The Importance of the Senate, IMPEACH NOW, a Weather Report, Stocking Up on Ammo and Brexit

The Importance of the Senate - A Great Column

Blog followers know that I have frequently pointed out the importance of the United States Senate.  It approves Supreme Court nominees and other important appointments and It votes on legislation which the House of Representatives has already passed.  While the House is “the people’s house,” generally representative of all Americans, the Senate is where the States are specifically represented.   For that reason, it isn’t particularly democratic (small “d”).  That’s why tiny Rhode Island and empty Wyoming each have the same number of Senators, two, as do far more populous States like California, New York or Texas.

As you know, the Senate is controlled by the Republicans and their leader, Mitch McConnell, doesn’t give a damn about anything that doesn’t benefit the G.O.P., consistently putting party over country.  McConnell would never do anything that would diminish the electability of members of his Senate majority. That’s why sorely needed gun-violence legislation or legislation to protect our election process from proven interference by the Russians, both approved by the House, never reaches the floor of the Senate.  Doing so might create problems for Senators who depend on NRA funding and those who are afraid of running afoul of the President’s base of support.  In fact, Mitch’s admitted willingness to move legislation, but only if the President first okays it, proves his chicken-hearted abdication from his role as Senate leader.  This will not change until the Democrats take over control of the Senate. 

O'Rourke

In a recent Washington Post column, Dana Milbank addressed the need for people like Beto O’Rourke (Texas), Steve Bullock (Montana) and Stacey Abrams (Georgia) to forget about other aspirations and run for the Senate seats up for grabs in their States.  He says it far better than I could.  Read his column by CLICKING HERE.

Jack Lippman 

Why We Must Impeach the Law-Breaker-in-Chief NOW

No matter how many laws the President breaks, no matter how often journalists and even Congressional committees go to court to get documents from the President or try to subpoena witnesses to testify, the President will always come out on top.  Why?  The courts, if they haven’t already been contaminated by his appointees, will come up with decisions which the Trumpublicans will appeal … all the way to the Supreme Court, which they control … and where they will therefore prevail. Attorney-General Barr manages these delaying shenanigans, serving the President and not the country. 

Donald Trump, really and truly, can shoot someone down in the middle of Fifth Avenue, as he has jocularly claimed and beside that act not bothering his supporters in the least, he will legally get away with it if he even gets arrested for it.!  Watch how fast he would be “sprung.”  He can get away with murder!  He would walk away smiling without even spending a night in jail.  Just leave it to his lawyers and “his” courts.

The man thinks he is above the law.  In his little corner of the business world where he operated for years, he has always thought of the law as an enemy and employed lawyers to get around it.  He is no different in the Presidency. No American is above the law. 

So it’s time to impeach him.  Now.  Today.  There’s enough in the Mueller Report, his obstruction of justice, in his personally profiting from his office, his making money from foreign delegations which stay at his hotels, his violation of election laws by paying off his whores (for which his personal lawyer has gone to jail), and even more, to get a bill of impeachment passed in the House.  Now.  Today.

And impeachment proceedings would be free from the legal roadblocks the Trumpublicans are able to throw in the way of the normal operation of the court system.  Congress would be in charge, as it should be, and not his devious lawyers led by Attorney General Barr.  

Trump and Barr - the Impeachables

And don’t be so sure that the Senate would not convict him, as we all assume.  If the evidence is so damning in the House’s impeachment hearings so that even the cowering Republican Senators in the Senate will be reminded that they are Americans first and Republicans second, they might vote to send him packing.  It would only take 20 of them courageous enough to put country before party.

But if the Senate closes its eyes and does not convict him, the American people will indeed convict him and send him into oblivion in 2020.  Then, even Fox News might not touch him with a ten-foot pole.

But standing still accomplishes nothing.  It is time to impeach him.  Now. Today.  

Even worse, any delay, and that’s what going through the courts involve, only benefits the President.  It plays into his hands.  It’s his game.  Forget about it.  There is only one answer.  Impeachment.  Now. Today.  

