December 13, 2023 - 'Hopium' and Israel's Overplayed Hand

 

A Big Dose of Optimism = An Addiction to Hope = ‘Hopium’ 

I occasionally follow Simon Rosenberg’s blog, the ‘Hopium Chronicles’ although I am not a paid subscriber to it on Substack where it appears.  Rosenberg, long active in Democratic politics, is always optimistic and upbeat. That’s exactly what the Democrats need today.  Incidentally, Rosenberg was the only ‘pundit’ who had no doubt that the Republicans would fall flat on their faces in 2020’s elections. 

Rosenberg

 In the December 12 posting of the ‘Hopium Chronicles,’ Rosenberg pointed out that in a Reuters poll, “31% of Republicans say they will note vote for Trump if he is convicted of a felony crime. It’s a reminder of what a risk Trump is for Republicans. He only got 46% of the vote last time, and has more baggage than any candidate in modern American history. Consider what Trump and the Republicans will have to defend in 2024:

·         convicted for trying to rape a woman in a department store

·         oversaw one of the largest financial frauds in American history

·         more responsible for ending Roe and stripping away the reproductive rights of women than any other person in America

·         executed what may be the most consequential security breach in American history and lied about it to the FBI

·         has taken more money from foreign governments than any politician in American history, and is without doubt, the single most corrupt politician our country has ever seen

·         praised dictators, appeased and partnered with Putin, denigrated NATO and openly undermined American power and interests around the world

·         oversaw a party-wide effort to overturn an American election, end American democracy for all time and is promising to finish the job in 2025

·         led an armed assault on the US Congress

·         support for more dead kids in schools, a warmer planet, the stripping of fundamental rights common throughout the world, taking health care away from tens of millions, mass deportation…’

        

To read more of the good news on ‘Hopium Chronicles,’ visit it at https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/by or by CLICKING HERE.  It is free, although followers can upgrade to a level where they can participate in the blog, for monthly fee. 

 

Rosenberg concludes the December 12 posting by reminding us that we must ‘Keep working hard. We all have a lot of work to do.’  I agree.

 

JL

                                                 

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A Bad Move by Israel Strengthened Hamas

Before reading on, let me make it clear that it is possible for both Jews and non-Jews to oppose the policies of the government of the State of Israel without being accused of being anti-Zionist or antisemitic.

And now, let me get this straight.  According to the New York Times, the Israeli government cooperated with oil-rich Qatar’s generous financing of the Hamas government on the Gaza Strip over the years to keep Hamas strong enough to balance the Palestinian Authority over on the West Bank but not strong enough to create a military problem for Israel.  This required a very delicate balancing act, and one that obviously failed.  

The United States, with its military and intelligence presence in Bahrain, certainly
must have known what was going on in neighboring Qatar.

To review the Times article, visit https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/world/middleeast/israel-qatar-money-prop-up-hamas.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-israel-gaza&variant=show&region=BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT&block=storyline_flex_guide_recirc  or just JUST CLICK HERE.

Supposedly, the Qatari money would not be used by Hamas to strengthen its military activities, but even so, Israel ignored the fact that it freed up other Hamas resources to prepare for its October 7 attack on Israel. 

In my opinion, the Israeli government was foolish in attempting to encourage and take advantage of the division among Palestinian groups in their degree of animosity toward Israel as an Israeli strategy to avoid a two-state solution.  Hamas, wanted to eliminate the State of Israel entirely, while the Palestinian Authority merely resented and hated it.  Israel was attempting to play one against the other to its advantage, using Qatar’s money to bolster Hamas.

With the two Palestinian groups in disagreement, there would be no one single entity to participate in a two-state solution with Israel, thereby providing encouragement to Israeli settlers in the occupied territories on the West Bank to assume that area would eventually be part of Israel in a one-state solution and leading them to behave aggressively toward the Palestinians there. 

(This is no piddling number.  Israeli sources say there are about 500,000 Israeli settlers living on the West Bank and in other occupied territories outside of the borders of the State of Israel.  Palestinian sources put that number at 700,000.)

