November 17, 2024 - A 'Must Read' Column, Matt Gaetz, Aging, and a Poem

 

Decapitating Democracy 

Because of its great importance, rather than provide a link to it, here is Yale history Professor Timothy Snyder’s November 15 posting on his ‘Thinking About’ column (https://snyder.substack.com/) reproduced in its entirety. 

Be sure to note that in it, he writes that ‘This is no longer a post-electoral moment. It is a pre-catastrophic moment,’ and that ‘there will have to be simple defiance, joined with a rhetoric of a better America.’ 

I wonder how ‘simple defiance’ is defined. Isn’t that what the late Alexei Navalny practiced in Russia? 

A safer act of ‘simple defiance’ by you would be to pass on Professor Snyder’s column to at least a dozen people on your contact list, preferably people to whom you don’t usually send email. In that way, you can become part of a solution, rather than part of the problem.

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Decapitation Strike - Preserving America from Trump's Appointments 

Snyder

Timothy Snyder - Nov 15, 2024

Each of Trump's proposed appointments is a surprise. It is comforting to think that he is simply a vengeful old man, lashing out this way and that. This is unlikely. He and Musk and Putin have been talking for years. And the whole idea of his campaign was that this time he had a plan. We should be wary of shock, which excuses inaction. Who could have known? What could I have done? If there is a plan, shock is part of the plan. We have to get through the surprise and the shock to see the design and the risk. We don't have much time. 

Nor is outrage the point. Of course we are outraged. But our own reactions can distract is from the larger pattern. The newspapers address the surprise and the shock by investigating each proposed appointment individually. And we need this. With detail comes leverage and power. But clarity must also come, and quickly. Each appointment is part of a larger picture. Taken together, Trump’s candidates constitute an attempt to wreck the American government.

In historical context we can see this. There is a history of the modern democratic state. There is also a history of engineered regime change and deliberate state destruction. In both histories, five key zones are health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. These people, with power over these areas of life, can make America impossible to sustain. 

The foundation of modern democratic state is a healthy, long-lived population. We lived longer in the twentieth century because of hygiene and vaccinations, pioneered by scientists and physicians and then institutionalized by governments. We treat one another better when we know we have longer lives to lose. Health is not only the central human good; it enables the peaceful interactions we associate with the rule of law and democracy. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the proposed secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, would undo all of this. On his watch, were his ideas implemented, millions of us would die. Knowing that our lives will be shorter, we become nasty and brutish. 

A modern democratic state depends upon the rule of law. Before anything else is possible, we have to endorse the principle that we are all governed by law, and that our institutions are grounded in law. This enables a functional government of a specific sort, in which leaders can be regularly replaced by elections. It allows us to live as free individuals, within a set of rules that we can alter together. The rule of law depends on people who believe in the spirit of law. Matt Gaetz, the proposed attorney general, is the opposite of such a person. It is not just that he flouts law himself, spectacularly and disgustingly. It is that he embodies lawlessness, and can be counted upon to abuse law to pursue Trump's political opponents. The end of the rule of law is an essential component of a regime change. 

The United States of America exists not only because laws are passed, but because we can expect that these laws will be implemented by civil servants. We might find bureaucracy annoying; its absence, though, is deadly. We cannot take the pollution out of the air ourselves, or build the highways ourselves, our write our Social Security checks ourselves. Without a civil service, the law becomes mere paper, and all that works is the personal connection to the government, which the oligarchs will have, and which the rest of us will not. This is the engineered helplessness promised by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are to head a black hole named after a cryptocurrency. There are already oversight instruments in government. DOGE is something entirely different: an agency of destruction, run by people who believe that government should exist for the wealthy or not at all. 

In a modern democratic state, the armed forces are meant to preserve a healthy, long-lived people from external threats. This principal has been much abused in American practice. But never before Donald Trump have we had a president who has presented the purpose of the armed forces as the oppression of Americans. Trump says that Russia and China are less of a threat than "internal enemies." In American tradition, members of the armed forces swear an oath to the Constitution. Trump has indicated that we would prefer "Hitler's generals," which means a personal oath to himself. Pete Hegseth, Trump's proposed secretary of defense, defends war criminals and displays tattoos associated with white nationalism and Christian nationalism. He is a fundraiser and television personality, with a complicated sexual past and zero experience running an organization. 

In a world of hostile powers, an intelligence service is indispensable. Intelligence can be abused, and certainly has been abused. Yet it is necessary to consider military threats: consider the Biden administration's correct call the Russia was about to invade Ukraine. It is also necessary to counter the attempts by foreign intelligence agencies, which are constant, to harm American society. This often involves disinformation. Tulsi Gabbard, insofar as she is known at all, is known as a spreader of Syrian and Russian disinformation. She has no relevant experience. Were she to become director of national intelligence, as Trump proposes, we would lose the trust of our allies, and lose contact with much of what is happening in the world -- just for starters. 

