April 2, 2025 - Disagreeing with Laws, Elections, Ideas from Heather and Tim, Semantics, and College Sports

 

Something to Think About 

When a judge rules against a defendant but lacks the ability to bring about their compliance, what should the plaintiffs, the ones who brought the action, do? When the ‘rule of law’ is ignored, where do we turn? 

In 1832, disagreeing with a Supreme Court decision (Worcester vs Georgia) that ultimately made it more difficult for non-Cherokees to settle on Cherokee tribal lands, President Andrew Jackson is reported to have said, ‘John Marshall (the Court’s Chief Justice) has made his decision; now let him enforce it!’ And it wasn’t enforced. 

President Trump has Jackson's portrait in the Offal Oval Office

A President who disagrees with a law will find ways to avoid his Constitutional duty of executing the laws, even in the face of court decisions supporting the law. And hence, the ‘rule of law’ takes a back seat, and once that happens, what had been inconceivable is no longer impossible, and that is dangerous. 

JL 

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Election Results in a Nutshell – Making Democrats Optimistic for 2026 

In Wisconsin, where Donald Trump carried the State by less than 1% in November, Democrat Susan Crawford won a crucial ten-year term on the State Supreme Court by about an 8% margin. The ‘Cheeseheads’ are wising up. Wow!  Among other things on the liberal agenda, this could be instrumental in changing the existing Congressional ‘gerrymandering’ there, which would increase the number of Democrats in Congress! 

In Florida, two vacated Congressional seats in solid Republican districts that voted for Trump by margins of over 30% in November still elected Republicans but by margins of only about 14% each. This has frightened many Republican legislators nationwide comprising the slim G.O.P House majority who would not be able to survive a similar drop off in Republican support in closer districts in 2026. 

These were the two ‘special’ elections in the Sunslime State. In CD 6, Randy Fine replaced Mike Waltz who went to work in Trump’s White House, leading the ‘Signal’ chat fiasco (his days are numbered) and State CFO Jim Patronis who replaced the resigned and disgraceful Matt Gaetz in CD1; Patronis can at least add two and two. Fine can do less harm in Congress than he might have done as president of Florida Atlantic University, where Governor DeSantis tried to shove him last year. (He found another out-of-work politician for that job.)

While the Wisconsin and Florida results must not have pleased Donald Trump, they dealt a stronger blow to Elon Musk, whose insanity is turning off many Republican voters while energizing Democrats. Actually, the President might not mind the spotlight being shifted away from Musk. Neither rich guy is comfortable playing in the same sandbox with the other. Looking at the Wisconsin results, a contest into which Musk poured millions, his presence did the Democrats a favor there, providing them with a meatier target than Crawford’s State Supreme Court opponent! There is something very offensive about this fellow. 

JL

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The Lesson of El Salvador 

It was once thought that countries in Latin America would be inspired to emulate the democracy found in the United States. (If they did, we might not have an immigration problem.) Instead, it looks like our President seeks to emulate the dictator running tiny El Salvador. 

WLRN, the Miami NPR outlet, recently included this piece by Tim Padgett, their ‘America’s Editor,’ on the air and online. It subsequently appeared as a guest column in the Palm Beach Post. It inspired me to write to my House Representative and my two Senators. You might want to do the same. Please check it out by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://www.wlrn.org/commentary/2025-03-20/el-salvador-bukele-trump-democracy on your device’s browser line. It illustrates the wrong direction in which our present Administration is going. 

JL 

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'Letters From an American’ Says It All 

Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s March 30 posting is a short course in American History, describing what the Trump Administration is trying to destroy. CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line to be enlightened and be inspired to not let them get away with it. 

JL 

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Greenland and Denmark 

Tim Snyder’s ‘Thinking About …’ dated March 29 talks about Imperialism, Greenland, and Denmark. Check it out by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://snyder.substack.com/p/vance-in-greenland on your browser line. We can learn a lot from Denmark, a lot more than we ever could learn from El Salvador. 

JL 

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Something More Than Semantics 

A few months ago, in the interest of not insulting my fellow Americans, I ceased referring to certain voters as ‘ignorant, gullible, or stupid.’  Instead, I began describing them as ‘misinformed and misled.’ That’s not insulting; it is just my personal opinion of their positions. 

The other morning, after reading some of the remarks made by Republicans in the ‘comments’ addendum following a New York Times article describing the election campaigning in Florida’s Sixth Congressional district, I am wondering if I was too hasty in making that change. 

For Florida’s seniors on Social Security and Medicare to attack those programs, and for immigrant workers here, possibly subject to deportation, to endorse President Trump’s immigration policy cannot be anything other than ‘ignorant, gullible, or stupid.’ But out of pity for these pathetic people (Hillary Clinton used the word ‘deplorable’) who are dragging America down by supporting Trump, I will still be sticking with ‘misinformed and misled.’ 

JL 

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Ruling and Ruining College Athletic Competition 

The ‘transfer portal,’ allowing athletes to switch schools without any ‘waiting’ period and the availability of ‘NIL’ money now rules college athletics as well as contributing to its ruin. 

In addition to great disparities in what colleges can budget for their athletic programs from their own funds, those with large numbers of alumni, especially wealthy ones, are able to pay athletes, sometimes generously, for commercial use of their ‘Names, Images, and Likenesses.’ This further separates the ‘haves’ from the ‘have-nots’ and eventually this will have to be recognized with a total reorganization of college athletic conferences. 

Even the ‘Power Four’ conferences like the SEC and the Big Ten include ‘have-not’ members who cannot permanently survive in such an environment. Only sharing in their conferences’ TV revenues keeps them there at all. It would be better if such colleges were to choose to play in conferences composed only of schools which have similar athletics-financing abilities.

While Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, and Georgia might thrive in one conference with perhaps a dozen other exceedingly well-funded college athletic programs, the colleges with less money to spend on hiring athletes might choose to play primarily in conferences made up of schools with financial resources similar to theirs. I think this would be a good idea. The Mid America Conference is a fine example of this. 

Related to that, note that some colleges choose not to field competitive football teams, always a big drain on financial resources, but still want to compete nationally in other sports, particularly basketball. They can form leagues of their own, similar to the almost entirely ‘football-free’ Big East, for example. But even there, they’ll face those same demanding financial pressures resulting from the ‘transfer portal’ and ‘NIL’ in hiring athletes to play on their basketball teams. Examples are schools like Saint Johns, Gonzaga, and Georgetown Universities. 

Understanding how ‘NIL’ works is extremely difficult. While top ‘star’ level athletes are well paid, rarely but possibly even in the six figures, bringing the average annual individual total NIL payment up to about $21,000, most athletes receive piddling payments. 

The median annual (just as many greater and just as many lesser) NIL payment is only about $480! (Source: Sports Illustrated – NIL) But even those low NIL payments serve as a lure to aspiring athletes with golden dreams.

Little good can come from money calling the tune in college athletic competition, although the courts have approved of it.  Accompanied by the growth and acceptance of legal online gambling, it is unavoidable that college athletics will eventually experience damaging scandals. Unless they really took advantage of their four-year scholarships by learning lifetime skills, athletes who are not quite at the level where they can smell the riches of an NFL or NBA contract, will be looking around for another way of making a buck; It is just a question of who, when, and where. And that is where we are today. 

JL

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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.  There are always people around you whom you  might want to introduce to Jackspotpourri.

JL 

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March 28, 2025 - Incompetence, Social Security, the need for a Democratic Agenda, the Joint Chiefs, and a Bit More

 

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You Can’t Hide Incompetence  

“Believe me, Achmed, it was so easy to intercept their ‘chat’ on ‘Signal’ that  I honestly thought they were only trying to mislead the Houtis … but now it turns out they’re too dumb to even suspect that we’d be listening!"  

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It’s no surprise that the appointees of President Trump are as incompetent as he is and equally unfit for their positions. I won’t go into the details of their ‘not-so-secret’ online ‘chat’ initially reported in the Atlantic magazine, whose editor was accidentally and unbelievably included in it, like a bug on a wall.

Conceivably, using the relatively insecure ‘Signal’ chat room for a discussion of military tactics violates all existing protocols for discussing such sensitive matters, and everyone involved in the ‘chat’ ought to have known that. More details are all over the internet and in every newspaper in the country. If you are not aware of it, YOU are part of the problem. 

But here are some comments about their gross ignorance regarding security measures, as they appeared in ‘Letters from an American’ dated March 24: "Zachary B. Wolf of CNN noted that “Trump intentionally hired amateurs for top jobs. This is their most dramatic blunder.” Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) told Brian Tyler Cohen: “My first reaction... was 'what absolute clowns.' Total amateur hour, reckless, dangerous…. This is what happens when you have basically Fox News personalities cosplaying as government officials.” Foreign policy scholar Timothy Snyder posted: “These guys inherited one of the most functional state apparatus in the history of the world and they are inhabiting it like a crack house.” 

Of interest is that 'chats' on official government secure sites are permanent and ultimately there as evidence, if ever necessary, of wrongdoing.  Using an insecure, although encrypted, non-government site like Signal, however, enables the content to be 'timed-out' so it is unavailable for investigation in the future.

The American people are catching on to these phonies. Their incompetence becomes more apparent with each passing day. From here on in the Republicans will be losing elections, with the Democrats likely to take over the House of Representatives next year.  Note that President Trump has even withdrawn the nomination of Representative Elise Stefanik to be our United Nations Ambassador because that would require a special election to replace her, something Trump now fears the Democrats would win, reducing the Republican's razor-thin House majority! 

But getting back to the infamous ‘chat,’ with the country in the hands of these idiots, particularly Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth (the major source of its security violations), a fool who should be sent packing back to FoxNews, it is now a question of our surviving as a representative democracy until the November, 2026 elections. 

Are you aware that the confirmation of Hegseth’s appointment as Defense Secretary, on which the Senate vote was tied, 50 to 50, was only accomplished by Vice President Vance’s tie-breaking vote? 

Hegseth and his boss

Before that happened, it was thought the Senate would not vote to confirm him because North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis was planning on voting ‘no’ because of Hegseth’s rumored history of drunkenness. It is also rumored that at the last moment Tillis switched to confirming him, putting the decision into Vance’s hands but only after President Trump threatened ultra-conservative Tillis with a MAGA primary challenger in 2026. These may just be rumors, but they make sense. 

Tillis, Vance, and the President should join Hegseth in resigning and returning to civilian life for the good of the nation; they all share responsibility for this breach of national security.  What is not a rumor is that the Pentagon, a few days after the ‘chat’ that is now in the news took place, finally got around to sending out a warning that the site used for it was not secure and possibly being monitored by Russia, as if they didn’t know that earlier. Hegseth, as Defense Secretary, ought to know what is going on at the Pentagon. That’s another reason for the firing of those mentioned above. You can’t hide incompetence.

JL 

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One Democrat and One ‘Independent’ Know the Score 

You might not agree with everything Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Lopez say, but they are on the right track. CLICK HERE  or copy and paste https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/24/2312252/-AOC-and-Sanders-are-drawing-massive-crowds-and-making-Musk-nervous?detail=emaildkre on your browser line to find out what their ‘road show’ is accomplishing. And don’t skip what the ‘daily KOS’ commenters had to say there, either. 

