July 31, 2024 Posting Supplement for Jackspotpourri -Flyer Replacement

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Harris Flyer Replacement

As some of you know, I believe car flyers are more efficient than bumper stickers that can damage the finish on your car.  People cannot shut their eyes to them, and that can influence their vote, I believe, more effectively than political phone or text messages with which we are being deluged and routinely ignore.  

I had prepared a Biden flyer earlier, and here is its replacement, naming Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate.  I have one in my car's rear window, stapled to a piece of cardboard to support it.  If you wish to do the same, just copy this (if you can) or ask me (at the email address shown above) to print one out for you and get it to you.

Until the Democratic Party comes up with something for use in Florida, this will have to do.

JL

July 31, 2024 - Democracy on the Line, Falling From a Coconut Tree, Education of SCOTUS Bench and Others, and Homeowners Insurance in Florida

 

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Democracy Ain't What You Always Thought It Was                                                        

Let’s get it straight.  For years, there have been believers in the idea our democracy is intended for only the limited number of those who control the nation’s wealth and resources, and that expanding that number will only dilute democracy with populism and cause it to fail by expending its resources for the benefit of those who do not contribute to their existence. 

Assuring that more people are encouraged to vote, and to have their social and economic security the concern of the government was seen as causing the downfall of democracy.  Actually, this was the backdrop for the democracy that the ‘founding fathers,’ many of whom were slaveowners, proposed.  It excluded women, slaves, many immigrants, and often landless Americans from those who were among those ‘who were created equal’  back in 1776.

Things have changed since then, but there are still many who want to go back to those days of limited democracy. Most are Republicans.

Today, their ideas are included in ‘Christian Democracy,’ the program of Hungary’s Viktor Orban, admired by some Americans and the Heritage Foundation’s ‘Project 2025.’  Even Donald Trump recently told an evangelical group that once they voted him into office again, he would fix everything permanently so they never would never have to vote again to accomplish their goals.  So long, democracy! 

Only today, I've read that the director of ‘Project 2025’ stepped down for publicizing what would better, in the eyes of some on the right, have remained their ‘inside’ ideas.

For more on this subject, check out Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letter from an American,’ dated July 30 by visiting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/. It is a real eye-opener. Or just CLICK HERE.

JL                                                                     

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Kamala Didn’t Just Fall Out of Some Coconut Tree                                          

                                         

Some who were disenchanted by Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful run in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries have given her a second look now that she is the Party’s candidate and are enthusiastically getting on board! 

In 2020 there was a ‘disconnect’ between her role in the legal system as a tough prosecutor and eventually a ‘law and order’ State Attorney General, and her otherwise progressive leanings. It was difficult to be both at the same time.

Prominent in this reawakening of support for Kamala Harris is the ‘coconut tree’ story now widely circulating.  For those of you who missed it, here’s its origin.  Back in May of 2023, Harris spoke at the White House about advancing opportunities for Hispanic individuals and investing in the broader community.  After pointing out  that ‘because none of us just live in a silo … everything is in context,’ she then added, with a chuckle, how her mother occasionally berated the family’s kids, saying. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’ Harris then continued to her White House audience, ‘You exist in the context of all in which you live, and what came before you.’ 

Those remarks of fourteen months ago make it clear to many today that the Democratic presidential candidate, a seasoned and competent pro, fresh from the 'learning experience' of almost four years as Joe Biden's vice-president, recognizes the nation’s past and its present challenges, and is NOT someone who just happened ‘to fall out of a coconut tree,’ innocent of social, economic, and political realities, and is deserving of the votes of all Americans.  That ‘coconut tree’ has become somewhat of a symbol of Harris’ campaign.                             

It is catching on.  Brian Schatz, senator from Hawaii recently posted a photo of himself climbing a coconut tree and captioned it, ‘Madam Vice President, we are ready to help,’ and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is rumored to be a potential running mate for vice president, responded to a question about his political future by writing, ‘You think I just fell out of a coconut tree?’ Not to be outdone, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis didn't hold back and shared a post on X on July 21, that included the coconut and palm tree emoji, along with an American flag icon.

