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Adidas and Puma |
| Then |
 |
| Now |
I don’t know the subsequent history of his brother’s firm, whose soccer shoes were labeled ‘Puma,’ other than that name is still around in the sports footwear business. I recently read that Puma was making an effort to compete with the industry’s giants, Nike and of course, Adidas, in getting athletes to wear their products in the upcoming Paris Olympics.
It’s interesting that both Adidas
and Puma had their origins in that sleepy Bavarian town, down the hill from the
old U.S. army base (before that it was a Luftwaffe training facility) where we
were told not to drink the water, but that the beer was okay.
JL
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Russia Still Manipulating the Trumpublicans
The
Russian government is constantly grinding out propaganda, injecting it into
social media and news reporting in this country. Republicans who are fooled
into believing this stuff are sometimes aware of its source, but usually
not. It seems that they just don’t care. It is as if they have been hypnotized.
In ‘The Bulwark,’ while pointing out that Republicans are still pushing their big lies (including their disputing the indisputable results of the 2020 presidential election), conservative commentator Mona Charen noted that Ukraine president Zelensky this week warned the U.S. that Ukraine will lose the war against Russia’s aggression if it does not get U.S. aid. House Speaker Johnson is allied with Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in trying to make sure that they do not get this aid, Putin as part of his agenda to revive the old Soviet Union and Johnson (as ordered by Trump) as an attempt to lock in isolationist votes.
‘Putin seems to have pulled off the most successful foreign influence operation in American history,’ Charen wrote. “If Trump were being blackmailed by Putin, it’s hard to imagine how he would behave any differently. And though it started with Trump, it has not ended there. Putin now wields more power over the Republicans than anyone other than Trump…. They mouth Russian disinformation without shame. Putin,” she said, “must be pinching himself.” He cannot believe Americans are that dumb, but he really doesn't understand Republicans, or maybe he just does.
And Zelensky wasn’t alone in recognizing the importance of the role of the United States. Japanese prime minister Kishida, who met with President Biden this week, said that ‘the leadership of the United States is indispensable,’ and asked ‘Without U.S. support, how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow? ‘Without the presence of the United States, how long before the Indo-Pacific would face even harsher realities?’
The answer to Zelensky’s and Kishida’s questions is simple. Most of the Republicans who believe these lies are either bigoted, selfish, gullible, ignorant, stupid, or combinations of these categories in varying degrees. When their likely presidential candidate mouths Russian lies, draped in the American flag, they fall into line like the puppet he himself is, and this includes the pathetic Speaker of the House, who confuses Trump with Moses and leans on a religious crutch to mask his ignorance, either real or feigned.
This is the
Achilles heel of democracy. And is all
the more reason for those who are not thusly misinformed and misdirected
(hopefully you, dear readers) to fight hard to preserve representative
democracy in this country. That is your job leading up to the election on
November 5!
JL
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Arizona is a State of Confusion
Even Donald Trump recognized that Arizona’s citing 1864 legislation prohibiting abortion in a court action in that State, dating back to before it even was a State, is crazy. But he didn’t come out for Federal legislation banning abortion either, and said 'to leave it to the States.' That was the unfortunate decision the Supreme Court, bolstered by his three handpicked appointees, made when they reversed Roe vs Wade.
This shifting of the question from a woman’s body to ‘States’ rights’ annoyed the Republican right, of course, because they want a national ban, and leaving it to the States might result in far less than that. When put to them, voters usually favor leaving such 'choices' to the woman involved, even in 'red' States. Usually, Trumpublicans oppose anything Federal (or national) in scope, so this amounted to their disliking an approach they typically would endorse. Meanwhile, Trump fancies he can have it both ways. To say there is disunion and confusion among the Republicans is a gross understatement.
This will all be settled in the November elections when I believe pro-choice candidates will rout those who want to limit women’s rights all over the country. That will be the death knell of the Republican Party, moving them to the oblivion where the Whigs ended up about 170 years ago. It is your job to make that happen! That is worth repeating. It isn’t automatic. It is your job to make that happen!
JL
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Wrapping Up March Madness
So my prediction for the men's NCAA basketball final was wrong. Zach Edey played a great game but the rest of the Purdue Boilermakers didn’t show up, at least the ones that so well backed him up during the season. Incidentally, more TV viewers watched the women's final game than watched UConn's victory over Purdue. South Carolina defeated Iowa, despite the performance of Caitlin Clark, whose popularity (but not her wealth) is approaching that of Taylor Swift.
Congratulations to the UConn Huskies and of course, to the transfer portal, which played a significant role for many of the teams playing in this year’s March Madness, helping to destroy college sports in the process.
JL
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If today’s postings have a pessimistic tone, what else should we expect in a culture that values the meaningless simplicity of country music lyrics and the violence of pro football over more searching ideas and more peaceful pursuits?
JL
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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
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