Democratic Recipe for Success, Pillow Talk, Security Clearances, Bradlee's Book, Historic American Battles, Baseball in Miami and Gettin' Affectionate over Brahm's 2nd Piano Concerto

                                                                    * * * * *

Remembering Iwo Jima

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Brahms and Biden

Falletta

Amidst thunderous applause after pianist Fabio Bidini finished a magnificent performance of Brahm’s Second Piano Concerto at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach last week, he leapt to the podium to warmly embrace Grammy-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta, who had led the Buffalo Philharmonic in its accompaniment of the soloist.  There was nothing sexual nor suggestive in the embrace.  It was his way of saying, “How wonderful; we performed this beautiful music together! Thank you, thank you.”

 

Touching, and even embracing, even if unsolicited (I don’t know if Ms. Falletta expected it to happen) is nothing to be ashamed of.  Actually, Ms. Falletta’s husband, a musician in the orchestra, was sitting right there applauding along with the rest of us.  What counts is the reason for such overt signs of affection.  What is its motivation?

Biden

Which brings us to Joe Biden.  His touching, or even kissing, of which he is presently being accused seems always to have been of a benign, if not paternalistic, nature, even if it took the recipient by surprise.  It never involved a hidden message like, “Stick around, baby.  I got a suite upstairs in the hotel.”  

Such accusations come nowhere near those made of the thrice-married, adulterous President of the United States who prides himself on his sexual prowess (check out affairs with Stormy and Karen, not to mention Marla … whom he was bedding while he was still married to Ivana) and from whom it is said that a friendly pat on the back sometimes dropped down a few inches becoming a squeeze of the butt. 

(As of this moment, I have not made up my mind as to whom I favor for the Democratic presidential nomination ... but for reasons other than those discussed above, I am not leaning in Joe's direction.)

Jack Lippman

                                                                * * * * *

Remembering Gettysburg

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Pillow Talk Amongst the Conways 

In George T. Conway’s op-ed piece in the Washington Post, appearing a few days after the Attorney General’s four-page summary of the Mueller Report was published, he wrote that “whether the Mueller report ever sees the light of day, there is one charge that can be resolved now. Americans should expect far more from a president than merely that he not be provably a criminal. They should expect a president to comport himself in accordance with the high duties of his office.”  

Conway concluded his op-ed by declaring that “if the charge were unfitness for office, the verdict would already be in: guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”  He also said that "if Mueller’s report doesn’t exonerate the president (from charges of obstruction), there must be something pretty damning in it about him, even if it might not suffice to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”  You MUST read the entire op-ed piece. 

(George T. Conway, III is a prominent and highly respected lawyer, practicing in New York.)

Loving Couple

Because George’s wife, Kellyanne, is a senior advisor to the President, any “pillow talk” that might ensue between them would be priceless.  Expect a book after Trump is out of office. 

CLICK RIGHT HERE  to read Conway's Washington Post op-ed in full as reproduced last week in the Palm Beach Post. 

JL

                                                                     * * * * *

 Remembering Yorktown

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The Roadmap to Democratic Success in 2020

As my last blog posting made very clear, despite opinions like that of George Conway addressed above, no matter how the pending court cases are resolved and whatever the Democratic Congressional investigations produce, the only real pathway to success for Democrats is to register voters and work to win every election possible at all levels.   The Mueller Report is not sufficient ammunition. Attacking President Trump’s many obvious shortcomings will be self-defeating because, as you will see,  all those who support him are well aware of them and are immune to criticism for believing as they do.  No, the key is working to register as many Democratic voters as possible, nationwide.

And once those voters are registered, here is how the job of winning elections in 2020 must be accomplished.  Giving such advice may seem highly presumptuous on my part, but after the Democratic nomination of Hillary Clinton in 2016 (when asked back then if I was for her, I ended up replying “Yes, but not comfortably so.”) and their managing to lose both the Senate and Governorship races in Florida in 2018, I wonder if the Party’s leaders really understand.   Well, here’s how the job must be done.  It takes a lot of effort to get your hands and arms around the problem, and your head into it, but please try.