We would be vulnerable to all of those who wish to cause us harm. Imagine that you are a foreign leader who wishes to destroy the United States. How could you do so? The easiest way would be to get Americans to do the work themselves, to somehow induce Americans to undo their own health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. From this perspective, Trump's proposed appointments -- Kennedy, Jr.; Gaetz; Musk; Ramaswamy; Hegseth; Gabbard -- are perfect instruments. They combine narcissism, incompetence, corruption, sexual incontinence, personal vulnerability, dangerous convictions, and foreign influence as no group before them has done. These proposed appointments look like a decapitation strike: destroying the American government from the top, leaving the body politic to rot, and the rest of us to suffer. 

I do not defend the status quo. I have no doubt whatsoever that the Department of Defense and the Food and Drug Administration require reform. But such a reform, of these or other agencies, would have to be guided by people with knowledge and experience, who cared about their country, and who had a vision of improvement. That is simply not what is happening here.

We are confronted instead with a group of people who, were they to hold the positions they have been assigned, could bring an end to the United States of America. It is a mistake to think of these people as flawed. It is not they will do a bad job in their assigned posts. It is that they will do a good job using those assigned posts to destroy our country. However and by whomever this was organized, the intention of these appointments is clear: to create American horror. 

Elected officials should see this for what it is. Senators, regardless of party, should understand that the United States Senate will not outlast the United States, insist on voting, and vote accordingly. The Supreme Court of the United States will likely be called upon. Although it is a faint hope, one must venture it anyway: that its justices will understand that the Constitution was not in fact written as the cover story for state destruction. The Supreme Court will also not outlast the United States. 

And citizens, regardless of how they voted, need now to check their attitudes. This is no longer a post-electoral moment. It is a pre-catastrophic moment. Trump voters are caught in the notion that Trump must be doing the right thing if Harris voters are upset. But Harris voters are upset now because they love their country. And Harris voters will have to get past the idea that Trump voters should reap what they have sown. Yes, some of them did vote to burn it all down. But if it all burns down, we burn too. It is not easy to speak right now; but if some Republicans wish to, please listen. 

Both inside and outside Congress, there will have to be simple defiance, joined with a rhetoric of a better America.  And, at moments at least, there will also have to be alliances among Americans who, though they differ on other matters, would like to see their country endure. 

JL 

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Please pass Professor Snyder's message on to others.

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A Day of Not Aging 

The November issue of the AARP Bulletin included an article on aging. That’s their monthly ‘newsprint’ publication, not their magazine.

It included on its page 12 a simple nine-point chart entitled ‘A Perfect Day of Not Aging.’  If you’re over age 65, and probably an AARP member, I suggest you check it out. I tried to copy it from their tightly protected website to provide with this posting of Jackspotpourri but that proved too difficult. 

The nine points it described were waking up in the morning, a morning walk, breakfast, meditation, lunch, exercise, socialize, dinner, and bedtime. None of us will follow all of their suggested guidelines precisely, but we should try to fit some of them into our days. I do, and I’m pretty old as some of you may know. 

Before you throw the publication out in the trash, check out the article, and if you are not an AARP member, give me a call and I’ll get you a copy of the details of these nine points. 

JL

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Gaetz' Political Trickery

It occurs to me that Matt Gaetz’ resignation from his seat in Congress, ostensibly to clear the way for his appointment as the president-elect’s Attorney-General, means that the House investigation into his ‘ethics’ will end, and any damning information it has possibly thus far acquired, will be filed away, unused, or even destroyed. That's what the House Speaker, another irreligious Trump puppet hiding behind a facade of Christianity,  seems to be saying.   

Of course, Gaetz will never become Attorney-General, but that was just a gambit to end the ethics investigation. Mission accomplished! 

 Look for Gaetz to run for or be appointed to some position that might not require an investigation, possibly the puppet job of being Florida’s Attorney-General, after Ron DeSantis appoints the State’s present AG, Ashley Moody, to finish out Marco Rubio’s Senate term, when he gets appointed as Secretary of State. 

JL

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Poetry Corner 

There are certain poems that many of us first encountered back in our high school days. Here is one of them, eternally pertinent, but especially so in the context of the threat America's democracy faces. 

‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

 

 This poem is in the public domain, so feel free to pass it on. 

JL 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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. 

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. 

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

 JL 

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November 14, 2024 - Three Opinions on the Election and a Driving Tip

Three Opinions and My Take on Them 

Let’s look at what three usually accurate opinion sources are saying.

Maureen Dowd: For those of you who didn’t check out Maureen Dowd’s New York Times column of Nov. 9, here’s another opportunity.  Copy and paste https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/opinion/democrats-identity-politics.html on your browser line or just CLICK HERE. 

 In that column, Dowd pointed out that ‘One thing that makes Democrats great is that they unabashedly support groups that have suffered from inequality. But they have to begin avoiding extreme policies that alienate many Americans who would otherwise be drawn to the party.’ 

