August 31, 2024 - Displaying Opinions, Elephants, Credit Card Advances, and a Letter Gets Published

 

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Don’t Keep Your Opinion a Secret

In response to a recent donation I made to the Democratic 2024 campaign, I received a small poster with Kamala Harris pictured on it and reading ‘Harris for President’ and in larger letters, ‘Together We Can Win This!’  I folded it so only the text appears, and it now is displayed in the rear window of my car.  I also have also received a small sheet of stickers from the DNC.  I wore a button-sized one on my shirt the other day, reading ‘Harris for President’ and it drew favorable comments from my urologist and a checkout clerk at Home Depot.

If you believe that ‘Together We Can Win This,’ I suggest you similarly display your views.  Don’t hide them. Take pride in them. 

Not having the opportunity to express a political opinion is something missed only when you no longer have that opportunity, and then, it might be too late.  

Don’t keep your opinion a secret!  Help it to become contagious.

JL

 

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Elephant in the G.O.P.’s Room

Here’s an insightful quote from Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American’ dated August 27. 

‘The elephant in the room these days is that most Republicans, along with many pundits, are pretending that Trump is a normal presidential candidate. They are ignoring his mental lapses, calls for authoritarianism, grifting, lack of grasp on any sort of policy, and criminality, even as he has hollowed out the once grand Republican Party and threatens American democracy itself.’

It is difficult to disagree with this, unless you are one of those Republicans or pundits whose vision is so impaired that they couldn’t recognize an elephant in their room from five feet away.  As a visit to any zoo will confirm, the presence of elephants is hard to ignore, and of course, today’s political pachyderm is the symbol of the Republican Party.  I’ll let you guess the elephant’s name.

And while you’re checking out Professor Richardson’s website at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ (You can JUST CLICK HERE to get there), don’t miss the posting of August 28 as well, in which she traverses a lot of the areas where the aforementioned elephant has deposited its dung. 

Historian Richardson’s opinions are free … unless you become a paying ($5 a month) subscriber allowing you to comment and comment on others’ comments. (I used to pay this, but no longer do since reading the comments was too time-consuming.  Reading her posting is enough to keep you wide awake!)

And if the DOJ has any lawyers not already chasing after convicted NY felon Trump’s lawbreaking, they might assign one to his illegal violation of Arlington National Cemetery’s rules against political campaigning there.  He has truly redefined how low a ‘low-life’ can be.

JL

 

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I Still Write Letters

In case you missed it (which you probably did), The Palm Beach Post published a letter from me on Friday, August 30.  Here’s what I wrote:

‘Amid all the words that have been printed about the unwise attempt to develop parts of Johnathan Dickinson State Park, two stand out.  The Post’s Aug. 28 editorial used ‘stupid arrogance’ to suggest the mindset of Gov. DeSantis and his administration.  How long will it take Florida’s voters to recognize this?  It goes far beyond those three unnecessary golf courses.’

The Post started their Letters section off with mine at the top, entitling it ‘Park plan shows DeSantis’ arrogance.’

JL

 

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Thirty Percent Interest

I just received by my credit card statement in the mail (always preferable to getting it online which only reduces the bank’s expenses and makes it harder to examine closely) and noted that the bank charges an annual rate of 29.99% for cash advances made on that card, a percentage even higher than what they charge on other unpaid balances. 

I always pay my full balance every month so that doesn’t affect me but I suppose it might be the last resort for someone who is totally broke.  I suspect that most who borrow at that usurious rate do so unaware that they are borrowing at almost 30%. ‘Need money?  Just take it from the card,’ they think.  It might even be the manner in which an overdraft is automatically covered.

Of course, pawnshops and shady characters on the street corner charge much more.  Folks in such circumstances should seek financial counselling.  It might even be a good idea for banks to require that they do so when such credit card borrowing reaches a certain limit.  The only ones who might object to that would be the collection agencies to which the banks sell their uncollectable debts.

JL

 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri  (There's a bit more coming after this so stick with it!)

Strange “Hits’! The large number of those accessing Jackspotpouri from Singapore and Hong Kong has somewhat lessened.  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 

And remember ...

                                      

'This is what I plan to do with your democracy on
 my first day in office if you elect me.  I've told you so!'

