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| Fuentes, the DFP, and West - An evil trio! |
Here’s the text of a letter I sent to the Palm
Beach Post, published on Nov. 30.
‘Any individual,
organization, or charity, planning an event at Mar-a-Lago should be aware of
the white supremacist, antisemitic, holocaust-denying, and pro-fascist dinner
guests whom that establishment’s resident-owner recently welcomed there.
There are plenty of other catering facilities in Palm Beach
County.’
Groping with the problem of what to do with its
imminent big fund-raising event scheduled for Mar-a-Lago is the Salvation Army,
whose principles suggest it should cancel it and reschedule it elsewhere, a
move which would negate months of detailed planning. The theme of the event actually is a tribute to cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, a supporter of the Salvation Army and builder of Mar-a-Lago, which ended up in the government's hands before it was sold to its present resident. Not doing so might even result in bad publicity reducing the amount of
money dropped into their red kettles during their holiday campaign. (To some, it comes down to how seriously the
Salvation Army takes the biblical answer to the theological question, ‘What Price Salvation?’ )
But getting back to that sit-down meal with the Defeated Former President, by now you
ought to be aware that Kanye West (Ye) brought along America First leader Nick
Fuentes to dinner (or was it just lunch) with the DFP at Mar-a-Lago last
week. If you are not, you should seriously consider your sources of obtaining
news.
Fuentes represents and leads an antisemitic,
Holocaust-denying, white supremacist organization.
The DFP’s claims that he didn’t know with whom he was
breaking bread, are ridiculous. Fuentes
had swiped the America First moniker from the DFP who had been using it
during his campaigns, probably ignorant of its historic origins and connections
with right wing groups in this country.
Opponents of this country’s entry into the Second World War, many of
whom had ideas similar to Fuentes’, used it.
Obviously, the DFP needs these kinds of allies
on the extreme right to counter the Republicans who are showing early signs of growing
back some brains again and abandoning him.
And such right-wing allies will not hesitate to use violence, as they
proved in Charlottesville in 2017 and on January 6, 2021, at the Capitol, much
to the delight of the DFP.
For more information on Fuentes, The New York
Times article by Peter Baker (11/29) is very informative. Try to find it at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/29/briefing/nick-fuentes-trump.html or by CLICKING HERE. If you cannot get into the Times site,
there is a lot in the Anti-Defamation
League’s report on him at https://www.adl.org/blog/nicholas-j-fuentes-five-things-to-know. JUST CLICK HERE to view that.
It is to low-life bigots like Fuentes and West that
the DFP is turning for help. It’s hard
to find anyone in this country worse than this crew, but given the chance, the DFP will find them. No one gets invited to chow down with the DFP at his place without his
knowledge.
Fuentes is a very bad guy, far worse than West whose simplistic antisemitism is part of his effort to lead, trading on his fame as an entertainer, those Americans of color who are looking for someone to blame for what they see as historic injustices. West should better look across the luncheon table at his white supremacist ‘friend,’ Nick Fuentes, who represents a far better target for his venom and is a sworn enemy of persons of color.
Any Republican who fails denounce Fuentes as well as the DFP for sharing a meal with him at Mar-a-Lago is not fit to hold any political office and is participating in the death and burial of their party.
And a lot of Republicans should be asking, as the
Salvation Army might be, ‘What Price Salvation?’ There are limits.
JL
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How to Elect a President by Popular Vote
Of the many
requests I receive for political donations, one that I definitely disagree with
is one asking for money to support a Constitutional amendment to eliminate the
Electoral College, an idea allegedly but probably inaccurately attributed to
Robert Reich, who served in Bill Clinton’s cabinet.
Reich, a noted professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator, is smart enough to know that such an amendment would need the support of two-thirds of each House of Congress and three-quarters of the States, and is extremely unlikely to be approved. A better method, which I believe Reich supports, is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, whereby State legislatures pass legislation requiring a State’s electoral votes to go to the candidate with the greatest number of popular votes, nationwide.
If States with a total of 270 electoral votes pass such legislation, the popular vote would, in effect, determine who won the election, not the Electoral College. (There are 538 votes in the Electoral College.) As of now, fifteen States (plus D.C.) have passed such legislation with a total of 195 electoral votes. Those States are Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, California, Illinois, New York, and the District of Columbia.
That means that all that is now required is for such legislation to be passed and signed into law in enough States to provide 75 additional electoral votes! We are getting close! This spotlights the importance of elections for governors and State legislators. Now, ask me to donate for that, and I might write a check!
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Officiating in the World Cup Matches
True, there are ‘linesmen’ on the sidelines determining who was responsible for knocking a ball out of bounds or when a player might be ‘offsides’ and another official available off the field when a video has to be reviewed, but there is only one ‘referee’ on the field, trying to keep up with 22 athletes (including two goal keepers) running back and forth for at least an hour and a half, watching for violations and otherwise managing the game.
No one person can do that without missing something and making mistakes. They would need eyes in the back of their heads to do the job properly. I fully understand the frustration and anger of players when a foul is missed by a referee who happened to be looking in some other direction at the time. This happens at least a dozen times in every match. Contrast this with the number of officials actually on the field (three) in ‘American’ football. This should be corrected for what the rest of the world calls football, but what we call Soccer, with the addition of a second ‘referee’ on the field.
