May 14, 2026 - The Reflecting Pool, Links to Barbara Walter and Paul Krugman, Voting Information, '8647' Lives On, and Online Gambling

 

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Fixing Up the Reflecting Pool Leading up to the Lincoln Memorial

View from the Lincoln Memorial steps
toward the Washington Monument

Wihout comptitive bidding, President Trump had announced that this job would cost a reassuring $1.8 million. It now looks like the bottom line will be about $13.8 million, a number that was available from the start, if anyone had bothered to look according to a New York Times article on May 11. 

Why the rush? Well, the President wanted the job done by the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. That’s a fine idea, so long as taxpayers are willing to go along with a deal that evaded competitive bidding and includes a 20% profit for the company doing the work, an outfit that had done some work in the past on one of the golf courses the Trump family owns. But really, I believe that we should not be willing to go along with this latest bit of presidential thievery. 

Work should be stopped on the project immediately and competitive bids requested. If that isn’t done, how about going for a $11.3 million lien on the property and/or estate of the President, a convicted felon, who continues his career of lying about any business deals in which he is involved. If the Deparatment of Justice truly represents the people, and not the president, that's what they should do. Yeah. 

The President doesn’t know the difference between his failed casinos, his failed real estate developments, his failed airline, his failed university, etc., etc., and property belonging to the United States of America that its voters were sufficiently gullible to entust to him during his term of office. (Same goes for his demolishing the White House’s East Wing, something else that doesn’t personally belong to him.) 

JL

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Feeling Exhausted by the Issues Facing America? 

It’s not an accident that the President is putting so much on his critics’ plates so that they don’t know where to turn first, and as a result, do little to conteract his breaking of laws and defiance of the Constitution. But please, hang in there. 

UCSD’s Professor Barbara Walter tells you why in her ‘Here Be Dragons’ posting dated May 13. Click here or copy and paste https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/ on your browser line to learn more about what you can do. 

JL 

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And the Rich Get Richer 

In his May 11 posting (a free one), economist Paul Krugman wrote that income disparities in the United States continue, with the very wealthy becoming richer and richer. He touches on how enormous amounts of that money is being used to fund conservative political candidates.  For example, without Peter Thiel’s money, JD Vance wouldn’t have been a Senator and certainly not our Vice President. 

Many modern plutocrats show little sense of gratitude for their good fortune and have little inclination to give back to society by devoting a significant part of their wealth to good works as even the ‘robber barons’ did in the late Nineteenth century. (Bill Gates might be an exception.) They would rather spend their money on buying politicians and securing access to the White House to pursue their goals. Click here or copy and paste paulkrugman@substack.com on your browser line for details 

JL 

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Florida Voting Information for You, Not the Other Guy

VotePalmBeach.gov is the online place to go for Palm Beach County voters to check their voting status, request a vote-by-mail ballot or otherwise renew their voting registration. Don’t trust your memory. The first thing to do is to check your voting status at VotePalmBeach.gov. (Other Florida counties have similar websites and phone numbers. In Broward County, https://browardvotes.gov/ is a good place to start.) 

Florida State law requires voters to submit a new Vote-by-Mail request after each General Election. If you have not renewed your Vote-by-Mail status since the November, 2024 General Election, you must submit a new request in order to vote by mail in the vitally important 2026 elections. Maybe you have. Maybe you haven’t. Are you sure? 

And even if you’ve done that, remember that Vote-by-Mail requests for the 2026 election cycle (Primaries on August 18, the General Election on November 3) will expire after that 2026 General Election., with a new request required for future elections in 2027 and 2028. It is no longer automatic as once it was. 

Confused? If a visit to VotePalmBeach.gov doesn’t answer your questions, you can reach the Supervisor of Election’s office at (561) 656-6200.

Carrying out the will of the majority requires that everyone votes and make sure that their vote counts. Make sure that your vote will count! Don’t forget that there are some in State government who prefer that it not be counted, or even cast; that’s why they’ve made voting by mail, which many Democrats and independents do, more difficult. 