 JL

Weather Report from the White House 

And speaking of the President, let me comment on his recent meteorological remarks.   Many Americans have gotten their information on Hurricane Dorian by accessing the government’s weather web site, www.noaa.gov.   Its coverage of Dorian was, and continues to be, updated every few hours.  There are a multitude of charts and maps available and varied options available within each of them. 

A commonly viewed map is the “Warning Cone Static Images” chart, with the potential storm track option shown.  This is the one to which the President referred and suggested by the addition of a scrawled-in extension of the storm’s potential “cone” that it might, if it kept going in the same direction, reach Alabama.  Earlier, for no conceivable reason, he had mentioned that State as one of those threatened by Dorian and obviously, he was attempting to justify his misstatement.  He probably flunked geography in elementary school.  Using that logic, and his phony chart, it also might reach Kansas, Oregon and Korea! 

Graphics Embellish the Liar-in-Chief

In making his point, the President used a map version several days old in his phony “extended” projected cone illustration. Later versions showed the projected cone turning northward and could not be similarly mis-edited, so he used one a few days older to be able to extend his scrawled cone to Alabama.

 Furthermore, every update on this site is accompanied by an extremely detailed “discussion” of what it means by a professional meteorologist.  Mention of Alabama was totally absent from such “discussions.”  It might take a few minutes to read such “discussions” but that would be a task far beyond the President’s limited mental capabilities, something his former Secretary of Defense and his former Secretary of State eventually became aware of.  This is just another example of the President not doing his homework which was probably the case at the colleges he reportedly attended as well.   (Does anyone in the Wharton School’s Class of ’68 remember his actually being there?)

Americans must understand that the President is never wrong, so long as he has the ability to lie and make up the truth.  Black can be white, hot can be cold.  Fortunately for him, many Americans are equally stupid.  (H.L. Mencken once had something to say about that.)  Note that I did not say “ignorant.”  That can be remedied.  Stupidity cannot.   That is a problem.

 JL

Don't Forget Gun Violence

And back to gun violence, it should be noted that Walmart has curtailed its sale of certain types of ammunition.  This has bothered some Americans.  It was reported in the Palm Beach Post (Sept. 5) that one, a local resident who incidentally owns a company providing training for concealed-weapon permit applicants, visited his local Walmart “to get ammo in case of looters” following Hurricane Dorian.  He claimed Walmart’s action punishes law-abiding citizens looking to protect themselves and their families.  He pointed out that “people, not the guns, are the problem.”

I both disagree and yet, somewhat agree with him.  I maintain (see prior blog postings) that guns, not people, are the problem.   But I also agree that people are part of  the problem, but not all people, primarily people like him.  

Think about this for a moment:  With all the concerns that an impending hurricane brings to people, what kind of nut-jobs put “getting ammo in case of looters” on their list of priorities?  We have plenty of them in this country.  And you and I and Mitch McConnell know the way they vote.  That is a problem.

JL 

Brexit in Trouble

A word about Brexit.  Because of some of the same pressures that resulted in the election of Donald J. Trump to the Presidency of this country (job loss due to cheaper labor costs elsewhere and advancing technology, globalization, appeal to nationalism and dislike if not fear of immigrants) many of those in the United Kingdom felt a need “to Make England (actually the UK) Great Again.  I haven’t seen many Brits wearing “M.E.G.A.” hats but that’s the general idea. 

These misguided folks yearned for the old days when Britannia ruled the waves and when every other nation in the world looked to them for leadership.  They yearn for as the Beatles put it, “Yesterday.”  The logical step, they believed was to get out of the European Union and go it alone, as they had for centuries.  This got on the ballot and just like the Americans voted to put Donald Trump in office, Great Britain voted to exit from the European Union (Brexit) no later than this October.

The Europeans are willing to let them go, but some of the Brits with brains want to exit in a sane manner, one that would not destroy their economy and maintain some kind of economic connection with Europe, if Europe will let them do so on some limited basis. 

Boris Johnson

Theresa May couldn’t solve the problem and the current PM, Boris Johnson, is willing to go ahead with a clean break if need be rather than continue to look for some kind of a deal with Europe.  Americans must not ignore the fact that an economic disaster in the UK, which a clean "Brexit" will cause, will also affect our economy!