Many Israelis saw the fallacy of this position, but it still enabled Benjamin Netanyahu to lock in the votes of the extreme right-wing religious parties in the Knesset, parties that believed in a one-state solution and an expanded Israel, votes that he needed to remain in power.  Now, a harshly awakened Israel is attempting to destroy both Hamas’ military operation and along with it, Hamas’ civilian infrastructure that it foolishly allowed to exist in Gaza for the purpose of balancing the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank.

As Hamas’ military is being destroyed in Gaza, Israeli settlers on the West Bank are becoming more aggressive, and in effect starting to take it over.  The present Israeli government seems content with that for the time being, closing their eyes to the fact that it is just another solution that will fail.  

All that is left for the Palestinians seems to be Hamas’ philosophy of eliminating the State of Israel, but with no real power to accomplish that.  It doesn’t take a genius to see that this is resulting in the Palestinians on the West Bank, unhappy with the supposedly corrupt Palestinian Authority there and subject to increasing harassment by the settlers, coming together with those supporting Hamas in Gaza in opposition to the very existence of the State of Israel.  This ‘coming together’ is exactly the opposite of the disunion among Palestinians that Netanyahu’s bankrupt policies intended to foster.

In a way, it reopens the road to a two-state solution, but it is a much rockier and boulder-strewn road than it was before Netanyahu’s dealing with Qatar strengthened Hamas.  That road needs repaving.

This is what happens when those in charge, and this applies to both Israelis and Palestinians, allow extremists to determine their actions.  Right now, neither recognize the eventuality of a two-state solution.

And I repeat, it is possible for even Jews, in Israel or elsewhere, to oppose the policies of the government of the State of Israel without being accused of being anti-Zionist or antisemitic.

JL 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

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, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them.   I think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri.

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 comment from you.  Each will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you are now reading, but without the illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the 'sidebar' features such as access to the blog's archives.

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting, but I recommend sending them the link.

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it.

JL

                                                    *   *   *

December 9, 2023 - Gun Violence and 'Santa's Belt' Retold

 

                                                     *   *   *

It’s December, and the holiday season is upon us!  Right now, Chanukkah candles (and lights) are burning commemorating the oil that miraculously lasted for eight days in the Maccabees’ struggle against their Hellenistic oppressors, joining the Christmas lights that decorate our communities. 

Happy Holidays to all!

                                                     *   *   *

Your Role in Ending Gun Violence

Have we become insensitive to the shootings that are in the news almost every day?  Five lives here, three lives there, once in a while a larger toll; it just doesn’t seem to matter.  We cannot drift into just taking such tragedies for granted, something that the country seems to be doing. Hypocritical politicians get off the hook by offering ‘thoughts and prayers’ to avoid offending right-wing weapons-worshippers.  But you can do better.

Shootings are only possible when access to guns is made easy.  I have no objection to possession of guns for hunting, target shooting, or when licensed for personal or business protection.  But there is no other justification for the possession of weapons other than by law enforcement personnel. 

The Second Amendment, only included in the Bill of Rights because slaveholding States back in 1789 feared a federal military assault on their right to own slaves, has been grossly misinterpreted since 2008 when D.C. vs Heller was decided by the Supreme Court.  Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion in that case has resulted in the proliferation of weapons in this country and thousands of unnecessary deaths. Despite whatever good the man did in his life, that is all that he will be remembered for.

It is time for gun control legislation to be removed from State legislatures, bodies that often seem to cater to the right-wing, and vested in the federal government.  Why?  It’s a national problem, transcending State borders. 

Too many Americans mistakenly believe that guns in the hands of individuals can prevent the federal government from becoming tyrannical.  That’s malarky! The only route to change, in any direction, is by voting for candidates who will work for change, and not by carrying a gun and threatening the government with it!

