New Yorker Editor Speaks Out, Advice When YOU Speak Out, Politics at the DOD, and Voting by Mail

                          * * * 

Words of Wisdom  

Here in their entirety are the comments of the New Yorker magazine’s Editor, David Remnick, that will appear in its next issue, dated March 10, but available earlier. In it he compares Donald Trump with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, concluding that Trump ‘has brought shame and disorder to the country.’ I have highlighted certain parts of it, including Remnick’s description of Trump and Vance as having ‘the finesse of a couple of small-time hoods’ (in meeting with Zelensky). But please read the entire article. (You should also understand, after reading it, why Jackspotpourri has dropped its initial posture of ‘abiding’ the present political situation.)

 JL 

                                                               * * *

                                                  Trump’s Disgrace 

                                           David Remnick - March 1, 2025 

"It was one thing to anticipate this prolonged political moment; it has been, these past weeks, quite another to live it. Each day is its own fresh hell, bringing ever more outrageous news from an autocrat who revels in his contempt for the government he leads, for the foreign allies who deserve our support, and for the Constitution he is sworn to uphold. Since beginning his second term, six weeks ago, Donald Trump has commandeered public attention to such an extent that it is hard to recall that there was ever a time when an American President went about his first weeks in office in a frenzy of activity characterized not by threat, chaos, and corruption but by discipline, competence, and compassion. 

Yet there was such a time. 

On the overcast morning of March 4, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt arrived at the U.S. Capitol to deliver his first Inaugural Address. The country was in a general state of misery. Since the start of the Depression, in late 1929, one out of three American workers had lost his job. Countless schools were shuttered. Banks were collapsing. Edmund Wilson, reporting for The New Republic, wrote that “there is not a garbage-dump in Chicago which is not diligently haunted by the hungry.” Roosevelt, having defeated Herbert Hoover in the popular vote by eighteen points, could honestly boast of a mandate and understood its meaning. As he said in his speech at the Capitol, the demands of the “stricken” electorate were clear: “This nation asks for action, and action now.” Before the notion of a President’s “first hundred days” was ever codified, he set off on a tear of executive orders and legislative initiatives. Roosevelt, with the support of enormous Democratic majorities in Congress, quickly saved the national banking system, took the U.S. off the gold standard, paid out significant relief to the poor, and created federal agencies that not only provided work to the jobless but helped revive the country’s economy and infrastructure for decades to come. 

It has not taken Trump a hundred days to match Roosevelt’s New Deal for its speed, its “muzzle velocity,” as Steve Bannon, Trump’s formerly incarcerated court philosopher, has put it. But, while Roosevelt set a modern standard for the revitalization of a society, Trump seems determined to prove how quickly he can spark its undoing. In record time, he has brought shame and disorder to the country. Where F.D.R. set out to build and to comfort, Trump has set out to fire countless civil servants, punish his adversaries, and threaten the press. He has cast aside essential climate actions, humiliated undocumented immigrants and trans men and women, coddled dictators, and unnerved allies. F.D.R. appointed Cordell Hull, Harold Ickes, and other formidable advisers to his first Cabinet; Trump has empowered extremists distinguished principally by their conspiracy thinking, sycophancy, and incompetence.

F.D.R. created the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Tennessee Valley Authority; Trump has deputized Elon Musk, who has billions of dollars in contracts with multiple federal agencies, to freeze federal funding for programs that millions of Americans depend on and to fire thousands of workers in vital government agencies. “We will make mistakes,” Musk said in the White House, flashing a smile of privilege and malice. So far, these little goofs include, but are not limited to, momentarily laying off people who oversee the nuclear-weapons stockpile and cancelling Ebola-prevention measures. 

Roosevelt, in his time, led the conquest of global fascism and the rescue of Europe. On matters of foreign policy, Trump has rapidly made common cause with autocrats from Budapest to Beijing and has made it clear to our European allies that when they come to Washington they had best flatter his ego and bear gifts, such as an invitation to visit King Charles. In the Oval Office on Friday, Trump nakedly sided with Russian aggression, berating the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, for failing to show him sufficient gratitude and respect and for “gambling with World War Three.” Zelensky is a hero of historic scale, brave beyond measure; Trump’s behavior was disgraceful. He and his Vice-President, J. D. Vance, deliberately tried to intimidate Zelensky with all the finesse of a couple of small-time hoods. The incident was both shocking and inevitable, all in line with the over-all temper of Trump’s Presidency—the threats, the firings, the multiple doge fiascoes, the proposal to cleanse the Gaza Strip of two million Palestinians. 