JL

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 Cap and Gown Department

Occasionally, those in government are cited as graduates of Yale or Harvard Universities as a sign of their educational achievement.  Sometimes, however, this often just refers to Yale or Harvard Law Schools where they pursue a specialized course of study, the law.

While being accepted into either of these two law schools is in itself an achievement, equally important is where they received their undergraduate degrees, their broader college education.  Let me try to clear this up with a bit of information.

·        President Biden has a law degree from Syracuse University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware.

·        Kamala Harris’ has a law degree from the Univ. of California Law School at San Francisco.  Her undergraduate degree is from Howard University.

·        Donald Trump has an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

·        DJ Vance’s law degree is from Yale University and his undergraduate degree is from Ohio State University.

·        Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Jackson have both undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University.

·        Justice Gorsuch has a law degree from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from Columbia University.

·        Justice Kagan has a law degree from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from Princeton University.

·        Justices Alito and Sotomayor have law degrees from Yale University and undergraduate degrees from Princeton University.

·        Justice Kavanaugh has undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University.

·        Justice Thomas has a law degree from Yale University and an undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross.

·        Justice Barrett has a law degree from Notre Dame University and an undergraduate degree from Rhodes College.

·        House Speaker Johnson has undergraduate and law degrees from Louisiana State University.

·        Senate Majority Leader Shumer has undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University.

I think there is a need for greater diversity in where our government’s leaders are educated, especially our Supreme Court Justices. The undergraduate colleges and law schools attended by those in government mentioned above are heavily weighted toward ‘Ivy League’ schools, which although they are trying to rid themselves of the image, are still ‘elitist’ institutions.  

I am sure that excellent undergraduate and legal educations are available outside of this select group of schools.  They might even provide for a more democratic mix of students.  In fact, the Constitution does not require that Supreme Court Justices have prior experience as judges, have attended law school, or even be lawyers.

Of interest is the fact that Princeton is the only Ivy League school with neither a law school nor a medical school.  Brown and Dartmouth also do not have law schools.

This reminds me of what graduates at the very bottom, the tail end, of their graduation classes from any medical school whatsoever, are called for the rest of their lives: ‘Doctor.’

 JL    

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The Florida Homeowners’ Insurance Crisis Won't Go Away on its Own

There are solutions that probably will never happen, but which must be considered.  Here are some suggestions that have come to mind lately.

·       First, any insurance company that sells automobile insurance in Florida, but also sells homeowners insurance itself or through a subsidiary, must offer homeowners insurance as well, not only to their auto insurance customers, but to the general public as well in Florida, and not at a cost so prohibitive that it amounts to not offering it.  They can't feast on the choice cuts and ignore the rest.

·        Damage from tornados, hurricanes or windstorms above a certain level should be excluded from coverage in all homeowners’ policies and be replaced by entirely separate policies from these companies, fully reinsured by the State (in effect by its taxpayers). This would be similar to the existence of federally backed flood insurance, usually excluded from homeowners’ policies.  This is an area of insurance where no insurer is guaranteed a profit without charging exorbitant rates, and where the 'profit' motivation must be removed.

·        Citizens Insurance Company, a quasi-State-owned homeowners’ insurer ‘of last resort’ in Florida should be eliminated, its policyholders distributed among existing homeowners’ insurers.  Refusal to accept them should result in such insurance companies being barred from selling any insurance products in the State of Florida.

·        Any member of either house of the Florida legislature who is or was in any way connected with the insurance business would be automatically excluded from voting on any measures involving insurance that require legislative approval.

If reasonably priced homeowners’ insurance is not made available, homeowners will start a reverse migration out of Florida.  The State can avoid this by managing homeowners’ insurance as a very strictly regulated public utility, either doing it themselves or farming it out to the low bidder among major insurance companies like Metropolitan, Prudential, Aetna, or Travelers, etc.  Treating homeowners’ insurance, at least the parts covering tornados, hurricanes, or windstorms above a certain level, the way we provide water, sewers, fire departments, public schools, roadways, etc. might work.  As I wrote earlier, this is an area of insurance where the 'profit' motivation must be removed.

