06-27-2022 - Roe vs Wade Dies, Liz, Hamlet and a Fine Letter

 

There is only one overriding issue of political concern right now, encompassing much of what has been appearing on this blog. That is how to defeat Republicans on Nov. 8, about 19 weeks from now. The future of democracy in the United States, however imperfect it may be, is at stake. Really!  That's the ballgame!

To win in November, Democrats must capture the votes of women and persons of color, groups whose interests Republican actions consistently attack, including  both abortion rights and voting rights. 

JL 

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The Repeal of Roe vs. Wade

On Friday, June 24, the Supreme Court reversed earlier SCOTUS rulings in Roe vs. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey (1992), decisions that established and confirmed the right to abortions.  The vote was six to three with Justice Alito writing the majority opinion.

Alito's opinion pointed out that the reasoning in those earlier decisions 'was exceptionally weak,’ writing that ‘a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and tradition’ and that 'it is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue to the people’s elected representatives.’  By that, he meant the States. (In looking at trees in my neighborhood, 49 years is plenty of time for deep roots to be established.  Alito apparently is not an arborist, and not much of a Justice either.)

Justices Roberts, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Alito, Gorsuch and Barrett voted to repeal the two existing decisions, showing no respect for the institution of ‘stare decisis,’ going back to whatever was specifically included, or not included, in the Constitution and other eighteenth-century documentation. Much that has developed since 1789 is also not mentioned in that venerable document.  Justices Sotomayor, Kagen, and Breyer dissented.

Justices Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Thomas wrote separate but agreeing opinions. Roberts would have taken ‘a more measured course’ and Kavanaugh wrote that ‘the Constitution is neither pro-life nor pro-choice’ but neutral, returning the issue to Americans to decide ‘through the democratic process.’ 

Thomas was far less even-handed, calling on the Court to overturn rulings protecting same-sex marriages, gay sex and the use of contraceptives. For obvious reasons, he didn’t mention interracial marriages recognized as legal by the SCOTUS in Loving vs. Virginia (1967).  Justice Thomas is a great danger to every American citizen, and the quicker we recognize that, the better off the nation would be.  The other Justices are forced to have contact with him at work but he should be shunned by real Americans, which his words prove he is not. 

A dissent from the three minority Justices gave reasons why,  and ‘with sorrow for … the millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional provision,’ they dissented.

This puts pro-choice advocates in the same boat as those strongly opposing gun violence as well as other issues on the agenda of liberals.  The same reasoning which resulted in Roe vs. Wade being overruled would serve to make the just-passed token gun control legislation unconstitutional as well.

There will be speeches, demonstrations and campaigns, and my email inbox is already brimming over with donation appeals, but the only real solution is voting Republicans out of office at all levels, especially from State Houses as well as from Congress.  They are the ones, along with those who voted for them, who made this SCOTUS decision, and other ‘originalist’ theories, dominant.  Read on for my solution.

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First, let’s just simplify things.  No lengthy arguments.  You already know my views on gun violence, abortion rights and voting rights.  I have just six points to make.  Read them carefully:

(1) All reliable polls show that the majority of Americans are for women having the right to decide for themselves whether to have an abortion. 

(2) All reliable polls show that the majority of Americans are for increased gun controls, particularly an assault weapon ban.

(3) With some occasional exceptions, their voting record shows that the Republican Party is against these two things.  (Certainly, Florida’s governor and two senators are.)

(4)  The Supreme Court decisions which weakened existing gun controls last week and crippled a woman’s right of making a personal choice concerning abortion on Friday were made possible by three purely political appointments to the SCOTUS made by the defeated former president. (The blame for this must be shared by all of those who voted for him in 2016.)

(5) Based on the majorities pointed out in (1) and (2) above, and the position of the Republican Party stated in (3) above, there is no reason why all Republicans running for office on November 8 cannot be defeated. The ammunition is there for the Democrats.  Republican support of the Court’s decisions, highly unpopular with the American people, are targets at which Democrats must aim, in order to defeat Republicans on national, state, and local levels.

(6)  Based on the large majorities in both Houses of Congress which such a massive defeat of Republicans will give to Democrats, the president should be able to enlarge the Supreme Court by four appointees, so that the present ‘originalist’ majority there would be replaced by a majority representing the views of the American public. (Such Congressional majorities might also be able to ‘codify’ laws defending abortion rights, but enlarging the SCOTUS, so that it could not nullify such laws, would be preferable.)