JL 

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Read How Florida Republicans Work Hard to Disenfranchise Democratic Voters

Regardless of whether you vote in person at a polling place, vote early, or vote by mail, it is vitally important that you vote in the General Election on November 3, 2026. An editorial in the May 12 South Florida SunSentinel makes it clear why. To read it, click here or copy and paste https://enewspaper.sun-sentinel.com/shortcode/SUN315/edition/ef1a7f3f-3db7-4bfa-ab1d-f7cb48e8cb0c?page=bc289e0e-3cd4-4b6b-a448-2ad6f420d79d& on the browser line of your device. Please find a way to read this editorial.  

JL

    

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‘8647’ Just Won’t Go Away

Still on that ‘8647’ kick, I note that there have been reports of many online messages involving removal of the President from office in a violent, if not life-ending, manner. No sane person should support actions to proceed in that manner. If Trump is to be ‘eighty-sixed’ out of office it must be done legally. 

Despite flaws in its laws, the United States still must follow the rule of those laws, and that is what the Constitution is all about! Law! 

Even though four presidents (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy) have been shot and killed while in office, I still believe violence should play no part in removing an elected president.  But there are those today who would not object to that happening. We seem to be a violent country, and that is not something good …. but that is another challenge we face. 

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Back in April of 2025, I came up with an Idea for removing ‘47’ from office. It involved the alliance of many sources of power in the United States. How it would happen legally was described in the Jackspotpourri posting dated April 17 of last year, 2025, and in other April 2025 postings. primarily but not entirely based on his illegal use of tariffs.  Go back and read that posting and the other Jackspotpourri postings during April 2025 using the archive off to the right. 

What I wrote then is still true today, added to by Trump’s illegal military ‘excursions’ into Venezuela and currently in the Middle East defying the limits of presidential power as defined in the Constitution, as well as his illegal use of armed personnel to discourage and prevent legitimate protest by American citizens. Either of these avenues can and should lead to his legal removal from office. 

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But here’s the bad news: In retrospect, the solution I suggested on April 17, 2025, now seems overly optimistic in view of the tight control already in the President’s hands over those who would be involved in carrying out that suggested solution. I think he saw what was on the horizon for him and has prepared for it. In order to battle the ‘rule of law,’ 

The President seems to have built up protective federal walls and similar barriers in the States controlled by Republicans consisting of: (1) appointees who put loyalty to him above loyalty to the Constitution and the nation, (2) the firing or convenient early ‘retirement’ of those less loyal to him, particularly in the armed forces, (3) rewarding those who succeed in breaking Federal and State laws he doesn’t like, and (4) those totally dependant on his support if they must face the public by having to run for office. 

Despite the Republican-dominated Supreme Court and State governments too often siding with President Trump, something within the laws of our country must be done if the representative democracy written about in the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, and finally accomplished in its 1789 Constitution is to survive. Please go back and read what Jackspotpourri was saying back in April, 2025, especially the posting of April 17 of that year, and of course, the voting information provided above in this posting. 

JL 

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Final Thought – Online Gambling 

Do you approve of the gambling (masquerading as 'gaming') sites available to all on the internet? They serve to instill bad lifetime habits in teenagers and retirees, many of whom can not afford the financial losses all gamblers ... or 'gamers'... eventually experience, and to whom these sites are directed.  Write to you Representatives in Congress!

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

 More on the Sources of Information in Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered local daily ‘printed’ newspaper (now the South Florida Sun Sentinel.  I've given up on the Palm Beach Post) and what appears in my daily email; that includes the views of many contributors, including the New York Times and other respected journals. 

Be aware that when I open that email, I first quickly glance at and screen out those sent to my very old former email address and those considered ‘promotional’ by Gmail’s system as no more than advertisements or requests for donations. 

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

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

Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence. Always! 

