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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 for 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.

Thursday, March 23, 2023

03-23-2023 - Kremlin Photograpy, What YOU Should be Reading in the Newspapers, and the 45th President's Legal Woes

 

                                                                    * * * * 
A Reminder: 

Currently, I am sending out emails to about 60 individuals letting them know each time that a new posting has been published on JacksPotpourri. Periodically, I ask that any readers of the blog who had not received an email notifying them that a new posting had been published let me know so that I might advise them of new postings in the future. I really would appreciate your doing that. Reach me at jacklippman18@gmail.com

Thanks,
Jack Lippman 

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If the Shoe Fits, Wear It 

I recall a shoe company years ago called ‘Adler’s Elevator Shoes’ that sold footwear designed to make shorter people appear taller.  I don’t know if they are still in business, but they certainly don’t have to be in today’s Russia.  Photography released by the Kremlin does the job for them, where necessary.

Here are three photos that were taken of Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi at their recent meeting.  Their ties are the same in all three, so I am assuming they were taken at the same meeting. 

In the first photo they are engaged in a toast.  Because liquids usually reach a level, and not remain on an incline, it would appear that this photo was altered to make Putin appear taller than he is.  Tilt it so that the wine is level in their raised glasses, as it would be according to the laws of physics, when a glass is raised in a toast before being tilted to one's lips to be tasted, and Putin becomes shorter.










The second photo, apparently taken by a photographer standing on a ladder or chair, pictures them walking into the meeting, is so angled that Putin is made to appear taller than Xi.  These first two photographs were released by Kremlin sources.










Finally, the third photo of the two of them at the meeting, taken by a non-Kremlin photographer, shows them together.  I doubt that this photo was circulated in Russia since it shows Xi to be about half a head taller than Putin, which is the case. 









The camera does not lie unless it is made to.   And that is why there is no 'Adler's Elevated Shoes' outlet in Moscow.

 JL

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If You Won't Read the Papers, Must I Spoon-Feed You?

In the previous posting of this blog, I pointed out the necessity of reading local newspapers in order to know what is going on in government.  Floridians are particularly blind to these activities unless they read a local newspaper.  The American Revolution would not have occurred without the work of journalist Thomas Paine.  So it is today.  Defend democracy.  Read a local newspaper every day!

For those of you who do not read a Florida paper each day, here is an editorial from the Palm Beach Post that appeared earlier this week (I urge you to subscribe, at least to its very inexpensive online edition) regarding what’s going on in the Florida legislature, both houses of which will do whatever the governor asks of them. But don’t count on me to provide you with valuable information from newspapers.  You must read them yourself if you care about preserving democracy.  (And if you don’t like the Post, there are others, such as the Sun-Sentinel, but don’t look for material like this in the New York Times.)

Editorial (Palm Beach Post) 3-22-23

Legislature’s Supermajority Unleashes Dogs

 

All it takes for a bad idea to become law in Florida is a partisan supermajority of state lawmakers who either are driven by ideology, eager to grant questionable favors or simply compliant enough to do as they’re told.

Such is the the state of the Florida Legislature, which seems content with its reputation as a right-wing political petri dish.

 

Take HB 1/SB 202, the bill expanding eligibility for voucher scholarships to any public school student. The bill’s a priority that has been fast-tracked to move through the Legislature and onto Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.

 

So has HB 837/SB 236, which makes it more difficult to sue insurance companies and other businesses, and don’t forget HB 7/SB 300, the bill that bans abortions after six weeks to the list of high-priority bills that will likely become law.

 

Credit Gov. DeSantis’ unannounced presidential campaign as the Legislature is doing all it can to give him a platform befitting his 'free state' of Florida. Beyond that, lawmakers generally follow their political parties and legislative leaders.

That reality often runs counter to the wishes of constituents.

Floridians, however, still have a say with their voice and their vote.

Information also helps, which leads The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board to present this list of select legislation that illustrates the ideology and the absurdity driving state lawmakers:

 

HB 555/SB 450: Angered that the Parkland school shooter ended up with life in prison, lawmakers want to loosen the law that requires a unanimous jury decision to impose the death penalty.

