About Me

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BOYNTON BEACH, FL, United States
Jack is a graduate of Rutgers University where he majored in history. His career in the life and health insurance industry involved medical risk selection and brokerage management. Retired in Florida since 2001 after many years in NJ and NY, widowed since 2010, he occasionally writes, paints, plays poker, participates in play readings and is catching up on Shakespeare, Melville and Joyce, etc.

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

August 13, 2025 - Fear, Advice for Democrats, Sleepless Dictators, ‘Dragons,’ and Switching Newspapers

 

                                                        * * * 
The Politics of Fear




The following piece appeared in the New Yorker magazine’ ‘Talk of the Town,’ recently. The author is that magazine’s editor, David Remnick. It describes how the President has always used ‘fear’ as one of his tools. Remnick points out that “As a Presidential candidate, Donald Trump made his world view plain: there was ‘us’ and there was ‘them’ and that once he was in the White House, the fear factor would prevail.”  To read it, and I strongly recommend that you do, CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/11/the-politics-of-fear on your device’s browser line. 

For those who are among ‘them,’ it should sound familiar and for those who believe they are among Trump’s ‘us,’ it offers an awakening. 

JL 

                                                     * * * 

Bet You Never Heard of Mike Nellis

A course of action for Democrats is offered by Mike Nellis in his postings. Copy and paste https://endlessurgency.com/ on your browser line or CLICK HERE.

 Mike is a long time Democratic strategist who pulls no punches and urges voters not to let Trump define the issues. Here is the final paragraph of a recent posting from that site: 
  ‘Trump wants the election about crime, safety, and immigration—his turf. We win when it’s about the economy, inflation, and how his policies make life harder. Don’t let Trump dictate the terms. That’s how we lost in 2016 and 2024. He couldn’t pull it off in 2020 because COVID swallowed everything—and he botched it spectacularly. We can’t wait for a crisis to save us again. Eyes on the ball. Stay focused. Stay grounded. Win on the things that actually touch people’s lives and mirror their lived experience.’ 

A coach’s advice: No matter how good your defense is, you need an effective offense to score touchdowns. Don’t count on an interception or a fumble. 

JL

                                                   * * * 

Why I Switched My Local Paper 
(You should get one delivered at your doorstep every day) 

Some of you, perhaps, have noticed a difference in the tone of Jackspotpourri over the past year of so. The columnists quoted are not quite the same, for example. I have at last taken steps to remedy this situation. Sort of.  Let me explain. 

Twenty-three years ago when we retired to Florida, I subscribed to the Palm Beach Post when a ‘bargain’ subscription was offered.  With rare exception, I have maintained that subscription for almost a quarter of a century, being quite satisfied with the Post, that is until lately. 

All newspapers are suffering these days, many failing or being acquired by national chains. Their local staffs are reduced and their resources are limited. The Post went this route ultimately becoming part of the Gannett organization, whose main publication is USA Today. But believe me, USA Today is not the New York Times. 

The cracks first appeared in their sports coverage. They covered the Miami Dolphins with several lengthy articles in every issue, even off-season. Baseball news, including the local Miami Marlins, was usually absent from the Post’s sports pages. Their sports editor advised me that there were not enough Marlins fans in its area and it was not worth assigning a reporter on them. 

The straw that broke the camel’s back was the Post’s reporting on the Marlins recent three game sweep of the New York Yankees, following a five game winning streak, by publishing a piece from a USA Today/Gannett affiliate in northern New Jersey merely reporting on the the Yankees poor performance in Florida. The Post’s sports editor told me he did not have the personnel to cover the Marlins and the USA Today/Gannett ‘Yankee’ story was the only article available to him ‘on the wire.’ 

Most local newspapers do not have the staff to report on everything that happens but share the resources of agencies like the Associated Press to broaden their coverage. That’s where ‘the wire’ comes in.  Well over a thousand newspapers participate in providing articles to the AP and the ability to share what the AP makes available ‘on its wire.’ 

Here’s the bad news. Gannett and their USA Today family, including the Palm Beach Post, withdrew from the Associated Press in March of 2024. 

That is when the deterioration of the Post began, with broader news coverage affected and some regular columnists disappearing. This limited the basic outside ‘wire’ to which the Post had access to the other Gannett publications, and a relationship with a relatively small Reuters link, good for international news, and some small independent ‘opinion’ agencies, like ‘Outside Sources.’

Basically, a subscription to the Palm Beach Post became a subscription to USA Today plus local high school sports, the Miami Dolphins, local editorials and news stories, and a link to the Palm Beach News, a paper aimed at the socialites on Palm Beach island. That’s why the Post has lost me as a subscriber. 

