President Biden’s
positive Covid testing yesterday should not affect any of the comments in this blog posting
concerning his role in the upcoming election, provided that his
symptoms are resolved and he repeatedly tests negatively within the next week
or so. (The strains of Covid that are
infecting some people these days are much milder and the resulting infections
are of much briefer duration than those of a few years ago.)
If that turns out not
to be the case, please ignore the first item
in this posting (‘Still for Kamala … But With a Role for Joe’) for the time being, and
go back to my earlier posting where I supported Vice-President Kamala Harris
replacing President Biden as the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate
as soon as possible, and his also resigning, making her President for the
remainder of his term.
And while I'm belatedly adding this preface to today's blog, I report that I stayed up late last night to take in the Republican Convention to hear JD Vance accept the vice-presidential nomination. He aimed his remarks at America's unappreciated and unrewarded downtrodden working class, a group the Republicans are trying to wrest from the Democrats. I got the feeling from watching a 'kvelling' Donald Trump during JD's speech that he wished that Vance were his son, and quite possibly, Vance sees Trump as another replacement for the father he never had. He did succeed in locking in the 'hillbilly' vote for Trump. Read more about him down below.
JL
* * *
Still for Kamala … But With a Role for Joe
I’m somewhat changing my opinion included in
the last Jackspotpourri where I suggested that Kamala Harris should replace Joe
Biden as soon as possible as both the presumptive Democratic
presidential candidate and also as president, completing his term.
I’ve come up with a better
pathway to Democratic success. It still
includes Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate but makes room for President
Biden as well.
This might be the best way of dealing with the
fears of many Democrats that leaving President Biden, the incumbent and likely
loser (if you believe the polls) in the November elections, as their nominee
would cause a ‘red wave’ affecting many Democratic candidates. There is no way of knowing when his
age-related fragilities will recur, weakening not only his candidacy but those
of other candidates who have hitched their campaigns onto his. Yet,
there is soundness to President Biden’s argument that he is the best candidate
to oppose, and defeat, Donald Trump in November, and therefore, he should not
withdraw from the election. How we can resolve
that problem?
What if the Democratic Convention
nominates Kamala Harris as its presidential candidate but keeps President Biden
on the ticket as its vice-presidential candidate!
This would immediately put to rest Democratic
fears that the occasional frailties and
misstatements that accompany Joe Biden’s age would be a risk, not only during his
and the campaigns of other Democratic candidates, but if elected, would remain
as a liability to the White House’s occupant over the next four years.
At the same time, it would leave him still able
to directly campaign against Trump, pointing out his strong record of
accomplishments during his presidency, and remind voters that the Democratic
presidential candidate, Kamala Harris is twenty years younger than Donald
Trump, who is also showing signs of aging.
Of course, Kamala Harris offers significant attributes of her own
justifying her becoming president.
Harris and Biden together, sharing each other’s strengths, would greatly
strengthen the campaigns of all Democratic candidates!
President Biden’s experience as both president
and a vice-president would serve Harris exceedingly well. From the office of vice-president, he would
provide a much stronger influence on her than prior presidents, such as Bill
Clinton or Barack Obama, as private citizens, had on their Democratic
successors.
Joe, of course would remain President until
Harris’ inauguration. How long
thereafter he remained as her vice-president would depend on his health, his
willingness to stay in that position, and President Harris’ wishes.
Ultimately, on his resignation, President
Harris will have flexibility in appointing a replacement vice-president, which
would require majority votes in both Houses of Congress. That makes the Congressional results of the
2024 election even more important. A
Harris/Biden ticket would give the Democrats greater strength in November for
that purpose. And winning control of the House is doubly important because its
speaker is next in the line of presidential succession after the
vice-president.
This is something for Democrats to seriously
think about before their August convention!
I believe it is the preferred course of
action.
JL
* * *
JD Vance,
Chameleon or Leopard?
Donald Trump’s choice of JD Vance as his
vice-presidential running mate is strange, to say the least. Vance’s acceptance of it, particularly in
view of Trump not tolerating someone whose loyalty is questionable, as was the
case with Michael Pence, provides some insight into who, or what, Vance really
is.
Trump has bought a
chameleon who may not be what he appears to be.
In fact, Vance himself may not really be too sure of who he is. Quoting from a USA TODAY analysis,
“Vance,
who turns 40 next month, was born James Donald Bowman in Middletown, Ohio. His
unique and evolving naming history reflects his personal journey. After his
parents divorced, his middle name was changed from Donald, his father’s name,
to David. During his teenage years, he adopted the surname of his stepfather,
becoming James Hamel – the name reflected in his 2003 senior yearbook at
Middletown High School.
As an adult, Vance decided
to honor his maternal grandparents by legally adopting their surname when he
married his wife, Usha, in 2014, becoming James Vance. Despite all these
changes, Vance has always preferred to go by 'JD,' a choice he maintains in his
official U.S. Senate biography.’’
Trump cannot be unaware that
Vance once suggested Trump might turn out to be ‘America’s Hitler,’ and on one
occasion, has referred to him as ‘an idiot’ who was ‘noxious’ and ‘hard to
stomach.’ Vance came to the nation’s
attention with his 2016 best seller, ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ which personally described
the economic plight of the downtrodden folks in Appalachia that had been left
behind by both the industrial and technological revolutions, and the failure of
both Democrats and Republicans to solve their problems. (It is my feeling that
Democrats have done more than Republicans, with the Tennessee Valley Authority
bringing electricity and flood control to the ‘hollers’ where people like Vance
were raised, as a strong example, and Vance knows this.)