Read the entire column. It opens up an avenue toward doubting things you may have thought to be true but might not be after all. 

David Remnick:  Here are two quotes from the opinion piece written by The New Yorker magazine’s editor, David Remnick, from the magazine’s forthcoming Nov. 18 issue. He points out that: ‘Both major political parties are broken. The Republicans, having given themselves over to a cultish obedience to an authoritarian, are morally broken. The Democrats, having failed to respond convincingly to the economic troubles of working people, are politically broken.’ 

He concludes his article by citing the restoration of democracy in Czechoslovakia where together with a people challenged by years of autocracy, Vaclav Pavel helped lead his country out of a long, dark time. ‘Our time is now dark, but that, too, can change. It happened elsewhere. It can happen here.’ (And those last four words are the title of Remnick’s article.)

Timothy Snyder: And not to be outdone, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder seems to think Trump’s election puts us in the hands of oligarchs (named a few paragraphs down). He conjures up an allegorical outcome to illustrate that oligarchies are unstable, having flaws and weaknesses and can crumble quickly. At that point, some have even given way to democracies.

But we have to see them for what they are, Snyder contends. 'We need to see the oligarchs not only as selfish and unpatriotic but as ridiculous. But the same things that make them ridiculous -- the utter self-absorption, the nattering cliques, the pointless struggle for unreal things -- make them lethal to the rest of us. 

Snyder points out that If we want to anticipate what will happen in 2025, now that the 2024 elections are history, if will be more useful to think of oligarchs as all being stranded together on an island (Snyder’s allegory is the old TV show, ‘Gilligan’s Island,’) where the ‘oligarchs’ marooned there (Trump, Musk, Thiel, Putin, and Vance) starting in apparent unity, dream an impossible Russian dream, wreak bloody havoc, and then come apart. 

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So what do I think about this? 

Personally, I prefer Bernie Sanders’ (see earlier posting) and Maureen Dowd’s opinions which go back to the simple fact that most Americans work hard for a living, care about their families, and don’t give a damn about politics or economics. This leads to the conclusion that the way to get their votes is to best satisfy their needs and try to assuage their grievances, a process which unfortunately includes recognizing their prejudices and reduces catering to ‘identity groups.’ The Democrat’s progressive wing opened that door, and it is difficult to try to close it. 

Regardless of whatever reasonable logic any candidate might spout, if they lose sight of that, they lose. Ask Kamala Harris and any others who will plead ‘mea culpa,’ including many learned pundits and myself occasionally on Jackspotpourri as well. 

There has to have been someone other than believers in Karl Marx’s theories to stand up for the majority of people, the working class. Don’t be fooled into believing that person is Donald Trump. That, he is not! Most authoritarians (dictators, if you wish) try to fill that role, and some succeed but only temporarily. 

The Democrats cannot help but better their position in the 2026 mid-term elections … and in view of the Republicans’ inevitable inability to validate Trump’s ’Day One’ wishy-washy-worded promises, whomever the Democrats run in 2028 will defeat the Republican candidate for president four years hence. Of course, this assumes that the incoming Administration doesn’t find a way of postponing those elections. 

But right now, it appears that ignorance, gullibility, and stupidity reign. This means that the rest of us must sit tight, spread knowledge, and figuratively anyway, keep our powder dry. 

Unless, of course, our legally elected oligarchy falls apart on its own as Professor Snyder suggests it might, in which case a Democratic Party, made wiser by its mistakes in 2024, must be there ready to pick up the pieces. Breaking news of Trump’s initial appointees strengthens Snyder’s opinion. Stay tuned.

(I note that the film ‘Les Miserables’ is streaming on Amazon Prime this week.) 

JL 

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Driving Tip

Those driving to work with an 8:00 a.m. or 9:00 a.m. starting time on the job sometimes speed and ignore traffic signals during the fifteen minutes immediately before they are due to show up at work. They don’t want to be late! 

If you are on the road at those times, extra care is warranted.  And similarly, right after 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. quitting times, they’re in a hurry to get home … or somewhere, so be extra alert then, especially in shopping center parking areas. That’s the way Florida drivers are!  Live with it.

JL 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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. 

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. 

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

 JL 

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November 9, 2024 - Jackspotpourri's Post-Election Commentary, and a new feature, 'About Democracy.'

 

Democrats Missed the Target and Some Words from Bernie Sanders and Maureen Dowd 

Listening to and reading what the ‘experts’ have been describing as the reasons for Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, I come back to one question. If all the winning arguments were on the side of the Democratic losers, how then did they manage to lose? 

Could it be because they directed their ‘wisdom’ to one another when they should have been addressing it the American public? Most voters don’t read the New York Times or the New Yorker or Atlantic magazines, or follow Heather Richardson’s or Timothy Snyder’s blogs. Typical is a very lengthy article in the Nov. 4 New Yorker (distributed a week earlier) explaining the unheralded successes of ‘Bidenomics’ most of which had zero impact on the election. 

