If Men Were Angels, Nance's Book, Declalring a National Emergency, a Michael Gerson column and the President's Big Success

The President Should Declare a National Emergency

Indeed there is a National Emergency!  And in the absence of remedial action by the Congress, it is necessary for the President to declare one to exist! Yes!

But it has nothing whatsoever to do with our Southern border.  It is the gun violence which exists in this country today manifested by periodic mass shootings such as what took place at Parkland, Sutherland Springs, the Las Vegas concert, Aurora, Sebring, San Bernardino, Columbine, Pittsburgh, Newtown, the Pulse Night Club and other locations almost too numerous to mention.  True, the perpetrators of these shootings were mentally unbalanced, all of them, but that is not the avenue to pursue to find a remedy.  It is impossible to keep track of all of the disturbed people in our country, or those whose anger might push them over the edge into irresponsibly dangerous behavior involving weapons. (And of course, we have terrorists as well to consider.) 

This is the National Emergency which the President must address. It is time to recognize that beside the unpoliceable and warped mental state of the killers, there is only one thing these tragedies have in common: guns.  The proliferation of firearms in the hands of Americans is the emergency we face!  

Congress and the Supreme Court have failed to deal with it properly and people continue to be killed.  And they are killed with bullets shot from guns, of which there are over 300,000,000 in this country in civilian hands. Three Hundred Million guns! And this is because of the perpetuation of a gross misinterpretation of the Second Amendment to our Constitution. This is the National Emergency which the President must address.  Lives are at stake, and far, far, more than any perceived danger on our Southern border.

The Second Amendment of the Constitution should be suspended until it can be properly rewritten to allow the possession of weapons by civilians only for hunting, target shooting, and to a very limited and carefully defined extent, personal protection.  During such a National Emergency, possession of a weapon for other than these reasons should be treated as a felony.

I call upon the President to declare such a National Emergency today!  He has the power to do it.

Jack Lippman

If Men Were Angels, No Government Would Be Necessary James Madison

In the previous posting, I recommended Federalist Papers 47 and 51 as required reading for our Congress, and anyone else with some time to spare.  (the Federalist Papers were a collection of essays written back in 1787 and 1788 in support of ratification by New York State of the new Constitution.)  They were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay.  (No slouches!)  Numbers 47 and 51, quoted from here, were written by Madison.

 

James Madison 

Both dealt with the “separation of powers” in the new government.  Number 47 pointed out the dangers of not having that separation and illustrated the necessity of having it protected in the proposed Constitution and Number 51 described how the checks and balances built into the Constitution would work.  Here follow some excerpts from the words of James Madison.  (The highlighting is mine, not Madison’s.) 

When you read them, please think about how they today apply to our three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial, and more specifically, how they apply to our President well as to the Republican leadership in the Senate and the  Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives.  Read on:

 

From No. 47 – “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judicial, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” 

 

“where the whole power of one department is exercised by the same hands which possess the whole power of another department, the fundamental principles of a free constitution are subverted.”

“When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or body,” says he, “there can be no liberty …” (Here Madison quotes the political philosopher, Montesquieu)

“the legislative departments shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them; the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them; the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them.”  (Here Madison describes how the several State constitutions have dealt with the separation of powers.  This example, he cites, was from the Massachusetts Constitution.)

From No. 51 – “To what expedient, then, shall we finally resort for maintaining in practice the necessary partition of power among the several departments as laid down in the Constitution?  The only answer that can be given is, that as all these exterior provisions are found to be inadequate,

Talking to one another is necessary

the defect must be supplied by so contriving the interior structure of the government as that its several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places.”

“each department should have a will of its own.”

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.  If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”

“the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other.”

“In republican government the legislative authority necessarily predominates.  The remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different branches.”

“As the weight of the legislative authority requires that it should be thus divided, the weakness of the executive may require, on the other hand, that it should be fortified.”

