A Healthier Democracy, "Cheatin' Donald's" Sister, the "Fumfer" Index, Robert E. Lee, Two Worthwhile Columns and my Latest Letter.

Tax Returns Not Released.

Subpoenas Ignored.

Muzzling Witnesses.

What does He Have to Hide?

Those of you who have read the previous posting on this blog  were aware of  the "finagling" the tax laws allow real estated developers and investors to do, tactics which are unavailable to any other indusrty, and which enabled Donald Trump, if it ever comes out, to be shown to not have paid any income taxes in many recent years.  This was apparent to me, and the sources I quoted on the posting, BEFORE the New York Times turned it into a front page story.  Stick with this blog, and keep up with the times.  And today, this is probably the first place where you can read about how our democratic rights will have to be reduced if our democracy is to survive.  Read on.

Tax Returns Not Released.

Subpoenas Ignored.

Muzzling Witnesses.

What does He Have to Hide?

Toward a Healthier Democracy - Correcting the Harm that has been Done

Great harm has been done to the nation by

(1) the legitimate election of an unfit individual to the Presidency, accomplished within the guidelines set down in our Constitution,

(2) the ignorance of many of the voters who cast their ballots for him giving him crucial electoral votes,

(3) the blind subservience of most of the Republican Party’s elected Representatives and Senators to the President’s wishes out of fear of losing his supporters’ votes,

(4) the permanent appointment of Federal Judges at all levels, including the Supreme Court, representing unpopular, conservative, if not reactionary, legal philosophies,

(5) the administrative relaxing of regulations intended to protect the health and welfare of all citizens in favor of letting businesses do what they wish and

(6) the disturbing of the delicate world-wide political and economic connections that had enabled the nation to prosper and maintain world peace for more than half a century.

The harm has been done.  Even the ascendency of a Democrat to the White House and Democratic control of both Houses of Congress would not be enough to quickly undo the evils brought about by the election of an unfit individual to the presidency in 2016.  It will take decades to undo this harm, but it will be done. 

The America which will emerge at that point, distantly down the road, will be a different nation from what it was before 2016.  It will recognize the flaws in our democracy which permitted the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. 

The Constitution will have to be amended to address these flaws and this will take many years to accomplish.  In addition to involving the way we select our President, they may include modification of both the First and the Second Amendments to the Constitution. 

Unfortunately, these will result in losses of some of the freedoms Americans have always cherished, because some of those very freedoms have been the cause of the malignancy which afflicted the nation in 2016. 

Those who created our Constitution and its Bill of Rights envisioned a limited, educated, property-owning, electorate in each of the thirteen new States comprising our nation in 1789.  But what was true then, demographically, quickly changed.  In short order, voters no longer had to be property-owners, educated nor even literate.  And their numbers increased massively, with power shifting gradually from the States to the Federal government.  As a result, Presidents were elected who “stretched the rules” in a way the Founding Fathers had not anticipated.  Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and to some extent, subsequent Presidents, have not hesitated to do so. 

This “elasticity” in the words of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights may have well served the nation, particularly in regard to the interrelation of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of our government, at least up until now.  But currently that balance is in disarray, primarily because of the harm done by the election of 2016.

 

The President, through of a combination of his selfish, if not evil, intent and a basic ignorance of the office he holds, has gone too far.  That’s why there will have to be changes in our Constitution to guarantee the survival of the United States of America as a healthier, but more limited, democracy than we have at present.  This may take more than several generations to accomplish, but the 2020 election is when and where it must start.  Othewise, we will no longer be a democracy in any sense of the word very much longer.
Jack Lippman

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A quick comment regarding "impeachment" - - - Those still tallking about impeachment should be well aware that would be an absolutely disasterous move for Democrats unless and until they are guaranteed at least twenty votes from the Republicans in the Senate - - - and that just won't happen!  The chance of that happening are less than the chances of the Miami Marlins winning the World Series this year.

                       

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Tax Returns Not Released.

Subpoenas Ignored.

Muzzling Witnesses.

What does He Have to Hide?

The "Fumfer" Index

“Fumfer” is a Yiddish word meaning “to mumble” which has crept into English usage.  In addition to “mumbling,” it also might include speaking aimlessly, possibly incoherently or ungrammatically as well as pausing unnecessarily, injecting frequent “uh’s” into sentences or even correcting oneself awkwardly after an accidental misstatement.  Sometimes “fumferring” is an evasive tactic, to avoid addressing an issue squarely.  More often it is just sloppiness on the part of the speaker.  Fumferrers rarely recognize that they are fumferring.

With that in mind, I am establishing a “Fumfer Index” and applying it to some of the potential Democratic candidates for the presidency in 2020.   This is highly subjective and subject to change.  Ratings are in the traditional “A” to “F” marking scale, with “A” going to the candidates who fumfers the least.  In choosing a Democratic candidate to oppose Donald Trump in the 2020 election, the “Fumfer Index” will be important, particularly in TV debates.

Candidate                    "Fumfer" Index

Joe Biden                            C

Bernie Sanders                   B

Elizabeth Warren                A

Kamala Harris                     A

Beto O’Rourke                     B

Pete Guttigieg                      A

Amy Kolbuchar                   B

Cory Booker                        D

Kristen Gillibrand                B

Julian Castro                       B

JL

Tax Returns Not Released.