 JL * * * *

May 9, 2026 - Marching Orders for Americans, More TACO, Private Healthcare, Superpower Suicide, No Credit - Worry Not, Corruption, and Congressional Redistricting

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'Here Be Dragons' Quoted

Tuesday’s Jackspotpourri pointed out that the Administration’s efforts to keep a watchful eye on the President’s critics would be a big job because most Americans, from what all of the polls show, are included among the President’s many, many millions of critics. 

The ‘Here Be Dragons’ posting on May 6 reiterated this point when UCSD Professor Walter wrote that 

‘Trump may have ICE. He may have detention centers. He may have the legal framework to call you a terrorist for disagreeing with him. But Americans have the numbers. And if they choose to use them - peacefully, persistently, and in overwhelming force - no executive order can make that disappear. Orbán learned it the hard way. So will Trump, if Americans decide to show up.’ 

Read her full warning-laden May 6 posting by clicking here or copying and pasting https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/ on your devices browser line. 

JL 

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Call It What You May – I Call it TACO 

According to the Administration, the ‘war’ with Iran is over, and whatever hostilities remain are separate, defensive actions. The New York Times headlined this on May 6 thusly: ‘White House Insists Iran War Is Over, Even While Missiles Fly.’ I just see it as another example of the President’s repeated TACO (Trump Again Chickens Out) strategy. 

Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s May 5 ‘Letters from an American’ quotes the President’s announcing on social media that: 

“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed.”   

Vance, Rubio, and Hegseth standing behind the Liar-in-Chief

Just more TACO, TACO, TACO … hiding self-contradictory gibberish! (Incidentally, the above direct social media quote from Trump contains about fifteen words starting with capital letters instead of lower-case letters, something our poorly educated President seems to think makes his lies more palatable. Whatever tuition Trump’s parents paid to send him to a private military academy was a waste of money.) 

JL 

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Your Healthcare in the Spotlight 

Krugman

Paul Krugman’s very detailed postings (free on weekdays, mostly requiring a subscription on weekends … although sometimes available a few days later for free) is embarking on a series pointing out that our nation’s healthcare should not be left to the private economy.

Check him out by clicking here or copying and pasting https://paulkrugman.substack.com/ on your device's browser line to get a Nobel prize winner’s views on this subject that concerns YOU. 

JL 

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Superpower Suicide 

Snyder

Professor Timothy Snyder explains what it takes to be a ‘superpower’ and suggests that our failure to measure up to such standards is why we are losing the war with Iran, and are otherwise a nation engaged in committing suicide, at least as a ‘superpower.’  (This is not a quick read, but give it a try.)  

Copy and paste https://snyder.substack.com/ on your browser line to read his May 9 posting or just click here. 

JL 

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Maxing Out Your Credit Cards - No Problem

Some folks aren’t bothered by their ‘maxing out’ the funds available to them from their credit cards, nor the unpaid interest piling up on them. They just apply for another credit card or two and start the process over again. 

That is until that day when they find that real banks will no longer want them as customers and that no new credit cards are available to them. Then, they no longer are particular as to the sources of their money, calling them either creditors or more politely, investors.  And even better, they start positioning their money not in traditional currencies, like dollars, but in barely understood ‘crypto currencies.’ 

Shortly before his re-election in 2024, President Donald Trump, then a civilian while Joe Biden was still president, founded a crypto currency trading firm, World Liberty Financial, along with members of his family and some others including Steve Witkoff, one of his present ‘negotiators’ with Iran. This better hides the amount and sources of his money, something hidden in the crypto world. 

That’s good for him, but not for American taxpayers whose payments in real dollars to the IRS go toward reducing taxes on the very wealthy and corporations favored by the President. 

JL 

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Corruption Running Amok 

And those unaware of the corruption within the Trump administration had better check out this item from the Bulwark’s May 9 posting. Click here or copy and paste

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/corruption-is-the-iceberg-that-will

on your device’s browser line. It will lead you, even if you are a Republican, to make some decisions about the sordid presidency of Donad Trump. 

