*(Tagline of 1930s band leader Ted Lewis and favorite comment of a past, now deceased, Cascade Lakes Board president.)
JL
* * *
Trump is Guilty
 |
| Corrupt D.A., Rigged Judge!!! |
In his post-conviction tirade, Trump kept insisting that the whole
trial was ‘rigged,’ despite the judge’s bending over backwards to give the
defense every possible break. Of course,
because taking an oath was required, he didn’t speak in his own defense, since
lying under such circumstances would be perjury. He said the same thing about the 2020
election which he had lost. Donald John
Trump is the typical ‘sore loser’ who refuses to face facts.
BUT LET’S GET IT STRAIGHT. IN A COURTROOM, BY A JURY, DONALD JOHN TRUMP WAS FOUND GUILTY. NO MATTER HOW VIRULANTLY HE DISAGREES WITH THAT VERDICT, WHICH OF COURSE HE WILL APPEAL, THE LAWS BY WHICH WE LIVE DECLARED HIM GUILTY. ITS JUST LIKE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS OF 2020 THAT WERE UNSUCCESSFULLY CHALLENGED IN MANY COURTROOMS AND CONSISTENTLY DETERMINED HIM TO BE THE LOSER, NO MATTER HOW LOUDLY AND OFTEN HE AND HIS FOLLOWERS BELLOWED THAT THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN. SCREAMING THAT THE D.A. IS CORRUPT AND THE JUDGE WAS 'RIGGED' WILL GET HIM NOWHERE.
THAT IS WHAT OUR LAWS DETERMINED. ANYONE CAN DISAGREE WITH, CHALLENGE, OR APPEAL LEGAL DECISIONS, BUT THEY REMAIN THE LAW, AND WE ARE A NATON BASED UPON LAWS. THOSE SUPPORTING THIS CONVICTED FELON FOR POLITICAL REASONS ARE TEARING AT THE RULE OF LAW UPON WHICH OUR NATION IS BASED. REPUBLICANS WHO TAKE THAT POSITION SEEM TO BE IGNORANT OF THE NATION’S HISTORY OF BEING RULED BY LAWS AND NOT INDIVIDUALS.
One of Trump’s complaints was that the judge did not afford him a
change of venue to a place which was not filled with so many Democrats, which
assured that there would be a jury prejudiced against him. While this was no more than lawyerly bullshit, I
wonder what a jury from upstate New York, perhaps from the area which
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, one of his most loyal followers, serves would
have done with the case. If they had
acquitted him, that would have to be accepted as the law. Note what another Trump follower, appointed
to a Florida federal judgeship by him as his prior presidency ended, is doing
to make sure the case dealing with the stolen classified documents Trump hid at Mar-a-Lago, will never reach the trial stage in his lifetime.
Trump may have been found guilty in the ‘hush money’ case, but he
still is around, busily engaged in corrupting democracy, and there are plenty
of troubled, ignorant, gullible, bigoted, or stupid Americans who will support
him for a variety of reasons they might be ashamed to disclose.
His sentencing is scheduled for July 11, four days before the
Trumpublican Party will nominate him to again run for the presidency, which
office he besmirched for four years from 2016 to 2020, while legally holding
that office. I am sure he will be in
some manner left free to attend their convention, but the legal sanctions
imposed upon convicted felons should limit his activities. And if he ignores those sanctions, parts of
the rule of law, his sentencing is more likely to revert to some kind of
imprisonment. I do not believe the
nation wants that to happen, but it may be exactly what Trump wants, affording
him the mantle of a martyr.
JL
* * *
Liberalism and Criticism
The May 27 issue of the New Yorker magazine included a lengthy
piece by its ‘critic at large,’ Adam Gopnik, subtitled ‘Why liberals struggle
to defend liberalism.’ The references he
makes and the several books he critically writes about, in all honesty, are far
beyond my usual menu of reading, but clearly, they represent a thorough job on
his part of doing whatever it is that a critic is supposed to be doing.
The article ought to move those who call themselves liberals to
dwell on what they actually believe.
After reading or misreading the article, I concluded that I personally define
being a liberal (which might not be the same as liberalism) as follows:
‘Liberalism, for an individual or for a society, is being open to new ideas and changes except those which themselves inhibit being open to new ideas and changes.’
(A response to this
might be that it would remain an unknown as to whether that exception applied
unless it were tried. Ah, but by then,
the poison might have been ingested and the antidote would be something other
than liberalism.)
If the job of a critic is to make others think about works of art,
music, or literature, or even ideas, Gopnik succeeds. If you have a lot of spare time, you might
read the article at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/27/why-liberals-struggle-to-defend-liberalism or by CLICKING HERE. Especially if you consider yourself to be a
liberal.