Is this really what Trump’s supporters voted for? How does the decimation of American values, institutions, and commitments bring down the price of eggs? Writing in Foreign Affairs, Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way make a painstaking and convincing case that most autocracies that have emerged since the end of the Cold War retain certain democratic features, particularly elections, but weaponize the state, purging it of perceived enemies. This sort of “competitive” autocracy—like Erdoğan’s Turkey and Orbán’s Hungary—is, the authors argue, what is now taking shape in Washington. 

To minimize the unending fusillade of Trump’s first weeks in office, to choose to turn away, to shut off the news, is to indulge in self-soothing. There is no guarantee that Trump’s perverse momentum will slow, or be derailed, of its own accord. He has the unwavering support of his MAGA base, the cowed compliance of his congressional caucus, and the backing of multibillionaires such as Jeff Bezos, who would rather diminish the vitality of his newspaper than risk the dinner invitations of the sovereign. 

And yet the current torrent, fueled by years of planning in right-wing circles and by Trump’s demagogic energies, is hardly unstoppable. Will working-class and middle-class Americans tolerate the self-indulgence and the corruptions of Trump’s favored billionaires while their own interests go unaddressed? Will Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is currently being tested by an outbreak of measles in Texas, have the public’s trust in the event of another pandemic? We have already seen how at least some courageous judges, governors, and law-enforcement officials have refused to bow down to the politicization of the law, or, as Levitsky and Way put it, the weaponization of the state. 

Roosevelt, at the start of his Inaugural Address, said that there was no need “to shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today.” In our time, the crisis resides in the Oval Office. Whether there is a mandate for what is being practiced there will be made clear in the months to come––in Congress, in the courts, in the press, in the streets, and, eventually, at the ballot box. Fear itself was the singular enemy in Roosevelt’s time. It remains so today."

David Remnick

 JL 

                                                       * * * 

And When You ‘Speak Out for Democracy’ 

In the prior (March 1) posting on Jackspotpourri, in naming those to whom one should ‘Speak Out for Democracy,’ (social media, personal emails, newspapers. postal card and telephone campaigns, etc.), I omitted mentioning elected officials in Congress and State offices. Do this regardless of their party. There is a lot of ‘buyers’ remorse’ brewing among those who voted Republican in 2024. Keep calling, writing, and emailing them. Phone calls and the messages left, even if not answered, are counted and are particularly powerful weapons. Their email addresses and telephone numbers are available on their websites or just ask me for them. 

As for contacting individuals, I have personally found that ‘phone banks’ are not as effective as postal cards. It’s easy for those called to just not accept calls or quickly hang up. Handwritten postal cards, while far better in reaching recipients who will read them, are expensive and require a well funded campaign. And that is another problem. 

JL 

                                                     * * * 

Playing Politics in the Department of Defense (which is supposed to be ‘defending’ you) 

If a Democrat ever ordered a cessation of cybersecurity activities that were directed at Russia, they would be called ‘pinkos’ or ‘commies’ but Secretary Hegseth, obviously acting on orders from the White House, gets away with it as part of our disgraceful pivoting away from supporting Ukraine. 

I suspect that there will be a sufficient number of loyal Americans remaining in the DOD who, while nodding ‘yes’ to Hegseth’s orders, will put our nation’s security ahead of his orders and quietly continue such crucial activities, an invaluable source of all sorts of intelligence information. 

It is inconceivable that Hegseth, the President, and the Russians do not know that too. Such activities, of necessity, are rarely made public, and only the politically naïve, or those who already are Russian ‘assets,’ will pay any attention to meaningless directives like Hegseth’s. Hegseth’s orders are part of ‘Trump’s Disgrace’ as explained in the New Yorker magazine article appearing above. For still more details of this particular debacle, check out what Heather Cox Richardson reported on March 2 about it by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line. 

JL

                                                         * * * 

'If it weren’t so tragic, it would be funny' Department

In the unlikely situation whereby Donald Trump and J.D, Vance were to be impeached and removed from office, Saturday Night Live would hire them in an instant to revive the pair of small-time hoods that became the ‘Blues Brothers,’ frequently played by Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi.’