JL 

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Redistricting Congressional Districts 

When Republican strategists realized that the 2026 mid-term elections were likely to give the Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives and also cause a change in the projected 2028 presidential Electoral College, they set to work to remedy this by instituting illegal redistricting of Congressional districts. 

They started in Texas only to have the Democrats retaliate in California. Litigation concerning new districts has been piling up in several States, and a recent summary of these extra-legal redistricting efforts can be found by clicking here or copying and pasting https://ballotpedia.org/Redistricting_ahead_of_the_2026_elections on your device’s browser line. The numbers seem to change on a daily basis. 

Most recently, a Virginia court ruled against a redistricting map that favored Democrats that had been narrowly approved in a referendum. The battle goes on, with the Constitution being ignored. Check it out as your right to vote is being diluted by politicians who have no respect for laws. 

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

 More on the Sources of Information in Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered local daily ‘printed’ newspaper (now the South Florida Sun Sentinel) and what appears in my daily email; that includes the views of many contributors, including the New York Times and other respected journals. 

Be aware that when I open that email, I first quickly glance at and screen out those sent to my very old former email address and those considered ‘promotional’ by Gmail’s system as no more than advertisements or requests for donations. Besides these sources, I also utilize the Google search engine where I can look up any subject I want. 

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

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

Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence. Always! 

JL 

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May 5, 2026 - A Word of Caution, Paying for Info, Urgent Care, Blondie, and Ending the Iran War

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A Word of Caution During an Epidemic of Paranoia

The Department of Justice and the FBI are showing signs of paranoia. And what is a real part of their fears is that the American people will finally see them for the betrayers of the Constitution that they are. 

When the DOJ interprets the number 8647, found spelled out in sea shells on a beach by someone, and photographed by former FBI Director James Comey, as a threat on the President’s life, things are getting out of hand. 

 

For those few who don’t know it by now, ‘86’ is restaurant shorthand for verbally telling the wait staff that the kitchen has run out of an item and not to take orders for it, verbally removing it from the menu, and ’47,’ of course, represents our 47th president. 

‘86’ has occasionally been used in movies and TV shows to apply to more than just restaurant menus. And since a paranoid DOJ has made a legal issue of it, politically motivated tee shirts and caps with ‘8647’ on them have appeared. 

A critic of President Trump, and there are many of them, might smile at that, seeing it as a clever way of advocating removing the President by some legal means such as impeachment or by the 25th Amendment. Only a DOJ sick with paranoia would see it as a death threat, and will get nowhere with it in a courtroom. The Supreme Court in Watts vs United States in 1969 ruled that kind of ‘political hyperbole’ was permissible under the First Amendment when it was used against President Lyndon Johnson. 

Nevertheless, it should be taken as a warning to those critical of President Trump to be careful of the language they use. There might be people somewhere in the Administration maintaining a list of those who criticize the President and feel that some of those at a ‘No Kings’ demonstration, for example, may be thinking in the direction that led to the removal by beheading of France’s King Louis XVI back in 1793. That was really taking ‘No Kings’ to the the max. (or should I say, the ‘ax.’) 

I suspect that the DOJ, the FBI, and also the Secret Service will try to keep a watchful eye on the President’s critics, especially since It has been reported that Cole Tomas Allen, now in custody for last Saturday night’s assassination attempt, recently attended such a demonstration. But that will be a big job because most Americans, from what all of the polls show, are included among the President’s many, many millions of critics. But still, please be careful of what you say or write. Bad people are watching. 

JL 

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‘Upgrade to Paid’ 

In searching the internet for information, the three words I dislike the most to encounter are requests to ‘upgrade to paid.’ 

Some news or opinion sites provide a great amount of useful information before they make that pitch (Professor Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American’ is the best example) but many do not (the Free Press and the Atlantic magazine ask readers to ‘upgrade’ after just one or two brief paragraphs of a tempting article). 

Some fall in the middle, combining availabilty of news and opinions with a ‘paywall’ in an inconsistant manner. Economist Paul Krugman’s site as well as Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles are examples of that. On many sites, ‘upgrading’ enables the reader to add their comments. 

