09-18-2022 - Republican Trickery, The Danger of Compomising and Much More!

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DeSantis and Abbott Fly Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, NYC, and D.C. at Taxpayer Expense

Map to help locate Martha's Vineyard.  (Anyplace on
this map is superior to anyplace in DeSantis' Florida.)

It should sicken most Americans that Republicans still pull stuff like this, sending migrants to places they consider ‘sanctuary’ cities, most recently, Martha’s Vineyard. 

It’s a reprise of what opponents of civil rights did back in the Fifties and Sixties to attempt to embarrass those who believed that skin color had nothing to do with being an American. That the Florida legislature, dominated by a bunch of heartless Republicans (the other kind seem to keep their mouths shut out of fear of losing the fascist vote) authorizes $12,000,000 to pay for these schoolyard pranks is reason enough to throw them all out of office on November 8.  Voting for any Republican is insanity.  Clinically as well as poliically

The cruel governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, taking time off from tormenting women who want an abortion, is just as bad, sending planeloads of migrants to Washington, DC, and busing them to Vice President Harris’ street and dropping them off there.  Of course, just like dumb Floridians, dumb Texans paid for this stunt, believing it was done with federal funds provided to these States, albeit for other purposes.

The federal government, which is trying mightily to solve the immigration problem on our Southern border, should not sit idly by as these two schoolyard bullies play games with these would-be immigrants’ lives, many of whom are awaiting court action on their claims of seeking asylum.  They should come back at them with whatever legal remedies are possible.

This is just another reason why it is insanity, and of course, un-American, to vote for any Republican, not that their opposition to women’s abortion rights and every single American's voting rights isn’t already enough.  Just 50 days remain until Election Day!  Regardless of where you live, your vote is essential because there are a lot of insane voters out there who will vote Republican. Vote and make sure all of your like-minded friends and relatives do too! Vote!

The poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty includes the words, ‘Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me.  I lift  my lamp beside the Golden Door.’ Unless you’re a Native American, you or your ancestors were immigrants to this country.  Never forget that, Ron and Greg. On what boat did your relatives cross the ocean? And was their entry into the United States totally legal?

And while on this subject, I wonder if the many fine actions of those real Americans on Martha’s Vineyard who have stepped forward to aid those put on planes as pawns by un-American Republican politicians, and whose efforts thereby kept lit the lamp beside the Golden Door about which Emma Lazarus wrote, involve a feeling of guilt for our immigration policies of the 1920s and 1930s, resulting in many deaths in the Holocaust. Could it be that Americans have listened to and heard the slogan, 'Never Again'?

JL

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When Compromise to Achieve Consensus Comes Back 

To Bite You: The Senate is the Problem

I came across an interesting theory about the American Revolution the other day.  It contends that while the Founding Fathers spoke in noble terms about ‘all men being created equal,’ etc., the Constitution they ended up producing included a couple of unconscionable concessions to Southern slaveholding States in order to get them to support its passage.  And these made a joke about ‘all men being created equal.’

Specifically, they designed a Senate where each State had two Senators, regardless of population, and at least until 1913, these weren’t even directly elected, but appointed by State legislatures.  This put a lot of power into the hands of the Senate, where this arrangement shortchanged the majority of the people, over-representing rural states with fewer people. 

To make things worse, this unfair composition of the Senate was carried over into the mechanism of choosing a president by an Electoral College where a State’s electoral votes included one for each of those two senators, regardless of the State’s population.  The icing on this cake was putting the confirmation of federal judges, including the Supreme Court, in the hands of the Senate, with its built-in undemocratic structure.

Some European critics saw the American Revolution as a breaking away from what they saw as a socially more progressive England so that they might be able to pass laws protecting slavery, important to a good portion of the new nation’s economy, and that all of their pious statements about democracy and equality were just so much malarky.

A couple of years ago, the ‘1619 Project,’ marking the four hundredth anniversary of the introduction of slavery into what later became the United States, was developed as an educational program.  The viewpoint explained above was included in it, although most reputable historians disagreed with its importance, pointing out that the Founding Fathers really were much more dedicated to trying to guarantee that ‘all men were created equal’ than to establishing mechanisms to impede that goal.  To get the Constitution ratified, they reluctantly made compromises that they felt the new nation would ultimately overcome.