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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July 27, 2024 - 'Project 2025' and Other Stuff

 

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Republican Poison: 'Project 2025'                                              

In the last posting, I said that in a future posting, I would devote some space to the Heritage Foundation’s ‘Project 2025.’  Remember that such foundations got their start to do the kind of research that colleges and universities routinely do, but without the objectivity, honesty, and peer review that is present and required in the academic world.  Well, here we go!

New Yorker magazine just included an eleven-page story by Jonathan Blitzer in its July 22 issue that explains how ‘Project 2025’ is being used to recruit and indoctrinate future government employees, should the Republicans ever regain power.  Entitled ‘Inside the Trump Plan for 2025,’ the article is more frightening than any earlier expose of conservative scheming that I have ever seen before.  Even candidate Trump seems to be trying to distance himself from ‘Project 2025’ but too much of it appears in the Republican platform for him to get away with that flimsy evasion.

The New Yorker article on ‘Platform 2025’ should take about an hour to read and leave you worried, very worried.  I recommend that you read the article, but suspecting that you might not, first, let me give you TWO HANDLES onto the threat its subject matter describes. 

THE FIRST HANDLE is an awareness of the existence of an organization called the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), which many in Washington regard as the next Trump administration in waiting, according to the article. It unites many of the about two dozen right-wing organizations (such as the Center for Renewing America) that sprang up after Trump’s 2020 defeat. It is extremely well funded and has acquired numerous properties in and around Washington to serve the multitude of conservative organizations at work in that city, providing office space and meeting venues, and in effect tying them into one physical network, conceivably more effectively than the Republican National Committee could ever do.  But it does more.

It appears that the CPI’s purpose is to recruit top trainees and school them in conservative principles for placement in the conservative organizations belonging to its ‘partnership’ and ultimately to be placed in staff positions in the administration and on congressional staffs.  Of course, the 920 page ‘Project 2025’ is a great partof the training they receive.

THE SECOND HANDLE is a partial listing of names of just some of those associated with the Heritage Foundation, the Conservative Partnership Institute, and groups related to them, sourced from the New Yorker article. There are interlocking relationships whereby those heading up one group affiliated with the CPI serve on the Boards of others.  Even their financing can be manipulated by law firms associated with it whereby donations to one group end up paying the expenses of another.  Some of these names you might recognize.  All of them you should fear as being threats to American democracy, along with the members of the House of Representatives’ ‘Freedom Caucus’ who work closely with the CPI, actually using their facilities for meetings occasionally, when what they discuss might be inappropriate to be voiced in a 'public' government building!

These are the names:  Mark Meadows, Russell Vought, Steven Miller, Jeffrey Clark, Betsy DeVos (all part of Trump’s last administration), former Senator Jim DeMint (Heritage), Kevin Roberts (CPI), Senators Mike Lee, Ron Johnson and Tom Cotton; Leonard Leo (Federalist Society), Rick Perry, Rachel Bovard, Cleta Mitchell, John Eastman, Gene Hamilton, Kash Patel, and Saurabh Sharma.

Criticism of ‘Project 2025’ is rampant, but all too often such criticism is just a generalization, failing to get down to its specifics. To get some idea of the dangerous anti-democratic, fascist ideas it contains, you might take the DNC's advice at the top of this posting and 'google it.'  

I've already done that and found a couple of very readable summaries of its content, one of which you can find at https://19thnews.org/2024/07/project-2025-women-education-lgbtq-workforce/ or by CLICKING HERE.  (That source also includes links to the entire 920 page document itself.)  

Another excellent source is a CBS piece on 'Project 2025,' which you can find by copying and pasting https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-project-2025-trump-conservative-blueprint-heritage-foundation/ on your browser line or by CLICKING HERE.  Both articles include many more names than those listed in the 'Second Handle' appearing just above in this posting of which you should be aware.

'Project 2025' is an anti-democratic, fascist threat to democracy in the United States.  If you believe in the preservation of representative democracy in the United States, please vote against any and all candidates of the Republican Party, whose  platform incorporates many of the ideas of 'Project 2025.'  But first, visit one of the links provided in the preceding two paragraphs (or do your own investigating) so that your decision might be based on fact and not just upon mere emotion.