I see this as a reaction to the moribund Democratic establishment which might, I hope, take note and follow, follow, follow! 

We know what Bernie and AOC are against, and very generally, what they are for … but its about time a Democratic Party agenda meeting today’s challenges appeared, one at least sufficiently specific to convince independents and disenchanted Republicans to ‘vote blue.’ Merely getting rid of Trump and his crew might not be enough to secure their votes. 

Historical Note:  After the Democrats had voted the inept Herbert Hoover out of office in 1932, President-elect Roosevelt asked Frances Perkins, his choice as Secretary of Labor, what had to be done to remedy the social and economic problems in which the country was mired. She was quite specific and got the President to agree to back her goals that included old-age insurance, employment insurance, health insurance, a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, and abolition of child labor. It took years for all of that to eventually become law but a big chunk of it became effective in 1935 when the initial Social Security legislation was enacted. FDR was repeatedly re-elected (the two term limit didn’t exist then) because the specificity of the Democratic agenda resonated with the voters. They liked what they were hearing. 

Today, the Democrats must once again be as specific as Perkins was in 1932 as to what their agenda is. Then they will win more easily in 2026 and 2028. 

 JL 

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Trump and Musk on Social Security 

Opposition to Social Security, it has been said, is like ‘stepping on the ‘third rail,’ a mistake which has electrocuted more than one political campaigner. Some Republicans, however, are willing to give it a try. 

While the President keeps saying that he won’t be messing with Social Security, his Rasputin-like advisor, Elon Musk, thinks Social Security is a ‘’Ponzi Game’ rather that the government-managed retirement income insurance program that has been operating successfully for the past 90 years. 

Thus far, they have not cut benefits, their true aim, but are eliminating enough Social Security employees to make telephone inquiries and office visits practically impossible, creating near chaos at the agency, giving its opponents an excuse to attempt to privatize its programs. Musk stands there smirking with his chainsaw in hand, perhaps an appropriate approach in a private business, but not with agencies designed to serve the public. Their ‘bottom lines’ differ and Musk doesn’t understand that difference. 

Republicans, if they had any brains, would disavow Musk and chase him out of Cabinet meetings, because he is perhaps the best spokesperson the Democrats could possibly have, as he tears apart the concept of government ‘of, by, and for’ the people enunciated by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg.

Really though, could you expect anything different from this opportunist, belatedly a Canadian and then an American citizen, but born, raised, and educated in apartheid South Africa? Although apartheid is now illegal there, its historic influences remain echoed by the way differing classes, defined by the color of their skin, lead their daily lives in that country.  The minority Whites and a very few Blacks and 'coloreds' live in nice neighborhoods while the rest still call crumbling shantytowns home.  And this is the culture from which Elon Musk comes. 

Musk's hometown: Pretoria

Unquestionably, he is an advocate of a government (or even the absence of a government) beholden to the wealthy, corporations, and billionaire capitalists from the world of technology ... and as the old saying concludes, leaving ‘the Devil to take the hindmost.’ 

Hey, gang! To Elon Musk, you are that hindmost. 

JL

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Two Things to Keep Your Eyes On 

First, even though the Constitution gave us the Supreme Court, establishing lower courts was left to Congress. House Speaker Johnson is threatening to use this power to weaken such courts where many judges seem to be ruling against some of the excesses of the Trump administration. He may try some tricks like reducing the funding for these courts. Keep your eyes open. 

The other thing to watch might be even more serious. Last month, the President fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Brown, and replaced him with General Dan Caine, who will appear before a Senate Committee considering his appointment next week. General Brown’s dismissal was apparently based on his commitment to installing ‘D.E.I.’ principles in the Armed Forces. This didn’t sit well with our President, who opposes D.E.I. as undemocratic, when the opposite is the truth.  Our Constitution's division of powers is intended to prevent 'tyranny by a majority,' from taking away the benefits of democracy from those not in that majority, the aim of many on the right in the false name of democracy. 

Right now, the Vice Chairman, Admiral Christopher Grady, is temporarily filling the vacancy.  It is unusual, if not suspicious, that Admiral Grady was not included among those involved in the ‘chat’ mentioned earlier in this posting of Jackspotpourri; it certainly included matters of a military nature. Perhaps they feared his input, as someone not already established as part of their team.

An ancillary role of the leaders of any nation’s armed forces, in this country the Joint Chiefs of Staff, becomes important because, like it or not, when a government in a ‘banana republic’ disintegrates for one reason or another, it is usually the military that picks up the pieces and tries to restore order. Look to Latin America and Africa for examples. 

And like it or not, the behavior of the Trump Administration and its captive Congress is changing the government of the United States of America into a bare bones structure that might not be able to effectively deal with the challenges, foreign or even domestic, that it faces. That is why the Senate hearing on General Caine’s appointment next week is important. The inconceivable is not the impossible. 

JL 

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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.   This becomes very important because there are always new people moving into the area.

JL 

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March 24, 2025 - The Future for Democrats, Evolving Media, Abandoning the Constitution, and Judicial Review

 

Finding the Way for Democrats – A Quest for Future Leadership    

Representatives Jason Crow and Alexandria Octavio-Cortez
(composite photo from 2021 protests of Capitol insurrection.)

                                          

The Democratic Party seems to be wandering in a desert of disarray.  I believe that its future rests with those like Colorado’s Representative Jason Crow, who seems to recognize the importance of those blue-collar, family-oriented voters who might have to shower after a sweaty day at work as opposed to the votes of those who shower before going to work, the mistake that lost them the Presidency and Congress to MAGA Republicans in 2024. Crow is heading up the selection of Democratic Congressional candidates trying to capture currently Republican House seats.