The unpopularity of the‘1619 Project,’ because of its opening the door to viewing the Founding Fathers without their usual haloes was augmented in the eyes of many by the awarding of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for ‘commentary’ to Nickole Hannah-Jones for her essay introducing the ‘1619 Project.’  She went so far as to say that the Founding Fathers didn’t really create a nation fully dedicated to the proposition that ‘all men are created equal,’ pointing out that that didn’t happen until the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, finally extending that equality to persons of color, the former slaves that the Civil War freed.

This is an interesting thing to think about, especially since the Senate today still exercises an undemocratic ‘thumb on the scale’ precisely in the manner described above.

Here’s an example. Allowing the five least populated States in the nation (Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota with their combined population of about 5,200,000, only about one and a half percent of the nation’s total population) to get to elect ten Senators, 10% of that body, seems ridiculous.  The remaining 326,800,000 of Americans do get to elect the remaining 90 Senators but that is proportionately very unfair. But that’s the way it is.

While the other deliberative half of Congress is officially called ‘the House of ‘Representatives,’ the Senate might sarcastically be called the ‘House of Non-Representation.’  It serves as a brake on there being too much representative democracy in America.  That might have been a good idea at one time, but it is not today.

The Founding Fathers did not realize how much they were giving away.  Many of the challenges the nation faces today, particularly those resulting from unpopular actions of the Supreme Court in the areas of abortion rights, gun violence, and government regulation, are the result of their compromises made in 1787, chiefly in the designing the composition of the Senate. (The Constitution took effect two years later in 1789.)  Sometimes, compromise in order to achieve consensus can come back to bite you.

JL

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The Irish Funnies

Many years ago, I was working in an office where one of the employees, an older woman, assiduously read the old New York Journal-American each morning.  When asked, she referred to what she was reading as the ‘Irish Funnies.’  (She was Irish.) 

Of course, they were that paper's extensive obituary pages and she was looking to see who had died lately.  Today, where I reside, we get that information by email, which might be called the online ‘Florida Funnies.’  It may be important information, enabling you to attend a funeral, pay a condolence call, or send a card, but it also piques your curiosity as to what new neighbor might purchase the deceased’s home, if there isn’t a widow or widower who might choose to stay on.

JL

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Threatening Cops

Does the defeated former president’s intentionally ambiguous statement saying that if he were to be indicted, there would be 'problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we've never seen before' constitute a threat to the government?  Is it an incitement to his mob of supporters as were his words on January 6?  Get pulled over for speeding and say something like that to the police officer as he starts to write out a ticket, and see how quickly he will get out his handcuffs and call for back up.

JL

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A Deluge of Emails

Maybe I’m a sucker, but I do make donations to some of the political entities which ask for them via email.  I have donated to the campaigns of Val Demings, Charlie Crist, and a few other candidates whom I want to win.  I’m not a big hitter, but they do add up to a low three-figure number. Obviously, that puts me on the list of every other Democratic candidate who wants to reach into my wallet including State and national party organizations.  (Oddly, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson who still challenges the legitimacy of President Biden's election keeps asking me for donations.  I think his campaign was dumb enough to purchase a list which turned out to be all Democrats.  That’s just typical Republican gullibility.) 

As a result, I receive, and this is no exaggeration, about ninety emails every day asking for money for various campaigns.  Fortunately, incoming mail sent to my Gmail address identifies most of these and puts them into a folder labeled ‘Promotions’ which I quickly screen each morning for emails which ended up there by mistake before deleting the rest with one click.  That whole process takes less than a minute. 

JL

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America Afloat 

 

 

(A poem that is always worth repeating in these blog postings. To learn more, visit this blog's posting of July 30, 2022, accessible from the Archives off to the right.)       JL

 

 

 

America Afloat

The greatness of America

Is that it does survive

Attacks upon democracy

Whose flame it keeps alive.

 

The laws that blossom from the words

The Founding Fathers wrote

Still serve us well today to keep

America afloat.

 

This doesn’t happen by itself,

We cannot wish it true,

The bottom line, my friends, is that

It all depends on you.