Under this bill a simple majority would be enough, a change that could have unforeseen and unwanted consequences.

 

HB 991/SB 1220: The First Amendment restrains Congress from curtailing the free speech and press rights, but this isn’t stopping the Florida Legislature from doing so. This bill opens the door for litigation against journalists by weakening constitutional protections. This one’s heading to the U.S. Supreme Court for sure, which may be the intent.

 

HB 1011/SB 668: Bad enough this bill bans local governments from displaying gay pride and other flags that don’t fit newly drawn criteria. But, the Senate sponsor offered an amendment that would have allowed local governments to fly the Confederate flag. That 'mistake' was withdrawn after the media got wind of it.

 

HB 1191/SB 1258: Bill provides for a study to see if phosphogypsum, a by-product from manufacturing phosphate, can be used as material for road construction. The bill is moving through the House, even though the federal Environmental Protection Agency tried and later prohibited phosphogypsum’s use for health and safety reasons.

 

HB 1223/SB 1320: Think 'Don’t Say Gay' through the 8th grade. That what this bill does, extending the prohibition on sexual orientation and gender identity discussion. It also requires school districts to publish its parental appeal process to help parents dispute any such classroom discussion.

 

HB 1265/SB 952, HB 1421/SB 254, HB 1521/SB 1674: A transgender trifecta. One bill requires employers providing coverage of gender dysphoria treatment to cover the costs of reversing that procedure. Another sets new prohibitions on sex-reassignment prescriptions and procedures. The last governs transgender bathroom use.

 

HB 1543: This bill drops the minimum age to buy a firearm from 21 to 18, just five years after Florida’s big attempt at gun safety following the 2018 massacre at Parkland’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School. The bill has sailed through the House but Senate President Kathleen Passidomo opposes it.


SB 932: This bill would make it illegal for dogs to have their heads hanging out the windows of moving vehicles. It drew ridicule from dog owners who saw the legislation as a massive government overreach. It won’t be unleashed on the public.

 

SB 1316: Tucked inside this bill is a requirement that bloggers paid for writing about the Governor, the Florida Cabinet or legislators must register with the state. The bill was such a stinker that even former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich urged the sponsor to kill it. The bill isn’t moving at the moment but hasn’t been withdrawn.”

All I can add to this editorial is ‘Wow!  Some of these bills will never become law, but enough of them will to further define Florida as the ‘Freedom State,’ free from democracy and laws in the interest of the majority of its population.

JL

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Legal Problems of the 45th President

Caution:  This article may be obsolete by the time you are looking at it.

Of the three cases pending against the defeated former president, the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels is the weakest, based on violation of a New York state law about falsifying business records, just a misdemeanor.  

The prosecution has to tie it to election fraud, a federal crime.  That it was done just to hide his indiscretion and not specifically to help win an election might suffice for there to be no felony indictment.  That's what the delay in movement on this case is all about.  By the time you are reading this, the Manhattan grand jury will probably have made its decision.  We know the truth, but getting there seems to be difficult, although it was easy enough to send lawyer-bagman Michael Cohen to prison … but that was purely a federal case, not a State matter.

The federal purloined classified documents case and the Georgia ‘messing with an election result attempt’ are far more likely cases to provide the defeated former president with an orange suit.

JL

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Housekeeping               

Email Alerts:  If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you doAnd if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted.  ( You can pass those email addresses to me by email at             jacklippman18@gmail.com . )

 

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it

If you want to send someone the blog, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them.

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it too!   Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible.  If you click on the envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, (it looks like this:   ), you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses, along with a comment from you, each of which will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you now are reading, but without the illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the ‘sidebar’ features such as access to the blog’s archives.

Either way will work, sending them that link or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting.  Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. 

                 

         Have a nice day.

Monday, March 20, 2023

03-20-2023 - Incursions on Democracy - Read a Newspaper - Basketball Violence

 

                                                   * * * * 

A Reminder: Currently, I am sending out emails to about 60 individuals letting them know each time that a new posting has been published on JacksPotpourri.  Periodically, I ask that any readers of the blog who had not received an email notifying them that a new posting had been published let me know  so that I might advise them of new postings in the future.  I really would appreciate your doing that.  Reach me at jacklippman18@gmail.com.  Thanks.