JL

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Other Political Thoughts

Back in 2020, Kamala Harris opened her quest for the Democratic presidential nomination with a terrific speech at a rally in Oakland, moving her to the top tier of potential candidates.  But immediately thereafter, her intensity quickly faltered, and she fell to the rear of the pack, with Joe Biden eventually winning the nomination.  Let’s hope that the vice-president’s super enthusiasm, manifested daily since President Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race, continues at its present level.

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And speaking of vice-presidents, it’s a myth that G.O.P. vice-presidential candidate, Ohio Senator, and author JD Vance, as well as my prediction of Kentucky governor Andy Beshear becoming the Democratic choice for that position, are from rural ‘Appalachia.’  Vance is from Middletown, now a northern suburb of Cincinnati, which sits on the Ohio River across from Kentucky.  Beshear is from Louisville, which sits about a hundred miles further down the river on the Kentucky side.  The current population of the Cincinnati metropolitan area is about two million and that of the Louisville metropolitan area is well over one million.   Neither are small towns representative of rural Appalachia, in fact, both are the homes of well-known universities, and boast fine symphony orchestras.                           

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Yale Professor Timothy Snyder in his July 24 posting raises the question of whether JD Vance, now that Republicans recognize that more than just MAGA loyalists are needed for their ticket to compete with Kamala Harris, may be ‘sacrificed’ by Trump and the Party’s big money backers (such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel) who possibly got Vance his nomination in the first place, as follows:

‘Vance must now imagine a world, about three months from now, in which Trump instructs his followers that Vance is to blame.  Trump has driven Republicans out of the party by stochastic violence.  He was ready to sacrifice the life of his last vice-president.  If Vance leaves now, he will feel the heat for a moment, but can go back to his prior life.  The longer Vance waits to leave the Trump ticket, the greater the risk of a scenario involving a stake.’

I would hope he refers to a 'figurative' stake.  I had alluded to the possibility of betrayal within the Republican ticket two postings ago in Jackspotpourri in my ‘Wealth and Power’ comments, at the close of which Brutus joined in stabbing Julius Caesar.  All is not milk and honey in MAGAland.

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The following letter from a reader (not me) appeared in Thursday’s Palm Beach Post.  I heartily agree.

‘After speaking with friends and acquaintances who favor the Republican Party and their nominee, my conclusion is that they don’t value the role that law plays in our society. A felon running for office flies in the face of respect for our judicial system, as does repealing law that has stood for 50 years to guarantee a federal right [Roe v. Wade], as does tossing a serious case accusing a former president of mishandling sensitive documents. All issues come and go and can be negotiated but the politicizing the judiciary erodes the pillar of our democracy that carries out equal justice under the law. We’d better save an impartial judiciary.’

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People in the entertainment world usually stay away from politics, but that isn’t the case in this presidential race.  Country music performers, whose songs’ lyrics often reflect a raw deal society or romance had dealt them, tend to lean Republican, a party coincidentally appealing to voters with similar anxieties.  But stars like Beyonce and Streisand support Democrats!  When the biggest star of all in today’s music world, Taylor Swift, comes out for Kamala Harris, as I expect she eventually will, that will nail down the younger generations’ votes for Democratic candidates. Right now, she seems to be concentrating on getting them to register to vote.  A smart businesswoman, there might even be a place for her in a future Democratic administration if she ever tires of schlepping all over the world to display her talent.

JL

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For those of you who would like a Harris flyer to display in your car’s rear window mounted on a piece of cardboard, as I do, here is one to replace the Biden flyer I designed earlier.

It will have to do until the Democratic Party comes up with one of its own. Try to copy it and print it out or ask me for one.  I feel such displays of one's opinions work!  Seeing them inspires others to recognize that there are many sharing their political views, and motivate them to work harder to see that those views become a reality on November 5.

