What Trump and His Supporters Are Up To
Here's an excerpt from Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American’ dated October 17, 2024. It pins down quite a bit, although I feel that the Christian nationalists are mostly unaware that they are being ‘used’ by the MAGA Trumpsters to add some relative respectability to their otherwise fascistic programs. I believe that the ‘tech elites’ she mentions (Peter Thiel, the financial mogul behind JD Vance, and Elon Musk) are a far greater danger.
Here's the excerpt: ‘Although democracy has been delivering for Americans, Donald Trump and MAGAs rose to power by convincing those left behind by 40 years of supply-side economics that their problem was not the people in charge of the government, but rather the government itself.
Trump wants to get rid of the current government so that he can enrich himself, do whatever he wants to his enemies, and avoid answering to the law.
The Christian nationalists who wrote Project 2025 want to destroy the federal government so they can put in place an authoritarian who will force Americans to live under religious rule. Tech elites like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel want to get rid of the federal government so they can control the future without having to worry about regulations.
In place of what they insist is a democratic system that has failed, they are offering a strongman who, they claim, will take care of people more efficiently than a democratic government can.
The focus on masculinity and portrayals of Trump as a muscled hero‚ much as Russian president Vladimir Putin portrays himself, fit the mold of an authoritarian leader.’
JL
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A Very Brief Column by Timothy Snyder
Take a minute to check out Yale history Professor Timothy Snyder’s October 19 remarks in his ‘Thinking About’ blog. You can find it at https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-loser-triad?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=50599&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email or by CLICKING HERE.
Snyder addresses the three signs that will indicate that Donald Trump believes he has lost the election.
But please, don’t let that deter you from your efforts to make certain Trump’s defeat actually happens! Nothing is automatic in today’s political environment, and that includes the election results and the reactions of the election’s winners and losers.
Believers in democracy: Get to work!
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Here is what you can do!
- Start by making a list of friends and relatives who might need reminding of the danger that Donald Trump and his supporters pose to democracy.
- Make it your business to give them a call between now and Election Day, two weeks off, reminding them of the importance of the election. (If you know they are supporting Trump, don't bother calling them.)
- If they live in a 'battleground' State (Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, or Arizona), call them twice!
- And any Floridians on your list should be reminded to vote for Debbie Muscarsel-Powell for Senator to replace Rick (anti-Medicare, anti-Social Security) Scott, and to vote 'Yes' on Amendments 3 (legal regulated marijuana) and 4 (abortion rights.)
JL
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Local Poet Speaks Out
Here’s a timely poem by Joyce Golden written less than a month before Election Day, 2024.
“A Letter”
Dearest America,
Just a few thoughts to share:
The long arm of election from years to months,
at last, the privilege of making a choice.
Yet unending preoccupation
with division, inclusion, exclusion
and indecision,
casts a wide swathe of attention:
cable ‘news’: our closest friends,
keep us company,
say what we like to hear
over and over and over again.
America, let’s regroup,
Let’s dare to enlighten, to endeavor
to co-listen and to co-learn,
to speak to what’s better, kinder, more binding.
Dare to be more hopeful, more helpful, more caring.
To be human is to EMPATHIZE:
“The action of understanding being aware and
sensitive to the feelings, thoughts and
experience of another”
For empathy will set us all free.
Joyce Golden
JL
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Another Step in the Demise of College Football
Essential to a successful college football team are a strong defensive secondary and a strong offensive line. Without the former, the other team will pass and run at will. Without the latter, a team’s own otherwise strong offensive tools are worthless, not being able to get off its plays.
The remedies to this problem rest in the triad of (a) recruiting promising athletes from high and prep schools, (b) obtaining them from other colleges through the ‘transfer portal,’ and (c) retaining them from leaving for some other more lucrative offer once they have proven their worth.
Even this is only possible if (1) a school lowers its academic standards to fit the needs of athletes who would not otherwise be admitted, and (2) generous monetary compensation is available for athletes provided by alumni and other groups through payment for use of athlete’s names, images, and likenesses (N.I.L. programs). That is the way the ‘student athletes,’ who are really employees of the college, get paid!
Some schools can afford to do this. Most cannot. This is really what determines at what level of competition a college plays its games, the SEC, the Big Ten, the AAC, and the Big Twelve, being the highest tiers. This is why many college football coaches, the ones who know how to operate in such an environment, have salaries greater than many college presidents, and are constantly looking to move to other schools, or possibly jobs as TV commentators.
The bottom line is that money now calls the shots in college football. (The same may be said of basketball.) Wherever money is thusly involved, gambling follows and today’s proliferation of online gambling sites includes college sports. Such gambling was once illegal but no longer is. There is no longer any need for ‘bookies at a street corner.’ They are at anyone’s fingertips. Sooner or later this process will lead to a gambling scandal which will return college athletics to the pristine level they once occupied, and still do occupy in all nations other than the United States. Just wait and see.
(I don’t know if the chariot races held in ancient Rome were ‘fixed’ but their demise eventually coincided with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.)
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And speaking of sports, the World Series starts on Friday. Weeks ago, I predicted that the talent-laden New York Yankees would win the World Series, although I was wrong about who their National League opponent would be. I stick with that prediction, although I will be rooting for the Los Angeles Dodgers!
I cannot bring myself to support any team, like the Yankees, that refuses to put its players’ names on the back of their jerseys. The Yankees’ traditional arrogance prevents them from thusly identifying their players for the occasional fan who cannot recognize them by sight, implying that they do not want nor need their support. (Hopefully, the TV announcers will continue to mention the name of such unidentified Yankees when they come to the plate or make an outstanding play.) Go Dodgers!
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
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Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. Just two weeks remain until Election Day. Spread the word.
JL
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