The Democrats must shed their image of East and West Coast elites, academics, and leftish progressives.  That combination does not constitute a majority of America’s voters, and appealing to them is a losing strategy, at least nationally.  Without abandoning the good fight for D.E.I rights, gender equality, and womens’ rights, they must still find a way to focus on the bread and butter issues that win elections. In 2024, after hiding President Biden’s deterioration for too long, they had no real alternative other than Vice President Kamala Harris who wasn’t quite ready, and while Tim Walz offended no one, he didn’t add anything to their losing ticket.

In addition, they must improve the kind of media choices they make to deliver their message (which apparently is still a work in progress) about a government existing to best serve and protect the nation’s working people, rather than the wealthy, large corporations, and high-tech oligarchs. They must better target younger voters, a good number of whom jumped toward Trump for no good reason in 2024, other than he reached them more effectively than did the Democrats.

Even New York Representative Alexandria Octavio-Cortez, further to the left, recognizes this and will manage to be part of a new leadership without compromising her values.  She is presently engaged in a ‘road show’ alongside independent (though usually voting with the Democrats) Senator Bernie Sanders, speaking before overflow crowds at gigantic ‘town halls’ throughout the country in places where Republican officeholders are either ashamed or afraid to confront the disappointed audiences that elected them to office but are now showing symptoms of ‘buyer’s remorse.’  They are looking to the Democrats for answers, so it is important that they come up with their 2026 campaign’s direction pretty darn soon.  Saying that its time to vote against Republicans isn’t enough and they must wake up to that.

And speaking of MAGA Republicans, the next time you’re engaging in a friendly conversation with one of them, ask what period of ‘greatness’ in our history they want to duplicate in ‘making America great again.’  When they come up with an answer about the period to which ‘again’ points, if they are able to do that, ask them how that period of ‘greatness’ would fare in a Presidency headed by Donald Trump and his Musk-led wrecking crew.

JL 

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Changes in the World of Media

In the Nineteenth and the early years of the Twentieth centuries, the usual, if not the only media available to the public, were newspapers and less frequently, magazines. That is pretty much all that social commentators, politicians, and political parties used to spread their ideas, other than speaking at rallies to live audiences.  Radio and television soon expanded the range of available media, but they did not replace existing sources. 

In the Twenty-first century, however, electronic advances have created a revolution in media sources, all of which might be broadly classified as what has became known as ‘social media.’  Existing media remained however, but with a lessened effect on the public. 

It first started through widely circulated Emails with or without attachments to which one might subscribe and soon expanded into more specialized and personalized internet sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (later ‘X’) and numerous other sources that were not only available on one’s computer, but on one’s ‘smartphones’ as well.  And their purveyors were often a blend of journalists and entertainers.  Over the past few years, the latest innovation would seem to be Podcasting, an online and personalized version of opinionated ‘talk radio’ shows, often including video portions.  Communication between many of the newer media sources and their audiences often could be a two-way street too.

But existing media didn’t go away either, and still remains in use.  Newspapers  may be dying, but they still are around, and like it or not, are the basis of information we receive each day on our computer or smartphone screens.  Jackspotpourri still exists as ideas transmitted by Email including a link to an attachment, primarily because that is the limit of my skills, and possibly of most of its audience as well. 

If I had necessary skills to utilize the latest advances in media production, Jackspotpourri probably would today be a podcast.  If I were a dozen years younger, I might attempt to make that transition.  But I cannot turn back the clock, so please stick with https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com/ , which I will try to continue to produce twice a week, with all of its shortcomings, and send to those on its Email circulation list.

JL 

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Abandoning the Constitution for Autocracy

Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letter from an American’ dated March 19 must be read to understand the willingness of too many Americans to discard ‘the rule of law’ as established in our Constitution for an autocracy headed by a dictator.  CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line to read it. 

(When I use the expression ‘the rule of law,’ I take it to mean the Constitution’s Article One that establishes the Legislative Branch as the ones who make our laws, Article Two that establishes the Executive Branch that is supposed to ‘take care that these laws are faithfully executed,’ and Article Three that establishes the Judicial Branch to interpret such laws when necessary.)

And while you’re there, check out Professor Richardson's subsequent postings.  She is leading the efforts of those who recognize that Trump, Musk, and their misinformed supporters are following a path leading to the abandonment of our Constitution and the democracy for which it provides the structure.

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In the last Jackspotpourri (on March 20), it was made clear that the Executive Branch is in the hands of billionaire oligarchs and the Legislative Branch is obedient to it.  All that is left to defend the Constitution is the Judicial Branch of our government, and right now, it is under attack.  America’s representative democracy now hangs by a fragile cord woven by the decisions of its judges.  But our Judicial Branch still has a lot going for it, because of two early Supreme Court decisions that have survived over the years.  Let’s look at them:

In 1801, the new Secretary of State, James Madison, refused to deliver congressionally-approved judgeship appointment papers to one William Marbury, a last-minute appointee of outgoing President John Adams, whom the new Administration opposed along with other last-minute appointees.  Marbury sued and the Supreme Court agreed with him that Madison was legally required to do so. 

But in that same decision, they also ruled that the part of the 1789 Judiciary Act that would have allowed the delivery of Marbury’s appointment to take place, was itself ‘unconstitutional.‘  Chief Justice John Marshall finally ruled that the Supreme Court could not order the delivery of Marbury’s appointment papers because the law giving Congress such a power conflicted with the role of the Judicial Branch as established in the Constitution.  Marbury’s appointment papers were never delivered. 

Marbury vs Madison confirmed the supremacy of the Supreme Court over both the Executive and Legislative Branches through ‘judicial review’ when (1) it overruled Madison’s Executive Branch refusal to deliver Marbury’s appointment papers but then (2) declared ‘unconstitutional’ that portion of the 1789 Judiciary Act that allowed acts of Congress to take precedence over certain Court decisions, enabling the SCOTUS to scuttle Marbury’s appointment.