The only such site (besides my community’s basic cable subscription) that I pay extra for is that of the New York Times, one that usually has a generous amount of free information, but offers a lot more to subscribers. 

Also worthy of mention is the heavily opinionated KOS website; it boasts that it does not have a paywall, but asks for donations from those who agree with its usually anti-adminstration and anti-Trump postings. 

JL 

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About Urgent Care

When and When Not to Use!

And speaking of the New York Times website, it recently provided important information to subscribers regarding Urgent Care centers as compared to visits to hospital Emergency Rooms or visits to one’s primary physician. Try to check it out by copying and pasting https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/well/urgent-care.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20260504&instance_id=175073&nl=the-morning&regi_id=78918068&segment_id=219328&user_id=02fa158150d34dc186b01b1b8ec7a224 on your device’s browser line or clicking here. It may or may not work for you. (It may be available only to Times subscribers.) 

If it doesn’t work for you, an Artificial Intelligence summary as available on most internet searches, such as Google, will still be helpful. Be sure to mention ‘Urgent Care, Emergency Rooms, and Doctor visits’ in your search, wherever you do it.  It is important information, wherever you get it. 

 JL 

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The Words of a President 

I do not pay to be able to comment on Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s daily ‘Letters From an American’ site, but if I did, I would have made this comment regarding her May 3 posting: 

‘Today’s listing of and the actual quotes from the eleven social media postings made by President Trump on Friday evening can serve as evidence, in his own words, to use to remove him (86?) from office via the 25th Amendment. It appears that he is out of his mind.' 

Eleven crazy postings!  Check them it our for yourself by copying and pasting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your device’s browser line or by clicking here.   

And here’s some more good stuff. 

Ooops, I can’t figure out a way of including the ‘Blondie’ comic strip dated May 4, 2026 on Jackspotpourri, which had been my intention. It'll be easy for you to do it though.

View it on your own by using Google or any reliable search engine to access it.  I wonder who she and Dagwood were watching on TV?  Three guesses.

JL 

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 A Way Out for Trump is in Iran’s Hands 

In an interview with Greg Sargent of The New Republic included in Paul Krugman’s Substack column on May 2, it is acknowledged that Trump has not won his war against Iran. All that the President now requires to end the war he started without any real goals nor Congressional approval is a way to avoid the humiliation that accompanies his not winning it. 

Conceivably, Iran can use the cards in its hand that include (1) its control of the Strait of Hormuz (they never had that until Trump shoved it into their hands), (2) its still having a stash of refined uranium, (3) its continued nuclear program deep underneath remote mountains, and (4) its support of terrorist regimes elsewhere, to serve as sufficient leverage to provide some off-ramp for Trump to use. 

Even just appearing to give in a bit in one or more of these areas might accomplish that.   According to polling, most Americans oppose the war and and would like it ended, if only for relief from the economic distress that has accopanied it.  As for Iran, its entire economy is in tatters and it is in financially worse shape than was the now defunct Spirit Airlines. 

It would be a clear victory for Iran if the war were to end with that nation merely surviving Trump’s attack on it, while it appears that all the President wants is to avoid the embarassment that comes with not winning it, in effect being a loser, damaging his self-designed imperial image. 

But going this route seems to be up to Iran, and is not Trump’s decision. Iran holds most of the cards leaving only empty rhetoric and the threat to blockade Iranian shipping in Trump’s hands. The next move must come from Tehran. I hope, but doubt, that our President understands that. 

 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

 More on the Sources of Information in Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered local daily ‘printed’ newspaper (now the South Florida Sun Sentinel) and what appears in my daily email; that includes the views of many contributors, including the New York Times and other respected journals. 

Be aware that when I open that email, I first quickly glance at and screen out those sent to my very old former email address and those considered ‘promotional’ by Gmail’s system as no more than advertisements or requests for donations. Besides these sources, I also utilize the Google search engine where I can look up any subject I want. 

