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I've hesitated
to use the word 'clusterfuck' in postings on Jackspotpourri but since it
appears in the Merriam-Webster dictionary and other dictionaries, I suppose it
is now acceptable. Barely.
(Merriam-Webster
definition - 'vulgar slang. : a complex and utterly disordered and mismanaged
situation : a muddled mess.')
‘Clusterfuck’ well
describes the management of the House of Representatives by its Republican
majority. That’s what it is!
It also might be
applied to describe our justice system's attempt to resolve the charges against
the indicted former president, charges that probably won't be finally resolved
until too late to have any meaning. More
clusterfuck!
But fear not, there
is an excellent chance that both of these 'muddled messes' will
be resolved by that most supreme of all courts, the American voter, on November
5, 2024.
JL
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Immigration Problem Just Won't Go Away
It is poetically coincidental that ‘muddled messes’ of ‘clusterfuck’ bring to mind the ‘huddled masses’ in Emma Lazarus’ poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty, referring to those desiring to emigrate to our country. Up until our tightening of immigration laws in 1924, the United States welcomed most immigrants recognizing their value to our society.
(Unless you are
a descendant of the original Native American population, here before European
explorers ever came anywhere near to our continent, you are yourself a descendant
from immigrants or perhaps are one yourself!)
Even though the very
restrictive 1924 immigration law has been revised, enabling more immigrants to
come to the United States, especially as students, or those providing skills
that we need, or those wealthy enough to be able to invest in our economy,
immigration policy still qualifies as ‘clusterfuck.’ Republican legislators are today using that need for a new immigration policy as a hostage, demanding that it be taken
care of in a manner to their liking before other totally unrelated, but extremely crucial, legislation can
be considered in the House of Representatives.
Now that is truly more ‘clusterfuck.’
There are many
reasons why most of the population of the planet, given the opportunity, would
want to emigrate to the United State. Except
for a few European countries, there are no places on Earth with as high a
standard of living, greater economic opportunity, or better guarantees of
freedom.
Seekers of
Asylum: But it is the hundreds of
thousands of those living to the south of the United States fleeing oppressive
governments and in constant fear of gang violence, who make the headlines as they seek political
asylum here. Now, they are being
joined by those from elsewhere on the planet who have scraped up the resources to
get them here and who get in line with them, facing similar dangers where they
now live. Spanish is not the only language spoken by those seeking to enter the
United States on its southern border.
But there has to
be a limit to the number to which asylum is granted. There is only so much
space in this country, and opportunity here is not infinite. Clearly,
the burden of hosting such potential immigrants should not be borne by the
areas where they first enter the country or eventually settle. If they are admitted as immigrants, it is a
national responsibility. Invariably,
such immigrants are initially in need of public services, if not support, that
must be funded by America’s taxpayers. That
bothers a lot of people (… who happen to be descendent from earlier immigrants.)
Obviously, it is
in the interest of the United States to work to improve the conditions in the
places from which such immigrants come, so they might have no reason to leave
there, but that cannot be done overnight.
Meanwhile, closing our eyes to this problem is not an alternative. Failure to properly address this problem can
result in some Americans supporting those who want to totally shut the door to
all immigrants, extinguishing the torch held aloft by the Statue of
Liberty. That is a very bad idea.
 |
| But it must not be extinguished |
You even can sense
this in those urban areas, distant from the southern border, where many immigrants
end up and seek support. New York City
is an example. Florida’s
hypocrite-in-chief and governor, Ron DeSantis, even flew a load of immigrants
from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, to make this point, even
though his State is sorely in need of agricultural labor that immigrants, legal
and otherwise, have provided for years. This
situation is indeed a ‘muddled mess’ or a (you fill in the word). Something must be done to address it.
JL
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Another ‘Muddled Mess’ – The
Israeli-Hamas War
The Israeli-Hamas war can be ended quickly if those who started the current hostilities on October 7 announced their abandonment of their policies of working to wipe the State of Israel from the map, and of their intent to resume similar attacks in the future as soon as they are able to.
Until Hamas does that on their own or are forced to do it by those who provide them with financial and military aid, Israel will have to continue its military actions to destroy, or at least totally degrade, the military and governmental structure of Hamas within the Gaza Strip.