 JL 

                                                         * * * 

‘Voting by Mail’ Requests Must be Renewed 

Those who voted by mail in the past must again request that they be sent a ‘mail-in’ ballot in future elections, their earlier ‘vote by mail’ status having expired after the last General Election in 2024! In Palm Beach County, do this by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://www.votepalmbeach.gov/Voters/Vote-By-Mail on your browser line.

Elsewhere, contact your local Supervisor of Elections. 

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 

We're watching youse

 

                                                                   * * *

March 1, 2025 - Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Joining the Chorus

 

                                                  * * * 

Caution! - (Repeated from some earlier postings on Jackspotpourri) … but with a very significant revision! 

Make of this what you wish: In today's political climate, it might be personally dangerous to write specifically about certain topics, and all members of the staff (at present, just me) at Jackspotpourri are aware of that. No one wants the DOJ chasing after them, and lawyers are expensive. Sometimes leaving certain things 'unsaid' can be more effective than saying them. We must learn to 'read between the lines.' But right now, 

IT'S TIME TO STAND UP PROUDLY FOR AMERICA,

IT’S TIME TO SPEAK OUT LOUDLY FOR DEMOCRACY, and

            IT’S TIME TO JOIN THE CHORUS OF ‘POSITIVE’ PROTEST  THAT IS SPREADING THROUGHOUT THE LAND! 

                

                                                           * * * 
Standing up proudly for America means representing our nation to the world as still being a beacon of freedom, still being a land of opportunity, still being a place where individual rights are respected, and still being the best place on the planet to be! That’s why, despite the temporary ascendancy of threatening political powers in the United States that don’t fully subscribe to those meanings, it appears that almost everyone else in the world still wants to live here! 
The rising opposition here to those dangerous powers is testimony to the resiliency of America, representing its ultimate strength. 
Be proud of being part of that opposition, and let your friends and relatives know it! Stand up proudly for the America we still are, and will assuredly continue to be, once the threatening clouds dissipate.   

JL 
                                                             * * 
You can help make those clouds disappear by SPEAKING UP LOUDLY FOR DEMOCRACY! And to enable you to do that, there is no shortage of material. Here are some starters. 

President Trump, his unelected ‘advisor’ and bankroller, **Elon Musk, and many in Congress who blindly follow them break the law and violate the Constitution daily.  Do not let them do this with impunity. Don’t let any of them get away with any of this! Become familiar with the Constitution. Become knowledgeable. Know what is going on!! ‘Call them out’ on every misstep they make! 

Lower Federal courts have ruled against some of these unconstitutional or illegal acts, but ultimately, the Supreme Court will have its say, and I am not optimistic about that. At best, ‘delay or postponement’ is all that I expect from the SCOTUS. Their 2024 decisions illustrated how such ‘delay or postponements’ was sufficient to elect Trump to the presidency. This is all the more reason for you to speak out loudly.  

Speak Out Loudly! Major government appointees all share one quality, loyalty to Trump, and otherwise are mostly unqualified for office, putting the nation at great risk. Example: Russell Vought, now head of the Office of Management and Budget, was the primary author of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which basically said that government is a waste of time and suggested doing away with most of it. By getting rid of many of its employees, that goal is made easier for such critics of government! He’s a perfect example of letting a fox into the henhouse! Speak Out Loudly! Right now we have a non-believer in vaccines running the Dep’t. of Health and Human Services, at a time when measles is spreading in Texas and bird flu is rampant. Employees in the agencies that would address these problems and others on a day-to-day basis are being fired, among them the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responsible for the defense of the nation. ** Elon Musk seems to head a group called ‘Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) despite a little-known government minor official supposedly being nominally in charge of it, giving it a cloak of legitimacy. Speak Out Loudly! Musk** had no business being at a recent meeting of Trump’s cabinet, let alone dominating it, which he did, with the President’s sleepily nodding approval. 

Now listen here, you guys ... 
Hey, will someone wake up Donald?.

Speak Out Loudly! Meanwhile, Trump is busy trying to slash Medicaid funding while saying he is not, getting rid of whistleblowers, offering a preposterous solution for the war in Gaza, is betraying Ukraine (losing us friends in Europe and Asia) out of deference to Russia. And I won’t even mention Greenland, Canada, and Mexico as places where his political and economic ignorance manifests itself, profound ignorance being a virtue of this administration. They repeatedly fire knowledgeable Federal employees and then try to hire them back because their knowledge does not go beyond what they see on FoxNews.