Since then, the supremacy of Supreme Court decisions over acts of both the Executive and Legislative Branches has been made clear through its function of ‘judicial review.’ 

In another landmark case in 1819, McCulloch vs Maryland, the Supreme Court ruled that State laws contrary to Federal laws were also ‘unconstitutional.’  (In that case, Maryland wanted to be able to tax the federally-chartered Bank of the United States.) Today’s governors of Texas and Florida twist words, going out of their way to avoid this pitfall, which clearly places immigration law, now in the spotlight, within Federal, and not State, law.

For ‘judicial review’ to take place, however, a case must first manage to reach the Supreme Court.  The present Administration is even attacking the ability of this to happen by threatening to remove appropriate security clearances from uncooperative law firms, usually necessary for them to be able to view government material while handling cases involving the government.  Some of these law firms are proving to be spineless, just like Congress is, in the face of Executive Branch overreach.

(An interesting contradiction yet to be clarified is President Trump’s supporters’ original claim that his speech at the ‘Ellipse’ on January 6, 2021 inciting his listeners to march on the Capitol was an ‘unofficial’ act, not related to the riotous invasion of the Capitol to prevent the 2020 Electoral College tally from being confirmed that directly followed.  Once the Supreme Court in 2024, however, provided immunity for otherwise criminal acts performed as part of a President’s ‘official’ duties, Trump’s January 6 inciteful words suddenly became such a protected ‘official’ act, even if it were a criminal act.  Unfortunately, the SCOTUS acts like a political animal, at least only until it decides not to.)

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And speaking of judges, the judge whom President Trump attacked for trying to stop, or delay, his probably illegal deportation of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador, demanding IN CAPS his impeachment, is actually a bi-partisan appointee, not the Democratic tool as scathingly portrayed by the President.

Quoting from an article on NBC News, “In 2002, President George W. Bush nominated James Boasberg as an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.  In 2011, President Barack Obama selected him to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and he was confirmed by the Senate in a 96-0 vote.”  That sounds pretty bi-partisan to me, appointed by two Presidents from different parties and confirmed by the Senate with no negative votes.  How can it be then, that anyone can support the President’s ignorant and vindictive tirade?  The answer: misinformation swallowed by a misled public as well as by many Republicans elected to Congress.

SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts correctly intervened by saying that an ‘appeal’ rather than suggesting impeachment was the way to deal with a court order with which one disagreed.  Roberts did not go any further because Trump’s law breaking may soon be once again before the SCOTUS and he did not want to ‘tip’ his hand as to the direction in which he might go.

 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. 

 JL 

                                                     *   *   *                                               

Thursday, March 20, 2025 - An Alarm Bell is Ringing Loudly

                                                                       *   *   *

'The Redcoats Oligarchs Are Coming'

The alarm bells are ringing throughout the land, with an urgency matching that of Paul Revere’s ride back in 1775. The danger is great; as great as it was then, as great as it was in 1861, or in the years leading up to 1941. All Americans, regardless of party, if any, must open their eyes and ears to it.

American democracy is being endangered as never before! It is being challenged by an autocracy serving and benefitting oligarchs and billionaires, and they already control the Executive and Legislative branches of our government. As of now, only the Judiciary seems to be surviving. 

JL 

                                                         *   *   *

‘A King Above the Law’ - Justice Sotomayor Made it Clear

First, let me refresh your memories. 

For his conduct that occurred late during his first Presidency, a federal grand jury had indicted then former President, Donald J. Trump, on four counts following the November 2020 election. The indictment alleged that after losing that election, but while still President, Trump conspired to overturn it by spreading knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the collecting, counting, and certifying of the election results. 

Trump moved to dismiss the indictment based on Presidential immunity, arguing that a President has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions performed within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities, and that the indictment’s allegations fell within the core of his official duties.

The D.C. District Court denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the indictment, holding that former Presidents do not possess federal criminal immunity for any acts and the D.C. Circuit Court affirmed that decision. Both courts, however, declined to decide whether the indicted conduct involved official acts. 

But on July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court, in a 6 to 3 decision in ‘Trump vs. the United States,’ finally ruled that then former President Trump was at least presumptively immune from criminal liability for his official acts and was absolutely immune for some “core” of them, including his attempts to use the Justice Department to obstruct the results of the election. With respect to Trump’s other actions, the SCOTUS left to the lower courts much of the work required to determine which acts are immune and which are not. 

This decision meant that a president was free to use at least their official powers while in office to engage in criminal acts substantially free of accountability.

                                                       * * 

By now, that is all water that has flowed over the dam, and based on that decision, it is accepted law that a President is immune from indictment for criminal acts committed as part of his official duties while in office, although there is some lack of clarity as to what are official acts and what are not.  And of course, Donald Trump is now back in office, having been reelected in November of 2024, and possessing the immunity discussed above.  Unfortunately, that immunity has emboldened him to embark on a course of disrespect for the rule of law and for the judges who are assigned the task of administering it.

President Trump said on his ‘Truth Social’ platform this week, objecting to a judge’s having ordered his administration to turn around planes carrying migrants said to be members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador while he (the judge) considered whether their removal was lawful, that “This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President,” and that “This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” 

Defying the Judge’s order, the planes continued on to El Salvador where the administration had arranged for incarceration. Normally, such defiance would be an indictable criminal act, but not when carried out by a President with immunity for his official acts, as the SCOTUS provided to him in their 2024 ruling. 

The President’s outburst led Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. to issue a rare public statement on Tuesday saying “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.” He ignored the rest of Trump’s intemperate remarks. 

