Disputing Elections, Political Defenses, Legal Defenses, and Archery
Aggrieved defeated candidates for the presidency of the United States of America have not always given in easily, but until now, always have ultimately respected the rules of law concerning election to that office, as meticulously laid out in Article Two of the Constitution and subsequent legislation, reflected in our laws.
Andrew Jackson (later our seventh president) disputed his defeat by JohnQuincy Adams in 1824, Samuel Tilden disputed his defeat by Rutherford B. Hayes in in 1876, and Al Gore disputed his defeat by George W. Bush in 2000, but all of them ultimately followed the Constitution’s rules of law.
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| It took a Supreme Court Decision to end Al Gore's 2000 dispute over that year's presidential election, which turned on the issue of problems in Florida. |
I
won’t burden you with commentary on the details of the latest indictment of the
defeated former president for his acts.
Read about it everywhere and anywhere.
But
I do hear him and his supporters screaming about how unjust it all is and how
terrible those indicting him are. I
accept the fact that such bellowing is merely a
political defense offered because there is no legal defense remaining
for the forty-fifth president. It might
serve him well in raising money to pay his lawyers, some of whom appear to be
ending up as his co-conspirators, but that will have no weight in a trial. (The courts may
shortly act in curtailing such ‘bellowing’ as a condition of his remaining out
of their custody, once indicted.)
Any
sane defendant would seek to cut a deal at this point, rather than face
conviction and possible imprisonment, but sanity is not one of this defendant’s
virtues. George III, at whom the
Declaration of Independence was directed, was said to be similarly impaired.
 |
| George III, known to some as the 'Mad King,' and they didn't mean 'angry/' |
JL
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Green Cheese
A restauranteur can truly and
honestly believe that the moon is made of green cheese, put it on his menu,
attest to its fine taste in interviews, and get away with it. But once he
attempts to serve what he claims to be lunar green cheese to his customers, he
is perpetrating fraud.
‘Houston, Tell
the lawyer that we’ve looked all over the place and there’s no damn green
cheese anywhere up here.’
JL
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Look at
Polls with Great Care
I don’ t give very much credence
to the latest NYTimes/Siena poll reporting Joe Biden and the indicted former
president in a dead heat for the presidency in 2024. Check out
‘Hopium Chronicles,’ a very authoritative blog published by Simon Rosenberg, a
longtime Democratic political strategist who, incidentally, was one of the few
who accurately predicted the absence of a ‘red wave’ in the 2020 elections. Here is an excerpt.
“Yes, the NYT dropped a new national poll today showing the election
even, 43-43. But a reminder that in that other large sample, independent polls
conducted in July, Biden has opened up a small lead:
July
Polling - Biden-Trump
·
Monmouth 47-40
·
Quinnipiac 49-44
·
YouGov/Yahoo 47-43
·
Morning Consult 44-41 (new this week, Biden
gained a point)
·
YouGov/Economist 44-40 (Biden has been
gaining this weekly track)
·
Ipsos/Reuters 37-35
So
outside the NYTimes, Biden is leading by an average of 4 points in recent
independent polls. A late June high-quality NBC News poll had Biden up 4, and a
new AARP poll of battleground House districts also has Biden up 4.
So, my guess is that Biden is ahead
right now, by 2-3-4 points. But it is really early, and we have a long way to
go in this race and a lot of work to do. Is it likely that Trump keeps taking
on water, and degrades over time? Yes. Is it likely that once Biden turns his
campaign on for real and starts talking to voters about how much better things are
today his
standing improves? Yes. So I am okay with these numbers for now? Yes. I am very
comfortable with all the polling we’ve seen in July. As we head into 2024, I
would much rather be us than them right now. Our path to victory is much
clearer than theirs, something we discuss in my new political briefing released last week.
All of this is a reminder that over
the next 15 months, we cannot allow a single poll to drive our understanding of
the election. We simply cannot fall into bad habits again peeps. See this post which talks about how to
approach and interpret polls this early in the cycle and over the course of the
election. Always start by looking at the averages and trends, and aggressively
discount or dismiss partisan polls.”
JL
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Putting
My Economic Hat On
The
Federal Reserve Bank’s recent prime rate increase of only a quarter of a
percentage point of interest on the money they lend to banks, the smallest
increase since March, was testimony to their success in using that approach to
reduce inflation. Banks use this money
to provide mortgages and automobile
loans, as well as providing financing for business growth.
This
will slightly reduce the demand for such loans, as well as the commercial and
personal activity for which they pay. Reducing demand reduces inflation and
continues to lower the temperature in an overheated economy. The Fed does this in an extremely fine-tuned
manner, limiting rate increases sufficiently to affect demand-driven inflation
but avoiding other damage to the economy.
Personal
savings should increase, which is good, while
unemployment, currently low, might be only minimally increased. This pattern of interest rate increases by
the Fed has thus far been successful in both reducing inflation while still providing
funds to grow our economy. Of course, this is NOT a good time for refinancing
mortgages or getting home equity loans.
JL
*
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Nostalgia
Quiz #5
Match
these States (no fair to look them up) with their capital cities.
a.
Maine 1. Salem
b.
Washington 2. Frankfort
c.
Oregon 3. Olympia
d.
Kentucky
4. Charleston
e.
West Virginia
5. Augusta
The
answers to Quiz #4 are as follows:
1.
Norman
Mailer – The Naked and the Dead,
2.
Philip
Roth – American Pastoral,
3.
Toni
Morrison – Beloved,
4.
William
Faulkner – The Sound and the Fury.
JL
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South Florida Gasoline Price
Formula:
The price of gasoline on
east-west roadways in Florida is directly proportional to the station’s
proximity to the Florida Turnpike.
Driving a quarter of a mile can save you dollars.
JL
*
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If the Facts are Not on Your
Side, Lie!
How dare the Republicans attempt
to tie Hunter Biden’s legal problems to his father!
There is no evidence of any such
connection, just unproven insinuations. Republican
publicists, whose stock in trade are lies acceptable only within the alternate
reality in which their party’s adherents dwell, expect them to believe
anything. Most do. And that is more to be pitied than scorned.
Hunter’s problems with the IRS are dwarfed by those of prominent Republicans such as Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, both found guilty in court and pardoned by President Biden’s predecessor. And they are in no way in the same league as the indicted former president's playing games with our national security.
As for Hunter’s Ukrainian business
connections, there is no evidence that President Biden had any role whatsoever in
them. And nothing in President Biden’s
family matches the financial dealings of the forty-fifth president’s financially
stressed son-in-law, Jared, who had no problem dealing with the same Saudis who
murdered and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi, with whose journalist work for the
Washington Post they disagreed.
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
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you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might
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pass those email addresses to me by email
at jacklippman18@gmail.com.
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think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri.
There’s another, perhaps easier,
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Either way will work, sending
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Again, I urge you to forward
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JL
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