That’s what is going on across the pond.  My guess:  Come 2020, both Donald Trump and Brexit will be history.  It will, unfortunately, take at least a decade to heal the wounds these two adventures in nostalgia caused.

JL

                                             

What to Do Until the Second Amendment is Repealed

Repealing the Second Amendment Will Take Too Long

Latest Texas Shooting in Odessa-Midland Area

Okay … There has been another mass shooting.  There will be more next month and the month after as well.  Mark my words.  It is time to face the hard facts.

These things will not end with half-way measures.   Providing protection at schools, shopping areas, houses of worship and other targets of gun violence, better background checks, attempts to keep weapons out of the hands of those with mental problems and keeping military-style weapons out of civilian hands are not sufficient solutions.  They merely address the “result” of the gun violence problem.  They don’t solve it.

The real “cause” of gun violence is the availability of guns, not so much the people who squeeze the triggers.  The availability of guns must be addressed with effective legislation.  Only the repeal of the Second Amendment would truly, finally and permanently enable the country to do that.  That is the hard fact, the bottom line, for solving the problem of gun violence.   But that’s just not going to happen so fast.  That will take years and years, permitting many deaths from gun violence to take place.   

Meanwhile, something must be done in the short term.  The Republican Senate, and Republican State legislatures have prevented the passage of laws on the Federal, State and local levels to address this problem and reduce the tragic gun violence which is tormenting our country.   It is obvious that Republicans must be voted out of office if anything is to be done to solve this problem.  That's something you can do!

Making such laws even more difficult to enact in Congress and in the States is the Supreme Court’s D.C. vs Heller decision in 2008 which has, until the make-up of the court changes, eliminated the Supreme Court as a solution.  (More on that further on.) That is why it is vitally important that the Senate, which approves Supreme Court appointees, be put back into and kept in the hands of those who understand the importance of the Supreme Court and the Second Amendment in reducing gun violence.  The Republicans have always understood this.  It's time for everyone else to learn it.

Right now, all Americans should understand how the country reached this tragic point.   The best place to start is with the words of the Second Amendment to the Constitution itself.  It is time to review them.  Will this ever end?

The Second Amendment: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Simple enough? Back in 1789, It meant that the people who would be called upon to serve in a militia to protect the security of one of the thirteen free States should not be legally deprived of owning weapons, something they would be expected to bring with them when called for militia duty.

Really though, it wasn’t that simple.  Back then, some of the slave-holding Southern States were wary of the new Federal Government which the proposed Constitution would establish. It would have an army which they feared might someday be used to force them to end slavery. Each of the new thirteen States considered itself to be “free” to do certain things on their own and the slave-holding ones wanted to be able to raise a militia if such a situation arose with which to oppose the Federal Government’s army.  The right of the people to keep and bear arms was accepted as a normal thing in those days, as it is today, and they wanted a guarantee that it would stay that way so that those who were recruited into their militia would have weapons to bring with them. 

Without such a guarantee, without which they might be prevented from raising an armed militia, these States would not vote the approve the Constitution. They received it in the form of the Second Amendment, and they voted for the Constitution.  Hurrah!  Maybe.

Madison

Today, our State militias consist of National Guard units and its recruits do not bring their own weapons, and it is inconceivable that they ever would be called upon to defend their State against the Federal Army. Therefore, the purpose for which the Amendment protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms, as clearly laid out in the first thirteen words of the Amendment by James Madison, no longer exists.  But even without that Amendment language, that right had been accepted as normal then, and it still is.  It was specifically included in the language of the Bill of Rights only to buy the votes of slave-holding States in order to approve the new Constitution.

The Second Amendment’s final fourteen words describe a right which was then, and today, considered as normal.  It does not need to be broadly protected by an obsolete Constitutional Amendment any longer, one which was specifically designed in 1789 only to protect that right from an unspoken threat as described above and which no longer exists, the fear of the Federal Government by slave-holding States.