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (owned by the Chicago Tribune) still remains part of the Associated Press family and because of that alone, is a far better newspaper than the Post, at least for me. 

Although based in Fort Lauderdale, the Sun-Sentinel does a good job reporting on news from Palm Beach County, especially its southern part which was sometimes given a back seat by the Post. The Sun-Sentinel is now delivered to my doorstep daily. 

JL 

                                                         * * * 
Look Up in the Sky Tonight for Meteors 

Late at night this week, when there is a minimum of artificial light, away from the moon, and an absence of clouds, is the best time to watch for the annual Perseid Meteor Shower.  Around August 13, they should be at their best with about one a minute visible. 

JL 
                                                          * * * 

Why Dictators Sleep Poorly

When a country’s elected Chief Executive assumes dictatorial powers, dominating the judicial and legislative entities that exist in that country, the usual ways of removing him or her from office do not work, because the dictator influences or controls them. That is why dictators have to be taken down by other methods. 

Usually, it is the military which accomplishes this, but all too often they replace one dictator with another. Another way is through the efforts of criminals, an untrustworthy group with which few dictators align themselves. Latin America offers many examples of both. 

Though it has been strongly denied, there will always be the lingering suspicion that the assassinations of both Jack and Robert Kennedy resulted from broken deals with underworld elements. 

This may be why a dictatorial Chief Executive might center their attacks on immigrants, educational institutions, uncooperative corporations and businesses, media outlets, and even stubborn islands of resistance within the government itself as well as some local governments, all groups without sufficient resources to resist and fight back, resulting in the Executive getting their way. And the citizenry itself, without leadership and organization, is unable to offer resistance. 

Although such Executives might replace members of the military leadership with supposedly loyal generals and admirals, they never quite fully trust them, aware of the influence on their behavior the patriotic lessons learned in their service academies may have had on them. In fact, some Executives might prefer to recruit their own militia-like organizations. Hitler had his ‘brown shirts’ for this purpose. 

Similarly, you will not see such Executives seriously attacking the criminals who distribute drugs and may manage other illegal activities. That’s a ‘sleeping dog’ often better left unawakened. 

Either of these two groups, given good reasons to act, would have the ability in some manner to attempt to bring about the Executive’s removal from office. This is why astute observers of governments carefully watch a dictator’s actions in these two areas, and may be why some dictators do not sleep well.

(Any similarity of these ideas to what some see as today’s reality is purely coincidental.) 

Nevertheless this might be a good time to visit ‘Here Be Dragons’ by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting barbarafwalter@substack.com on your browser line to read Professor Walter’s’ thoughts.  Dr. Walter is on the faculty at the University of California – San Diego. 

JL 

                                                      * * * 
Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Your comments on this ‘blog’ would be appreciated. My Email address is jacklippman18@gmail.com. 

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them. 

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com , or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting. 

Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com

More on the Sources of Information on Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered daily ‘paper’ newspaper (now becoming the South Florida Sun Sentinel) and what appears in my daily email. Be aware that when I open that email, I take these steps: 
1. I quickly scan the sources of the dozen or two emails I still get each day at my old email address to see from where they are being sent. Most are from vendors which I may have used years ago. Without reading 99% of them, I usually immediately delete them. 
 2. I then go to the email arriving at jacklippman18@gmail.com. Gmail enables ‘Promotion’ emails to be so designated and separated out. I believe their criteria are whether or not they end up asking for donations or if they are no more than advertisements. I ignore most of these ‘Promotion’ emails without reading them, deleting them. A very few, perhaps one or two a day, get moved over to the two or three dozen other emails which I will actually open. 
 3. Then I read my email. 

Besides email, my other source of information is the Google search engine (or other search engines) where I can look up any subject I want. Lately, these search results have been headed by a very generalized summary clearly labeled as being developed by AI (Artificial Intelligence). On occasion I might use such search results, but when I do, I will say that I am doing so. Generally, however, I try not to use such summaries in preparing Jackspotpourri. 

After such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the other results of my search. Unlike the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated, giving them a greater credibility than the AI summary. I feel that It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information: yourself or something else (Artificial Intelligence), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable. At least when I read a column by Timothy Snyder, for example, I know from where it comes, and to some extent, what to expect. 

Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence. 

JL

                                                        * * * *

Saturday, August 9, 2025

August 9, 2025 - King Midas, ICE, Delusion, and Truth

                                                                       *   *   *

Maureen Dowd at Her Best 

Maureen Dowd compares the present occupant of the White House to King Midas!  Copy and paste https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/opinion/trump-design-rococo-gold.html on your browser line or CLICK HERE to read all about it.  The President is egotistical enough to consider that to be a compliment.