Roberts, who wrote the July 2024 opinion in Trump vs. the United States, should now be aware that the Supreme Court decision giving immunity for criminal acts committed by Presidents in connection with their official acts, opened the door wider for Trump’s existing disrespect for the ‘rule of law.'  Roberts certainly knows he is dealing with someone who is not deterred by having been convicted of 34 felonies by a jury in New York State, 

Back in 2024, the two other dissenting Justices joined Justice Sotomayor’s dissent that stated that while ‘Former President Trump has some immunity for his official actions, (our) colleagues had made the president into ‘a king above the law.’  Writing that the majority was ‘deeply wrong,’ Justice Sotomayor added that ‘beyond its consequences for the bid to prosecute Mr. Trump for his attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election, it would have ‘stark’ long-term consequences for the future of American democracy.”

This week’s deportation activities and President Trump’s defiance of a judge’s order prove that Justice Sotomayor was correct. Trump indeed believes he is ‘a king above the law.’ 

The lines are being drawn and the SCOTUS, three of whose justices were appointed by Trump, will have to take sides in the challenge to the Constitution posed by the President, and who feels, based on their 2024 decision, that he is allowed to run roughshod over judges and the Constitution itself.  

Failure to stand fast for the Constitution would put the Supreme Court and our system of justice on the same chopping block that the President has put many government entities. 

The alarm bells are sounding, loud and clear, for all Americans to hear. Democrats, Republicans, everyone, must join in defense of the Constitution! This means YOU! 

It is up to those who recognize this to stand up proudly for America, speak up loudly for democracy, and join in the chorus of Americans protesting the excesses of the present administration and the Congress it has frightened into obedience. (See Jackspotpourri dated March 17 for some minimal suggestions as to how you can do your part; it may automatically appear below this posting on some devices.) 

JL

                                                       * * * 

Read a Newspaper Every Day 

I read the ‘Opinion’ pages of the Palm Beach Post every day they appear. (They don’t appear on Mondays and Tuesdays.)  Almost all the letters published there come from readers condemning the President and his Administration. 

It’s not that his supporters cannot express themselves. The very few who submit letters merely echo his ‘talking points.’ There really is nothing of substance that they can say in his defense that makes any sense. This is one of the reasons Republicans are cancelling ‘town hall’ meetings, avoiding answering questions asked by those that voted for them. They are asked questions they cannot answer. 

It is important that concerned Americans read a daily newspaper each day, preferably its ‘print’ edition, although it might not be as up-to-the-minute as an online version. (The latest ball scores are always available on the internet.) Readers’ letters and ‘opinion’ columnists in a 'print' edition are automatically put before the readers’ eyes whereas in an online version, a reader has to take the time to seek them out, something they often might not do. 

Printed and delivered local newspapers are available at bargain prices (usually made up for by the grocery coupons in their advertisements).  In South Florida, the Palm Beach Post, the Sun Sentinel, and the Miami Herald do an excellent job, and of course, the New York Times or Washington Post do an even better one but they lack the local flavor.  All can be delivered to your doorstep each morning. 

JL 

                                                 * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

Your comments about 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. 

 

JL 

                                                       * * *

Monday, March 17, 2025 - The Rule of Law, What YOU Can Do, Shumer's Gambit, Illegal Deportations, and a Lot More

                                                    * * * 

‘Rule of Law’ Under Attack 

The crucial battles between those who believe in preserving our democracy, protected by our Constitution, and those who would replace it with an autocracy beholden to American ‘oligarchs’ and a dictatorial president will be resolved by whether the ‘rule of law’ in this country survives. 

Retired lawyer Marty London, whose perceptions are based on years as one of the top litigators in his profession, writes about this. His short postings on February 12 and February 14 go to the core of this issue, the Supreme Court, and Trumpian attacks on the legal profession. Visit his blog by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://londonsbh.blogspot.com/ on your browser line. 

London jokes as he concludes his February 14 posting about readers considering moving to Canada, if our northern neighbors will have them. It should be noted that London resides in St. Barts in the Caribbean, somewhere near the Gulf of Mexico America. 

 JL 

                                                    * * * 

He Doesn’t Care. Do You? 

Here’s a letter that appeared in Friday’s Palm Beach Post. I’ve not included the writer’s name, but I certainly agree with him. I’ve printed his message, with a few of its words shown in red: 

 “The op-eds, opinion pieces and letters bemoaning the damage and chaos President Donald Trump’s policies are causing are missing one thing, Trump doesn’t care. Polls show his approval ratings cratering, Trump doesn’t care. Elon Musk’s scorched-earth approach is destroying our government infrastructure, ruining lives, and wrecking the economy, Trump doesn’t care. Trumps tariffs are tanking the stock market and causing global instability, Trump doesn’t care. His betrayal of Ukraine has caused an upheaval in European defense strategy, Trump doesn’t care. 

Trump cares for one thing, Trump. His goal is to stay president. To that end, he nurtured a cadre of violent followers letting them out of jail to be available. He turned the Republican-led Congress into his own personal support animal. He demonized the press, installed loyalists at every government department to do his bidding no matter how illegal or unconstitutional. He openly defied court orders and called for impeachment and disbarment of judges and lawyers. He effectively neutralized the military and is now going after colleges and schools to ensure they toe the party line. Next will be our health care and what he considers 'entitlements' because, Trump doesn’t care."

                                                        * * 

But I care, and I suspect that most Americans, including YOU, care. Think about what you can do about it. 