It starts with Ben Bradlee’s book, “The Forgotten,” which explains how Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, long a strong bastion of unionism and the Democratic Party, went overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2016, providing enough of a margin of victory to give all of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes to Trump.  That was it.  The game and the election were lost there and then.  The same sort of thing happened in Michigan and Wisconsin as well, but Bradlee dissected how it happened in Luzerne County with numerous readable and sometimes frightening interviews.  There are three requirements to which I suggest all Democrats adhere in order to win in 2020.

Requirement One: Every Democratic candidate for office at all levels, and all members of the Democratic National Committee and all precinct leaders, nationwide, MUST be required to read Bradlee’s book.  Otherwise, they’re out of a job.

Now let’s get to the book, which should be their primer on how Democrats can win big in 2020.  You can read the opening sections of "The Forgotten's" Kindle version, if you wish, by CLICKING RIGHT HERE.  That ought to whet your appetite for a trip to a bookstore, a book ordering site online or your nearest public library.  Read the whole book!

In the Introduction section of his book, which chronicles in detail why a county which had always been strongly Democratic turned to Donald Trump, not narrowly, but by big, big, numbers in 2016, Bradlee writes, “Some of the motivating factors behind Trump’s appeal could be found in an anonymous, post-election (2016) email circulating among his voters in Luzerne County and elsewhere, its candid sentiments amount to a Trump voters’ creed.”  Its full text follows:

‘I haven’t said too much about this election since the start … but this is how I feel … I’m noticing that a lot of you aren’t graciously accepting the fact that your candidate lost.  In fact, you seem to be posting even more hateful things about those of us who voted for Trump.  Some of you are apparently “triggered” because you are posting how “sick” you feel about the results.  How did this happen, you ask?

   You created “us” when you attacked our freedom of speech.

   You created “us” when you attacked our right to bear arms.

   You created “us” when you attacked our Christian beliefs.

   You created “us” when you constantly referred to us as racists.

   You created “us” when you constantly called xenophobic.

   You created “us” when you told us to get on board or get out of the way.

   You created “us” when you attacked our flag.

   You created “us” when you took God out of our schools.

   You created “us” when you confused women’s rights with feminism.

   You created “us” when you began to emasculate men.

   You created “us” when you decided to make our children soft.

   You created “us” when you decided to vote for progressive ideals.

   You created “us” when you attacked our way of life.

   You created “us” when you decided to let our government get out of control.

   You created “us,” the silent majority.

   You created “us” when you began murdering innocent law enforcement officers.

   You created “us” when you lied and said we could keep our insurance plans and our    doctors.

   You created “us” when you allowed our jobs to continue to leave our country.

   You created “us” when you took a knee or stayed seated or didn’t remove your hat during our national anthem.

   You created “us” when you forced us to buy health care and then financially penalized us for not participating.

And we became fed up and we pushed back and spoke up.  And we did it

   With ballots, not bullets. 

   With ballots, not riots. 

   With ballots, not looting. 

   With ballots, not blocking traffic,

   With ballots, not fires, except the one you started inside of “us.”

YOU created “US.”  It really is just that simple.’

Most of these voters had been life-long Democrats, living in a once-heavily unionized county, but in 2016, they turned to Trump, and along with him, the Republican Party.  In prior years, many felt the Republicans were “for the rich” and the Democrats were “for the working people.”  In Luzerne County, they switched sides in 2016 and voted for Donald Trump for the reasons listed above.  Today, Democrats ignore this at their peril … in Luzerne County and elsewhere in the nation!  Read it and heed it.

When you look at the litany of supposed provocations in the email reproduced above, some (support of the Second Amendment, opposition to Government involvement in health care,) can be taken as traditional Republican positions, while others relate to what specifically happened over the past few decades in Luzerne County and manifest social and cultural issues as well as economic ones. But they are all interrelated.  

The coal mines closed, the manufacturing that replaced some of the lost mining jobs eventually moved overseas, the unions left (check out lyrics to Billy Joel’s song “Allentown” on this subject), unemployment was rampant, mortgages were foreclosed, those who could afford to left the area, retail businesses closed, housing deteriorated, and what low level jobs remained were taken by non-white immigrants who were willing to work for the minimum wage while still qualifying for public assistance, and who rented housing at bargain prices.  In this environment, crime and corruption (always present in Luzerne County) flourished. One resident commented that “the Italian Mafia was replaced by the Latino Mafia.”