                                                                * * *

August 27, 2024 - Kamala Harris and the SCOTUS, Voting Rights, and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

                                                     

                                                          * * *

Unless you reside on another planet, you must know that Kamala Harris is the Democratic presidential nominee in the November 5 election, less than two and a half months away.  If you support her, you should be doing something (besides donating to her campaign and those of other Democrats if you can afford to) to make sure they defeat the candidates of what used to be the Republican Party, but is now a servile collection of misinformed, gullible, bitter, and sometimes bigoted Americans. If you don’t know how to become active, email me (jacklippman18@gmail.com) for some recommendations and I will point you in the right direction.    

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the
Democratic Ticket in Novermber's Election

Many Republicans, either openly or quietly, will be supporting Kamala Harris. Some even spoke at the Democratic Party’s convention. Unfortunately, those Americans who choose to depend upon news sources such as Fox News or Newsmax are not being given that news. It will be up to the Democrats to publicize the numerous Republican defections.

 

And speaking of news sources, you also should be keeping up with the news by reading a newspaper every day, either in its paper form or online.  Locally, I recommend the Palm Beach Post, the Sun-Sentinel, and of course the Washington Post, the New York Times, or even USA Today. The ‘free’ NPR site online is brief but touches all the bases every daily via some selected links. TV is a less thorough source of information, often opinionated, and radio has been contaminated by the Sinclair group, a mouthpiece for the far-right, even less objective than Fox News. As for other online sites, read them with caution.  It is important that you remain well-informed throughout the days leading up to the election.

Today’s posting touches on the Supreme Court, Israeli-Palestinian issues, and those who choose to misread the Declaration of Independence, eager to replace ‘the pursuit of happiness’ with the power that owning ‘property’ brings. These are all things with which our Forty-seventh president will have to deal.  

So let's take a look at them.

JL

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Fixing the SCOTUS

If the Democrats win the presidency and both Houses of Congress in November, which I predict they will, that would leave the Supreme Court as the only part of our government not responsive to the will of the people. 

I wonder if President Harris will threaten them with an expansion of the SCOTUS, as FDR did, to get them to recognize that the nation they serve today is very different from what it was at the time of their appointments to the Court.  

Of course, this is what the Constitution intended their role to be, as a brake on runaway democracy, a respectful nod to the past, but it never anticipated the present Court’s denial of the legal principle of ‘stare decisis,’ that of basing decisions on legal precedents made over the years.  

Expansion of the SCOTUS may be the only way to produce a decision that reinstates Roe vs Wade.  I hope it doesn’t come down to that having to be done because that, in itself, would be an undesirable precedent for future presidents.  But as Bob Dylan sang, “things may be a-changin’.“  And for the better!

JL

 

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The Pursuit of Happiness Under Threat

Did you know that the Declaration of Independence’s promise that ‘all men are created equal’ was not fulfilled by the Constitution, thirteen years later? The final member of the Declaration’s new triad of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ quickly reverted to the more traditional trio of ‘life, liberty, and property,’ negating the spirit of both of those documents.

In fact, it took until the 1840s for ownership of property to be gradually phased out as a voting requirement in most States.  But there still were many who could not vote, including recent immigrants, women, and of course, slaves.  It took the Civil War in the 1860s to emancipate America’s slaves, giving them the vote, but there still were many who believed that ‘property,’ and not the Declaration’s ‘pursuit of happiness,’ was the keystone to American democracy, and they worked hard to keep it that way with local laws establishing what amounted to separate classes of citizenship.  These laws centered on restricting voting.

These people felt it were their efforts, exemplified by the property they and their families had acquired, that were the engine that drove the nation’s economy.  Their business enterprises and their investments fueled the country’s economy and that is why the protection of their ‘property’ was more important to them than the ‘pursuit of happiness.’  Abraham Lincoln thought this was bullshit and said that government ‘of, by, and for, the people’ was more important, regardless of whether or not they owned property, or even were enslaved.

But those that thought Lincoln was a tyrant put a bullet in his head and by 1876, a decade later, the Declaration of Independence’s ‘equality’ became defined as ‘equal rights,’ but only for those who possessed wealth and property. They were content that the needs of those who did not fit that definition might be satisfied by their being employed in their enterprises.  Some economists refer to that as how wealth ‘trickled down’ with the idea that every boat, even those of working people, floats higher in a rising tide.