These are not the best media choices to reach voters who go to work every day, raise families, pay bills and don’t have the time to think deeply about matters political … but who do have time for kitchen table and cultural issues they can see as personally involving them and their families. Somehow, the Democrats missed that target, at least until very late in the game, by which time it was too late. Misinformation and lies derived from Donald Trump’s ‘Truth Central’ platform had gotten there first, even to Black and Latino voters, supposedly Democratic strengths. 

Bernie Sanders, a former Democrat, now an Independent who caucuses with Senate (he won re-election) Democrats, said what had to be said. 

Not a Happy Camper

Here’s an article about that from USA Today. (Underlining is mine.) 

Democrats Abandoned Their Base - Party’s Failure Shouldn’t Be a Big Surprise, Sanders Says 

Anthony Robledo – from USA Today 

 “U. S. Senator Bernie Sanders is blaming the Democratic Party after Vice President Kamala Harris lost to now President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans gained control of the Senate. 

In a statement shared on social media Wednesday, the senator from Vermont said party leadership must have 'serious political discussions' about Latino and Black workers voting for Republican candidates. 'It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,' 

Sanders wrote. 

'While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.  Sanders, 83, highlighted several issues he believes the nation has failed to address under the Biden administration. 

Though he is an Independent, Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party, and has long championed policies like Medicare for All and a higher federal minimum wage. Sanders’ statement came a day after he won a fourth Senate term on Election Day, defeating Republican challenger Gerald Malloy, 62, and securing another six years in Washington. (The article continued with the following.  (The Underlining is mine.) 

Excerpts from Sanders’ statement:

• It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is the Latino and Black workers as well. 

• While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right. 

• Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now than they were 50 years ago. 

• Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents. 

• Today, despite spending far more per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation not to guarantee health care to all as a human right and we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We, alone among major countries, cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.

 • Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party ... understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful Oligarchy which has so much economic and political power? Probably not.” 

Sanders makes a lot of good points. Should Democrats stop trying to simultaneously appeal to ‘the center’ and to their sometimes overly progressive left … and concentrate on working families as the Republicans have learned to do? You bet they should ! Should they again become the party of America’s workers, (and retired workers) as they were in the days of FDR’s New Deal, a true Labor Party? (and take the risk of being accused of being Marxist socialists.) 

Sanders is on the right track. Well-meaning Joe and Kamala were not. Their track was like that of those old Lionel electric trains running in a circle around a Christmas Tree, going nowhere. Democrats must not ignore Sanders’ words which were at least on a track that leads somewhere, hopefully to constructive changes benefitting working people and retirees. The problem is that we don’t know where that ‘somewhere’ might be, but at least it won’t be the same place as where the changes that will be made by a Republican administration will take the nation. 

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And if Bernie Sanders is a bit too far to the left for some of you, check out Maureen Dowd’s New York Times column of Nov. 9, where she traversed the same territory with her biting sarcasm. 

Copy and paste https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/opinion/democrats-identity-politics.html on your browser line or just CLICK HERE.  It is well worth reading!

JL 

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About Democracy (#1) 

The word democracy comes from the Greek demos, meaning people and kratos, meaning rule. Democracy is ‘rule by the people.’ It can function directly or be via elected representatives. 

In ancient Greece and Rome, and throughout the Middle Ages, of course, the ‘people’ didn’t mean everybody. It excluded slaves, menial workers, those who were not landowners, many craftsmen and merchants, as well as those ethnically different. Serfs, peons, or whatever one might call them were not generally thought of as part of the ‘people’ when it came to democracy. They worked their butts off but were not part of the class that ruled. 

Eighteenth Century English political philosopher John Locke is considered by many as the father of modern liberal thought. He wrote about the principles of ‘life, liberty, and property’ as being natural rights inherent to all people, meaning that individuals have these rights simply by virtue of being human and that governments are obligated to protect them, regardless of the opinion of a king. 

But while life and liberty might be interpreted variously, the inclusion of the right of property drastically reduced the number of people thusly to be protected by government. When it came to being included among the people who ruled, those without property were thus excluded from Locke’s liberalism. Without property, they could not be part of the ruling class. 

With the settlement of the English colonies in North America by many who were outside of those who Locke considered to be among the ‘people,’ by this definition, it became awkwardly obsolete. Thomas Jefferson, in writing the Declaration of Independence for those colonies, separating them from England, changed Locke’s language by substituting the words ‘pursuit of happiness’ in the place of ‘property.’ That ‘pursuit of happiness’ of course still encompassed Locke’s ‘property’ but also generously added whatever else anyone wanted to be included among those ‘certain inalienable rights among which were life, liberty’ and all of a sudden, ‘the pursuit of happiness.’ One had the right, in pursuing happiness, to own factories and plantations, and own slaves, as well as whatever else tickled their fancy, if that provided happiness. 