Subpoenas Ignored.

Muzzling Witnesses.

What does He Have to Hide?

                                                     

"Cheatin' Don's" Sister Resigns

Judge Barry

Last month, Donald Trump’s older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, who was still a Federal judge in New York, although on limited duty on the bench because of her age, turned in her resignation.  Because of an article in the New York Times, an investigation was being conducted into her involvement in some of her family’s financial dealings in the 1990s.  With her resignation, the investigation was terminated.  

This of course was much to the relief of her brother.

JL

Tax Returns Not Released.

Subpoenas Ignored.

Muzzling Witnesses.

What does He Have to Hide?

Dog Whistles

The President and his true believers now claim his Charlottesville “good people on both sides” remarks actually were spoken in regard to the removal of Confederate statues, such as the many such monuments to Robert E. Lee.  Even if that were the case, such comments are taken by white nationalist anti-Semites as “dog whistles” tacitly encouraging them. 

Lee Stature

Defending Confederate statuary was only incidental to the reason these evil people came to Charlottesville.  The President should remember that Robert E. Lee, in leading an insurrection against the government of the United States of America, broke the oath of loyalty to that nation and to its Constitution which he had sworn to defend as an officer in the United States Army.  Such statues belong in historical museums, not in public parks.

                                                               JL

Tax Returns Not Released.

Subpoenas Ignored.

Muzzling Witnesses.

What does He Have to Hide?

Defeating Trump in 2020 Will Not Be Easy

Thiessen

Not all Trump supporters and not all Republicans are ignorant, stupid, gullible or any combination of these adjectives.  No, some think rationally.  I don’t agree with them, but it would be delusional for Democrats to ignore them.  Here is a column by Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen (No, they are not all liberals at the Post) which represents the kind of thinking with which Democrats will have to deal if they are to win in 2020.  

Sometimes preserving what has always made America great, the Constitution of the United States, matters more than what may be transient economic numbers.  I urge all Democrats, especially the ones who are sure Trump’s evil nature and abysmal poll numbers will defeat him in 2020, to CLICK HERE to read this column.  

JL

Tax Returns Not Released.

Subpoenas Ignored.

Muzzling Witnesses.

What does He Have to Hide?

The End of Everything?

Parker

The Washington Post's Kathleen Parker wrote last week about the same general subject which I entertained on this blog a few weeks ago.  I had pointed out that “homo sapiens” is only a tenant on the planet Earth and that our lease may be running out. 

Parker suggests that this prospective “end of everything” might be the only thing left to unify us.  (To read her column, CLICK HERE.)   

 

Let me add, as I pointed out in my April 20 posting (the one with the ants crawling all  over it), that this will require drastic political steps and technological actions on our part.  Go back and read it.

                                                            JL

Tax Returns Not Released.

Subpoenas Ignored.

Muzzling Witnesses.

What does He Have to Hide?

A Letter to the "Post"

Here's the text of a letter I submitted to the Palm Beach Post last week.

Thursday’s “Neighborhood Post” section (at least the South County version I received) included a picture of three high school students honored for their first-place finish in a competition run by the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience. Congratulations to them!  Those who oppose a liberal immigration policy should take note from the winners’ last names that their parents or grandparents probably were relatively recent immigrants to this country.  That’s why we should continue to make certain that “the lamp beside the golden door” continues to burn brightly.

JL

Tax Returns Not Released.

Subpoenas Ignored.

Muzzling Witnesses.

What does He Have to Hide?

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Commercial Recently Seen on TV:

Important Announcement to All Breathers of Air

IF YOU OR YOUR LOVED ONES HAVE INHALED, SNIFFED OR OTHERWISE BREATHED IN AIR OVER THE PAST SIX YEARS, YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN A LARGE CASH SETTLEMENT!

Scientific research has shown that “air” is composed of such gases as nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%) and minute portions (1%) of gases such as argon, carbon dioxide and methane,  (The latter is a component of the reaction which creates the "sewer gas" aroma commonly associated with "rotten eggs.") 

Recent medical statistics show that all people who die have during their lifetimes breathed in “air” containing these gases to some extent on a daily basis and therefore it cannot be dismissed as a causative factor in their deaths. A class action lawsuit is in the process of being prepared in which you or any of your loved ones who have breathed in “air” during the past six years can participate.  If you feel that you qualify,

CALL 1-800-555-5555 RIGHT NOW

Weelove, Twosou and Fleasum, Esqs.  (Members of the Redacted Bar Association, but with a Florida license purchased at the the big Flea Market in on Sample Road in Broward County, Florida.)

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Tax Returns Not Released.

Subpoenas Ignored.

Muzzling Witnesses.

What does He Have to Hide?

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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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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. THESE FEATURES, ALONG WITH OTHER VALUABLE “SIDEBAR” ITEMS, INCLUDING ADVERTISEMENTS, MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE ON ALL MOBILE DEVICES.  CHECK THEM OUT ON YOUR DESKTOP OR LAPTOP COMPUTERS.

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Jack Lippman