Quoted In a recent Jackspotpourri posting, Michigan’s new Senator, Elissa Slotkin, offered some advice: 

‘First, don’t tune out. It’s easy to be exhausted, but America needs you now more than ever. If previous generations had not fought for democracy, where would we be today? Second, hold your elected officials, including me, accountable. Watch how they’re voting. Go to town halls and demand they take action. That’s as American as apple pie. Three, organize. Pick just one issue you’re passionate about — and engage. And *doom scrolling doesn’t count. Join a group that cares about your issue, and act. And if you can’t find one, start one. Some of the most important movements in our history have come from the bottom up.’ 

*(pessimistic, disheartening, predictions) 

And in an earlier Jackspotpourri posting, I made the following suggestions as part of a three-step formula, ‘Standing Up Proudly for America, Speaking Up Loudly for Democracy, and Joining the Chorus of Protest Spreading Nationwide.' Here is an abbreviated summary: 

•   First of all, Democrats should forget about the 2024 elections. Put it behind you! Stressing the protection of every American’s individual right to make choices in many areas, including and beyond women’s rights, while legitimate and highly desirable, did not on their own attract enough voters to win in 2024.  Democrats should have learned the hard way by now that  basic appeals to working people are the answer; voters are interested in rising prices, affordable health care, job opportunities, law & order, and whom to blame for whatever bothers them!
•   Remember that even though there is much to criticize about Trump and Republicans at all government levels, in talking or writing ‘politics’ don’t concentrate on that. Why be hostile? Be Positive. Talk about the things a government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people does for the benefit of the people! (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, healthcare, regulation of foods and drugs, protecting the environment, disaster relief, national parks, interstate highways, transportation safety, regulation of financial activities, student loans, medical research grants, etc. etc.  The list goes on!) This role of government in serving the people is sometimes ignored when people who weren’t even on the ballot like Elon Musk and Russell Vought end up running government. That is wrong, and what the nation faces today. 
•    Consider making donations to individual candidates who are dedicated to getting rid of the current G.O.P. majorities in the House, the Senate, and in many Statehouses. They don't have to be big ones. Every dollar counts so select the candidates you donate to very carefully. (Right now, I am donating to former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger’s November 2025 race for the Virginia governorship, which she has a good chance of winning, setting an example for the entire nation for the 2026 mid-term elections.) Those are the kind of donations that will count! 
•    Cultivate relationships with individuals and groups who think as you do, so that your ideas can bounce off of them, and visa-versa, improving both yours and theirs. 
•    Become active in your local Democratic Party organization. Be willing to ‘knock on doors.’ 
•   Become active in local ‘non-political’ civic organizations. 

With each passing day, the President repeatedly attacks the government he heads, breaks more laws, and threatens the Constitution itself. More and more of those criticizing him are Republicans who voted for him. There is an epidemic of ‘buyer’s remorse’ sweeping the Republican Party. If the election were held today, rather than four and a half months ago, he would lose both the electoral and the popular vote (to use one of his made-up words) bigly!

Trump knows this and as a result, he daily increases his efforts to destroy our government so that he can replace it as a dictator without interference. But as the letter writer said, Trump Doesn’t Care.” But YOU Should! 

And if you don’t fully agree with those alongside you in the trenches who also care, that’s fine too. All who care share one common objective, saving their country from Donald Trump, and that’s what’s important. 

JL 

                                                      * * * 

Shumer Was Correct

While I greatly sympathize with those Senate Democrats who did not support the Republican House’s awful ‘continuing resolution’ to keep the government operating (with even some increased tools to further their right-wing agenda), I understand Senator Shumer’s very reluctant support of it. 

He felt it was preferable to its alternative, a government ‘shutdown’ that would leave Trump, Musk, and their followers to easily do whatever they wanted to do with impunity. Trump and Musk both preferred a ‘shutdown,’ allowing them free rein to install an autocracy or dictatorship (take your choice) to replace a ‘shutdown’ government. Senator Shumer wanted to avoid giving these scoundrels that opportunity. 

The opposition to the ‘continuing resolution’ in both Houses of Congress was led by Democrats like Representative Alexandria Octavia Cortez and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They had ‘right’ on their side and will ultimately prevail in the 2026 midterm elections! A government ‘shutdown’ now, however, might have even resulted in the Republicans trying to cancel those elections! They probably are now working on another underhanded way of accomplishing that. 

On to 2026! 

JL

                                                          * * * 

You Think You Live in a Free Country? 

You may not think so once you read Professor Timothy Snyder’s March 17 posting at snyder@substack.com or by CLICKING HERE, or Professor Heather Cox Richardson’ March 16 posting at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ or by CLICKING HERE .  Visit both links to find out how the Trump administration engages in illegal deportations, getting away with defying court orders. 

This will not end well, unless we all stand up proudly for America, speak loudly for democracy, and join the chorus of protest against the evils being perpetrated by Donald Trump and his puppet master Elon Musk (or perhaps the other way around) with elected Republicans frightened into blindly falling into line.  

Professor Snyder’s ‘Thinking About …’ comes out a couple of times a week and Richardson tries for a daily posting of 'Letters from an American.'  Try not to miss a single one of either. 

JL 

                                                           * * * 

Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797) on Conservatism

Professor Heather Cox Richardson, in her March 12 posting, talked about philosopher Edmund Burke’s having described conservatism as preserving some of the good things from the older governing principles which it replaced. He viewed the American Revolution in this healthy light, contrary to the radicalism of the French Revolution which, taking place at about the same time, that eventually turned into a bloody dictatorship by committee. 

As an example, Richardson pointed out that the Constitution gives to Congress, not the president, the power to impose tariffs. But our ‘International Emergency Economic Powers Act’ allows our president to impose tariffs if he declares a national emergency under that Act, which Trump did on February 1, without any real justification for doing so. 

His loyalists in Congress have played word games with the legal time limits that Act prescribes, actually redefining what a ‘day’ is! That, Richardson wrote, seems to prove the truth of Edmund Burke’s observations. 

