A Bedtime Story for Americans, Regardless of Party
When an
acorn fell on Henny Penny’s head (or ‘Chicken Little’ as some refer to her),
she believed the sky was falling despite Farmer Jones reassuring her that was
not the case. Nevertheless, she alerted all
the other creatures in the barnyard to the danger and believing her, together
they scurried around trying to find a way to prevent the sky from falling. Finally, a Fox offered to solve their problem
by sheltering them at his place, where he proceeded, over the next few days, to
eat them all up. Problem solved.
JL
* * *
My Aching
Back
I
occasionally put on a elasticized back support belt to relieve lower back pain,
which at my age, is not unusual. To my
surprise, when I watched the ‘Home Run Derby,’ part of baseball’s All Star Game
schedule of activities the other evening, I saw that the winner, Toronto Blue
Jay first baseman Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., was wearing one between his turns at
bat! And Vlad is only 24 years old,
while I am redacted years old.
 |
| Vlad Guerrero Between Going to the Plate |
*
* *
Therapy for Those Who Fear for Mankind
Two postings ago, Jackspotpourri featured
comments dealing with threats to the survival of mankind, specifically the poisoning
of the oceans with plastic waste and the poisoning of the air we breathe from a
variety of causes. (Thanks to those of
you who emailed me about that posting.)
Coincidentally, this week’s issue of the New Yorker magazine’s ‘Daily’ online feature, dubbed ‘the Therapy Issue,’ featured articles about those, primarily urban dwellers, whose fear for the survival of mankind in view of these and similar threats, led them to seek therapy to ease their minds. It can be found at https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/what-to-do-with-climate-emotions? or by CLICKING HERE.
Although seeking therapy might be personally helpful for some concerned with mankind’s survival, my recommendation is to work hard for measures that deter climate change and provide for environmental protection, voting for candidates who support such measures, personally doing little things that help the environment (like avoiding plastic shopping bags, tightening leaky faucets, not leaving lights burning, unnecessary use of fertilizer and insecticides, etc.), and to avoid dystopian novels and films which scare the hell out of many.
But, if you’re actually losing sleep over this, worrying that indeed, the sky may be falling, perhaps therapy is an answer. That might have been a better choice for the late Henny Penny.
JL
*
* *
Keeping a Senate Majority in 2024
It is pretty clear that
maintaining control of the Senate is crucial if the Democrats are to be able to
keep living up to their agenda of protecting Social Security and Medicare, cutting prescription drug prices,
passing gun control legislation with teeth, keeping the economy growing for all
Americans, protecting civil, voting, and individual (including abortion and LGBTQ) rights, and combatting
climate change, not to mention that body’s key role in
confirming Supreme Court nominees.
Democratic
control of the Senate is paper-thin, depending on the uncertain votes of
Senators Sinema (now an Independent) and Manchin, as well as Vice President
Harris’ tie-breaking vote when needed.
In my opinion, the worst thing
that can happen in the 2024 elections is for Democrats presently in the Senate
to lose their seats. There are more seats held by Democrats than seats
held by Republicans that will be up for grabs in 2024. Right now, five Democratic
Senators are in what appear to be particularly tight races.
They are Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Bob Casey
(Pennsylvania), Jon Tester (Montana) and Jacky Rosen (Nevada). If you
vote in those States, I urge you to get out there and work for them. If you live elsewhere, campaign donations are
always welcome.
I plan, as
the election comes closer, to get involved in postcard-writing campaigns through
www.activateamerica.vote, as I did in 2020. You should too. Back
then I concentrated on the close Senate races in Arizona and Nevada, in which I feel in my small way, I helped Democrats Kelly (Ariz.) and Masto (Nev.)
to win.
And needless to say, reducing the
number of Republican Senators would be great.
Ted Cruz (Texas), Rick Scott (Florida),
and Josh Hawley (Missouri) all deserve to be defeated. They are foes of democracy in this country. Unfortunately, to borrow an expression an old
college political science professor of mine frequently used, the voters in
those three States ‘can’t tell beans from split popcorn.’
What you can do: Now is the the time to prepare to vote by
mail in the 2024 elections. Even if you intend to vote in-person at your
polling place, you should still request a Vote-By-Mail ballot, as insurance
against unexpected situations. (Vote-By-Mail ballots are NOT mailed to you
when you make the request. They are sent
out prior to the elections. And your getting one does not preclude your showing up at your regular polling place to vote, so long as you bring the unused mail-in ballot with you, as a safeguard to prevent someone from, even accidentally, trying to vote twice.)
If you live in Palm Beach County, you can take care of this and find more information on voting and elections at www.votepalmbeach.gov Or by CLICKING HERE . Elsewhere, contact your local Supervisor of Elections.
But do it. Sign up to vote by mail. Today!
JL
*
* *
Whistleblowers
I believe a ‘whistleblower’ is
someone, usually an employee, involved in a government activity who sees
something improper going on and draws it to the attention of the public,
Congress, an inspector general, or some other government entity. A ‘whistleblower’s’ involvement in the
activity supposedly provided them with firsthand, or even participatory,
knowledge of the improprieties resulting in their blowing the proverbial
‘whistle.’
Some folks have been bamboozled
into thinking that someone who just complains about something qualifies as a
‘whistleblower,’ even if they lack such firsthand knowledge of how that
something came to be. That is not the case and those who believe that
way are grossly misinformed.
Going on a ‘fishing expedition’ in
search of a ‘whistle’ or of a ‘whistleblower ’does not automatically make one a
‘whistleblower,’ as some Republicans believe.
And when media refers to such complainers as ‘whistleblowers,’ they
compound the error, giving the complainer underserved credibility.
JL
*
* *
A Shameful Milestone
Read all
about it by visiting https://www.aol.com/news/us-sets-grim-milestone-record-044315752.html or by CLICKING HERE. after
which you should think about its tragic implications. That this item is relegated to being a
last-minute addition to this posting should not reduce its importance to all of
us.
JL
*
* *
Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
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 do. And 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. Friends, relatives, enemies,
etc.
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. I
think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri.
There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it
though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri
is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with
the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to
list up to ten email addresses to which the blog will be forwarded, along with
a comment from you. Each 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 the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or
clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting, but I recommend
sending them the link.
Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think
might benefit from reading it.
* * * *
No comments:
Post a Comment