10-24-2022 - Voting Reminder plus Two Halloween Stories, Assault Rifles, Evil Thinkers, and Some Statistics

 

Fifteen Days to Election Day! 

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It matters not if you vote by mail, at an early voting location or on Election Day. The important thing is that you … 

                                                                            Vote

Please Forward this Blog posting to your friends, relatives, and neighbors, or direct them to visit https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com. 

 

As I have repeatedly pointed out, there are many important things at stake in this election:   

1. The right of women to choose an abortion, 

2. Keeping military-type weapons out of civilian hands, 

3. Guaranteeing voting rights to all Americans, and most of all, 

4. the preservation of American democracy!  

Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress are needed.  Your votes are crucial!  The votes of women and persons of color may decide the future direction of America.  Vote!

JL

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TWO GHOST STORIES FOR HALLOWEEN

With Halloween coming up, it’s time for ‘horror stories.’  Here’s one I wrote a dozen years ago that is set in the ‘over 55’ community in which I live in Floriduh.

Sergeant O’Toole

Jack Lippman

“Sarge, it’s the middle of fall already, and up north, we call weather like this the ‘dog days of summer.’ It’s August weather at the end of October! Boy, I’m hot and itchy.”

The lanky sergeant looked disdainfully at his companion on the wagon as it bumped its way, pulled by four tired mules, along the old military trail that ran down the east coast of Florida. It was 1903, five years after the Spanish-American War, but the government still felt the forts running up and down the Florida peninsula had to be maintained and supplied, to protect the country’s southern flank.

“Sarge,” the young soldier continued. “When are we going to get to Fort Lauderdale? I sure could use a real bed for a change instead of camping in the woods along here every night, with all of the bugs and snakes and things out there.”

“Shut up, soldier,” the obviously irritated sergeant replied. “We’re going to camp around here tonight, clean up the wagon, rest the mules and maybe get to Lauderdale tomorrow. Now shut your damn mouth and stop your bitching about everything. We might as well stop right now, so you can get started feeding them mules and tying down the cargo. Move it, soldier. And stop calling me ‘Sarge’! You call me Sergeant O’Toole, you hear, none of this ‘Sarge’ crap, anymore.”

And as he pulled the wagon to a stop, Sergeant O’Toole raised his bullwhip, usually reserved for use with the mules, and flicked its lash out across the young soldier’s back, as he was dismounting. The soldier screamed with pain and turned to face the sergeant.

“You dumb bastard! Why did you do that? Get down from the wagon, Sarge, and fight like a man, if you are one.”

The infuriated sergeant raised the bullwhip again and sent it screaming through the air, wrapping its lash around the soldier’s arm and shoulder, throwing him to the ground.

“That’ll teach you to give me some respect, soldier,” he called out as he climbed down from the wagon. But he never saw the soldier rise, turn, and aim his Springfield rifle directly at his stomach, which, as the fiery round of steel tore into it, spurt forth blood and innards in several directions simultaneously.

The mules bolted and tore off into the woods, dragging the wagon behind them. The soldier dug a shallow hole and buried the still warm body of Sergeant Timothy O’Toole in the sandy Florida soil, and hiked eastward, eventually reaching the ocean near the village of Boynton, where he found a job and settled down, quite correctly figuring the Army would never find him.

A century later, Sue and Sam Pincus were lying awake in bed in their Cascade Lakes home.

“Sam,” Sue asked. “Do you feel … I don’t know … sort of funny tonight? You know I’ve gotten up about three times already and looked through the house. I’ve been hearing, I think, noises. Almost as if we had a break-in and someone is in here with us, but everything is locked and the alarm didn’t go off. Sam, I swear something is wrong, but I don’t know what.”

Raising himself up on his elbows, he muttered, “Then, it’s not just me. I can’t sleep either. I can’t put my finger on it, but something weird is going on. Feel my hands, honey.”

“They’re ice cold,” she replied, “but mine are too. Let’s get up and see if we can find out what’s the matter. I’ll make some coffee.”