 Jack Lippman                    

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                         That’s Not Enough!

                                By a Longshot

 

 

 

09-13-2022 - Politicalizing the Courts, Arguing with the Chief Justice and Questions of Ownership

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 Mastering the Special Master & Politicalizing the Courts

Here’s the essence of a comment I posted the other day on Heather Cox Richardson’s daily newsletter, ‘Letters from an American.’

“Professor Joyce Vance (known to those who frequently see her on MSNBC as well as on her ‘SistersInLaw’ podcasts) concluded her analysis of Judge Aileen Connor’s decision concerning a Special Master who would be empowered to limit the evidence the Department of Justice can use in investigating the classified government documents purloined by the defeated former president by saying 'It is all up to the courts, now.'   

Bear in mind that the courts to which she refers include Judge Cannon's court, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Eleventh District, where the appeals of Judge Cannon's decision would be heard, and possibly even the Supreme Court. These courts are loaded with appointees made by the defeated former president and it is not unlikely that they would support him. Law school professors don't make legal decisions. Judges and justices do.

The Constitution's mechanism for appointing and confirming these judges and justices does not ultimately serve the interests of most Americans, as Dobbs vs. Jackson recently proved, when the SCOTUS did away with the right to an abortion . This will take months, if not years, to iron out. Meanwhile, national security and democracy will suffer.”

Please go back and read my posting of September 10, 2022 on this blog in which I delve more deeply into this problem tracing its trail from the Republican Party, to the Senate, and on to the Supreme Court.

JL

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Displeasure With SCOTUS Decisions and With the Senate

Roberts

Although I doubt that Chief Justice John Roberts reads my blog, he clearly is bothered by what he sees as attacks on the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.  My posting of September 10, again referred to above, did not attack that legitimacy, and in fact accepted it, although the Chief Justice probably would still consider it as such an attack. 

While recognizing the Court’s deficiencies, my posting focused on the difficulty of doing anything about them and settled on making the Court aware of the public’s displeasure with it and showing that by voting.  The last time I looked, expressing one's displeasure with our government or a part of it was still an acceptable part of democracy and not automatically an attack upon legitimacy.  And that includes displeasure with the Supreme Court.  If my comments on the blog attack anything, it is the way the Senate is composed and elected.  Making that more democratic would remove any concern among Americans as to the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, as well as of other things upon which the Senate acts.  My blog posting included the following paragraph: 

‘Long term solutions to repair the Supreme Court’s undemocratic deficiencies, such as increasing its number of Justices or removing that 'thumb from the scale,' changing the Constitution’s ‘two seats for each State’ composition of the Senate would take years to even attempt to accomplish. For the present, then, that leaves the American people with only one thing that they can do about this power given by the Constitution to the Supreme Court and that is to show their displeasure with them.’

Obviously, Justice Roberts has sensed such displeasure and has taken a glance into a mirror.  At least that is a beginning.  But he still claims, as the attached articles quote him, that ‘you don’t want public opinion to be the guide about what the appropriate decision is.’  But public opinion voicing displeasure with the Court is not, I repeat, an attack on the Court’s legitimacy.  If my posting attacks legitimacy, it is that of the Senate, which is where the real problem originates, and not the Supreme Court, although there isn’t very much that can be done about it.

Chief Justice Robert’s concern may be found by checking out any of the articles written about it.  The Washington Post article may be found at https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/10/supreme-court-roberts-legitimacy/ and the Associated Press article, as it appeared in US News and World Report, may be found at https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-09-09/chief-justice-john-roberts-to-speak-at-colorado-conference    And my comments are there in the September 10 posting of www.jackspotpourri.com (which may, for some of you, be tacked on at the end of today's posting.)

At another session of the same mee)ting at which Roberts spoke, Justice Gorsuch said that ‘Improper efforts to influence judicial decision-making, from whatever side, from whomever, are a threat to the judicial decision-making process,’ which also makes that same point. 

Do you agree with Roberts and Gorsuch?  There is a delicate balance between our government’s legislative, executive, and judicial branches, established by the Constitution.  Are these Justices too busy defending their own turf? 