Jack Lippman

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Incursions on Democracy and Your Remedy to Them

Watching the actions of the governor of Florida, his compliant State Legislature and the voters who have elected them, it is clear that Florida is not unhappy with a reduction of democracy in that State, apparently contradicting the popular will and interests of the majority of its residents.

It is increasingly apparent that the safeguards built into the Florida Constitution are being overturned.  Appeals to State government agencies for at least transparency are likely to fall on deaf ears.  The courts of the State have been taken over by the right wing.

It is hoped that the Florida situation is not representative of the rest of the United States and only peculiar to that State’s government.  It is difficult to blame this upon ignorance, gullibility, or stupidity when clearly, it is what the voters, not necessarily the majority of residents, of Florida have voted for.

The remaining bulwarks protecting democracy are the State’s newspapers.  It is absolutely necessary that Florida residents read a daily newspaper, either in its print or online version.  The Sun-Sentinel, the Palm Beach Post and the local papers in Tampa, Orlando,  and Jacksonville fill this need.  Without them, citizens remain uninformed of how democracy is being attacked in Florida.

If you cherish democracy in Florida, you MUST read a Florida newspaper every day.  What the State government in Tallahassee is doing is only reported truthfully by in these papers.  What the government tells residents is merely right-wing propaganda. You need to read newspapers.

(In dictatorships throughout history, foes of democracy have always attacked and eventually controlled newspapers.  Florida has started down that path with legislation limiting blogs with political contact that are ‘financially supported.’  Watch out. They want to go further.)

JL

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Basketball Violence

In the past I have criticized college football because of the excessive violence it involves in tackling, trying to create fumbles, and in ‘pass interference’ situations.  It’s time to include college basketball in that complaint.

There’s plenty of it on TV in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Notice the efforts made to stop a player who is attempting to drive in for a ‘lay-up’ in ‘the paint’ and the efforts of such players to force the shot blocker out of the way. Both situations, sometimes resulting in a foul being called, sometimes not, are unlike the blocking one sees in football line play.  That’s not the way basketball was supposed to be played.

Professional football and basketball tolerate more violence but that’s what their players are paid for.  It pleases the crowd, but it has no place in college football or basketball, unless we finally acknowledge that these college sports are no more than training grounds for future professional activity, and not just adjuncts to getting an education.

Pickett

A college basketball player whom I admire is Penn State’s Jaylen Pickett.  But looking at him, he transferred last year to that school from Siena College, where he had been playing, through the ‘transfer portal,’ which allows established college athletes to announce their availability to be recruited by other schools.  I believe the ‘transfer portal,’ is damaging to college sports. It makes being on a winning team, more visible to professional scouts, more important than the college whose jersey the player wears and which is giving him a free ride for a four year education. 

Also, even before college, some such athletes attend specialized private schools which concentrate on developing their athletic abilities, either on a post-high school basis or as part of a high school program.  Pickett attended such a program (Spire Institute in Ohio) before attending Siena.  There is even athletic competition between such programs at a level above that of usual high school sports to sharpen players’ skills.

We should not close our eyes to the professionalism which has infected college sports in this country.  It is the opposite of the success of immigrants and children of immigrants who treat college as an educational experience, especially in scientific, technical, engineering and mathematical areas, rather than something intertwined with competitive athletics.  The road to a successful career is far, far, narrower through athletics than through the real purpose of colleges, education.  

You can see what is happening by noting the names of prominent physicians in the nation's best hospitals as well as the names of those scientists involved in important research.

JL

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Housekeeping               

Email AlertsIf you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you doAnd if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted.  ( You can pass those email addresses to me by email at             jacklippman18@gmail.com . )

 

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it

If you want to send someone the blog, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them.

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it too!   Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible.  If you click on the envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, (it looks like this:  ), you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses, along with a comment from you, each of which will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you now are reading, but without the illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the ‘sidebar’ features such as access to the blog’s archives.

Either way will work, sending them that link or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting.  Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. 

             Have a nice day!


                                                            *  *   *
JL