As predicted in Friday’s Jackspotpourri, Federal Judge Aileen Cannon again worshipped at the shrine of Saint Donald of Trump (who had appointed her) by finding some far-fetched reasons to delay his trial about the stolen classified documents found hidden by him at Mar-a-Lago after he left office. Really, she is aiming at a date after the election, probably one in the next century.
https://www.debbieforflorida.com/ or just CLICK HERE.
JL
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| Judge Cannon |
Her action, which I suspect would not have taken place were it not for the SCOTUS’ delaying action last week regarding his claims of presidential immunity in the January 6 Insurrection litigation, reveals the site of the cancer spreading throughout our government.
Do not confuse that forthcoming decision with yesterday’s generally expected, but still troubling, ruling denying Colorado's (and other States') efforts to bar Trump from the ballot based on Sec. 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. I feel that SCOTUS decisions restricting the power of States to do things that affect the entire nation are usually good ones, although the SCOTUS illogically does not apply such thinking to State laws regarding abortion. Yesterday's decision unnecessarily went beyond Colorado's effort to remove Trump from the ballot.
The site of the cancer that I mention is the Supreme Court itself and just as physicians seek out the source of a spreading cancer in a human body, the Executive and Legislative branches of our government should fill the same role in curing the Judicial branch of its metastasizing disease.
Here is the story and the solution summed up in seven nutshells: (It's too big for just one.)
1. According to the Constitution, the Supreme Court’s Justices are appointed by the President with the assent of the Senate, with no limitation on their term of office other than specifying that they shall hold office during ‘good behavior.’ (But we need not go there right now.)
2. The Constitution says nothing about the number of Justices, which leaves it in the lap of Congress, and by that, implying the necessity of passage by both of its Houses.
3. Congress has determined the number of Justices included in legislation known as Judiciary Acts, passed and revised on several occasions, including in 1869 when such an Act settled on there being nine Justices.
4. In 2021, legislation was introduced in Congress as the Judicial Act of 2021 (HR 2584 and S1141) to change that number to one Chief Justice and twelve Associate Justices, but it died in committee, never even being voted on.
5. If the Democrats win control of both Houses of Congress in November, 2024, and President Biden is re-elected, such legislation should be reintroduced.
6. If passed by Congress, a re-elected President Biden should then consider appointing four additional Justices. Or, he might, by simply threatening to do so, pressure the existing SCOTUS to change its direction concerning issues such as abortion rights, gun violence, government regulatory authority, and voting rights. Franklin Delano Roosevelt successfully used such a strategy to bring about New Deal reforms such as Social Security without having to expand the Court, the threat of his doing so sufficing.
7. So, it’s up to you when you vote for president and both Houses of Congress on November 5 (or earlier ‘by mail’ or at early voting sites) to fight this cancer in our government. You can be the oncologist.
JL
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Sticking With Joe Despite a Lot of Stuff
In the previous Jackspotpourri, I pointed out that those opposing the re-election of President Biden because of his support for Israel’s strong reaction to the October attack by Hamas should recognize that Donald John Trump’s position on that issue is infinitely worse for Palestinian hopes, Israel’s security, and world peace, as shown by his past actions, which do not even consider the possibility of a two-state solution. I hoped in that posting that such voters would recognize this, and still vote to give their State’s electoral votes to President Biden.
Let me now add that this also applies to those who feel President Biden’s approach to controlling immigration on our Southern border is too close to that of his predecessor’s and therefore oppose his re-election. And just as is the case in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, this ignores that Trump’s position is far worse for the country, at least in my opinion.
At Donald John Trump’s direction, Republicans scuttled a bi-partisan Congressional solution to the immigration challenge on our Southern border, something that took weeks of compromises and tough negotiations to come up with. He prefers the situation there remaining unresolved, something to use as an election tool. He will oppose any real solution by anyone other than himself, especially Joe Biden, and his supposed friends in Congress will do whatever he says, fearing the loss of Trumpublican votes back home. Meanwhile, those who want to come here, legally or illegally, suffer in an environment of ambiguity.
Dictators of some of the nations these immigrants are fleeing even spoke at the recent CPAC gathering (Conservative Political Action Conference), attended by many by Republicans including Trump, also a speaker there. (See the previous posting of Jackspotpourri where that meeting’s Christian Nationalist flavor is discussed.)