All of this is well documented in real newspapers like the New York Times, on MSNBC and CNN, and by columnists like Timothy Snyder, Heather Cox Richardson (both historians), Michael Moore, and many others, even Republicans like S.E. Cupp. The facts are there on a platter for you. Speak Out Loudly! Our 47th president is also trying to select the journalists who regularly cover the White House, clearly a violation of the First Amendment. His DOJ is trying to extend his horrendous pardoning of the insurrectionist criminals who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to their other criminal acts, such as their possession of serious weapons, like grenades, that were waiting to be used at that time. Speak Out Loudly! And the spineless Republican politicians who talked one way now do backflips in order to please the President, fearing a MAGA threat in a primary election. Most aren’t sure any longer whether Russia is an adversary or an ally, part of the chaos Trump cultivates because he likes it that way, keeping those that would oppose him off balance, confused as to what to attack first.

The truth is there for you to post on social media like ‘X’ or Facebook or via personal emails. Write letters to newspapers. Send postal cards and make phone calls. Go to rallies and meetings. Talk to people. Speak up at public forums like school board and local governing board meetings, and of course at elected Representatives’ town meetings. 

Speak up loudly for democracy. Sound off in places where your audience includes those who have been misled by misinformation. Point out how the Republicans’ reforms directly threaten them. You might convince some of them to open their eyes to the lawbreaking being carried out by those who were elected to office in November, 2024 by many misinformed voters, many of whom are now experiencing the political equivalent of buyer’s remorse. Many readily admit that their vote in November was NOT for what is going on now in Washington, including the dependence of the president upon **Elon Musk. The information is there. Use it. 

**For those who are interested, Elon Musk, born in South Africa, became a Canadian citizen through his mother, a Canadian. He studied in the United States, admitted on a student visa that allowed him to work in areas associated with his studies, which he did, starting several technology companies with his brother. He continued doing this for several years after he was no longer a student and has even admitted he was in a ‘gray area,’ immigration-wise, during that period. He ultimately became a naturalized American citizen, but it seems that for a time until that point, he was an illegal immigrant, just like those his buddy, Donald Trump, is striving to deport using military transportation and facilities. It’s a fascinating story available by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/29/us/elon-musk-immigration-gray-area-cec/index.html on your browser line. But as my late Hungarian mother-in-law used to say, ‘With money you get honey.’

This might be an opportune time to point out that today’s techno-billionaires, like Musk, Peter Thiel, and Mark Zuckerberg, believe their brainpower makes them something special and entitles them to throw democracy under the bus, as the industrial and banking ‘robber barons’ of the late Nineteenth Century tried to do in their day until Theodore Roosevelt stopped them. (Okay, in the absence of buses in those days, they might have envisioned throwing democracy under horse-drawn street cars.) Even worse than those ‘robber barons,’ whose prime interests were acquiring money and power, the techno-billionaires, while not adverse to making money, aren’t really concerned with that so much because they already have limitless amounts of it and the power it purchases, but instead are focused on the perfecting and triumph of technology as ends in themselves, running society ‘automatically,’ and don’t give a darn about democracy, the nation, or its citizens. They are a far cry from Bill Gates. With ‘Artificial Intelligence’ taking charge, they believe, who ‘needs people’? (Apologies to Barbra Streisand for that one, if any of you reading this are old enough to remember her.) ‘Tech Support,’ as plastered on Musk’s tee shirt pictured above will replace them. 

But don’t get too wrapped up in this when you speak up loudly for democracy. It might prove a distraction. 

                                                             * * 

But once you have STOOD UP PROUDLY FOR AMERICA, and SPOKEN OUT LOUDLY FOR DEMOCRACY, the next step is to JOIN THE CHORUS OF ‘POSITIVE’ PROTEST THAT IS SPREADING THROUGHOUT THE LAND!

JL

                                                       * * * 

Joining that chorus of protest doesn’t come easy.  But there is a road to getting there.  Here are some guideposts along that road.  

(If age, or health, or other circumstances slow you down in proceeding along that road, that’s okay too. At a minimum, the following should point you in the right direction. Do what you can.)