“Justice is the end of government.  It is the end of civil society.  (By “end,” Madison means “goal” or “aim.”)  It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.  In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and, as in the latter state even the stronger individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves …”

JL

Dealing With the President's Success

Gerson

The one thing the President has done successfully is to have avoided the kind of direct contact with already convicted criminals and those under indictment sufficient to justify his impeachment and removal from office.  It is clear that he is unfit for the office he holds (check out a recent column - published on Jan. 28 - by the Washington Post's Michael Gerson BY CLICKING HERE) but unfortunately, we will be stuck with him until 2020 unless he resigns.  Gerson makes clear that Trump's campaign promises were worthless. 

Robert Mueller's report, if and when released, I predict, will fall short of justifying indicting Donald Trump.  But it will still cast a great shadow upon him, enough to religate his presidency to the sewer of American history, where it will force the rats already there to scurry away in horror. 

Unidentified Occupant of White House

Needless to say, the President has numerous supporters, but look who they are and what they are saying. Examine both their credibility and their arguments and it becomes clear that both have the substance of tissue paper.  As I repeatedly have urged, watch Fox News to understand how Trump’s supporters have been brainwashed with half-truths, outright lies and innuendo.  (Malcolm Nance's book - See "Politicklers" below - attributes this to Russian efforts.) But this support, sadly, is what, along with that of those legislators who knowingly and hypocritically depend on the votes of Trump's "base" to remain in office, enables the President to avoid impeachment, regardless of the damage he does to the nation.  (And in the background, the Russians and perhaps the Chinese are smiling.)

The answer:  Only vote for those candidates who openly oppose not only the President, but all elected officials who support him.  Mitch McConnell and Marco Rubio are no better than Donald Trump. They are his enablers. There are no good Republicans unless they strongly denounce and oppose the President, and this is not the time for seeking shelter in the middle of the road. Too much is at stake.

JL

Some Politicklers

• The United States is  definitely NOT a banana republic.  If it were, by this time the military would have engineered a coup and for the country's good, seized the government and sent the President into exile. That's the way it is usually done south of the Rio Grande.  But we are not a banana republic.
• Actually, Donald Trump is not the problem.  The millions of Americans who voted for him and who support him for any number of reasons, most of which won't hold water, are!  He is the legitimately elected President of the United States and because of them, we are stuck with him.  And when Trump is gone, they will be the problem, a very big one.
• Well, I’ve finished Malcolm Nance’s “The Plot to Destroy Democracy.” 

  

  Nance

  Despite its lack of good editing, making it a more difficult read than it should be, its message cannot be ignored.   Vladimir Putin’s massive effort to weaken democracy in the Western world, using every intelligence, communications, electronic, social, political and most importantly, psychological, tool available provided him with what was initially a naïve, gullible and unwitting asset … but once ensnared, one that has become a more willing asset to be used in the destruction of democracy, replacing it with Russia-centered autocracy.  That asset is Donald J. Trump, whose vanity, ego and no more than modest intelligence prevent him from understanding how he is being used.  I am sure the intelligence apparatus of the United States, and Special Prosecutor Mueller as well, know everything, and far more, than is contained in Nance’s book.  That will save democracy unless it is already too late.

JL

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Jack Lippman 

Roger "Who"?, The Trump "Shutdown," Stuff to Read, including George Will, Malcom Nance's Book and a Peek at 2020

Roger "Who"?

A Letter and a Column to Read

Here’s a letter I submitted to the Palm Beach Post a few days before the Trump Government Shutdown was temporarily ended when the President allowed Senate G.O.P. leader McConnell to bring the necessary appropriations bill to a vote.  That is probably why it won’t be published.  But, who knows, it might become pertinent again if the Shutdown returns in the near future.  Anyhow, here is the letter: 

"We all “negotiate” at one time or another.  It might be when buying (or selling) a car, a house or even asking your boss for a raise. There’s nothing wrong with that, unless of course the person with whom you’re negotiating has your daughter tied up in the basement and won’t release her until you agree to something you otherwise would not."  

And speaking of the Palm Beach Post, that paper carries a column by political humorist Frank Cerabino several times a week.  Those who don’t follow Frank in the Post are missing something.  Here’s his brilliant column from Sunday’s (Jan. 27) paper which ought to be circulated nationally!   (Actually, it's a book review.)

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS GREAT COLUMN!