Which brings us to the question of who really ruled in a democracy, specifically ours, now that the property qualification was thusly modified. It was in the interest of the wealthy and the property-owning classes to continue to be the ones that ruled, and that’s what they managed to do in the United States until Andrew Jackson came along in the 1820s and 1830s. 

Up until then a broadening of the electorate was considered a good ‘democratic’ practice except by the property-owning class who wanted to maintain control of the government. They felt that the fewer the voters, the better it was for them. 

But General Andrew Jackson thought otherwise. Recognizing that the early Nineteenth Century was an era during which many States were removing property ownership from voter qualifications, Jackson allied himself with those who recognized that the votes of those without property would count just as much as those who owned property, and there were many, many, more of them! 

(In 1824, 350,000 voted in the presidential election, of which 153,000 voted for Jackson. Four years later in 1828, 1,155,000 voted in the presidential election, of which 647,000 voted for Jackson. In 1832, 1,317,000 voted in the presidential election, of which 687,000 voted for Jackson.) 

Forgetting the fact that he was a slave-owner who considered other human beings to be ‘property’ and that it was acceptable to persecute and steal land from Indians, Jackson became our first ‘populist’ president with great support among common working people. And with him, the ‘demos’ of our democracy changed. 

Although it appeared that the government would be controlled by Jackson’s pro-slavery ‘common man’ supporters, the democratic broadening of the electorate also became a tool that could be used through skillful political campaigning to keep a measure of control of our government in the hands of the property-owning and business classes, particularly in the industrialized Northern States. 

In the 1860s, Abraham Lincoln redefined our government as being ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ It took the Civil War, with great loss of life, for this definition of democracy to prevail. 

Since then, those who preferred a racist populist democracy, as fashioned by Andrew Jackson, have been dedicated to regaining rule of the nation. These were the ‘robber barons’ who built the railroads and great industries of America in the late Nineteenth Century. And using whatever techniques they could master, including stressing class distinctions and bias, they have successfully allied themselves with the populism first awakened by Andrew Jackson in order to try to regain power. (Try to guess what President’s portrait hangs in the Oval Office during Donald Trump’s presidency?) 

That is the kind of democracy we have mostly had since the 1870s (except during the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and possibly Barack Obama, all of whom recognized the role of government as functioning in the best interests of the people.)

If this is where such a flawed ‘democracy’ has taken us, do we want it to continue to be our chosen form of government? That’s something to think about, but we really don’t have any simple alternatives; Theocracy, socialism, dictatorship, monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, or even anarchy, are unacceptable to Americans. 

No, we must learn how to make our ‘democracy’ work more effectively. And this will be the subject of future postings on Jackspotpourri, under the same heading that this one carries, ‘About Democracy.’  

JL

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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. 

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. 

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

JL * * *

November 2, 2024 - Listen to a Conservative, Why Americans Should Vote for Harris, and the World Series

 

                                                     * * * 

Let’s start this final pre-Election Day posting on Jackspotpourri with a visit to columnist S.E. Cupp

Cupp

Before you go to the polls (if you haven’t already voted in advance or by mail), check out these words from her October 24 column, written for the Tribune Content Agency. While intended for Republicans, which Cupp was for many years, it pertains to all voters. especially independents and ‘undecideds.’ Cupp, a lifelong conservative, has left the G.O.P.  If you still have doubts, this might help you to make that same decision. 

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Cupp points out that: 

'Republicans have ignored his many broken promises and his failed policies.

‘Republicans, once the party of law and order, have nominated a convicted felon for president. 

‘Republicans, once the party of patriotism, have nominated a guy who incited a violent insurrection at the Capitol. 

‘Republicans, once a pro-military party, have nominated a draft-dodger who disparages our service members as weak and woke, suckers and losers.

‘Republicans, once a party of Christian values, have nominated a guy who admits to grabbing women by the genitalia, was found liable for rape, paid off a porn star he allegedly slept with four months after his wife gave birth, who mocks the disabled, denigrates immigrants, migrants and minorities, and takes money from his own supporters to pay his legal bills. 

‘All of these things should have been a bridge too far for people with principles, but Republicans crossed the Rubicon a long time ago. ‘I hope my former party doesn’t follow him off this cliff, too. But nothing shocks me anymore.'

                                                       

                                                         * * * 

And  Ms. Cupp even leaves a lot out, including Republican opposition to abortion rights, and Donald Trump’s praise for foreign dictators, past and present, his disrespect for our Constitution, and the racist filth that sets the tone for his rallies!  All of these are the reasons why many Republicans (and unaffiliated voters as well) will be voting for Kamala Harris on Tuesday or have already done so by mail-in ballots or early voting.   Coming from an established conservative, Ms. Cupp's words have greater power than when they come from Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, or other Democratic voices.                                         

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If by now you are confused by all the pre-election clamor, you can simplify things by voting for Democrats for all national offices being contested. I suspect that is what Ms. Cupp will be doing. 