Millions of fooish Americans are impressed by what he is doing. In Greek mythology, Midas’ ‘golden touch’ was his undoing. (It is hard to eat and drink when everthing you touch turns to gold.)  Bad for the digestion! Donald Trump might survive by getting a franchise selling golden replacement mufflers for cars after the nation eventually repudiates everything he has done in office.

JL 

                                                      * * * 
When ICE's (Immigration Control & Enforcement) Lawbreaking Hits Home

Last week, the New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg wrote a piece about the necessity of doing more than just protesting the illegal actions of ICE, something the present immigrant communtiy is starting to organize to do, promoting direct acts of a more unified nature. 

Please CLICK HERE to read her article (it is the version than Public Radio published) or by copying and posting https://www.wlrn.org/immigration/2025-08-01/they-saw-their-neighbors-taken-away-by-ice-then-they-made-a-plan.  It is fairly lengthy but worth every minute spent reading it.

The vast majority of those of you reading this are NOT the immigrants immediately threatened by ICE today in this Trumpian era, but certainly, their parents, grandparents, or great grandparents, etc. were immigrants from somewhere sometime in the past. 

We are a nation based on immigration. All of us are, unless you are a Native American, and even their forebearers are said to have crossed over from Siberia to Alaska when there was a land bridge there many ages ago. 

That’s why after reading Ms. Goldberg’s article, the poem written after World War Two by German Pastor Martin Niemoller, imprisoned by the Nazis, becomes required reading. 

"First they came for the Communists 
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist 
Then they came for the Socialists 
And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a Socialist 
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a trade unionist 
Then they came for the Jews 
And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a Jew 
Then they came for me 
And there was no one left 
To speak out for me "

You might not identify ethnically with those Michelle Goldberg is writing about today, but as Pastor Niemoller wrote, eventually, sooner or later, you will. 

It is up to you to do something! Now! Find a group dedicated to preserving our representative democracy by doing something more than just protesting and waving signs. Become active in it. 

Sitting on your hands is no longer an option. Belatedly, Pastor Niemoller became aware of that from his jail cell. 

JL 

                                                      * * *

Delusion -> Belief -> False Facts -> Action = Dictatorship 

Much of what President Trump does is based on delusion, often about American history. In his head, such delusions become his beliefs, and result in his actions, which are accepted as fact by his followers, establishing a model for accepting his future actions

(Without identifying their source originating in presidential delusion, such actions even creep into Artificial Intelligence’s summaries of important issues. That’s why I am very leery of AI.) 

This paradigm must be broken. The way to do it is to endlessly hammer home truth! That’s what this blog tries to do. Truth! 

JL 

                                                               * * * 

And Where Can You Find That Truth 

Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American’ (copy and paste https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line or CLICK HERE) dated August 8 (Friday) is filled with the truth referred to above. 

It will take a century to remedy the harm to the nation that President Trump is causing, supported by Americans who are taken in by the lies of this shady real estate peddler, and who in the eyes of history, will share the blame. 

JL

                                                     * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Your comments on this ‘blog’ would be appreciated. My Email address is jacklippman18@gmail.com. 

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them. 

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com , or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting. 

Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com

More on the Sources of Information on Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered daily ‘paper’ newspaper (now becoming the South Florida Sun Sentinel) and what appears in my daily email. Be aware that when I open that email, I take these steps: 
1. I quickly scan the sources of the dozen or two emails I still get each day at my old email address to see from where they are being sent. Most are from vendors which I may have used years ago. Without reading 99% of them, I usually immediately delete them. 
 2. I then go to the email arriving at jacklippman18@gmail.com. Gmail enables ‘Promotion’ emails to be so designated and separated out. I believe their criteria are whether or not they end up asking for donations or if they are no more than advertisements. I ignore most of these ‘Promotion’ emails without reading them, deleting them. A very few, perhaps one or two a day, get moved over to the two or three dozen other emails which I will actually open. 
 3. Then I read my email. 

Besides email, my other source of information is the Google search engine (or other search engines) where I can look up any subject I want. Lately, these search results have been headed by a very generalized summary clearly labeled as being developed by AI (Artificial Intelligence). On occasion I might use such search results, but when I do, I will say that I am doing so. Generally, however, I try not to use such summaries in preparing Jackspotpourri. 

After such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the other results of my search. Unlike the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated, giving them a greater credibility than the AI summary. I feel that It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information: yourself or something else (Artificial Intelligence), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable. At least when I read a column by Timothy Snyder, for example, I know from where it comes, and to some extent, what to expect. Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence. 