But they didn’t have time to get out of the bedroom. Bursting through the bedroom doorway, in filthy, dirt-covered rags, with disheveled hair flying in all directions, came a ponderous hulk, which because it had a head, arms and legs, appeared to be a man. And in its mid-section, a gaping wound, still spewing gore, dripped blood onto the rug. In his right hand was a bullwhip, which the creature was swinging around the room in whistling ellipses. And from his throat, there came a rasping moan.

“A hundred years, and Sergeant O'Toole ain’t dead yet, despite this hole in my guts … but at least I was at rest where that bastard buried me alive … until you put this damn house on top of where I lay. For years I crawled from my grave at night to get what to eat, and you covered it all with a concrete slab. Have you no respect for me? A hundred years, and Sergeant O’Toole ain’t dead yet!”

With that he snapped the whip again, its tongue curling painfully around Sam’s leg. The pain was excruciating.

Sam screamed, and sat up in bed. Sue screamed too, and grabbed her husband and held him, as the first rays of morning sun crept into the house.

“Hold me close, Sam, I’m frightened.”

“There’s no one here to be frightened of anymore, Sue. I must have had a nightmare,” he said.

“Come off of it, Sam,” Sue said. “Let me look at your leg, because I think we were both having the same nightmare. And you’re right. Whoever, or whatever was here is gone now. I can feel it.”

The red welt around Sam’s ankle was clearly visible.

“I must have tied my shoelaces too tightly yesterday,” he said. Let’s leave it at that, Sue. Okay”?

“Sam, all you ever wear are loafers! But all right, Sam, we’ll leave it at that.”

Two weeks later, the real estate agent told them they could get a great price for their house, looked at them curiously and suggested that they had better get the bloodstains off of the rug in the bedroom before she brought any prospective buyers around.

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And now that the mood is set, here’s another for your ‘Halloween’ enjoyment.  It’s a bit ‘educational’ (read the footnotes) but it does indeed involve a ghost.

 

A Ghost of a Chance   (With Apologies to Bill Shakespeare)

Jack Lippman

“It’s fine with me, but there are consequences,” she responded to Claude’s¹ suggestion.

They had been lovers on the sly for years.  It had started shortly after she married his older brother and realized, after only a few months, that she had made a great mistake in her choice of which one of the King² brothers to marry.

“Gertie³, I hate him as much as you do.  But believe me, if anything happened to him, no one would ever suspect us.  We’re his family!  What are you worrying about? In fact, let me tell you why I came to see you today. It’s about our plan and what I have to say may make you feel a little better about it.  I’ve gotten my hands on some new kind of poison that is absolutely undetectable and untraceable.  Something the CIA developed, but even they’re hesitant to use.  My source guarantees that even the latest autopsy techniques will confirm that he died of a sudden heart attack. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Wonderful, but even if no one suspects that something rotten⁴ went on, won’t we have it on our consciences forever … what we did I mean?”

Claude smiled at her.  “Come on, Gertie.  Did you ever lose any sleep over what we did in his bed every time he went out of town?  Why are you so worried, anyway?”

“The kid,” she answered.  He loves his Dad. Hamilton⁵ and his father are much closer than he is toward me, what with Little League, camping trips, teaching him how to hunt and all that kind of stuff.  With that father-son bonding, I just don’t know how he’ll take his best pal’s sudden death.  I really don’t want to hurt him, and this will.”

“Don’t worry about it.  He’s young.  He’ll get over it.”

“I hope so, but he’s such a sensitive boy.  He dreams⁶ a lot.”

“But he’s a big boy now, Gertie.  Away at college now, anyway.  When we call him with the sad news, he’ll come running home.  In fact, the shock may wake him up to the realities of life and turn him into a better man.  And as for him suspecting anything, I don’t think there’s a ghost⁷ of a chance of that happening.”

So they did it, and it worked out just as Claude had envisioned it.  The family mourned appropriately, some more sincerely than others. The couple were married a year later, and although they were not Jewish, what they did was not unlike the ancient Hebrew tradition of an unmarried brother being obligated to wed his deceased brother’s widow.

Hamilton graduated from college, receiving a Bachelors’ degree in theatre arts, and then went into the Army with an ROTC commission.  One evening about a year later while he was home on leave, he had joined his mother and stepfather for dinner.