·       First of all, Democrats should forget about the 2024 elections.  The Democrats could have won Congress and the presidency, but they blew it by running a campaign that lacked a compass. (‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up somewhere else,’ … a Yogi Berra quote that well describes what happened.) That should have taught them to not make the same mistakes again now, in 2026, and in 2028.  Their ‘Identity’ politics centered on protecting every American’s individual right to make choices in many areas, including and beyond women’s rights, while legitimate and highly desirable, do not on their own attract enough voters to win elections.  More basic appeals to working people and their families do work. 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.  Point out that you are talking about, in simple terms, the importance of a government OF the people that recognizes that it is a government doing things FOR the benefit of the people, and most importantly, a government run BY the people they vote into office. Right now, make a list of things your government does for the benefit of the people.  (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, 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.)  This role of government in serving the people is sometimes ignored when people who weren’t even on the ballot like Musk and 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. But don't donate to all of them!  Some have little chance of winning so don’t waste your donations on them.  That would be an unwise use of scarce resources.  The same goes for donations to an entire group of a Party’s candidates, some of whom don't stand a chance. (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.

That’s it.  Sounds simple enough but it isn’t.  But it is the best way for you to

JOIN THE CHORUS OF ‘POSITIVE’ PROTEST THAT IS SPREADING THROUGHOUT THE LAND! 

(and I guarantee that every time you encounter a disenchanted 2024 Trump voter, and there are many, you will feel personally rewarded.)

JL 

                                                       *   *   *

 *  Don’t miss Maureen Dowd’s latest column about Trump, Zelensky, and Putin. Just CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/opinion/trump-is-rootin-for-putin.html on your browser line. And of course, please read Heather Cox Richardson’s posting dated February 28 on the same subject. CLICK HERE  or visit https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ directly.   Both columns provide all the more reason for you to Stand Up for America, Speak out for Democracy, and Join with those Protesting the evils now emanating from Washington each day.  For the first time in my memory, Americans can justifiably feel ashamed of their president and begin to examine the shortcomings of the democratic process that actually put him in the White House.  AND YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.    

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. 

A   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.   

J

February 25, 2025 - Goodbye to 'Abiding' and a New 'Mantra'

 

                                                    * * * 

A Caution! - (Repeated from earlier Jackspotpourri postings) … but with a very significant revision today! 

Make of this what you wish: In today's political climate, it might be personally dangerous to write specifically about certain topics, and all members of the staff (at present, just me) at Jackspotpourri are aware of that. No one wants the DOJ chasing after them, and lawyers are expensive. Sometimes leaving certain things 'unsaid' can be more effective than saying them. We must learn to 'read between the lines.'

JL

   

                                                     * * *

Where the Department of Defense lives

A Big Change

In most of the recent Jackspotpourri postings, I have suggested that we ‘abide,’ meaning to ‘endure adversity, but not yield to it.’ Well, the time for that message has passed! 

You might recall my specifically not including a posting by Michael Moore because I then felt it approached the kind of thinking better left ‘unsaid.’ Well, I am changing my mind. 

Here is the pertinent portion of Moore’s February 14 posting concerning President Trump that I thought was better left ‘unsaid’ a week ago: ‘A big clue to his (Trump’s) awakening might be when he sees the Joint Chiefs of Staff entering the White House with armed MPs and officers of the court. “Oops,” his miniaturized brain will say to itself. “Uhh, these guys look like they mean business. Somebody call Roy Cohn!’ (You can read the entire posting by  copying and pasting https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/overwhelm-overreach-overthrown on your browser line or by CLICKING HERE.) 

It is almost as if the president had read Moore’s posting and decided he better take care of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and quickly! So he fired their head and ‘retired’ some of its members, and got rid of some of the military’s legal officers at the same time. That crossed the Red Line that I described in the last posting of Jackspotpourri. Adding the military to his existing control of the Department of Justice, the FBI, and our intelligence services, gives Trump’s Executive branch unlimited police power it should not have. It destroys the checks and balances built into our Constitution. Neutralizing the military is a routine tactic of dictators when they attempt to seize full power. Seig Heil, they saluted in Germany … or else. 

(That act is far more significant than the Supreme Court’s anticipated February 26 action on the firing of the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, an agency that regulates ‘whistleblowers,’ whose dismissal is being held up by a lower court. I had indicated that situation to be a potentially uncrossable Red Line but Trump’s intrusion into the military is far more serious.) 