In defense of number (6) above, purely political appointments to the SCOTUS were made acceptable by the defeated former president having made three such appointments.  As for increasing the number of Justices, the Republicans would not hesitate to do that were the shoe on the other foot.  That weapon must not be discarded.

 There you have it - Six Points that describe it all!

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We have gotten to this sorry point because of the ignorance, gullibility, stupidity, or authoritarian beliefs (take your choice) of enough of the American people to elect the defeated former president to office in 2016, making possible his political appointment of three ‘originalist’ Justices to the Supreme Court.

Three Blind Mice: Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch,
the defeated former president's appointees
to the Supreme Court.

All three of them indicated under oath in their confirmation hearings that they would respect established precedents.  Being lawyers, of course, they knew how to be sufficiently ambiguous so as not to commit perjury when they chose to lie.

That is the risk nations that choose to be real democracies take.  It enables those whose aim is to destroy democracy to gain a secure foothold, and history will note that is what has happened in the United States in the second decade of the 21^st century.  

The nation faced a similar crisis in the 1850s with a pro-slavery Supreme Court.  It took the Civil War to settle that, an impossible remedy today.  But the present error can be undone, as pointed out above in items (5) and (6) by a massive nationwide turnout on November 8.  Women voters and persons of color, whose interests are ignored by Republicans, will be key to that victory.  That will do the job! 

You can make it happen.  You must make it happen.

JL

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Good Reading:  

Boston College Professor Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter dated June 26, 2022.  JUST CLICK HERE to read it.  It's free.

In it, she goes over many of the points in this posting, but from a historian's viewpoint.  I commented (to be a commenter, it costs $5 a  month) on her newsletter a few minutes ago as follows:

'So we are back where we were when Lincoln and Douglas debated whether the nation was 'One Nation Indivisible' or just a bunch of loosely 'United' States. The politicized SCOTUS is reaching all the way back there for precedent, ignoring over 160 years of history since then. A textbook containing the information in HCR's message today would be illegal in the public schools of Florida, a State whose governor seems to think it is only loosely 'United' with the other 'States.' The only solution for us now is for massive, overwhelming, numbers of Americans to vote for Abraham Lincoln's ideas on November 8, and repudiate the ideas of Stephen A. Douglas (noting that the parties they represented are now philosophically reversed.) Otherwise, we are just sitting around watching Fort Sumter being attacked again. We are reliving history because too many Americans have chosen to ignore its lessons, including six SCOTUS justices.'

JL

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 Liz Cheney, the Prince of Denmark, and Theatre

Liz Cheney's words to Republicans, with which she concluded Friday’s session of the House Committee investigating January 6, urged them to recognize that the defeated former president deceived them.

Representative Kinzinger's choosing not to run for re-election and Cheney's likely defeat in her home State of Wyoming are proofs of the extent to which that deception has infected the Republican Party. They have swallowed the 'Kool-Aid' and it flows in the bloodstream of too many of them. We have a good idea of what has to be done to purge them of it, but like Hamlet, we are hesitant to do it.

Shakespeare Thinking About Hamlet?

In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet did not decisively 'take arms against a sea of troubles' and as the play ends, the stage is strewn with corpses, caused by his hesitation to act while he still had the chance. Hamlet represents the choices people make, or fail to make, at times of crisis.

Today, we are Hamlet, counting on the theatre of a carefully staged and televised Congressional hearing to entrap the assailants of American democracy just as Hamlet counted on a carefully staged theatrical production to entrap the murderer of his father. The guilty one stalked out of the theatre once he understood what Hamlet was up to, just as today’s assailants of democracy avoid appearing before the House Committee.

JL

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Letter to the Palm Beach Post

Whatever newspaper you read, tell them what you think by writing them a letter!  And if you don't read a newspaper every day, shame on you.   TV and the internet are no substitute when it comes to being well-informed. The framers of the Consitution counted on the voters of the United States being well-informed.  Don't disappoint them. 

A follower of this blog, Bruce Brodsky, submitted the following letter to the Palm Beach Post last week. It referred to a June 23 article describing an attempt by those who do not trust the election process to have the County’s election vote counting operation ‘live streamed.’ I hope they print it.

‘They call themselves “Patriots.”  They frequently wrap themselves in the American flag and /or dress in the stars and stripes.   They make absurd claims that the voting machines have a 90% error rate, without any proof what-so-ever.  They claim there are “duplicator machines’ that have “An Easter egg component,”  whatever that is supposed to mean.   They claim that they are “very suspect of machines.”  They, they, they.  They make absurd claims and charges and have us dancing to their insanity. 