Getting the innocent civilian
population there out of the way is as much a problem for the Arab states that
support Hamas as it is for Israel, but these nations seem to ignore it. They must allow Palestinians access to their
countries, at least until they finance the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip as
a peaceful entity, governed by those not dedicated to the destruction of the
State of Israel, to which Gaza’s Palestinian population can return.
It is clear that Hamas has lost, or will lose, the present military struggle that they started on October 7. If this forces them to abandon their policies of working to wipe out the State of Israel, and of their intent to resume similar attacks in the future as soon as they are able to, it might appear to be a surrender on their part.
But don’t be fooled!
it is entirely possible that they always anticipated
losing the military struggle they knew their attack would bring about, but
proceeded not with the aim of winning militarily, but with the aim of unifying
Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and elsewhere, in their aim of eventually
destroying the State of Israel, rather than seek a two-state solution, and
totally replacing it with an independent Palestinian state. The unavoidable deaths of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, resulting from Hamas military targets being intentionally located amidst civilian populations, would only bring more support to Hamas among Palestinians elsewhere.
That is why Israel should not jump to agree to any ‘cease-fire’ or surrender that allows Hamas to walk away with that kind of ‘moral’ victory, gaining the allegiance of Palestinians outside of Gaza to their deadly philosophy.
Eventually, Hamas must still renounce both its dedication to the destruction of the State of Israel and its intention to stage further attacks upon it, even if they don’t really mean it. That would be a start, even though no one should expect the Israelis to believe them either. That’s why Israel must continue to attack Hamas militants wherever in Gaza they may be, and once the fighting ends, which someday it will, must ‘keep its powder dry.’
Peace has to start somewhere.
JL
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Optimism
Department
If you still need a dose of
optimism in the face of the lies and ignorance that are hallmarks of the
Republican Party, (and since it’s raining as I write this so you might be
cancelling your outside activities for the day), check out the latest from Simon
Rosenberg, eternal optimist, found at https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/WhctKKZPGTFhrlgmvjWprcLhjSPcMFLVXHtDHJKFvFWKKglGsFqRfDmsBkDXQNZzKLFlQvq
Or by CLICKING HERE.
And some guarded optimism crept into a New York Times column by Paul Krugman the other day when he concluded by writing. ‘… the fundamental puzzle isn’t that people are unhappy despite favorable macroeconomic indicators. It is that Americans say that things are terrible but behave as if they’re doing pretty well. And I, at least, am inclined to place more weight on what people do than what they say.’
JL
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Nineteen Dollars a Month, Please
It bothers me that charities that advertise on
television no longer seem to be asking for donations, usually in amounts less
than $50 or $100, the kind of donations that have been their lifeblood for
years.
All they seem to be asking donors for these
days are commitments for a monthly contribution, usually $19 a month, that adds
up to $228 a year, an amount that that usually also gets the donor a cheap
blanket or tee shirt. You know the
organizations that I am talking about, hospitals that specialize in children’s
diseases, abandoned dogs and cats, homeless teenagers, starving children, endangered
wildlife and other highly emotionally charged needs. Lately, in this holiday season, some of them even
have ‘Silent Night’ playing in the background.
I gladly contribute regularly to several charities,
and at this time recommend that you do so as well, if you can afford to do
so. One good one is the ‘Season to
Share’ (https://yourcommunityfoundation.org/funds/season-to-share/) that
solicits through my local newspaper, the Palm Beach Post. Many other newspapers have similar
campaigns. But I don’t commit to monthly
donations to any of them. I don’t think
that is a wise idea.
JL
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Black Marks on SCOTUS
It’s slipping out in the news that Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts had been working on a compromise that would have saved some of the provisions of Roe vs Wade, protecting some abortion rights.
These efforts were totally sidetracked, however, when a tentative draft copy of the Dobbs decision, the 2022 ruling that totally reversed Roe vs Wade was ‘leaked.’ It is rumored that Justice Alito was the source of what obviously was a leak intended to short-circuit Roberts’ efforts. If this were the case, Alito’s name will be joining that of the late Justice Scalia, whose opinion unleased the murderous proliferation of guns in this country, among the black marks on the reputation of the SCOTUS, almost equaling Justice Taney’s infamous Dred Scott pro-slavery decision in 1857.
JL
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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 that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a comment from you. Each will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you are now 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.
JL
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