Jack Lippman

Thoughts on the Shutdown and More

Shutting Down the Government 

Many of the 800,000 government employees who went without their salaries during the “Trump Shutdown,” and the owners of businesses which suffered because of the resulting loss of income will never again vote for a Republican candidate.  They know where the blame rests, unless of course their TVs are locked onto Fox News.  They will remember. This includes those who voted for Donald Trump and for Republicans office holders who supported him, even if these legislators did so only because they feared a primary challenge from the far right if they did not.  Voters will remember.

They now know that the President is only interested in trying to live up to the promise to build a wall which he made to his core supporters who saw it as a racial dog whistle.  Of course, there is a need for better border security and a revised immigration policy, but the cosmetic solution provided by building a wall or additional fencing is nowhere near a real solution.  Trump’s childishly petulant insistence on a wall before he would allow the Republican Senate to vote to restore funding for those 800,000 government employees is now history, at least temporarily, but it still is the death knell of his presidency and of the careers of those Republicans who support him.   

We might be back in another “Shutdown” mode after February 15.  But I doubt it.  I suspect that by then there will be an agreement providing money for improved border security measures, a part of which will encompass additional “fencing” of some sort along no more than the two or three hundred miles of our Southern border where it might be helpful, particularly in eliminating gaps in such already long-existing fencing. 
 

Border fencing as it exists today

The Democrats have never been against that and it would enable the President to tell his base that he got his “wall.”   It will be up to the Democrats, of course, to decide whether or not to allow the President to emerge from negotiations wth that “plum,” which would be now shrunken to a prune.  They will have their price, so look for some immigration reform measures as well, including guaranteeing the status of the “dreamers” and those here on a temporary basis to be part of any agreement.

The idea that the “crisis” on our southern border is so severe that it was worth suspending the government’s operation until it is resolved is ludicrous.  And calling it a "national emergency" would be a fairy tale.  Actually, the President himself is ludicrous, or worse.   On a daily basis!   Those Republicans who continue to support him will all go down in flames in the 2020 elections, unless there are some radical changes made before then.  The voters will remember Trump's ego-inspired "Shutdown."

As for the President, a growing cloud is rising on the horizon foretelling that after his departure from office, either by impeachment, resignation or defeat at the polls, his legal problems will only be beginning.  And he will need far better attorneys than Rudy Giuliani

"He didn't but even if he did, it's no crime."

to keep him from eventually wearing a jumpsuit of the same hue as his favored hair coloring.
JL

Reading Suggestions

Be sure to check out Pulitzer-Prize winning Washington Post columnist George Will's recent column on Lindsey Graham.  It's brilliant!

 CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE.    

I had to turn to the dictionary only once to look up one of the words he uses in the column.  That's fewer than usual.  See if you can find it.  Hint: (It's in the last paragraph.)  

And after that, set aside a couple of hours to study what James Madison

had to say in Federalist Papers Numbers 47 and 51.  Every member of both houses of Congress should be required to read it and if they don't, be assigned to bathroom clean-up duties until they do.  (I recognize that the Federalist Papers are beyond the ability of a good number of members of Congress to understand, but they could have a staff member provide a summary for them.)

JL

Input from Putin

I am presently reading Malcolm Nance’s book “The Plot to Destroy Democracy.”  It is terribly written and poorly edited, if edited at all.  Nance comes off much more intelligently when appearing on MSNBC than he does on paper in his book.  But undeniably, the book is filled with facts.

Because Nance comes from the world of intelligence operations, these facts are sometimes visible and connectible with each other only by those versed in the skills necessary in that field, but that’s the way intelligence operates.  (It isn’t a matter of “two plus two equals four.” Rather, it’s more like “2.52 plus 1.34 plus .09 equals 3.95” and that’s close enough to “four” for some conclusions to be drawn.)

Nance’s thesis makes the case that Russia’s actions (all coming at the direction of Vladimir Putin) against the West, and particularly against the United States, are now far more sophisticated and traveling down much more unexpected avenues than they were during the Cold War and during its hotter phases in such places as the Balkans and the Middle East.  More comments will follow when I finish this fact-filled but disorganized book.

JL

The 2020 Election

The race for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination has started.  A few hats have already been tossed into the ring.  