It was not a matter of Republicans offering solutions to these problems. They had none. The Democratic Party, once the voters' salvation, had none either in 2016.  And the emphasis which the Democrats placed on progressive agenda items such as healthcare, climate change, the nation’s infrastructure, women’s rights, LGBT rights, the environment, world trade, gun violence, public education as well as civil, voting and minority rights did not resonate in Luzerne County. These issues did not directly address their problems.  The voters there, including Democrats, felt that thier parties had "forgotten them," and hence, the title of Bradlee's book.

Some Democrats felt that they were not leaving their party, but that it was the Democratic Party that had "forgotten them" and was leaving them.  

And in comes Donald Trump with the Republican nomination in hand, promising, in their folksy and earthy language, to shake things up, and Luzerne County was glad to embrace him, even though the Republican Party, long a bastion of backward-looking conservatism, had no solutions either. 

The good citizens of Luzerne County were looking around for someone on whom to place the blame for their sorry state of affairs, and Donald Trump was giving them a broad choice of people, or groups, to blame, among others, immigrants and those on "welfare,' both helpless and easy targets.   What was once an almost entirely white county now had a large, and growing, minority population.  

Latino Softball League Flourishes  in Wilkes-Barre

 
But I am getting ahead of myself.  Read the book!  (Remember, that was "Requirement One.") 

Requirement Two:   In 2020, Democrats must not run against Donald Trump.  We all know he is, was and always will be bad news.  But many, many, others support him, despite all his faults.  Arguing with his positions or what he says is impossible since he relies on lies, hyperbole, imprecise language and insults.  Were such a contest being held in an academic debate environment, things would be different, but that is not an arena into which Trump, nor his Republican supporters, choose to enter.  The same goes for rational journalists’ opinions, as voiced in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, PBS, CNN and MSNBC.  They are worthless in debating Trump, who prefers the National Enquirer or brief twitter outpourings.

Requirement Three:   Here’s what MUST be done.  This is the clincher. The bottom line. The Democratic Party must strongly stress what its programs can do, specifically, to benefit voters in distressed places like Luzerne County, Pennsylvania and the hundreds of similar places throughout the country, particularly in states which narrowly gave their electoral votes to Donald Trump in 2016, states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and of course, Pennsylvania. 

This should take the form of a three-pronged effort directed at removing the reasons why these good people turned to a fraud like Donald Trump in desperation in the first place.  They attack the cause.

 Prong One - It should include a massive program to repair and update infrastructure, including water and power supplies, public buildings, schools, parks, highways, city streets and other means of transportation. (Sounds a lot like FDR’s “New Deal,” which it is, but calling it something like that isn’t a good idea.) 

Well paying, permanent jobs rebuilding and maintaining the nation's infrastructure are the answer, not burger flipping jobs at Wendy's

                                                                                                                                       
     The program should provide enough employment in both the public and private sectors, on a continuing basis, at good salaries, to replace the jobs that were lost in places like Luzerne County over the past thirty years. It must provide jobs over the broad spectrum of workers, including all ethnic groups, a factor which cannot be ignored. Income  from these "infrastructure-related" jobs will filter down to the entire community as these dollars are spent.

  Such economic rejuvenation, I believe, will sufficiently (although not entirely) erase the racism and bigotry which feeds on economic distress, and which Donald Trump harvested.  It will lessen cultural differences, reducing the number of people "on welfare" and change the nature of those choosing to emigrate to what will be a no longer "distressed" Luzerne County. It won't be inexpensive, but funding for such programs can come from significantly increased taxes on the wealthy, involving a reversal of the tax cuts given them by Republicans in 2017.

The modest unemployment rate in the country, about which Republicans and the President boast, is an illusion because many of the jobs it reflects are minimum wage service jobs paying far less than is needed to support a family.  Jobs at Burger King are not the answer.

     

The Healthcare Crisis Must be Resolved

    Prong Two -  Secondly, the question of health care must be resolved in a manner which enables everyone to be guaranteed health care at a reasonable price, preferably through traditional private sources (as is the case with ‘Obamacare’) but with a flexible total cost cap (perhaps a ceiling of 5% for annual family incomes below 75K) – increasing with income, in excess of which the government will subsidize the rest, again paying for it with a reversal of the 2017 tax cuts.  Should this not work, the more expensive “Medicare for All” should be considered.

   Prong 3 -   Finally, the more progressive aspects of the Democratic platform such as climate change, women’s rights, LGBT rights, the environment, world trade, gun violence, public education as well as civil, voting and minority rights should be pushed to the background in areas like Luzerne County.   