To keep things that way, it was important to those with property or businesses that voting not be readily available to those who were not able to contribute to the economy in the manner that they, the propertied classes, were able to do, but only with their labor on farms, in mines, and in factories. A class system was necessary to accomplish this, which at a minimum would discourage ‘freeloaders’ on the economy.

Why? If working people voted in sufficient numbers, they might then seek full and equal access to the rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.  That’s why!

Those in power felt that the government’s decisions should be made by the economy’s ‘makers’ and not its non-contributory ‘takers.’  That, incidentally, is why ‘Reconstruction’ after the Civil War failed.  The words of our ‘better angels’ were drowned out by those who preferred things the way they used to be.

This attitude still exists today.  Talk to any Republican candidate for proof of that!  ‘Gerrymandering’ by easily controlled State legislatures unfavorably redistricts the votes of minorities of which many workers form a part.  Voting hours and locations are reduced.  More rigid voter ‘identification’ rules are mandated.  Voting by mail and early voting are made more difficult.  There rarely is evidence of the elusive ‘election fraud’ which is usually claimed to exist to justify such measures. 

All of these are the tools of those who want to reduce the voting power of honest working people, leaving legislation to those with wealth and the businesses in which they invest.  Those who recognize and oppose this, including union organizers, are often vilified as being socialists, or even worse, communists.  Republicans even refer to Kamala Harris and other Democrats as ‘communists.’ 

In Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, she talked about building an ‘opportunity economy,’ recognizing the need to further empower working people.  This might cater to both ‘makers’ and those they employ.  I don’t know how she plans to pull this off.  But guaranteeing the latter’s voting rights on a national basis should be the first step in this direction.   Passage of the John Lewis Voting Act should have a high priority.  That would ensure equal access to the ballot box for all citizens, regardless of skin color or language ability, and eliminate State measures which discourage voting.  It would open the door to the ‘pursuit of happiness’ for all Americans.

 JL

 

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World Peace

In addition to facing the continuing threats to our country posed by Russia, China, and even North Korea (more about that in a future posting), Kamala Harris will also have to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, of which the war in Gaza is only one aspect.  It is even divisive to Americans and can conceivably jeopardize her election on November 5.

She knows that a ‘one-state’ solution there is not a viable solution because by definition it ignores the interests of either the Palestinians or the Israelis, depending on who gets to control that ‘one-state.’  Those advocating a ‘one-state’ solution tend to be extremists, either Palestinian or Israeli, who would rather live with violence (which is easy) than solve problems (which is difficult).

In achieving a peaceful ‘two-state’ solution, the following challenges must be met. 

1.   Dealing with those who want to entirely eliminate the State of Israel, including their prime supporter, Iran.

2.   Dealing with those who want an Israel of ‘Biblical’ dimensions, with Israeli settlers already occupying parts of what might be a Palestinian state.

Part of the solution lies in replacing Iran as the Palestinians’ prime supporter with the Arab states who are willing to accept the existence of the State of Israel.  Everyone has their price, and that is what diplomacy and compromise are all about. Achieving this while still supporting Israel, but without an expanded war should be high on President Harris’ agenda.

Part of the solution is changing the mindset of the Israelis who have, with their government’s assent, settled in areas that might be part of a peaceful, neighboring, Palestinian state.  They should be offered the choice of uncomfortably remaining in a Palestinian state or being resettled in areas within the State of Israel.  The cost of resettlement, directly or indirectly, should be shared by the State of Israel, its supporters, and Israel’s more cooperative Arab neighbors.

Just as there must be changes in Iran’s position, there must be changes in Israel’s government to accomplish this. A theocracy is what has ruined Iran, and Israel should not be led down that path by those Israelis who think in that direction as well.

Along with Russia and China, these challenges will be sitting on Harris’ plate when she takes office.  It is something about which Americans care because of America’s traditional support of the democratic State of Israel as well as their recognizing the needs of Palestinians, which to some extent are parallel to those of the minorities in the United States who have not always been treated fairly. 