Using those final fourteen words of the Second Amendment BY THEMSELVES to protect that right today enables it to be MISUSED, making it difficult to create and enforce laws to protect innocent members of society from gun violence.  The ultimate repeal of the Second Amendment will not affect the long-standing right of people to responsibly keep and bear arms. They always have had and will continue to have that right.  But such repeal will take too long.  Something must be done in the meantime.

Now let’s get back to the Supreme Court’s D.C. vs Heller decision, mentioned earlier as an impediment to addressing the gun violence problem.

Justice Scalia

Sadly, the Supreme Court, in 2008, ruled in a 5 to 4 decision in that case, that the final fourteen words of the Second Amendment (‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed’) can stand alone and do not depend on its first thirteen words when they ruled that a District of Columbia law regarding weapons was unconstitutional.  This has prevented the passage of laws on the Federal, State and local levels to reduce the tragic gun violence which is tormenting our country.   The names of the late Justice Antonin Scalia (who wrote the opinion) and Justices Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito will go down in American history as bathed in the blood of the murders they made possible.  


(CLICK HERE TO READ A SUMMARY OF 'D.C. vs HELLER'  which not only includes Justice Scalia's majority opinion but the dissenting opinions of Justices Breyer and Stevens, the latter of which was right on the mark.  Make up your own mind.) 

Let me now repeat the words stated earlier in this posting:

It is vitally important that the Senate, which approves Supreme Court appointees, be put back into and kept in the hands of those who understand the importance of the Supreme Court and the Second Amendment in reducing gun violence.  The Republicans have always understood this.  It's time for everyone else to learn it.

It will take decades of new appointees to undue the harm done to the nation by the D.C. vs. Heller decision.  That’s because President Trump’s appointees, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, who will be around for a long, long time, were political appointees, both having passed the G.O.P.’s litmus test regarding gun legislation (and also regarding abortion) in order to please the President’s shrinking base. 

Meanwhile, people will continue to die.  We need another James Madison to dig us out of this dilemma of his making.  And of course, you can help too when you vote.

Jack Lippman

What I Said in 2016 and a Football Story

                                 
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An Old Posting

Go back and check out the blog posting of August 16, 2016, which was loaded with a lot of truth about then-candidate Donald Trump, leading me to the naïve conclusion that he could not be elected.  I could not believe that American voters were that stupid or gullible (take your choice).  Yet they turned out to be exactly that in enough states to get him the necessary electoral votes and still are today, and everything I said back then is still pertinent.  Check it out by CLICKING RIGHT HERE to read what I wrote back then.

Today's Democratic Party must recognize that millions of Americans have been conditioned to accept lies as truths, to pick someone to vote for the way they select brands of deodorant or beer and who still smoke cigarettes despite clear evidence, printed on every package, that smoking can lead to cancer and heart disease.  

Forget about these (to borrow an expression from the 2016 campaign) ‘deplorable’ people as well as those like the many distressed soybean farmers who have lost their markets because of the President’s destructive tariff policy and, unbelievably, will still vote for him. 

The path to victory for Democrats in 2020 is to register as many new voters as possible, particularly among young people and among those of Latino or African American heritage, groups that have been particularly hard hit by Trumpublican policies.  Resources should be directed to that end in crucial States like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida.  That is the name of the game.  Period!

It is useless to attempt to convince those who voted for him in 2016 to change their minds.  Too many of them enjoy the mud and filth surrounding the President, just so long as it protects them against what they've been convinced is “socialism” and anything that suggests a change in what they believe to be the traditional demographic composition of the nation.  They have been convinced that the Washington pig sty in which the President wallows is a fragrant bubble bath.  It isn’t.

Jack Lippman 

                     

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A Football Story 

A glance at your TV will indicate that the football season is upon us.  So we reached back a couple of years into our archives for a short story about that sport.  I enjoyed writing it and I hope you enjoy reading it.  So come and meet …