Demonstrations Like This Will  Not Help Return Places Like
Luzerne County to the Democratic Party. They Love their Guns too Much!

       They should be mentioned, of course, but only secondary to the two “prongs” mentioned directly above, infrastructure jobs and health care.  They will not attract voters in places like Luzerne County.  They might even provide ammunition to Republicans.  Why give them a target?  As potent as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives might be as vote-getters in some areas, Democrats would be foolish to send her to Wilkes-Barre to speak.

                                                                      

That’s it, Democrats.   Once again, recapitulating those three "requirements" ....

1. Read the book (“The Forgotten”).  (Okay, if you're too busy to do that,  at least CLICK HERE to read the Kindle sample mentioned above.  It might change your mind.)

2.  Forget about Donald Trump.  Attacking him is like punching a pillow.

3.  The Three "Prongs" - (1) Create good jobs by massively rebuilding infrastructure and (2) providing reasonably priced health care, both funded by reversing the 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy, all the while (3) soft-pedalling, but not ignoring, other progressive Democratic priorities in areas such as Luzerne County where their impact is questionable.

Then, and only then, will places like Luzerne County no longer be among "The Forgotten."

 JL

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Remembering Battle of Midway

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On Security Clearances (with apologies to Jared K.)

This is the original
crest of the REDACTED

Back in the 1950’s when I was in the service serving in the Army Security Agency (which reported to the NSA), we all had to have relatively high security clearances.  Mine was at a level known as “REDACTED" which related to some of the work we did.  I recall an incident where someone in my platoon at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, was transferred out of the outfit because his security clearance was being taken away.  Apparently, someone in the Defense Department had caught the fact that one of his parents had immigrated to the United States from Russia during the 1920’s, and since it was entirely possible that he might have relatives in that country, he lost his security clearance and ended up in the plain old Signal Corps.  

Such connections, familial or business-wise, make one vulnerable to being compromised or blackmailed.  That’s the way these things are supposed to be handled, unless you work for the Executive Branch of our government headed by Donald Trump, who probably, once he is out of office, would not himself qualify for the minimal security clearance needed to get a job sweeping the floors in a government building somewhere.

 JL

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Remembering the Battle of the Bulge

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Lonely in the Ballpark  

Empty Seats in Miami

I suspect that the days of the Miami Marlins in Florida are numbered.  The only problems would be how to get out of their deal with Miami-Dade County for use of Marlins Park and where to move the team.  (Stuck with a baseball-less stadium, they probably would convert it to a soccer venue.)  Believe me, owners Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman are businessmen, not philanthropists, and must be thinking about this right now. 

Based on attendance at the first seven home games, I project the Marlins will be fortunate if their total attendance for 2019 is as high as 600,000 for their 82 home games.  (Their current ownership is honest about attendance numbers.  The previous owners were not.)   In 2018, even with ten less home games on their schedule, four minor league teams, Indianapolis, Columbus, Nashville and Round Rock (Austin, TX area) drew more than 600,000 for the season! 

To put in context how abysmal things have been at Marlins Park, through seven games, paid attendance has averaged 9,577 per game. But if we remove the 25,423 that came on Opening Day, the Marlins have seen an average of less than 7,000 per game (6,936). 

Attendance is down throughout major league baseball, but nowhere is it as bad as it is in Miami.  I predict, assuming attendance remains at present levels, that the Marlins will be out of Florida by 2022.

JL

                                                                   

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Jack Lippman 

Fashion Notes, Shakespeare on Mueller, Strange Bedfellows, Brexit, Florida Amendment Four and finally, The Mueller Report - A Call to Action

Fashion Notes

As Spring spreads across the country, folks shed their Winter gear.  Will President Trump be willing to give up his big black (or is it blue) overcoat, which seems much too heavy even for late Winter or early Spring weather?  Note the lighter garb others are wearing as the President strides across a lawn or a tarmac in that overcoat, never buttoned.  Does he favor that coat because, hanging open, it hides his seemingly expanding girth?  What would he look like without it?  Here’s the President (6’3” – 243 lbs.) and next to his photograph, note our 27^th President, William Howard Taft, who tipped the scales at 340 lbs., making Donald look svelte.   JL

Taft

Measurements Around the Beltway

                                                 

                                                                         

      

A Shakespearean View of the Mueller Report

When I listen to all the commentary on the report of Special Counsel Mueller, as condensed into four pages by Attorney General Barr, I am impressed by the circuitous reasoning of the lawyers on TV, many of whom are former prosecutors themselves or professors in law schools.  Their arguments can make one’s head spin and leave listeners, thirty minutes later, exactly where they were when they tuned in.  We deserve better. 