JL 

                                                               * * * *

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

August 6, 2025 - Heat, ICE, Desperation, and Voting Rights

                                                                 *   *   *

More on Heat Advisories - Heat stroke can be fatal.
 
When the National Weather Service, or what’s left of it after staff reductions, declares a ‘Heat Advisory,’ it is best to change your plans accordingly. It isn’t enough to just stay out of the sun and consume a lot of liquids. Indoor activities in air-conditioned homes, especially for senior citizens, are the way to go. This is a health issue. Heat stroke can be fatal. It’s a good time to pull down that book you’ve been meaning to read from the shelf or check out available movies on TV. 

JL

                                                          * * * 

ICE is Big, Very Big, Much Too Big 

One of the many ICE recruiting posters,
aimed at exiting law enforcement personnel, much
 to the distress of County Sheriffs, and other police
chiefs, who presently employ them.

Here’s an excerpt (the first few paragraphs) from the USA Today article carried on the front page of the Palm Beach Post on August 5. 

 ‘Dangling bonuses of up to $50,000, federal officials are launching a massive recruitment campaign to hire more than 14,000 immigration agents, attorneys and other employees to help execute President Donald Trump’s border crackdown.
 
 ‘The president is newly flush with billions in funding and wants to deport one million people a year with the help of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. “America needs you,” reads one of the ICE recruiting ads, featuring a finger-pointing Uncle Sam, evoking World War I recruiting posters. “America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out.” 
 
‘The federal spending plan finances the hiring of 10,000 new ICE agents, making ICE the single-largest law enforcement agency in the country, larger than the FBI, DEA, ATF and other agencies combined. For comparison, the FBI has only abou13,700 special agents, according to the Justice Department.” 

This recruiting drive is taking place during peacetime! I don’t know if the funds authorized for this include the purchase of brown shirts.  

So what are YOU going to do about it?   Make your Representative in Congress state their position!  That's what!  Congress has 'the power of the purse' in our government.  The President must respect it or find another job.

Of course, if you honestly believe that America has been invaded by criminals and predators, you are part of the problem! 

JL 
 
                                                        * * * 
Desperation at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

President Trump is getting desperate. His sinking popularity is driving him further into attacking democracy. Why else would he urge Republican-dominated States to try to pull off non-scheduled emergency re-gerrymandering of Congressional districts in time to pick up seats in the House in 2026? If he can’t win legitimately, he does not hesitate to encourage his acolytes to break the rules or change them? And Texas Republicans dutifully follow his instructions. 

They don’t recognize, as former Kamala Harris adviser Mike Nellis says in his recent posting, that ‘You can’t gerrymander your way out of a grocery bill.’ (Try checking out Nellis’ ferocious postings at https://endlessurgency.com/about . That’s ‘urgency,’ not surgery) 

Trump also dislikes the less than rosy numbers coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. His remedy for that: Fire that agency’s long-time head and install someone who will release numbers more to his liking. 

And this extends to those he has himself appointed like his head of the Food and Drug Administration, who was pressured into quitting after three months on the job. 

But Trump is very comfortable taking some of the advice of those just as out of touch with reality as he is, like ‘influencer’ Laura Loomer. She’s crazier than the President is, answering to no one, which gives him some sort of comfort in what he does. 

Nevertheless, the President likes to make up his own facts when the real ones don’t suit him. Check out this very thorough piece from the New York Times about the facts that he makes up. CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/us/politics/trump-bls-jobs-facts.html  on your browser line. But don’t laugh at it.  A majority of American voters cast ballots for electors pledged to him in 2024, and they must share the blame. 

It occurs to me that you might want to forward this New York Times piece to anyone you know who might have been seduced by Trump’s lies. 

                                                            * *
A desperate president is a dangerous president because he might carry out acts of desperation that affect both domestic and foreign policy. The saga of Donald Trump will not end well for our country, and that is the conclusion Thomas Friedman seems to be reaching in his latest New York Times opinion piece. To read it, CLICK HERE  or copy and paste https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/opinion/columnists/friedman-trump-labor-firing.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20250805&instance_id=159918&nl=the-morning&regi_id=78918068&segment_id=203275&user_id=02fa158150d34dc186b01b1b8ec7a224 on your browser line. 

In it, Friedman includes the following in regard to the firing of a long-time Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point: 
  
 "And then she added this advice to the young West Pointers she will not have the honor of teaching: “Every member of the Long Gray Line knows the Cadet Prayer. It asks that we ‘choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.’ That line — so simple, yet so powerful — has been my North Star for more than three decades. In boardrooms and war rooms. In quiet moments of doubt and in public acts of leadership. The harder right is never easy. That’s the whole point.” 