I urge the support of gun control at every opportunity that presents itself!  There is no reason for any American not to!  There are many organizations working toward ending gun violence.  They are not trying to take away any of your ‘freedoms.’  In fact, they are working to protect your freedom to go to work, to school, to shop, without fearing an attack by some misguided person whom the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision has allowed to be armed.

Find and check them out online and consider donating to them.  Good ones to start with are everytown.org, bradyunited.org, and giffords.org.

JL

 

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I try to include the following children’s story on Jackspotpourri during the holiday season.  It is the only piece ever published on this blog that some readers have asked to see again.

 

Santa’s Belt  

Jack Lippman

It was that time of the year when things were getting hectic at the North Pole.  Santa and the elves had been working overtime to make certain that everything would be ready to go on Christmas Eve.  After all, children of all ages throughout the world were waiting for Santa to bring them the gifts which they had been wishing for, gifts to make their dreams come true.

“Rufus,” Santa called out.  “Are all of the presents ready to load into my bag?  Have our helpers down on Earth, the toy manufacturers, gotten their toys and games ready for the kids?  And how about their families?  You know, they all must do their part too!  Moms and Dads and everyone else!  Hey, we only have a few days left!”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Claus,” Rufus replied.  “There won’t be any foul-ups this year.  The toys are all ready to go!”

“And is my sleigh ready?  Are the reindeer in good shape?”

“Don’t worry, Santa,” Rufus reassuringly replied.  “The sleigh has been repainted, the runners greased and the harnesses repaired.  And the reindeer are just fine.  Comet and Cupid are over their colds and the others have even gotten used to Rudolf, who wasn’t even in that poem about us.  Even Donder and Blitzen have calmed down.  Santa, you must stop worrying.  Everything is going to be fine!”

It had been three years since Rufus had been promoted to the position of Chief Elf in Santa’s workshop.  Of course, he had been helping out there for many years but only recently had Santa learned of Rufus’ prior experience working closely with Merlin the Magician centuries ago.  Some of Rufus’ innovations, obviously learned from that apprenticeship with the ancient wizard, had greatly increased the efficiency of Santa’s operation.  For example, it was Rufus who had developed the mathematical formulas which, when put into practice, enabled Santa to defy mere physical laws and be in many different of places at the same time.  Rufus had solved the problem of running out of toys with a procedure which in effect, cloned one toy from another, so Santa’s bag was never empty. And of course, he used a lot of old Merlin’s techniques to ease Santa’s trip up and down chimneys throughout the world, without his red outfit ever getting dirty.  Finally, it was Rufus who convinced Santa to include intangible things such as peace, love, brotherhood, and wellbeing among the gifts he left on Earth for those who deserved them.

It was just a few nights before Christmas when Rufus encountered Santa in a state of real panic.

“Santa, what’s the matter?  Why are you holding your waist like that?”

 

“Can’t you see, you darn fool!  I’m holding my pants up!  If I let go, they’ll fall down.  It happened this morning.  My suspenders snapped and I don’t have a belt big enough to fit around me to hold my pants up.  Rufus, they keep falling down and if we can’t fix them, how can I go out on Christmas Eve?  Rufus, do something to help me!  You must!”

“Now, Mr. Claus” the elf answered, holding back a snicker.  “I can see how this happened.  Come to think of it, I should have seen it coming and done something about it.  I’ve watched the way you’ve been eating all of that delicious food Mrs. Claus prepares for you.  Pies and cakes, chickens and steaks, soups and puddings, pizzas and knishes, pasta and dumplings and on and on.  I’ve seen you put away enough for an army at one sitting and top it off with a banana split and a chocolate bar.   What did you expect?”

“Stop your preaching, Rufus!  What would your Merlin do?  Come on.  Think of something so that I don’t disappoint all the children who’ll be waiting for me on Christmas Eve!  I can’t go out there with my pants falling down!”

“Santa, I don’t think suspenders will do the job for you any more because of the pear shape you’ve developed!  We must get you a belt big enough to hold up your pants!”