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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July 24, 2024 - Running Scared

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Republicans Now Running Scared

With President Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election, Republicans are ‘running scared.’  Why?  The Democrats have replaced an aging Joe Biden, who has finally, but courageously, passed the Democratic Party baton to vice-president Kamala Harris, rather than pridefully attempt to do what he knew would be a steep uphill battle, perhaps too demanding for an octogenarian. 

Harris, a tough, skilled woman, with years as a prosecutor, will not be intimidated by Republican lies and innuendo.  They will no longer be able to hide their fascist ambitions documented by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, authored by Trump’s old White House staff (more about that coming in a future posting), ignoring the promise of the Declaration of Independence and the separation of powers meticulously designed in our Constitution. All they have left will be the MAGA poison based on racism, attacking immigrants, women’s rights, voting rights, LGBTQ+ persons, NATO, and government programs intended to benefit the people rather than reduce taxes of wealthy Republican donors.  And they know that’s not enough to win an election fairly, in the absence of facts to back up their words. That’s why they are now ‘running scared.'  

They are ‘running scared’ because a Harris victory will result in a reform of a Supreme Court that they have corrupted with ‘originalist’ Federalist Society ideas that presume States’ governments are superior to the Federal government.  The legal concept of stare decisis (dependence on prior decisions), ignored in their decisions regarding abortion rights and the Second Amendment, will be restored.  Trump places himself above the ‘rule of law,’ which the second-rate lawyers that he hires misinterpret whenever they have the chance to plead his cases before corrupt judges, like SCOTUS Justices Thomas and Alito or biased Judge Cannon in Florida.   And so, Republicans have reason to be ‘running scared.’

It is their candidate who is now approaching the status of an octogenarian, competing with a fighter twenty years younger. Even at the convention, and at his recent New York trial (remember he still is a convicted felon awaiting sentencing in the ‘hush money’ case), he occasionally closed his eyes, perhaps dozing off.  He can no longer be fueled by cartoon-like characters like Hulk Hogan or Kid Rock who appeal to the low estimate Republicans have of the voting public.  His vice-presidential choice, aimed at strengthening his base, is serving to alienate voters who are not part of that base, whom Republicans suddenly need with Kamala replacing Joe.  Vance may have brought far-right billionaire money to the campaign, but in doing so, damaged it by exposing its authoritarian nature.

Enough of my commentary.  Democrats must now roll up their sleeves and get to work pointing out the dangers to the nation that the MAGA Republicans and their convicted felon candidate still pose. The Democratic Party should unite behind Harris, putting aside any internal conflicts, re-igniting its enthusiasm. But there still remain a lot of dubious voters to convince.  The G.O.P didn't sink to where it is today accidentally.  Its dive to the ethical depths it now occupies was intentional, and don’t expect them to play by the rules, as they proved on January 6, 2021.

Yes, the Republicans are now ‘running scared.’  And with good reason.  Even though there remain those who fail to acknowledge it, their candidate was a proven ‘loser’ in 2020.  And that he shall remain!  But a cornered animal, one that is ‘running scared,’ can be the most dangerous kind. 

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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July 21, 2024 - Democratic Presidential Choice, Foreign Influence on G.O.P., Daily Newspapers, Wealth & Power, and StickBuddies

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The Democratic Choice for President

In the previous posting of Jackspotpourri, I recommended that the Democrats name Vice-President Kamala Harris as their 2024 presidential candidate. She is really the only possible replacement for President Biden.  She already totally knows what the job entails and has, as vice-president, been through the time consuming full ‘vetting’ process it requires.  I had earlier suggested that her vice-presidential running mate might be President Joe Biden!  If it turns out that he is not available for that role, I suspect Harris would choose Kentucky governor Andy Beshear as her running mate.  I did pass the idea of a Harris/Biden ticket on to my Representative in Congress, as well as in a still-unpublished letter to the Palm Beach Post.  Here’s a copy of that letter: 

‘The fears of some Democrats that a Biden presidential candidacy would damage their performance nationwide can be put aside by their nominating someone else for president.  The candidate who is best prepared to fill that role is Vice-president Kamala Harris, despite President Biden's continuing to claim, despite his age-related challenges, that he is the candidate most capable of defeating Donald Trump.  The Democrats should nominate Harris as their presidential candidate and Biden as their vice-presidential candidate, a position from which he can aid Harris and take on Trump without his frailties affecting other Democratic candidates.  In addition, Kamala Harris possesses strong abilities and credentials of her own.’  