After coffee and danish⁸, he took a deep breath and asked, “Do you guys have any plans for this Saturday evening?”

They didn’t and they told him so.

“Great,” he said.  “A buddy of mine from school has written a play⁹ and it’s running right now and getting some really nice reviews at an off-Broadway theatre.   He’s given me three front row tickets for Saturday evening.  It’s kind of spooky⁷, but still you might enjoy it.  We can all go, the three of us.  Okay?”

Gertie and Claude were quick to agree. Hamilton kissed them both, embracing his mother with unusual warmth, and left. 

“Ah, yes,” he thought as he walked down the steps of their East Side brownstone, “I hope that I’m wrong, but I can’t wait to see what they think of the play I wrote.” 

On Saturday evening, an ashen-faced Claude stalked out of the theatre in the middle of the first act, with Gertie following closely behind him.  The hollowness in her eyes, which she took pains to avert from her son’s view, made words unnecessary. 

Within a few weeks, Hamilton had avenged his father’s murder, but most sadly, in doing so, lost his own life as well.

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The following footnotes are intended for those who may not be familiar with the plot of “Hamlet.”

1     Claude = Claudius, King of Denmark

2     King brothers – They were indeed a “royal” family

3     Gertie = Gertrude, Queen of Denmark and Hamlet’s mother

4     Something “rotten” went on – “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (Act 1, Scene 4)

5     Hamilton = Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

6     Hamlet was indeed a dreamer.  See his soliloquy. “To sleep, perchance to dream: Ay, there’s the rub” (Act 3, Scene 1)

7     “Ghost of a chance” and “kind of spooky” comments allude to when his father’s ghost tells Hamlet of the murder (Act 1, Scene 5)

8     What else would the royal family of Denmark have for dessert?  

9. “Written a play” comment alludes to the play Hamlet staged for Claudius and Gertrude, duplicating the ghost’s description of the murder.  “The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” are the concluding words of Act 2.   

   JL

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Shame on Evil Thinkers

The  motto surrounding the emblem of England’s order of the Garter reads ‘Honni soit que mal y pense.’  That translates from the French as ‘Shame on those who think evil of it.’  That motto should be affixed, at least in our minds, to the Declaration of Independence and to the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States.  This might move the Supreme Court to think carefully about how it interprets the Constitution and its Amendments.

JL

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Statistical Report

I alert about 55 email recipients whenever I send out a new posting of Jackspotpourri.  With luck, perhaps 25 bother the check out the new posting.  (I am a realist.)   Each of those that do is asked to forward the posting to others.  Most do not, but some do.  The week before last was a typical week, during which approximately 197 people in the United States checked out Jackspotpourri. 

While a few ended up there in the course of a google search, most accessed it as a result of my emails.  Here is a summary of last week’s ‘hits’ on the blog.

First of all, for some strange reason, 243 of them were from computers located in Vietnam.  This has never happened before and probably will not happen again.  Things like this occasionally happen.  Discounting them, along with about 60 ‘hits’ from other locations outside of the United States, notably including 21 from Russia, leaves about 190 ‘hits’ in the United States resulting from the two postings of the blog during that period.  These numbers, provided by Google, may not be precise, but they are pretty accurate.

I conclude that perhaps 50 of them are from those alerted to the postings by my emails twice during this period.  That means that about 140 are the result of their forwarding the blog directly to others or directing them to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com to read it.  Some these 140 may be the result of those to whom you might have forwarded it, sending it on to others!

Thank you all for helping to get my messages out.  Considering that the blog is usually posted twice a week, it could mean that a significant number of newer readers are accessing it, many who got there by it having been forwarded to them!  That’s all I ask.  And your help in accomplishing that is truly appreciated.  Thank you.

JL

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Please Forward this Blog posting to your friends, relatives, and neighbors, or direct them to visit https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com

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Two Good Reasons to Buy Assault Rifles 

and Two Bad ones

There are four reasons for a civilian to purchase an assault rifle, be in an AR15 or version of it.  These weapons are not intended for hunting nor for self-defense, unless one is hunting an entire herd of game or whose home is being attacked by a regiment.  They are intended for military use, the word ‘assault’ being self-descriptive.