Do you feel that the ‘thumb on the scale’ provided to the Senate by the Constitution may be giving too much weight to the legislative branch of which the Senate of course is part, injecting politics into their actions, upsetting this balance?  The composition of the Electoral College and the confirming of judicial appointments is where this imbalance is most clearly visible, although it exists elsewhere as well.

Some might dream of changing the composition of the Senate to more accurately represent the population of the States but believe me, that will not happen.  Making this kind of change would require a Constitutional amendment and because the Constitution requires that three fourths of the States approve it, it just will never happen.  Too many States like it just the way it is, cherishing their overrepresentation in the Senate.  End of story!  

Thus, reform of the Senate would have to occur within that body itself by changes in the rules by which it operates, such as the filibuster, which would be easier, but still very difficult and time-consuming to bring about.  So don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen either.

And that is where we stand today, counting on the extreme displeasure of the population with the actions of the Supreme Court being sufficient to convince at least three Justices to change their positions, giving more weight to the voices of the people than Justices Roberts and Gorsuch appear to think is proper.  Combatants usually don’t get to choose where they will meet.  But, inexorably, the battleground for this struggle will be Supreme Court deliberations dealing with the right of women to have an abortion. 

It is not illegal to show extreme displeasure with the acts of government, including Supreme Court decisions, and to work to defeat candidates who do not stand up for women’s abortion rights.  As a reminder, here is the salvo with which the blog’s September 10 posting concluded.  It is repeated here because THIS IS, in my mind, THE WAY TO GO! Day after day, advertisement after advertisement, debate after debate, this should be the message!

“. . . . IF PUSHED TO ANSWER THE QUESTION, MOST REPUBLICAN OFFICEHOLDERS AND CANDIDATES WILL ADMIT TO SUPPORTING THE REPEAL OF  ROE vs. WADE, even if only to get the votes of the minority who sincerely supported repeal.  

THESE REPUBLICANS MUST BE DEFEATED!

They enable and represent minority rule, which must not be allowed to be dominant in a representative democracy.  They must not be allowed to get away with it!   IT IS AN ISSUE THAT MUST BE USED AGAINST THEM, SPEARHEADED BY ATTACKING THEIR SUPPORT OF THE REPEAL OF ROE vs WADE.

Failing to defeat them opens the door for such minority rule to change the acceptance of same-sex marriage, contraception, LGBTQ rights, and interracial marriage, all made possible through Supreme Court decisions that are now as vulnerable as it turns out that Roe vs. Wade was.  

A Supreme Court which treats the doctrine of ‘stare decisis’ (basing decisions on precedent) so lightly is to be feared.

You must voice your opinion on November 8. Massively!” 

JL

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1857 and 2022 - Questions of Ownership and the SCOTUS

Dred Scott

This is not the first time that the American people expressed displeasure with a Supreme Court that felt its decisions should not be influenced by the legislative or executive branches, nor the opinion of the American people.  In 1857, it ruled that an escaped slave living in Wisconsin for years was still the property of his former masters back ‘down south.’  It’s a complicated story, but the American people expressed so much displeasure with the Supreme Court’s decision that they elected Abraham Lincoln to the presidency three years later.  The issue was supposedly resolved by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments and of course, the Civil War.

Current displeasure on the part of the government’s legislative and executive branches, along with that of much of the public, with the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health arises from another question of ownership.  In 1857, it involved ownership of a person, Dred Scott.  In 2022, it involves ownership, manifested by control over it, of a woman’s uterus.  But clearly, however much displeasure there might be with the Supreme Court’s decision, it must be resolved peacefully this time around.  The best way to do that is to defeat any candidate who supports that decision on November 8.  The votes of women may just accomplish that.

JL

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America Afloat 

 (A poem that is always worth repeating in these blog postings. To learn more, visit this blog's posting of July 30, 2022, accessible from the Archives off to the right.)       JL

 

America Afloat

 Jack Lippman

 The greatness of America

Is that it does survive

Attacks upon democracy

Whose flame it keeps alive.

 

The laws that blossom from the words

The Founding Fathers wrote

Still serve us well today to keep

America afloat.

 

This doesn’t happen by itself,

We cannot wish it true,

The bottom line, my friends, is that

It all depends on you.

 

 JL                        

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                         That’s Not Enough!