Shakespeare felt the same way in his historical play Henry VI, Part 2.  Amongst a disgruntled group of ignorant working men, fantasizing about the day when one of them would be “king,” a violent voice arises (in Act 4, Scene 2) shouting, “The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.”  Sometimes I feel that way.

JL

The Big Story – The Mueller Report – And What to Do About It 

Aside from not coming up with enough evidence to indict the President for collusion with Russia in regard to the 2016 election, The Mueller Report also did not come to any firm conclusion on whether Trump’s interference with the investigation constituted obstruction of justice.  Instead, it left it for a conclusion to be drawn on this issue based on a "read" of the report.  Because Mueller's "chain of command" led upward through Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and Attorney General Barr, the task of drawing this conclusion was taken up by them. In view of Barr’s June letter, strongly antagonistic to the Mueller probe and strongly supporting the President, what more could be expected from Barr and Rosenstein? It’s hard to believe Mueller did not know what Barr would do.

Given that there was not enough evidence to justify collusion, and leaving us in a fuzzier position regarding the question of obstruction, the New Yorker magazine succinctly addressed that latter issue thusly: 

“Actually, on the subject of Robert Mueller’s probe into whether Donald Trump obstructed justice, Barr’s letter said this:   “The Special Counsel . . . did not draw a conclusion—one way or another—as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction.” The letter went on, “The Special Counsel states that, ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’”

Barr’s letter, however, did contain a determination that Trump’s actions—which might include the firing of James Comey, the head of the F.B.I., and trying to fire Jeff Sessions, Barr’s predecessor—failed to rise to the level of obstruction of justice. But it was Barr and Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, who made that determination. As it has done so often in the past, the White House was lying, when it said that Mueller exonerated Trump on the obstruction question.”

Hey guys, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.  When Trump ignores his own AG’s statement that Mueller’s report regarding obstruction of justice does not exonerate him, he just lies about it and says that it does.  So what’s new?  He lies.  They lie.  We all know that.  Stop crying about it.  Even if you’re right.  When has the world ever been fair?

When the voters elected Trump as President, and gave him Congressional majorities, which continue in the Senate, and resultingly, the opportunity to name conservative judges, including those on the Supreme Court, as well as choosing his awful revolving-door cabinet, the country voted in his whole package.  And that included the three Attorneys-General he has appointed. 

Don’t sit around hoping the litigation going on in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere will help.  It will go on for years and years.  Lawyers are experts on getting “postponements.”  Weaving threads of evidence into a cloak of guilt is time-consuming and difficult.  No, the Mueller Report, with its Barr-imposed warts was the ballgame.  And Trump and his Republicans won it.  Face it.  That’s why we ended up with a big disappointment. 

Sure, the Democratic-controlled House Committees (particularly Judiciary, Oversight and Intelligence) will make a big issue of getting the full Mueller Report, but enough will be redacted from it (either for secrecy classifications, grand jury testimony or to protect the unindicted) to make it no more potent than a soaking wet firecracker.

"Don't tell 'em that!" - "No, I'll only give them this much!"

A Republican President appointed a Republican Attorney General to do his dirty work and that’s the ball game.  Period.  End of story. That’s what happens when you lose an election, as the Democrats did in 2016.  To the victor go the spoils. That’s the way democracy works.  Blame democracy.  But most of all, blame the American voter.

Ultimately though, there’s a whole lot of shit (no other word fits) which must be undone by a unified Democratic Party when they regain power in both Houses of Congress and in the White House.  That is the only way it can be done.  It will take years, if not generations to complete the task.  For example, the Supreme Court cannot be changed overnight.  That alone will take thirty or forty years.  Progressive legislation regarding health insurance, drug prices, world trade, education, climate change, immigration, tax reform, the infrastructure, regulatory agencies, the socio-economic “safety net” and gun violence will come about sooner, but not fully for at least a decade or two, assuming the Democrats take and maintain control of the government.