These are the vote deniers.  These are the “Big steal” advocates.  These are the people who by their words and actions do nothing more than undermine our democracy by claiming that our elections are unfair or dishonest.  Truth is unimportant.  Facts do not matter.  Reality does not exist and yet they continue to make absurd charges and have us dancing to their insanity.

The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections and the entire staff of the Department work tirelessly to insure honest, fair elections and do so in spite of those nay sayers whose only reason to exist is to spread absurd and obscene conspiracy theories about our elections.  Supervisor Link and her staff are consummate professionals who would never think of doing anything dishonest.  Their oaths of office and integrity demand no less.   Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone lived by the same standards?

These self-proclaimed saviors of democracy are not Patriots.  These are not people who love the country.  These are the destroyers and I for one am sick and tired of their nonsense.  I will, not dance to their insane music any more and I urge everyone to turn them off, tune them out and re-commit to the reality that millions of people: citizens, elected officials, election workers  across the nation believe in America and our system of elections.  Enough is enough!’ 

I agree!  And permit me to add that when you vote on November 8, about nineteen weeks from now, remember that all of those chastised by Bruce in the letter are Republicans.  

JL

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OKAY!

I’VE DONE MY PART BY PRODUCING THIS BLOG.   BUT YOUR PART IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN MINE!  IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU ARE READING, YOUR JOB IS TO PASS IT ON TO OTHERS.  I HOPE THAT YOU WILL.

PLEASE FORWARD IT TO FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS WHOM YOU FEEL MIGHT ENJOY READING IT BY SUGGESTING THAT THEY VISIT  www.jackspotpourri.com.  

A simple method might be to click on the envelope at the bottom left corner of each posting, which looks like this     . That makes it easy to forward a very basic, abbreviated version of the blog, but friends tell me it is really easier just to tell them to go to www.jackspotpourri.com . That way they get the full blog.

JL

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06-25-2022 - Another Extra - Maureen Dowd's Column

Here's some good reading for a Saturday, a day after the Supreme Court reversed Roe vs. Wade.  Your opinions are welcome.

JL

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The Radical Reign of Clarence Thomas 

June 25, 2022, 5:00 a.m.  Maureen Dowd Opinion Columnist - New York Times

WASHINGTON — “What is happening here?” a distraught Nancy Pelosi said on Friday. It’s a good question and I can answer it, because I was there at the start of the corrosive chain of events that led to women losing control of their own bodies. I saw how America went from a beacon of modernity to a benighted outlier. Over the last three decades, I have witnessed a dismal saga of opportunism, fanaticism, mendacity, concupiscence, hypocrisy and cowardice. This is a story about men gaining power by trading away something that meant little to them compared with their own stature: the rights of women. 

It started innocently enough on a beautiful summer day in Kennebunkport, with the ocean sparkling and a lunch of crab meat salad and English muffins. I was covering the first President Bush’s nomination of a 43-year-old U.S. appeals court judge for the D.C. Circuit to take the seat of retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall. Clarence Thomas, standing in front of a weather-beaten shingled cottage, looked uneasy as Bush defended his conservative choice.

The warnings were clear even then. Democratic Senator Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio threatened to investigate Judge Thomas’s record on abortion, saying, “I will not support yet another Reagan-Bush Supreme Court nominee who remains silent on a woman’s right to choose and then ascends to the court to weaken that right.” Thomas was a far cry from the liberal lion and civil rights hero Marshall. He opposed affirmative action, even though it contributed to his rise, and he was championed by anti-abortion activists, who were confident that he would weaken a woman’s right to choose. 

H.W. and his father were New England Episcopalians with a proud history of supporting Planned Parenthood. Prescott Bush had been an early supporter in the ’40s and once served as a treasurer of a fund-raising campaign. As a Texas congressman, H.W. was christened “Rubbers” by his colleagues because he was such a cheerleader for family planning in the United States and around the world. But when Bush joined Ronald Reagan on the ticket in 1980, he adopted Reagan’s more restrictive position. The right remained suspicious of Bush, though, and hoping to bring it around for his re-election, he appointed the ultraconservative Thomas. He also wanted to appeal to Black voters, still angry at the Willie Horton ugliness that had helped propel him to the White House. Women’s rights had to take a back seat to re-election. 