A civilian might want one if (1) they are a collector of weapons, as some people collect stamps, (2) they intend to shoot it at targets at a legitimate target shooting range, (3) they intend to use it in an attempt to overthrow our government, or (4) they intend to use it to murder as many innocent people as possible as quickly as possible.

Only two of these reasons are legitimate.  The other two are criminal.  The Second Amendment was not intended to benefit such criminals despite the misguided opinions of a Supreme Court that chooses to ignore its first thirteen words, reducing its credibility tremendously and making it complicit in many murders carried out with such weapons.   

JL

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Okay, To How Many People Have You Forwarded This Blog Posting? 

 

    That’s Not Enough!

    https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com

Go for a half dozen more!

 

 

10-18-2022 - Reasons to Vote, Infected Law Enforcement and 'Fumbles'

 

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Twenty-One Days to Election Day!

This is not only an election between Democrats and Republicans.  It is an election between those who threaten the existence of democracy in the United States and those who are fighting to preserve it.  Those who threaten democracy have hijacked the Republican Party and are using it to mask their authoritarian, autocratic, programs.

But there are plenty of other reasons to vote for Democrats, aside from preserving government of the people, by the people, and, for the people:

•        If you support the right of a woman to choose to have an abortion, or
•      If you support increased gun control measures to reduce the frequency of mass murders, or
•      If you support a broadening, not a narrowing, of access to voting for all Americans, regardless of race or ethnicity,

Your choice is a simple one.  

In Florida, Governor DeSantis, Senator Rubio, and almost all Republican legislators in Congress and State legislatures OPPOSE these things.  Democrats, like Val Demings and Charlie Crist SUPPORT them.

(And if you are not a Florida voter, the same kinds of simple choices will be on your ballot in your State.)

But preserving democracy in the United States is the basic reason why you should only vote for Democrats and get your like-minded friends and relatives to do the same.  Please remember that a vote for any Republican who does not denounce the defeated former president, in any election whatsoever, is actually a vote for the replacement of democracy with the authoritarian rule he represents.  Republican opposition to the three issues I mention are only the beginning of their strategy to replace democracy with an autocracy.

IMPORTANT!  They Play by Their Own Rules.

It is very clear that those opposed to democracy in this country, when they cannot win elections legitimately, make claims of 'election fraud' and when they cannot support them with evidence, claim the right to disregard any election results with which they disagree.

American democracy has traditionally accepted a measure of such lunacy as something to live with, like one's screwball uncle who mouths off at Thanksgiving dinner and whom everyone ignores, but when it results in the nation's second largest political party supporting the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kari Lake, we are in big trouble.  

In the end, such ‘lunatic’ candidacies, successful or not, can only speed the pendulum reaching the end of its rightward swing and once again beginning its swing back seeking political equilibrium. Voters like you and me must make that happen this year.  Now! Otherwise, we will have a long wait, perhaps a generational one, for the swing back to occur.

Right now, however, American democracy is being threatened!  Saving it is up to you, and you, and you.

JL

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Please Forward this Blog posting to your friends, relatives, and neighbors.  Or simply direct them to  https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com

It matters not if they vote by mail, at an early voting location or on Election Day.  The important thing is that they …

                                Vote

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Law Enforcement Giving Insurrectionists a Pass?

Saturday’s posting on Jackspotpourri alerted you to the fact that some in law enforcement, specifically the FBI and the Secret Service, supported the January 6 insurrectionists sufficiently to stand idly by, or delay their response to that occurrence.  That is becoming bigger and bigger news this week.  Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI Assistant Director for Counter-intelligence, whom I suggested was the person to take charge of what appears to have been a corrupted Secret Service, addressed that in an MSNBC column this weekend.  He has no ax to grind and I have high regard for him.  His column follows:

 

Oct. 15, 2022

By Frank Figliuzzi, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

'Days after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, Steven D’Antuono, the head of the FBI’s Washington field office, said the FBI had no intelligence that suggested there would be anything that day but a lawful pro-Trump rally. Six months later, FBI Director Christopher Wray reiterated the claim when he told Congress that the agency he leads had had no specific “intelligence indicating that hundreds and hundreds of people were going to breach the Capitol complex.”