It used to be Marxists who called upon the downtrodden workers of the world to arise. Now the Republicans are trying to do that here in the good old US of A, trying to shift the blame for their historic mistreatment to the Democrats, and Vance seemingly is in charge of that effort.
With the political rise of Donald Trump, it appears that Vance recognized that Trump’s supporters included many of the folks he had written about (‘Hillbilly Elegy’ was made into a Netflix film by Ron Howard in 2020) and latched onto him, supporting anything and everything Trump was for, whether or not he really believed it.
Also recognizing this were several billionaires from the world of venture capitalism and cryptocurrency who chose to back and bankroll Vance, as the best choice to scuttle, or possibly manipulate, government regulation of business and finance.
This combination is what got him elected
to the United States Senate in 2022 and has paid off with the vice-presidential
nomination. Trump certainly isn’t
picking up votes by nominating Vance, since Vance’s supporters were voting for
him anyway, but Vance is clearly using Trump to anchor his position in American
politics. Vance is well educated (Ohio
State and Yale Law) and is married to the daughter of Indian immigrants, a more stable family than the disfunctional one that marked his upbringing. He is far smarter than any member of the
Trump family. Donald’s father, if he
were still around, would be warning his son never to turn his back on Vance, or whatever his name is.
A chameleon can change its body color as a protective device, but a leopard cannot change its spots, although Vance comes close to being able to. When a new political party arises to replace the MAGA-owned Republican Party, only surviving because of the salesmanship of Donald Trump, Vance will probably be leading it, as it drives along the interstate highways of back-country America, paved by Democratic infrastructure programs, to the guitar-picking rhythms of country music.
JL
* * *
The Latest from Ridiculous Judge Cockamamie in
Fort Pierce
When the news broke of Judge Aileen Cannon’s
throwing out the government’s ‘stolen documents’ case against the former
president, questioning the appointment of a Special Counsel by the Department
of Justice without specific Congressional approval, I submitted the following
to the New York Times article’s online ‘comment’ section, where it appeared. It pretty much sums up my thoughts on the
matter.
“This cockamamie decision by this cockamamie
judge who is no more than a political hack appointed by one of the defendants
in the case she just dismissed illustrates the disregard for the rule of law
that is part and parcel of almost everything the Republicans do. She ignores
precedent as if it didn't exist. The 11th District, where this will be
appealed, is sure to reverse it if it gets to them before Republicans have the
chance to contaminate that bench as they have done to the SCOTUS. This is an
issue Democratic candidates should get some mileage from.’
For those unfamiliar with the word
‘cockamamie,’ here’s a brief explanation excerpted from the Merriam Webster dictionary’s
website:
‘Cockamamie is believed to be an
altered form of the term ‘decalcomania’, which refers to the
process, invented in the mid-19th century, of transferring pictures and designs
from specially prepared paper to surfaces such as glass or porcelain. (The word
referring to the picture or design itself, decal, is a shortening of decalcomania.) The
word decalcomania comes from French, with décalcomanie combining
the verb décalquer, meaning "to trace" or "to transfer by
tracing," and -manie, meaning "-mania." Starting in the 1930s, painted strips of paper with
images capable of being transferred to the skin were called decals or,
frequently by children, ‘cockamamies.’ Those familiar with today's temporary
tattoos will understand quickly that these were regarded by many as silly
novelties, lending the word cockamamie the necessary leeway for application to anything
ridiculous.’
Referring to Judge Cannon as ridiculous, a
silly novelty, or a ‘cockamamie’ is therefore appropriate. That’s what she
is. More seriously, check out what
Professor Heather Cox Richardson has to say about this by CLICKING HERE or by copying and pasting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line and checking out her "Letters from an American' dated July 15, 2024.
If this unqualified judge's decision is allowed to stand, democracy
in America will have suffered a grievous blow that should serve to mobilize its
defenders to vote in massive numbers to defeat any and all Republican
candidates, who right now are encouraging fascism to metastasize into our legal
system.
JL
* * *
What Motivated the Failed Assassin
And here’s another thought about the motivation
of the attempted killer, Thomas Crooks, a registered Republican, who attempted
to assassinate Donald Trump on Saturday. (The other day, I had pointed out that
Trump and all he stands for is a prime subject of Democratic political campaigning,
there being no reason why they would want to remove this tool, their criticism
of him, and that investigators should be looking in other directions in seeking
the shooter’s motivation.)
I had suggested that the shooter, a registered
Republican who had donated $15 to a group objecting to Trump’s inspiring the
January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, might have wanted Trump out of the way
because he objected to Trump’s having taken over the Republican Party, turning
it into a right-wing MAGA
organization.
The exact opposite, however, might be the case,
ignoring his 2021 donation. The shooter may
have actually objected to the fact that Trumpism wasn’t far enough to the right
for him. Trump’s position, preferring to
leave abortion rights to the States rather than banning it nationally, for
example, might not have been sufficiently conservative for the shooter.
The possibility also exists that the shooter
was totally apolitical, seeking only to exchange the rejections experienced in his
very ordinary life for momentary fame, or notoriety. Right now, I am sure the FBI is seeking
answers to what drove him to squeeze the trigger of his father’s AR15.
And while on this topic, it is becoming
increasingly clear that some parts of law enforcement present at the rally were
aware of someone with a gun on the roof of the nearby building but behaved in
almost the same way that the police did at the time of the Uvalde, Texas,
school shooting, waiting for further instructions from the higher-ups when only seconds remained to take action
against the shooter.
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
* * *
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