Three months later, Anita Hill told her story to Congress about her boss, Thomas, tormenting her with unwanted attention and dirty talk about the pornographic films he liked to watch. Joe Biden was the chairman of those Senate hearings. He let Hill be viciously ripped apart by Republicans and then abruptly ended the hearings, canceling the appearance of her two corroborating witnesses. Many senators on the committee — composed entirely of white men — privately thought it was an office romance gone wrong. Poor guy, they said among themselves, no point in letting his life be ruined by someone they thought, with absolutely no evidence, was a vengeful ex. Hill was smeared as a perjuring erotomaniac, and Biden, wasting a Democratic Senate majority, allowed a liar, a pervert and a sexual harasser to be elevated to a lifetime seat on the court. Women’s rights had to take a back seat to Biden’s desire to foster bipartisanship with his conservative colleagues. And with Thomas, those conservatives got the justice of their dreams, the first in a line of right-wing radicals. 

When Donald Trump came along, trailing a history of lurid sexual transgressions, the family-values Republicans and religious right didn’t care. They knew he was the one who could bring them to Valhalla on the Supreme Court. Mitch McConnell and his Federalist Society minions used Trump as the host body. After wrecking the rules to keep Merrick Garland off the court, McConnell jammed through Amy Coney Barrett. Trump, who had once been a pro-choice, Nancy-and-Hillary-and-Chuck loving Democrat, was happy to flip to gain the fervor of an anti-abortion base. 

Women’s rights had to take a back seat to Trump’s ego and ambition and McConnell’s desire for a conservative court that would pull back the reach of the government, denying protections to Americans who need or value them. They pushed through three conservative justices — one had to defend himself against sexual assault charges and one was in a weird “Handmaid’s Tale” and that was checkmate for Roe. Neil Gorsuch and another Trump appointee, Brett Kavanaugh, are now facing accusations from senators that they dissembled to get on the court and played down their intentions to throw out Roe. “I am a don’t-rock-the-boat kind of judge,” Kavanaugh told Susan Collins, according to The Times’s Carl Hulse. 

Thomas’s concurring opinion to the fanatical Samuel Alito’s majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade chillingly warned that he would apply the same rationale to contraception, same-sex marriage and same-sex consensual relations. Back when Thomas’s nomination ran into resistance, the Bush administration sold him as a sterling example of a Black man who had pulled himself up from rough beginnings. That day in Kennebunkport, Thomas talked about being raised by his grandparents, sharecroppers from rural Georgia. But on the court he has been cruel, pushing opinions that would grind down the poor and underprivileged. 

While his wife ran around helping Trump with his coup, Thomas was the senior firebrand in a coup of extremists on the court. They yanked power away from John Roberts and are defying the majority will in this country in ways that are terrifying. 

On Thursday, in the middle of an epidemic of mass shootings, with Congress finally getting a mild victory on gun control, Thomas opened the door to more guns on the street. He wrote the majority opinion overturning a New York law limiting the right to carry a handgun in public, throwing out a requirement over a century old. In another ruling this past week, the justices chipped away at the First Amendment’s separation between church and state, a foundation of the Republic. And next, they will get around to removing environmental protections and gutting the government’s ability to regulate and restrict business rights. 

The court is out of control. We feel powerless to do anything about it. Clarence Thomas, of all people, has helped lead us to where we are, with unaccountable extremists dictating how we live. And that is revolting.

JL

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WATCH FOR THE NEXT BLOG POSTING IN A DAY OR SO!

06-23-2022 - Extra Posting - Supreme Court Decision Encourages More Gun Violence

EXTRA POSTING

Supreme Court Acts - America Suffers

The Supreme Court today announced its ruling on New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen . This blog had posted the following a few weeks ago: 

“Within a short time, the Supreme Court will rule on a New York State law limiting the open carrying of weapons. They heard arguments back in November, but since then there have been several mass shootings which might have changed their thinking. That case, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, will offer them the opportunity to modify the Scalia misinterpretation. If they do not, we are in for more gun violence in days to come.” 

Unfortunately, today’s decision invalidated the New York State law limiting the carrying of handguns for self-defense outside of the home, just as its faulty 2008 decision (DC vs. Heller) overruled restrictions on having such weapons at home. While both decisions include limits, their general tone supporting the gross ‘originalist’ misinterpretation of the Second Amendment made by the late Justice Scalia encourages the proliferation of weapons among the American population. There will be further gun violence. (There are already more guns in this country than people.) 

