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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.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

04-13-2022 - A Michigan Jury, the AG's Delay, Holiday Greetings and Why the GOP Should Be Abolished

 

IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG, PLEASE SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND OTHERS YOU FEEL MIGHT ENJOY READING IT. 
 JL 

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A Michigan Jury and Inside Garland's Head

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer








A Michigan jury recently acquitted the four men who had planned to kidnap the State’s governor. They objected to, among other things, her policies concerning the Covid19 pandemic.  Their documented conversations played at the trial included talking about blowing up a bridge, killing the governor and other violence.  The group they belonged to was armed in a military manner, although this was mostly ‘for show.’  

Their defense attorney had claimed that they hadn’t said anything shocking.  After the decision, he was quoted as saying “If you don’t like the governor and it’s rough talk, I can do that in our country.  That’s what’s beautiful about this country.  That’s what great about it. So hurrah, freedom in America.  It’s still here.”  Putting the shoe on the other foot, I wonder what would happen to a Floridian who openly advocated the killing of Governor Ron DeSantis and if prosecuted for that, what a Florida jury might decide. 

The Michigan jury’s decision is part of the reason Attorney General Garland isn’t rushing into prosecuting those who inspired the January 6 insurrection, including the defeated former president and his aides.  With decisions from juries like this possible and a SCOTUS that might just agree with them, any American can threaten the life of government officials they oppose and propose other acts of violence against the State.  

This is what happened on January 6, 2021 when the vote-counting rules established by the Constitution were violently attacked and the life of the Vice President threatened with a gallows built in front of the Capitol.  In today’s America, such “rough talk” is acceptable because some think it is included in the freedoms we enjoy.   Those who understand history know that it isn’t.  It emulates the way the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1932.  That kind of behavior describes too many Republicans today. 

But still the fear of a jury deciding against conviction and courts upholding that decision, if challenged, causes the Attorney General to hesitate starting prosecutions which might end up with the accused walking out of the courthouse with a veneer of innocence.

JL 

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Holiday Greetings

This week marks the beginning of the Passover holiday for Jews as well as the Easter holiday for Christians and Ramadan for Muslims.  I hope all enjoy and benefit from these holidays.  

In connection with the Jewish celebration of Passover, here is a bit from a weekly newsletter put out by a guy in Chicago that usually deals with Israeli issues. It is a list of ten signs that you are at a ‘Republican’ seder. (A seder is the festive meal served during the Passover holiday.)  It is humorously political. But after all, Passover does deal with the politics of a minority fleeing political oppression, so it is in a sense, appropriate.  Here goes:

10. Guests refuse to answer the four questions, part of the seder ritual, without a subpoena. 

9. They demand a recount of the ten plagues, also part of the seder ritual.

8. They defend not increasing the minimum wage on the grounds that according to Chad Gadya (a children’s song sung at seders), it still costs only two ‘zuzzim’ to buy a goat.

7. The ‘afikomen’ is hidden in the Cayman Islands.

6. Guests refuse to open the door for Elijah until they see his immigration papers. 

5. They attack Moses for negotiating a deal with Pharoah because why would we negotiate with our enemies? 

4. They don't understand why the Egyptians didn’t cure the plagues with hydroxychloroquine.

3. They omit the parts about slavery from the Haggadah because it reminds them of Critical Race Theory.

 2. They keep saying “when do we get to the miracle of the Jewish space lasers?” 

And the number one sign that you might be at a ‘Republican’ seder:

1. They end the seder by singing "Next year in Mar-a-Lago."


The author closes by wishing everyone a sweet Pesach.  I do that as well,
 along with a joyous Easter and a rewarding Ramadam.

 JL 

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An Argument for the Abolition of the GOP

Here’s a letter from Tuesday’s Palm Beach Post.  I agree wholeheartedly and urge that it be passed on to your friends and relatives. Perhaps it might reach some Republicans. 

“In 1940 Thomas Mann warned America that if fascism were to come to its shores, it would arrive in the name of freedom.  And so it has.  With the Jan. 6 insurrection, it made an ugly appearance intending to disabuse the people of the belief that Mr. Biden was the duly elected president. 

Clearly, the Trump-Putin alliance is not so stupid as to openly admit its fascism.  That’s because in its deceptiveness, it promotes itself as the party of freedom.  Regrettably because of its fascism, however inchoate, the GOP has in part lost its love of life and of life-giving values.  Genuine respect, compassion and friendship are of no concern.   Truth, goodness and beauty hold no interest.  For some, they are merely signs of weakness.  Life instead is a willful struggle to gain and retain power in its crudest form.  It feeds on limited rancor, vilification and hatred.  It has no appetite for solving social problems.

In essence fascism in the GOP is a destructively divisive and deadly force in politics and life itself.  Its very existence is an argument for its abolition.”

 JL 

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Advice: There are two reasons why people move to Florida:  lower taxes and a better climate.  No other reasons exist.  Everything else Florida offers is available elsewhere, even better!   Retirees and others planning on moving to the ‘Sunshine State’ should consider the 47 other acceptable choices.
(Right now, Texas and Oklahoma are as bad choices as Florida.)

JL 

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No mention of Covid19 or Ukraine in today's blog posting ... but wait, interesting material for you is in the works

 

 

 

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