The Running Back

Jack Lippman

The Opossums had a pretty good record in the small-time, rinky-dink, professional football league in which they competed.  The NFL gets most of its players from colleges but there are always some pretty good football players out there who never get to college and NFL scouts never even hear about.  Many of them drift to teams like the Opossums who play in a small industrial city in Minnesota where the locals are glad to be able to see a pro football game for ten bucks.  The players get paid about $250 for each game and show up for practice a few times a week for which they don’t get paid.  Of course, most have other jobs in things like construction to supplement what the Opossums pay them, but really, all the players live for is the day when perhaps they would be noticed by a scout from one of the NFL teams.  Occasionally, one might be passing through and might just be among the six or seven thousand fans who come out to sit in the wooden bleachers at Opossum Park on Wednesday evenings, when there was no football on TV, watching them play teams like the Fargo Bears or the Duluth Red Reindeer.  These fans just don’t have the money to go to Minneapolis to see the Vikings, or to Chicago or to Green Bay.  They have to be content with their Opossums who along with teams from seven other rust-belt towns in the upper Midwest comprised the Northland Professional Football League.

“Men,” Coach Lindquist called out.  “I wanna introduce you to the new owner of the Opossums. He just bought the team from Jim Nelson’s estate, and he wants to have a few words with you.  I’d like you all to meet Rocco Fields.”

“Call me Rocky,” an overweight muscular man in his fifties spoke out. 

“I always wanted to own a football team, and when I heard the Opossums were up for sale, I grabbed them.  I played two years for the New York Jets a while back and I think I know a little about the game.  But I’ll still let Coach Lindquist run the team.  He’s a good coach.  But I do want to have some input into what goes on around here.  That’s the fun of owning a team.”

Flash Watson was the best player on the Opossums.  Twenty-nine years old, he had been playing football at this level for ten years.  His education, somewhere in the deep south, ended in the third grade. But he could run faster than anyone on the team, and maybe in the league.  All he needed was a small opening to scamper through and he would be off to the races.  But running backs were a dime a dozen and just as water reaches its level, Flash had reached his with the Opossums.  When he wasn’t playing football, he did day work for a roofing company and lived with his girlfriend and her four-year old.  He was a happy guy, content to hammer shingles and play football.  Oh, yes, in case I didn’t mention it, Flash was Afro-American, wore dreadlocks and had a wiry beard reaching about four inches below his chin.

“Men,” Rocky continued.  “Like I said, Joe will continue running the team, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be involved.  You guys ever hear of George Steinbrenner?  Used to own the New York Yankees baseball team. Loved that man!  Would’ve paid to work for him!  Knew what he was about!  And one thing he insisted on with the Yankees was that they be clean shaven.  No beards, no hair hanging below the neck, just a clean-cut American look!  That’s the one thing I’m going to insist on for you Opossums.”

Coach Lindquist interrupted, “George did allow mustaches, I recall.  That okay with you, Rocky?”

“Sure.  Mustaches are okay, even sideburns, but let’s get on with today’s practice, Coach!”

After an hour of sweaty practice, Flash hung back and cornered the coach in the locker room. 

“Does what that man said mean I gotta get rid of my beard and locks, Coach?”

“That’s what the man said.  You heard him.  He’s the one that pays us so I recommend you stop off at the barber shop pretty damn soon.”

“And what if I don’t,” Flash answered.  What he gonna do to me?”

“Flash, baby,” Lindquist cautioned.  “Just do what the man said to do.  Cut your hair! You know you put your ‘X’ on a two-year contract with us a couple of months ago, and we even are paying you an extra $50 a game, but believe me, I don’t think he’ll waste a minute getting rid of you if you keep the hair and the beard.  He could sell your contract.”

“What’ya mean?  Sell me, like he own me?”

“Yup.  So far as playing football for pay, he owns you.  In fact, a few of the other teams in the league have been calling.  They like the way you run.  I can tell you that if the beard and hair stay, you’ll probably be playing for Duluth by next Wednesday.  Flash, the one thing that happens in this world all the time is change, and you gotta learn to live with it.”

“Duluth?  The Red Reindeer?  Where it 10 below all winter long?  Shit, no.  Not me.”

Watson stalked out of the locker room, a very angry man, mumbling to himself.  “Fuckin’ Duluth. I’ll show them.”