Remember, it was the gullibility and *ignorance of the American public that caused the mess the country is now in, a mess which about 40% of the population refuses to recognize. Their mindset will have to change, and that won’t take place overnight either.  But it can!  Hopefully.

*(Calling people ignorant is not the same as calling them stupid!  The adjective “ignorant” describes someone who is merely lacking in knowledge or understanding of a subject. “Stupid” means lacking in mental capacity.  While an ignorant person can usually seek additional knowledge to become less ignorant, a stupid person lacks the mental ability to do that.  You can fix “ignorant.” “Stupid” you can’t fix.)

Maybe it will take rusty and polluted water coming out of their faucets to wake them up.  Working class Americans must get it through their heads that the Republican Party never was, is not now and will never be on their side!  It is both sad and safe to say that the harm done by giving stewardship of our government and the Presidency to backward-looking and sometimes malignant Republicans in 2016 will not be reversed in many of our lifetimes, certainly not within mine.

What to do?  *Find yourself a Democratic group in your local voting precinct or community.  Go to their meetings.  Volunteer to do stuff to elect Democrats to local, State and National office.  It all counts and adds up.  Even if your State is always “blue” (like New York or California), your State Legislature which apportions Congressional Districts and opts in or out of Federal programs, must be kept “blue” too … and that isn’t always the case, so your muscle is required.  There are more Democratic-leaning Americans in this country than Republicans but It will take your efforts, particularly through voter registration drives, starting NOW, to mobilize them.

 

Democratic Workers at a Phone Bank

If you don’t do that, and just remain on the sidelines complaining, it will accomplish nothing and amount to your accepting everything Donald Trump has done and give comfort to the hypocritical Republican legislators who support him because they need his loyal base to stay in office.  Get off your butt and get to work.

There is no other way.

*Here’s how to do it.  Right now, before you get up from your computer or put down your mobile phone, “Google” the name of the town or city where you live and the words “Democratic Party.”  Like this: “MyTown Democratic Party.”  Copy down the phone numbers you will see and call them, offering to volunteer.  Today!  Now!  This Minute!

Jack Lippman

Once Elected, Republicans are Not Nice People

Floriduh

Sixty-four percent of Florida’s voters approved a constitutional amendment back in November returning the right to vote to convicted felons, except for murderers and sexual offenders, after they completed their sentences, paid their fines and were no longer on parole or probation.   But leave it to the Republican legislature to throw up road blocks to this, negating the will of the people.  Legislation requiring payment of court costs which were not part of the original sentence, full reimbursement of victims (almost always impossible), and adding “attempted murder” to those crimes for which the return of voting rights was excluded is being proposed.  Republicans recognize that the voters which Amendment Four’s passage enfranchised would mostly vote Democratic and that’s why they are proposing such legislation.  When, oh when, will the working people of Florida, and the nation for that matter, learn that the Republican Party is not, never was and never will be on their side.

JL

Brexit

The same dissatisfaction with economic prospects, fear of immigrants and nostalgia for a past which really cannot be recaptured which fueled Donald Trump’s success in 2016, and still today maintains the loyalty of his base of supporters, brought about the United Kingdom’s “Brexit” vote to leave the European Economic Community and “go it alone.”  Well, it turns out that is easier said than done and probably will bring down the government of P.M. Theresa May.  Ultimately there will be another vote, I predict, and the failed “Brexit” attempt will become just a sad page in the UK’s history, as will the Presidency of Donald Trump in the United States.

JL 

 

Strange Bedfellows

Both Fox pundit Tucker Carlson and Presidential-hopeful Elizabeth Warren agree that social media outlets like Facebook and Google function as public utilities and should be treated as such.  This is probably going to be a major national topic of debate over the next decade.

There are arguments for doing it and equally, for not doing it.  Would doing so violate the First Amendment?  But If the FCC doesn’t allow terrorists to incite violence on radio and TV, why are they allowed to do on social media?  Many "progressives" believe they should be regulated.  Many conservatives feel social media is biased against them.   Here’s a brief Forbes article from June 2018 on the subject.   CLICK HERE TO READ IT. 

JL

HOW TO BE ALERTED TO FUTURE BLOG POSTINGS.

Many readers of this blog are alerted by Email every time a new posting appears.  If you wish to be added to that Email list, just let me know by sending me an email at Riart1@aol.com.