JL

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Theocracies Ain’t Good Things

Two paragraphs above, I refer to ‘theocracy.’  Let me digress for a moment.  That alone is an enormous challenge 

Everyone in this world should have the personal right to worship in any manner they wish or even deny the existence of any religion whatsoever!  Beyond that, religion should be limited to houses of worship, one’s home, or even the magnificent venues around us provided by the wonders of nature but be specifically kept out of any and all instruments of government or legislation.   No denomination nor religious group should be involved in elections, either!  It may be difficult for religious people to accept it but concepts such as an ‘Islamic Republic’ or a ‘Christian Democracy’ are obscene! 

The Roman Empire’s decline began when Constantine became a Christian back in the Fourth Century, initially tolerant of other faiths, but not for long.  There was nothing ‘Holy’ about the “Holy Roman Empire’ which was part of European politics for a millennium starting in the Middle Ages.

Centuries before, a progressive Rabbi in what was then the Roman-dominated State of Israel recognized that it was appropriate to ‘Render unto Caesar (representing civil government) the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.’  Although this comment was about paying taxes, it applies to much more.  There should be a wall between religious belief, even that of religious leaders, and political belief.  

Even legislation (and this includes the First Amendment to our Constitution) designed to protect one’s right to believe in a religion of their own choice should never be allowed to negatively impact those who do not similarly believe.

JL

 

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Please Explain Cryptocurrency to Me

Can someone explain to me why cryptocurrencies are nothing more than manifestations of a lack of faith and confidence in the United States government as the guarantor of the value of the pieces of paper in your wallet and bank accounts?  

Precious metals like gold and silver, usually in the form of ‘collectible’ coins, have traditionally filled that role, but at least they are tangible, something you can grasp with your hands and keep in a secure place. You can’t even keep cryptocurrency under your bed.  Could it be that those who want to bring down our system of government are hiding behind such an elusive alternate system of finance?

JL

 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Strange “Hits’! The large number of those accessing Jackspotpouri from Singapore and Hong Kong has somewhat lessened.  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 

 

                                                              * * *

August 21, 2014 - The Democratic Convention, Polls, and Dr. Seuss

 

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If You Went to Bed Early Monday Night

For those of you who didn’t watch the entire first night of the Democratic convention (It ran until about 12:20 a.m., Eastern time), check out Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letter from an American’ dated August 19, where she sums it up, including most of the many speakers’ great punch lines, and President Biden’s 52 minute review of his accomplishments.  Visit https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ or JUST CLICK HERE.  Come to think of it, it’s a great link to check out all week long for those who don’t watch the convention on TV.

By now, the convention’s second night (featuring the Obamas among others) is also history.  Michele and Barack Obama both delivered inspirational speeches, anchored in the values that families have instilled in us.  Both referred to the upcoming elections in regard to which Michelle quoted Kamala Harris’ mom telling her to ‘Do Something!’ and Barack signing off simply by telling us it was ‘time to get to work.’ Good Advice! The election is about 77 days away!

Kamala Harris' mom told her to 'Do Something' and not just
be another coconut falling from a tree.  She took that advice.

                                 *  *

My feeling is that Kamala Harris will campaign on the strength of Biden’s accomplishments, and work for continued growth and prosperity in their direction.  I think the response of the American people to Harris will be far greater that it would have been had a less inspirational Joe Biden remained the Democratic nominee. 

That ought to be enough to put her in the White House and give her majorities in both Houses of Congress.  Donald Trump’s selection of JD Vance as his running mate did nothing to expand the number of his supporters, further alienating the women’s vote and leaving that of younger people uncontested, open for grabs, and likely to swing to the Democrats.

Again, Democrats must remember that they must do more than sit by hopefully watching Trump flounder.  (Example: Tuesday evening, Trump’s former press secretary, Republican Stephanie Grisham, endorsed Harris, stating that ‘I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people and she has my vote.’)

Democrats must ‘Do Something’ because it is now ‘time to get to work.’  This was the Obamas’ personal message made to more than just the delegates there on Tuesday evening.  They were addressing YOU!  You, personally! YOU!

JL

                                                     *   *   *

There are Polls and There are Polls

The best validation of a presidential poll, nationwide anyway, is when the popular vote in the election confirms its results.  Hilary Clinton back in 2016, Samuel Tilden in 1876, and Andrew Jackson in 1824 all clearly won the popular vote, but each lost the election.  Nationwide polling had favored Clinton, and if such polls had existed in their times, I suspect would have favored Jackson and Tilden.