Lately, these search results have been headed by a very generalized summary clearly labeled as being developed by AI (Artificial Intelligence). On occasion I might use such search results, but when I do, I will say that I am doing so. Generally, however, I try not to use such summaries in preparing Jackspotpourri. Following such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the other results of my search. Unlike the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated, giving them a greater credibility than any AI summary. 

It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information: yourself or something else (Artificial Intelligence), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable. At least when I read a column by Timothy Snyder, for example, I know from where it comes, and to some extent, what to expect. 

Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence. Always! 

 JL 

                                                           * * * *

April 29, 2026 - Last Saturday Night and Readers' Contributions

 

                                            *  *  *

Thoughts on Saturday Night Assassination Attempt at the Washington Hilton 

With the violence that ended the April 25 dinner of the White House Correspondents Association still in the headlines, there still remain unanswered questions about it. Thus far, all the President and the Administration seem to be saying is that the incident points up the need for the kind of added security that would be provided in the massive ballroom being built on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing and discouraging any opposition to that project. 

Note: The WHCA is not a part of our government and would never be able to, nor want to, run a non-government event like its annual dinner in such a government facility. For that to happen, Trump would have to turn the ‘new’ East Wing ballroom into a catering establishment like his privately owned Mar-a-Lago unofficial Florida White House. Does he and acting Attorney-General Blanche understand the difference? 

And incidentally, the seating capacity for a dinner in that proposed ballroom would be significantly less than that of the ballroom in the Hilton where the WHCA Dinner took place. The proposed new ballroom would seat just under 1000 diners while the Hilton’s facility can seat up to 3,000. 

While I can’t imagine that the incident was purposely ‘staged’ to boost the new ballroom, or anything else for that matter, there still are questions to be answered, particularly regarding the security provided for the event, considering the high level of its attendees of which the FBI, the DOJ, and the Secret Service ought to have been fully aware. This has opened the door to a broad range of conspiracy theories appearing on social media. 

Goldberg

Regarding such theories, New York Times opinion writer Michelle Goldberg started her April 27 weekly posting by suggesting that ‘Cole Tomas Allen, who was arrested during an attempt to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, may be America’s first normie liberal terrorist.’ 

She didn’t go into this any deeper, but I suspect that his political views, and what ongoing investigations might find to have been what he chose to read on the internet, were not unlike those of many who criticize the President on a daily basis from a liberal, but non-violent, standpoint. 

Further, on the trail of conspiracies, she wrote: ‘After any act of political terror, conspiracists will often make “false flag” accusations, and Saturday was no different; as The New York Times reported, uses of the word “staged” soared on X. There is, of course, no defense for spreading disinformation or indulging in ideological self-delusion. Still, we can recognize that people start such rumors because they correctly *intuit that violence often discredits the causes that inspire it. The left-wing terrorism rampant in the 1970s helped usher in Ronald Reagan, not socialist revolution. The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing ended up being a boon to Bill Clinton’s political fortunes. By attempting to kill Trump in 2024, Crooks helped to elect him. Violence isn’t just ethically reprehensible; it’s strategically stupid.’ 

 *(Not one for high faluntin’ language, I take the words ‘intuit that’ to mean ‘sense that’ or ‘have a hunch that,’ something might be true, but without solid evidence.) 

                                                          *   * 

Yes, someone at the security end screwed up, but fortunately, no one was killed. Another question that arises concerns how much the normal operation of any hotel, or other venue, has to be modified when an event like this, with the President in attendance, takes place there. 

I wonder if the British Monarch, visiting here this week, has brought his own security team, unwilling to put his life in the hands of the likes of Kash Patel and other Trump appointees. 

JL 

                                                           * * * 

Readers’ Contributions 

Jackspotpourri, as it says up on top, invites readers to submt their creativity for inclusion in this blog. Here’s a recent submission from Beth, a Cascade Lakes resident: 

‘Trump & the war are trending.

 

There's a tendency to simplify what 

people don't like about Trump into 

unquestioning rejection. 

