Obviously, someone wanted Donald Trump dead,
and a sniper, positioned on a rooftop about a hundred yards from where Trump
was speaking, used a high-powered rifle with a telescopic lens, to get off
several rounds. How he managed to secure
himself in such an elevated position, beyond the Secret Service’s ‘security
perimeter,' is still being debated.
Because of the distance and angle, and possibly
the shooter’s lack of real expertise, several shots were fired in rapid
succession. The first few probably did not come anywhere near their
target. But succeeding shots, viewed
through the shooter’s lens, enabled him to zero in and come closer and closer
to Trump, killing one spectator and wounding at least another two. All this took place within a few
seconds. The shooter’s final shot struck
Trump in the ear, slightly wounding him, and taking away the opportunity for
further shots. It was reported that Secret
Service personnel were then able to pin down the location of the shooter and kill
him.
As investigations proceed, there seems to be no evidence that the
assassination attempt was part of a larger plot, although MAGA Republicans are
anxious to blame it on Democrats. There already are baseless and dangerous conspiracy
theories being voiced. But thus far, it seems
that the shooter was just a very angry young man armed with his father’s AR-15 type
rifle. If he were suffering from a
mental problem, it doesn’t appear that it had been diagnosed. The investigation will now center on who
had responsibility for securing the rooftop, quickly located by the Secret
Service as where the shooter was, (and beyond their security perimeter), and of
course, the assassin’s motivation as well.
From the sparse information available about the
assassin’s background, it appears that he was a twenty-year-old registered
Republican, who had made one small ($15) donation to a liberal organization
shortly after the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection that was allegedly inspired
by Trump to halt the electoral vote count.
It occurs to me, on the eve of the Republican convention, that this could
have been an insane act on the part of an otherwise normal young man, who
happened to be a registered Republican and who might have been motivated by dissatisfaction
with his Party’s ready acceptance of Donald Trump as its leader. There still are many Republicans who quietly think
that same way but fortunately, they are not as angry nor as mentally unbalanced
as the shooter turned out to be.
JL
* * *
‘It’s Time To Cool It Down’
On TV from the Oval Office Sunday evening,
President Biden suggested to Americans, in view of the Trump assassination
attempt, that ‘It’s time to cool
it down.’
I suppose the easiest way to do that would be
for Democrats and Republicans to devote their campaigns entirely to telling
voters what they plan to do if elected, and what they’ve accomplished when in
office, minus attacks on the other party or its candidates, however evil or
wrong they believe them to be. Rather
than criticize the opposing party’s position on any issue, a constructive
approach to dealing with that issue would be required. Examples: NATO, inflation, climate change,
LGBTQ and women’s rights, health care, social security, tax policy, tariffs,
etc.
This would be excellent for Democrats, who
believe in Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg plea for ‘government of the people, for
the people, and by the people.’
It would be more difficult for Republicans who
don’t really believe in government on those terms, at least on the Federal
level where our Congress, our President, and our Judiciary are centered. Some consider a federal government to be the foe
of real democracy, which they claim is primarily based on State governments,
and cite the Constitution to prove it. ('States' are what are united to form the United States, but which still exist and govern independently of their being 'united.') Without constructive plans for our Federal government, Republicans might
find it hard to ‘cool it down.’ Many of
their efforts are the opposite, destructive in nature.
Right now some MAGA Republicans
see the assassination attempt as a Democratic plot, engineered by President
Biden. Others blame ‘inflammatory’
charges by Democrats against Trump as inspiring the shooter, even though they
are far outnumbered by daily ‘inflammatory’ charges against Biden from
Republican sources. (One woman interviewed in the parking lot after the
shooting wore a tee shirt complaining about ‘Parasites.’ Can such people be
convinced to ‘cool it.’) Opposition to
Donald Trump and his ideas is a major tool in the Democratic 2024 campaign, and
they would be the last ones to want him out of the race, eliminating that
tool. It is bad enough for them that the
failed assassination attempt has increased sympathy for him.
But both Democrats and Republicans will try to heed President Biden’s
advice. A good start,
particularly in view of the failed assassination attempt, however, might be for
Republicans to get behind real steps to avoid gun violence, including the
Supreme Court’s misinterpretation of the Second Amendment (they ignored its first
thirteen words), which has caused thousands of unnecessary deaths.
Donald Trump should recognize that his name is
now on a list that includes those who have been assassinated or survived an
assassination attempt: Abraham Lincoln, James
Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Martin Luther
King, Ronald Reagan, Robert Kennedy, Gabby Giffords, and many thousands of
other men, women, and children. He now
belongs to the club. We hope he will accept
his membership and ‘cool it down.’
If he doesn’t, read the following piece. Ah, read it anyway.
JL
* * *
Unfit to Be President - Trump!
Both the New York Times and the Los Angeles
Times have come out with lengthy editorials, declaring Donald Trump unfit to be
president. Find the New York Times July 11 editorial at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/11/opinion/editorials/donald-trump-2024-unfit.html or
CLICK HERE. This appeared before the assassination attempt.
JL
* * *
Replacing Biden
Replacing President Biden on the Democratic
ticket is still being debated although it will not dominate the headlines
during the Republican convention. Some
Democrats are walking around with blindfolds. After this week,
however, Democrats must face up to Biden’s shortcomings and decide if they can
afford to risk losing the election and Congress by sticking with him. (If Joe were your father or grandfather, would
you take away his car keys?) Some are
already quietly resolved to accepting a Trump victory and fighting back from the
trenches for four years, ignoring that they have many capable replacement
candidates. I am not among them.