Today's decision was the result of the ignorance, gullibility, or stupidity (take your choice) of the American people who in 2016 elected the defeated former president to office, making possible the political appointment of three ‘originalist’ Justices to the Supreme Court.  The risk of that happening comes with ‘democracy.’  

More about this will follow in the blog’s next full posting.

JL 

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06-22-2022 - Political Stuff, the Insane Texas G.O.P., the Jan. 6 Hearings, Florida Primary Info, Indictment and a Frightening Concern

 

There is only one overriding issue of political concern right now, encompassing much of what has been appearing on this blog. That is how to defeat Republicans on Nov. 8, less than 20 weeks from now. 

The future of democracy in the United States, however imperfect it may be, is at stake. Really. To win in November, Democrats must capture the votes of women and persons of color, groups whose interests Republican actions consistently attack, including preserving both abortion rights and voting rights.  Do Your Part! Register Voters. Make Certain they Vote!

JL 

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Reader! You’re in Good Company

Two of the four letters published on the Editorial page of the Palm Beach County edition of the South Florida SunSentinel this past Sunday (6/18) were from followers of the blog you are now reading!  I don’t quite know what that signifies but I am proud of it anyway.

JL

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Political Thoughts

Here’s something I posted on LFAA (Letters From an American – Heather Cox Richardson’s daily newsletter) this past weekend. It was in response to a comment made about registering voters, getting out the vote, and punishing those who have been held accountable for the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

“Right now, the greatest danger to democracy in America is no longer the defeated former president and those who aided his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. Enforcing the rule of law to hold them accountable will take decades of litigation, time that we cannot afford to take. The danger is immediate and present and it is the Republican Party, whose true nature the Texas G.O.P. was not ashamed to document in its platform. That party must be overwhelmed at the polls at all levels, from village dogcatchers on up to Congress and the White House. The Democratic Party must ask all voters if they agree with the Texas Republican platform or with Abraham Lincoln in the 1850's and with what Judge Luttig said at the January 6 hearings last week. (Why is it that so many who will claim to disagree with that platform will still vote Repubican? What secret prejudices do they hide? That's another problem.)  But Go Ahead, Register voters! Get Out the Vote!"

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But for those of you who are not aware of the Texas Republican Party’s platform, which I understand their Fascist governor has signed onto, here is a summary of it.  . If you are wearing good clothing, I suggest putting on a bib since you might throw up.  

 The Texas G.O.P.’s party platform includes the following:

1.      Rejecting ‘the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election, and [holding] that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States”

2.       Requiring students “to learn about the dignity of the preborn human,” including that life begins at fertilization

3.       Treating homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice”

4.       Locking the number of Supreme Court justices at 9

5.       Getting rid of the constitutional power to levy income taxes

6.       Abolishing the Federal Reserve

7.       Rejecting the Equal Rights Amendment

8.        Returning Christianity to schools and governments

9.        Ending all gun safety measures

10.            Abolishing the Department of Education

11.            Arming teachers

12.            Requiring colleges to teach “free-market liberty principles

13.            Defending capital punishment

14.            Dictating the ways in which the events at the Alamo are         remembered

15.            Protecting Confederate monuments

16.            Ending gay marriage

17.            Withdrawing from the United Nations and the World Health    Organization

18.            Calling for a vote “for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the     State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”

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If this is what Republicans believe, they are indeed the opponents  of decency and honesty in this country, not to speak of democracy.  The best thing that could happen would be for these Texas Fascists (and those elsewhere who think their way) to get together at their Party’s next meeting with their beloved guns and form a circular firing squad.  Ready, Aim, Fire!

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Judge Luttig

And if any of you missed the words of the slow-speaking Republican judge, Michael Luttig, who spoke at the January 6 hearings last week, driving a spike into the heart of today’s seditious Republican Party, bear in mind that he is so conservative that George W. Bush would not even nominate him for the Supreme Court for that reason.  

Here is a summary of his views from a Politico ‘Playbook’ article.  It’s easy reading.  To read it, JUST CLICK HERE  or visit https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/06/18/exclusive-the-words-luttig-wants-to-be-remembered-00040701You won’t regret doing so.   

True Americans, like Judge Luttig, are aware of the clear and present danger the defeated former president and those who still support him pose to democracy in our country.  Read it. It won’t take long.  CLICK HERE.  And pass it on to your friends.