Did our law enforcement and intelligence agencies fumble the ball? Or was their failure more akin to intentional grounding?

But at Thursday’s hearing of the House Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., touted “evidence that President Trump was aware of the risk of violence” and that “the FBI, U.S. Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police and other agencies all gathered and disseminated intelligence suggesting the possibility of violence at the Capitol prior to the riot.”

The Biden administration should be demanding answers. Did the leaders of our nation’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies fumble the ball that day? Or was their failure to prevent violence more akin to intentional grounding? Without substantive answers from agency leaders many of us will be left to conclude that there was a willful blindness to the signs that were staring them in the face. Was there institutional sympathy for the rioters’ cause? Were there orders from higher-ups to downplay the available intelligence? Do existing guidelines and laws constrain robust collection and investigation of domestic terror threats? If the premier agencies in federal law enforcement are to maintain credibility, they must be transparent with the public they depend upon and protect.

The FBI is the nation’s primary counterterrorism agency, and Schiff said Thursday that “days before Jan. 6, the president's senior advisers at the Department of Justice and FBI, for example, received an intelligence summary that included material indicating that certain people traveling to Washington were making plans to attack the Capitol. This summary noted online calls to occupy federal buildings, rhetoric about invading the Capitol building and plans to arm themselves and to engage in political violence at the event.”

The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for approving and disseminating critical intelligence to state and local law enforcement. But according to a March 4 report from the DHS inspector general, DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis “identified specific threat information related to the events on Jan. 6, 2021, but did not issue any intelligence products about these threats until Jan. 8, 2021." That report also found that "the Field Operations Division (FOD) considered issuing intelligence products on at least three occasions prior to Jan. 6, 2021, but FOD did not disseminate any such products ultimately. It is unclear why FOD failed to disseminate these products."

Despite what they knew, neither the FBI nor the DHS prepared a disseminable threat assessment for the January Electoral Collage vote ratification or for the rally on the Ellipse.

As for the agency whose paramount mission is to protect the president and vice president of the United States, Schiff said, the committee has obtained “nearly 1 million emails, recordings and other electronic records from the Secret Service.” He said that “As early as Dec. 26, Secret Service officials were sharing one tipster’s warnings about extremist groups coming to the Capitol with murderous plans. ‘They think they will have a large enough group to march into D.C. armed and will outnumber the police so they can’t be stopped,’ the tip read. ‘Their plan is to literally kill people,’ the tipster wrote. ‘Please, please take this tip seriously and investigate further.’”T. 13, 202201:51

Previous reporting revealed the Secret Service learned on Parler of a threat against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Jan. 4 but did not let the Capitol Police know about it until 5:55 p.m. on Jan. 6, when police officers had already been fighting the rioters for hours and some rioters had posted photos from inside Pelosi’s office.

Then there’s the Defense Department, the agency responsible for authorizing deployment of the District of Columbia National Guard. According to testimony to the committee from Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, there were calls among the top brass to discuss planning for Jan. 6, and Thursday, Schiff referred to a call with President Trump's White House National Security staff in early January 2021 wherein: “Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist warned about the potential that the Capitol would be the target of the attack."

It's important that the committee provide us a play-by-play analysis of what went wrong across these agencies.

But when Jan. 6 arrived, our law enforcement and intelligence agencies and our military operated like a football team that had ignored the scouting report on its opponent. The FBI, Homeland Security, Secret Service and Defense Department seemed outnumbered and unprepared on Jan. 6. Before its time runs out, it’s important that the committee provide us a play-by-play analysis of what went wrong across these agencies and offer solid recommendations on how to avoid a repeat of that colossal failure.

There’s a difference between losing by clumsily dropping the ball and willfully throwing the game. If the government failure was a fumble caused by outdated policies, inadequate laws and authorities, or insufficient collection and dissemination, then those weaknesses need to get fixed. But if this was a refusal to play to win, that is, a decision to let the opponent have its way, then we’ll need some new players in key positions.'