HOW TO CONTACT ME or CONTRIBUTE MATERIAL TO JACKSPOTPOURRI.com 

Contact me by email at Riart1@aol.com.   YOU ALSO CAN SEND ME YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO BE PUBLISHED IN THIS BLOG AS WELL AS YOUR COMMENTS AT THAT ADDRESS.  (Comments can also be made by clicking on the "Post a Comment" link at the blog's end, though few followers of the blog have done that lately.)

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HOW TO VIEW OLDER POSTINGS.                                                

To view older postings on this blog, just click on the appropriate date in the “Blog Archive” midway down the column off to the right or scroll down until you see the “Older Posts” notation at the very bottom of this posting.  The “Search Box” in the right side of the posting also may be helpful in locating a posting topic for which you are looking. THESE FEATURES, ALONG WITH OTHER VALUABLE “SIDEBAR” ITEMS, INCLUDING ADVERTISEMENTS, MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE ON ALL MOBILE DEVICES.  CHECK THEM OUT ON YOUR DESKTOP OR LAPTOP COMPUTERS.

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Jack Lippman 

The Mueller Report, a Dismembered Body, When Trump Loses in 2020 and a Letter to the Post

The Mueller Report

Barr

Attorney General Barr today released a four page report saying the after 22 months of work,  Robert Mueller's investigation was

Mueller

unable to find that the President or his colleagues did or did not collude with Russia or Russians in their well-documented and proven efforts to affect our 2016 Presidential election.  Similarly, they could not find that the President tried to obstruct the investigation.   The report was prepared, not by Special Counsel Mueller who provided a much more comprehensive report to Barr, but by Barr's staff and that of Deputy Attorney General Ron Rosenstein.  

When the FBI back in 2016 could not find any basis for indicting Hillary Clinton,

Clinton

they announced that fact, which in itself was damaging to the extent that it clearly implied that the Bureau did have something on her, but not enough to indict.  Doing this  ignored Department of Justice procedures then, and this time, they went out of their way to avoid any negative aspersions on people they investigated but did not indict.   Please refer to my comments in the preceding blog posting where I stated that the President’s imprecision with the English language “keeps him from being ‘on the hook’ for what he says.  He’s like a fish that breaks from the line just as you are about to pull him in.” 

Damn, Lost Him Again

In any event, Attorney General Barr said that on further review, additional information from the Special’s Counsel’s investigation may be released.  It is up to the legislative branch, specifically the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, to insist on this information using whatever tools they have, including the power of subpoena. 

With this in mind, let me describe a court decision which came down last week in Palm Beach County.  A man, heavily under the influence of drugs, claimed that he found his father, also a user, dead on the floor surrounded by drugs and drug paraphernalia.  Not knowing what to do, not thinking clearly and in a drug induced state of panic, he feared being accused of murdering his father. 

To avoid this eventuality, he dismembered the body and over the next few days, cleaning up carefully behind him, buried the body parts on an abandoned golf course.  He was charged with murder and dismemberment of the body.  A jury found him innocent of murder because of lack of evidence, but did find him guilty of dismembering the body, for which he awaits sentencing.  

In the minds of many, including the family and the prosecution, the son was clearly guilty of murder, but as in the case of the Mueller report, where the evidence was insufficient to come to a conclusion regarding collusion and obstruction, the Palm Beach County jury found that the evidence was insufficient to convict the son of murder.  That’s the way our system works, despite the obvious conclusions others may make.

Bear in mind that the Attorney General indicated that further review of the Special Counsel’s investigation would occur in regard to releasing information in addition to the four page report issued today, that Congressional Committees will continue their investigations and that litigation continues in the Southern District of New York Federal Court, in other Federal Court jurisdictions and in New York State Courts where evidence which was insufficient for Mueller’s team might prove quite adequate for indictment.

One question:  If there were no collusion nor obstruction of justice, why all the lies about these activities?

Jack Lippman

The President's Hair Color and Two Columns

My March 9 blog posting concluded with this sentence: “If you start to see the President's hair coloring fail to hide its probable whiteness, you can be sure something's amiss.”

Well, that’s exactly what is happening.  But he’s not graying in the distinguished way his two predecessors did during their terms in office.  His hair was most likely gray or white to start with, but lately the orange dye job he obviously undergoes periodically isn’t working very well.  I suspect he has to undergo frequent, if not daily, touch-ups.  More and more of the white is showing through.  Watch for it.