Jackson and Tilden lost due to crooked political wheeling and dealing with electoral college votes.  Clinton lost due to the shameful ‘thumb on the scale’ nature of the Electoral College existing for the past 135 years, whereby six then sparsely populated ‘territories’ (North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming), were prematurely rushed into statehood for political reasons in 1889 and 1890, each with two Senators and an electoral vote for each one of them.  That action corrupted the intent of the Constitution.

Therefore, pay far less attention to national polling, and more to polling in those States which are key in producing the 270 electoral votes needed to elect a president.  Individual polls in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada are more important than ‘national’ numbers because they report on voters controlling a total of 83 electoral votes, enough of which, when added to those from predictably solid ‘no real contest’ States (like California, New York, Massachusetts, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, etc.) will elect the nation’s Forty-seventh president.

JL

  *   *   *

Advice for Voters from Dr. Seuss

While some may think the fictional Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) to be a bit controversial in his books for children, there’s a lot of meat in what he says.  For example, many of today’s challenges wouldn’t exist if we heeded these simple words from his ‘Oh, The Places You Will Go,’ where he wrote, ‘With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.’  Yet many do, a bad practice in this election year.

Similar to Dr. Seuss’s words, we advise to ‘Use your head for more than a hat rack.’  

Election Day is November 5.  It might rain, so
Vote by Mail.

JL

      *   *   * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Strange “Hits’! The large number of those accessing Jackspotpouri from Singapore and Hong Kong has somewhat lessened.  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 

                                                              * * *

August 18, 2024 - Democratic Convention, Voting by Mail, and Thoughts on Communism

 

                            * * * 

Voting By Mail Requests Lagging Behind

Palm Beach County Election Supervisor Wendy Link reports that requests to ‘vote by mail’ are running far behind those of prior years.  That is probably because Republican-sponsored legislation, designed to reduce voting by mail, traditionally more popular with Democrats than with Republicans, has changed the law.  Being originally signed up to vote by mail does not automatically continue without your action! Not all Florida voters are aware of this.

If you have not renewed your Vote-by-Mail ballot request since November 9, 2022, your mail ballot request has expired and you will need to complete a new request to receive a mail ballot for the 2024 elections!

To request to receive a mail in ballot, or check on your Vote-by-Mail status, go to VotePalmBeach.gov or call (516) 656 6208 or CLICK RIGHT HERE.  You must do so by October 24, no later than 5:00 p.m.  Do it right now!  Do not delay!

JL

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Democrats Swing Into Action

Keep your eyes on this week’s Democratic Party convention in Chicago.

In her first major policy speech since launching her campaign for president, Kamala Harris last week explained the core of her economic agenda and argued that she would protect the middle class for generations. She promised to fight big corporations and bring down the costs of food, housing and raising children. A centerpiece of her economic pitch is a new federal ban on price gouging on groceries.

Her newly unveiled economic plan mostly builds on policies embraced by President Biden, and wasn’t super-detailed, outside of a few policies.  Expect more detailed information to come out at the Democratic Party’s convention, where the Party’s platform probably will be announced.

Harris delivered her speech last week in North Carolina, a state that Democrats believe she could potentially win, despite it not voting for a Democratic presidential candidate since 2008.  It demonstrated her ease at explaining policy matters, especially compared to President Biden.  This will become far more evident at the convention. 

JL

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How Rotten is the G.O.P.?

Check out Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letter from an American’ dated August 16 to learn how truly rotten the Republican Party is.  Visit https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ or just CLICK HERE. It’s a very short read.

And if you have a bit of spare time, get out of the hot sun and read her book ‘How the South Won the Civil War’ to learn how unrepresentative our government really is and the shenanigans that made it that way.  

JL

                                                 *   *   *

Is ‘Communist’ a Dirty Word?                                           

Back in 1871, after France’s defeat in the Franco-German War, the city of Paris was ruled by a hastily formed body, elected by its working people, known as the ‘Commune.’  If you’ve seen the play ‘Les Miz,’ that is its setting.  After two months of rule by the Commune, the French government sent in its troops and put an end to it, killing many of its members, referred to as ‘Communards.’