Kamala Harris

A powerful speech by Senator Kamala Harris (D. Calif.) announcing her candidacy set a standard to which other Democratic hopefuls will have to rise.  

Keep your eyes on her as well as on Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro, Michael Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Sherrod Brown and even Amy Kolbuchar.  Forget about Bernie and Hillary.  One thing for certain, one of the spots on the Democratic ticket will be filled by a woman.
JL

             

HOW TO BE ALERTED TO FUTURE BLOG POSTINGS.

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

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

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HOW TO VIEW OLDER POSTINGS.                                                

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

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Jack Lippman 

Politicklers, Chanel No. 5 Aroma for Free and Kipling's "IF"

I apologize.  I thought I would be able to continue this blog WITHOUT including items of political interest.  I suppose I could but that would be like cooking without salt, pepper, cilantro, paprika, oregano, basil, curry, red wine vinegar or extra virgin olive oil … not to speak of true-down-home southern barbecue sauce.  So, this posting resumes the presence of politics on Jackspotpourri.com.

 

I got started doing this with a few friends back in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson was running for President against Barry Goldwater.  We devised a bumper sticker reading “Goldwater in 1864,” implying that the Republican candidate was a century behind the times.  We called our operation “Politicklers,” and actually sold about a dozen stickers, after running an ad in the Village Voice.  Occasionally, I’ve used “Politicklers” as a heading on this blog, and that’s what I’ll be doing in today’s posting.

Politicklers

Is This the Plan? - It’s clear that the new Attorney General will reserve the right to keep portions of the Mueller report, when it comes out, from being available to the public.  I suspect that the only content which might result in his doing that would

Mueller

involve either national security or information involving the President of the United States, the release of which might initiate an unprecedented Constitutional crisis.  When confidentially presented with this possibility, the President might choose to resign, ostensibly for health reasons, in exchange for a pledge that the information be kept permanently from the public, and the Congress not act upon it.  Should he not though, the ultimate result of the release of that information, either officially or through “leakage,” could have unpredictable and heretofore unimaginable results.

Buzzfeed Scoop (?) - Last week, online news site Buzzfeed reported that former

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s allegation that DJT asked him to lie before investigators regarding his Russian business connections was supported by other evidence Special Prosecutor Mueller’s team had developed.  The Mueller team was quick to break precedent and deny that as inaccurate.  Why?  My gut guess is that Buzzfeed’s informants, probably not part of Mueller’s tight-lipped team, revealed that information without knowing the extent to which the Special Prosecutor had it “nailed down” and Mueller’s people felt its premature release would somehow hamper their efforts to present unchallengeable information in their final report.

Edukayshinal Kredenshils - Although I am a retired senior citizen, I still well remember those years when I was still in school.  I remember much of what I learned at Peshine Avenue School and at Weequahic High School back in Newark and at Rutgers University as well as from assorted other educational experiences I have had.  I remember some of the teachers, instructors and professors as well as a good chunk, I hope, of whatever it was they were trying get me to learn.  I think, to a lesser or greater extent, most seniors can recall the same things.

Fordham University

This causes me to wonder if Donald J. Trump ever actually attended the New York Military Academy, Fordham University, the University of Pennsylvania and its Wharton School, or whether a paid “stand-in” showed up in classes and took exams for him at these otherwise reputable institutions.  No one with this kind of supposed educational background can possibly display the gross ignorance the President exhibits almost daily.  When asked during the 2016 campaign what books he had read, he replied, “All Quiet on the Western Front.”  Conceivably, that might have been a reading assignment he remembered from the military academy he supposedly attended, but I wonder if he even knows its author’s name.  Along the way, should he not have been exposed to required Literature, History and Foreign Language courses at these schools?

Frankly, I doubt that the President has more than an elementary school education.  The other day, in denying the almost daily suspicions voiced that he was illicitly involved with Russia, he said such a claim was “a big fat lie.”  Saying that something is a “big fat anything” comes right out of any elementary school schoolyard.  It is not something adults say.  Ten yearolds use such language. Someday, someone will investigate whether his family made generous donations to the institutions Trump is said to have attended and whether he ever actually showed up there in person.