That week’s game was with the league-leading Kalamazoo Knights.  They were the only team in the league which had what amounted to a loose agreement with an NFL team.  A few years earlier, the Detroit Lions had drafted a bunch of linemen and defensive backs who, it turned out, they had no need for.  They traded most of them away for future draft picks but were stuck with three or four that they had to get off their roster.  Quietly, they worked out a deal with Kalamazoo to warehouse them, and that was the primary reason the Knights were in first place in the Northland League.

Kalamazoo’s defense, which had been iron-clad up until their game with the Opossums, was no match for Flash Watson.  He ran for three touchdowns in the first half and was back on the bench after running back the third quarter kickoff for another.  He also scored all their extra points running through the Kalamazoo defense like a hot knife through butter.  When the game ended, the score was 61 to 14, and Flash was responsible for 46 of the Opossum’s points.  But he still hadn’t gone to the barber shop.

Next morning in his office, Coach Lindquist pulled Flash aside.

“Pal, I got some news for you!  Pack your stuff and get yourself on a bus for Duluth. I warned you and you didn’t listen. Rocky has traded you.”

“Even after the big game I played last night, Coach?  Why would he do dat?”

“Rocky was very happy with your game.  In fact, you were so good that Duluth tripled the amount of money they were willing to pay for your contract after they heard about what you did last night.  Really, I think he would have liked it better if you would have stayed with the Opossums but with your beard and locks, he wasn’t going to back down.  You know, that Steinbrenner thing.  Flash, it’s all your fault that you’re going to Duluth.  Change happens and you refused to change.”

Flash was about to curse at the coach when the door swung open and a tall black man came in.

“Sorry to interrupt you guys, but my time is limited, really.  Gotta get to the airport and catch a plane and my ride is waiting outside.”  Looking at Flash, he continued.

“I’m Ned Smith.  Work for the Detroit Lions.  I showed up last night to look at some of our people playing with Kalamazoo.  Injuries are killing us this season.  We need a couple of linebackers fast, so I was looking at the two All-American losers you played against last night.  Recognized them, Mr. Watson?”

Flash shook his head.

“One of the guys you ran over last night was a runner-up for the Heisman trophy three years ago.  One disappointing All-American from TCU.  And the other guy, the one wearing number 88, was All-Conference in the PAC-12.  We’re bringing them both up to the Lions this week; they both looked pretty good last night, except for not being able to stop you, and frankly, we’d like to bring you along with them, Flash.”

With that he pulled out a piece of paper and shoved it, along with a pen, in front of Flash Watson.

“Already spoke to Rocky.  Known him for years.  It’s all okay with him and he’s making a nice buck out of the deal, too.  Just sign this, Flash, so I can get outta here.  It’s a temporary agreement until you sit down with the team in Detroit next week.  We’ll work something out then.  And you can see clipped to it, there’s a check for $25,000 just to show you that we’re serious and acting in good faith.  Do we have a deal?”

“We sure do,” a smiling Flash answered.  Turning to Coach Lindquist, he continued, “Man, change sure do happen.  Lotta change since what you wuz tellin’ me a few minutes back, right, Coach?”

Lindquist smiled and lit a cigar.

“Keep in touch, Flash.”

 (After posting this story, it occurs to me that the dialect in which "Flash" speaks might be offensive to some readers.  I feel that it is close to the way a Black American who dropped out of school in the South after the third grade might speak.)

JL

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The Democrats' Candidate, My Broken Waterpik, Trump Off the Rails and Religion 201

Democratic Primary Musings

People who are following the campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination see it coming down to a race among three candidates, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.  Which one emerges as the nominee will depend on one and only one factor.  (Choosing any of the others still in the race would only happen if the Party failed to come together on one of the leaders and settled on a compromise candidate, probably at their Convention.  Highly unlikely.)

Forget the nationally based polls.  Forget the State primaries and caucuses … unless they are in the States I am about to mention. They are the crucial ones.  Whichever one of the Democratic possible candidates that can win the electoral votes of States like Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin should be the Democratic nominee.

Right now, that is the best path to the nomination for Joe Biden.  But we should not overlook the math, as it applies to the crucial States mentioned above.  The combined support for Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, whose agendas are similar, may equal or exceed Biden’s.   When one of them drops out, the remaining one’s support may double.  But will it in these crucial States?  That is what will be important.  The decision to drop out might be predicated by poor performances in the early primaries and caucuses.   If neither Warren nor Sanders drop out, the nomination will be Biden’s for the taking.