By trying to force reality to fit their ideology, the Republicans’ radical ideologues will end up imposing tyranny in the name of liberty, as the radical Revolutionaries in France did, and that’s not what conservatism is supposed to represent. 

We indeed do face a national emergency, but it is not immigration, which has mostly turned out well for America. It is Republican control of Congress and Trump in the White House, pestilences permitted by too many American voters being misled by misinformation, as Jackspotpourri pointed out a few days ago. 

JL 

                                                            * * * 

Probationary Government Employees 

There’s been a lot in the news about the Trump administration firing those who are known as ‘probationary’ employees. The word has negative connotations in the civilian world where most think of ‘probation’ as a part of the terms of a criminal conviction, either in lieu of imprisonment or a period following release from imprisonment. 

In our government, however, it has an entirely different meaning. There it refers to a ‘trial period,’ of one or two years, depending on the agency, during which (1) new employees, or less frequently, (2) employees transferring from another government agency, or (3) employees getting a promotion, who perform poorly or are otherwise found 'unfit' for their job, may be terminated.  

It is not as if they violated some rules on the job and are being punished for doing that with ‘probation.’ Some Americans make the mistake of thinking that is the case. 

The rationale behind this is that it is very difficult to fire a government employee after this ‘trial’ period because of the legal protections the law provides for permanent civil service workers. 

Such protections are necessary because stability in our government’s operation requires that employees continue to do their jobs and not be replaced each time the voters switch control of Congress or the Executive Branch.  Many years ago, President Grover Cleveland recognized this and fought to keep the civil service non-political. Trump and Musk either do not understand this, or worse, do understand it and seem to consider such stability a symptom of a ‘deep state’ and would be happy without it. Stability and our present government’s ‘chaos’ are opposites. 

Statistics are hard to come by as to how many in such ‘probationary’ periods fail to achieve permanent status, but there are some numbers that indicate only about 1.6% of those who were hired based on competitive civil service examinations fail to make it through their ‘probationary’ period. 

I conclude then that there is no stigma attached to being referred to as a ‘probationary’ employee during such a trial period. It seems to be a routine step on the pathway to a career in government service, and one that serves to weed out those unfit for such positions. 

But when the current administration fires ‘probationary’ employees as an ‘economy measure,’ the word ‘probationary’ makes such action seem more acceptable to a public that unfairly attaches negative connotations to that word and that of course lessens the ability of the agency to properly function. 

But isn’t that the intent of those aiming at destroying our government, replacing it with autocracy, or even worse, dictatorship? 

JL 

                                                 * * * 

The Questionable Price of Progress 

A recent article in the New Yorker magazine’s ‘Critics’ section raised an interesting question. After pointing out the stagnation in the growth of our cities, primarily due to the unavailability of affordable housing for those who want to live there to benefit from cities’ greater employment opportunities and other desirable attractions, it went on to note that the growth of our high-speed railroad networks, our highways, and the development of our energy sources had similarly slowed down. It contrasted this with the exact opposite that is taking place at breakneck speed in China and elsewhere in these specific areas. 

The reason for this is the many protective laws we have to protect our urban and rural environments, laws enacted by liberal governments with desirable outcomes in mind, and which have been used to prevent progress from taking place, not primarily to protect those environments as they were intended to do, but actually to preserve an existing environment for the benefit of those who live or have a business interest there. 

When multi-unit affordable housing is proposed, individual single family home owners in the area object, and when a new power plant or highway extension is announced, those living in the area invoke the laws, not to protect the environment, but to not disturb the comfortable way they have things presently. ‘Not in my neighborhood,’ they complain. 

Even when progress is made in these areas, it is usually only after years of expensive litigation and at an increased cost to comply with provisions of these laws. But in China, for example, where such laws don’t exist or can be easily bypassed, progress is quicker and accomplished at a far lower cost.

That is the price we pay for living by the rules of law in a democracy rather than in a place where the individual doesn’t have the laws, and the courts, on their side. 

The article then obliquely makes the point that theTrump administration’s efforts to eliminate or at least reduce the power of our federal regulatory agencies, often echoed at State and local levels, may offer a sorry solution to this problem if they are successful. 

Such a diminishing of environmental regulations would favor the immediate aims of businesses or of the government itself, enabling them to misuse laws for purposes for which they were never intended, even despite occasional objections from judges who might rule in favor of such laws. If that happens, we very well may then be able to build affordable housing, high-speed railroads, highways, and power plants even better and faster than the Chinese do. 

But we will have lost something of value along the way. Would it be worth it?

JL

                                                          * * * 

Blackjack, Craps, Football, Basketball, You Name It 

If you know anyone who is a gambler, or if you are disturbed by the many slick ads on TV promoting online gambling sites, tell them to spend a few minutes reading this story from the Free Press. CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://www.thefp.com/p/hi-my-name-is-allan-and-im-a-compulsive?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email  on your browser line. 

The combination of the commercialization of college sports with the legitimization of gambling which these online sites promote will inevitably lead to a scandal within the next decade. The online gambling sites themselves make money legally without any finagling and basically are honestly-run enterprises; the scandal will arise from among the athletes and teams on which gamblers wager. 

JL

                                                     * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

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.

Eliminating ‘Promotions’: Each morning when I check my Email, I first sweep out almost all the messages that end up asking for a donation. My Email ‘in basket’ enables me to do that, separating most of them out without my even clicking on them individually. That makes my life a little easier, and a lot of informative material still reaches me. If I want to donate to a particular cause or candidate, I can easily find a way to do so. Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. Bear in mind that the population of Florida is constantly changing and many newcomers are not familiar with Jackspotpourri. 

JL 

                                                 *  *  *   *