Adjective vs Noun – The presence of an adjective explains or describes a noun’s qualities. A noun itself, without such a modifier, stands alone, even if another noun is tacked onto it instead of an adjective.  When that happens, its meaning is determined by whatever pre-judgements (prejudices?) whomever is using the expanded pair of nouns may have.  If those prejudices are negative ones, they define both nouns negatively for listeners.  Example:  While someone may not be bigoted when he states that he bought something from a Jewish businessman, that certainly is not true when he says he bought it from a Jew businessman.  See the difference?  Get it?  That’s known as the pejorative use of a noun in place of an adjective.

   

Back in 1948, perennial G.O.P. Presidential nominee Harold Stassen started referring to the Democratic Party as the Democrat Party, using the noun in a pejorative sense as explained above.  He took away the benevolent sound of the adjective “democratic” leaving the opposing party’s name defined only by the naked noun, “Democrat,” which lacked the expanded meaning of the Party’s true name, which of course is the “Democratic Party.”

To this day, Republicans still do this, and most terrifyingly, its use has crept into use by journalists, particularly on radio and TV, even those favorably inclined toward Democrats. It even occasionally appears in the language of Democrats!  I heard it used recently at a Democratic Party gathering by a high Democratic official.  They should know better.  Its use makes Republicans feel good, particularly when someone other than a Republican is using this kind of pejorative language.

The “Socialism” Myth - Many Republican voters and Trump supporters believe right-wing liars (like *those found daily on Fox News) who point out that the Democratic Party is leaning leftward toward such ideas as Single Payer Health Care (Medicare for all?), free or reduced tuition at colleges and developing tax strategies aimed at wealth redistribution, and that such steps are “socialism” and to be condemned as such. They say they will lead to our country toward becoming another “Venezuela.”

Baloney!  Government at all levels does a lot of things already (our armed forces, interstate highways, financial, environmental and consumer regulation, agricultural subsidies, the Affordable Care Act, Social Security, Medicare, small business assistance, public schools, police and fire departments, parks, zoning laws, water and sewer facilities, drug and food safety regulation, etc.) and these are not considered “socialism” except by those extreme libertarians who want to privatize everything under the sun!  (These buffoons usually claim to have read Ayn Rand, but judging by the length and plodding wordiness of “Atlas Shrugged,” I doubt that they have, even Senator Rand Paul, who is named after her.)

Socialism, by definition, involves the nationalization of a nation’s means of production and distribution of goods.   Note carefully that none of the areas listed above involve producing, manufacturing or distributing anything.  Neither would more government participation in progressive programs improving health care, education or tax relief for the middle and bottom economic classes be “socialism.”  Anyone who claims that it would be, is, in the words of our President, “a big fat liar.”

* (Hannity, Ingraham, Carlson, Pirro, etc.)

Jack Lippman

Free Chanel No. 5 Fragrance

A few years ago, when my son was living with me for a while, he purchased two Ylang-Ylang tree seedlings and potted them on our patio.  After a year or so, he transplanted one out behind our house and it is now about twenty feet tall.  Last year, I had the remaining one moved to the front of the house where it now reaches up about twelve feet. 

In 1921, Coco Chanel introduced what is probably the world’s most famous perfume, Chanel No. 5.  Its unmistakable aroma is derived from roses, jasmine and the blossoms of the Ylang Ylang tree, which seems to be the catalyst in its fragrance. 

Ylang Ylang blossom

Both of my Ylang Ylang trees are now in blossom (they bloom intermittently throughout the year) and those who know where I live are welcome to come and reach for a blossom, gently remove it, sniff it and rub it behind their ears.  

For all intents and purposes, this will accomplish the same results as Chanel No. 5, for which a 3.4 oz. spray bottle of ‘eau de parfum’ is currently priced at $172.  But watch for the bees.

JL

IF

This poem by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was published in 1910.  Many of us were exposed to it back in high school.   Kipling wrote it for his son, but it still rings true today for us.

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 wornout 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!

JL

HOW TO BE ALERTED TO FUTURE BLOG POSTINGS.

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

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HOW TO VIEW OLDER POSTINGS.                                                

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

HOW TO FORWARD POSTINGS.

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

Jack Lippman