Of interest is that the Palm Beach Post has published a Clay Bennett (Chattanooga Times Free Press) cartoon showing a wearer of two buttons, one reading ‘Biden/Harris’ and another reading ‘But Not Necessarily in that Order,’ so I am not the only one thinking in that direction.  But still, I have not encountered anyone coming up with that idea in writing anywhere else but right here on Jackspotpourri.

Meanwhile, various pundits and politicians, are urging President Biden to withdraw from the presidential election because they believe his slowing down due to aging will result in his losing, with both Houses of Congress becoming Republican.  Others say that President Biden is the only Democrat who can defeat Donald Trump. 

Although I am neither a pundit nor a politician, I agree with the former, as I indicate just above.

JL

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Daily Papers and Lessening the News Deluge

Each morning when I go out to my driveway to pick up my daily newspaper, which I read over coffee, I note that not too many other houses get their news that way anymore. It is true that what it contains in print is often stale when compared to news received electronically, but it offers a very necessary perspective, that which comes from you personally being in charge of what your read, and not choices cultivated electronically for your consumption. 

But if you still prefer to look to your phone’s screen or a tablet for your daily news, and are sick of being deluged by just too many online news sources each morning competing for your attention, consider that National Public Radio (NPR) has a free one available that is brief, non-partisan, easy to read, and will tell you what you need to know for the day in just a minute or two.  Give it a try by visiting https://www.npr.org/newsletters/

JL

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Do Foreign Dictators Influence the Republican Party ?

Professor Heather Cox Richardson starts off her July 18 posting of ‘Letters from an American’ (appearing the morning of July 19) with these words:  “Paul Manafort walking onto the floor of the Republican National Convention yesterday illustrated that the Republican Party under Trump has become thoroughly corrupted into an authoritarian party aligned with foreign dictators.” 

The details of how Manafort and others aligned the G.O.P. with such foreign dictators is no secret, nor is the fact that the Mueller investigation, running from 2017 to 2019, revealed much of this connection, only to have it soft-pedaled and whitewashed by Trump’s Attorney General, William Barr.  Nevertheless, Manafort, in enabling the Russia misinformation machine to influence the 2016 presidential election, and in dealing with their representatives, broke our laws.  He ended up in prison, only to receive a pardon from Trump late in 2020. Well, Manafort is back, hoping Trump will be as well.

Today’s naïve and gullible Republicans might only awaken to this corruption of their party if Trump wins the election prompting congratulatory messages to start pouring in from dictators like Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin. 

Here's an excerpt from Professor Richardson’s posting that goes into some detail in explaining what Manafort and his Moscow based associates conned the G.O.P. into supporting:

“Before 2016 the Republican Party stood staunchly against Russia, and getting Republican voters to forget that history required adopting the argument of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who is aligned with Putin and Trump, that democracy has ruined the United States. In this argument, the central principle of democracy—that all people must be equal before the law, and have a right to a say in their government—destroys a country by making women, people of color, immigrants, members of religious minorities, and LGBTQ+ individuals equal to heteronormative white men and permitting them to influence government. In place of democracy, they want to impose their version of Christianity on the nation, banning abortion, rejecting immigrants, and curtailing the rights of gender, religious, and ethnic minorities.” 

JL

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G.O.P. Convention Report

And as for Trump’s 90 minute acceptance speech at the Republican Convention, it was a dud, causing some there to doze, and many at home to turn off their TVs and go to sleep.  He started by detailing the unsuccessful attempt on his life on last Saturday, from which he was saved only by the intervention of the Almighty he claimed, made a quick plea for unity among all Americans and then deserted his teleprompter and took off with his usual diatribe about immigrants who rape and murder, how foreign countries rip us off daily, how crime is rampant in our streets, how the government wastes our money, how we pay too much taxes, how America is in decline, etc. etc. etc., ending up claiming he’ll quickly fix it all up when elected.  (Fact checkers must have dozed as well since they only reported 25 lies in his speech.)