So Trump, dedicated to ‘easier wrongs,’ had her fired. 

There is plenty of fuel for pessimism around and little for optimism in view of the ability of the misinformed and misguided to elect the wrong people to office. And they are not limited to Texas and Florida. I suspect that you know some of them. They are all around us. 

JL 

                                                       * * * 

Voting Rights Act Will Get to SCOTUS 

The 1965 Voting Rights Act enabled States to create Congressional Districts designed to counteract the gerrymandering in some States that resulted in reduced representation for people of color. Now this issue is headed to the Supreme Court. 

Professor Heather Cox Richardson in her August 5 posting described it as follows: 

    ‘Currently, the Supreme Court is considering whether a Louisiana district map that took race into consideration to draw a district that would protect Black representation is unconstitutional. About a third of Louisiana’s residents are Black, but in 2022 its legislature carved the state up in such a way that only one of its six voting districts was majority Black. A federal court determined that the map violated the Voting Rights Act, so the legislature redrew the map to give the state two majority-Black districts. A group of “non-African American voters” immediately challenged the law, saying the new maps violated the Fourteenth Amendment because the mapmakers prioritized race when drawing them. A divided federal court agreed with their argument. Now the Supreme Court will weigh in.’ 

It is odd that those who traditionally object to the 14th Amendment’s guarantees against racism are now looking to it for protection in their efforts to preserve racism. My guess is that the politically-biased SCOTUS will vote that the remedy the Voting Rights Acts provided in situations like this is unconstitutional. We shall see. 

JL

                                                       * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

Your comments on this ‘blog’ would be appreciated. My Email address is jacklippman18@gmail.com. 

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them. 

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com , or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting.

Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com

More on the Sources of Information on Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered daily ‘paper’ newspaper (currently the Palm Beach Post, a Gannett publication) and what appears in my daily email. Be aware that when I open that email, I take these steps: 1. I quickly scan the sources of the dozen or two emails I still get each day at my old email address to see from where they are being sent. Most are from vendors which I may have used years ago. Without reading 99% of them, I usually immediately delete them. 2. I then go to the email arriving at jacklippman18@gmail.com. Gmail enables ‘Promotion’ emails to be so designated and separated out. I believe their criteria are whether or not they end up asking for donations or if they are no more than advertisements. I ignore most of these ‘Promotion’ emails without reading them, deleting them. A very few, perhaps one or two a day, get moved over to the two or three dozen other emails which I will actually open. 3. Then I read my email. 

Besides email, my other source of information is the Google search engine (or other search engines) where I can look up any subject I want. Lately, these search results have been headed by a very generalized summary clearly labeled as being developed by AI (Artificial Intelligence). On occasion I might use such search results, but when I do, I will say that I am doing so. Generally, however, I try not to use such summaries in preparing Jackspotpourri. After such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the other results of my search. Unlike the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated, giving them a greater credibility than the AI summary.  I feel that It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information: yourself or something else (Artificial Intelligence), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable. At least when I read a column by Timothy Snyder, for example, I know from where it comes, and to some extent, what to expect. 

Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence. 

JL

                                                         * * * *

Sunday, August 3, 2025

August 3, 2025 - A Few Columns, Newspapers, and More

                                                              *    *    *

Heat Advisories



When the National Weather Service, or what’s left of it after staff reductions, declares a ‘Heat Advisory,’ it is best to change your plans accordingly.  It isn’t enough to just stay out of the sun and consume a lot of liquids.  Indoor activities in air-conditioned homes, especially for senior citizens, are the way to go. This is a health issue.  It’s a good time to pull down that book you’ve been meaning to read from the shelf or check out available movies on TV.

JL

                                                      * * *                                                  

Introducing Rex

Rex Huppke, whose USA TODAY columns occasionally appear in the Palm Beach Post (both are Gannett publications) wrote an interesting piece the other day headlined ‘Trump Doesn’t Care Americans Hate What He’s Doing.’  

Treat yourself to his thrice weekly humor and wisdom by CLICKING HERE or by copying and pasting https://www.usatoday.com/staff/6878775001/rex-huppke/  on your browser line.  (But he isn’t as witty as Frank Cerebino.)

JL

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 Who ‘THEM’ Are

In the July 29 posting of Jackspotpourri, I wrote that “It is still our country unless we allow ‘them’ to take it away from us!  Defining ‘them’ is something to be addressed in a future Jackspotpourri.” 

Well, Professor Heather Cox Richardson has identified ‘THEM’ for us, defining who they are, and specifically naming many of THEM in her “Letters from an American’ dated July 30, 2025.  Stop whatever you are doing right now and copy and paste https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-30-2025 on your devices browser line or CLICK RIGHT HERE.   