JL
* * *
And Speaking of ‘Isms’
In a New York Times column last week, David Brooks wrote about
‘populism’ in which he painted it not as the democratic ‘ism’ it was a
generation or two ago, but more representative of the present ‘sour,’
pessimistic, mood it reflects, not only in the United States, but throughout
the world these days.
But being a ‘liberal,’ Brooks did offer
those who recognize this danger a challenging way of fighting back against such
a populist tide. He quoted Hoover
Institution scholar Larry Diamond who wrote, in ‘The American Interest’
magazine four years ago:
o
Don’t try to out-polarize the polarizer. If you stridently
denounce the populist, you only
mobilize his base and make yourself look like part of the hated establishment.
o
Reach out to the doubting elements of his
supporters. Don’t question the character of his backers or condescend; appeal
to their interests and positive dreams.
o
Avoid tit-for-tat name calling. You’ll be playing his game, and
you’ll look smaller.
o
Craft an issue-packed campaign. The Ipsos
survey (from which Diamond’s numbers come)
shows that even people who hate the system are eager for programs that
create jobs, improve education, health care and public safety. As Diamond puts
it, “Offer substantive, practical, nonideological policy proposals.”
o
Don’t let the populists own patriotism. Offer a liberal version
of national pride that gives people a sense of belonging across difference.
o
Don’t be boring. The battle for attention
is remorseless. Don’t let advisers make their candidates predictable, hidden
and safe.
Brooks went on to point out that ‘it’s looking like this year’s elections will be won by
whichever side stands for change. Populists promise to tear down systems.
Liberals need to make the case for changing them in a comprehensive and
constructive way.’
I think the most important point of those
made by Diamond is not letting the populists get away with acting as if they
own patriotism. They do not, especially
because many of their ideas are the opposite of the principles upon which our
republic was founded.
And that’s it for ‘Isms’ for the day.
* * *
Voting By Mail
Voting by mail is easy and safe, and not the menace some candidates, who fear a greater number of people voting, claim it to be.
* * *
Some Advice for MSNBC – Which They Won’t Take
There is an expression that refers to the ‘eleventh hour’ as the
last opportunity to get something done.
It is wrong! The last opportunity
to get something done is during the ‘twelfth hour,’ not the ‘eleventh.’ Just think about it.
A twelve-hour clockface or your wristwatch’s face goes from all the way
around from zero (12 o'clock midnight) to 12 o'clock (noon) for AM times, and from
12 o'clock (noon) to midnight (12 o'clock) for PM times. Let’s just deal with the PM portion of this.
Thus, the very first PM hour is from noon (12 o'clock) to 1:00 PM; the 2nd hour from 1:00 to 2:00 PM , and so on. It follows then that the "eleventth hour" goes from 10:00 to 11:00 PM. Count the hours off on your fingers and you will see that the period from 11:00 PM to 12:00 AM, is actually the 12th hour! But the inaccurate expression has been used for so long that it passes as truth, which it is not.
Some think there is a biblical basis for this inaccuracy and
others attribute it to the Battle of
Waterloo where coordination of key military actions between the Prussians and
the English in defeating Napoleon there were taken ‘at the last moment’ and
documented by a reporter who couldn’t tell time. Both such sources are wrong.
Now that you’ve hopefully digested this, let’s get to MSNBC which presents its final opinion program of the evening at 11:00 PM, inaccurately calling it the ‘Eleventh Hour’ when it really is telecast during the clock’s twelfth hour. The preceding program on MSNBC at 10:00 PM is called ‘The Last Word’ which is not what it is, as it is followed by that 11:00 program.
MSNBC’s not being capable of correctly labeling two of its major nightly opinion/news programs can shed some undeserved doubt on the correctness of other aspects of these two programs. That is reason enough to change their names. They can call the 10:00 PM program something like ‘An Hour with Larry O’Donnell’ and re-name the 11:00 PM program after its host or call it ‘The Last Word,’ which it actually is before MSNBC goes into re-runs of earlier programming during the wee small hours of the night.
JL
* * *
‘The only design of the Utopians in war is to obtain that by
force which if it had been granted to them in time, would have prevented the
war (recognition of the permanent existence of the
State of Israel by Hamas), or, if that cannot be done, to take so severe a revenge
on those that have injured them that they may be terrified from doing the like
for the time to come. By these ends
they measure all their designs and manage them so that it is visible that the
appetite of fame or vainglory does not work so much as a just care of their
own security.’
(For those who are not aware of it, later in his life, Thomas
More refused to approve of King Henry VIII’s divorce, resulting in his
execution and ultimately his being made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.)
* * *
Israel or Judea … A Hard Choice for Israelis
* * *
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.
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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.
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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
* * *