 (S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN. Cupp can be reached at CNN, the Chicago Sun-Times, or the Tribune Content Agency.) 

JL 

                                                     * * * 

Why Americans Should Vote for Kamala Harris 

'Never Go Back - When We Fight, We Win!'

While the weaknesses of Donald Trump should be apparent to all, some voters still wonder what Kamala Harris stands for, and may prefer the known positions of Donald Trump, as dreadful as they may be. 

That is their choice, although I feel it is a terrible one. All that they see are the very visible prices of groceries but close their eyes to the booming economy that keeps more of them employed at higher wages than ever before in peacetime. And the gasoline prices about which they were screaming months ago have dropped considerably. 

Understand that right now, while Joe Biden is still president, his vice-president, Kamala Harris, must identify with his programs, actions which are continually being misrepresented by Republican lies, despite their documented successes. That is part of any vice-president’s role. Even Michael Pence did that until that day when Trump was silent while his MAGA thugs threatened Pence’s life. Harris’ loyalty to President Biden in her present office as vice-president should not be held against her in her present role as a candidate for the presidency. 

Heed the words of former president Trump’s former Chief of Staff, retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, who from daily contact with Donald Trump, learned that he ‘met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law.’ 

Once Kamala Harris is elected to the presidency on her own, her actions may be different from Biden’s, but she will be a president who observes the rules of law as laid down in the Constitution of the United States. That is what she did that as a prosecutor, as California’s attorney-general, and as a United States senator, giving the interest of the public the highest priority, and when that interest changed, was willing to accept change. 

Trump, if you listen to what he calls for at his rallies, promises the opposite. He is campaigning to shred the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and replace them with a government dominated by the very few, who consider themselves to be a superior class, better qualified to rule, and will stop at nothing to gain power, including the denigration of others who do not fit their mold. 

To do this, Trump plays to voters’ prejudices and grievances with lies founded in bigotry and dishonesty, the more extreme of which he leaves to be mouthed by his radical supporters. These are the nuts and bolts of a fascist state, where the quest for power replaces the rule of law, and of which Trump is eager to be the strongman. Americans must not allow the nation to slip backwards into autocracy. That is what Donald Trump stands for. Kamala Harris tells us to ‘never go back’ and looks to the future of a truly democratic nation, the government of which operates for the benefit of all its citizens, regardless of party and not just the few. 

Jackspotpourri 

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Semper Paratus

Tuesday is Election Day, when the disposition of your State’s electoral votes, and the presidency, will supposedly be decided. The greatest danger to democracy at that point will be what the losing Party will then do. It might be a time for all Americans to remember the Coast Guard’s motto, ‘Semper Paratus.’  But make sure that you vote. JL 

                                                        * * * 

Some Final Relief From the Election’s Clamor - Baseball 

Recall that I had predicted that the New York Yankees would win the World Series, although I was rooting for the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Well, last Wednesday evening, the Dodgers won (4 four games to 1) but the crucial period was the fifth inning of that fifth game, which would have brought the Series back to Los Angeles if the resurgent Yankees had won it. Instead, they blew it. 

Going into that fifth inning leading 5 – 0 (Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm, and Giancarlo Stanton had hit home runs), they proceeded to play like amateurs. Judge dropped an easy fly ball. Anthony Volpe’s throw to third base went askew. Otherwise brilliant Yankee pitcher Gerrit Cole forgot to cover first base while the first baseman played a ball hit to him. And so the fifth inning ended in a five-all tie. The Dodgers finally won 7 to 6. 

Baseball is more than getting big hits, and the Yankees proved it. Other skills count. Unflappable Dodger manager Dave Roberts used eight pitchers to outplay the Yankees. Perhaps the usually arrogant Yankee fans will now recognize that the Yankees are just another baseball team, nothing special, other than their historic refusal to have their players names on their jersey’s backs. 

Their defeat also means that the best player in baseball today, Juan Soto, presently a Yankee, will be shopping around all winter for a new home, his ‘Washington – San Diego – New York’ ticket ready to be punched for its next stop. 

And finally, the most confusing and unnecessary part of the World Series were the pre-game solo appearances of rapper Ice Cube (in LA before game 2) and of rapper 50 Cent (in NY before game 3), both of whom proceeded to insult the visiting team using their verbal talents. This was not in the tradition of what was once our ‘national pastime.’ 

JL

                                                       * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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. 

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.

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. Tuesday is Election Day. Spread the word. 

 JL 

                                                          * * *

October 30, 2024 - Not About Elections

 

Getting away from what has been occupying most media (and this blog as well) lately, here's an interesting piece that has nothing to do with what will take place on November 5 ... or does it?  This opinion piece appeared in the Oct. 25 New York Times, and addresses what the writer finally calls 'intellectual inertia.'   But look for more on the election in the next posting on Jackspotpourri.