If Sanders remains as Biden’s challenger, his doctrinaire positions on social issues may hurt him.  If Warren survives, on the other hand, she seems more adept at pivoting and competing with Biden on issues.  I think the Democratic nomination will go to either Biden or the Sanders/Warren survivor and that nominee will be the one that is thought best by Democrats for the job of convincing the voters of these five States, as evidenced by polling in those States, that he or she can beat Trump there.

 Jack Lippman

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What’s Up with Donald Lately

President Trump is running a bit more off the tracks these days then he customarily does.  He has told Jews that they are being disloyal to themselves and to Israel if they vote Democratic.  He cancelled a visit to Denmark when their Prime Minister refused his supposedly joking offer to purchase Greenland.  (Have you ever heard him joke?  Seriously, he is a humorless man.)  He told four Congresswomen to “Go Back Where They Came From,” a long-time taunt of racists toward immigrants.  His tariff proposals are falling apart, as the money comes out of American consumers' pocketbooks, and he lacks the ability to negotiate with China, North Korea or the European nations effectively. Most recently, he ordered that his “wall” be built, implying even if it required breaking laws concerning private property rights and environmental protection with the possibility of pardons for the law breakers. (although he has supposedly backed off on this). Was this another of his supposed jokes? 

The President does a lot of dancing around statements so he cannot be held responsible for them, implying things, becoming a cheerleader at rallies, and attributing his ideas to “what people are saying.”  This is how he got away with his dishonesty at Trump University and many of the shady ‘deals’ he masterminded for years, resulting in the frequent loss of other people’s money.  But supposedly, a President shouldn’t get away with this because it is Congress’ job to stop him from such tactics.

He is off the rails and the sooner Democrats start impeachment proceedings, the better. This stuff is just icing on the justification already in the Mueller Report and his violation of the “emoluments” prohibition in the Constitution.  The reason for this behavior on his part is clearly his fear of not being re-elected in 2020.  He is willing to do anything to hang on to his “base.”   Why?  I think it is beginning to enter his mind that after a defeat in 2020, when all the dirt is exposed, he will be hearing chants of “Lock him up,” and they won’t be joking.

 JL 

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Religion 201 - Second-Hand Beliefs

(A few years back, this blog included a general summary of the religions practiced in the Western world.  We called it "Religion 101."  Here is "Religion 201" which is certain to be more controversal.)

Western monotheistic religious belief in one all-powerful deity is something Jews, Christians and Muslims have in common and ought to be enough, by itself, upon which these believers can anchor their faith.  But it isn’t.  Without formalization and organization into ritual and observance, people do not readily adopt what is referred to as faith in God.  And that formalization requires documentation.  Such documentation exists.

• For Jews, it is the five holy books comprising the Torah or the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Oh, there is more, but this “scripture” is the required basis.
• For Christians, it is the “Gospels,” (the ‘good news’ about the coming of the Messiah) which builds upon the Pentateuch in the form of the Gospels of the Apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the epistles (writings) of Paul.  Supplementing the Hebrew scriptures, this is known as the New Testament.
• For Muslims, it is the Koran, the words of God given to the Prophet Muhammad and spoken by him, and later compiled in a holy book.

The authorship of this documentation has been interpreted in many ways.  Some believers consider it the “word of God” and even if God did not write it, God certainly inspired it for whomever did and that’s enough for them. They accept it literally.  All of it.  Others do not. 

Jews generally accept the idea that the five books of the Pentateuch, the Torah, was written by Moses.  That is sometimes hard to take since things that happened before and after Moses’ time, including the description of his own death, are covered in it, so how could he have written it?   Some believe that the words were given orally to Moses by God to write down and pass on and therefore what Moses wrote transcended time, as only God could do.  Forget about impossible chronology.  Moses was just the “scribe.”  Understandably, some claim there were authors in addition to Moses.  And subsequent “holy” writings such as those of the Prophets, while inspired by God, are credited to individual authors such as Isaiah and Jerimiah as well.