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All that I can say is 'Wow!'  I would hope the Department of Justice is aware of what may be government enforcers of our laws who put political loyalty ahead of their oaths to defend the Constitution.  What Frank Figliuzzi wrote cannot be ignored.  

JL

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And since Frank Figliuzzi uses football terminology in talking about what some agencies may or may not have done on January 6, let’s stick with that sport for a bit.  

(I had started preparing the following item a couple of weeks ago, but feel free to see it as somewhat allegorical, going along with what Frank Figliuzzi currently writes.)

JL

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Street Brawls on the Gridiron

Is the tackler going for the ball carrier or the ball?

The skill of offenses in college and professional football is wonderful to watch.  Quarterbacks throw passes with unbelievable precision. Receivers pull them out of the air as if they were basketball centers. Running backs are not only speedy but able to dance their way through would-be tacklers.  Offensive linemen are very proficient in defending passers and making pathways for the running backs.

Defenses, on the other hand, have a hard time keeping up with such accomplishments.  Unfortunately, their efforts to do so amount to playing ‘rougher’ and what appears to be ‘dirtier’ as well. Officiating seems to recognize this with more frequent penalties for ‘targeting’ (using one’s helmet as a weapon), grabbing a facemask, horse-collar tackling, pass interference, and simply ‘unnecessary roughness.’ The more that such penalties are called, the more the game suffers.

Incidental to this are the numbers of players limping off of the field or even being carted away in many games, both collegiate and professional.  You don’t see that in soccer (what the rest of the world calls ‘football’), rugby, lacrosse, hockey, basketball, and other sports where physical contact can occur.  Nor do you see opposing players routinely snarling at each other after a play, ready to swing fists, unable to separate blocking and tackling from what amounts to street brawling.  

Right now, if it were up to me, to start off with, I would make one recommendation. It would further aid offenses and weaken what passes today for defenses, but I feel it would be an overall benefit to the game.  It concerns fumbles.

I am disgusted by the number of fumbles caused by defensive players not simply tackling runners, but specifically attempting to dislodge the ball from the ball carrier’s (or pass receiver’s) grip to the extent that doing so is more important than making the tackle itself.  I know that is what they are instructed to do by their coaches, but a player’s losing control of a ball and dropping or fumbling it is not the same as it being ripped out of his grip. Having slippery fingers or losing control of the ball due to being shaken by a tackle are not the same as being victimized, amounting to being legally mugged on the football field.  Instead of a purse or a wallet being snatched, it’s the football.

I would recommend that there be a 15-yard penalty, and an automatic first down, every time a camera or an official’s eye detects a defender’s hand touching the football in a tackle that results in a fumble, and this goes for a tackle of a receiver who had just successfully caught a pass, as well. 

As for a quarterback, or any other passer who might fumble the ball, the same rule should apply, but also, any fumble resulting from a tackle while a passer’s arm is raised with one hand keeping the ball out of a tackler’s reach, not necessarily in the motion of starting to throw a pass as is the present rule, should not be recoverable by the defensive team.

Another situation that sorely needs to be clarified is pass interference, both offensive and defensive, but that we’ll leave for another day, along with the ‘transfer portal’ which is the greatest single threat to college football today.

JL

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        To How Many People Have You Forwarded This Blog Posting? 

 

   That’s Not Enough!

       Send it to five or six more. Forward it or direct them to visit            https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com

 

 

 

10-15-2022 - The Select Committee's Work, Medicare and an Election in 24 Days

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In Regard to the Upcoming Election, in Only 24 Days:

• If you support the right of a woman to choose to have an abortion, or 

• If you support increased gun control measures to reduce the frequency of mass murders, or 

• If you support a broadening, not a narrowing, of access to voting for all Americans, regardless of race or ethnicity, In Floriduh, your choice is a simple one. 

Democrats like Val Demings and Charlie Crist SUPPORT these things.

Governor DeSantis, Senator Rubio, and almost all Republican legislators in Congress and State legislatures OPPOSE them.  