“What do you think I’ve been doing all day?  I’ve been looking for one and there just aren’t any made that big.”

Rufus thought for a minute and stroked his chin.  He then turned his eyes upward and look toward the stars, fixing them on the constellation Orion the Hunter.  In an instant, using a mystic incantation remembered from his days with Merlin, he turned himself into a thunderbolt and flew up into the heavens directly at the strip of stars which formed Orion’s belt.  Grasping as many as he could, Rufus flew back to Earth and fashioned a belt from them for Santa.  The old man, finding for the first time since his suspenders had snapped that he was able to keep his pants up, was ecstatic.   
                                      

                                   

Constellation Orion.  Note that Rufus left just
three stars remaining in Orion's belt.

                
A few nights later, Santa was able to travel his appointed rounds delivering gifts to children of all ages throughout the world.  As he headed back toward the North Pole, he smiled up at the constellation Orion the Hunter, whose belt, as you can see on any clear Winter evening when you look up in the sky, consists of only three stars, all that Rufus left up there.*

Circling the Earth, Santa made a promise to go on a diet.  He had learned his lesson.  Soon, recognizing the welcoming lights of the workshop far below, the reindeer guided the sleigh into a slow descent and the jovial old man once more waved his hand to the world, crying out, “Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good night, especially to you, Rufus!”

                                                    *   *   *   *

*The constellation Orion is only visible in the northern hemisphere during Winter months, so those in the southern hemisphere must just take my word for what Rufus accomplished.

JL 

                                                      *   *   *

 Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

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, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them.   I think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri.

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 comment from you.  Each will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you are now reading, but without the illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the 'sidebar' features such as access to the blog's archives.

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting, but I recommend sending them the link.

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it.

 

JL

                                                          *   *   *

December 5, 2023 - A Legion of Liars, Israel & Hamas, the Dangers of Extremism, and more on Assisted Living

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The Republican Illness and its Cure - Rx

The fact that a majority of Republicans in the House did not vote for the expulsion from Congress of pathological and chronic liar George Santos shows that they still consider 'lying' to be a legitimate political tool.  (Before retiring to Florida 22 years ago, I lived in an area that would have been part of his congressional district.)  Lies seem to be the hallmark of the G.O.P., and the basis of their likely 2024 presidential candidate's campaign.

Those of us who recognize the American voters' frequent willingness for a variety of reasons to believe Republican lies should be preparing, at least mentally, and possibly otherwise, for what we will do if the unthinkable happens in November, and meanwhile, working hard to make sure that it does not.

Rx: No thinking American should vote for any Republican at any level whatsoever, from school boards on up to the White House. The fact that they do not abandon the Republican label on their candidacy should remind voters that they still belong to a party where right-wing extremists who live in an alternate reality based on lies call the shots.

 

JL

 

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More About Lies

And speaking of lies, Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI assistant director in charge of counter-intelligence, sets out the facts about Trump’s lies concerning the few ‘documents’ that were found in the possession of President Biden and former vice-president Pence, all of which were quickly returned to where they belonged. 

As it stands now, the DOJ’s case regarding the many documents Trump illegally retained, hid at Mar-a-Lago, and for which he obstructed the FBI’s search for many months, is being heard by a Trump-appointed judge in Florida whose intention seems to be to permit delays well into the next decade.

Read the article (that appeared on MSNBC’s site) by copying and pasting this on your browser line: 

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-biden-classified-documents-rcna127307?cid=eml_mda_20231204&user_email=033d2070fe1faa4dfea53a4950e7d0ed837513fd06d41e88f2d7b6b7c74af785

or by CLICKING HERE.

(And speaking of Frank Figliuzzi, up until about a year or so ago, when he was seen on MSNBC, the location from which he was speaking was obvious. Then, that was changed to a painted mountain scene as the background.  I wonder if that was for security purposes.  Try to read ‘between the lines.’)