                                By a Longshot 

09-10-2022 - The Supreme Court's 'Supremacy'

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The ‘Supremacy’ of the Supreme Court’s Endorsement of Minority Rule Endangers American Democracy and is to be FEARED

The United States of America has a government based on the ‘rule of laws.’ Stated quite simply,

(1) Congress passes laws,

(2) the Executive Branch, headed by the President, administers these laws and

(3) disputes over the meaning of and the validity of laws are resolved by the Judiciary, with the Supreme Court as the final arbiter. 

That’s how our federal government was designed to work as documented by the first three articles of the Constitution, and in tandem with the governments of the states, united to form the ‘United States’ of America.

How are these three branches of our government in our representative democracy filled?   

(1) The voters elect the Congress, and also

(2) Vote for ‘electors’ who elect the President,

(3) who in turn appoints the federal judiciary with the approval of the Senate (the least representative part of Congress), including the Justices of the members of the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Building 

That body of nine Justices seems to have the last word in determining how this system works, being able to address the meaning of and validity of laws passed by Congress and carried out by the Executive branch.

Let’s look at a roadmap showing the circuitous and indirect route of your vote in selecting these Supreme Court Justices.  It follows a path that begins with your voting for electors every four years who choose the President, (the number of electors being determined by each State’s number of Senators and House Representatives combined), and then continues on to the Senate (not the House of Representatives) where the President’s nominees for judgeships, including those on the Supreme Court, are voted upon.  By quite a stretch, supposedly that’s democracy at work. 

Unfortunately, this system does not reflect the views of the majority of the people due to (1) the intentionally undemocratic nature of the Senate itself and also (2) its role in determining the number of presidential electors each State has.  (Without explaining this in detail, just consider that California with 40,000,000 residents, and Wyoming with less than 600,000 residents, each have two Senators.)  This 'thumb on the scale' in the Senate is reflected in both the composition of the Electoral College and of the forum where judicial appointments are confirmed. 

It can, and sometimes does, result in the Electoral College electing a president who did not win the ‘popular’ vote and whose judicial nominations are acted on by the Senate, approving judges who would never be approved by the more representative House of Representatives, which has no say on the nominations.  This is  intentional.  Giving two Senate seats to each State, regardless of population, is not representative democracy, and the Supreme Court reflects this, in terms of who is nominated and who is approved. 

Right now, as a result of this Constitutionally prescribed 'thumb on the scale,' we have a Supreme Court, which indeed does have the last word as to how our system of government works, but is a Court that is totally out of touch with a majority of the American people.  That is the way the Constitution defined our government.  The ‘Founding Fathers’ did not fully trust the voters.  In 1789, they had good reason, particularly those who represented, and often themselves were, owners of significant amounts of property, including slaves. They saw what the ‘have-nots’ were doing with their ‘freedom’ across the Atlantic in France.  Do we have similar reasons not to entirely trust democracy today as they did then?  But that is another question.

Long term solutions to repair the Supreme Court’s undemocratic deficiencies, such as increasing its number of Justices or removing that 'thumb from the scale,' changing the Constitution’s ‘two seats for each State’ composition of the Senate would take years to even attempt to accomplish. 

For the present, then, that leaves the American people with only one thing that they can do about this power given by the Constitution to the Supreme Court and that is to show their displeasure with them.

Their very unpopular decision overturning a woman’s right to abortion as established by Roe vs. Wade half a century ago spotlights this issue and gives the public a grand opportunity to do precisely that. 

If every elected official who fails to denounce the Supreme Court’s Dobbs vs. Jackson decision, which repealed Roe vs. Wade, were to be defeated on November 8, perhaps the Supreme Court would get the message.  A massive turnout of women voters from the Atlantic to the Pacific might just accomplish that!

Most Americans, other than six Supreme Court Justices, recognize that no judge or government official (or as in Texas, any interested citizen) should be able to interfere with private medical decisions made between patients and their doctors.  While our system is designed so that Supreme Court Justices are isolated from such popular opinion and pressures, who knows what would happen in the face of such a massive outpouring of voters disagreeing with them. 