And that will result in a major change in focus here on Jackspotpourri from here on in. The days of ‘enduring adversity, but not yielding to it, ‘Abiding,’ have passed. 

IT'S TIME TO STAND UP PROUDLY FOR AMERICA, TO SPEAK OUT LOUDLY FOR DEMOCRACY, AND TO JOIN THE CHORUS OF PROTEST THAT IS SPREADING THROUGHOUT THE LAND! 

JL 

                                                   * * * 

Heather is On Target 

In her posting dated February 20, Professor Heather Cox Richardson included a column from the Times (the one published in London, not the New York Times) that more or less described what I have repeatedly called ‘Democracy’s Achilles Heel.’ It is worth checking out because the problem persists today among American voters who are misinformed or misled. No one wants to take away their right to vote, but it is important to rid the media of the gross misinformation that has seduced them. 

A good sampling of such misinformation is the ‘alternate reality’ believed in by many Trump supporters and is explained in an article by the New York Times’ Peter Baker. CLICK HERE or copy and paste com/2025/02/23/us/politics/trump-alternative-reality.html on your browser line to access it. … and now back to Heather. 

Even more alarming is her posting of February 22 that included the following: “Now that Trump has captured the intelligence services, the Justice Department, and the FBI,” military specialist Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic, “the military is the last piece he needs to establish the foundations for authoritarian control of the U.S. government.”  Well, he has grabbed it ! 

Richardson included this comment based on Trump having selected a new head for the Joint Chiefs and having ‘retired’ several existing members,’ again prioritizing loyalty to him over competence and experience. It also pushed Jackspotpourri over that Red Line. Goodbye to ‘Abiding.’ As pointed out above, IT'S TIME TO STAND UP PROUDLY FOR AMERICA, TO SPEAK OUT LOUDLY FOR DEMOCRACY, AND TO JOIN THE CHORUS OF PROTEST THAT IS SPREADING THROUGHOUT THE LAND! 

Despite the ringing of these two ‘alarm bells,’ Professor Richardson also documents the clear beginnings of that ‘chorus of protest’ against the President. In her postings dated February 21 and 23, HCR points out that many Americans, including some Democratic governors, and government employees, are now speaking out. With each day, those ‘beginnings’ grow. 

If you are not getting Professor Richardson's free daily postings on ‘Letters from an American,’ CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line. PLEASE READ THEM EVERY DAY! 

JL 

                                                     * * * 

Learning From the Past 

Those of us living in the United States of America in 2025 have a chance, at least in our minds, to relive history and perhaps learn from it. If you pay attention to newspapers, magazines, television, and I hope an occasional book, you should know what was happening in Europe, particularly in Germany, during the 1930s. We have the luxury of knowing where the tragic excesses of that period led. Those who were there at the time did not. It was beyond the imagination of most of them. 

If you were able to step back in history to that period, knowing what you now know about the freedoms that were lost, about World War Two, about the Holocaust, and about the deaths of millions of innocent people, what steps would you have taken to prevent those things from happening? Would you have had the courage to do the things you saw as necessary? And if you have answers to these two questions, are you now able to share them with others? 

JL 

                                                         * * * 

Separation of Powers in a Democracy

The Declaration of Independence clearly states that all men are created equal, but that doesn’t mean that society recognizes that to be the case. If that ‘equality’ is to be meaningful, and democracy is to exist, there must be a ‘separation of powers’ in government to account for the differing opinions of what government’s role should be. 

Ideally, these powers should serve as independent checks and balances on one another, necessary to bring about that ‘equality.’ That’s the way the Constitution of the United States of America is structured with its triad of Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches. But when there is an imbalance between these ‘powers,’ and one becomes the servant of another, eventually a ‘readjustment’ is needed, desirably accomplished without violence. (In 1861, violence resulted.) 

For example, when an Executive branch dominates the other two branches, as with dictators like Julius Caesar or Caligua in ancient Rome, and many since then, their days are numbered. Few survive permanently. The English king was once such a ruler, supposedly deriving his powers from God, until they were limited by the Magna Carta in 1215, forced upon him, at least temporarily, by English noblemen. The path from there on through political philosopher John Locke to our Founding Fathers and our Constitution is clear with the ‘rule of law’ emerging triumphant. 

