what that something is, but
it is out there lurking somewhere, like Moby Dick following the Pequod,
occasionally hinting at its presence, but not revealing itself fully until
poised to ultimately destroy its target. That will end it
all.
Moby Dick was a White Whale ... but a picture of one here wouldn't show up as well as this one does. Sorry.
Moby Dick was a White Whale ... but a picture of one here wouldn't show up as well as this one does. Sorry. |
A Parker Quote
Here’s
a quick quote from a Kathleen Parker Washington
Post column last week directed at Evangelicals, who along with
Congressional Republicans, daily attain new heights of hypocrisy.
“If Republicans do lose Congress, it will be because of Trump
himself. A Democratic victory in the
midterms will happen because of the GOP’s silence in the face of Trump’s
untenable behavior; their lack of courage in condemning his Draconian execution
of policies; and the utter hypocrisy of allowing such a foul-mouthed,
race-baiting misogynist to occupy the Oval Office after many of these same
paragons of virtue impeached Bill Clinton for lying about his irresponsible
affair with an intern.”
Parker,
like Gerson, are life-long Republicans.
Something Special About Poetry
Sara
passed this 2007 poem on to us. Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, the major poet of the Beat Generation as well as a painter,
bookseller and liberal activist, is still alive and kicking at age 99. Poets have the
uncanny ability to write things that endure over the years. That’s what so special about poetry. One cannot deny that this poem has
meaning for us today.
Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars,
whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people
who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.
JL
The Education of Donald Trump
I’ve
always had my doubts about how Donald J. Trump amassed his educational
credentials. Living in a nice
neighborhood in the borough of Queens of New York City, Trump could have gone
to one of the best high schools in the entire city at the time, Jamaica High
School, just a short distance from where he lived.
Instead, his family opted to send him to the
New York Military Academy. In my
recollection, back in the day, teenagers who attended military academies were
sent there by their parents, if they could afford it, because they believed a
private school education would be better for their offspring than a public high
school. But there are many private
schools that are not military academies.
Those whom I knew who attended military academies did so for one of two
reasons. Some came from military families that felt such a secondary education
would be a good start for a military career.
Others felt that the structure of a military academy, for a variety of
reasons, would benefit the student better than a non-military environment. Donald Trump did not come from a military
family.
Jamaica High School |
Fordham
University, where Trump spent his first two college years, is a rigorous
college run by the Jesuit order, and provides an excellent education and is not
particularly easy to get into. The
University of Pennsylvania, to which Trump transferred for his junior and
senior years, is one of the great schools of our nation, and its business
curriculum, anchored at the Wharton School of Business, is said to be one of
the best in the nation and also has rigorous entrance requirements.
From
what I’ve seen of the President, he did not learn very much at either Fordham
nor Penn (nor at NYMA for that matter).
I wonder how long it will be before some investigative body looks into
whether any sizable donations might have been made to either of these schools
by Donald Trump’s family at about the time he was a student there. It would be to his credit if there were
none.
JL
Instinctive, Ingrained Bigotry in the Florida Governorship Race
Let’s
be overly fair to Ron DeSantis, Republican nominee for the Florida governorship. He was accused of racism when he said that “The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up and try to embrace a socialist agenda.” The man does not speak English very well (despite an undergraduate
degree from Harvard and a Law degree from Yale) and I suspect the words he
actually was trying to get out of his mouth were that “the last thing we need
to do is monkey around and try to embrace a socialist
agenda.” While “monkey around” is a frequently used expression, I have never heard anyone say “monkey up.” I think he was confusing this with saying “screw this up” but he failed to get the syntax right when “screwing up” got somehow switched to “monkeying up.”
Nevertheless, the use of this expression, either way, conjures up an
image of an inept monkey trying to do something and failing at it, and in the southern
part of the United States today, this clearly evokes a racial meaning,
especially when DeSantis’ opponent is a man of color, and a lot of people who
are voting in Florida still aren’t quite certain of who won the Civil War.
Most charitably conceding that DeSantis did not
consciously intend it to come out that way, we are left with the alternative
that his choice of words was instinctive or sub-conscious and that
makes it even worse. Why didn’t
he just say “screw this up” instead of “monkey this up? I believe that this is what he started out to
do, but his instinctive, ingrained bigotry popped the
word “monkey” into his mouth instead of the word “screw”
without even bothering to get the syntax straight. This says all that need be said about the man’s
character. He’s a turd.
You can smell him a mile off. This will do him little good beyond the Trump
base, which also has an instinctive, ingrained bigotry affecting
everything they say or do.
Now that I’ve said about the nicest things I can say about him,
here’s the rest of the story on Ron DeSantis.
Let’s
start in the House of Representatives.
His legislative record there includes the introduction of a bill in 2014
to direct the DOJ to report to Congress when any Federal Agency refrains from enforcing
laws on the books. This was aimed at reducing the power of President Obama under the
pretext that he was not enforcing laws in order to further his “unpopular
agenda.”
A year earlier, he signed on to a pledge,
initiated by the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity group, promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes.
A year ago, DeSantis proposed a rider to the
2018 spending package which would end funding for the 2017 Special Counsel investigation and also limiting how far back they could go
in their investigations, countering a bi-partisan measure aimed at limiting the
President’s power to fire the Special Prosecutor.
Needless to say, DeSantis is a member of the
right-wing Freedom
Caucus, whose actions, along
with those of the President, are destroying the Republican Party whose failing
label he carries into the Governorship race.