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There’s a Very Good Reason College Students Don’t Read Anymore 

By Jonathan Malesic, author of “The End of Burnout.” He teaches writing at Southern Methodist University. 

" I taught a college class on the meaning and value of work. It was a general-education class, the sort that students say they have to “get out of the way” before they move on to their major courses. Few of the students were avid readers, and many held jobs that constrained their study time.

I assigned them nine books. I knew I was asking a lot, but the students did great. Most of them aced their reading quizzes on Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” and Plato’s “The Republic.” In class, our desks in a circle, we had lively discussions. 

After 13 years that included a pandemic and the advent of generative A.I., that reading list seems not just ambitious but absurd. I haven’t assigned an entire book in four years. 

Nationwide, college professors report steep declines in students’ willingness and ability to read on their own. To adapt, instructors are assigning less reading and giving students time in class to complete it. 

It’s tempting to lament the death of a reliable pathway to learning and even pleasure. But I’m beginning to think students who don’t read are responding rationally to the vision of professional life our society sells them. In that vision, productivity does not depend on labor, and a paycheck has little to do with talent or effort. For decades, students have been told that college is about career readiness and little else. And the task of puzzling out an author’s argument will not prepare students to thrive in an economy that seems to run on vibes. 

Recent ads for Apple Intelligence, an A.I. feature, make the vision plain. In one, the actor Bella Ramsey uses artificial intelligence to cover for the fact they haven’t read the pitch their agent emailed. It works, and the project seems like a go. Is the project actually any good? It doesn’t matter. The vibes will provide. 

Even in the ostensibly true depictions of working life that students see, like the “day in my life” videos that were popular on TikTok a couple of years ago, intellectual labor seems optional and entry-level corporate positions seem like a series of rooftop hangouts, free lunches and team-building happy hours — less a job than a lifestyle. And of course the ultimate lifestyle job is being an influencer, a tantalizing prospect that seems always just one viral post away. 

The most visible college students are big-time athletes, who these days can earn money — in some cases, millions of dollars — through sponsorship deals. But however hard these students push themselves, their earnings are officially not for their work on the field but for their marketability off it. 

Once students graduate, the jobs they most ardently desire are in what they proudly call the “sellout” fields of finance, consulting and tech. To outsiders, these industries are abstract and opaque, trading on bluster and jargon. One thing is certain, though: That’s where the money is. 

 All in all, it looks as if success follows not from knowledge and skill but from luck, hype and access to the right companies. If this is the economy students believe they’re entering, then why should they make the effort to read? For that matter, how will any effort in school prepare them for careers in which, apparently, effort is not rewarded? 

Given all this, it’s easy to lose faith in humanistic learning. Universities themselves offer little solace. They constantly promote the idea that a degree is about earning power above all else. They embrace influencer culture and probably benefit from viral phenomena like *Bama Rush. They certainly aren’t shooing away corporate recruiters. 

But teaching is an inherently hopeful profession, and as much as students worry me, they also give me hope. I often see my writing students push themselves past what’s easy or rational. They get excited about their research projects; sometimes they even ponder whether to use a period or a semicolon to separate two sentences. 

The fact is, not all students aim to sail on vibes. Some want to do work that makes more than money. Some finance majors do, too. And others, God bless them, just want to learn what they can and worry about work later. 

It’s up to students to decide whether they’ll resist intellectual inertia. All I can do is demonstrate that it is worth it to read, to pause, to think, to revise, to reread, to discuss, to revise again. I can, in the time students are with me, offer them chances to defy their incentives and see what happens. I need to get back to assigning books. Nine is too many. But one? They can read one. Next semester, they will." 

* I cannot see why the author included this but that's what he did.

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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. 

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. 

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. Just a bit over a week remains until Election Day.   

Spread the word. 

 JL 

                                                      * * *

October 26, 2024 - Two 'Puzzlements,' A Ride to the Polls, Does Hair Count?, the Electoral College, and Stupidity vs Ignorance.

 

Two ‘Puzzlements’

(with apologies to 'The King and I')

It puzzles me that the latest polls from Florida show Donald Trump with a slight lead over Kamala Harris, while State Constitutional Amendment Four, protecting abortion rights, has a majority of voters supporting it, although possibly not the required 60%. 

Either one or both of these polling results are wrong, or else there are Trump supporters out there who also support making abortion rights part of the Florida Constitution, something that causes me to scratch my head.  My conclusion is that it is time to ignore polls, even those that look good for those whom you support. 

Another ‘puzzlement’ is why many in the military, and veterans as well, still support Donald Trump despite his repeatedly disparaging them. For example, he has been severely criticized by former Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, Generals Mark Milley and John Kelly, a former Marine Commandant as well.  Yet many male voters in the Armed Forces, even those of color, alarmed by the support Kamala Harris is receiving, are comfortable with Trump's artificial 'machismo.'