(And if you are not a Floriduh voter, the same kinds of simple choices will be on your ballot in your State.) 

That is why you should vote for Democrats and get your like-minded friends and relatives to do the same. Please remember that a vote for any Republican who does not denounce the Defeated Former President, in any election whatsoever, is actually a vote for the replacement of democracy with the authoritarian rule he represents, and a vote against the three items mentioned above.

JL

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Please Pass this Message on to Others!  Send them an email asking them to visit Jackspotpourri!  They can find it at:

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Where the Work of the House Select Committee Leads

Representative Bennie Thompson,
Select Committee Chairman

More significant than the House Select Committee Investigating the January 6 Insurrection authorizing that a subpoena be served on the Defeated Former President to clarify his role in what happened that day, is the fact that some in law enforcement, specifically the FBI and the Secret Service, supported the insurrectionists sufficiently to stand idly by, or delay their response to that occurrence. 

Recall the recent disappearance of the Secret Services’ texting history when a ‘routine maintenance’ instruction ordered the ‘wiping off’ of all earlier messages from employees’ mobile phones right after the January 6 insurrection.  The House Select Committee managed to gather the content of some of these messages by diligent searching elsewhere and it was  frightening.  The Secret Service was aware of the coming insurrection! Was this ‘routine maintenance’ intentionally ordered to eliminate the messages sent during and preceding the January 6 insurrection?

I believe this is currently under investigation by the Select Committee.  If the ‘routine maintenance’ was a ploy to protect Secret Service personnel who supported the insurrection, those responsible should be investigated along with the DFP.  There is a stink about this which suggests that perhaps the Secret Service needs a thorough housecleaning.  I would suggest that former Assistant FBI Director for Counter-intelligence Frank Figliuzzi be put in charge of that agency.  He would show great respect for Secret Service personnel as well as for the rule of law.

As for the subpoena, my guess is that the DFP will ignore it, continue to lie, and continue to delay facing charges for his responsibility for the insurrection.

If he were to testify under oath and exercise his Fifth Amendment right not to respond to avoid possible self-incrimination, his doing so can be taken to infer his guilt and be used against him, because it is a civil matter.  That is why he will ignore the subpoena.  Were it a criminal matter, however, pleading the Fifth Amendment could not be used against him.  Of course, being charged with a crime is the last situation the DFP wants to be in, despite it appearing that is precisely what will eventually happen.

What exactly does someone have to do and how many laws does one have to violate in order for the Department of Justice to take action against them?  In my opinion, the DFP has violated a sufficient number of laws to justify his indictment.  Those who physically violated those laws by attacking the Capitol have been charged, but those who inspired them have not. Will the evidence gathered by the Select Committee for the purpose of recommending legislation, when all of it is provided to the Department of Justice, bring about the indictment of those who did not physically attack the Capitol, but without whose incitement and cooperation, the attack would never have occurred? 

Back in 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr, with British assistance, planned an insurrection that would attempt to break off the western parts of the country.  His ‘troops,’ ready to go into action were quartered on an island in the Ohio River.  Caught red-handed, they were arrested and charged with treason.  Burr also was charged with treason, but since he was not on the spot but at least a hundred miles from the island, he was acquitted.  Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, acting as the chief judge of Virginia, wrote the opinion.  Burr (who also killed Alexander Hamilton in an illegal duel) moved to England but ultimately came back to the United States.

The ambiguity of the language that the DFP consistently uses would seem to enable him to avoid being closely identified with the insurrectionists currently accused of sedition, that is, if Marshall’s reasoning would hold true today.  But I doubt that will happen.

The work of the Select Committee, however, has documented clearly that the DFP did not have to be there to personally oversee the dirty work he convinced, or pressured, others, to carry out.  This includes other government officials who were convinced that the desires of the DFP superseded the rule of law.  They put loyalty to him ahead of loyalty to the country.  This is even worse than the usual Republican position of putting 'party' ahead of 'country.'

Regardless of the results of the November elections, I expect to see the Department of Justice proceed with a grand jury indictment and trial of the DFP, shortly thereafter.  No one is above the law.  (And if for some reason, the indictment is not based on the January 6 insurrection, it can always be based on his theft of government documents where his fingerprints are figuratively, and probably literally as well, all over the place.)