Among the litany of lies that pour from the mouth of Donald Trump, as reported by David Leonhardt in the online New York Times’ ‘Morning’ on December 5 are “promising to use the powers of the federal government to punish people he perceives to be his critics and opponents, including the Biden family, district attorneys, journalists and ‘the deep state.’ He has suggested that Mark Milley, a retired top general, deserves the death penalty. Trump has called President Biden ‘an enemy of the state’ and Nancy Pelosi ‘the Wicked Witch.’ He has accused former President Barack Obama — ‘Barack Hussein Obama’ in Trump’s telling — of directing Biden to admit ‘terrorists and terrorist sympathizers’ into the U.S.”

Could he be any clearer as to his intentions?  And even a magician cannot disassociate these warnings from the political party that refuses to deny them and is likely to run this person for president again!

Finally, Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney's new book, ‘Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning,’ just came out.  In it, she recounts what happened inside her own party in the weeks before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the capitol following the 2020 presidential election. Recently, speaking to an NPR reporter, Cheney warned that a second Trump presidency threatens democracy and says the Republican party of today does not represent her.

Her words: "If the party goes down the path of nominating Donald Trump, certainly, the party itself will have lost any claim to be a party that is, in fact, supportive of the constitution."

So expelling George Santos from the House of Representatives, a body in which he never should have been seated in the first place, does not rid the Republican Party of its major political tool …  Lies!

If something comes out of the mouth of a Republican, take it with the proverbial grain of salt (or even he whole salt shaker) because it is likely to be just another lie.  They are truly a legion of liars.

JL

 

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 Assisted Living Not What it Should Be

The shortcomings of expensive privately owned assisted living facilities were highlighted right here in recent postings on Jackspotpourri.  The issue will not go away.  People grow older with each passing day and today’s medical advances keep them alive and relatively well far longer. Private long-term care insurance has failed because the insurance industry’s actuaries never anticipated so many people living such long lives.

Here’s another scary report from the New York Times in the form of an opinion piece by David Leonhardt.  Copy and paste https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/briefing/health-care.html

on your browser line, or  JUST CLICK HERE. And pass it on to anyone over age 65 (and their children) that you know!

Several possible answers to the questions raised by these articles include:      

• making private profit-making assisted living available through Medicare (It is already available via Medicaid, but only available to those once its costs have impoverished them, and only if a facility willing to take lower Medicaid payments can be found), 
• federal rather than State regulation and monitoring of these facilities,    
• entirely removing ownership of such facilities from the investment marketplace, and   
• providing financial incentives to replace such facilities with care in the homes of children or other relatives, where they historically have been.

 … or a combination of them.

 JL

 

 *   *   *

The Israeli-Hamas War and Extremism

Hamas missiles being launched from Gaza City

It is clear that the launching sites for the missiles pictured above are in the middle of an urban area within the Gaza Strip.  It is unavoidable that non-combatants will be killed so long as Hamas locates its launch sites, and other military installations, in this manner, an attempt to avoid Israeli attacks on them.

It amounts to their saying that Israel can choose between the risk of not attacking such missile sites or doing so and being blamed for killing non-combatant civilians.  If Hamas launched missiles from Gaza’s beaches, for example, the sites would be quickly destroyed by Israel bombing, without civilian casualties.  But having Israel kill Palestinian civilians is part of Hamas’ plan.

Regardless of the outcome of the Israel-Hamas war, Hamas must be destroyed.  Its pledge to eliminate the State of Israel makes that a necessity.  Reported attempts by Hamas to target missiles toward Israel’s nuclear facilities might explain the very aggressive and thorough level of military activity by Israel’s forces within the Gaza Strip in carrying out the necessary destruction of Hamas.

For humanitarian reasons, it is unfortunate that the temporary pause in hostilities and the return of hostages is not continuing, but as desirable as it was, the resumption of Israeli efforts to destroy Hamas must continue in view of Hamas’ stated objective.  A more permanent cease-fire, which these 'pauses' are steps toward, would amount to a Hamas victory because they ignore cease-fires anyway.  One was in force on October 7.