But draft-dodger Trump’s statements speak for themselves.  Check out his preferences for Hitler’s more obedient generals and his dissatisfaction with soldiers who get wounded or get taken prisoner by an enemy, and his comments on the late John McCain.  Trump represents the opposite of patriotism.  Is it going too far to say that he is not a loyal American? 

Kelly has said that in his opinion, ‘Mr. Trump met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law.’ 

That, from Kelly, a former Trump White House Chief of Staff who worked daily with Trump during his tenure in the White House, should be enough to turn off voters other than those whose minds have been permanently altered by some kind of poison impregnated into the fabric of their MAGA caps! 

But why do Marines and other military today (go ask one) still mostly support Trump? I suspect that it is because those in the Armed Forces are trained to unquestionably accept orders given to them and mistakenly apply that to voting as civilians as well.  It is time that America be made aware that patriotism is not the sole possession of the Trumpian liars. And too many in uniform (and veterans) still think it’s acceptable to follow Donald Trump until he orders them not to, not even accepting the fact that Joe Biden has been president since 2021, having won the 2020 election.  

Again, ignore the polls and in these last few days before the Election, get out there to actively work for those whose positions on real issues are those to which you also subscribe.  And convince others to do the same! 

JL

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Need a Lift to Be Able to Vote? 

Those who have taken advantage of early voting or voting by mail where available have done their thing. It’s now up to those who will show up at their polling location on the first Tuesday in November and cast their vote in person. If you know of anyone who might not be able to do so for physical reasons, offer to give them a lift to their voting location! 

For those who are registered to vote in my community, Cascade Lakes in Boynton Beach, Florida, I am willing to do so. My phone number is (561) 676 4924. 

JL 

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An Election Result Determined by Hairdressers?

This is going to be a close election. A few votes in a ‘battleground’ State such as Pennsylvania or Michigan can determine who will be the next president of the United States. Therefore, those who run political campaigns should discourage anything that might cause even just those few votes to be lost. They could be the ones needed to reach the magic number of 270 electoral votes.  Little Things Can Mean a Lot!

Those who take political positions, report on them, or support them, should consider their appearance. Outlandish hair styles, that have nothing to do with a political position, can turn off a voter.  Little Things Can Mean a Lot!

 Juanita Tolliver

I am reminded of that when I see Juanita Tolliver reporting on MSNBC. There will be those who are not bothered by her occasionally extremist coiffure, with 90% of her hair cascading like Niagara Falls to the left, but there will be some who will be turned off by it, taking it as going a bit too far and a tacit endorsement of an extreme progressive position, and end up voting for Republicans. I hope those who can speak to her about it will do so … and quickly!  Little Things Can Mean a Lot!

 

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And Juanita Tolliver isn’t the only one to which this applies. While the words spoken by Mollie Jong-Fast (In Vanity Fair and on  MSNBC) might be inspirational, having three-colored hair is going to cause some voters to ignore what she is saying, and conceivably lose votes for Democrats in crucial States.  

Mollie Jong-Fast

In close elections, looking like an extremist can scare away those uncommitted, middle-of-the road voters essential to a victory.  Little Things Can Mean a Lot!

JL 

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Presidential Election Result Unpredictable Due to Founding Fathers’ Fears 

THE RESULT OF THIS ELECTION IS UNPREDICTABLE, DEPENDENT ON WHAT TRIFLING OCCURANCE MIGHT TAKE PLACE IN ANY ONE OF THE 'BATTLEGROUND' STATES, tipping that State’s electoral votes toward the 270 needed for one candidate to win the presidency.  Winning a State by one vote is equal to a landslide in terms of securing all a State’s electoral votes (except in Maine and Nebraska).  

This will be a permanent problem so long as we are saddled with the Electoral College, the relic of the Founding Fathers' not having full trust in democracy.  

The nation’s long-term plan should be to get rid of the Electoral College via a Constitutional Amendment. This will not occur in our lifetimes nor in those of our children and is complicated by the Constitution’s providing two Senators for every State, regardless of population, another manifestation of the trepidation with which the Founding Fathers viewed the new nation’s democratic experiment back in 1789. 

JL

  

                                                    * * * 

Stupidity Versus Ignorance

Some people feel that those with whom they disagree politically are stupid.  Some may be, and unfortunately, nothing can be done to remedy stupidity.  Trying to correct it is a waste of time.

Often, however, what appears to be stupidity is merely ignorance, something that can be remedied by a healthy dose of truth.  That's why we have 'fact checkers' and why everyone should be very careful not to believe everything presented as being factual.  

It's too late in the game to try to cure some voters' ignorance before November 5 (that's a long term assignment), but it is not too late to make sure that everyone who recognizes the political, economic, and social truths that govern the reality in which we live casts their votes on November 5.  That includes you and those whom you might influence.

JL

  

                                                    * * *

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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. 

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. 

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it, particularly if they are a registered voter. Just a bit over a week remains until Election Day.   

Spread the word. 

 JL 

                                                      * * *