DeSantis has the President’s support in that
race. He is so devoted to the President
that during the primary campaign, he ran an ad showing him teaching his young
children how to “build the (Trump’s) wall” and say "Make America Great Again.” He also
dressed the youngest in a tiny red "Make America Great Again"
jumper.
Asked by a reporter if he could name an issue where he
disagreed with Trump, DeSantis was not able to name a single issue.
But speaking of “issues,” here is a brief summary of where DeSantis stands on some important ones.
Peas in a Pod |
But speaking of “issues,” here is a brief summary of where DeSantis stands on some important ones.
· He was against the VA giving veterans access to marijuana when recommended by a VA doctor.
·
He opposes abortion and
has denounced Planned Parenthood.
·
He agreed with the Supreme Court decision
which permitted the Hobby Lobby company to deny their employees
group health coverage which included paying for abortions.
·
He believes the Federal
Reserve System should be audited.
·
DeSantis supported a bill which required that regulations
which have a significant economic impact be subject to a vote of Congress prior
to taking effect.
·
DeSantis sponsored the Transportation
Empowerment Act, which would transfer much of the responsibility
for transportation projects to the individual states and sharply reduce the Federal tax on gasoline.
·
DeSantis has opposed legislation to require
online retailers to collect and pay state sales tax.
·
He voted in favor of the 2017
Tax Cut Act, primarily benefiting the wealthy and
businesses, believing that it will bring more jobs to America.
·
DeSantis opposes Federal
education programs such as “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to
the Top,” saying that education policy should be made at the local level.
·
In 2015, DeSantis introduced the Guantanamo
Bay Recidivism Prevention Act, which would cut off foreign aid to countries
that receive detainees from Guantanamo if they show back up on the terrorism
recidivism list.
·
DeSantis opposed President
Obama's plan to shut down the Guantanamo’s detention facility
saying that bringing hardened terrorists to the U.S. homeland harms our
national security."
·
Regarding the formal restart of diplomatic
relations between the U.S. and Cuba, DeSantis said
"Raising the Cuban flag in the United States (over an embassy) is a slap
in the face to those who have experienced the brutality of the Castro
regime."
·
DeSantis opposed the Iran
nuclear deal, calling it a bad deal that will
significantly degrade our national security. DeSantis accused President Barack
Obama of giving better treatment to Cuba's Raul Castro and Iran's
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei than to Israel's Benjamin Netanyhahu. (Right now, all signatories to that agreement
seem to be adhering to it, with the exception of the United States, because of
President Trump’s views.)
·
In 2013, DeSantis introduced the Palestinian
Accountability Act, which would halt U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority
until it formally recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and cuts
off all ties with the terror group Hamas. DeSantis supported the move
of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Actually, these measures lessen the chances of
resolving the Israeli-Palestinian problem in the near future.
·
Following the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland,
Florida, DeSantis expressed his support for hiring retired law enforcement officers and
military veterans as
armed guards for schools.
·
DeSantis is opposed to the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act. He has called for the "full and complete
repeal" of the act. But he wasn’t
ready to support the American Health Care Act, the House
Republican effort to replace it. Even
that wasn’t conservative enough for him.
·
DeSantis was a critic of President Obama's immigration
policies; he opposed Obama's deferred action programs (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of
Americans (DAPA)) and accused him of failing to enforce
immigration laws. DeSantis opposes "sanctuary
cities,” which refuse to use their police resources to enforce
questionable Federal programs.
·
Regarding U.S. policy toward refugees from the Middle East,
DeSantis said "the prudent policy is to err on the side of protecting the
American people.”
·
DeSantis has a "0"
rating from the Human Rights Campaign based on his
record of voting on LGBT-related
issues and legislation.
·
According to the Tampa Bay
Times, DeSantis "made a name
for himself in 2017 attacking
special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election." (See
above legislative record.)
·
In January 2018, while on the House
Intelligence Committee, DeSantis voted on party lines to release a classified
memo authored by Republicans on the committee which purported to show that the
FBI abused its surveillance powers in the Russia investigation. DeSantis voted
not to release a memo authored by Democrats on the committee which accused the
Republicans on the committee of playing politics with national security.
·
In April 2018, DeSantis called
on FBI Director Christopher Wray to criminally investigate a number of
officials involved in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, including former FBI Director James
Comey, former Acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, FBI Agent Peter Strzok
and FBI Counsel Lisa Page. DeSantis also called for investigations of a
number of former Obama officials, including Loretta Lynch and Hillary Clinton.
This man is no more
fit to be Governor of the State of Florida than Donald J. Trump is fit to be
President of the United States.
(Watch for the next edition of www.jackspotpourri.com,
in about a week, for the inside scoop on Democrat Andrew Gillum, who is
opposing DeSantis in the governorship race.)
JL
Kavanaugh
1. The Republicans
have enough Senators to confirm him. It
will happen.
2. The President
said he would only appoint a “pro-life” Justice and early on, in talking about
his family and community activities, Kavanaugh made a point of mentioning that
he coaches his daughters CYO basketball team.
He didn’t say “basketball team.”
He said “CYO basketball team.” At
that point, I knew where he will be going on abortion related cases. "Nothing but net." Case closed. First day!
3. As for protecting
the President from investigation, his continually evasive answers to questions
on that point make it clear that his loyalty is to the man who nominated him
and he is skillful enough to be able to find tortured legal precedent for
anything he does, once appointed. And he
will be appointed.
That will
be a real tragedy. The solution is to
make sure the Democrats control the Senate for the next twenty years! That is not in anyone’s hands except yours, dear readers.
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