While places to which non-combatant Gazans can flee within Gaza are shrinking, the neighboring Muslim nations still refuse to welcome them as refugees. This has always been their ‘non-solution,’ first refusing refugees fleeing from the parts of Palestine lost in their unsuccessful war to destroy Israel in 1967, and now from Gaza. These nations are not without blame.

Only with the destruction of Hamas (or at least its complete, total, and permanent military degrading) will Israel and the Palestinians then be able to work toward a peaceable two-state solution.  That is the great fear of Palestinian extremists who want to wipe out the State of Israel, and of Israeli extremists who insist that the State of Israel should encompass all of Palestine, including ‘occupied territories’ beyond the existing borders of the State of Israel.

I have made this point repeatedly in postings on Jackspotpourri.  It is up to both Israelis and Palestinians to stop the extremists in their midst from determining their future.

We accomplished that in the United States In 1964, when an American presidential candidate (Barry Goldwater) praised ‘extremism’ by saying that  ‘extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.’   He was wrong and the voters turned him down in an election rout, (he only received 38.5% of the popular vote), although many Republicans today still believe those words. 

Take my word for it, right now, today, ‘extremism’ on either side in the Israel-Palestinian dispute is indeed a vice, and one that can delay or even prevent a solution there.

JL

 

                                                          *   *   *

   

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

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, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them.   I think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri.

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 comment from you.  Each will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you are now reading, but without the illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the 'sidebar' features such as access to the blog's archives.

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting, but I recommend sending them the link.

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it.

 

JL

                                                          *   *   *

December 1, 2023 - Tackling, Trump, Cease-Fires, Solutions for Israel, Free Speech, and Dying Broke

 

                                                                        * * * * 

How to Tackle a Ball Carrier … or a Former President 

I’ve watched a lot of professional and college football on TV lately.  As its season reaches its climax with bowl games and championships, I have one recommendation to improve the game.

Tackling should be primarily aimed at stopping the progress of a ball carrier, and not at dislodging the ball from their grasp.  If they happen to drop the ball while being tackled, that is a legitimate ‘fumble,’ but if the primary aim of the tackler was to dislodge the ball, that should not be allowed.  There should be a distinction between stopping a runner and fighting with a runner over possession of the ball.  As I see it, grasping at the ball while making a tackle is worth a ten-yard penalty. 

(You know, this might even be allegorical to what goes on in politics these days, where taking a position opposite from that of an opponent often crosses over the line into incivility, law breaking, or might even inspire violence, as it sometimes does on the football field.  I am certain it will take much more than a ten-yard penalty to get the defeated and indicted former president, who never played football, to play by the rules.)

This tackler is giving priority to attacking the ball rather than
stopping the runner.  Otherwise his arm would be reaching
around 34’s waist.   I say it’s worth a ten-yard penalty!  
But no one agrees with me.

JL

 

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Cease-Fires and One or Two-State Solutions

One-State Solutions:  Take your choice:  (1) Israel controlling all of Palestine, with Palestinians who choose to stay as second-class citizens, or (2)  A Palestinian state ‘from the river (Jordan) to the sea with no Jews. 

Neither of these ‘one-state’ solutions can work. Either will eventually lead to continued violence.  The only solution is a ‘two-state’ solution that guarantees the identity of two separate states and their survival.

Without recognizing that overarching challenge, of which the present hostilities on the Gaza Strip are just a part, that conflict cannot be permanently resolved.  Period.  End of story.  

As for a ‘cease fire’ at this time, which some are recommending, remember that the violent attack on October 7 on neighboring Israeli communities by Hamas terrorists took place during such a ‘cease fire,’ violating it!  To Hamas, ‘cease fire’ means that Israel will ‘cease firing,’ but justified by their devotion to their cause, Hamas will not.  Crazy, but that’s the way they think.