If you don’t know the reason for the color change, you’ve been spending too much time watching Fox and for the wrong reasons.  (The only valid reason to watch Fox News is to get a fix on the lies, misrepresentation and misdirection the President and his supporters are involved in daily.)

Pitts

That March 9 posting also included a column by Leonard Pitts which raised the question of what the President might do if the 2020 elections turns him out of office … and/or … produces a hostile Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress.  Read it by CLICKING HERE.  

Gerson

Another column this past week in the Washington Post by Michael Gerson talked of those who approach politics with a religiously based fervor and devotion.  Gerson got near to but didn’t quite ask the question as to how such zealotry would manifest itself in the face of a Trump defeat. Read it by CLICKING HERE.

If this eventuality has occurred to Pitts and Gerson, I wonder how many others fear a coup d’etat by Trump supporters, many of whom might feel justified in rebelling against the Federal government should Trump lose.  Would they claim the election was stolen by a “dark state” conspiracy and support the President’s declaring a national emergency and his refusing to leave office?  Trump supporters have already at times characterized the investigations into his administration that are being carried out by Congress and the Department of Justice as being extra-legal and in fact, actually attempted coups.  They might say the same about an election which Trump loses.

I hope this is only idle speculation on my part.
JL

The Boys on the Bridge

Here’s a letter I was about to send in to the Palm Beach Post until I realized that they would not consider it because they had printed a letter from me within the past 30 days.  I will wait until mid-week to submit it, when 30 days will have passed.   But here it is for your benefit.  (Note the fishing rods leaning against the bridge railing.  Florida law does not allow such weapon displays unless in connection with fishing or hunting.)

‘Sunday’s Post carried a story about pro-gun activists demonstrating in favor of the President, one of whom questioned the ability of our armed forces to respond to an invasion and who was quoted as saying that “civilians like us have the ability with these military weapons to combat the first initial invasion if it were to happen.”  The Second  Amendment clearly limits such activity to “a well-regulated militia” of which those on the Royal Park bridge on Saturday certainly were not a part.  Thinly using the excuse that they were “fishing” to justify their display of assault weapons was a laughable, if not prosecutable, misuse of the law.  What is needed is repeal of the Second Amendment and its replacement with one that allows the possession of weapons for hunting, agricultural purposes, target shooting and clearly defined self-defense.  Meanwhile, the demonstrators on the bridge should join the Florida National Guard.’ 
JL

HOW TO BE ALERTED TO FUTURE BLOG POSTINGS.

Many readers of this blog are alerted by Email every time a new posting appears.  If you wish to be added to that Email list, just let me know by sending me an email at Riart1@aol.com.

HOW TO CONTACT ME or CONTRIBUTE MATERIAL TO JACKSPOTPOURRI.com 

Contact me by email at Riart1@aol.com.   YOU ALSO CAN SEND ME YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO BE PUBLISHED IN THIS BLOG AS WELL AS YOUR COMMENTS AT THAT ADDRESS.  (Comments can also be made by clicking on the "Post a Comment" link at the blog's end, though few followers of the blog have done that lately.)

MOBILE DEVICE ACCESS.

DID YOU KNOW THAT www.jackspotpourri.com IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICES IN A MODIFIED, EASY-TO-READ, FORMAT?   

HOW TO VIEW OLDER POSTINGS.                                                

To view older postings on this blog, just click on the appropriate date in the “Blog Archive” midway down the column off to the right or scroll down until you see the “Older Posts” notation at the very bottom of this posting.  The “Search Box” in the right side of the posting also may be helpful in locating a posting topic for which you are looking. THESE FEATURES, ALONG WITH OTHER VALUABLE “SIDEBAR” ITEMS, INCLUDING ADVERTISEMENTS, MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE ON ALL MOBILE DEVICES.  CHECK THEM OUT ON YOUR DESKTOP OR LAPTOP COMPUTERS.

HOW TO FORWARD POSTINGS.

To send this posting to a friend, or enemy for that matter, whom you think might be interested in it, just click on the envelope with the arrow on the "Comments" line directly below, enabling you to send them an Email providing a link directly to this posting.  You might also want to let me know their Email address so that they may be alerted to future postings.

Jack Lippman