Donald Trump lives in an alternate reality.  The presence of entertainment wrestler ‘Hulk Hogan,’ a theatrical athlete who ripped off his shirt at the convention to display a ‘Vote for Trump’ undershirt, claiming to be a buddy of Trump for 35 years, is part of that alternate reality in which many of Trump’s supporters live.  Unfortunately, Donald’s alternate reality has nothing to do with the world the citizens of the planet inhabit.  Trump had a glimpse of that reality when a failed assassin tried to kill him with a weapon allowed to be put into his hands by believers in false realities.

I hope Americans are smarter than those who filled the arena in Milwaukee this week and vote for the best candidates to deal with the challenges presented by the reality we all face daily.  None of those candidates are Republicans.

JL                                          

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 Thoughts on Wealth and Power

Some people are wealthy and others are not.  Their wealth is perhaps the result of an inborn talent on which they capitalize, or years of hard work and study, or shrewd investments, or a running start provided by family wealth, or the luck of being in the right place at the right time, or a combination of these things.

Such wealth, if they wish, enables them to enjoy totally satisfying, and even luxurious, lifestyles which extend into their retirement years, to provide generous financial jump starts as well as excellent educations for their children, grandchildren and other relatives, and to establish and support charitable and cultural organizations if they are so inclined.

Yet still, when the wealthy reach this often stratospheric level, (there ARE people with incomes of thousands of millions of dollars annually), their desire and ability to acquire still more wealth does not wane, even though they have no conceivable need for it.  Let’s try to figure out why this seems to be so.

Along with the wealthy, there have always been less wealthy segments of any society which occasionally might be awakened to political and social philosophies which claimed that governments ought to exist with the consent of those being governed.  Does this sound familiar?  Check out Seventeenth Century English philosopher Thomas Locke and our own Declaration of Independence, which declared ‘all men to be created equal.’ 

Some may even extend such ideas to the plentiful resources the world provides that they see in the hands of the wealthy and wonder why they do not have their share and even seek to remedy what they see as such inequities.  Broadly, while such ideas of wealth redistribution are sometimes connected with socialist movements, including Marxian communism, they also can be achieved through a benevolent ruler, progressive taxation, or a government providing those it governs with such benefits as healthcare or retirement security, where necessary.

Aware of this, the wealthy, beyond possessing everything they could conceivably need in this world, continue to acquire wealth with just one further goal in mind and that is to have the power to protect and preserve that wealth.  Wealth can enable them to have such power which can be used politically and economically to attain that goal, assuring that the bulk of their wealth does not fall into the hands of others.

Thinking back through history, this is the pattern that numerous societies have followed in Europe, Asia, as well as in ancient and Biblical times.  Invariably, the wealthy, while rarely losing outright, have had to make compromises, particularly when they find their initial allies and supporters are not permanently on their side.  Although he was referring to power, rather than to wealth, Julius Caesar asked of his supposed ally, ‘Et Tu, Brutus?’ as the dagger was pushed into his gut.

(Now stop and try to figure out why this piece is being included in this posting.)

JL

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StickBuddies

Back in the 1950s when I was in the Army in Germany, we often listened to AFN (Armed Forces Network) which tried to provide the kind of radio programming to which Americans were used.  Every day, they carried a country music program called ‘StickBuddy Jamboree.’  I understood the point of that title to mean that ‘You and your buddies from the sticks, we stick together,’ unifying those from the Carolina foothills, the Kentucky ‘hollers,’ the one-traffic-light towns in Alabama and Arkansas, and other parts of the rural south sharing their common musical tastes.  When I heard JD Vance, raised in Southern Ohio, accept the Republican vice-presidential nomination the other night, ‘StickBuddy Jamboree’ was the first thing that came to mind.

(Incidentally, another daily AFN program to which we sometimes listened was a noon-time interview show called ‘Luncheon in Munchen,’ the German spelling of Munich.  That in itself was always good for a laugh.)

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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