 

People like a quick solution to nuanced, 

complicated, heavily layered "news". 

 

But--the resulting aggression and fear 

only reimposes and reinforces 

limited old programming, not a

higher-dimensional consciousness.   

 

We're living through growing extremism. 

The only advantage we have is to see the 

world, our country-- in its full spectrum. 

 

Example of "full spectrum":

--Education is collapsing, but rebuilding.

--Tech (AI) expansion is going into useful 

robotics that do tasks too dangerous for people.

--Truth speaking is becoming a 'spiritual' practice.’

We look forward to contributions from more of you! Your permission to include them is always requested, and while we have your attention, note that we've removed using the color blue for emphasis. Some have complained it is hard to read.  Your comments on this are welcome.

JL

                                                                 * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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

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

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

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

More on the Sources of Information in Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered local daily ‘printed’ newspaper (now the South Florida Sun Sentinel) and what appears in my daily email; that includes the views of many contributors, including the New York Times and other respected journals. 

Be aware that when I open that email, I first quickly glance at and screen out those sent to my very old former email address (when I attempt to unsubscrbe from some of these, my anti-virus program warns me that doing so might expose me to ‘phishing’) and those considered ‘promotional’ by Gmail’s system as no more than advertisements or requests for donations. 

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

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

Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence. Always! 

JL 

                                                           * * * *

April 26, 2026 - The End of the G.O.P. and the 'Bulwark'

                                                     *   *   *

Here’s the Jackspotpourri posting that was prepared for release today, April 26.  Why waste it? 

Intentionally omitted from it is any mention of the assassination attempt that occurred at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday evening, April 25. There will be plenty of opportunity for commentary on that after the dust has settled on the reporting of and the repercussions of that event.  Right now, there are still many unanswered questions.

JL 

                                                     * * * 

And now, back to the Jackspotpourri prepared for today. 

                                                     * * * 

Mealtime at Mar-a-Lago

The occasional use by extreme right-wingers of the Gadsden flag from Revolutionary War days, showing a snake devouring itself and including the phrase ‘Don’t Tread on Me,’ does not preclude that imagery from being used for other purposes, as shown in the cartoon above. 

Who would have thought two months ago that Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi would be canned, causing worries on the part of other unpopular Trump appointees like Hegseth, Patel, and JFK jr, and those like Vance and Rubio who in the past have strongly criticized Trump? Guys, Donald has a long memory, regardless of what jobs he has given to you. And Hegseth will eventually run out of hairspray. 

Those who consider themselves to be 'friends' of Trump are greatly mistaken. He has no friends. Only those he uses, like Bondi, who took the fall for inadequately hiding the Epstein papers and Noem, who got the blame for ICE excesses in Minneapolis. 

Right now, he’s looking for someone to take the blame for his stupid Iranian ‘excursion.’ That’s a difficult task since most of his advisers tried, unsuccessfully, to talk him out of it.  Infrequently but also mentioned is the depletion of our military hardware, intended as a buttress against China or Russia, wasted on Iran. 

Trump ought to be singing ‘What Kind of Fool am I', Anthony Newley’s hit song from the 1961 musical, ‘Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.’ That best describes him. 

And he can’t pin the blame on Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who would have eventually acted anyway, with or without Trump coming along. Also, his doing that might open him to charges of antisemitism. 

It looks like Trump will end it, declaring it to be a victory if only because that is what he’ll say. He’ll make up some cockamamie story, probably blaming someone in his administration whom he’ll promote to the job of Ambassador to some remote country whose name he will fail to remember. 

But I doubt that there will still be a Republican Party remaining to believe him. The poison administered to the G.O.P. by Trump’s supporters of all stripes, from fascists to racists to economic conservatives to libertarians, and the failure of a Trump-fearing Republican Congress to do its job of being a check to balance the power of the presidency as the Constitution intended, will be fatal, leaving the detritus of the G.O.P. to make new political choices. The Republican Party, as we knew it, will be gone. Dead. Kaput. Finished. 