I believe that Vice President Harris will
replace him on the ticket (and in the White House as well at the same time),
preferably no later than the August Democratic convention. Any time afterwards would prove disastrous for
their entire ticket. That’s where I
stand today. Increasingly, more and more nervous Democrats are sensing ‘the
sooner the better.’ But Joe Biden‘s
continued presence as President prevents there from being active support for anyone
else, including Vice-President Harris.
JL
* * *
Iguanas
For years my backyard was plagued by
iguanas. My community, having engaged a
firm specializing in ‘iguana control’ has since gotten rid of most of them by
somehow making the soil and vegetation unhospitable to them. But here is a poem inspired by these ugly creatures.
Donna
the Iguana
My name is Donna, and I'm an iguana.
To catch me, you can’t
do whatever you wanna.
By canal banks I live,
in tunnels I snooze,
That wreck house
foundations, that’s the bad news.
I climb up on trees,
and I’m very bold,
I’ll hang on your roof,
except when it’s cold.
Dare chase me, in
water, quickly I’ll duck,
Efforts to catch me all
are out of luck.
There’s laws to protect
me, most are insane,
Hug me and kiss me, you
must be humane.
To catch me, you can’t
do whatever you wanna,
My name is Donna, and
I’m an iguana.
JL
* * *
Take a Break – Why the Miami Marlins Stink
From my observation, it appears that the Miami Marlins,
when it comes to making deals with other clubs, have little more skill than
ten-year-olds trading baseball cards.
Conceivably, they might today have an outfield consisting of Giancarlo
Stanton, Mike Yelich, and Marcell Ozuna, a far better trio than they have
today, if they hadn’t made so many stupid trades. Except for Jazz Chisholm, whose days as a
Marlin are probably numbered, De La Croix, Gordon, Myers and even hard hitting,
but inconsistent, Jesus Sanchez are not in the class of these three.
Let’s start with Stanton: When they traded him to the Yankees, they
received Starlin Castro, Jorge Guzman, and Jose Devers. While Stanton hasn’t set the Yanks on fire,
he was worth far more than these three combined.
Next, Mike Yelich, now star of the Milwaukee
Brewers, for whom they received Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz, Monte Harrison, and
Jordan Yamamoto. I haven’t seen any of
them in a Marlins uniform lately.
The trading of Marcell Ozuna is a little more
complicated, and still may not turn out to be so bad. For him, they received Magneuris Sierra, and
pitcher Danny Costenza, both of whom are forgettable, plus pitchers Sandy
Alcantara, and Zac Gallen. Alcantara
turned out to be the Cy Young award-winning anchor of their pitching staff but
is missing this entire season for Tommy John arm surgery, probably brought on
by his being overworked in 2023, and will be a question mark when he returns
next year. Gallen has turned out to be a
sterling performer for the Diamondbacks.
But getting Jazz Chisholm in exchange for Gallen no longer looks like an equitable trade any longer with the
likelihood of Jazz being traded away coming closer to reality. Trading Jazz, and their other most likely
trade bait, star closer Tanner Scott, between them ought to enable the Marlins
to acquire two established MLB starters, not necessarily stars, under age 29 with consistently favorable
MLB win/loss records, and two relatively young major league position players
who can consistently bat close to 300, hit homers and play their infield or
outfield positions well. These are their needs. They shouldn’t be content with
getting players still in the minors if they trade, Jazz, Scott, or both. The Marlins’ line-ups these days feature too
many ‘journeyman’ players and promising minor leaguers in these positions who
blow hot and cold and cannot be counted on when a hit is needed to salvage a
win. They need established professionals.
Last year the Marlins traded their number two
starter, Pedro Lopez, to Minnesota for batting champ Luis Arraez, not a bad
move until this year when they traded Arraez, still among the league’s batting leaders
(but not for extra bases) for a bunch of no-names you would not recognize and
who are still in the minors, and likely to spend their careers there. A terrible trade.
Another rotten trade a few years ago (with the
Phillies) that didn’t make sense was getting rid of catcher J.T. Realmuto, who
is turning out to be one of the league’s all-time great backstops, for pitcher Sixto Sanchez along with catcher Jorge Alfaro and a minor league pitcher.
Sanchez is still very far from living up to expectations and Alfaro’s skills were never
better than those of a number two backstop and decent pinch hitter. The Marlins should learn that quantity does
not replace quality when making trades, especially when that ‘quantity’ is
still in the minor leagues, yet to prove themselves in the majors.
As we approach the 2024 trading deadline, whoever manages trades for the Marlins should visit the nearest schoolyard playground and seek the advice of the kid who has accumulated the largest pile of MLB trading cards, provided he doesn’t still have a Magneuris Sierra card among them.
Ah yes, Stanton, Yelich, and Ozuna! What a nice outfield that would have been, and they gave it away.
JL
* * *
Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
Strange “Hits’! The large number of those accessing Jackspotpouri from Singapore has suddenly ceased. In their place, however, there have appeared large numbers of ‘hits’ on each posting in the hundreds, and as was the case with those from Singapore, but this time from Hong Kong! I suspect that the Chinese are playing around with internet transmissions, possibly to try to identify who is reading them.
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, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them.
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 brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog.
Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, 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, particularly if they are a registered voter. This is an election year. Spread the word.
JL