JL

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How We are Privatizing Universal Health Care

Unlike many Western industrialized countries, we are still a long way from having Universal Health Care in this country.  Our government's health insurance programs remain based largely on private insurance companies. The two primary programs, of course, are the Affordable Care Act, and for senior citizens, Medicare.

While coverage provided under the ACA (often pejoratively called Obamacare by those who were against it in the first place) may be significantly subsidized by the government, the providers of access to doctors and hospitals remain private, profit-making insurance companies.  Even the ACA’s subsidies for Medicaid, a program for those with limited income, and which are not accepted by all States (like Floriduh), go to purchase coverage from such private insurers.

When it comes to Medicare (health insurance for seniors), the government is the insurer under Part A (hospital coverage) and under Part B (doctors and other outpatient provider coverages).

Part A is paid for by tax-derived government resources. Part B is paid for to a limited extent by the insured beneficiaries, usually through a deduction from their monthly Social Security checks, varying by income, with the government paying for the rest just as they pay for Part A in its entirety.  The insurers under Part C (Medicare Advantage Plans) and under Part D (Prescriptions) are individual insurance companies or other private organizations. Usually, individual beneficiaries pay for Part D, unless they are bundled with Part C.

Right now, almost 50% of those on Medicare are in Part C plans, which ostensibly provide them with the benefits that Parts A and B cover but instead, provide them privately rather than from the government.

For each subscriber to their plans, Part C insurers receive a fixed annual amount from the government, developed through a rather complicated formula, adjusted by county claim experience (!!) and fueled in part by the government no longer having to come up with (1) the entire cost of Part A benefits and (2) that portion (most of it) of the cost of Part B benefits that the beneficiary’s required payment for Part B doesn’t cover by itself.  In addition, the beneficiaries pay a fee, sometimes ‘zero,’ to join a Part C plan.

The government still collects that Part B premium from those in Part C plans, which aids it in coming up with that per person fixed annual amount, but sometimes, the ‘county experience’ portion of the formula determining that fixed amount allows its deduction from Social Security payments to be reduced or even eliminated.  (That’s why the TV ads for Part C usually ask for a zip code.  These ads, with red, white, and blue trim mimic the government's official Medicare membership ID card and fail to distinguish between Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D by name, just babbling on about 'your Medicare.' when all they are peddling is Part C.  At a minimum, they are misleading.) 

Most Part C plans cover the gaps and many of the deductibles and co-payments which Part A and B contain, making them very appealing to Medicare recipients.  They often include Part D benefits in their packages as well.

This appeal is made possible by the control of Part C Medicare Advantage Plans being given to the private companies offering them, not remaining with the government.   The companies which provide Part C plans are in business to earn a profit. Therefore, to be successful, Part C plans, which may be Health Maintenance Organization (HMOs) or the somewhat costlier Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs), limit the doctors and hospitals that their subscribers may use, and restrict the use of specialists.  That’s the key to their success.  

This is not true of the original Parts A and B, where any physician or hospital in the country that accepts Medicare payment may be used.  One negative aspect of this for those still dependent on Parts A and B for health care is the need to purchase expensive private Medicare Supplement policies to cover some, or all, the gaps, deductibles, and co-payments in Parts A and B. 

The growing number of people selecting Part C for cost reasons seems to suggest that traditional Medicare, government-managed Parts A and B, may not be around forever, and eventually, be totally replaced by Part C.  If they should disappear, that would leave us with a fully privatized health insurance system, since all the other parts of Medicare and the ACA are already privately managed by companies with a profit motive, with the government’s involvement limited to heavily subsidizing and monitoring these profit-oriented companies;  even that latter function as well is often privatized.

This would be a far cry from the concept of a ‘single payor,’ which would be the United States government, for all health benefits.  That is what inspired both Medicare and the Affordable Care Act but was never made a part of either of them. This is because going that route would require higher taxes on businesses and those in the upper-income brackets in order to pay for the programs.

Guess whose fault that is.

JL

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