And while you’re in that territory, check out Professor Richardson’s postings dated July 31, August 1, and August 2.  It appears to me that neither the insanity of President Trump nor the machinations of politicians have any limits.  Neither are any good for the rest of us.

But getting back to what’s on the table, It is now up to those of us who must not allow ‘THEM’ to take our country away from us to fight ‘THEM’ on every level, national, State, and local, and not just sit on our hands leaving it to others. Tomorrow might be too late. 

Single demonstrations won’t do the job; the energy generated by a single massive demonstration is not enough; demonstrations must be long-continuing, ongoing, events if they are to succeed.  A sorry example is the reversal of Roe vs. Wade, despite enormous, but not continuous, demonstrations against its repeal.

For more on this strategy, copy and paste https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/  on your browser line or just CLICK here to read about ‘warning signs from the edges of democracy’ from Professor Barbara F. Walter at the University of California-San Diego.

JL

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The Over-Opinionated Internet ...

Subscribe to a Printed Newspaper as Well!


The internet is cluttered with the opiniona of pundits, professors, and provocateurs, many of whom to which Jackspotpourri has directed you or quoted directly or indirectly.  It is over-opinionated and over-populated.  Anyone can establish a presence (and perhaps make a profit) by setting up a blog, podcast. or whatever, using sites such as Substack to accomplish this, regardless of the merit of what they post. 

I recommend, as a supplement to whatever one gets from the internet, good, bad, or otherwise, a daily printed newspaper, left at your doorstep each morning.  Their ‘electronic’ versions are no substitute, being just as easily ignored as are the other parts of the deluge of material with which the internet is flooded.  Whether it is a good local paper with national and international coverage, or the massive New York Times (‘all the news that’s fit to print’), subscribe to one today!  (Tip: A local paper will cover material the Times does not.) 

And just maybe, after reading the paper over your breakfast (as I do) you’ll be able to minimize your time on the internet and resume living a fuller life.

                                                           * *

A Short Course on Reading Newspapers:

1.  Commit yourself to looking at every single page of the newspaper (note that I don’t say ‘reading’ every single page) of your delivered newspaper, excluding classified advertisements and mandatory legal announcements.

2.  Journalists are taught that the articles they write may be shortened significantly by editors.  This is usually done starting from the end of the article progressing forward toward its beginning. Therefore, good journalists write what they want to commmunicate in the very first paragraph of what they write, and flesh it out further on.  That first paragraph might be all that escapes the editor’s red pencil. This makes the article still look complete regardless of how much has been sliced from its backside.  (A journalist who doesn’t do this still has a lot to learn.)

3.  Take advantage of this by ‘looking’ at every page of your delivered newspaper, but actually just reading the headlines or the opening few words of articles on that page.  You may end up reading a very, very, few articles in their entirety, just a bit of some others, and most, skipping completely.  Use this tactic to speed from page to page on your newspaper, stopping only to read as much as you want of the important articles, nationally, internationally, or locally. Don’t worry; you will recognize them when you get to them.  Usually, an editor has incuded a picture with the really important ones.

4.  As you race through the newspaper, less attention should be paid to sports or comics pages, although there may be a very few favorites that you always check out like your favorite teams or comic strips.  Restaurant reviews and recipes are only for the hungry.  Puzzles you can save for later, much later.

But the important thing is to get that printed newspaper delivered to your doorstep every day.  Most offer bargain subscriptions to attract you. 

I assure you that the president, members of Congress, and the Supreme Court Justices all get an assortment of printed newspapers delivered to them each day. They don’t have the time to navigate the internet, or even the far less informative but omnipresent TV screens in their offices. (An exception to this might be those with limited literacy who manage to end up in office.)

After such ‘quick reads’ of your newspaper, you will find that you can ignore much of what has been posted on the internet, other than the writings of any pundits, professors, and provocateurs of whom you might be a dedicated fan (as I am of Professor Richardson), but that is your personal choice. 

Of course, internet reporting of very recent important occurrences like floods, wildfires, or earthquakes, happening after your newspaper went to press, should be read because they might involve emergencies affecting you personally..

JL

                                               *   *   *

 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

Your comments on this ‘blog’ would be appreciated. My Email address is jacklippman18@gmail.com. 

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com  or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them. 

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com , or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting. 

Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com  

More on the Sources of Information on Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered daily ‘paper’ newspaper (currently the Palm Beach Post, a Gannett publication) and what appears in my daily email.