Our government’s structure is a good one, but when any part of it threatens its pattern of checks and balances, as is the case in the United States right now with a strong Executive and a subservient Congress … 

IT'S TIME TO STAND UP PROUDLY FOR AMERICA, TO SPEAK OUT LOUDLY FOR DEMOCRACY, AND TO JOIN THE CHORUS OF PROTEST THAT IS SPREADING THROUGHOUT THE LAND! 

How to accomplish that will be addressed in future postings on Jackspotpourri. 

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. 

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

                                                        * * *

February 21, 2025 - A Red Line for 'Abiding,' Courtroom Shenanigans, Why Nobody Trusts Us No More, Republican Efficiency, and State Sovereignty Lurking in the Weeds

 

                                                        * * * 

A Caution! - (Repeated from earlier Jackspotpourri postings) 

Make of this what you wish: In today's political climate, it might be personally dangerous to write specifically about certain topics, and all members of the staff (at present, just me) at Jackspotpourri are aware of that. No one wants the DOJ chasing after them, and lawyers are expensive. Sometimes leaving certain things 'unsaid' can be more effective than saying them. We must learn to 'read between the lines.' 

Jackspotpourri rarely quotes the often hysterical Michael Moore (michaelmoore@substack.com) and will not now, but his posting dated February 14 (‘Overwhelm, Overreach, Overthrown’) approaches the kind of thinking I feel must still be left ‘unsaid.’ 

 * Abide! 

 JL 

                                                * * * 

About ‘Abiding’ - A Red Line Not to Be Crossed 

 * When I use the expression ‘abide,’ more fully explained in Jackspotpourri’s January 15, 2025 posting, I intend it to mean to ‘endure adversity, but not to yield to it.' But even the limits of that definition are beginning to come into sight. 

In the 1989 film, ‘Road House,’ actor Patrick Swayze tells his night club’s ‘bouncers’ that ‘I want you to be nice until it's TIME NOT TO BE NICE.’  ‘When will that be,’ one asked. 

When will ‘abiding’ reach that point? When will a situation arise when a more assertive or even more forceful response is called for, rather than being polite toward the Trump administration? When will there be a red line not to be crossed by them? The resources of those now opposing President Trump, Elon Musk, and those working at their direction are limited, so the time for action has to be right and those resources not wasted.  But read on, please.

Despite Republicans controlling both the Legislative and Executive branches of our Federal government, judges have managed to delay or postpone some of the unconstitutional or illegal measures Republicans have carried out. Ultimately, some of these actions will reach the Supreme Court. 

The ball will soon be in their court
both literally and figuratively

Aware of this, President Trump has asked the SCOTUS to quickly rule on whether he can fire the head of an independent ethics agency that protects whistleblower federal employees, specifically Hampton Dellinger, head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, a Biden appointee. A lower court had ruled that he had to be reinstated after Trump had initially fired him. 

 (The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency, established in 1934, and has been continued by Congressional resolutions since then. Its statutory authority comes from four federal laws: the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Hatch Act, and the Uniformed Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act, all passed by Congress over the years.) 

If the Supreme Court rules that the President can fire Dellinger, it will mark the end of lower court judges being able to protect our democracy!  It would mean that the opposition to President Trump’s high-handed actions will have reached the point where it would be ‘TIME NOT TO BE NICE’ and ‘Abiding’ would no longer suffice. That would be the red line that those who threaten our representative democracy must not cross without there being a more assertive or even more forceful response to their actions.  But until then, 

 * Abide! 

 

JL

                                                      * * * 

Awaiting a Judge’s Decision 

 

Emil Bove, (Trump’s lawyer in his New York ‘Hush Money’ case where
he falsified business records regarding the Stormy Daniels payoff) 

It turns out that newly appointed Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ended up having to be the one to personally ask the judge to drop the pending corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. That action, some contend, would give Trump future leverage in getting Adams to aid him in deporting immigrants. 

The judge’s response is awaited. Seven of Bove's DOJ Federal prosecutors indicated they would resign, believing that asking that the case be dropped would be a violation of their oath of office, and legal ethics. 

Now ‘Number 2’ at Trump’s Department of Justice, it appears that Bove had no qualms about violating his oath of office.   In his heart, the only oath he had made was one to Trump, forgetting the Constitution and the rule of law that governs this country. 