Christians accept the New Testament even though the story of Jesus, whose birth, life, death and resurrection is described somewhat differently in the several “Gospels” authored by different apostles and written anywhere from 20 to 90 years after the events they describe took place.  None of them were there so it is logical to expect that inconsistencies would exist. Smoothing over these differences, Christians accept the formalization of what happened as documented in the “Gospels” as the basis of their faith.

Muslims accept the fact that the Prophet Muhammad spoke the words given to him over a thirty-year period by God, and those words were dutifully written down by his followers, not by him.  After his death, Islamic scribes organized these writings into what is known as the Koran.  Islam also includes, with some modification, the core beliefs of Judaism and Christianity but its basic tenet involves a total submission, if not a surrender, to God. 

In all these situations, there is a common thread.  And that is that what was written down, the documentation upon which ritual and observance were based, was obtained “second hand.”   No one was with Moses up on Mount Sinai taking notes.  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John didn’t conduct interviews with those who were in the manger with Mary and Joseph or present at the crucifixion and resurrection.  Paul didn’t carry a tape recorder with him.  And it’s hard to believe the words of Muhammad, carved in stone and written on papyrus by his listeners over thirty years were neatly stored and cataloged waiting for subsequent editors. Over the centuries, these various editors and interpreters of all faiths have added their flavor, perspective and ideas to the documentation, making even the original “second-hand” writings difficult to separate from later versions.

But for those seeking the strength and support that the ultimate formalization of religion which these second-hand “writings,” provide to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is enough. They accept it as divine in its own right, the word of God not to be questioned, or similarly divine because of the inspiration that motivated its acknowledged documenters.

So we end up with a community of believers in one God, not all of whom base their beliefs on the same “second-hand” documentation.  It amounts to numerous formulas arriving at the same answer.

It is wrong for someone believing in one faith to see those of other faiths who believe differently as “infidels.”  Historically, many faiths have countenanced the murder of infidels.  “My way or the highway!” … or sometimes much worse.  Such zealotry was, and is, wrong.  The early Jews stoned them to death.  Christians burned them at the stake.  Muslims continue to blow them up.

I am certain that this kind of thing was not included in the original creation of any religion’s system of belief in God but was something added along the way as “second-hand” documentation was written, discovered and amalgamated into the faith. If this is ever to be straightened out, it will take a few millenniums, at least.


  
But that would be just a few droplets in the ocean of time.  After all, the universe existed for a very long time before our species turned up, asking hard questions, the replies to which demand faith, not proof, because of the finite capabilities of the human mind.

JL

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My Chinese Waterpik

About five years ago, I purchased a “Waterpik Flosser” which I use on my teeth several times a week.  Finally,  the tube which carries the water through the device to its brush or the “squirters” (an assortment of which came with the item) broke.  I went online and found replacing the Flosser would run about $60 and was about to do it.  Taking a look at the device, it looked like the broken tube could be easily replaced since the piece it was part of was held on by two screws.  So I went online and found that Amazon was selling that replacement part for just under $10.  So I ordered it.  Oddly, delivery was indicated as taking two to three weeks.  Well, I just got the replacement part by U.S. Mail and have installed it. It works fine.  

But what took so long? 

The original device was probably made in China, so it was logical that was where the replacement part would have to come from.  But it wasn’t a matter of an American vendor importing it and selling it to me as would usually be the case in such situations.  Apparently, I was dealing directly with the Chinese company which was selling it.  That’s why the delivery took so long.  And here’s part of the label from the envelope in which the part came to make that point clear. 

  

This is when it hit me that in addition to our trade with China being something that involves American consumers every day, it is already so deeply institutionalized that the Post Office Departments of both countries even have a common label indicating both are sharing in the delivery of the item.  Wow!  Dropping it off at a post office in China somewhere in Hunan province was sufficient to put it in the hands of the United States Postal Service.  The systems work together!  (For those studying the label, Changsha is the capital of Hunan province and has a population of about seven and a half million.)

World trade is something good and should not be restricted by tariffs, something they probably taught at Wharton for those who went to classes there.

JL