Until October 7, while Hamas missiles were being shot into Israel and Israel’s attempts to destroy where they were coming from were continuing, a ‘cease fire’ actually existed limiting other hostile acts between Hamas and Israel!  There is no reason whatsoever to believe Hamas would respect such a ‘cease fire’ now any more than they did on October 7.  That is why Israel’s military ground and other actions against Hamas must and will resume after the temporary ‘humanitarian’ pauses now in effect end.  And we are approaching that point right now. 

For a more detailed analysis of what a ‘cease fire’ really means, please check out some of Bret Stephens’ recent New York Times columns on this subject  

In particular, I suggest accessing his November 28 column by copying and pasting https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2023/nov/23/opinion-the-cease-fire-now-imposture-tfp/  on your browser line or by CLICKING HERE.  (Included in Stephens’ journalistic history are two years, 2002-2004, as Editor-in-Chief of the Jerusalem Post. Do not confuse him with others whose first name is Brett with two ‘t’s.)

Required Difficult Compromises:  To start on the path to such a two-state solution, generally following the borders in the UN’s 1947 partition plan, those Palestinians insisting on the elimination of the State of Israel, and those Israelis insisting on the right to settle on territories occupied after the Arabs' unsuccessful wars to destroy Israel in 1948 and 1967 will have to abandon these aims.   

Right now, this would mean that current Israeli and Palestinian leadership would have to be voted out of office, and that will not happen easily.  Many politicians in Israel and in Arab countries have based their careers on such ‘dead-end’ policies, which can only lead to violence.  If they have to abandon those ideas, they might have to find a legitimate job.  But it must happen.

Only then can work commence on achieving the ‘two-state’ solution described by President Biden as one 'where Israelis and Palestinians can one day live side by side…with equal measure of freedom and dignity.’

 Any other course of action guarantees continued violence.

JL

 

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The Limits of Free Speech

Much of what we’ve witnessed on campuses and in organized pro-Hamas demonstrations over the past few weeks is not, in fact, ‘free speech,’ but rather ‘conduct’ designed specifically to harass, intimidate, and terrorize Jews.  It has given antisemites the opportunity to have a cause that would allow them to crawl out from under the shadows. Such conduct is not protected by the First Amendment.  It leads to acts of violence.

An immediate step to combat antisemitism that you might take is a donation to the Anti-Defamation League. You can do this by copying and pasting this link on your browser line, https://support.adl.org/give/174715/#!/donation/checkout , or by CLICKING HERE.

Such violence committed in this country, against Jews, or against Muslims in the form of  ‘revenge’ attacks, are totally inexcusable and should be vigorously prosecuted. 

JL

 

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Dying Broke

The preceding posting on Jackspotpourri included a link to a New York Times article about the hidden costs of Assisted Living.  It was part of a series in that newspaper entitled ‘Dying Broke.’  Here’s a link that you can copy and post on your browser line (or CLICK HERE to get there) that will give you access to all four articles that have appeared thus far in the series.  https://www.nytimes.com/series/dying-broke

With advances in medicine, and people taking better care of themselves, with fewer smokers, we are living longer than earlier generations, well beyond our ‘productive’ years, putting individual families and society as a whole, in the position of groping to find the financial resources needed to support an unexpectedly large number of people in their eighties and nineties, needing some kind of care.  Savings, investments, and insurance, all eventually depleted, are turning out to to be inadequate solutions to this problem.  In view of that, I ask if solving this problem is something for government (and all taxpayers) to take on? I don’t know.

Again, this is required reading for those over age 65 or anyone with parents over that age.

If any of you are old enough to remember the 1973 dystopian film ‘Soylent Green,’ in it the late Edward G. Robinson played a character dealing with this problem, and who found a solution which none of us would dare consider in today’s world.

JL

 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

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, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them.   I think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri.

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 comment from you.  Each will receive a link to the textual portion only of the blog that you are now reading, but without the illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the 'sidebar' features such as access to the blog's archives.

Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting, but I recommend sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com  

Again, I ask you to forward this posting to those you feel might benefit from it.

JL

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