Now that’s a word that might be new to many.  But the word ‘Commune,’ from which it is derived, was not new.  A century earlier, when the French people violently ended the monarchy in that country, Paris was ruled by a group from 1789 until 1785, a period marked by political turbulence and violence, known as the Paris ‘Commune.’  It was a failed ‘popular’ revolution ending in terror and dictatorship, including the beheading of King Louis XVI.  

                                                 *  *

Today, whenever there is an attack upon political movements that are based on unifying working people, such as but not limited to their unionization or increased taxation of the wealthy and businesses, such movements are inaccurately accused by their extremist opponents as being ‘communist.’  

That is a more recent word traceable to the economic theories of Karl Marx, initially appearing in his ‘Communist Manifesto’ in 1848, and later elaborated upon in his ‘Das Kapital.’

Today, ‘communist’ has replaced ‘communard’ to broadly describe those dedicated to replacing the established order by any means with an all-encompassing economic system, denying individual rights, and that supposedly uses government to control and redistribute a nation’s wealth.

Communism should not be confused with ‘socialism’ which can include governmental activities benefiting members of a ‘society’ without replacing an established economic order as Marxist communism would do. These include such programs as Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment benefits, School lunches, Food and Drug approvals, etc.  I repeat:  These are not 'communist' programs.

Attackers who accuse their targets of being ‘communists’ attempt to bring to mind these violent periods of French history, and of course today’s totalitarian communist governments in Russia and Cuba, thereby trying to discourage voters from supporting movements which might appeal to working people.  Rabble-rousers such as the late Senator Joseph McCarthy practiced this extensively during the 1950s and some Republicans continue to do so today.

JL

                                                     *   *   *

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Strange “Hits’! The large number of those accessing Jackspotpouri from Singapore and Hong Kong has somewhat lessened.  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 

                                                              * * *

 

August 15, 2024 - Bookcases, Red Hats, Goats, and Florida Amendment Four

 

                             *   *   *

Are Those Bookcases for Real?

Whenever you see a politician or pundit speaking on TV in the setting of his home, invariably there are shelves filled with books in the background.  It would be a great mistake to assume that the person speaking has read most, or any, of them. In fact, those bookcases might just be a prop installed by the program’s director to suggest the intellectual nature of the speaker and will be removed along with the lighting and cameras once the need for them is gone.  Or they might even never have existed at all and are a background added back in the studio after the speaker finishes. 

Do you believe Tom Hanks, who has a full-time career as an actor, has
had time to read those books supposedly on his bookshelf?

        *   *

I couldn’t resist including this item on what might be the bookshelf of Donald J. Trump.  

Draw Your Own Conclusions!

JL

                                                     *   *   *

Whose Side is the Calendar On?                           

The other evening, I saw a CNN interview on TV of a lady wearing a Trump cap that also featured Jesus.  She was claiming that the Constitution was divinely based and pointed out as evidence the language of its Article Seven, to which all the signatories apparently had agreed. 

That language, in indicating the document’s date of signing, used the phrase ‘in the year of our Lord,’ and hence, she felt that applied to the entire document, meaning that there is no real separation between the Almighty and the document upon which our nation is based.  Here is the language of our Constitution's Section Seven. You can be the judge.

‘Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,’

Does this mean that the use of any date based on the year of Jesus’ birth somehow acknowledges his divinity?  I think the First Amendment gets our government off the hook on that count, but while calendars work fine with days and months, they do not count years, and to understand history, you have to start counting somewhere, and where that point should be remains a controversial challenge. 

Right now, Jesus’ birth or the beginning of the Christian Era, is as good a starting point as any.  Some Jews prefer to start the count 5784 years ago, based on what Twelfth Century scholar Maimonides calculated to be when the Creation occurred, despite modern evidence to the contrary, and other calendars find other starting points based on their theology.

                                                        *   *

The year of the Constitution’s signing, 1787, according to the Chinese solar-lunar calendar, was a ‘Year of the Goat.’ (There are a dozen such rotating Chinese zodiac signs for years in that calendar, usually modified by ‘elements.’ They are, in the following order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.  2024 is a ‘Year of the Dragon.’)  

Our Constitution, back then, was probably the first attempt at fully documenting the operation of government, and remains today as the ‘Greatest Of All Time’ of such attempts, just as retired football player Tom Brady is sometimes also, in his role as a quarterback, referred to as the ‘G.O.A.T.’