IF PUSHED TO ANSWER THE QUESTION, MOST REPUBLICAN OFFICEHOLDERS AND CANDIDATES WILL ADMIT TO SUPPORTING THE REPEAL OF  ROE vs. WADE, even if only to get the votes of the minority who sincerely supported repeal.  

THESE REPUBLICANS MUST BE DEFEATED!

They enable and represent minority rule, which must not be allowed to be dominant in a representative democracy.  They must not be allowed to get away with it!   IT IS AN ISSUE THAT MUST BE USED AGAINST THEM, SPEARHEADED BY ATTACKING THEIR SUPPORT OF THE REPEAL OF ROE vs WADE! 

Failing to defeat them opens the door for such minority rule to change the acceptance of same-sex marriage, contraception, LGBTQ rights, and interracial marriage, all made possible through Supreme Court decisions that are now as vulnerable as it turns out that Roe vs. Wade was.  A Supreme Court which treats the doctrine of ‘stare decisis’ (basing decisions on precedent) so lightly is to be feared.

You must voice your opinion on November 8. Massively! 

JL

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America Afloat 

 

(A poem that is always worth repeating in these blog postings. To learn more, visit this blog's posting of July 30, 2022, accessible from the Archives off to the right.)       JL

 

 

 

America Afloat

Jack Lippman

The greatness of America

Is that it does survive

Attacks upon democracy

Whose flame it keeps alive.

 

The laws that blossom from the words

The Founding Fathers wrote

Still serve us well today to keep

America afloat.

 

This doesn’t happen by itself,

We cannot wish it true,

The bottom line, my friends, is that

It all depends on you.

 JL                        

  

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Have You Forwarded This Blog Posting? 

 

That’s Not Enough!

09-07-2022 - Election Reminder, Biden's Sept. 1 TV Coverage, Name a Country Game, Fourteenth Amendment, and Student Loans

 

Election Day Reminder

It is nine weeks to Election Day. Now is time for you to make your decision as to how you will vote:

Ø  Early voting at limited locations,

Ø  by mail, or 

Ø  at the polls on Election Day. 

Don’t wait.  Decide now.  And remind your friends and relatives to do the same.  For those who are not registered to vote, October 11 is the final deadline.  Help those who need help to register!  The Election Supervisor’s (Palm Beach County) telephone number is (561) 656 6200.

65(6566561) 656-6200 | (561) 656-6200 |

I will be voting (by mail) for Charlie Crist for governor and Val Demings for Senator.  Make your own decision but that is what I recommend.  I will be voting for the rest of the Democratic candidates on the ballot as well because, especially in the State legislature, Republicans do not represent the majority of the people of Florida.  Too many Florida Republicans still support the defeated former president.  Getting down to specific issues, DeSantis, Rubio, and both House of the Legislature do not represent the views of the majority of Floridians in these vital areas:

Ø  the State’s intrusion into personal medical decisions made between women and their doctors, 

Ø  real legislation to reduce gun violence, and 

Ø  guaranteeing voting rights to persons of color, which are under constant Republican attack through gerrymandering and purely political appointments. 

Oh, there are many other issues, including the Florida governor’s trashing of the First Amendment, but these three are the crucial ones, the things that will motivate voters.

Mark your calendars.  Speak to your friends and relatives.  Nine weeks remain and that isn’t very much time to mobilize the votes of women and persons of color, as well as others, who are specifically victimized by Republican positions.

JL

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Coverage of the President's September 1 Speech

While the traditional broadcast networks (ABC, CBS. NBC, Fox) did not carry the President’s September 1 address, pointing out the need for all Americans to rise to the occasion of defending our democracy against those presently attacking it, the ‘news’ channels did.   Between them, MSNBC and CNN had 3.91 million viewers of Biden’s speech. Add to these whatever PBS had and let's call it about 4 million.

Meanwhile, FoxSnooze carried the speech but with the President's voice muted, substituted by a running commentary by semi-fascist Tucker Carlson, drawing 2.89 million viewers, more than either MSNBC or CNN individually drew.  That is a bad sign, reflecting on the American public.  Carlson wins the Josef Goebbels Award for excellence in propaganda for this charade.  (He skipped accepting the prize, a swastika armband because one possibly is already tattooed on his upper arm.)  