Be aware that when I open that email, I take these steps:

  1. I quickly scan the sources of the dozen or two emails I still get each day at my old email address to see from where they are being sent.  Most are from vendors which I may have used years ago. Without reading 99% of them, I usually immediately delete them.
  2. I then go to the email arriving at jacklippman18@gmail.com. Gmail enables ‘Promotion’ emails to be so designated and separated out. I believe their criteria are whether or not they end up asking for donations or if they are no more than advertisements. I ignore most of these ‘Promotion’ emails without reading them, deleting them. A very few, perhaps one or two a day, get moved over to the two or three dozen other emails which I will actually open. 
  3. Then I read my email.

Besides email, my other source of information is the Google search engine where I can look up any subject I want. 

Lately, these search results have been headed by a very generalized summary clearly labeled as being developed by AI (Artificial Intelligence).  On occasion I might use such search results, but when I do, I will say that I am doing so.  Generally, however, I try not to use such summaries in preparing Jackspotpourri.

Following such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the results of my initially having accessed Google (or any other search engine) for information. Contrary to the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated.

I feel that It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information, yourself or something else (AI), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable.  Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence.

(In doing searches on Google, I have found that these AI summaries can sometimes … but not always … be avoided by saying so in your search. For example, instead of searching for ‘FDR’s New Deal,’ I might search for ‘FDR’s New Deal – No AI.’ This is a work in progress.)

 JL

                                                        * * * *

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

July 29, 2025 - Mosquito Bites, ICE, Local News, and More

 

                                                          * * * 
Another delicious 'O' blood type located!



Mosquito Bites 

The writer of CNN’s ‘Five Good Things’ posted on July 26 included a whimsical mention of being highly susceptible to mosquito bites. Actually, those with blood type ‘O,’ the most common of blood types (37% of us have type ‘O’ blood), are more likely to attract these insects than other blood types, according to some scientific studies. To learn more, copy and paste https://www.healthline.com/health/mosquito-blood-type on your browser line or CLICK RIGHT HERE.

JL

                                                          * * * 

The Headlines are Happening Right Here in Palm Beach County 

To read about the brutal ICE treatment of an American citizen locally (please copy and paste https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/2025/07/25/us-citizen-in-ice-custody-in-palm-beach-county-florida/85357485007/ on your browser line or CLICK RIGHT HERE.)

Also, Heather Cox Richardson’s July 25 posting leaves the reader to compare the actions and words of the ICE personnel involved in that incident with those of the racists who lynched Emmett Till in 1955. CLICK HERE 
 or copy and pastehttps://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-25-2025on your browser line to read it. 

                                                 * * 
The Trump Administration has secured enormous amounts of funding for such ‘Immigration Control Enforcement.’ It is time for real Americans to speak up and protest this misuse of supposed law enforcement by the Trump Administration. 

It is time for Congress to ask from where the thugs whom ICE hires are recruited and trained, and a lot more, including why they mask their identities. Perhaps it might be to avoid eventually being identified when true, real, honest, law enforcement catches up with them. 

As part of an appeal for donations, a recent posting by ‘Move On’ included these well documented footnotes, of which the first seven dealt with ICE. They cannot be ignored by Americans and their elected Representatives in Congress. 

1. "Trump bill gives ICE $45 billion for detaining immigrants - more than it received in the last 15 years combined," The Independent, July 8, 2025 https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-bill-ice-detention-funding-b2782918.html 

2. "'ICE will now become the country’s largest federal law enforcement agency, bigger than the FBI, bigger than the DEA.'" PolitiFact, July 11, 2025 https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/jul/11/jon-favreau/ICE-FBI-bill-Donald-Trump-largest/ 

3. Ibid. 

4. "ICE offering six-figure salaries and $50K bonuses as it ramps up hiring to fuel deportations," New York Post, July 23, 2025 https://nypost.com/2025/07/23/us-news/ice-offering-six-figure-salaries-and-50k-bonuses-as-it-ramps-up-hiring-to-fuel-deportations/ 

5. "Army veteran and US citizen arrested in California immigration raid warns it could happen to anyone," AP News, July 17, 2025 https://apnews.com/article/us-army-veteran-immigration-raid-53cb22251a01599a0c4d1a8d5650d050 

6. "To Staff Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, ICE Entices Its Retirees," The New York Times, July 18, 2025 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/us/ice-recruit-retiree.html 

7. "ICE, Army to build nation's biggest immigrant jail," USA Today, July 23, 2025 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/23/trump-largest-ice-detention-center-army-base/85341687007/ 

8. "About 17 Million More People Could be Uninsured due to the Big Beautiful Bill and other Policy Changes," KFF, July 1, 2025 https://www.kff.org/quick-take/about-17-million-more-people-could-be-uninsured-due-to-the-big-beautiful-bill-and-other-policy-changes/ 

9. "Trump’s Budget Bill: An Attack on Public Schools, Working Families, and Immigrants," NEA Today, July 7, 2025 https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/trumps-budget-bill-attack-public-schools-working-families-and-immigrants.