But getting back to the lady with the ‘Trump/Jesus’ cap, how do you deal with such people?  In their minds, criticizing Trump amounts to criticizing their belief in Christianity, somehow connected to Trump in their minds, and is an attack on their constitutional right to believe in whatever religion they choose.                              

 

That’s but one of the challenges that the Democrats are faced with in the 2024 elections.   (Another, specific to Florida, is covered in the following piece of this posting.) 

Actually, anyone stupid enough to still consider Donald Trump to be their president, even after his totally documented defeat in 2020, is in need of  someone to wake them up, regardless of their religious beliefs.  Whom they might turn to is up to them.

JL

                                                     *   *   *

Vote ‘Yes” on Florida Constitutional Amendment Four, Anyway!

In retirement, I live in the State of Florida. Although it was an attractive option back in 2001, it is no longer one today.  I would discourage anyone from moving to Florida and to consider one of the Northern New England States, the upper Midwest, or the Southwest instead, if they feel a move is in order for them, for economic reasons or otherwise. 

Why?  There are enough highly susceptible idiots and imbeciles among Florida’s voters to make it comparable to Mussolini’s Italy or Hitler’s Germany in the Nineteen Thirties, and to make it an uncomfortable place for anyone with half a brain.  Without going into the many possible examples of why this is true, let me concentrate on one item, the Florida Constitutional Amendment appearing on the November ballot guaranteeing abortion rights, and requiring 60 percent approval to succeed.

From all surveys and polls, it appears that the Amendment will be approved by the State's voters.  That is becoming clear to the Republican politicians who these idiots and imbeciles repeatedly elect to office.  Hence, they are struggling to find a way to defeat it, because it might increase the number of Democratic votes throughout the State. 

(In the past, an Amendment to give most felons who had completed their sentences the right to vote was passed only to have legislative obstacles passed by the Republican legislature defining what completing their sentences constituted, a partially successful effort to prevent a surge in Democratic registrations).

These same Republican scoundrels are now insisting on including the following wording on the ballot, a blatant effort to get Florida’s idiots and imbeciles to vote ‘No’ on Amendment Four.  By law, a financial effect statement is required to accompany such ballot questions, but never before has there been such a statement amounting to putting their campaign literature on the ballot!

Right now, Florida courts are deciding whether the following language should be on the ballot.  Knowing the political make-up of Florida’s courts, it probably will be there, endangering the passage of the Amendment.  Here is what that language says:

‘The proposed amendment would result in significantly more abortions and fewer live births per year in Florida. The increase in abortions could be even greater if the amendment invalidates laws requiring parental consent before minors undergo abortions and those ensuring only licensed physicians perform abortions. There is also uncertainty about whether the amendment will require the state to subsidize abortions with public funds. Litigation to resolve those and other uncertainties will result in additional costs to the state government and state courts that will negatively impact the state budget. An increase in abortions may negatively affect the growth of state and local revenues over time. Because the fiscal impact of increased abortions on state and local revenues and costs cannot be estimated with precision, the total impact of the proposed amendment is indeterminate.^’

Be smart!  Leave Florida to its idiots and imbeciles, (and their guns, necessary for them to ‘stand their ground.’)  Many of those who seek a more welcoming environment for non-traditional marriage and gender identification, and those who object to efforts to introduce politics into judgeship nominees, public schools, libraries, and State colleges are already packing their bags. But for every sane person that leaves, there are incoming idiots and imbeciles from other States eager to experience the ‘freedoms’ of the Sunshine State.  

Folks considering a retirement location:  Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, or Colorado beckon and are better choices! 

But it’s really ‘no problem.’  With or without you, ‘climate change,’ two words that Florida’s laws ban from appearing in any legislation, will probably result in most of the State being underwater before the end of the century anyway.  Most Floridians won’t notice it until they wake up some morning to find that during the night, their house floated away and they are now residents of Cuba.

Floriduh Voter

                              

                                                          

But still, vote ‘Yes” on Florida Constitutional Amendment Four, anyway!  Its passage will at least put the ball in the court of the scoundrels in the State House in Tallahassee.

 

JL

                                                     *   *   *

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Strange “Hits’! The large number of those accessing Jackspotpouri from Singapore and Hong Kong has somewhat lessened.  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 

                                                              * * *