 

JL

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Florida Primary Information

Floridians have a primary election coming up on August 23 in which Republican and Democratic candidates for various offices will be chosen by those voters who are registered as members of those parties.  Those with no party affiliation cannot vote in these primaries and those registered with one party cannot vote in the other party’s primary. The Florida primary is a ‘closed’ primary unlike the ‘open’ primaries in some States where voters can cross party lines.

Dates to Remember: 

Registration Deadline – Monday, July 25

Last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot – Saturday,   August 13, by 5 p.m. local time.

Early Voting – Varies by county but can be scheduled anywhere from Saturday, August 13 through Saturday, August 20. 

Primary Election Day – Tuesday, August 23.  7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at your polling place.

More information is available at https://dos.myflorida.com/elections/for-voters/election-dates/ 

JL

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REMINDER:  IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE EMAILS ALERTING YOU TO IMPORTANT BLOG POSTINGS, PLEASE SEND ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.  Most of you already get them, but if you are among the few who are not, please ask me to add your email address to that list.  Just email me at jacklippman18@gmail.com.

JL

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 Republican Reaction to January 6 Committee Hearings

After watching the January 6 Select Committee on TV, I do not see how anyone can vote for any Republican as that party is presently constituted.  The millions of conservative Republicans who now are waking up to the role of the defeated former president in fighting the peaceful transfer of power after he lost the 2020 presidential election should recognize that the witnesses now accusing him of criminal acts in doing so are all Republicans. 

He was no different in 2016 than what he was in 2020, when many of them supported him, and still is today.  Now they are waking up to their error in their ways.  The defeated former president has changed their party into something different from what it has always been. It is now an extreme right wing organization bordering on autocracy and fascism, if not already having crossed that dark border.

It is not asked of these Republicans to become Democrats.  It would be enough for them to start a new party or at a minimum, cease voting for any candidates who still support the defeated former president, clearly an advocate of sedition.

Still, there are few in present Republican leadership roles who have learned that lesson.  Most, like Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, as well as many in State government and Congress, still put party over country, no matter how undemocratic that party has become, and support him. They should be shunned by legitimate Republicans.  Ultra-conservative Liz Chaney sets an example for those of them who still are loyal Americans.

 JL

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No Indictment Likely

The defeated former president will never be indicted.  The ambiguity of his carefully honed statements to the press, at rallies, and on Twitter would never hold up in court, and even if he were to be indicted, the trial and appeals would stretch out for decades.  

There’s a vast legal difference between an accused coming out and saying something ‘in their own words’ and ‘saying that they have heard many people saying it.’  

Speaking that way is second nature to him.  It has been his style for years, the language of the car salesman, or the real estate or investment peddler who knows how to convince while just skirting the truth. That’s why the DOJ might not indict him, as too hard to convict, knowing that losing in court would be horrendous.  Note that Attorney General Garland is now in Kiev working with the Ukrainians on how to prosecute Russians who committed war crimes there.  That is easier than dealing with election crimes committed here.

JL

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A Frightening Concern

Furious that the defeated former president might get away with his well-documented transgressions, some suicidal screwball on the extreme far left might decide that committing an illegal act of violence against him might be the only way to exact justice.  

All that the Select Committee can do is recommend legislation (that’s the limit of their authority) and it is feared that the DOJ, as I just pointed out, might not indict him.  Therefore, for his own well-being, for the institution of the presidency, and to avoid the further violence which would be ignited, the defeated former president must sooner or later be protected from the possibility of such an illegal act.  (Don't forget that we all live in a country where there are more guns than people.)

In order to do so, he might have to be temporarily taken into protective custody and kept in a comfortable, if not luxurious, ‘safe house’ until any such threats no longer exist; we would not know how long a period that might be.  It could be in any one of many possible locations. One excellent choice is close by in the Caribbean on the eastern tip of the island of Cuba.

JL

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OKAY!

I’VE DONE MY PART BY PRODUCING THIS BLOG.   BUT YOUR PART IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN MINE!  IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU ARE READING, YOUR JOB IS TO PASS IT ON TO OTHERS.  I HOPE THAT YOU WILL.

PLEASE FORWARD IT TO FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS WHOM YOU FEEL MIGHT ENJOY READING IT BY SUGGESTING THAT THEY VISIT  www.jackspotpourri.com.  

A simple method might be to click on the envelope at the bottom left corner of each posting, which looks like this    . That makes it easy to forward a very basic, abbreviated version of the blog, but friends tell me it is really easier just to tell them to go to www.jackspotpourri.com . That way they get the full blog.

JL

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