I hope voters who are uncomfortable with President Biden’s position on immigration will nevertheless still vote for him. The Congressional bi-partisan plan, giving Republicans most of what they want, was still better than the ideas of Donald John Trump. He wants more than the Republicans and Democrats in Congress came up with. As always, his demands are heartless and racially-based.
If normally Democratic voters choose to stay away from the polls because of a single issue, they might cause the electoral college defeat of President Biden, whose positions on both issues are far better than Trump’s for everyone concerned, at least in my opinion. And that applies to all single issues that some might oppose, including Israel, the Palestinians, or immigration. They must look at the ‘big picture.’
Some consider Joe Biden’s age to be such an issue. Well, I am ten years older than Joe, and am not concerned with his age. I’ve been back there already, living through my ‘eighties’ and believe he can handle the territory there. To make it that far, you have to be strong! Trump is only three years younger than the President, and probably far less healthy than Biden if only because of his carb and fat-laden eating habits. Furthermore, I fear whoever will be his running mate, most likely someone like Jim Jordan or Matt Gaetz. As heavily documented in the previous Jackspotpourri, Joe has Kamala Harris as his understudy who can do the job very competently in the unlikely event of his passing or retirement.
It is imperative that any doubters on these counts remain Democratic voters and stick with Joe. The return of Donald John Trump to the White House, and the hordes of his followers he would bring into Congress and the State Houses would be an unmitigated disaster for our country and prove to the world that our great experiment in representative democracy Is a failure. The election of Donald John Trump to the presidency in November will be fatal to democracy in our country.
This is a challenge for you to rise up to and meet! Start now! There are many things you can be doing and they all start locally. Ask your local Democratic precinct leader how you can help. That can't wait until November 5.
JL
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MAGA Voters Know What They are Doing
I’ve been as guilty as others in attributing Republican victories in elections, including those in States that gave their electoral votes to Donald John Trump in 2016 and in 2020, to such things as ignorance, gullibility, and plain old stupidity.
A letter writer in the Palm Beach Post reported a study by two University of Kansas professors, published in ‘Critical Sociology,’ that came closer to the true explanation: ‘They voted for Trump because they share his views on race, women’s rights, immigrants, and gay rights,’ they wrote.
It’s that simple. They knew exactly what they were doing. That is a sad commentary on some of the inhabitants of our representative democracy. Buying into evil might work in Vladimir Putin's Russia or even in Viktor Orban’s Hungary but it ought not to in the United States.
(Just another reason to subscribe to a delivered paper newspaper, preferably a local one with national connections, one that you can sit down with and read over a cup of coffee, a far more thorough way of keeping up with the news than TV or the internet.)
JL
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The State of the Union Address - Thursday
President Biden will make his election-year State of the Union address on Thursday evening. More than just a campaign stop, he's expected to address Russia's war in Ukraine, Israel's war in Gaza, and domestic issues such as border security, the economy, and reproductive rights as they affect all Americans. Be there with him in front of your TV screen.
JL
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Voting by Mail – Why it is So Very Important!
Florida voters have gotten used to voting by mail. It’s safe and simple. But just because you might have done it in the past does not mean you can automatically continue to do so. Current State election laws require you to renew your ‘voting by mail’ status before the next election in order to receive a ‘vote by mail’ ballot.
If you vote in Palm Beach County, do it right now by visiting https://www.votepalmbeach.gov/Voters/Vote-By-Mail or by CLICKING HERE. For those who do not want do it online, they can sign up for vote-by-mail by calling (561) 656 6208. In other Florida counties, visit the website of your Supervisor of Elections or call them.
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This is particularly important in 2024 because some knowledgable pundits, despite polls that disagree with one another and all change from week to week, are coming around to believe America will re-elect a Democratic president and turn the House ‘blue’ in November but are not quite so sure about the Senate. I'm not a 'pundit' but that's also what I believe. That’s why it is important that Florida seniors vote for Debbie Muscarsel-Powell to replace Florida Senator Rick Scott in the Senate to insure a Democratic majority there.
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| Debbie |
And of course, for those who want still more reasons to support Ms. Muscarsel-Powell, there’s Scott’s opposition to women’s abortion rights, his opposition to realistic laws concerning gun violence, his failure to actively support democracy in Ukraine, and his willingness to accept the narrowing of voters rights in some States. For more information, just visit https://www.debbieforflorida.com/ or just CLICK HERE.
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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, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them.
There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog.
Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting.
Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. This is an election year. Spread the word.
JL
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