That the regular broadcast networks that chose not to carry the speech drew larger audiences than saw it on the news networks confirms the fact that they are in business to make money and don't give a damn about the public service aspect which supposedly came along with their being given access to the airwaves. 

JL

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The United States of America is a Wonderful Country 

Can you name a country where a former president who behaved as our defeated former president has (without evidence, disputing the results of the election which he clearly lost, inciting violence to disrupt a peaceful transition of the presidency, stealing classified government documents to take with him) would not by now be either dead, imprisoned, hospitalized, under indictment, under house arrest, in exile, or strangely absent from all news media as if he never existed?  Name one.  Try hard. 

The United States of America is a wonderful country!  Smokers, helmetless bikers, seatbelt shunners, and the unvaccinated love it here, almost as much as liars in the media, the courts, the marketplace, and of course, in politics.  We have the freedoms to believe, and engage in, all kinds of crap.  I still believe that is a good thing.  

JL

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14^th Amendment – Section 3

It reads: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

A federal judge in New Mexico just threw a county commissioner out of office. He had participated in the January 6 rioting at the Capitol, which the judge considered to be a violation of the Constitution’s clause quoted above.

 JL

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A Solution – Student Loan Forgiveness

I may have criticized this in an earlier posting, but I do have a solution!  Here's the ‘tweaking’ the President’s Student Loan Forgiveness proposal needs to make it more palatable.  I feel that It is necessary because most Americans either won’t accept nor understand the Administration’s argument that providing benefits for one type of borrower while ignoring others is no different than the way that tax legislation sometimes benefits those with investment income over those who just earn salaries. That’s too much of a stretch for most to swallow.  Here is what I recommend:

Allow those who have either paid off their student loans or whose loans under their terms are considered as ‘paid off,’ and whose income falls within the tight limits indicated in the proposal, to share in its benefit by being given an annual tax deduction broken down and stretched out over the next dozen years or so, adding up to no more than that same $10,000 or $20,000 ‘forgiveness’ (depending on type of loan) being made available to those still paying loans off. 

Sure, this will add to the proposal’s cost, but stretching it out over twelve years will make it much easier to fund.  Will that make everybody happy and take an argument out of the hands of Republicans? 

 JL

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Enough preaching to the choir.  Get out there and make sure you work to turn out a massive vote to save American democracy on Nov. 8.  That is what is at stake.

Remember that we are a government dependent upon the ‘rule of law’ and the documents on which laws are based.  Any political party that is willing to trade that for the comfort of having confidence in and dependence upon an absolute ‘leader’ (the *Germans call him a ‘Fuhrer') is giving up democracy and should never be trusted at any level of government, even as your local dog catcher.  That pretty much describes today’s sorry remnant of the Republican Party.   

*(Years ago, when I attended a concert in Germany, the 'usher' who led me to my seat wore a cap emblazoned 'Fuhrer,' his job being to lead people to their proper place.  That's fine in a theatre, but not in a democracy where all 'seating' is in the unreserved 'general admission' section.)

All Republicans, from local dog catchers on up to those who appoint and confirm judges, are infected with anti-democratic poisons. Too many support the 'big lie' and oppose abortion rights! The only antidote is the ballot. And local and state elections may be more important than federal ones.  Republican successes have proven that!  Democrats must learn from that!

Get to work. Now. Today. There’s a lot you can do.  Sign up to knock on doors, make phone calls, send emails or texts, send postal cards, show up at demonstrations.  Make donations.  If you need help, get started by contacting your local Democratic party, even if you’re not a Democrat. Do Something!

Now!  Today!  This minute!

 JL

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America Afloat 

 

(A poem that is always worth repeating in these blog postings. To learn more, visit this blog's posting of July 30, 2022, accessible from the Archives off to the right.)       JL

 

 

 

America Afloat

 Jack Lippman

 The greatness of America

Is that it does survive

Attacks upon democracy

Whose flame it keeps alive.

 

The laws that blossom from the words

The Founding Fathers wrote

Still serve us well today to keep

America afloat.

 

This doesn’t happen by itself,

We cannot wish it true,

The bottom line, my friends, is that

It all depends on you.

 

 JL                      

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                 That’s Not Enough!