JL
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Increasing Viewership of Jackspotpourri!
From the statistics I try to keep an eye on, it looks like my suggestion (repeated again at the end of this posting) regarding forwarding it to others have been working. Viewership of Jackspotpourri’s last posting more than doubled from prior postings.
With that in mind, and I hope this message reaches some of those newer viewers, I urge you to provide your email address to me so that I might add it to the list (now at about 55) of those who regularly receive email alerts which precede each new posting on Jackspotpourri. Then you won’t have to count on someone else forwarding it to you.
You can send it to me at jacklippman18@gmail.com
JL
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Newspaper Choices
This month, I switched back to the Palm Beach
Post after a few months of subscribing to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. It was a hard decision. That paper’s
inability to endorse anyone for governor or senator in the recent elections,
the policy dictated by their hedge-fund ownership, was the last straw, adding
to the Fort Lauderdale newspaper’s emphasis on Broward County material, of
no interest to me, even in their supposed ‘Palm Beach County’ edition.
Meanwhile, the Post is not without problems
of its own. I was disappointed to discover
that its ‘opinion’ pages including readers’ letters are no longer published
every day.
In April of 2022, the Post's Gannett, Inc. owners asked its many
newspapers (100 daily papers and over 1000 weeklies) to ‘de-emphasize’ those
opinion pages believing that (1) they are the least read part of the paper and
(2) they are the greatest reason for the cancellation of subscriptions. From a dollars and cents viewpoint, they may be
correct, but this is an unhealthy approach to journalism on which I will have
to keep an eye.
A healthier approach to journalism can be found in
an article published back in July in ‘brilliantio.com,’ entitled ‘Why
Journalism is the Cornerstone of Democracy.’
Gannett’s management should take note of this. Good journalism should be practiced seven
days a week, even if it loses a paper a few subscribers. Excerpts from it read
as follows:
‘Journalism
plays an important role in holding those in power accountable. Journalists are
critical in keeping elected officials and government agencies honest at the
local news, state, or national levels … It
helps to foster a well-informed citizenry, which is essential for the
functioning of any democracy. In a world where information is increasingly
available, it is more important than ever to be able to sort through the noise
and find reliable sources of information.’
While Gannett’s business-based reduction of
‘opinion’ pages in its papers might end up being a back door to the kind of
censorship that caused the Sun-Sentinel’s failure to endorse anyone for the
Senate or Governorship last month, it does appear to be a reasonable compromise. Meanwhile, I also maintain a low priced ($4 a
month) digital subscription to the New York Times which gives me
everyday access to its headline stories each morning that serves to balance the reduction
in the appearance of ‘opinion’ in the
Post.
But on the good side, after several months of the Sun-Sentinel
every day, I decided to go back to the Post. Its sports and local coverage have
improved. Its comics were always better
as is its far more readable typography, a larger sized font than the Sun
Sentinel’s, and its wider selection of occasional national columnists. And of course, the Sun-Sentinel had no
one to equal political humorist Frank Cerabino. They did have the Post’s
old editorial page editor, Randy Schultz, writing for them but that wasn’t
enough.
While there really are no substitutes for the Washington
Post or the New York Times, our leading ‘national’ newspapers, reading a locally
oriented daily newspaper that does a decent job reporting national and
worldwide news as well is important in today’s world. The late Tip O’Neill,
former House Speaker, famously said that ‘all politics are local.’ And reading a good local newspaper is
essential to being aware of local issues and local politics. Except in
New York, the Times does not fill that role, so subscribing to a local paper is necessary.
I read the Post’s printed paper version over
coffee each morning and occasionally access its digital edition, which sometimes include ‘bonus sports or news sections’ not present in the print edition as well as material taken from Gannett’s flagship newspaper, USA Today, and
is superior to that of the Sun-Sentinel.
Actually, there is a digital link to USA Today provided each day with
Post subscriptions which provides access to some, but not all, of what
is in that ‘nationwide’ Gannett newspaper!
JL
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First Amendment Woes - Suicide by Speech
Misuse and misinterpretation of the Second Amendment is not the only problem with the Bill of Rights. For information on the dangers presented by misuse of the First Amendment as well, which enables those like West and Fuentes (see above article) to thrive and survive, check out the Nov. 29 posting on another blog, written by a wise retired attorney, Marty London. Its title is ‘Suicide by Speech.’ Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democracy, but it also can lead to its downfall. Read this well-reasoned piece at https://londonsbh.blogspot.com/ or by CLICKING HERE.
JL
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And of course, please forward this posting to anyone you think
might benefit from reading it. The place
to send them is:
https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com
IMPORTANT: It has come to my attention that Google Blogspot, the platform
on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, has revised its forwarding
abilities. If you click on the envelope with the arrow at the conclusion
of every posting, (it looks like
this: 
), you will have the opportunity to list as
many email addresses as you wish, along with a comment from you, each of which
will receive a link to the full blog that you now are reading, with all of its
bells and whistles. This is a great advance from the very basic format Google
Blogspot originally provided when they forwarded something for you. It might take a few minutes longer for
your message to be transmitted but this method of forwarding offers the
advantage of being able to forward jackspotpourri to many addresses simultaneously.
Try it.
Either way will work, sending
them the link above or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this
posting.
JL
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