It is still our country unless we allow ‘them’ to take it away from us!  Defining ‘them’ is something to be addressed in a future Jackspotpourri. 

JL 

                                                          * * * 

Two Important Headlines from Monday’s (July 28) Palm Beach Post 
(more reasons to read a daily newspaper) 

 “Justice Dept. investigating voter rolls in some states – Attorney: Requests read like ‘fishing expedition."  (from USA Today) 

 “Trump’s distraction methods fall flat – Epstein uproar persists among usual loyal base."  (from Reuters) 

Both sound like interesting stories to read in full. See link to the Post below and take it from there. 

JL

                                                         * * * 
Some Source Materials Used by Jackspotpourri (There are others) 

(repeated from prior July 25 posting on Jackspotpourri) 

These links can be copied and pasted on your browser line or you might try to click on them directly. In any event, here they are:

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ 
https://msnbc.com/ 
https://www.cnn.com/ 
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/ 
https://snyder.substack.com/ 
https://www.nytimes.com/ 
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/ 
https://www.thefp.com (the Free Press’ ‘Front Page’) 

Some of these sources call for a subscription to get past their ‘teaser’ first paragraphs, but generally, much information is available from them without subscribing in order to cross their ‘paywalls,’ wherever they exist. If I were to select one source to access without paying to subscribe to it, Professor Richardson’s is the clear choice. Her daily ‘Letters from an American,’ usually posted late the preceding evening, includes material from many sites and to which she provides links. She has done the work for you. Her lengthy posting dated July 23 (CLICK HERE to read it) concluded with this sentence, something which seems to be obvious: ‘It does not seem likely the Epstein story is going away anytime soon.’  

JL

                                                          * * * 
Dowd's Comments on Kissing Trump's Ring

Maureen Dowd’s July 26 New York Times column (‘Caving, Bowing, and Scraping’) really sets some limits as to which media sources have not yet succumbed, or are shortly likely to succumb, to the pressures of President Trump.  Its allusion to Shakespearian censorship is brilliant.  Check it out at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/opinion/trump-south-park-cbs.html or CLICK HERE to find out if satire can be our salvation. 

JL 

                                                       * * * 

A Head Scratcher from Heather

I am still scratching my head about Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s posting dated July 27. It involves a lot of history, art, what was once declared to be our nation’s manifest destiny, and the dangerous direction in which the nation seems to be headed under the leadership of the present Administration. 

To check it out, CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-27-2025 on your browser line. I promise you it doesn’t mention Trump, Epstein, or any of the names in today’s headlines, which makes it all the more important. 

JL 

                                                             * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Your comments on this ‘blog’ would be appreciated. My Email address is jacklippman18@gmail.com.

Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them. 

There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com , or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting. 

Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com

More on the Sources of Information on Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered daily ‘paper’ newspaper (currently the Palm Beach Post, a Gannett publication) and what appears in my daily email. Be aware that when I open that email, I take these steps: 1. I quickly scan the sources of the dozen or two emails I still get each day at my old email address to see from where they are being sent. Most are from vendors which I may have used years ago. Without reading 99% of them, I usually immediately delete them. 2. I then go to the email arriving at jacklippman18@gmail.com. Gmail enables ‘Promotion’ emails to be so designated and separated out. I believe their criteria are whether or not they end up asking for donations or if they are no more than advertisements. I ignore most of these ‘Promotion’ emails without reading them, deleting them. A very few, perhaps one or two a day, get moved over to the two or three dozen other emails which I will actually open. 3. Then I read my email.

Besides email, my other source of information is the Google search engine where I can look up any subject I want. Lately, these search results have been headed by a very generalized summary clearly labeled as being developed by AI (Artificial Intelligence). On occasion I might use such search results, but when I do, I will say that I am doing so. Generally, however, I try not to use such summaries in preparing Jackspotpourri. Following such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the results of my initially having accessed Google (or any other search engine) for information. Contrary to the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated. I feel that It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information, yourself or something else (AI), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable. Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence. (In doing searches on Google, I have found that these AI summaries can sometimes … but not always … be avoided by saying so in your search. For example, instead of searching for ‘FDR’s New Deal,’ I might search for ‘FDR’s New Deal – No AI.’ This is a work in progress.) 

JL 

                                                               * * * *