Some will become Democrats, moving that party more toward the center and some will become more libertarian, if only as an excuse to reduce the powers of government in order to keep their taxes, their only real concern, low. An opposition Party will eventually emerge, but for what it will stand is yet to be determined. See the following article on ‘the Bulwark’ for a clue. 

The limits of the gullibility, of the ignorance, and of the stupidity of too many American voters will have been reached.  And the Republicans will pay for it with their Party’s extinction, while Donald Trump and his family walk away with many billions of dollars resulting from their questionable use of his presidencies, which some critics are already beginning to label as corruption.

The one thing worse than electing a stupid president might be electing a stupid president who is also a crook and a bad liar as well. 

JL 

                                                          * * * 

The Bulwark      

I am continually puzzled when I see internet postings coming from the Bulwark and those associated with it. It is difficult to see where, if anywhere, it is firmly politically anchored. A search for an answer, including what the use of an Artificial Intelligence tool concludes about it, came up with the following:

 

“The Bulwark is a news and opinion website launched in 2018, known for offering serious political analysis from a center-right, "Never Trump" perspective,by Sarah Longwell, Bill Kristol, and Charlie Sykes, Founded by conservative commentators, it acts as a, platform for conservative thinkers who oppose Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, focusing on the protection of liberal democracy and constitutional norms. Here is a breakdown of what The Bulwark offers: 

Core Focus and Ideology • Anti-Trump Conservatism: It is designed for "politically homeless" conservatives who are opposed to the direction of the modern Republican party. • Pro-Democracy Coalition: While rooted in center-right views, its contributors often collaborate with center-left allies to defend Democratic institutions. • "Conservatism Conserved": The publication seeks to defend traditional, pre-2016 conservative ideals against populist, authoritarian, and populist trends. 

Content and Media • Articles and Newsletters: Daily, independent, and critical analysis of political events. • Podcasts: The Bulwark is known for its extensive podcast network, including The Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller, The Next Level, The Focus Group (with Sarah Longwell), and Shield of the Republic. • YouTube: A major focus of their digital strategy, featuring full-length shows, interviews, and video shorts. The Community (Bulwark+) • The Bulwark is a reader-supported, for-profit media company. • Bulwark+, a paid subscription service, which gives members access to, ad-free podcasts, exclusive newsletters, private podcasts, and community commenting features. •

Tim Miller, frequently featured on 'The Bulwark'

Community: The site fosters an active, engaged community of users that often includes non-conservatives who share a similar commitment to defending democracy. Key Personalities • Sarah Longwell: Publisher, executive director of Defending Democracy Together, and host of The Focus Group. • Tim Miller: Writer-at-large and host of The Bulwark Podcast. • Jonathan V. Last (JVL): Editor, known for his regular, energetic commentary and the Secret Podcast. • Bill Kristol: Editor-at-large and a prominent figure in the "Never Trump" movement.” 

I translate all of this as meaning that The Bulwark is anything its followers want it to be, depending on what part or parts of its content they access.

Some may be totally unaware of its neoconservative roots based on the last century’s disillusioned liberals, and consider it to be a liberal entity, which it is not, although some of its positions are indistinguisible from those of today’s liberals. Try to put that in your smoke and pipe it. Or did I get that wrong? 

JL 

                                                     * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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

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

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

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

 More on the Sources of Information in Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered local daily ‘printed’ newspaper (now the South Florida Sun Sentinel) and what appears in my daily email; that includes the views of many contributors, including the New York Times and other respected journals. 

Be aware that when I open that email, I first quickly glance at and screen out those sent to my very old former email address and those considered ‘promotional’ by Gmail’s system as no more than advertisements or requests for donations. 

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

Following such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the other results of my search. Unlike the usually anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated, giving them a greater credibility than any AI summary. 

It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information: yourself or something else (Artificial Intelligence), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable. At least when I read a column by Timothy Snyder, for example, I know from where it comes, and to some extent, what to expect. 

Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence. Always! 

JL 

                                                               * * * *