 * Abide! 

 

JL 

                                                             * * * 

When Hiring a Lawyer Isn’t Quite Enough 

Check out retired lawyer Marty London’s blog (CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://londonsbh.blogspot.com/ on your browser line) to find out how the Trump administration is attempting to ‘incapacitate’ its victims’ legal defenders. The posting, dated February 18, is entitled ‘All the Marbles.’ Meanwhile, 

 * Abide! 

 JL 

                                                      * * * 

The Latest Black Sheep Among Nations: The U.S.A.! 

Is there a nation in Europe, or perhaps the world, that will continue to trust the United States of America after President Trump’s apparent change of heart regarding Ukraine’s struggle with Russia? Suddenly, Russia has ceased being our adversary. 

Putin is cheered by hearing plans to reduce the size of our military establishment, now run by the totally unqualified Peter Hegseth.  Our NATO partners no longer can count on us.  And China, seeing that, greedily eyes Taiwan. 

Support of Ukraine with weapons and money, documented by several votes in Congress (including that of former Senator Rubio), went out the window as the President allied himself with Vladimir Putin who claims that Ukraine started that war, and referred to Ukrainian President Zelinsky as a ‘dictator.’ History is written in ink, and not in easily erasable pencil except in the eyes of Republicans like Rubio. 

Rubio, now our new Secretary of State, was fiery in his defense of Ukraine while in the Senate.  Now, when voicing Trump's desire to end that war by giving in to much of Russia's demands and insulting Ukraine's president, he (and others like him like Senator Lindsay Graham) prove that when Trump asks them to 'jump,' they only have one question to ask him in response:  'How high, Mr. President?  It is no wonder few if any nations trust the United States any longer.  Do these people have any degree of shame or conscience?  Any backbone or integrity?  I guess not. That's part of what it takes to be a Republican today.

This all could have been avoided if the nation had heeded the Mueller Report in 2019, revealing Russia’s criminally trying to influence our 2016 elections, and had not accepted its whitewashing by Trump’s Attorney-General, William Barr. And re-awakening in the background are the never-verified rumors about what Putin ‘has on Trump’ that enables him to so manipulate him.

* Abide!

 

JL 

                                                         * * * 

Efficient Republicans, Deliberate Democrats, and States’ Sovereignty 

Getting things done by our Federal government is not easy, even with the support of Congress and the Executive branch. There are local laws, zoning requirements, bids to be solicited, staff to be hired and trained, and a myriad of details to be ironed out when a government tries to create, or build, something for the benefit of the people. That’s why progress usually crawls with the speed of a turtle, often taking years. Federal government’s involvement in healthcare, through the Affordable Care Act, is a good example. 

Tearing down something that government had created for the benefit of the people is much easier. All that is necessary is to stop paying for it and fire the people who manage and run it. No laws even need to be passed, although ones that might have once been passed may be ignored along the way. Republicans are good at that kind of thing and that’s why they appear to be more efficient than Democrats, their effectiveness being paid for by those who once benefited from what they joy in destroying.   

                                                            * * 

There are still politicians, usually Republicans, who despise our even having a Federal government filling the role of serving or helping people, and would prefer to be governed by separate State governments, something that hopelessly failed between 1776 and 1789, when the nation operated under the ‘Articles of Confederation.' 

To them, the normal workings of our Federal government amount to an evil ‘Deep State,’ a monster they see as engaged in repressing government by 50 separate sovereign States and their citizens.  Imagine a nation with 50 States like Texas, Wyoming, or even Florida!  Whew!

Despite the bloody Civil War having supposedly resolved that question for good about 160 years ago, there are still many in this country who defend the ultimate sovereignty of individual States and once empowered, have no qualms about firing thousands of Federal employees and doing away with numerous Federal agencies, equating their existence with dictatorship, and simply calling our Federal government an evil ‘Deep State’ rather than government of, by, and for the people as Abraham Lincoln envisioned it. 

* Abide!

 

JL 

                                                         *   *   * 

Note:  There is no  'Artificial Intelligence' used in developing Jackspotpourri.  It is all original. When one does a 'search' on a search engine such as Google, a summary is sometimes provided that indicates it is the product of Artificial Intelligence. Be careful of such summaries, the real sources of which are unknown.

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. 

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

                                                               * * *